"They are Tartars."
Song Yanqing found Ning Yiniang's courtyard, only to discover that it was heavily guarded. If there were no important people or things inside, then there must be something important there.
Among the Shadow Guards, Song Yanqing was undoubtedly the most skilled. Dodging the guards outside the courtyard was not a difficult task for him.
Soon, Song Yanqing, accompanied by two Shadow Guards, landed on Aunt Ning's rooftop.
One of the Shadow Guards quietly lifted the tiles, and through the gap in the roof, they could see the light inside.
Looking down from above, Song Yanqing saw that the room was very bright, with pine torches lit by oil lamps. The opening in the tile was small, and the view was limited.
He saw two women inside the room, one sitting and one standing.
The seated woman was dressed in green and was playing with a string of beads in her hand.
The woman in pink who was standing stepped forward and reported, "The matter is settled. Please come in, Master."
Upon hearing this, Aunt Ning put the beads in her hand on the table, picked up the long whip beside her, and stood up, saying, "Let's go take a look."
The sound of a door closing came from inside the house.
After confirming that the person had left, Song Yanqing led the Shadow Guards down from the rooftop into the house.
Investigating another man's concubine's room late at night is not the act of a gentleman.
But things are different now. Aunt Ning's identity is suspicious, so the rules between men and women can't be disregarded. Besides, the Shadow Guards are never bound by such restrictions when carrying out their duties.
Otherwise, if all the spies were women, wouldn't the Shadow Guards arrest them?
The Shadowguards have never had this constraint since their inception.
Even at their peak, the Shadow Guards had the authority to act first and report later.
Two shadow guards entered Aunt Ning's room and spread out to search the room.
Song Yanqing then walked to the round table where Aunt Ning had been sitting.
The string of beads on the round table, consisting of a dozen or so beads the size of finger bones, immediately caught Song Yanqing's attention.
Having grown up in the inner palace, what kind of treasures hadn't Song Yanqing seen?
But the oily yet grayish string of beads in front of him was something he had never seen before.
He soon discovered something amiss with the beaded string: it wasn't naturally formed, but rather artificially crafted.
After picking up the string of beads, he instantly understood what it was made of.
Skeletons.
As far as he knew, the Tatars had always used bones to make strings or other objects to play with, until the beads were polished to a smooth, oily sheen.
This symbolizes their spoils of war.
However, it remains unknown whether the string of beads in his hand is made from human bones or animal bones.
Song Yanqing gripped the beaded string in her hand tightly, and quietly summoned the two Shadow Guards over, revealing her startling judgment: "They are Tartars."
Upon learning Ning's true identity, the two Shadow Guards froze instantly. Ning, the concubine in the General's Mansion, was actually a Tartar.
So what is the identity of Wu Guangping, who is the gatekeeper?
Fortunately, the Shadow Guards were all people with good mental fortitude. After the initial shock, they immediately returned to a state of readiness to fight.
After confirming Ning Yiniang's identity, Song Yanqing assigned tasks to the two women. "Find people to surround the Wu residence."
"You, come with me and the two who just left."
The Shadow Guards answered in unison, "Yes."
Song Yanqing led his men into the house to check the situation, while the Shadow Guards naturally kept watch outside.
Soon, Song Yanqing was taken to Wu Guangping's study by the Shadow Guards.
It was pitch black outside the study. Apart from the occasional cool breeze and the rustling of leaves in the yard, there was no other sound.
The Shadow Guards, who had been keeping watch outside the study, saw the two women enter the study and then never came out again.
Upon learning this news, Song Yanqing knew that there was a hidden secret in the study.
He pushed open the door and entered; the study was quiet and dark.
With his permission, the Shadow Guard lit the oil lamp on the desk.
With the light of the oil lamp, the Shadow Guards quickly discovered that behind a painting of a tiger descending a mountain on the wall, there was a hidden mechanism.
"Your Highness, we have discovered a mechanism."
The mechanism is located in the tiger's eye. Lift the tiger image to reveal a glass bead on the wall.
Under Song Yanqing's gaze, the Shadow Guards pressed the glass bead mechanism.
Suddenly, more than a dozen sharp arrows were fired at him at the same time, and the speed of the arrows was so fast that he could not dodge them at all.
The Shadow Guards, about to be riddled with bullets, showed no fear whatsoever.
In the blink of an eye, a board appeared in front of the Shadow Guard.
The two Shadow Guards, who were under the board, only dropped it on the ground after they heard that there was no more movement around them.
The mechanism was too easy for anyone to discover, so Song Yanqing never believed it from the start.
He was convinced that this organization was definitely a trap.
As it turned out, his guess was correct.
He hadn't expected that the traps in Wu Guangping's study were so fast that even the well-trained Shadow Guards couldn't escape them.
This shows how much effort they put into it.
Now that things have come to this, Song Yanqing has no time to think too much. "Keep searching, even if it means digging three feet into the ground, we must find those two people."
Soon, Song Yanqing discovered something amiss on the desk.
The bronze kettle ornament on the desk could actually be moved.
A hidden door then opened.
Song Yanqing immediately led his men into the secret door.
The hidden door led to a small room containing broadswords, longswords, and crossbows; it appeared to be simply a place used by military officers to store their weapons.
The small room didn't contain many items, and finding the mechanism wasn't difficult. The Shadow Guards were very skilled at this, and soon they opened another hidden door.
As the hidden door slowly opened, the Shadow Guards saw the light of the ever-burning lamp and knew they had found the right place.
Just then, the Shadow Guards arrived in time, not only surrounding the outer courtyard of the Wu residence, but also sending many men to be deployed by Song Yanqing.
At Song Yanqing's command, "Search!"
The Shadow Guards swarmed in, rushing into the secret passage to search for the Tartars' whereabouts.
On the other side, Lu Qiqi's surprise upon learning that Aunt Ning was a Tatar was beyond words.
She gently patted Lu Xiangxiang's back, comforting her, "It's alright, everything is over."
Thinking of informing Song Yanqing of this news, he planned to arrest all the Tatars, led by Aunt Ning, tonight.
Time is of the essence. She said, "Auntie, don't cry. We shouldn't stay here any longer. Get dressed, and I'll take you and Xiao Lingyue out of the mansion."
While Lu Xiangxiang was getting dressed, Lu Qiqi had the Shadow Guards notify Song Yanqing.
Tell him that Aunt Ning is not of our clan, but a Tatar.
After the Shadow Guards left, she woke up Xiangling, who was sleeping in the outer room.
Then, he returned to the house, passed by the Tatar woman who was sleeping soundly on the bed like a dead pig, took out a silver needle, and inserted it directly into the woman's temple.
The woman, who had been keeping her eyes closed, suddenly opened them, and red liquid slowly flowed from her eyes and the corners of her mouth. Her entire body stiffened on the couch.
He died with his eyes wide open in disbelief!
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