Free Web NovelChapter 230: Chapter 137: So Close, Yet So Far
After dealing with the two of them, Fang Shuwen lightly dusted off his hands and looked back at Fang Lingxin and Shui Qianrou, who had woken up at some point.
At that moment, the young girl’s eyes were filled with complex emotions.
She had been awake for a long time.
"Did you see everything?"
Fang Shuwen asked softly.
"Yes."
Shui Qianrou nodded with some difficulty.
"So the one who really killed Aunt Shui Man... was Ironman..."
"Master, did you suspect him all along?"
Fang Lingxin pouted.
"You weren’t really expecting to see Xiao Rou’er’s brother tonight. You were just using us as bait."
Fang Shuwen nodded without a hint of shame.
"I was nearby the whole time. If he had dared to harm you, he would have been dead long before you got here."
"Of course I trust you, Master."
Fang Lingxin smiled.
"But, Master... how did you come to suspect him?"
"At first, I didn’t. But there was one thing that kept bothering me the more I thought about it."
Fang Shuwen walked over to them. free𝑤ebnovel.com
"Let’s head for the Mountain God Temple by the East City Gate. I’ll explain as we go..."
Fang Lingxin naturally had no objections, but Shui Qianrou couldn’t help but ask:
"Will it... be very dangerous there?"
"Yes."
Fang Shuwen nodded affirmatively, then said with a smile:
"But I’ll be there."
Those few simple words immediately put Shui Qianrou at ease.
To travel faster, Fang Shuwen carried Fang Lingxin, and Fang Lingxin held Shui Qianrou.
As he traveled, he explained his theory to the two girls.
Just as he had said, Fang Shuwen hadn’t suspected Ironman at first.
It was just that all the clues at the time pointed to Shui Qianliu, which struck Fang Shuwen as odd—as if someone was deliberately leading them in that direction.
So, the words he’d spoken to Shui Qianrou back then were not just for comfort; he was also forming another theory in his mind.
Especially that needlessly elaborate Water Silk trap...
’Why create such a superfluous trap?’ Fang Shuwen had wondered.
Let’s assume the killer wasn’t Shui Qianliu. Why would the real culprit go to such lengths to frame him again and again? As the saying goes, "going too far is as bad as not going far enough." Being too deliberate makes it look fake.
Unless the Water Silk trap had another purpose.
This led Fang Shuwen to consider it from another angle. If his group hadn’t shown up, who would have most likely been caught in the trap?
The answer was obvious: Ironman!
After all, he and Shui Man were husband and wife. Upon seeing her dead, he would have certainly rushed over to check on her.
He would have carelessly triggered the mechanism, and even if it didn’t kill him, it would have surely injured him.
’But what would Ironman gain from that?’
That answer wasn’t hard to guess either. He would gain everyone’s trust. No one would suspect that a killer would set a trap with the purpose of harming himself.
A completely unnecessary act became his best camouflage.
Fang Shuwen could even imagine the scene if they had arrived a moment later.
Ironman would be grievously wounded, and all the disciples of the Celestial Water Palace would be pointing their fingers at Shui Qianliu.
With all the clues erased, who would ever suspect Ironman, a man who had just lost his beloved wife?
His suspicion of Ironman began from that moment.
And at that point, Fang Shuwen also recalled the matter of Shui Qianrou’s whereabouts being exposed...
Before this, Shui Qianliu had already left the Celestial Water Palace.
Shui Qianrou’s running away from home was a secret; if it had been common knowledge, she never would have had the chance to leave the Celestial Water Palace.
So why were those evil cultivators from the Eastern Domain able to capture her so precisely?
And why were they so certain they could use her to stir up conflict between the Celestial Water Palace and the Seven Eastern Sects?
From this, he deduced that there must be an insider at the Celestial Water Palace.
Once he reasoned it out to this point, many things started to make sense.
This insider was the one who killed Shui Man, and it was highly probable that this person was Ironman.
As a member of the Celestial Water Palace, it was only natural for Ironman to possess Water Silk.
As for Shui Man dying from a sword wound... Fang Shuwen had asked Shui Qianrou about that.
Ironman was a man with "no" past. It wouldn’t be surprising for such a person to be hiding any number of skills.
Of course, at this point, all of Fang Shuwen’s deductions were still just theories.
Fang Shuwen wouldn’t convict a man based on speculation, so he had spent the entire afternoon waiting.
If Ironman truly was the insider, he would definitely find a way to separate Shui Qianrou from him.
Because he was colluding with those evil cultivators from the Eastern Domain, and capturing Shui Qianrou was the core of their plan.
If Ironman hadn’t come looking for him at his residence today, it would have meant he was properly carrying out Shui Qianrou’s orders.
But since he did come... it meant he didn’t care about Shui Qianrou’s orders.
And when Ironman came looking for Fang Shuwen the first time today, he was alone, with no subordinates.
From that moment on, Fang Shuwen had essentially signed his death warrant.
So after that, nothing Ironman said could earn back Fang Shuwen’s trust.
But even then, Fang Shuwen still had no concrete evidence.
So, he told Ironman to do something that would draw out Shui Qianliu, to have him come and see his sister.
As it turned out, he didn’t do it.
Fang Shuwen asked Chen Yan, "Did you see anything interesting outside?"
