Food Fairy Lord

Chapter 463 Carp House
Pei Ye imprinted this record in his heart with [Que Shou], and went to Wannian County Court to check the case files of Pingkangfang, but there was nothing special. It was still a fight and theft. The case of theft had been reported to Chang'an County to facilitate the arrest of the whole city, and the names of the people involved in the fight were clear. Pei Ye looked for it, but did not see Zhang Piaoxu's name on it that night.

Then he realized that many fights were not reported to the police, and there were only twenty or thirty people in the detective room, and they did not look like they were investigating the entire city. It was probably because only those that were reported were considered cases.

There are many more things they cannot see, investigate, or control, such as the Immortal Terrace, the Jinwu Guards, the Imperial Guards, and the Jingzhao Prefecture. In a place like Shenjing, the two counties' constables are indeed officials of low status and marginal authority. No wonder many of them don't even have any cultivation.

Pei Ye put down the case file, picked up his sword and went to Pingkangfang.

When I came here for the second time, it was already night.

This was also the busiest time for this place, and it was still a scene of prosperity and elegance, with beautiful women in red buildings, luxurious carriages and brocade clothes, and Kyoto knights who could be seen from time to time. This place really seemed to be out of the order of the capital, but to some extent, its existence was also a microcosm of the temperament of the Tang Dynasty.

Countless people are wandering here, the lights are as bright as day, and everything seems bright. What did Ding Yukang touch?

He left the house at the beginning of the You hour and died on East Street at two quarters after the Xu hour. Pei Ye outlined the route of his movement in his mind and walked along East Street as if recovering.

This is a street that is not quite "Ping'anfang". Although it is bustling with lights and shadows, the scent of cosmetics and romance has faded a lot. Many daily necessities shops are opened here, selling all kinds of food, clothing, housing and daily necessities - the knights also need clothes to wear, the girls also need to eat, if the saddle is broken, the horse is sick, and the piano is broken, there must be a place to repair it.

What is Ding Yukang doing here?
Pei Ye paced slowly. What he got was not the precise and orderly case records from Xianren Terrace, but the brief and rough case files from the county government. When many details had been lost by time, he could only try to empathize with Ding Yukang.

A person who stays sober after stopping drinking, eats steamed buns and pickles when hungry, and sits back at the table to continue sketching when full.

A man who is nearly fifty years old, has no cultivation, and has entered the stage of enjoying life.

Now, with a body that had not been exercised for a long time, he had to face some huge monster again. The official uniform and sword on his body could not give him any support. He pretended to be an ordinary passerby here for several days. Pei Ye walked slowly at his own pace, observing the scenery on both sides.

The steps suddenly stopped.

He tilted his head to look at the buildings on the street. A two-meter-high wall enclosed a backyard. The scene in front of him suddenly overlapped with the scene in his mind. It was the lines of a page drawn by Ding Yukang.

Removing all the decorations and curves, the long street and the houses are arranged into the simplest lines. It is not just this angle, nor is it just the high wall in front. Several surrounding buildings have been outlined by Ding Yukang and then connected by a line.

Pei Ye frowned as he thought about the extremely careful sketch and looked at the street scene in front of him. He almost imagined how Ding Yukang had used several different angles to outline the layout of the houses. But what was the point of this? The layout was clearly laid out here and nothing would change. What was there to think about in this picture?
Until Pei Ye suddenly realized that he could not climb over this high wall.

Ding Yukang's figure almost immediately became clear in front of him. He was standing under the eaves with him that day, but he had neither true energy nor a young and agile body. Pei Ye stared intently in thought, making his body heavy and dull. If he wanted to climb over this wall, how should he go?

Climbing the eaves, winding around, from one roof to another. Gradually, a line exactly the same as the sketch appeared in his mind.

"Excuse me, may I ask what courtyard this is?" Pei Ye stopped a passerby and raised the goose sign in his hand before he frowned.

"Oh, this is the warehouse of Liang's rice shop." The man stopped and said, "I heard that it was robbed a few days ago, but you thought that two bags of rice could be carried out. Sure enough, after checking, nothing was missing. The thief even slipped and broke a flower pot."

Rice shop. Pei Ye instantly understood what the old detective was investigating.

I'm not bragging to Xu Liu, he was indeed in charge of foreign affairs when he was young, and he must have been one of the best.

The apprentices he brought in later would definitely be able to serve in Jingzhao Prefecture.

This attentiveness and caution were definitely honed through his experience with the murder case - he was checking the account books of all the rice and flour shops in Pingkangfang to get a glimpse of the food expenses of each brothel.

A building with a hundred people can't consume two thousand kilograms of rice in ten days.

Pei Ye immediately found a row of extremely eye-catching data on the paper full of columns.

Its full picture is: "Liguan, about 100 people. On September 9, they bought 2,000 catties of rice and flour; on September 20, they bought another 2,000 catties; on October 1, they bought another 2,000 catties."

Liguan is not difficult to find. It is located in the southeast corner of Pingkang. Considering the scale of a hundred people, it covers an area that is a bit too large. It is planted with pine and cypress trees and has no high buildings. It looks more like a garden. Therefore, in terms of the overall temperament of Pingkangfang, it is somewhat quiet.

"Liguan is known as 'the best hotel in Pingkang', but its reputation far outweighs the number of visitors, probably because its expenses are too extravagant and the identities of its guests are selective, making it difficult for ordinary people to approach it." Not long after Pei Ye asked, Xu Chuo's voice was heard.

"I heard that all brothels in Pingkang are controlled by gangs. What gang is behind this one that is so high-profile?"

Xu Chuo was silent for a while. Pei Ye knew that she was waiting for information. Sure enough, after a while, the voice rang again. Xu Chuo seemed to be silent for a while, and said, "Taiping Cao Gang."

"Taiping Cao Gang?"

"So this is their tentacles down there," Xu Chuo muttered to himself, then answered, "Taipingcao, the largest gang in Shenjing City, mainly controls the canal transportation, and has countless other businesses such as brothels, gambling houses, and fighting arenas. Going deeper, there are probably also drug trafficking, human trafficking, house raiding, and assassination. This gang has always had a dense connection with the upper echelons, and no one has been able to shake its foundation for a long time, but I lack the power of the lower echelons, and I don't know them very well."

Pei Ye nodded slowly.

Faced with such a huge monster, Ding Yukang had already used all his caution and care, but the moment he showed his weakness, he was beaten to death with three punches by the oncoming man.

This isn't even an assassination, it's bordering on blatant.

Pei Ye still didn't know why Ding Yukang suddenly abandoned his original life to investigate them, but that was not the point.

For him, he already knew why the barbarians killed the constable, and he also knew where the tentacles that stretched out towards him in prison came from.

(End of this chapter)