After a quarter of an hour, two yamen runners brought in the items and placed them in the hall.
The three officials glanced at the items, then turned to look at Ye Tian.
Prefect Chen said in a low voice, "You have everything you asked for. You must give me a satisfactory answer."
His attitude had changed.
In the past fifteen minutes, this fourth-rank official had racked his brain, and he had to admit that Ye Tian's deduction made a lot of sense. However, many questions remained unanswered, such as the fact that the tax silver falling into the river was a verifiable event.
He couldn't figure out the mystery behind it.
"If this commoner helps you solve this case, can you petition His Majesty to exonerate my Ye family?"
The Great Feng Dynasty placed great importance on family lineage. A son could atone for his father's sins or earn merit for him.
"Naturally," Prefect Chen nodded.
Ye Tian nodded and crouched down in front of the items. The props were a candle, salt, a porcelain cup, and iron wires.
The thing he was about to do was simple high school chemistry: extracting metallic sodium.
In ancient times, this was an impossible feat. There were two major difficulties: electricity and the high melting point of sodium chloride.
But in this world, Ye Tian knew there was a profession that could do this.
Si Tian Jian's Sixth-Rank Sorcerer: Alchemist!
Alchemists were a well-known profession in the Great Feng Dynasty. Their various inventions and creations had already become an integral part of ordinary people's lives.
Ye Tian wasn't sure if the explosive tax silver was definitely metallic sodium, but that wasn't important. What was important was to open up a new line of thinking to explain the phenomenon of the exploding tax silver.
In the process of solving a case, bold assumptions and rigorous deductions were essential preliminary work. Only then would one move on to verifying and collecting evidence.
In his past life, he had encountered a murder case that he remembered vividly. The detectives worked tirelessly, thinking outside the box based on clues, and came up with several possible scenarios for the case. They then collected evidence based on these theories.
Afterward, they disproved all of them and had to start their deductions from scratch.
The tax silver might not have been metallic sodium, but an alchemist could achieve this result.
That was enough.
What he needed to do was to guide the officials back in the right direction.
With the correct direction, they could follow the clues and easily find the mastermind. If they continued to struggle with the idea of a demonic creature's involvement, the case would never be solved. And even if it were solved in the future, he would have already been executed.
He dissolved the coarse salt in water, stirred it, then placed a piece of unsized paper over the mouth of the cup and slowly poured the saltwater through it.
After filtering, he placed the porcelain cup over the candle flame and stirred continuously with a bamboo stick.
In a short while, the saltwater in the cup evaporated, and the crystals that precipitated were sodium chloride.
The process was essentially to further purify the salt.
Prefect Chen, the middle-aged man, and the stunningly beautiful young woman all stood on the side, watching with rapt attention.
Ye Tian looked up and grinned at the young woman. "Are you a disciple of the Si Tian Jian?"
He had noticed the compass on her waist. No one but a Si Tian Jian disciple would use such a thing.
The young woman hummed in response and said with a grin, "My master is the Directorate of the Si Tian Jian."
Her exquisite, radiant, egg-shaped face was as flawless as a peeled egg.
The Directorate's disciple... well, the chest size doesn't matter then... Ye Tian said in a gentle voice, "Could you please melt these crystals for me, big sister?"
The melting point of sodium chloride was around 800 degrees Celsius.
The young woman pouted slightly. "Controlling fire is an ability that only alchemists have. I'm just a geomancer."
"But my master gave me a magical artifact." She then changed the subject, unhooked the compass from her waist, and with her slender, fair fingers, she moved the pointers, and with a flow of Qi, the "Fire" character lit up.
"Stand back!"
Ye Tian immediately took a step back. The next moment, a blindingly bright tongue of flame shot out, engulfing the porcelain cup.
"Stop!" Ye Tian immediately called out. He then quickly inserted two iron wires into the cup and said, "Now, electricity... no, a lightning spell! Be careful with the voltage... Hmm, this step is difficult. It might fail many times."
She spun the compass again, and her slender, fair fingers lit up the "Lightning" character. Several arcs of electricity flashed in the air and touched the iron wires.
Sizzle... The molten sodium chloride underwent a violent chemical reaction.
"Stop!"
Ye Tian held his breath and peered into the cup. A lump of silvery metal had formed, with some un-transformed crystals and impurities at the edges.
It worked on the first try! The voltage was just right... Ye Tian was pleasantly surprised.
The electrolysis method for producing metallic sodium required a voltage of about 6-15 volts. He had been prepared for repeated failures.
He hadn't expected to be so lucky and succeed on the first attempt.
Prefect Chen and the middle-aged man eagerly leaned over to look. Inside the cup was a lump of silvery metal that, at first glance, looked very similar to silver.
Prefect Chen's pupils contracted, and he was deeply shaken.
Li Yuchun clenched his fists. He stared blankly at the silvery metal lump, and it was as if a bolt of lightning struck his mind, parting all the fog.
"My lords, please observe," Ye Tian said, pouring the metallic sodium out. He wrapped it in paper and weighed it in his hand.
"This thing is much, much lighter than silver, but its appearance is very similar. If someone were to use this to impersonate silver, couldn't they fool people? You can also feel the weight for yourselves."
He handed the metallic sodium to Prefect Chen. At this point, the color of the metallic sodium was gradually turning dull, making it almost identical to silver.
The middle-aged man took it and weighed it. His eyes lit up, and he said repeatedly, "It's indeed much lighter. If they were transporting this instead, it would be logical. Miss Caiwei, you try."
The young woman in the yellow skirt took it, weighed it, and then looked at Ye Tian with a strange expression. "You... are you an alchemist?"
No, I'm not. I'm just a transporter of chemistry.
The officials' minds were finally active. After the initial surprise, Prefect Chen suddenly shook his head and said in a low voice, "No, that's not right. Even if the silver was replaced with this, what about the explosion? Unless a demon was hiding in the river, how could fake silver explode in water?"
Ye Tian didn't answer. He reached for the metallic sodium, walked to the study table, and dropped it into the brush washer.
A brilliant, hot flame ignited, and thick smoke billowed.
Boom!
The metallic sodium reacted violently in the water, and the brush washer cracked with a network of fine lines.
"This, this..." Prefect Chen was dumbfounded.
"This fake silver explodes when it touches water. This can explain why such a fierce explosion occurred after the silver fell into the water," Ye Tian explained.
The middle-aged man murmured, "From the beginning, we were misled. The mastermind used the explosion and the strange wind to make us think it was a demonic creature's doing, so we focused our investigation on tracking and searching."
"No wonder the Si Tian Jian's Qi Observation Technique couldn't detect any demons."
Ye Tian added, "After the tax silver fell into the water, the soldiers only recovered a little over a thousand taels. If I'm not mistaken, that silver was placed on the top layer to deceive people."
Everything fit together perfectly. All the anomalies were now accounted for.
"Ye Tian!" The middle-aged man looked at him with admiration. "Good, you are very good."
His brow suddenly furrowed, his gaze fixed on Ye Tian's askew collar. Li Yuchun used the action of patting his shoulder to subtly straighten his collar.
Ye Tian was flattered. This official appreciated him so much.
Prefect Chen frowned. "Since the silver was fake, where did the real silver go?"
Hearing this, the young woman in the yellow skirt also looked serious. "The tax silver passed through many hands from the treasury to the capital. If we're to lay blame, a large number of officials would have to be imprisoned, and recovering the silver would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Furthermore, this matter is beyond our jurisdiction. We must report to His Majesty."
Prefect Chen nodded. That was what he meant.
The middle-aged man had a different opinion. His voice was low. "The tax silver was escorted to the capital, passing through many hands. If it was fake from the start, it would have been discovered long ago. The only possibility is that it was swapped out recently."
Prefect Chen's eyes lit up. This greatly narrowed the scope of the investigation.
"Someone! Get the sedan chair ready! Quickly! I must go out," Prefect Chen said urgently, rushing out of the inner hall.
The middle-aged man followed closely behind.
Ye Tian quickly called out, "My lord prefect, please don't forget your promise to this commoner."