Late Night Tales Of The Capital Chapter 40. The Demon's Smile

Chunyu's palace was located on the Taifeng Avenue of Luoyang city. It was also the house of the second prince in the dynasty.

He Fei, the Right Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, just came on a visit by himself at daybreak.

The second prince Li Chunyu was sitting at the owner's position of the main hall with a sulky face. How could he be not sulky when three full boxes of spirit stones disappeared overnight? He felt heartache though he was a prince.

As arranged, the spirit stones should be delivered at Chunyu's palace before 21 o'clock yesterday. However, there was no spirit stone being delivered. If they had been in trouble, someone should come back to send a message, but there was not.

"Your Highness. He Fei, the Right Vice Minister of Court of Judicial Review, is here asking for admission." The butler said cautiously, arching his back.

"Let him in." Li Chunyu adjusted his emotion. A prince should never expose his feelings, at least in public.

Soon, He Fei was led to the main hall. He was holding a saber in his left hand and a parcel in his right hand.

"Mr. He, any news for your case?" Li Chunyu asked.

"According to the details provided by you, we did get some clues after checking the number of people and routes."

Then, He Fei put the parcel down on the ground and opened it.

There was a pinch of black and green powder.

"What is that?" Li Chunyu frowned and pointed at the powder confusingly.

"Bone ashes of people being burned. But these ashes were caused by a kind of special flame." He Fei came straight to the point with no reservation.

"Bone ashes?" Though Li Chunyu could guess so, he had one last hope. But now, he could let it go. The spirit stones had really came to a bad end.

"Who did it?"

"The bone ashes were found near the Qingluo post house, which was less than 20 miles from Luoyang City. Based on the field investigation, someone was attacked by demonic beasts. We found dead man-headed spiders there." He responded in a soft voice after a moment's thinking.

"Demonic beasts?"

"Man-headed spiders?"

Heard what He Fei had said, Li Chunyu squinted and said, "Can man-headed spiders burn a human into ashes? Mr. He, you think I'm a fool?"

"We also found some dead bodies of parasitic fly beasts, but we couldn't find the mother beast and these ashes must be caused by it. Besides, a human body on the spot was indeed killed by man-headed spiders." He Fei said in a way neither servile nor overbearing.

"How many demonic beasts have been found?" Li Chunyu asked with his right hand knocking at the chair back.

"One."

"Anything else? Such as a few boxes?"

He Fei glanced at Li Chunyu, then shook his head and said firmly, "No. Regardless of the body attacked off by man-headed spiders, only the ashes were left. If it didn't drizzle last night, and the ground got wet, these ashes might be blown off clearly by the wind. "

After just 15 minutes, He Fei walked out from Chunyu's palace. This was only an official routine to report a case, and He Fei did not have a friendship with the prince, so it would be fine if the situation was not too awkward.

The emperor was in his prime, He Fei believed that it would be too early to stand in a line of any prince at this moment. And He Fei was the Right Vice Minister of Court of Judicial Review, the emperor won't allow him to be disloyal.

Once one betrayed him, he was not far from death.

"Be in your post, and take your responsibility." He Fei was very clear about this principle.

"The Court of Judicial Review can do nothing for what the demon race have done." He Fei murmured to himself, then rode a horse and left Taifeng Avenue.

Back in the main hall of Chunyu's palace, Li Chunyu's face grimed. Then he snatched up a teacup near his hand and directly threw it into pieces. "Butler, now go to the office of Judge Department and bring me Zhang Jingzhe. What the hell are those officers in Judge Department doing? Are they all good for nothing? Demonic beasts have already been in Luoyang City; are they blind?"

One day later, an official notice was posted up in Luoyang City.

The general meaning of the notice was that the demon race was troubling human world and committing serious crimes. The government attached importance to this phenomenon and hoped that people could provide clues. People who provided certain clues and contributed to arresting demons would be awarded handsomely, while people who were related to demons would be killed. Inscriber: Judgment Department.

A sensational Demon-Hunt movement started in Luoyang City.

At the same day, Qian Shuxiao brought back one of the government notices and threw it on the desk casually. And Ye Que happened to see it.

Ye Que read the notice twice and clucked in praise, "Someone gives me a pillow just when I need it. What a timely rain! I am just troubling for generating a pretext."

"Qian Shuxiao, do you remember what I told you last night?" Ye Que was playing a fighting sword, making it flying up and down in his hands.

"What?" Qian Shuxiao was puzzled.

"I am going to find some helpers, we can't have only three people in Tianmen."

"That's quite easy. My family owns so many shops; it won't be a problem for me to order a few staffs to help you."

"Your family's shops cannot be mingled with Tianmen's affairs. And your family, you, and Tianmen should be demarcated clearly."

Seeing Ye Que was so serious, Qian Shuxiao shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sure, anything you say. You are the chief of Tianmen, and I follow you."

"I refined some Qi-gathering body-tempering pills before. Some are for you and your sister; some are left. I want to sell out the left because I need money. And I hope you can help me to sell them out."

"It won't be a problem. The pills you refined work well and will definitely be popular. Don't worry, I will sell them out in half a day."

"Besides, I need you to find me a distribution map and a name list of hooligans in Luoyang City. For hooligans, I don't want those in gangs, but those in grass-roots."

"I will ask my butler to send you the documents. He is good at this kind of business. Basically, our family shops are all associated with some of these kinds of people, so to speak, local villains."

Sanjiu place, which was located in the southern-west of Luoyang City, was a place gathering the three religions and the nine schools of thought in Luoyang City. With wager shops, whorehouses, restaurants, peddlers, acrobats, beggars, poor scholars, lumpers, this place was where the most down and cut, the filthiest, the poorest, and it was also a place with the highest population density in Luoyang City.

Fighting and brawling, killing and Robbing, were all usual here. Even officers of the Court of Judicial Review were unwilling to take charge of a case happened here. Because they couldn't make any profit here, criminals here were all poor. If they had wanted to find a scapegoat, this was where you could find one. In one terrible night, someone was killed. After more than a month, no one would like to notify the local government about it.

If you were a beautiful young lady from a better-off family, you would be warned to keep away from Sanjiu place before you left home.

Sanjiu place was considered as a malignant tumor of Luoyang. It was hideous but could not be directly cut off. Even if it was cut off, it would come out somewhere else again.

Ye Que was reading comments on the map, circling Sanjiu place, smiled and said, "Let's start from here."

Then Ye Que turned over another booklet. Hundreds of names were listed on it, each was noted with a simple introduction.

While reading the map and the booklet, Ye Que slowly moved towards Sanjiu place.

"Chu Dongnan, aged 18, was born in Sanjiu place, Luoyang. His father was a gambler and his mother was a hooker. Chu Dongnan was never educated nor cared for by anyone. Fighting, for him, was an almost daily routine. When he was 13, he followed after a salt dealer and traveled extensively. When he was 16, his boss was killed in a turf-battle with a salt smuggler. Then he alone broke through the smuggler's house with a sword and revenged for his boss. Later he became the leader of his original gang with about 20 people, occupying an illegal salt factory."

"A young street king with courage and uprightness is the one I am looking for. Now let's see if you are a wild-ambitious person and whether you can seize the opportunity." Ye Que murmured Chu Dongnan's name twice.

At the end of a narrow alleyway with turn-by-turn directions, a small wooden warehouse appeared, with a shaky handwriting character 'SALT' on the door.

Ye Que put the map and the booklet into his arms, tidied up his clothes, hands at the back, then walked inside.

Soon, sounds of a struggle were coming out from inside. The battle started fast and ended faster. In just one breath, it became all quiet.

Ye Que was decently sitting on a chair, which was put in the middle of the warehouse. And eight or night tough guys were lying on the ground in disorder; they were groaning painfully. Inside were bags of illegal salt put in order.

Looking around, Ye Que knocked at the wooden handle of the chair and asked, "Chu Dongnan is your boss, right? So who is Chu Dongnan?"

People lying on the grounds were groaning louder than before, but no one responded.

Ye Que turned his lips and hummed chilly, "I have been mercy just now, and you guys should have known. So if you really want to die, you might choose not to answer my question."

"I am going to count from one to three. If nobody answers me, don't blame me."

Without looking at people on the ground, Ye Que started to count. "One."

Groaning became louder and louder, but yet no one responded.

"Two."

Someone secretly opened his eyes and looked at Ye Que, but still, no one responded.

"Three."

These hooligans were raised around fighting, and no one was really afraid of the counting. They won't give up until facing death. For them, what so-called mercy by Ye Que was just his scruple, and they believed that Ye Que was not dared to kill a person.

A gust of cold wind blew across.

And in the last second, one person who was the nearest for Ye Que was still groaning; in the next second, he was beheaded. A stiletto was floated on the body.

Fresh blood spilled all over the floor.

The groaning stopped immediately.

"Our boss went out and will be back in an hour." Someone yelled in the next second just after the man on the ground died.

Hooligans were not men of sacrifice. They fought all day but they were also afraid of death.

"Well."

Ye Que smiled at that person.

In an instant, the person who spoke felt damp and hot on his trousers, but he was not dared to move. He swore that Ye Que's smile was the most dreadful smile he had ever seen in his life.

Just like a demon's smile.

Chapter end