Chapter 13

"In a place called Shangyu, there lived a girl named Zhu Yingtai. She was blessed with such ethereal beauty, like a flower just beginning to bloom in the spring, radiating a sense of pure, refreshing vitality. The Zhu family was a prominent household in the region..."

Chen Jin sat squatting beside a water vat, reciting a tragic love story to the Shark Person.

He had already given up on trying to extract information about the Shark Person's superiors.

Since the other party had sent a Shark Person to kill him and the assassin hadn't returned, it meant the assassination attempt had failed.

Unless the mastermind was a fool, they would send someone else to investigate the situation. When they saw this little Shark Person, the truth would become clear.

Chen Jin was actually quite looking forward to this.

Judging by the few hints the little Shark Person had let slip, their organization seemed quite wealthy and possessed no small amount of ambition. If he could make contact, he might be able to reap significant benefits.

To leave a good impression on the Shark Person's organization, he couldn't resort to corporal punishment to make the creature cry.

He had no choice but to use tragic stories; fortunately, he had a rich repertoire of such tales.

The little Shark Person was sobbing uncontrollably while listening to the Butterfly Lovers, with round, lustrous shark pearls falling and piling up at the bottom of the vat. Even while crying, it skillfully continued to spin thread.

It didn't let its work fall behind in the slightest.

Chen Jin rubbed his chin, pondering: Should he tell the story of Meng Jiangnu weeping at the Great Wall next? Would that conflict with the current situation?

Raindrops tapped against the eaves, merging into thin streams that trickled outside the window.

A slender figure, nearly blending into the shadows, lay silently beneath the window lattice outside Chen Jin's room. She was as patient as a spider, waiting for the moment her prey let their guard down.

She was "Xi," sent by the organization to investigate why "Xi" had failed her mission and to act according to the situation.

She had been lurking here for half an hour, listening to the man inside recount a story about humans in a low, gentle voice—a story she had never heard before.

She was fully focused, attempting to analyze the target's weaknesses from his words.

She heard the faint sound of water ripples from the vat inside, and the delicate rustle of weaving—Xi was still alive, and she was working.

This brought her a sense of relief.

Hm? Working?

Then, her attention was involuntarily captured by the story.

"...Zhu Yingtai disguised herself as a man to study in Hang City, where she met her classmate Liang Shanbo... The two became fast friends, swearing an oath of brotherhood. They studied together for three years, their bond growing deep and profound..."

Xi's brows furrowed slightly.

Disguised as a man? Classmates?

Human emotions were always so strange and complex.

The story slowly progressed—the eighteen-mile farewell, the meeting at the pavilion...

The man's voice seemed to carry a kind of magic, clearly outlining those distant longings, forbearance, regrets, and struggles.

"...In the end, Liang Shanbo died of a broken heart. Zhu Yingtai, dressed in her wedding robes, resolutely broke into his tomb... Heaven and earth were moved, a great storm arose, and the grave split open... The two transformed into a pair of colorful butterflies, fluttering away together, never to be separated again."

Transformed into butterflies?

Xi's heartstrings were plucked violently by something.

An indescribable bitterness and emotion rushed to the tip of her nose; her eyes grew uncontrollably hot and moist.

She thought of certain companions in her clan who could never be together, and the helpless partings in the deep sea...

She tried desperately to hold it back, but the lingering impact of the story was too great. The ultimate romance and tragedy of seeking what could not be attained and sharing a grave in death acted like a surging undercurrent, breaking through the psychological dam she had built as an infiltrator.

Plop.

A round, plump shark pearl with a soft luster slipped uncontrollably from the corner of her eye, hitting the stone slab beneath the window and making an exceptionally clear, crisp sound.

Plop... Plop...

It's over!

Alarm bells rang in Xi's heart. She tried to stop, but the floodgates of her emotions had already burst. A second and third pearl rolled down in succession; one even struck the window paper directly with a muffled "thud."

The storytelling inside stopped abruptly.

A deathly silence enveloped both inside and out.

Xi went rigid, holding her breath, desperately praying that the man hadn't noticed.

However, the next second—

Creak.

The wooden window she had been spying through for so long was pushed open from the inside. Dim, yellow lamplight spilled out, illuminating Xi, who still had tears on her face and several shark pearls scattered at her feet under the eaves.

Chen Jin's face appeared at the window, wearing an incredibly kind smile.

His tone was gentle:

"Little sister, is the story good? Don't stand in the rain. Come on, come inside and warm up. There's still room in the vat; come listen together. The best part is yet to come."

Xi: "!!!"

The night was deep, and the clamor of Xianyang had long since faded into silence, leaving only a single room deep within the Minister of Justice's office brightly lit.

The Minister of Justice was the official title for the judicial and adjudicatory body of the Qin State.

As one of the Nine Ministers, he served as the head of the highest central judicial and adjudicatory institution, responsible for compiling the nation's case verdicts and overseeing imperial prisons and the revision of laws and decrees.

He was also the holder of the highest authority, second only to the First Emperor, over the countless Law Eyes suspended in the heavens.

Currently, the position of Minister of Justice in the Qin State was held by the "loyal and faithful minister," Meng Yi.

The oil lamp flickered, casting Meng Yi's mountain-like, upright silhouette against the wall behind him.

He was dressed in a black deep robe with a leather belt cinched at his waist; though his face bore signs of fatigue, his tiger-like eyes remained as sharp as an eagle's, sweeping one by one over the mountain of bamboo slips piled upon his desk.

Wherever his brush passed, cinnabar ink marked his rulings, deciding critical matters that concerned the majesty of Qin Law and the power of life and death.

After finishing yet another cumbersome case file, he set down his brush and raised a hand to firmly pinch his furrowed brow, attempting to dispel the exhaustion brought on by days of staying up late.

In this brief moment of silence, his thoughts stirred, and a trace of spiritual perception rippled outward like a pebble cast into a calm lake.

The conclusion of the case from the day before, involving the assassination of the broker and the merchant, surfaced in his mind.

The murderer had drowned, leaving no corpse behind.

Regarding this result, there was no look of surprise on Meng Yi's resolute face, as if he had long since anticipated it.

To pursue a Shark Person, a creature born of the water, through the crisscrossing river networks of Langya County on such a rainy night?

It would have been truly strange if they had managed to catch him.

However, in his estimation, whether or not one could catch the culprit was a matter of ability; but whether or not one chose to pursue was a matter of attitude.

A lack of ability could be honed and polished, but if one's attitude was lax, losing the awe of Qin Law and the determination to enforce it, then the foundation was rotten and beyond saving.

It was precisely for this reason that the Guard who had stepped forward without a moment's hesitation to request the "Law Enforcement" authority to pursue the culprit had left a deep and distinct impression on him.

That decisiveness—to act first regardless of success or failure—and that instinct to uphold the majesty of the law were the true colors that a Great Qin Elite Soldier should possess.

"Fu..."

Meng Yi's fingertips tapped lightly against the desk as he whispered this common, perhaps even crude, name, then etched it into his heart.

This person, perhaps, was worth keeping an eye on.