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Chapter 438
Lin Cheng told him, "She's been watching this coup drama from start to finish since this morning. She's been here the whole time, didn't you notice?"
Lin Cheng took a glance at the projector in Lafeier's hand, "That thing in your hand belongs to her."
It was obvious that the evidence Prince Lafeier had stored on his computer had been secretly copied by Qiao Ying earlier. This meant her eyes had not left Country C at all, Lafeier thought.
Young Prince: "Who are they talking about?"
Kala: "Not sure, could it be apart from..." She looked at Qin Hanyue, then quickly averted her gaze, "Apart from Mr. Qin, there's someone else helping us?"
Lafeier: "Things have come to this, I've lost. There's nothing more to say. Aren't you taking me to the military tribunal? Go ahead."
Lafeier assumed the posture of being arrested without resistance.
But Lin Cheng looked at him, "I'm taking Lafeier Howard to the military tribunal, are you him?"
Lafeier's eyes were deep and dark as he gazed at Lin Cheng.
Young Prince: "What are they talking about?"
Lai En's gaze silently shifted between the two men confronting each other.
In the grand hall where even a pin drop could be heard, the incoming call ringtone from Lafeier's pocket suddenly broke the silence. Lafeier lowered his eyes slightly, then took out his phone.
The one calling him was the assassin he had sent to kill Lin Gu Li.
But Lin Gu Li was standing right here at this moment, while he had lost contact with the assassin and others he had sent out for a whole day.
When an assassin was on a mission, there was no failure, only death.
The assassin he had sent out had little chance of surviving.
Yet now he was calling him.
Lafeier didn't pick up right away. He didn't even dare to pick up—he was afraid.
But now trapped in this grand hall, with countless fully armed imperial guards outside the hall, and inside the hall...
He probably had little chance of escaping.
So Lafeier reluctantly answered. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't the assassin's voice coming from the phone, but the last voice he wanted to hear.
The girl's voice was cold, "Since you've asked about me, this old acquaintance, and were in such a hurry to leave, what are you so afraid of?"
Lafeier: "Old acquaintance? Who are you?"
The girl didn't reply to him, and went on, "You won't make it to the military tribunal, so don't think about escaping on the way there."
Lafeier: "Just who are you..." The deliberately audible footsteps made him stop talking and look over immediately.
He saw the girl walking down the stairs with one hand in her pocket, utterly relaxed and at ease.
Young Prince: "Who is she? How did she get here?"
Kala felt this girl looked very familiar. In the next moment, she suddenly recalled this face and immediately looked to Qin Hanyue. The latter was staring at the girl, his eyes gentle and tender.
Kala had investigated Qin Hanyue's deeply loved fiancee he spoke of, and wasn't she the one coming down the stairs right now?
Kala still remembered her name, it was very similar to Ju Yin who had seduced Lin Cheng away from Qin Hanyue, called Qiao Ying.
But why would she appear here?
It had to be said, Ju Yin and Qiao Ying were very similar in appearance, style and voice. No wonder Mr. Qin would...
Lafeier put down his phone-holding hand and looked at her, "—You—"
Qiao Ying directly exposed his inner thoughts, "Are you planning to deny to the death and struggle desperately at the end?"
Lafeier hesitated before speaking, "...How did you find me and recognize me?"
Qiao Ying tilted her chin slightly in one direction, "They found you, not me."
Lafeier turned to look.
Moon Shadow and Flowing Shadow both appeared, bringing someone—a person identical to Lafeier.
The old king's family was stunned, especially the Young Prince, who reacted the most, "Two, two Lafeiers? What's going on?"
Karina was also confused. How could there be two Lafeiers?
Lai En looked at the Lafeier held by Moon Shadow, "Father?"
Then he looked at the "Lafeier" beside him.
Moon Shadow threw Lafeier on the ground and said to the other Lafeier, "You hid so deep, it was hard finding you."
Flowing Shadow had his arms crossed. He said, "So that's how you managed to appear in two places at once—a true Monkey King act."
Qiao Ying: "They found you, I recognized you."
Qiao Ying had felt all along that something was off about Lafeier in the photos and surveillance videos.
She compared them repeatedly but just couldn't pinpoint what was wrong.
Until that night Flowing Shadow tailed the "fake doctor" who had secretly harmed Lin Cheng to a private residence. Lying in ambush outside the residence, he finally saw Lafeier, who was recuperating in the hospital, walk out of the residence.
Only then did Qiao Ying realize what was off about those photos.
The Lafeier appearing in those photos all along were two different people who just happened to have the same face. No matter how alike they pretended to be, details would give away their habits.
Qiao Ying had easily analyzed from the start that the ambitious Diamond J would most likely collude with the powerful Howard family.
He would either disguise himself as the family head Lafeier, or lurk behind the Howard family as a puppet master.
So she chose to confirm Lafeier's identity first.
The reason she hadn't found any traces of cosmetic surgery or calluses on Lafeier's face and hands was because it had been the real Lafeier before her all along, not Diamond J wearing a Lafeier mask.
If the Howard family were here and learned the truth, they would surely feel a chill down their spines—to think two Lafeiers had been taking turns living with them all this time.
Lafeier: "I guessed you might be coming for me, that everything was just an act to lure me out."
He looked at the grand, golden hall symbolizing status right in front of him. "But for my grand vision and ambitions, for this day, I had devoted too much effort. So even knowing this could very well be a trap you set, urged on by you, I still stepped into your snare one step at a time."
"Sure enough, this is your trap."
Qiao Ying had no sympathy at all, "Dying under your own ambition, what's the point feeling wronged and resentful?"
Lafeier: "Actually, I still had a chance to leave earlier." He looked at the Lafeier by Moon Shadow's feet, "When he had a stomachache and you took him away."
He should have realized then that Qiao Ying was here.
But Qiao Ying, Moon Shadow and Flowing Shadow exchanged glances. Stomachache and they took him away? When they found this guy upstairs, he had been unconscious!
Could it be he had such a bad stomachache that he fainted? And they just happened to pick him up? Impossible. Judging by his state upon regaining consciousness, he had clearly been knocked out by someone's knifehand strike.
Qiao Ying seemed to understand something and looked to Lai En.
He met her gaze, his eyes dim and unclear.