Once I enter the pass, great Confucian scholars will surely debate the classics for me.

Inside the dungeon of the Fifth Plum Blossom Division of the Censorate, in the torture chamber.

"Master Di, may we begin?"

Upon hearing this, Di Xinjian smiled slightly: "Protector Xiao, please feel free to ask any questions. I will answer them all without fail."

Holding a folding fan, Xiao Hongyun paced back and forth behind Di Xinjian, seemingly casually saying, "Li Xiangsi and his gang of traitors have infiltrated Jianta with the intention of causing trouble. They are from out of town and are unfamiliar with Jianta, so it is inconvenient for them to do anything. They must have someone in Jianta to meet them and provide them with a safe place to hide. It is also a coincidence that Li Xiangsi is hiding in Master Di's residence. Please explain, Master Di."

Di Xinjian glanced at Zhou Qingfeng, who was smiling but not saying a word and was only eating oranges, and then turned his head to look at Xiao Hongyun, who had walked around to stand beside him. He said slowly, "What does it have to do with me that the rebels are hiding in my house?"

"Protector Xiao probably doesn't know how many houses I own."

"I simply can't manage it all myself; I usually hire a real estate agent to take care of it for me."

"I don't care who the house is rented to. For many years, I've only been responsible for collecting money from the house brokers on a regular basis. This is common knowledge. If you don't believe me, you can ask the brokers who manage the house for me to verify it."

Xiao Hongyun lightly waved his folding fan, glanced at him sideways, and said with a smile, "So, you're still wronged?"

Di Xinjian said sincerely, "Protector Xiao, how dare I claim innocence? The root of this matter is my poor judgment in choosing a person, entrusting my property to a villain, which led to this disaster."

Xiao Hongyun said, "Well, then tell me what you've been doing for the past month. Start from where you were yesterday and what you were doing, then where you were the day before yesterday and what you were doing, and go back day by day. No rush, if you can't remember, just take your time. If you're thirsty, there's plenty of tea."

Upon hearing this, Di Xinjian cooperated fully, displaying clear logic and composure. After a moment's thought, he began to recount the events in reverse order, a process that lasted for an hour. When he had finished recounting the entire thirty-day itinerary, Xiao Hongyun said with a smile, "I would like to trouble you, Master Di, to begin your retelling from a month ago."

Di Xinjian looked helpless and could only recount the thirty-day journey again according to the timeline. He talked until his mouth was dry and his throat was burning, so he could only keep drinking tea. Another hour passed in this way.

After listening to the lecture, Xiao Hongyun said, "I would like to trouble Master Di to tell the story again, going back to thirty days ago."

Di Xinjian: "..."

For six hours, Xiao Hongyun didn't ask any questions, just made Di Xinjian repeat the thirty-day itinerary over and over again until Di Xinjian was numb and could no longer maintain his calm and composed demeanor.

Di Xinjian began to become irritable and easily angered, grabbing his hair and losing control of his emotions: "Lord Xiao, how many more times are you going to ask? I've already told you everything, big and small, what I should and shouldn't have said. I've already repeated the thirty-day itinerary six times. What exactly do you want?!"

Xiao Hongyun slammed his fist on the table and roared, "Insolence! What do you think I'm doing? Just chatting with you here for no reason? Di Xinjian, I'm warning you, you are suspected of conspiring with foreign traitors to cause trouble in Jianta, committing the heinous crime of treason. Your entire family will be executed, and your three clans will be wiped out!"

"I'm asking you questions now to save face for you. If you don't want to save face, I can ask you questions in a less dignified way."

Upon hearing this, Di Xinjian instantly sobered up, no longer daring to be irritable, and quickly begged for mercy: "I'll talk, I'll continue."

Xiao Hongyun pointed at Di Xinjian with a folding fan in hand, his words cold and sharp: "Aren't you merchants all quick-witted and good at twisting the truth and being eloquent? Since you're so good at talking, then give me another six hours to talk, without stopping!"

Di Xinjian had no choice but to continue recounting his itinerary over the past thirty days, recounting it in reverse chronological order and then in forward chronological order. The clerk next to him silently and quickly took notes word for word. Di Xinjian spoke for several hours, and the clerk wrote for several hours.

Xiao Hongyun pointed to the Plum Blossom Guards standing guard beside him: "You continue asking questions. After you finish telling the story, tell it in reverse. Don't let him stop!"

The Plum Blossom Guard clasped his hands in a fist and said, "Yes, Lord Xiao."

"Let's go, Lao Zhou, come have some food with me." Xiao Hongyun patted Zhou Qingfeng, who was pretending to be asleep, then walked to the clerk who was recording the statements, picked up six statements, and left the Plum Blossom Division dungeon with Zhou Qingfeng, returning to the main hall tea room.

The main hall was empty at the moment. The fourteen corpses had been moved to the side hall. Ren Wuji was still examining the corpses and tracing their origins, while Ye Tingxiu was watching over them. Zhou Qingfeng went to the side hall and asked them if they wanted to go out for a late-night snack. Ren Wuji and four coroners were examining the corpses. The workload of examining fourteen corpses was considerable, and they didn't have time to eat, so they declined.

Zhou Qingfeng didn't insist. He would bring some back to Ren Wuji after dinner. He only called Ye Tingxiu, and the three of them left the Censorate together. On a nearby street, they randomly found a restaurant, ordered hot pot and barbecue, and also had a pot of Zhenxian wine.

It's not that the three of us love hot pot and barbecue; it's just that hot pot and barbecue are very quick to prepare.

The ingredients are readily available, and you can eat them in just 15 minutes.

Everyone was hungry all day, and after eating, they had to go back to work.

Who has the patience to wait two or three hours to enjoy a gourmet feast?

Zhou Qingfeng took a slow sip of his wine and said leisurely, "We have business to attend to after dinner. You can have a few drinks, but don't drink too much."

"Mmm." Ye Tingxiu ate and drank heartily, his chopsticks never stopping, his mouth stuffed full of freshly cooked beef and mutton, paired with the dipping sauce, it was extremely delicious.

Xiao Hongyun chuckled at Ye Tingxiu's disheveled eating, took a sip of wine, and used his chopsticks to put food in Ye Tingxiu's bowl: "Old Zhou and I won't take it from you. Eat slowly and be elegant, okay? You're a respectable person now, so don't do these unseemly things."

Ye Tingxiu rolled his eyes: "Mind your own business. I'll eat however I want. If you don't like it, let's have a one-on-one fight."

Xiao Hongyun shook his head, reached out and tucked his folding fan into his belt, took out six confessions and placed them on the table to read. He ate as he read, his face showing focus and seriousness, no longer the frivolous and carefree person he usually was.

Zhou Qingfeng, while eating hot pot, glanced at the food casually and said, "Xiao Xiao, do you think Di Xinjian has a problem?"

"Hmm, he's trying too hard to clear himself of suspicion. I actually think he's the most suspicious person." Xiao Hongyun held a bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other, without even looking up. When he felt like he had no taste in his mouth, he would pick up a piece of hot pot with his chopsticks, put it in his mouth, and then put it in his mouth, making it tasteless and a bit of a hassle.

So Xiao Hongyun put down his chopsticks, picked up a skewer of grilled meat, and started eating while turning over the confession: "Is it possible that his six confessions are exactly the same, Lao Zhou? If I ask you about your itinerary for the last thirty days, can you give the same account in both forward and reverse order six times?"

Zhou Qingfeng shook his head and laughed, "It's impossible. Even if I had a photographic memory, there would definitely be subtle differences in what I said each time. Unless I was prepared in advance and had memorized the same line countless times, I could know it by heart even if the order was scrambled, and I could say it exactly the same every time."