Chapter 257 Trading an orange cat for a piece of advice is a good deal.

Inside the six gates, in the main hall of the gatekeeper's courtyard.

Li Jin changed his outer garment and held a flat box in his hand.

He turned around and beckoned to Jin Shu: "Come here."

“This was delivered by Su Siyuan last night. He Lin personally handed it to Zhao Chengping,” Li Jin said, gesturing to Jin Shu. “Open it and take a look.”

The box wasn't big. Jin Shu noticed Li Jin's solemn expression, so she carefully opened it, then froze, "This is..."

It was Fang Qing's four-petaled flower seal, along with several secret letters.

There was also an invitation letter inviting the second young master of the Chen family to leave the city late at night to meet and discuss the medicinal herb business in detail.

A prescription for Gelsemium elegans.

And an official letter instructing him to purchase Shu brocade and depart immediately.

"Besides that, there was also a whole bottle of mercury." Li Jin crossed his arms, leaned against the desk, and glanced at Jin Shu's shocked profile.

“With these things, as long as she insists that she is the mastermind, coupled with Yang Defa’s testimony that he witnessed it that night,” he sighed, “she wouldn’t be able to lose several heads.”

Jin Shu stared blankly, her brows furrowed, unable to utter a single word.

If Li Jin, who was beside her, were the one to do everything, Jin Shu felt that she would choose the same path as her.

"What does Your Highness intend to do?"

After a long pause, Jin Shu asked, "Does Your Highness have any direct evidence against Young Master Song?"

Li Jin nodded: "I can roughly figure out why Song Zhen didn't leave anything behind."

He paused for a moment: "Such a grand scheme, spanning almost six years, took five years to plan and half a year to implement. If even the slightest mistake were made, all the previous efforts could be in vain."

“Unlike the Crown Prince, who deliberately used such methods to evade accountability, Song Zhen is most likely preparing to turn himself in after the dust has settled.” Li Jin narrowed his eyes as he looked at the box in front of Jin Shu. “At that time, neither the Six Doors nor the Dali Temple had any concrete evidence, but he was able to connect all the evidence through his story alone, forming a perfect logical loop.”

"He can absolve everyone else of all responsibility and face death alone."

As dawn broke, Zhou Zheng carried a new basin of charcoal and placed it in the center of the main hall.

No sooner had he left than Zhang Xin's tabby cat and Bai Yu's big yellow dog, which was kept by the pigeon coop, came in one after the other.

Li Jin frowned slightly, watching the cat and dog enemies who usually fought to the death whenever they met, now sitting obediently around a charcoal fire, keeping to themselves and warming themselves. He couldn't help but chuckle.

Jin Shu, however, kept her eyes fixed on the box in front of her, pondering for a long time.

After a long pause, she asked, "Does Your Highness not want Song Zhen to die?"

But then Li Jin sighed and said, "What he did deserves to die many times over." After a moment, he looked at Jin Shu with a conflicted expression, "But his skills and talent are something that I am not the only one who praises. It is a real pity that he died like this."

"Oh," Jin Shu said, "Then let's wait until we can't use their talents as generals and ministers anymore, and then kill them a few more times."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yunfei stood by the door and gently knocked twice on the door frame.

He held the puzzle box he had dug out of Yang Qingyun's yard, his gaze sweeping over Jin Shu and Li Jin's faces.

"Your Highness, I have restored the letter inside the mechanism box."

The letter, buried in the soil for many years, had grown green mold and was so rotten that it would crumble at the slightest touch. Yunfei spent a tremendous amount of effort removing the moss from it bit by bit.

After drying in the shade, the damaged parts were carefully pieced together.

It took several months to finally reproduce the contents of the letter completely.

“The original document is too badly rotten to be removed,” Yunfei said. “The long-term dampness has made the letter stick tightly to the inside of the mechanism box, making it too fragile.”

"So after I restored it, I copied down the contents above."

He put the puzzle box aside, took out a piece of paper from his pocket, and handed it to Li Jin with both hands.

Ever since the fact that Jin Shu was a woman was made public, Yun Fei felt unsure where to look whenever he saw her.

His usual shy and refined demeanor was completely overshadowed by his bewilderment.

Li Jin took the letter from his hand, tilted it slightly towards Jin Shu, and showed her the contents of the letter.

As expected, this letter was the one that had aroused Xiao Chen's suspicions when he was guarding the palace. It was the one that stated "urgent supplies" and ordered Xiao Chen not to obstruct them and to let them pass.

He pondered for a moment, then looked at Yunfei and said, "Go to the Jingzhao Prefecture and find Yang Defa. Reproduce the original handwriting based on the original."

Yunfei was taken aback for a moment. Although he was puzzled, he still responded and was about to turn around and leave.

"Wait a minute." Li Jin called out to him, turned around the desk, and pulled a black letter from the antique shelf. "Then go back to Shengzhou and bring back Yang Qingyun's remains."

"Found it?" Yunfei asked in surprise as he took the envelope.

Li Jin nodded: "They've found them all, the two carts of armor that vanished into thin air, and Li Mu's remains..."

Jin Shu and Yun Fei were both taken aback.

His voice softened considerably as he smiled gently, "We've found them all."

After that day, the chill of melting snow swept through the entire capital city.

Li Jin wasn't in the sect leader's courtyard; instead, he spent two days in Jin Shu's coroner's room.

“You’re small, a brazier of charcoal would be warmer for you.” He held the book pages between two fingers, his eyes glued to the pages.

Jin Shu, whose desk had been taken over and who could only write "The Examination Record" on the Eight Immortals Table, gave him a disgruntled wry look.

Beside her, the tabby cat had brought along an orange cat, forming a strange three-legged standoff with the big yellow dog lying on the other side.

Caught off guard by Jin Shu's playful, crooked mouth, Li Jin's lips curled into a slight smile as she deliberately added, "And while we're at it, we can also see which blind fool is coming to propose marriage."

Jin Shu felt a tightness in her back.

I thought he had forgotten about it, but I was too naive.

She frowned and pouted, "Has Your Highness been quite free lately?"

“Hmm, very free.” Li Jin revealed a pair of bright and insightful eyes from behind the book. “It’s the New Year, there are no cases, and the Crown Prince has clearly restrained himself after being warned. His mind is all on the palace banquet.”

He laughed and said, "The Six Doors are usually quite quiet, so it's a good opportunity to keep an eye on Shu'er and prevent you from being cheated out of your money by those scumbags and playboys."

Jin Shu gave two dry laughs.

"Scumbag and playboy," she said with a crooked mouth, "I'm afraid that in the entire capital, apart from Prince Jing, Li Jin, everyone else is a scumbag and playboy."

“That’s right.” Li Jin smiled and tilted his head.

Jin Shu was stunned for a moment.

Seeing her surprise, Li Jin added, "It's exactly what you think."

She pursed her lips: "Your Highness, I've been with the Six Doors for almost a year now, and there's always been a question I'm very curious about."

Li Jin raised an eyebrow and chuckled: "You only have these two eyes in front of you and behind you, and you always guess correctly because you're too easy to understand, Shu'er. It's basically written all over your face."

There was a long silence between the two.

The wolf-hair brush in Jin Shu's hand froze in mid-air.

Her lips were pressed into a thin line, and a sense of "misery and desolation" wafted towards Li Jin.

He didn't take it to heart, his gaze returning to the pages of the book in his hand: "Don't think about it. One thing subdues another. You belong to the King of Hell in the Five Elements, and you're missing me in your birth chart."

Good heavens, Jin Shu exclaimed.

After a long pause, she praised him sincerely, "Your Highness has remained single all this time; it is truly a blessing from heaven."

"Well, I've gone to great lengths to ensure you get a clean and pure version of me." He waved his hand. "Looks like I'll have to go and sincerely thank you when we offer sacrifices to Heaven on the first day of the new year."

Jin Shu was speechless, her mouth half-open, her mind blank.

Has the person in front of me suddenly changed their personality?

Before she could think any further, she heard Bai Yu poke his head down from the eaves with a grin and look at Li Jin through the window: "Your Highness, Song Zhen and He Lin are here, they're almost at the door."

Li Jin remained unmoved.

Bai Yu clicked his tongue and added, "Both of them are tied up; it looks like they've come to turn themselves in."

Upon hearing this, he slowly put down the book in his hand, a glint of "complete control" flashing in his eyes.

"Let's go." He stood up, glancing at Jin Shu. "Watch how I turn this dead end around."

Seeing his smiling face, Jin Shu frowned even more: "Could it be that you killed them both?"

Li Jin turned around in surprise, giving her an incredulous once-over: "You haven't even conceived the Prince Jing's heir yet, so why have you suddenly become so foolish?"

This sudden remark made Jin Shu's face turn bright red, and she stood there stunned.

Li Jin chuckled softly, then turned around and smiled.

As expected, Zhang Xin, the profiler, really understands people's hearts. Trading an orange cat for a piece of advice is a good deal.