The Transmigrated Farm Girl Has a Cheat Code

Chapter 146 Missing Persons?

After watching the old registrar finish vomiting, Lin Yan stared at him and said, "I want evidence of Yue Heqiu's crimes."

The registrar gave her a grim look. "The evidence... the evidence is at home."

Lin Yan's expression turned ugly.

They grabbed the old clerk and were about to fly back. The old clerk quickly stopped them.

"No, no, no, no need, no need. I'm telling you, don't take me with you!"

If it happened again, he would faint on the spot.

Lin Yan had no choice but to leave the person there and make another trip, because she was in such a hurry to come back.

Indeed, one cannot be careless, otherwise the work will have to be redone.

Lin Yan dug out a small box at the location the old registrar had indicated.

When she returned, the old registrar's condition had stabilized. He was still wondering why, despite feeling very ill, he didn't seem to feel unwell after this trip.

Lin Yan sat opposite him and looked through these things. The old registrar had them. They were indeed common evidence of a corrupt official's crimes, nothing more than forced buying and selling, embezzlement of taxes, and nothing related to gold.

Why are you looking for this evidence?

"I don't like him!" Lin Yan replied succinctly.

"Uh." The old registrar choked again.

"Actually, I went to see you partly because I needed evidence, and partly because I was worried you would be silenced. Yue Heqiu came out of the county government office."

The registrar frowned. Since falling ill, he had been staying in his room for the past two days. His meals were delivered by yamen runners, but he was in a daze and not very conscious, so he was unaware that the magistrate had come out.

"What is he doing out here? The people have so many complaints about him."

Lin Yan chuckled, "Because he'd starve to death if he didn't come out."

"Huh? How could that be? He's hoarded a lot of grain in the warehouse." The registrar didn't believe it.

Lin Yan didn't explain to him that she had done it herself.

The old registrar took a sip of tea and said.

“Those pieces of evidence are actually nothing. His embezzlement of silver is very limited, at least the amount I discovered is very limited. The indiscriminate killing of innocent people only occurred during this snow disaster.”

Lin Yan nodded. These pieces of evidence suggested that he was just an ordinary, low-level corrupt official, but Lin Yan was certain that he didn't make his money from these sources; he had another way of earning money.

“But I have discovered something strange,” the registrar added.

Lin Yan looked up in confusion at the registrar, who had fallen silent again. She thought to herself: "You only say half of what you mean. Who taught you that? It's so annoying."

"what?"

"I've noticed an increase in the number of missing persons in the county."

"Missing..." Lin Yan's heart skipped a beat, as if she had thought of something.

"It's always just that the beggars have disappeared. There used to be some beggars on the street, but they disappeared four years ago. Then they would reappear and then disappear again."

“I asked the county magistrate, and he said that these beggars were affecting the people, so he sent people to deal with them.”

Chen Li explained to me that he had found them some helpers so they could be self-sufficient and were no longer allowed to beg on the streets, but I found that a bit strange. However, I didn't know those beggars, and I couldn't be sure if what he said was true or false.

Lin Yan raised an eyebrow, neither confirming nor denying.

“In the past two years, some men who went out to work have never shown up again. Many people in the county have reported missing persons, but nothing can be found. After all, they have left the county, and who knows if they have died out there.”

“But this happened too frequently, which I found really strange. Until about six months ago, someone found a man’s body in the river. This man was the one who had disappeared two years ago. I asked the coroner, and he said that the man had worked hard all year round and that the cause of death was massive bleeding from a stab wound to the abdomen.”

“This matter clearly deserves a thorough investigation, but the magistrate dismissed it lightly, which made me realize that the missing persons must be related to him.”

“I initially suspected the magistrate was trafficking people, but those who disappeared were all grown men, not women and children, so it doesn’t seem like trafficking.”

Lin Yan lowered her eyes, her gaze flickering, and gave a soft scoff. "It certainly doesn't seem like it, but men have their advantages." Thinking back to the gold, Lin Yan realized she probably knew where it came from.

"Unfortunately, no one has reported missing persons in the past six months, and I haven't been able to find any substantial evidence. Now, we've also encountered a snow disaster."

"When the imperial court arrives, hand over the evidence from the registrar," Lin Yan instructed.

The registrar nodded. He had originally kept the evidence to protect himself. He wasn't afraid of corrupt officials; as long as they didn't go too far, he could pretend he didn't see it and avoid trouble. But this time, Yue Heqiu's inhumane actions had crossed his bottom line. He couldn't let him go any further, otherwise he wouldn't be able to face the people who had died tragically.

He had planned to take this opportunity to hand over the evidence to the imperial court, but the court had not come to provide disaster relief.

It's better for the registrar to handle this kind of thing. If Lin Yan were to submit it, how would she explain the origin of this evidence, which is all government documents?

If someone asks, "Did you steal it?" they'll arrest you first.

…………

The next day, Yu Dingxin took the pulse of the registrar and found that the man was not sick.

"What's wrong with you?" Yu Dingxin frowned.

"I...I have contracted the plague, haven't I?" the registrar asked uncertainly.

He'd been in bed for two days, his mind was practically blank, how could he not be sick? Even a cold would do!

Yu Dingxin affirmed, "His health was indeed not good, as if he had just been seriously ill, but he doesn't look sick now."

The registrar was even more bewildered. "I flew there yesterday, and my illness is cured?!"

……

Looking at the well-managed epidemic area, the old registrar sighed inwardly. He was helpless against the indifference and ruthlessness of the government, but now two groups of outsiders had saved these people.

However, these patients were all very friendly to the registrar, and Chen Hu was also very polite to him. After all, without the registrar in charge, they would really turn into a rebel army.

As more and more people recovered, Xiao Shitou felt complicated. He kept thinking that his parents might have just caught a cold and recovered quickly even without medical help, instead of being burned alive by the magistrate.

Chen Hu didn't know how to persuade him, and could only resent Yue Heqiu even more, wanting to find an opportunity to assassinate him, which would also be considered revenge for those people.

…………

"Failed?! What do you mean by failure?!"

In the county government office, Bald Qiang was yelling at one of his subordinates.

"You failed even to kill an old man!"

"That assassin is dead." The subordinate expressed his grievance, saying that he had no idea the assassin was so incompetent that he couldn't even defeat an old man.

Yue Heqiu's expression was serious. He didn't believe that old man Zhang Luodao could kill the assassin on his own. It was more likely that he had been rescued, which made him even more worried.

Could Zhang Luodao really have some evidence? If it's about embezzlement, that's fine, as long as it's not about that person or the gold mine, that person will have to protect him.

Without him, who would give him money? He would also have to find another magistrate for Wutai County, a task that would be difficult for anyone else to handle.

If Zhang Luodao was rescued, there might be other forces operating in the dock.

Damn it, the thought of money reminded him of his empty secret room. His batch of gold was gone; how was he going to explain it to that person?