Chapter 54 - 48: I Only Trust You
All eyes in the courtyard fell on Jiang Mu, filled with suspicion and scrutiny.
Just as Yan Fenghuo had said, the timing of Jiang Mu’s appearance was too coincidental.
It was indeed hard to believe.
Ran Qingshan’s expression was cold and stern. He stared at Jiang Mu and said,
"Master Jiang, this Bureau commands you to reveal the identity of the informant. You are not to hide anything!"
Jiang Mu replied calmly, "There was no informant."
His words caused an uproar.
A cold glint flashed in Yan Fenghuo’s eyes. "So Master Jiang admits it? You were silencing the Demons to destroy the evidence?"
"I did kill the Demons, yes. As a Demon Slayer Envoy, slaying Demons and fiends is my duty."
Jiang Mu’s expression was unruffled. "As for silencing them? Master Yan, your imagination is a bit too rich. The reason I came running to the Shen family so early in the morning wasn’t for anything else. It was just to see a certain person."
"See who?" Yan Fenghuo pressed.
Jiang Mu pointed a hand toward Madam Shen’s corpse on the ground. "Her."
Yan Fenghuo was taken aback. "What did you want with her?"
Jiang Mu suddenly smiled.
"Shen Wanhai has been arrested, leaving a widow and orphans in this big mansion. I climb over the wall early in the morning to see a still-charming madam... What do you think I could be doing? Did you think I came to teach her how to do a backflip?"
At these words, the expressions of everyone in the courtyard turned strange.
’Right, how could they have forgotten?’
This Master Jiang before them was, just a few months ago, a notorious, philandering rake in Hu State.
He was no stranger to carousing in brothels and seducing married women.
He’d been acting so respectable lately that people had almost forgotten his "old habits."
Jiang Mu continued,
"As for discovering the Snake Demon last night, that was indeed an accident. Madam Shen came to my Government Office in person yesterday, saying her husband was keeping a mistress. She insisted I investigate the woman’s background."
"Zhang Xiaokui can testify to this. I was planning to come today to report my progress and, while I was at it... rekindle our old flame."
"Who would have thought I’d run into Demons committing atrocities the moment I arrived? In a fit of righteous anger, I struck and killed these two beasts."
Yan Fenghuo’s face darkened.
"Mere words are no proof! How can you prove you had an affair with her?"
Jiang Mu opened his mouth to speak, but a sudden commotion came from the courtyard gate.
A Demon Slayer Envoy was seen escorting a cowering, trembling young woman inside. He reported, "Sir, this girl was peeking around suspiciously outside the courtyard. She claims to be a maidservant from the Shen Mansion."
The girl was no more than fourteen or fifteen years old. Her little face was deathly pale with fright, and she could barely stand steady.
She was clearly terrified by the bloody scene in the courtyard and the presence of the Officials.
Jiang Mu’s heart sank.
’A survivor?’
’I wonder how much she knows.’
’But on second thought,’ he mused, ’a secret as big as Shen Wanhai’s collusion with Demon Fiends shouldn’t be something a mere maid would know.’
Ran Qingshan’s gaze was like lightning as it shot toward the maid. "You’re a servant of the Shen Mansion?"
"Y-yes..."
The maid’s teeth were chattering, and she could barely speak clearly. "I... I am the madam’s personal maidservant."
"Why were you skulking about?"
"The... the madam sent me to the Demon-slaying Bureau to ask for news, to see when the master would be released. She told me to wait outside the Bureau and bring him home as soon as he got out... The coachman is outside, he can prove it..."
Ran Qingshan gave one of his subordinates a meaningful look.
A short while later, the coachman was also brought in. Trembling with fear, his story was identical to the maid’s.
Ran Qingshan pointed to Jiang Mu and asked the maid,
"Do you know him?"
The maid glanced up at Jiang Mu, her eyes darting away before she lowered her head and stammered, "I... I do."
"What was his relationship with your madam?"
"...I don’t know."
"You don’t know?"
Ran Qingshan’s tone grew heavy, and an invisible pressure enveloped the young woman.
The maid’s legs gave way in fright. She fell to her knees with a THUD and cried out,
"Mercy, my lord! I’ll talk, I’ll talk... Young Master Jiang used to visit the mansion often, and he had a very good relationship with the madam."
"Sometimes, the madam would dismiss us and speak with Young Master Jiang alone in her room... They would talk for half the day..."
Though her words were discreet, they were enough to publicly confirm the affair between the two.
Jiang Mu secretly sighed in relief.
Ran Qingshan shot Jiang Mu an annoyed glare. He opened his mouth as if to curse him, but in the end, he just sighed helplessly.
"Master Jiang, you are an official of the Demon-slaying Bureau now. You should be a little more restrained. This sort of thing doesn’t look good if it gets out, does it?"
The colleagues around them also showed looks of contempt, yet mixed with a hint of envy.
’This guy can slay Demons and carry on affairs. He’s really something else.’
Yan Fenghuo, not giving up, questioned the maid about a few more details, his face grim.
Only after confirming that Jiang Mu was indeed a "frequent guest" of Madam Shen did he reluctantly accept this fact.
"Alright, this case is handed over to Master Yan for further investigation to see if there are any other accomplices. The rest of you, lead your teams back to your posts. Strengthen patrols in your jurisdictions and prevent any more fish from slipping through the net."
Ran Qingshan gave the order, waving his hand to dismiss everyone.
Jiang Mu sidled up to Ran Qingshan, took out the list the Pig Demon had given him, and said in a low voice,
"Sir, I found this on that Pig Demon just now."
He hadn’t originally intended to hand over this list.
But the situation was delicate. If he accurately took out a few more demon lairs, it would inevitably arouse more suspicion.
So he might as well be forthcoming now, taking a step back to advance later.
Ran Qingshan took the list and glanced at it. "Your hall alone isn’t enough. I’ll assign two more halls."
"Sir."
Jiang Mu interrupted him. "I’m the one who found this."
Ran Qingshan shot him a look.
’This kid wants to take all the credit?’
He hesitated for a moment, then stuffed the list back into Jiang Mu’s robes. "Be careful. Don’t capsize in a gutter."
"Yes, sir!"
Jiang Mu was overjoyed. He cupped his fist in farewell and prepared to gather Zhang Daxie and his brother to go farm some experience.
He wasn’t worried that killing the Pig Demon and the Fox Demon would invite retaliation from that "Master."
The reason was simple:
Value!
Two stupid Demons were nothing. If they died, they died.
But if one could plant a sufficiently important pawn inside the Demon-slaying Bureau, its value would far exceed that of two mere Demons.
After Jiang Mu left, the Fourth Hall began to clean up the scene.
Seeing Yan Fenghuo’s perpetually grim face, Ran Qingshan asked, "What? Still suspicious?"
"A gut feeling."
Yan Fenghuo said coldly,
"I have been in the Demon-slaying Bureau for over a decade and have slain countless Demons. I’ve relied on this intuition. Everything about today’s events feels wrong."
Ran Qingshan grew thoughtful.
A moment later, he said in a low voice,
"Find an opportunity to test him. Remember, do it cleanly. Leave no trace. You know how precarious things are in the Bureau right now. Other than you, there’s no one I can fully trust."
Yan Fenghuo’s head snapped up. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he nodded emphatically.
"I understand."
Ran Qingshan patted his shoulder and turned to leave.
Walking out of the courtyard gate, he beckoned to Xu Fu, who was waiting in the distance, and asked quietly, "How’s the investigation?"
Xu Fu shook his head. "No leads yet."
"No rush. Take your time."
Ran Qingshan’s gaze was profound as he looked toward the distant sky and said softly,
"Keep a close watch, especially on Master Yan’s side. Be extremely careful with your investigation. Don’t alert the prey."
He patted Xu Fu’s shoulder, his tone earnest and meaningful.
"Ah, Xu Fu, in this entire vast Demon-slaying Bureau, you are now the only one I can truly trust."
—
On the list in Jiang Mu’s hand, there were a total of four Demon hiding spots.
One was inside the city.
The other three were scattered outside the city.
And the lair inside the city was actually hidden within a brothel called "Yanchun Tower."
According to the note on the list, a Fish Demon was hiding inside.
The brothel wasn’t well-known, and its location was rather remote.
"I can’t believe a Demon has even infiltrated a place like this."
"If those patrons knew that the beauty comforting them by their pillows was actually a fish, I wonder what they would think."
Jiang Mu mused aloud, then turned his head to look at the thick-browed, large-eyed Zhang Daxie beside him.
"Daxie, if it were you, what would you think?"
An expression of undisguised disgust appeared on Zhang Daxie’s face as he said coldly,
"I’d be even more excited."