Chapter 16: The Lid That Couldn

The news spread far faster than Li Mu had anticipated.

As soon as the Nan Cheng Battalion Command took action, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and Eastern Depot also mobilized. The Shuntian Prefecture’s soldiers reacted slightly slower, but only by half an hour.

When official posts were at stake, everyone worked efficiently—even during off-hours, their enthusiasm remained undiminished.

……

“My lord, I am innocent!”

“I didn’t post those illegal notices—the Nan Cheng Battalion Command ordered them removed, but I didn’t put them up…”

“Slap!”

After striking him, the lead Eastern Depot eunuch roared: “Once you’re in the Imperial Prison, you’ll have your chance to speak—why waste breath now?”

The accusations on the notices targeted them, the eunuchs. If they didn’t act quickly and the higher-ups found out, they’d be in deep trouble.

Adhering to the principle “Better to arrest the wrong than let the guilty go,” the young eunuch clearly had no intention of wasting time verifying identities.

As long as they caught someone, it counted as a success.

Once inside the Imperial Prison, there were plenty of ways to make someone confess.

That hellhole had less than a one-in-three chance of letting anyone walk out alive.

“Stop!”

Li Mu couldn’t help but shout.

He’d heard rumors of the Eastern Depot’s violent enforcement, but he hadn’t expected it to be this brutal.

They knew the man was innocent, yet still dragged him off to the Imperial Prison.

“Who are you, meddling in Eastern Depot affairs?”

One of the secret police stepped forward, barking.

Had it not been for Li Mu’s official robe and the soldiers behind him, they wouldn’t have asked—they’d have seized him on the spot.

Wrongful, false, and unjust cases never occur in isolation. Once the bottom line is breached, it will be breached countless times thereafter.

“I am Li Mu, Battalion Commander of Nan Cheng, Five Cities Military Command. Send your superior out to speak with me!”

Lose the person, but not the face—since he’d stepped forward, he couldn’t show fear.

The Eastern Depot’s infamy stank for miles; outsiders feared them like tigers, but that didn’t mean they were invincible.

Power requires checks and balances—the Emperor would never allow one office to dominate absolutely.

In the capital, the Five Cities Military Command, where noble scions gathered, was one of the few offices that didn’t bow to them.

But this defiance was limited to ignoring them—open confrontation rarely occurred.

“I am Mai Qinghu, Eastern Depot’s Nan Cheng Division Head. Does Battalion Commander Li have any advice?”

His words were polite, but his eyes had already looked away—his actions made clear he didn’t care about Li Mu as a battalion commander.

“Advice? I dare not presume.

I only wish to ask you, Your Excellency: do you intend to suppress this matter, or are you prepared to make it public, so everyone knows the rumors originated from your jurisdiction?”

Li Mu stressed the word “rumors.”

Even among eunuchs, competition existed; those who rose above the rest were no political novices.

Once Li Mu pointed it out, Mai Qinghu immediately realized he’d done something foolish.

Rumors were already flying everywhere—now, by loudly arresting people, he’d made them impossible to hide.

In officialdom, you don’t need to perform brilliantly—you just can’t perform worse than your peers.

Once the matter blew up, the Emperor couldn’t punish everyone.

Whichever jurisdiction caused the most uproar would be the most likely to be made an example of, the scapegoat held responsible for the entire incident.

“What do you mean, Lord Li?”

Mai Qinghu asked cautiously.

“Why play dumb? The Five Cities Military Command, Shuntian Prefecture, Eastern Depot, and Embroidered Uniform Guard are all on the same rope now.

If this blows up, someone must take the blame.

If Nan Cheng remains peaceful, the blame won’t fall on you or me.”

Li Mu spoke bluntly.

Covering up—this was an officialdom tradition. As long as it could be hidden, no one wanted to report it upward.

The capital was special—multiple offices overlapped in authority; to suppress the matter, they all had to cooperate.

“Lord Li, this may be difficult.

As the Emperor’s hounds, we dare not deceive him!”

Unlike the Five Cities Military Command, the Eastern Depot—a secret police agency—frequently bypassed ranks to submit secret reports.

And with the Embroidered Uniform Guard as a rival, what if he tried to cover it up, only for the other side to expose it? That would be disastrous.

“Your Excellency, you jest. We are all loyal servants of the Emperor—how could we deceive him?

What happened today will be reported truthfully.

We acted promptly to contain the impact—that too must be recorded.

I’m certain your colleagues in Shuntian Prefecture and the Embroidered Uniform Guard will likewise not deceive the Emperor on this matter!”

The subtlety of the Spring and Autumn Annals lay here: the same event, recorded differently, conveyed entirely different meanings.

This could withstand scrutiny—Nan Cheng had indeed caused no serious political fallout. Its residents were all from the lower strata, never interacting with high officials.

With several departments jointly downplaying the impact, they could easily create the illusion of peace throughout the realm.

It didn’t need to stay secret forever—only that the scandal spread later than in other districts, and the blame could be smoothly shifted away.

“Mistake! Release them!”

Saying this, Mai Qinghu immediately led his men away, demonstrating his stance through action.

“Thank you… my lord… for saving me…”

Before the middle-aged man could finish his thanks, Li Mu cut him off: “Enough. Go home, sleep it off, forget today.

Be smarter next time—see an Eastern Depot agent, run far away.”

To escape the Eastern Depot unharmed was enough to boast about for half a lifetime.

But no normal person would ever want such an experience.

A pure case of undeserved misfortune—with nowhere to appeal.

The Censorate might now enjoy taking such cases, but only if the victim was dead—preferably an entire family massacred.

The charge of arresting the wrong person and releasing them was too trivial—too small to even mention publicly.

A family massacre, however, was a far more serious matter—it could be used during factional struggles to brand the eunuch faction as “treating human life as grass.”

“Thank you for the warning, my lord—I’ll go home at once!”

The middle-aged man hastily promised, clearly terrified—his body trembled as he spoke.

……

At nearly the same moment, identical notices appeared in other districts of the capital.

Xi Cheng Battalion Command.

“What? The person who posted the notices was a group of illiterate children, incited by a beggar?”

“Yes, Commander Zhao. When we found the beggar, he’d been dead for two hours.

Judging by the timeline, he was murdered immediately after paying the children to post the notices.

The killer clearly planned this in advance—likely already left the capital.”

Staring at the beggar’s corpse, Zhao Yawei’s emotions remained unsettled.

The trail had vanished—tracking down the mastermind now was ten times harder.

“Send word to Marquis Wuyang immediately!”

In this land of nobles, no one could guarantee a high-ranking official hadn’t passed by and seen the notice.

It was bound to be discovered—better to report it yourself than wait for superiors to notice and demand accountability.

(End of Chapter)