Old Bennett, you’re something else—now you know how to shift the blame, even using your own daughter as a tool. Andrew Bennett glanced at the ever-calm Uncle Bennett drinking his wine, and at Aunt, who looked pained but helpless.

Little Dou Ding is Aunt’s Achilles’ heel.

“It was just a joke at the time, things were already like that...” Aunt sighed.

“Even children get tricked—Aunt, you don’t keep your word.” Andrew Bennett instinctively retorted, making the beautiful woman’s chest heave with anger.

“Big brother, big brother, take me with you!” Seeing Andrew Bennett’s kind face and that he was speaking up for her, Little Dou Ding happily ran to Andrew Bennett’s feet, grabbing his pants and trying to climb up.

Guiyue Restaurant, one tael of silver per person... Andrew Bennett said in a deep voice, “Lü’e, take her away!”

Little Dou Ding was taken away.

Aunt kicked her husband and subtly gestured toward Andrew Bennett with her mouth.

Uncle Bennett

Felt a bit embarrassed, glanced at his ever-curious son, but unfortunately William Bennett had suffered social death—dead men tell no tales, they can only eat.

The food was mediocre, mainly because there was no broth. After all, everyone had just returned home. Andrew Bennett ate as if chewing wax, and glared at his elegant little sister: “Lucy, why do you keep sneaking glances at your brother?”

Chapter 9: The Rampaging Aunt

“I, I...”

The young girl’s face instantly flushed red, and seeing her family watching made her even more embarrassed. Her beautiful apricot eyes misted over, sparkling in the candlelight.

Although I prefer the older sister, bullying this little sister who can cry for ages after a single punch is actually pretty fun... Andrew Bennett thought.

Lucy Bennett puffed out her cheeks, then, in a “to hell with it” manner, lifted her head and met Andrew Bennett’s gaze: “I just want to know how big brother solved the case from the files.”

William Bennett, who had been pretending to be invisible, could no longer keep up the act and silently looked up.

He prided himself on being smart and had read the case files, studying them repeatedly but getting nowhere. Yet the day Andrew Bennett asked him for the files, he solved the case right away.

Aunt didn’t say anything, but her chopsticks stopped moving, and she stopped chewing.

“There’s no such thing as a perfect crime. Except for coincidences, any man-made case will always leave some clues,” Andrew Bennett said.

William Bennett unconsciously straightened his back and listened intently.

“First, I noticed something wrong with the tax silver from the route it was transported and its weight...”

Andrew Bennett explained his reasoning process.

The more William Bennett listened, the brighter his eyes became, like a student having his doubts resolved by a teacher in private school.

His hand under the table clenched tightly into a fist.

When Andrew Bennett finished, Thomas Bennett wore a calm, “not bad” expression: “Not bad.”

Thomas Bennett had always been contrary, and the family was used to it.

The beautiful sixteen-year-old sister lowered her head, hiding the admiration in her eyes.

Peter Bennett slapped the table in excitement and cursed in slang: “So that’s how it was—I can’t believe I didn’t notice.”

William Bennett glanced at his father, thinking, It’d be strange if you did notice.

Andrew Bennett looked at Second Uncle and remembered a saying: “Pity my old man is uneducated, but a single ‘damn’ gets him through the world.”

Second Uncle was a martial man, his literacy limited to writing his own name, and even that was crooked like chicken scratch.

“You brute, you can’t even weigh things properly?” Aunt dissed her husband.

Andrew Bennett asked, “When they were counting the silver, were they wearing gloves?”

Uncle Bennett thought for a moment, surprised: “Seems like they were. How did you know?”

So it really was metallic sodium? Andrew Bennett looked at him meaningfully: “Why wasn’t that mentioned in the testimony?”

“Trivial detail, not worth mentioning.” At this, Uncle Bennett grumbled, “It’s all that Lu guy’s fault for handing me a pot of osmanthus honey wine. You know my drinking capacity is unfathomable, so I had a few cups and didn’t pay much attention to anything else. If you hadn’t brought it up, I’d have forgotten.”

The worst is a teammate like you... If that detail had been in the case file, I could have solved it even faster—so many brain cells died for nothing... Andrew Bennett sighed.

To Second Uncle, this was probably as trivial as what someone wore or how they styled their hair.

He never realized it was a suspicious point worth noting.

“So, the Lu guy Dad mentioned is almost certainly the one who framed him,” William Bennett cut straight to the point.

“It’s all my fault for being muddle-headed, almost got the whole family in trouble.” Peter Bennett suddenly grew a bit sentimental: “Charles Bennett, back in the ‘Shanhai Campaign’ your father and I fought back to back, promising to survive and make it big together.”

“I survived, but your father died in battle. That’s when I decided, if I wanted a better life, I had to live differently.”

Couldn’t be cannon fodder anymore.

“That’s why I had Will study and chose to have you practice martial arts. Honestly, I had my own selfish reasons.”

Aunt rolled her eyes: “Yeah, your heart’s all with your nephew.”

Over a hundred taels of silver a year, after all.

“So, from what Aunt says, Thomas isn’t your real son?” Andrew Bennett swore this wasn’t something he meant to say—his instincts just overrode his brain.

The original host really held a grudge against Aunt.

“You little rascal, what are you getting at with that kind of talk?” Aunt

Aunt slammed the table in anger.

Thomas Bennett and Lucy Bennett kept their heads down, eating, as if they were used to it.