Seeing this woman, Zhu Guangxiao trembled with anger. In the cold winter, his whole body was covered in cold sweat, his hands and feet icy. This world was truly treacherous, full of oppression against men.

She played with my feelings, hurt my dignity, and now she brazenly appears before me… Tears rolled down his cheeks uncontrollably.

Zhu Guangxiao resisted the urge to throw punches. Holding his bladder, he turned and knocked on Song Tingfeng’s door.

Song Tingfeng, wearing a robe and seemingly just awakened, opened the door and complained, “What’s the matter? Why are you knocking on doors so late at night?”

“Come here, shh, be quiet…”

With a grim expression, Zhu Guangxiao dragged Song Tingfeng out stealthily. Arriving at the corridor, he pointed at the hall downstairs and said, “Look!”

Song Tingfeng looked and trembled with anger, his hands and feet turning cold, tears streaming down uncontrollably…

The two martial artists, eyes bloodshot and minds exploding, Song Tingfeng said through gritted teeth, “She still has the nerve to come to the post station. Does she think we Night Watchmen are pushovers?”

Zhu Guangxiao said in a low voice, “What should we do?”

This matter absolutely couldn’t be leaked, otherwise they would be nailed to the pillar of shame, never able to recover. How could they face others in the yamen after this?

“Let’s just… send the empress to the cold palace—go all out,” Song Tingfeng made a downward-cutting gesture.

“No good.”

Zhu Guangxiao might be a man of few words, but he wasn’t stupid. He analyzed, “Her coming here means that cavalry general has also arrived. We can’t take action. If we do, we’ll expose ourselves and be held accountable by the Governor.”

“Then what do we do?”

“I suggest we consult with Ning Yan.”

The two exchanged glances, feeling they had no choice but to turn to that scoundrel.

Just then, Susu downstairs sensed something and suddenly looked up. Seeing the two, her face immediately lit up with a sweet smile:

“Oh, it’s you guys.”

Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao’s expressions froze.

…

“There’s no use in blind guessing now. My suggestion is to go to the Chief Command tomorrow to check the accounts and confirm if the ledger is real or fake. Then, issue a province-wide warrant for Liang Youping,” Governor Zhang gave his opinion.

Xu Qi An glanced at the beautiful oval-faced female general, feeling quite heavy-hearted. If even Li Miaozhen, with her connections and relationships, couldn’t root out Liang Youping, it meant the other party had powerful backing.

A province-wide warrant might not be reliable.

The key to this case lay with Liang Youping.

“Good idea!” Constable Jiang, however, didn’t seem too concerned and strongly agreed with Governor Zhang’s suggestion. Stroking his chin, he said:

“If we can’t catch Liang Youping, we’ll just use Chief Commander Yang Chuannan to close the case.”

This time it was Li Miaozhen’s turn to shiver with anger.

So, if this was Yang Chuannan’s ruse, it would be suicidal. Whether it was Governor Zhang or Constable Jiang, they were all old hands in officialdom.

Those who navigate the court have ambitions, but to say they can’t tolerate any injustice and are partners of justice would be too naive.

Can someone with a mind full of justice thrive in officialdom?

The answer is no.

Governor Zhang would try to find the real culprit and uphold justice, but he would also unhesitatingly push Yang Chuannan out to close the case and gain merit.

Yang Chuannan wasn’t innocent; first, he couldn’t escape the charge of negligence. Second, he was originally part of the Qi faction, and now that the Qi faction had fallen, the rules of officialdom dictated: Dismiss!

“Constable Jiang, that’s too rash,” Xu Qi An struggled to keep his Maybelline big eyes open, resisting sleepiness, and righteously said:

“Why was Zhou Min silenced, who is framing Yang Chuannan behind the scenes, is all this a distortion of human nature or a collapse of morality? We, bearing the Emperor’s mandate, should do our utmost to give justice to the innocent and restore integrity to Yun Province’s officialdom.”

Constable Jiang and Governor Zhang looked at him strangely; this guy wasn’t one to spout high-sounding empty words.

“Well said!” Li Miaozhen applauded, raising her beautiful oval face, her eyes gleaming, looking at Xu Qi An with recognition and affirmation.

Hearing Li Miaozhen’s praise, the two men seemed thoughtful, as if they had guessed something.

“Well then, Ning Yan, we’ll continue to trouble you with this case,” Governor Zhang said earnestly, “You must uncover the truth.”

The Governor must be black inside… I was so stupid to try to outsmart him… Xu Qi An suddenly felt like he had lifted a rock only to drop it on his foot. He glanced sideways and saw Li Miaozhen’s beautiful eyes shining brightly, looking at him hopefully.

“This humble official can only… do his best.”

Xu Qi An was no longer a hot-blooded young man, and he wouldn’t make promises he couldn’t keep. Back when he was eighteen, his motto was: My fate is in my own hands, not heaven’s.

By the time he was thirty-five, his motto became: Please, God, don’t mess with me anymore.

At this moment, everyone heard a commotion outside the room, along with strong fluctuations of qi.

Constable Jiang was the first to push the door open, his eagle-like eyes scanning sharply. Then, he saw Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao, one hand covering their eyes, the other clenched into fists, their qi surging as they flailed about wildly.

They shouted, “Don’t come any closer! We won’t make the same mistake twice!”

Opposite them, the stunningly beautiful Miss Susu frowned, her face a picture of innocence.

“It’s a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding…” Xu Qi An rushed out, spreading his arms to embrace his two colleagues’ shoulders, half-pushing and half-nudging them into the room.

“What’s wrong with you two?” he frowned.

“What’s the deal with that female ghost?”

The two men, visibly agitated, said in low voices, “Knowing what happened to us… why did you let her come to the poststation? If this gets out, how can we face anyone?”

“She’s here with her master to discuss the Yang Chuannan case,” Xu Qi An said irritably. “If you don’t expose it yourselves, who’s going to spread it around? She’s like a high-mileage car, what kind of men hasn’t she seduced? You two are just amateurs.”

Song Tingfeng felt somewhat better hearing this and said angrily, “I don’t care, I feel awful just seeing her, so ashamed I want to howl at the sky. I don’t want to see her.”

Zhu Guangxiao nodded in agreement.

Xu Qi An’s eyes immediately filled with pity; there’s a condition called “Susu PTSD.”

After being reassured by the scoundrel, Song Tingfeng asked, “Did Yang Chuannan confess honestly? Is that cavalry general here to cause trouble?”

“This case isn’t easy to handle…” Xu Qi An wished he had a cigarette, sighing, “Do you know the true identity of the shop owner we met at the dog meat shop? He’s an experienced official in the Chief Command.”

He briefly explained the situation.

The room fell silent. Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao looked at each other in shock, feeling cold sweat breaking out on their backs.

They felt they were at level five, but the others were actually at level five.

“If only we could have brought him back to the post station then,” Zhu Guangxiao said in a muffled voice.

“Why didn’t you remind me?” Xu Qi An pinched the bridge of his nose; lately, he often felt dizzy and had mild hallucinations.

“Who could have thought the person was fake?” Zhu Guangxiao said in a low voice. “At the time, the Governor and Constable Jiang were out inspecting. I thought we’d wait for them to return, report our progress, and if necessary, we’d be ordered to bring him in. Besides, once we had the evidence, the person had no value.”

“Yeah, if he wasn’t fake, we could have gone back to find him,” Song Tingfeng said.

“You’re just being wise after the event,” Xu Qi An said irritably.

“By the way, that name you mentioned earlier seems familiar…” Zhu Guangxiao frowned, looking thoughtful. “Come to think of it, I had a strange dream. I dreamed someone locked me in a small dark room.”

Xu Qi An smiled, “Was that small dark room called 404?”

“What 404?” Zhu Guangxiao didn’t understand and continued, “Someone locked me in a small dark room and kept interrogating me: Where is Liang something… I can’t remember the name.”

Song Tingfeng’s eyes widened: “Liang Youping?”

Zhu Guangxiao said in surprise, “Yes, that’s the name. How did you know?”

Song Tingfeng: “…I had the same dream.”

Xu Qi An’s expression changed dramatically as if he had heard something terrifying.