The Long Night (7)
Chapter 7 The Long Night (7)
"That depends on how you explain it." Feng Siji said, "Tell me why you went to see Wang Xiu."
Li Qi said, "When I came to Kyoto alone before, I met bandits on the road. Wang Xiu, who was a hunter at the time, helped me. Later, Wang Xiu went to work in the palace kitchen. Because of the case of Concubine Li, he was implicated in a crime and was taken away by He Rucheng before the New Year's Eve banquet was over.
"Since Concubine Li was involved, it would be a good thing for him to have his body intact. So I wanted to help him, as a way of repaying the favor he showed me when I went to Kyoto. That's why I went to see him on the way he was being escorted.
"But he said he didn't want me to get into trouble, so he turned me down. Having turned me down, I didn't stay long. After I left, his death had nothing to do with me."
After saying that, Li Qi stared at him closely, trying to catch a sign of trust on his face.
But his expression was as dull as ever. Apart from those eyes that were as cold as a pond, she could not see anything.
The handsome face in front of her suddenly enlarged. Feng Siji leaned towards her, his breath brushing against her face, as cold as the snow falling outside the window at this moment: "Your words are perfect, but unfortunately they don't work on me."
His eyes were determined and his tone was firm. Li Qi was finally sure that he already knew.
This realization made her throat tighten, her nails digging deep into her flesh. She mustered up the courage to look him in the face. "If you doubt me, you should provide evidence instead of making such empty guesses. Otherwise, you don't deserve to be called an honest official."
“I never cared what I was called.”
His handsome face continued to grow larger, and he was still approaching her. Li Qi nervously stepped back, her back pressed against the solid wall, with no way out.
He flipped open the messy file and said, "I only care about what's written here. Wang Xiu died on the same night as the Empress was murdered. He died in the same way, and the last person he saw before his death was also the same."
Listening to him speak, Li Qi felt the wall behind her was emitting layers of coldness, which spread from her spine into her body little by little. It was so cold that even her breathing seemed to freeze.
Feng Siji continued, "You killed Concubine Li and Wang Xiu. I don't know why you killed them. But I know that you were worried that the two cases were too close to each other and would be disadvantageous to you, so you deceived His Majesty and made the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple afraid to investigate you. Is that right?"
Li Qi exhaled heavily, trying to calm down and argue with him: "I said, you have to pay attention to evidence, you -"
"Pah!"
He suddenly slammed his palm down on the bamboo slips. "Still denying it! Did you really think no one saw what you and Shengxiang did on New Year's Eve?"
His eyes were like a bottomless well, ready to draw her in and sink her to the bottom, suffocating her to death.
Such a look scared Li Qi.
The last time he looked at her like this was three years ago when she agreed to the marriage proposal from the Jiedushi of Qianzhou.
She didn't expect him to look at her like this again.
What does this mean?
Li Qi suddenly laughed, and since they were so close to each other, she stood on tiptoe and kissed him lightly on the lips.
"Feng Siji, you still can't forget me, right?" She laughed even more wildly.
The warmth and softness of the lips disappeared in an instant, and a thunderclap exploded in my mind.
Feng Siji looked at Li Qi in disbelief.
She was still smiling, and that smile seemed to him ostentatious, dazzling, arrogant and fearless.
The red dress made her facial features clear, charming and passionate, like a red lotus blooming on the edge of hell, emitting a deadly and seductive aura.
In short, it was obvious at first glance that she was no ordinary woman. It was absurd, yet he couldn't take his eyes off her.
Seeing his stunned look, Li Qi was finally satisfied.
She pushed him away, putting some distance between them, and turned to leave. "Envoy Feng, if you summoned me here just to listen to your nonsensical speculations, I'm sorry I won't keep you company."
Before she could take a step, her wrist was grabbed. She turned back impatiently and saw him sneer and said, "Li Qi, can you leave like this?"
Li Qi broke free from his hand, folding her arms leisurely across her chest, her tone casual and unfocused, "Why, Envoy Feng wants to keep me here so we can spend a night together and reminisce about our time in Qianzhou?"
Feng Siji ignored her and overturned all the files on the table, scattering them all over the floor. "These files are not evidence."
He looked at Li Qi deeply, his voice expressionless and even, he just took her hand and said firmly and coldly, "I'm taking you to see He Mu. He Mu is the evidence. When the time comes, feel free to use any excuses or methods you have."
He Mu's name exploded in Li Qi's mind, and her arrogance was replaced by nervousness in an instant. She really began to panic, and the feeling of coldness, numbness, and suffocation caused by Feng Siji came back again.
He Mu had indeed met Shengxiang at the New Year's Eve banquet, otherwise, why would he be in such a hurry to send Shengxiang away?
"Feng Siji..."
She was so nervous that her voice was hoarse, but Feng Siji didn't listen to her. He opened the door and dragged her out, insisting on taking her to see He Mu and asking her to confess her guilt.
The moment he opened the door, a cold wind blowing with frost and snow blew in his face, and Li Qi shivered with cold.
She grabbed Feng Siji's sleeve and pulled him back: "It's late, and the snow is so heavy. If anything happens to me, can you explain it to His Majesty?"
Li Qi refused to leave and tried to grab the door frame.
But Feng Siji forcefully pulled her hand away, and she was half-dragged and half-pulled by him, forcing her to walk into the snow and ice.
The heavy snow fluttered down from the sky, landing on faces and collars, and instantly melted into ice water.
Li Qi's teeth were chattering with cold, and her hands, exposed to the cold air, were frozen stiff and numb, but she refused to give in.
She grabbed the stone table in the courtyard and shouted, "If His Majesty knew that you were forcing me to interrogate you like this, would you still be able to stay in Kyoto?"
The howling of the wind and snow almost covered her voice. She thought Feng Siji couldn't hear her clearly, but his back suddenly stopped.
He heard it clearly.
He turned around. The wind and snow were so strong that they formed a messy curtain that blocked his sight. Li Qi couldn't see his expression. The snow curtain was obviously so thin, but it was like a natural moat separating them.
The cold wind carried his low, depressed voice into his ears: "Your Majesty, he keeps saying it. Now that he is protecting you, I, a mere Feng's case officer, really cannot interrogate you too harshly. Thanks to the county lady for reminding me, otherwise, would you have another handle on me?"
"Now that you have evidence against me, what are you going to do? Have me demoted, have me killed, or what?"
What Li Qi feared most was his calm and steady appearance, yet with a blizzard in his eyes.
She kept shaking her head: "No. I was wrong in Qianzhou. I know you must have evidence in your hands. He Mu and He Rucheng...they hate me so much. If they have the chance, they will do their best to help you find me...
"But... let's each make some concessions. You do your Feng case, and I do my county lord. We can live in peace, okay?"
Feng Si laughed: "So you admit, Li Qi, you are the murderer."
Li Qi hugged her arms tightly and trembled, without saying a word.
Her silence was like the frost frozen in Kyoto, spreading stiffly between the two of them.
The answer is no longer important, because the result is in the "Special Case Envoy" token on Feng Siji's waist that is shining with a cold light.
Feng Siji will not let her go easily.
Ever since she knew Feng Siji was coming to Kyoto, she had expected this day to come.
The Empress's case was not strange in itself. It was just that the officials in the capital were concerned about her status and worried that she would settle old scores after entering the palace as a concubine. That's why no one dared to investigate her and the case became an unsolved one.
Once Feng Siji arrived in Kyoto, this small case was a piece of cake for him.
But Li Qi didn't understand why it was so fast?
She hadn't done what she wanted to do yet, and she couldn't go to jail and end her freedom. She could only take a gamble, betting that he would still remember their friendship with Qianzhou and be more lenient with her.
She raised her head with tears in her eyes and trembled, "I really know I was wrong before. I shouldn't have treated you like that in Qianzhou. Really...you, you..."
It was too difficult to say this, but she had to say it. After swallowing countless times, she finally asked with difficulty, "Can you... protect me this time?"
Li Qi's tears were about to fall, her hair was covered with frost, and her eyebrows were covered with snow. She looked like a withered camellia flower hit by frost, so pitiful.
However, Feng Siji didn't show any sympathy. He looked at Li Qi calmly, and rubbed her red eyes with his thumb. "How much of these tears are real, and how much are fake?"
Li Qi shivered even more violently, "I..."
"How much of a trick is that with your fingers? I don't believe that you, the dignified county lady and future imperial concubine, don't even have any medicine to apply."
"Envoy Feng...?"
Feng Siji looked at her pitiful appearance with her hair covered in frost and her eyes filled with tears. He did not feel any remorse but sneered:
"That blood-stained plum blossom on the dress you made for me, and your appearance in the Qingyu Pond in a state of desolation, were no coincidence. You knew long ago that once I investigated the Empress's case, you would have no place to hide, so you disguised everything in advance, hoping to gain my sympathy? Pity?
"And when you beg me to protect you like you did just now, I will agree to it?"
Li Qi raised her eyes slightly, and the moment she lifted her eyelids, the tears that were about to fall finally rolled down her cheeks, "I didn't..."
Feng Siji wiped away her tears with the tip of his thumb. "Look, even the timing of crying is just right."
The tears remained on the fingertips, warm and hot, like a burning stove in the cold winter night.
He rubbed the burning finger secretly in his sleeve.
After realizing what he was doing, he suddenly loosened his grip and pushed her a few steps away. He wiped the remaining tears from his fingers and said, "A teardrop, a piece of snow, a piece of clothing, can all be calculated by you. Is there anything in this world that you can't calculate?"
Li Qi cried and trembled as she shook her head: "I really didn't..."
"In my hands, there will never be any wrongful convictions or miscarriages of justice."
At this time, Ye Shu found an umbrella and held it over his head, and he and Ye Shu turned around and walked back.
"I, Feng Siji, lost my parents at the age of eight, became the top scholar at the age of sixteen, and investigated and resolved thousands of unjust, false, and wrongful cases within four years. At the age of twenty, I was appointed Minister of the Supreme Court. At the age of twenty-two, I was demoted for redressing the injustice of innocent people. At the age of twenty-eight, Your Majesty summoned me back to the capital to investigate a case.
"So, the possibility of me protecting you is zero."
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