Out of curiosity, the King of Qi asked someone to investigate the follow-up situation of the Zhou family. Unexpectedly, the investigation led to a major case.
It turns out that Qiu Tong, the maid who framed Miss Zhou, was bribed by Li Ze's cousin.
Li Ze happened to be Miss Zhou's fiancé three years ago, and his cousin was his current wife. The two had been having an affair for a long time and wanted to be together legitimately, but they couldn't bear to give up the wealth and splendor of the Zhou family.
Back then, Li Ze was just a small guard with no background, but because of his outstanding abilities, he was highly appreciated by Master Zhou.
Mr. Zhou was the confidant of the prefect Qin and was also the inspector at the time. He was able to help Li Ze in the officialdom.
Between his future and his cousin, Li Ze chose his future, but he was still unhappy and wondered if there was any way to have the best of both worlds?
So Qiu Tong was bribed, and Miss Zhou lost her innocence and fell into madness.
Li Ze knew Mr. Zhou's character very well, so he was determined not to cancel the engagement. He also swore in front of Mr. Zhou many times that he would take good care of Miss Zhou.
He knew that Mr. Zhou attached great importance to propriety, integrity, loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness, and would definitely not send his crazy daughter to the Li family; he also knew that the more sincere he was, the less likely Mr. Zhou would agree to this marriage.
Mr. Zhou would never do such a heartless thing as sending his own daughter to harm the Li family.
Then, Li Ze's plan succeeded. Mr. Zhou took the initiative to cancel the marriage, and because of the guilt in his heart, he worked even harder to promote Li Ze.
After enduring a year of hardship, his daughter's condition still didn't improve, so Master Zhou resigned from his post. But before leaving, he gave all his connections to Li Ze, who has now replaced him as a favorite of Prefect Qin and is on the verge of being promoted to Inspector General.
Mr. Zhou originally planned to deal with Qiu Tong secretly, but he did not expect that the prince would intervene and directly arrest Qiu Tong and put her in jail for interrogation.
After just a few beatings, Qiu Tong gave away Li Ze's cousin, now Mrs. Li.
Mrs. Li was just a poor woman, her parents dead and her property destitute. How could she possibly have come up with three hundred taels of silver to bribe Qiu Tong? Where did her wealth come from? Was Li Ze, the ultimate beneficiary, truly unaware of this?
Due to such suspicion, the subordinates of King Qi also arrested Li Ze. After several rounds of torture, the couple could not bear it and confessed everything.
It turned out that they had teamed up to harm Miss Zhou, simply because they wanted to be together and also wanted to seize the power of the Zhou family.
The strategies they devised were not only vicious but also ingenious, and they played with people's hearts at their fingertips.
Upon receiving the news, Mr. Zhou fainted from anger and vomited blood after waking up.
Looking at the file in his hand, Zhuang Li fell into deep thought, and a strong sense of familiarity was already evident on the paper.
"This case is related to Zhuang Tianer." He said with certainty.
"How did you tell that?" King Qi's face showed no surprise. He had also investigated Zhuang Tian'er and naturally knew about her strange and sinister nature.
"Read Qiu Tong's confession carefully, especially the part where she drove Miss Zhou crazy." Zhuang Li spread the file flat on the table and pointed to a passage in it.
The King of Qi lowered his eyes to examine it carefully, then said thoughtfully, "Your technique is quite sophisticated."
"It's more than just sophistication. Every morning at dawn, Miss Zhou would go to the main courtyard to pay her respects to Madam Zhou, then come back to read, write, or embroider.
"This was Miss Zhou's habit. But Qiu Tong, following Liu Cui's (Li Ze's cousin) instructions, put drugs in Miss Zhou's breakfast, making her drowsy. After seven days of using the drugs, Miss Zhou naturally developed the habit of taking a nap after paying her respects."
The more the King of Qi listened, the more puzzled he became. "Is there anything wrong with taking a nap after paying my respects?"
"That's the problem." Zhuang Li pointed at this confession with his fingertips: "Everyone has about five dreams every night. The first four dreams are very short and mostly occur in the first half of the night, but the last dream lasts for three-quarters of an hour and often occurs in the morning when people are about to wake up.
"Short dreams are fragmented images, while long dreams are complete stories, similar to a memory. Therefore, people who are caught in long dreams often cannot distinguish between dreams and reality.
If a long dream is interrupted and someone falls asleep again after a quarter of an hour, the memory of the long dream is still hidden in the mind. The person is likely to have another dream with a coherent plot, following the previous dream. This will further confuse reality and dreams.
"If a person is awakened from a long dream every day and then falls asleep again, he or she will have more coherent dreams and will find it increasingly difficult to distinguish between dreams and reality.
"They believe they are awake in their dreams, but in reality they believe they are asleep, and their minds gradually become confused. This method of confusing dreams and reality is called 'sleep interruption.' Only professionals like me understand it well; ordinary people have no idea how it works."
Qiu Tong forced Miss Zhou into a habit of taking naps, essentially confusing her ability to distinguish between dreams and reality. Qiu Tong would often knock on Miss Zhou's bed at the hours of Yin and Mao, and Miss Zhou, her mind already a mess, naturally believed her lies.
"Miss Zhou's madness has a lot to do with her inability to distinguish between dreams and reality. She often mistakes the ghosts in her dreams for real ones."
Zhuang Li pointed at Qiu Tong and Liu Cui's information and asked, "So, do you see the problem?"
The King of Qi stared at a passage in the document and suddenly realized something. "Two illiterate women simply couldn't devise such a sophisticated scheme, nor could they master such manipulative tactics. They must have someone behind the scenes directing them."
Zhuang Li tapped his temples, his eyes growing colder. "I've thought about it, and besides me, the only one who understands this method is Zhuang Tianer."
The King of Qi immediately said, "It must be Zhuang Tian'er."
There is no way that the young gentleman would do such a thing.
Zhuang Li glanced at him with a smile and continued, "Zhuang Tian'er is someone who won't do anything without a profit. She must have a reason for helping Liu Cui frame Miss Zhou. Liu Cui didn't mention Zhuang Tian'er in her confession. I have a feeling there are still some unanswered questions in this case. I'd like to meet Liu Cui."
"Okay, I'll take you to the prison right away." The King of Qi agreed without hesitation, hitched up the carriage and left. As for the funeral being held in the mansion, he didn't care at all.
When civil and military officials came to offer their condolences, he had his steward send them away, and only hung two white lanterns at the door for show. He even went to the palace on the day he returned to Beijing and personally altered the jade disc.
Logically speaking, the deceased royal family would also leave their names on the jade disc. What King Qi did was tantamount to completely denying the existence of Yun Changrong.
The Empress Dowager did not dare to ask about this, and the little emperor was still young, so he would not ask. So the matter was resolved easily.
---
The two quickly arrived at the cell and met Liu Cui.
With a little guidance from Zhuang Li, Liu Cui woke up from Zhuang Tianer's hypnosis and remembered the memory she had forgotten.
"I don't know Zhuang Tian'er. She came to me on her own. She said she could help me deal with Miss Zhou, but only if I arranged for her to meet Gao Feng. Gao Feng is my husband's good friend and often comes to my house for drinks. As long as the arrangements are made properly, it won't be difficult to get him to meet Zhuang Tian'er.
"I thought Zhuang Tianer had fallen for Gao Feng and wanted me to help set them up, so I agreed. That day, I brought Zhuang Tianer home, disguised her as a maid, and asked her to serve my husband and Gao Feng while they drank. On the way, I found an excuse to send my husband away, leaving her alone in the room with Gao Feng.
"I don't know what they said or did. I only know that Zhuang Tian'er left after a quarter of an hour, and Gao Feng continued drinking, as if nothing unusual had happened. After that, I got married, and Zhuang Tian'er disappeared from sight, and she had no contact with Gao Feng at all. "Sir, please have mercy on me, I know I was wrong!"
Liu Cui shook the cell door and cried bitterly.
But Zhuang Li ignored her cries, dusted himself off, and strode out of the dark dungeon.
After getting on the carriage, he looked at King Qi and asked in a low voice, "Who is Gao Feng?"
The King of Qi lifted the curtain and asked someone to check.
The guard commander immediately replied, "Your Highness, there's no need to investigate. I know Gao Feng. He's the Crown Prince's guard and he accompanied him to Xishan the day before yesterday. I'll send someone to arrest him immediately."
A quarter of an hour later, Gao Feng, who was full of confusion, was brought before Zhuang Li.
Seeing the tired face and dark circles under the other person's eyes, Zhuang Li already knew that this was another person whose memory had been erased by Zhuang Tianer.
Hypnosis can also have side effects. If the awakening process is not smooth, the subject will experience headaches, dizziness, nausea, and repeated insomnia. These symptoms were vividly reflected in Gao Feng.
There is no doubt that he is also a victim of Zhuang Tianer.
Zhuang Li hypnotizes Gao Feng again, awakening his memory, and a shocking case is exposed to everyone. It turns out that Gao Feng is hiding another identity.
He used to be a bandit active in the Bazhou area, and he was also the leader.
In order to sneak into the capital, he deliberately sent his subordinates to intercept and kill Yun Changrong, and then pretended to pass by and drew his sword to help, thereby gaining Yun Changrong's trust and becoming his guard.
Through him, news from the imperial court trickled into the bandits. He also gathered information about which mountaintops the 600,000 taels of relief silver would pass through and which route it would take.
After his subordinates succeeded, he found an excuse to take leave and quietly came to Bazhou. He invited his subordinates to drink in the name of reward, but actually put drugs in the drinks. After all his subordinates fell asleep, he raised his knife and killed them all.
He asked his subordinates to meet in the cave where the silver was hidden on the pretext of dividing the spoils. They drank wine in the cave, killed people and blocked the entrance of the cave. From then on, he was the only one who knew the secret.
The court officials investigating the case would never suspect the personal guards of the Prince of Qi even if they tried their best.
After the storm has passed, he will gradually transfer the 600,000 taels of silver and enjoy it slowly.
But he never expected that everything he did was seen clearly by Zhuang Tianer who was hiding near the cave.
Gao Feng was already furious, blood-soaked, and holding a sharp knife. Zhuang Tianer didn't dare to go out and confront him. After he left, Zhuang Tianer sneaked into the cave and found the ground full of corpses and the 600,000 taels of silver.
If she wanted to take possession of the money, Zhuang Tianer had to deal with Gao Feng. But how could she deal with Gao Feng? Kill him? She was a weak woman, so powerless that she simply didn't have the ability to do that.
So there was the case of Miss Zhou going crazy.
Zhuang Tianer and Liu Cui reached an exchange of interests. After her wish was fulfilled, Liu Cui arranged for her to meet Gao Feng alone. During this meeting, she erased Gao Feng's memory and, when saying goodbye, she also erased Liu Cui's memory.
From then on, the 600,000 taels of silver became her private property, and no one else knew her secret.
After hearing the truth from Gao Feng, even Zhuang Li couldn't help but admire Zhuang Tianer.
It all clicked, perfectly. No wonder Zhuang Tianer was able to marry Yun Changrong so smoothly and eventually become empress. With six hundred thousand taels of silver, what was she afraid of? Who could be more confident than she?
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