On the Record

Hearing Gu Chengyin bring up this old matter again, Shangguan Yuan felt a surge of anger rush straight to his head.

His face flushed red, veins bulging on his neck, and his voice grew even higher and sharper than before:

Nonsense! Gu Chengyin! How many times have I told you! There is no problem with the accounts of my Ministry of Revenue!

That is just normal wear and tear from storage! A few minor discrepancies, how could it come to this?!

You are clearly exaggerating, fearmongering, and deliberately framing me!

Furthermore, I am not suspended! His Majesty merely sympathized with my days of hard work and specially granted me time to rest at home!

This defense was an old tune, his consistent public excuse.

Downplaying severe accounting issues as normal loss, and sugarcoating a suspension and house arrest as His Majesty's sympathy.

This rhetoric might hold up normally, but saying it now under the watchful eyes of the public made it seem exceptionally pale and feeble.

Sure enough, as soon as his voice fell, a drawn-out chorus of boos erupted from the crowd of onlookers outside.

Obviously, the real reason for Shangguan Yuan's suspension and confinement had long spread throughout the Divine Capital. His excuses could not even fool the commoners.

Shangguan Yuan's face turned alternately red and white, stung by the jeers.

But he stubbornly held his ground, his expression unchanging, and continued to retort with full vigor:

Besides! From the moment I returned to the estate yesterday until now, I haven't taken a single step out of these gates!

Not a single person from top to bottom in this estate has gone out either!

Gu Chengyin, do not think that just because you lost your mind investigating a case, offended people you shouldn't have, and suffered retribution...

...that you can pin the blame on me! Don't think I don't know.

You ended up like this because you took on the major case of the Left Vice Minister's sudden death!

In order to increase the credibility of his words, Shangguan Yuan, in a moment of desperation, accidentally blurted out the strictly sealed news of the Left Vice Minister's sudden death.

The Left Vice Minister died suddenly?!

Which Left Vice Minister? Could it be the one from the Ministry of Revenue?

The Left Vice Minister of Revenue? That's Xiao Bichang, right?

Vice Minister Xiao is dead?! Sudden death?!

When did this happen? How come we didn't hear a word about it?

No wonder things felt weird today.

...

As soon as these words came out, it was truly like a clap of thunder detonating in the crowd, triggering an even greater uproar and commotion!

The Left Vice Minister of Revenue, Xiao Bichang, was dead? And a sudden death at that? This was absolutely earth-shattering news!

Countless gazes instantly focused on them, even overshadowing the attention on the assassination case itself.

Even Wang Gangfeng's brows instantly knitted into a knot upon hearing the words about the Left Vice Minister's sudden death.

He looked at Shangguan Yuan, revealing a look of displeasure and warning on his face.

This matter was of grave importance and the situation was still unclear. Shangguan Yuan's loose lips could easily spark unnecessary panic and speculation.

Wang Gangfeng was just about to step forward to signal Shangguan Yuan to watch his words and actions, but it was already too late.

Gu Chengyin seemed completely enraged by Shangguan Yuan's words.

The look of grief and indignation on his face deepened. Without waiting for Wang Gangfeng to speak, he preemptively roared back, directly steering the spearhead toward an even more sensitive direction:

Is that Xiao Bichang not the Left Vice Minister of your Ministry of Revenue?!

As the Minister, with the Ministry of Revenue making such a massive blunder, if you made him take the fall to help you get away, would he dare say no?!

You must have used coercion and bribery to make Vice Minister Xiao shoulder all the blame, and then murdered him to silence him and eliminate future troubles!

Now that you see me taking over this case and determined to investigate it to the end, you were afraid I would find out you are the real mastermind, so you decided to kill me too!

Shangguan Yuan! This move of sacrificing a pawn to save the king is truly ruthless and venomous!

Although Gu Chengyin's words were logically crude and full of emotional accusations.

They exploited the superior-subordinate relationship between the Minister and the Vice Minister, as well as the suspicious nature of Xiao Bichang's sudden death.

He forcibly connected three events: the accounting problems, the sudden death of the Vice Minister, and the assassination of the Marquis.

Weaving them into a complete conspiracy theory.

Although this story had quite a few loopholes, in such a crowd-inciting situation, it was highly provocative and contagious.

At the very least, it successfully pinned Shangguan Yuan firmly in the position of the prime suspect.

And it shoved the fuse of the bomb that was Xiao Bichang's sudden death right into Shangguan Yuan's hands.

As expected, the surrounding crowd exploded again, their discussions like boiling water:

My god! Such a thing happened?!

Minister Shangguan forced his subordinate to death? And wanted to kill the Marquis to silence him?!

This is too ruthless?!

No wonder Vice Minister Xiao died so suddenly.

It's terrifying when you think about it!

...

Shangguan Yuan trembled with anger and began to retort loudly, speaking without thinking:

Gu Chengyin! Where is your brain?! Was it smashed by the assassins?!!

I am the Minister of Revenue, that's true! But my surname is Shangguan! Xiao Bichang's surname is Xiao!

Even if Vice Minister Xiao was taking the fall for someone, it wasn't for me, the Minister! It was for the Xiao...

At this point, Shangguan Yuan stopped abruptly, as if an invisible hand had seized his throat.

The angry expression on his face froze instantly, turning into a terrified pallor, his eyes wide and round.

He looked left and right in panic, his gaze sweeping over the suddenly changed face of Wang Gangfeng, and over Gu Chengyin at the door.

Sweeping over the now dead-silent crowd outside the estate, bead-sized drops of cold sweat instantly broke out on his forehead.

This hesitant appearance, clearly having misspoken and anxious to cover it up, was more convincing than any direct accusation.

The entire scene fell into a deathly silence.

The crowd that had been noisy and boiling just moments ago now seemed to have been collectively cast with a silencing spell.

Everyone held their breath, their eyes wide, looking at Shangguan Yuan in disbelief.

Some of the sharper onlookers had already begun to subconsciously shrink their necks.

Hiding behind the crowd, their hearts pounding:

Mother of god, is this something that can be said in public?

Did we just hear something we shouldn't have?

Is it still in time to run away now?

The Great Luo Laws shouldn't have a clause about silencing bystanders, right?

Just as Gu Chengyin was preparing to strike while the iron was hot and fan the flames higher, a voice suddenly came from the side:

Record this down.

These few words were plain and simple, yet they exploded in everyone's ears like thunder from the highest heavens!

Gu Chengyin turned to look, and then saw that a clerk had appeared next to Wang Gangfeng at some unknown point.

Holding a thick dossier and a brush in his hands.

And those few words were spoken by Wang Gangfeng to the clerk.

With the brush in the clerk's hand sweeping non-stop, it meant that Shangguan Yuan's unfinished half-sentence had been officially recorded by the Censorate in the form of an official document.

This was not a street rumor; it was a written record that could be used as evidence in court.

Shangguan Yuan looked as if he had been struck by lightning, his face instantly turning as pale as paper, entirely drained of blood.

His body swayed, almost unable to stand steady.

He pointed a finger at Wang Gangfeng, his lips trembling, wanting to say something, but unable to spit out a single word.

All that remained was a sense of desperate terror.