“Found evidence?!”

“Evidence where?!”

Everyone looked towards Chen Ji, their gazes scrutinizing, questioning, all pressing down on him.

He still stood at the main house door, neither retreating nor yielding, repeating with extreme certainty, “I found evidence.”

Lin Chaoqing’s sharp gaze crossed over Jiao Tu, looking towards Chen Ji who was still covering his face, “Who is this one?”

Yun Yang took a step forward, blocking half of Chen Ji’s body, “This is a Falcon from my Secret Spy Department.”

“Originally a Falcon, not yet an official Secret Spy, presumably requiring special identification, hence the need to cover his face,” Lin Chaoqing said in a deep voice, “But please trouble this Falcon to explain for me, what evidence is in the book? If you lie, perhaps you also must follow me to the Internal Prison for a trip.”

Chen Ji pulled up the gray cloth covering his face slightly, looking towards Yun Yang, “Can I speak?”

“Speak.”

Chen Ji nodded and said, “Lord Yun Yang, please take out those two books and hand them over to Commander Lin to take a look.”

Yun Yang took the two books from his chest and handed them to Lin Chaoqing.

Lin Chaoqing opened them and looked for a few moments, saying flatly, “An ordinary book, where is the intelligence?”

Chen Ji calmly explained, “If one doesn’t understand the *Four Books: Chapters and Sentences* commentary well enough, it is indeed very difficult to see the problem. But the method of hiding intelligence in this book is actually very simple, one only needs to compare it with the original version.”

“Original version?” Yun Yang took back the two books from Lin Chaoqing. He opened one, Jiao Tu opened one, and the two of them borrowed the moonlight to read them.

Chen Ji said, “The original sentence in the book is ‘Got in the heart and not lose also’, the word is ‘lose’. But when Zhou Chengyi copied it, he deliberately wrote ‘Got in the heart and not matter also’, changing the word ‘lose’ to the word ‘matter’.”

“Looking further down to the third page, where the original sentence should have the word ‘sincere’, Zhou Chengyi changed it to the word ‘cheng’ (success).”

These words were scattered in various corners of the book, separated by several pages before and after. If someone didn’t hold the original version and check word by word and sentence by sentence, it would indeed be very difficult to see the difference.

Originally, Chen Ji thought Zhou Chengyi might use methods like character hiding, character verification, reverse cutting, or character analysis, all of which were methods recorded in history that someone had actually used.

However, after analyzing it, he discovered that the opponent used a simpler method.

Lin Chaoqing took over the two books and compared them. Indeed, as Chen Ji said, his eyebrows smoothed slightly, “What complete information does this book convey?”

Chen Ji said, “Because of the hasty time, I was unable to completely compare the entire book. Currently, I have only obtained one piece of information: ‘Matter successful, Department head will meet with you’.”

“Department head!” Yun Yang’s eyes suddenly burst out with sharp light, “Are you sure the message says ‘Department head’? I originally thought it would be bad if a Department Officer came, I didn’t expect the Military Intelligence Department’s Department head would personally come to Lu City!”

Jiao Tu said seriously, “We must quickly send this message back to the Capital. For the Military Intelligence Department’s Department head to personally come south, it must be a big matter… What exactly does this Liu family descendant want to do to earn such trust from the Military Intelligence Department?!”

The solemn atmosphere inside the manor suddenly relaxed. Chen Ji even felt that everyone had let out a long sigh of relief.

Lin Chaoqing put away his scabbard. Jiao Tu also wiped his forehead with his thumb; the cut wound instantly healed, leaving no trace.

Lin Chaoqing looked at Chen Ji and said steadily, “Young man, you are still only a Falcon in the Secret Spy Department, you don’t even have a rank. How about coming to my Main Criminal Department?”

Yun Yang: “Hmm?”

Jiao Tu: “Hmm?”

Lin Chaoqing continued, “I know that all these clues and evidence tonight were discovered by you. It’s absolutely impossible for Yun Yang and Jiao Tu to have this ability. With your ability, after coming to my Main Criminal Department, I guarantee you will rise step by step.”

“Lin Chaoqing, poaching people in front of me, don’t you have any shame?” Yun Yang shouted angrily.

“In your Secret Spy Department, he is just a tool to help you earn merit. Coming to my Main Criminal Department, however, he can serve the emperor, serve the country and the people,” Lin Chaoqing said with a cold laugh.

“He is a person from my Secret Spy Department!”

“He is not yet a person from your Secret Spy Department. If he agrees, I can write a memorial for him tonight to request merit,” Lin Chaoqing said, “How about it, can the two of you do that?”

Yun Yang and Jiao Tu looked at each other, hesitating whether to give up their merit.

Lin Chaoqing chuckled coldly, “Why not let him choose for himself.”

The crowd looked at Chen Ji, but saw this young man standing in the midst of their gazes, his expression hidden under the gray cloth covering his face.

After a long silence, they heard Chen Ji say, “Thank you for Commander Lin’s good intentions. I am currently more willing to work under Lord Yun Yang and Lord Jiao Tu.”

Lin Chaoqing said, “That’s fine too, each person has their own aspirations. But if one day you regret it, you can come to the Lu City Main Criminal Department office to find me at any time. I should be here for the next two months.”

“Thank you, Commander Lin.”

Just as he finished speaking, they heard noisy sounds from outside the manor. It turned out to be the several hundred people from the Liu family surging over, completely surrounding the front and back of Liu Shi Yu’s manor!

Someone outside shouted loudly, “Lord Yun Yang, this plan of shedding the golden cicada’s skin is very clever, but my Liu family doesn’t eat dry rice either. If you don’t give me an explanation, I will definitely avenge the old master today. Afterwards, if the court wants to chop off my head, or exile me to Lingnan, I, Liu Xian Ming, will have no complaints!”

As the words fell, they heard the sound of someone outside piling dry wood and sprinkling oil. A pungent smell of oil rushed towards them!

The people inside the manor looked at each other.

This time, it was Lin Chaoqing who took the initiative to say, “Li Da Bing, Li Da Pao, you two bring people out to hold back the Liu family. No one is allowed to set fire and burn the manor, otherwise, execute without mercy!”

After speaking, he looked at Chen Ji, “Where is the evidence that convicts the Liu family descendant? How do we determine that Zhou Chengyi’s message was transmitted to the Liu family descendant?”

The matter tonight arose because the Liu family descendant died in the Internal Prison. Although the Secret Spy Department found important intelligence, this book can only explain that the Military Intelligence Department’s Department head is about to go south. How does it prove that Zhou Chengyi transmitted this intelligence to the Liu family descendant?

If they cannot prove it, the Liu family will not easily give up.

Chen Ji raised the book in his hand and asked, “Everyone, how many chapters are there in total in the *Four Books: Chapters and Sentences* commentary?”

Lin Chaoqing responded indifferently, “There are thirty-nine chapters in total, each printed separately, making a total of thirty-nine books.”

Chen Ji asked again, “Then ‘For Politics: Second’ is which chapter among them?”

Lin Chaoqing replied, “The eighth chapter…”

Chen Ji nodded, “No one will start copying from the eighth chapter, they will certainly copy from the first chapter, the second chapter… successively to the eighth chapter. I did not find the handwritten versions of the first seven chapters in Zhou Chengyi’s home, so he must have already sent out the first seven chapters. That is to say, Zhou Chengyi should have already transmitted intelligence seven times under the guise of borrowing and copying books.”

Lin Chaoqing suddenly realized, “As long as we find where those seven handwritten copies of the *Four Books: Chapters and Sentences* commentary by Zhou Chengyi are, we can prove who received this intelligence!”

“Correct,” Chen Ji raised the book in his hand, “This is the seventh chapter of the *Four Books: Chapters and Sentences* commentary, ‘For Learning: First’, which I just found in Liu Shi Yu’s room. The handwriting should be Zhou Chengyi’s. With this, we can convict Liu Shi Yu.”

His words were resounding, like thunder piercing through the layers of fog tonight, pointing out the truth for everyone.

The crowd entered the room to search the bookshelf. Chen Ji searched other places in the room. When he opened a cabinet in the inner room, he was suddenly a little stunned.

As soon as he opened the cabinet, the ice flow that had been long silent in his body actually surged up again.

Inside the cabinet were several wooden boxes. Chen Ji opened them without hesitation, only to see two white jade bracelets placed in the first wooden box, some account books in the second box, and in the third box… suddenly, a ginseng!

He looked behind him, took out this box and placed it on the table, wanting to touch the ginseng with his hand.

Before he could even touch it, he heard Lin Chaoqing’s words drifting over, “Young man, no property from a criminal official’s home can be moved. My Main Criminal Department’s main duty is to guard the Secret Spy Department and prevent various Secret Spies from pocketing things privately. Put those things back, the Internal Minister will send people to copy them and enter them into the record later.”

Chen Ji: “…”

He originally thought that the Secret Spy Department could casually collect property during the house-raiding and extermination role… No wonder Yun Yang looked so pained when bargaining with him, it turned out he was being watched by the Main Criminal Department every day!

Chen Ji stood in front of the table and tapped the box with his fingers. After thinking for a moment, he finally put the box back. He returned to the bookshelf, found a book, flipped through it casually, and then stuffed the book back as well.

At this time, the crowd had already found all seven chapters of the *Four Books: Chapters and Sentences* commentary and confirmed that they were all in Zhou Chengyi’s handwriting!

Yun Yang let out a long breath, “We won! The Liu family matter is finally concluded. No matter if the old master Liu died of anger or illness, my Secret Spy Department handled the case impartially, a great merit!”

Lin Chaoqing said casually, “I hope you don’t win so luckily next time. This time you were lucky. If you meet the Hu family, the Xu family, the Chen family… next time, no one may protect you.”

Yun Yang chuckled coldly, “Thank you, Commander Lin, for the reminder.”

He tidied his hair, straightened his wrinkled clothes again, and finally hugged the stack of books that had been sorted out, “Let’s go, take the evidence and make the Liu family people shut up!”

“Wait,” Lin Chaoqing said coldly, “No one can take private property from here. Check yourselves.”

Yun Yang and Jiao Tu opened their sleeves and patted their clothes up and down, saying impatiently, “Just this little copper money, we didn’t take anything, we understand the rules!”

Lin Chaoqing looked at Chen Ji again. Chen Ji helplessly opened his sleeves and also patted his clothes, “I didn’t take anything either.”

“Very good.”

The crowd walked out together. When they reached the door, they saw a small black cat standing up from the beam in the room they had just left and stretching lazily.

Hei Yun (Black Cloud) lightly jumped down from the beam, bit out the ginseng that Chen Ji had just put back in the cabinet, and then bit the ginseng and climbed onto the bookshelf, also biting the book that Chen Ji had just flipped through into its mouth.

The black, fluffy Hei Yun looked around, confirmed that no one was paying attention, and then climbed back up the beam, drilling into the night through a gap.