Tie Ruonan read this line, and her eyes gradually dimmed.
"What a pity. This Hua Jiu Xingzhe was killed on the spot, so it's impossible for him to have left a legacy. If he had left a legacy, the timing would have matched." The girl sighed in her heart.
She didn't give up, and carefully flipped through the Gu Yue historical records until time ran out and Gu Yue Yaoji came to urge her.
As soon as Tie Xueleng and his daughter walked out of the clan head's pavilion, Fang Zheng greeted them: "Did you find anything?"
Tie Xueleng was silent, and Tie Ruonan shook her head with a bitter smile.
But Fang Zheng said: "I just remembered Section 179: History is Written by People. This might be of help to you. Once, my brother was very close with Chi Mai, and the elder of Chi Mai, Gu Yue Chili, once defended him publicly. Miss Tie, what do you think, could this wine Gu have been secretly given to my brother by Chili?"
"People from Chi Mai?" Tie Ruonan frowned.
"That's right. Before the wolf tide, Chi Mai and Mo Mai were the two largest factions within our Gu Yue clan," Fang Zheng explained.
Why was Chi Mai involved again? Tie Ruonan fell silent.
She felt a headache.
This was her first time solving a case. She had been full of confidence initially, but when she actually started, she found it fraught with difficulties.
In the past, watching her father solve cases was like peeling a cocoon, methodical and clear, almost effortless. But now that she was practicing it herself, she realized how hard it was.
Sometimes there were no clues, sometimes all kinds of clues came out in a jumble, leaving her at a loss.
The truth was always shrouded in mist, and she didn't know if she was getting closer or farther from it.
Was this lead about Chi Mai useful at all? Tie Ruonan felt lost, and she subconsciously looked at her father Tie Xueleng.
"Father must have already figured out the clues." The girl's admiration for her father deepened.
"If it were Father, this case would have been solved long ago. I still have so far to go to catch up to him. But even if I fail, as long as Father is here, the truth will eventually come out and the murderer will be brought to justice." Tie Ruonan felt both ashamed and proud.
With Tie Xueleng around, she wasn't worried that the criminal would escape justice.
But soon she shook her head, feeling somewhat annoyed with herself.
This annoyance was entirely directed at herself.
"Ruonan, you really are hopeless. Don't you want to surpass Father? Always wanting to rely on him—with that mentality, you'll never surpass him!"
"Ruonan, come on, you can do it!" The girl pursed her lips and silently cheered herself on.
Her fighting spirit surged through her body.
She decided to overturn her previous assumptions and start all over again.
"If the wine Gu wasn't obtained by Fang Yuan from some hidden legacy, but was given by someone else, then Chi Mai is the prime suspect. But there's another point: why would Chi Mai think highly of an ordinary student with only C-grade aptitude and secretly give him a wine Gu?"
"What special advantage does Fang Yuan have that would make Chi Mai invest in him? Just because he is Fang Zheng's brother? No, that's too insignificant. Wait, maybe it wasn't Chi Mai taking the initiative—there's another possibility: that Fang Yuan was blackmailing Chi Mai!"
"If that's the case, what kind of leverage did Fang Yuan have to force Chi Mai to swallow their pride and obediently compromise with a student who wasn't even a Gu Master?"
Tie Ruonan pondered deeply, and an answer gradually emerged in her mind.
But the answer was too vague, like a glimmer of light behind a paper window. Tie Ruonan could sense it, knew it was there, but couldn't reach it, couldn't see it clearly.
"Father," the girl suddenly looked up at Tie Xueleng, "I want to borrow the Immortal's Finger."
Tie Xueleng's voice was low: "The Immortal's Finger gives hints based on what the planter knows. It only thinks for you, and isn't necessarily correct. Are you sure you want to use it?"
The girl nodded.
The Immortal's Finger was a seed.
Tie Ruonan took it and buried it in the soil at her feet, then pressed her palm against the ground and infused it with silver true essence.
After a few breaths, she withdrew her palm. Soon, the soil loosened, and a sprout broke through.
The newly grown sprout was translucent green, very tender. It grew with the wind, becoming bigger, from a tender yellow-green to verdant, and finally to emerald.
Its shape was like a cactus, with sharp black spines on the surface, thick flesh, and lush green.