Jiang Sihe was now unable to defend herself no matter how she tried. After all, when she had perfunctorily dealt with him back then, she had indeed said that she had painted it following *Three Thousand Realms*!
"Miss Jiang, the second daughter of the Jiang family, could you please explain this to me?"
Explain my ass! He clearly already knew everything but still wanted her to admit it herself!
What a sly old fox!
"Lord Pei, this is rather pointless, isn't it? Since you knew I lied that day, and now you're questioning me like this... What exactly do you want me to do?"
Pei Yanchao was amused by her attitude of throwing in the towel.
"I'm just afraid that Miss Jiang, the second daughter of the Jiang family, might come up with other excuses. So, can Miss Jiang tell me the truth this time?"
This man really deserved his reputation for being scheming. He had calculated her into his trap long ago, and she had thought she was so smart!
But if that old man was Lord Chen, why hadn't he told her his identity? Since he hadn't revealed his identity to her, did it mean he had deliberately concealed it and didn't want others to know who he was?
"Then, can Lord Pei tell me why you must ask about the person who taught me how to draw?"
Pei Yanchao glanced at Yan Lin and motioned for him to leave first. Then he turned around and picked up a file from the desk.
"This is the last case Lord Chen handled back then..."
Jiang Sihe was puzzled that he would even show her the files from the Ministry of Justice.
"Isn't it inappropriate for a commoner girl like me to look at the files of the Ministry of Justice?"
Pei Yanchao smiled faintly. So she knew to be cautious at this moment.
"They're all old cases from the past. It won't have any impact!"
Since he had said so, she wouldn't be polite. She just happened to want to see if Lord Chen's handwriting was the same as that of the old man in the back mountain of the other courtyard.
Identity and appearance could be changed, but handwriting, even if deliberately concealed, would still show some clues.
She opened the file and found that it was an unsolved case. The case was about a hunter who found a skeleton on the mountain while hunting. When the Ministry of Justice took over the case, Lord Chen drew the appearance of the person based on the skeleton.
Then he had people check the portrait against the missing persons in the capital. But in the end,
they found that the family of the skeleton had moved to the south of the Yangtze River a few years ago.
Lord Chen had people go to the south of the Yangtze River to ask the Bai family to identify the body, but the other party flatly refused, insisting that their daughter, Bai Yuezhu, was alive and well. Why should they go to identify a body!
At this point in the case, even Lord Chen had marked a question on the file. Why was the portrait he drew that of Bai Yuezhu, the daughter of the Bai family, while the Bai family said their daughter was alive?
He drew the portrait again based on the skeleton, and it was still Bai Yuezhu. But the Bai family said their daughter was alive. Since the victim's family refused to identify the body, even as the head of the Ministry of Justice, he couldn't continue the investigation.
So this became an unsolved case!
There was Lord Chen's handwriting on the file. After careful identification, Jiang Sihe found that some of the traces were indeed similar, but not exactly the same. She wasn't sure herself...
If she could take the file back and compare it with the letter the old man had left for her bit by bit, maybe she could tell.
But Pei Yanchao probably wouldn't allow her to do so!
"I've asked the people in the Ministry of Justice who were involved in this case. Lord Chen also sent people to the Bai family, and they did see Bai Yuezhu, the daughter of the Bai family..."
Jiang Sihe frowned slightly. "So, does it mean there were two Bai Yuezhus later?"
Pei Yanchao nodded. "You can put it that way..."
The oddity of this case must have made Lord Chen suspect something. But why did he suddenly retire from office and leave the capital before finishing this case?
"When did Lord Chen leave the capital?"
Pei Yanchao seemed to have guessed she would ask this question. "Lord Chen retired from office and left the capital five years ago."
Five years ago?
Jiang Sihe couldn't help but recall that it was exactly five years ago when she met that old man. She remembered that she had just celebrated her tenth birthday that year, and her stepmother hadn't even cooked her a bowl of noodles. She had been sad about it for a long time...
"Why did Lord Chen retire from office and leave the capital?"
Jiang Sihe guessed that if the old man in the mountain was really Lord Chen, then he must have encountered something and deliberately lived in seclusion in that mountain...
"Due to the political situation in the court, he had no choice but to retreat."
Pei Yanchao frowned, and his tone was cold. This made Jiang Sihe can't help but wonder that if Pei Yanchao was just looking for Lord Chen because of the case of Bai Yuezhu, it seemed a bit far - fetched.
He must be hiding something from her.
"Does Lord Pei think that the person who taught me to draw bone diagrams is Lord Chen?"
Pei Yanchao frowned, and his voice was low. "That's why I've invited Miss Jiang, the second daughter of the Jiang family, here. I want an answer."
Jiang Sihe understood that at this point, even if she didn't say anything, Pei Yanchao would investigate. It was just a matter of time. It would be better to be honest.
"Indeed, there was an old man who taught me to draw bone diagrams back then. But he didn't reveal his identity, and I don't know if he was Lord Chen!"
Pei Yanchao stared intently at Jiang Sihe's expression as she spoke and knew that she wasn't lying. Then he asked in a deep voice.
"Where is he now?"
"I don't know. He left two years ago."
In fact, the three - year time she had spent with that old man wasn't that long ago, but for her who had been reborn, it seemed like more than a decade.
"Did he leave any clues? Where did he go?"
Pei Yanchao, who was always calm and cold, actually sounded a bit anxious in his tone.
He really cared so much about that person's whereabouts?
"He didn't leave any clues."
Jiang Sihe didn't know what Pei Yanchao was looking for that person for, so she held back a bit and didn't mention the letter the old man had left.
"Lord Pei, your insistence on finding Lord Chen shouldn't be just for the case of Bai Yuezhu, right?"
An old unsolved case shouldn't make Pei Yanchao so concerned. There must be other reasons...
Pei Yanchao glanced at Jiang Sihe but didn't say anything.
Back then, when his father had an accident, he was first imprisoned in the imperial prison and then taken away by the Ministry of Justice. Chen Jimin was the chief judge. But on the night his father entered the Ministry of Justice, he died in the prison.
Finally, the case was concluded as suicide out of fear of punishment. The Pei family almost had their entire family executed. It was the Empress Dowager Xiaoren (the emperor's biological mother) who exchanged her own life for the lives of the Pei family.
At that time, he was still young and was serving as a companion for the emperor in the palace. He only knew that his father had been framed for having an affair with the Empress Dowager Xiaoren...
Such a thing as an affair between a former court official and the harem was naturally taboo for the royal family, and the case was investigated very secretly. But he knew it was absolutely impossible. His father would never do such an immoral thing...
After the Empress Dowager Xiaoren saved the Pei family, she was also sent to the cold palace. At that time, the crown prince, who was now the emperor, almost had his position as the crown prince abolished...
After that, the former emperor suddenly fell seriously ill, and the crown prince ascended the throne. The imperial concubine, who had no children, became the Empress Dowager of the Great Jing Dynasty because of the power of her family, which was the current Empress Dowager.
Later, he began to secretly plan and gradually entered the court. But he had never found the person who had framed his father and the Empress Dowager Xiaoren!
Later, he entered the Ministry of Justice and rummaged through all the files of the Ministry of Justice but didn't find the file about his father. He guessed that Chen Jimin must have been instructed by the culprit to destroy all the clues related to his father's case.
He had always had people keeping an eye on Chen Jimin's old residence, but apart from the old, the weak, the women, and the children, he had never seen his figure...