Ning Chen looked at him. "Where is the letter?"

"A moment, my lord."

Han Ji turned and rummaged around the table for a while, muttering, "That's odd. I remember leaving it right here on the table. How is it not here?"

Ning Chen smiled coldly and watched him perform.

"Don't bother looking. It went to ashes long ago, didn't it?"

Han Ji's expression stiffened.

Ning Chen asked, "You read that letter. What was written on it?"

Han Ji laughed dryly. "I don't remember it clearly."

Ning Chen made a cold sound in his nose. "Why didn't you hand the letter to Geng the Purple Coat?"

Han Ji, all smiles and fawning, said, "Geng the Purple Coat is busy with official business, and what the letter said was not important, so I did not report it up."

Ning Chen smiled coldly.

Geng Jing's face was hard. "Didn't you just say you couldn't remember what was in the letter? How is it you now say what was in it wasn't important?"

Han Ji's expression froze all at once, and he stammered, "This subordinate... this subordinate has just remembered. The letter said there was a fight in the outer city. Small things, and probably somebody playing a prank, so I did not report it to Geng the Purple Coat."

"A fight? Small things?" Ning Chen stared at him coldly. "Let me tell you what was written on that letter."

"The Gao residence in the inner city. Trafficking in people, treating human life as so much grass. Come quickly."

"And you tell me that is a small thing?"

Han Ji's face went white, but he was not panicked. "My lord, what I saw was certainly not that. If it were as serious as that, how would I dare keep it back on my own authority?"

Ning Chen made a cold sound in his nose. "I was the one who had that letter sent to the Inspectorate."

Han Ji looked shocked. "My lord, that letter passed through a red coat and a silver coat before it reached my hands. Isn't it possible somebody had already…