After lunch, Chu Mu finally walked out of the Fengyue Tower.
Standing before the Fengyue Tower once more, Chu Mu seemed weighed down with worry.
It wasn't that he hadn't enjoyed himself, but rather that he had just heard another tale of gods and ghosts inside.
The protagonist of this story was a Singing Girl from Tinglang Workshop, which… one might say was Nanshan Town's former pleasure quarter.
Simply put, it was the story of a woman of the night and an impoverished scholar.
The scholar was poor and naturally couldn't afford to buy her freedom, which led to the classic tale of eloping.
But news of their elopement was leaked by the woman's close friend. On the day they were to run away, the scholar was beaten to death on the spot, and the woman was dragged back to Tinglang Workshop and abused until she died.
Then, that very night, a sudden, vicious fire broke out, burning Tinglang Workshop completely to ashes.
Passersby heard endless wails coming from within, and some faintly saw malevolent ghosts in the flames.
Inspectors and townsfolk tried to fight the fire, but splashing cold water on it was like adding fuel to the flames, making it burn even stronger.
One Singing Girl tried to escape but was dragged directly back into the fire by a ghost.
Overnight, everyone in the pleasure house, from top to bottom, including the guests—seventy-eight souls in all—was burned to cinders.
The current Fengyue Tower only appeared in this town after Tinglang Workshop had been reduced to ashes.
The old site of Tinglang Workshop, a source of great scandal and rumor, lay abandoned for a long time. It was only a few years ago that the Government Office requisitioned the land to build a warehouse for storing Ore Materials.
Chu Mu glanced toward the end of the street. Every day after finishing his shift at the mines, he would pass by that warehouse area. He just never expected such a story lay behind it.
Hearing two so-called ghost stories in a single morning, even Chu Mu, who didn't much believe in such things, couldn't help but feel an inexplicable chill run down his spine.
'This is just bizarre. I came here to listen to music, so how did I end up hearing another ghost story!'
Chu Mu grumbled to himself, pulled his clothes tighter around him, and didn't linger. He quickened his pace and hurried home.
Perhaps it was just psychological, but upon entering his home—a place that usually brought him a sense of peace—he felt an inexplicable creepiness.
WHIMPER...
As he entered his room, the puppy whimpered and rubbed against his leg. Chu Mu crouched down to pet it, and the unsettling feeling finally began to fade.
He lit the stove, changed into a clean set of clothes, and picked up a book before slowly leaning back against his bed.
As soon as he opened the book, his restless heart began to calm down, and his focus naturally shifted entirely to the text.
The warmth of the wine still lingered, and the flickering stove fire added to the coziness. He felt warm all over; it was incredibly comfortable.
Time ticked by. He wasn't sure how long had passed before he finally finished reading the book.
Chu Mu closed the book, shut his eyes, and reviewed its contents in his mind before slowly setting it down.
Unlike the previous historical record, this volume, while still a type of history, was a chronicle of local strange events.
Specifically... the Qinghe County Chronicles for Qinghe County, where he currently resided.
Great Chu had existed for seven hundred years, and Qinghe County for nearly as long. Naturally, the County Annals couldn't be contained in a single thin volume.
Of course, the volume in his hands wasn't the official County Annals.
After all, the County Annals were compiled by the County Magistrate's Office and stored there—certainly not something a lowly Inspector like him could access.
Strictly speaking, the book he held was an unofficial account, a folk history, known as the Nanshan Wild Chronicles, written by a local scholar.
The Nanshan in the title naturally referred to Nanshan Town, where he now lived.
According to the Nanshan Wild Chronicles, the Nanshan Iron Ore mine officially began operations about sixty-some years ago, and Nanshan Town slowly formed as a result of the mining.
Before the Iron Ore was mined, this area was nothing but a desolate, uninhabited wilderness.
This volume of the Nanshan Chronicles contained detailed records of all the major events that had occurred in Nanshan Town over the years.
To Chu Mu's surprise, the tale of gods and ghosts he'd heard today at the Fengyue Tower was also recorded in these Nanshan Chronicles.
However, the author had clearly embellished it, adding things about karmic retribution and the cycle of the Celestial Dao. It could be read entirely as a ghost story, and the writer's personal opinions were quite obvious.
But what concerned Chu Mu the most in the Nanshan Wild Chronicles were the records concerning the Nanshan Iron Ore mine.
Specifically, what Chu Mu had been worried about... uprisings and rebellions...
After all, the harshness of the Forced Labor in Qinghe County could hardly be described as merely "severe."
Decades of such unrelenting Forced Labor... Chu Mu would have found it unbelievable if there *hadn't* been any rebellions.
Things seemed stable for now, but who knew when some "one-eyed stone figure" incident would spark a full-blown rebellion in Nanshan.
And the records in the Nanshan Wild Chronicles happened to prove Chu Mu's suspicions.
According to the Nanshan Wild Chronicles, in the sixty-plus years since the Nanshan Iron Ore mine began operations, there had been a total of three popular uprisings!
In the most severe case, the uprising engulfed the entire Nanshan Town. It was only suppressed when the Commandery City sent troops.
Three uprisings in sixty years...
Chu Mu let out a long breath. Combining this with what he had seen in his nearly one month at the Inspection Office, the reasons for many things were not hard to deduce.
In the end, it was all just human greed at work.
As far as he knew, the Commandery City assigned an annual extraction quota to the Nanshan Iron Ore mine.
This meant that every year, Qinghe County had to meet the quota set by the Commandery City.
If they met it, all was well. If they failed, officials would lose their posts, and heads would roll.
To protect their official positions, the masters in the county would certainly do whatever it took to meet the Commandery City's quota.
But the reality was, for the people of Qinghe County, the work they had to complete was clearly more than just the quota assigned by the Commandery City...
After all, men are not saints. Who could guard a Treasure Mountain without being tempted by the riches?
This was undoubtedly a vicious cycle, through and through.
The Commandery City wanted Ore Materials, the masters in the county also needed Ore Materials to line their pockets, and the thousand-plus officials throughout Qinghe County all had their hands outstretched toward this Treasure Mountain.
The big players took the meat, and the smaller ones drank the soup.
One link connected to the next, forming the very web of interests that Chu Mu had suspected.
Even if someone wanted to improve the conditions of the Forced Labor or lessen the burden on the people of Qinghe County, it would be nearly impossible to achieve.
'The most recent uprising was six years ago...'
'The same year the original owner's father was transferred to Nanshan Town...'
A sudden realization dawned on Chu Mu. No wonder the original owner's father, who had been doing well in the county seat, was abruptly transferred to Nanshan Town.
'What was the original owner even doing all these years? How could he know nothing about any of this!'
Chu Mu tried hard to remember but couldn't find a single trace of information about the uprising in the original owner's memories. The most prominent memories seemed to be of him cooped up in this courtyard, playing with that Xu Yuan...
...