Watching the turmoil unfold within the Tiger Gang, Cao Lie made no move to interfere — he didn’t even say a single word.

He had already begun to reassess the old chief of the Horse Gang, reshaping his understanding of the man’s true nature.

In fact, Cao Lie was beginning to think he could simply step back from this case entirely. Whatever was happening would eventually come to light, and the process, he suspected, would be far too entertaining to miss.

So he stayed still, watching from the sidelines, letting himself become nothing more than a spectator.

He wasn’t just redefining Luo Jiuhong — he was redefining himself.

And the moment he placed himself outside the situation, everything became far more interesting.

The earlier case had been about the murder of a Ning Army general, the reason he’d come here in the first place. But now there was a second case: the murder of the Horse Gang’s Fourth Chief. If Cao Lie simply watched and waited, he had a feeling the first case would resolve itself along the way.

Luo Jiuhong rose and turned to Cao Lie with a look of embarrassment. “I must apologize for letting Young Master Cao witness such an unsightly scene.”

Cao Lie shook his head. “How could this be unsightly? What I see is the moving loyalty between brothers — the Fifth Chief risking the old chief’s displeasure to investigate a murder within their own stronghold.” He couldn’t help but sigh. “Truly admirable.”

The words left Luo Jiuhong staring at him with an expression so layered and complex that Cao Lie almost wondered if the old man was silently cursing him. He looked again — yes. He was definitely cursing under his breath.

Not that Cao Lie cared. Whatever was in that old fox’s head, the lid was about to come off soon enough.

Back in his room, Cao Lie had barely sat down and taken a sip of tea when Ye Xiaoqian slipped in after him.

“My lord,” Ye Xiaoqian said, “I keep getting this feeling that Luo Jiuhong is hiding something.”

He spotted the pastries on the table and reached over to take one.

“Those are poisoned,” Cao Lie said.

Ye Xiaoqian set it down immediately — and Cao Lie walked over and snatched the very piece he’d put down.

“That’s my favorite flavor. Take a different one.”

Ye Xiaoqian stared at him. “You’d even run a scheme over one pastry?”

Cao Lie shot him a glance and settled back into his chair. “Right now we’re actually in a pretty good position — all we have to do is watch.”

Ye Xiaoqian nodded. “Should I tail the Fifth Chief, Qin Ke, now that he’s been expelled from the gang?”

“Do you think Luo Jiuhong wants us tailing him?” Cao Lie asked.

“He certainly doesn’t.”

“So then?”

“So I’ll go myself.”

“No — stay right by my side. Protecting me is your job. Don’t forget: for those people, the best outcome is still to have me killed.”

Ye Xiaoqian paused. “My lord, when I trained at the Censorate, they taught us military strategy too. I just had a brilliant idea — what if I tried the tactic of ‘flushing out the snake by beating the grass’?”

“Flushing out the snake?”

“We deliberately let those people kill you. That way they expose themselves, and it becomes much easier to catch them.”

Cao Lie stared. “That’s your idea of ‘flushing out the snake by beating the grass’?”

Ye Xiaoqian thought about it, then suddenly brightened. “Right, right, that’s not the right tactic. Sending you out to be killed — that would be ‘luring the snake from its hole.'”

Cao Lie just looked at him. After a long silence, he asked, “Did Prince Ning secretly order you to find an opportunity to have me killed?”

Ye Xiaoqian said, “Is it that obvious?”

He chuckled and pressed on. “If luring the snake from its hole won’t work, then we really are left with beating the grass to flush the snake. Hear me out — obviously sending you out to be killed isn’t ideal. But here’s a different angle: we have our own people kill you instead. Then the enemy will be startled, and when panicked people make mistakes, we’ll have our opening.”

Cao Lie said, “My deepest gratitude to everyone who raised you.”

“Everyone,” Ye Xiaoqian emphasized.

“What?”

“Everyone.”

It took Cao Lie a moment to understand what he meant. Then he muttered to himself, “One shameless person couldn’t possibly produce someone like you.”

“Our lord is one of them,” Ye Xiaoqian added cheerfully.

“He counts for five.”

“…”

“Have Li Pofu and Li Chenzhu split their men to quietly keep watch on Qin Ke,” Cao Lie said. “You stay with me. Your duty is protection. And don’t forget — the most advantageous thing for those people right now is still to have me dead.”

“My lord,” Ye Xiaoqian said, shifting tone, “before we came, our lord told me that the Young Marquis is a man of both great martial skill and sharper-than-average mind, and that you rarely need my full effort. But if you ever actively call on me for something…”

He suddenly went serious — which threw Cao Lie slightly off balance.

“Prince Ning’s meaning — once I actively rely on you, it means things have turned genuinely serious?”

Ye Xiaoqian shook his head. “Our lord’s meaning was: once you actively rely on me, I can ask you for money.”

Cao Lie pressed his hand over his chest.

It hurt. Both sides. One side especially.

—

In the county town.

The Tiger Gang’s Fifth Chief, Qin Ke, stepped out of the government office and exhaled a long breath, tilting his face to the sky.

He looked back once, his eyes full of reluctance and longing.

Second Chief Sun Jinjia and Third Chief Liao Feijiang came running after him and called his name, but he only raised his hand to wave them off, making clear there was nothing left to say. He quickened his pace and gave them no chance to speak.

Liao Feijiang watched Qin Ke’s lonely retreating figure with unconcealed regret. “Old Fifth is just… he knew the old chief’s temper, and still he went ahead and investigated within the stronghold. If this gets out, everyone will assume it was the old chief who gave the order.”

Sun Jinjia turned back toward the building. “But this way, if someone on the inside really has been betraying us, they’ll feel free to act without restraint.”

Liao Feijiang watched Sun Jinjia go, sensing something deeper in those words.

After leaving the government office, Qin Ke didn’t hurry out of town. He found a small tavern and stepped inside, ordered two simple dishes, and called for a jug of wine.

He sat alone, drinking in brooding silence, from the afternoon until nearly dusk — until the city gates were almost ready to close.

He seemed to have no intention of spending the night here. This place held no blessings for him.

So before the gates shut, Qin Ke — who’d drunk a full jug of wine — staggered out of the county town.

No one walked with him. The world felt indifferent.

Not only did no one accompany him, but the Horse Gang’s people in town were whispering behind his back, saying the Fifth Chief had gone too far. The old chief had always led with loyalty, never casting suspicion on his own brothers. The Fifth Chief had opened a door that should never have been opened.

That night, Sun Jinjia came to find Luo Jiuhong again, hoping to persuade him to take back his word.

Old Fifth had given years of his life to the gang, risked his neck over and over, taken on tasks no one else could complete. A man who had done so much, contributed so much — it wasn’t right to exile him for a single mistake.

Luo Jiuhong said he was feeling unwell and refused to open his door.

Sun Jinjia stood outside for a long time without leaving. From the shadows, Liao Feijiang — who had also come to seek the old chief — watched without making himself known, silently observing his Second Brother.

By morning, Sun Jinjia seemed to have run out of patience with the county town. Before Luo Jiuhong had even risen, he led his contingent out.

This was no small matter — leaving without the old chief’s order was a breach of the rules.

When the news reached Luo Jiuhong, he sat in silence for a long while, looking as though he had aged overnight.

But Sun Jinjia hadn’t even been gone an hour before he came back — rushing back, dragging people along with him, and bringing a body.

Qin Ke.

The Fifth Chief’s corpse had been found by Sun Jinjia’s men over ten li outside the city, lying in the road.

The manner of death was nothing like that of Yú Yurèn and his two attendants. Qin Ke’s body was far more gruesome.

His head had been hacked until there was no flesh left — only a blood-soaked, bone-white skull.

His chest had been stabbed so many times it was unrecognizable, the flesh pulped and ruined.

It was clear he had been subjected to savage torture before he died — all four of his limbs had been broken, the tendons in his hands and feet severed.

“I don’t believe this is Old Fifth!”

Liao Feijiang’s voice cracked as he roared, red-eyed and hoarse.

“I don’t believe it!”

He bellowed until his voice echoed through the hall of the government office.

“Old Chief…”

Sun Jinjia looked to Luo Jiuhong.

Luo Jiuhong gripped the arms of his chair with both hands and forced himself to stand — in that moment, he looked as though all the strength had been stolen from his body. Two aides had to support him as he shuffled to the body. His eyes had gone glassy.

“It must be fake. It must be fake.”

Liao Feijiang said, “If they wanted to scare us with a body, there’d be no reason to destroy his face. They’ve put a fake in Old Fifth’s place to deceive us. Old Chief, let me take men out right now to bring Old Fifth back!”

“Old Fifth has a scar on the right side of his chest…”

Luo Jiuhong murmured, hands trembling as he pulled aside the blood-soaked clothing.

He looked at the right side of the corpse’s chest — and then let out a cry and collapsed backward.

Liao Feijiang froze. Sun Jinjia moved faster than he did, pulling back the clothing for his own look.

One glance, and Sun Jinjia crumpled to the ground, the hand clutching the dead man’s clothes trembling violently.

Liao Feijiang came to support Sun Jinjia and tried to loosen his grip, but the hand was locked rigid, unyielding.

“Second Brother…”

Luo Jiuhong looked at Sun Jinjia. “Let go.”

Sun Jinjia stared blankly at the old chief, then turned blankly back to the body — and in the next breath he collapsed over it, sobbing with his whole body, a wrenching, inconsolable grief.

Liao Feijiang coaxed him for a long time. Sun Jinjia lay there crying himself out, until he couldn’t rise.

Cao Lie and his companions watched. He decided he couldn’t just keep standing by.

He gave Ye Xiaoqian a look. Ye Xiaoqian stepped forward to support Luo Jiuhong. “Old Chief, please accept my condolences. Don’t let your grief damage your health.”

Cao Lie went to help Liao Feijiang to his feet. “Third Chief, my condolences.”

Then he looked toward Sun Jinjia. “Second Chief — it would be best to have people clean and dress the Fifth Chief first.”

Sun Jinjia said, “I… I’ll do it myself. I’ll wash Old Fifth’s face.”

But what face was there left to wash? The entire head was nothing but a blood-drenched skull.

Liao Feijiang looked twice, unable to bear any more, and turned away, supporting Luo Jiuhong as they left the hall.

—