Chen Chao had a dream. It was a very regular dream.
These two years, he had actually been frequently dreaming. The contents of his dreams were always about a woman.
In his dreams, a woman would keep staring at him. In the dream, Chen Chao could do many things. It was just that he could not look into that woman's eyes. Each time he wanted to look at that woman's eyes, he could only see a mass of scorching light that was incomparably eye-piercing. That stabbing pain would instantly wake him.
But this time, before he could look into that woman's eyes, he was startled awake by a hasty knocking on the door.
Following the knocking sounds, there was also a series of friendly calls.
"Warden Chen, Warden Chen..."
Chen Chao opened his eyes and just happened to see that stray cat stopping its footsteps on the roof in the distance. A pair of dark green eyes were currently staring at Chen Chao.
"Scram!"
Chen Chao grabbed a piece of paint that fell off a wooden pillar and accurately threw it next to that stray cat's feet unceremoniously.
The stray cat turned tail and ran without staying at all.
Chen Chao stretched lazily and glanced at the sky, muttering, "It's only midnight?"
He arrived at the door and opened the gates. A low-ranking official who was carrying a lantern was covered all over in snow; shivering heavily from the cold.
Chen Chao took a look at him and asked, "What? Lord Mi is inviting me for supper again?"
This was Mi Ke's hobby. He liked to call people in the middle of the night to eat supper together.
The low-ranking official was taken aback. He never thought that Chen Chao's first words after opening the door would actually be this.
"Speak. What in the world happened?"
Chen Chao took a look at the snow on the low-ranking official's body. Braving the heavy snowstorm in the middle of the night to invite him for supper? He was merely saying it casually.
The low-ranking official came back to his senses. Without hesitation, he immediately blurted out everything that happened in the government office previously like pouring out soybeans. However, this guy had clearly never been to school before. It took him a full 15 minutes to recount very simple things. In the end, he finally gasped for air and said, "Changyuan Street's Butcher Zhang is dead too. We definitely don't have any more pork to eat in the future!"
The corners of Chen Chao's mouth twitched. You're still concerned about this?
"No worries. If Butcher Zhang died, we won't eat pork with hair." [TL note: It's impossible to translate this bit. It's some ancient Chinese idiom/story.]
Chen Chao asked, "What does Lord Mi... intend to do now?"
"Exalted Magistrate asked Warden Chen to immediately go to Changyuan Street and take a look. He suspects that it's demons causing trouble."
Demons? Upon mention, Chen Chao straightened his back.
His spirit became totally different from when he opened the door.
Seeing how Chen Chao looked, the low-ranking official could not help but admire his lord's incisive judgment. It was as expected!
However, Chen Chao did not immediately leave with the low-ranking official but turned his head to glance at the courtyard.
"What is it? Does Warden Chen still have other matters?"
The low-ranking official was rather anxious. After all, this was an important matter that concerned lives. If the matter was not investigated clearly, the entire Tianqing County could probably fall into panic come tomorrow morning.
Before his voice faded, the door of that wing room over there was pushed open. A young girl wearing blue cotton-padded clothes walked out from inside.
Looking at that beautiful young girl, the low-ranking official became somewhat absent-minded at first. Then, he felt his face heat up and he immediately lowered his head rather self-reproachfully. He really should not have interrupted Warden Chen's fun in the middle of the night.
No wonder when Warden Chen opened the door, he was not in good spirits.
Chen Chao glanced at Xie Nandu a little suspiciously and asked, "I'm going out. Coming along?"
Xie Nandu nodded and went to pick up the oiled paper umbrella leaning against the door.
Only then, did Chen Chao nod his head and followed the low-ranking official out.
Xie Nandu followed behind Chen Chao, neither far nor close.
The low-ranking official was a chatterbox who could not stop talking. After taking a few steps, he could not resist and asked, "Warden Chen, which family's girl is this?" "Your new wife?"
Chen Chao was silent.
"Warden Chen is a promising youth in the end. You're already a warden at a young age, your martial arts realm is high too. Now, you found a wife who's even prettier than our magistrate's wife."
"That's too much. Can Old Mi's wife compare to her?"
"You can't say that. Madam is really nice. If I can marry a wife like that in this lifetime, it will be worthwhile even if I die too."
"Your aspiration is rather simple."
"Yeah. How can I compare to Warden Chen?"
"You know how to talk."
……
……
With the low-ranking official's flattery along the way, Chen Chao's party of three arrived at a house on Changyuan Street. This place had long been surrounded by court underlings until not even water could seep through. Countless torches lit this place up like it was daytime.
There were different shades of footprints on the streets.
Seeing Chen Chao, the court underlings' nervous expressions relaxed considerably. In Tianqing County, without talking about other things, this young man in front of them was an existence like a sea-stabilizing needle.
With him here, everything would be fine.
However, in the wake of Xie Nandu appearing in their sights, the court underlings' could not shift their gazes anymore. Although holding the oiled paper umbrella covered half of Xie Nandu's face, just based on half of her face that was exposed, it was enough to enrapture them.
The low-ranking official cleared his throat and said, "What are you guys looking at? This is Warden Chen's wife! Don't get any ideas!"
Xie Nandu frowned slightly at this, while Chen Chao's mind was not on this at all.
But this had some effect. At least, most of the court underlings retracted their gazes after he cleared his throat. Although Chen Chao was young and did not have power over them either, under the Great Liang Dynasty's bureaucratic system, he was the same rank as Lord County Magistrate.
It would be too easy to punish minions like them.
After stepping into the courtyard, Chen Chao immediately saw Mi Ke who was standing over there. This Tianqing County court official was currently standing under the roof with a dark expression. After seeing Chen Chao, this Lord County Magistrate's expression instantly changed and he greet with all smiles, "Younger Brother Chen, you finally came!"
Chen Chao rubbed his hands and asked, "What's the situation?"
Although he knew some parts of the whole story, whether was it the low-ranking official or Lord Hou earlier, they actually did not give clear details about the murder case.
Mi Ke nodded his head and started talking about the two murder cases' details on his own accord. He was an educated person in the end and had been the magistrate for so many years too, Mi Ke's ability was at a certain standard. He explained things clearly in a few words.
"No wounds. They died just like that. This is really interesting."
Chen Chao mused for a moment and said, "Come on. Let's go take a look at the bodies."
Mi Ke nodded his head. He had already seen it before and did not have any clues. He did not find anything suspicious at the scene too. It could be said that he had completely no clues, so he could not help but link it to demons.
Upon entering the hall, Chen Chao saw a fat and robust corpse on the wooden armchair right in the center. It was precisely Butcher Zhang.
There was only an empty wine jug on the table and a half-full bowl of liquor.
Butcher Zhang's cause of death was the same as the Chen Family couple previously; both died in their sleep. The only thing different was that Butcher Zhang died on the wooden armchair while the Chen Family husband and wife died on their bed.
"Butcher Zhang has been a widower for many years. He needs to drink some alcohol every day after he closes up shop. There's no poison in the alcohol and his alcohol tolerance isn't poor, so it shouldn't be a problem of excessive alcohol consumption." "As for other wounds, we did not find any either."
The skinny post-mortem examiner bowed toward Chen Chao. His tone was very experienced and not sluggish at all. But between his brows, this old post-mortem examiner who had already been working in the county government for more than ten years actually failed to find the cause of death several times as the post-mortem examiner. How shameful!
"Do you want to summon the witness who found Zhang Butcher's body for questioning?" Yi Ke glanced at Chen Chao and suggested.
Although he had already asked before, he still believed that Chen Chao would have other discoveries.
"There's no need. It must be a demon."
Chen Chao subconsciously touched his saber handle and narrowed his eyes.
Mi Ke was taken aback and asked, "How did you know?"
This was a huge matter. Although Great Liang Dynasty was full of demons nowadays, demons had not been seen in the entire Tianqing County for many years. But in the lands of the Great Liang Dynasty, what threatened people's lives the most was demons causing trouble.
If the local warden was capable, it would still be alright. If they were like Tianqing County's previous warden, then the common people would really be in misery.
"His eye sockets are slightly sunken, but there are no wounds on his body. His soul has left his body, so he naturally could not survive."
Chen Chao glanced at Mi Ke and frowned slightly, "This kind of demon feeds on living human souls to nourish itself. Hence, there won't be any wounds."
Before seeing Butcher Zhang's body, Chen Chao had already detected that faint demonic qi and already ascertained that it was demons causing trouble. But, he immediately raised some doubts.
In the past two years, the demons around Tianqing County had virtually been cleaned up by him. Even if a demon survived, they dared not go near this county, because they feared Chen Chao's infamy. But now, not only did demons appear, but they were also openly killing people in the county.
Did it think that Your Father could not figure things out?
Chen Chao narrowed his eyes and said, "Let's go to the government office to take a look at the two bodies."
……
……
"The cause of death was the same. It was the same demon.”
Walking out of the morgue, Chen Chao sat down on the doorstep. At this time, the sky was already getting bright. It was almost morning. Mi Ke's face had exhaustion that could not be hidden. It was just that everyone from the county headed by him were all currently trying to stay sharp and looking at Chen Chao.
"The demon's realm isn't high. But, its trail is a little hard to find. Furthermore, I haven't ascertained what kind of demon it is."
There were many demons within the borders of the Great Liang Dynasty. Just the booklet sent down from above to identify demons was hundreds of pages long.
"This thing hasn't appeared in the past few years. Why is it here now?" Chen Chao muttered; a little irritated.
Failing to find the trail of the demon meant that there would be another victim at any time. To say that Tianqing County was big, it was not big. To say that it was small, it was not small either. Where would the demon commit the next crime?
"The two murders were both on Changyuan Street."
A clear voice suddenly sounded out.
Mi Ke followed the voice and looked over before he saw the teenage girl wearing pale blue robes. This Lord Magistrate furrowed his brows. When was there... a new girl in the county government?"
Mi Ke glanced at Registrar Zhang. Registrar Zhang looked somewhat helpless with his bearded face. Exalted Magistrate's memory was likely hopeless.
