Before Féng Shìlìng became the shìlìng, he worked hauling cargo at the docks.

“According to the dockworkers, Feng Tong resigned from his job of over twenty years shortly before becoming the shílìng. Before quitting, he even clashed with the manager, with whom he was always trying to curry favor,” Lin Fei said. “According to the dockworkers present, Feng Tong seemed to already know he would become the shìlìng. His conflict with the manager was simply Feng Tong deliberately picking a fight.”

“Because he ate and slept with the dockworkers, if Feng Tong encountered something that could suddenly make him rich, it would be difficult for others not to know. Someone would definitely see it,” Lin Fei said. “Although he had no wife or children, he was lazy as a dockworker, and his wages were low, so he didn’t have much money. With no money in hand, he naturally didn’t have many places to go, so he often stayed in the dockworkers’ dormitory. Thus… He can’t encounter something that could make him rich alone in front of everyone.”

Therefore, Feng Tong’s event of becoming rich must have happened when he was alone.

“He worked several night shifts a few days before he conflicted with the manager,” Lin Fei said, pointing to the dates the clerk had noted down during his questioning. “It was around these last few days.”

Those were the days before and after the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, they were busy with the disappearance of young women in the city and naturally wouldn’t have paid attention to an inconspicuous porter at the dock.

“The location was on the banks of the Wei River,” Lin Fei said. Although several months had passed, fortunately, the incident also occurred around the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The disappearance of young women had focused the attention of the city’s officials entirely on those missing women, leaving them no time for anything else. However, this also made many people remember the events of those days vividly.

Many pleasure boats stopped on the Wei River every day. Normally, people might not even remember something that happened four or five days ago, but because of the special nature of the Mid-Autumn Festival, many boatmen on the Wei River and courtesans on the pleasure boats still remembered what happened that day.

“According to many, not only was there a Mid-Autumn Festival lantern festival in the city that day, but the river was also brightly lit. Because the weather was nice, many people came out of their cabins to admire the moon on the decks.”

Some people celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival on land, while others enjoyed admiring the moon reflected in the water from a pleasure boat on the Wei River.

“At that time, many pleasure boats were coming and going on the river, making the surface of the river brightly lit. They were also distracted from moon-viewing and came to watch the excitement from the bow of the boat,” Lin Fei said. “When they heard that fireworks were being set off in the city, people on the Wei River were also setting off fireworks. Just as everyone was enjoying the show, a commotion came from the pleasure boats, saying that they had encountered pickpockets and asked everyone to help catch them.”

So, on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, while young ladies in Chang’an were going missing, the Wei River was also in turmoil, with people catching pickpockets? Upon hearing this, Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu exchanged a glance and said to Lin Fei, “Lin Shaoqing, we didn’t hear about this from anyone at the government office that day!”

That evening, they were investigating the case with the government officials and didn’t see anyone report that a pickpocket was being caught on the pleasure boat.

Lin Fei didn’t immediately answer them but continued, “At that time, a kind-hearted boatman took the initiative to row closer, wanting to help catch the pickpocket. The guards who were searching for pickpockets on board gave a general description of the pickpocket’s attire: a short-sleeved gray robe, straw sandals, a headscarf, and a man in his forties.”

“Upon hearing this, the boatman was about to help find such a pickpocket when the guards on the boat came over and said that the pickpocket had been caught and there was no need to help.” Lin Fei paused here, looked at Liu Yuantong and Bai Zhu, who were looking over, and said, “The pickpocket was found in the blink of an eye.”

Since the pickpocket had been found, the boatman naturally didn’t get involved and rowed back.

Since it was a minor matter, and the other party had already found the pickpocket, the boatman didn’t take it to heart. Under normal circumstances, he probably would have forgotten about such a trivial matter long ago, but because a young woman had gone missing on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, he remembered it.

The matter was truly trivial, so trivial that even Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu, upon first hearing it, didn’t think it had anything to do with the case. It wasn’t until Lin Fei asked them, “What do the dockworkers wear?”

Hearing that, their expressions changed drastically. Liu Yuan opened his mouth, then subconsciously began to mutter, “Carrying goods naturally requires practical and easy-to-work clothes, so dockworkers all wear short-sleeved shirts. Because the environment is dusty, their clothes easily get dirty, so they wear durable gray robes. And because they carry heavy loads all day, their shoes wear out quickly. Since dockworkers are mostly short of money, they wear cheap and durable straw sandals…”

At this point, Liu Yuan couldn’t continue.

Bai Zhu glanced at Liu Yuan and continued, “The kind of clothes sold in those general stores that sell clothes to porters are like this. The ship managers who hire many porters to carry goods for them year-round make it easier to manage them, so they make the dockworkers wear the same clothes. Feng Tong used to be a porter on those ships, so he…”

Every porter on those ships has several sets of clothes issued by the managers. Lin Fei nodded and said, “On the day of the incident, Feng Tong was on night duty on the ship, and he was wearing the same clothes.”

The clothing matches, plus the age… Feng Tong matches everything. Could this be just a coincidence?

The Dali Temple didn’t believe in coincidences, the most, unless it is confirmed to be a coincidence after repeated investigations.

“First, they yelled ‘pickpocket,’ then in the blink of an eye, they grabbed him. It’s clear the other side had a large number of men, and their guards were highly skilled; subduing Feng Tong was a piece of cake. Under such circumstances, even if Feng Tong saw something he shouldn’t have, for those people, dealing with a dockworker with no connections would be a piece of cake…”

Liu Yuan’s voice trailed off at this point.

Although the Dali Temple wanted to restore order to the world, it never dared to claim that there would ever be a truly peaceful era.

To some, the lives of ordinary people were as worthless as weeds; they could simply kill them, bury them, and let it go unnoticed.

Every year, countless dockworkers, handymen, and waiters in teahouses and taverns died in this way.

Even if a dockworker like Feng Tong saw something he shouldn’t have, those people would usually handle it discreetly. Why was Feng Tong an exception? Why wasn’t he executed on the spot, but instead allowed to live as an exception? Why did the other party kill Feng Tong after using Steward Mao to “promote” him and let him enjoy a period of “good life”?

There were far too many secrets hidden within this, but the most important thing was to find out who was on that pleasure boat that day.

(End of Chapter)

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