Chapter 144 The Last Lingering Favor
"The assassin is very professional."
In the main hall, Li Jin held a cup of tea and said calmly, "Yunfei and I arrived at the scene immediately, but the site had already been cleaned up so thoroughly that not even a single bloodstain could be found."
After speaking, he took a sip of the warm tea in his hand and looked up at Jin Shu, who was standing to the side, her fingertips still fiddling with the crescent-shaped hairpin.
Perhaps sensing Li Jin's gaze, she looked up and met his eyes: "Before she was bandaged last night, she insisted on seeing you, Your Highness."
"See me?"
"Yes. I heard you went to the scene later, so I gave up." She paused, "but handing this over to me was as if you had something to say."
Jin Shu handed the crescent-shaped hairpin to Li Jin: "There is a character 'Lin' engraved on this hairpin, but I looked at it all night and couldn't figure out what's so special about it."
The character "林" (Lin).
Li Jin put down the teacup and reached out to take it.
The small wooden hairpin was in his palm. He weighed it in his hand, then held it in front of his eyes and looked at it from left to right for a long time.
There is indeed something unusual about this wooden hairpin.
There is a dark wood grain running from one end to the other, which looks very much like a kind of message tube that Li Jin used to use.
Because of its meticulous craftsmanship, it is not easy for people to tell that this wooden hairpin is made of two pieces of wood that were glued together with wax.
He pulled out the small knife from his fan ribs and gently traced a dark line along the crescent-shaped hairpin.
As he expected, the hairpin split in two, with a thin, long curl embedded in the middle.
He gently pried out the small roll with his fingertips and carefully unfolded it.
This is a list.
Li Jin recognized more than half of the people above; they were the Crown Prince's initial supporters.
Chancellor Zhao Wencheng, Minister of Justice Xu Weiyou, Grand Tutor Su Yu, and even Vice Minister of Justice Chen Wen, Prefect of Linyang Yang An, and Yizhou merchant Fang Qing...
Besides them, some had fought, some were already dead, and the fate of most of the remaining people was unknown.
Among them are the names of Lin Zhongyi, who transported the armor six years ago, and Yang Qingyun, who received the armor.
He rolled up the note again and put it back into the crescent-shaped hairpin.
"If my speculation is correct, Lin Zhongyi should have visited this girl before he died after returning to Beijing."
Li Jin's eyes darkened considerably.
Xiao Pan'er was probably assassinated last night because of this hairpin.
as well as……
She had hidden herself well, but Li Jin's movements during the day exposed her hiding place.
He glanced at Jin Shu and chuckled, "We're probably being followed."
Jin Shu remained silent and nodded.
After that night, Xiao Pan'er slept for three days before slowly waking up. The first thing she said upon waking was still to find Prince Jing, Li Jin.
Imperial Physician Qiao settled her behind his family's clinic. Li Jin and Jin Shu entered through a secret passage and saw the pale-faced woman.
She leaned against the headboard and looked at Li Jin, nodding apologetically: "That day, I saw that you were dignified and taciturn, and I thought you were the Crown Prince in disguise from the Six Doors."
Xiao Pan'er was barely breathing and spoke with great difficulty.
Li Jin lifted his robe and sat down on the edge of the bed: "Miss Xiao is not yet fully recovered, so let's get to the important points."
Before she could respond, Li Jin asked directly, "Have you seen Lin Zhongyi recently?"
Whenever Li Jin mentioned Lin Zhongyi's name, a hint of nervousness would always flash in the woman's eyes.
"Yes, I have." She nodded.
"The crescent hairpin he gave you?"
When asked this, Xiao Pan'er paused for a moment, her lips pressed into a straight line: "He came to me and said that if he died, he should find a way to give this hairpin to Prince Jing of the Six Doors."
“He also said,” she paused, pondering for a long time, “that Prime Minister Zhao has cloud patterns.”
Li Jin paused.
Even Jin Shu was taken aback.
The cloud pattern is a unique graphic element in Li Jin's painting that has remained completely undiscovered to this day.
“I don’t know what he meant, but he said it was very important and that I must pass it on.” Xiao Pan’er frowned slightly and smiled rather reluctantly. “Now that I’ve told His Highness, I can say that I’ve repaid the favor he did for me.”
In the back room of the clinic, Li Jin looked at the weak Xiao Pan'er, and the word "gratitude" went through his mind many times.
He looked at her badly injured appearance but didn't ask her anything.
Ten years ago, Lin Zhongyi, along with four thugs, severely injured Xiao's father, who owed him exorbitant interest, causing his death.
He kidnapped Lin Pan'er, who was only six years old at the time, to pay off a debt, but now she says that this person did her a favor.
Seeing that he didn't ask, Xiao Pan'er raised her bloodless lips and said to herself in a low voice, "Before I was arrested, life was actually very hard. My brother and I went to the street to sell shoe soles. We only had a dozen or so copper coins a day, and we were always hungry."
"Once we get to the Lin residence, at least we'll have two meals a day, we won't go hungry, and we'll have clothes to cover us." She chuckled dryly.
At that time, young Xiao Pan'er was very clever and knew how to please adults.
She tried everything she could to survive.
Although I had no freedom and remained a lowly slave, my life was still relatively stable compared to the past when I didn't know where my next meal would come from.
This was the only trace of kindness she could remember from Lin Zhongyi.
She did hate him, but she was also grateful for the better life she had received. Xiao Pan'er grew up amidst this contradictory state of mind.
Li Jin remained silent for a long time before shaking his head: "He took advantage of your wishful thinking." He said, "If it were really good, you wouldn't be in a brothel."
Sitting by the bed, Xiao Pan'er was stunned for a moment, then laughed self-deprecatingly: "Lin Zhongyi has a secret. Six years ago, when I was ten years old, he seemed to have played an important role in that bloody storm in the royal family."
“After that, he always thought that he would rise to prominence and become the Crown Prince’s right-hand man.” Xiao Pan’er sneered. “Until two years ago, he discovered that not only had he failed to become the Crown Prince’s right-hand man, but he was also on the Crown Prince’s purge list.”
"He was so frightened that he packed his things overnight to run away, and everyone in the mansion was in chaos." She chuckled. "Originally, I wanted to go with him."
At this point, Xiao Pan'er pursed her lips and remained silent for a long time.
She never dreamed that her decent life would end with her being sold into a brothel.
Lin Zhongyi's kindness towards her was nothing more than cheap charity, like keeping a pet, throwing her a couple of pieces of meat when he was in a good mood, and kicking her away when he was in a bad mood.
Before that, Xiao Pan'er naively thought that she would stay in the Lin family mansion forever, and naively thought that in Lin Zhongyi's heart, she was slightly different from the other maids who served tea and water.
In the end, only those who thought themselves favored were sold into brothels and ended up in such a state.
“I thought I would never see him again,” she said with a bitter smile. “But a while ago, he suddenly appeared in front of me. He handed me the hairpin with great fear, saying that he was about to die, that he had nowhere to hide and no way out.”
“I asked him, if that’s the case, why doesn’t he go to the yamen to turn himself in?” Xiao Pan’er took a deep breath: “He said that if he came, many people behind him would die.”
At this point, Li Jin narrowed his eyes slightly.
Many people will die, which means that quite a few people on that list are still alive.
As long as someone is still alive, there is hope that the case from six years ago can identify the Crown Prince.
After coming out of the house, Li Jin bowed and thanked Imperial Physician Qiao.
But before he could finish speaking, Bai Yu hurriedly poked his head out from under the eaves.
"Your Highness," he tossed down a bamboo tube, "an urgent matter."
Li Jin took it with surprise, cut it open with a knife, and saw a few strange words written inside.
"Mr. Jin, we have a job." He looked at the bewildered Jin Shu, "The Ministry of Justice has specially arranged a corpse for you, and it will soon be blocking the entrance of the Six Doors."
He sneered, "And you've brought along an extra troublesome person."
Jin Shu paused, "A troublesome person?"
Li Jin closed the bamboo tube and tossed it upwards. The white feather on the roof reached out and caught it steadily before disappearing.
"When colleagues meet, they're bound to be extremely jealous." He patted Jin Shu on the shoulder. "The Ministry of Justice's top coroner has come to cause trouble."
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