I was just solving crimes, how could I become an immortal?

Chapter 35 Decision and Clues

A simple cat-hunting incident unexpectedly turned into a massacre in Nanshan. The Tsing Yi Department, which usually seemed unorganized, was in full swing today.

Who said they have no one in their office? Today Cao An saw the strength of the Tsing Yi Department's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Let Zuowu continue to hide near the pothole, trying to wait and see if a team bringing corpses comes over, so that he can capture them all.

Cao An quickly rushed to the suspicious village and found the suspicious motorcade.

But just one glance made Cao An startled.

The 'Mr. Ma' that Ying Huorong was talking about was actually the driver who pulled the cart for Cao An and the others?

At this moment, he was still leaning on the car with an expressionless face, calm and breathless, with a cigarette in his mouth, puffing on and off, as if nothing had happened.

But around him, there were strong young men lying on the ground. There were at least 30 of them. Are even the grooms in this Tsing Yi Department so powerful?
  "The younger generation is too blind to see Mount Tai. Thank you very much, Mr. Ma." Cao An expressed his heartfelt thanks.

Mr. Ma glanced at Cao An, nodded, and still did not speak. His masterly demeanor was beyond words.

After entering the ghost market and traveling to Nanshan, this man had been working conscientiously as a groom. In this operation, Cao An even ignored him.

Unexpectedly, he also joined the search team, and was even more efficient than Jin Lin and others. He stopped the entire convoy by himself.

Of course, because Cao An's order was to intercept, Mr. Ma didn't kill them, he just knocked down the group.

After a few shakes, the convoy woke up.

The young man who led the team asked in shock when he saw Cao An and the others wearing official uniforms: "Sir, the younger ones are just villagers transporting goods. I wonder what has happened?"

"Don't you know what happened? What was in the car?"

"There are just some defective pottery in the car. We are going to take it out and bury it. The little people did nothing wrong!"

Cao An looked through the three carriages and found that they were indeed ceramic shards. There were no clues, but he still kept pressing: "Does the burial require so many people to escort it?"

"Sir, there are monsters around here from time to time. It will be safer if there are more people."

"The government is looking for fugitives. Take us to your village and we will search it."

"Yes, yes, sir, please come with us."

The young man leading the team looked confident and agreed to Cao An's request without any resistance. The team turned around and led Cao An and the others back to the village.

There are many villages surrounding Shangjiang City. They are either built in the forest or next to the mines, and are engaged in various manual labor to provide Kyoto's daily expenses.

The village in front of them is a village that makes a living by making pottery.

As soon as we entered the village, we saw several large kilns ten meters high, with firewood baking and smoke rising.

Porcelain, within the Daxing Dynasty, there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor.

The finest porcelain produced in official kilns was only supplied to the royal family and rarely leaked out.

Some highly skilled folk craftsmen can make works of art with extremely high ornamental value, which are very popular among upper-class officials and businessmen. One piece can be sold for a hundred taels of silver.

Of course, most folk kilns have mediocre craftsmanship and can often only be sold to ordinary civilians. The remuneration earned from this job is not much better than that of wooden customers.

"But I see that your village is quite prosperous! Your porcelain should be selling well." Cao An scanned around and saw that the houses were stable, the children on the street were noisy, and the life was quite comfortable.

A village chief who was over fifty years old walked over with a trembling cane.

"Your Excellency, this is ridiculous. The older generation in our village have passed down some porcelain kiln skills. How can we be called rich if we only live on porcelain in a careless way."

The village chief received them with a smile and took them to wander around the village. In the backyard of the hospitable villagers, there is an earthen kiln workshop for firing porcelain. Carts of clay are brought back from nearby, and then the villagers make porcelain blanks, calcine and sell them.

The system of the entire village is extremely complete, and there is no threat at all.

Including those self-organized escort teams, their strength seemed to be mediocre. The villagers did not have martial arts cocoons. At this moment, they opened the whole village for them to check, and they could not find any flaws.

Was it really a mistake?
  Is the outgoing convoy really just trying to pull out the porcelain that failed to be calcined and bury it?

Cao An had thought about arresting everyone and bringing them back to the department for interrogation slowly.

But in the area south of Nanshan, there are more than a dozen villages and houses, large and small. Do we want to capture all the thousands of people?
  What if it's wrong? Or maybe it can’t be found out?

Just when Cao An hesitated and was about to go back and join the follow-up troops, a little boy selling flowers at the entrance of the village caught Cao An's attention.

In front of the boy, there was a basket of freshly picked wild flowers, which he was selling hard.

There is no market for these wild flowers if sold in the village. At least they have to go to the city to attract some customers.

But considering that it was the result of a child's little fight, it's not that unusual.

As for the only thing that attracted Cao An, it was the boy's big flower basket, one of which was a bouquet of blue star flowers.

He remembered that Wei Juan had brought back a clay pot with Blue Star Flowers in it the day before her death. Could this be the key to solving the case?

Cao An walked up to the boy, squatted down, and gently looked through the wild flowers in the basket.

"Brother, do you need to buy flowers? One penny for a bunch." The boy asked Cao An in a childish voice.

There was nothing wrong with the flowers, they were really just wild flowers randomly picked in the village. Cao An shook his head helplessly, secretly thinking that he was worrying too much.

But just as he stood up and was about to leave, he saw the boy's expectant eyes again. Cao An couldn't help but smile, and by some strange coincidence, he took out a penny from his arms.

"Okay, then I want a bouquet of blue star flowers."

The doting response made the adults watching couldn't help but smile.

What a harmonious and beautiful picture of love! Knowing clearly that the child was playing around, Cao An still paid for it to meet the child's expectations.

However, when Cao An handed over the copper coins, he couldn't help showing a look of astonishment in his eyes.

Because after the boy took the copper coins from him, he actually held up the bouquet of blue star flowers with both hands. He looked at him with hope, and a pure and decisive smile bloomed on the boy's face.

"A sister once said to me: Blue Star Flower represents trust. She firmly believes that one day, someone will come to me again and buy Blue Star Flower."

Sister...Blue Star Flower...Trust...

Could it be Wei Juan!
  She had been here before and knew that she didn't have much time left, so she used the blue star flower as a metaphor to leave the last clue!

"So the most crucial clue is the clay pot!"

Cao An instantly understood the key. He yanked the boy with his left hand, dragged him behind him, and slapped the scabbard with his right hand.

Clang!
  The Hundred Water Sword was unsheathed in response, and with a kick of the foot, the Qing Yi Shen Xing Kung exploded with all its strength, the body transformed into an afterimage, and slashed at the old village chief with one strike.

when!
  There was no expected cut in half or blood splattering, there was just a metallic collision.

The old village chief, under Cao An's sneak attack, quickly raised his crutch to block the attack.

"They are not ordinary villagers. Please take action!"

(End of this chapter)