Chapter 268 God's Will

Ministry of Personnel.

Document library.

Several figures dropped from the sky and landed gently in the yard.

It was late at night, and Li Nuo didn't dare to come to the Ministry of Personnel alone.

But with the company of a beautiful woman and peace, I feel completely safe.

Li Nuo had already investigated in advance and found out that there would be people on duty in the Ministry of Personnel at night, but the security was not tight and they would pass by the outside of the document library approximately once every half an hour.

He arranged for Jia and Yi to guard the courtyard, while he and An Ning went into the file library to search.

There are two doors in the case warehouse. The first door is the door of the yamen. Inside the yamen, there is another door, which is the real entrance to the warehouse.

Although both doors were locked, to Li Nuo, any lock was useless.

He only had a thought, and the two big locks hanging above the warehouse opened.

Inside the warehouse, there were many rows of bookshelves that stretched as far as the eye could see. The two of them searched separately, Li Nuo looking for Ho Tung's files, and An Ning looking for Xu Zhi's files.

Li Nuo held a candle and searched a row of bookshelves.

He had already learned in advance that in order to facilitate searching, the files in the case library were classified according to names. As long as he found the file of the official named He, he would be able to find what he wanted.

The surname He is not a common surname, and the files of officials with this surname could not even fill up an entire bookshelf.

Li Nuo quickly found what he wanted.

He opened the file, moved closer to the candle, and looked upwards.

Ho Tung, who passed the imperial examination in the 22nd year of the reign of Emperor Zhisheng, was the chief pharmacist in the Eastern Palace Pharmacy.

All the configurations of the Eastern Palace are in line with those of the imperial court. The Pharmacy Bureau is a medical institution under the Eastern Palace that serves the crown prince exclusively, and is equivalent to the Imperial Medical Bureau of the imperial court.

The Pharmacy Bureau was headed by the Pharmacy Officer and assisted by the Pharmacy Secretary. Whenever the prince was ill, the attending physician would diagnose and discuss prescriptions, while the pharmacist and the medicine boy would be responsible for the miscellaneous tasks of getting and boiling the medicine.

Although the official position of Dianyao was not high and the power was not great, the position was sensitive and important.

After the Eastern Palace was disbanded, He Dong entered the Imperial Medical Service and held the highest official position he held, the seventh rank, as Imperial Physician Chief.

Ho Tung was already dead. Four years ago, he accidentally fell into the water and drowned while boating on the lake.

The same Eastern Palace official died unexpectedly again.

However, after learning about the cases of Wu Zongguang and Zheng Tianxing, Li Nuo would not believe that He Dong's death was really an accident.

At this time, An Ning's voice came from the bookshelf not far away: "Found it!"

Li Nuo put Ho Tung's file back to its place, walked quickly to her side and took the file from her hand.

Xu Zhi, a Jinshi in the 22nd year of Zhisheng, first served as the Warden of the Eastern Palace, who was in charge of the prince's clothes. After leaving the Eastern Palace, he entered the Taichang Temple and became the chief clerk of the seventh rank.

Three years ago, he died of poisoning after eating uncleanly processed puffer fish.

An Ning looked at Li Nuo and asked, "Did you find out anything?"

Li Nuo put the file back to its original place and said, "We'll talk about it when we get back."

With the beautiful lady and her beloved one by their side, they returned to Li's house smoothly despite the curfew.

As soon as she entered the room, An Ning couldn't help but ask, "What did you find? Tell me quickly, I'm so anxious!"

Li Nuo was also certain at this moment, and said, "Zhao He was killed because he discovered a secret."

An Ning couldn't wait to ask, "What secret is that? Who silenced him?"

Li Nuo said: "What King You said today is not very credible. He is obviously hiding something. If nothing unexpected happens, Zhao He was killed by King You. Moreover, Zhao He was killed just after leaving King You's mansion. This means that what he discovered must be a huge secret, so big that King You would kill him at the first opportunity even if he risked being suspected..."

An Ning became more and more confused as she listened, and asked, "What is the secret?"

Li Nuo had nothing to hide from An Ning, and said, "After the death of the crown prince, many former officials of the Eastern Palace died unexpectedly in recent years. I suspect..."

Before Li Nuo finished speaking, An Ning was shocked and asked, "You suspect that the crown prince did not die of illness, but was murdered, and the murderer was King You?"

After all, she is a practitioner of law, so she understands things almost immediately.

Li Nuo nodded and said, "As the head of the Ministry of Personnel, Zhao He has access to the files of all officials. I suspect that he was silenced by King You because he discovered this matter."

Li An Ning still had a doubt and asked, "But if this matter was really done by Brother You, how could Zhao He dare to go to Brother You, this doesn't make sense..."

This is indeed somewhat hard to explain.

How could he, a mere official of the Ministry of Personnel, dare to threaten King You?

Even if we want to find someone, we should look for Prince of Han, Prince of Chun or other princes.

Of course, the smartest thing to do is not to look for anyone, but to keep the matter to yourself.

If this kind of thing is true, once it is investigated, the whole Chang'an will be flooded with blood and the world will be turned upside down. There is no way that he, a mere ninth-grade palm guard, can stay out of it.

At this point in the case, it no longer matters why King You wanted to silence Zhao He.

This case will be the biggest case Li Nuo has encountered since he became a legal scholar.

The former crown prince and the current prince are involved, and if the case can be solved, the rewards will be huge.

He has just broken through the third realm and may directly advance to the fourth realm.

And peace...

The same case means completely different things to An Ning and him.

To Li Nuo, this was just a big case.

But for An Ning..., the one who died was her closest relative, and the murderer was also her closest relative. She avenged her relatives and killed them for justice, and the Fajia BUFF was stacked up directly...

In this case, her cultivation level increased much more than Li Nuo's.

One case could allow her to advance directly to the fifth realm.

Li Nuo looked at An Ning and asked, "Do you remember what disease the prince died of?"

At this moment, Li Anning's expression was a little dazed.

Could it be possible that King You was the murderer of his brother the Crown Prince?

This incident had a huge impact on her.

After a long while, she came back to her senses and said, "I was still very young at that time, so I don't know the specific symptoms, but I remember that the prince had a lung disease. He would be out of breath after walking for a long time. He later died of lung disease..."

Although Li Nuo does not have medical skills, he knows a lot about medicine.

The medical practitioner's Qi is very effective in treating injuries, and the results are almost immediate.

But for non-external injuries, unless the doctor is at a high level, the effect they can play is very limited.

On the surface, the prince died of lung disease, but judging from the deaths of these officials in the Eastern Palace, those people hiding in the dark seemed to be very good at creating some perfect accidental deaths...

This case concerns the death of the prince. If it is solved, the benefits will be unimaginable.

In order to thoroughly investigate the case, Li Nuo needs a complete list of Eastern Palace officials.

The next day, when Li Nuo went out in the morning, he made an appointment with his wife to have lunch at the Song Mansion.

After lunch, when Song Zhe was about to return to the yamen, he suddenly heard Li Nuo's voice behind him: "Father-in-law, please stay."

Song Zhe turned around and asked, "What's the matter?"

After listening to Li Nuo, he asked in surprise: "What do you want the list of officials in the Eastern Palace for?"

Li Nuo said: "There is a case that requires this list."

Song Zhe shook his head and said, "It's really unfortunate. Two months ago, when the Ministry of Rites was sorting out the archives, they found that some files were eaten by insects. The list of officials in the Eastern Palace was among the damaged files..."

Li Nuo was stunned for a moment and asked, "Are there no backup files?"

Song Zhe said: "These are not important files. It is impossible to have a backup. If they are damaged, they will no longer exist."

After instructing his father-in-law not to tell anyone else about this, Li Nuo left the Song Mansion.

I'm afraid it's no accident that these files were eaten by insects.

Obviously, some people don't want others to know the list of officials in the Eastern Palace at that time.

It is not realistic to review the files in the case archive one by one.

Li Nuo walked into the Honglu Temple and sighed softly. When he walked into the yamen, a light suddenly flashed in his mind.

No, there is another department besides the Ministry of Personnel that keeps the list of officials.

It’s the Honglu Temple!

The Honglu Temple was responsible for court etiquette, especially the grand court meeting at the beginning of each year, which was the top priority of the Honglu Temple's work.

During those days, all departments in the court had to take turns to report to the palace, and officials from the Eastern Palace were no exception.

The Honglu Temple had to plan everything in advance, including the order in which the various departments in the court went to the palace and the positions of officials.

Therefore, the Honglu Temple must have a list of them.

Li Nuo was really confused by the situation and actually ignored this matter.

This also made him feel a little emotional.

When he entered the Honglu Temple, he had a feeling that everything was arranged by God.

He was doing well as a Langzhong in the Ministry of Rites, but the imperial court inexplicably arranged for him to work in the Honglu Temple.

But if he had not entered the Honglu Temple, he would not have attended the funeral of the Guanglu Temple Secretary, and would not have made that important discovery.

Without entering the Honglu Temple, it would be difficult for him to access the list of Eastern Palace officials from more than ten years ago.

Could it be that all this is really God's will?

(End of this chapter)