The children picked up the windmill on the ground next to them and immediately ran out of the shadow under the big tree happily and ran towards an alley in the distance.
"How innocent." Qin Yuesheng said to himself and followed immediately.
Following the children as they walked through the streets and alleys, Qin Yuesheng soon arrived at a dilapidated house. He saw that the roof of the house was messy and the window frames were in tatters. It looked like a house that had not been lived in for a long time.
"Auntie Wang! Auntie Wang! A brother is here to see you." The child knocked on the door and shouted.
However, there was no response and no one came out to open the door.
Qin Yuesheng said, "You guys wait here first, I'll go in and take a look."
He jumped up, easily landed on the roof, and jumped in through the broken hole in the roof.
The whole house was filled with a musty smell. The tables, chairs, bowls, chopsticks, and utensils were neatly arranged, but there was a lot of dust accumulated on them. It was obvious that no one had lived here for a long time.
Qin Yuesheng walked to the backyard and opened the door. The backyard was surrounded by a mud wall. The vegetables in a small vegetable patch were yellow and black and wilted on the ground. On the bamboo hanging pole next to it were several dried fish and ribs strung on iron hooks. They had already smelled and rotted, and many flies were buzzing around the fish.
"Hmm..." Qin Yuesheng pondered, then walked out of the house again.
"Brother, isn't Aunt Wang here?" a child looked up and asked.
"Well, he's not here. Let's go to the next place to have a look." Qin Yuesheng nodded in response.
At this moment, he suddenly noticed the longevity lock worn around the child's neck. Several cracks were clearly visible on the lock surface, and some black solids remained in the cracks.
Before Qin Yuesheng could take a closer look, the group of children ran towards the next house, still with happy looks on their faces.
After checking several households, we found the same situation in all of them: no one was in the house and dust was everywhere.
According to the young man from the pawnshop, these were the places that the group of Seven Stars Prison officials would check before. First, the Seven Stars Prison officials disappeared, and now it was discovered that all the residents who had encountered the water ghost were missing.
Suddenly, a cloud of doubt and confusion enveloped Qin Yuesheng's heart.
Is there any connection between the two?
When the last spot on the paper was found, Qin Yuesheng reluctantly stuffed the paper into his arms and said to the children, "Thank you for your hard work. I made you run for so long."
"Brother, these uncles, aunts, and mother-in-law are not at home. You don't have to take the silver back, do you?" The child asked reluctantly, holding the silver ingot.
"Don't worry, the silver is still yours. Now do me one last favor and take me to the county government office in Antong County. Once we get there, you can leave." Qin Yuesheng said.
Since the only clue he had was useless, Qin Yuesheng had no choice but to meet with the local county magistrate first. Perhaps he could learn something about the officials of the Seven Stars Prison from him.
Whenever members of the Seven Stars Prison went to a place to do business, they would first visit the local government office if they had time and ask for full cooperation from local officials. This was an ironclad rule, and both Bai Hao and Zuo Zonghao did so in the beginning.
There was no reason for the group of Seven Stars Supervisor officials who came here to investigate not to visit the local county magistrate.
Led by this group of children, Qin Yuesheng soon arrived outside the Antong County government office.
There was a tattered drum for complaining, the ground was covered with fallen leaves, and there were two listless gatekeepers. The entire Antong County government office exuded an air of dilapidatedness.
As Qin Yuesheng walked over, a yamen runner immediately held out his wooden stick to stop him: "What are you doing? Go beat the drum first if you have something to do."
"I'm not here to complain, I'm here to see your county magistrate."
"You think you can see the county magistrate just because you want to? Who are you?"
"Go and report to your master that an official from Qingyang City has arrived." Qin Yuesheng took out one or two taels of silver and handed it over.
For Qin Yuesheng, anything that can be solved with money is the best. There is no need to be arrogant with such lower-class people and waste time by creating disputes.
As expected, people are always greedy for money. When he saw Qin Yuesheng handing over the silver, he immediately reached out to take it, and his tone became polite: "Okay, okay, little brother, wait a moment, I will go and report to the county magistrate now."
Seeing his face full of surprise, and the change from cold and disdainful to humble and flattering expression, Qin Yuesheng couldn't help but nod with a smile as he wished he could do him a favor by smiling more respectfully so that he could give him more money. The happiness of rich people is often so plain and boring.
Soon, the man ran out quickly, nodded and said with a smile: "Sir, please come in."
After learning that Qin Yuesheng was an official from Qingyang City, he even changed his way of addressing him. Qin Yuesheng walked directly into the government office and was led to the side hall by this person. At this time, there was an ordinary-looking man sitting behind a desk. When he saw Qin Yuesheng come in, he immediately stood up and asked, "I am the magistrate of Antong County, Ning Houbo. May I know who you are, sir?"
Qin Yuesheng took out his own copper toad official warrant and held it in front of him. Originally, Qin Yuesheng had two copper toad official warrants, but in order to pay for the pills, he had pawned the one given to him by Zuo Zonghao with Xu Chang and had not had time to redeem it yet.
"What is this?" Ning Houbo was stunned, his face full of confusion.
"You don't recognize this decree?"
"Forgive my limited knowledge. I don't know if you could explain this order to me, sir."
I thought all officials in the Tang Dynasty knew about the Seven Star Supervisor, but I didn't expect that the county magistrate in front of me didn't know about it. Qin Yuesheng couldn't use the Seven Star Supervisor to reveal his identity, so he had no choice but to say, "I am Qin Yuesheng, the adjutant of Xun Sheng, the prefect of Qingyang City."
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
