Peerless ( Meng Xi Shi )

Gao Yi's eyelids couldn't help twitching first thing early in the morning.

Originally, once he woke up he would pray to the gods for a fortune but today he didn't. He suspected that the results would be a bad omen and even asked someone to bring his tortoise shell and copper coin.

Gao Yi had an immense obsession towards those fortunate practices, even if someone came looking for him, he would first cast the sticks to obtain a fortunate. If the stick that fell out suggested a bad omen, then he would not see the one who wanted to meet him no matter what their proposition was.

His wife could not convince him otherwise, she ridiculed him for even allowing those fortune sticks to decide which leg he should step out with first when he leaves his manor. Gao Yi actually took that into consideration, however, because it was overly tedious and obstructing his job, he had no choice but to put a stop to that.

Just as he ordered someone to get him his copper coin, the guards also came back with a group of people.

Originally, Qiao Xian wanted to go on her own, but the guards declined her request and insisted on bringing all four of them back to the bureau, they practically fought because of it.

But once Qiao Xian demonstrated her skills and turned a cup into grinded powder, those guards knew that this person wasn't as harmless as he looked on the outside. Qiemo is filled with snakes and dragons, and all kinds of strange happenings took place all the time. Gao Yi is a magistrate sent by the Imperial Court, but his influence here is extremely weak, so naturally, people under him were not keen on offending anyone they could not afford to, so they responded simply by courteously inviting four of them back to the bureau.

Let alone questioning and interrogation, they dare not even stand near to them, so it looked as if they were invited as guests to the bureau.

Although Gao Yi was extremely superstitious, but he was not stupid, so once he saw his subordinates acted in such a way, there was no way he wouldn't understand what was going on.

Qiao Xian spoke first, "Officer Gao, might I know why you have invited us here?"

She did not kneel or bowed. Gao Yi was displeased about this, but he was incredibly observant and noticed that these people looked impassive, patient yet fearless, so they were definitely not simple folks.

He turned towards the deputy magistrate next to him, the deputy simply coughed and spoke, "You people have seen the bureau, why have you not showed your manners?"

Qiao Xian said plainly, "We have our reasons why, you can speak about Chen Cheng's death first."

The deputy cast a look at Gao Yi, and he seemed to be fine with these four being rude, so he only replied, "Yesterday a fire broke out in the city, there were two deaths involved, among them were the Rong Xing stall's second in charge Li Fei, and another man was called Chen Cheng, who worked seasonal jobs within the city. After the incident, someone claimed that they saw a dispute between you people and Chen Cheng, so you are all suspects of holding a grudge against him, this is why you have been invited to the bureau for questioning."

In the venue, other than Gao Yi and the deputy, there was one other person who sat in a corner. He looked around thirty to forty and was dressed in lavished clothes, although he did not utter a word, his look was reserved and arrogant, perhaps he was the one who filed the case.

Qiao Xian said, "Yesterday Chen Cheng schemed to cheat us, we discovered it and thus reprimanded him, after the matter he begged for mercy and everything came to a conclusion. Our exchange was done and it cannot be considered to be a grudge, yesterday we also never left the inn, so it would be impossible for us to set a fire and schemed a murder, I beseech you, officer, to take this into consideration."

Gao Yi have yet to spoke, but the man in lavished clothes snorted aloud, "With a few sentences like these, you've managed to shove the responsibility off yourselves completely, but whether or not you are innocent would still require the officer of this bureau to carry out questioning before we would know!"

Although Jin Lian is the small Khadun of Khan Apa, her place at Khan Apa's side was still quite extraordinary, she never had to receive these kind of disgrace, so she snickered, "If we did not commit any murder, then we have not. Would you people force us to admit it?"

Although her Han was excellent, she wasn't from the Central Plains, so it was obvious in her accent, and it was immediately noticed by Gao Yi.

"Where are you from?"

The man in lavished clothes said in a loud voice, "It matters not where you're from. A murderer pays a life for a life, this is the law!"

Gao Yi said in displeasure, "Am I the one to judge, or are you the one? If you continue to be rude, you can simply return and tell your master to investigate the case himself!"

The man in lavished clothes minded himself and toned down, but he insisted, "My master trusts the bureau, that is why he ordered me to report the case to you!"

Gao Yi held no expression, "Since that is the case, then these people should be retained, once people from Duan Qigu's side arrives, we can question them altogether."

As both of them spoke, Cui Buqu and his company's fate was sealed.

Qiao Xian wanted to react, but Feng Xiao was a step quicker.

"Ridiculous! Do you know who my husband is?!"

His voice was arrogant and proud, not falling behind the man dressed in lavished clothing.

Cui Buqu originally wanted to say the same thing, but Feng Xiao was quicker, so he couldn't help but shot him a side glance.

Feng Xiao raised his head and said, "My husband is the nephew of the King of Kucha, this time he came to the Central Plains was on behalf of his Majesty's orders, now that the mission is completed, we are returning to Kucha, yet you dared to bestowed a random crime on us. If you are unable to explain yourselves about this, we would not let this matter go!"

Once Gao Yi heard that, he felt his head hurting, it was definitely because he forgot to ask the gods for a fortune this morning, otherwise, nevermind Qiao Xian and those three others, he would decline even the meeting with Xing Mao's man.

He showed a face of someone who did not wish to stir more matters, but the man in lavished clothes refused to just let it go and asked suspiciously, "What proof do you have?"

Males and females existed among these four, their ranks are thin. Even though Kucha is a small kingdom, they are not poor. The man wasn't someone who hasn't seen the idiocy of those in this world, so he naturally wouldn't believe them easily.

Yet Cui Buqu took out a golden seal, on top of it were scripts written in both Kucha and Han letters that addressed the identity of its carrier.

The Marquis of War, the Kucha King's Left Hand Man.

People like Cui Buqu would definitely make sufficient preparations if he thought of something. To change their looks were only the first step, he has also prepared two sets of false identities, if their journey was peaceful, then they would simply be civilians who are travelling to Kucha to visit their relatives, but if something happened along the way, such as an incident like this, then they are relatives of royalties in Kucha that were using false identities.

Gao Yi took the golden seal and turn it around in his hand, he could not find anything strange with it.

There exist people who are bold and dared to lie such as impersonating a foreign royalty, but there are not many liars who could create a golden seal such as this just to cheat others. In fact, there was no benefits in masquerading as the nephew of the Kucha King, they were civilians who kept a rather low-profile in Qiemo, if they weren't summoned here, their identities would not have been revealed.

The middle-aged man was still suspicious, so he took the golden seal and examineed it, yet Qiao Xian caught his wrist.

"Who do you think you are? To take the personal seal of a relative of the Kucha King and look at it as you please? Today you have shamed us, so don't think of leaving so easily!"

The middle-aged man replied angrily, "I am the assistant officer of the Shanshan King, how would I frame anyone!"

Qiao Xian laughed coldly, "The Shanshan Kingdom has long been annihilated, where would there be a Shanshan King!"

Someone who spoke like that would definitely not be a common civilian, so Gao Yi couldn't help but felt their identities were more believable now.

He stopped the middle-aged man from speaking more, and turned towards Cui Buqu, "Master Li has no intentions to create a ruckus, because other than Chen Cheng's death, the other victim is a reliable subordinate of Master Xing."

Rong Xing is a business operating under the name of Xing Mao, although Li Fei is the second in charge, the first in charge is the youngest son of Xing Mao, so he had never cared too much about the business, the one who was really in charge was Li Fei. This stall brought plenty of income for Xing Mao, and Li Fei is also one who pursued him for many years, his place by Xing Mao's side was special. So his death was incredibly suspicious to Xing Mao, the latter insisted that someone was plotting Li Fei's murder, so he allowed his subordinate to report the case to Gao Yi.

Xing Mao and Duan Qigu were enemies since a long time ago, this is something that everyone in the city knew, so once something happened to someone from Xing Mao's side, a lot of people who naturally believe that it had something to do with Duan Qigu. Cui Buqu and his company's part in the matter were simply unexpected.

Gao Yi was never interested in caring much about the fights between these two people. Besides, his power and influence were also just average, compared to both of them were had been here for many years and held immense power. He also received gifts and benefits from both parties all these years, thus he was much more lenient when dealing with matters like these.

Qiao Xian, "We are in a hurry back to Kucha, had it not for my Lord falling ill on the journey, we would not have stayed the night here."

Gao Yi looked at Cui Buqu's face and agreed that the other looked like he was heavily sick, so he did not suspect them any longer, he rose to his feet and gestured, "Lives are at stake, I am also simply obeying the law. Kucha and the Sui Empire have a good relationship, and it would not be dulled because of this matter, I apologize, my Lord."

The middle-aged man in lavished clothes wrinkled his forehead, "Officer, if there is no conclusion on this matter, I cannot return and tell my Master anything, could you retain these few people, so I can return to my Master and inquire for further orders?"

Qiao Xian, "You people are not going to look for Duan Qigu, and instead fixated on us, what use is there?"

The middle-aged man had his own arguments, "Everyone knows that Duan Qigu is a suspect, how would he not know himself? It makes more sense for him to look for strangers like you to do his dirty work, who would have known?"

Qiao Xian snorted and laughed, "If we are the murdered, then why would be bicker with Chen Cheng and make ourselves look suspicious?"

As they spoke, the man sent by Duan Qigu has arrived.

He was also a middle-aged man, looked thin, and there was a scar on his face. Compared to the fat one sent by Xing Mao, they make a contradicting fat and thin duo.

When the enemies met, both their eyed reddened. It seemed as if they knew each other, once they met, they started ridiculing each other sarcastically, immediately creating a battlefield of bickering with words with Gao Yi's bureau.

Gao Yi showed a look of tolerant running thin and impatience, but he was refraining himself from exploding. Cui Buqu observed him coldly, and concluded that although Gao Yi was heralded as one of the three pillars of Qiemo, he was definitely the weakest one.

"Since we have nothing to do, why don't we examine both corpses of the victims? If something is discovered, then we can be free of suspicions." Cui Buqu said.

Gao Yi refused to hear them bicker any longer, so he immediately agreed.

The fat one begun looking for a fight, "So the nephew of the Kucha King even knows how to examine corpses?"

Cui Buqu's expression did not change, "Right, my wife's father is coroner, so she also learned from him all these years. Since we have everything we need now, there is no harm in letting her do it. Whether or not it would be helpful, we would soon know."

Feng Xiao: "..."

He had just dug a pit for Cui Buqu, and it hadn't even been a while since, but Cui Buqu is already digging one for him.

If he has to examine the corpse, it would mean touching it, and that feels like...

Feng Xiao's face is slowly turning green.

If he knew this earlier, he would have choose to become the Kucha King's niece instead.

Pray to the gods for a fortune: Read about how it works here.

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Tortoise shell and copper coin: Also an item used to determine the luck of someone.

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Filled with snakes and dragons: This meant that literally all kinds of people were mixed in Qiemo, from common civilians to gangsters.

We have our reasons why: Qiao Xian, Cui Buqu, and Feng Xiao & Co did not bow or kneel not because they were rude, it's because their ranks are higher than that of Gao Yi. In this case, Gao Yi should be the one to bow to them since his officer rank is inferior to both Feng Xiao's title as the Second Commander of the Jiejian Bureau, as well as Cui Buqu's Commander of the Zuoyue Bureau, but since Gao Yi did not know who they are, they did not say anything either.

Golden seal: Seals usually look like the one below. It is usually carried around by officers like an identity card to prove their status and title.

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The Marquis of War, the Kucha King's Left Hand Man: I had difficulties translating this since I'm not too familiar with a very detailed ranks of officers. However, according to results online, this is a title for a member of Imperial Court. In the Sui Empire, it is one of the twelve Commanders, a third ranked officer (first rank is the largest), and is in charge of military soldiers' deployment.