A miraculous doctor descended from the heavens.

The advisor finally lost his temper and roared, "Have you forgotten? You were the one who asked me to investigate—who sent those assassins who ambushed you and the young lady in the rainy alley that day!"

"Oh! Oh!" Gu Feng snapped out of his daze, then his eyes lit up. "Hey, Master, you mean those assassins were sent by the 'Qiang Ji' brothel across the street?"

"If my eyes haven't become too old and blurry, I think—that's right." The advisor nodded solemnly.

"But how did you determine that?" Gu Feng asked, full of doubt.

"Nothing is impossible to a willing mind." A smug look appeared on the clerk's face.

"No way... it really is the method I mentioned back then, right?" Gu Feng asked hesitantly.

"Tch. If you follow your method, you'll never find one in your next life." The advisor gave him a look of utter contempt.

Gu Feng was severely discouraged, and said with a bitter face, "Uh... was the method I came up with really that bad?"

"It's not bad, but it's not that bad either." The advisor paused, then added bluntly, "It's very bad, extremely bad."

Gu Feng was utterly frustrated.

After his taunts had finished, the advisor asked seriously, "Do you remember what you said to me that day?"

"I remember," Gu Feng nodded.

"You said that in your rural area, if someone dies in the family, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, whether the funeral is simple or grand, a funeral must always be held, right?"

"Yes."

"You know, poor families would just wrap the body in a tattered straw mat, hire a few people to carry it up the mountain, dig a hole, and bury it. But in the end, they'd at least burn some paper money as a token of respect, wouldn't they?"

"Mm." Gu Feng nodded again.

In reality, the Liao Dynasty he remembered, ravaged by war and chaos, was far from this scene. The people affected by the war all became displaced refugees.

In order to save themselves, everyone abandoned their wives and children and fled in all directions.

In those years of fleeing the ravages of war, everyone was in danger, and no one cared about anyone else.

Leaving corpses exposed in the wilderness, unburied, and left to be eaten by wild dogs, is the most common and ordinary thing.

The reason he spoke to the advisor that way was because he had already witnessed the living conditions of modern people and knew that the standards of the Liao Dynasty could no longer be used to measure people today. So he imagined the minimum standard for a modern poor person to hold a funeral.

In fact, although his imagination is much more "modern" than that of ancient times, it is still not modern enough.

The most fashionable funeral standard nowadays is that as soon as someone passes away, a phone call summons a hearse to take the body directly to the crematorium, cremates it, and all that's left is a box of ashes.

No matter how bad things get, the funeral expenses still have to be paid, even if it means borrowing money.

There's no need to go through the trouble of hiring someone to dig a pit and bury it.

Moreover, with land resources so scarce these days, even if you wanted to bury someone, they wouldn't allow it.

"You also said that wealthy families not only hold funerals when someone dies, but also treat them like a joyous occasion, making a huge fuss. They prepare several large baskets of incense, paper money, candles, and candles, invite a large group of monks and Taoist priests to chant sutras for the deceased, have the funeral clothes and coffins custom-made, and feast on fish and meat to entertain relatives and friends, is that right?" the clerk continued to ask.

"Yes." Gu Feng nodded again.

He had indeed personally experienced such a grand funeral.

This custom has been passed down from ancient times to the present, except that the earth burial was eventually replaced by cremation.

"You also said that there was a fierce battle in the alley that day, in which the other side lost more than a dozen men on the spot, and then they took the bodies back themselves. So you guessed that, whether they were extravagant or frugal, they would at least hold a funeral, is that right?"

"Yes." Gu Feng admitted that he had indeed said that to the advisor at the time.

"You also said that as long as a funeral is held, even if we don't prepare burial clothes and coffins, don't hire monks or Taoist priests, and don't make any extravagance, we should still prepare some incense, paper money, candles, and wax, just to show our respect, right?"

"Yes. If even this is meaningless, then the deaths of these people are truly worthless."

"Heh heh." The advisor chuckled coldly, not refuting, but continuing to press, "You also said that as long as they show this intention, we'll wait and see. We'll send out men to stake out outside those incense, paper money, candles, and candles shops, and if anyone buys a large quantity of incense, paper money, candles, and candles in one go, we'll quietly follow them and see if we can find any clues, right?"

"Yes. I also said that if the person behind them is truly so cold-hearted and indifferent that they can't even be bothered to do this much, then there's only one last resort—to have people keep a close watch on all the crematoriums in Shenzhen. Because they will eventually have to dispose of these corpses, and they can't possibly keep them all at home and let them rot and stink," Gu Feng added with absolute certainty.

"Gu Feng," the advisor said, looking at him and enunciating each word clearly, "I must say, your reasoning sounds good, but in practice, it's completely wrong. Your thinking is far too outdated and utterly incompatible with the current state of affairs."

"Why? Has the world really become so cold-hearted that not a shred of human kindness remains?" Gu Feng asked earnestly.

Society is constantly moving forward, and people are constantly rushing forward. Those empty rituals and ostentatious displays are increasingly valued by fewer and fewer people. Things like funerals and celebrations, which you can't eat or wear, take up a lot of time and cost a lot of money, so some people simply skip them altogether. If they really have to hold one, they'll keep it as simple as possible. Getting married is just a matter of spending nine yuan to get a certificate and that's it. When someone dies, a phone call to call a hearse to take them away for cremation, and that's it. Where are all those ridiculous rules going?

"Oh..." Gu Feng responded listlessly.

"Gu Feng, you're still quite resentful, aren't you?" The advisor looked at him with a half-smile.

Gu Feng remained silent. He neither denied nor admitted it. This was no longer a matter of whether he was convinced or not; the crux of the matter was that his understanding of the modern mindset was far from sufficient. The saying "one wrong move, and the whole game is lost" perfectly illustrates this point.

"Gu Feng, I'm asking you. Why did they take the body back in the first place?" The advisor's expression turned serious.

"Naturally, they were afraid that others would find clues on the corpses, thus exposing the mastermind, or that their hideout would be discovered."

"Yes. Since you understand this principle, why are you so foolish as to think that they would hold a grand funeral for those dead people who are no longer of any use? Wouldn't that just attract attention and shoot themselves in the foot?"

"Then... you won't even burn a few pieces of paper money?" Gu Feng asked incredulously.

The advisor cast a completely unloving glance at him; he couldn't even be bothered to answer the question anymore.

Gu Feng sighed helplessly: "Alright. Even if they really don't burn paper money, the body still needs to be disposed of, right? They can't possibly take the body back just for fun or out of kindness. Burial, cremation, or water burial—they have to choose one."

"No. They won't choose any of these three." The advisor shook his head again.

"Why?" Gu Feng was completely dumbfounded.

"Cremation—if it's done privately, it's impossible to go unnoticed anywhere in this deep city. Doing so completely defeats the purpose of stealing the bodies. But if we send them to the crematorium, sending a dozen or so bodies at once would arouse suspicion even in a fool. As for water burial, that's just throwing the body directly into the water, right? Directly dumping the body will eventually be discovered. Sinking the body is extremely troublesome; it requires a boat and must be far from the coast. The sea area around Shencheng is so small, and it's under strict surveillance everywhere. Even if you stuff the body into a sack..." If you sink, the maritime surveillance authorities will think you're illegally dumping garbage. From this perspective, water burial is even more dangerous than cremation. In the end, only burial remains. Nowadays, land in Shenzhen is incredibly valuable, and the available forest land within the Great Wall is extremely limited; the little remaining land has been designated as protected areas. How easy is it to bury a dozen or so corpses in the mountains unnoticed? But if you say you're going outside the Great Wall, the mountains and forests are vast, and you can dig holes and fill them in as you please. But the problem is—vehicles leaving the border are always at risk of being inspected. Do you think the people collecting the bodies would risk such a huge danger by carrying a truckload of corpses out of the border?

The clerk finished speaking in one breath, then concluded heavily, "Therefore, I dare say—they will neither hold any funeral nor choose any of these three burial methods."

These words were like ice water poured over his head, completely extinguishing any remaining confidence Gu Feng had.

At this moment, he finally understood completely that he, who thought he had already integrated into this era, was far from "modern" enough.

There is so much he needs to learn and catch up on.

He couldn't help but sigh deeply and asked, "Master, in your opinion, what will they do with those dozen or so corpses?"

"The best way, of course, is to destroy the evidence and solve the problem once and for all."

"But you just said that they wouldn't choose any of the three burial methods."

"Gu Feng, you can't be that stupid, can you? Is there really no other way to make a corpse completely vanish from the face of the earth besides the three burial methods you mentioned?"

"This..." Gu Feng was speechless for a moment. There are countless ways to destroy a body and cover up the evidence. The three he had just thought of were not only the most traditional but also the most humane. However, they were also the ones that those people were least likely to choose.

"Well, so you admit there are plenty of ways, huh? Hehe. But don't worry about it. As the saying goes, the devil may be one foot tall, but the righteous are ten feet tall. There are many ways to destroy a corpse and cover up the evidence, but they all boil down to the same principle. A dozen or so corpses weigh over a thousand pounds in total—they will definitely choose the easiest, most effective, least space-consuming, and most time-saving method."

"What method?"

Aqua regia.

"Aqua regia? What is aqua regia?"

"Aqua regia is a mixture of concentrated hydrochloric acid and concentrated nitric acid. It is one of the very few substances in the world that can dissolve gold. Just think about it—it can melt even gold, let alone ordinary flesh and blood. It can not only burn flesh and blood, but also corrode bones completely."

"Uh..." Gu Feng scratched his forehead, racking his brains for a long time, but no matter how much his brain cells worked, he just couldn't connect "aqua regia" with the "Qiang Ji" sign in front of him. So he simply spread his hands and said, "Master, I admit, I really don't know anything about aqua regia. If you insist that it can destroy evidence, then I'll accept it. But what does aqua regia have to do with this 'Qiang Ji'? And how did you determine that the group of assassins I'm looking for are hiding in this 'Qiang Ji' across the street?"

"Don't rush. Be patient and let me finish speaking, and you'll understand naturally."

The advisor stroked his beard, a faint smile on his face, but inwardly he was smug. Having known Gu Feng for so long, this was the first time he had truly witnessed him being humiliated.

For the strategist, who always enjoyed tormenting people, the fact that this incredibly intelligent young man could be so frustrated was the greatest pleasure in the world.