Ye Tianyi then looked at Cao Sheng.
"Lord Cao, there is something I need to verify with you."
Cao Sheng nodded. "Please speak, Lord Ye."
Ye Tianyi then asked, "I heard from Wang Lang that you climbed Green Bamboo Garden by following Wang Lang's route and found his footprints on the garden wall, thereby confirming that he had climbed into Green Bamboo Garden. Is that correct?"
"That's right. I personally went to inspect it with the others at the time. We saw matching footprints on the wall—many footprints made while climbing upward—and thus determined that he had climbed in."
Cao Sheng answered.
"Then may I ask, Lord Cao, what kind of footprints were they?"
"What kind? Complete shoe prints, of course."
Ye Tianyi smiled, then looked at Zhao Qingshan and asked, "Lord Zhao, you must have noticed something, right?"
Zhao Qingshan nodded, suddenly enlightened.
He gave Ye Tianyi an approving look.
"Mm... a reward."
He had been searching for a flaw all along, never expecting it to be here.
"Th-This? Lord Zhao, what do you mean? Forgive this subordinate's dullness, but I do not understand." Cao Sheng looked back and forth between the two with a puzzled expression, then bowed to Zhao Qingshan and asked.
With his hands behind his back, Zhao Qingshan said calmly, "Lord Cao, let me ask you: under what circumstances would someone leave a complete shoe print while climbing over a wall?"
Without hesitation, Cao Sheng said, "Wouldn't climbing over a wall always leave complete shoe—"
Before he could finish, he suddenly froze.
"Wait!"
Cao Sheng's eyes widened as he abruptly realized something, and he quickly said:
"When someone climbs over a wall, whether they run a few steps up the wall and leap over it, or jump up, grab the top with both hands, and