Chapter 71 A Fool Stirring Muddy Waters

Stewards Cao acted with extreme efficiency. In just the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, everyone in the Cao residence—a total of one hundred and thirteen people—was assembled in the front courtyard.

This included the dozen or so women who had been throwing tantrums and making a scene with Sheng Yanming just moments before.

Lanterns were hung all around the courtyard, their bright candle flames flickering in the night wind.

The dim, mottled light fell upon everyone's faces.

All kinds of expressions were infinitely magnified.

The terrified grew even more panicked.

Those with guilty consciences cast nervous glances left and right.

While the calm ones stood with their arms crossed, looking entirely unconcerned.

Ji Qinglin wore a grave expression and spoke in a low voice to Sheng Yanming, "Your subordinate has arranged for a thorough search inside and out. Everyone is here; not a single person slipped away."

Sheng Yanming's face was dark, and he let out a suppressed, heavy sigh. "It seems he was prepared for this long ago."

He had never suffered such a major setback before.

This time, he had truly met his match.

He smiled faintly, saying, "Tonight, I have disturbed Lord Cao. Forgive my offense, Master Cao."

Cao Hesyong waved his hand magnanimously. "Lord Sheng is merely carrying out his official duties and has no choice in the matter. I understand. Lord Sheng should proceed with the investigation as you see fit. Whatever you uncover, I will offer my full cooperation and will not be perfunctory or negligent in the least."

His expression was open and untroubled, completely devoid of the seasoned cunning he had once displayed as the Commissioner of Military Affairs.

It was enough to make one feel a pang of shame for having misjudged him; indeed, a clear conscience needs no defense.

Sheng Yanming was much younger than Cao Hesyong, but he was also an old fox of many years. Knowing full well that Cao Hesyong had made foolproof preparations, he had no choice but to play along to the very end.

"Deputy Ji, separate these people and interrogate them one by one. Do not miss a single person," Sheng Yanming said coldly.

Ji Qinglin acknowledged the order and was about to instruct the guards to take everyone away when a clear, smiling voice rang out from the darkness.

"Hold on."

Li Xubai walked out from the dark, wearing his customary cheeky and unserious grin.

"Why are you here? What are you doing here!" Upon seeing Li Xubai's face, Sheng Yanming felt as though he had been struck over the head with a heavy club. Shocked and enraged, his voice even pitched up in surprise.

Li Xubai smiled amiably, showing not a shred of anger. "The Commander is smashing up a place and conducting a house search; how could your humble subordinate possibly miss the chance to beat the drums and cheer him on?"

"..." Sheng Yanming laughed out of pure frustration. "Fine, fine, fine. You're brilliant. You interrogate them, then. Since you're so capable, you do it."

With that, Sheng Yanming stepped aside, genuinely yielding the floor to that thorn in his side.

As if completely oblivious to Sheng Yanming's ill intentions, Li Xubai began issuing orders with the blustering confidence of a fool.

"Lord Cao governs his household with strict discipline, and the female family members are timid by nature. They certainly couldn't be involved in something like murder, so there's no need to question them." Li Xubai picked Yun Xingruo out from the crowd at a glance and deliberately excluded her. Then, pointing randomly at a few manservants, he continued, "This one, this one, and that one too—yes, don't look around, look at yourselves, don't you have any self-awareness? Right, you there. These few have shifty, rodent-like faces; at a glance, you can tell they're born criminals. They must be thoroughly interrogated."

At these words, the manservants who had been singled out exchanged glances, feeling a surge of grievance, but intimidated by the dreadful reputation of the Military Virtue Guard, none of them dared to step forward and curse aloud.

Song Shiyu stood to the side, watching coldly, and could not help but smile knowingly.

Li Xubai appeared crude and unreasonable, but in reality, he was the most meticulous of all.

The few people he had just pointed out seemed to have been chosen at random, but among them happened to be one of the two men who had gone to the City God Temple that night to commit murder and silence witnesses.

To avoid alerting those two individuals, he had even deliberately left one of them out.

Seeing this scene, Ji Qinglin was dumbfounded, looking at Sheng Yanming with a face full of difficult hesitation.

Sheng Yanming gave Ji Qinglin a slight nod.

Helplessly, Ji Qinglin issued the order, instructing the guards to carry out the interrogation according to Li Xubai's instructions.

Cao Hesyong's residence was exceptionally large, featuring a full five courtyards. The Military Virtue Guard took over an entire courtyard the moment they arrived to use as an interrogation center.

The eight individuals singled out by Li Xubai were detained separately and interrogated one by one.

Naturally, Li Xubai took the task of these individual interrogations upon himself without yielding to anyone.

A four-panel landscape folding screen separated the inner and outer chambers. With the person seated behind the thin silk embroidered with landscape patterns, their shadow appeared hazy and indistinct.

Song Shiyu sat behind the screen, watching as Li Xubai placed a chair in front of it and set a cup of hot tea on a tall side table.

He looked entirely determined not to stop until he pried their mouths open.

The first few manservants who were brought in were interrogated by Ji Qinglin, while Li Xubai simply sipped his tea in silence, watching the proceedings coldly without a word.

It wasn't until the manservant who had silenced the witnesses walked in that Li Xubai abruptly straightened up, his eyes lighting up with excitement.

As if he had eyes on the back of his head, Ji Qinglin timely handed Li Xubai a piece of paper containing a brief record of the man's name, native place, and background.

"An Xiaoman, is it?" Li Xubai lifted his eyelids, his gaze indifferent and expressionless.

An Xiaoman was tall and thin, and the gray short jacket hanging on his frame appeared loose and empty.

Yet no one would have imagined that someone with such a scrawny physique could have committed such a brutal act.

An Xiaoman offered a flattering bow and, before Li Xubai could even ask, continued on his own, "Yes, this humble servant is called An Xiaoman, from Taichai Village, fifty li west of Bianliang City. I am nineteen this year, and I was sold into the Cao household as a servant when I was seven."

Hearing this, Li Xubai was taken aback. "The laws of the court do not permit the buying and selling of servants. You—" He looked him up and down. "You've got quite some guts, daring to violate the law?"

"No, that's not it, this humble servant wouldn't dare!" An Xiaoman hadn't dared to sit properly in the first place, perching only on the very edge of the chair. Hearing Li Xubai's words, he sprang up as if startled, denying it with panic in his voice, "No, it's not like that, My Lord! What the court prohibits is forced buying and selling, but—this humble servant sold himself voluntarily. That—that doesn't break the law."

Li Xubai let out a short laugh. "Don't be afraid. It's been over a dozen years anyway; if it were up to me, I wouldn't even bother looking into it. But you must have redeemed yourself by now, right? You're no longer a servant of the Cao family. Still, you certainly are remarkably loyal... Tell me, did Cao Hesyong hold some kind of leverage over you?"

An Xiaoman stammered; he had no idea that his actions during the night had been witnessed by Li Xubai. His heart was pounding frantically against his ribs, and he couldn't figure out why Li Xubai would ask such a question.

Li Xubai raised an eyebrow slightly and continued his sarcastic taunts, "You do the dirty work, others reap the benefits, and in the end, you get pushed out to be the scapegoat. My goodness, I've really opened my eyes today. How can someone as foolish as you even exist? Is your head just there to make you look taller?"

An Xiaoman was left speechless by Li Xubai's ridicule. Although Li Xubai hadn't spelled it out explicitly, he finally realized that he had left a trace of evidence behind.

Yet, where on earth had he slipped up? He racked his brain but could not figure it out.

He couldn't help but wonder if he really was as brainless as Li Xubai had said.

Without giving An Xiaoman the chance to carefully think things through or collect his thoughts, Li Xubai brought his palm down heavily on the table and demanded sharply, "Speak! You abducted Prefect Tan's beloved concubine—where did you plan to flee to? Aren't you afraid that while you sleep with another man's woman here, his ghost will come back to claim your life?"