Chapter Seventeen: The Strange Case of Ju County

  Shi Xun had to ride a horse to Ju County to investigate, and Cao De insisted on going with him. Shi Xun glanced at the arm he had just bandaged and Cao De smiled: "It's just a minor injury, it doesn't matter." As he spoke, he gritted his teeth: "I want to know who exactly wants to take my father's and son's lives!"

  "Actually... I don't think you believe me, do you?" You're afraid that I'll destroy the evidence or something, so you have to follow me to Ju County, right? Cao De smiled wryly: "How can I not believe in Mr., it's just... after this ordeal, who else can I trust?"

  This guy is really straightforward. Xi Yun glanced at Cao De and asked, "Cao Gong..." "My father is old, his brain isn't very clear," Cao De smiled, "but he's been a eunuch for many years, gone through countless storms, no need for me to stay and comfort him."

  The two of them then took the two soldiers from Taicheng and left the Si Family Manor on horseback - Shi Xian's mount was one he had brought himself, while the other three were Cao family horses. They galloped to Ju County, over a hundred miles northeast of Haicang, and by the time they arrived at the city gate, it was already dark and the gates were tightly shut.

  Shi Xun held up Tao Qian's official document on horseback, shouting loudly at the gate. After the gatekeeper came down from the city wall to verify it, they opened a gap in the city gate and let them in. Shi Xun asked clearly where the county government was located, took the lead, galloped over, and jumped off his horse only when he reached the entrance.

  Three others immediately dismounted and busied themselves rubbing their bellies. Cao De praised, "Master's riding skills are good!" Shi Xun thought that my riding skills had improved somewhat, but not enough to be considered "good", this was also due to the goodness of my stirrups. Without saying a word, he rushed over and knocked on the door.

  He knocked at the main gate, but it was a side door that opened. A servant poked his head out and cursed, "Who's there at this hour...?" Xun rushed forward, waving the official document in his hand: "I have come on the orders of His Excellency to see the Magistrate of Ju County. Where is he?"

  That gate was startled, and before he could respond, Xun and others had already rushed in. As soon as they arrived at the entrance of the main hall, a butler came forward: "Who are you..." Xun repeated his intention, and the butler hurriedly cupped his hands and let them pass: "Please sit down in the upper hall for a moment, I will go and report to the county master."

  Ximen came to the hall, and only then did the servants light the lamps. He was pondering that although he was Tao Qian's special envoy, after all, he was still a commoner, so should he sit in the superior seat or wait in the guest seat? Suddenly, he heard a commotion from behind, someone exclaimed, and someone wailed. Ximen thought it was not good, "thud thud thud" a few steps around the screen, one foot kicked open the back door of the hall: "What's going on?"

  Only heard Guan's family voice reporting intermittently: "The county magistrate... hanged himself..."

  Xun felt his head buzzing - damn, this is getting deep! He heard Cao De's voice in his ear: "Don't try to deceive people, take us to see." Hmm, calm and collected, this Cao was even more composed than himself.

  The housekeeper led the four into the study, where several servants and maids were kneeling on the ground wailing. They were facing a corpse wearing Zen robes without a crown, with eyes wide open and tongue hanging out - indeed, there was a deep mark around its neck. Cao De asked: "Is this the county magistrate of Ju County? When did he hang himself?"

  The housekeeper, with tears streaming down his face, replied: "County Master had just let the yamen go and was reading books in the study. When you sent someone to come over, Xiao went to report back, and as soon as he opened the door, he saw him hanging from the beam..." It wasn't until then that Xian noticed that there was still a piece of white silk hanging from the beam, and several cases were overturned on the ground - no choice, this time of year didn't have chairs or stools, if you wanted to hang yourself, you could only step on the cases.

  He felt a sense of confusion in his heart, and his mind was in a state of chaos. He glanced at the corpse on the ground again, its open eyes and mouth were really terrifying. So he turned his head away, not daring to look again, and walked dazedly to the door, his legs softened, and he sat down with a thud on the threshold.

  All he heard was Cao De's voice behind him: "Who...is...it?!"

  Xiaolong took a deep breath and turned to ask Cao De: "Where is the place where General Cao is hiding, who else knows?"

  Cao De walked over and sat down beside him - but in a kneeling position, with extremely standard posture, completely different from Zixu's - and asked in a low voice: "I was just about to ask you. Cao Zhonghui told you where my family is, who else did you tell?"

  "Could it be... that you had anticipated the danger to the Cao family in Langya and only revealed their address to Cao Zhongyu alone?" Cao De neither confirmed nor denied, but asked again: "Who else did you tell?"

  Xun took a deep breath: "And Chen Yuanlong and Tao Shikun... who else did they tell? If those people had come one day earlier, the Cao family would have been doomed!"

  "Not bad," Cao De said with a puzzled expression, "Since you knew that I was leading troops to guard the house, why didn't you come earlier to attack our manor?" Zixuan explained that he had first gone to Hua County and taken a detour, and those troops were borrowed from Zang Ba - "In that case, it must be that Tao Shi Jun told someone else, and that person instructed the county magistrate here to send troops to ambush my father and son."

  Cao De suddenly asked: "Xu and Yan merged, and even handed over Xuzhou to my brother's house. Did both the Cao and Mi families agree?" It was only then that Xi Huan realized that he actually wanted to offer Xuzhou to Cao Cao, but it was just his own idea. Cao Hong and Chen Deng expressed limited agreement, but there was still one person who had not yet expressed his attitude - "Mi Zizhong!"

  Not bad, Cao Song actually lives where, I believe Tao Qian will not go around shouting, it is possible to tell only his own heart, so his heart except Chen Deng and Cao Hong brothers, that is only Milin. Of course, Cao Bao may also intend to murder Cao Song, but he must have known Cao Song's residence long ago, and if he wants to take action, he will not be late until now. However, it is still the same reason, the person who came actually dared to shout out loud that they were ordered by Tao Qian to capture and kill Cao's father and son, would Tao Qian's reputation be ruined, what benefit would Milin have?

  "There are two more," Cao De put forward a different opinion after listening to Xun's analysis, "If Tao Shangjun were here, I believe you would not have surrendered Xuzhou. But if Tao Shangjun had passed away, who would be the most unwilling for Xuzhou to fall into someone else's hands?" "Are you referring to Tao Song and Tao Ying?" Xun shook his head repeatedly, "If they had such insight, we wouldn't have thought of surrendering the state either."

  "It's unlikely they have wise people around them!"

  As soon as Cao De's words fell, Xing suddenly seemed to think of something and stood up with a "huh" sound. He said in a deep voice: "Go check his correspondence." Cao De shook his head: "I noticed that there were ashes from a letter in the brazier..." Xing was stunned for a moment, then quickly rushed back into the house. The steward, servants, and maids were still surrounding the body crying, probably waiting for someone to take charge of the situation. Xing coldly instructed: "Turn the body over."

  The steward raised his head, his eyes brimming with tears, and stared at him in astonishment. Cao De followed close behind, his eyes wide with anger, and shouted: "Turn it over!" He was after all the son of a high-ranking official, and that air of authority had been deeply ingrained into his bones. If he were to exert his power, this small county steward would be no match for him. The steward hastily summoned several constables to turn over the body of the magistrate of Ju County.

  He lifted the collar of the corpse's clothes and took a look, and couldn't help but take in a breath of cold air: "It's murder!"

  He wasn't a fan of detectives in his past life, but he had seen a few and still remembered the difference between ordinary hanging and strangulation. He only saw that the county magistrate's neck had a strangulation mark that extended to the back of his neck, and it was slightly crossed - if it were a proper hanging, the strangulation mark would only extend to both sides of the neck, this was clearly someone who was strangled with a rope first, then hung up, disguised as a suicide scene.

  He explained his analysis to Cao De, who also changed color and turned around to ask the butler: "Have there been any visitors to see the county magistrate in the past few days?" The butler was thinking back when he suddenly heard a voice coming from the door: "Who are you?"

  It turned out that the county lieutenant of Ju County had arrived, and the housekeeper was waiting for him to take charge. At this point, Xun handed over the official document to the county lieutenant, who immediately put on a flattering smile. Turning around again to ask the housekeeper, the housekeeper replied: "A few days ago, a stranger came to visit the county magistrate, closed the door and had a secret conversation for a while, and then the county magistrate dispatched troops outside..."

  "Who is he? Where is he now? Where did he come from?"

  The housekeeper replied that the man claimed to be from Tancheng, and judging by his appearance, he was a servant of a wealthy family. He was born strong and powerful, but as for his name and specific background, it was not clear. After talking with the county magistrate, he left, and whether he had left the city or not, no one knew.

  The trail ended here, thoroughly cut off. After all, he was neither a British gentleman who smoked pipes nor a Tang Dynasty official with a long beard, and he didn't have the talent for investigating cases. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't come up with anything. In the end, he had to ask the housekeeper to fetch him writing materials, and he carefully wrote down what had happened and his initial analysis. He planned to order the county lieutenant to send someone to Tancheng that night to deliver it to Chen Deng. He also requested that the late county magistrate's remains be temporarily taken care of and not buried, and that all sorts of people in the county yamen be kept under surveillance and not allowed to escape, waiting for officials from Tancheng to come and investigate - hoping that with Chen Yuanlong's wisdom, they could quickly uncover the mastermind behind the scenes.

  Cao De kept watching him write, and when he finished, said a sentence: "Mr. Shi's handwriting is quite interesting." Shi Xun only then discovered that what he had written was not pure Lishu - because in his previous life, although he had practiced calligraphy, he hadn't specifically practiced Lishu, so at this moment, with his emotions tense, he unconsciously used many techniques from Kaisho, and even added a bit of connected writing, turning it into a mixture of Zhangcao and Xingka. For the time being, he could only casually gloss over: "My heart is not calm, things are urgent, my handwriting is poor, forgive me, forgive me."

  Raise your head and look at Cao De: "In that case, the respected father and son should leave Xuzhou immediately and go to Yanzhou to avoid disaster!"

  Cao De nodded: "I will try my best to persuade my father..." As he spoke, he suddenly paused, and his train of thought drifted away - "Is it true, sir, that neither Tao Shang nor Tao Ying are worthy?" Shi Xun nodded. Cao De suddenly clapped his hands together, gritting his teeth as he said: "I know now, I know who is determined to take my father's and son's lives!"