Chapter 113 has two purposes: first, to suppress Prince Jing; and second, to poach Jin Shu.
Looking at the dark envelope, Li Jin did not reach out.
With a slight upturn of his chin and a half-smile, he asked, accompanied by the night breeze, "Just who exactly is Young Master Song?"
Li Jin had wanted to ask this question for a long time.
Someone who can create a fake identity so easily—even if Shen Wen were to investigate, he would only find layers upon layers of falsehoods.
It would be better to ask him directly.
Li Jin gently twirled her fingers, her eyes always fixed on Song Zhen's face: "The Crown Prince is no ordinary person. You are just a merchant. How could you become his right-hand man? It's not that convincing just because of a conflict of interest."
The candlelight flickered in the night breeze, and Song Zhen did not respond to him immediately.
He lowered his head, his bright eyes, which seemed to see through the cycle of heaven and earth, staring at the ingenious box in front of him beneath his long eyelashes. After a moment of silence, he shrugged slightly and said with a smile, "The Prince of Jing of Great Wei is no ordinary person. I am just a merchant. At this moment, I am only three steps away from him. It is just a matter of interest."
After saying that, he smiled slightly, raised the letter in his hand again, held the envelope between two fingers, covering half of his face and his slightly lonely smile.
The next day, Li Jin arranged a carriage to pick up Jin Rong, who was about to enroll in the Imperial Academy, at the entrance of the courtyard.
Looking at the polite child who was about the same age as Jin Rong, Jin Shu stood at the door and respectfully said "thank you" to Li Jin beside her.
She thought it was a tutor arranged by Li Jin.
Standing at the door, Prince Jing, with his hands behind his back, glanced at her heartfelt gratitude. The words "It wasn't his arrangement" stuck in his throat like a thorn, impossible to utter.
He raised his hand and coughed lightly, looking away and changing the subject: "Solve the case as soon as possible."
After saying that, he quickly got into the carriage.
Previously, Li Jin used public opinion to put pressure on the Ministry of Justice. Now, the Ministry of Justice is using the same method to bring the pressure on the Six Doors case to its peak.
In order to maintain his facade of being a "playboy" and "playful," Li Jin tried every means to find various excuses to avoid attending the morning court session.
In a month, he would only make a brief appearance at the grand court assembly, which he was required to attend, and exchange a few pleasantries.
In the usual grand court assemblies, Li Jin was practically invisible compared to the other princes, but this time, the Ministry of Justice secretly impeached him.
"They say I handled the case poorly, causing widespread fear in the capital." Inside the carriage, Li Jin lifted the curtain and said irritably, "They really acted quickly!"
From the time the case was discovered, to the time the Ministry of Justice handed it over to Li Jin, only two days have passed.
Having his own schemes caught in his throat, Li Jin sneered, "Fortunately, this case isn't entirely without leads, otherwise I would have really suffered in silence this time."
Standing in front of the carriage, Jin Shu looked back with some confusion: "Why does the Ministry of Justice always seem to have a problem with the Prince? They've set up roadblocks more than once or twice."
“Because Xu Weiyou, the Minister of Justice, is the maternal grandfather of Crown Prince Li Jing.” He paused, “Firstly, it’s to suppress me, and secondly, it’s to poach you.”
After Li Jin finished speaking, she put down the curtain in her hand.
Outside the car, Jin Shu paused for a moment, then suddenly realized.
It turns out that the female constable disguised as a man was telling the truth.
She said: "Prince Jing, Li Jin, single-handedly protected you behind him, and no one can leave."
Jin Shu smiled faintly, looked up at the midday sky, and watched the birds soaring high, feeling increasingly at peace.
The case has come full circle, returning to the inn where the body was first discovered.
With that horrific corpse gone, the air in the entire inn felt infinitely fresher.
But good news doesn't travel far, while bad news travels fast. The inn's reputation plummeted, and it became unusually deserted. Even with the owner offering low prices, not a single customer could be attracted.
Li Jin sat in the main hall, glancing at his own reflection in the white water before him, and asked, "Do you have any impression of the name Xu Liangcai?"
He asked, "This body couldn't have fallen from the sky. Think carefully, did any guest with the surname Xu stay in that room two months ago?"
For two days in a row, the shopkeeper, who had lost his hair from worrying about making a living, looked like a wilted daylily with his brows furrowed into a knot.
They looked at Li Jin as if he were a plague god.
"Speaking of guests with the surname Xu..." He thought for a while, sighed, and after sighing, muttered again, "Surname Xu..." He repeated this several times until he finally caught a trace in his memory.
"It seems there was such a person! His name was Xu something-or-other, and he stayed here for more than half a month." After he finished speaking, he clicked his tongue, "Then he left without saying a word, and he was still a few days short of paying his bill!"
"Xu Liangcai." Li Jin took a sip of the warm water in his cup.
The shopkeeper nodded repeatedly in agreement: "Yes, yes, yes! Xu Liangcai! The girl he brought keeps calling him Liangcai, Liangcai, every day. There is such a person."
Only now did the shopkeeper suddenly realize something, his face showing a look of sudden understanding. The crucial clues in his mind seemed to be stuck in a tangled mess. After stammering for a while, he finally managed to organize his thoughts and express them fluently: "Those two live in that room! That's right! It's him!"
"When was the last time you saw them?" Li Jin frowned slightly, looking at his struggling recollection, and pointed to the bench next to him. "No rush, sit down and think about it slowly."
But the shopkeeper waved his hands repeatedly: "No, no, I feel sleepy as soon as I sit down. I can think faster standing up."
After he finished speaking, he stood there, lost in thought for a long time, his expression growing increasingly somber.
Finally, he paced back and forth in front of the three people in the entire main hall.
As Li Jin drank his third cup of water, and the midday sun made the street sweltering, the shopkeeper, as if he had found a treasure, excitedly said, "I remember now! That day, he specifically told me that his wife is usually tired and wakes up late, so he asked our waiter to postpone the closing time a little later."
He nodded vigorously: "I haven't seen him since then."
Have you seen his wife yet?
The shopkeeper shook his head: "There was no goodbye. After that day, those two never showed up again. I just assumed they were stalling for time to avoid paying their rent. I encounter a few people like that every year. If I run into one, I just consider it bad luck and don't take it to heart."
At this point, the shopkeeper clicked his tongue repeatedly: "But it's quite unexpected. People without money don't pay up and tend to run away without paying the rent. Young Master Xu is very generous. He even has a kiln at home and is a porcelain merchant. I never expected him to do something like this."
"A porcelain merchant?" Li Jin brushed aside the porcelain pieces in his fan, one by one. "How did the shopkeeper know?"
The person in front of me pondered for a moment, then took a few steps to the back of the counter, and pulled out a small plate with crackled glaze, about the size of my palm, but absolutely beautiful.
“I bought this from him for one tael of silver,” he said. “At the time, he wanted to do business with the plates and utensils in my restaurant, and he introduced them to me for several days in a row.”
“The items are nice, but I couldn’t bear to spend that much money, so I only bought a plate, thinking of it as a gift for my wife’s birthday in a while.”
At this point, Li Jin nodded knowingly, and while nodding, he took the plate and said meaningfully, "Giving a plate as a birthday gift... is somewhat similar to that of a certain money-grubber who gave 'May you have abundance every year' as a birthday gift."
As he spoke, he turned the plate over and looked at the words "Xu Family Porcelain Making" on the bottom of the plate.
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