BVAHEDLA[W Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Ancient Thirteen Apertures

Chu Li-fei stared at the words gradually appearing on the secret letter, lost in thought.

The color of the writing was faint. Chu Li-fei frowned slightly, his gaze finally settling on the candlestick on the table, which he gazed at for a long time.

He carefully unfolded the secret letter, each hand pinching a corner, and slowly moved it closer to the orange-red candlelight.

The scorching heat of the flame made Chu Li-fei feel a slight burning sensation on his fingers, instinctively making him want to pull them back. But at the same time, the original light gray, almost invisible handwriting gradually deepened in color under the high temperature, becoming clearer.

There weren’t many words, only five very concise characters. The handwriting was unrestrained and faintly revealed a sense of arrogance, hinting at the owner’s personality.

It read:

【Keep a close eye on Chu Li-fei.】

Chu Li-fei only glanced at it once before memorizing all the words. His gaze slowly moved down, finally stopping at the signature on the secret letter.

The paper was very thin to facilitate stuffing it into the pigeon’s tube, so thin that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it as thin as a cicada’s wing.

Through the character “Lu,” Chu Li-fei could see the dazzling candlelight behind it, which, due to the movement of the air, seemed to be baring its fangs and claws in a demonstration.

The flame burned, making a soft “crackling” sound, pulling Chu Li-fei’s thoughts back.

He carefully put away the secret letter and began to ponder the words on it.

Originally, he had always assumed that the owner of this secret letter was Lu Mo-chen.

As the saying goes, the handwriting reflects the person, and one can see their character between the strokes. Because of the previous dream, Chu Li-fei always associated Lu Mo-chen with Liu Shuo-yu, presuming that there must be some connection between them. Therefore, the moment he saw the character “Lu” on the secret letter, he subconsciously assumed it was Lu Mo-chen’s doing.

Moreover, he really couldn’t discern any other information from just that one character “Lu.”

But today, he accidentally deciphered how to open the secret letter, thereby learning the contents and catching a glimpse of the true face of its owner.

Arrogant?

Chu Li-fei felt that Lu Mo-chen and this word didn’t match.

Even if Lu Mo-chen really killed Chu Li-fei in the original plot, he shouldn’t be arrogant.

He could be indifferent, ruthless, perfidious, or two-faced, but definitely not arrogant.

Then who exactly is it?

Several names with the surname Lu quickly flashed through Chu Li-fei’s mind.

Lu Yuan-jing… Lu Mo-lin… and many others, everyone in the royal family was a suspect. Of course, this also included Lu Mo-chen. Could it be that he was too good at pretending?

As for what the person behind the scenes of the secret letter said, 【Keep a close eye on Chu Li-fei】, who exactly are they? What do they want to obtain from him?

Whose person is Liu Shuo-yu? In the original plot, what was the truth behind his death?

The more Chu Li-fei thought, the more he felt enveloped in a fog.

In any case, Chu Li-fei couldn’t think of anything concrete in the short term, so he simply suppressed the matter for the time being, turning his attention back to the case of the Qi family.

Through a day of investigation, plus the clues that Qian Ming had previously investigated, Chu Li-fei could basically confirm that Qi Lu was innocent, that someone wanted to frame him.

And the person who framed him, who wanted to throw him into hell for eternity, was his good elder brother—Qi Fu.

There were many suspicious points about Qi Fu, and the most obvious one was that his words and actions didn’t match.

One should not look at what a person says, but rather at what they do.

Some people have a sharp tongue but a kind heart; they may say harsh things, but in the end, they’ll help you. And some people, with smiling faces, who knows what they’re thinking in their hearts, maybe thinking about pushing you into an abyss from which you can never recover.

And Qi Fu, according to Chu Li-fei’s observation, was such a person.

According to Qian Ming’s previous interrogation, in the process of communicating with him, Qi Fu always addressed Qi Lu as “Lord Marquis” or “Sir.”

Qian Ming asked him the reason, but Qi Fu said that there was a distinction between elders and juniors, and he, as a commoner, was destined to have no future in officialdom, so he should respect his younger brother who was a Lord Marquis, even if he was his elder brother, the etiquette could not be neglected.

But Qi Fu forgot that the more someone lacks something, the more they will show that they care about it.

The more Qi Fu talked about how the hierarchy and etiquette must not be forgotten, the more his heart cared about everything behind it, the power that the superiors possessed.

After all, he was once only one step away from this position.

He said he didn’t care, even actively gave up this position to Qi Lu, but was that really what he thought in his heart?

Chu Li-fei gently shook the teacup in his hand.

The tea had been left for a while and had completely cooled down.

A tea stem was gradually drawn into the vortex in the teacup with Chu Li-fei’s shaking, step by step towards the center of the vortex, and then sank to the bottom.

Chu Li-fei lowered his eyes, stopped admiring the teacup, and placed it on the table.

The truth was that Qi Fu couldn’t let go of the inferiority deep in his heart. The younger brother he once looked down on had now become an existence he needed to look up to.

In fact, there was another point: Qi Lu described his brother as a gentle, polite, and loving sibling.

But if that were really the case, Qi Fu wouldn’t be so calm in prison.

Of course, so far, all this was just Chu Li-fei’s own speculation.

After all, he still lacked evidence.

Evidence that could nail the crime on Qi Fu. Evidence that could make him speechless and convinced.

In the past, in the cultivation world, when Chu Li-fei was still the most watched senior disciple in the Immortal Sect, he had handled many cases.

He had also seen all kinds of people, several of whom had personalities similar to Qi Fu.

These kinds of people wouldn’t let go until the very last moment. They would always have countless excuses to cleverly exculpate themselves.

Moreover, Chu Li-fei still hadn’t figured out Qi Fu’s motive.

You could say he resented Qi Lu, but there were many ways to retaliate against him, yet he chose to drag the entire Qi family down with him.

But if Qi Fu really had the courage to perish together, he would never be so dark and twisted, acting one way in public and another in private.

Privately hiding armor was a major crime punishable by beheading the entire family, and Qi Fu couldn’t possibly not know this. The previous Cheng family was a precedent, and Qi Fu couldn’t possibly not know this, nor would he have any illusions about it.

Unless there was something else he didn’t know.

Chu Li-fei looked through the files and increasingly felt that the water behind this case was deep. And he always felt that this matter wasn’t as simple as he thought.

Wait! The Cheng family?

Chu Li-fei seemed to suddenly think of something.

He remembered that the Cheng family was Lu Mo-chen’s maternal family. And his mother, Consort Cheng, was deeply favored by Lu Yuan-jing before the Cheng family’s accident, held the power to manage the Six Palaces, and the Cheng family had considerable power in the court. It was no exaggeration to say that she and the Empress were evenly matched.

At the time, the two forces could be said to be equally matched.

It could be said that if the Cheng family hadn’t had such an accident, Lu Mo-chen could have competed for the position of Crown Prince.

Chu Li-fei suddenly seemed to understand something.

Throughout history, how many people have resorted to unscrupulous means to ascend to this supreme position, even at the cost of staining their hands with blood.

Back then, Lu Yuan-jing had killed many of his brothers on his path to the throne in order to achieve final victory.

Chu Li-fei pondered the details of the Cheng family case.

He remembered that the process of this case was almost exactly the same as the Qi family case. Similarly, privately hiding armor, similarly discovered and reported by colleagues, and similarly, there were both human and material evidence. The only difference from the Qi family case was—

The Cheng family case didn’t drag on for so long; it was closed after only a few days of investigation.

Chu Li-fei remembered that this case was handled by Zhao Zhi-zheng, the Minister of Justice at the time.

Now Zhao Zhi-zheng had long since retired and returned to his hometown, and the person who replaced him was Zhang Qing-ji, the Vice Minister of Justice at the time…

Thinking of this, Chu Li-fei suddenly widened his eyes. If he remembered correctly, this Zhang Qing-ji was Zhao Zhi-zheng’s student!

That explained why Zhang Qing-ji appeared in front of Chu Li-fei and the others today.

As one of the masterminds behind this case, he naturally had to personally come and see how the case was progressing. That also explained why his attitude towards Lu Mo-chen was so bad.

In fact, Chu Li-fei had already discovered something wrong when he investigated the cell where Qi Fu originally lived in prison today, but he didn’t say it explicitly.

That so-called gap was artificial!

Although Zhang Qing-ji disguised it very well, he still found something wrong.

That was the temperature.

The prison was dark and damp, and in this situation, the temperature would often be even lower than outside, especially for these metal iron bars.

But when Chu Li-fei touched them, the iron bars were still warm.

This was obviously problematic.

It seemed that Zhang Qing-ji hurriedly ordered people to disguise the iron bars as naturally broken, trying to deceive Chu Li-fei and the others.

But no matter how carefully he calculated, he still revealed a flaw. He hadn’t considered the time.

Chu Li-fei already roughly knew the method Zhang Qing-ji and others used to create the gap: pouring corrosive liquid on the iron bars, so that they could easily break the metal that couldn’t be broken under normal circumstances.

And the damp environment of the prison allowed the excess liquid to flow to the ground without being noticed.

But they ignored a detail: the process of the liquid corroding the metal would generate heat.

Time was fair, and this became Zhang Qing-ji’s biggest failure.

Chu Li-fei tapped the table lightly with his knuckles, a small habit he had when thinking.

He remembered that the Cheng family originally held tens of thousands of military power in their hands, but after they fell, who did the military power fall into the hands of?

Chu Li-fei thought of the names of the military generals in the court and quickly locked it down.

He got it, it was the Empress’s maternal family’s in-laws—the Wu family.

What a clever plan to kill two birds with one stone.

Taking the military power from the Cheng family and eliminating the possibility of Consort Cheng’s son seizing the throne.

Chu Li-fei secretly sighed at the deep scheming of the Empress and the people behind her, that they could plan ahead to this extent.

Moreover, even Consort Cheng herself didn’t know she was pregnant at the time, let alone have any thoughts of competing for the crown prince, but the Empress couldn’t hold back anymore.

Chu Li-fei immediately understood the key points. If that was the case, these two cases must be related, and he should investigate them together.

He tried hard to recall the details of the Cheng family case back then, which involved a very wide range of people. After carefully comparing them, he was shocked.

Lu Mo-lin, the Empress, Zhao Zhi-zheng, Zhang Qing-ji, the Wu family, Li Dong, Qi Fu…

One name after another flashed through Chu Li-fei’s mind, more and more…

Everything pointed to the same person, or rather, the same force—the Crown Prince’s faction.

But how did Qi Fu get in touch with the Crown Prince’s faction?

What benefits did Lu Mo-lin and the others promise Qi Fu that could make him do this?

Chu Li-fei thought about this matter in his heart, unable to sleep peacefully.

He hoped that it would be dawn soon so that he could go to the yamen and ask Qian Ming for the files of the Cheng family case back then and read them carefully.

If there was enough time, it would be best to go to the Cheng residence in the past.

Speaking of which, this was Lu Mo-chen’s maternal family.

Should he tell him?

Chu Li-fei’s mind was full of thoughts, and he couldn’t resist the sleepiness and closed his eyes.

The moonlight gently shone on his face, making him look like a beautiful painting.

The next day, Chu Li-fei saw the same scene as yesterday in front of the Prince’s mansion.

This time, he took the initiative to reach out to Lu Mo-chen: “Get on.”

Seeing that Chu Li-fei’s attitude towards him had changed, Lu Mo-chen was very happy. He quickly placed his hand on it.

The moment their palms touched, they both felt a little unnatural.

Chu Li-fei looked at Lu Mo-chen, slowly squeezed his cold hand, and pulled him up.

The carriage drove all the way to the yamen.

Chu Li-fei and Lu Mo-chen saw an unexpected person there.