A long and fervent kiss grew all the more urgent in the darkness of the night. His palm found her waist and closed around it tightly, unwilling to let go.

After a good while, Shi Ting finally released her. Seeing her lips flushed and moist, her eyes shimmering with a trace of bewilderment and intoxication, he couldn’t resist lightly tapping the tip of her nose. “Did you leave the window open especially for me?”

“People normally leave the door unlatched — you leave a window open, and you still have the nerve to bring it up.” Yan Qing laughed softly and pulled the covers up higher. “Come in and warm up quickly. Why are you so cold?”

She tucked the hot water bottle she’d been holding into his hands, then pulled the blanket up around his neck.

Shi Ting took the hot water bottle from her, and the warmth immediately chased away the chill that had settled over him.

“I just finished. I’d thought about spending the night at the bureau, but I was afraid you’d miss me, so I came back instead.”

“Who would bother missing you.”

“You say you don’t miss me, yet you left the window open for me?” Shi Ting mercilessly exposed her self-contradiction.

Yan Qing didn’t argue with him — she simply let the corner of her mouth curve upward.

The two of them shared a single pillow, their faces nearly touching, her eyes clear and bright as rippling water, his gaze deep and full like a surging tide, each warming the other.

“You’ve come back at just the right time. There are some things I want to ask you.” Yan Qing looked into his eyes, a trace of worry quietly showing through.

“About Li Haotian?”

Yan Qing nodded. “You came here with a mission this time, didn’t you.”

Shi Ting knew he couldn’t conceal it from her, and didn’t want to. He said, “I came this time to deliver a letter on behalf of the Marshal. The Marshal has always held Commander Li in high regard, and their correspondence is always conducted through personally handwritten letters delivered by a trusted messenger directly into Commander Li’s hands.”

“The Marshal has so many people under his command — why did he specifically choose you to deliver it?”

“I think he had two considerations. On one hand, he needed someone reliable. On the other hand, the Marshal likely wanted to give me an opportunity to build a relationship with Commander Li.”

Yan Qing was puzzled. “Outsiders all say the Marshal favors Shi Guang the most, and Commander Li is likely to become someone all three of you brothers compete to court. Why, at a time like this, would the Marshal deliberately try to bring you and Commander Li closer together?”

Shi Ting gently stroked her face, his voice low and pleasant. “The Marshal has his own calculations. After all, he’s only in his forties — still in the prime of his strength.”

Though Shi Ting left things unsaid, Yan Qing understood the meaning behind those words perfectly.

The Marshal was in the full vigor of his middle years, with ambitions far from satisfied — ambitions that certainly did not stop at Bei Di alone.

Since his ambitions were unfulfilled, he would naturally not yield his position lightly. If he showed too much favor to Shi Guang, even gradually transferring power into his hands, it would create the impression in the outside world that he was stepping down and that Shi Guang would succeed him — and then, the moment the Marshal died, the territory of Bei Di would be Shi Guang’s.

Who could guarantee that Shi Guang wouldn’t move against the Marshal himself in order to claim the seat sooner? In the face of power, even the bond between father and son was just another sentiment that could be cast aside without hesitation.

The Marshal was shrewd. By deliberately sending Shi Ting to build ties with Commander Li, he was keeping all three of his sons in check. He wanted the outside world to know that he did not overlook Shi Ting — for if he truly disliked him, why would he send him all this way to deliver a letter to his most favored general? Was he not afraid that Shi Ting might use the opportunity to secretly win over Li Yongqi?

The Marshal’s logic was this: only by keeping them fighting and scrambling amongst themselves could he guarantee that he remained firmly seated as Marshal, with no one daring to harbor thoughts of usurping him. The pot held only so much soup — today you get an extra bowl, tomorrow he gets an extra bowl — and the one who decided who got more and who got less could only ever be the Marshal.

In the darkness, Yan Qing let out a quiet sigh. “Now that I’ve worked all this out, I’m even more convinced that someone is behind Mo Xiangrong’s case — deliberately stirring things up.”

Shi Ting said, “Someone feared that I would build a good relationship with Li Yongqi, so they schemed to make Li Yongqi and me into enemies. Why did Mo Xiangrong’s case happen neither sooner nor later, but precisely at the moment I arrived in Taishan — and with Li Yongqi’s only son drawn into it? Though Li Yongqi has always had little regard for this son of his, he is still his flesh and blood — the only heir of the Li line. If I truly convicted Li Haotian, I would be cutting off the Li bloodline. Li Yongqi would make an enemy of me for the rest of his life.”

“Do you think Li Haotian was framed?”

“In past cases, we always had to fight desperately to find evidence. In this case, all the evidence has been laid right at your feet. However dissolute Li Haotian may be, he’s not stupid enough to kill two people and then swagger around openly, leaving every piece of evidence behind for the police.”

“But right now the evidence is solid. We can’t clear Li Haotian on the basis of suspicion alone.”

Shi Ting let out a sigh and drew her into his arms, his chin resting lightly against the top of her head. “Take a guess — what do you think the other side will do tomorrow?”

Yan Qing thought it over. “Li Haotian’s murder of Mo Xiangrong and Xiang Lan is currently known only to the bureau staff and a few of those directly involved. If you were to declare Li Haotian innocent, the people inside the bureau wouldn’t reproach you for it, and it would also give you an acceptable explanation to offer Li Yongqi. So my guess is this: in order to prevent you from releasing Li Haotian, the other side will use public opinion as a weapon. Tomorrow, the headlines of every major newspaper in Taishan should all be reporting on Li Haotian’s murder case.”

Shi Ting let a quiet smile cross his lips. He had known she was sharp enough to figure this much out.

“Li Haotian is Li Yongqi’s only son, and Mo Xiangrong was the brother-in-law of Taishan merchant Wen Xu. These two names tangled together are bound to send shockwaves through the entire county. When all eyes in Taishan are fixed on this case, I will have no way to play favorites — in the face of solid evidence, Li Haotian must be sentenced to death. At that point, I will have completely and irrevocably made an enemy of Li Yongqi.”

Yan Qing couldn’t help but shudder. The person behind all of this had orchestrated so many moves, not even hesitating to sacrifice two lives, all to drive a permanent wedge between Li Yongqi and Shi Ting. The ruthlessness of their methods was truly breathtaking.

The only people Yan Qing could think of were Shi Qian, the eldest son of the Shi family, and Shi Guang, the second son.

Although Shi Qian and Shi Guang were brothers born of the same mother, they were harmonious only on the surface — each running their own schemes behind the scenes. In the face of power, even the closest brothers kept their accounts strictly separate.

“So what do you plan to do?” This was not merely a case — it also concerned Shi Ting’s future. If he truly made an enemy of Li Yongqi, then even if he eventually came to power, Li Yongqi would never back him. And with Li Yongqi’s forces standing in the way, how could Shi Ting’s path to power ever be easy?

That was precisely why the other side had been willing to go to any lengths to play this particular card.

“The only option right now is to break the case open and find the true killer behind Mo Xiangrong’s death. Beyond that, there is no other way.”

Yan Qing blinked slowly. “The mystery of Mo Xiangrong’s death has yet to be unraveled. Once Doctor Chen’s results come back the day after tomorrow, I believe there will be a definitive answer. As long as we can determine the cause of death and use that as a starting point for the investigation, we may well be able to crack this case.”

“Let us hope so.” Shi Ting couldn’t help but hold her a little closer and pressed his lips to her forehead.

“By the way — now that Li Haotian has been detained, hasn’t Li Yongqi come forward at all?”

“No. He hasn’t even sent a single subordinate.”

Yan Qing did not believe Li Yongqi would simply ignore his own son. On the contrary, Li Yongqi simply would not stoop to showing himself at the branch bureau in person — if word of that got out, it would give others ammunition to accuse him of abusing his position for personal gain. It simply wasn’t worth it.

Shi Ting said, “He should come looking for me tomorrow. Just not at the bureau.”

—