novelraw Chapter 1953: Grudge
Chapter 1953: Grudge
Chapter 1953: Grudge
"What is Your Highness Prince Qi thinking about?" Li Qianning asked when she saw that Mu Chuji remained silent for a long time.
"It's nothing." Mu Chuji shook her head, then suddenly reached out and stroked Li Qianning's hair.
Li Qianning instinctively tried to dodge, but Mu Chuji grabbed her wrist with his other hand. "Alright," he said, removing her hand and revealing a flower petal in his palm.
"Thank you, Your Highness Prince Qi." Li Qianning's ears turned red, and she lowered her eyes, not daring to look at Mu Chuji, but his words still reached her ears without missing a single one. "Sister-in-law, having you is the greatest blessing of my life."
He spoke with such sincerity that it seemed entirely genuine, and Li Qianning felt her heart pounding wildly. She turned and quickly left.
Mu Chuji watched Li Qianning's retreating figure, a slight smile playing on his lips. If only she weren't his sister-in-law, but his princess consort.
Thinking of this, his expression suddenly changed. Even he was startled by the thought that had suddenly arisen in his mind; it was a thought he would never have had in his usual carefree and playful way.
But once it takes hold, it's hard to erase.
Very well. Mu Chuji looked at the petal in his palm. If Mu Churui was not worthy to be the ruler of Miluo, it wouldn't be a big deal for him to take his place.
Fang Zilan took in Mu Chuji's changing expression. She raised an eyebrow and watched as he placed the flower petals in his palm into his robes, treating them with such care and respect, clearly showing that he was moved.
Finally, we've come to this point.
Fang Zilan raised an eyebrow and said, "In that case, would you please ask Lord Zou to invite the Prefect of the Capital to come here so that we can hear it in person?"
Zou Hongqi gasped, "I misspoke, but there are many suspicious points in the case of Lord Wu's murder, and three days is indeed a bit too short..."
"Lord Zou, there's no need to be nervous. I've come today only to ask one thing clearly." Fang Zilan composed herself and said solemnly, "Why exactly did Lord Wu leave the Ministry of Justice on the 28th?"
Zou Hongqi looked troubled. “There is a clue to this matter, but…” He hesitated for a moment before saying, “After the incident, some burnt paper scraps were found on Lord Wu’s desk. Only one character was preserved intact. I ordered people to compare the handwriting, and no one in the Ministry of Justice matched it.”
Fang Zilan said calmly, "Lord Zou, may I take a look at that calligraphy?"
Zou Hongqi hurriedly ordered someone to bring up the only remaining evidence. "It seems that someone wrote a letter inviting Lord Wu, but did not want anyone to know about it, so they asked Lord Wu to burn it after reading it."
"Lord Wu is usually cautious. If the letter instructed him to burn it after reading it, why would he leave this fragment behind?" Fang Zilan looked closely at the words in front of her, her expression dark and unreadable.
"It's quite a coincidence," Zou Hongqi explained. "That day, when Lord Gu, who was revising the laws with Lord Wu, went to look for him, he couldn't find him, so he started searching for him himself." "Lord Gu is a very impulsive person, and he accidentally knocked over a teacup on the table, which is how this fragment was preserved."
Fang Zilan's gaze swept over the edge of the fragment, and sure enough, there were faint yellow tea stains. She pursed her lips and said, "Have you investigated who delivered the letter to Lord Wu on the 28th?"
“I’ve checked,” Zou Hongqi replied. “The documents sent to the Ministry of Justice are always handled by a designated person. Even on the 28th, no one else handled them. I also had the person in charge interrogated. As usual, there was nothing unusual. It seems that the murderer used a method beforehand to mix the letter into the documents.”
Fang Zilan said casually, "To be able to slip a letter into the Ministry of Justice's documents, the murderer must be extremely familiar with the government's procedures." Zou Hongqi raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead. "I've thought about that too. To be meticulous and familiar with the government, one must also be able to kill swiftly and escape in broad daylight..." He paused, then said, "If there is only one murderer, it doesn't make sense."
Fang Zilan didn't ask any further questions, only saying a few polite words like "Lord Zou, you've worked hard. Remember to let her know the results," before taking her leave.
Zou Hongqi frowned as he watched her retreating figure. Qian Qian, standing nearby, breathed a sigh of relief and asked, puzzled, "My lord, Lord Fang has already left, you…"
“Qian Qian, don’t you think Lord Fang doesn’t seem to be here to demand an explanation, but rather to confirm something?” Zou Hongqi interrupted Qian Qian, asking curiously, “Confirm what? Does Lord Fang already know who the murderer is?”
He had only spoken halfway when he suddenly widened his eyes, "My lord, you don't mean to doubt Lord Fang..."
"What nonsense are you spouting!" Zou Hongqi's voice was filled with anger, but he deliberately lowered it a few notches. "If it were Lord Fang, would he need to go to such lengths? Those powerful and influential people above us can kill their subordinates as easily as killing an ant. Why would they do something like this that invites trouble?"
Qian Qian lowered his head after being scolded, but still couldn't help asking, "Then what do you mean, sir?"
“Intuition.” Zou Hongqi put away his serious expression and said in a somewhat mystical low voice, “After handling so many cases over the years, I always have an intuition for judging people.”
Qian Qian looked incredulous, while Zou Hongqi gave him a disapproving look. "You've been with me all these years, how come you haven't made any progress?"
"My lord, intuition is too mysterious..." Qian Qian had barely finished speaking when he met Zou Hongqi's gaze and fell silent.
Others' intuitions may be mysterious, but the intuition of this Minister of Justice has never been wrong, like the crescent clouds before the rain, the low-flying swallows, and the noisy croaking of frogs, all as omens.
"It's going to rain." Zou Hongqi's voice drifted over, pulling Qian Qian back to reality. He muttered, "Summer is almost over, why is it still raining?"
"One autumn rain brings one chill." Zou Hongqi's sigh puzzled Qian Qian. "Sir, it's not autumn yet."
"Just you wait and see," Zou Hongqi said, seemingly to himself. "This autumn in the capital will probably be three degrees colder than in previous years."
Fang Zilan wasn't quite sure if this autumn would be cooler than usual, but she already felt that this summer would be particularly unbearable. Wu Sheng was dead, and Yang Zhiqing probably couldn't stay either.
After examining the fragment, she returned to the government office and repeatedly compared everyone's handwriting, eventually finding the same characters as she remembered.
After reading it, she slowly closed her eyes. It was rare that Ji Ningtian hadn't lied to her, but she didn't want to face the truth.
The characters on the fragment were not Yang Zhiqing's original handwriting, but rather a copy of the handwriting of another minor official in the manor. However, the minor official's handwriting was flamboyant and arrogant, with obvious ink smudges at the end of each character, while the copy, although also showing ink smudges, was clearly deliberately applied, resulting in a darker ink color when overlapped with the original, and thus lacking naturalness.
A single counterfeit character is not enough to identify Yang Zhiqing; let's try it out.