“I didn’t pay attention to when this stomach upset started, so it’s hard to find out. But it’s been intermittent, getting better only to start again after a few days. It’s really puzzling,” Wei Fu said. “Coincidentally, a man in the neighborhood who also had stomach upsets had to go to nearby Xianyang for a few days on urgent business. He was so busy that he didn’t care about his stomach upset and hurriedly set off. When he returned two days later, although he had been out, he was in better spirits than his family, who were resting at home. I could tell from the smell that he hadn’t had stomach upsets during those two days. So I knew the problem must be with the food he ate.”

Because he had initially suspected the food at the market, the neighbor’s family had hardly eaten anything from the market these past few days. They had been eating rice porridge made from rice at home. This stored grain was grown by his parents in Xianyang. After the man returned to Xianyang, he also ate the stored grain from his parents’ home. It was all grain from the same field, which showed that there was no problem with the grain.

So… the only problem must be the water, but how could the water be problematic? It was not surprising that someone might poison a family’s well, but many people in Chang’an have been affected, even wealthy and powerful families with guards patrolling day and night. Were their guards and servants all incompetent?

What kind of thief could be so powerful as to target the entire city?

“There is a thief, but the thief didn’t personally poison the water,” Wei Fu said with a bitter smile, shaking his head. “The one who poisoned it was none other than the people themselves.”

The water used by the people of Chang’an was all well water. After a small-scale epidemic caused by unclean well water a few years ago, the government had always paid close attention to this, distributing dogwood leaves, realgar, alum, and other substances to each household every few months to keep the well water clean.

“A while ago, the government happened to distribute a batch of water purification supplies,” Wei Fu said, “distributing them to each household. so that people could purify their own water.”

“My family, before they got sick, threw alum and other things into the well in the backyard to purify their water,” Wei Fu said, unable to help but smile bitterly. “Although the water purification supplies were contaminated with medicine, because the well water volume is large and the amount of medicine is small, even if all the food we ate that day came from the well water, nothing serious would happen. People like me, who spend most of their day in the yamen and only drink a few cups of tea at home, hardly notice anything.”

Thus… some of the strange situations that seemed strange at first glance became clear.

“The people had stomach aches and sought medicine from a doctor. Suspecting they had eaten something bad, they became extra careful about what they ate, examining and scrutinizing their food while…” Wei Fu paused, rubbing his forehead and sighing, “and adding more and more purifying agents to the well. This… caused the previously diluted laxative in the well to become stronger again. This cycle repeated itself, and the stomach aches persisted intermittently!”

Thus, the people suspected the water was unclean and diligently purified it, unaware that the real source lay in the purifying agents distributed by the government.

Having found the source, things became simple. Wei Fu stopped his family from adding purifying agents to the well, and sure enough, the stomach aches stopped last night.

So… Wei Fu collected the purifying agents distributed by the government from his home, intending to send them to the Dali Temple for inspection another day, and began investigating the person who distributed the purifying agents.

“The people delivering the herbs for clean water to each household are all government officials and village heads. There are too many of them, and they come from all walks of life. It’s impossible to bribe them all,” Wei Fu said. “So, I think the problem probably lies with the source of this stuff.”

“The water cleaning herbs distributed by the government to the people are provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” Wei Fu said, glancing at Liu Yuan and the others whose expressions had changed slightly. He nodded, his tone subtle. “It’s the Ministry of Internal Affairs again.”

It seemed as if a hand was subtly connecting two seemingly unrelated cases.

“I found out that the person in charge of this matter was a steward surnamed Niu from the Internal Affairs Department, so I went to pay him a visit,” Wei Fu said, glancing at everyone with a slightly serious expression. “Unfortunately, I heard that Steward Niu took leave to return to his hometown some time ago.”

What a coincidence? One of the stewards from the Internal Affairs Department involved, Steward Mao, committed suicide, and Steward Niu took leave to return to his hometown.

Wei Fu’s years of experience in handling cases told him that there must be something fishy about this matter. However, Steward Niu’s case was not like Steward Mao’s, where there was Feng Tong’s body and the old magistrate’s confession, so he could directly send people from the yamen to investigate. Everything needed to be investigated by those clean water items before the Dali Temple could take action.

Although he couldn’t get the Dali Temple to take action yet, he couldn’t leave empty-handed. Wei Fu spent some money to bribe some servants from the Internal Affairs Department, and those servants actually took him directly to Steward Niu’s courtyard.

The two stewards of the Internal Affairs Department were assigned a courtyard, while Steward Niu had a courtyard all to himself. It wasn’t that Steward Niu was particularly powerful, but rather that his former “courtyard mate” had moved out.

Upon hearing this, Wei Fu’s heart skipped a beat, and a subtle feeling arose within him. He immediately asked the servants who Steward Niu’s “courtyard mate” was. Sure enough, when he heard the name of the “courtyard mate,” Wei Fu’s heart skipped a beat.

Upon hearing Wei Fu’s words and seeing the expression on his face, Liu Yuan, the most impatient of all, blurted out, “That fellow is none other than the deceased Steward Mao, isn’t he?”

Wei Fu nodded, glanced at Lin Fei’s and Bai Zhu’s expressions of “I knew it,” and continued, “Hearing this, how could I hesitate? I was afraid that if I didn’t go in this time, the room would be in a different state next time. So, I immediately paid the servants to go and check on Steward Niu’s room.”

When he said, “The room would be in a different state next time,” Liu Yuan couldn’t help but snort coldly.

Steward Mao’s death was so suspicious; Old Wei’s worries might actually come true.

“Manager Niu’s room was very clean. The money and his everyday clothes were gone, but the bedding was neatly folded, which fits the description of ‘returning home to visit relatives’,” Wei Fu said. “Judging from the clean and tidy furnishings, Manager Niu must be a very organized person. This was confirmed by the servants. Furthermore, Manager Niu reportedly dislikes having his room cleaned; he usually does it himself. Even when someone else does it, he always watches closely, meticulously, and cautiously.”

This meticulous and cautious person, whose room was spotless, left one thing behind.

Wei Fu pointed to the charcoal brazier in front of Lin Fei, which still had a lot of ashes left behind, and said, “This was left in Manager Niu’s room.”

(End of Chapter)

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