The Killer’s Ploy

Hongfeng…

…had actually died in an accident.

Song Caitang sighed and looked at Zhao Zhi.

Zhao Zhi remained mostly expressionless as he continued to watch Zhuang Qingyu closely.

Zhuang Qingyu, however, let out a maniacal laugh. “Ye Nan, are you having fun spouting such lies?!”

He didn’t believe her! Not a single word!

Ye Nan furrowed her brows. “Whether you believe me or not, that’s exactly what happened.”

She was a martial artist, so she wasn’t particularly softhearted and she had killed many. But there was no need for her to lie about this.

She didn’t owe anyone an explanation for what she had done and what decisions she had made.

But she had also put two and two together by now. “You knew Hongfeng from before?”

Zhuang Qingyu scoffed. “You’ve no right to know!”

Ye Nan was so angry, she was trembling all over. “What about me then? What did you do to me? Surely I have the right to know that much!”

Zhuang Qingyu burst out laughing.

As if to let out the hatred he had been suppressing inside, he laughed for a long time, a laugh filled with glee. Then he uttered two words, “Millet’s Dream.”

Ye Nan stumbled backward as though she was about to collapse. “You… were the one who poisoned us with Millet’s Dream?”

“That’s right, it was me.” Zhuang Qingyu looked pleased to see how shocked and horrified Ye Nan was. “I separated you from Liao Xingjian, poisoned both of you separately, left Liao Xingjian in the hands of another woman, and left you in the hands of another man. How was it, Ye Nan? Didn’t you have fun? Wasn’t it fun to live life without boundaries?”

Ye Nan couldn’t stand properly and her eyes were glazed over. She was on the verge of fainting.

Song Caitang observed her surroundings and took two steps forward.

Zhao Zhi was doing this in order to solve the case right now, and not for Zhuang Qingyu to put up his performance. They could not let him take control of the situation.

“This lie of yours only worked on this silly woman who was already emotionally distressed, but it didn’t work on Liao Xingjian, right?” Song Caitang raised her voice as she also raised the notes she found in the victim’s study up high. “He knew a long time ago that the woman he had spent time with four years ago was not Xi Rui, and he did not have a child with her either!”

These words hit everyone like a lightning bolt. They were all too stunned to respond.

Including Ye Nan.

The truth of the case was slowly revealing itself, and it seemed like something worse was actually hidden beneath its surface…

At the same time, Zhao Zhi’s guards swiftly took action. While Xi Rui was still reeling from shock at what Song Caitang said, one of them somersaulted through the air, reached a hand out and snatched the child from her.

When Xi Rui realized her arms were not carrying anything, she shrieked, “My child!”

The child had been crying the whole time, but now, the sound of his cries lessened until it stopped. He didn’t turn back even after she screamed for him but clung tightly to the neck of the man who had snatched him away.

But the guard holding him had half his face covered and didn’t look friendly at all.

And from whatever one could see, he looked like a pretty fierce man too.

That was how much the child didn’t want to be anywhere near Xi Rui.

Ye Nan didn’t notice any of this. Her thoughts were still buried in what Song Caitang just said and she couldn’t focus on anything else. “What… did you just say?”

Liao Xingjian had never spent time with Xi Rui and never had a child with her?

And… he knew about this a long time ago?

Then why did they go through so much pain and suffering all these years?

Song Caitang passed her the stack of notes.

It was the middle of the night, but there were more than enough people carrying fire torches to make the place bright enough for reading.

When Song Caitang was reading the notes earlier, she had already pulled together only the ones that had anything to do with the case, so they had already been sorted and put together in a logical fashion so that Ye Nan could understand what was going on quickly.

Ye Nan read through each sheet very quickly.

The familiar handwriting made her think of that familiar person to her. Initially, she was very agitated, but her expression slowly changed along the way to a look of utter disbelief, then she burst out crying. And a few more sheets later, she couldn’t even cry anymore as she stared at the child with widened eyes.

“This child…”

Since they had begun to uncover the past, it was better to just reveal the whole truth now.

Song Caitang took a step forward and narrowed her eyes slightly. “You really set up a complex trap for them, Pavilion Master Zhuang. In order to break their pride, to destroy their bliss and hope for the future, you put in so much effort and did not even care about the consequences. Unfortunately… things didn’t go the way you initially planned.”

“Four years ago, you separated Liao Xingjian and Ye Nan, then poisoned them with Millet’s Dream separately, then sent them to a different woman and man respectively. But no matter how your subordinates did and tried, this couple refused to fall in love with the new partners they were assigned. And since none of this would work out if they refused to fall in love with another person on their own accord, you had no choice but to change your plans and allow them to meet each other again.”

“These two people had forgotten their past, they didn’t know who they were, they didn’t know who each other was, but they were just as attracted to one another as they were before all of this happened. In the dream created by the poison, they fell in love, they promised to get married, they had a baby… Of course, you weren’t going to allow them to live in bliss just like that.”

Song Caitang stared steely at Zhuang Qingyu. “On the day Ye Nan was about to give birth, you led Liao Xingjian elsewhere.”

“Ye Nan ended up giving birth all by herself, then woke up from the effects of Millet’s Dream. I’m guessing that you did something at this point, perhaps you got the midwife to tell her that her child had been stillborn. Ye Nan had just woken up from her ‘dream’ and didn’t remember what the dream was all about. All she knew now was that she was the heir to the Night Sanctum and had a man whom she loved with all her heart and soul. She was ashamed of what she had done, felt lost and helpless. Receiving news that her baby was dead might have actually been good news amidst her terrible situation and she was able to at least put that part aside.”

That was why Ye Nan had always seemed somewhat guilty and afraid to confront Liao Xingjian and Xi Rui. It wasn’t only because she knew she had been with another man during her dream and betrayed her love for Liao Xingjian, but also because she had given birth to another man’s child before.

She felt like she had let Liao Xingjian down, and she had let that baby down too.

“After you got Ye Nan to return to the Night Sanctum, you woke Liao Xingjian from the effects of his dream and he came back too.”

“As for the actual baby, this baby who looks just like his father, Liao Xingjian, you passed him to Xi Rui and helped her to spin a story, then encouraged her to bring the child here to look for Liao Xingjian.”

Song Caitang turned to look at Xi Rui. “Xi Rui had a crush on Liao Xingjian, so with such a chance in hand and your persuading, she wasn’t going to miss this opportunity. She was able to be so bold because she knew that the child’s biological mother had no idea that her own child was still alive and would never turn up out of nowhere. The child’s biological father was Liao Xingjian, so the two were definitely related. They would be able to pass any sort of paternity test.”

Song Caitang’s words were too clear. And too shocking.

Everyone exchanged glances and couldn’t help but shudder.

Whoever planned this whole thing had to be someone really ruthless!

Weren’t Zhuang Qingyu and Liao Xingjian friends?! How did he manage to do something this psychotic to his friend?

“With Xi Rui around to disrupt and sow discord, as well as a child in an awkward position, Liao Xingjian and Ye Nan’s lives changed completely overnight. On top of that, each of them had some vague memories of what happened under the effects of Millet’s Dream, so they were unable to share their hearts with one another, they were unable to be as close to each other as before, and could only continue with their tortured lives…”

Song Caitang looked at Zhuang Qingyu. “Did you really feel happy to see them like that?”

Zhuang Qingyu’s expression was nasty and the veins on his forehead began to bulge. “I was very happy! That felt so good!”

Zhao Zhi shifted his sword on Zhuang Qingyu’s neck a little to remind him to watch his own behavior.

“Xin Yongwang was also one of your pawns?”

There were two things about this case that he and Song Caitang couldn’t really figure out.

One of them was about Zhuang Qingyu and Xin Yongwang. Xin Yongwang seemed to genuinely dislike Zhuang Qingyu, yet everything he did fell in line with Zhuang Qingyu’s plans.

“Also, how were you able to accurately control when Ye Nan and Liao Xingjian would wake up from the effects of the drug?”

Zhuang Qingyu smiled. “There’s a special way to administer and control the effects of Millet’s Dream. It seems none of you truly understand my capabilities.”

As for Xin Yongwang, he didn’t have anything to say about him.

He had not expected this man to not just enter the picture, but to also work so well with him.

Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang turned to look at Xin Yongwang.

Xin Yongwang’s face was stiff, as though he was wondering what he should do…

Meanwhile, Ye Nan had walked to Zhao Zhi’s guard and held out a trembling hand to carefully caress the child’s face. She wanted to carry him but didn’t dare to, as though she was afraid that the child might dislike her.

Her heart was filled with bitterness, yet inexplicable happiness at the same time.

No wonder…

No wonder she never disliked the child. Even when Xi Rui carried him, she simply couldn’t find it in herself to hate him.

She ought to have hated him. She was a ruthless and decisive martial artist who could kill without batting an eye. Yet whenever she saw the bright, black eyes of the child, she couldn’t find any reason to kill him and she even felt the urge to coax him. The child was innocent. She couldn’t, and shouldn’t do such a thing.

But now, she realized the real reason why she had felt this way.

She found him good looking and adorable because… this was her child!

This was the child she gave birth to. Liao Xingjian’s child.

They were related by blood, two members of a family.

“Young Mistress…” Xin Yongwang looked toward Ye Nan.

After going through so much emotional turmoil, Ye Nan had finally pulled herself together and understood what was really going on.

She closed her eyes slightly, her hair flying gently in the wind. “Do not call me that. I am not your Young Mistress.”

“Young Mistress!” Xin Yongwang fell to his knees with a thud.

“I like you very much, I really, really do,” he said anxiously, “I was despicable for pretending to be your partner at that time, but it’s only because I like you so much. I finally got a chance and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. I wanted you to live a happy and blissful life and to stop being sad over someone who doesn’t care. All these people have ulterior motives and aren’t truly being nice to you! I wanted to help you to protect the Night Sanctum and to help it grow strong and well, so—”

“That’s enough!” Ye Nan cut him off with a violent swing of her arm. She glared icily at him. “Where did you get that from?”

That?

Xin Yongwang took a while to finally figure out that she was referring to her earring. “It was from… I stole it from Liao Xingjian on the day he returned.”

He swallowed hard and bowed his head, afraid to look up.

He hadn’t given any details on how he managed to do that, but it didn’t take a genius to figure it out.

Liao Xingjian had just awoken from the effects of Millet’s Dream and he must have gone through emotional turmoil. His mind would have been focused on trying to understand what just happened to him, so he wouldn’t pay any attention to the things he had in his possession. It was only natural that he would not have noticed a theft by someone who had deliberately wanted to steal from him.

“So, while Liao Xingjian and Ye Nan were still in the dark, you already knew everything.” Song Caitang sighed inwardly.

Liao Xingjian had something that belonged to Ye Nan with him, so it was clear that they had spent all this time together. Both of them had been poisoned with the same drug and Xi Rui’s child looked just like Liao Xingjian…

Ye Nan got it too. Her expression was bitter as she said, “If you had been honest then, both of us wouldn’t have suffered so much…”

Song Caitang had another question, “How did you know any details about the time they spent together?”

Besides the earring, the other thing that Xin Yongwang used to convince Ye Nan was talking about their supposed time together four years ago.

Ye Nan had forgotten a lot, including what the people she met looked like and some of the things she had done. But there were a few details that she remembered. Ye Nan remembered some things that she herself had done. The crazier it was, the more vividly she remembered it.

When Xin Yongwang claimed to have been that man, Ye Nan must have tested to see if he knew about any of these things.

“I… had been watching Liao Xingjian in secret. He and Xi Rui would talk about the past from time to time. I ignored anything Xi Rui said and just memorized what Liao Xingjian said…”

Song Caitang got it now.

He didn’t even need a lot.

As long as a few details matched, Ye Nan would not suspect him anymore.

“What you like isn’t me. It’s the Night Sanctum.”

The power that came with the Night Sanctum.

Ye Nan’s words were very soft because the wind was blowing the other way.

She knew this right from the start, so no matter how convincing Xin Yongwang seemed to be, she wasn’t able to fully believe him. She refused to believe that she would actually fall for someone who only cared about gaining power and give herself to him like that…

That was why she still chose Liao Xingjian in the end.

Everyone was grieved after hearing the truth of the matter.

One had set up a big trap for the couple, and another two had taken the opportunity to profit from this situation. What a mess.

And everything culminated in what was happening right now. This was really…

…a situation that made everyone angry.

The whole place fell silent. Nobody said anything for a long time.

It was Zhao Zhi who eventually broke the silence.

He moved his sword slightly to force Zhuang Qingyu to be alert again. “So, let’s move on. How did you kill Liao Xingjian? Did you kill him because you realized he suspected you?”