Chapter 20 Confiscating the house
"Found evidence?!"

"Where is the evidence?!"

Everyone looked towards Chen Ji, and the scrutiny and questioning in their eyes came at the same time.

He stood at the door of the main house, not retreating or giving way, and repeated with great certainty: "I found the evidence."

Lin Chaoqing's sharp eyes passed Jiaotu and looked at Chen Ji, who was still masked: "Who is this?"

Yun Yang took a step forward and blocked half of Chen Ji's body: "This is the Harrier Falcon from my Secret Service."

"So you are Harrier, and you haven't become a full-time secret agent yet. You must have a special identity and need to cover your face," Lin Chaoqing asked in a deep voice, "But please, Harrier, explain this to me. What evidence is there in the book? If you are lying, I'm afraid you will have to follow me to the inner prison."

Chen Ji pulled up the gray cloth covering his face and looked at Yun Yang: "Can you speak?"

"explain."

Chen Ji nodded and said, "Lord Yunyang, please take out the two books and give them to Commander Lin to have a look."

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

Lin Chaoqing flipped through the book and looked at it for a few seconds before saying calmly, "How can there be any information in an ordinary book?"

Chen Ji calmly explained: "If you don't know enough about the Four Books, it's really hard to see the problem. But the method used to hide intelligence in this book is actually very simple. You just need to compare it with the original version."

"Original version?" Yun Yang took back the two books from Lin Chaoqing. He opened one and Jiao Tu opened another. The two of them read in the moonlight.

Chen Ji said: "The original sentence in the book was 'gained in the heart but not lost', with the word 'lost' as in 'lost'. But when Zhou Chengyi copied it, he deliberately wrote 'gained in the heart but not in 'things', replacing the word 'lost' with the word 'things'."

"Looking back to the third page, where the original sentence should have been written as '誠', Zhou Chengyi changed it to '成', which means success."

These words are scattered in various corners of the book, several pages apart. If someone doesn't check them word by word with the original version, it would be really difficult to tell the difference.

Originally, Chen Ji thought that Zhou Chengyi might use the method of hiding characters, the method of verifying characters, the method of fanqie, and the method of analyzing characters, all of which were actually used by some people in historical records.

However, after analyzing it, he found that the other party used a simpler method.

Lin Chaoqing took the two books and compared them. It was just as Chen Ji said. His frown eased a little. "What is the complete message conveyed by this book?"

Chen Ji said: "Because of the short time, I was not able to check the whole book completely. At present, I only got one message: 'The matter is done, the director will meet you.'"

"Master!" Yun Yang's eyes suddenly lit up. "Are you sure it was Master he mentioned in the message? I thought it would be a big deal if it was the Secretary, but I didn't expect it to be the Master of the Military Intelligence Department who came to Luo City in person!"

Jiaotu said solemnly: "We must have someone pass this news back to the capital as soon as possible. It must be a big deal for the head of the Military Intelligence Department to come south in person... What on earth did this Liu family kid do to earn such trust from the Military Intelligence Department?!"

The solemn atmosphere in the mansion suddenly relaxed, and Chen Ji even felt that everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Lin Chaoqing sheathed his knife, and Jiaotu wiped his forehead with his thumb. The cut healed instantly and no trace remained.

Lin Chaoqing looked at Chen Ji and said calmly, "Young man, you are just a hawk in the Secret Service Department, without even a rank. How about you come to my Criminal Department?"

Yunyang: "Hmm?"

Jiaotu: "Hmm?"

Lin Chaoqing continued, "I know that all these clues and evidence tonight were found by you. It is impossible with Yunyang and Jiaotu's abilities. With your ability, I guarantee that you will be promoted step by step after you come to my Criminal Department."

"Lin Chaoqing, you are poaching people in front of me. Do you have any sense of shame?" Yun Yang shouted angrily.

"In your Secret Service Department, he is just a tool to help you gain credit. But in my Criminal Department, he can serve the emperor and the country," Lin Chaoqing sneered.

"He's from my Secret Service!"

"He is not a member of your secret service yet. If he agrees, I can write a memorial tonight to ask for his credit," Lin Chaoqing said. "How about it? Can you two do it?"

Yunyang and Jiaotu looked at each other, hesitating whether to give up the credit they had obtained.

Lin Chaoqing sneered: "Why not let him choose for himself."

Everyone looked towards Chen Ji, only to see the young man standing in their sight, his expression hidden beneath the grey cloth covering his face.

After a long silence, Chen Ji said, "Thank you for your kindness, Commander. I would rather work under Master Yunyang and Master Jiaotu."

Lin Chaoqing said: "Well, everyone has their own aspirations, but if one day you regret it, you can always come to the Luocheng Chief Criminal Office to find me. I should be here for the next two months." "Thank you, Commander Lin."

As they were talking, they heard a noisy sound coming from outside the mansion. It turned out to be hundreds of people from the Liu family rushing over and surrounding Liu Shiyu's mansion from front to back!
Someone outside shouted loudly, "Master Yunyang, this trick of escaping from the shell is brilliant, but my Liu family is not just for show. If you don't give me an explanation, I will avenge my old master today. If the court wants to chop off my head or exile me to Lingnan, I, Liu Mingxian, will have no complaints!"

As soon as they finished speaking, they heard the sound of someone placing dry firewood and pouring oil outside, and the pungent smell of oil hit them in the face!

Everyone in the mansion looked at each other.

This time, it was Lin Chaoqing who took the initiative to say, "Li Dabing, Li Dapao, you two take your men out to hold the Liu family back. No one is allowed to set fire to the house, or else you will be killed without mercy!"

After that, he looked at Chen Ji: "Where is the evidence to convict the Liu family members? How can we be sure that Zhou Chengyi's message was passed to the Liu family members?"

Tonight's incident started because a member of the Liu family died in the inner prison. Although the Secret Service found important intelligence, this book only shows that the head of the Military Intelligence Department is about to go south, but how can it be proved that Zhou Chengyi wants to pass this information to the members of the Liu family?

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

Chen Ji held up the book in his hand and asked, "Everyone, how many chapters are there in the Four Books?"

Lin Chaoqing responded calmly: "There are thirty-nine chapters in total, each one is printed separately, a total of thirty-nine books."

Chen Ji asked again: "So which chapter is "Governing the Country No. 2"?

Lin Chaoqing replied: "The eighth chapter..."

Chen Ji nodded and said, "No one would start copying from the eighth chapter. They must have copied from the first chapter, the second chapter, and so on to the eighth chapter. I did not find any handwritten copies of the first seven chapters at Zhou Chengyi's home, so he must have sent the first seven chapters out. In other words, Zhou Chengyi must have passed on the information seven times under the pretext of borrowing books and copying them."

Lin Chaoqing suddenly realized: "As long as we find the seven copies of Zhou Chengyi's handwriting, we can prove who received the information!"

"That's right," Chen Ji held up the book in his hand. "This is the seventh chapter of the Four Books, The First Chapter of Learning, which I just found in Liu Shiyu's house. Judging from the handwriting, it should be written by Zhou Chengyi. This can be used to convict Liu Shiyu."

His words were powerful, like thunder that pierced through the layers of fog in the night and pointed out the truth to everyone.

Everyone went into the house and searched the bookshelf, while Chen Ji was searching other places in the house. When he opened a cabinet in the inner room, he was suddenly stunned.

As soon as he opened the cabinet, the ice flow that had been dormant in his body for a long time began to surge again.

There were several wooden boxes in the cabinet. Chen Ji opened them calmly and saw two white jade bracelets in the first box, some account books in the second box, and in the third box... there was a ginseng!
He looked behind him, took out the box and placed it on the table, wanting to touch the ginseng with his hands.

Before he even touched him, he heard Lin Chaoqing's words floating in his ears: "Young man, you cannot touch any property in the criminal's home. I am in charge of the Criminal Department and guard the Secret Service Department. My most important responsibility is to prevent the secret agents from embezzling money. Put those things back. In the future, the Internal Minister will send people to confiscate the property and put it on record."

Chen Ji: "..."

He had thought that the Secret Service, which was responsible for confiscating property and silencing people, could easily collect money and property... No wonder Yun Yang looked so painful when he was bargaining with him, it turned out that he was being watched by the Chief Criminal Department every day!
Chen Ji stood at the table, tapping the box with his fingers. After thinking for a moment, he finally put the box back. He returned to the bookshelf, picked out a book and flipped through it casually, then stuffed the book back.

At this time, everyone had found the first seven chapters of the Four Books and Commentaries, and confirmed that they were all written by Zhou Chengyi!

Yun Yang let out a long sigh, "We won! The Liu family case is finally closed. No matter whether Old Master Liu died of anger or illness, my Secret Service handled the case impartially. It's a great achievement!"

Lin Chaoqing said nonchalantly: "I hope you won't be so lucky to win next time. You were just lucky this time. If you meet Hu, Xu, or Chen again next time... there may not be anyone to protect you."

Yun Yang sneered: "Thank you Commander Lin for the reminder."

He smoothed his hair, straightened his wrinkled clothes, and finally picked up the pile of books he had sorted out: "Let's go, take the evidence and make the Liu family shut up!"

"Wait," Lin Chaoqing said coldly, "No one can take any valuables out of here. Check it out."

Yunyang and Jiaotu turned up their sleeves and patted their clothes up and down, saying impatiently: "It's just a few copper coins. We didn't bring anything with us. We know the rules!"

Lin Chaoqing looked at Chen Ji again. Chen Ji reluctantly turned up his sleeves and patted his clothes in the same way: "I didn't bring anything with me either."

"very good."

They all walked out together, and when they reached the door, they saw a black kitten standing up from the beam in the room and stretching.

Wuyun jumped lightly from the beam and took out the ginseng that Chen Ji had just put back into the cabinet. Then it climbed up to the bookshelf with the ginseng in its mouth and bit the book that Chen Ji had just read in its mouth.

The dark, furry cloud looked around, and after making sure that no one was paying attention, it climbed back up onto the beam and slipped into the darkness through a crack.

(End of this chapter)