Chapter 1502

"Hmph! Audacity grows from evil. The Dou family treated him well; although his status was that of a valet, he was able to study and read with the young master. It can be seen that the Dou family were loyal and honest people, and there was no situation of bullying servants. Truly, no good deed goes unpunished. If the Dou family had mistreated him or abused him, and he killed them in revenge, this official would respect him as a man. But he returned kindness with enmity—he is heinous! Such malice is rarely seen in the world."

Sun Daojing was full of rage; his heart was very angry, and his sense of justice made him lose his composure, wishing he could kill Qiu Gui.

How could a person be so shameless and so malicious!

If the Dou family had really treated him badly, they would never have let him study and read with the young master.

For ordinary people, brush, ink, paper, and inkstone are "luxury" items.

The Dou family couldn't have bought a separate set of cheap brush, ink, paper, and inkstone for Qiu Gui. This meant that the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone Qiu Gui used when studying were all high-quality and expensive.

Clothing for the four seasons and three meals a day were the benefits and treatment a servant should have.

Brush, ink, paper, and inkstone were not among those benefits.

In other words, Qiu Gui received an extra large amount of benefits.

Look at those families where the whole clan supports one scholar; the more they study, the poorer they get. From this, one can see that studying these days is an extremely expensive thing.

Even in later generations, as long as one wants to take special classes, tutoring classes, or go through art exams, studying is an extremely expensive thing. If one wants to go abroad, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it empties the family fortune.

Since ancient times, studying has never been a cheap thing.

These days, public schools also have many fee-charging items: meal fees, extended-stay fees, school uniform fees for the four seasons, class fees, research trip fees... they only exempt the tuition fees.

Studying costs money, people, time, and energy...

Qiu Gui obtained resources that a poor peasant boy would not have been able to get. Even if he wasn't grateful, he shouldn't have developed malicious thoughts, let alone murder and taking their place.

Sun Daojing scolded repeatedly.

"Fortunately, you exposed Qiu Gui's conspiracy, letting the truth be revealed to the world and letting everyone know how malicious and shameless he is; this point, this official must praise you. However, you obtained clues and didn't think to report them, but instead investigated privately, catching this official off guard—this is clearly acting recklessly. If this were in another government office, beating you to death would be a light punishment. It is only because this official can see your merits that I am willing to protect you. But you, you hurt this official again and again. Chen Guanlou, are you still human?"

Chen Guanlou pointed to the materials on the table. "If I weren't human, could I have helped you investigate at my own expense? Do you know that investigating this took nearly half a year and cost thousands of taels of silver? Fine, I'm not human; you settle the investigation expenses for me. I won't ask for much—five thousand taels, give it to me!"

Sun Daojing was so angry that he felt like he was going to explode. He blew his beard and stared, his cheeks twitching.

His stomach was full of curses, but in the end, he only spat out two words: "No money!"

"No money, yet you still criticize me, say I'm not human, and say I caused a great disaster. Old Sun, ask yourself, do you still have a conscience? Are you still human?"

Using his own spear to attack his own shield!

Using his own way to treat him!

Chen Guanlou was very smooth and also knew how to anger people to death.

Sun Daojing clutched his chest, feeling like he couldn't breathe. He would die at the other party's hands sooner or later—either sudden death or sudden death! There wouldn't be a second way to die!

"Old Sun, take a deep breath. Look at you, at your age, still so easily triggered. Being said a few things won't make you lose a piece of flesh; why bother? Like me, you can say whatever you want; look at whether I've ever frowned."

"You haven't frowned; you're the arrow that this official shot out, only to have it stuck in this official's heart. Chen Guanlou, are you hoping for this official to die all along?"

"This is absolutely a misunderstanding, it's your imagination. Old Sun, don't let your imagination run wild; I'm hoping you live to be a hundred. We are so in sync! At least we have to be partners for another thirty years."

"I won't live for thirty years!" Sun Daojing waved his hand. "If I can live for another three years without being angered to death by you, it would be because my ancestors have spirits and the ancestral grave is smoking to protect me."

Chen Guanlou chuckled. "In that case, the Sun family ancestors quite like me."

Sun Daojing almost spat out a mouthful of old blood. He took a deep breath; he really couldn't lose his temper anymore. He was truly afraid that he wouldn't have to wait three years and would die at Chen Guanlou's hands today.

"Say less; this official doesn't want to be angered to death by you. I'll keep the materials; there's no money! Also, His Majesty has ordered the Ministry of Justice to be responsible for investigating this case, which means Qiu Gui will be imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison. Protect his life; he must live until he is executed according to the law. Absolutely do not let him commit suicide in the Heavenly Prison. Also, His Majesty wants to thoroughly investigate the people behind the Dou family's orphan daughter. The Dou family's orphan daughter clearly didn't have the ability to overturn this matter. You hide it well for me; don't let anyone discover it. If someone needs to be silenced, silence them quickly; if something needs to be finished, finish it quickly."

Sun Daojing instructed one by one, without a single word of nonsense.

Chen Guanlou thanked him while being curious. "Why does the Emperor want to investigate me? Is there something wrong with him?"

"Shut up! You just have an extra mouth."

Sun Daojing was anxious and angry, his expression even more disgusted.

He snorted coldly and said sternly, "His Majesty certainly wants to investigate you; not only does His Majesty want to investigate you, but everyone in the imperial court wants to investigate you. You didn't see the scene at this morning's court; how embarrassing it was! This is the most embarrassing and shameful thing of the year.

And what's shameful isn't a specific person, but the Great Gan imperial court and the Great Gan Emperor. With such a big matter, why didn't you know to cover it up a little and tell this official quietly? Would this official have sat idly by?

You, on the other hand, let Imperial Censor Liu poke it out directly. Now it's great; in the blink of an eye, everyone in the world will know about this. You made the imperial court and His Majesty lose such a big face; shouldn't you be investigated?"

Chen Guanlou said "Oh" in sudden realization.

He smiled half-heartedly, his tone mocking. "Since you find it shameful, what were you doing earlier? Qiu Gui's disguise wasn't very clever; anyone who was a bit paranoid or took things seriously would have discovered something wrong. So many years have passed, and yet not a single person discovered it, allowing the Dou family to be wiped out and an orphan daughter to be mistreated and randomly married off to someone else. This is your dereliction of duty!"

Sun Daojing immediately retorted, "Stop talking nonsense! Who would have thought that these days, someone would dare to impersonate an official and succeed? It's not like it's a time of war. Although it can't be called a golden age right now, it's at least a peaceful time. Who would have thought that a valet would be so bold as to do such a shocking thing."

Even storybooks wouldn't dare to write it like this; they couldn't write it—it's too fake!

Reality is more absurd than storybooks; this sentence has been materialized.

Storybooks at least pay attention to logic, cause, and effect.

Real life has no logic to speak of, let alone cause and effect.

People handling cases are most afraid of encountering such cases where nothing fits: no revenge, no crimes of passion, no financial disputes, yet people just die.

The murderer and the victim don't even know each other!

Investigating such a case is like being a headless fly.

Although the case Qiu Gui committed has traces to follow, the various operations involved are equally confusing.

A valet—where did he get the confidence to take his place? The initial motive for murder couldn't have been to become an official!