"Haiqin, who did you hear this from?"
He Haiqin replied with a wooden expression, "Word came from the Lu family."
He Yuxiu waved a hand dismissively. "You believe news from the Lu family? This is an obvious attempt to drive a wedge between us!"
He Haiqin looked at He Yuxiu. "The Lus wouldn't fabricate this out of thin air. I'm going to get to the bottom of it."
He Yuxiu rubbed her chin, deliberating for a long while before saying, "Let Old Third head to Yuezhou first to take a look. I've watched Jiaqing grow up since he was a boy. He's an honest child—how could he possibly deceive you?"
"No need for Old Third to go!" He Haiqin stood up. "I've already had someone buy the train tickets. I'm taking a trip to the Outer States myself. I'll see for myself whether the person lying in that hospital is really him!"
"Haiqin, you can't act rashly. You're the head of the He family! If you go to the Outer States, think of the massive stir it'll cause!"
And a massive stir it truly caused.
He Yuxiu could not stop He Haiqin.
The next day, He Haiqin boarded a train bound for the Outer States.
***
Zhengjing Village was a flurry of activity. Filming for the third installment of *Blood Gun Detective* was nearly wrapped up, with Ma the Fifth leading the crew around to scout locations and reshoot critical scenes, while Li Banfeng headed to Lüshui City to prepare for promotion and ticket sales.
Cinemas across every district were waiting with bated breath. Li Banfeng didn't even need to send out invitations; reporters from all the major newspapers flocked to his doorstep on their own initiative.
Since it was inconvenient for him to show his face in public, he left everything to his subordinates. The frenzy was obvious from the major papers: coverage of *Blood Gun Detective* dominated more than half of the front pages.
Aside from *Blood Gun Detective*, there was another piece of major news.
*Eldest Son of the He Family Suspected to Have Appeared in Puluo Province.*
Not every newspaper carried the story. The Ling family's papers didn't breathe a word of it, while the Lu family's papers gave it extensive, prominent coverage.
Li Banfeng read through the article carefully. In essence, it reported that He Jiaqing had posed as the famous movie star Zhou Changhong in Lüshui City and had been exposed by an acquaintance.
Who was this acquaintance?
Setting that question aside for the moment, Li Banfeng set down the paper as a chilling dread crept up his spine.
Back then, he had boarded the train to Wuqin Township in order to trail Zhou Changhong and find out who in the Ling family was pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Looking back now, Zhou Changhong at that time had been He Jiaqing.
*If I had actually gotten off at Wuqin Township, what would the consequences have been?*
*Back then, Zhou Changhong had seemingly used a Fool Cultivator skill on me, leaving me wracked with indecision for almost the entire journey.*
*There are only two Fool Cultivator successors left alive in this world. Could He Jiaqing be the other one?*
*Did he lure me into getting off at Wuqin Township because he wanted to make a move on me?*
*Did he want to take back the bronze lotus?*
*If I refused to give it up, would he have killed me?*
*And even if I had given it to him, would he have spared my life?*
A razor-thin line between life and death. Truly a hair's breadth from disaster.
Fortunately, he had used the Judge's Brush to break the deadlock and gotten off at Jianrengang.
Li Banfeng drank a cup of wine to steady his nerves, then continued browsing the related news.
There was quite a lot of coverage regarding He Jiaqing. Why had his return caused such an enormous commotion?
Reading through the other reports, Li Banfeng caught the underlying angle.
The commentaries in the Lu family's newspapers were mainly aimed at establishing one point: that He Jiaqing being wounded by Lu Xiaolan was an outright hoax, and the Lu family had suffered an unjust accusation.
To an outsider, the Lu family had cleared their name this time.
To an insider, whether they were cleared of injustice didn't matter. What truly mattered was that the Xuansheng Red Lotus no longer had any connection to the Lu family.
Deducing from all the clues, the Xuansheng Red Lotus was still in He Jiaqing's hands, and Lu Xiaolan had been made the scapegoat.
*Who could ever imagine that the Xuansheng Red Lotus is actually in my hands?*
The eldest young master of the He family drew too much attention; that might have been one of the reasons he couldn't personally bring the Red Lotus back to Puluo Province back then.
Were there other reasons?
Perhaps, but none that could be discerned yet.
Aside from that, there was another crucial piece of news: He Haiqin had gone to the Outer States.
*Jiaqing, your father's gone to see you. You'd better treat him well—after all, your father counts as a good brother of yours too.*
Li Banfeng set the newspaper aside and casually picked up the oil can.
The wife gave a shiver. "Aiya, Husband, what special day is it today? Why the sudden urge to grease me with machine oil?"
Li Banfeng smiled warmly and guilelessly. "Today is a good day. A very good day indeed!"
"Aiyayaya! Husband, allow your humble servant a moment to prepare! Husband, don't rush with the oil brush, this humble servant isn't ready yet..."
Amidst her raspy cries, steam billowed out in rapid bursts.
Hong Ying jolted awake from her sleep, shouting, "What happened? Have enemy troops breached our lines?"
The gramophone ground her teeth and groaned, "They—they're inside!"
***
At the Lu family mansion, Lu Yuanhai cursed loudly, "That bastard He Jiaqing! He set up a damn scheme and threw our entire family into turmoil! Tomorrow, I'll have the newspaper run a few more articles. Let's see how their He family will ever maintain a foothold in Puluo Province!"
Lu Yuanshan remained silent.
Monkey Qiu asked, "Did this news really come from the Old Master's side?"
Lu Yuanhai replied, "How could it be fake? Great-uncle's head butler told me himself—Great-uncle recognized He Jiaqing with his own eyes!"
Monkey Qiu lit a cigarette, his expression grave. "Why would the Old Master leak this information?"
Lu Yuanhai asked in surprise, "Uncle Qiu, do you suspect the news is fake?"
Qiu Zhiheng shook his head and said nothing.
Lu Yuanshan said, "Regardless of whether the news is true or false, Great-uncle shouldn't have revealed it. The He family has always been at our throats because of the Xuansheng Red Lotus. They've constantly suspected it was in Xiaolan's hands, or even in ours. That situation worked in Great-uncle's favor—with us tied down by the He family, Great-uncle had the chance to trip us up from behind the scenes. Now that He Jiaqing's matter has been exposed, our suspicion is cleared, and Great-uncle loses his chance to turn the tables on us."
Lu Yuanhai came to a sudden realization. "Going by what you're saying, Great-uncle had another motive for spreading the word."
Lu Yuanshan looked toward Monkey Qiu.
Monkey Qiu remained silent for a long time; he couldn't figure out Lu Maoxian's thinking either.
***
Lu Maoxian hadn't wanted to expose the matter himself either, but he had no choice—this was an order from the Sage.
The youth in white said, "Senior Brother, Master made it very clear. He Jiaqing poses an immense danger. We cannot let him keep a foothold in Puluo Province in the future. As for his affairs, the more people who know, the better. We must never tolerate him stirring up trouble from the shadows."
Lu Maoxian nodded. "Everything shall be as Master commands."
***
At Yuezhou Third Hospital, Zhou Changhong, who was lying in the hospital bed, sensed someone beside him and snapped his eyes open.
He thought Xiao Zhenggong had arrived, but unexpectedly, the one standing next to him was He Jiaqing.
Zhou Changhong breathed a long sigh of relief, only to tense up again immediately.
He had come clean with Xiao Zhenggong and told him everything. Did He Jiaqing know about that?
He Jiaqing kept his voice low. "Brother, you've had a hard time these days. Here are the train ticket and travel permit for returning to Puluo Province. Once you're back, go lay low at Miaoying's place for a few months. Try not to show your face over the next few days. When the heat dies down, I'll have Miaoying buy you another courtyard estate in Lüshui City."
Zhou Changhong waved his hands repeatedly. "We're brothers—why speak of such things?"
Another person stood behind He Jiaqing. Zhou Changhong recognized him; he was Zhu Junlong, the general manager of Chashan Hotel.
"Changhong, stay over at Junlong's place tonight. Tomorrow, he'll see you off at the station."
He Jiaqing had prepared a change of casual clothes for Zhou Changhong. Zhou Changhong changed into them immediately and left the hospital with Zhu Junlong.
Not long after they left, Big Head entered the hospital room.
"You're just letting him walk away like that?" Big Head was referring to Zhou Changhong.
He Jiaqing let out a wry laugh. "What choice do I have? He's my brother. If a brother wrongs me, I'll shoulder it myself, but I can never do a brother dirty."
***
Zhou Changhong followed Zhu Junlong to the hotel, where Zhu Junlong settled him into a suite.
Having posed as He Jiaqing for so long, Zhou Changhong was utterly exhausted. Zhu Junlong had originally wanted to give him a few more instructions, but Zhou Changhong merely yawned, slipped under the covers, and fell soundly asleep.
At two in the morning, Zhou Changhong opened his eyes.
He moved drowsily, as if heading to the bathroom, but along the way, he was carefully observing the location of every surveillance camera.
One in the bedroom, one in the living room, and one by the entrance.
With his cultivation, evading these three cameras was not very difficult, but he had to make some preparations.
There were no cameras in the bathroom—a perfect place to prepare.
He took out a disposable toothbrush cup and filled it with water.
Using a disposable razor, he nicked his finger and squeezed droplets of blood into the cup.
The blood dispersed evenly through the clear water. Zhou Changhong drank half of it and left the remaining half in the bathroom.
He returned to bed and went back to sleep.
Ten minutes later, the remaining half of the bloody water rapidly evaporated, turning into a thin mist that permeated the entire suite.
An illusion materialized within the suite.
From the outside, nothing appeared to have happened in the room; Zhou Changhong was still asleep in bed.
In reality, however, Zhou Changhong had already left the room. His clothing and appearance had undergone an immense transformation, shifting from a tall, handsome, middle-aged man into a petite young woman.
Taking the elevator down to the first floor, he saw the staff on duty in the hotel lobby dozing off.
Zhou Changhong calmly walked out of the hotel entrance, casually picked up a flyer from the ground, and hailed a taxi.
Once inside, he instructed the driver to take him to Yingshan Apartments.
He had neither money nor a cell phone on him. When he got out, he stuffed the flyer into the driver's hand.
In the driver's eyes, he had received a hundred-yuan banknote.
In this day and age, few people paid with paper bills. Just as the driver was wondering how to make change, he heard Zhou Changhong say generously, "Keep the change."
The driver thanked him profusely and drove off.
Zhou Changhong entered the apartment building, went up to Unit 208, and unlocked the combination lock.
This was the escape route he had prepared for himself.
Xiao Zhenggong had warned Zhou Changhong that once He Jiaqing returned, he had to notify Xiao Zhenggong immediately, or He Jiaqing would silence him by killing him.
With both He Jiaqing and Xiao Zhenggong before him, whom would Zhou Changhong trust?
He trusted neither. Now, he only trusted himself.
He had the travel permit, and he had the train ticket. He possessed a brand-new identity that not even He Jiaqing knew about.
Once he returned to Puluo Province, he planned to disappear without a trace. His savings from the first half of his life were more than enough to maintain his lavish lifestyle.
He had bought this apartment, fully stocked with all daily necessities, but he had rarely stayed here.
The bed was covered in dust. Zhou Changhong patted it a few times, only to find that the more he patted, the more dust appeared.
*Strange. Where is this dust coming from?*
It didn't seem to be coming from the bed—it was coming from his hands.
Zhou Changhong looked down at his palms and discovered that his right hand had split open along the palm lines, and thick plumes of dust were gushing out from the fissure.
Horrified, Zhou Changhong's legs gave out, and he collapsed to the floor.
From the fall, he discovered his legs had split open as well. There was no blood inside the wounds, only an endless stream of dust.
He tried to scream, but the moment he opened his mouth, dust came surging up from his throat.
Half an hour later, nothing remained in the apartment but a scattering of dust—not even his clothes were left behind.
***
Back in the hospital room at Yuezhou Third Hospital, Old Wan checked the time and said to He Jiaqing, "His condition should be kicking in right about now."
He Jiaqing asked, "Can it be cleaned up without leaving a trace?"
"Rest assured, nothing will be left." Wan Jinxian looked toward the vase beside the hospital bed. "I'd actually like to see what that fellow disciple of mine looks like."
P.S. Zhou Changhong's clothes were given to him by He Jiaqing.
Chapter 263