Pine Crane Bay.
The bamboo grove beside the river blazed with lights as nearly a hundred Scarlet Qilin Guards searched the surroundings for clues.
The Zhou family residence was already packed, with members of both the Scarlet Qilin Guard and the Directorate of Celestial Observation conducting inspections inside.
Standing in the study, Li Gongpu looked up at the corpse hanging from a beam and asked, his face livid:
"A grown man inexplicably hanged himself in his room, and you didn't notice a thing?"
Gongsun Duan was completely bewildered. With people from other government offices present, he replied, drenched in sweat:
"I was fishing by the river with my subordinates all evening. We truly noticed nothing. And a comparison of the handwriting confirms that Zhou Ming'an did write that letter of repentance himself..."
Cao Huai'an, the Scarlet Qilin Guard's pacification commissioner, had also been startled into coming over. Holding Zhou Ming'an's letter of repentance, he scanned the dozens of names that had been blotted out and nodded slightly:
"He had the sense to blot out the names 'before dying.' This should be genuine..."
Gongsun Duan knew that deliberately destroying evidence effectively confirmed the truth of Zhou Ming'an's letter.
But those names had to be blotted out. After all, his name, Li Gongpu's, and those of many prominent figures in the Capital City were on it. If this reached the emperor's desk, Zhou Ming'an would not be the only one to die.
He had not simply hidden it because Gongsun Duan needed experts to identify the handwriting and determine whether Zhou Ming'an had written it.
But verification by the Directorate of Celestial Observation and the Scarlet Qilin Guard established that the letter was indeed in Zhou Ming'an's own hand. Even Li Gongpu, who was quite accomplished with a brush, agreed.
Seeing the