Zhao Feiying hurriedly cupped his hands.
"Yes, Commander."
When he looked at Captain Li, he forced a faint smile onto his lips.
"Captain Li, please come with me."
Just then, a burst of frantic footsteps came from outside the tent. A soldier stumbled and rolled his way inside, his hat askew.
"What are you panicking for? Behind the command tent, where is your decorum?"
"Commander, Deputy Commander, this is bad! Something happened! Li Yan, Clerk Li, the Arms Office Clerk—he committed suicide!"
"What did you say?"
Everyone inside the tent was shocked.
Long Teng slammed his palm onto the table, scattering the map's miniature markers in every direction.
"Speak. Where did he kill himself?"
The pressure of a grandmaster erupted, bearing down upon the soldier.
The soldier's face turned pale, and his voice trembled.
"In his own tent!"
The soldier's voice shook.
Long Teng rose to his feet, his face livid.
"Go take a look."
The group hurried to Li Yan's tent. The tent flap was half-open, and a faint smell of blood drifted out.
A middle-aged man in a scholar's robe was slumped over the table, black blood at the corner of his mouth. An empty wine cup sat on the table.
Wine dripped onto the ground.
Su Fei reached out and checked the man's neck. It was already cold and stiff.
He then tested the wine with a silver needle.
"It's Crane's Crest Red. This is a poison that kills at the sight of blood."
"He's been dead for at least two hours."
Captain Li found several sets of Arms Office accounts. As he flipped through them, his brow furrowed ever deeper.
"These accounts are a complete mess. Every month's records of incoming and outgoing goods bear several traces of alteration."
"And there are problems with the damage reports as well. More than forty Gale Crossbows were reported damaged in a single month, with the reason given as destruction during bandit suppression. Commander, Qingzhou has not seen any major battles recently. What kind of mountain bandits could possibly be so formidable that the Qingzhou Army ruined dozens of Gale Crossbows in one month?"
Long Teng walked to the corpse and looked at Li Yan's open eyes, his expression dark.
"We just uncovered the illegal outflow of military crossbows, and the Arms Office Clerk immediately poisoned himself. Is he so afraid that others won't know someone in the army has been privately selling military equipment?"
He abruptly turned to Zhao Feiying, fire blazing in his eyes.
"Deputy Commander Zhao, Li Yan was your subordinate. You cannot escape blame for this."
Zhao Feiying hurriedly dropped to one knee, his face full of innocence.
"Commander, please calm your anger. This subordinate truly knew nothing about it."
Long Teng ignored Zhao Feiying, who was kneeling on the ground.
"Inform Li Yan's family. Tell them Li Yan is dead."
Then he turned to Captain Li and let out a sigh.
"Since that is the case, leave this matter to the Imperial Guard. Whatever you uncover, just report it to this old man."
With that, he flicked his sleeve and departed.
After Long Teng left, the atmosphere inside the tent became somewhat frozen.
Captain Li gripped the account book, his brow tightly furrowed.
The other Imperial Guard members exchanged looks, and their gazes ultimately fell upon Su Fei.
"Commander Su,"
Captain Li said.
"You have always been skilled at solving cases. Look over this scene and see whether you can find anything."
Everyone knew of Su Fei's investigative abilities. Even Commander Feng regarded him differently.
Now that the case had reached a deadlock, they naturally placed their hopes on him.
Su Fei nodded without refusing.
The God-tier Insight Technique silently began to operate.
His gaze swept over every corner of the tent, from the empty wine cup on the table, to the wine dripping onto the ground, to Li Yan's posture in death and the furnishings within the tent.
Suddenly, his eyes stopped on the gaps beneath the fingernails of Li Yan's right hand.
"Captain Li, lend me your dagger."
Su Fei took the dagger and carefully scraped away a small trace of residue from beneath the fingernails. It was a tiny pinch of dark red soil, utterly different in color from the yellow earth inside the camp.
Captain Li leaned closer to inspect it.
"This soil doesn't look like the dirt in the camp."
"That's right."
Su Fei pinched the soil between his fingertips and brought it to his nose for a light sniff.
"It carries some moisture, along with the smell of rotting leaves. It is more like soil from the mountains and forests. An Arms Office Clerk spends all year handling matters in camp. Under normal circumstances, he would have no need to leave. So how could there be such soil beneath his fingernails?"
"And it was still lodged under his nails. That proves he left the military camp before his death and met someone. If we can learn whom he met, perhaps we can find a lead."
At those words, Zhao Feiying's eyes suddenly twitched.
He had not expected this Imperial Guard General Banner Officer to be so formidable, able to infer so much from a mere bit of soil.
"Perhaps he got it on himself by accident while inspecting the Arms Office yesterday."
Su Fei responded with a question.
"Would an inspection of the Arms Office take him into the mountains and forests? That would be too much of a coincidence, wouldn't it?"
Su Fei's gaze shifted toward Li Yan's bed.
The wooden chest beneath it was tightly locked, yet one corner of the chest was stained with the same brown soil, identical to that found beneath his fingernails.
He straightened and looked at the others.
"Li Yan's suicide is somewhat suspicious. The appearance of this soil is also rather strange."
Captain Li hesitated briefly before speaking.
"How do you want to investigate this, Su Fei?"
Su Fei said,
"I want to go to Li Yan's home and take a look."
"The place where a person feels safest and most at ease is his home. Perhaps we can find some clues there."
Zhao Feiying suddenly raised his head and said urgently,
"Isn't that against the rules? Li Yan is already dead, yet your Imperial Guard still want to disturb his family. That doesn't seem appropriate."
"Rules?"
"Compared with the grave crime of military crossbows being smuggled out, what do such rules amount to? If Deputy Commander Zhao has nothing to hide, why do you need to obstruct us?"
Zhao Feiying was left speechless. His face alternated between green and white before he could only say bitterly,
"I am not trying to obstruct you. I merely fear you may alarm his family."
"No matter. We are only investigating clues. We will absolutely not disturb Li Yan's family."
Su Fei looked at Captain Li.
"Captain Li, why don't we leave now and go take a look at Li Yan's home?"
Captain Li nodded and glanced at Zhao Feiying.
"Commander Zhao, we are going to Li Yan's home now. Commander Long Teng said this case is entirely for our Imperial Guard to investigate. You would not be planning to block us, would you?"
Zhao Feiying's expression changed, and he repeatedly said that he would not.
Only then did Captain Li lead Su Fei and the others away from the Qingzhou Army camp.
Along the way, Captain Li could not help saying,
"Su Fei, judging from the accounts at the scene alone, Li Yan has much to do with the Arms case. But he is dead now, and the dead cannot testify. Was he trying to bear everything alone?"
Su Fei replied,
"My lord, privately selling military equipment is a major matter. With Li Yan's strength alone, it would have been impossible for him to keep it hidden for so long without being discovered. I do not believe this was something he could have accomplished alone."
"He must have accomplices. If we investigate this case, we must investigate it thoroughly."
Captain Li fell silent.
What Su Fei did not say was that if Li Yan had truly acted alone in this matter,
the system should have prompted him that the mission was complete long ago.
The system had given no prompt now, which meant the mission was not yet complete. Li Yan was not the true mastermind behind the Arms case.
Before you continue