Movie: Get Alpha Dog at the start

Chapter 879 Si Lili's Transformation
With the clue of poison, the Inspection Institute quickly arrested a group of secret agents planted by the Jinyiwei in the capital.

After severe interrogation, these Jinyiwei secret agents also admitted that they were the ones who instructed Xia Keming to kill Li Hongcheng.

As for the motive, they were not clear either. They only knew that it was an order from the top of the Jinyiwei and they were only responsible for execution.

Fan Xian was more certain of his guess based on this investigation result, but he did not confront Qin Hao immediately. Instead, he reported the result to Emperor Qing.

The second prince rushed into the palace and started to attack Fan Xian.

"Fan Xian, you should know that the person who died was the prince of Jing, a royal relative. Are you going to close the case based on such a trivial memorial?"

Fan Xian clenched his fists and asked word by word, "The lives of the royal family are lives, but the life of Old Jintou is not a life? The lives of the countless wronged souls in Shijia Town are not lives?"

"Fan Xian!"

"What do you think, Second Prince?"

Just when the two were on the verge of a fight, Emperor Qing suddenly spoke.

"Since it was done by a Northern Qi spy, then send a letter of divorce to the young Northern Qi emperor and ask them to hand over the person."

The second prince hurriedly stopped him: "Father, it is clear that someone is using the secret agents of Northern Qi to kill people."

"Oh? You mean to say that the mastermind behind this is a Qing person? Attacking and killing the royal family in the capital of my Qing country?" Emperor Qing shouted sternly with a stern face.

The Second Prince's legs went weak and he fell to the ground, with a hint of fear hidden in his unwillingness. He vaguely felt that Li Hongcheng's death might have some connection with him, but he couldn't figure out what the connection was.

"Okay, both of you go down, I want to be alone."

After sending Fan Xian and the Second Prince away, Emperor Qing asked Eunuch Hou to call Chen Pingping over.

"The murderer behind Xia Keming has been found out. It was a spy from Northern Qi. What do you think?"

Chen Pingping said calmly, "Northern Qi has just suffered a defeat, and they sent the eldest princess to marry. I don't think it was the intention of the Queen Mother of Northern Qi or the young emperor."

"Sean has gone back." Emperor Qing said in a gloomy tone.

Chen Pingping's face changed slightly when he heard this, but he recovered quickly: "It is true that I miscalculated. I didn't expect that Ku He and Shen Zhong could not kill him together, and let him return to power. However, with the current national strength of Northern Qi, Xiao En alone is not enough to change the situation."

"Sean has no grudge against Li Hongcheng, why kill him? Can I still trust your Inspection Institute?" Emperor Qing asked in a deep voice.

Chen Pingping lowered his head in horror: "Your Majesty can always trust the Inspection Office. I will investigate this matter thoroughly and give you an explanation."

"Tell me, does Fan Xian know something? Otherwise, with his character of getting to the bottom of things, he didn't even refute me just now."

“Perhaps it is because young people have experienced setbacks, matured, and learned to put the overall situation first?”

Emperor Qing glanced at Chen Pingping and said, "Do you think it's possible?"

"When I saw Fan Xian a few days ago, he was wiping the stone tablet at the entrance of the Inspection Institute." Chen Pingping lowered his head and answered respectfully.

Emperor Qing put his hands behind his back and sighed softly: "It may be a good thing for young people to suffer some setbacks."

After leaving the palace, Fan Xian first returned home and waited until the middle of the night before sneaking out.

The Office of the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice.

Qin Hao was meditating and practicing Qi, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. Just two days ago, his skills had recovered to the peak of the ninth level, but he was still some distance away from reaching the threshold of the grandmaster, mainly because the true Qi in his body was not perfect enough.

"You've been standing at the door for almost half an hour. Aren't your legs sore? Come in."

Fan Xian pushed the door open and slowly came to Qin Hao.

"Did you kill Li Hongcheng?"

"Yes."

"why?"

Qin Hao asked back: "Why?"

“Why choose Xia Keming?”

"You have to find a reason that makes sense."

Fan Xian looked at Qin Hao in disbelief: "That's all?"

"That's all. Even if it wasn't Xia Keming, there would be someone else."

"Why? Lao Qin, I always thought you were different from them. Why have you become like this now? Is it so interesting to play with other people's fate?"

Facing Fan Xian's questioning, Qin Hao stood up slowly, looked him straight in the eye, and spoke slowly.

"Don't you understand? This is the nature of this world. Has the fairness you idealized ever really existed?"

"From the moment human society was created, there have been classes. You want to seek justice for Old Jintou, but what is justice? Killing someone to pay for their life is justice, but can you do it? The Second Prince's identity is doomed. As long as the Qing Kingdom is not destroyed, he will never pay for the life of a commoner!"

"I admit that I did use Xia Keming and exchanged his life for Li Hongcheng's life, but do you want to know what he said when the Northern Qi spy found him?"

Fan Xian asked in a trembling voice: "What did you say?"

"It's worth exchanging my life as a commoner for the life of a royal relative!"

Fan Xian's pupils trembled violently, and the image of Xia Keming in the dungeon, with his desperate and crazy look, seemed to reappear in his eyes.

Qin Hao wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to Fan Xian word by word, "I am not as great as you, and I am not committed to saving the people. I am a very selfish person. The only people I can protect with all my strength are my family. In my heart, Ruoruo has long been a family member. No matter who tries to hurt Ruoruo, I will make him pay a heavy price, even if it is the high and mighty Emperor Qing."

Fan Xian didn't say another word for a long time, and only said one sentence before leaving.

"What about Ye Ling'er?"

“She’s family, too.”

Fan Xian paused, he knew that soon Kyoto would be plunged into an even more violent storm of blood and gore.

The next day, Fan Xian went to the Inspection Institute. Eunuch Dai from the Vegetable Inspection Department was the culprit who caused Old Jintou's daughter to sell herself to Baoyue Tower. For the time being, he could not do anything about the Second Prince, the real culprit behind the death of Old Jintou, so he could only send Eunuch Dai to apologize to Old Jintou.

The closure of the Vegetable Inspection Bureau forced Eunuch Dai to offer bribes. Fan Xian accepted the bribe in public, which immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of the Censor of the Metropolitan Censorate, who made repeated reports.

As a result, Fan Xian turned a deaf ear at first, but when the censors became too noisy, he asked Wang Qinian to present a piece of calligraphy with the words "barking wildly" written on it, which completely aroused the indignation of the entire Censorate. Memorials fell on Emperor Qing's desk like snowflakes, all demanding that Fan Xian be punished for corruption.

When Eunuch Dai heard about this, he was so frightened that he almost fainted.

At the court meeting the next day, Lai Mingcheng, the censor of the Censorate, stood up in an emotional manner to impeach Fan Xian, accusing him of accepting bribes, being arrogant and breaking the law. Fan Xian refused to plead guilty and cried out that he was innocent. Lai Mingcheng took out a thick book of witness testimony, but Emperor Qing did not read it and sent someone to call Eunuch Dai to the court for a confrontation.

As a result, Eunuch Dai was naturally punished, but Fan Xian had already handed over the three thousand taels of silver given to him by Eunuch Dai to Chen Pingping, and was acquitted on the spot.

With Fan Xian's flattery, Lai Mingcheng, the censor of the Censorate, took on the hot potato of investigating official corruption.

Qin Hao was watching the whole process coldly. In fact, in Qin Hao's opinion, the entire power structure of Qing Kingdom was quite backward. Officials were corrupt, princes formed cliques, and local families were frantically annexing land and keeping slaves. It was hard to imagine that this was a country that had just risen.

The entire superstructure is crooked. Finding and filling in the gaps will not solve the problems of Qing Kingdom at all. What Ye Qingmei couldn't do back then will be even more difficult to do twenty years later. Once someone tries to change the existing situation, the vested interest groups will definitely make him disappear from this world at all costs, just like they did when they killed Ye Qingmei.

After coming out of the palace, Qin Hao took the initiative to find Fan Xian and handed him a silver note worth five thousand taels.

"Do you consider this as a bribe? Aren't you afraid of being targeted by Lai Mingcheng?"

Qin Hao shook his head: "Let me do business with you."

"What deal?"

"Sell Baoyue Tower to me."

Fan Xian looked at Qin Hao in surprise: "Why did you buy Baoyue Tower?"

"Since Li Hongcheng's death, Liujing Riverbank has been closed for half a month, and we don't know when it will reopen. Si Lili doesn't plan to continue working at Zuixianju, so we have to go somewhere else. Baoyue Tower is a hot potato for you now, so you might as well sell it to me."

Fan Xian thought about it and pushed the banknote in front of Qin Hao.

"What, do you think the money is too little?"

"It has nothing to do with money. The incident at Baoyue Tower was caused by Versace, so I should take care of it. Besides, I promised Miss Sang Wen that I would give her freedom."

Qin Hao did not take the banknote, but pushed it back again: "What? Are you afraid that I will continue to exploit them and force them to sell their bodies?"

"Then why did you buy Baoyue Tower?"

"You should be aware of the relationship between Si Lili and I. Do you think I would let her be a brothel madam?"

"How dare you mention Si Lili to me? It's fine if you only have Ye Ling'er, but you also got a prostitute. Where do you put my sister?"

"You don't need to worry about this, brother-in-law. Just tell me straight out, is it okay or not?"

Fan Xian stared at Qin Hao for a long time, then asked sternly, "What on earth do you want to do with Baoyue Tower?"

"Okay, I know that you, Master Fan, are righteous. I have discussed with Si Lili and plan to turn Baoyue Tower into the most elegant singing and dancing hall in the capital. The singers and dancers will only sell their skills but not their bodies. They will also promise not to engage in any intelligence gathering work. Is that okay?"

Fan Xian pondered for a long time and said, "I can sell Baoyue Tower to you, but the indentures must be destroyed, and the people inside can stay or leave at their own will."

"Okay, a forced melon is not sweet, and Si Lili doesn't keep just anyone. She doesn't want anyone with poor skills."

Only then did Fan Xian agree to sell Baoyue Tower to Qin Hao.

The two sides quickly made the handover. In Baoyue Tower, Fan Xian burned their indentures in front of everyone. Most of the women who were deceived chose to leave, and only a few who had nowhere else to go chose to stay.

Si Lili was wearing a black dress, her red lips slightly parted: "Thank you all for staying here, I used to be like you, trying to make a living by the Liujing River, now I can work with you all, I dare not say anything else, as long as I have something to eat, I will not treat you unfairly."

"This world is difficult, and women are treated even more harshly. We will have to depend on each other from now on. If you respect me, just call me shopkeeper. If you don't want to, just call me by my name."

"Thank you, shopkeeper."

"Boss, I will follow you from now on."

Si Lili nodded with satisfaction and looked at Qin Hao with a smile.

Seeing that there was nothing else for him to do here, Fan Xian left Baoyue Tower on the pretext of being busy with official business.

Qin Hao stayed.

"Who among you is Yuan Meng?"

A woman in a green dress and holding a round fan stood up.

"Yuan Meng has met General Qin."

Qin Hao looked at the woman and frowned slightly: "Do you know me?"

"Everyone in the capital knows the reputation of General Qin. What's more, the romantic story between you, Miss Lili and Manager Si is widely circulated along the Liujing River." Yuan Meng said with a smile.

Qin Hao looked at Si Lili and said playfully, "So I'm so famous?"

Si Lili gave Qin Hao a coquettish look.

The scene of the two of them exchanging glances also caused the girls present to laugh.

Qin Hao cleared his throat awkwardly: "I remember that you, Yuan Meng, were the one who managed Baoyue Tower before, right?"

"That's right. The first and second bosses seldom ask about the specific affairs of Baoyue Tower. Everything is taken care of by me." Yuan Meng answered politely.

"From now on, you will be responsible for teaching the girls singing and dancing skills. You don't have to worry about other things."

Yuan Meng's face changed, but soon returned to normal and she agreed with a smile on her face.

Qin Hao looked at her meaningfully, then turned to look at the security guard beside him.

"I heard that many people died in Baoyue Tower before. Were they all done by you?"

Seeing this, the guards hurriedly explained: "General Qin, we are just following orders."

"Oh? Acting on orders? Then whose orders were you following? I think Lord Fan should be interested in this, why don't we call him back to listen to you guys talk?" Qin Hao said with a cold face.

None of the guards dared to say a word.

"From today on, you will have nothing to do with Baoyue Tower anymore. Get out of the capital before sunset tonight, otherwise..."

"We will leave now, General, please calm down."

These guards only bully ordinary people. Qin Hao can make them live a life worse than death with just one word. They dare not ask for any severance pay. They hurriedly packed a few clothes and crawled out of Baoyue Tower.

The girls in the building had been bullied by these ferocious guards many times before, so they all breathed a sigh of relief when they saw them all leave. Only Yuan Meng had an inexplicable emotion flashing in her eyes, but she quickly concealed it and pretended to be very happy.

"I will make other arrangements for the guards of Baoyue Tower in the future. If they do anything wrong, you can complain to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper will punish them. There is no need to be afraid. Now you are all free. If you are not satisfied with anything, you can always go to the shopkeeper to settle the bill and leave. Baoyue Tower will not deduct a single cent from your wages."

When the girls heard the word "wages", they all smiled brightly, which meant that the money they would earn in the future would be clean money.

After giving the instructions, Qin Hao and Si Lili went to the single room upstairs.

"Sean has agreed to destroy your Jinyiwei spy file, and your brother has been properly settled. You don't have to worry about him anymore."

Before Qin Hao could finish his words, a hot body fell into his arms.

(End of this chapter)