Liu Zhenqing could only see the person’s back through the gap in the boxes under the moonlight. They were wearing night clothes, so it was impossible to tell whether it was someone he knew. 

He could only keep adjusting the angle, trying to see his face.

As he adjusted, his waist became straighter and straighter, and the body of the person under him became increasingly stiff.

But Liu Zhenqing still couldn’t see. He didn’t give up, and couldn’t help but raise his lower body, crane his neck, and look over the top of the boxes.

The man moved his neck a little and Liu Zhenqing shrank in fright, sitting down.

At once, Liu Zhenqing felt like something was poking him where he sat. Could it be Huo Fenglie’s belt buckle?

Just as he was about to move away, he felt Er-gou take a sudden breath.

The next second, Liu Zhenqing was flung away by a strong force, and a figure flashed in front of his eyes. The person standing by the bookshelf focusing on looking for a book felt the strong gust of wind behind him. When he looked back, he saw a pair of fierce, savage eyes flash through the dark night. Before he could get a better look, there was pain in his neck and he lost consciousness.

Liu Zhenqing was shocked by this turn of events. “Er-gou, what are you doing? Shouldn’t we have observed and followed him?”

Having said this, he came forward, but Huo Fenglie kept his back turned to him, which was convenient for Liu Zhenqing to look at the visitor who had fallen into their hands.

He used the moonlight to sweep his gaze over him, and was even more surprised. It turned out to be Du Dongfeng? The government office boy?

And at this time, Huo Fenglie also found a good justification. 

“I…..I thought it was him based on his body shape and footsteps. Since it’s someone we know, there is no need to follow him. And I feared it would be unsuitable to bring you to follow, so it is more appropriate to arrest him first.” Huo Fenglie’s hoarse voice was difficult to hear clearly in the dark night.

Liu Zhenqing thought for a moment. He didn’t think it would be a big problem for him to go with Huo Fenglie based on his martial arts skills, but when it came to martial arts, he absolutely trusted Huo Fenglie’s judgment. “En, what you say makes sense. But what should we do now?”

“I’ll take him back to the room first, and pick you up afterward.” Huo Fenglie said in a slightly urgent tone, “Very quickly.”

“Okay, you go ahead. I’ll take a look at the account books here.” Liu Zhenqing approached a bookshelf and picked up the brush and paper left by Du Dongfeng, which was convenient for him to make notes.

Huo Fenglie quickly ran back and forth, and waited for Liu Zhenqing to read all the ledgers before taking him back to the room.

Liu Zhenqing was able to confirm the fact that the tax deposits and withdrawals were indeed inconsistent. Although they had tried their best to conceal it in the accounts, this was not a problem for Prime Minister Liu, who once took charge of the entire Ministry of Revenue alone.

But the troublesome thing was that these account books were re-registered account books. The original accounts and the copies submitted to the court were not here. Even if these books were handed over, it could only be regarded as suspicion without proof, and in the end, it would be regarded as a bunch of bad debts and amount to nothing.

Liu Zhenqing murmured: “So that’s why these people put the account books here so generously. It seems it will be necessary to identify the officials involved and then obtain the evidence in the hands of each official.”

Huo Fenglie frowned as he looked at the names of counties and prefectures written down on the paper by Liu Zhenqing.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a suspicion. In fact, there shouldn’t be so many. After all, some of them really do have bad debts, so their accounts will be abnormal.” Liu Zhenqing patted Huo Fenglie on the shoulder and said, “Let’s go.”

Liu Zhenqing stretched out his hand. In the past, Huo Fenglie would embrace him and fly away, but this time he hesitated for a moment, then put one arm around Liu Zhenqing’s waist and flew out with him in a way that minimized their contact surface.

However, Liu Zhenqing was not used to such an unstable holding method, so he directly reached out and hugged the other’s body. Feeling Huo Fenglie’s stiffness, Liu Zhenqing gave him a strange look. It wasn’t until they descended back to the ground that Liu Zhenqing said: “What’s wrong? Do you feel uncomfortable somewhere?”

Huo Fenglie calmly denied it, which made Liu Zhenqing think he was overthinking things.

When they entered the room, they saw the tied up Du Dongfeng, who had his eyes and mouth covered. He was already awake, and could only turn his head when he heard a sound.

Liu Zhenqing walked up to Du Dongfeng and signaled Huo Fenglie to grab his neck.

As soon as Huo Fenglie moved, Du Donfeng immediately felt the threat to his life, and his body tensed up.

Liu Zhenqing pinched his nose to change his voice and said: “Kid, I’ll let you speak later, but if you yell, don’t blame us for being cruel. Do you understand?”

Du Dongfeng hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement.

Huo Fenglie removed the gag, and Du Dongfeng took a breath. “Who are you, and why did you arrest me?”

It seemed that he hadn’t seen clearly what Huo Fenglie did.

“Isn’t it right to arrest you? Who told you to look for something you shouldn’t be looking for?”

Du Dongfeng immediately said: “You misunderstand. I’m a government servant here, and I patrol occasionally.” 

“You patrol wearing night clothes, carrying paper and a brush, and specifically search for tax and bank-related account books?”

Du Dongfeng understood at once that these people must have been watching him for a long time.

“You two, I was just curious. I wanted to see if there were any secrets I could dig up to make a bit of a windfall.”

Liu Zhenqing found it interesting that he remained calm in the face of danger. 

“Kid, if you want to dig up secrets, now is the best time to dig up things related to the Imperial Examinations, not tax money. If you still refuse to tell the truth, we don’t mind going to your home to ask your family for details.”

This threat indeed hit Du Dongfeng’s weakness.

“W-Who are you working for?”

Liu Zhenqing sat leisurely on a chair and played with the small toys placed next to him, which were all bought by Huo Fenglie.

“This is what we should be asking you. Who are you working for?”

“I’m not working for anyone. I’m just an ordinary citizen who suspects that officials in Tongmao Prefecture are embezzling tax money. This has nothing to do with my family, they’re ordinary people and know nothing. If you are subordinates of Magistrate Yao, then just kill me. Don’t trouble my family!”

Huo Fenglie looked at Liu Zhenqing, who shook his head and slewed his gaze. “We were indeed sent by Yao-daren. Since the investigation team arrived recently, Yao-daren was worried and sent us to observe just in case. But Yao-daren said he had someone in a low position here as well. It is a pity that person is not you. Do it.”

Huo Fenglie used force at a moderate speed, giving Du Dongfeng enough time to beg for mercy, but Du Dongfeng only used his tied hands to touch something on his chest and then raised his head high. “The loser becomes the villain. Dad, this child can no longer fulfill his filial piety. May heaven have eyes to punish these dog officials who oppress the common people! May Great Zhou be purged!”

In the next moment, Du Dongfeng was choked unconscious.

“It seems there really has been a misunderstanding,” Liu Zhenqing said while touching his chin.

“You believe him?” Huo Fenglie frowned.

Liu Zhenqing chuckled and said: “Of course I don’t believe him entirely. Although there are indeed people with lofty ideals, the fact that he didn’t read those account books on the spot but prepared to copy them and take them away shows that there is someone behind him. But he is someone who would rather die than reveal them, so what he said is half true and half false. At the least, he wants to investigate the truth about the embezzlement of tax money as much as we do. And that Magistrate Yao is likely behind this matter. I think we can cooperate with this person, but we need to let him know our identities…..”

Huo Fenglie let Liu Zhenqing think, but his hands had already begun to search through Du Dongfeng’s belongings.

“What are you doing?” Liu Zhenqing asked, confused.

“He touched something on his chest when he thought he would die. It must be something important.”

Liu Zhenqing became interested at once and came over. “Right, could it be identification? A token? Or evidence?”

Huo Fenglie felt around for a moment and then pulled out a delicate red rope from around Du Dongfeng’s neck. Following the red rope, a green jade pendant emerged.

The two of them were unavoidably stunned for a moment, and took a sharp breath at almost the same time.

Huo Fenglie looked at Liu Zhenqing with dark eyes, and Liu Zhenqing gazed at the unconscious Du Dongfeng with question marks on his face. 

Why? 

How could his jade pendant appear in this kid’s hands?

It was a piece of jade of excellent quality, carved into the shape of a willow leaf. When Liu Zhenqing was still the heir of a noble house, he often wore it around his waist. But because it was an ordinary type of jade, it was actually relatively common. Liu Zhenqing’s pendants, however, all had special symbols that were Arabic numerals. This one had a ‘5’ faintly engraved on it.

Therefore, even if Huo Fenglie didn’t know the meaning, he knew that this was indeed Liu Zhenqing’s pendant.

Funnily enough, there was actually more than one. When Liu Zhenqing got a whole piece of good jade, he intended to ask the jade carving master to carve a small willow tree for his grandfather. But there was an accident and only the willow leaves were left, so he simply strung them together as jade pendants and hung them around his waist. For fun, he engraved Arabic numerals on them. There seemed to have been fifteen in total.

And there were basically two fates for these jade pendants. One was that they were pawned when there was a need for money, and the other was that they were given away.

Yes, when Liu Zhenqing was young, he was famous all over the country. He was extremely handsome, and was naturally a wanton romantic, with many beauties and confidants. Women were often attracted to him, but the young master had no intentions toward them. He would just treat her as a friend and behave like a gentleman as he pleased.

Liu Zhenqing couldn’t stand to see a woman’s sad and tearful look. Seeing that the other party wanted to keep him in her thoughts, the best thing he could use was a jade pendant. There was no tradition in Great Zhou of gifting jade pendants as a token of love, so there was not much pressure when giving one over.

The first time he gave a girl a jade pendant, her tears turned into laughter. Only Li Xingruo rolled her eyes and called him a scumbag and a prodigal son who didn’t take people’s sincerity seriously. But Liu Zhenqing felt that he was being wronged. Was it a bad thing that he had a natural instinct to treat women well?

In short, because of these jade pendants, he left behind many so-called romantic affairs. Every last one of the fifteen were gone, and what he carried with him was the simple Rubik’s Cube-style jade pendant given to him by Huo Fenglie.

“It’s yours.” Huo Fenglie’s tone suddenly turned gloomy. “You gave it to him?”

Liu Zhenqing laughed dryly: “I…..have no impression?”

“Did you ever give one to a man?” Huo Fenglie’s tone became even colder.

“Absolutely not.” Liu Zhenqing was also puzzled. “Based on the age…..could it have been his sister? I don’t remember being here, ah. It seems…..that I don’t know a girl named Du either? Let me think again…..”

Seeing that Liu Zhenqing seemed to be counting in his mind the girls with unclear intentions toward him, Huo Fenglie’s expression turned even uglier.

“Maybe he bought it after it was pawned? Or it was transferred to him by somebody else.” Liu Zhenqing really had a headache. How could this have something to do with him?

“Then question him again!” Huo Fenglie decisively woke Du Dongfeng up, startling Liu Zhenqing. He felt that Er-gou was particularly aggressive at this moment.

Once Du Dongfeng woke up, before he could figure out what was going on, he felt the jade pendant pass across his hand and his expression immediately changed. “My jade pendant, what are you doing? Aren’t you going to kill me? Why did you take away my jade pendant! Do you intend to steal a dead person’s belongings? Give it back to me!”

Huo Fenglie looked toward Liu Zhenqing and signaled with sharp eyes for him to ask. Liu Zhenqing swallowed and asked cooperatively: “This jade pendant is quite special. Perhaps it holds some clues.”

“Nonsense, this jade pendant was given to me by my lover. It has nothing to do with anything else!”

Liu Zhenqing choked. He could feel the burning gaze coming from Huo Fenglie.

He stopped beating around the bush and said directly: “Liu Zhenqing? It turns out you’re a remnant of his defeated party?!”

Liu Zhenqing’s tone changed, and Du Dongfeng understood at once that the other party had a lot of background and actually recognized the jade pendant. He struggled wildly. “Bah, how are you worthy of mentioning his name!”

Liu Zhenqing was a little surprised. The protective intent in these words was obvious. Could it be that he really was a member of his party?

And then Huo Fenglie suddenly said, “Lover?”

Liu Zhenqing looked at Huo Fenglie in astonishment, worried that he would be exposed. And what kind of question was this, ah? It was clearly an excuse that Du Dongfeng made up.

But at this time, Huo Fenglie’s cold and murderous voice was more like an assassin in the dark night, very different from usual. And Du Dongfeng was so agitated that he couldn’t hear it. He replied directly: “Yes, Prime Minister Liu was my lover, can’t this be so? I’m not a remnant of his party, I just admire him. That is the jade pendant that he gave me. It has nothing to do with your investigation. If you want to kill me, then do as you wish, but return the jade pendant to me. Otherwise, I will not let you get away with it even if I’m a ghost!”

Liu Zhenqing’s expression was utterly amazed when he heard this, and he was completely speechless.

Huo Fenglie chopped down with his hand and poor Xiao Du fainted again.

“Lover?” Huo Fenglie asked, looking at Liu Zhenqing expressionlessly.

“Eh…..”

“You personally gave it to him?”

“This…..”

“Heh.”

Huo Fenglie was obviously unhappy, which inexplicably made Liu Zhenqing feel that he had done something wrong. He wanted to coax him quickly, but was really full of questions.

Liu Zhenqing said quickly, “I swear I never gave it to him. I don’t even know him. How old is he now? He was probably not as old as you were back then, just a little kid.” 

Huo Fenglie’s expression remained unchanged, and he gripped the jade pendant tighter and tighter. 

Suddenly, he said in a low voice with a hint of grievance: “You never gave one to me.”

Liu Zhenqing instantly couldn’t laugh or cry. It turned out that this kid had a temper because of jealousy over his different treatment as a child, ah.

“Aiya, my god, didn’t I love you dearly when you were a child? Did I not give you everything you wanted? I remember asking you if you wanted one, and you said no. If you wanted one, I would have given you fifteen pieces,” Liu Zhenqing practically swore.

“There is a difference between asking for something and being given something.” Huo Fenglie turned his head and continued in a low voice, “And it would still be something that others had.”

Liu Zhenqing took Huo Fenglie’s arm, inexplicably anxious to explain: “What is all this, ah, the child I loved the most was you, and I treated you as my own little brother. But I really didn’t ever give one to a man. Do you think I’m Liu Xiaozhu? I don’t like men at all, let alone have any tender feelings for them. How could I give a man a jade pendant for no reason, even a little boy?”

Huo Fenglie froze at once, and the expression on his face changed again and again as if he was experiencing several fluctuations. In the end, he could only acquiesce to this statement. “So where did his come from?”

Seeing that Huo Fenglie was willing to discuss properly, Liu Zhenqing finally breathed a sigh of relief. But after breathing this sigh of relief, he inexplicably felt that something was wrong?

It was strange. Why did he try so hard to coax Huo Fenglie? Just like coaxing…..coaxing an angry little girlfriend. Although he had never had a girlfriend, Huo Feihan had coaxed Li Xingruo like this.

This…..A flash of strangeness zipped through Liu Zhenqing’s heart, and was interrupted by Huo Fenglie’s question.

“Do you want to press him further?”

Liu Zhenqing thought for a moment and said: “I’m sure we won’t get anything out of him if we press him. Let’s pretend to be like-minded people and let him go to see what he’ll do next. I never knew him, and I didn’t have such a little subordinate at that time, but the people he answers to might be acquaintances.” As he said this, he went to put the jade pendant back on the person.

“You still want to give it to him?”

“Yes, yes, to win his trust, ah.” Liu Zhenqing had a headache. What was wrong with this kid? Why had he suddenly become so childish? “Let’s go to the jade shop later, and I’ll buy you whatever you want, eh? Wait, I have no money, so you’ll still pay for it.”

Liu Zhenqing put the jade pendant back on Du Dongfeng. When he looked up, he saw that Huo Fenglie was aggrieved at his perfunctoriness, looking gloomy and cold. Liu Zhenqing could only say helplessly: “I really have no money, you know.”

. . . . . . 

In the palace of the Empress Dowager.

The blue smoke from an incense burner curled up and drifted behind a screen. On the Imperial Concubine’s couch, a beautiful woman was lying on her side with her eyes closed in meditation. Her pale hands held a willow leaf-shaped pendant with a “1” faintly visible.

Suddenly, the jade pendant’s string slipped from her hand, and the woman woke up with a start. She was just about to reach out to catch it, when a hand that was even more beautiful reached out. This hand that looked like top quality mutton-fat jade caught it, and the faint aroma emanating from the person’s body also permeated the entire room.

“Sister?” Empress Dowager Yao Hua looked at the beautiful woman in front of her who looked like a goddess from a painting. She said awkwardly, “You came?”

“Sister, you miss him, but you must be careful.” Taifei Jian Shuang helped the Empress Dowager stand up, and returned the jade pendant. “You were practically asleep. If a servant saw it and spread the news, how could you stay in the palace as the Empress Dowager? It would not be easy for the emperor to explain.”

“This sort of jade pendant is so common that others would not be able to tell it apart.” The Empress Dowager smiled lightly and hung the jade pendant back around her neck again, putting it under her clothes. “I just had a dream. It was about this jade pendant.”

“Oh? Did you dream about that person too?” The Taifei asked with a half-smile.

“I didn’t see that person. Probably because I heard about General Huo going south, I dreamed about General Huo when he was a child. Back then, he often followed that person around.” The Empress Dowager touched the jade pendant on her chest with a smile: “When that person gave me the pendant, General Huo looked straight at me. He couldn’t hide the emotions on his young face, and was full of displeasure. That person asked him if he wanted one too, but General Huo shook his head firmly and said no. He obviously…..wanted one very much.”

“Children, they want everything.” The Taifei smiled, and suddenly began to cough while speaking. The Empress Dowager quickly called the palace servants to put out the incense burners and open the windows for ventilation.

“You aren’t in good health, and you shouldn’t stay in such an enclosed space. Before you come next time, please send someone to notify me so that I can ventilate the room in advance.”

The Taifei’s eyes were soft. “It is still Sister who treats me well.”

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Chapter Forty-Five << Table of Contents >> Chapter Forty-Seven