Chapter 30, The Thirtieth Amidst Mystery
The spring rain pattered softly on the roof of the car, the sound faint, but each drop of rain roused the beauty from her sweet dream.
Jiang Linzhi, still half asleep, pressed his slightly hot face against the wooden blocks that weren't covered by the tiger-skin rug, absorbing the refreshing coolness.
Before she could even feel comfortable for a moment, a strong, powerful hand grabbed her waist and pulled her back.
The sticky sound of water mingled with the tender sound of rain, the gentle rain soothing the snow-capped peaks, the damp clouds nourishing the flower-lined paths, making it difficult to distinguish where the rain and clouds came from.
In the end, Jiang Linzhi couldn't take it anymore. She leaned against Jiang Jinyi's chest, her body soft and boneless, and said softly, "I'm too tired to move."
Upon hearing this, he hooked his large hand around her slender waist, sliding it to the most alluring curve, pulling her close to him to prevent her from swaying and spoiling the mood. His movements were much gentler, but Jiang Jinyi still said in a cold voice, "Hold me tight."
Jiang Linzhi closed her eyes and clung tightly to the driftwood beneath her, but in the end, she was too exhausted to hold on and fell into the sea formed by the spring rain.
As dawn broke, Jiang Jinyi finally found his pleasure, contentedly stroking the slender neck of the woman beside him. Lately, memories of his childhood kept resurfacing in his mind; he remembered every single detail, yet they weren't entirely the same. For instance, the little tagalong who used to follow him around was almost never there. In its place was an older sister who always teased him, much like Jiang Linzhi at this moment.
Jiang Jinyi's hatred for Jiang Linzhi gradually faded with each dream. He found it strange, but there was no way someone could have entered his dreams and altered his memories. Thinking about it for too long caused an invisible white wall to appear in his mind, preventing him from remembering what he had discovered before.
The person next to him was sleeping soundly, sprawled out without any regard for appearances. Hearing their heavy breathing, Jiang Jinyi turned them over so they could lean against him. "Jiang Linzhi, who was in your dream?"
His breathing finally calmed down, but no one answered.
When the regent appeared at the border, the emperor's faction, led by Qi Er, was naturally displeased and visibly taken aback. However, since Qi Er held the highest official rank, he hurriedly went to greet him and respectfully said, "This humble servant greets Your Highness."
The Regent sat in the main seat and said, "I am here to appoint the new general. There is no need for you to be nervous."
Jiang Linzhi led his men inside for a thorough search. Qi Er frowned deeply, not understanding how Jiang Linzhi had gotten on the good side of the Regent. Naturally, he dared not be as enthusiastic as he had been a few days ago. Instead, he frowned and said, "General, this is a military camp. What's wrong with a mere merchant investigating a case?"
The regent glanced at Qi Er and said, "What did you say?"
Instantly, the hall fell silent. Qi Er nervously swallowed, knelt down, and a whole group of people behind him knelt down as well, saying in unison, "We obey Your Highness's command."
With the Regent's backing, Jiang Linzhi acted with impunity throughout the city. However, judging from her demeanor, she wasn't genuinely interested in investigating the case. Given only a two-day deadline, she spent the entire day sitting at the city gate, watching the people coming and going.
Everyone was watching, and a gambling table was even set up in private to see if she could catch the murderer. Of course, most people still thought that the murderer was Lu Huantang and that Jiang Linzhi had other motives.
Jiang Jinyi was also curious, but he let Jiang Linzhi do as he pleased. Regardless of the outcome, he would only be filling in the vacancy, and there would be no loss on his end. Besides, the border was such an important place that he needed to personally come and place someone there to put his mind at ease.
More importantly, Jiang Jinyi pulled up the white cloth and covered the pale corpse. His comrade had died so inexplicably, and he had to demand an explanation.
The next day, as the sun was setting, while others were still talking, a letter bearing the imperial seal reached Jiang Linzhi's fingers. She confidently waved the thin sheet of paper in front of the passing crowd, saying, "Everyone, stop reading. Curfew is in effect today."
When Jiang Linzhi entered the lobby with the envelope, she felt dozens of gazes instantly fix on her, one of which was particularly intense, blending together and indistinguishable.
Jiang Linzhi didn't waste any words. He sneered inwardly but smiled innocently on the surface. He said to a student who had scored high marks, "I have obtained the letter that General Li wrote earlier. It's just a pity that the letter is not in General Li's handwriting. We just need you to write a few words. It's very simple."
The writing was finished quickly, and no one's handwriting was similar.
Jiang Jinyi glanced at it and couldn't help but scoff, "That's it?"
Jiang Linzhi bowed to Jiang Jinyi and said, "Letters can be written by others, but you can't have someone impersonate a person." After saying that, he clapped his hands, and Chen immediately carried a bloodied and mangled person to the center.
The people in the courtroom were all murderers, accustomed to bloodshed, but they still felt that the criminal law used to interrogate people was truly cruel.
Jiang Linzhi, who was always incompetent in dealing with foreign affairs, grabbed the bloodied man by the hair so that he could look up and see everyone in front of him, and said, "General Li asked you to deliver a letter, but the letter disappeared. Did you change it yourself?"
The man, whose mouth was unharmed, sneered and said, "I altered the letter, I delivered the letter. Do you think I could make a son of a bitch a general?"
"So you hate me, huh? But I'm perfectly fine. It seems you have no allies and don't know who killed you, so I'll kill you then." As if eager to silence him, Jiang Linzhi used a delicate gemstone dagger to slit the man's throat.
No one knew what crazy thing Jiang Linzhi was doing. Jiang Linzhi wiped the blood off the dagger. "If he was lying, there was no need to keep him. This letter came from His Majesty. Judging from the direction of the ink that accidentally blew through... let the left-handed man stay."
There were only three left-handed people: Zhang Wanchun, Deputy General Qi, and a soldier whose name I don't know.
Zhang Wanchun knelt down first and anxiously explained, "I am on good terms with Lieutenant Lu, and I have no reason to harm him."
Jiang Linzhi ignored him, took out the letter, found the words the three of them had just written, examined them for a moment, and then suddenly laughed and said, "How many horizontal strokes are in this misspelled word—'zhen'? Deputy General Qi."
Before he could finish speaking, a silver needle was already pressed against Jiang Linzhi's brow, moving so fast that Jiang Linzhi would immediately become the next General Li.
bite--
The silver needles were shattered, and Lu Huantang struck with deadly force, leaving Qi Er powerless to fight back.
Jiang Jinyi was faster than a speck of dust, leading Jiang Linzhi behind the screen so the two could have a good fight outside. He asked, "How did you know it was him?"
“You know I only know some unorthodox methods, which can’t be used as evidence, so I’m just using a piece of scrap paper to trick him,” Jiang Linzhi said.
"For him, you've even resorted to those evil spells," Jiang Jinyi said sarcastically.
Jiang Linzhi looked up, pretending not to understand: "Isn't it enough that the case is solved? The method doesn't matter."
Jiang Jinyi took her hand, looked at the bloodstains on it, and suddenly laughed: "Don't forget what you promised me."
Once the dust had settled outside, Qi Er, who hadn't been able to withstand the thirty-second move and was half-dead, finally stepped forward to "uphold justice": "What's the reason?"
Now at his wit's end, Qi Er lay on the ground laughing, a far cry from his former self who always cared for his subordinates. His eyes were filled with malice and coldness as he said, "I've been on the frontier for so many years, what have I gained? Those above me aren't my own people, they're suppressing me. Finally, a useful ally has arrived below, and they want to oust me! Why should they!"
This is why no one suspected him. Whether it was setting up hidden weapons or shooting arrows from the doorway, he could blend into the crowd and pretend to be in charge to get away with it.
What kind of person with a dark mind would suspect him?
He just didn't expect that Lu Huantang would also be there.
Therefore, Lu Huantang asked Zhang Wanchun to monitor that house. The murderer would probably go back to check for loopholes, or he would go back to keep an eye on things for fear that others would find some mistakes.
Qi Er was one of the people who came and went the most, and Lu Huantang immediately had someone inform Jiang Linzhi.
"I risked my life for military merit, and you risked yours too," Lu Huantang sneered.
"I've lost half my life!" Qi Er roared back, his eyes bloodshot with rage, even more agitated.
"That's because your abilities are too weak," Lu Huantang said truthfully, delivering a fatal blow.
In this situation, Jiang Linzhi couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Qi Er became even angrier, struggling to get up and lunge forward, hurling insults at him.
Jiang Linzhi didn't care at all and said, "Don't waste your breath. You can't even win against a scoundrel like me when I try to outsmart you. Tsk."
It wasn't entirely about scheming. Jiang Linzhi had indeed seen General Li's letter to the Emperor, but it was so perfectly written, without a single flaw. Her suspicion of Qi Er stemmed from her intuition; she unconditionally trusted it. Of course, there was also the added assurance of Qi Lingjun's insightful yet incomprehensible reasoning.
The case was solved, and she didn't care about the murderer; it was no longer her business here. In front of Jiang Jinyi, Jiang Linzhi didn't dare to be too intimate with Lu Huantang. She gave him a wink and then left with Jiang Jinyi.
Now that the army is leaderless, Jiang Jinyi is "just right" here. He said to the soldiers, "The situation at the border is urgent. In case we delay the process of reporting to the court, we will temporarily appoint Zhang Xing, who was recovering from his injuries, as the new general."
With General Li and Deputy General Qi gone, and a few veteran generals below them, none of them were as capable as Lu Huantang. However, appointing a young man in his early twenties as a general was a risky move, both for the Regent's faction and for the city's defenses.
Lu Huantang was not surprised by this result.
The Regent's faction will be busy for a while as they try to regain their footing.
However, Lu Huantang felt uneasy because the Regent Prince had supported Jiang Linzhi this time. He seized the opportunity when Jiang Jinyi was working and finally saw Jiang Linzhi, who was under house arrest.
Inside the Regent's temporary residence, Jiang Linzhi, who was leisurely grilling meat, was startled when someone suddenly jumped down from the courtyard wall. Her first reaction was to steady her small grill. After seeing Lu Huantang, she kicked him: "Are you crazy? My meat almost fell to the ground."
The area was heavily guarded. Lu Huantang cut to the chase and asked, "What conditions did you agree to?"
"It's not a big deal about his mother," Jiang Linzhi said nonchalantly.
"What's the big deal that he put you under house arrest? Is it because I lied about that corpse? I can accept the punishment. I have military merits, which is the last thing he wants to see. It'll just cancel out my demerits." Lu Huantang was really anxious. If the Regent, a man who could turn his hand to make clouds and rain, really knew that Jiang Linzhi was lying, his fate wouldn't be any better than Qi Er being dragged to death from behind a horse.
He had to keep her alive.
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