You Lin continued to speak, not giving Ling Yi a chance to deny it.

“I carefully inspected the scene, and the fire was caused by a short circuit in the electrical wiring. There were clear signs of human intervention at the fire’s ignition point.”

“At first, I thought it was a traitor in the court who wanted to destroy the evidence by any means necessary, but looking back, all of the court staff were under supervision at the time, and they wouldn’t have had the opportunity. In the entire building, aside from His Highness Oser, Captain Tang De, and the guards carrying documents, the only person with the ability to move freely was you.”

Ling Yi lowered his eyes, accepting his interrogation with a strange docility.

“Since you’ve figured it out, why did you come to confront me instead of reporting it to His Highness Oser?”

You Lin’s expression was cold: “When you saw His Highness rush into the fire, you were more anxious than anyone else. Your concern must have touched His Highness. I don’t object to you being together. As a subordinate, I also want to do my best to maintain my boss’s emotional relationship and not cause any cracks to form.”

“Now that you are His Highness’s partner, please be loyal to him. If he knew that your anxiousness was out of guilt rather than worry, how do you think he’ll feel?”

When Ling Yi finally raised his eyes, they were full of confusion.

“Where’s the person who broke into my room at night to force me to leave His Highness? What made you change your mind so drastically in such a short time?”

“Back then, I had just heard that His Highness had used his power of pardon, and in the heat of the moment, I forgot about the pardon’s supplementary clauses.”

“What do you mean? What supplementary clauses?” Ling Yi asked.

“Article 4 of the supplementary clauses in the power of pardon states that if the death sentence of the pardoned is invalidated within thirty days of exercising the power of pardon, the pardon will become invalid.”

Ling Yi was stunned.

His expression said it all.

“It seems you were indeed unaware. His Highness is working hard to overturn your case not only to clear your name, but also because he shoulders a more important mission, which is to eradicate evil and govern the country to ensure the safety of the common people.”

“You don’t actually believe that His Highness would abandon the country and his people for an Omega, do you? The wise leader I follow is certainly not a mediocre person who indulges in selfish desires. His Highness is not just your person – he’s the future emperor.”

Ling Yi was still reeling from shock over the invalidation of the pardon. You Lin’s voice was like stones flying from all directions, hitting the bronze bells surrounding him and making his ears buzz. He was unable to hear every word clearly.

The words “Invalidated death sentence” and “the pardon becomes invalid” revolved around him like a tangible spell. The scene of Oser rushing into the fire was still vivid in his mind, and his sigh of regret still lingered in his ears.

— It’s a pity that the evidence couldn’t be salvaged.

The naked truth woke Ling Yi from his guilt. He left You Lin, who was still speaking, and rushed out of the room.

“Where are you going?” You Lin shouted behind him.

Tang De was startled when Ling Yi swept by him in a gust of wind.

“Your Highness Ling Yi, can I help you?”

The room was a temporary office converted from a ward. Ling Yi saw the whole area at a glance, but the person he was looking for wasn’t there. 

“Where is His Highness Oser?” he asked in a temper.

Tang De had a hunch that something was wrong. The thing he was worried about seemed to have happened.

“His Highness just went out. Do you have something important to tell him? I can help you convey it to him.”

Ling Yi roared at him: “I asked you, where is he?!”

Tang De panicked, and could only tell him the truth: “He went to the first floor ward, where the Chief Justice woke up just now. Maybe he felt guilty after His Highness saved him, because he offered to hand evidence over to His Highness……”

Ling Yi blew away in another gust of wind, leaving Tang De as a solitary figure far behind him.

“Your Highness Ling Yi, please wait! I’m coming with you!”

The Chief Justice, who was well-known for his dignified manner, was now in an unprecedented state of disarray. Not only was a large swath of his face blackened, but even a patch of his hair was burned bald.

Who among those who saw him now could still associate him with the awe-inspiring Chief Justice in court?

Although the Chief Justice was high in status, he was naturally inferior to the orthodox royal family.

He had seemed to shrink in presence when he was handcuffed to a chair and awaiting investigation.

Then he was in a fire and was so scared that he peed his pants, and his dignity took another hit when he screamed for help.

The Chief Justice now felt so inferior to his savior that he could only speak humbly when conversing with him.

“Thank you, Your Highness, for putting aside past grudges and saving my life. In fact, the Prime Minister had already ordered the destruction of important evidence. Even if you examine the burned items, you won’t find anything…..however, I was afraid that the Prime Minister would go back on his word in the future and I would have no way to protect myself, so I made a backup of all the content.”

Oser sneered: “It seems you’re not a fool. Where is it?”

The trembling Chief Justice handed over a USB flash drive.

“It’s all here. I carry it with me at all times and dare not leave it anywhere. I rely on it to save my life at a critical moment.”

Oser knew he didn’t dare to lie, and leaned forward to take it. But a hand suddenly appeared out of nowhere, snatched the flash drive, and threw it to the floor, where it was crushed beneath a shoe.

The Chief Justice was startled by this sudden development, and when he glimpsed the face of the newcomer, he was so frightened that he fell to the floor.

“You, y-you…..a ghost, ah!”

Oser was also taken aback: “There are so many people standing guard. How did you get up here like this?”

He tried to help cover up Ling Yi’s face, but was violently shoved away.

“What’s wrong with you?” Oser asked in confusion.

“Your Highness, why do you insist on overturning my verdict? Is it for my sake, or is it for the throne?” Ling Yi asked bluntly.

Oser frowned. The hot-tempered Ling Yi before him was the complete opposite of the Ling Yi who had been afraid to hurt him when applying medicine.

“Are these two things in conflict?”

“I really thought Your Highness rushed into the fire for me, but it turns out you were reluctant to give up your damn inheritance rights!”

Tang De had caught up, and heard Ling Yi’s words clearly.

“Let me say one more thing. His Highness can get back his inheritance rights and also clear your name, so it’s a win-win situation. Why are you so opposed to it?”

“I know why.”

A voice cut in, drawing everyone’s attention.

Tang De: “You Lin? What do you know?”

You Lin walked to the center of the crowd at a leisurely pace. He picked up the broken flash drive on the floor and held it in front of Ling Yi.

“Because you didn’t kill anyone.”

Everyone present, save Ling Yi, was shocked.

Ling Yi alone glared at You Lin with a murderous expression.

“I figured it out just now. At first, I didn’t understand why you would want to set a fire to prevent His Highness Oser from overturning your verdict—”

Tang De interrupted: “Are you certain? How could the arsonist be…..?”

The Chief Justice muttered to himself: “I thought the fire was set by the Prime Minister to silence me…..”

You Lin fixed his eyes on Ling Yi and continued: “But when I saw your violent reaction just now, I finally figured it out. You don’t want to destroy evidence that you killed someone – you want to destroy evidence that you didn’t.”

The look in Ling Yi’s eyes left You Lin with no doubt that if there were no witnesses at the scene, he would have attacked him without mercy.

But the presence of His Highness Oser gave him the confidence to continue.

“Let me guess what was in that missing video. Lu Dawa lay motionlessly on the ground as you stabbed his gland repeatedly with the murder weapon. During the trial, you claimed that you did it because you were angered out of your mind, but in fact, you were extremely calm—”

Ling Yi: “Enough!”

“Because you knew that children and adults have different movements and strength when holding a knife, and it would be easy for a forensic doctor to identify this. You had to mutilate the body into a bloody mess in order to cover up the fatal wound – the stab wound that Xi Lan inflicted!”

“I told you, that’s enough!” Ling Yi clenched his fists. If the anger in his eyes was to take shape, the Royal Medical College would already be a sea of flames.

You Lin remained unmoved.

“When you found out there was a video, you got nervous, fearing that someone would find something suspicious in it. But when the video disappeared, you were even more anxious. You were afraid that someone had noticed that suspicious element and removed it from the chain of evidence.”

He turned to the Chief Justice and asked: “Am I right?”

The Chief Justice nodded timidly: “After I discovered it, I went to inform the Prime Minister. If the defendant’s lawyer put forward the hypothesis that the wound was concealed and the murderer was actually a minor, even if he did receive a sentence, it wouldn’t be a long one. The Prime Minister said that they had both murdered his son, and that he would deal with the older one first before dealing with the younger…..”

Having obtained witness testimony, You Lin turned back to Ling Yi: “You knew that if the case went on, doubts would begin to surface again; you knew that if the case was overturned, the real murderer would have to be put on the docket. So you deliberately destroyed the evidence at all costs, because you wanted to protect the real killer!”

The scene fell into an abnormal silence. Only Ling Yi’s uncontrolled, angry breathing could be heard.

A faint voice called from the doorway:

“Everything he just said…..is it true?”

Ling Yi turned his head sharply to find that Xi Lei had appeared at some point.

The medical stand closest to Ling Yi was overturned, and the IV drip attached to the Chief Justice’s hand smashed to the floor and shattered, splashing transparent liquid everywhere.

Ling Yi flew into a rage.

“Why must the truth be revealed, why must it be spoken out loud? Who doesn’t know that admitting to this crime means death, and that Lu Hulun is cruel and ruthless? I could still find a way to escape the death sentence – at worst, I could go to bed with the Crown Prince. But how could a minor protect himself and avoid being hunted down?”

“I’m still alive, the case is closed, and Xi Lan doesn’t remember anything. Is there any better outcome than this? Why do you have to dig it up and force Xi Lan to go through everything I went through, forcing him to relive the pain over and over again? Is this the justice you seek?”

As his anger soared, the concentration of Omega pheromones around him also increased. But the Alphas around him seemed to be in a trance, and no one noticed anything unusual.

Ling Yi’s anger spread to Oser.

“And you! You never intended to fulfill your deal from the beginning. Nothing is more important than your shitty throne, you just picked up an Omega for nothing on the way! There are no free things in this world!”

The eyes of the Alphas gradually locked onto him, and Oser, who matched him to the highest degree, was the most affected. His eyes were bloodshot, and his breathing grew heavier.

If Ling Yi were calmer, he would have realized that something was wrong, but he had already lost his rationality to anger and was unaware of the peril he was in.

He pointed at the other party’s nose and cursed: “Fengdi Oser, you slept with me, so you’re fucking responsible for me. Do what you promised me! You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Why should you get all of the good things for yourself? You want to sit on the throne with an Omega in your arms and live your dream life!”

“What’s wrong, what’s wrong?” Pat ran over in a panic. “Why are all of you crowded here? What happened?”

In the next second, he covered his nose in horror: “Your Highness Ling Yi, please use your words instead. Don’t release your pheromones!”

He felt a pain in his jaw, as if he had received a hard punch, and fell to the floor. Xi Lei had attacked him.

This was a familiar scene. Pat immediately understood that the irrational Alpha regarded him as a competitor, but he wasn’t the one in danger. All of the Alphas other than His Highness Oser were.

“Calm down! Calm down, he’s not somebody else, he’s Ling Yi, ah! Have you forgotten your fear of being dominated by His Highness Oser’s pheromones?!”

Xi Lei’s body suddenly trembled, and he fell limply in front of Pat.

Pat: …..It’s not that scary.

The fallen Xi Lei revealed Lan Ze behind him. He was wearing the portable mask from last time as he calmly pointed to the Chief Justice and Tang De in turn.

“Knock this one out too, and this one.”

Following his instructions, a man with impeccable facial features attacked them one after another, knocking them out with one palm, simply and neatly.

He wasn’t wearing a mask, and appeared to be an Alpha, but he wasn’t affected by Ling Yi’s pheromones at all.

Pat’s eyes widened to the size of bells: “He….he can’t be that……”

Lan Ze’s gaze drifted toward him. But before he could say “knock him out,” Pat scrambled to his feet: “Not me, I’m still in my right mind. Quick, let’s carry these people out of here.”

“I think the culprit should be the one taken out.” Lan Ze glanced at Oser, not knowing how much sanity he had left. “Why don’t you hurry up and get him out of here. Are you planning to create another biohazard in the building?”

The floor beneath Ling Yi’s feet disappeared, and he was roughly thrown over somebody’s shoulder.

He was adversely affected by Oser’s rising pheromones, and his breathing and heartbeat accelerated. He punched and kicked, struggling desperately while suspended in the air.

“Put me down! I don’t want you to touch me, let me go!”

Oser didn’t let go. Ling Yi bit his shoulder. His kicking legs hit Oser’s left hand, which he had bandaged himself, and red blood seeped out under the pure white bandages. 

Oser didn’t seem to feel the pain. He carried Ling Yi downstairs, threw him onto the bed, and began to unwrap the bandages around his left hand.

Ling Yi’s fury was no less than his, and even driven by physiological instinct, his anger still prevailed. 

“You went back on your word! You broke your promise! I won’t be fooled by you, you dog emperor!

The bloodstained bandages fell to the floor in circles. The beast awakened by Ling Yi pounced on him, and his shouts and curses became muffled whimpers. His struggles were no match for the other party’s iron grip. Two sets of perfectly matched pheromones tangled together and seduced each other, neither of them willing to lose.

Very soon, only gasps filled the air.

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Chapter 36 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 38