Long before Zhen Shicheng arrived, Prince Xiang had been recalling what happened that night over and over again.

In the autumn of the nineteenth year of Jingming, Cui Mingyue killed Zhu Ziyu on his wedding night and escaped, falling into the hands of his subordinates who were sent to follow him. As a result, the foolish subordinate brought him back to the Prince of Xiang's Palace.

He had no choice but to kill and hide the body. He took away all of Cui Mingyue's clothes, shoes, socks, purses, jewelry, etc., leaving only her underwear and throwing it into the waste well.

But after so much time, I am no longer sure whether there were any omissions. Even if I think about it over and over again, I still feel uneasy.

Now it’s okay, Zhen Shicheng’s people didn’t find anything.

As the King of Xiang thought about this, his face gradually turned red.

What's the big deal about finding a corpse in the waste well of the palace? No one can prove that he was the one who killed her. Even if we really believe that he was involved, it's not a big deal for a prince to accidentally kill a maid. Even if my father knew about it, he would just be angry.

The King of Xiang pursed his thin lips and became more calm.

"Nothing found?" Zhen Shicheng took a step forward, squatted down and looked at the bones on the ground, and even fiddled with them with his hand covered with a handkerchief.

This action made the several princes who were watching turn pale and suppress the feeling of nausea.

Prince Lu thought about how he had just fallen into the well and felt mad, then looked at Zhen Shicheng's seriousness and subconsciously looked at Yu Jin.

Lord Zhen is so scary. I wonder how the seventh brother managed to follow him.

Then I saw a face that was eager to try.

King Lu was stunned and looked away silently.

"Did Lord Zhen find anything?" After calming down, the Prince of Xiang changed from being passive to active and asked.

If the man named Zhen didn't notice anything, he could just act like a prince and ask the person to leave.

Zhen Shicheng stood up and did not directly answer the King of Xiang's question. Instead, he asked, "Has any woman gone missing in the palace in the past three years?"

He knew very well that if he said he had not discovered anything at this time, a person of such noble status as the King of Xiang would immediately have a reason to send him away.

Ignore questions that are difficult to answer, and ask the questions you want to ask.

As expected, the King of Xiang followed Zhen Shicheng's line of thought: "The young king doesn't know."

"Not sure?" Zhen Shicheng stroked his beard.

He had forgotten to trim his beard this morning, and it looked tangled in one place.

"Master Zhen should know that the young prince has not yet married, and all matters such as personnel deployment in the palace are in the charge of the steward..."

"In that case, please ask the steward of the palace to come over." Zhen Shicheng said calmly.

The King of Xiang was very cooperative and immediately ordered his servants to call the steward.

As soon as the servant ran out, he pushed through the crowd and came in again. With him was a man in his forties with a goatee, who was the steward of the Prince of Xiang's Palace.

Needless to say, the steward was already standing among the crowd watching the excitement.

"Your Majesty——" the steward saluted Prince Xiang.

Facing the people in the palace, the King of Xiang was much more arrogant and asked calmly, "Did you hear what Lord Zhen said?"

"I heard it."

"Then you should answer Lord Zhen's questions carefully." Prince Xiang reminded meaningfully.

The steward's heart sank, and he hurriedly said, "Please rest assured, Your Majesty."

The King of Xiang turned to Zhen Shicheng and nodded slightly: "Master Zhen, please ask."

Zhen Shicheng looked at the manager for a few times and asked the same question as before.

The steward hesitated for a moment and said, "There are many people in the palace. If it is about the missing maid in the past three years, it is difficult to explain it at the moment. I need to check the list first."

Zhen Shicheng stroked his beard and reminded, "It's not limited to maids."

"This..." The steward couldn't help but glance at King Xiang.

The King of Xiang said sternly, "Master Zhen, I only have four personal maids. Apart from them, all the young women in the palace are ordinary maids."

"So, there are no women of noble status in the palace?"

King Xiang nodded.

"In that case, the manager should just report the missing woman here."

The steward bowed and hurried to check the roster.

After a while without any results, Zhen Shicheng ordered the yamen runners to continue searching for clues in the well, focusing their attention on Erniu.

"I heard that it was General Xiaotian's credit that King Lu came here?"

King Lu rolled his eyes when he heard this.

So he has to thank Erniu when he falls into the well?

Yu Jin replied on behalf of Erniu: "Not bad."

Zhen Shicheng walked up to Erniu, cupped his hands, and said politely, "In that case, I'd like to trouble General Xiaotian to help me look for it again."

He took the matter so seriously that everyone was surprised.

Lord Zhen, do you really think Erniu has magical powers?

Zhen Shicheng didn't care about the confusion of the onlookers.

In his opinion, dogs have advantages in investigating cases that humans don't have. With Erniu's help, they might be able to break the deadlock and bring light to the situation.

He already had doubts about the murderer's identity, but he needed evidence to solve the case.

"Erniu, look around." Yu Jin pointed at the corpse on the ground.

Erniu stood up, shook his fur, went up to smell the bones on the ground, and began to sniff around.

The King of Xiang never took his eyes off the big dog, and in his heart he wished he could skin the cow and stew its tendons.

Without this dead dog, this wouldn't have happened! Sooner or later he would kill this dog.

When the King of Xiang was furious, there was a sudden commotion, and someone shouted, "Look, Erniu found something!"

Everyone's eyes were on the big dog, and they saw Erniu digging a hole at the edge of the well and bringing something to Zhen Shicheng. He opened his mouth wide and the object fell to the ground.

In the sunlight, the object that fell to the ground flashed, and its true appearance could not be seen for a moment.

Zhen Shicheng leaned over and picked up the object with a handkerchief. Only then could everyone see that it was a pearl earring.

The Prince of Xiang stared at the rice-sized pearl earrings and was bewildered for a moment.

He remembered that he pulled Cui Mingyue's earrings off when cleaning up the mess. Was he wrong?

So much time has passed that such details are difficult to determine.

Cold sweat broke out from the palms of my hands, feeling sticky and uncomfortable.

King Xiang took a deep breath to get rid of his nervousness.

Don't panic. It's just a small, ordinary pearl earring. There's no name engraved on it. Who can recognize it as Cui Mingyue's?

Zhen Shicheng looked at the earring carefully and remained silent for a long time.

At this time, the steward came hurriedly, bowed and said: "I have found out that there is only one young woman missing in the palace in the past three years. She is an embroiderer named Acai in the needlework room..."

"Uh, does Xiuniang have any parents or family?"

"Your Excellency, Ah Cai's parents are working in the palace."

Soon a middle-aged man and woman stood in front of Zhen Shicheng.

The man's eyes were slightly red, and the woman was trembling all over. She threw herself over after taking one look at the corpse on the ground, and cried out heartbreakingly: "A Cai, my son, you died such a tragic death—"

Zhen Shicheng was indifferent to the farce. When the woman's crying subsided a little, he asked calmly, "How did you recognize that the withered bones on the ground were your daughter's?"

The woman stopped crying and covered her mouth, saying, "She has been missing for two years. Who else could it be if not Ah Cai?"