Old and injured, Li Heng finished writing the letter, handed it to his bodyguard to deliver, and then went to sleep.
The old butler bowed as he left the room. After making a ruckus for several hours, he was tired and needed to rest, otherwise he wouldn't be able to get up the next morning.
Shi Yan led Ye Zhen out of the Prime Minister's residence with the secret guards.
Ye Zhen tugged at Shi Yan's sleeve and whispered, "Father, could you please bring me his letter? We can revise it and return it."
Unexpectedly, that old scoundrel Li Heng really did have a son on the side, and he hid him so well. It's clear that this son is Li Heng's most precious treasure.
This was also Li Heng's weakness, which was why he refused to let him come to the capital. So she changed his letter and insisted that the man come to the capital.
At that time, we'll take them all at once.
Shi Yan understood his daughter's thoughts and nodded, "Wait for me."
This was not a difficult task for him.
Ye Zhenzhen waited for a moment, and then Shi Yan returned, holding a letter that Li Heng had written to his son.
They needed a place to revise the letter, so Ye Zhen took Shi Yan to the backyard of Xie Tingzhou's general store.
The letter roughly stated that Li Heng told his son that he was unharmed, that the assassination attempt was just a show for outsiders, and that his son should not act rashly or come to the capital without permission.
Shi Yan asked Ye Zhen, "Can you imitate his handwriting?"
Ye Zhen had learned a little from Xie Tingzhou, but when she heard Shi Yan ask this, she asked, "Father, do you know how?"
"I know some."
Ye Zhen knew he was being modest. "Then please help me revise it, Father."
Father was of noble status, but when he met the emperor, he introduced himself as Da Yuan Shi Yan.
Ye Zhen knew he was a humble person, and since he said he knew some things, he must have quite a high level of expertise.
Shi Yan was happy to help his daughter. "Change it to what?"
"Let him come to the capital, but to prevent his whereabouts from being revealed, tell him not to contact the capital again after receiving the letter."
That way, the truth won't be revealed.
Shi Yan thought so too.
Then it needs to be rewritten.
Fortunately, Xie Tingzhou used to occasionally come to the general store to handle various messages and intelligence, and there was a lot of paper in the store. Ye Zhen found the same one and gave it to Shi Yan.
Shi Yan carefully examined Li Heng's brushstrokes, then tried writing a few on a blank sheet of paper, and got a feel for it.
A short while later, he wrote a letter with a completely different meaning, as Ye Zhen had requested.
"Wait here for your father for a moment."
Shi Yan put the letter she had written into an envelope and said to Ye Zhen, "After you change the letter, Father will come to pick you up to go to the Prime Minister's residence."
Ye Zhen had the same idea and nodded obediently.
I just went to the Prime Minister's residence and haven't had a chance to look around properly yet.
Shi Yan felt extremely satisfied and left with a smile on his lips.
The servants from the grocery store brought up tea and snacks. Ye Zhen had just finished a cup of tea when he returned.
"alright."
The guards, completely unaware of this, had already headed straight for the city gates to deliver the message.
The two returned to the Prime Minister's residence.
Half of the servants in the mansion died, and a mourning hall was set up, giving the mansion a gloomy atmosphere.
An eerie stillness.
However, Ye Zhen sensed that there were many hidden presences in every corner of the mansion. If Shi Yan hadn't been with her, it would have been difficult for her to wander around the Prime Minister's mansion at night without being discovered.
Those people must all be assassins secretly trained by Li Heng.
After getting a feel for the layout of the Prime Minister's residence, the two arrived outside Li Heng's study.
Li Heng was injured, and the study was empty except for two guards standing watch outside.
Shi Yan led Ye Zhen into the study through the window.
Ye Zhen searched around, hoping to find the secret passage.
Xie Tingzhou once said that Li Heng had a secret study, which was a place for his followers to relax.
Li Heng himself often went there, but he pretended to be indifferent to worldly desires in public, so he didn't go there from outside the mansion.
Therefore, there must be a secret passage leading to the Dark Chamber in the Prime Minister's residence.
To avoid suspicion, the secret passage is most likely located in the bedroom or study, with Ye Zhen feeling that the study is more likely.
The study of a person of high rank and power is usually a forbidden place for the people in the mansion, and it is even more difficult to be discovered.
Seeing her pushing and touching things here and there, Shi Yan guessed what she was looking for. He stood around the room and walked to a picture of a Bodhisattva hanging on the bookshelf.
Lifting the painting aside reveals a drawer on the bookcase. Pulling it open, you find it empty except for the mortise and tenon joints on either side.
Shi Yan pressed a mortise and tenon joint, and the originally flat mortise and tenon joint gradually protruded outward, forming an object that looked like a lock cylinder.
Upon closer inspection, one can see a wolf head pattern on the lock cylinder.
Shi Yan's gaze sharpened, and he turned the lock cylinder, producing the sound of the lock wheel turning. Ye Zhen followed Shi Yan as he opened the drawer.
Her eyes lit up slightly at the sound.
Found it.
Immediately, she saw the bookshelves, which had been filled with books, slowly move aside, creating a doorway wide enough for two people to pass through.
Push it open, and you'll find a slowly descending staircase.
This is probably the secret passage leading to the Dark Chamber, but the passage is pitch black.
Since there were no torches on the wall, Li Heng must have brought his own lighting when he came and went.
Ye Zhen returned to Li Heng's desk and easily found a luminous pearl in the other drawers.
"Let's go down and take a look."
Shi Yan took the luminous pearl from Ye Zhen and walked ahead.
The secret passage was not short; it took the two of them more than fifteen minutes to emerge from it and see what lay before them.
Ye Zhen finally understood that Xie Tingzhou had only mentioned the Dark Abode to her last time, but had not told her about the situation inside.
There were pretty young children, pregnant women, men of different heights and builds, and even livestock.
They were all locked in iron cages.
The iron cages contained beds, tables, and chairs, and each cage had a curtain hanging from the top. When the curtains were pulled open, the cage became a private space.
Those locked inside, whether people or livestock, are now resting with their eyes closed.
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