Chapter 278 The Death of Chu Taibao

Because Yin Li's library was so incredibly rich, the task of restoring it progressed much faster than expected.

"In just three days, nearly a thousand volumes have been restored!" Lord Song, who is in charge of the library, was stunned.

Yin Li's heart was bleeding as he watched the books in his Wanjuan Pavilion being taken out one by one.

How many books have been restored in the library? How many books are missing from his Wanjuan Pavilion?

After this, it is still unknown how much manpower and material resources will be needed to restore the books in Wanjuan Pavilion to their original state.

However, in front of outsiders, he simply waved his fan calmly and said, "Oh, these are only one thousandth of the books in my Wanjuan Pavilion. They are not worth mentioning. I am sorry to make you laugh."

Lord Song stepped forward with a broad smile on his face. "Sir, your surname is Yin, but are you a member of the Yin family of Jiangling?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt everyone's eyes on him.

Whether it was the guards on duty or the Hanlin scholars who were checking and proofreading books, they all looked at him in amazement.

Lord Song comes from a family of scholars and is well-known in the court for not fearing the powerful and wealthy. He is extremely noble in his daily life.

This is also the reason why the emperor chose him to be in charge of the library. After all, to put it nicely, this temper is the backbone of a scholar, but to put it bluntly, it is that of a greenhead, and he can't get along in the court at all.

When Yin Li first came, he had a cold face and did not show up, saying that Yin Li was just a country boy, and that the emperor had sent him to repair books, which was simply a waste of the library!

But now, he actually took the initiative to approach and strike up a conversation!

"Oh my God, is the sun rising from the west? The wrinkles on Lord Song's face are all shaped like chrysanthemums from smiling!" Some young scholars could not suppress their restlessness and whispered to each other.

Lord Song faced everyone's gazes, standing still as a mountain, completely overturning everyone's previous impression of him.

He even tried to establish a relationship with Yin Li with a smile: "I have a distant cousin who is planning to discuss marriage with the Yin family..."

As soon as these words were spoken, many people's mouths twitched.

Someone murmured, "Distant cousin? Lord Song usually looks down on his stupid relatives, saying they are all vulgar."

"Oh my God, it turns out that Lord Song just disdains to interact with others on a daily basis, but he actually acts like this when he becomes shameless!" Some people called it an eyesore.

Yin Li was also surprised, and then said: "No, I have nothing to do with the Yin family."

I originally thought that Lord Song would be embarrassed, but unexpectedly he became even more enthusiastic. He praised Yin Li to the sky with a bunch of flowery literary flattery.

Yin Li felt happy after being praised: "Master Song can come to my Wanjuan Pavilion more often in the future. Let's get down to business first."

Everyone's eyes lit up. They were all bookworms and wanted to go to Wanjuan Pavilion too!

Yin Li thought with a smile, apart from being humiliated in front of Hu Xiner, she is still very popular!

The books in the library are naturally not collected at will by Mu Qing and the other two, but there is a strict collection process.

First, Lord Song gave Mu Qing and the others a catalog of damaged books. After the three of them found the books, he summoned a hundred scholars from the Hanlin Academy to read and compare them day and night. They had to make sure that the books were not damaged, with no missing pages or words, before they could be put into the library.

In fact, the emperor originally only summoned 10 scholars because he felt that no matter how wealthy Yin Li was as a private collector, he could only find a dozen precious books a day.

Who would have thought that on the afternoon of the day he sent Mu Qing out, Mu Qing actually came back with a cart full of books!

And every day after that, he would bring so many books back to the capital!

Facing Lord Song's shock, Mu Qing wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Thank you for your hard work, sirs."

After he finished speaking, he drove the ox cart out of the palace without stopping.

As soon as he left, several white-haired scholars came over and asked, "Master Song, how is it? Did you find out anything?"

Lord Song shook his head: "Before I could ask, he left."

Everyone immediately complained bitterly: "Every day, truckloads of goods are sent in. Even the young people are dazzled by it. How can we old bones handle it?"

"Lu Yunjue, this brat, is so ignorant! Now that all the books have been moved away, I wonder what he'll do if he can't find the books and comes back to report..."

It turned out that they were all overwhelmed with work, and they wanted Lord Song to help them investigate Mu Qing's situation—how many carts of books were still waiting to be delivered? Could they possibly ship less for now to give them some time to rest?

Just as they were cursing Lu Yunjue with dark circles under their eyes, a cry of surprise suddenly came from outside.

"Academician Liu! How are you?"

"Hurry up, Academician Liu has fainted from overwork..."

Outside the palace gate, Hu Xin'er, sitting on an ox cart, praised, "My husband, you are truly hardworking and persevering!"

In fact, Mu Qing was the most tired person these days, but he didn't complain at all.

Unexpectedly, Mu Qing said quietly, "Only if you finish the work quickly will Yin Li have no excuse to stay by your side."

Hu Xiner was sweating. It was said that women were jealous, but the jealous look on men's faces was simply unbearable!

"By the way, I have an appointment in a few days." Mu Qing suddenly said when he arrived at the door of Wanjuan Pavilion.

Hu Xin'er immediately asked curiously, "Who do you have a date with? What are you going to do?"

Mu Qing did not give a direct answer, but just gave a wink.

Yin Li came out, fanning herself. "What are you two doing standing at the door? Get back to work!"

On the appointed day, Mu Qing indeed took half a day off and then wandered around in the alley.

After shaking off the pursuers behind him, he came to the Guanyin Temple in the south of the city.

Considering that there are more female guests in the Guanyin Temple, he disguised himself and moved carefully among the crowd to avoid being recognized by fanatical fans.

He walked into the main hall and found an old monk in a cassock in front of him.

When the old monk saw that it was him, he was relieved at first, but then he showed a serious expression: "Donor, please follow me!"

Mu Qing was secretly on guard in his heart, this was not the process they had agreed upon before!

The old monk took him to the monks' quarters behind the courtyard.

And in the monk's house, there lay the dying Chu Taibao!

"Taibao, what's wrong with you?" Mu Qing took two steps forward and looked around vigilantly.

Chu Taibao said intermittently: "Yes...it's the prince."

"Did the prince poison you?" Mu Qing speculated.

Chu Bao explained the whole story of how the Crown Prince had poisoned him, then, using his remaining strength, he said, "Mu Qing, I know what you're doing. I haven't betrayed you, but you must avenge... my son..."

"What?" Mu Qing moved closer in surprise.

Chu Taibao forcefully stuffed something into Mu Qing's hand: "This is what my son was holding tightly in his hand when he died..."