Chapter 409 - 407: I Only Pity Them (Part 1)

Chapter 409: Chapter 407: I Only Pity Them (Part 1)

Zhou Qi’s lips were tightly pressed together as he sat in the shadow of the pavilion. Apart from a pair of eyes colder and more piercing than usual, no one could discern his expression.

After a while, he spoke in a cold voice, "Mr. Hua, long time no see. You might as well stop pretending. You should know that even if you turned to ash, I would still recognize you."

The masked man’s body shuddered violently. After a moment, he yanked the mask off his face and said in a voice as cold as ice, "You little brat, you dared to set me up!"

By this point, he somewhat understood, though he hadn’t imagined how they had figured out he was the one behind it all. He also realized he couldn’t escape their encirclement.

Facing the familiar face in front of him, Zhou Jingyi’s eyes widened. Realizing what was going on, he gritted his teeth and spat out, "Hua Wen! So it really was you! I knew I had heard your voice somewhere before!"

"Ha! Where did this rude boy come from? Do you think you can just call my name like that?"

Hua Wen glanced coldly at Zhou Jingyi and said, "Consider yourself lucky. Originally, upon hearing my voice, you wouldn’t have lived to see another day.

I don’t know how you found out I wanted to kill Mr. Zhou from Tianyi Hall, but that bastard and Xinglin Hall wronged my master, leading to Guangming Hall’s thousands of workers losing their livelihoods, becoming destitute, and living hopeless lives. I only pitied them and wanted to kill that Zhou as an act of revenge for them!"

His inexplicable words left Zhou Jingyi, who was initially full of resentment, momentarily stunned.

Nonsense! He was clearly afraid the head of the family would settle old scores with him once the Lin Family fell and wanted to strike first by killing the head. Pretending to be righteous!

However, what happened next utterly shocked Zhou Jingyi.

The other masked attackers who had followed Hua Wen to attack Zhou Qi suddenly ripped off their masks. Many of them were familiar to Zhou Jingyi; they were former employees of Guangming Hall!

When the Lin Family fell, the Guangming Halls across Great Chu were promptly sealed by the authorities, and thousands of workers were dismissed.

Instead of quickly finding another job to support their families, they had all gathered together to kill their leader!

The expressions on those faces were filled with intense resentment and excitement. Hearing Hua Wen’s words, they all shouted, "Indeed! It’s all because of that Zhou and Xinglin Hall; otherwise, how would the Lin Family fall! How would Guangming Hall collapse!"

"I was supposed to be promoted by the end of the year! My wife and children at home were relying on me to bring home more money. How dare they destroy my livelihood, ruin my life!"

"I’ve been working at Guangming Hall for nearly forty years, and now I’m old. Where else would take me in besides Guangming Hall? Where else would offer me such great benefits and salary?"

Because the crimes involving the Lin Family were too significant, not only did they orchestrate the so-called pandemic twenty-four years ago that killed countless innocent people and deceived the Holy Emperor, committing an act of treason, but until all the charges were clarified, the case was considered top secret by the government and could not be disclosed to the public.

Except for some core personnel of Guangming Hall, most of the workers were utterly bewildered and had no idea why their old master suddenly fell.

At this time, if someone incited them by attributing the fall of the Lin Family to the Zhou Family and Xinglin Hall, it was only natural they would fall for it.

Xu Jing sneered silently as she looked at Hua Wen, whose cold, smug expression couldn’t be concealed, and said, "Manager Hua, you’re wrong. If you only pitied the displaced Guangming Hall workers, why did you instruct Shi Wenfeng to poison the herbal soup given to refugees by Xinglin Hall? And afterward, why did you poison Shi Wenfeng?!

Not to mention, when you had Shi Wenfeng poison the herbal soup at Xinglin Hall, the Lin Family hadn’t fallen yet. These pitiful workers you speak of hadn’t been displaced!"

Xu Jing mercilessly exposed him, leaving the other Guangming Hall workers staring at Hua Wen in shock!

Is Hua Wen really responsible for all this?!

But Hua Wen merely looked at Xu Jing coldly and suddenly smirked, saying, "Are you the famous Miss Xu? Miss Xu, even as a renowned detective recognized by the Holy Emperor, you can’t just accuse someone without reason. The poisoning incident at Xinglin Hall has nothing to do with me at all. I know Shi Wenfeng; I saw him a few times when I was working at Tianyi Hall. Later, when Master Lin recruited him, I met him a few more times. Did he poison the herbal soup at Xinglin Hall? That’s news to me."

The surrounding people couldn’t help but frown at his words.

But Xu Jing continued to look calmly at him.

She anticipated he would deny any involvement in the poisoning and murders.

After all, the charge of attempted murder is lighter than that of instructing murder and poisoning.

He knew that Lin Chengzhao had already fallen into the hands of the authorities, and if he denied knowing Shi Wenfeng, it would quickly be discovered that he was lying, so he promptly admitted to knowing Shi Wenfeng.

The only thing she hadn’t expected was that he would unite with other Guangming Hall workers to assassinate Zhou Qi, providing a seemingly convincing motive for his actions.

Xu Jing observed him for a moment, then subtly lifted the corner of her mouth, almost smiling, and said, "Hua Wen, you’re very smart. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have thrived around the heads of Tianyi Hall and Guangming Hall. But alas, you underestimated me, the government, and Mr. Zhou."

Hua Wen was slightly taken aback and watched Xu Jing with wariness.

"Actually, we had suspected a few days ago that you were the one who instructed Shi Wenfeng to poison and then killed him, but we didn’t come to trouble you because we were setting a trap, hoping you’d walk into it yourself. Also because..."

Xu Jing chuckled lightly and said, "After communicating with Mr. Zhou, I understood you were extremely cunning and shrewd. Without concrete evidence, you wouldn’t confess. Hence, we’ve been looking for evidence that would compel you to admit the truth these past few days!

At first, I found it odd that Shi Wenfeng was doing clerical work at Tianyi Hall and wondered why Mr. Zhou would lend him to Xinglin Hall. Although Xinglin Hall was short-handed when it opened, clerical work should still be done by their people. The people borrowed are typically there to help out. I specifically asked Master Cheng, and he said when they borrowed people from Mr. Zhou, it was clear to send workers for odd jobs.

But Mr. Zhou sent over Shi Wenfeng, capable of accounting and clerical work, which seemed a bit overqualified.

I later asked Mr. Zhou, and he said it was Shi Wenfeng himself who approached him, requesting the transfer, claiming he wanted to challenge himself.

However, Manager Hua, guess what? I talked to colleagues who worked with Shi Wenfeng at Tianyi Hall, and they said he had never expressed any interest in transferring to Xinglin Hall. Even when they joked that those being transferred were unimportant, he would sometimes agree, making him seem unlikely to volunteer to help at Xinglin Hall.

The date Shi Wenfeng suddenly changed his mind and volunteered to Mr. Zhou was February 10th, indicating that before this, he must have contacted whoever instructed him to poison, and it was that person who made him abruptly change his mind."

The more Xu Jing spoke, the darker Hua Wen’s face became. Yet he still worked hard to maintain his composure, hoping Xu Jing was just bluffing and hadn’t really found any evidence.

Besides, how could she have genuinely found evidence? He had always been extremely cautious.

How could she possibly have found any evidence!