Peng Pei was first surprised, then his surprise turned to joy– this Gu Nan Yi, is so bold that he is crazy! He is actually trying to prove his innocence with this method, but in this world, there is no one who can make a key in an instant by hand! Not to mention, to do it with eyes closed! He is surely handing them his own head on a platter of his own making! 

Li Asuo’s eyes were however getting wider and wider as he watched the copper piece slowly coming into form. His breathing had turned rapid and his withered wrinkled face was full of shock. He is a locksmith so of course he knows what the man in front of him is doing. It’s the work he does every single day. However, when he does this, he requires the help of lots of locksmith tools and light. He needs to spend at least half of a day on the task and what’s more, he might not succeed in one go. 

Keys in any era are always something that is at the forefront of sophistication compare to other things of the time. It is said that keys in the early days were relatively simple but that changed under the first queen of Da Cheng. The queen was quite dissatisfied with the locks and keys of that era. She said that kind of rotten locks and keys required no skills to manipulate at all and that it was no wonder the tombs were easily broken into no matter what kind of locks they had. Thanks to the queen’s continual improvement, the locks in Da Cheng’s palace became more and more sophisticated. After several hundred years had passed, those sophisticated things had gradually become known among the people. Li Asuo had always seen himself as extremely skilled, as the first locksmith of the capital, thanks to the skills that have been passed down in his family through generations. He never imagined in his wildest dream that he would see someone making a copy of a key with eyes closed. What’s more incredible is that the key taking shape in those palms, every edge, and every mark, was exactly the same as the one he had made. In that instant, the artistic skills he had relied on as his lifework and pride, were all overthrown by the mighty Master Gu. 

*clang!*

In the suffocating silence, Gu Nan Yi tossed a shiny copper key, along with the model key it was made from, at Li Asuo’s feet. 

The keys made a knocking sound mid-air, the crisp ringing sound was like a jeering sneer. 

Only then, did Gu Nan Yi say something dryly. 

“Bunch— of —hogwash —” 

Since arriving in court, in the face of all those accusations, he has only responded with these two words (it was two words in Chinese), and he only did so because Peng Pei was attempting to induce him to accuse Feng Zhi Wei. 

The words were few, but like Feng Zhi Wei, words were not needed for their radiance to be seen. 

Li Asuo stood there frozen, like an unmoving wooden statue. He is an experienced master, he knew with one glance that the two keys were the same. 

Peng Pei knew things were not good as soon as he saw the stunned expression on Li Asuo’s expression but he still didn’t want to believe it. Afraid to ask the question out loud, he tried to give Li Asuo a questioning look. 

Li Asuo’s face was ashen as he kept wiping off sweat, avoiding Peng Pei’s eyes. 

Peng Pei’s heart sank. He did not expect at all that Gu Na Yi could pull this off. Seeing that Official Ge is about to open his mouth to question Li Asuo, Peng Pei jumped up suddenly and walked down to Gu Nan Yi. Sneering, Peng Pei said “This is in court, is this a place to play tricks?” and proceeded to raise his feet to kick the two keys away. 

Gu Nan Yi raised his arm the second Peng Pei’s toe left the floor. 

The sound of the heavy chain made the surprised Peng Pei stop stiffly, afraid that Gu Nan Yi would freeze his body with acupoints again. With his leg half raised, Peng Pei lost his balance and fell backward. Feng Zhi Wei just happened to be behind him. 

Straightening up, Feng Zhi Wei was quick to support his back waist and said with a smile, “Official Peng, be careful.” before immediately helping him gently to stand up straight. 

Peng Pei had his back to everyone at the moment, so only Hua Qiong who was leaning against the fence at the entrance of the court hall saw a red flush had rushed into his face the moment Feng Zhi Wei had helped him before disappearing the next instant. 

A glimmer of a chilling smile appeared in Hua Qiong’s eyes. 

Peng Pei, however, did not feel anything at all. Letting out a cold snort the moment he stood up and flung his sleeve to get Feng Zhi Wei away from him, Peng Pei walked away without even a word of thanks. Seemingly not offended at all, a smiling Feng Zhi Wei went back to kneeling on the ground. 

The second she knelt back down, she grabbed the two keys and held them up toward Official Ge and Official Zhang’s direction, “Official Ge and Official Zhang, please look. You Highnesses and Jia Gong Gong, please look. “ (“gong gong” used as a respectful title for eunuchs in the palace)

 The second prince waved and signaled one of his guards to go get the keys. The guard by Ning Yi’s side suddenly strode up, bumped the other guard away with his shoulder, and grabbed the keys first. 

The keys were passed around. Those who were seated all had pretty good eyes and could tell that the keys were indeed exactly the same, especially since they also had Li Asuo’s ashen face as proof. 

The tenth prince was especially outgoing today. Holding the keys in his hand, he showed them off to Jia Gong Gong and said with admiration “Gong Gong, look, there are really exactly the same!” 

Eunuch Jia shakily put on his reading glasses, squinted his eyes for a while, and said with a smile, “This servant is getting old and can’t see too well, but just by the looks of it, indeed, I can’t see any difference.” 

 As soon as those words came out, Peng Pei shuddered. 

Ning Yi took the keys, and examined them with a smile, before suddenly raising his hand and throwing them at Li Asuo’s face. 

“You brazen commoner!” He yelled angrily, “Since Official Gu is in possession of such an amazing skill, why would he need you to copy the keys? You, a mere commoner, dare to falsely accuse a high imperial official, it would not be enough to publicly execute your nine clans!” (In the olden days, when someone commits a major crime, the criminal’s whole family, including all extended families are executed as well.) 

The gold-colored keys flew through the air and smashed right onto Li Asuo’s face. The contact promptly caused blood to come oozing out of Li Asuo’s face, but he was too frightened by Ning Yi’s angry rebuke and was trembling all over to pay any heed to the pain. Not daring even to wipe the blood away, Li Asuo bowed his head repeatedly to the ground and pled with a trembling voice, “This commoner…this commoner was confused…was confused…”

He claimed repeatedly to be confused but refused to admit that he had made false accusations. Ning Yi stared at him coldly and asked somberly, “Li Asuo, you and Official Gu do not know each other, is that right?”

Li Asuo raised his tear-filled face and nodded hesitantly. 

Ning Yi said impassively, “Since you do not know Official Gu, then you certainly would not commit such a heinous immoral crime without any reason. I imagine you must’ve been forced by someone very close to you, or perhaps you were deceived by someone. As long as you are willing to explain your hardship clearly, then I would naturally show you leniency. You can rest assured.” Pausing for a moment here, Ning Yi suddenly raised his voice and said sternly, “But if you insist on stubbornly resisting, then you would naturally be punished by our empire’s highest law!” 

That little speech was almost the exact same one Peng Pei had used to tempt Gu Nan Yi. 

Despite being thoroughly embarrassed, Peng Pei proves to be a  formidable character and quickly steps forward and kicks Li Asuo, “You lowlife, who ordered you to slender Official Gu! Confess honestly and quickly!”

 All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

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