Chapter 152 Outside the Rules, Lin Chen Risks His Life to Ambush

"Grace?"

Secretary Zhang Hongji's index finger hovered over the edge of the armrest for a breath, and when it fell back, it carried a bit of rhythmic tapping force.

"Inspector Lin is certainly not shy."

The tip of his boot swayed twice in the air before stopping, and his gaze shifted from the black abyss blade at Lin Chen's waist to his face.

"Let's hear it."

Lin Chen's hand slid down from the hilt and rested at his side.

"The codename master register, plus the profit-sharing agreements, plus Wang Chongyuan's confession, plus the full set of physical evidence for the Blood Nourishing case—adding it all up, it's over three hundred items across seven categories."

He spoke at a measured pace, each word landing solidly on the blue brick floor of the study.

"Counting them piece by piece, numbering them one by one, sealing them one by one, and also cross-referencing them against the Patrol Division's records to ensure that the count is exact upon handover."

He paused for a beat.

"Secretary Zhang Hongji, you surely wouldn't want to discover something missing when you take over, and then have it be difficult to explain later."

Secretary Zhang Hongji tapped his index finger twice on the armrest, the rhythm half a beat slower than before.

His gaze lingered on Lin Chen's face for three breaths; the scrutinizing curve of his mouth remained unchanged.

"How long do you need?"

"One night."

Lin Chen's voice fell beside the teacup that was nearly cold.

"Tomorrow at noon, Secretary Zhang Hongji can send someone to retrieve them."

Secretary Zhang Hongji did not answer immediately.

His fingers lifted from the armrest, rubbed a circle on his knee, and then placed back down.

Behind the desk, Nangong Xiong's gaze shifted from Lin Chen to the yellow silk, then back again; his throat bobbed, and the film of cold tea in his cup trembled.

"Very well."

Secretary Zhang Hongji lowered his right leg, which had been resting on his left, and his boot sole made a sharp clack when it hit the floor tiles.

"But I will send men to watch your Main Courtyard."

He straightened his body from the back of the chair, pressed both hands on the armrests, and the copper token at his waist swayed.

"The location of every piece of evidence, the whereabouts of every document—it will all be under the eyes of my men."

He stood up, and the extra height compared to when he was sitting cast a shadow in the study's light, pressing onto the brick surface before Lin Chen's feet.

"If any evidence is moved, hidden, or swapped out."

His voice retreated to the very bottom of his throat, grinding out one word at a time through his teeth.

"The crime of destroying evidence will be punished, and Nangong Xiong will be held accountable along with you."

When these words hit the study, Nangong Xiong's fingers, resting on his knees, tightened slightly.

Lin Chen's back did not bend.

"Rest assured, Secretary Zhang Hongji."

His arms hung at his sides; he opened and closed his fingers, his movements light.

"When the Patrol Division handles a case, the accounts are always clear."

When he turned and walked out of the study, the morning light was already spilling down from the eaves of the corridor, illuminating the robe on his back that was stained with last night's dust.

Nangong Xiong's voice chased him out from the study, sinking until only two words pierced through the door crack and into Lin Chen's ears.

"Be careful."

Lin Chen's footsteps did not stop.

The horse's hooves trampled over the blue bricks all the way from the front of the Governors Mansion back to the Patrol Division's Main Courtyard; along the way, the sunlight had already risen to the angle of noon, and the shadows of people on the street had shrunk into small balls clinging to their feet.

By the time he swung off his horse and stepped into the Main Courtyard gate, the sun had already tilted to the west.

The oil lamp in the Archives Room was relit.

Zhou Tie leaned against the doorframe, his iron spear resting on his shoulder, the two dark bruises under his eyelids deeper than last night.

Zhao Gang squatted on the steps, his waist saber resting horizontally across his knees; the cloth on his left shoulder was bleeding through again. He wiped it with his sleeve, but it didn't come clean, and the red stain on the cloth spread into an irregular circle.

Shen Yue stood under the window, her right hand resting on the hilt of her blade, her fingers never having loosened their grip.

Sun Qi sat against the base of the wall, clutching the secret passage map to his chest; the old scar beneath the medicinal cloth was still red.

Liu Buyu poked half his body out from the side room, clutching a document box, a brush handle clamped between his ear and temple, with ink stains smeared from his fingertips onto his earlobe.

He Jian stood in the center of the courtyard, a narrow short blade hanging at his waist; the white cloth on his left arm had been changed for the third time, and his fingers rested on the hilt, spinning it twice before stopping.

Grey Sparrow huddled on the mat in the corner, his hands wrapped around his knees, the shadow on his cheekbones flickering in the lamplight.

Lin Chen bolted the door of the Archives Room from the inside, walked to the desk, pressed his palms onto the surface, and splayed his fingers.

"Secretary Zhang Hongji gave us one night."

His voice spread out along the desktop, just loud enough for those in the Archives Room to hear clearly.

"Tomorrow at noon, people from the Secretary Zhang Hongji will come to collect the evidence."

Zhou Tie's spear shaft turned on his shoulder.

"Then what about Official Chen Zhili?"

"He intends to run tonight."

Lin Chen tapped his index finger on the desk, his fingertip touching the corner of the secret passage map.

"The men sent by Secretary Zhang Hongji are only watching the evidence, not our people."

Zhao Gang stood up from the steps, his waist saber clacking against his knees, his canine tooth showing at the corner of his mouth.

"Inspector, this is acting right under the eyes of the imperial envoy from the capital."

He rubbed his chin with his thumb, the grin on his face carrying a hint of excitement and ferocity.

"If he finds out, your hat as Inspector will be stripped away."

Lin Chen's gaze swept past Zhao Gang's face, landed on He Jian, then moved to Shen Yue, before finally returning and pinning itself on the marker for the sixth secret passage on the map on the desk.

"If we get caught, we get caught."

His fingers lifted from the map and rested on the edge of the table.

"But before that, the things that need to be done must be finished."

Zhou Tie's spear butt tapped on the floor tiles.

"How do we split up?"

Lin Chen pulled a sheet of white paper from under the table, and his charcoal pencil drew a few lines across the surface.

"Zhou Tie, take fifty men to the North City Cliff secret ferry crossing and block all exits. If Official Chen Zhili takes the main road, detours east, and then turns north, you wait for him there."

Zhou Tie slapped his palm on the spear shaft, took the paper, and scanned it twice.

"Is fifty men enough?"

"Enough. You don't need to fight Director Yan Tie head-on; you only need to block the road and force him to go toward the seventh secret passage."

Lin Chen's charcoal pencil drew a circle at the exit of the seventh secret passage on the map.

"Shen Yue, Sun Qi, you two go to the sixth secret passage entrance."

Shen Yue's hand loosened from the hilt by half an inch.

"The sixth secret passage entrance is guarded by Director Yan Tie's men. Do we charge in?"

"Don't charge."

Lin Chen shook his head.

"Just watch. After Official Chen Zhili retrieves the document box from the sixth secret passage, he will turn to the seventh secret passage to flee south. Confirm the time he departs and send me a message."

Sun Qi stood up from the base of the wall and unfolded the map he was clutching to check the positions.

"There is an intersection point between the sixth and seventh secret passages, on the east side of the Provincial Administration Commission underground warehouse."

His finger tapped on the intersection of the two lines.

"If we set an ambush at this node, he won't be able to enter the seventh secret passage, nor will he be able to retreat back into the sixth."

Lin Chen's gaze lingered on that intersection point for two breaths.

"Good. I will handle this node personally."

He Jian walked from the courtyard to the doorway; the blood seeping through the white cloth on his left arm took on a dark hue under the lamplight.

"Inspector, what about Secretary Zhang Hongji's men?"

Lin Chen turned to look at him.

"Take a few men and clear the area around the Main Courtyard. Find as many of the special agents sent by Secretary Zhang Hongji as there are, neutralize them, and lock them in the dungeon."

He Jian's narrow short blade swayed at his waist.

"Won't that alert the enemy?"

"No need."

Lin Chen pulled his hand back from the charcoal pencil.

"Their task is to watch whether the evidence has been tampered with, not to watch whether my men have left the precinct."

He turned to Liu Buyu.

"You stay here."

Liu Buyu took the brush handle from his ear and clutched it in his hand.

"Inspector."

"The original codename master register, the original list of seventeen, the original of Wang Chongyuan's confession, and Grey Sparrow's testimony record."

Lin Chen's fingers tapped each item on the desk one by one.

"Make five copies of all of them tonight. Put each copy into a secret letter tube and seal the opening with the Governors Mansion's wax seal."

Liu Buyu's hand tightened on the brush handle, the finger bones pressing out from under the skin.

"Inspector, sending these things out is a showdown with the imperial court."

Lin Chen did not deny it.

His hand pulled back from the desk and rested on the ridge of the black abyss blade's scabbard at his waist.

"Official Chen Zhili thinks the Ministry of War can protect him until he leaves Nanyang Prefecture."

He slowed his speaking pace by half a beat.

"But the six years of profit-sharing records contained in that document box—the names on it, from the Minister of War to the Censor-in-Chief, count every single one of them."

His thumb rubbed a circle on the scabbard.

"Once those names get out, do you think the Ministry of War would still dare to bring Official Chen Zhili back to the capital alive?"

Liu Buyu's brush handle stopped in his fingers.

His eyes stared at Lin Chen's face for three breaths, his lips closing and then parting.

"I understand."

He clamped the brush handle back onto his ear, bent down, and fished out five secret letter tubes from under the table; they had copper surfaces, and the openings were not yet sealed with wax.

"A superficial handover, but in reality, it's pulling the control of the case back from the hands of the Ministry of War."

Lin Chen did not reply; he turned to look at Grey Sparrow.

Grey Sparrow huddled in the corner, his hands releasing from his knees and resting on the mat at his side.

"When will Official Chen Zhili retrieve the document box?"

Grey Sparrow's throat bobbed.

"Between the hour of the rat and the hour of the tiger. He will retrieve the box at the sixth secret passage entrance, then take the seventh secret passage; the exit is at the abandoned stone pier at the junction of the North City Cliff and the forest."

His voice was dry and hoarse.

"Director Yan Tie will follow him the whole way."

Zhou Tie's spear shaft tapped on the ground, the sound sinking and muffling into the cracks of the bricks.

"With a Hua Gang Realm expert following the whole way, and you, Inspector, intercepting alone at the intersection node—is that enough?"

Lin Chen's fingers pulled back from the scabbard.

"Whether it's enough, we'll see when we get there."

He walked to the doorway, his footsteps pausing for a beat on the threshold.

Instructor Qi Boyuan walked over from the direction of the side courtyard, his wooden spear carried on his shoulder; his pace slowed for half a beat when he saw Lin Chen.

"Inspector, you are going to the sixth secret passage entrance yourself?"

Lin Chen stepped out from the doorframe, the night wind pouring in from outside the courtyard wall, blowing the front hem of his robe against the scabbard of his waist blade.

"Either win everything, or lose everything."

His boot soles stepped on the stone bricks in the courtyard, the sound crisp and short in the night.

"There is no third option."

Instructor Qi Boyuan's wooden spear jolted on his shoulder, the muscle at the corner of his mouth twitched, and he did not speak again.

He watched Lin Chen walk toward the Main Courtyard gate, the scabbard of the black abyss blade swaying twice at his waist with his steps, the night wind swallowing half of that retreating figure.

He Jian's figure had already disappeared from the side door of the side courtyard.

A short, muffled grunt came from outside the courtyard wall, followed by the friction sound of cloth being tightened, and then the dull sound of boot soles dragging on the ground.

When Lin Chen stepped out of the Main Courtyard gate, the space under the shadow of the old locust tree at the alley entrance was empty.

The two figures that had originally been crouching at the roots of the tree were gone.

He Jian flashed out from the shadows; there was no blood on the narrow short blade, and a loop of new rope was wrapped around his wrist.

"Two, both are Tongmai Realm, already stuffed into the dungeon."

His voice was pressed through his teeth.

"Their mouths are stuffed with cloth; they won't be able to scream before dawn."

Lin Chen nodded, his footsteps not stopping.

The moonlight leaked down from a crack in the clouds, the last line of light spilling onto the scabbard of the black abyss blade at his waist, the cold light on the ridge flashing and then extinguishing.

He walked three steps toward the north of the city, his footsteps pausing for half a breath at the corner of the alley.

In the distance, in the direction of the Provincial Administration Commission, a lamp was lit in a second-floor window.

The light of that lamp was lonely in the night, more eye-catching than the surrounding darkness.

"Official Chen Zhili hasn't left yet."

Lin Chen's hand fell back onto the hilt of the black abyss blade, his five fingers gripping the texture of the wrapped leather cord, his palm pressed firmly.

His figure submerged into the shadows of the alley, the sound of his boot soles eaten up by the night wind.

The lamplight from the Archives Room seeped out from the window cracks, shining on the old tree that had withered on one side in the courtyard, the tree shadow trembling on the brick surface.

Liu Buyu's brush tip had already landed on the paper, the ink stick rubbing against the inkstone with a faint rustling sound.

At the opening of the first secret letter tube, the wax seal was melting.