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...Which required someone to be charged with everything.

Do you think the current True Lung was unaware of all this...?

Hmph.

Changes in the court naturally lead to unrest among the masses. 'The Purge of Traitors'. A very fitting slogan.

The then-young True Lung acted with an iron fist to sweep away many courtiers with evil intent, stabilizing the situation as quickly as possible. This ensured this spell of court intrigue never made it outside the walls of the Forbidden City.

For forty years, I assumed I was the only one aside from the True Lung himself to still remember what transpired.

Until ten or so years after that case ended, that young man stood in front of me once again.

I fear you speak of that time too lightly, Mr. Ning.

It was not only traitors who were 'swept away'. There was also the entirety of the Grand Preceptor's family, twenty-eight in all.

They were all sent to prison. Some committed suicide in their cells to prove their innocence. Those who lived were exiled. I tried to find some trace of them, but it was no use. Couldn't find a single one.

Except for a child... Spirited away during the turmoil, still swaddled in a blanket.

I never considered the possibility she still lived, yet never truly believed she had died.

It seems you've met her.

A few days ago. Her appearance is... not too similar. But their personality? It's like two peas in a pod.

Gu Quan never spoke a word about that child's whereabouts during the decade he spent in Baizao, right up until his death...

I'm sure you're now well aware of why he died on the road back to Victoria.

Yu Cheng, you old bastard.

You used Gu Quan's own death to ensure there was no possibility of anyone finding that child, which also gave you an opportunity to investigate me.

At the time I assumed Gu Quan had no success in his exhaustive research into the Grand Preceptor case, which prompted him to leave Baizao in despair.

It was only after many years that I realized it was not the so-called truth that he sought. He had long since found the answers to those troubles you mentioned earlier.

What he hoped I would do was something else entirely.

I don't understand...

Are you telling me you two knew all along that Blaze was the orphan from that case?

Your investigation should have already revealed that Gu Quan and Yu Cheng knew each other.

After taking the child away, Gu Quan kept the secret of her whereabouts to himself for decades. But before he met his untimely end, he confided in the only 'friend' he had, Yu Cheng.

After his death, Yu Cheng immediately began to search for her.

However, he was unable to personally act as deputy minister at the Judicial Review Office. He entrusted the task of performing discreet inquiries to me, far from the center of court politics, so as to not attract attention.

By the time I found her in Victoria, she was already infected.

I could not take her back to Baizao right away. For the sake of protecting her, I had no choice but to place her in the care of a medical organization that treated the Infected.

So it was you...

You were already aligned at the time, I see.

But you were also part of this plan from early on, Deputy Minister Lin.

What do you mean?

How was it you were able to find Blaze's trail? How were you able to come across those files pertaining to her past? Surely you didn't just attribute them to chance?

Yu Cheng would not have told you these himself. The risk was too great. There could not be a third person who knew of this in all of Terra.

But he was always searching for a suitable candidate... One with courage, who stood for truth.

He has long since been ready to give his life for this cause. I am happy to dirty my hands doing what must be done in his stead.

But it's not enough. We needed someone pure and innocent, one who could use honest means to lay bare the truth.

It's nearly time.

We still have one last opportunity.

Do you still wish to bring the truth out into the light of day, Deputy Minister Lin?

Yu Cheng... That is the truth behind the Grand Preceptor case you seek.

Do you have any further questions?

You've spoken at length, yet you've said nothing about your role in these events, Mr. Ning.

Why did you send someone to kill the Minister of Justice?

Do you not already have the answer, Deputy Minister Yu? Was it not you who accused me years ago of having the Minister murdered to stop him from investigating and save myself in the chaos?

You need not be in such a hurry to discredit yourself.

There was one question that perplexed me for a long time. Why did Gu Quan stay at your house when he returned to Baizao nearly a decade later?

It was not until I saw that girl at your house did all the puzzle pieces fall into place.

He narrowly escaped with his life, yet he still returned to Baizao, not only to find the truth of what happened, but also to search for the daughter he left behind.

It seems he did not tell you much.

Yes. Most of what follows will be mere speculation. If I'm wrong, feel free to laugh in my face.

I heard that after the Grand Preceptor's suicide following accusations of treason, the entire nation was in uproar and mandarins distanced themselves from her. Yet, one Academy student dared to honor her in public.

It was thus that he stumbled onto the Grand Preceptor's home as the belongings within were being confiscated. In his hurry, all he could take away was a baby girl, just born into the family. As it so happened, his own daughter was recently born as well.

At his wit's end, he tried to flee Baizao with his wife and the two babies. As a scholar with no background, he didn't get far before an Imperial Guard captured him.

Perhaps out of compassion and wanting to keep the Grand Preceptor's bloodline going, the Imperial Guard spared the scholar and the Grand Preceptor's child, instead taking the scholar's daughter.

I do not know what Gu Quan was thinking at the time, but it was most likely he had no other choice.

This child fell into the hands of the Minister of Justice, her bloodline obvious with a modicum of research. But as it turned out, how to handle this child of an outsider was a delicate conundrum indeed.

It was around this time that you, Mr. Ning, long dissatisfied with the Minister's extreme methods, decided to take the ultimate risk: assassination.

The Grand Preceptor's case implicated many, and it seemed fitting that the bloodstained Minister of Justice met his end through retribution. With the court's turmoil resolved, the True Lung allowed the bloodstained curtain to finally fall in this fashion.

The only unresolved question left is that child. Based on how things are now, she was taken into your care. What this entailed is not hard to guess. But as for the why of it...

If I recall correctly, Mr. Ning, you enjoyed the tutelage of the Grand Preceptor as well, correct?

O Yu Cheng, had you not been absorbed in Judicial work or confined to this cell, I shudder to think what that meticulous mind of yours might have accomplished.

It's terrifying, truly terrifying.

You flatter me. I'm nothing more than a fool compared to Gu Quan. It is simply because I have met far too many people in my capacity as Deputy Minister of the Judicial Review Office. The more one sees, the more one learns.

Now that I think about it, the dish Gu Quan offered to the True Lung at the Feast of a Hundred Delicacies wasn't merely an act of suicide—it was him reconciling with the truth.

Before he passed, he did not tell me the truth, but he did divulge the whereabouts of the Grand Preceptor's orphan. He must have hoped that once I found the truth for myself, I would also choose reconciliation.

Yet I could not.

All I could do was use my methods to find the people still left, the ones you care for, and force you to spit out the truth.

All things considered, Mr. Ning, you are no villain, perhaps just a coward...

Hate me all you want.

To see that child once more has always been a wish of mine...

I will go and seek an audience with His Majesty.

You... You know everything?

I only just found out...

I still want to ask you—

How are you... so calm about all this...?

It was a suspicion I hid away in my heart for many, many years... One I have finally found proof for.

Like a thorn stuck in your palm. It may bleed a bit when you pluck it out, but you'll feel much better afterward.

Why...

Why won't you say something?

I don't know how it came to all this...

Should I feel sad or angry right now...?

I don't know... All I know is that my mind's a mess and my heart feels like it's being stabbed... Who the hell am I supposed to set ablaze with this fire crawling up my throat?!

Well, I have a question for you.

Blaze... Can you tell me about Gu Quan? My... my father. What sort of man was he?

He... He was an idiot, a nerd, and a liar!

I hate lies! I've seen too damn many of them! Greedy lies, cowardly lies, sneaky lies...

But never one that demanded a lifetime of commitment, one that cost him his own daughter and himself, all to protect someone who had nothing to do with him.

How... How could he be so stupid?

It reminds me of a story I once read...

There once was a guard who watched over a rest station by the river. One day, he saw a flood coming from upstream. He wanted to run upstream and tell the people there to close the sluice gates.

But he had only run halfway when he saw the river was rising too quickly. It was too late to close the gates. So he immediately decided to turn and warn the villagers downstream to flee.

Back and forth he ran, until finally he was consumed and swept away by the flood. He didn't manage to do anything or save anyone.

Get to the point already...

Would you... Would you say this man's deeds sound familiar?

Fine, I get it! Well, I don't really get all the details of your windy-ass story, but you're talking shit about him, aren't you?

He wasn't a bad guy, okay?! He was just... Urgh!

I know you've got good reasons to blame him, duh, but if he was the one who threw you away, why would he spend so much time coming back to look for you—

I thought I would be the one consoling you, not the other way around...