“I, I…”
The young girl’s face instantly turned red. Feeling even more embarrassed under her family’s gaze, her beautiful almond eyes misted over, glistening in the candlelight.
Although I prefer older sisters, bullying this type of little sister who could cry for a long time after a single punch is quite satisfying… Liu Qi’an thought to himself.
Liu Lingyue puffed her cheeks, then raised her head as if giving up, meeting Liu Qi’an’s gaze: “I just wanted to know how Big Brother solved the case from the case files.”
Liu Xinnian, who had been pretending not to exist, could no longer maintain his facade and silently raised his head.
He prided himself on his intelligence and had also looked through the case files, studying them repeatedly but finding no clues. Yet when Liu Qi’an had asked for the files that day, he immediately solved the case.
Aunt didn’t comment, but her chopsticks stopped mid-air, no longer chewing her food.
“There’s no such thing as a perfect crime. Apart from coincidences, any man-made case will leave traces,” Liu Qi’an said.
Liu Xinnian couldn’t help but straighten his back, listening attentively.
“First, I noticed the issue with the tax silver through the transportation route and the weight of the silver…”
Liu Qi’an explained his reasoning process.
The more Liu Xinnian listened, the brighter his eyes became as if receiving enlightenment from a teacher at a private school.
His hand under the table clenched into a tight fist.
After Liu Qi’an finished speaking, Second Uncle Liu wore a calm expression as if it was nothing special: “Not bad.”
Second Uncle Liu had always been insincere, and the family was long used to it.
The pretty sixteen-year-old sister lowered her head, hiding the admiration in her eyes.
Liu Pingzhi excitedly slapped the table, cursing in slang: “So that’s how it is, I can’t believe I didn’t notice.”
Liu Xinnian glanced at his father, thinking, it would be strange if you had noticed.
Liu Qi’an looked at Second Uncle, recalling a saying: What a pity that father is uneducated, a single “fuck” rules the world.
The second Uncle was a martial artist, and his cultural level was limited to writing his name, and even that was crooked and scrawled like chicken scratches.
“You brute, you don’t even know how to weigh?” Aunt dissed her husband.
Liu Qi’an asked, “When they were counting the silver, did they wear hand protectors?”
Second Uncle recalled for a moment, then said in surprise, “I think they did. How did you know?”
It was sodium? Liu Qi’an looked at him pensively: “Why wasn’t this mentioned in the statement?”
“It was an insignificant detail, what’s there to say?” At this point, Second Uncle cursed, “It’s all because that surnamed Lu handed me a bottle of osmanthus honey. You know your Second Uncle’s immeasurable alcohol tolerance, so I indulged a bit and didn’t pay much attention to other things. I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it.”
The worst kind of teammate… If this had been in the case files, I could have analyzed the truth of the case faster, why waste so many brain cells… Liu Qi’an sighed.
In Second Uncle’s view, this was perhaps as insignificant as what clothes someone wore or how they styled their hair.
He hadn’t realized at all that this was a suspicious point worth noting.
“In that case, the person Father mentioned surnamed Lu is very likely the one who framed Father,” Liu Xinnian pointed out incisively.
“It’s all because of my foolishness, I nearly ruined the whole family,” Liu Pingzhi suddenly became a bit emotional: “Ning Yan, back then, your father and I fought back-to-back in the ‘Mountain and Sea Battle’, promising to survive together and make it big together.
“I survived, but your father died in battle. At that time, I thought, to live better, I had to change my way of living.”
We couldn’t be cannon fodder anymore.
“So I let Nian’er study and chose to have you practice martial arts. I still had my selfish intentions.”
Aunt rolled her eyes: “Yes, your heart was all with your nephew.”
Over a hundred taels of silver a year.
“From what Aunt is saying, is Second Young Master not your own?” Liu Qi’an swore this wasn’t what he meant to say, it was instinct overriding his brain.
The original owner must have harbored quite a grudge against Aunt.
“You little bastard, what are you implying with those words?” Aunt angrily slapped the table.
Second Young Master Liu and Liu Lingyue lowered their heads to eat, seemingly accustomed to this.
Second Uncle’s scalp tingled: “Enough, I’ve barely saved my life, and I still have to listen to you argue? I might as well have died.”
Everyone lowered their heads to eat.
Speaking of that Mountain and Sea Battle, Liu Qi’an had some impression.
The world was vast and boundless, with the Great Feng Dynasty dominating the Central Plains, claiming to be the legitimate ruler of the world.
The Great Feng was established through martial might and governed through Confucianism. At its peak, all nations came to pay tribute. So far, its dynastic rule has lasted for six hundred years.
Twenty years ago, the Great Feng allied with various Western Region countries to engage in a decisive battle with the northern grassland barbarians and the southwestern barbarians at Shanhai Pass.
Each side committed troops, reaching a total of one million soldiers.
From the start of the war to its end, it only took half a year, during which a million lives were extinguished.
It was one of the most brutal wars in history, known as the Mountain and Sea Battle.
Liu Qi’an’s father had died in that war.
“…With my keyboard warrior knowledge and the patterns summarized from street literature, no dynasty can escape the 300-year rule.”
The so-called 300-year rule was named by Liu Qi’an himself.
As a pseudo-history enthusiast, he had summarized a set of patterns from the 5,000 years of history in his previous life. Setting aside the Zhou Dynasty where feudal lords ruled independently and which was backward, no dynasty’s fortunes had lasted beyond 300 years.
Even the two Song and two Han dynasties were reorganized dynasties.
After much thought, the fact that the Great Feng Dynasty had maintained its rule for 600 years should be related to this world’s power system.
Little Bean Sprout was brought back by Lü’e. She had stopped crying because she was hungry. She was too small to reach the dining table, so she sat on Lü’e’s lap and was fed by her.
“Mother, why did we have to live in the black house? We couldn’t eat enough every day,” Little Bean Sprout recalled her experiences from the past few days.
She called the prison the black house.
Everyone at the table fell silent, and Aunt’s expression turned sympathetic.
Second Uncle sighed, “It’s because Father did something wrong.”
Little Bean Sprout made an “Oh” sound, then said, “Yesterday I woke up hungry and caught a bug with these on its head.” She put two short fingers on top of her head.
It was a cockroach, one of the two most common pests in prison cells along with rats.
Everyone at the table changed expression, feeling both ashamed and sympathetic. To let such a young child suffer like this was their failure.
“Did you… did you eat it…” Li Ru’s lips trembled, her eyes reddening. She had given birth to this young daughter in her early thirties, and although the child was a bit silly, she was deeply loved.
Little Bean Sprout Liu Ling’yin chirped, “Later I heard Mother’s tummy making ‘gurgling’ sounds.”
The atmosphere fell silent for a moment, everyone’s hearts sinking.
Aunt’s pretty face turned pale, her voice trembling, “And then?”
“Then I put it in Mother’s mouth. Mother ate it so quickly,” Little Bean Sprout said with a proud expression.
Aunt’s body swayed.
Liu Xinnian slowly put down his chopsticks: “I’m full.”
Liu Lingyue: “Me too.”
Liu Qi’an: “Full, full, ku ku ku…”
Second Uncle Liu: “…”
Aunt froze for a few seconds, then dived under the table: “Urgh…”
“Waaah…” Soon after, the child’s pig-like cries echoed through the night sky.