Chapter 50: An Unexpected Suspect

Finding an empty room, Yang Hanlu privately told Wan Tong the current progress and details of the investigation, then asked:

"May I ask, Minister Wan, who exactly handled the silver carriage robbery case eight years ago?"

Wan Tong took a sip of tea and recalled:

"Many people were actually involved; just suppressing the bandits mobilized hundreds of brothers, but the true leaders were only Qin Gui and Fang Tao, who secretly infiltrated and poisoned, thus almost bloodlessly taking the bandits' lair; yet it never occurred to them that the silver would end up in the pockets of them and the coroner, so it seems Qiu Feng is likely innocent."

Yang Hanlu nodded and said:

"Now four people, three are already dead, and Fang Tao looks like he won't last long; I think the murderer has already achieved his goal, next he will surely hide or flee; Minister Wan, please don't worry, I will definitely catch him."

Wan Tong smiled upon hearing this, rose, walked to Yang Hanlu's side, and lowered her voice to say:

"Chief Yang, the case isn't handled like this; do you know the consequences of concluding this case?"

"Please, Minister Wan, instruct me."

"The Northern Peacekeeping Office, with lax self‑investigation, has fabricated false cases, causing frequent bloodshed; as for how the personnel at all levels, including myself, will be punished, that goes without saying—but Chief Yang, do you really think solving the case will earn you a reward? Wrong!"

"The Southern Peacekeeping Office drags out investigations, stirs up trouble, and completely disregards public safety; Chief Yang, don't talk about rewards—you'll likely face blame too, for the Censorate's lot will impeach us every few days, and they will surely submit a harsh memorial on this case; then both the Southern and Northern Peacekeeping Offices will probably be punished."

Yang Hanlu furrowed his brows slightly, clasped his fists, and said:

"We handle the case impartially, believing His Majesty will render a just verdict."

Wan Tong sat back down, took a sip of tea, and smiled:

"So you see, Chief Yang lacks experience; what His Majesty cares about is the life or death of a few subordinates of the Peacekeeping Office? Don't forget the Peacekeeping Office directly serves His Majesty."

"Those clean‑faction officials have constantly impeached us; if this time they use the opportunity to topple us, who will suffer the impact on executive power and administrative convenience? Naturally His Majesty! Therefore His Majesty absolutely does not want our Peacekeeping Office to suffer such a major setback."

Yang Hanlu's brows knotted tighter, and he probed:

"What does Minister Wan mean?"

Wan Tong, as if she had planned this long ago, replied:

"Chief Yang, close the case and report it immediately; the murderer is the dying Fang Tao, who, poisoned, suffered from madness and ruthlessly killed Qin Gui and two coroners."

"In that case, the Northern Peacekeeping Office bears only the responsibility of lax supervision and instruction; Chief Yang, solving the case within three days, apprehending the culprit on the street, and sustaining blade wounds while protecting the people, will surely merit promotion and reward."

"The murderer being a descendant of Qiu Feng, his revenge targets are all dead, so he certainly won't reoffend; even if he did, it could be investigated as another case; and the common folk would also thank the Peacekeeping Office for keeping the region peaceful."

"His Majesty would not be embarrassed by impeachment over the Peacekeeping Office's case; everyone would benefit—how wonderful!"

"Minister Wan, are you trying to make me deceive the sovereign? Don't forget, many people saw those silver ingots."

Wan Tong waved her hand and said:

"I certainly don't mean that; nothing escapes His Majesty's eyes, how could I dare teach Chief Yang to deceive the sovereign? Once Chief Yang's case is settled, I will naturally submit a sealed memorial to His Majesty together with him, making the facts clear."

"In this way, all risks have been considered. Investigating the truth for His Majesty is our duty, but helping His Majesty consider things thoroughly and handling affairs more favorably is also what we ought to do."

"But this way, Chief Qiu Feng's innocence would have nowhere to be vindicated?"

"Alas, how many abandoned graves and withered bones exist, and how many of them are without injustice? Better to consider the living."

Seeing Yang Hanlu remain silent in a low voice, Wan Tong did not press too hard, but instead patted his shoulder and said:

"Chief Yang, take your time to consider; you're still young, the road ahead is long—I'm going to go sit with Old Yan."

Yang Hanlu did not rush to decide; with a grim face he went out, found Jiang Yunzhou, Zou Zhen, and that heroine Zhen, brought them to the evidence room, and told them exactly what Wan Tong had just told him, word for word.

Zhen Qing gave a light snort and said coldly:

"This is the officialdom of Great Liang—beautifully called 'the greater good,' but in reality it's merely profit distribution."

Zou Zhen grinned and said:

"This is also why I like working at the Southern Peacekeeping Office—no those winding schemings—I didn't expect to encounter this either; Chief Yang, you're the lead investigator, I can't help you make the decision."

Yang Hanlu remained grim‑faced, still wanting to ask Jiang Yunzhou's opinion, but saw him there examining the evidence.

"Young Master Jiang, what do you think?"

Jiang Yunzhou lifted his head and laughed:

"All right, Chief Yang, stop teasing us—you didn't come to discuss a decision with us; you brought a discovered suspect to discuss the case with us."

Seeing Zhen Qing and Zou Zhen look a bit bewildered at those words, Jiang Yunzhou continued:

"Earlier, Chief Yang, you said if it wasn't Qiu Feng's descendant seeking revenge, there was another possibility; just now, while you were away, I saw these evidences and thought of that possibility you mentioned."

Yang Hanlu's mouth curled up, his grim expression vanished at once; he then turned and shut the doors and windows tightly, making sure no one was eavesdropping outside.

Zou Zhen scratched his head, puzzled, and said:

"No, besides Qiu Feng's descendants, who else would have a motive to kill those four?"

Jiang Yunzhou picked up an old silver ingot from the table and countered:

"Elder Brother Zou, you said they clearly melted most of the silver into ingots—why keep these old silver ingots as evidence? Surely not just as souvenirs?"

Zhen Qing was the first to think of it, her beautiful eyes lifting as she blurted out:

"Accomplices! They kept the silver ingots as mutual pledges to restrain each other!"

Jiang Yunzhou nodded and said: "I was saying we have tacit understanding, right!"

Zhen Qing: (￢_￢)

Zou Zhen nodded, but immediately furrowed his brows and said:

"No way! If accomplices killed the other four, just like now, wouldn't that expose the old silver carriage robbery case? Why would they do that?"

Jiang Yunzhou also went to the doorway, carefully confirming no one was outside, then continued:

"Elder Brother Zou asks well; I think the only reason to proactively expose oneself is that exposure was inevitable anyway—put another way, among those four someone surely planned to expose the matter or use it to blackmail the murderer, so the murderer came up with the idea of not stopping at one but going all out, killing the four and framing Qiu Feng's descendants as a desperate measure."

"Thinking back, this murderer could understand and learn Chief Qiu Feng's techniques, was feared by those four to the point they had to keep the silver ingots to restrain him, could sneak into Qin Gui's residence at night undetected, and had the ability to seriously wound Fang Tao—he must be a person of considerable cultivation or official rank."

"Moreover, being able to tear up files and destroy related documents, hiding the truth about himself, shows he was then also in the Peacekeeping Office, a senior or high‑level member; together with the kind reminder Chief Yang just received, Elder Brother Zou, who do you think could be responsible?"

"No way......"

Yang Hanlu rushed forward and covered Zou Zhen's mouth, saying:

"Beware, walls have ears."

Zou Zhen finally realized that, after all the fuss, Yang Hanlu hadn't come over with a heavy heart to discuss how to close the case, but had brought a fresh lead.

Zou Zhen let out a breath, somewhat excitedly said:

"This isn't a joke; if the killer really is that person, even with solid evidence it would be hard to bring them down, and moreover we currently have no evidence at all about him—solving the case just got at least twice as difficult."

Yang Hanlu nodded and explained:

"This is also what I'm worried about; moreover, if we really investigate in that direction, the three of you will also get dragged in, possibly putting your lives at risk, and this is still just speculation—we lack crucial evidence."

Knowing that Yang Hanlu was different from the Liang dynasty official he had just assumed, Zhen Qing also stepped forward and patted Yang Hanlu's shoulder, saying:

"No problem, this is actually rather interesting."

Jiang Yunzhou, who always likes to look at problems from a different angle, glanced at the evidence on the table and nodded, saying:

"Don't be so pessimistic; if this isn't a revenge by the descendants of Qiu Feng, the case would actually be much easier to solve."

"Oh? Brother Jiang, how do you mean that?"

"Because if it were a revenge by Qiu Feng's descendants, they would be unprepared, and even if they were subdued and brutally killed, it would be hard to leave any evidence about the killer; indeed, the evidence might even have been left by the killer themselves, so we hadn't paid much attention before."

"But if the killer is their accomplice, given that they left silver ingots to mutually restrain each other, they certainly would have set up some mechanism to prevent others from killing them to silence them; in other words, they definitely left direct evidence identifying the killer."

Thus the four of them continued to carefully sift through the evidence they had brought back, hoping to find some clues.

Still more sensitive to money, Jiang Yunzhou, who had once collected counterfeit metal silver in Wu Zhou, was the first to notice:

The silver ingots of Qin Gui and Fang Tao seemed to have different weights.

He hurriedly placed the two silver ingots on the ground and called Yang Hanlu over; she, in tacit understanding, lightly chopped at the silver ingot with a blade.

Ding!

As the silver ingot was chopped apart, a copper plate embedded within it, inscribed with "Horizontal three, vertical four, beneath the brick," also fell out from Qin Gui's silver ingot.