Lu Ying continued reviewing the confession. Wang Daxia speculated that Wei Caiwei might be the missing Miss He Er who lost her memory due to high fever while fleeing. For someone usually as lazy as him, he became unusually attentive, almost wishing he could pluck out his eyeballs to examine the details more closely.
Zhou Xiaoqi confessed that ten years ago, after the Gengxu Incident, the court began purging officials for dereliction of duty, plunging everyone into panic. Thousand Household Chen, fearing he would be held accountable, secretly sold all the properties entrusted to him by his in-law Lord He, exchanging them for twenty thousand taels of silver to bribe Yan Shifan.
Later, Thousand Household Chen indeed retained his black gauze hat and emerged unscathed, undoubtedly due to Yan Shifan's covert protection.
Lu Ying circled this section with a vermilion brush and recorded it in her notebook.
Wang Daxia committed all these details to memory.
By evening, when Lu Ying went to pay respects to Lu Bing with her notebook, Wang Daxia rushed to Wei Caiwei to divulge everything he had witnessed, warning her:
"...You must be careful. Firstly, your suspicion hasn't been cleared yet. Secondly, although Zhou Xiaoqi hasn't had the chance to inform Yan Shifan about you, given Yan Shifan's power, he will eventually track you down. This Yan Shifan won't treat you as courteously as Lu Bing and Lu Ying have."
Wang Daxia's intense concern for her affairs made Wei Caiwei aware of his good intentions, but she firmly denied it, "I truly am not Miss He Er. Still, thank you—I'll keep it in mind."
Wang Daxia insisted, "Your brain was damaged by fever when you were young, so of course you don't remember. But such a tragic past is better forgotten. I hope the missing Miss He Er isn't you."
Just then, a guard delivered dinner: three meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, a soup, with steamed rice and flower rolls as staples.
Wang Daxia, hoping to stay for a meal, praised, "Guest meals are nothing like the communal potluck I get in the mess hall. Even the rice looks whiter. Look at this stuffed bitter melon—packed with so much minced meat it's about to burst. At noon, I had bitter melon stir-fried with shredded meat in the mess hall—you'd be lucky to find one strand of meat in ten strands of bitter melon."
"And even with that measly portion, the mess hall cook trembled violently while scooping my serving."
Wang Daxia stretched out his arm, imitating the cook's shaking like someone having a stroke, "He even shook off the top shred of meat from the ladle!"
Wei Caiwei couldn't help but laugh aloud, "Alright, alright. I can't finish all this alone. If you don't mind, stay and eat with me."
Exactly what I wanted.
Wang Daxia said, "Then I'll gladly accept your kindness."
They sat opposite each other as host and guest. Wei Caiwei picked up her chopsticks first, followed immediately by Wang Daxia, who clamped a stuffed bitter melon into his rice bowl.
Wei Caiwei raised her chopsticks but took an empty soup bowl, placed a flower roll inside, and set it on the empty seat beside her with a pair of chopsticks.
Wang Daxia suddenly lost his appetite for the stuffed bitter melon, pausing his chopsticks to ask, "I already know you're not a widow. Why are you still making offerings?"
"Oh, force of habit," Wei Caiwei replied. "Besides, I still need to practice medicine as a widow eventually. I'd better continue the offerings at every meal to avoid raising suspicions if others notice. I'll keep it up until the three-year mourning period ends."
Wang Daxia snatched the bowl with the flower roll and placed it before himself, essentially competing with the dead for food.
"You—" Wei Caiwei had just started thinking he was making progress when he reverted to his foolishness."I won't take this meal for free." Wang Daxia said, "I'll allow you to keep that 'Spirit Tablet of My Deceased Husband Wang Erlang' and won't hold it against you for using my surname and birth order. But on one condition - whenever we eat alone together, you mustn't offer food to this imaginary deceased husband."
Though Wang Daxia spoke of the spirit tablet, what he truly meant was his acceptance of Wei Caiwei continuing her medical practice while maintaining her widow persona.
After all, he couldn't be more stubborn than even the conservative Lu Ying.
"Alright." Wei Caiwei replied, "Both Chen the Agent and Li Jiubao have seen that spirit tablet with their own eyes. If I change the inscription now, I'd have to move the new tablet to a locked room later using feng shui as an excuse, rather than keeping it openly in the main hall to avoid exposure. Since you've agreed, I won't need to go through that trouble."
"Deal. The steamed rolls are mine." Wang Daxia picked up a roll with his chopsticks, devouring half in one bite and finishing it in two.
Watching Wang Daxia eat happily, Wei Caiwei thought to herself: This guy remembers food but forgets grievances. Last night he said I hurt him, refused to speak with me, and nearly cut ties. Yet today, with just a plate of grapes and one meal, he's come around.
He really is... so easy to placate.
Wei Caiwei picked up a clean pair of chopsticks to use as serving utensils and placed some marinated beef into Wang Daxia's bowl. "I'm still taking medicine and need to eat lightly. You finish the meat."
Wang Daxia ate with evident delight.
Meanwhile, after finishing dinner with Lu Bing, Lu Ying summarized the key points from Zhou Xiaoqi's testimony for her father.
Lu Ying reported, "...I believe there must have been transactions between Vice Minister Yan and Thousand Household Chen, and this definitely involves Lord He. The twenty thousand taels of silver that Thousand Household Chen gave to Vice Minister Yan actually came from selling off the He family's properties. Therefore, I suspect that regardless of whether Chen Dalao harassed Miss He or not, both girls wouldn't have lived much longer anyway, as they would eventually discover that their family's properties had been seized by Thousand Household Chen."
"Thousand Household Chen's scheme of purchasing the two government slaves and keeping them at a rural estate was quite clever. First, it maintained his reputation for cherishing old ties with Lord He. Second, in the sparsely populated countryside with the West Three Li River right by the doorstep, creating a fake drowning incident would be simple. No one would investigate the deaths of two government slaves too deeply, thus permanently safeguarding the secret."
Sitting in his wheelchair, Lu Bing said, "Your reasoning makes sense. I never thought I misjudged Thousand Household Chen - that he could be so vicious and inhuman. Both of them were my former subordinates, responsible for compiling intelligence from various sources. When I formed the suicide squad to cover the retreat of refugees entering the city, the squad members knew they wouldn't return yet volunteered anyway. Lord He was among the first to step forward. Later, when we found evidence in Lord He's duty room that he had delayed military intelligence - specifically that Embroidered Uniform Guard spies in Mongolia had sent warnings about Anda Khan possibly leading troops south, which he failed to report to me promptly - I finally understood that Lord He had volunteered for the suicide squad to atone for his mistake."
"According to military law, such a grave error warranted execution of the entire family. But considering he had already died in battle, I pleaded for leniency and had his two daughters sentenced to government slavery instead, allowing his line to continue.Thousand Household Chen solemnly promised to take good care of them, so I didn't pursue the matter further."
Lu Ying asked her father, "Was it Thousand Household Chen who discovered the intelligence about the delayed report of Anda Khan's invasion warning?"Father and daughter shared a deep understanding. Lu Bing instantly grasped his daughter's meaning. "You're suggesting that Thousand Household Chen was actually the one who delayed the military intelligence. He found a scapegoat in Lord He and pinned the blame on him, since the dead cannot speak to defend themselves."
Lu Ying nodded. "I've served in the Embroidered Uniform Guard for nearly a year now. Aside from spoiling his useless son, Thousand Household Chen seemed decent enough in other aspects. He never struck me as the kind of villain who would seize his in-law's property and drive Miss He to her death. Truly, one can know a person's face but not their heart. Since he was capable of such heinous acts, framing a dead man would have been even easier for him."
Had they not uncovered Miss He's body—pregnant when she died—Lu Ying would never have guessed this layer of the truth.
Lu Bing shook his head. "I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. It wasn't Thousand Household Chen who discovered it. After Lord He's death, it was a low-ranking soldier tasked with cleaning out his duty room to make space for someone else who made the discovery."
Lu Ying said, "Then that soldier must have taken money from Thousand Household Chen to 'discover' it deliberately. Father, who was he? Is he still serving in the Embroidered Uniform Guard?"
Lu Bing shook his head again. "That soldier is the current warehouse keeper, Masked Wu—the one with half his face blown off from an uncleaned gun barrel. He likely didn't take any bribe. If he had truly accepted Thousand Household Chen's money, he would have retired to enjoy his ill-gotten gains rather than endure the hardship of watching the warehouse every day behind a mask."
This man was known in the Embroidered Uniform Guard as Masked Wu because he always wore a full or half mask, to the point where his real name had been forgotten.
That very morning, Lu Ying had taken Wang Daxia to "visit" Masked Wu as a warning about the consequences of neglecting daily gun barrel cleaning.
Lu Ying reasoned, "Then Thousand Household Chen must have secretly planted the intelligence in the duty room before Masked Wu cleaned it, waiting for someone to find it. They were longtime friends and in-laws. After Lord He joined the suicide squad, he entrusted his family and assets to Thousand Household Chen. It would have been perfectly normal for Chen to have a key to his duty room."
Lu Bing nodded. "That logic does fit together seamlessly. But everyone involved is dead now—there's no evidence from the deceased."
"Not necessarily all witnesses from back then are dead." Lu Ying took out her notebook and turned the page. "Why is Vice Minister Yan so concerned about Thousand Household Chen's death? He even summoned Zhou Xiaoqi specifically to ask whether Chen had mentioned the He family before he died. I think Vice Minister Yan must know something."
Lu Bing thought his daughter was being unrealistic. "Vice Minister Yan is an extremely busy man. People seeking favors from him form lines stretching block after block, and most never get an audience. Even I need to send a formal request in advance to see him. You think you can just show up?"
Lu Ying said, "My second sister is pregnant. I'll bring gifts to visit her at the Yan residence and find an opportunity to see her father-in-law. He should give some face to my second sister."
Yan Shifan had six sons and two daughters who survived to adulthood.
Among them, his second wife, Lady Liu—daughter of the Marquis of Anyuan, Liu Wangxun—bore one son and one daughter. The son, Yan Shaoting, ranked second among the brothers and was Yan Shifan's only surviving legitimate son. Lu Ying's second sister had married Yan Shaoting.
Yan Shaoting's elder sister, the eldest Miss Yan, had been matched by the Jiajing Emperor himself in marriage to Duke Yansheng, Kong Shangxian. Upon marriage, Miss Yan became the esteemed Duchess Yansheng.
As long as scholars existed, the Duke Yansheng lineage would never fall—even if the Great Ming dynasty perished one day, the Duke Yansheng would undoubtedly remain.
It was precisely because of Yan Shaoting's impeccable lineage that Lu Bing had married his second daughter to him.With such a formidable husband and sister-in-law backing her, Madam Lu, the second young mistress of the Yan family, naturally held an extraordinary position within the household.
Lu Bing asked, "Even if you manage to meet Vice Minister Yan, how do you plan to broach the subject?"
Lu Ying thought for a moment and replied, "I'll adopt the demeanor of a junior showing concern for an elder. I'll tell him that Zhou Xiaoqi, after being tortured, started making wild accusations and even dared to implicate Vice Minister Yan. I'll say such behavior is utterly unacceptable and that I've already disciplined this person. Then I'll observe Vice Minister Yan's reaction and see what he says."
Lu Bing shook his head, "That won't do. You're still too young and considering things too simply. Vice Minister Yan has long been known for his cunning intellect. The moment you open your mouth, he'll guess your intentions. Not only would you alert the enemy, but even if Vice Minister Yan maintains his dignity and doesn't bother with someone of your generation, he would certainly react against me and the Yan family would respond against your sister."
"I'm not afraid of him. I could play verbal games with him and get through it, but your sister is pregnant. A married daughter cannot act as freely in her husband's family as she could in her parental home. As the only legitimate daughter-in-law and the matriarch of the Yan family, many eyes are on her. She must consider every move carefully. Don't make things difficult for her."
Lu Bing was a loving father who arranged everything for his daughters. While he cherished his fourth daughter Lu Ying the most, he also had to consider the situations of his other daughters.
Since this approach wouldn't work, and Lu Ying wouldn't harm her pregnant sister for the sake of the investigation, she frustratedly pounded the table, "Why must women marry? Once married, you lose your autonomy. Eldest sister is the wife of the Cheng State Duke's heir, second sister is the Yan family matriarch, third sister married into the Grand Secretariat Minister Xu's family - they're all noble ladies that everyone envies. Yet none of my three sisters have been as happy after marriage as they were when they were unmarried girls at home. I definitely won't marry in the future."
Seeing Lu Ying's anger, Lu Bing quickly comforted his daughter, "Don't be so impatient. After I recover, I'll personally visit Vice Minister Yan. It's easier for adults to speak with each other. Thousand Household Chen probably isn't that important to him. After all, we're relatives by marriage with shared interests. People naturally pursue advantage and avoid harm - he wouldn't refuse to give me face over a dead man. Be good and bear with it for now."
Speak of the devil - no sooner had he finished speaking than guards outside reported, "Lord Lu! Vice Minister Yan has arrived. He went to your residence first, but when he found you weren't home, he came to the office to find you."
Lu Bing immediately grew anxious: In my current condition, how can I receive anyone? Especially a cunning in-law like him?
Author's note: Lu Bing: I have an extraordinary in-law.
Caiwei: Really? Dare to compete with the extraordinary in-laws from our big city Tieling Ivory Mountain?
Lu Bing: Come on, in-law.
Caiwei: Let's welcome the one who bullies in-laws forever, Christian Liu Neng. And the troublemaker Guangkun Xie.
Yan Shifan: Sorry to interrupt, I concede defeat.
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