The door of the Xie residence was being banged with earth-shaking force, while crude and arrogant shouting came from outside: “Open the door, open the door! Neighbors, come and see! The Xie family daughter broke someone’s leg with a kick, and the whole family is hiding like cowardly turtles—”

This kind of commotion had been happening from time to time recently, and the neighbors had already lost their novelty for it. Only two or three extremely bored people moved their stools to sit at their doorsteps, cracking sunflower seeds.

Seeing that the main gate of the Xie residence remained motionless with complete silence inside, the leader gave a meaningful look to one of his subordinates.

That subordinate immediately stepped forward and shouted: “If you don’t open the door, we’re going to kick it down!”

There was no movement inside.

“We’re going to kick it!”

The leader lifted his foot and kicked the shouting subordinate: “Where does all this nonsense come from? If you don’t kick the door soon, I’ll kick you!”

Upon hearing this, the subordinate quickly shouted: “I’m kicking the door down!”

With a loud thud, the door trembled but remained completely motionless.

The subordinate who kicked the door shook his foot.

“Useless!” the leader scolded.

The door-kicking subordinate felt quite wronged.

It wasn’t that he was useless—it was that after the Xie residence’s main gate had been kicked and damaged twice, each replacement door became more and more solid.

“Boss, just watch!” The door-kicking subordinate, fearing being despised by his leader, spat twice on his hands, rubbed them together, and with full vigor shouted: “I don’t believe I can’t kick you open!”

He stepped back several paces, picked up speed, and rushed forward, delivering a kick to the main gate.

Just at that moment, the gate suddenly opened. The person inside calmly stepped aside, and the door-kicking subordinate shot forward like an arrow released from its bowstring, uncontrollably diving headfirst to the ground.

After a miserable scream, the subordinate who had fallen face-first struggled to turn over, his face covered in blood from the fall.

The leader, both annoyed and furious, cursed: “Useless fool, get up!”

The door-kicking subordinate struggled briefly and mumbled: “Boss, can’t get up—”

The leader glared at the person beside him: “Quickly drag him over here, stop embarrassing us.”

After someone dragged away the embarrassing subordinate, the leader finally looked at the man standing before him.

“Who are you?” The leader’s gaze brazenly wandered over Shao Mingyuan’s body, revealing a lewd expression. “Oh ho, could it be that night demon woman from the Xie family’s lover?”

Before he could finish speaking, he flew out like a kite with its string cut, flying far away before sliding down from the wall of a neighbor’s house across the alley.

The leader, dizzy and disoriented from the fall, couldn’t even speak. His subordinates, seeing their boss in such a state, didn’t know what to do.

How should they handle this? Boss, please say something! The underlings had never encountered this kind of situation before!

The boss: “…” His mouth was full of blood—how could he say anything?

The leader’s head tilted to one side as he spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with two teeth.

The gang of thugs: “…” How terrifying! The boss even lost his teeth—how would he eat pork knuckle in the future?

“Get him…” The leader pointed at Shao Mingyuan with his finger.

All the thugs looked over together.

The young man wore a black robe that made his face appear jade-like and his eyes bright as stars. He smiled at them coldly with an air of calm indifference.

The thugs instinctively stepped back in unison.

“This Marquis won’t argue with you. Go tell your master to have his backer come directly—no need to waste each other’s time!” After saying this, he turned and walked through the main gate, saying to the gatekeeper holding a spiked club: “Uncle, please close the gate.”

At this point, he turned back to glance at the thugs once more, his tone cool: “Remember to remind him to learn how to knock when he comes.”

The gatekeeper slammed the door shut with a bang, looking at Shao Mingyuan with extremely fervent eyes.

Shao Mingyuan smiled gently and politely at Uncle Xie: “Uncle, let’s go inside and continue our conversation.”

Uncle Xie touched his nose.

Though he had long heard of Marquis Guanjun’s reputation, seeing this young man in person had always left him with some doubts. Now he finally believed it.

Back in the day, when his temper was at its worst, he probably would have acted just like this.

The two returned to the room, and Shao Mingyuan continued the previous topic with a peaceful expression: “This junior plans to stay in Jia Feng for an extended period. I will never return to the capital without finding the murderer who killed my father-in-law’s family. If Uncle knows any clues, please lend me your assistance.”

“If I can be of help, everyone in the Xie family will certainly not decline.” A trace of sadness appeared in Uncle Xie’s eyes. “What the Marquis doesn’t know is that I’m quite a bit older than Brother Qiao. Back when Old Master Qiao was alive, though I was merely a military man, thanks to Old Master Qiao not looking down on me, I could be considered his friend despite our age difference. Since Brother Qiao was murdered by villains, I certainly won’t stand by and watch. Whatever the Marquis needs help with, just say it.”

Shao Mingyuan glanced at Qiao Zhao from the corner of his eye.

Qiao Zhao gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Among these old friends of the Qiao family, the Xie family was the most ordinary.

Uncle Xie had resigned from office years ago and could barely be considered middle-class in this White Cloud Town. In many people’s eyes, he was no different from common people.

But Grandfather had once told her that Uncle Xie was a man of loyal heart and righteous courage—such a person could be relied upon at crucial moments.

However, what had always puzzled Qiao Zhao was that before the great fire at the Qiao residence, her eldest brother had visited old friends according to their father’s instructions, but had specifically omitted the Xie family.

For this reason, she had specifically asked her eldest brother whether their father had any unpleasantness with Uncle Xie during the years she wasn’t in Jia Feng. Her eldest brother had directly denied this.

This made their father’s instructions at the time rather strange.

When things go against the norm, there must be something unusual. Since her eldest brother had omitted the Xie family when visiting old friends after the mourning period ended, she deliberately wanted to visit the Xie family first to resolve her doubts.

“Uncle, could you carefully think about whether there was anything unusual about the Qiao family before the great fire? Or rather, did my father-in-law have any contact with you?”

Uncle Xie looked deeply at Shao Mingyuan and asked: “Why would the Marquis think to ask this? Ever since Old Master Qiao passed away, the Qiao family has been in mourning, and there was nothing unusual.”

Shao Mingyuan smiled: “Before this junior left the capital, my brother-in-law mentioned that my father-in-law was closest to you, Uncle.”

“Mo’er mentioned me to the Marquis?” Uncle Xie was startled.

“Of course he did.” Shao Mingyuan reached into his robe, took out a letter, and handed it over with both hands: “This is a letter my brother-in-law asked me to deliver to you.”

The letter was indeed written by Qiao Mo. Before leaving the capital, Qiao Mo had written several letters—one for each of the Qiao family’s old friends. The letters didn’t say anything particularly special, merely stating that Shao Mingyuan was a trustworthy person and briefly describing his situation in the capital.

Uncle Xie took the letter and opened it to read in front of Shao Mingyuan. He didn’t speak for quite a while.

Shao Mingyuan didn’t interrupt, picking up his teacup to take a sip.

Uncle Xie suddenly stood up and said to Shao Mingyuan, “Marquis, please wait a moment. I’ll be right back.”

The Xie family didn’t have many servants—only one gatekeeper in the front courtyard. After Uncle Xie left, only Qiao Zhao and Shao Mingyuan remained in the hall.

Shao Mingyuan asked Qiao Zhao in a low voice: “What do you think Uncle Xie went to do?”

Qiao Zhao looked toward the doorway and whispered: “Perhaps he has something to give you.”

The two exchanged a few brief words and then fell silent.

Before long, Uncle Xie hurried back.