The Empress looked Shen Du up and down, seeing he was unharmed. A smile appeared on her face as she said, “Catching a turtle in a jar.”
“Catching a turtle in a jar?” Zhang Baohuan looked towards Lai Luozhi. “Is Your Majesty referring to them,” he pointed at the corpses of Zhou Xian and his son, “or him?” He then pointed at Lai Luozhi.
The Empress resumed her tired appearance. Shen Du explained, “The original plan was to capture Lai Luozhi. Zhou Xian and his son were unexpected, but Lai Luozhi has already resolved that unexpected element, which is a fortunate surprise.”
Shen Du continued, nodding, “Lai Luozhi must have suppressed the news of Zhou Xian and his son’s rebellion, intending to catch everyone in one net, clearing obstacles to ascend the throne himself.”
The situation was now clear. The Empress and Shen Du had secretly planned their strategy. Shen Du’s apparent defection was merely a ruse to deceive Lai Luozhi, aimed at better understanding his actions.
As for Zhou Xian and his son, their rebellion was inevitable. The Empress had long made arrangements; even without Lai Luozhi, they would have struggled to succeed.
Lai Luozhi was not one to surrender easily. Realizing he had been outmaneuvered by the Empress herself, he became furious. With a shout, he broke free from his bonds, drew his flexible sword, and engaged in combat with Shen Du.
The two had been at odds for years but had never openly crossed swords. Now, knowing he was unlikely to escape, Lai Luozhi fought with all his might, determined to kill Shen Du.
After exchanging over a hundred moves, Shen Du was overpowered. Lai Luozhi’s sword pierced him, and he fell to the ground, his lower abdomen swelling as he spat out black blood.
“Hehe, Shen Du, did you think I had no backup plan?” Lai Luozhi laughed sinisterly, his face contorted. “You’ve been poisoned. You can’t defeat me.”
Before Lai Luozhi could finish speaking, an arrow whistled through the air, striking his left chest. As if that wasn’t enough, another arrow followed, hitting his right chest.
Lai Luozhi could no longer stand and collapsed weakly to the ground.
The Empress was furious: “Who shot those arrows? I didn’t want him to die so easily.”
Jing Lin was startled and hurriedly came in to report: “Your Majesty, the arrows didn’t hit vital points. They were deliberately aimed off-center.”
The Empress sighed in relief. The others had complex emotions, especially Chaoyang, whose eyes flickered, but she ultimately said nothing.
Shen Du acted quickly. Lai Luozhi was taken to the Inner Cabinet’s dungeon. Lai Luozhi’s subordinates at the scene had already been dealt with and replaced by the Inner Cabinet’s elite secret guards. Shen Du bid farewell to the Empress and directly led people to Lai Manor, confiscating the property and sending everyone inside to the Court of Judicature and Revision.
Other officials closely associated with Lai Luozhi were also quietly dealt with under the cover of the night.
Yong’an was also imprisoned in the Inner Cabinet.
Crown Prince Li Zhong was released that very night, reportedly having become emaciated. The Empress didn’t let Li Zhong return to the Crown Prince’s residence but chose another location for him to recover, with Chaoyang continuing to act as regent.
Undoubtedly, the success of this operation was entirely due to the Buliangren organization, with the Buliangbao playing a significant role. Their intelligence network covered all social strata across the country, eliminating the time lag for Shen Du and his team.
Shen Du had privately met with Xu Xiangren. His cold attitude towards Zhu Yan was to keep her uninvolved, even fighting with Xu Xiangren over it.
Half past the hour of the Snake (9-11 AM), Zhu Yan suddenly woke from a nightmare, her heart pounding and her back drenched in cold sweat.
She had dreamed of the scene in Yingzhou when she and Shen Du were attacked by the Half-faced Ghost on the city wall, narrowly escaping death.
Casually wiping the sweat from her brow, Zhu Yan couldn’t sleep. She got up, pushed aside the bed curtains, and fumbled her way to the table to pour herself a cup of cold tea. Suddenly raising her eyes, she saw a shadow by the window and was startled:
“Who’s there?”
The shadow moved closer to the window: “It’s me.”
It was Shen Du.
Zhu Yan thought she might be dreaming. She pinched herself hard, wincing in pain, then hurried to open the window. Indeed, Shen Du stood there, his back to the moonlight, facing her. Outside, heavy snow was falling. It was past mid-January, yet the snow fell thick.
Zhu Yan noticed a layer of snow on Shen Du’s shoulders. She brushed it off as he climbed through the window. She quickly closed the window behind him and turned to face him.
His body radiated cold, and white breath constantly escaped his mouth. But when he looked at her, there was tenderness in his brow, and his dark eyes, filled with a thousand thoughts, overflowed with concern.
“Why have you come at this hour? Did anyone see you?”
Seeing Shen Du didn’t answer, Zhu Yan stamped her foot and hurriedly pulled him to sit near the floor heating. She took off his cloak and hung it on the screen, then pushed a hot water bottle into his hands.
Once the floor heating had dispelled the cold from his body, Shen Du’s eyes finally showed a smile: “I missed you, so I came.”
Zhu Yan’s face reddened, but then she realized something was amiss: “Why aren’t you wearing your mask?”
Raising his hand to touch his face, Shen Du smiled gently: “The scabs fell off, so I didn’t want to wear it anymore. Are the scars too ugly?”
To be honest, the crisscrossing pink scars on his face weren’t pleasant to look at, but that wasn’t what Zhu Yan was concerned about. She glanced out the window, remembered the divorce letter, and said sourly:
“You’ve already asked for a divorce. It’s not appropriate for you to come find me now.”
Shen Du was stunned. He had forgotten about this and, being teased by Zhu Yan, was momentarily at a loss for words.
Seeing Shen Du offer no words of comfort, Zhu Yan felt disappointed. She opened the door and made a “please leave” gesture, showing no mercy.
Shen Du walked to the door, hesitated for a while, and finally said: “Take care of yourself.”
With that, he put on his cloak again and disappeared into the snowy night.
Zhu Yan was so angry she couldn’t sleep all night. This guy could come and go as he pleased with his martial arts skills, yet he wanted a divorce but still came to see her.
As soon as he returned to the Inner Cabinet, the blood Shen Du had been holding back surged out. Jing Lin hurriedly ran over with medicine pills, worriedly saying:
“Cabinet Leader, your poison…”
Shen Du suppressed the discomfort and slowly spoke:
“I know all the poisons he used on me. I’ve induced vomiting after each dose, so the poisoning isn’t severe. Has the antidote been found?”
“Yes, it’s been sent to the Imperial Physicians to check for any added poisons. The Empress has ordered the Imperial Medical Institute to prepare a new dose for the Cabinet Leader to take. Please be patient. This is a detoxifying pill to suppress the poison, please take it.”
Shen Du took the pill without a word, finally feeling a bit better. He turned, his official robes swirling: “Let’s go, we’ll interrogate through the night.”
Jing Lin nodded, quickly following.
Tonight would likely be a sleepless night.
After a night of interrogation, using all torture instruments on Lai Luozhi, they didn’t extract much information. But Shen Du didn’t mind.
All he wanted to see was the fire moth tattoo on Lai Luozhi’s body. Everything else was secondary.
Shen Du spent the entire night drafting official documents, detailing the extensive network and activities of the Fire Moth Sect that Lai Luozhi had meticulously built over the past decade.
The documents included information on the Fire Moth Sect’s distribution across the Da Zhou territories, the number of its members, their crimes, and the connection between Lai Luozhi’s fire moth tattoo and the sect. It also outlined the sect’s crimes over the years, including embezzlement, the sale of official positions, and the framing of loyal officials.
The key points emphasized that Lai Luozhi had abducted the Uyun Kingdom’s sacred maiden, Dai Si, hypnotizing her into assuming a second persona, Lai Luofu, who pretended to be dead and then revived. Lai Luofu was used to create numerous substitutes that wreaked havoc on the world.
Simultaneously, a search of the Lai residence was conducted overnight. Thanks to the intelligence Shen Du had gathered from his previous defection, they quickly located an underground passage in the Lai residence. There, they discovered partially consumed corpses and other remains that had been turned into human-preserved sweets.
As a result, the cabinet dispatched a document to the Ministry of Justice before dawn, ordering the verification of the bodies by the Ninth-Rank Scribe Shi Zhu Yan.