"I... I just..."
The young girl's face instantly flushed crimson, growing even more flustered under her family's collective gaze. Her lovely almond eyes shimmered with unshed tears, glistening like dewdrops in the candlelight.
Though I prefer elder sisters, there's something undeniably satisfying about teasing a little sister who'd cry for hours if you so much as flicked her forehead... Xu Qi'an mused inwardly.
Xu Lingyue puffed up her cheeks, then seemed to throw caution to the wind as she lifted her head and met Xu Qi'an's gaze directly: "I just wanted to know—how did Big Brother crack the case from those investigation records?"
Even Xu Xinnian, who had been doing his best impression of a ghost, could no longer maintain his facade. He silently raised his head.
Prideful of his intellect, he had pored over those same records repeatedly yet found no clues. Yet Xu Qi'an had solved the case immediately after borrowing them.
Auntie didn't speak, but her chopsticks stilled mid-air, food forgotten.
"There's no such thing as a perfect crime," Xu Qi'an said. "Aside from sheer coincidence, any man-made scheme will leave traces if you look closely enough."
Xu Xinnian unconsciously straightened his back, listening intently.
"First, I noticed discrepancies in the tax silver by analyzing the transport route and the weight of the silver ingots..." Xu Qi'an methodically laid out his deductive process.
The more Xu Xinnian listened, the brighter his eyes became - like a student finally understanding his teacher's explanation. Beneath the table, his hands clenched into tight fists.
When Xu Qi'an finished, Second Young Master Xu maintained an expression of practiced indifference: "Not bad."
The Xu family was well accustomed to their second son's habit of saying one thing while meaning another.
The sixteen-year-old beauty lowered her head, carefully hiding the admiration in her eyes.
Xu Pingzhi suddenly slapped the table excitedly, cursing in slang: "So that's how it was! I actually missed that!"
Xu Xinnian glanced at his father and thought to himself, It would be stranger if you had noticed.
Xu Qi'an looked at his uncle and was reminded of a saying: When you lack education, a single expletive serves all purposes.
His uncle, after all, was a martial artist whose literacy extended only to writing his own name - and even that looked like chicken scratch.
"You brute, you couldn't even do simple measurements?" Auntie disparaged her husband.
Xu Qi'an asked, "When they counted the silver, were they wearing gloves?"
After a moment's recollection, Second Uncle looked surprised: "They might have been. How did you know?"
So it really was sodium metal? Xu Qi'an gave him a long look: "Why wasn't this mentioned in the testimony?"
"Such trivial details aren't worth mentioning." At this point, Second Uncle started grumbling: "Damn that Lu fellow for passing me that osmanthus wine. You know my alcohol tolerance is bottomless, so I had a few cups and didn't pay much attention to other things. I'd forgotten all about it until you mentioned."
The worst kind of teammate is exactly like you... If this detail had been in the case files, I could have solved it much sooner without burning so many brain cells... Xu Qi'an sighed inwardly.
To his uncle, this was probably no more noteworthy than what clothes someone wore or how they styled their hair.
"He never even realized this was a crucial clue worth noting."
Xu Xinnian cut straight to the point: "From this, it's clear that the 'Lu' fellow Father mentioned is almost certainly the one who framed him."
"It's all my fault—I nearly doomed the entire family." Xu Pingzhi suddenly grew melancholic. "Ningyan, back during the 'Mountain-Sea Campaign,' your father and I fought back-to-back. We promised each other we'd both survive and rise to greatness together."
"I lived... but your father fell in battle. That was when I realized—if I wanted to live better, I had to change my ways."
No longer being cannon fodder.
"So I sent Xinnian to study and chose to have you train in martial arts. Truth be told... I was being selfish."
Auntie rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, all your affection went to your dear nephew."
One hundred taels of silver a year...
"From Auntie's tone, does that mean Second Brother isn't your real son?" Xu Qi'an swore he hadn't meant to say it—it was pure instinct, bypassing his brain entirely.
The original host really held a grudge against Auntie, huh?
"You little wretch! What kind of nonsense are you spouting?" Auntie slammed the table in fury.
Xu Xinnian and Xu Lingyue kept their heads down, shoveling rice into their mouths as if accustomed to such scenes.
Xu Pingzhi rubbed his temples. "Enough! I barely escaped death, and now I have to listen to you all bicker? I might as well have died!"
Everyone returned to eating in silence.
Speaking of the Mountain-Sea Campaign, Xu Qi'an had some recollection of it.
This world was vast and boundless, with the Dafeng Dynasty reigning over the Central Plains as the rightful hegemon. Founded on martial might and governed by Confucian principles, it had once been so prosperous that nations from all corners came to pay tribute. Now, six centuries later, its reign endured.
Twenty years ago, Dafeng had joined forces with the Western Regions to wage a decisive battle against the northern nomads and the southern barbarians at Shanhai Pass.
The conflict involved millions of soldiers.
From start to finish, it lasted only half a year—yet in that time, countless lives were extinguished.
It became one of the bloodiest wars in history, recorded as: The Mountain-Sea Campaign.
Xu Qi'an's father had died in that war.
"...Based on my armchair historian knowledge and the patterns I've gleaned from dubious literature, no dynasty can escape the 'Three-Century Rule.'"
The so-called "Three-Century Rule" was a term Xu Qi'an had coined himself.
As a self-proclaimed amateur history buff, he'd distilled this principle from his previous world's five millennia of recorded history: excluding the Zhou Dynasty—with its feudal fragmentation and backwardness—no imperial dynasty had ever lasted beyond three hundred years.
Both the Song and Han dynasties had also undergone restructuring before continuing.
After some thought, Xu Qi'an concluded that the Dafeng Dynasty's six-century reign likely had something to do with this world's unique power systems.
The little bean sprout was brought back by Lü'e. Now that her stomach was growling, she had stopped crying. Too short to reach the table, she sat nestled between Lü'e's legs, being spoon-fed obediently.
"Mommy, why did we have to live in the black house before? I was always hungry." The little one recalled her recent ordeal—she called the prison cell the "black house."
The table fell silent. Auntie's eyes softened with pity.
Xu Pingzhi sighed. "It was Father's fault."
"Oh." The toddler nodded, then added cheerfully: "Yesterday I woke up hungry and caught a bug! It had these on its head—" She raised two tiny fingers above her own head, mimicking antennae.
A cockroach. One of the two undisputed rulers of prison life, alongside rats.
The entire table stiffened, expressions twisting between guilt and heartbreak. That their youngest had suffered like this was a failure they all shared.
"You... you ate it...?" Li Ru's lips trembled, her eyes reddening. She had given birth to this little girl in her thirties, and though the child wasn't the brightest, she doted on her fiercely.
"Nope!" Xu Linyin chirped. "Then I heard Mommy's tummy go grr grr!"
A heavy silence dropped over the table.
Auntie's face paled. "...And then?"
"Then I put it in Mommy's mouth! She ate it super fast!" Beaming with pride, the toddler awaited praise.
Auntie swayed on the spot.
Xu Xinnian slowly set down his chopsticks. "I'm full."
Xu Lingyue: "Me too."
Xu Qi'an: "Totally stuffed..."
Xu Pingzhi: "..."
After a few frozen seconds, Auntie lunged under the table.
"WAAAAHHHH—!!" Soon after, the night sky echoed with the sound of a child wailing like a slaughtered pig.