Seeing Xu Linchu Ye Ning smile faintly, he said, "That's very good."
Upon returning to the manor, Qin Weixi and Luo Ling met Mu Tong and Song Zijin in the library. The couple then had their faces painted to resemble other people and hid around Liang Shuwen's residence.
Zi Jin was puzzled, but a flash of anger crossed his face when the Liang family was mentioned.
Qin Weixi said, "Uncle Zhou wouldn't mention the Liang family without a reason."
Luo Ling then instructed Luo Yuan: "Go and find out who the Minister of Rites has been in contact with recently."
The group left as instructed. When asked about the scene they had witnessed with Chen Guiyi in the palace that day, Qin Weixi asked Luo Ling, "Brother, is there a eunuch surnamed Feng in the Directorate of Ceremonial?"
"The surname Feng?" Luo Ling pondered for a moment. "Feng Gongxing? He's currently a eunuch serving in the Directorate of Ceremonial. Why did you bring him up, little sister?"
She told Luo Ling everything she had seen that day, and then climbed the ladder to retrieve an ancient book from the upper bookshelf.
"Perhaps I'm overthinking it. But is this Feng Gongxing a new eunuch in the palace? I've never heard of him before."
Luo Ling shook her head: "No. I remember when Grandpa Sun was still alive..."
"Feng Gongxing? Which Feng Gongxing?" A whisper suddenly sounded behind Luo Ling.
Qin Weixi, who had his back to the library door, turned around upon hearing this sound, but had completely forgotten that he was standing on a small ladder about two people tall, and was about to fall off if he lost his footing.
Seeing this, Luo Ling was about to quickly walk over and reach out to take her when the person behind her suddenly rushed over and hugged the girl on the ladder tightly.
Their eyes met, Qin Weixi blinked, and quickly jumped down from his arms.
"Appearing and disappearing like a ghost..."
Luo Ling, standing to the side, cleared her throat with her fist to her lips: "Ye Ning!"
Chu Yening raised an eyebrow, but his face remained calm. He then asked with a smile, "Which Feng Gongxing?"
Seeing this, Qin Weixi and Luo Ling told him everything they had seen and heard that day. But after listening, Chu Yening didn't ask anything else. Instead, he grasped the key point. He rested his chin on his hand, pondered for a moment, and said with a smile, "Everyone has a weakness. Since that Eunuch Chen likes small animals, I think he must have one in his household. Why not just take that dog away?"
"When people are in a state of chaos, trouble will arise."
Luo listened and nodded slightly: "Ye Ning's words make sense."
Chu Yening nodded in satisfaction: "Shall we go?"
Luo Ling asked, puzzled, "Where are we going?"
"track."
Luo Ling rubbed his hands together upon hearing this: "Now?" The two of them turned around and looked at Qin Weixi at the same time.
Qin Weixi had already put on her cloak and strode towards the front door: "I can't wait for anyone else, so hurry up and go! Don't even think about leaving me behind!"
"We've always been in this together... like grasshoppers!"
Late at night in the capital, this time, the night walkers included the unusually mature and composed Luo Ling.
Chu Yening walked ahead, sneaking around to the high wall behind the main courtyard of the Chen residence. He smiled and asked Luo Ling, "Brother Luo, are you enjoying yourself?"
Luo Ling shook her head and chuckled.
Chu Yening added, "Since your uncle and aunt aren't here, you should indulge yourself when it's time. Yening will treat you to drinks tomorrow."
Qin Weixi smiled as he looked at the two of them, then fixed his gaze on Luo Ling's face. He saw that although his elder brother only smiled and did not speak, there was a rare gleam in his eyes today.
Before long, a dog barked from the deep courtyard of the Chen family. The three nodded to each other in secret. Just as Luo Ling was about to make a move, Chu Yening had already climbed onto the wall: "Brother Luo, wait a moment. I'll take care of the petty theft."
Luo Ling watched him leisurely climb up the wall, both amused and exasperated, and then quickly jumped down with a snow-white puppy in her arms.
Qin Weixi stepped forward and stroked its fur: "So cute."
Chu Yening looked at him with doting eyes and a smile playing on her lips: "Is it cuter or am I cuter?"
Qin Weixi choked upon hearing this, and glanced at Luo Ling out of the corner of her eye, only to see that Luo Ling seemed not to have heard, standing with her hands behind her back staring at the wall of the Chen residence.
She said, "Is a sudden gust of wind the most endearing?"
"It?" Chu Yening frowned slightly, recalling the large, pure black wolfhound, and clearly disagreed with this statement.
He smiled and said, "Seventh Sister..."
Suddenly, a scream pierced the night sky, followed by the panicked cries of the three people under the courtyard wall from inside the house: "My lord, Lord Chen! The dog is gone!"
A short while later, Chen Guiyi's slightly panicked voice rang out again: "He's still in the yard, go and look for him!"
Soon, intermittent footsteps echoed through the deep courtyard, a somber atmosphere settling in. Beneath the courtyard wall, Qin Weixi gently stroked her snow-white, obedient dog.
"My lord! The dog is really gone! We've searched every nook and cranny, but we can't find it anywhere."
Even at this moment, Chen Guiyi maintained his usual gentle demeanor, unlike the displeasure she had seen him display in the palace earlier that day, and the anger he felt when he slapped the court attendant Feng Gongxing.
Soon, the three people under the courtyard wall heard Chen Guiyi say, "They've probably run off to play somewhere. There's no need to look for them anymore."
Suddenly, the door creaked open, and the three knew that Chen Guiyi had returned to the room. But the three stood quietly in place, clearly having no intention of leaving. Luo Ling and Chu Yening, on the other hand, tried to cover Qin Weixi with their blankets.
Qin Weixi dodged and, holding the dog, hid some distance away, saying in a low voice, "Brothers, look at what kind of weather it is now."
On a moonlit night with few stars, Qin Weixi, born in the height of summer in July, had just celebrated her birthday. The two exchanged a glance, and Luo Ling smiled, saying, "Concern makes you confused!"
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the hospital door made another sound, as if it had been opened from the inside.
Chu Yening suddenly raised his chin and smiled smugly at the two of them, looking as if to say, "Am I not smart enough?"
The Luo siblings: "..."
Luo Ling asked Qin Weixi in a low voice, "Is this Ye Ning?"
"Possessed?"
Qin Weixi pursed her lips, trying to suppress a smile.
Soon, the three of them circled around to a secluded spot behind the Chen residence and saw Chen Guiyi get into a carriage and leave. The three of them followed closely behind. However, they discovered that Chen Guiyi's carriage was gradually driving into a deserted, dense forest south of the city.
To avoid alerting the enemy, the three abandoned the carriage outside the dense forest. As they approached the depths of the forest, they found Chen Guiyi standing alone in front of a high mound of earth, while the coachman had vanished.
At that moment, Chen Guiyi was carrying a basket of sake. He quickly opened a jar and poured it all over the mound.
*
The next morning, Jiang Yuanjun suddenly sent Ah Xiao to each prefecture to inform them of a meeting at a small tavern on the outskirts of the city. This time, Jiang Yuanjun used the excuse that Luo's eighth sister had returned to the capital, and they were going out to play together as they had done in their childhood.
Tao Qingyun and Jiang Yuanjun arrived first. Although the sun was shining brightly, there was no one else in the tavern except for the servants. The waiter did not ask what they wanted to drink, but poured two cups of tea and quietly left.
Tao Qingyun, observing this, would occasionally glance at Jiang Yuanjun and ask, "Do you know this tavern owner?" As she spoke, she would also scan the surrounding environment.
This tavern is situated halfway up the mountain, in an excellent location. In some places, there are no trees to block the view. If someone were really interested in finding out something, they could stand here and look down at the scenery outside the city.
Tao Qingyun laughed and said, "Old blockhead, this...could it be..." He stopped there, leaving the question unanswered.
Jiang Yuanjun smiled but remained silent.
Before long, three people came up from the foot of the mountain. One of them, a young man, was wearing a green robe and had his jade crown tied high. Unlike the two very tall young men behind him who were wearing brocade robes, he walked in front. His every move exuded an air of grandeur, just like a young master from a noble family taking his friends out for a stroll.
Upon seeing such a pleasing sight, Tao Qingyun clicked her tongue twice, stood up, and stopped in front of the elegantly dressed young man, then carefully examined him.
"Ah Ling, when did you get a younger brother?"
"Did it spring out of a crack in the rock?"
Luo Ling just smiled and remained silent.
Tao Qingyun leaned closer to take a closer look: "You know, I never thought of him before, but today, with him transformed into a man, I suddenly thought he was Brother A-Shuo."
Jiang Yuanjun then stepped forward, smiling at the group, and greeted the young man: "Seventh Brother, how have you been these past few days?"
Qin Weixi also hurriedly bowed like a man and said, "It's all good, it's all good." She then looked behind Jiang Yuanjun and asked, "Is Afu still sick?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Yuanjun sighed softly: "I was supposed to come today. But the Empress Dowager kept her in the palace because she had just recovered from her cold."
At this moment, Chu Yening asked, "Is something the matter?"
They followed Chen Guiyi to that desolate forest last night, and then watched him leave. The three of them stood in front of the mound that resembled a grave, unsure of what to do.
Chu Yening said, "Dig!"
But I saw with my own eyes that there was nothing under the loess.
Jiang Yuanjun said, "There is indeed one thing."
The group sat down again in the tavern, and Jiang Yuanjun said, "Perhaps something happened on the way that delayed us. Let's have some tea first."
Luo Ling didn't ask any further questions upon seeing this. Instead, she took out the small note left by Mu Tong, which was the evidence that Qin Shuoguang, the heir of the Duke of Dingguo, insisted on returning to the capital and died tragically at Penglai Xiaoding.
After examining it closely, the group shook their heads in unison.
Luo Ling seemed to have known this outcome all along: "Just like Ye Ning back then, we've known each other since childhood but never knew that the paper was written by Ye Ning."
"If the enemy wanted to lure you into this trap, how could they easily let you find your way out? Back then, that person precisely used A-Shu's weakness to lead him back to the capital."
Mentioning Qin Shuoguang, Jiang Yuanjun's previously calm expression suddenly turned cold. He took the small note, about the size of his palm, and examined it closely. He said, "Brother, may I have this note temporarily?"
Luo Ling didn't know why he wanted this note, but she quickly nodded.
After the group had finished drinking a cup of tea, there was a commotion at the foot of the mountain. A moment later, a person slowly walked up, and upon closer inspection, they realized it was Xu Lin, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.
Xu Lin and the others bowed to each of them, saying, "I'm sorry, young master, something came up and I was delayed."
Everyone waved their hands repeatedly.
Jiang Yuanjun asked the waiter to bring another cup of tea, then asked him to sit down, and said, "Lord Xu, please explain what you know to my friends again, just like you did that day."
Xu Lin nodded and, without delay, took his seat.
Back then, he was an apprentice of Zhu Juyuan, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, and held the position of Chief Justice in the court. He was as honest and impartial as his teacher, but when the case of the Duke of Dingguo's rebellion came to light, his teacher's daughter, because of her status as the wife of the Duke of Dingguo's heir, also implicated the Zhu family.
The night after the Duke of Dingguo hanged himself, his mentor Zhu Juyuan submitted a letter of resignation. When Li Mou, the key witness who led to the downfall of the Qin family, returned to the capital with evidence of the Duke of Dingguo's treason, his mentor also left for distant lands with tears in his eyes.
At that time, he was the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. Someone somehow managed to spread the word to the Emperor that he had fallen for his mentor's daughter and had almost proposed marriage.
He thought he would disappear from this world like the entire Duke of Dingguo's family. But a few days later, someone was sent to deliver an imperial edict dismissing him from his post while retaining him in office.
The palace eunuch was quite respectful to him, saying, "This is a turbulent time. His Majesty remembers your character, Xu Sizheng, and this action is also to avoid suspicion and remove you from the picture."
Later, at the beginning of the new year, he brought New Year's gifts to visit his mentor, who had cultivated the fields, but his mentor refused to let him in. On the same day, he learned of another major event that had occurred in the capital.
Li Mou, the deputy general who accompanied General Chu Lanzhe to the border to fight the enemy and returned to the capital in glory, accidentally killed a poor scholar who was preparing for the imperial examinations in the bustling streets during the New Year's Lantern Festival while drunk. He was thrown into the Dali Temple that day to await his punishment.
As the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, he should have been involved in the matter to varying degrees, but on that day, he remained in his post despite being dismissed from his post and did not return to his residence. At that critical time, when the Qin and Zhu families were still deeply embroiled in the affair, he could not afford to seek out his mentor over this matter.
He was just waiting for an opportunity to inquire with his colleagues who were on good terms with him. But before he could find out anything, Li Mou committed suicide the next morning out of fear of punishment.
When Gao Xing and Zhang Zheng, who were his close colleagues but had not yet held the positions of Director and Vice Minister of the Right, mentioned the matter again, Gao Xing said, "The case of Li Mouru's imprisonment was very rigorous. Although we were serving in the Court of Judicial Review, we did not participate in the case at that time."
"Moreover, at that time, Minister Zhu of the Court of Judicial Review had already resigned from his post. Because the Emperor had suspended court for several days in a row due to the Dingguo case, the position of Minister of the Court of Judicial Review had not been filled."
Zhang Zheng also said: "At that time, all I knew was that the palace had personally sent people to investigate the matter. Although the people were sent to the Dali Temple, it was just a formality."
"None of them could have been involved in this case."
Xu Lin looked at everyone and said, "During that time, I also went to look for the student's family, but I learned that the student who went to the capital to take the imperial examination was very poor in his hometown. There was only an old grandmother who was bedridden all year round, and she was doing her best to support him to go to the capital to take the examination. She stopped taking medicine after he left home and passed away."
"Later, I was reinstated to my original position, and the Emperor appointed me to investigate and solve several long-standing cases. After the cases were solved, the Emperor appointed me to replace my teacher as the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review."
"So I started investigating and accessing some case files from that year, hoping to find the files for Li Mou's case, but I discovered that those files weren't in the Dali Temple."
"Until a few days ago, the Sage asked me to handle an old case that had been neglected for many years, similar to the case that my teacher had been investigating all along. Only then did I have the opportunity to thoroughly examine those old files. But I still found nothing."
"As for Zhang Zheng and Gao Xing, I know their character, and I did not hide it from them. When they learned that I was searching for the files of Li Mou's case, they said that Li Mou should have been taken back to the palace on the day he committed suicide. Perhaps His Majesty is thinking of old feelings and wants the Qin family to get out of this quickly."
"The disputes between the common people and the court officials can also be resolved quickly."
Xu Lin suddenly gave a bitter laugh as he said this: "But there are many people in this world who are unwilling to accept this. I originally intended to investigate further, but at this time His Highness the Crown Prince found me."
"His Highness said there's no need to investigate further. He did search for that file through others back then, and later the Dali Temple was robbed, causing chaos. That file should be kept in the palace as an exception." Xu Lin's eyes flashed as he said this, glancing in the direction where Chu Yening was sitting.
The others also caught the scene and all looked at Chu Yening.
Chu Yening, who was patiently listening with his arms crossed, smiled upon seeing this: "Why are you looking at me like that? Do I look like a thief?"
Upon hearing this, Tao Qingyun clicked her tongue and said, "Little tyrant, no one else in the world could do this except you."
Luo Ling smiled, having also gleaned the key point from Xu Lin's words, and asked Xu Lin, "Did those two see who exactly came from the palace?"
Xu Lin shook his head: "The Li Mou case was overly rigorous for the time. But there are many people in the Dali Temple, so someone must have actually seen it. However, everyone was as if they were under a spell, remaining silent."
"It's just that not long ago, an old man in the yamen fell seriously ill. He usually did chores like sweeping and cleaning the yamen and the resting places of the minor officials in the prison. He was also kind and capable, and had been working in the yamen for more than 20 years. When the teacher was alive, we all called him Uncle Kang."
“On the day before he passed away, I happened to be on leave, so I went to see the old man with Gao Xing. Before he died, the old man looked at the roof beam strangely and said, ‘The candle is out, a kind-faced evil ghost.’ I was about to ask him more questions when the old man stared at me and left.”
The candlelight went out, revealing a benevolent-looking evil spirit. The group silently repeated these eleven words in their hearts.
Xu Lin continued, "Kang Bo's condition before his death was unusual. Later, I kept repeating this sentence in my mind as I returned to the Dali Temple and walked through the prison again and again. I accidentally discovered that in the dimly lit prison, there were candles placed outside each cell for lighting."
"I'm wondering if it could be related to Li Mou's death. Perhaps this old man saw something in prison without anyone noticing?"
"Because during the time I was dismissed from my post, Uncle Kang, who was usually very healthy, suddenly fell seriously ill."
"What a coincidence!"
"Therefore I dared not delay and immediately reported to His Highness the Crown Prince!"
Qin Weixi then looked up at Xu Lin. He had learned about Xu Lin's connection with the Zhu family from Luo Ling's letter when they were in Jiangnan. Xu Lin was just as upright and honest as his uncle Zhu, and was dedicated to serving the people. He was a rare good official.
But now that Kang Bo is dead, the clue he stumbled upon has been lost. Fortunately, the old man left behind a message.
After listening to the story, Luo listened in silence for a long time before telling everyone what he had heard the day before. Since Xu Lin was one of their own, there was no need to hide it from him.
Jiang Yuanjun seemed somewhat surprised: "I know that the Minister of Rites intends to resign. But... Eunuch Chen?"
“He has always been kind to the palace people. When Afu and I went to see the Emperor, he always smiled from the bottom of his heart. Back then, because of the matter of Grand Eunuch Sun, the Emperor never trusted the eunuchs around him. But when he learned of Eunuch Chen’s talent, he made an exception and promoted him to the position of Grand Eunuch.”
"Moreover, as far as I know, he usually only travels between his home and the palace."
“That Feng Gongxing is also an old man in the palace. However, as a servant in the Directorate of Ceremonial, one of the twelve directors of the inner court, he is somewhat rude to lower-ranking eunuchs in the palace.”
Therefore, it is possible that Feng Gongxing's rampant treatment of his subordinate eunuchs yesterday came to the attention of Chen Guiyi, his superior, and he was punished for it.
Upon hearing this, Chu Yening and Tao Qingyun, who had remained silent until then, smiled in unison.
Chu Yening said, "Interesting."
Tao Qingyun leaned closer and asked, "What's your idea?"
Chu Yening didn't rush to answer. Instead, he pushed the cup of tea in front of him, which had already been unsealed and cooled, in front of Qin Weixi, and then replaced it with the hot tea that she hadn't drunk. Only then did he say, "Both the big and the small have emerged. Starting today, we will begin spreading rumors that Li Mou committed suicide out of fear of punishment."
As for what kind of "sin" it is, we will not say; let the world imagine it for itself.
"Meanwhile, I sent people to impersonate Qin family guards, carrying tokens that symbolized the Qin family's identity, to roam all over the country, spreading rumors that the Qin family still has descendants!"
"Let them know that there are still people seeking justice for the Qin family! So much time has passed, not just a year, but ten years. When news of the case of the Duke of Dingguo resurfaces in the capital, the people of the capital will surely be engulfed in public opinion, debating whether the Duke of Dingguo truly died unjustly."
"As for the palace at that time..." Chu Yening said, then looked up at Jiang Yuanjun, who had been listening quietly.
He was referring to the emperor, whose treason case had been settled, and this action might incur the emperor's wrath for challenging imperial power.
Jiang Yuanjun said, "I will do as you please. If it can exonerate the Qin family, my father will also be willing to see it."
Chu Yening smiled faintly: "That's very good."
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