After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Abandoned houses in the suburbs of Ganzhou.

Han Tingbu dismounted from the carriage but did not go inside immediately. Instead, he stood outside the courtyard, looking at the dim yellow light shining through the dilapidated gate. Curses and the sound of whips echoed from the small house, continuing for a quarter of an hour before finally ceasing.

Stepping into the courtyard, a stench of decay and blood filled the air. I covered my nose and went straight into the small hut. Two men were there; one was kneeling on the ground, the other, his hands bound, suspended in the air. Both had been beaten beyond recognition, especially the one kneeling, who was cowering and groaning, clearly on the verge of collapse.

Just then, a henchman came over and said that the two had confessed everything they could, and there was nothing new to get out of them.

The thug looked at Han Ting, "Is there anything else you'd like to ask, sir?"

Han Ting pointed to the bound man: "Take him to the courtyard."

The thug nodded to the man with the whip, who threw down the whip and roughly untied the rope in a few strokes. The man collapsed to the ground and was dragged into the yard by two men.

Sitting in the chair, propping his head up with his hand, he coldly swept his gaze over the man. The man was also looking at Han Ting. Black hair, black clothes, white skin, red lips—he exuded an eerie aura from the inside out, especially his eyes, which were frightening to behold.

Where did the grain go?

"I don't know, I really don't know, even if you beat me to death I'll still say the same thing."

"Let's change the question." Han Ting switched hands: "Have you seen that batch of grain?"

"I've met him." The man lowered his head, still glancing at Han Ting out of the corner of his eye, as if afraid that Han Ting might do something to him.

This man's eyes were filled with murderous intent.

The man's surname was Yu. He was the eldest son in his family and had been spoiled by his parents since childhood, which made him ignorant of farming and lazy. Not only was he lazy, but he also loved to gamble. When he lost, he would take things from home to sell. When his parents caught him, they would only scold him.

If his parents had been stricter, he wouldn't have done those terrible things later on.

Behind his parents' backs, he lied about his age and sent his younger brother, who was not yet sixteen, to join the army, just for the meager subsidies from the imperial court. His brother died on the battlefield, his body never recovered; his father died of grief, his mother went mad with anger, and he became the one who had nowhere to go.

To survive, he also joined the army. He was good at running and bluffing, and he knew how to flatter his superiors. He actually lived longer than his brother.

No matter how heartless or scoundrel he was, he was still a human being. Every time he saw the wounded being carried back, he felt a pang of sadness, wondering if his younger brother was in the same state. He was so young, not even sixteen yet; he must have been terrified when the enemy's blade came at him. He was so afraid of pain, yet he was hacked to pieces. Would he hate himself?

Unable to face death, he began to run away. Coincidentally, there was a mission to transport supplies, so he went along. He didn't go for nothing; he bribed his superiors.

"Which shipment of grain was it?"

"Yes and no." The man said tremblingly, "I know about the matter you asked about. Not only do I know it, but the people of Ganzhou and Yanzhou also know it. The higher-ups embezzled and withheld military rations, which led to the entrapment of the Beiliang soldiers. One wrongful conviction after another occurred, and the two prefectures were filled with innocent souls who died unjustly. But I had not yet joined the army when it happened, so I had nothing to do with those things. What I know is no different from what others know."

Seeing his evasive words, she knew he was hiding something, and said calmly, "Tell me what you know! It's your choice whether you go home before dawn or get buried before dawn."

“The military rations were not distributed by the imperial court, but were collected and transported in batches by various localities. The batch of rations that I participated in transporting was part of the rations that were collected by localities but were not transported away.”

"specific situation."

"I have no idea......"

“If you refuse to tell the truth, continue the torture.” Han Ting clenched his fists slightly and leaned back lazily in his chair. “I have something here that can amplify the pain of being whipped tenfold.”

Seeing the man's puzzled expression, Han Ting stood up slightly and looked down at him: "Ten times means that they only hit you once, but made you feel the pain of being hit ten times."

The man was frightened and shuddered, but Han Ting continued talking.

"The effects of this thing are not limited to this. It will make that pain spread throughout your body along your meridians, allowing you to truly experience what it means to wish you were dead. Come on, give him this pill."

The thugs stepped forward and, without giving the man a chance to speak, shoved the pill into his mouth. If he didn't want to swallow, no problem, they'd just give him a good punch. He could swallow anything, not just a small pill, but a whole egg.

The man choked, his throat filled with the bitter taste of the pills. He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt the pain in the areas where he had been whipped growing stronger, and his limbs involuntarily curled up.

"To say it, or not to say it?"

“I really don’t know, I don’t know what specific situation you’re asking about. I only know that the grain is stored in the county government office.” The man was slightly out of breath. “It’s an abandoned granary. All the grain is there, and it has been stored for many years.”

"Grain stored for many years? Do you think I'm stupid?" The thug swung his whip and struck the man hard. "My family are farmers. This grain can be stored for a year, but it will get moldy and infested with insects after two years."

“I’m not lying, that’s exactly what the people above told me.” The man hugged himself. “There’s something fishy going on in the county government office too. They said it was an abandoned warehouse, but there was no copper rust on the lock. And the wheel tracks on the ground are crisscrossed, many of them are new. And the grain, the bags are old, but the grain inside isn’t. Except for the grain near the door, the rest all have their own problems. Some are underweight, some are good and some are mixed together, and some even have stones mixed in.”

Fearing he would be beaten to death before he could finish speaking, the man gasped and said urgently, "I suspect the county government is deceiving its superiors and covering up the truth, and is using deceptive tactics."

Han Ting frowned: "Do you have any evidence?"

The man said, "No, if I had any evidence, I would have gone to claim credit and reward long ago."

Having said that, he twitched the corner of his mouth.

“Sir, you are a smart man, you should be able to figure it out. That was military rations procured by the imperial court, and initially they did not know that this batch of grain would be stored in the county government's warehouse, or rather, stored in the county government's warehouse for a long time. The grain they collected must be of good quality, and would never be like what we see.”

The man's words made sense; when the military rations were requisitioned, no one knew there would be a problem with this batch of grain, so they certainly wouldn't tamper with it. She closed her eyes, propped her head up, and gestured for the man to continue.

Hearing no sound, he slightly opened his eyes. Seeing this, the thug kicked the man and said gruffly, "Continue!"

"When the grain was first put into the warehouse, the county magistrate and the people in the county certainly didn't dare to touch it. Such a big case, how could a commoner like me handle it? There must be a big figure behind the Ganzhou case and the Yanzhou case. But as the matter ended and the heat died down, and the person who came to collect the grain didn't come for a long time, they started to have ideas. They used the inferior grain first and then replenished it, and slowly it became what we see in the warehouse."

Han Ting rubbed his fingers together and asked the thug beside him, "Who is the magistrate of Tianhe County?"