Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Chapter 5: Unraveling the Mystery

Chapter 5: Unraveling the Mystery

After 15 minutes, two constables entered with the objects and placed them down.

The trio glanced at the items and then turned towards Xu Qi'An.

Magistrate Chen spoke in a deep voice, “everything that you wanted is now here. You must give me a satisfactory answer.”

His attitude had changed.

Within those 15 minutes, this upper fourth rank official had been wracking his brain for a long while. He must admit that Xu Qi'An’s deduction made sense. But, there were still many mysteries that were still unsolved. Such as the fact that the tax silver had really fell into the river.

He could not figure out the truth within all the conflicting information.

“If this humble one had assisted your excellency in solving the case, would an appeal be made to pardon my family of any punishments?”

The Great Feng paid great attention on paternal hereditary. A son could inherit his father’s punishments, and also dismiss his father’s punishments by creating accomplishments.

“Naturally.” Magistrate Chen affirmed.

Xu Qi'An nodded, then crouched down in front of the items. It composed of candles, salt, ceramic cups and metal wires.

What he wanted to do was a simple chemistry experiment taught in schools: Extracting sodium.

In the ancient world, it was impossible to produce such a feat. There were two issues: electricity, and the melting point of sodium chloride.

But, in this world, Xu Qi'An knows of someone that could achieve this.

A sixth-grade practitioner of the Astronomy Directorate: The Alchemist!

Alchemists were considered to be a known occupation in the Great Feng. Their numerous inventions, and creations had already assimilated itself into the life of a common person.

Xu Qi'An was not sure if the exploding silver was actually sodium, but it was not important. The priority is to open an alternative option to explain the phenomena in which the tax silver might have exploded.

In the process of solving cases, making bold hypotheses and intense scrutiny in deduction were important tasks to complete. At last, the ideas must be proven and evidences must be discovered.

He had been through a memorable murder case in his past life. The detectives spent entire days and nights figuring out the case according to the evidences provided. They made a few different hypothetical scenarios on the process and used it as the basis on gathering evidences.

Then they scrapped the hypotheses and started deducting again.

The tax silver might not actually be sodium, but it was enough if the alchemists could synthesize it.

That alone was enough.

In order to find the correct direction for the investigators, this was what he had to do.

If the direction was correct, then they could follow the grapevine and investigate. Then it would not be difficult to find the persons behind it.

If they were mired in the conclusion that the monsters were behind this, the case will never be solved. Even if it were solved eventually, he would be sent far away from his hometown at that point: Country rooads, take me home!

He first mixed the rough salt into the water. After mixing thoroughly, he covered the cup’s opening with paper and poured the salt water mix inside.

After the filtering, he heated that ceramic cup above a burning candle. He stirred it constantly with a bamboo stick.

Not long after, the salt water in the cup had evaporated. The remaining crystals inside were salt, sodium chloride.

The purpose was to further refine the salt.

Magistrate Chen, the middle-aged man, and the beautiful young lady stood around him and observed with great interest.

Xu Qi'An raised his head and grinned at the young lady. “Your excellency must be a practitioner in the Astronomy Directorate, right?”

He noticed the Feng’Shui tablet[1] on her waist. This trinket would only be useful for those who came from the Astronomy Directorate.

The young lady affirmed, she gleefully asked, “My master is the Astronomy Directorate’s director.”

Her beautiful oval face, was akin to a shell-less hard-boiled egg. It was flawlessly smooth.

‘Director’s own apprentice… the breasts are just whatever…’ Xu Qi'An spoke gently, “Sister, please melt these crystals for me.”

Sodium chloride’s melting point was about 800 degrees Celcius.

The young lady pouted her small lips. “Controlling fire is an ability that only alchemists could perform. I am only a Feng’Shui practitioner.

But my master gave me a trinket.” She changed her tone, pulling out the Feng’Shui tablet on her waist. Her slender fingers fiddled with it and inserted some qi. The ‘Fire’ symbol on the tablet lit up.

“Back off!”

Xu Qi'An immediately backed off. The next moment, a blinding gust of flame was ejected and it swallowed the ceramic cup.

“Stop!” Xu Qi'An immediately yelled. He then swiftly stuffed two metal wires into the ceramic cup, and asked, “Connect the elec… No, use thunder! Pay attention to the intensity… Uh, this is a difficult step, it might fail many times.”

She flicked the Feng’Shui tablet, her slender fingers lit up the ‘Thunder’ symbol. Few flashes of thunder crackled across the air, and made contact on the metal wires.

Bzzt… The melted sodium chloride started an intense chemical reaction.

“Stop!”

Xu Qi'An held his breath as he walked forward to peek at the cup’s opening. He saw a lump bright sliver metal had formed. There were still some crystals and waste substances around the rim.

It had succeeded on the first try, the electrical current was just right. Xu Qi'An was surprised.

Producing Sodium from electrolysis, it required an electrical current of 6 to 15 volts. He was already prepared for the experiment to fail.

But it seemed like luck was on his side, as he had already succeeded on the first try.

Magistrate Chen and the middle-aged man enthusiastically looked over, only to see a silver lump of metal within the cup. At a glance, it looked quite similar to white silver.

Magistrate Chen’s pupils had shrunk, he was shocked to the core.

Li Yu’Chun clenched his fist tightly. Looking at the silver metal in a daze, he felt as if a thunder had flashed through his brain. It had removed all the shroud of mystery in within him.

“Your excellencies, please observe.” Xu Qi'An poured out the piece of metallic sodium and wrapped it with a piece of paper, feeling it with his hand.

“This thing is much lighter than silver, but the appearance is almost identical. What if someone used it to imitate silver, could it be enough to achieve it? Your excellencies could also test it out.”

He handed the sodium to Magistrate Chen. At this moment, the metallic sodium slowly darkened, looking identical to a piece of silver.

The middle-aged man took it and felt its weight. His eyes glowed and he said, “it is indeed much lighter. If this is what was transported, everything would completely make sense. Miss Cai Wei, you try it out.”

The young lady took it and examined. Then she looked at Xu Qi'An with suspicion. “You, are you an alchemist?”

‘No. I am not. I am only a user of chemistry.’

A scholar’s thinking was always sharper, as Magistrate Chen shook his head soon after recovering from surprise. He muttered, “No. Not right. Even with the silver being replaced by this thing, how could the explosion be explained? Unless monsters were hidden under the river, it is impossible that the fake silver could explode underwater.”

Xu Qi'An did not answer, he took the piece of sodium and walked towards the table. Then tossed it into the brush-washing receptacle[2].

A bright flame erupted, smoke spewed into the air.

Bang!

Metallic sodium reacted violently in the water, the receptacle was left with many narrow cracks after the impact.

“This, this…” Magistrate Chen was stunned.

“This fake silver will explode in contact with water. This is able to explain why there were massive explosions after the silver had dropped into the river.” Xu Qi'An explained.

The middle-aged man muttered, “from the beginning, we were misguided. The mastermind behind this used the explosion and gust of wind to make us think that the monsters are behind this. So that it would become the focus and priority of the investigation.

No wonder the Astronomy Directorate’s Qi Examination Method couldn’t detect any monsters.”

Xu Qi'An added. “After the silver dropped underwater, the soldiers could only recover a thousand or so taels. If I were to guess, these are silver taels that were stacked at the top as a disguise.”

A tight-knit explanation, all of the discrepancies were matched.

“Xu Qi'An!” The middle-aged man’s eyes were filled with praise. “Good. You did well.”

His brows suddenly furrowed. His gaze was frozen on Xu Qi'An’s misaligned collar. Li Yu’Chun took the opportunity to properly adjust his collar as he was patting his shoulder.

Xu Qi'An was honored that such an esteemed person was giving him this much praise.

Magistrate Chen frowned. “Since the silver was actually fake, then where did the real ones go?”

The young lady’s face also turned solemn as she heard those words. “The tax silver leaving the treasury and entering the capital will have to go through many steps. If we were to track responsibilities, many government officials will be condemned into prison. Moreover, the difficulty in tracing the money is not easier than finding the needle in a haystack. This situation is well over our reach, we must inform his majesty.”

Magistrate Chen nodded, he also held the same opinion.

On the other hand, the middle-aged man had a different opinion. His voice was deep. “The tax silver was escorted all the way into the capital and went through many inspections. If it were fake, it would’ve been discovered much earlier. The only explanation is that it was recent that it was swapped with fakes.”

Magistrate Chen’s eyes lit up, this would greatly reduce the search radius.

“Hear me, prepare the carriage, quickly. I must head out.” Magistrate Chen ran out of the back hall hurriedly.

The middle-aged man quickly followed behind.

Xu Qi'An urgently yelled. “Sir Magistrate, do not forget the promise you made to this humble one.”

 



[1] AKA Feng’Shui compass/table. Looks like this.

[2] Ceramic ware to wash ink brushes. Looks like this.





1 comment:

  1. I guess he's just permanently in a big brain mood. Sodium extraction worked out on the first time? Absolutely wild.

    Thanks for the chappie!

    ReplyDelete