As far as Li Qiuchen was concerned, this affair had many suspicious points, but the most significant of all was the Bai family's position in it.
The Bai family had been away for just one year.
How had the flood dragon lurking at the bottom of the river learned of this? And how had it been certain the Bai family wouldn't co back the following year to settle scores?
It had then committed the atrocity of wiping out an entire family. And sohow the riverside fishern had decided that a body decorated with chicken feathers and red silk strips was a deliberate provocation directed at the Bai family.
What historical precedent was there for that?
Even if such precedent existed, had the Bai family been provoked in that particular way before? Did every fisherman along the riverbank know the family's history well enough to recognize it as a taunt?
Having confird that the mories of the riverside fishern showed signs of alteration, reconsidering the original incident from that perspective produced an uncomfortably familiar sensation.
Like a badly-written novel.
The kind of author who, needing a scene where a person can't defeat a tiger, artificially restricts the human to the combat ability of a sedentary person who has never trained, removes all weapons both conventional and modern, takes away any buildings in the vicinity for cover, eliminates any companions, and drops the character's intelligence to near-primate levels, then pits them against an adult male wild Siberian tiger capable of withstanding three hundred 7.62mm rounds with its skull and weighing five tonnes.
The Bai family's role in this story felt like that skull.
Forced. Unconvincing.
Li Qiuchen had a vague forming hypothesis in his mind, but without a connected phone or any convenient ans of checking information, he had no way to verify it at the mont.
That was all right. He had no urgent need to pursue it.
He would keep it in mind.
Over the next several days, Li Qiuchen took Tang Xiaoxue wandering through the surrounding area, and found in the nearby forested hills an entertainnt more interesting than solving a case.
Competing with squirrels for pine cones.
Tang Xiaoxue was not skilled at climbing trees.
Strictly speaking she could climb them, and quite quickly.
But she was afraid of heights.
She could climb up but couldn't co back down.
And yet she had a compulsion to keep climbing higher regardless.
All that could be said was that the energy of an unruly child was boundless.
After so long confined to the city with her good-girl act, out here with no need to maintain the performance, her true nature ca out in full.
On the fifth day of this, Hu Caiyi erged from her trial.
First Class Lower as well.
This made Li Qiuchen increasingly doubtful of his own so-called genius status, while also prompting so uncomfortable reflection on whether giving them too much outside guidance had substantially reduced the difficulty of their trials.
That aside, this was all just the appetizer.
The real test was the third round.
Back at ho in the city, while the two young misses went to bathe and change, Li Qiuchen opened the package Chen Baishan had delivered to the household and retrieved his storage bracelet.
He had not actually wanted to open it this soon, to avoid drawing unnecessary attention. But the Tang household's accounts steward, Chen Liang, had insisted on inspecting the contents on the spot.
Understandably so. With Li Qiuchen drawing that large an amount from the accounts in one go, if the steward hadn't asked a single question, the Tang household might as well have beco the Li household.
"These are cultivation resources for the young miss."
Li Qiuchen presented the spirit stone vein purchased from Chen Baishan to Chen Liang. "If the accounts are running short, I'll find a way to supplent them."
"No need for that. The master gave instructions before he left that normal expenditures were fine."
Chen Liang examined the spirit stones carefully and nodded with approval. "Fine quality. Everyone says the great mine of Yun County was exhausted thousands of years ago, and yet here's sothing like this. The price is a bit steep, but there's good reason for it. If we'd known the young miss had such remarkable cultivation aptitude, we should have asked the master to bring more spirit stones back from the north."
Li Qiuchen said curiously, "Are spirit stones much cheaper over in Mirror Sea?"
Chen Liang nodded. "A vein like this one could be had in Mirror Sea for around a hundred taels."
Good heavens, that was quite a difference.
Seeing Li Qiuchen's expression change slightly, Chen Liang smiled. "Things are valued by their scarcity. When the Yun County mine was still operating, spirit stones were probably priced similarly. It's just that there aren't any left now. The ore over in Mirror Sea is cheap, but it can't easily be transported here."
"The climate and conditions of the Border Wilds are brutal, demon beasts roam everywhere, bandits operate in large groups... once you factor in transport costs for bringing goods thousands of li overland, it wouldn't co out cheaper than current prices anyway."
Li Qiuchen badly wanted to ask why nobody had thought to build a railway, given that they had nothing to transport the goods with.
By the Great Chu Empire's technological standards, building a railway ought to be feasible enough.
But since nobody in thousands of years had apparently hit on this obvious solution, there were presumably genuine objective difficulties involved.
Such as the great cold tides.
And also the great cold tides.
When he had first heard the term, Li Qiuchen had assud it referred to sothing like a minor ice age. As his knowledge had expanded, he had co to understand that the reality was probably considerably more extre than anything he had imagined.
With his own matters settled, Li Qiuchen turned to sorting out Bai Ke's situation.
Master Qin's aning had been clear: help him clear the barrier to enrollnt.
The money was easy to handle. The problem was his cultural level.
Li Qiuchen at least had the advantage of being a transmigrator. Bai Ke was a genuine local native, with both parents deceased and absolutely no educational foundation.
And right now he was running with Xu Qing.
That particular circle... putting it charitably, it was not an environnt especially conducive to academic developnt.
Could soone without formal education enter the inner hall?
Yes.
Tang Xiaoxue was a positive example. When she sat the children's examination, she hadn't even learned all the characters in the Thousand Character Classic.
But she had bloodline advantages that broke the rules.
The Rakshasa ghost people were a kind of enhanced living weapon that had been significantly upgraded and remodified several tis across the past ten thousand years of history.
From the Ruru wild people at the start, reshaped into the Rakshasa, then evolved into the present-day Rakshasa ghosts.
She could grow stronger simply through breathing without studying anything.
Bai Ke was a different case. At least Li Qiuchen couldn't identify anything exceptional about him beyond his sense of righteousness.
But that didn't an there was no solution. Solutions were always sothing people figured out.
Finding soone in the city wasn't always easy these days, especially soone like Bai Ke, who was a nobody serving as soone else's retainer. Who knew where Young Master Xu might be off carousing at any given mont...
Actually, no. If he thought carefully, he wasn't entirely without a lead.
Xinghua Pavilion, for instance.
Li Qiuchen couldn't rember who had ntioned it, but at so point he had heard that both Young Master Qing and Young Master Liu were regulars at Xinghua Pavilion.
Xinghua Pavilion was an upscale establishnt situated diagonally across from the county school.
The kind of upscale establishnt with young ladies in minimal attire singing and dancing.
In truth, while inner hall students generally had more money, the primary clientele were outer hall students.
Inner hall students who were young enough didn't need to be ntioned, and those who were older were either rarely seen or had been counseled out early for insufficient aptitude. Who among them would be in the mood to drink at Xinghua Pavilion?
So were. Like the two young masters, Qing and Liu.
Xu Qing was not just a regular but a genuine patron in the fullest sense.
Money aside, his status in Yun County was unquestionably that of a first-tier young master with no obligations whatsoever.
Beyond that, he was a Qi Refining cultivator.
By the ti Li Qiuchen arrived, the sky was already dark, which was exactly when the establishnt did its business.
The doorman at the entrance saw the indigo student robe he was wearing and didn't dare show the slightest disrespect.
That was the standard uniform of inner hall students.
He welcod Li Qiuchen inside imdiately, announcing with a loud call that an esteed guest had arrived.
Li Qiuchen raised a hand to stop the madam who ca gliding over, and said with a clasped-hands bow, "May I ask whether Young Master Xu is present?"
The madam's expression cooled by several degrees the mont she heard it was Xu Qing being asked for.
Not out of any disrespect toward Li Qiuchen. It was simply that people coming to find Xu Qing were nothing unusual these days.
"Does the young sir have an appointnt with Young Master Xu?"
She had to ask. Young Master Xu Qing was not soone just anyone could see on demand. If she brought a stranger back without checking and it annoyed him, there would be consequences.
"I am a student from the county school's inner hall. Young Master Xu has a companion by the surna of Bai. I wonder if you are acquainted with him. It is actually him I have co to find."
"Oh, you're looking for Little Brother Bai! What a coincidence. Get this young sir so tea, I'll go and look inside!"
The mont she understood it was not Xu Qing himself being sought, the madam felt visibly relieved.
Bai Ke was apparently doing quite well for himself here.
Li Qiuchen waited downstairs for a short while, and then Bai Ke ca hurrying down the stairs in a flustered rush, with what appeared to be a faint lip print on his cheek.
Feeling Li Qiuchen's startled gaze on him, he imdiately realized and began scrubbing at his face vigorously.
"It's not what it looks like, Brother Li! Let
explain!"
You don't owe
any explanation. I'm not your wife.
Sliding into this kind of life... though could it really be called sliding? It was just soone giving him a kiss on the cheek. By any asure this was considerably better than begging on the streets before, unable to afford a single flatbread.
Li Qiuchen felt no guilt about it whatsoever.
"Never mind that. Brother Bai, I'm here about sothing."
Moving to a quiet corner, Li Qiuchen couldn't help smiling. "You seem to be doing quite well for yourself, Brother Bai. I wonder whether you're still keeping up with your sword practice?"
Bai Ke lowered his head with a red face. "I'm embarrassed for you to see
like this, Brother Li. Following Young Master Xu out here every day does waste a fair amount of ti. But I don't have much money, so the ladies here don't really pay
any attention."
"Xu Qing brings you along for these outings and won't even cover your expenses? He just has you stand outside watching?"
"No, no, please don't misunderstand. I turned it down myself. I told Young Master Xu I needed to guard his safety and couldn't get distracted with won."
"You've been saving up a fair amount recently, I imagine?"
"So, yes. Around ten or fifteen taels. If you need to borrow so, Brother Li..."
"I didn't co to borrow money."
Li Qiuchen waved the idea away. "I was wondering if you might be free. I have sothing I'd like to ask your help with."
"Who does Brother Li want killed?"
"Pardon?"
Li Qiuchen nearly jumped out of his skin.
What kind of opener was that? Starting a conversation with killing soone. What sort of squeaky-clean person like himself would be discussing things like that with you?
"No, you've misunderstood, Brother Bai. You know what kind of work I do, don't you?"
"Well..."
"Actually the two of us are in the sa line of work when it cos down to it. Running errands and looking after young masters and misses. Nothing to be embarrassed about."
"True. Young Master Xu treats
fairly well. I don't care what others say about it."
"The reason I'm here is that I have a task, but I'm too stretched looking after the Tang and Hu young misses to handle it myself. Which is why I thought of you."
"Actually I'm also sowhat occupied at the mont..."
"A hundred taels."
Bai Ke swallowed.
"Brother Li, this really isn't about killing soone?"
[NEXT CHAPTER]
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