Food Fairy Lord

Chapter 466: Solitary Office
Pei Ye thought he had gradually become familiar with the case files in the government office, but he was still amazed at the efficiency of the other two. The archive room was voluminous, and there was no entry specifically written about "Taiping Cao Gang", but they only brought a few clerks over and screened out dozens of files in two or three hours.

The high-ranking officials of the Dali Temple were obviously different from his wild ways. They had their own almost instinctive judgments. After Pei Ye tried to help, he withdrew and stopped interfering. He chose some missing persons and murder cases to redress.

However, after a busy afternoon, the entire archive room was filled with silence.

Jingzhao Prefecture's records of this gang were completely superficial.

Pei Ye had never heard of the "Taiping Cao Gang". The Dali Temple was the government office that adjudicated cases and sentenced people, and it was also not very familiar with this gang. However, they were spread across hundreds of districts in Chang'an, and could not escape the records and inspections of the Jingzhao Prefecture.

However, today, these files have either been tampered with or...
"There is no record at all." Li Zhao closed the case file in his hand and let out a sigh.

In the past two or three years, there were only 78 cases involving the Taiping Cao Gang, which were either fights without causing any casualties, petty thefts or industrial disputes - in half of them, the Taiping Cao Gang were victims.

Pei Ye now understood some features of this gang. Just as Xu Chuo said, it was indeed the largest gang in Shenjing. Its businesses involved dozens of types such as restaurants, gambling houses, escort agencies, martial arts halls, etc., and they were concentrated in prosperous areas in East City and West City such as Pingkangfang.

There is no count of the gang members, but a rough estimate is that there are thousands of them. If you add the loosely affiliated vagrants and ruffians, there are probably nearly ten thousand of them. They are spread across the hundreds of districts in Chang'an, and their tentacles are everywhere.

Facing such a powerful and solid force as the Imperial Guards, they could easily be dispersed and crushed, but for investigators, they were extremely difficult to deal with.

"Taipingcao doesn't have a so-called 'headquarters'." Li Zhao said, "Their distribution is huge and mixed. There are hundreds of known industries in West City alone. We can't take action on such a large area."

Yes, the scale of the thing referred to by the three words "Taiping Cao" exceeded Pei Ye's expectations.

The establishment of the Sansi was intended to investigate the case of human trafficking in Liguan.

Prior to this, the Southern Court had already issued a confirmed case file - Li Guan secretly looted people and prepared to sell them privately to the rich and powerful, but was discovered by the Longwu Army when they failed.

This was the first time, and it had never happened before. The Taiping Cao Gang certainly had no idea. As for the so-called "powerful and wealthy", there was no fact of buying and selling, so of course it was just groundless. This is what is now in the open.

Di Jiu came to the Sansi with a warrant that read "I will never serve as an official in my lifetime unless this case is solved."

They want to overturn this case file and reveal that the trafficking of perverted toys such as "human pens" is a mature business of the Taiping Cao Gang. There are countless corpses of victims under its shadow, and countless transactions with the powerful and wealthy have been completed.

Then of course they have to produce evidence and find out the facts.

However, now faced with the Taiping Cao Gang that is spread all over the city, it is really hard to determine the truth. Maybe there are clues in this restaurant, maybe there is evidence that is difficult to cover up in that gambling house. But these are all speculations.

They couldn't search every one of them, as that would provoke too much resistance. Moreover, they were handling the case under the heavy pressure and isolation of the Southern Court, and could only get the most limited cooperation. When the street envoys, patrol envoys, and Jinwu Guards reported the case to the Southern Court with irrefutable evidence, they might not get a timely response, let alone a city-wide search.

No one is available, that's it.

So they must first find a thread and set a precise goal.

Di Jiu personally took charge of Jingzhao Prefecture for this matter. However, Jingzhao Prefecture had never investigated the Taiping Cao Gang before, so where would they find a handle?

Now that things have begun, the Cao Gang must be shrinking their defenses in various places, and it will be extremely difficult to catch them.

The strong sunlight at noon was cut into golden oblique squares by the window lattices and sprinkled on the table and the floor. Pei Ye held the teacup in one hand and put down the case file he had finished reading with the other hand. He took out the next one and looked down. This case file was very new, as if it was within a month.

"But we have the people we captured that night." Pei Ye said, "These people should be able to provide some clues."

"The people from Li Pavilion were interrogated by the Longwu Army first, and now they have been handed over to the Southern Court." Di Jiu said. This gentleman sat in the depths where the sun could not reach, and his face was as gloomy as the light. "The Longwu Army found out that they were working for the Taiping Cao Gang, but when the Southern Court took over, they changed their confession under torture. As for the clues that could be traced back, only a few core members knew, but they kept their mouths shut. The Longwu Army didn't have time to interrogate them in one night, so they were all killed."

"There are also victims." Pei Ye said.

"Yes, we have these people in our hands, but they have been deprived of their eyes and ears during the process, so they can't provide much valuable information." Di Jiu said in a deep voice, "But I think we can still find out something. I haven't asked them thoroughly yet, so you can go and take a look later."

Pei Ye nodded, then lowered his eyes to look at the case file in his hand.

[Robbery and murder by Liu Dao and four others]

"On September 18th of the Xinsi year of the Lock Scales, Zhang Mengyuan and his wife took their daughter to leave Beijing and return home. Local hooligans Liu Dao, Wang Dayou, Miao Fan, and Mao Hongchun coveted their property and blocked their way, robbing them of their property and then killing them. Zhang Mengyuan and his wife were thrown outside the city, and their daughter Zhang Mingqin's body was thrown into the Longshou Canal.

Liu Dao and Wang Dayou confessed everything, and there is no doubt about the crime. They are imprisoned and await execution."

Pei Ye frowned. This case file was unusually brief. It only had the beginning and the end. The fate of Miao Fan and Mao Hongchun was not explained. Pei Ye subconsciously felt something was strange. He closed the file and stood up and said, "Okay, Master Di, I'll go to the settlement of the victims first. Do you have anything to explain?"

Di Jiu shook his head.

"Oh, I see that you have been looking unwell." Pei Ye said hesitantly.

"Because there are too many unjust cases." Di Jiu said.

"."

"I roughly checked 228 of them, and found at least 21 of them were wrongly convicted, and there were several times more cases of forced convictions due to loopholes." Di Jiu lowered his head and said, after a moment of silence, he raised his head, "Okay, go ahead. We will investigate and interview everyone here who has nothing to do with this case, and we will eventually find the tail of Taipingcao that cannot be hidden."

"Okay, Master Dee."

Pei Ye took the case file and turned to go to the back hall.

Looking at these people who were mutilated beyond recognition was still shocking. Pei Ye had seen more serious injuries and more miserable bodies. The bloody appearance of those who were eaten by frost ghosts and had their bones cut and organs broken was equally jarring.

But even though he was killed by the Frost Ghost and had his eyes gouged out and his head cut off by the Soul Taker, Pei Ye did not feel too angry at this moment.

Because no matter how dirty those evil deeds are, they have a purpose.

The Immortal King wants to seize energy, and Huansilou wants to collect sword souls. After all, they have their own goals that are unacceptable to the world. They would definitely prefer to complete their plans quietly, but they must kill people to advance.

But why is such cruelty happening before our eyes?
The two words "for pleasure" were like a thorn stuck in Pei Ye's ears, and he has not been able to pull them out to this day.

Are there really such a group of people who are so bored that they treat others like pigs and dogs?

Many people here have lost the ability to think or speak, but most of the young women are still healthy. Pei Ye half-crouched down, came to a cowering woman, and whispered: "Girl, where do you live?"

"No, no home, no home" the woman shook her head in panic, "This is my home, this is my home"

Pei Ye was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized that she had not yet accepted the fact that she had been saved, or had lost the ability to believe in freedom. He pursed his lips, stood up, and asked more than ten questions in a row without getting any effective answers, until a girl with fear in her eyes was silent for a long time, gritted her teeth and answered him: "My home is in Chongyefang."

Pei Ye was stunned for a moment—he was from Shenjing?

But this shock made the girl tremble and shrink. Pei Ye immediately continued to ask: "How did they kidnap you?"

The girl trembled for a moment, then stopped shaking. Her eyes brightened up, but she lowered her head again: "I don't know. They just broke into our house and said that Dad had committed some crime, and then kidnapped us."

"Where are your parents?"

"I didn't know they separated us after tying us up. They said they were going to put my parents in jail. Sir, can you please save my parents too? One of them is called Cheng Kequan and the other is called Li Jiayan."

"Okay, I'll find them." Pei Ye comforted him. The word "jailed" caught his attention. "Can you tell me first, who are the people wearing official uniforms?"

".No. I don't know, but they seemed to show Dad some badge, and Dad was very scared. He didn't resist."

Pei Ye frowned and nodded: "Okay, it's okay, you should have a good rest - what's your name?"

".Cheng, Cheng Xiaozhu."

"Okay, I'll tell your parents when I see them." Pei Ye passed a stream of true energy to her and stood up.

He asked some people who were still able to answer in turn, and the information he got was generally the same. What surprised him was that most of them were from Shenjing, or at least temporarily living in Shenjing.

It was indeed different from what I had imagined. These sixty-seven people were either talented poets, swordsmen, or beautiful women. They were all outstanding and not easy to find. Taiping Cao should have secretly locked them up and then suddenly made a vicious move, taking them abducted to a dark cell.

That's why Pei Ye checked the missing cases, but found nothing.

This raises two questions: Where are the families of these people? Why didn't their families report their daughters' disappearance to the police?

Can Jingzhao Prefecture suppress all of them?
But when he asked now, several people told him that his parents were also captured. This indeed answered the above questions, but it also made Pei Ye have other doubts.

Now he walked out of here, the sky was already the brightest in the afternoon, the air was still cold, Pei Ye took a deep breath, it went straight to his lungs. When he arrived at the archive room, Li Zhao was waiting at the door with a sword, and Di Jiu was just putting on his robe and walking out.

"The Lord said he would go out and investigate a few families," Li Zhao said, "How is Inspector Pei Yan? Did he find anything?"

Pei Ye gave a few simple instructions, and Di Jiu came out, straightening his sleeves: "It's time, let's go have a bowl of noodles together?"

Pei Ye shook his head: "No, Lord Di, I was just about to say goodbye. I have to go to the Imperial College this afternoon. I'll take this case with me."

He raised the case file in his hand.

Di Jiu was stunned for a moment: ".I think Pei Yanjian is very young."

"Your Excellency, I will be eighteen soon."

Di Jiu showed a rare smile on his face, turned around and looked at Li Zhao, pointing and said: "Look."

Li Zhao just smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"Okay, then you can go, Inspector Pei Yan." Di Jiu looked the young man up and down, and suddenly said in a deep voice, "Tell Mr. Tong that I don't want any favors in this case - there are so many wrongful cases in Jingzhao Prefecture, and I will definitely rectify them one by one!"

".good."

Pei Ye got on the carriage while thinking about the case. Not long after he closed his eyes to rest, the unique freshness of the Imperial College awakened him.

When I got off the bus, it was still a bright afternoon, the time before classes. Men and women in military uniforms were coming and going. The weather was cold, so many people wore thicker clothes.

Pei Ye then remembered that he had no winter clothes yet. Although he could go without them, it would be meaningless to always hold on to his true energy like someone else. Just as he was thinking about it, a group of people suddenly looked at him curiously.

Pei Ye looked back, but was startled, then smiled and nodded.

They were the classmates I met in the last class. In fact, we didn’t even know each other’s names, but we had met each other a few times after all.

Pei Ye also learned in the last class that the so-called "Four Schools" were not all composed of children of common people. In addition to the "eight hundred outstanding children of common people" mentioned by Fang Jidao, there were also "five hundred sons of the seventh rank and above and the sons of marquises and earls." It was an academy with a very mixed background.

Xu Chuo was titled as a "doctor", which meant he could have taught at the Imperial College or the Imperial University, but he came to teach at the Four-door School instead.

The duration of study at the Imperial College was set at three years, and there were actually no more than two or three hundred people in the four schools who were in the same year and course as Pei Ye. The people who came to Xu Chuo's class that day were from all schools and all years, and after being taken to the right place by Fang Jidao in the last class, Pei Ye discovered that those classmates were very familiar with each other.

The addition of him was not unnoticed.

At this time, a freckled woman among the five or six people looked curiously at Pei Ye's carriage. Seeing Pei Ye looking back and greeting her, she smiled and said, "It turns out that this classmate also has an extraordinary family background."

Pei Ye was slightly startled: "What do you mean?"

"You can come here by horse and carriage, but we can only tire ourselves out on foot. What do you mean by that?" the lady snorted.

Pei Ye originally wanted to say that he lived far away and took a car, but at this time he did notice that there were not many carriages and horses in front of the Imperial College.

Another more gentle one also looked curious and explained with a smile: "You need to have a record before riding in a carriage or riding a horse in front of the imperial city."

He turned his eyes to the center and said, "Here, only classmate Lin occasionally rides in his father's carriage."

Pei Ye looked over and saw the young man among the five or six people nodded to him reservedly: "My father is Lin Daqin, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice. May I ask the name of this classmate?"

Pei Ye was stunned for a moment - wasn't that the one who was sick at home?

He looked at him and didn't look too happy: "No need to bother Pei - your father probably won't need a carriage these two days, classmate Lin can take one."

Lin Wenyuan widened his eyes and looked at him in astonishment.

Pei Ye didn't say much. He took the case files and writing brushes from the car and went into the school with them.

(End of this chapter)