Chapter 513

In the evening, He Lingchuan and the tiger returned to the inn leisurely, followed by Commander Lu. They had been working together for the past few days and met often, and had just been drinking for more than an hour at the restaurant, so their relationship was good.

He Lingchuan keenly discovered that while others feared the prestige of Lingxu City, this Commander Lu seemed straightforward but actually had no room for promotion, hoping to use this to fight for a chance to move up.

The five hundred soldiers under his command were a very important help to He Lingchuan.

Cen Boqing wouldn't wait here, having left long ago, but the outside of the inn was naturally filled with the Cen family's eyes and ears.

He Lingchuan frowned as soon as he entered the room.

The guest room was a bit messy; although it wasn't like a storm had passed through, there were traces of being rummaged everywhere.

That person had made a wasted trip this morning, but he still had to loudly declare that he had been here, and incidentally humiliate the Crown Prince's special envoy.

Jiao Yu was right; these nobles from Lingxu City were too arrogant.

He turned around and called the waiter to tidy up the room and bring hot water.

As a result, before the hot water came, Cen Boqing arrived first.

No one knew where this person had been waiting earlier, but he had changed locations very quickly.

He didn't make such a big scene as before, only bringing two attendants, and knocked on He Lingchuan's door.

"He Xiao?" He stood with his hands behind his back and said indifferently, "I am Cen Boqing."

He Lingchuan smiled: "Official Cen, please come in."

The two seemed to have a tacit understanding, not mentioning the morning's events.

Commander Lu was also here and stood up to salute when he saw Cen Boqing.

Cen Boqing waved his hand, sat down firmly, and the first sentence went straight to the point: "You wrongly arrested the guards from my mansion, and I am here to take them back."

"Wrongly arrested?" He Lingchuan frowned, "I set a trap to catch a wanted criminal; others didn't come, why did they jump into it?"

"The wanted criminal's portrait is posted all over the streets and alleys; they recognized him under the Chaohu Tower and wanted to act righteously." Cen Boqing didn't blink, "Is that wrong?"

"Their orders were to bring the person back, and if they couldn't, to execute them on the spot." He Lingchuan stroked his chin, "Who gave this order?"

His gaze turned to behind Cen Boqing, where there was a familiar face.

He Lingchuan recognized at a glance that this was indeed the wealthy merchant at the Chaohu Tower, one of the guests at the three tables.

This was Old Wu? "This is just a misunderstanding." Cen Boqing said lightly, "The orders they heard were to try their best to capture and pay attention to self-defense. After all, he was a habitual murderer, and the guards couldn't be tied down in their actions."

"Oh? Who gave the order?"

Cen Boqing was getting impatient: "That is the truth of the matter. My mansion's people helped the government soldiers and enthusiastically captured the suspect, but Special Envoy He detained them; that doesn't make sense, does it?"

"Official Cen is truly thorough, I have nothing to say." He Lingchuan nodded to Commander Lu, who immediately said loudly: "Bring him in."

Two soldiers brought in a prisoner and released him on the spot.

Cen Boqing's gaze darkened: "Why is there only one?"

"The other one was taken by the Crown Prince." He Lingchuan spread his hands, "He is already on the way to the capital, so Official Cen will probably have to write to the Crown Prince to ask for him; I'm really sorry."

Anyway, Fu Shanyue wasn't here, so he could just make up whatever he wanted.

Zhongsun Mou was right; this kid was truly a tough nut to crack. Cen Boqing sneered slightly: "Special Envoy He handles cases truly cleanly and neatly; I will definitely write to the Red Yan ruler and Lingxu City to praise you."

This was naturally said in reverse, but He Lingchuan took it as a compliment and laughed: "I don't deserve it."

Did he and Zhongsun Mou use the same set of threatening rhetoric, only knowing how to move Lingxu City out to pressure people?

Cen Boqing stood up: "Then I wish the Special Envoy success in solving the case and achieving a positive outcome."

After speaking, he took his people and walked out.

Until his back disappeared at the street corner, Jiao Yu said irritably: "The witness was taken back by him."

No wonder He Lingchuan avoided him this morning.

"Evidence is insufficient, releasing people is a matter of time; me detaining one Fu Songhua here is already the limit."

Commander Lu didn't understand: "Isn't this all for nothing?"

To tell the truth, the other party had already won a round.

The hatred of He Lingchuan snatching Fu Songhua was reported back by Zhongsun Mou and Cen Boqing.

He Lingchuan shook his head: "I set a trap at Chaohu Tower, never expecting to succeed in one blow, but at least I had to know who the opponent behind the scenes was." Otherwise, the opponent was in the dark and he was in the light, which was too passive.

This point was more important than anything else.

"Now that I know, these two prisoners are useless."

Getting into the carriage and closing the carriage door, Cen Boqing sat with a dark face and didn't speak, lighting a furnace of incense himself.

Old Wu and the guard who had just been rescued didn't dare to make a sound.

After a long time, Cen Boqing said to the guard: "After being arrested, what did you say to them?"

As soon as these words came out, the guard knelt down with a thud: "The small one didn't say half a word; it was Wu Fang who had his soul confused by the other party and confessed everything."

Afterward, he recounted the process of He Lingchuan's interrogation.

Old Wu listened and felt half relieved.

These two knew limited information, and the clues they could provide were very few, unable to link to Mr. Mai or the messenger case at all.

Cen Boqing frowned and asked: "Did Wu Fang confess Old Wu?"

"Yes, yes."

Cen Boqing then looked at Old Wu: "This guy surnamed He asked many questions, all related to you; he might be targeting you."

Old Wu's heart skipped a beat, and without thinking, he bowed: "Old slave will return to Lingxu City first; staying here, I'm afraid of being used by the enemy!"

Cen Boqing waved his hand: "So many things are handled by you, and so many people are contacted by you. If you return to Lingxu City, who will manage these personnel for me?"

Old Wu stammered.

Cen Boqing said indifferently: "You just stay; it's safest by my side now. No matter how cheap the guy surnamed He's mouth is, the Red Yan people wouldn't dare to touch me."

"Yes."

Cen Boqing smiled: "Alright, has the reply from Lingxu arrived?"

"Not yet..." Before Old Wu could finish, Cen Boqing's gaze froze, and he suddenly drew his short sword and stabbed!

Old Wu felt cold light flash before his eyes and instinctively wanted to dodge, but Cen Boqing moved extremely fast, the sword tip grazing his chest and going straight for his ribs.

"Don't move!"

Something jumped away from Old Wu's armpit.

Very small, very bouncy.

Cen Boqing threw his wrist, and the sword tip "clanged" into the carriage wall, the hilt trembling incessantly.

Old Wu and the other person looked closely and realized that a thing the size of a fingernail was nailed to the sword tip.

This was... a spider? "The guy surnamed He really has some eavesdropping methods." Cen Boqing pulled out the sword to examine it, "This thing is truly hard to detect; fortunately, Zhongsun Mou had already reminded me earlier."

He extinguished the incense.

He had just gone to He Lingchuan's place, and the other party had quietly thrown a spy over: "This guy suffered a loss, and turned around to retaliate."

Even with Zhongsun Mou's reminder, it took him a long time to check before finding the spider's figure.

Fortunately, he hadn't said anything useful.

Cen Boqing added, "By the way, I heard your grandson also came to Baishawan to play; I had the kitchen make a few snacks. You can go get them later."

Old Wu replied yes: "Thank you, Young Master."

He Lingchuan suddenly shouted "Ah" and covered his eyes.

Even the tiger Jiao Yu was startled by him, and Commander Lu asked repeatedly: "What's wrong!"

He Lingchuan rubbed his eyes hard and smiled bitterly: "Eyes hurt a bit, no big deal."

Commander Lu sighed: "Could it be those people plotting against you?"

"Doesn't matter." He Lingchuan felt regret in his heart.

At that time, he was sharing the vision of the eyeball spider, so Cen Boqing's sword seemed to have stabbed directly into his eyes.

This was also the last scene seen by the poor spider.

This little thing was very useful; although he still had one here, he couldn't release it to monitor Cen Boqing, Zhongsun Mou, and others later.

Commander Lu had things to do and soon said goodbye.

Not long after, the stairs creaked again, and a six or seven-year-old child ran up, standing at the door of He Lingchuan's room, peeking in.

"What's the matter?"

He handed over a note, and He Lingchuan saw it clearly without even taking it, because it only had two words written on it:

Wu Kai.

The real name of Old Wu beside Cen Boqing was Wu Kai.

He Lingchuan threw a few copper coins over; the child caught them and ran away happily.

The tiger Jiao Yu on the side also saw it and asked curiously: "What does this mean?"

He Lingchuan smiled: "Someone is afraid I'll miss this important clue of Old Wu, so they specially wrote a note to remind me."

"Someone?" Jiao Yu changed from lying down to standing, doing a downward dog stretch in the middle, "Do we have other help?"

"We came to Baishawan following the clues; the directionality of the clues is very clear, do you remember?"

Jiao Yu was slightly stunned: "Wait, you mean this note was sent by that Mr. Mai, um, Mai Xuewen?"

"If he could send us the 'Record of Respecting Gods', then sending another note is no big deal." He Lingchuan said slowly, "If it really was sent by him, he might be the third party in this case."

"Mai Xuewen doesn't deal with them himself, but wants to use our power?"

"You've seen it too; Cen Boqing is not easy to deal with." He Lingchuan said, "I have the title of Crown Prince's special envoy, but I still feel tied down and blocked when investigating this case, especially when facing Cen Boqing, I have no deterrent power at all."

He said it backward; it was clearly Cen Boqing who had formed a deterrent to the officials of the Red Yan Nation.

"He left plenty of clues in Shuanglu Town. But no matter how smart this person is, he couldn't have predicted that two groups of people would visit his residence: me, and Zhongsun Mou. And Zhongsun Mou not only took away most of the materials and clues but also obstructed them, insisting on defining this case as a spy case."

"Now that he sees I have no progress here, and even returned a prisoner to Cen Boqing, he is also a bit anxious."

Jiao Yu looked closely: "Looking at it this way, Mai Xuewen is also in Baishawan?"

"He's the one stirring up trouble, so of course he'll be in Baishawan, otherwise how could he witness what happens later?" He Lingchuan sighed, "But investigating people here is much harder than in Shuanglu Town."

"He hides his head and shows his tail, yet wants to point us in the right direction?" Jiao Yu snorted, "Does he think we don't know to keep a close eye on the Wu Kai clue?"

(End of chapter)