Chapter 443

He now understood why Liu Minghe had said the secret passage was unusable.

Going back would be throwing oneself into a trap!

"Um, I want to ask, why did you set the secret passage exit there?" Sun Yaoqing glared at Liu Minghe with furious little eyes.

Liu Minghe had by now completely given up. "Originally, Lu Hong and I had set up a double insurance; who knew that while my side wasn't exposed, his was exposed first!"

"Eh? Lu Hong is already dead; you can now shift all the blame onto Lu Hong!"

Sun Yaoqing suddenly rolled his eyes, thought of something, and said to Liu Minghe.

"Then weren't you right here with me?"

Pfft!

Suddenly, before Sun Yaoqing could continue speaking, Liu Minghe's subordinate standing behind him drew his blade and struck.

The blade tip pierced straight through Sun Yaoqing's chest.

Sun Yaoqing's eyes widened, his face full of unwillingness, as he fell to the ground.

297, playing the fool!

Until the moment of death, Sun Yaoqing never imagined that his mind moving a bit faster had instead reminded Liu Minghe to kill him.

Was this being outsmarted by one's own cleverness?

At least Sun Yaoqing didn't know he had thrown away his own life; it was simply too tragic.

One must admit, despite Sun Yaoqing being rather fat.

He was indeed smarter than the average person.

Liu Minghe decisively killing him included this as one of the reasons.

Actually, the main reason was that through Sun Yaoqing's brief hint, he suddenly realized he might truly be able to temporarily escape blame.

As long as he pushed all the blame onto the dead person at that time, he could avoid the gravest charge.

The remaining charge would be negligence!

As for the anomalies within his prefecture, or the secret passage, or the orders he issued through protecting the Four Great Families.

Those were all done by Lu Hong and others behind his back; they had bribed people in his household to do it.

He knew nothing about it; he was just an honest man!

Exactly!

He planned to argue nonsense and bluff his way through the most dangerous hurdle.

As long as Su Qiao could not immediately convict him, they could not do anything to him.

After all, he was a Prefect of the Fourth Rank, Senior Grade, not some fifth or sixth-rank minor official.

Even if the Embroidered Uniform Guard wanted to arrest him, they would need to produce evidence.

However, what he did not know was that he had completely misunderstood the situation!

Pfft!

Liu Minghe killed this subordinate of his as well.

Now, aside from the women in the rear residence, only he remained!

He finally breathed a sigh of relief.

So he immediately pretended to be panicked, making himself dirty and disheveling his official robe.

It looked as though someone had given him a severe beating.

Trembling all over, he hid in a corner and pretended to faint.

To make the act more convincing, he even deliberately bumped his head against a stone.

He scraped the skin on his forehead, revealing a bruised appearance.

Hmm, it was already very convincing!

This appearance of his was naturally intended for the Embroidered Uniform Guard members who would soon charge into the prefecture.

At that time, no matter who asked, he would know nothing; he believed he could ensure his safety!

What a beautiful dream!

Soon, the rioters desperately blocking the Embroidered Uniform Guard, along with servants and subordinates, were all hacked to the ground.

They could no longer stop Sun Youxu and the others from charging in.

After all, Sun Youxu and his group did not have as many men as the rioters within Liu Minghe's prefecture.

Moreover, he feared Liu Minghe might enter the secret passage and suddenly escape.

At that time, not only would the mission fail, but the main criminal would also get away.

With so many skilled Embroidered Uniform Guard members and soldiers from the guard post helping, yet letting someone escape, he estimated he would die of shame.

So he almost risked his life leading the charge inward.

Many times, they traded injuries for lives!

When they reached the rear residence, Sun Youxu and the others each looked like bloodied figures, entirely red!

There was the enemy's blood and also the blood flowing from their own bodies; their clothes were almost unrecognizable in their original color.

Carrying an aura of killing intent that reached the sky, they made everyone in the rear residence tremble in fear.

Sun Youxu immediately ordered a search.

"If alive, find the person; if dead, find the corpse! We must find him immediately!"

"Yes!"

Everyone was holding their breath.

After receiving the order, the Embroidered Uniform Guard members immediately dispersed to search.

There was no resistance left here; their search was very easy.

Those female family members were merely driven out and gathered together; no harm was done to them.

The top priority right now is to find Liu Minghe.

Soon, everyone made a discovery.

"There is something abnormal here!"

Suddenly, someone shouted loudly.

Sun Youxu immediately ran toward the direction of the sound.

He arrived at the courtyard and saw two corpses lying on the ground at a glance.

He reached out to check their pulses, then touched their skin.

He judged with extreme precision: "They died less than a quarter-hour ago. The murderer likely hasn't left yet; it is very probable that it is Liu Minghe!"

"Hmm, one of them is Sun Yaoqing, the head of the Sun family within Fuzhou City. He had escaped from the manor outside the city earlier; who would have thought he ran here and was killed by Liu Minghe."

Sun Youxu nodded, a trace of regret appearing on his face.

He regretted that he was still a bit too slow; if he had been faster, Sun Yaoqing, this key figure, would not have died.

However, now that Sun Yaoqing is dead, the person who could testify against Liu Minghe is gone.

It could be said that another lead has been cut off.

If he could be happy about this, there would truly be ghosts!

The remaining Embroidered Uniform Guard members also made discoveries one after another.

Some found a secret room used previously, while others discovered a secret passage leading out of the city.

However, the first to discover a clue was the courtyard next to theirs.

Because they found Liu Minghe "fainted" on the ground, "unconscious."

For this reason, Sun Youxu personally came to check and confirmed it was indeed him.

Only then did the crowd breathe a sigh of relief.

Sun Youxu led a large contingent of Embroidered Uniform Guard into the city, heading straight for the Prefect's residence of Liu Minghe.

Many people with their own intentions saw this and received the news.

The various officials still within Fuzhou City, along with Grand Secretary Sun Chuanting and his deputy Lu Xiangsheng, also knew early on.

They were eating breakfast when this piece of news captured their attention.

Naturally, they did not continue eating; instead, they continued to send people to investigate the situation.

Before Ah Men could ascertain the full circumstances, someone else reported that a great fire had broken out last night at the Lu family manor outside the southern suburbs.

Su Qiao had gone to the banquet outside the southern suburbs yesterday afternoon.