Fix Smile Order Chapter 17
Translated by Pure
Edited by cookiecrunch
Chapter 17 Playing Ghost
Tang Tianyuan had to let Tan Lingyin out under her threat. In order to avoid arousing suspicion, the two returned to the inner house one after the other.
The next day, Tang Tianyuan ordered someone to post a notice informing anyone who was missing a girl to come to the county government to claim her. Then, he summoned the guards who were on duty at Tianmu Mountain yesterday to the Retreat Hall for questioning. Tan Lingyin, the Head Commissioner, and Zhou Zhengdao, the County Deputy, were also present.
It took more than ten days from the time of vacancy to when Tang Tianyuan had taken over the position of the county magistrate. During this period, the lockdown order for Tianmu Mountain had not been lifted. When they went to Tianmu Mountain yesterday, they were blocked by the guards of the mountain, and it was only until Tang Tianyuan took off his beard did the others allow them entry.
Therefore, under the circumstance of the lockdown, it is near impossible for no one to notice if someone openly ran into Tianmu Mountain to discard a human body.
There were only two guards on duty last night. Knowing that Tianmu Mountain had a murder case, they were afraid of being implicated. The county magistrate frightened them again, and their legs were so weak that they couldn't get up from kneeling on the ground.
One of the guards continuously kowtowed and pleaded, "Sir, we have been wronged! We were indeed on duty last night, but we withdrew at chen-shí(7-9 am). Before chen-shí, we did our best and found nothing unusual."
Tang Tianyuan sneered, "So you mean the mountain is only sealed during the day, but not at night?"
"The demons and ghosts all came out at night, and they can’t…can't be sealed..."
The other guard also hurriedly chimed in, "It's true! When the mountain was first locked down, the brothers who were on night duty would mysteriously disappear. This happened multiple times, one after another, so no one dared to work at night. At that time, the county magistrate ordered that we only need to be on duty from the later half of chou-shí(1-3 am) and depart at chen-shí(7-9 am). The rest of the time at night would be left to the gods, and everyone will not interfere."
Tang Tianyuan was calm on the surface, but was disdainful in his heart. Pretending to be a ghost. If there were people mining and smelting gold in the mountains, they would inevitably need food and drinks. The former magistrate must have deliberately set aside time to communicate with these people in the mountains. The location was conveniently situated—a haunted place in the middle of the night, where nobody wanted to venture.
If Tang Tianyuan could come to this conclusion, then so could Tan Lingyin and Zhou Zhengdao.
Tan Lingyin had picked up a gold nugget when she had explored Tianmu Mountain at night. At that time, she didn’t suspect the presence of a gold mine, but she just thought the (former) county magistrate was too ignorant. Although she often pretended to be a know-it-all deity to cheat for food and drinks, she didn't actually believe in ghosts and gods herself. When she visited Tianmu Mountain at night, she wanted to see what "ghosts" were there, so that she could punish them on behalf of the heavens. Qingchen accompanied her to sneak into Tianmu Mountain that day. The mountain was very dark, and her eyes were not good, so Qingchen led her around the mountain, but she didn't see any ghosts.
Logicly, with Tan Lingyin's eyes, it would be hard for her to find gold ores at night, not to mention gold nuggets, but it was such a coincidence. That night, unknowingly, a small pebble slipped into her shoe. Tan Lingyin had shook her foot to remove it, but the pebble ended up getting stuck between her toes. Tan Lingyin was too lazy to take off her shoes and shake it out, so she continued to walk. Eventually, she became sleepy after walking, and Qingchen had to carry her back. The next morning, when she put on her shoes, she found that it was not a pebble at all, but a piece of gold.
Since then, she was able to come up with a complete story based on that small gold nugget.
Back to the present:
Tang Tianyuan dismissed the two guards after they told him the whole story. And now, the three county government officials got together to discuss the case. They tacitly agreed not to mention the possible secret in the middle of the night and focused solely on the murder case. Zhou Zhengdao speculated that the murderer must have entered the mountain to dispose of the body after chen-shí, while Tan Lingyin suggested that the murder scene should be not far from Tianmu Mountain. However, Tang Tianyuan disagreed and said they were both incorrect in their assumptions.