Feng Qizheng took the order and left at once.

He didn't come back until evening, and when he did, he was hanging his head.

Ning Chen had a bad feeling. "Something's wrong with that Yuan Zhenzhen, isn't it?"

Feng Qizheng nodded. "I looked into it all over again. That family's always lived there, and a neighbor once saw a very good-looking man with Yuan Zhenzhen... Bah, her name isn't Yuan Zhenzhen. She's the real Li Qiu, Qiu as in autumn. She fooled us all." (TL Note: The name Kang Xiao gave was 李丘, with the qiu that means "hill," which reads as a man's name. Her name is 李秋, with the qiu that means "autumn," a common woman's name. Spoken aloud, both are Li Qiu.)

Ning Chen's pupils contracted. "You're saying she's the real Li Qiu?"

Feng Qizheng nodded and went on. "Guess who that good-looking man was?"

Ning Chen thought for a moment. "Kang Xiao."

Feng Qizheng's eyes went wide. "How did you know?"

Ning Chen: "..."

Is that so hard to guess?

It was Kang Xiao himself who had given him the name Li Qiu. Only the son of a bitch had deliberately gotten one character wrong, and with the portrait on top of it, Ning Chen had believed all along that Li Qiu was a man.

The man in the portrait must have been one of Kang Xiao's trusted men too. Otherwise he wouldn't have tried to avenge Kang Xiao, much less given his own life to protect Li Qiu.

Which meant the real register of the Myriad Nations Society was very likely in Li Qiu's hands, and the one he had was probably a fake.

Ning Chen wanted to curse. Can't anybody just be straightforward? Every one of these bastards has eight hundred schemes going, plotting every step... I'm just asking: are there any good people left in this world?

"Where's Li Qiu now?"

Feng Qizheng hunched his shoulders and said quietly, "Gone... Yuan Long took his eyes off her for one second, and she vanished!"

Ning Chen's face went hard as stone. "Tell Yuan Long…