The major case involving the Yin family has been solved!
The cold autumn wind swirled with withered leaves, rustling against the vermilion gates of the Silver Prince's Mansion.
Yin Li sat in the study with three secret letters spread out in front of her—one from the sole of a Qinglang Mountain assassin's boot, one intercepted by a messenger from the Jin Prince's Mansion, and the other found by her secret guards in a secret room belonging to Wei An's former subordinates.
Although the handwriting in the three letters is different, they all point to the same secret: the salt permits that Yin lost back then were not embezzled by Wei An, but were handed over to a powerful figure in the court in exchange for protection from those who "framed Yin".
“The salt permit is the key.” He Mo stood beside her, his fingertip lightly tapping the four words “abandoned kiln in the western suburbs” on the secret letter. “Wei An said in the letter that ‘the salt permit is hidden in the abandoned kiln and will be handed over after the storm has passed.’ Let’s go now; perhaps we can find evidence.” He looked at the bloodshot eyes in Yin Li’s eyes and added, “You haven’t had a proper rest these past few days. I’ll take the guards; you can wait for news at the manor.”
Yin Li shook her head and reached for the sword hanging on the wall—it was given to her by her second uncle before his death. Although the silver patterns on the scabbard were somewhat worn, it was still sharp.
“I have to go.” Her voice was firm. “I can no longer hide behind you when it comes to the Yin family.”
The two men, accompanied by ten guards, rushed to the abandoned kiln in the western suburbs overnight. The abandoned kiln was hidden in a desolate forest, its entrance concealed by vines. As they parted the vines, a damp, musty smell wafted out.
Yin Li walked inside with a tinderbox in hand. The firelight illuminated the ashes filling the kiln—several pieces of charred hemp rope and several warped pottery jars were scattered on the ground, indicating that the place had just been cleaned.
"Too late." He Mo's face darkened. He reached out and fiddled with the ashes, when he suddenly touched a cold piece of metal.
He bent down and picked it up. It was a palm-sized token with the character "金" (gold) engraved on it and tiny gemstones inlaid along the edge, exactly the same as the emblem of the Jin Prince's Mansion.
“King Jin?” Yin Li’s brows furrowed instantly, and the image of Princess Jin He causing a scene at the mansion flashed through her mind—Jin He said, “My father said that if I like something, I will take it even if I have to snatch it.” At the time, she thought it was just the princess being unreasonable, but now she realized that King Jin had probably been colluding with Wei An for a long time.
"Investigate the movements of the Prince Jin's residence immediately!" she ordered her guards, her tone urgent.
But the news sent back by the secret guards chilled her heart—the King of Jin had left the capital yesterday under the pretext of "ancestral worship," accompanied by thirty attendants, leaving only the elderly, women, and children in the mansion. Even the steward did not know the King of Jin's exact whereabouts.
“The ancestral worship is just a pretext.” He Mo placed the token on the table and tapped the surface lightly with his fingertips. “With so many followers, he couldn’t possibly be just worshipping his ancestors. He must be going to exchange salt permits with Wei An’s people.”
Looking at the character "Jin" on the token, Yin Li felt a wave of helplessness – the King of Jin was a member of the royal family, and if he was truly involved, there was no way to touch him without solid evidence. She walked to the window, gazing at the fallen crabapple petals in the courtyard, and recalled Yin Li's last letter and her mother's dying words. A light rekindled in her eyes: "He left in haste; he must have left traces."
"We checked the post stations in the outskirts of Beijing. All officials had to register at the post stations when they traveled, and he couldn't be an exception." The next morning, the two disguised themselves as merchants and headed to the largest post station in the outskirts of Beijing, "Qingfeng Post Station."
The innkeeper was a lean, middle-aged man. Seeing their luxurious attire yet the fact that they had only ordered two bowls of coarse tea, his eyes were full of wariness. "Innkeeper, we'd like to ask if anyone from the Jin Prince's Mansion passed through yesterday?" He Mo took out a silver ingot and placed it on the table. The innkeeper's eyes flickered, his hand lingering above the silver ingot before withdrawing it. "Sir, you jest. Why would nobles from the Jin Prince's Mansion come to our humble inn?"
"Never seen him before, never seen him before." He said this with emphasis, deliberately turning to greet other customers, clearly not wanting to talk more. Yin Li saw through his act, picked up the teacup on the table, and pretended to slip it, spilling tea onto the innkeeper's clothes with a "splash." "Oh dear, I'm so sorry!" She quickly got up, took out a handkerchief to wipe the innkeeper's clothes, and while he was flustered, she secretly slipped a small silver whistle into his sleeve—this was a signal from the secret guards; if the innkeeper was in trouble, he could blow the whistle for help.
"It's alright, it's alright." The shopkeeper's face was pale as he hurriedly went into the backyard to change his clothes. Yin Li gave He Mo a wink, and the two quietly followed him, going around to the back of the accounting room and peeking through the window crack—the shopkeeper was pulling a note out of the fold of the accounting book and sighing over the words on it.
He Mo gently pushed open the half-closed door, and the shopkeeper was so startled that his hand trembled and the note fell to the ground.
Yin Li picked up the note. The handwriting on it was messy. It read, "Three days later, at midnight, at Qingfeng Ferry, meet the purple-clad man from Qinglang Mountain to exchange salt permits. Remember not to make a sound."
At the bottom of the document was a small character for "gold." "Did King Jin ask you to deliver this?"
Yin Li's tone was accusatory. The shopkeeper's face turned deathly pale, and he knelt on the ground with a thud: "It was...it was sent by the King of Jin's steward. He said if I didn't do as he said, he would kill my whole family!"
"Sir, I was forced into this!" Yin Li helped the shopkeeper up and carefully put away the note: "Don't be afraid, we won't make things difficult for you. Just tell us, what code will the King of Jin's men use for the handover?"
"The code... the code is 'Qingfeng Ferry, ferry the Qingfeng, exchange salt permits for silver.'" The shopkeeper finished speaking with a trembling voice, and then added, "The King of Gold's men will wear blue robes and have the same 'gold' token hanging from their waists as the one on your table."
Three days later, at midnight, Qingfeng Ferry was eerily quiet. A misty fog hung over the river, with only a small, covered boat moored at the shore. A man in a long blue robe stood at the bow, the token at his waist gleaming coldly in the moonlight. Yin Li and He Mo hid in the reeds on the bank, while their guards lay in ambush all around, waiting for the man to hand over the salt permit before making their move.
Just as the man in the blue robe was about to hand over the salt permit, a group of men in purple robes suddenly rushed out of the reeds, wielding long swords and slashing at the man in the blue robe! "They are the assassins from Qinglang Mountain!"
He Mo let out a low shout, drew his sword, and charged out. Yin Li followed closely behind, engaging the purple-clad men in fierce combat. In the midst of the melee, Yin Li noticed that the leader of the purple-clad men wore a veiled hat, moved nimbly, and used ruthless techniques, seemingly possessing an exceptional familiarity with her swordsmanship.
She thrust her sword at the leader's chest, but the leader dodged to the side and slashed at her wrist with his own sword. At that critical moment, He Mo suddenly rushed over and blocked the sword for her. The tip of the sword cut his right arm, and blood instantly stained his black robe.
"He Mo!" Yin Li exclaimed in shock, her mind in turmoil. Taking advantage of the moment, the leader of the purple-clad men jumped onto the awning boat and rowed away, leaving behind only a cold voice: "Yin Li, the next time we meet will be your death day!" He Mo clutched his bleeding wound, but still comforted her: "I'm fine, don't worry."
He looked at the man in blue robes who had been killed on the ground, and reached into his arms to pull out a cloth bag—inside was not a salt token, but a stack of white paper with the same "gold" character token drawn on it as on the secret letter. "It's a trap!" Yin Li instantly understood that the King of Gold had no intention of actually handing over the salt token, but had deliberately set a trap to have the assassins of Qinglang Mountain kill the messenger and destroy the evidence.
She crouched down, looking at the corpse of the man in the blue robe, and suddenly noticed half a jade pendant hanging from his waist—the pendant was made of white jade and engraved with the character "Wei," which, together with the jade pendant found on the body of the assassin at Qinglang Mountain, could form a complete piece! "He's one of Wei An's men!"
Yin Li's heart suddenly raced. "King Jin is just a decoy. The real mastermind is Wei An! He's not dead at all; he's been secretly manipulating everything!"
Despite the pain from his wounds, He Mo nodded and said, "Wei An faked his death to escape back then in order to avoid trouble. Now he wants to take back the salt permits and control the salt transport in the suburbs of the capital, so he joined forces with the King of Jin to set up this trap."
What we need to do now is find Wei An's hiding place. Following the clues on the jade pendant, they found that Wei An was hiding in a dilapidated temple on the outskirts of the city.
The dilapidated temple was long abandoned, the statues of gods lay collapsed on the ground, and the courtyard was overgrown with weeds. Yin Li, accompanied by her guards, cautiously entered the temple, only to find it empty. The only sign that the ground beneath the shrine had been disturbed was the ground beneath it.
He Mo crouched down and used his sword to clear away the dirt on the ground, revealing a hidden compartment. Inside was a wooden box. Opening the box, he found two account books and a secret letter sealed with wax. Yin Li picked up the account books and flipped through them page by page—they recorded the Yin family's salt transport income and expenditure from that year, every entry was clear and unambiguous, and there was absolutely no trace of "collusion with the enemy."
The other ledger, however, had handwriting that was very similar to the Yin family's ledger, but it recorded false accounts of "the Yin family colluding with foreign enemies and misappropriating salt permits," and the last page was stamped with a fake Yin family seal.
"This is a forgery!" Yin Li trembled with anger, throwing the fake ledger to the ground. "Wei An used this fake ledger to deceive the Emperor and frame the Yin family!"
She picked up the secret letter again, unsealed it, and found a letter from Wei An to the Emperor. The letter stated, "I have found evidence of Yin's treason and am willing to offer a salt certificate to prove my loyalty." The date on the letter was the day before Yin's house was raided.
“But the account book and the secret letter alone aren’t enough.” He Mo frowned. “Wei An is meticulous; he’ll definitely destroy all the evidence. We have no witnesses, and the Emperor might not believe us.” Yin Li looked at the yellowed pages of the fake account book and suddenly remembered something—her second uncle had said that only Physician Sun in the capital knew how to dye old paper with “sappanwood juice.” Paper dyed this way would have a faint medicinal smell at the edges and would turn light red when wet. She immediately picked up a cup of water and sprinkled it on the pages of the fake account book. Sure enough, the edges of the pages quickly turned light red.
"Imperial Physician Sun!" Yin Li's eyes lit up. "The fake account book was aged by Imperial Physician Sun! He must know the truth!" The two immediately rushed to Imperial Physician Sun's residence.
Physician Sun's residence was in a remote location, with a sign hanging at the entrance that read "Closed to Visitors." The guards knocked on the door for a long time before an old voice came from inside: "Who is it? I have already resigned from my official post and am not receiving guests."
"Imperial Physician Sun, we are friends of Master Mu Han." He Mo called out to the door, taking out a jade pendant from his pocket—this was a token given to He Mo by Master Mu Han when he left the capital. The jade pendant was engraved with the character "Mu".
There was a moment of silence inside the door, then it creaked open. The physician, Sun, was an elderly man with white hair, a face full of wrinkles, and eyes filled with weariness and fear.
He stepped aside to let the two into the house, and after closing the door, he asked tremblingly, "Is Mu Han... alright?"
"Master is doing well at the border." He Mo handed the jade pendant to Physician Sun. "We came today to ask you whether you faked the Yin family's ledgers?"
Physician Sun swayed, his face turning deathly pale. He remained silent for a long time before taking out a wooden box from under the bed. Inside the box was a stack of written agreements and a threatening letter written by Wei An.
"It was...it was Wei An who forced me to do this," Physician Sun's voice trembled with tears. "He captured my son and grandson, saying he would kill them if I didn't help him with the old account books! I had no choice but to do as he said!"
He picked up a document and handed it to Yin Li: "This is the record of Wei An asking me to falsify the account book. It has his signature on it. And this is the real Yin family account book. When Wei An asked me to forge the account book, he gave me the real account book and told me to destroy it. I didn't dare to, so I secretly hid it."
Yin Li took the real ledger, her fingers tracing her second uncle's handwriting, and tears welled up in her eyes.
The last few pages of the real ledger clearly record evidence of Wei An's embezzlement of salt permits and collusion with foreign enemies, as well as his correspondence with the King of Jin, each of which bears the private seals of both of them.
"With these, we can enter the palace to meet the Emperor!" Yin Li's voice was filled with excitement as she tightly gripped the real account book. But when they entered the palace with the evidence, they learned that Wei An had already falsely accused Yin Li before the Emperor of "fabricating evidence and plotting a rebellion."
King Jin stood to the side, holding the "Jin" token he had found in the abandoned kiln, and cried, "Your Majesty, in order to reclaim the Yin family's property, Yin Li sent people to threaten me and forged the token to frame me for colluding with Wei An!"
"Your Majesty, please do me justice!" The Emperor sat on his dragon throne, his face grim, looking at the account book in Yin Li's hand, his tone laced with suspicion: "Yin Li, you say this is a genuine account book, but do you have any evidence to prove it? Wei An says you forged the account book, and Prince Jin also says you framed him. How can I believe you?"
Wei An stood to the side, a smug smile playing on his lips: "Your Majesty, I have evidence! The real Yin family ledger has the private seals of the Yin family's past heads on every page, hidden in the last stroke of the character 'salt.' The ledger in Yin Li's possession doesn't have any of those!" Yin Li's heart tightened—she had never heard of a private seal on an ledger!
Just as she was panicking, He Mo suddenly spoke up: "Your Majesty, Wei An is right. The real Yin family account book does have a private seal. But Wei An doesn't know that the Yin family's private seal is specially made of silver powder, which turns red when exposed to fire."
He took the real ledger from Yin Li's hand, walked to the candlelight, and brought the page with the character "salt" close to the candlelight—soon, a small red private seal appeared in the last stroke of the character "salt," exactly the same as the ancestral seal in the Yin family ancestral hall! But the ledger that Wei An forged did not change at all when brought close to the candlelight.
Wei An's face turned deathly pale instantly. He never expected that the Yin family's ledgers contained such a secret!
Seeing this, he suddenly drew his sword and charged at Yin Li, shouting, "I'll kill you, you bitch!"
But he had only taken two steps when he was subdued by the guards and pinned to the ground. The Prince of Jin was so frightened that his legs went weak, and he knelt on the ground with a thud, crying, "Your Majesty, I was coerced by Wei An! I dare not do it again, please spare me!" The Emperor, seeing everything before him, trembled with rage, slammed his fist on the table, and rose to his feet: "Wei An framed loyal officials and plotted rebellion; he shall be executed by slow slicing! The Prince of Jin aided and abetted the wicked; he shall be stripped of his title and exiled!"
"All officials involved in framing the Yin family shall be dismissed from their posts, investigated, have their homes confiscated, and be exiled!" After the imperial edict was read, Wei An was dragged away, still shouting, "I am not reconciled! I am not reconciled!" The King of Jin was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground, letting the guards drag him away.
When the Emperor read out, "Restore the title of the Yin family, appoint Yin Li as the head of the Yin family, and put her in charge of the salt transport in the suburbs of the capital," Yin Li could no longer hold back her tears.
She bowed deeply to the Emperor, her voice choked with emotion: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for clearing the name of Lady Yin. I will certainly do my utmost to live up to Your Majesty's trust."
As she stepped out of the palace gates, the sunlight bathed her, its warmth almost bringing tears to her eyes. Clutching the genuine account book in her hand, she recalled the tumultuous journey—from the ashes of the abandoned kiln to the note at the post station, from the hidden compartment in the dilapidated temple to Physician Sun's testimony, from the King of Jin's trap to Wei An's sophistry—every step had been fraught with peril. If it weren't for He Mo's companionship, if it weren't for her mother and Yin Li's unwavering support, if it weren't for the secret account book left by her second uncle, she might have already given up.
“Let’s go see Mother.” Yin Li turned to look at He Mo, her eyes filled with a relieved smile. The sunlight fell on her face, making her look exceptionally radiant. “I want to tell her that the Yin family’s injustice has finally been cleared.”
I want her to know that her daughter has not disgraced her.
He Mo nodded, reached out and took her hand, the warmth of his palm conveying strength.
The two walked side by side on the palace road, with the majestic palace behind them and the sun-drenched road in front of them.
On the way back from the palace to the Silver Prince's residence, the carriage wheels rolled over the bluestone slabs with a steady sound.
Yin Li leaned against the car window, still clutching the real account book in her hand, her fingertips repeatedly tracing the words left by her second uncle, her eyes still red. He Mo sat beside her, his right arm wound just bandaged, but he still reached out and gently put his arm around her shoulder, his voice gentle: "Don't cry anymore, Mother and Yin Li will be heartbroken to see you like this."
Yin Li nodded, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, but couldn't help but smile: "I'm happy."
"Look, we finally did it." She looked up at the window. The people on the street were still talking about the Yin family's exoneration. Some people were holding up wooden signs that read "Yin Family's Innocence," and some were bowing towards the direction of the carriage. The former "remnants of the Yin family" had now become the head of the Yin family, personally appointed by the emperor. All the hardships along the way had finally paid off!
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