Chapter 108: The Truth (Part III)

"Lad, I must admit, your deductions are truly brilliant! But, everything must be backed by evidence."

"Exactly, I agree with you, Uncle Li. Everything must be supported by evidence. That is why I followed that line of thought to investigate the Prince of Han. In the records concerning him, the most prominent event is when he saved your life. According to the historical accounts, when the Xuanwu Gate Incident was nearing its end, a stray arrow was suddenly fired at you from an unknown source. The Prince of Han caught it with his bare hand, saving your life, though he wounded his right hand in the process."

"That is correct! Is there something wrong with that?"

"Indeed. Last night, when I looked into it, it seemed perfectly normal. Although I had my doubts, that was all I could find. It wasn't until I was about to leave that it occurred to me: I had caused a scene at the Xiaoxiang Pavilion during the day, and then spent the night combing through the files of all the princes. If my guess is correct and the Prince of Han is indeed the leader of the Green Dragon Gang, he would certainly want to test me to see how much I know. So, I waited at home. To my surprise, the Prince of Han’s invitation arrived just as I expected, so I came to the banquet."

Li Er raised an eyebrow. "And what did you discover?"

Li Yi grinned. "Heh, I discovered quite a lot. Over the course of that meal, I stumbled upon two crucial clues. The first is that the Prince of Han is actually left-handed!"

"Left-handed? How is that a problem?"

"Heh, Uncle Li, have you forgotten? When the Prince of Han saved you, he used his right hand!"

Li Er’s eyes widened. "This..."

"Uncle Li, think about it. In that situation, for a youth who had never practiced martial arts to catch an arrow barehanded was already difficult enough, but to do so with his non-dominant hand? It’s simply unbelievable and illogical. Furthermore, consider the circumstances: it was the heat of battle, and you were the most important figure. If an arrow had been fired, would you really have been in danger even without him? Or to put it another way, would a stray arrow that even the Prince of Han could catch have truly harmed you? It’s a farce! And why did the Prince of Han appear only when the battle was nearly over? Doesn't that make his arrival look like a calculated act after the fact?"

Li Er pondered this, and realized the Prince of Han was indeed suspicious. "Go on!"

"Well, based on these doubts, I made a bold hypothesis: that the incident with the arrow was entirely staged by the Prince of Han himself! That is the only explanation that ties everything together. But then, a new question arises: what was his motive? Was it simply to gain your trust? That would be too great a risk; if it failed, he would have lost everything. So, I thought about the scar on his hand. Perhaps he was trying to hide something else? And that brings me to my second discovery at the Prince of Han's estate."

"Speak!"

"While speaking with the Prince, I caught a glimpse of that scar. It was a very strange one. It was strange because a portion of the scarred area had the same smooth texture as his skin. I realized instantly that he didn't just have a scar; he had a birthmark!"

"A birthmark! There are many types, some that differ only in color but feel no different to the touch. But a scar from a sharp weapon is different; it has a distinct texture. I didn't touch it, but I could tell at a glance that there must have been a birthmark where the Prince of Han claimed to have been wounded. This confirms that he staged that scene specifically to cover up that birthmark. Since a birthmark is something one is born with, why would he need to cover it up? The only explanation is that during the Xuanwu Gate Incident, the Prince of Han was no longer the real Prince of Han!"

Li Er stood up abruptly. "What did you say? How is that possible?" Li Er was shocked; this deduction was more chilling than anything he had ever heard before.

"Nothing is impossible!" Li Yi was not surprised by his reaction—to be told that the brother who had lived by his side for five or six years had been replaced was bound to be a shock. But he had to continue. "Uncle Li, don't forget about Chou Gu and Mei Ling. This proves that the Green Dragon Gang has a master of disguise. I suspect that the forged vouchers used by the pawnshops were all created by this master. That is why they had the audacity to open those shops."

"But that doesn't make sense! Disguise can only change one's appearance. Like Chou Gu and Mei Ling, they only changed their faces, but their bodies remained the same!"

"True, disguise only changes the face. But what if the person impersonating the Prince of Han looked remarkably like him to begin with?"

"That is even more impossible! How could there be such a coincidence? Even if there were, what would his motive be? Could it be..." Li Er stopped, unable to finish his sentence as a terrifying possibility dawned on him.

Li Yi sighed. "Uncle Li, you’ve guessed it. Once I deduced that the Prince was an imposter, I recalled something I had found while checking the records of the late Crown Prince's descendants last night. Historical accounts state that the late Crown Prince once lost a two-year-old son during the chaos of war, and the matter was never resolved. However, in those sparse records, it was explicitly noted that the lost child had a long, thin birthmark on his hand."

Li Er looked at Li Yi in shock, his mouth opening and closing, but in the end, he sat back down without a word.

Seeing Li Er settle down, Li Yi continued: "With this, all the mysteries of the Green Dragon Gang are solved. The Xiaoxiang Pavilion was established by the former dynasty's princess, Mei Ling, with the help of the fake Prince. The pawnshops were set up by the fake Prince himself. They used the pavilion to build influence and the pawnshops to raise funds. This was a long-planned conspiracy for rebellion! Uncle Li, I have uncovered everything for you. How you proceed from here is up to you."

Li Er took a deep breath to steady himself, then suddenly asked, "Then why are you currently locked in the Ministry of Justice prison?"