"Your Excellency, this is Zhou Youan, the deputy commander of the Imperial Guards, whose courtesy name is Yizhi." Kong Wenmin looked a little hesitant, "I am not sure if this Yizhi is the same Yizhi."
"It must be Zhou Youan!" Pang Yi interrupted, "Among the people who are familiar with Ma Zhiming, how many are called Yizhi? It must be Zhou Youan!" At this point, Pang Yi slammed the table. Then he said, "Ma Zhiming first discovered that Zhou Youan was addicted to gambling and owed a large amount of gambling debts. Out of friendship or brotherhood, he repeatedly repaid Zhou Youan's gambling debts, but Zhou Youan was really heavily in debt, and Ma Zhiming alone could never pay it off. At this time, another force took the opportunity to get close to Zhou Youan. Promised Zhou Youan to pay off his debts in one go, and maybe even give him a large sum of money. The condition might be..." Pang Yi's eyes were as bright as torches with excitement. He approached Zhong Mingwei and Kong Wenmin. He lowered his voice and said, "Let Zhou Youan assist him in assassinating the fourth prince, and then put the blame on Ma Zhiming!"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Kong Wenmin immediately shook his head. "Zhou Youan was cultivated by Ma Zhiming, and the two of them are like brothers. It is reasonable to say that Ma Zhiming helped Zhou Youan pay off his gambling debts, but Zhou Youan actually agreed to assassinate the fourth prince for money and put the blame on Ma Zhiming. This is simply a fantasy!"
"It may not be a fantasy." Zhong Mingwei said slowly, "Didn't Zhou Youan start to make plans as soon as Ma Zhiming died? Yi Zhi, Yi Zhi, haha, it really lives up to the name."
Kong Wenmin leaned back in his chair, took a long breath, and exhaled deeply. He was still shocked. "How is it possible? Commander Ma has always loved Zhou Youan the most. Zhou Youan was able to become the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard at a young age, but it was all Commander Ma who cultivated and promoted him. Everyone knows that Commander Ma treats Zhou Youan like his own brother. Besides, they have known each other for so many years. How could Zhou Youan betray Commander Ma just for a little money?"
"Zhou Youan may not, but gamblers will," Zhong Mingwei said calmly, leaning back on his chair and looking at Kong Wenmin. "It's not uncommon for people who are addicted to gambling to sell their children, let alone brothers."
Kong Wenmin didn't say anything else, but just kept his head down, staring blankly at the cup of tea in front of him that had long since gone cold.
"The matter is now very clear. As long as we find the mysterious person who paid off Zhou Youan's gambling debts, the case of the assassination of the fourth prince will most likely be solved," Pang Yi became more and more excited as he spoke. He turned to Zhong Mingwei and said, "Master, do you want to arrest Zhou Youan directly and put him on trial?"
"Not yet," Zhong Mingwei shook his head and said slowly, "The Fourth Prince was murdered. This is such a shocking thing. Zhou Youan must have thought it through long ago. If he admits that he was involved, it will be a serious crime that will punish all nine generations of his clan. Since he decided to reach an agreement with the mysterious person, he naturally thought of the consequences of being exposed. So even if we catch him, we won't be able to get anything out of him no matter how much we coerce and bribe him. Maybe he will commit suicide as soon as he senses any disturbance. If this is true, the murder of the Fourth Prince will always be an unsolved case."
"Then what should we do?" Pang Yi frowned and asked, "We can't catch him, so are we just going to let him go?"
"There's nothing wrong with letting him have some free time. Once a person gets used to it, he'll naturally show his true colors," Zhong Mingwei said, pursing his lips. He took a sip of tea and instructed Kong Wenmin in a deep voice, "Wenmin, when you leave this door, forget about our secret conversation. When you go in and out of the Imperial Guards camp every day, you should still say what you should say and do what you should do. Don't do anything abnormal. Do you understand?"
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