Silver Prince's Palace Reopens
The day after the banquet ended, the imperial eunuch arrived at the Silver Prince's residence in the morning light.
The imperial edict, bright yellow in color, was unfurled. Not only were a hundred taels of gold and a thousand bolts of brocade bestowed, but a box of "the late emperor's old documents" was also specially given as a gift. It was said that the king, mindful of the Yin family's generations of loyalty and virtue, had specially returned the documents related to the Yin family from twenty years ago, so that they could be "preserved as a memento to demonstrate the emperor's grace."
When Yin Li received the imperial decree in her light pink ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), the mole at the corner of her eye shone brightly, as if bathed in light. After the eunuch left, she instructed the steward to store the gold, silver, and silk in the storeroom, and then carried the box of old documents back to her study—the king's bestowal of old documents was already suspicious, especially the emphasis on "twenty years ago," which added a touch of hidden anticipation to her heart. When the wooden box was opened, a strong smell of aged paper and ink wafted out.
The memorials and account books stacked inside were all yellowed. Yin Li's fingertips brushed over them one by one, and her gaze suddenly stopped on a memorial marked "Investigation of Yin Clan Members".
The date on the document was exactly the month after her second uncle, Yin Lin, "fell to his death from a cliff," and the very first sentence read, "Yin Kun, a member of the Yin clan, reported that Yin Lin colluded with foreign enemies and misappropriated the clan's salt permits." "Salt permits?" Yin Li's heart skipped a beat.
Although the Silver Prince's Mansion manages part of the clan's property, it never manages salt affairs. How could Second Uncle have "misappropriated salt permits"?
She hurriedly flipped through the document, only to find that the latter half had been torn out, leaving only a hastily written conclusion: "The late emperor approved the investigation, but Yin Lin died suddenly, and no evidence was found. The case is temporarily shelved." Even the informant's detailed testimony was nowhere to be found.
Even stranger, at the bottom of the box was a yellowed remittance slip, the payee of which was "Qingxu Temple in the suburbs," but the remitter only wrote a blurry "Yin," and the date was only three days after Yin Lin fell off the cliff.
Yin Li immediately sent people to investigate Xu Guan—the very Taoist temple where the clan leader had said he was "fostering Yin Yue" and which later "caught fire." However, the guards returned and reported that the temple's account books from that year had long been destroyed in the fire, and even those who knew the truth had vanished without a trace.
"The trail has gone cold?" Yin Li sat at her desk, her fingertips holding the tattered memorial, her brows furrowed slightly.
She thought the old files were the key to breaking the deadlock, but unexpectedly the most crucial part was torn up, and the remittance slip could not be found.
What made her even more uneasy was that that very night, a secret guard reported that the jailer in charge of watching Yin Kun had "accidentally" fallen into the water and died, and that Yin Kun had suddenly gone mad in the prison, repeatedly shouting, "Don't kill me, I didn't report it."
"Someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes." A cold glint flashed in Yin Li's eyes. The one capable of silently killing the jailer, driving Yin Kun insane, and tearing up the late emperor's memorial was no ordinary person—could it be that the clan leader still wields influence in prison?
Was it the master of Qinglang Mountain who was secretly interfering? She was unwilling to give up, so she searched through all the old files in the box again, and finally found a very small annotation in an inconspicuous "Daily Records of the Late Emperor": "The Yin family case involves eunuchs and is temporarily suppressed."
Eunuchs? The Silver Prince's Mansion has never had any dealings with palace eunuchs. How could Second Uncle be involved? Just as she was wondering, the steward rushed in: "Miss, Madam Jin Jing sent a letter saying that her husband found out in the Hanlin Academy that the censor who was in charge of the Yin family case twenty years ago was suddenly demoted and is now living in seclusion in the suburbs. But... but that person just passed away last month, leaving behind only a daughter."
Yin Li tightened her grip on the letter. Clues appeared again and again, only to be cut off each time, as if someone was deliberately scattering breadcrumbs in front of her, leading her forward, but never letting her touch the truth.
She looked at the tattered memorials, the blurred remittance slips, and the letter Jin Jing had sent on the table, and the mole at the corner of her eye deepened—no matter who was obstructing her from behind, she would not give up.
Yin Li stood up, the hem of her light pink dress sweeping across the floor, her expression resolute. "Even if the clues go cold, I will piece together my second uncle's wrongful conviction from every possible clue." The setting sun shone through the window, illuminating the old documents on the table, the yellowed pages gleaming softly. Yin Li knew that this box of rewards wouldn't bring answers, but rather a deeper mystery. But as long as there was even a sliver of a clue, she would continue—her second uncle's innocence, the injustice done to the Silver Prince's Mansion, had to be redressed.
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