“This way, the person is inside…”
The gloomy dungeon was briefly illuminated by a flickering light. Li Fufeng and his companion followed behind the jailer, their peripheral vision sweeping past the cells they passed. Like anyone who had paid to visit a prisoner, they maintained caution and silence.
The mysterious little girl Qing Fei was temporarily absent.
It was already evening, and the group from Shicun Village was preparing to return. However, Qing Fei didn’t seem to plan on going back with them. After saying goodbye to the two, this little girl with obvious secrets went off alone to “discuss” something with the villagers from Shicun Village.
Not wanting to waste time, Li Fufeng and his companion decided to visit the prisoners.
Just as they reached a corner, they heard a string of incessant complaints and protests. A prisoner was laughing loudly. “I’m telling you two, you’re still not admitting it even after being locked up? You don’t think you’ll be released just because you refuse to confess, do you?”
A young male voice argued desperately, his voice full of helplessness and indignation. “We’re really innocent—”
The two paused their steps slightly and exchanged a glance.
Without the jailer’s prompt, they knew this was their target.
As they turned the corner, the voices from the cell became clearer.“—We’ve already said we’re not close to that bastard! Who knows why he suddenly launched a night raid… We were also targets of the ambush…” This time it was a girl speaking. Even just hearing her voice, one could sense her overwhelming frustration and exasperation. “Ah~~~ If only we had distanced ourselves from that guy from the start, we were complete strangers to begin with! If it weren’t for the fact that we could barely be considered fellow countrymen, hoping to support each other here… Anyway, I’ve been wronged! Have I used up all my lucky star’s fortune?”
The next second, the firelight illuminated the dark cell.
It also lit up two people slumped in the corner of the cell.
Two faces with about 60% similarity were huddled together, both wearing identical expressions of grievance. They looked to be in their early twenties.
…Well, the similarity instantly increased by 10%.
At the same time, the siblings who had been sprawled on the hay pile sighing dramatically suddenly noticed the flickering light in their vision. They whipped their heads around and simultaneously did a kip-up! Then, both heads pressed against the cell door at the same time. “What’s going on? Have you cleared up the truth? Are you here to release us?”
These perfectly synchronized movements, even down to the hopeful tone and the gleam in their eyes, truly befitted a pair of siblings… As his gaze swept over the short stubble on the brother’s head, combined with the key phrases unique to Blue Star that he had just heard…
…After confirming with a glance, he knew these were the people they were looking for.
Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang exchanged another look.
Meanwhile, the hopeful siblings had already received a negative answer from the jailer. The sparkle in their eyes dimmed, and thoroughly dejected, they shuffled back to their corner.
They could faintly hear their mutterings: “Ah, in this world, can there still be any trust between people…”
Well, at least give them a bit of hope first, lest they give up and reveal the secret of their transmigration. After all, these two didn’t seem like the type who could keep a secret and rot in prison. Come to think of it, the one who had been killed actually managed to keep their origins a secret until death… Looking at the siblings who resembled a pair of salted fish, Li Fufeng sighed and spoke softly. “Personally, I’m willing to believe that you two are indeed innocent…”
As soon as he finished speaking, the two “whooshed” their heads up, staring at him with burning gazes. They suddenly felt that this young man, whom they hadn’t paid much attention to before, now looked pleasing to the eye no matter how they looked at him.
Under those sparkling gazes, Li Fufeng maintained his composure and continued smiling. “My companion and I are very interested in that Kunlun slave, as well as this case. During our investigation, we’ve come across quite a few clues…” This was not only to conceal their identity and deceive the two, but also their excuse for bribing the jailer to visit the prisoners. “But not a single clue proves that you two are involved in this case. On the contrary, the more we investigate, the more we find that you two seem more like uninvolved bystanders in this incident. Out of curiosity, we came here.”
As Li Fufeng said this, the siblings’ eyes grew even brighter. Their eyes were practically screaming “Look, there are still people in this world with working eyes!” and “We’re saved! We won’t have to rot in prison after all!”
“…” He paused subtly, then finished his remaining words under their sparkling gazes, “And after coming here and seeing you two in person, we are even more certain of our previous guess – you are indeed innocent.”
Beside him, Liu Ningshuang followed up on her companion’s words, summarizing, “So, you can rest assured. If you are truly innocent, we won’t stand by and let innocent people be wronged. Once everything is investigated thoroughly, we will submit the results of our own investigation and wait for the city government to make a fair judgment.”
As the siblings’ expressions grew increasingly relaxed and excited, Li Fufeng gently asked.
“By the way, what are your names?”
“Ji Heng and Ji Nian?”
The purpose of the prison visit was achieved. Li Fufeng and his companion, with their elite-level investigative skills, confirmed that the siblings were likely the missing persons from Blue Star. However, as these two reported their names, a new question arose.
“—Their names aren’t on the list of 103 missing persons from Kun Mountain! Could they be using false names?”
Logically speaking, given the intelligence displayed by the siblings, it seemed unlikely they could lie so casually in front of Li Fufeng and his companion, both elite members of the Special Case Investigation Team, without being detected.
…Or were they playing dumb to deceive them? Were they the fools all along?
Liu Ningshuang shook her head, dismissing the unreliable guess, and temporarily set aside the issue of names. “Anyway, these two people’s backgrounds should be correct. They are indeed citizens of our Yao Country. Now we need to find a way to get them out of prison.”
“…Given their involvement in the Kunlun slave case, and the mysterious disappearance of the Kunlun slave’s body, even if there’s no evidence of them being accomplices, getting them released from prison isn’t something just anyone can do.” Li Fufeng nodded. Although they had just arrived in Daliang City, they weren’t completely uninformed. A few rounds in the city were enough to gather plenty of information. “There should only be three people who can make decisions on this matter.”
— The newly appointed city lord of Daliang City, the prosecutor responsible for investigating and judging cases in Daliang City – who had full authority over cases, and the chief steward of the city government – the loyal deputy of the old city lord who had raised the new city lord since childhood, whose influence in Daliang City was probably second only to the new city lord.
“And among these three people, the best choice is undoubtedly…”
“Of course, it’s that soft-hearted, easy-to-talk-to fool of a city lord!”
The familiar childish voice of the little girl sounded behind them. They saw a flash of red dress appear as if by magic. She slapped a thin booklet of papers onto the table with a “pah!”
The two were immediately drawn to the conspicuous words on the title page: “Is this… ‘Martial Arts Gazette’?”
“That’s right, and it’s the local Daliang City edition~” Qing Fei clapped her hands and flipped through the pages. “Ta-da! Look at our new city lord, he’s had a long-term exclusive column in the local ‘Martial Arts Gazette’ entertainment section, making an indelible contribution to enriching the daily leisure time of Daliang City’s citizens.”
As her small hands turned the pages, the entertainment section’s headline appeared before them in bold, black font—
#The Young City Lord’s Love (Beating) Journey Episode 103#
#The Epitome of Perseverance! A True Man Faces Challenges After Being Rejected 102 Times!#
#Was the Young City Lord Rejected Again Today?#
Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang: “???”
What? What?? What???
This overwhelming scent of trashy entertainment tabloids…
If you don’t understand, just ask, is this the world of martial artists?
This wave truly shocked the two of them.
After flipping through this entertainment column and making some reasonable deductions, the two pretty much figured it out. It turned out that this newly appointed Daliang City Lord had been interested in the daughter of a certain martial arts school master in Daliang City since he was young, and had persisted for many years.
However, while the Young City Lord’s martial arts talent could only be considered ordinary genius, his love interest was a true prodigy. Her martial arts talent was among the best in this world, casually achieving enlightenment and breaking through with just a bit of practice. Even in areas outside of martial arts, she excelled at everything she tried. Between them, there was clearly a huge gap between a learning god and a top student.
This prodigy had extremely high standards and only looked up to “learning gods” of the same caliber. Even though the Young City Lord had a noble status, she didn’t pay him any attention. The only way to catch her eye was to defeat her in some aspect—in response to the Young City Lord’s declarations of love, her challenge was that he had to surpass her in any one area to be worthy of consideration as a potential future husband.
The fact that ‘Martial Arts Gazette’ had specially opened a column to document the Young City Lord’s pursuit journey, continuing for 103 episodes, showed that he had clearly failed repeatedly.
Now it seemed that even though he had just ascended to the position of City Lord shortly after this issue of ‘Martial Arts Gazette’ came out, it apparently didn’t make much difference.
“So, what does the Young City Lord’s gossip have to do with our mission to rescue people?” After silently consuming this information, Liu Ningshuang was puzzled. “It seems he has no hope of achieving a direct victory. You’re not suggesting we help him find an alternative way to contribute to his pursuit plan and move that iron-hearted love interest, are you? Although Blue Star has many related shenanigans, I have absolutely no experience in this…” Though she did have some experience being pursued (?)
“I don’t think that’s what Qing Fei meant.” Li Fufeng, who also had no experience being pursued, quietly raised his hand. He waved the booklet, “Her point should be that through these gossips, we can see that this new City Lord is the type who is easy to talk to and can be reasoned with. So if we find a way to approach him, we should have a chance to clear those two unfortunate souls’ names.”
Liu Ningshuang suddenly realized. “Oh, right. I almost forgot, this world is similar to ancient feudal times, relying on rule by man rather than rule of law. The City Lord has absolute power! If this City Lord were cruel and unreasonable, we would have no chance to save them unless we staged a prison break.”
Although he held the highest authority in Daliang City, and even if that prodigy had exceptional talent but hadn’t fully developed yet, this young City Lord could easily take what he wanted by force or abduct the young woman. But he chose to follow the “rules” and didn’t even mind his affairs being written about in the martial arts gazette as entertainment for Daliang City’s citizens… The level of approachability of this Daliang City Lord exceeded expectations.
Even on Blue Star, which prided itself on being more civilized and ruled by law rather than by individuals, there were still unreasonable young masters!
The unexpectedly down-to-earth personality of this Daliang City Lord was their greatest advantage in rescuing people!
Now, their task was to approach him.
As newcomers who had just arrived in Daliang City, it was naturally impossible for them to easily meet the City Lord, even if they used the Kunlun slave murder case as an excuse. Otherwise, if everyone could find a legitimate reason to see him, this City Lord would be too busy to divide his attention, and it would also become simple for assassins to attempt an assassination.
The three of them flipped through the “Martial Arts Gazette” and finally stopped at the last page.
There, they found the best way to meet the City Lord: complete various tasks set by the city government, accumulate contributions to obtain a Daliang Token, and then have the opportunity for a personal audience with the City Lord!
— This was also Daliang City’s unique mechanism for screening talent.
The tasks posted in the “Martial Arts Gazette” were diverse, such as solving unsolved mysteries, investigating the truth of certain matters, exploring dangerous places, obtaining spirit plants growing in harsh environments, alchemy, medicine making, drawing, fighting… It could be said that all aspects were covered, capturing all-round talents in one net.
As long as someone could complete one of these tasks and accumulate a certain amount of contribution, it meant that this person must possess some outstanding ability. Obtaining a “Daliang Token” and becoming an honored guest of the city government was then a matter of course!
As former police officers and current members of the Special Case Investigation Team, Li Fufeng and his companion’s main skills were in investigation, with their expertise being in solving cases.
But according to their estimates, to accumulate enough contributions, they would need to solve about twenty significant cases. Not to mention whether their past case-solving experience would still be applicable in this world of martial arts, just the long time required for this was something they couldn’t afford. Other tasks would also require considerable time.
“Wait!” At this moment, Liu Ningshuang’s gaze locked onto the last line of this page, and her finger moved to it.
“…If one provides suggestions and strategies for the operation and management of Daliang City, and gains recognition from the city government, corresponding contributions will also be awarded. Is this a new way to gain contributions suggested by the new City Lord before he took office?”
Li Fufeng’s vision followed her finger to these lines, and his eyes gradually lit up.
If they might not be able to compete with the natives of this world in other aspects, but when it came to offering suggestions and strategies…
Not to mention that they were department elites who had received decent political education, even ordinary people living in the internet age of Blue Star were all keyboard politicians, weren’t they?
Offering suggestions and strategies for governance, they were experts at that!
Amidst their excitement, their smiles also became subtle.
Could it be that they had stumbled upon the classic plot of #Accidentally transmigrating to feudal ancient times, gaining the City Lord’s appreciation through suggestions and strategies, showing off in front of the ancients, reciting 300 poems daily, and having various geniuses bow down in admiration…#???
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