It was nearing evening by the time An Chenghu returned from the yamen.
When Jiang Mu saw his poor complexion, he tossed aside the big white goose he’d been about to put in the pot for a bath and asked, “What’s wrong, Uncle An?”
An Chenghu’s brows twisted into knots. Helplessly, he said,
“A case broke out in the neighboring county. The County Magistrate plans to send me over to assist. It’s also the wish of the prefectural yamen—everything’s already been arranged in advance.”
Jiang Mu was stunned, his expression turning odd.
Recalling how the county yamen had previously sent him, a “fool,” to assist Tang Jinxian with her investigation, he was somewhat speechless. “The county yamen’s got some nerve, openly tripping up Bureau Chief Tang like this?”
“Yu Zhengqing, Deputy Bureau Chief of the Patrol Bureau, is on very close terms with the County Magistrate. Originally, the position of Bureau Chief of Yancheng’s Patrol Bureau was meant to be Yu Zhengqing’s. Who would’ve thought the higher-ups would suddenly parachute in Bureau Chief Tang.”
An Chenghu stopped at that, saying no more.
Jiang Mu understood.
They weren’t even giving Tang Jinxian a chance to find outside help.
With no one available, relying on Tang Jinxian alone, it would be very difficult to catch the culprit.
The longer this case dragged on, the more incompetent she would appear.
If the culprit struck again during this period, that would constitute a serious dereliction of duty. Even if she had backing in the capital, she’d likely have to slink back in disgrace.
When that happened, Yu Zhengqing would get the position he wanted.
After all, who didn’t have a wealthy woman pulling strings for them from above?
“Before I set out, I recommended you to the County Magistrate to take my place assisting in the investigation. The County Magistrate has already agreed.”
“Me?”
Jiang Mu blinked, then understanding dawned on him.
In outsiders’ eyes, his image as a “fool” wouldn’t be easy to reverse for the time being.
The county yamen couldn’t openly defy Tang Jinxian’s orders. By continuing to send him, a “fool,” to assist, they could save face on the surface while in reality amounting to doing nothing at all.
He probed, “So, how should I investigate? Just casually muddle through?”
Directly refusing Tang Jinxian was clearly unrealistic.
But dragging his feet was always an option.
Only, he was currently being threatened by the culprit, so he was unwilling to muddle through.
An Chenghu stared at his nephew.
“You’ve seen those corpses, and you’ve seen the two surviving victims. What do you think?”
Jiang Mu remained silent.
Even setting aside his own situation of being threatened, seeing the miserable state of those victimized women who had been tortured and killed, his heart still held nothing but disgust and hatred for the culprit.
This kind of scum absolutely deserved to die.
An Chenghu patted his shoulder and said earnestly,
“Boy, from here on out, it depends on you. You performed well today; presumably Bureau Chief Tang won’t be too hostile.”
“Remember, in our line of work, putting on this uniform means our duty is to protect the peace of the common people under our watch. Some things, you can’t conscience away. Cases must be investigated seriously.”
“But investigating is investigating—make sure you stay clever and don’t stick your neck out. Most importantly, the culprit of this case must ultimately be discovered by Bureau Chief Tang herself, and captured by her personally. Understood?”
“Understood, Uncle An.”
The intricacies involved were too numerous; An Chenghu couldn’t elaborate, but Jiang Mu understood.
……
At dinner, Yan Wenxiu brought over a jug of wine and set it on the table ill-temperedly. “Drink less. Little Jiang hasn’t fully recovered yet. Don’t go drinking his brain silly again.”
Yan Wenxiu was in her thirties. Although her looks couldn’t be called beautiful, her fair skin was her advantage.
She possessed a demure, modest temperament.
She was quite mismatched with An Chenghu, a rough fellow with the appearance of a farmhand.
Yet the couple’s relationship was very good.
An Chenghu smiled. “Don’t worry. Little Jiang’s head is clear now. It’s not so easy to drink silly.”
Though he joked, he still only poured Jiang Mu a shallow half-cup.
The uncle and nephew drank two cups together. An Chenghu casually, yet intentionally, asked his wife, “Speaking of which, Little Yun should be returning in a few days, right?”
The “Little Yun” he spoke of was his daughter, An Lingyun.
She was one year younger than Mu Jiang.
Unlike the gentle, quiet temperament of their neighbor Shi Xueying, An Lingyun had been lively and brash since childhood, like a wild girl.
In her younger days, she had never spared Mu Jiang from her pranks.
So much so that Mu Jiang would hide whenever he saw her.
But from those hazy memories of the original body, Jiang Mu clearly knew that girl had been the best to Mu Jiang.
Whenever Mu Jiang was bullied outside, that thin, weak little frame would always be the first to rush out and settle the score. Though every time she came back bruised and swollen, she never chickened out.
He remembered once, when a young fatty from a martial arts school called Mu Jiang a fool and deliberately shoved him, nearly knocking him into the river.
When An Lingyun found out, she charged straight into the boy’s private school and fought him right in front of the tutor.
In the end, she was beaten into a swollen pig’s head.
But that little fatty hadn’t fared well either—he’d stayed in bed for half a month before he could walk.
That night, the martial arts school’s head personally visited.
An Chenghu had thought the man had come to demand an apology; he’d even rolled up his sleeves. Who knew the man would come bearing generous gifts to apologize, and openly state that he wanted to take An Lingyun as his disciple.
The head said he had never seen a little girl fight so fiercely, and with such innate fighting talent.
He even joked that this girl would have the makings of a Great Emperor in the future.
However, due to various concerns, An Chenghu and his wife ultimately hadn’t felt at ease letting her go.
But the head’s words came true.
When An Lingyun was sixteen, she truly revealed a “Big D” bearing.
Now she was two levels higher.
Yan Wenxiu’s expression stiffened slightly. Then she smiled,
“Yes, that girl sent a letter saying her trial has ended and she’ll return in a few days. If she knew Little Jiang had recovered, who knows how happy she’d be.”
When speaking of her daughter, gentleness filled the corners of Yan Wenxiu’s eyes and brows.
The year before last, An Lingyun had been taken a fancy to by a wandering cultivator and brought to Purple Cloud Gate in Lancheng to cultivate.
Though it couldn’t compare to top-tier sects like Divine Phoenix, in Great Qian it still ranked among the notable ones.
One had to know that the court nowadays placed great importance on cultivation.
They were vigorously promoting it.
At the time, the girl had been unwilling to go, dead set against it.
In the end, it was only after Yan Wenxiu talked her into it every which way that she left reluctantly.
Of course, the most important reason she had finally nodded was that the cultivator told her—once she learned real skills, no one would dare bully Mu Jiang again.
“Little Jiang, what do you think of Little Yun?”
An Chenghu got to the main topic.
Jiang Mu was startled, then nodded with a smile. “She’s great.”
Recalling that girl’s noisy, boisterous manner, his heart warmed.
Strange. He had clearly just transmigrated into and occupied this body, yet he had distinctly inherited all the original owner’s emotions.
It even often gave him an illusion.
That he and Mu Jiang had always been one and the same.
Yan Wenxiu furrowed her brows, seeming to want to say something. But An Chenghu didn’t give her the chance and directly asked, “Then do you like Little Yun?”
Only then did Jiang Mu catch on.
“Uncle An, are you trying to become my father-in-law?”
An Chenghu drank a cup of wine and raised his head, speaking seriously,
“I just want to take good care of you in place of your older brother, hoping you’ll start a family and establish your career soon. If you think Little Yun is good, then I’ll be the matchmaker. When she returns, I’ll have her become your wife.”
Yan Wenxiu lowered her head, silently eating her food without a word.
Jiang Mu smiled. “There’s no rush for a wife. Besides, we’d have to ask whether Little Yun herself is willing, wouldn’t we?”
An Chenghu patted his chest. “Don’t you worry. Little Yun will definitely listen to me.”
“I still think it’s better to ask.”
For some reason, Jiang Mu always felt some inexplicable resistance toward the word “wife.”
Especially when that faint, beautiful silhouette occasionally surfaced in his mind…
Was it because he was unwilling to betray that deceased wife?
Or was it something else?
An Chenghu looked at him and suddenly asked, “Are you interested in that Shi family’s—”
His wife suddenly kicked him.
An Chenghu glanced at his wife, swallowed the rest of his words, and forced out a smile. “Forget it. Let’s not talk about this now. We’ll discuss it again once Little Yun returns.”
……
After dinner, the husband and wife returned to their room.
Yan Wenxiu couldn’t help complaining, “Why are you in such a rush to play matchmaker?”
While taking off his shoes, An Chenghu said, “Little Jiang isn’t young anymore. Isn’t it good to start a family early?”
“But Little Yun is still young…”
“Young?”
An Chenghu stared at his wife. “Do you think Little Jiang isn’t good enough for our daughter?”
Yan Wenxiu opened her mouth, then fell silent.
Because of the kindness of Mu Jiang’s older brother, all these years she had always treated Mu Jiang as her own child.
But the boy had been foolish for far too many years.
Even though his head was better now, he was still ultimately a minor figure in the yamen. The gap between him and their daughter was too great.
The human heart was just that complicated.
Emotionally she pitied him, yet rationally she couldn’t help but weigh and measure.
“How about I go try asking that second girl of the Shi family?” Yan Wenxiu quietly suggested.
An Chenghu shook his head with a smile. “That girl has high aspirations. Even before she was selected by Divine Phoenix Island, she was aloof toward Little Jiang. Now that she’s become a phoenix, let alone now.”
Yan Wenxiu frowned. “But back then, Little Jiang nearly lost his life saving her.”
“Saving someone doesn’t mean you can force them to promise themselves in marriage.”
An Chenghu lay down on the bed and sighed. “Moreover, after the Shi couple passed away, it’s always been the eldest Shi girl who managed the household. Although Yurou has a pure, kind nature and treats Little Jiang extremely well, after all, her parents are gone. She can’t force her younger sister Xueying into marriage either.”
“That’s true too.”
Yan Wenxiu sighed.
She thought for a moment, then her eyes suddenly lit up. “How about we go ask that eldest girl, Yurou?”
“No!”
An Chenghu glared at her.
“That girl Yurou, though not bad-looking, has been mute since childhood. Later, a serious illness left behind chronic effects. The doctor said she lost her ability to bear children. Otherwise, she would’ve been married off long ago.
I swore before Little Jiang’s brother’s grave that I would help Little Jiang establish a family and career, marry a wife and bear children, and continue the family line. That girl Yurou absolutely will not do.”
Seeing her husband had grown angry, Yan Wenxiu didn’t dare say another word.
The woman couldn’t help mocking herself inwardly.
The one they liked looked down on him. The one who looked up to him, their own family wasn’t willing to accept. And the one they might have been amenable to just happened to be impossible.
Finding a wife for this kid really was a headache.
……
Inside the room, the candlelight was dim.
Jiang Mu lay on the bed, holding a cultivation manual called *Five Beasts Scripture* and reading.
This manual had been a gift from An Chenghu. It counted as a body-forging technique, generally taught to military soldiers. While tempering the physique, it also added some breathing methods.
An Chenghu had specially taught it to train his nephew’s physique.
Unfortunately, at the time his nephew’s head had been foolish, and no matter what, he couldn’t learn it. Instead, eight-year-old Shi Shuangsui next door had learned it with convincing form.
Now that his nephew’s head had improved, An Chenghu had brought it out again.
After all, the body was one’s capital.
Practicing more daily would make him stronger than ordinary people, even if he couldn’t become a Spiritualist.
“One is the Mysterious Crane, two is the Green Ape, three is the Red Tiger, four is the Mysterious Tortoise, five is the Cloud Deer… Form moves while the spirit is tranquil; externally perform the five beasts, internally refine True Qi…”
Jiang Mu read for a while, then tossed it aside.
He couldn’t understand it.
It wasn’t that the cultivation methods inside were difficult, but rather the content felt very crude.
Like something forcibly pieced together.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember the cultivation manual from his previous life. After all, some manuals could display considerable power relying solely on one’s own blood and qi even without spiritual energy.
“I’ll find an opportunity to ask Bureau Chief Tang. Perhaps she has a better manual.”
Jiang Mu placed both hands behind his head, gazing at the roof beams as he thought to himself.
Recalling how Uncle An had wanted to find him a wife at the dinner table, that faint, beautiful silhouette involuntarily surfaced in his mind again.
“Why are the memories of my previous life in the Profound Nether World basically all gone?”
“What calamity exactly happened in the Profound Nether World?”
“Why is Mu Jiang so similar to me? Even this birthmark also…”
He raised his right wrist.
A copper-coin-sized dark-red birthmark emanated faint strands of warmth.
It resembled a mysterious eye.
“Senior Sister, Wife… are you really dead?”
“Then if I take a new wife, Wife, you shouldn’t object, right? If you object, squeak once. I’m not an unfaithful man.”
“……”
“Thank you, Ex-Wife Heroine.”