Early in the morning, as Xu Qi An arrived at the back hall, he heard Xu Lingyin’s noisy voice.

On her smooth, fair face, a bright red pimple had appeared, which hurt when touched.

Her aunt had tricked her, saying it was a worm growing on her face, eating her flesh. She told Lingyin that tomorrow she would be disfigured and wouldn’t be able to marry in the future.

Xu Lingyin didn’t care if she could marry or not, but she had always thought of herself as a cute child who would grow up to be as beautiful as her mother and sister, becoming an excellent troublemaker.

Hearing her mother say this, she was on the verge of tears.

So her aunt was also a sly person, even tricking her young daughter and gloating about it on the side.

“Big brother…” Xu Lingyin waddled over to her brother, coming to an abrupt stop. She tilted her face, her short finger pointing at her cheek, pouting, “I’m going to be disfigured.”

“This isn’t disfigurement,” Xu Qi An patted her head. “This is beauty bubbling up.”

“What’s beauty bubbling up?”

“It means you’ll be prettier than your mother and sister in the future.”

Xu Lingyin believed him and was very happy. She ate three bowls of porridge for breakfast.

…

At the night watchmen’s office, Xu Qi An, Song Tingfeng, and Zhu Guangxiao, who were responsible for the day patrol, strolled together on the main street.

“That’s a nice sword you have,” Song Tingfeng noticed the change in the style of the sword hanging at Xu Qi An’s waist.

Xu Qi An placed his hand on the sword, his thumb flicking it to reveal three inches of the blade before quickly resheathing it, smiling proudly:

“A gift from the Department of Astronomy.”

He didn’t mention it was from Jianzheng; no one would believe him anyway. If they did and word spread, it might attract unwanted attention from covetous eyes.

“A magical weapon?” Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao’s eyes lit up.

Xu Qi An shook his head. It wasn’t a magical weapon, had no inscribed formations, and its only feature was its hardness.

This point matched Xu Qi An quite well.

The streets of the inner city were wide and interconnected. Xu Qi An bought many snacks, sharing them with his two colleagues as they walked and ate.

Day patrols had their advantages. Besides the night watchmen, there were also the Imperial Sword Guards patrolling the city and the constables from the government office.

This reduced the pressure on the night watchmen’s work, allowing time to slack off. When tired, they could enter a teahouse to drink tea and listen to storytelling, or visit a brothel to listen to music.

As they walked, Xu Qi An felt something hard under his foot. Keeping his gaze forward, he bent down to pick it up without almost any pause.

His movement was so natural and smooth, his expression so calm, that Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao thought he was just doing something ordinary like adjusting his trousers or patting his boots.

They didn’t notice that their new colleague had just found three qian of silver.

Holding the silver, Xu Qi An suggested, “How about we go to a brothel to listen to some music?”

Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao hesitated for a moment before agreeing, “Alright.”

The three skillfully entered a brothel, going up to a private room on the second floor. The table was placed by the railing, allowing guests to drink tea and wine while overlooking the stage performance in the main hall below.

A variety show was currently being performed on the stage.

“The day after tomorrow is His Majesty’s ancestral worship day. You should have some experience with this, right?” Xu Qi An opened the conversation, seeking advice from his two colleagues.

“We just need to guard the edges of Sangbo. You know the ancestral worship ceremony is held at Sangbo, right?” Song Tingfeng said, chewing on some peanuts and taking a sip of wine.

Xu Qi An nodded. Sangbo was a small lake outside the Imperial City, conveniently located within the protection of the capital’s five military camps.

The night watchmen’s task was simple: maintain order and protect the safety of the imperial clan members.

The ritual procedures were handled by the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and the Ministry of Rites, while the outer patrols were conducted by the Imperial Sword Guards, the Jinwu Guards, and other imperial city guards.

After watching one variety show, Song Tingfeng found it boring and called for the madam. Soon, a group of elaborately dressed girls came in.

They stood in a line, smiling and batting their eyelashes at the three distinguished guests.

The night watchmen’s uniforms worn by Xu Qi An and his companions were indeed quite intimidating.

Xu Qi An, because his “gold vault” had been emptied by Fuqin yesterday, didn’t intend to get involved with women. Practitioners in the Qi Cultivation realm didn’t need to abstain, but they did need to practice moderation and couldn’t indulge excessively.

“When you’re with the girls later, you can try asking them to call you daddy,” Xu Qi An said in a low voice.

Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao stared at him in disbelief, as if saying: Are you a beast?

After choosing two pretty-faced women, the two didn’t leave the private room but went into the inner chamber. In places like brothels, of course, they weren’t just for listening to music. Most of the time, it was about listening to music while also completing the transmission of life.

So, usually, private rooms had their inner chambers.

The madam and the unchosen girls left, and Xu Qi An watched the new performance while listening to the soft, muffled sounds coming from nearby.

After a while, Song Tingfeng said softly, “Call me daddy.”

Hearing this, Xu Qi An smiled with satisfaction. He knew he had opened a new world for his colleagues.

There was no sound from the other side. Guangxiao was indeed a diligent worker…

…

As noon approached, the three left the brothel. Because their stomachs were full of pastries, tea, snacks, and wine, they decided to skip lunch.

“Today was quite enjoyable,” Song Tingfeng said, squinting his eyes in satisfaction.

“This is nothing. Next time I’ll teach you how to play Russian roulette,” Xu Qi An said with a smirk.

“Russian roulette?” Song Tingfeng looked puzzled, but it didn’t dampen his interest. “Is it fun?”

“I haven’t tried it either,” Xu Qi An shrugged. After all, only rich people could afford to play such a game.

Song Tingfeng gave him a “you’re messing with me” look. “Then why are you telling me about it?”

Xu Qi An helplessly said, “Because I haven’t learned how to manage my time well yet.”

As they walked and chatted, they suddenly saw a team of constables from the government office in official uniforms, riding quickly towards them.

The leader was a woman, tall and graceful, with delicate features and thicker eyebrows than most women, exuding a heroic spirit.

Lü Qing spotted the three at a glance, as the night watchmen’s uniforms were both handsome and eye-catching. She immediately reined in her horse, and as the horse reared up with a long neigh, her clear voice rang out, “Young Master Xu, we meet again… and you two, it’s been a while.”

Calling him Young Master Xu, while we’re just “you two”. So Guangxiao and I are just nameless extras… Song Tingfeng thought, his face smiling but his eyes narrowed to slits as he greeted her:

“It’s been many days, Constable Lü. You look even more valiant and graceful.”

Lü Qing smiled slightly, then remembered the matter at hand and got straight to the point: “There’s been a murder case on Sanshui Street, which is also within your patrol area. Since we’ve met, let’s go together.”

A murder case… Song Tingfeng’s expression turned serious: “Alright, Constable Lü, you go ahead, we’ll follow.”

…

When Xu Qi An and his colleagues arrived at Sanshui Street, they saw the horses of the government office constables tied up by the roadside near a residence.

Entering the gate and crossing the courtyard, they saw several runners from the government office questioning people. The women of the household were red-eyed and crying.

Lü Qing was inside the house, not in the courtyard.

Xu Qi An scrutinized the beautiful mistress of the house and asked, “The deceased is your husband?”

The mistress, seeing the night watchman’s uniform, nodded meekly, wiping her tears with a handkerchief.

Xu Qi An glanced at her curvaceous figure and said in a deep voice, “Call your son out.”

The mistress didn’t understand this bronze gong’s intention but sent a servant to fetch him. A few minutes later, the servant returned leading a boy about ten years old.

“Any more?” Xu Qi An asked.

“…Only one son,” the mistress pulled the child into her arms.

I overthought it! Xu Qi An nodded in relief, then passed through the crowd and entered the room with his two colleagues.

This was a study. The deceased was slumped over the desk, dried blood congealed and covering half the table surface. The blood loss was substantial.

With just a glance, Xu Qi An estimated that the victim’s throat had been cut.

Lü Qing, along with two runners from the government office, was checking the corners of the study, the doors and windows, and the rafters.

Xu Qi An asked, “Have you found anything?”

Lü Qing shook her head: “Everything is intact. No signs of forced entry, no footprints from someone climbing through the window, and nothing on the rafters either.”

Xu Qi An said, “It was done by someone familiar to the victim.”

Such a quick conclusion?

Knowing Xu Qi An was skilled, no one refuted him. They looked at him, waiting for an explanation.

“The doors and windows are intact, no footprints on the rafters, which rules out someone breaking into the study to commit the crime,” Xu Qi An circled the deceased once.

“The deceased is sitting upright. Judging from the angle at which he’s slumped over the table, death was instantaneous, with no struggle. This indicates that the deceased knew the killer, and not only knew them but was someone he greatly revered or feared.”

“How do you figure that?” Lü Qing humbly sought his insight.

“The deceased wasn’t a scholar, was he?” Xu Qi An asked.

Lü Qing didn’t understand the purpose of his question but answered, “He was a minor officer in the Jinwu Guard.”

Xu Qi An nodded: “A normal person sitting in their home study should be relaxed and at ease. They shouldn’t be sitting so upright and formally. Unless they were facing someone they felt compelled to show respect to.

“Additionally, at first glance, the cause of death appears to be a slit throat, but I suspect the real cause of death is here…” Xu Qi An grabbed the deceased’s hair, lifting the pale face.

Everyone in the room saw a shallow depression on the deceased’s forehead.