Fang Hai's face was both infuriated and despairing.
"Qiu-shidi! Why didn't you come to get me?!" He cried out, rushing to the bedside.
Qiu Yunru coughed awkwardly. "This shidi tried...but things didn't turn out how I had hoped. Don't worry, Fang-shixiong; I'm all right. Lord Li has provided me with medical aid, and I'm in a stable condition."
Fang Hai looked like he was about to tear out his hair. Internally, he was berating himself a thousand times over until his was beaten to a pulp by his own scolding. He was such an unsatisfactory head disciple, and an even worse example shixiong! Allowing his shidi to get into a situation like this and not even arriving in time to help sort anything out until it was over, he was practically a failure!
Qiu Yunru consoled him good-naturedly as Fang Hai woefully explained that he had been too far out in the city to get word of the events in time.
"I've set a terrible example. Next time, this shixiong will make sure not to leave your side during this kind of mission where demons are about. Even with all my planning...!"
"It's really okay..."
"It certainly isn't!"
Meanwhile, Li Chenyuan stared burning holes into the back of Fang Hai's head one after another.
When Fang Hai was finished prostrating himself to Qiu Yunru, he turned around and began to do the same to Li Chenyuan. He didn't see the seething glare coming his way at all. Li Chenyuan's face had an amazing quality that allowed him to change expressions instantly, so when Fang Hai's eyes landed on him, his face was already back to normal: sharp and serious.
As Fang Hai apologized, Li Chenyuan waved him off carelessly with his fan.
"It's no problem; this lord is safe, thanks to master Qiu."
Qiu Yunru recounted the situation to Fang Hai, who couldn't help but grow more and more horrified the more he heard. A scholarly demoness with Binding Ink and the power to drain one's life force...even with all his years in the Jade Clouds Sect, he'd never encountered a demon of that caliber! And he'd left his shidi alone to fend it off! If he hadn't been lucky and had the Blue Three-Headed Snake Eye on hand, he would have a whole mansion of dead people on his hands, not to mention a dead sect brother!
Shameful, shameful, shameful!
He should be demoted a thousand times! Ten thousand!
Though Fang Hai was clearly in a bad state, he couldn't mourn his own incompetence for long. He soon pulled out a letter.
"I returned because we received a letter from one of the servants of this house. They claim it was written by Li Fengguang, and that he wished for it to be delivered to us. The contents really are..." Fang Hai's face grew sour as he handed it to Qiu Yunru. "...Distasteful."
Qiu Yunru opened the letter. The handwriting was scrawling and squiggly. It would make sense for Li Fengguang's writing to have become so illegible, considering the largely immobile state of his body. It took a good few moments to get used to the script.
Qiu Yunru's eyes widened.
"If this is true...isn't this a direct confession?"
The contents of this letter...
They were truly hideous!
Proud admissions to having beat his worthless nephew nearly to death on dozens of occasions, declarations of eternal hate and murderous intent towards his nephew, and even a confession of summoning demons and monsters in the hopes that they might do Li Chenyuan in....
Qiu Yunru read the last lines again, shocked:
I, Li Fengguang, have summoned demons into Jin He City for the past months in the hopes that even though this body has failed me, one of them might tear that brat Li Chenyuan's soul to pieces!
This was really like a letter out of a true crime investigation film!
Although...wasn't this...a little too obvious?
LI Fengguang was a proud and greedy man. Even though he had been permanently disabled, unable to speak or move about easily, what motive would he have to write such a letter clearly laying out his crimes for arrest? Such a spoiled and entitled man surely wouldn't want to go to prison...
As Qiu Yunru considered this, Li Chenyuan finished reading the letter over his shoulder. His pretty face hardened into ice, and wood of the fan in his hands cracked under his tight grip.
When he spoke, his voice was icy, but resigned. "Unfortunately, I'm unsurprised by such behavior. Though, who delivered this letter to you?"
"A person claiming to be Li Fengguang's personal bedside servant."
Li Chenyuan nodded to a nearby servant. "Go and see if Song De is in the mansion and retrieve him."
A few moments later, that servant returned, harried and frazzled. "My lord! All of Song De's belongings have disappeared! There is no trace of him!"
"What? Go and notify the city guards to search for him! He must not be allowed to get away!" Li Chenyuan snapped, sending that poor servant scurrying off again. Then he began to pace, seeming agitated.
What a moment of drama! It seemed that that servant had really run away!
Naturally, everyone in the room came to the conclusion that they should check if Li Fengguang was still in the mansion, If his personal servant had fled after providing his letter of confession, it was entirely possible that Li Fengguang had also made a run for it. If he had gone, he would face no justice for carrying out such vile acts. This made sense to Qiu Yunru; a man of such a greedy and vile temperament would certainly flee after attempting murder to avoid the discomfort of imprisonment.
Together, Fang Hai and Qiu Yunru followed Li Chenyuan to his room. Though he was feeling nauseated from his earlier injury, Qiu Yunru still managed to drag himself along to see. He couldn't miss the ending of this storyline, could he? That was the best part!
Together, they reached Li Fengguang's room, hidden away in a corner of the household.