"Miss, is this woman related to the case we are investigating?" Huo Gang asked curiously.
Shangguan Wanning shook her head and said with a smile: "It should be irrelevant. However, her identity is not simple."
Huo Gang thought about it for a moment and agreed with Shangguan Wanning's opinion.
After all, which girl from an ordinary family could bring her men into the government office? Moreover, her companions tried their best to defend her yesterday, so it was obvious that she was the central figure.
"She is a Turk, and she is also a member of the royal family."
"What?"
Huo Gang was a little shocked. The scene of the fight between the men in black and the soldiers last night immediately appeared in his mind.
At that time, he felt that those people's martial arts were very strange.
The Turks are good at using scimitars, but last night they were holding long swords, no wonder it looked so awkward.
"How did the young lady know that?"
"She has the mark of the Turkic royal family on her chest."
Shangguan Wanning has been following her father since she was a child and has a certain degree of understanding of the neighboring countries around the country.
"Why would someone from the Turkic royal family risk sneaking into the Central Plains and even sneaking into the prefectural government?"
Huo Gang became even more curious.
Shangguan Wanning was thoughtful, thinking about the current situation at the border. "I'm afraid... there are still many things we don't know."
The matter was of great importance, and Shangguan Wanning dared not relax at all.
Late at night, a drizzle began to fall from the sky. The evening breeze mixed with rain blew diagonally into the windowsill, wetting the table. The flickering candlelight lengthened the shadows in the room.
Mu Jingrui looked at the record book in front of him that contained information about monitoring the Ling family, and frowned slightly from time to time.
"Someone come."
"My lord, what do you want?"
"Go and call the butler."
Soon, the housekeeper came in hurriedly, his hair wet from the rain and a look of panic on his face.
Mu Jingrui seldom took the initiative to look for him when he was not on duty.
"Sir." The butler bowed and saluted.
Mu Jingrui pushed the notebook in front of him to the housekeeper with a serious look and asked, "According to the records of the spies who monitor the Ling family's daily life, someone comes to the Ling family late at night to collect night incense and swill, and the amount ranges from eight to ten buckets."
"But, every seven or eight days, there is one less barrel sent back. Have you ever checked why?"
The housekeeper was shocked. He had read the records several times before handing them to Mu Jingrui, filtering and investigating any suspicious situations. However, he ignored the problem Mu Jingrui mentioned.
"This..." Cold sweat began to appear on the butler's forehead, and he wiped it with his sleeve.
Seeing that Mu Jingrui's eyes were getting sharper and sharper, he had no choice but to admit it. "I'm sorry, sir. I'll check it out right away..."
Mu Jingrui looked at the housekeeper's nervous expression and just frowned slightly.
He looked out the window and saw that it was almost time to collect the swill.
"I'll go there myself."
Mu Jingrui stood up and walked behind the screen to change into night clothes. Not caring that it was still raining outside, he climbed over the wall and left his mansion.
When he arrived at the back door of the Ling family, the rain had almost stopped.
The servants of the Ling family were directing the people who collected the swill and pouring it into the big barrel bucket by bucket.
Mu Jingrui counted them and found there were eight barrels in total.
However, there was another cart behind that was empty.
After all the slop had been poured out, two servants came out carrying a large bucket and placed it on the empty cart.
The servant walked up to the old man who collected the slop and handed him two strings of copper coins.
"Old Ding, old plan."
Lao Ding put his pipe on his waist, got on the cart, picked up the whip and went to drive the mule.
"Ahem, don't worry. I've never given you any worries when I do things."
The two servants watched Lao Ding go away, exchanged glances with each other, and couldn't help laughing.
"This old guy is really stupid. We can make a fortune every time. Let's go and have a drink."
Mu Jingrui took the servant's words to heart.
After everyone entered the backyard, Mu Jingrui chased after Lao Ding's mule cart.
Old Ding took the collected swill to the pig farm on the outskirts of the city, exchanged it for some silver, and put it into his pocket with satisfaction.
"Hey, Lao Ding, isn't there still a bucket?"
"Hehehe, don't move. I'm not selling it to you." Lao Ding hurried forward to stop him.
The owner of the pig farm was very dissatisfied, and his tone of voice became sarcastic. "What? Old Ding, are you starting two businesses now?"
Old Ding took a puff of his pipe, coughed a few times and said, "I don't have that ability. But, this isn't filled with swill, I was just asked by my descendants to take it out of the city."
After saying that, Lao Ding caught up with his mule and headed for the wilderness outside the city.
Mu Jingrui had been following him secretly and saw him stop in a desolate and secluded place, pull out a hoe from under the cart and start digging a hole.
He wants to bury the barrel?
Old Ding was working hard.
The soil was a little muddy because of the rain, and he complained as he dug.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a pair of long legs next to him.
"ah!"
Old Ding screamed in fear and sat down on the ground. He looked up at the tall masked man. A strong sense of oppression made his scalp tingle.
"You, you, you...are you a human or a ghost?"
"I am a human. But you are about to become a ghost."
Mu Jingrui looked down at Lao Ding and asked in a sharp voice, "What's in here?"
Old Ding looked at the wooden barrel, his whole body trembling, unable to utter a complete sentence.
"It seems that you won't cry until you see the coffin."
Mu Jingrui waved his hand and covered Lao Ding with all the soil that he had dug up, leaving only his upper half of his body exposed.
Old Ding was so scared that he burst into tears.
"Great Immortal, I... I don't know what's inside..."
There was a hint of coldness in Mu Jingrui's deep eyes.
In fact, he didn't have to ask Lao Ding to tell him. He could find out by opening it himself.
"But...but I guess...it should be a corpse...I really haven't seen it. The mouth of the barrel is sealed. They told me to bury the barrel with it."
"How do you know?"
"Once, I saw blood seeping out from under the barrel. I was very scared at the time... so..."
Mu Jingrui hesitated for a moment, then struck the wooden barrel with his palm.
Sure enough, a young girl fell out from inside.
The death was tragic and moving.
Old Ding was so frightened that he dared not look, and kept muttering, "What a sin! What a sin!"
Mu Jingrui stood there without moving, his fists clenched, his mind surging with thoughts.
It turned out that without their knowledge, the cases were still happening, but no one had sought justice for the dead.
"Great Immortal, please let me go. I didn't kill them..."
Of course Mu Jingrui knew.
"How many barrels did you bury?"
"This is... the fourth one."
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