Edited by Ea

  On this day, Big Miss took Lin Shu to visit several famous historical sites in Jiang Prefecture. They bought candied haws on the way, ate crabs and dried ducks after returning to the post house, and drank the cloud tea made by the Big Miss herself.

  Due to the continuous feeding, he spent the whole day full, and felt that the Big Miss gained happiness while watching him eat.

  However, before evening came, he was ordered to go to bed by the Big Miss.

  There was nothing to worry about. He laid in bed for a while and then he went to sleep. In the middle of the night, he sensed movement and woke up.

  Big Miss had appeared in the room at some unknown time, and said to him, “Let’s go.”

  During the day, they made an appointment to visit Jiang Prefecture Mansion at night.

  During the day, they agreed to investigate Jiang Prefecture at night.

  In martial arts stories, when you visit a place at night, you have to wear night clothes, otherwise it won’t seem like you have the proper attitude. Big Miss also just did the bare minimum by putting on a veil to cover the lower half of her face.

  They went out.

  The post house here was used by the Jiang Government to entertain distinguished guests. There were guards everywhere. There were two standing at the main entrance.

  Big Miss said: “The moonlight is very beautiful tonight.”

  Lin Shu said: “Yes.”

  Big Miss: “It is also a graceful thing to watch the moon at midnight with you.”

  Lin Shu: “Yes.”

  Big Miss said again: “The pavilions here are jagged. They’re not appropriate, so let’s go towards the back.”

  Lin Shu: “Okay.”

  Then, they openly slipped away.

  After slipping into a bush in the back garden of the post house, and after waiting for the patrol guards to leave, Big Miss picked up Lin Shu and flew towards Jiang Prefecture Mansion.

  Compared with Cousin, Big Miss’s skills in carrying people were greatly improved. Neither going down too much to strangle his stomach, nor going up too much to hinder his breathing. Half a moment later, the two landed at the outskirts of Jiang Prefecture Mansion.

  The entire Jiang Prefecture Government is composed of Government Office Hall and Political Affairs Hall. The Government Office Hall is in the front, facing the common people, and is responsible for handling civil affairs, while the Political Affairs Hall is at the back. It is similar to a small imperial court in this prefecture; there are various internal departments in charge of the clerical affairs.

  At this time, both the Government Office Hall and the Political Affairs Hall were closed, and only a few places were still lit up, and someone was watching the night.

  They walked around the outer wall, and after observing the general structure, Ling Fengxiao took Lin Shu and flew up again, gently leveraging on the wall, cornices, and roof in turn. Their figures looked like falling leaves. In a flash, they had already crossed most of the Political Affairs Hall.

  The Big Miss’s dress was decorated with gauze, which floated up in the wind and finally scraped Lin Shu’s face.

  The position of the night watchman was very tricky, and he could see the scene in all directions. However, Big Miss’s lightness skill was so exquisite that she just flew by using the sparse shadow of a tree, and finally landed on top of the night watchman’s house.

  After flying over eaves and walls for several times, they finally landed on a roof in the northwest of the center.

  There was a big copper lock on the house. Although it can be broken with force, it will inevitably leave traces, which was not appropriate.

  Then, Big Miss made a barrier and began to uncover the tiles. Lin Shu provided assistance and piled the removed tiles aside.

  He really didn’t think that he would have such a novel experience in his life like going to the roof of a house with Big Miss to uncover tiles.

  The tiles were densely packed together. There were wooden beams, tenons, and mortises underneath. After they picked up over a hundred tiles, a gap between the beams that could allow a person to walk through finally formed.

  After lighting up the inside with the night illumination pearl, he found a thick bookcase just below the opening, just enough for people to stand.

  The cat jumped down first, followed by Lin Shu, but the gap was really small. He got stuck in the middle and was pushed by the Big Miss before he went down completely and landed on the top of the bookcase.

  But the Big Miss came down very easily. He didn’t know if it was because of her slender figure or because of the “Xuanjue Bone Formation Arts.”

  After landing, the night pearl illuminated the nearby area.

  There were many large bookcases and books in this room. It was probably the storage place of various documents.

  Ling Fengxiao said: “The regulations of the Political Affairs Halls in all the prefectures are similar. It seems that I remembered correctly.”

  Ling Fengxiao’s trip was to verify whether the nearly 10,000 people who were murdered in the Ten Thousand Ghost Abyss was due to deceptions of political officials or an edict from the emperor.

  However, Big Miss did not look for an imperial edict, but first looked at the records of changes and promotions of officials in Jiang Prefecture’s government.

  When she looked at it, her eyebrows frowned slightly.

  \r \r \r

  Lin Shu beside her also saw a lot of strangeness.

  In the autumn of the 13th year of Yongkang, Governor Shi of Jiang Prefecture was deposed for the crime of defamation and demoted to Liyang.

  In the summer of the 14th year of Yongkang, Jiang Prefecture’s Minister of Education Wang Jingzhi was demoted to Zhulin.

  In the winter of the 14th year of Yongkang, Jiang Prefecture’s Provincial Governor Si Bingguang was recalled to Beijing.

  In the winter of the 14th year of Yongkang, the prefect of Jiang Prefecture Zhao Bin retired and returned to his hometown.

  The dynasty has already changed the name of the time period. It is now the second year of Guanghe, which means that the 14th year and the 13th year of Yongkang were exactly four to five years ago.

  Within a year or two after the plague, the top officials in Jiang Prefecture actually experienced a great change of blood. Most of the original people had gone to other places for various reasons, and were no longer in Jiang Prefecture.

  “He has already died,” Ling Fengxiao said suddenly.

  Lin Shu looked over and saw the Big Miss’s finger pointing to the name of the Provincial Governor who was recalled to Beijing: “Three years ago, he was deposed and demoted to a commoner for his involvement with crony parties and died of depression.”

  Having said that, the Big Miss said calmly: “I don’t recognize the rest of the people, but I don’t know how many are still alive.”

  Five years ago, during the Jiang Prefecture’s plague, tens of thousands of people were thrown into the Ten Thousand Ghost Abyss.

  Over the next two years, key officials had been replaced one after another, and one of whom had already been confirmed dead.

  Ling Fengxiao moved to the bookcase where the household registration book was checked every three years.

  A cabinet full of documents was picked out. When opened, all had shocking scarlet letters.

  Someone in a certain village died of epidemic disease.

  His wife from another family contracted the disease and died.

  The eldest son XX died of the epidemic disease.

  The second son XX died of the disease.

  These scarlet letters have a pattern. Often, the entire family all die, and entire villages all die too.

  ——How did it get into such a mess?

  Lin Shu looked at Ling Fengxiao, and for a while, the two were relatively speechless.

  There was no need to search for any imperial edicts and secret orders. There was indeed an instruction from the royal family behind the shocking tragedy in Ten Thousand Ghost Abyss.

  As long as a single person was infected, the entire family was cleaned up, and the whole village was not spared.

  After that, the flow of information had to be controlled.

  How can a single official, even if he has tremendous power, do this without any leakage?

  Therefore, there must be seamless cooperation among various departments at this time.

  And after the epidemic subsided, all the officials who might have known the truth were transferred away, returned to their hometowns, banished, or died.

  ——How could there be no will from the imperial capital?

  After a long time, Ling Fengxiao put down the booklet and said, “Let’s go.”

  They came out of the roof, dropped the tiles back, and returned to the post house.

  ——After knowing the truth, they couldn’t do anything.

  Knowing that Big Miss was in a bad mood, Lin Shu did not dare to say anything and went back to his room.

  He didn’t sleep well in the latter half of the night. He thought a lot of random things before falling asleep in a daze.

  The next day, they left Jiang Prefecture and went back to the Academy.

  When they were out of the city, Big Miss reined the horse and turned her head back and said, “Look.”

  Lin Shu looked at the sparse pedestrians in the street, wondering what Big Miss wanted him to see for himself.

  “Most of them are women.”

  Lin Shu looked again and found that it was indeed the case.

  He had been in modern times for a long time and had seen many women on the street, so at first glance, he didn’t think there was anything wrong. But this was the ancient world. The cultivation world was still okay, but women in the mortal world wouldn’t commonly show their faces in public.

  “In the five years after the Battle of Changyang, Northern Xia invaded frequently again.The situation at the border was urgent, so the Dynasty changed the law of employment and servitude into the law of forced service. The adult men in every family took turns to answer the call to forced labor.” Ling Fengxiao continued indifferently, “Soldiers were needed at the border. Once there are more soldiers, they need money and food to support the soldiers, so they have to levy more taxes. After ten years, the State Treasury has become empty and the people’s strength has become weak. ”

  “Five years ago, the floods here affected hundreds of thousands of people in the five prefectures. Disaster relief, mobilization relief, and treatment of the plague all required an enormous amount of money and food. With limited national strength, we had to cut the mess quickly and kill the patients, which maybe was a last resort…… ” Ling Fengxiao’s voice gradually lowered: “It’s just that in my heart, it’s a little difficult to settle. ”

  When she said this, Big Miss held Lin Shu’s hand.

  Lin Shu also knew that Big Miss was upset, so he patted the back of her hand with his other hand that had not been held in order to comfort her.

  Then, Big Miss’s other arm came from behind and encircled him—the hand that was not held was also caught.

  He only heard Big Miss continue to say: “The root cause of this was the war. When I improve my martial arts in the future–”

  She didn’t finish saying this, but Lin Shu knew what Ling Fengxiao meant.

  He said, “You can definitely do it.”

  Ling Fengxiao said with a smile, “Thank you very much.”

  Lin Shu thought that since Big Miss was so motivated, he couldn’t be lazy after they returned to the Academy either. He needed to work harder to practice the zither and learn 《Extinction》.

  With a long hiss, Zhaoye rushed towards Shu Prefecture.

  They were on the road during the day, resting at night, and after three days and nights, they returned to Shangling Mountain.

  Ling Fengxiao placed Zhaoye in the Spirit Beast stable in the back mountain, and walked side by side with Lin Shu towards Jade Heaven.

  Shangling Mountain was full of spiritual energy, and the air was full of the fragrance of vegetation, which was different from the mortal world. When you come here, your spirit slowly relaxes.

  The cat looked around curiously in Lin Shu’s arms: “Meow.”

  The Big Miss touched it and said, “Who do you want to live with?”

  The cat dived into Lin Shu’s arms: “Meow.”

  Big Miss said: “Then you have to protect him.”

  Cat: “Meow.”

  Lin Shu looked at the serious conversation between the Big Miss and the cat. He thought it was very interesting and he couldn’t help laughing.

  Seeing him smiling, Big Miss also curled her lips.

  The next moment, she put away her smile and frowned slightly.

  Lin Shu felt that this expression was very wrong——at the next moment, he saw Big Miss’s right hand on her forehead, her figure swaying. She was going to fall forward!

  His heartbeat stopped for a while, and he immediately threw the cat away and went to pick up Big Miss.

  But all this happened so quickly that he didn’t catch her completely. He only pulled the Big Miss’s arm, and his center of gravity was unstable. Finally the two people rolled heavily on the mountain road.

  The cat was also thrown off, and said in a bad voice, “Meow!”

  When Lin Shu got up, he saw that Ling Fengxiao had fainted without warning.

  He felt her forehead and nearly got scalded.

  He felt her spiritual power again—the scorching spiritual power was surging wildly, and running in chaotic disorder throughout the meridians.

  Isn’t this what happened to Ling Xiao a few days ago? Why did it also appear on the Big Miss?

  However, no matter the reason, Lin Shu felt a little more relaxed after knowing the cause.

  There was no reason other than the fact that he just happens to be able to cure this problem.

  However, it will take at least an hour to use his skills. In any case, he should first get Big Miss back to the Bamboo house.

  Lin Shu then put one arm around her waist and let her lean against his chest. His other arm went through the lady’s knee and planned to carry her princess style.

  Hold her up.

  Pick her up.

  ——Too heavy.

  Lin Shu: “.……”

  Isn’t he too weak?

  The cat sat aside and cried mockingly: “Meow.”

  _________

  The author has something to say:

  The difficulties of a strong Lin Shu: Fate always wants Lin Shu to do things he can’t do, such as carrying his fiancee.

  Xiao, who doesn’t understand worldly affairs: Matters of the world are unpredictable, Elder Brother Xiao never expected that accidents like this would happen.

  ________

  TL’s Corner:

  The cat sat aside and cried mockingly: “Meow”

  Zaki: * is laughing her ass off at the cat’s mocking Lin Shu* I told you guys, this mean cat is the same as my cats!!!