Wig Brown Did It All (4k)

"Give me the newspapers."

Bai Luo stood up and grabbed all dozen or so newspapers from the attendant's arms.

His movements were rough, and his hands trembled. Unable to control his strength, he scattered the newspapers across the table, into Miuan and the others' refreshments and tea, and in front of Miuan.

"Sir, if you take them all, the other guests won't have any newspapers to read..." the attendant cried.

Bai Luo snapped with extreme impatience, "Get lost!"

Scarlet light spread from the boy's eyes, cowing the attendant. It was as though he saw not a human boy standing before him, but a demon with a split-open head, a monster.

With a single glance, the noble mage frightened the ordinary attendant so badly his legs went weak, and he fled the private room for honored guests, holding himself up against the wall.

Cynthia and Roman had never seen this side of their nephew. Until now, Bai Luo had struck them as well-behaved, even quiet, as though he could make everyone happy and rarely showed any extra emotion.

Roman had intended to calm him down, but when he picked up a newspaper and read everything it said about Brown, he froze in shock.

"I received the divination result bought from the capital too. It says the same thing as the newspaper."

Bai Luo let out a long breath, gradually calmed himself, and looked back at his grandfather, Miuan Brown.

One hundred and twenty thousand gold coins was no small sum, but that wasn't why he had lost control of his emotions.

Bai Luo had thought he would obtain an earth-shattering secret and see a truth no one else could see. His grandfather would rely on his help, and his third uncle would admire his decisiveness. What Bai Luo had wanted to buy with those 120,000 gold coins wasn't, in essence, a clue to Sealed Artifact 3-0771, but a position in the Brown Family above its other members.

He had seen his third uncle Roman Brown's incompetence, and he had seen his aunt Cynthia Brown indulge his third uncle. His grandfather Miuan was dissatisfied with them, so at the very least, Bai Luo ought to be more useful and more satisfactory than those two elders, someone Miuan could turn to with ease.

He had to be more useful than everyone else.

What he knew had to be something no one else did, information for him to bestow upon them.

That was the point of spending the money. Spending a fortune to accomplish a small task was a display of wealth, a way to cement his position, proof that he stood above the rest of the Brown Family.

Only then would his father feel the money had been well spent.

But now, what the money had bought was printed almost plainly in the newspaper.

He hadn't said a word, yet even Roman Brown already knew who had gotten his hands on Sealed Artifact 3-0771.

It wasn't just those present. The other diners in the restaurant, the passersby holding newspapers in the street, even the people at the very bottom of Black Pine City all knew that Sealed Artifact 3-0771 had fallen into the hands of a man named Xie Yu.

The only thing he knew that they didn't was Xie Yu's precise location.

But that information might not be of any practical use. Under these circumstances, would his grandfather go straight for 3-0771 and seize it?

"He's staying in the king's suite at the Pinewood Inn, the one that was booked. He's with people from the Education Bureau."

Bai Luo spoke tentatively.

"Let me take a look first..."

Miuan's brows slowly furrowed. He picked up the scattered newspapers and quickly scanned their contents.

This time, he wasn't in the mood to respond to Bai Luo's words or emotions.

Bai Luo had seemed angry just now, but whatever the case, he was only an outsider. He didn't even count as someone "named Brown," and he didn't understand the true impact this matter in the newspaper would have on the Brown Family. His anger was nothing more than an outlet for his emotions, like a young animal's.

Miuan, on the other hand, saw a greater problem.

This report had been produced through the Education Bureau's efforts.

The Education Bureau had released Xie Yu's name that morning, and by the afternoon, this report had been printed as an extra edition, a standalone article reaching residents throughout the north of the kingdom.

Although the newspaper mentioned only this one matter concerning Wig Brown, judging by the speed of its printing and the determination to release the information, the Education Bureau had certainly noticed...

Noticed everything hidden behind the minor figure of Wig Brown.

Noticed the gift he had prepared for Bai Luo.

His arrangements, his years of work throughout North Province, and the fate of all the Brown Family's direct and collateral branches for the next hundred years would all change because of this.

Worse still, the other side hadn't handled the matter privately. That was what was most amiss.

Exposure meant bringing in outside forces, and it also meant both sides would suffer.

This should never have been a good option for the Education Bureau. The bureau itself wasn't made up of perfect sages, and from what he knew of these people in North Province, they had no reason to do this. It wasn't their way of doing things.

The greatest problem was that he didn't know what had caused this change.

At the dining table, everyone had a different view of the matter.

While eating earlier, Roman Brown had heard Miuan and Bai Luo's discussion and learned what grandfather and grandson suspected about Sealed Artifact 3-0771:

"Wig was the one who had 3-0771, so Wig replaced this guy's life? And then turned around and bit us?"

Every line of the interview in the newspaper pointed straight at the Brown Family.

How had he never noticed that the old man hated the family so much?

If he'd known, he should have gotten rid of that ill-tempered old uncle sooner. The family's reliance and trust had been fed to the dogs.

"No, Roman, don't say anything yet."

Cynthia saw that Miuan looked ready to kill and warned Roman to shut up.

Miuan said slowly:

"Life replacement can fool divination to a certain extent, but it has its limits. Wig Brown knows the limits of 3-0771 better than anyone. He wouldn't have the nerve to impersonate a perfect-score examinee the entire province is watching, unless he'd gone mad."

Miuan considered himself very familiar with Wig. Observing him with a Magister's powers of perception, he saw that Wig Brown had a little cunning and a little ambition, but that was all.

Wig couldn't possibly replace the life of a young man who had scored full marks, couldn't possibly do something that was certain to expose him.

"At least now we know who's staying in the king's suite at the Pinewood Inn."

Only then did Miuan look at Bai Luo. He forced a smile and offered the youngster some reassurance.

Miuan tried to analyze the heart of the matter, but he had few ideas.

"The Education Bureau has gone a little mad this time."

For the first time in his life, he felt old. Some matters were beyond his ability to handle, and neither a Magister's power nor his family's bloodline could give him a complete sense of security and control.

He needed to tell these younger members of the family what was on his mind in exchange for some elusive sense of family unity.

That could set the old man's mind a little more at ease.

Miuan said:

"I can't understand why the Education Bureau would allow this report to get out."

"If they'd discovered everything the Browns had done, they could have negotiated with me. Even if they didn't want to deal with nobles like us, there were more discreet ways to handle it. I can't make sense of the situation as it stands."

At his side, Roman, Cynthia, and the others didn't dare respond.

As their father, Miuan had never before said anything like "I can't understand" or "I can't make sense of it." It seemed that from the moment they were born, the old man had held all the power and never shown weakness.

"The newspaper didn't mention the family's arrangements. Could you be worrying too much?"

Roman hesitated for a while before speaking.

The report in the newspaper made it quite clear that these were the accusations of Xie Yu, the perfect-score examinee. In fact, they had nothing to do with what the Brown Family had done or its arrangements throughout North Province.

Miuan was somewhat disappointed in Roman, but this time he didn't scold him again. He simply broke the matter down slowly, explaining it piece by piece to his third son:

"Look at the newspaper's timing. This isn't the morning or evening edition. It's an extra, an additional printing. Do you think a young man's accusations could make it into print in such a short time and end up in everyone's hands without me hearing a whisper? He would have needed to find the right newspaper, and the newspaper would have needed the support of a greater power. Everyone who handled it would also have had to hold similar views of the Brown Family. Only then could this have happened."

"Often, what is frightening isn't gaining another enemy, but finding that a former friend is no longer even interested in using you or squeezing you dry."

Roman thought it over. This was the first time he had thought seriously, his brand-new brain laboriously turning as he tried to keep up with his father's reasoning. After all, his father had never stopped to wait for him before.

"You're saying a powerful organization is pushing this from behind the scenes?"

Imagine if he were the owner or editor-in-chief of the newspaper. On seeing this report, he might try to extort a sum from the Brown Family, which could afford to pay the price... The interview and publication had both been completed today, and there hadn't even been a whisper of anyone sounding out whether the Brown Family was willing to pay... Thinking about it from another angle, Roman felt an inexplicable chill.

He suddenly understood why it had to be the Education Bureau, and why Miuan said the bureau had gone mad.

The timing, the newspaper's stance, and the "Browns" throughout the article were all wrong. "Wig Brown" appeared only once in the entire report; everywhere else, he was referred to as Brown.

"That's the key point I can't understand. The Education Bureau usually wouldn't take such a hard line..."

Miuan said slowly. Halfway through, he seemed to remember something and looked at Bai Luo:

"This morning's newspaper, the one you kept reading in the carriage earlier-did it say this fellow was the only one in North Province to get full marks?"

"Yes."

Bai Luo now felt like an outsider, no longer the child his grandfather doted on most.

And that incompetent third uncle had suddenly become more important in his grandfather's eyes.

He couldn't say why the change had happened, but as someone with a bloodline talent in the realm of mind and soul, he was sensitive to human emotions.

Miuan spoke in a low voice, as though he had glimpsed the only possibility within the mystery:

"Perhaps, Roman, you may have been right."

"The fellow named Xie Yu really is Wig Brown."

At those words, everyone fell silent, Roman himself included.

Roman had clearly just been talking nonsense earlier, speaking at random before he had even understood the situation.

Miuan himself had already rejected that conclusion, yet now he had picked it up again.

Miuan said:

"Wig replaced this man's life before his score was leaked. Wig didn't do it deliberately. The Education Bureau discovered everything, and its higher-ups were furious, but they couldn't bear to erase the identity of Xie Yu outright, or give up this 'only one in North Province' with a perfect score. They intend to let the mistake stand."

"Wig fell into their hands and revealed the family's plans under Xie Yu's identity and name. That makes everything add up. It also explains the Education Bureau's madness."

What on earth was his father saying? Roman could hardly believe his ears.

Had his grandfather gone mad? Bai Luo found it just as hard to understand.

This was simply impossible.

"Wig's original target for life replacement was the two-star mage Kaiming. Because he planned to betray the Brown Family and wanted to use 3-0771 to get away from it, he planned a second life replacement. That target happened to be Xie Yu, this year's perfect-score examinee. At the time, Wig didn't know that and had simply chosen a target at random."

"However, after the life replacement was complete, this young man named Xie Yu was soon found by the Education Bureau, and Wig's identity was exposed."

"To stay alive, he confessed everything. Wig, who had already intended to betray the Brown Family, told the Education Bureau everything he knew."

"And so there was this interview, and this extra edition."

Miuan spread out the newspaper and pointed to several places in the interview, indicating that what he had said matched the facts revealed in it.

"Our earlier deductions were all correct. Roman was right, Bai Luo, you were right too, and so was I."

"None of us was wrong. 3-0771 is in Wig's hands. Our judgments about Wig's two life replacements and his betrayal were all correct. It's just that this matter happened to collide with this year's major examination, producing some unexpected developments."

"They don't dare reveal the whole truth. They only dare bring up the Browns. They've all betrayed us."

Miuan Brown was still very perceptive about the crisis facing him and his family.

After listening, Bai Luo seemed convinced as well. He felt his grandfather's words made a great deal of sense and matched his own earlier conjectures.

Wig Brown and Xie Yu, both of whom interested him, were actually the same person. It was a coincidence, but not an unacceptable one.

But if Xie Yu really was Wig Brown, why hadn't the divination result he obtained said so?

He was just about to share the complete divination result, worth 120,000 gold coins, word for word, when he felt a disturbance in his mind.

It was his father, Heli Ilia, playing with the part of his soul he had split off.

His father sat in his study in the capital, speaking directly to him.

"Child, I've been watching and listening through your eyes and ears all along. What I can be sure of is..."

"Your grandfather, Miuan Brown, has gone mad."

"He can't give you a gift anymore."

The gift, the gift Grandfather was going to give me...

Bai Luo looked up and saw Miuan Brown push his knuckles against the wooden tabletop and stand, declaring:

"This major examination is itself an absurd affair, ridiculous and laughable. We might as well admit to it."

"Xie Yu, who scored full marks, is Wig Brown. Let the only perfect scorer in North Province bear a noble surname too. Can those foolish commoners tell that Wig is from a collateral branch? Can they tell that Wig Brown replaced someone's life? Let's tell them everything and see who panics more."

"Since they all want to laugh at the Browns, none of them gets to walk away."

Bai Luo slowly looked away. He more or less understood what his father meant.

His grandfather really had gone mad.

He had come back to North Province at a truly bad time.

Just as he thought this, his father's voice sounded in his mind once more through their distant, split connection:

"But if you want, they can become your gift. At your age, it's time you had a proper coming-of-age ceremony."