Chapter 762 - 456: Wipe Them Out in One Swoop

Duan Rong glanced at the secret letter.

Lu Geng looked at Duan Rong and said, "Junior brother, you can just take Zhu Cheng and Zhu Peng with you to catch the spy. Need me to tell them?"

"No need!" Duan Rong replied, "However, senior brother, you need to inform the Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Chen Shanmeng, and the Dean of the Secretariat, Lin Yuan. You just mentioned the Li Shensi case, which is managed by the Ministry of Justice, with the Advisory Bureau and the Secretariat assisting. When you join the Ministry of Justice, you should meet with them. Kindly tell them not to assign tasks to Zhu Cheng and Zhu Peng during the trial, as I need to temporarily requisition them."

Lu Geng nodded and said, "Alright! Junior brother, I’ll deliver the message. I’ve been staying at the post house these days, so you can find me anytime if needed."

Duan Rong stood up, clasped his fists, and said, "We, as brothers, meet so briefly, without even having a cup of tea. Once this matter is resolved, I’d like to invite you for a gathering. I hope senior brother will honor me by attending!"

Lu Geng grabbed Duan Rong’s clasped fists with his large hand and said, "Junior brother, you’re very thoughtful. Once this is over, we’ll have a good drink. I’m off then!"

After speaking, Lu Geng strode to the door, pulled it open, and walked out.

Seeing Lu Geng leave, Ruyi intended to return inside. As she reached the door, she heard Duan Rong say, "Ruyi, I have something to do. Keep watch for me. No one is allowed to disturb me!"

Ruyi’s face froze for a moment, and her body seemed to stiffen. One of her feet was already across the threshold.

"Yes, sir!" Ruyi withdrew the foot she had stepped inside with, closed the door that Lu Geng had opened, and stood sideways by the door.

Duan Rong sat there, picked up the secret letter from the table, and focused on the seal of the letter. He saw a corner of the Internal History Department’s official seal on the wax, next to Zhu He’s private seal.

Without using a knife, Duan Rong directly tore open the seal and shook out a piece of thin square paper, about the size of a lotus leaf.

He stretched out his hand, and with two fingers, steadily caught it, then raised his eyes to look at the paper.

Upon seeing it, Duan Rong looked astonished. With a swish, he flipped the paper over, only to find the back was blank.

Duan Rong placed the paper on the table before him, a puzzled expression on his face.

The quality of the paper was evidently excellent; though thin, it absorbed ink without any deformation or wrinkling. But at this moment, the pristine paper only bore a solitary "go" character.

Duan Rong stared at the "go" character, occupying about a quarter of the center of the paper, and was rendered speechless.

"What’s gotten into this old man?!"

Duan Rong’s eyelid twitched as if he remembered something. He suddenly got up, went to the inner room behind the screen, and took a flint from the cupboard. After blowing out a small flame, he lit a candle.

Holding the candle, Duan Rong returned to the table, placed it down, and roasted the paper over the flame for a while. He remembered that in Xianggu County, Ximen Kankan had a liquid he used, which would disappear when heated. Perhaps the ink-saturated "go" character was just a blinding technique, hiding the real secret letter content.

After roasting for a while, he still saw the solitary big "go" character on the paper, unchanged. He sighed, looked at the paper again for a moment, then placed it back on the table. Dipping his finger into the water from the tea cup, he dabbed it around the "go" character. Holding the paper to the candlelight, he found the water-stained areas were also blank.

Frustrated, Duan Rong slapped the paper onto the table.

He had tried both water and fire. If there was a more complex method to reveal words, Lu Geng would surely have mentioned it earlier, which meant this secret letter originally had only the "go" character.

"Damn it, is this old man crazy?!"

"Even Emperor Jiajing’s riddles came with a poem! At least there’s some information to be deduced. You just write a ’go,’ and send it over."

"I really want to slap this in your old face!"

"Go where? Go to hell? Or to your grandpa?"

Duan Rong continued cursing as he vented his frustration, but eventually calmed down.

Although it was just the word "go," he continued to ponder it for half an hour. He thought in various ways, even resorting to deconstructing the character, but in the end, he found nothing.

After half an hour, he cursed Zhu He while giving up.

"What am I thinking? Just a single ’go,’ and I spent half an hour thinking like an idiot."

With the paper and envelope in hand, Duan Rong went to the window on the side wall, opened it, and slapped the envelope and paper into his palm.

With a slight stirring of primordial qi in his palm, like a millstone, a twist, and the envelope and paper turned to powder.

Duan Rong flicked his hand, watching the paper dust disperse, and cursed, "Damn you!"

Feeling somewhat agitated, he decided to go out and relax. Having stayed within the courtyard for more than ten days, it was no longer necessary to conceal his identity, so he could walk the streets openly.

As Duan Rong was about to turn around, he suddenly remembered something. He touched his chin, feeling the prickly stubble.

He still had a fake beard adhered to his face.

Duan Rong slowly peeled off the fake beard, which was stuck on so tightly that it pained his cheeks a bit as he pulled it off. He winced and inhaled sharply a few times as he removed it.