Early in the morning, as soon as Shen Hao stepped out the door, he heard about a case that happened last night.

"General Flag, it was the shopkeeper of Fushun Inn and a guest who were stabbed to death by a waiter surnamed Wang in the inn. When the governmental officers arrived, that waiter slit his own throat and killed himself. They say the scene was ghastly."

"A waiter killed someone? Fushun Inn?"

"Yeah, they say the waiter went mad or caught some illness, lost his mind..."

The guard casually relayed what he’d heard that morning to Shen Hao, but Shen Hao listened with a deepening frown. He actually knew both the Fushun Inn’s shopkeeper and the waiter surnamed Wang—they were witnesses from the Wen Renhai case, people he’d seen not long ago.

"Besides the Fushun Inn shopkeeper and the waiter, who was the other dead guest?"

"Um... seemed like... oh right, it was the shopkeeper of a newly opened shop in the East Market, seemed like he sold boots?"

Shen Hao’s brows creased even tighter.

Once at the garrison, Shen Hao sent someone to the government office to get details about the incident at Fushun Inn last night, and the report confirmed his suspicions.

The three people who died last night were the shopkeeper of Fushun Inn, a waiter surnamed Wang, and the shopkeeper of a newly opened boot shop in the East Market. All three happened to be witnesses in the Wen Renhai case—names listed in the dossier. Now all dead.

Coincidence? There’s no way it’s just a coincidence that all three of the deceased were witnesses in the same case.

Were they deliberately killed to overturn the case?

Impossible. The Xuanqing Guard isn’t some local government office; their procedures are much more brutal and overbearing. Once names are written into the dossier, unless there’s direct evidence of a fabricated case, losing witnesses isn’t enough to overturn it.

Even external suspicions, the Xuanqing Guard could simply ignore. That’s exactly why there’s so little oversight, which led to the founding of the Black Banner Battalion as an internal investigation unit.

If it wasn’t to cover up the case, then why kill the witnesses?

Shen Hao naturally linked last night’s murder and the invitation he’d received while on his assignment. Although he hadn’t investigated yet, Shen Hao’s gut told him the murder of those three witnesses was ordered by the Wen Family’s matron.

The reason? Shen Hao figured it was pure venting of anger.

This kind of utterly deranged brutality seems senseless, but in fact makes a twisted sort of sense—look at Wen Renhai’s style and you can tell the Wen Family has long been arrogant beyond measure. Human life means as little as ants to them; if they’re unhappy or someone displeases them, they’ll squash them right away. After all, the court’s laws never apply to them.

Right at this moment, Shen Hao felt like he finally understood the meaning behind the Xuanqing Guard’s sharply worded proclamations.

Indeed, with parasites like these feeding off the country, it would be a miracle if there were no festering illnesses in the state.

As for last night’s murders, nothing would come of investigating. Shen Hao was certain the Wen Family used some special method to make the case seem airtight. Besides, a case this "ordinary" wasn’t really the Xuanqing Guard’s business anyway.

And from another angle, this operation by the Wen Family was clearly a threat—directed precisely at him, Shen Hao, since he’d refused their dinner invitation just yesterday.

But now it seemed he’d made the right call by not going—he’d probably have walked right into a trap if he had.

"Knock, knock! General Flag, Chen Zongqi’s here to see you."

Chen Tianwen?

Shen Hao: "Invite Chen Zongqi in."

The door opened and Chen Tianwen walked in with a beaming smile, cupped his hands to Shen Hao, then took a seat.

"Chen Zongqi, you seem pretty free today?" Shen Hao smiled, personally poured a cup of tea for Chen Tianwen, and set it on the table.

"Free? Not at all! You know how it is, there’s a ton of loose ends to take care of. If I wasn’t pressed to the limit, I wouldn’t bother you today."

"What’s up?"

"Yeah. Someone from the Wen Family came to me. And not just anyone—it was the Wen Family’s matron, Qin Yurou. That’s too much respect for me to ignore. Tsk tsk, Shen Zongqi, I have to say, you’ve really gotten good at stirring up trouble."

"Qin Yurou came to see you? Why’d she find you?"

"Why? Isn’t it because I’m close to you lately? There are plenty of double-dealers in the garrison—gossip spreads and eventually Qin Yurou tracked me down. I don’t have your backbone, Shen Zongqi, so I could only run this errand for them."

Chen Tianwen kept smiling as he took a gift list out of his pocket and laid it before Shen Hao. "Take a look, the Wen Family’s certainly being generous this time—depends if you’re willing to nod."

Expressionless, Shen Hao picked up the list, curious how far the Wen Family would go to buy him off.

Three Great Nourishing Pills!

One Profound Level Technique, including three skills of the same grade!

One set of Middle-Grade Magical Artifact Inner Armor!

One thousand taels of gold!

The list was short, but every item made Shen Hao’s eyes widen a bit more.

Small Nourishing Pills were rare enough in Shen Hao’s eyes, let alone Great Nourishing Pills? He’d never even seen one—rumor was their effect was more than ten times that of the small ones.

Profound Level Techniques and their corresponding skills were items money often couldn’t buy; usually you could only try your luck at an auction and pay a fortune.

The thing Shen Hao coveted most was that middle-grade inner armor—a lifesaving trump card at critical moments. Even at auctions it’d be hard to come by.

"Tsk tsk, that’s generous. But did the Wen Family send you with a message too?"

"They have only one request: as long as you transfer the case to the Li City Government Office for further investigation, and have the Xuanqing Guard hand over the prisoner to their dungeon, that’s all they want you to do. If you say yes, everything on the list will be delivered to you this afternoon."

"Aren’t they afraid I’ll take the gifts and run?"

"Heh, you think the Wen Family’s things are so easy to take? They’re not afraid you’ll renege—they’re afraid you won’t accept. Once you take it, they have plenty of ways to force your compliance." Chen Tianwen curled his lips—clearly, he didn’t think much of the Wen Family either.

Shen Hao flicked the gift list, finally set it down, shook his head and said, "Everything’s good stuff—I really want it. Especially that armor, tsk tsk, you can’t buy a piece like that even if you have the money! But... it’s too hot to handle, I’ll have to pass."

If before, Shen Hao had been tempted by the idea of "if it doesn’t work, just let the suspect go," now he wasn’t even considering it.

The moment the Wen Family arrived in Li City, they started killing people out of spite—their arrogance was off the charts. Now that they’d softened up and sent lavish gifts, it was probably because of new winds blowing from above at the Xuanqing Guard. If he released the suspect now, who knew what kind of revenge the Wen Family would take afterward?

Chen Tianwen, seeing Shen Hao refuse, smiled even more and patted his hands, rising to leave. "Hey, if you’re not taking the gift, my job’s done. Watch yourself—the Wen Family’s clearly getting desperate. Otherwise they wouldn’t have put their pride aside to seek you out. Take a few more men with you wherever you go."

As Chen Tianwen left, his words deeply resonated with Shen Hao. He had no desire to be attacked out of nowhere ever again.

Just after Chen Tianwen left, a guard outside knocked again and brought in an order from the Fengri City Thousand Households Station.

Opening it, he found it was handwritten by Thousand Households Jiang Cheng: Report to the Thousand Households Station tomorrow afternoon for orders.