As they were drinking wine, a sudden knock sounded at the door.
Qin Zheng spoke up. "Enter."
A man walked straight through the wooden door as if the wood were no more than thin paper.
He had neither rammed it with anything nor kicked it. He had simply strolled forward at his leisure, and the door before him instantly shattered into splinters!
Qin Zheng glanced at the man and remarked flatly, "A sandalwood door, worth a thousand taels of silver."
The man was slightly taken aback. Immediately following that, a woman's voice rang out behind him: "I will pay for it!"
The woman was dressed in black, her ink-black hair cascading loose over her shoulders. Her complexion was pale, but her dark eyes shone with a brilliant gleam.
She possessed a beauty scarcely found among mortals. It was the very first time Lu Xiaofeng had ever laid eyes on such a gorgeous woman!
The woman introduced herself: "This humble one is Shangguan Danfeng, and beside me is the Heartbreak Swordsman, Xiao Qiuyu. I shall pay to repair the door."
With that, she dropped to her knees right in front of Lu Xiaofeng.
Lu Xiaofeng's scalp tingled with dread. Springing upward, he was about to crash through the roof and make his escape.
Qin Zheng grabbed him by the leg, hauled him back down, and sighed. "The roof is more expensive than the door; you can't afford it. Honestly, what is wrong with all of you? Can't any of you just walk normally?"
Lu Xiaofeng gave a wry smile. "When a pretty woman kneels before you, it means she is in troubles that ordinary folk can't solve. I have no wish to borrow trouble."
Qin Zheng nodded and said to Shangguan Danfeng, "First pay the damages before we talk about anything else. I'm afraid you'll skip out on the bill."
Shangguan Danfeng opened her mouth in disbelief, utterly helpless, and shot Xiao Qiuyu a meaningful glance, motioning for him to go downstairs and retrieve the money.
Looking at Qin Zheng and Lu Xiaofeng, she felt her confidence in her own charms begin to waver. How strange that this weapon of hers, which had never failed before, had proved utterly useless against these two men!
Yes, it must be because Shangguan Danfeng's face was not as beautiful as her own!
The Shangguan Danfeng standing before them was actually an impostor—Shangguan Feiyan, the very woman who had toyed with Hua Manlou's affections only a few days prior.
She had come seeking Lu Xiaofeng this time because she had conspired with Huo Xiu, aiming to use Lu Xiaofeng's hand to eliminate two powerful martial masters and seize their fortunes along the way.
As for Huo Xiu, while he appeared on the surface to be the wealthiest man under heaven, he was secretly the master of the underworld power Qingyi Tower. Qin Zheng had kept an eye on him for a long time, waiting only for a fitting opportunity to expose him.
Before long, Xiao Qiuyu carried a large basket upstairs. Pulling back the cotton cloth covering the top revealed it was brimming with glittering yellow gold.
Having paid the compensation for Qin Zheng's wooden door, Shangguan Feiyan turned a pleading gaze upon Lu Xiaofeng. "As long as Hero Lu agrees to help, every piece of gold in here is yours."
Lu Xiaofeng remained completely unmoved and remarked to Qin Zheng, "It seems her trouble is even worse than I anticipated."
Qin Zheng chuckled faintly, turning a gold nugget over in his hand as he said, "That's nothing compared to what I've seen. Once, a fellow claiming to be a descendant of Great Yan's imperial clan thought he could rope me into helping him restore his lost kingdom just by cozying up to me. At least in your case there's a beauty and gold as reward; that man purely wanted to reap a fortune from empty hands!"
Lu Xiaofeng said in utter shock, "That man must have been a madman! Didn't the state of Yan perish more than a thousand years ago?"
Qin Zheng replied with deep nuance, "Hard to say. After all, I never had the chance to diagnose him."
Shangguan Feiyan pursed her lips, suddenly finding it rather difficult to speak.
With that lunatic's precedent laid out, her identity as a 'Princess of the Golden Roc Dynasty' seemed to have lost every shred of credibility!
Driven to desperation, she finally produced her trump card, slipping a jade pendant from her sleeve.
At the sight of the pendant, Lu Xiaofeng's pupils contracted. "Hua Manlou's jade pendant! What did you do to him?!"
Shangguan Feiyan said, "Come with me to a certain place. Young Master Hua is there."
Lu Xiaofeng's brow furrowed. He turned to Qin Zheng. "Don't you love watching a good spectacle? Do you want to come along?"
"I have some business of my own to attend to. Go ahead by yourself."
Having said that, Qin Zheng instructed the waiter, "Draw two taels of silver from the accounts to replace the wooden door. Keep the rest of the silver as a tip for running the errand."
The waiter instantly broke into a wide smile. "Thank you, Chief!"
Xiao Qiuyu's face darkened at once. "Didn't you say the door was made of sandalwood and worth a thousand taels of silver?"
Qin Zheng shot him a sideways glance. "I also said I was your ancestor. Why don't you get down on your knees and kowtow to me?"
"You..."
Furious, Xiao Qiuyu was about to strike, but Shangguan Feiyan hurriedly shouted, "Master Xiao, don't be rash! We were the ones rude enough to break it first. Consider the money an apology to this hero."
Qin Zheng glanced at the woman and remarked with mild pity, "Good-looking enough, but lacking in the brains department..." With that, he stepped forward and headed downstairs.
In his view, Shangguan Feiyan was genuinely none too bright. Wouldn't life be far more comfortable staying by the side of a generous benefactor like Hua Manlou than following Huo Xiu? Why insist on getting tangled up with Huo Xiu? Was she drawn to his decrepit age, or perhaps his notorious stinginess?
Reaching the ground floor, Qin Zheng spotted a young girl of twelve or thirteen squatting beside a carriage wheel, poking at ants on the ground with a stalk of wild grass.
Noticing a shadow falling over her, she looked up at Qin Zheng and said, "Why are you staring at me like that? I'm studying whether it will rain today. My name is Shangguan Xue'er. Don't look down on me just because I'm small—I'm actually over twenty years old! On top of that, I am profoundly learned, possessing vast knowledge of astronomy above and geography below. What I excel at most is predicting the weather by observing ants! By the way, what's your name?"
With an expression of deep admiration, Qin Zheng replied, "I am Qin Zheng. You certainly know quite a lot. My organization happens to lack talent like yours. Would you be interested in joining my Longmen Inn?"
Shangguan Xue'er tilted her head and asked, "What's so great about joining an inn? After I join, am I supposed to learn how to cook dishes or wash bowls from you?"
Qin Zheng replied with utmost solemnity, "What I actually excel at most is solving cases. In the jianghu, people call me the foremost divine constable of Six Doors! Do you want to learn how to solve cases? I can teach you!"
Shangguan Xue'er's eyes lit up. "That's wonderful! I'll join Longmen Inn. Hurry and teach me how to solve cases!"
Qin Zheng nodded, had Shangguan Xue'er climb into the carriage, and drove it away into the distance, explaining as he went, "Thanks to some pointers from Lu Xiaofeng, I came to realize that the first rule of solving cases is that there must first be a case. Having an existing one is best, but if there isn't, we'll just create one ourselves! For example, right now I've taken you and the carriage away, thereby successfully creating a missing child case. Have you learned it yet?"
Shangguan Xue'er was stunned for a long while before suddenly snapping back to her senses. "In other words, I've been kidnapped by you right now? Did that Lu Xiaofeng instruct you to kidnap me?"
Qin Zheng smiled faintly. "You can get down right now; I certainly won't stop you. But then I won't bring you along when I go solve fun cases next."
Shangguan Xue'er hesitated for a moment, unable to suppress the curiosity in her heart. She asked, "What case are you going to solve right now?"
Qin Zheng replied solemnly, "A serial theft case! When the imperial family of the Golden Roc Dynasty came to the Central Plains, the treasures they brought were entrusted separately to three ministers: Yan Liben, Ping Duhe, and Shangguan Mu. I have received intelligence that their treasures are about to be stolen! The perpetrator is a phantom thief whose appearance is that of a child, but whose intellect surpasses ordinary mortals—known to all as Phantom Thief Wicked!"
Shangguan Xue'er drew in a sharp breath. "Then let's hurry! I'm a collateral member of the Roc Dynasty's imperial clan. We absolutely cannot let that phantom thief succeed!"
Chapter 63