Mr. Brooks said unhappily, “If you have something to say, just say it. Don’t beat around the bush.”

Andrew Bennett had originally intended to give a hint and let the adults figure out this huge flaw themselves, but it seemed to have backfired.

Your mental arithmetic is a bit low, you bunch of ancient people... Andrew Bennett immediately said, “It’s nine thousand three hundred and seven.”

According to this world’s conversion formula, one jin is sixteen liang, so two taels of silver is nine thousand three hundred and seven.

The middle-aged man frowned, vaguely grasping something.

The girl in the yellow dress furrowed her brows. “What does that prove?”

Her voice was as crisp as a silver bell.

It proves you’re not very smart!

Andrew Bennett said, “How far is it from the city gate to Guangnan Street?”

The middle-aged man replied, “Thirty li.”

“How many busy markets are passed along the way?”

“...Four.”

“How fast is a nag?”

“A nag...” The middle-aged man’s eyes suddenly widened, and he shot to his feet.

He stared hard, showing an expression of sudden realization—“So that’s how it is!”

Three days of tracking and searching for the monster’s traces had yielded nothing. This experienced night watchman had already realized they might be heading in the wrong direction.

But he didn’t have a clear train of thought, so after being denied earlier, he hadn’t given it more thought.

Mr. Brooks felt a tingling on his scalp, because he still hadn’t figured out what the problem was, making him seem particularly lacking in wisdom as the magistrate.

Mr. Brooks glanced at the girl in the yellow dress, feeling somewhat comforted.

The girl in the yellow dress said gloomily, “What’s the problem?”

The middle-aged man said excitedly, “The timing, the timing doesn’t add up.”

“Guangnan Street is a full thirty li from the south city gate. With a nag’s speed, passing through four busy markets along the way, entering the city at the second quarter of the mao hour, it’s impossible to reach Guangnan Street by the first quarter of the chen hour.”

He had been influenced by preconceived notions, believing it was a monster that had stolen the tax silver. But after Andrew Bennett’s careful unraveling, he immediately realized the problem.

“But the tax silver was indeed delivered to Guangnan Street at the chen hour. There were plenty of citizens who saw the horse rush into the river at the time—it couldn’t have been faked,” the girl in the yellow dress said crisply.

Mr. Brooks nodded in satisfaction and agreed, “How do you explain this?”

This... The middle-aged man was stumped and instinctively looked at Andrew Bennett.

“Because what was being escorted wasn’t silver at all,” Andrew Bennett said forcefully.

“Absurd!” Mr. Brooks retorted. “Never mind whether your second uncle and the escorting soldiers are blind, the case file contains statements from citizens present at the time. The horse rushed into the river, and bright white silver rolled into the water.”

He shook the case file in his hand. “Is that fake too?”

“Seeing is not always believing... This humble one is willing to personally clear up your doubts,” he said, his gaze falling on the desk. “May I borrow some paper and a brush?”

Mr. Brooks waved his hand, signaling him to go ahead.

Andrew Bennett, dragging his shackles, came to the desk, poured water to grind the ink, spread out the xuan paper, and began to write in a crooked hand.

“Sir, please prepare the items listed on the paper as I request,” he said after finishing, handing the xuan paper to Mr. Brooks.

Mr. Brooks took the paper and glanced at it, completely baffled.

“Let me see.” The girl in the yellow dress came over to join the fun, reaching out her snow-white, delicate hand to take the paper.

And was also completely baffled.

“......” The middle-aged man John Carter glanced at the paper, put on a blank expression, discreetly smoothed out a folded corner, and then handed it back to Mr. Brooks.

Chapter Five: Solving the Mystery

A quarter of an hour later, two yamen runners brought the items in and set them in the hall.

The three adults glanced at the equipment, then turned to look at Andrew Bennett.

Mr. Brooks said in a deep voice, “Everything you asked for is here. Be sure to give this official a satisfactory answer.”

His attitude had changed somewhat.

During that quarter of an hour, this fourth-rank official had racked his brains for a long time and had to admit that Andrew Bennett’s deduction made a lot of sense, but there were still many mysteries unsolved—such as the fact that the tax silver did fall into the river.

What was the secret behind it? He couldn’t figure it out.

Andrew Bennett nodded, squatted in front of the equipment, and in front of him were a candle, salt, a porcelain cup, and iron wire.

What he was about to do was very simple—high school chemistry: extracting metallic sodium.

In ancient times, this would have been impossible to extract. Two difficulties: electricity and the melting point of sodium chloride.

But in this world, Andrew Bennett knew there was a profession that could do it.

The sixth rank of the Directorate of Celestial Monitoring: Alchemist!

Alchemists were a household name in Great Feng. Their various inventions and creations had long been integrated into ordinary people’s lives.

Andrew Bennett wasn’t sure if the exploding tax silver was definitely metallic sodium—that wasn’t important. What mattered was opening up a line of reasoning to explain the phenomenon of the tax silver explosion.

In the process of solving a case, bold hypotheses and rigorous reasoning are essential in the early stages. Only at the end do you verify and collect evidence.

In his previous life, he had once encountered a murder case that left a deep impression on him. The detectives worked through the night, brainstorming based on clues, making several conjectures about the course of the case, and then collecting evidence based on those.

Then they overturned all of them and started reasoning again.

The tax silver might not be metallic sodium either. In any case, an alchemist could do it.

That was enough.