I am the old, fiery-faced man from the senior department.

"Then why is there so little suspicion about this Prefect Lu Huaide?"

"Before you arrived, I heard Uncle Zhou... cough cough, I heard Lord Long tell me about the deeds of that Prefect Lu."

"Prefect Lu had already gained a reputation before he became prefect, and he was skilled at investigating all kinds of difficult cases. He was an upright and honest person and official, and the Dragon King had even met him in person. This time, he was the first to send the news to the court."

"...He's skilled at investigating difficult cases. So why didn't he uncover the truth about these three incidents involving the county magistrate?"

Kal'tsit hit the nail on the head, asking the most crucial question.

"Your Excellency is unaware of this."

Bai Zhi then said:

"It's not that Prefect Lu didn't investigate, but rather that these three incidents did indeed appear to be accidents."

"Let's start with Magistrate Gu. He died of acute ore poisoning. His whole body was blown to ash. Even if there was a grievance, there was no way to find out the truth."

"The death of Magistrate Mei was even more bizarre. Everyone knew that he could not have died from a fall, but the autopsy report brought by the coroner showed that it was indeed a fall, and there were no signs of poisoning or drinking in the body."

"As for Magistrate Meng... he was a newly appointed scholar in the last imperial examination, in the prime of his life. He chose Mei County specifically to reopen the case of Magistrate Mei's death. I heard that before he left, he swore in court that he would never return until the case was solved. Now... it's just a pity for all that passion..."

Bai Zhi sighed regretfully.

"It seems that this trip to Meixian was indeed fraught with difficulties."

Despite saying this, Kal'tsit already had some guesses.

"In that case, the only place we can get our hands on now is Magistrate Meng."

"But how can we get there? As far as I know, Magistrate Meng's body has already been moved to the county government office for people to pay their respects. If we go there, we can only offer incense; we can't do anything about it."

"There is no need to worry; His Highness had already anticipated this."

Kal'tsit took out her official document.

"The identity written on this official document is that of a fellow Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) of the same year as Magistrate Meng."

"Does Your Excellency mean... to impersonate Magistrate Meng's classmate, or perhaps a friend, to pay respects at the ancestral graves?"

Although it was said that everyone was going to offer incense and worship, Bai Zhi knew that ordinary people probably couldn't even get into the county government office. Only people of status could go in, make a few rounds, pay some money, and then leave.

But wouldn't using this thing like this be like alerting the enemy?

"There's no need to show this official certificate. We just need to state our status as Jinshi graduates from Shen Du, and they will naturally let us in."

"But...would they really believe that?"

Mei Wanniang asked with some concern.

"They wouldn't care whether the identity was real or not. The minor officials and clerks in those remote areas, even some county magistrates, would never dare to stop a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations). After all, it's better to be safe than sorry. If it's real, wouldn't that be a huge disaster?"

Bai Zhi cleared up her doubts.

"I see, but..."

Mei Wanniang still couldn't put her mind at ease.

She understood the reasoning, but what if those people were too afraid and decided to kill her?

Although the two female officials in front of her were intelligent, they didn't seem to be very capable fighters. The man outside named Pei Jue didn't look very strong either. It was already a great blessing that Jiang Yi alone could protect her. If they were surrounded by those villains, wouldn't they be lambs to the slaughter?

"What? This young lady doesn't seem confident in my abilities."

Bai Zhi saw through Wan Niang's worries at a glance.

"No, no, it's just that there are a lot of them, and... there are bandits in the mountains near Meicheng. What if they join forces with the bandits..."

Mei Wanniang blushed slightly after her little scheme was seen through, and hurriedly defended herself.

"Hahaha, just a bunch of bandits, I've dealt with countless of them long ago."

Bai Zhi, however, didn't care at all, and instead enthusiastically recounted her glorious achievements.

After all, Pei Jue, that simpleton, only knows how to grunt and groan; talking to him is less useful than playing with a dog. And Kal'tsit is her boss now; she'd be stupid to brag to her boss. So the only one she can talk to is Wan Niang.

Returning to the city on the 24th

"Reporting to the Dragon King, the special envoys from the Eastern Kingdom have arrived at the Golden Palace and presented the alliance treaty to His Majesty."

Upon hearing this, Bai Zhou, who was feeding brocade scales in the pond, scattered the scale food in his hand and then said:

"How did His Majesty respond?"

"His Majesty has agreed to the alliance to fight against the evil forces together with the Eastern Kingdom."

"How is the repair of Changyuan going? If it cannot function properly before the defenses of Dongguo are breached, the trouble it will cause will be considerable."

"Changyuan's repairs are almost complete, and we can fight back when the evil forces arrive."

"only……"

"But how?"

The imperial guard immediately replied:

"It's just that those people from the Eastern Kingdom want the Great Yan to send troops to help them."

"send troops……"

A carefully prepared fish food was thrown into the pool, immediately attracting a large number of shimmering fish to compete for it.

"Oh."

A sneer flashed across Bai Zhou's lips.

"The power of evil originates from human cognition; the more people understand them, the more powerful they become."

"For so many years, those barbarians still haven't learned their lesson. If our Great Yan were to send troops to join forces with them, the casualties would be far greater than those of their entire nation."

"The calamity that befell my grandfather will not happen again in my generation."

"However... if we don't send troops, those guys will definitely gossip behind our backs. It's not a big deal, but it's hard to stop the mosquitoes and flies buzzing around our ears day and night."

"Let's go see His Majesty."

After placing the fish food, Bai Zhou got up and walked towards the main hall of the Dragon Palace, while the imperial guard quietly retreated into the shadows, disappearing to do something unknown.

"Excuse me, young man, please wait!"

Pei Jue greeted a passerby, who stopped upon hearing the call and pointed at himself in confusion.

"Yes! It's you, sir. Excuse me, could you tell me where there are any inns in this city?"

Pei Jue walked up to him, but was rejected before she could finish asking her question.

"Judging from your accents, you must be from out of town."

"Sigh, yeah... how come..."

As soon as Pei Jue spoke, the other person's expression changed immediately. With a cold face, they turned around and left quickly without saying a word.

"Huh? I didn't ask anything."

He turned around and looked into the car, puzzled.

"It seems that the waters in Meicheng are deeper than we thought."

"Everyone we passed through said that Meicheng was a ghost town in a demonic realm, and it really was haunted by ghosts. As soon as we entered the city, we were spotted by their spies."

Kal'tsit, who had been watching the outside world, spoke with the others while lowering the curtain.

"Then, sir, what should we do?"

Bai Zhi frowned and asked.

If that's the case, they would immediately lose the advantage of being in the shadows and would have little chance to discover the enemy's identity.

"We're not going to the inn."

Kal'tsit looked at Bai Zhi, who immediately understood.

"Old Pei, change routes, let's go to the county government office!"

"The county government? But if those people really are from the county government, wouldn't going to that corrupt office now be suicide?"

Mei Wanniang hasn't recovered yet, so why would she go knowing the danger?

"Wanniang, don't be afraid. As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is the safest place."

Bai Zhi explained their actions to her.

“We are vulnerable to attack no matter where we are in this county. Even if we have three heads and six arms, we can’t guard against a sneak attack. But we are safest in the county government office.”

“As long as we make a public appearance at the county government office, they won’t dare to take action.”

"Because they always have to avoid suspicion."

"Bai Zhi is right. But we're going there for more than just safety."

Kal'tsit added:

"If the other party is indeed someone from the county government and is so audacious as to make a move there, we can take advantage of the situation and subdue them directly."

"I see."

The little girl wasn't stupid; after the two of them explained it to her, she immediately understood.

And right now, right here in the Meicheng County government office.

"Cough cough!"

A scholar-looking man named Walper walked down to the hall, coughed twice in a high-pitched voice,

"Oh dear, what's wrong, sir?"

Upon hearing his cough, the two walper, one fat and one thin, immediately came up to him and greeted him.

The scholar glanced to his left and right, then whispered to the two men:

"Tonight, someone came to pay their respects to the departed soul of Magistrate Gu."

"Oh! This...this..."

The two looked at each other in surprise, and finally the fat man spoke up and asked:

"Hey, husband. Didn't you say that Magistrate Gu has no relatives at all?"