Liu Qingnian smiled. “My soldiers haven’t had a good fight in a while. Since we’re here, we might as well do Director Shi a small service.”

Zuo Liang was alarmed. “Director Shi, on what grounds are you holding us?”

“Injuring on-duty Military Police Division officers. Disrupting the normal operations of the Military Police Division.” Shi Ting cast a cold glance at him. “Just the charge of assaulting officers alone is enough to keep you in prison for life.”

“We had the Commander’s orders…”

“Dare you face him directly to confirm that?”

Zuo Liang hesitated for a fraction of a second, and that was all Shi Ting needed. He knew something was off. His earlier reasoning had been correct — the seal had not been affixed by the Commander himself. The Commander most likely had no knowledge of this matter at all.

The Commander spent every day sequestered in Qian Lan’s rooms and had long since stopped involving himself in political affairs. It would have been the simplest thing for Qian Lan to obtain the Commander’s seal.

“Enough talk. General Liu — take them.”

“With pleasure.” At Liu Qingnian’s command, dozens of fully armed soldiers closed in. Zuo Liang may have been highly skilled in combat, but faced with a sea of gun muzzles, he was helpless.

Before long, Zuo Liang and his men were bound and hauled away to the jail like pigs being dragged to a butcher’s rack.

It was called a jail, though in truth it was a temporary holding area. The space was small, with only one very narrow window.

Ordinarily, only those sentenced to death were held there, awaiting the warrant before being taken out for execution.

With over a dozen people suddenly crammed into the cell, it became unbearably crowded — hardly room to sit down. On top of that, Zuo Liang still had a stab wound in his abdomen. Although the cut wasn’t deep, blood kept seeping out, and the gnawing pain had cold sweat streaming down his face.

“Brother Liang, what do we do?” one of his men asked anxiously.

Zuo Liang gritted his teeth against the pain. “Hold on a little longer. Second Young Master won’t leave us to rot here.”

Zuo Liang’s mission to the Military Police Division had come after Shi Guang received news from the Yan Family’s side — word that the killer behind Madam Yan’s death had been caught.

As a precaution, they had used the Commander’s seal to try to take Yan Qing. Qian Lan’s intention had been for Yan Qing to die — to seize this opportunity and stage a fake suicide to eliminate her. But Shi Guang had clearly been unwilling to agree to Qian Lan’s suggestion. For him, Yan Qing was a complicated existence — one that stirred in him a tangle of love and hatred, a profound contradiction.

Zuo Liang had originally planned to take Yan Qing back first and let the rest take care of itself. He had not anticipated such a setback at the very start. In the end, everything had fallen apart. Shi Ting’s sudden appearance had not only thrown their entire plan into chaos but had also landed him behind bars.

Now, all he could do was wait for Shi Guang to arrange something.

After Zuo Liang was locked up, the injured were brought to the forensics room, where Yan Qing and E Yuan were busy tending to everyone’s wounds.

Apart from Shi Cheng’s stab wound, which was fairly deep, the rest had only sustained minor cuts and bruises.

“Captain Shi,” Yan Qing said to Shi Cheng, who sat waiting to be bandaged. “You may need to bear with me a little. I want to have a closer look at your wound.”

Shi Cheng was puzzled. “Sister-in-law, I only took one stab. Just give me a couple of stitches. No need for anesthesia — I can take it.”

Yan Qing shook her head. “That’s not what I mean. I want to use your wound as a point of comparison.”

“A comparison? Compare what?”

Yan Qing turned to Shi Ting, who was standing beside her. “I mentioned just now that I’d made a new discovery.”

Shi Ting’s gaze rested on her, warm and tender, making no effort to conceal the longing he felt for her. Even his voice carried a captivating lilt. “What discovery?”

Shi Cheng sat directly across from Shi Ting, and hearing his own Seventh Brother speak in such a gentle tone, he felt a wave of goosebumps rise across his skin.

Shi Cheng thought to himself: so this was what they called “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” It turned out that Seventh Brother was not above being an ordinary man after all. He had always thought of him as an almighty, invincible god.

Yan Qing hadn’t noticed Shi Cheng’s reaction. She spoke with focused intent. “During the fight just now, I noticed that Zuo Liang was using a three-edged military stiletto.”

Shi Ting’s warm expression sharpened at once. “A three-edged military stiletto? You mean the weapon used by the killer in the Chen and Xu family massacre cases?”

“Exactly.” Yan Qing knew that simply mentioning this would lead Shi Ting’s mind directly to the Chen and Xu families. “The killer left behind traces of the weapon on the corpses during the Xu family massacre. Without question, those marks were made by a three-edged military stiletto. And Zuo Liang is left-handed.”

Excitement lit up in Shi Ting’s eyes. “Then his right hand must also carry a scar made by a sharp blade.”

“Exactly.” Yan Qing nodded with excitement. “During the fighting, they were moving too fast — I couldn’t see clearly at all. So I waited until Zuo Liang came directly in front of me before I thrust at him with the scalpel. I hoped he would block my move, and I could use the chance to see whether there was a scar on his hand. But then you stepped in for me.”

Yan Qing thought of her own moment of reckless bravery and felt a faint flush come to her cheeks. “While you and he were talking, I watched his right hand. There really was a scar there, about four centimeters long. Judging by the degree of healing, it dates back around a year.”

“The timing also lines up with the Chen and Xu family massacres.” Shi Ting’s brow furrowed deeply. “If the killer really was Zuo Liang, then it must be connected to Shi Guang. But what link exists between Shi Guang and the Chen and Xu families? Nothing turned up in the investigation.”

Shi Cheng cut in from the side, eager to help. “Seventh Brother, why don’t we just hold Zuo Liang and interrogate him thoroughly?”

Shi Ting shook his head. “We don’t have nearly enough to charge him just yet. We don’t even know the motive for the killings. All we can do for now is mark him as a suspect.”

“Moving against him now really isn’t the right time.” Yan Qing said, examining Shi Cheng’s wound as she spoke. “Perhaps if we keep a close watch on Zuo Liang, something will turn up.”

“That’s exactly what I intend to do. It’s not wise to startle the snake right now.”

Shi Cheng said anxiously, “Does that mean we’re going to let him go?”

“He’s Shi Guang’s man. We can’t hold him indefinitely. Shi Guang will be here for him soon.” Shi Ting said. “Qian Lan and Shi Guang have nearly total control over the Commander at this point. They can freely make use of the Commander’s seal at will. Going head-to-head with Shi Guang right now would do us more harm than good.”

“He’s taken the sovereign hostage to command the vassals,” Yan Qing said with a soft sigh.

At that moment, Shi Cheng suddenly hissed sharply.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Yan Qing quickly said. “I’ll be gentler.”

Shi Ting glanced at Shi Cheng. The look in his eyes seemed to say: just getting stitches and you’re already making noise?

Reading the faintly contemptuous look from his own Seventh Brother, Shi Cheng immediately sat up straight. Forget making a sound — he practically stopped breathing.

“Indeed.” Yan Qing hadn’t noticed the silent exchange between the two men. She spoke with careful focus. “The wound is identical to the gash on the chest of the eldest Xu son. It can now be confirmed that the weapon that killed the eldest Xu son was a three-edged military stiletto.”

After finishing the examination of Shi Cheng’s wound, Yan Qing proceeded with the suturing. However, the wound was quite deep, and Yan Qing still administered anesthesia for Shi Cheng.

Because of the anesthesia, the pain wasn’t too intense. Shi Cheng still had the presence of mind to grin and ask, “Sister-in-law, have you developed these stitching skills from suturing so many corpses?”

“Yes.” Yan Qing tied a knot. “Even though those corpses no longer have life, as a forensic examiner, I still hope they can remain whole. That they can preserve their dignity, even in death.”

At the forensics division, when a newly arrived forensic examiner was too lazy and sutured a body in a sloppy, haphazard way, she had severely reprimanded him. In her view, it was a matter of utter professional misconduct.

It was precisely because she sutured corpses so often that her needlework had become as precise as a surgeon’s.

Yan Qing placed gauze over Shi Cheng’s wound and wrote out a prescription for him to fill. Just as Shi Cheng went off to fetch the medicine, Shi Guang arrived.

The Military Police Division was in shambles — signs of the fight were everywhere, and several lightly injured officers were busy cleaning up.

“Seventh Brother.” Shi Guang saw Shi Ting coming toward him and immediately smiled. “I heard Zuo Liang was detained by you — is there some kind of misunderstanding here?”

“Zuo Liang came with the Commander’s seal to take someone away. I’d actually like to ask Second Brother — is there some misunderstanding here?”

Shi Guang put on an expression of dawning realization. “Ah, so it’s about this. I’m truly at a loss myself. But this case has caused quite a stir all across Shun Cheng, and there are even people saying the Military Police Division is shielding a criminal and bending the law for personal reasons. It was only out of helplessness that the Commander decided to transfer the case to the Military Intelligence Bureau. Seventh Brother, I also believe that Yan Qing is not someone who would break the law. I simply want to give her a fair chance to clear her name.”

“Second Brother need not trouble himself over that.” A voice came from outside. Bai Jin walked in, bringing a person with her. “The real perpetrator has been found.”

This person was dressed in rough, dark blue cloth and wore a maidservant’s hair style. Yet that face was one everyone found deeply familiar.

Shi Ting gave a start and the words leapt from his lips. “Han Xiling?”

No one had expected the person Bai Jin brought back from the Yan Family to be Han Xiling — someone who had disappeared for a long while.

Director Han had been arrested by Shi Ting years ago and executed by firing squad not long afterward. The Han Family had fallen from that point on and moved away from Shun Cheng.

At the time, everyone had assumed Han Xiling had left too. No one had ever imagined she was still in Shun Cheng — and not only that, but that she had quietly slipped into the Yan Mansion.

Han Xiling saw Shi Ting and first went still.

Faced with the man she had once cared for, she looked utterly wretched — dressed in a servant’s clothes, no less, and with handcuffs on her wrists.

But that momentary embarrassment was swiftly overtaken by hatred.

She would never forget: when she had gone to plead with Shi Ting to spare Director Han, to spare her entire family, Shi Ting had refused with such cold indifference.

In her eyes, it was Shi Ting who had arrested Director Han. It was Shi Ting who had destroyed the Han Family and brought ruin upon them all. He was the Han Family’s greatest enemy. He was the source of all their suffering.

Han Xiling never paused to consider that if Director Han had not killed so many people to amass his fortune, had not silenced witnesses afterward, the Han Family would never have come to such an end.

Han Xiling simply wanted to find a target for her hatred. As for reason and logic — those were things she had no interest in.

“Miss Han!” Shi Ting’s surprise lasted only a moment. Toward this woman who had framed Yan Qing, he only wanted to send her where she belonged as quickly as possible.

$$$$

I think Director Shi has no sense of decency whatsoever. He loves to take advantage of others when they’re down.

Eighth Brother’s tricycle ran out of fuel — and just at that moment he rushes in to play the hero and rescue the beauty. If Eighth Brother’s tricycle had just a little more fuel, this good deed would never have gone to him.

Nothing more to say — off to fix the tricycle.