Duke Wan led the way and found a room nearby, inviting Su Wenyuan to sit down.
As soon as she sat down, Su Wenyuan got straight to the point: "I just met with Consort Wan. She told me everything, but there are things she doesn't know, so she asked me to ask you."
"What could she possibly know?" Duke Wan blurted out, then guiltily avoided Su Wenyuan's probing gaze.
In the Duke of Wan's view, Consort Wan should not know about this matter, since he had never mentioned it.
Su Wenyuan sneered, "Then what do you know?"
The Duke of Wanguo remained silent, while the Duchess hesitated several times, wanting to speak but daring not to.
"There's nothing to say. Just let me investigate slowly. I've gone through so much trouble to get here, so I don't mind taking a little longer. Once I've found out, I'll go to your graves and let you know."
Su Wenyuan was about to leave, but before she could even get up, the Duke of Wan spoke up.
"I'll tell you part of it. You kill the guard who betrayed me. After the Emperor removes the guards outside the mansion, I'll tell you the rest. Of course, in the meantime, you can also verify whether what I'm saying is true or false."
The Duke of Wanguo knew a great deal; he searched the entire Anchuan Kingdom and couldn't find another person like him, not even the Emperor.
Sheng Zixi dawdled as she arrived at the Duke of Wanguo's mansion. Seeing the intact gate, she felt quite gratified.
Although he got inside, thankfully the door was still there, otherwise he would have had to find someone to fix it.
Upon seeing the composed Sheng Jingyu, Sheng Zixi couldn't help but feel flustered.
"Father has ordered that no one is allowed to enter or leave. Isn't it inappropriate for you and the Princess to just come in like this?"
Sheng Jingyu spread his hands and said, "If the princess wants to come, I can't stop her, but you're a little late. I've been waiting for you for a long time."
Sheng Zixi said, "Since you haven't left yet, it's not too late. Let's go to the palace together in a bit. We need to give Father an explanation."
Sheng Jingyu smiled and said, "There's no rush. I don't know when you'll give me an explanation."
After searching for so long, we haven't found anything.
“I’m afraid Eighth Brother can’t give the Prince an explanation. Why don’t I come and find a way for him to get out of this mess?” Su Wenyuan said with a smile as she walked in from outside.
The Duke of Wanguo has said all he wanted to say.
With Sheng Jingyu in front of him and Su Wenyuan behind him, Sheng Zixi felt that he would not be able to withstand this pincer attack.
This time his intuition was right; he gave in in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.
The two of them suddenly changed their minds, no longer in a hurry to find the murderer, nor wanting to keep the Duke of Wan trapped.
Sheng Zixi guessed that the Duke of Wan and Su Wenyuan had reached an agreement on the terms.
He didn't want to investigate anymore after all this had dragged on for so long, mainly because he genuinely couldn't find anything!
Sheng Jingyu agreed to hand the live witness over to Sheng Zixi so that the things he was investigating would come to a conclusion.
But he only had one day. Once that time was up, he had to find a way to deal with that person.
Sheng Zixi agreed and sent someone to Prince Chen's residence to pick up the person. Su Wenyuan also needed a day to verify whether what the Duke of Wanguo said was true.
If it's true, she won't pursue the assassination attempt any further and will tell the Emperor to investigate the matter slowly and release the Duke of Wan first.
As for the other things, those were all discovered by Sheng Zixi and had nothing to do with her.
Furthermore, the Duke of Wanguo did not say that she should also resolve these matters.
On the carriage back to the mansion, Su Wenyuan first repeated her conversation with Consort Wan after entering the palace to Sheng Jingyu, and then talked about her adopted son Lian Heng.
Sheng Jingyu wasn't very surprised by what Consort Wan had told him.
I hadn't fully guessed it before, but I had a pretty good idea: the death of Marquis Anle was related to the Emperor and that battle.
The frontline military officers colluded with the officials in Jincheng, and Sheng Jingyu found evidence of this, so he was just waiting to go to court to impeach them.
Seeing the various crimes they committed, it's not hard to guess that they originally wanted Marquis Anle to take the blame for the defeat.
What truly surprised Sheng Jingyu was that the Marquis of Anle had an adopted son.
This adopted son is the same age as the one who was born, so the direction of our investigation becomes very clear.
“No wonder the investigation into Nian Huaizhong didn’t find anything wrong with him. He was fine to begin with. The problem lies with the people behind him. They investigated the wrong person.” Sheng Jingyu pondered to himself.
On the surface, Nian Huaizhong's background and experience seem to be fine.
He had never been to the capital, and his family was involved in various businesses, which perfectly matched what he said.
His experience was completely truthful, so how could any problems be found?
Investigating the people around him, Sheng Jingyu had a premonition that there was more than one person behind him, possibly many others.
All of these people have problems, except for Nian Huaizhong, who on the surface seems to have no flaws. His biggest problem is probably his appearance.
Lian Heng, the adopted son, would become unusually low-key whenever he came to the capital.
Of all the people in the capital who have seen his face and can remember it, probably only Su Yuan is.
After Nian Huai finally arrived at Prince Chen's residence, he rarely went out to meet people and was not discovered.
After thinking it through, Su Wenyuan suddenly realized, "He does have a secret, but he has always been helping me, as well as my mother and maternal grandfather. He has no ill intentions."
"...Human hearts are unpredictable." Sheng Jingyu was even more vigilant than before.
He hoped that Nian Huaizhong was a bad person who had suddenly become Anle Hou's man, which would be a terrible thing.
Sheng Jingyu always felt that Nian Huai was intentionally getting closer to Su Wenyuan, and that it was a real, substantial approach!
Is it necessary to stand so close when discussing blueprints? In winter, I don't know what to wear, and Su Wenyuan has to remind me.
As Sheng Jingyu recalled these details in his mind, Su Wenyuan had already asked Yuexiu to pick out more items from the storeroom and send them to Nian Huaizhong, which was a sign of her care.
Sheng Jingyu said unhappily, "Is it really necessary? We haven't even confirmed who he is yet."
Su Wenyuan said regretfully, "It was too much. Keeping someone trapped in the mansion for so long, if they really are one of our own, it's not good. We should make amends first, investigate slowly, and deal with them only if we find out they aren't."
Seeing her like this, Sheng Jingyu felt there was no need to investigate further.
"Don't get your hopes up too high. What if he came for those things? What are those worthless things from Qikong Kingdom even used for? Why does the Duke of Wanguo insist on having them?" Sheng Jingyu asked.
Su Wenyuan straightened her expression and said, "It's related to an outrageous legend, from a very long time ago! The King of Qikong Kingdom, do you know him?"
"Ah..." Sheng Jingyu suddenly understood something.
Su Wenyuan was still waiting for him to continue, but he suddenly stopped talking, muttering "ah" and "uh" all the time, just thinking to himself without saying anything.
Su Wenyuan glanced at him sideways and asked, "Do you know or not? What are you thinking about?"
Sheng Jingyu said, "I've figured it out, I understand everything. Didn't the Duke of Wan tell you about this Prince Qi? He's incredibly powerful, ridiculously powerful, it's obviously made up."
Su Wenyuan frowned and said, "He didn't say specifically, he only said that what he was looking for was the map of the Qi King's Imperial Mausoleum. The imperial mausoleum of the Qi Kingdom, wasn't it already completely looted? It was done by the founding emperors of Anchuan and Buchuan!"
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