WWC | Chapter 14

That night, a colossal fire suddenly broke out in the western part of Yujing City. Fueled by the wind, the blaze painted half the night sky red, and thick black smoke billowed upward, visible for miles.

Beneath that scorched ruin lay Zhao Shuyan’s already poor and shabby home.

The news reached the Su residence in the middle of the night.

Qinghai knocked on Su Tingyan’s door in frantic haste. “My lord! My lord! There’s a fire in the west of the city, and a huge area has gone up in flames! I heard that the Zhao Yushi’s house was burned too!”

Zhao Shuyan’s house had been burned?!

Su Tingyan sat straight up at once. He did not even have time to put on an outer robe, and rushed to the window wearing only his inner garment.

He pushed it open. The pitch-black night had already been dyed a dim red, and waves of scorched, foul stench drifted through the air.

“When did this happen?” Su Tingyan’s brows were drawn so tightly they nearly met.

“About an hour ago. The fire was too big, there was no way to put it out…” Qinghai’s voice trembled slightly. “The patrol soldiers said Zhao’s place burned the worst. Nothing was left!”

Nothing had burned down to nothing?

Then what about the person?

Before he could ask, Qinghai had already answered, “We haven’t found Zhao Yushi yet, but they said the fire was so fierce that no one could possibly have escaped alive!”

Could it have been done by Lu Xuan?

Su Tingyan’s heart tightened. Had he pushed too hard and, by some bizarre twist of fate, ended up harming Zhao Shuyan?

But no matter what, Zhao Shuyan was an Imperial Censor. Why would Lu Xuan choose this exact moment to kill him, when the Audit Office had only just been established and all eyes were on them?

“Prepare the carriage,” Su Tingyan said immediately. “To the west of the city.”

“My lord, it’s the middle of the night, and the place is in chaos, and…” Qinghai tried to stop him. The fire scene was dangerous, and this was clearly aimed at them.

“Prepare the carriage.” Su Tingyan repeated. “Also, call Qingmian and bring more people. Come with me.”

He had to see for himself whether Zhao Shuyan was still alive.

The system said: [Event triggered: The Tragedy of the Censorate. Uncover the true arsonist to receive a reward: a large amount of charm points based on the investigation results, and possibly affect the attitude of future targets!]

Su Tingyan laughed. A reward? Right now, he only wanted to drag the mastermind out and throw him into the fire to burn too!

The carriage raced through the silent nighttime streets and soon arrived in the western district, where the air was thick with the pungent odor of smoke and char.

The once neat and orderly residences had become a scene of wreckage, the ground covered in ash and water.

Crying, arguing, and soldiers’ shouts all mixed together in a chaotic din.

Zhao Shuyan’s little courtyard was even worse, burned down to nothing but a blackened frame. It was a shocking sight.

Su Tingyan’s arrival caused a stir. He wore a plain inner robe, with only a dark cloak thrown hastily over his shoulders. The black fox-fur collar brushed his profile in the wind, making him look like a fierce spirit fallen into the mortal world.

At that moment, his face was frosted with cold, his back straight with proud defiance. Under the wavering torchlight, he seemed to split through the layered shadows.

The circuit censor in charge of maintaining order hurried up to greet him upon seeing him, his face pale. “Lord Su, why have you come… ?”

“Have you found Zhao Shuyan?” Su Tingyan cut him off and asked directly.

The censor swallowed hard and said with difficulty, “After the fire was put out, we cleaned up the scene and found two charred corpses. One was at the location of Zhao’s study, and the build was extremely similar to Zhao Yushi’s. The coroner is examining it now… The other may have been his mother, who was over eighty years old.”

Charred corpses…

Playing dead with no evidence to prove otherwise?

He pushed through the crowd and, ignoring all attempts to stop him, stepped carefully over the wet rubble, one step at a time toward the ruins.

The air reeked of sickening burned flesh. Where books had once been stacked high, only blackened wreckage remained, brittle enough to break at the slightest touch.

Su Tingyan’s gaze swept around, and suddenly he saw something.

Beneath the charred half of a collapsed beam was a twisted, deformed object that was clearly made of iron, and did not look like some ordinary household item.

He nodded to Qingmian behind him. “Take it out.”

Qingmian moved deftly and quickly retrieved the object, wiping away the black ash from its surface.

It seemed to be part of some mechanism, with strange fittings around the edges and a special material.

Su Tingyan took the cold, hard piece and ran his fingertips over the patterns on it.

“What is this?” he asked the circuit censor beside him.

The censor leaned closer to look, then shook his head blankly. “This official has never seen it before.”

This was absolutely unlike something that would be left behind by an accidental fire.

It should have been the remains of a professional arson tool.

Just then, the sound of hooves came closer from afar. Everyone turned back to see a group of riders charging toward them. The one in the lead wore black armor and a black robe, his bearing tall and upright. It was Xie Zheng.

He had just received the news and rushed over from the military camp, still carrying the wind-swept dust and a stern killing intent on his face.

When he saw Su Tingyan in the ruins, he froze for a moment, as if he had not expected him to be here, and dressed so thinly at that.

“Su Zhao?” Xie Zheng dismounted and strode over. “Why are you here?”

Although Zhao Shuyan had offended countless nobles and officials, he was also known for his integrity. Xie Zheng had quite a bit of admiration for him.

Looking at the devastation here, Xie Zheng could not help feeling a trace of grief.

Su Tingyan raised his eyes toward Xie Zheng and handed over the thing in his hand. “General Xie, your arrival is just in time.”

“You have long been in the military and seen much of the world.”

“Take a look at this.”

“Whose handiwork do you think this looks like?”

Firelight flickered, illuminating both of their similarly grave faces.

Xie Zheng almost blurted it out at once. “Lu Xuan?”

Hearing this, Su Tingyan’s expression only darkened further.

Under the night sky, on top of the ruins, his gaze merged with the blackness around him. “If it could really be identified as his object, then that would be exactly why it wasn’t him.”

Xie Zheng gave a rare sneer. “You protect him this much?”

Su Tingyan: “…”

Protect him my ass!

“Was Lu Xuan really that stupid? Even the two of us could tell at a glance that it was him, so why would he leave us such obvious evidence?”

The system said: [Detected that target Xie Zheng is jealous again. Affection +30, charm points +5, current affection: 159, total charm points: 11264.5!]

Su Tingyan shouted inwardly, “From now on, don’t report charm points below 100! Why is he still so petty when he gets jealous!”

Xie Zheng was momentarily choked by Su Tingyan’s question in return. He was not stupid, only long accustomed to the military, and instinctively disliked, and did not think quickly enough about, the tricks and hidden schemes of court politics.

“If it wasn’t him, then who was it?” Xie Zheng’s deep, resonant voice sounded even more muffled than usual.

“Among all the civil and military officials, who most wanted your Audit Office shut down? Who was most afraid that Zhao Shuyan would enter your office and spill all his filthy deeds?”

Su Tingyan shook his head. “Precisely because it looks too much like him, it’s suspicious.”

His voice, like his entire being, was thin and fragile, as if a stronger gust of night wind could scatter it.

“When has Lu Xuan ever left such an obvious handle behind? If it were really him, the scene should already be so clean that nothing could be traced back at all.”

Following Su Tingyan’s train of thought, Xie Zheng realized that it was indeed so.

With Lu Xuan’s power and meticulousness, if he truly wanted to silence someone, there was no way he would leave behind such clear evidence.

This looked more like a clumsy imitation, an obvious frame-up.

“Then do you mean…” Xie Zheng’s gaze sharpened. “Someone wanted to kill with a borrowed knife, getting rid of Zhao Shuyan, that eyesore, while also throwing the blame onto Lu Xuan, killing two birds with one stone?”

“Or worse.”

Su Tingyan said, “Someone wants to provoke a complete split between me and Lu Xuan, make me fight him to the death, so he can reap the benefits from the sidelines.”

There were many in court who hated Lu Xuan, and just as many who feared him, Su Tingyan.

But among those who had both the guts and the ability to do something like this, and who also wanted to scheme against both him and Lu Xuan at once, you could count them on one hand.

The identity of the person behind it became even more dangerous.

Xie Zheng looked at Su Tingyan’s somewhat pale profile, his shoulders seeming unable to withstand the cold wind beneath the thin inner robe.

For the first time, he felt that this seemingly glorious and immensely powerful cabinet minister was actually standing at the very center of some whirlpool, surrounded on all sides by wolves and tigers.

Those clever tricks, those sharp tongues, might perhaps only be his way of surviving in this man-eating mire.

Xie Zheng could not help asking a little stiffly, “Aren’t you cold?”

It was winter now. Wearing only a single layer with a cloak over it, he had to be cold.

Only then did Su Tingyan realize that his whole body really did seem frozen stiff. But he had been too busy rushing over just now to care about any of that.

He curved his brows with a smile. “What if I am cold? Are you going to take off your outer robe for me?”

He had just said it casually, only intending to tease this honest man.

But unexpectedly, Xie Zheng lowered his head and glanced at the other’s crane-like, fragile neck, then actually raised his hand to undo the fastenings of the cloak over his black armor.

His movements were still rough and unpolished, but crisp and decisive.

“Don’t!” Su Tingyan had not expected him to take it seriously. Just as he was about to stop him, a heavy cloak still carrying body heat had already been dropped over his shoulders without further discussion, wrapping him up tightly in an instant.

Hey, we’re brothers, doing this is just rude!

He had to know this was a danmei harem yellow game. If the other person dared let him wear his clothes today, he might dare make him take his clothes off tomorrow!

Su Tingyan clutched the cloak as if he’d seen a ghost, as though what he was wearing was not a piece of clothing but his departed dignity.

Xie Zheng was also stunned by his absurdly awkward expression, and then an unnamed fire surged up in him.

He had rarely shown kindness toward this person, so what was Su Tingyan’s reaction? Did he despise him?!

“What now?” Xie Zheng’s tone went taut and hard. “Lord Su is so noble and precious, do you think my rough soldier’s cloak has dirtied your body?!”

“No…” Su Tingyan was at a loss for words. He could only force a smile, trying hard to make his expression look grateful.

“…I, I have a condition where I might suddenly die if I wear someone else’s clothes.”

“?” Xie Zheng almost laughed in anger. “What condition?!”

Su Tingyan realized he had accidentally blurted it out and hurried to patch it up. “No, it’s just that I haven’t bathed yet tonight. I was afraid I’d dirty your clothes if I wore them for too long…”

Xie Zheng snorted. “I’m not nearly that particular.”

Su Tingyan: “…” But I am.

The system said: [Xie Zheng thinks the player is delicate and stubborn, affection -2, but also thinks the player’s embarrassment is a bit cute, affection +50, current affection: 207!]

…

Cute. What a terrible, terrifying word.

This game really was giving him a 360-degree, no-blind-spot chance to get bent, and yet he truly did not want to take it at all!!

At first he had planned to treat Xie Zheng as a friend, after all the other man was arguably the only relatively decent target. He had never expected this route to fast-forward so quickly to the point of giving him a cloak.

He did not know about the others, but he knew Zhang Fei definitely would not have draped a coat over Guan Yu like this…

Better keep a distance in the future, absolutely.

Su Tingyan gathered the oversized cloak around his shoulders, the faint scent of wind-swept sand from the wilderness lingering at the tip of his nose.

He coughed lightly, hiding a trace of awkwardness. “Fine then.”

“Thank you, Shaoan.”

“Qingmian.” Su Tingyan stopped dwelling on it and carefully put away the iron wreckage.

“Search this area carefully. Any unusual traces, even a bit of special ash or a different brick or stone, bring them all to me.”

“Yes, my lord.” Qingmian took the order and immediately led several nimble subordinates into the ruins.

Su Tingyan then turned to the circuit censor. “Have those two charred corpses examined carefully. I want the most detailed results. Also, from last night until now, has any unfamiliar face appeared nearby? Or has anyone heard or seen any strange sounds or movements? Check everything one by one and record it.”

The censor, awed by his presence, repeatedly said yes.

After arranging all of this, Qingbao, who should have been at the Su residence, came running in a hurry from the outskirts. “My lord, something bad has happened!”

Su Tingyan’s brows furrowed again. “What now?”

Qingbao panted, “A servant found this outside our residence!”

He opened his palm, revealing several pieces of unusual iron components, identical to the one in Su Tingyan’s hand and never used before!

Attached beside them was a note with only one crooked line, as if deliberately written with the left hand: “Meddlers shall meet the same fate in ashes!”

Not only had this person killed someone and framed the blame, he had even dared send a direct threat to the gates of the Su residence.

Xie Zheng’s eyes turned fierce. He snatched the note and the components. After one glance, a terrifying rage flared across his face. “How dare they threaten the residence of a court official? Do they think the Jingji garrison is dead?!”

The person involved, Su Tingyan, however, remained calm to an almost frightening degree. For some reason, he had a strange feeling in his heart.

Even though the mastermind was showing off in front of him, provoking him, telling him that Zhao Shuyan’s fate was a warning for him.

He still did not seem nervous.

Su Tingyan said, “General Xie.”

“Mm?”

“Tools specifically used for arson are generally controlled by the armaments bureau, and require special locks. Ordinary people would find them nearly impossible to obtain, right?”

Xie Zheng nodded.

Then he heard Su Tingyan continue, “Then could I ask you to secretly help investigate whether the armories of the various Jingji garrisons, and even the armaments bureau, have recently lost any such locks or equipment? Or whether there have been any unusual personnel transfers, or materials moving in and out?”

Xie Zheng immediately understood Su Tingyan’s meaning. He wanted to start the investigation from the source. Since the other side could get their hands on these things, there had to be an insider or a loophole in the military or a related office.

“All right.” Xie Zheng agreed without any hesitation. “I’ll go back and conduct a secret investigation immediately. Once there is any news, I’ll notify you at once.”

“Good. Then thank you, General.”

Su Tingyan removed the cloak from his shoulders and handed it back to Xie Zheng.

The cold wind swept by, and he could not help coughing, his shoulders curling slightly.

Xie Zheng had wanted him to keep wearing it, but it seemed Su Tingyan was unwilling to accept that kindness any longer, so he silently took it back.

“Back to the residence.” Su Tingyan spat out those two words and no longer paid attention to Xie Zheng beside him. Turning around, he got into his own carriage.

Once inside, the fatigue and cold on his face no longer needed to be hidden.

He had always been stubborn. When he was younger, because he was pretty, he was often mistaken for a girl and taken care of by people of the same sex, but he disliked being looked down on very much, so he never liked showing weakness in front of others.

Rather than seeking other people’s protection, he had always preferred protecting others.

Su Tingyan asked the system, “I shouldn’t be able to exchange charm points for clues, right?”

The system answered honestly: [The player can only use charm points to exchange for some simple items, or use skills once they are unlocked. Cheats are impossible, of course.]

Su Tingyan rubbed his brow. As expected, cheating did not work either. Fortunately, he had no intention of relying on the system to clear the game, otherwise it would not have been interesting at all.

By the time he returned to the Su residence, security around the estate had already been tightened. Aside from his own people, there was even a group of soldiers sent over by Xie Zheng’s side.

Su Tingyan looked at his own gate and stood there quietly for a moment. Then he handed the arson components he had collected to Qinghai and instructed, “Take one of these things to Cui Hong and Wei Heng each, and tell them this is what will happen to Zhao Shuyan. If anyone is scared, come tell this cabinet minister, and I will immediately return their freedom to them.”

“Those who are not afraid should report to the Audit Office first thing tomorrow morning. The first case after opening day has already arrived.”

Author’s Note:

———————-

Xie Zheng: Concerned in a polite way.

Su Tingyan: He wants to fuck me.

For a moment, it was impossible to tell whether Ranyan or the game was more gay.