After Lian Shenwei recovered his wrist, six days had passed. The Crown Prince and the other two princes were locked in fierce open and covert struggles.
Ying Jingjue hadn’t disappointed his expectations. Following the clues he’d deliberately left, he found the location where he’d moved the embezzled funds. However, the First Prince and Third Prince’s people kept obstructing.
Though he’d already broken through to the Kaiyang Realm, his energy wasn’t entirely focused on martial practice, so his martial prowess was somewhat lacking. But with Li Ningfeng accompanying him to work the case, Ying Jingjue made breakthroughs very quickly.
Violence was sometimes key to breaking deadlocks.
At this moment, the two of them led their men, hurrying toward where the embezzled funds were hidden.
“Ningfeng, why do I feel like your internal energy has become much more turbulent recently?”
“Has it?”
Li Ningfeng raised an eyebrow. “Though I have been practicing quite hard lately. I asked my master about some things I didn’t understand, but I haven’t received a reply yet.”
He’d always followed his master’s instructions—delivering letters to the manor in the suburbs, from where others would send them onward.
“Your master still won’t meet you?” Ying Jingjue smiled. “Before, when he first initiated correspondence with you, you were so guarded. Now you’re the one wanting to meet your master, subtly and indirectly extending invitations.”
Li Ningfeng said matter-of-factly, “If Master won’t meet me, he naturally has his reasons. Wandering masters traveling the four corners—how much time do they have for mundane worldly affairs?”
“Even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand.”
Ying Jingjue replied, “How would I not understand? I know a bit about the jianghu. Young Master Ximian is a master I admire.”
“…Your Highness,” Li Ningfeng smiled helplessly, “Go randomly grab anyone our age in the jianghu—who among them doesn’t know Young Master Ximian? He’s the divine figure ranked first on the Jianghu Winds and Clouds Rankings—”
“Look out!”
His voice suddenly sharpened as he yanked Ying Jingjue back. His longsword rang as it left its sheath!
From the surrounding rooftops, dozens of archers emerged. Arrows flew toward them like rain.
Ying Jingjue waved his hand and said coldly, “Take them down!”
“Stay here. I’ll catch one alive!”
Li Ningfeng assessed the combat strength of both sides, leaped up, and stepped on arrow shafts as he charged toward the right side.
A quarter-hour later, they’d lost some of the men they’d brought, while the assassins who had just shot arrows at them were now all lying on the ground.
Black blood spewed from their mouths—they were already dead.
Ying Jingjue said, “They had poison hidden in their mouths. All dead soldiers.”
“Who do you think sent them?”
Ying Jingjue slowly stood up, looking toward the mansion ahead.
“No rush.”
He waved his hand. The guards following behind immediately kicked down the door and entered.
This place was what they’d spent so many days investigating—where the embezzled funds were hidden. A mansion hidden in the suburbs, within the capital’s boundaries, yet they’d gone in circles for a long time searching.
Truly hidden under the lamplight.
The guards went in to search for a while and found embezzled funds in many places throughout the mansion.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince! We found it!”
“There’s some here too!”
Box after box was carried out and placed in the center of the courtyard. Opening them one by one to look, there were countless gold, silver, and copper coins. Antiques and precious calligraphy, each piece priceless, not to mention other miscellaneous jewelry and jade.
Eventually, they filled almost the entire space.
Li Ningfeng’s eyes widened slightly. “…This much?!”
This was just from one provincial examination in Nan’an, yet they could embezzle this much silver. Was scholars’ money really so easy to earn?!
Ying Jingjue said, “This is still the lesser amount. The military provisions the court allocates to the frontier each year suffer from even more severe layer-upon-layer deductions. Actually, military matters are somewhat better. The year of the Jiangdong floods, the relief grain the court sent down—by the time it reached the common people’s bowls, only a few sparse grains of rice remained.”
He pressed his lips together, his gaze gradually becoming resolute, his hands tucked in his sleeves slowly clenching.
“If one day, I can…”
Can ascend that supreme dragon throne and consolidate power.
Li Ningfeng patted his shoulder. “You will. Your Highness is already doing very well now.”
Ying Jingjue exhaled and answered his earlier question. “Those who ambushed us just now were obviously people secretly monitoring our movements. So stupid—aside from Third Imperial Brother, I can’t think of anyone else.”
“Consort Rou also participated. That woman truly stops at nothing for her son.” Li Ningfeng stretched lazily.
But regardless, the embezzled funds had been found. Under interrogation, the Nan’an Education Commissioner had implicated quite a few cheating students. Pulling up the radish brought out the mud—this time, Nan’an examinees were severely implicated.
Li Ningfeng glanced at his friend. “Smooth conclusion, but you don’t seem very happy?”
Ying Jingjue shook his head.
During the process of investigating the whereabouts of the embezzled funds, he’d found traces connected to Lian Shenwei many times, but whenever he pursued them, the trail went cold.
This mansion also had countless connections to him.
But all the collected clues only pointed to him. Even if he presented them all, given Father Emperor’s bias, it would be impossible to convict Lian Shenwei.
However… he didn’t know if it was his imagination, but Ying Jingjue always felt that though the Nan’an matter encountered many obstacles during investigation, overall it could be called smooth.
Many clues were minute but came timely.
As if someone was secretly orchestrating everything, giving him the feeling of being guided through the investigation.
Ying Jingjue suppressed this inexplicable thought.
What Lian Shenwei had done, he remembered stroke by stroke. He’d return it all in due time. What mattered most now was the Nan’an matter and his two foolish imperial brothers.
“Take these things and go.”
–
At the same time.
The suburban border.
Insect chirping was particularly noticeable at night.
Ye Mingqin hadn’t been transferred to the Ministry of Justice but went to the Court of Judicial Review instead.
Because of her connection to Lian Shenwei, she had resources, though she’d also been ostracized plenty. During her time as an official, she’d gradually accumulated her own team based on ability.
However, upon entering the Court of Judicial Review, she’d been assigned a meaningless idle task—
Investigating whether Luan Qingan had any privately acquainted associates.
Everyone in the capital knew full well that this charge of Luan Qingan colluding with the enemy was falsely pinned on him by Lian Shenwei. Ye Mingqin being assigned this task was clearly someone deliberately making things difficult for her.
Ye Mingqin wanted to be a good official. Her sworn brother had once told her that she was herself, and Lian Shenwei was Lian Shenwei. She was first an individual, and only second his sworn sister.
From this statement, she’d grasped a principle her sworn brother was trying to teach her:
Justice is justice, righteousness is righteousness, and human sentiment is human sentiment.
This was what she’d comprehended so far.
Law and emotion—distinctly separate, best kept unstained by each other.
People who worked with Ye Mingqin at the imperial prison had a unified evaluation of her: flexible and adaptable, kind-faced but cold-hearted.
Ye Mingqin could care for someone very tenderly and handle relationships with surrounding colleagues very well. But if any of these people committed a crime that happened to fall within her jurisdiction—
She would provide relatively better prison conditions, then mercilessly lock them up and handle them according to law.
Those who weren’t cold-hearted and ruthless had no way of advancing.
She’d followed the Wei Li matter for a few days. He was indeed innocent. When her sworn brother killed him, he violated the law. Actually, it wasn’t just the Wei Li matter…
This contradicted what she’d always upheld in her heart.
Her sworn brother was different from others. Without him, there would be no Ye Mingqin today. She didn’t know if there would ever come a day when she ultimately chose to stand on her sworn brother’s opposing side.
Deep in her heart, she was unwilling to believe her sworn brother was as deplorable as those people said. So when handling matters related to Lian Shenwei, Ye Mingqin always remained extremely vigilant.
Even though the Court of Judicial Review had assigned her a perfunctory case about the Shunchang Earl’s Manor’s collusion—with related remaining investigation tasks—she still executed it very conscientiously.
Who would have thought that with this investigation, she actually uncovered some clues.
Someone had seen a blindfolded blind man named Ah De appearing multiple times around the Earl’s Manor. Because he could avoid obstacles on the road each time, some people still remembered him.
Ye Mingqin traced him and discovered that the blind man Ah De had already died on a suburban road leading to who knows where. She pried open the man’s eyes to look—
He was indeed blind, with no eyeballs at all.
One leg was broken, unhealed and untreated. But the fatal wound was only one cut on the side of his neck. He’d been murdered, with professional technique.
Who would specifically go kill a blind man?
Unless this blind man knew things he shouldn’t know.
The place where she was now was a section of alleys in the suburbs.
Dark and oppressive, with a few scattered households lighting dim kerosene lamps.
From time to time, furtive men pulling up their pants would emerge from these lit houses.
This was a place where unlicensed prostitutes received clients. Some women without money, or male prostitutes, would rent a small room here. Every night, if they planned to receive clients, they’d open the door and light a lamp, and naturally people looking to stray would catch the scent and come.
Sometimes, the lamps in the rooms would stay lit all night.
Of course, some people also kept mistresses of humble birth here.
Unlicensed prostitution persisted despite repeated prohibitions—clearly someone was behind it. Ye Mingqin didn’t plan to directly confront the people here. She’d come to find someone.
Leading a few brothers into the inner side of the alley, from the innermost courtyard came the sounds of a woman and child screaming and arguing.
She reached out to push the door and found it locked from inside. Ye Mingqin’s gaze sharpened. She stepped back several paces, used momentum to leap onto the wall, and looked down.
A burly man was pressing down on a woman, spouting vulgar language.
“I told you there was a great beauty hidden here. Day after day, no man comes to see you. Did he abandon you? Huh? You’re raising a son for someone else—why not bear one for me?”
“Let me treat you real good!”
A little boy only four or five years old cried while hitting the man and was kicked away.
Ye Mingqin drew the curved blade at her waist, hurled it over with a cold expression, precisely nailing it beside the burly man’s right foot. She shouted sternly, “Someone, break down the door!”
Bang!
The gate was kicked open. The burly man was restrained. Seeing so many people, his originally fierce expression instantly turned cowardly. He knelt down, trembling.
“Gag him. You know what to do, right?”
“Boss, don’t worry. We’ll drag him out—won’t dirty your eyes!”
The burly man was forcibly dragged out, tears and snot covering his face.
Ye Mingqin helped the woman dress properly. “Are you alright?”
The woman shook her head, pitiable. “This humble one is fine.”
She timidly glanced at Ye Mingqin and pulled up the ceaselessly crying child from the ground, protecting him behind her. “May I ask, you all…”
Ye Mingqin carefully examined her several times. The roundabout tactics she’d prepared in her mind she decided not to use. She asked directly, “You’re the blind man Ah De’s wife?”
The woman was startled, nodded, then shook her head.
“He… he actually bought me and hid me here, saying I was the woman he bought and therefore his wife. But we haven’t married, so it probably doesn’t count.”
“This is your and Ah De’s child?”
The woman nodded.
Ye Mingqin crouched down and looked at the child behind the woman. Suddenly, her gaze froze.
That child’s eye color was extremely light, obviously quite different from Central Plains people. It looked more like…
Northern Yi.
A Northern Yi child.
This woman and Ah De had produced Northern Yi offspring.
In a flash of insight, Ye Mingqin recalled Ah De’s blinded eyes, those eyes without eyeballs… Her back suddenly broke out in cold sweat.
If her speculation was correct—
Then Ah De was also Northern Yi.
Why would Northern Yi people appear multiple times around the Shunchang Earl’s Manor, which had a reputation for integrity and uprightness?
Ye Mingqin’s heart surged with shock, but her face remained impassive. She instructed her subordinate brothers to take away that burly man, then smiled at the woman. “I’m Ah De’s friend. He’s had some matters recently and asked me to come check on you and invite you to stay at my manor.”
The woman didn’t have deep thoughts. After a moment of sorrow, she packed her things and left with them.
Ye Mingqin personally supervised her packing, then after she left, had people turn the place upside down. All suspicious items were packed up and taken away to study back home.
Now that she was working officially, living at the Regent Prince’s Manor was inconvenient. She had her own residence outside. Arranging that woman at her place made it convenient to keep control.
The Shunchang Earl’s Manor case was already closed. To avoid complications, before she uncovered the truth, this mother and child’s existence couldn’t be known to others.
Sworn Brother…
The image of Lian Shenwei’s gentle smile when killing flashed through her mind, along with the daily curses she heard whenever going out on the streets.
Ye Mingqin stepped over the threshold, her gaze deep and sharp, striding forward quickly.
She needed to go through the Court of Judicial Review’s case files again.
–
Late night.
Regent Prince’s Manor.
“Have we traced the whereabouts of whoever killed Ah De?”
Ming Zhu replied, “Not yet.”
Lian Shenwei had replied to Li Ningfeng’s letter tonight. Tian Nan had gone to deliver it to the manor and hadn’t returned yet.
He’d taken medicine, and drowsiness surged. Leaning over his desk, he looked at the hand-drawn map of the capital and surrounding areas. “…There are Northern Yi people in the capital. After I killed everyone at the Shunchang Earl’s Manor clean, the direction Ah De fled in panic was where that person is hiding.”
With Li Ningfeng returning to the capital, Northern Yi people would definitely make a move. Once they did, they’d reveal themselves. He needed to find them quickly.
The place Ah De had fled toward was the outer suburbs.
Could his speculation be wrong? Was that person not hiding in the capital but outside the imperial city?
Lian Shenwei found the approximate location where Ah De died on the map. His fingertip lightly touched it. Right where his fingertip pointed, at the edge of the map, a place was marked: Foquan Temple.
Foquan Temple.
It had an extremely low presence, not as bustling as other temples.
Something flashed through his mind instantly.
Lian Shenwei couldn’t quite grasp it. The more he tried to think, the more drowsiness overwhelmed him. He couldn’t help propping up his forehead with his fingers and sighing. “What did Feng Ke add to my medicine this time?”
Ming Zhu replied, “He said it’s medicine to help you sleep well.”
“…Fine, I’ll go sleep.”
Seeing the young man lie in bed and cover himself with the blanket, Ming Zhu respectfully withdrew, quietly closing the door and standing guard outside.
In the consciousness sea.
After Gong Du started slacking off, Little Light Orb shouldered the task of keeping track of plot points.
At this moment, it said worriedly, “Protagonist Number Two is about to enter his trial period. You need to be prepared in case the plot collapses and he just dies directly.”
The black orb didn’t move at all. “…”
Little Light Orb thought he was speaking and leaned in to listen. After listening for quite a while, it discovered this guy was sleeping soundly, emitting the faint snoring sound unique to orbs.
Little Light Orb: “…”
–
Loyal Righteousness Marquis Manor.
When Li Ningfeng returned to the manor, Uncle Liu still brought him congee, as he’d been doing for several days now.
After checking it as usual, he drank it, rinsed his mouth, and rested.
Night deepened.
Fine beads of cold sweat suddenly seeped from Li Ningfeng’s forehead.
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152