Xuanqing Guard

"In the 21st year of Jing’s Old Calendar, in He Family Village, the four-year-old twin daughters of the Hedong Shu Family went missing while playing at the village entrance. After the case was reported, there were no results. The whereabouts of the two girls remain unknown to this day..." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"In the 19th year of Jing’s Old Calendar, in Hao City, the six-year-old youngest son of Xue Yongren, owner of a pawnshop, disappeared while playing outside the shop. After reporting the case and searching the entire city, there were still no leads, and the child remains missing to this day..."

"In the 23rd year of Jing’s Old Calendar, in Five Rams City at Ten-mile Inn, the six-year-old youngest son of Xin Ya Yi vanished while playing hide-and-seek with his companions..."

"..."

After Shen Hao sorted the first batch of accumulated cases from various cities by category, he discovered that, besides those trivial matters, the cases truly worth investigating were missing persons cases—especially missing children cases.

Among the more than a hundred archived cases submitted, there were as many as thirteen cases of missing children!

This was a truly chilling number, one that immediately caught Shen Hao’s attention.

"Bring over the original files for these thirteen missing persons cases. Immediately."

"Yes, General Flag."

When a superior utters a word, those below must run themselves ragged to comply.

These cases were all ordinary local incidents; the files wouldn’t be kept in the Xuanqing Guard but rather stored in the Records Room of each Local Government Office. But now that Shen Hao had spoken, did the local government offices dare refuse? By now, who didn’t know there was an ’Evil Star’ called Shen Hao in the Li City Xuanqing Guard?

Still, even though everyone worked as quickly as possible, it still took most of a day for these thirteen case files to be gathered from various city Records Rooms.

Yet... the thickness of each file was obviously different.

All missing persons cases, all involving lost children, but some files were two inches thick, containing detailed records and extensive documentation of investigative procedures. Others were merely a thin sheaf, basically just a brief record of the incident and a few statements from those involved, with almost no investigation conducted.

The sole reason for this lay in the backgrounds of those involved: the deeper the family’s connections, the more actively the offices investigated. If the background was weak, the authorities just went through the motions or ignored the case entirely.

This was the reality.

With so many cases throughout the year and limited hands in the Government Office, it was natural to prioritize those cases with clear clues and easier resolution. For murkier disappearances, unless your family had enough clout, who would willingly take on such thankless work?

So as time passed, the backlog only grew.

In fact, it wasn’t just that missing persons cases piled up; it was simply that the first batch of submitted cold cases happened to have many of this type—presumably, these children’s parents were the most desperate.

After thinking for a while, Shen Hao glanced at the sky outside. It was almost 3 p.m. He rose from the Public Office, turned a corner, and strolled over to Chen Tianwen’s place nearby.

"General Flag Chen, still busy?"

"Heh, just fussing about. General Flag Shen, is there something you need?"

"Yes, I have some things I’d like to consult you about, General Flag Chen."

"Oh? Then have a seat and let’s talk."

Once seated, Shen Hao went straight to the point: "How much do you know about the brokerage business, General Flag Chen?"

"The brokerage?" Chen Tianwen laughed. "General Flag Shen, are you keeping an eye on those people in the brokerage?"

"Heh, not at all, General Flag Chen, you’ve misunderstood. It’s just that I have a case at hand involving missing persons, so I’d like to ask you about the brokerage’s acquisition channels."

"You’re suspecting the brokerage is involved in illicit trafficking?"

"I wouldn’t go that far yet. I’m just trying to understand the situation. You know I’ve always handled grassroots cases, so I’m not too familiar with these local dealings."

"Alright, I can tell you what I know. But if you want the really fine details, I think you’ll have to go to the brokerage and ask personally."

"Much appreciated, General Flag Chen."

Waving his hand dismissively, Chen Tianwen explained: "The brokerage is the only population trafficking point legally permitted by the Dynasty. Mainly, they handle foreign slaves and families of criminals or Sinful Officials demoted to servitude.

No need for me to explain about criminals and families of Sinful Officials, right? You should know all about that.

Also, now that there’s no war, I hear foreign slaves mostly come from major slave-hunting trading firms. Those firms are backed by the topmost elites in the Dynasty and control nearly ninety percent of the foreign slave market.

What I just mentioned are the official channels. As for the gray areas—yes, they exist. Mainly, these are deals from the private sector. For example, in disaster-stricken areas, people unable to support their children might sign paperwork at the brokerage to sell them off—essentially giving their children a chance to survive. Or, if in need of money, people can also resell their own slaves through the brokerage.

The Dynasty’s control over the brokerage is still quite stringent, with many restrictions, and every transaction has to be reported to the Local Government Office for the record.

That’s all I know."

Shen Hao pressed on: "So, are there truly no loopholes in the brokerage’s system? Right now, slave trading is the most profitable business. Are you telling me they’re all just sitting quietly?"

"And what if they can’t sit still? Like I said, the biggest beneficiaries nowadays are those slave-trading firms, and each of them has connections everywhere. They guard the brokerage—the one and only point of entry—like hawks. Anyone who disrupts the order is cutting into their profits. The brokerage itself doesn’t dare to provoke the powers behind those firms."

Hearing this, Shen Hao began to understand: Although the brokerage appeared illustrious on the surface, it had actually been commandeered by the top slave-trading firms, turning into a tool for the enrichment of a privileged few. And this tool was built upon the framework of "rules." Anyone breaking those rules directly threatened the vested interests of these elites.

So, the brokerage was far cleaner than it seemed.

Although Chen Tianwen was curious which missing persons case Shen Hao was investigating, since Shen Hao didn’t explain, he tactfully didn’t press further. Still, the fact that Shen Hao would come to him when hitting a snag made Chen Tianwen quite pleased; he secretly congratulated himself that his previous efforts had paid off.

Unlike those who envied the Black Banner Battalion, Chen Tianwen saw further. He read the firm support for Black Banner Battalion from above and foresaw it becoming a likely rising power. After all, isn’t befriending rising stars when they’re unknown more valuable than currying favor when they’re already strong? If Shen Hao—this pillar of Black Banner Battalion—rose swiftly, wouldn’t he also benefit from the association?

...

Leaving Chen Tianwen’s Public Office, Shen Hao returned to his own quarters and once again picked up those case files for review. His plan was to establish a special Inspector group focused exclusively on these long-unsolved cases of missing children and to make the operation ongoing.

Even solving just one out of a hundred cold cases would have a remarkable effect among the public.

So what Shen Hao had to do now was pick one promising case out of these thirteen missing children cases—a case that still had some chance of being solved—as the starting point.

Yet as he read, Shen Hao’s brows suddenly knitted together. He hadn’t noticed before, but now realized that several of the missing children cases shared the same birth dates.

"9th day of the ninth month, 13th year of Jing’s Old Calendar... Two? That’s a coincidence."

"2nd day of the second month, 17th year of Jing’s Old Calendar... Three cases, also a coincidence?"

As someone trained in criminal investigation, the word Shen Hao trusted least was "coincidence"—especially when such so-called ’coincidences’ appeared in clusters.