Food Fairy Lord

Chapter 470: The Bandit in Disguise
"If you had told me earlier when you were in prison, I could have asked Li Zhao to send you some two days ago." Pei Ye said.

Xie Chuantang paused for a moment, still drinking porridge, but raised his eyes to look at him.

"what happened?"

"It's okay, let's recognize you again." Xie Chuantang retracted his gaze and lowered his head to eat vegetables, and said vaguely, "I feel that you are not as handsome as before, and you seem to be a little shorter?"

"."

Xie Chuantang took a bite of the bun.

"What's the point of being short by a fingernail?"

"I'm sorry, I've been working as a detective for a long time, so I'm quite sensitive about height and appearance." Xie Chuantang said casually, "If you care, I won't tell you."

Pei Ye rolled her eyes and picked up the two buns towards her.

Just now he was standing at a busy street corner, watching the woman walk out of the alley in a daze, and then he took out two small red jade lotuses from his hands and recognized her.

"You rescued me? What do you want to do with me?" Xie Chuantang asked.

Pei Ye paused and told her the whole story from beginning to end.

Xie Chuantang slowed down his eating and looked at the table.

"Because you are the only person in Jingzhao Prefecture who has investigated the Taiping Cao Gang." Pei Ye said, "It is now on high alert, but you have been to its heart."

Xie Chuantang put a bun into his mouth in three strokes and swallowed it with a big mouthful of water: "Tell me what you know."

"On a large scale, we know that the Taiping Cao Gang secretly violated the ban on human trafficking, and the Li Pavilion has been closed down, but we can't find the fact that they are doing this on a larger scale." Pei Ye said, "And the Zhang Mingqin case has pointed us to a line from the bottom to the top. We know that they persecute good families, kill parents, and then send their children to Huanlou."

"Now we know what to investigate, but it is still unclear how 'persecution of good families' is linked to the entire Taipingcao Gang, and what the inextricable connection between Huanlou and the Taipingcao Gang is," he said.

Xie Chuantang continued to eat his buns with his head down, and said slowly: "Zhang Mengyuan and his wife died later."

Pei Ye was startled: ".What?"

"It is true that Zhang Mengyuan and his wife did not die at the same time as Zhang Mingqin, but Zhang Mengyuan and his wife died after Zhang Mingqin."

Pei Ye was stunned for a moment.

"You mean Zhang Mengyuan and his wife died after Zhang Mingqin's body was thrown into Longshou Canal?" Pei Ye frowned, processing this information unexpectedly. "How is it possible? Where have they been these days?"

"I also want to know."

"."

"I kept thinking about this in prison, whether I was awake or closed." Xie Chuantang finished his last bun and looked up at him. "I first found Zhang Mingqin's body, and then found the scene where she was robbed and murdered - there was no blood there."

Pei Ye listened intently.

"There wasn't even much of a fight or resistance. It was more of a coercion than a robbery." Xie Chuantang whispered, "Zhang Mengyuan and his wife were not killed on the spot."

"Zhang Mingqin was abducted on the 18th, and her body was found on the 22nd. It took me four days to find the four people. When I threw them into prison, they pointed out the place where Zhang Mengyuan and his wife dumped their bodies."

Xie Chuantang looked at the boy opposite him and said, "You can't see these two bodies now, but I saw them with my own eyes at that time - they definitely died no more than three days ago."

Pei Ye's face became solemn.

"Since they wanted Zhang Mingqin, why did they imprison her and her husband for so long?" Xie Chuantang looked at him. "If you want to investigate the secret activities of the Taipingcao Gang, this is the entrance I provide."

Pei Ye tapped the table lightly, and after a moment of silence, he let out a breath and stood up: "Let's go back to the government office first and check the news with Lord Di."

Jingzhao Mansion.

The night was dark and dawn was approaching, and the candle that had been burning all night was replaced with a new one.

Xie Chuantang took a quick shower, put on some neat casual clothes, and took out the case files one by one to answer Di Jiu's questions. The archive room was like her home at this moment. The details of the whole case and the appearance of the Taiping Cao Gang gradually became clear under the woman's narration.

Finally she closed the last page and drank a large glass of water.

Di Jiu nodded slowly with a serious expression, and moved his gaze to Pei Ye: "Inspector Pei Yan was able to find this detective in two days, and the case has indeed become clear immediately."

He frowned and looked back at the case file in front of him: "In other words, the problem became clear all of a sudden."

"I actually share the same doubts you two raised about 'why Zhang Mengyuan and his wife were imprisoned.'" Di Jiu looked at them and said, "For the past two days, Li Zhao and I have been investigating the case with 'Liguan' as the center, investigating the waiters and singers there. We have traced the case very deep, but have not found any signs of abduction."

"The sixty-seven people rescued by the Carp Pavilion seemed to appear out of thin air, as if they were sent directly from somewhere, rather than being the intersection of lines."

Pei Ye frowned: "Master Di, I am rather stupid - but where is the 'sympathy' between these two things?"

Di Jiu knocked on the table twice: "Because they are all deviating from the phenomenon of 'crime of human trafficking'."

Xie Chuantang's eyes suddenly sharpened.

"Because I have handled many human trafficking cases, and I have read a lot in the past two days, human trafficking cases are mainly based on abduction and forced kidnapping of people. The focus of the Taiping Cao Gang should be on these people, and they will leave traces with them as the center of the circle afterwards. The knights, scholars, and women transported from one place to another are the lines that can be traced." Di Jiu leaned on the chair. This adult had no cultivation, and the two days of hard work made him tired. "But the Liguan case is not like that. I didn't find these lines."

But his sharp eyes were still looking at the three people who were listening quietly: "At the same time, Pei Yanjian said that Zhang Mengyuan and his wife died after Zhang Mingqin; the victims in the confessions were all long-term residents, but the knights and scholars were mostly alone in the capital; there was the fact of human trafficking, but there were no relatives or friends who reported the case to find the victims; in several valid confessions, it was said that the perpetrators broke in blatantly, but claimed that the victims were guilty; the Taiping Cao Gang rose to such a scale in just a few years..."

Pei Ye had been digging deep into one line, and only when he heard this did his sight suddenly rise up, taking in these unusual features.

"So I think that the incident at Liguan might not be a case of human trafficking, but a byproduct of some greater illegality." Di Jiu closed his eyes and said slowly.

Pei Ye froze for a moment, and he suddenly remembered Cheng Xiaozhu's timid confession:

"I don't know. They just broke into our house and said that Dad had committed some crime, so they kidnapped us." "It seemed like they showed Dad some badge, and Dad was very scared. He didn't resist."

".What's illegal?" he asked.

"It's not a certain case, but a certain pattern, a certain process, which is hidden under a dragnet. Because they are killing such people, no one can ever break it." Di Jiu said.

"This was originally a bold idea of ​​mine, but after Detective Xie came, I am willing to call it a guess." He looked up at Pei Ye and the other man, "Inspector Pei Yan has also heard the confession of Miss Cheng Xiaozhu. Now I want you two to verify a simple fact - Miss Cheng is polite and has delicate hands. I think she comes from a wealthy family. Please check what property her family once had and how it is being disposed of now."

Pei Ye was startled. Di Jiu continued, "This is also one of the two questions I was thinking about just now - how much money can a talent dealer make?"

It was bright in the sky, and Pei Ye and Xie Chuantang walked silently on the streets of Yong'anfang.

This job was indeed as simple as Lord Di said. Two hours ago, they came to Cheng Xiaozhu's deserted and empty yard as instructed and knocked on several neighbors' doors.

"As for their family, we don't know what happened to them. They said they were taken away for making a lot of noise at night a while ago. We don't know how they are doing now."

"Family business? Boss Cheng runs a cloth shop. He's a very nice person and always gives us some. A down-to-earth person will have a prosperous business. Look, isn't this the house he just bought? In addition to this one, I heard there's another one in Yong'anfang!"

"I don't know where it is, but I know the cloth shop. It's three streets away with a sign saying 'Safe'. But although it's open again these days, the owner seems to have changed."

".Thank you."

Ping An Cloth Shop really grew very large and flourished.

There were many people coming and going in the two-story building with three doors facing the street, and the waiters looked experienced and had not changed. Pei Ye and Xie Chuantang walked in as usual and put their badges in front of the shopkeeper: "Excuse me, who is the boss here?"

"Ah, sir, it's Qi, the head of Baiweilou!"

"Is Master Qi a member of the Taipingcao Gang?"

"Yes, yes, yes. So you recognize him?"

"I don't recognize him." Pei Ye looked up at the store, "How's business lately?"

"It's much better now. However, now as long as you mention the name of the boss Qi, those gangsters dare not come to rogue. Hehe, there is less deduction." The shopkeeper smiled, "Sir, what do you want?"

"No."

Pei Ye nodded and walked out.

Cheng Xiaozhu, Hao Xiaofang, Yan Wan, and Yu Yueqiu spent the morning checking the property of all the victims who were able to confess, and found that none of them had not fallen into the hands of the Taiping Cao Gang. There was no need to deliberately look for rich people, because as long as they lived in the capital, a house would cost several hundred taels of silver, which was much easier than finding a scholar and then transforming and domesticating him.

How can there be such an easy business in the world?
Why can and why dare they be so rampant?

Such behavior was somewhat beyond the boy's awareness. Now he knew what the tip of the iceberg was. All he had been offered along the way was silence.

"Then add in what Li Zhao and I have found out, and the case is clear." Di Jiu took the results they gave him as expected, "Nine years ago, the law enforcement space for the thief catchers in Jingzhao Prefecture and Chang'an and Wannian counties was squeezed, and they were replaced by the Jinwu Guards. These days I have always felt that there are a large number of cases missing in Jingzhao Prefecture. Many cases I have traced to the end have been handled by the Jinwu Guards. The public security needs of Shenjing City will not be reduced, so the only way is to transfer the responsibility to other government offices."

"The Taiping Cao Gang and Jinwu Guards are in cahoots with each other. Jinwu Guards are the backers, and the Taiping Cao Gang are the murderers. They look for wealthy and helpless families in the neighborhood, fabricate charges against them, and record their wealth. Scholars and knights living alone in the capital, who have a little wealth, are also framed and persecuted." Di Jiu said, "Afterwards, they are either killed, sold, or exiled. The whole family is gone, and they have no complaints. But if there are those who are dissatisfied, they can only appeal to the Jingzhao Prefecture, Jinwu Guards, and the Ministry of Justice, and they are often easily killed."

Pei Ye was silent for a long time: "I still find it hard to believe."

"Shenjing has both civilized and barbaric sides, and each side is the extreme of the human world." The stern-faced Shaoqing picked up a pen and wrote the case. "In other places, you always have to be careful when you break the law, because you never know when your superiors will come to investigate. But in Shenjing, it's not like that. If you grasp the extreme of a certain power, it will cover up a certain innocent area and you can do whatever you want."

"."

"But at least we can see the cloud covering the sky clearly now." Di Jiu put down his pen and looked up at the three people in the room. "Very good, Pei Ye, I put down my official hat in the Dali Temple not to solve a case, but to purge the entire Shenjing from the poisonous mud. This case is the day for us to break the cloud."

".How to break it?"

"evidence."

"Where's the evidence?"

"The number of people captured by Liguan alone should be close to a hundred families. To frame innocent people on such a large scale, they must have a private prison. This private prison is not supervised by the government but controlled by the Taiping Cao Gang. It cannot be destroyed or hidden."

"Is there really such a private prison?"

"This morning, Li Zhao checked the records - nine years ago, the Jinwu Guards were unable to place the arrested criminals due to the chaotic public security in Shenjing, so they proposed to set up a temporary 'winter prison' outside the Southern Court, and the Southern Court quickly approved it." Di Jiu said, "This process was not noticed by many people, and no one knew where this 'winter prison' was set up. Today, nine years later, there is even less trace of it."

".Then how do we find it?"

"I'll look for it." Di Jiu said calmly, "Li Zhao and I are good at investigating the intrigues of these government offices."

"Three days." He looked at Pei Ye and said, "This matter will be kept secret. Within three days, I will reveal the location of this prison, report it to the court, and ask the imperial guards to seal it off."

This was the conversation that just took place in the government office. Now Pei Ye and Xie Chuantang stopped. The streets of Yong'anfang did seem less prosperous. In front of them was Ding Yukang's courtyard. Everything was still the same as when they left that day.

"Old Ding told me the other day: Your skin and knife were given to you by someone, and you still want to use them to investigate the person?" Xie Chuantang said, "I think it makes sense. After the case is closed, the only thing to do is to wear casual clothes."

"It's not necessary now," Pei Ye said, "We are following public orders."

"Yes, so thank you very much. Without you, I would not be able to investigate this case." Xie Chuantang took two stacks of yellow paper bought on the street, put them in a bowl and lit them, and ashes and flames rose into the sky.

Pei Ye watched this scene quietly, and handed in his own stack: "When I first came to Shenjing, I understood one thing: power plus evidence is a threat, but I never thought the other way around - since there is no threat, why not do whatever I want."

"Then you have just arrived in Shenjing not long ago."

"Yes."

Xie Chuantang looked up at the flying smoke gradually dissipating, pursed his lips and whispered: "In three days, Lao Ding, the former Jingzhao Prefecture will be back."

(End of this chapter)