Chapter 24
Fu Lu and Shou were left outside, while Xue Jin'an and the Fifth Prince followed Li Hechun inside.
Upon entering the courtyard, Xue Jin'an smelled the stench of blood in the air and saw two corpses lying on the ground in front of him, one dressed as a eunuch and the other as a guard.
Xue Jin'an noticed that Li Hechun deliberately slowed down his pace and turned his body to the side, seemingly intending to let them see the appearance of the corpse clearly.
The Fifth Prince beside him suddenly stopped. Xue Jin'an saw that he looked dazed, his eyes fixed on the eunuch's corpse, and his lips uttered a name: "Xiao Dongzi..."
"Who is Xiao Dongzi?" Xue Jin'an asked directly.
The Fifth Prince snapped back to his senses. As if he had just realized what had happened, he clutched his chest, his face turning deathly pale in an instant. His breathing became rapid, and he looked like he was about to faint from a heart attack.
Xue Jin'an had to admit that the Fifth Prince had a talent for acting. He clearly knew that this person's battery was in good condition and that he had discovered that the person was deliberately controlling his heartbeat to pretend to be sick. Yet, there was actually a moment when he had the impulse to use the Lotus Sword to remove the person's chest plate and take out the battery to see if there was a real problem.
Xue Jin'an knew that the Fifth Prince was putting on an act for Li Hechun, so as to take the opportunity to observe his reaction and gather intelligence. This also happened to coincide with Xue Jin'an's purpose. Of course, even if he had no purpose, he would not expose the Fifth Prince. He was a man who respected human diversity and had no interest in seeing others suffer.
Xue Jin'an silently squatted down, pretending to be focused on examining the corpse, completely unaware of the sudden situation.
The Fifth Prince, satisfied, let himself catch his breath, his hands trembling as he reached for his sleeves. His legs gave way, and he was about to collapse to the ground. "Medicine...medicine..."
Li Hechun rushed over to help the man with lightning speed, kicking up dust as he did so. He quickly pulled a porcelain bottle from the Fifth Prince's sleeve, poured out a black pill, and deftly pressed it under the prince's tongue.
The Fifth Prince's breathing gradually stabilized, and Li Hechun breathed a sigh of relief. After helping him up, he stepped aside and stood there, his smiling face returning, as if he hadn't heard the name the prince had unintentionally murmured before.
At such close range, how could he not hear? Impossible. Moreover, as the chief eunuch, Li Hechun had countless eyes and ears in the palace and knew everything about the people around the various masters, big and small. Would he really not know the relationship between this eunuch and himself?
It's very likely that he deliberately showed him the corpse. Li Hechun is the Emperor's man, so it's the Emperor... Now that things have come to this, he has no choice but to say it, even if he doesn't want to.
It has to be said that the reason why the Fifth Prince was able to stir up trouble among his brothers for so long without being beaten was not only because he had a heart condition as a protective shield, but also because he was very clever.
He and Xue Jin'an had the same idea, except that Xue Jin'an thought of more, and he also discovered some clues from the two corpses.
The Fifth Prince couldn't read Li Hechun's expression. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and said, "Xiao Dongzi is my personal eunuch. He has been by my side since childhood, so we have some affection for each other. A few days ago, he made a mistake, and my mother discovered that he was a spy planted by someone else to kill me. In a fit of anger, my mother gave him a severe beating, and he died that very night."
The Fifth Prince finished speaking in one breath, as if he had spoken without thinking, but in reality, seven parts of his words were true and three parts were false.
As for which statement was true and which was false, even he himself couldn't be sure, because he couldn't be sure whether what he heard from his mother was true.
And whether it's true or false, he doesn't dare to believe it. The only thing he can do is to hide or distort the parts that are unfavorable to him and his mother. These are the things his mother instilled in him overnight on the day Xiao Dongzi died, and he can say them without even thinking about them.
The Fifth Prince then changed the subject and denied it, saying, "He is not Xiao Dongzi, but should be Xiao Dongzi's younger brother."
"The two were twins, born at the same time, which brought misfortune to their family. Their mother died at birth, their brother died at the age of three, their father died at the age of ten, and their grandparents died unexpectedly when they were twelve. Their uncles and aunts, fearing that they would bring them bad luck, sold them to slave traders. Later, they escaped and, in a daze, sold themselves into the palace."
"Wusheng" means "born in reverse," referring to a difficult birth in which the feet come out first.
The Fifth Prince continued, "That's roughly it. I've only heard Xiao Dongzi mention him twice, and I've never met his brother. I only know that his brother used to work in the flower room. Later, after Xiao Dongzi came to my side, he found a way to transfer him to Tianlu Pavilion."
There were four libraries in the palace: the library of the Hanlin Academy, the Wenyuan Hall of the Grand Secretariat, the Tianlu Pavilion of the Inner Palace, and the Tingwenxuan, the emperor's private library in the Qianyuan Palace.
Tianlu Pavilion primarily served the ladies and mistresses of the harem. It had the smallest collection of books among the four major libraries, and the content was carefully selected, lacking much interest, so few people visited it.
The young eunuchs' job was simply to stay inside and clean and tidy up, move the books outside to air them out when the sun was out, and copy books whenever they had a spare moment. It was a very easy and relaxing job.
Li Hechun seemed to only just realize the assassin's identity, and exclaimed in sudden realization, "No wonder this assassin, who clearly held the Sixth Prince hostage, claimed he wanted to kill the Fifth Prince. I thought this little eunuch had gone mad and mistaken someone for someone else, but it turns out that's how it is."
"Actually, we could have captured the assassin alive. Vice Commander Wei had already sneaked behind him, ready to rescue the Sixth Prince, when another highly skilled assassin rushed out from among the guards, intending to assassinate the Emperor..."
Having already alerted the enemy, Vice Commander Wei, fearing the assassin might suddenly attack and harm someone, decided to go all the way and eliminate the eunuch assassin, rescuing the Sixth Prince. Then, Li Hechun shouted for protection, and the entire Imperial Guard rushed towards the Imperial Study. Unexpectedly, there was another assassin outside who directly tried to take Xue Jin'an hostage, but he dodged it and instead took the Fifth Prince hostage.
Xue Jin'an examined the eunuch's corpse's fingers and indeed found calluses from years of holding a pen, as well as some old ink stains on his sleeves that hadn't been washed off.
It's definitely this person, but it's very subtle.
“You recognized them at a glance; they look very alike, and everyone around you knows him too,” Xue Jin’an said in a serious tone, spouting a string of nonsense.
The Fifth Prince looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"There's a reason they won't let you go out." When Xue Jin'an said "they," he was actually referring to Hong Ling. When he said "go out," he really meant come to the study.
When Hongling learned that the Fifth Prince was going to the Imperial Study, she tried to stop him. At the time, she didn't think much of it, but now she realizes how subtle it is.
The Fifth Prince understood Xue Jin'an's words. His heart sank, and his expression flickered for a while before he suddenly let out a short "ha" sound.
It sounded like disbelief, like laughter, and like sarcasm.
"Was it a feint? They pretended to assassinate me, and then waited until everyone's attention was focused on this matter before they actually tried to assassinate Father Emperor." The Fifth Prince asked Li Hechun with difficulty about the situation at the time.
“There were two groups of people, and it was a feint, but he was being used.” Xue Jin’an stood up and answered his question with great certainty.
Li Hechun looked at him in surprise, "Why does Your Highness say that?"
Xue Jin'an thought humans were a bit stupid, unable to see such an obvious problem. He pointed to the two people on the ground, but first asked, "What's Xiao Dongzi's younger brother's name?"
The Fifth Prince and Li Hechun were both taken aback, completely unexpected that he would ask such a question.
The Fifth Prince gave him a strange look. "A little eunuch I've never even seen before, do you think I would know his name? Just call him Brother Dongzi."
“Humans all have names, and so do eunuchs. It’s your problem if you don’t know them,” Xue Jin’an replied matter-of-factly.
The Fifth Prince subtly sensed that he was being looked down upon.
Li Hechun was quite moved, and his smile towards Xue Jin'an became more genuine as he confirmed, "His surname is Zheng, and his name is Zheng Xi."
Li Hechun indeed knew everyone in the palace inside and out, but the Fifth Prince just murmured softly, "So Xiao Dongzi's name is Zheng Dong."
Actually, it's called Zhengda. Li Hechun thought to himself.
They were not well-liked by their families, so naturally, their families didn't give them any special names. They were just called "the older one" and "the younger one," and over time, those became their names.
Later, the two entered the palace. Zheng Da abandoned his original name and became Xiao Dongzi. He learned to read and write, gained some power, sent his younger brother to a quiet place, and gave him a completely new name.
Originally, the character "希" (xi) meant "hope" or "hope," but it was the younger brother who said he wanted to be like his older brother, so it became the character "西" (xi) meaning "east" or "west."
Li Hechun did not reveal these matters. After all, few people cared about the life or death of a eunuch, let alone a name. Revealing them would only embarrass the Fifth Prince. Their purpose would probably be to exchange them for things like whipping the corpse, or some other form of punishment that would prevent the dead from finding peace.
This has always been the case in the palace; it's the Seventh Prince who's so concerned about a eunuch's name that's an anomaly.
Li Hechun hunched his back slightly, his smiling face beaming, his wrinkled face as vibrant as a blooming chrysanthemum.
If Xue Jin'an had a favorability rating system, he would definitely receive a notification that his favorability rating has increased by 1.
Xue Jin'an didn't explain, so he simply pointed to the two corpses on the ground and explained the reasons for the two groups of people, "Zheng Xi is lazy and only has calluses on his hands from writing, but this assassin has undergone rigorous training, and the calluses on his hands are from years of using weapons like spears and clubs..."
“The most compelling evidence is actually the manner of their deaths.” Xue Jin’an pointed to the two men’s faces. “Zheng Xi was killed by having his throat slit, a single blow that left almost no trace of struggle. This assassin, on the other hand, had many knife wounds on his body, seemingly dying from exhaustion after being surrounded and attacked. Yet, he was bleeding from all seven orifices, his lips were blue, his eyes were bulging, his expression was ferocious, and his fingers were twisted… It was clear that he died from poisoning and was in great pain before his death.”
The Fifth Prince also realized it, "He committed suicide by poison." Professional assassins and bodyguards would carry poison on their bodies to avoid being captured and interrogated if their mission failed.
But usually, the poison hidden there is a deadly poison that kills instantly, right? This is the first time I've seen a poison hidden there that causes such excruciating pain before death.
The Fifth Prince's question was quickly answered.
Li Hechun nodded and then shook his head. "You are right, but there is one thing Your Highness is wrong about. What he took was not poison, but Gu."
Xue Jin'an saw that a young eunuch who had heard everything had quietly entered the main hall of the Imperial Study to report to the Emperor.
Yunnan is rich in various insects, which has provided many masters of Gu poison to the martial arts world. The original owner's uncle, Zhou Yushu, lived in Yunnan for many years.
The emperor was indeed suspicious of him, but was it just because of Zhou Yushu? But he had never even met the original owner's uncle... so there must be something else that made the emperor suspicious.
But Xue Jin'an didn't expect that he didn't think he had anything to be suspected.
"Seventh Prince has changed a lot lately, he's like a completely different person compared to before," Li Hechun said with a chuckle, his voice carrying a meaningful undertone.
Li Hechun was subtly reminding him.
Xue Jin'an suddenly understood, and a rare feeling of melancholy and frustration arose in his heart.
"I did a great job," he said, frustrated. "So how did you figure out I'm not human?"
Fifth Prince: "..."
Li Hechun: "..."
Wait, what aren't you?
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