CH 51.1

Chapter 51.1 – She Said She Missed You (1)

Lu Qipei’s days after being transferred to the Court of Judicial Review were not as she originally expected, that she would be stuck at the office reviewing files all day long.

In reality, the Court of Judicial Review was in charge of all the prisons in the kingdom, and its responsibilities were higher than that of the Ministry of Justice. Every case submitted to the Court of Judicial Review were unusual, and every stroke of the officials’ ink could mean the life-or-death of someone.

Under these circumstances, it weren’t just those in charge of investigations that need to be careful – those in charge of verifying the trials like the directors also need to be very cautious. So to be competent in this matter required more than just reading more manuscripts or memorizing more books on law.

When Lu Qipei first joined the Court of Judicial Review, the people there were being polite to her, or they could also be taking the chance to observe her character. When it was discovered that she didn’t rely on her identity as the Prince Consort to slack off, and instead studied diligently, her following days were no longer as leisurely.

The Vice Minister took special care of her. Whenever there was a huge murder case in the capital, she would most likely be assigned to go with him. As a newbie, she wasn’t expected to make any achievements – he just took her to gain plenty of experience and let her adapt to her current position as soon as possible. However, Lu Qipei was very meticulous and occasionally found some clues, which was quite admirable.

In general, she spent less time in the office and more time walking outside. It was only now that she found out that even though it was just one capital city, there were still plenty of serious cases popping up every now and then.

Today was still the same; Lu Qipei still couldn’t laze around at the office. A murder happened at the southern part of the city, and the situation was pretty bad, so Lu Qipei followed the Assistant Minister and ran around non-stop. She tossed and turned the whole morning, and it wasn’t until noon that they finished investigating the body.

It was also time for lunch, so the group was not in a hurry to return to the Court of Judicial Review and found a random dumpling soup stall by the roadside to eat.

Lu Qipei was a newbie after all. After seeing the bloody scene earlier, she had no appetite, let alone to eat meat. She ordered some dumplings with everyone, but didn’t eat them. She only drank some herbal tea from the tea stall next door.

The others had obviously seen something like this a lot, and laughed and teased her. But due to their rank, they didn’t dare to laugh at her too much.

Lu Qipei didn’t care about it and chatted with the others casually, and the atmosphere was pretty good. As they were talking, she suddenly saw several Rong people in Hufu appearing at the entrance of the restaurant at the opposite street. Judging by the attire, the leader was Xie Hongyi.

This was someone that Lu Qipei was a bit concerned about, so her eyes were unconsciously attracted to him.

Perhaps because they were across the street, Xie Hongyi didn’t notice her gaze. Instead, it was the assistant minister beside her who noticed and followed Lu Qipei’s line of sight. His official rank was lower than Lu Qipei and he didn’t have the qualification to go to the court, so he had never met Xie Hongyi in person, but he still recognized him with a glance. “Is that the little noble young master from the Rong envoys?”

Lu Qipei was surprised and looked back at the assistant minister, “Assistant Minister actually knew him?”

The assistant minister smiled, “It’s not like us minor officials don’t keep an ear on things happening outside the window. The Rong people proposed a competition at the banquet, and that little young master wants to compare his Six Arts with our Liang. How could us minor officials have not heard of such a confident person?”

He said the word ‘confident’ in a mocking manner. In fact, almost the whole court held the same attitude towards Rong State’s envoys.

Lu Qipei nodded and didn’t ask any more questions. However, the assistant minister turned to ask her instead, “Milord, I heard that the Rong people called you out at the palace banquet, and now you’re going to participate in a small competition first. Are you absolutely confident, Milord?”

In fact, the Court of Judicial Review was a bit of an exclusive club and didn’t like outsiders too much, but Lu Qipei unexpectedly blended in smoothly and was now regarded as one of their own. Competing with an enemy country was one thing, but competing with others in the court was something else entirely. It was obvious that the assistant minister hoped that Lu Qipei would take the first place.

After all, she had been specifically called out by the other party. If she didn’t even qualify for the competition, it would be too shameful.

Lu Qipei naturally understood what he meant, so she smiled and said, “There are so many talents in the court. I will do my best.”

In fact, she wasn’t really interested in competing with Xie Hongyi. She didn’t want to be involved with the other party, who had a special identity and looked similar to her. Just why was that youth so hostile to her?

As they talked, everyone finished eating their dumplings, paid the bill and got up to return to the Court of Judicial Review.

Lu Qipei subconsciously looked at the opposite road again, but her pupils suddenly shrank – she saw Qi Bo coming out of the restaurant there. There was indeed a hidden force behind this mysterious butler, but she never thought that it involved the Rong State!

She couldn’t help but feel her heart sinking. The things that she had guessed before seemed to have been confirmed, making her feel at a loss.

Fortunately, it didn’t last for long. She soon realized that there were still the shrewd colleagues from the Court of Judicial Review around, so she retracted her gaze, drank the remaining herbal tea in one gulp, and left with everyone.

Lu Qipei who had turned to leave didn’t realize that Qi Bo had taken a look in her direction before leaving.