I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 73 Lord's Worry and Minister's Humiliation
Magistrate Yu arrived at the palace with the yamen coroner and a group of Tianjin officials. The Prince of Changting was too busy to pay any attention to them. He sent for his staff to bring the yamen coroner to assist in the examination of the body, and then left the others to wait in the reception room.

It was not good for the officials to just sit there, so they started to argue loudly in the reception room. Sometimes they said that the Tianxin Sect was hateful, and sometimes they sighed and groaned, and it was unclear whether it was for the prince or for their own official hats.

Magistrate Yu, who originally had mostly black hair, had most of his hair turn white overnight.

The prince had an accident in his territory. Regardless of whether they could make amends afterwards, they would inevitably bear the blame for failing to protect him and governing properly.

The prince is fine in other places, why did he get into trouble here?

You blame the Tianxin Sect, or those traitorous assassins? You don't even need to mention it; the imperial court will bring this up and question you.

For example, why did the Tianxin Sect rebels appear in Jinmen Prefecture, and how did they assassinate the emperor right under your noses?
To put it mildly, this is the result of Tianjin officials neglecting their duties and being negligent. To put it more seriously, this is the result of collusion with external thieves, deliberate connivance, and protection.

If it is the former, they will lose their official hats; if it is the latter, they will lose their heads!

The living room was like a vegetable market at this moment, very noisy.

Prefect Yu's head ached after hearing this. He could no longer suppress his inner irritation and immediately slammed the table and shouted, "Enough! The prince hasn't spoken yet, why are you making such a fuss?"

Even if the sky falls, there's always someone taller to hold it up. Magistrate Yu had already made his decision. A lean camel is bigger than a horse. With the towering King of Changting standing tall, why would they, the little saplings, need to stand up to the emperor's wrath?

If things are unavoidable
Magistrate Yu sighed quietly. He had been in the officialdom for decades and was no longer the young man full of vigor and vitality. He no longer had the energy to fight.

He really doesn't want to bother with it anymore unless it's necessary.

In the morgue, several coroners were performing autopsies one by one.

In addition, those who had fought with the assassin last night were also being interrogated in the side room.

After Xu Qing was brought here by the palace soldiers, they gave him a few words of advice:

"Don't wander around here casually. If you have anything important to tell, tell the guards and someone will convey it to you!"

Xu Qing was unhappy at the time. Whether it was an interrogation or questioning, we had to have a set of rules, right? What did you mean by leaving me here?
Otherwise, go get me some oranges and I won’t run around!

The palace soldier refused to answer any of Xu Qing's questions, and looked aloof as if someone owed him money.

This is really like a scholar meeting a soldier, and he can't explain himself clearly.

Xu Qing stood by the moon cave gate. On his left was a group of scholars and writers queuing up for questioning, and on his right was the place where corpses were kept for autopsies.

The two groups are clearly separated, and some witnesses will be taken into the morgue by assistant staff for identification.

These people not only have to delve into the details of the assassination of the prince, but also shoulder an important responsibility, which is to organize and summarize the details of last night's incident and submit them to the capital.

The old emperor's son is gone, this is a big deal. If the case is not presented to the Long case as soon as possible, I am afraid that everyone will accuse him of incompetence.

There are no trivial matters in the imperial household, let alone such a major event as the death of the crown prince that shocked the entire nation.
Xu Qing stood at the dividing line between the two courtyards and looked around. In the end, he couldn't control his pace and took the lead in heading towards the courtyard where the corpse was placed.

Walking past the neatly arranged corpses in the yard, Xu Qing came to the morgue where the chief officer was.

As soon as he entered the door, he saw four or five clerks and coroners surrounding several corpses for dissection.

"How many of you are busy?"

Xu Qing came up to him in a familiar manner. If someone didn't know the situation, they might have thought that he was also a colleague sent by the government to investigate the case.

"This corpse is unusual. It looks like the assassin's powerful energy must have broken his sternum, causing him to lose his breath and unable to defend himself. He could only allow the assassin's sword to pierce his throat."

An expert from the palace asked in surprise, "Who are you? How did you know he was killed by a Ning Gang martial artist?"

Xu Qing didn't respond directly. Instead, he turned and walked over to the other corpse, saying logically, "The Tongmai Realm expert beside the prince is over nine feet tall. He must have practiced horizontal training, so his skin is tough and his flesh is thick. If he wasn't suppressed by a Condensed Gang Martial Master, the cut on his neck wouldn't be so neat. The only one who could achieve this could be a Condensed Gang Martial Master, and also a strong man who is skilled in swordsmanship and can infuse Gang Qi into the blade."

"As far as I know, only Bai Luo, the guardian of Tianxin Sect, meets these characteristics."

The registrar who was in charge of recording the details of the autopsy looked at the case file he had just written down, and it was exactly the same as what the scholar in front of him had said.

"And this corpse has three sword wounds, but they're not fatal. The only fatal one is the penetrating wound to the chest. Judging by the method, it must have been done by the same person as the previous corpses. But this person is obviously more powerful, so he has the most injuries.

A master like him shouldn't have been stabbed to death. I think he was trying to protect someone and ended up like this."

The coroner was so shocked that even the masters in the palace couldn't help but sigh.

Are there really such capable officials in the world who can reconstruct the course of a crime at a glance?
However, when everyone asked who Xu Qing was, he said with a look of disappointment, "My name is Xu Qing. I'm the fourth-placed student in this year's Imperial Examination. Your Highness is familiar with me. I happened to be there when the Tianxin Cult's demons brutally murdered those warriors yesterday, so I know everything so clearly."

"."

Everyone's faces visibly fell.

I thought I had a colleague with outstanding professional skills, but I never expected that he was an eyewitness assisting in the investigation.

A registrar called him aside and asked him a few details, but did not make any effective progress.

So the other party was just like the palace soldier who sent Xu Qing in, asking him to stay here honestly and wait until the case files were sorted out before listening to his orders.

Xu Qing couldn't sit still any longer. He was like a hungry man entering a widow's house. His eyes unconsciously drifted to the cold couch nearby.

Over there, a group of people were busy as hell. Here, Xu Qing had already reached the cold couch without knowing when.

He pretended to be nothing, and reached into the paper quilt covering the surface of the corpse and fumbled around for a while, and then two cold little hands hooked together underneath.

As the pages of the Sutra of Deliverance turned, a fleeting image of the Forgotten River flowing through the underworld appeared.

The life story of the corpse in front of me also emerged.

"What are you doing here?"

The palace guard frowned and looked at Xu Qing who was sitting beside the cold couch.

"Oh, my legs are numb from standing so much. I'll just lean over here and rest for a while. You can continue with your work. Even though I'm the prince's friend, there's no need to be so attentive to me."

The guard said helplessly: "There is a bench over there, you might as well sit on it and rest."

"That's impossible. You've all worked hard on this case, and this is for you to rest. How can I sit there?"

"You are quite polite as a scholar."

"That's not true! I'm a scholar, a scholar who has passed the imperial examination. Otherwise, His Royal Highness would not be friends with me, so I must be polite."

Xu Qing was right in everything he said, so the guards just let him do what he wanted.

At present, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has suddenly developed dementia and has not recovered yet. It is unknown when His Royal Highness will need his friend. Naturally, the guards dare not offend him and even have to serve him well.

Seeing that no one cared about him anymore, Xu Qing became even more unbridled.

Sometimes he touched the little hands of one corpse, sometimes he touched the feet of another corpse.

In short, the male corpse touches the hands and the female corpse touches the feet.

He doesn't care about food.

When Xu Qing touched a slender, small, cold and snow-white little foot, he was stunned.

Oh, hey, an acquaintance! The person lying on the cold couch in front of Xu Qing was none other than Miss Shuyu who had sneaked into the banquet yesterday.

As early as when Xu Qing was in Shuhuang Pavilion, he had heard Zhang Jun talk about the love-hate relationship between him and Miss Shuyu.

To put it bluntly, it is actually a clichéd story about an oil seller who paralyzes himself and falls in love with a heartless woman.

However, seeing is believing. Now, as Xu Qing turned the page through the Sutra of Salvation, he truly became a spectator of a melodramatic drama.

When he saw the oil seller who gave everything for love being attacked by his sweetheart, even though Xu Qing had excellent expression management, he couldn't help but grit his teeth.

It is said that thorns are hidden under the branches and leaves of flowers, and people's hearts are full of poison.

A beautiful flower, a girl who seemed too afraid to even kill a chicken, actually had the intention to kill the person who treated her sincerely.

Finally, when Xu Qing saw Shuyu being killed by Zhang Jun who had come to his senses, he smiled. At this moment, he felt both the relief of having eaten the last bite of the melon and a belated sense of relief.

After watching the melodrama, the Durenjing gave the evaluation: human beings are of low quality.

The reward is a charm technique called "picking flowers and breaking branches." This technique is divided into two types: internal charm and external charm. External charm is common to both men and women, and is often performed by walking, sitting, or lying down, displaying a charming demeanor to seduce others. Alternatively, one can use charm techniques to create peach blossom talismans to attract the other person's affection.

There are special methods of cultivation for inner charm, which requires the help of qigong training, guiding, meditation, and constant conditioning in order to achieve the charm of the body and spirit that overflows from the inside out.

In the morgue, Xu Qing sat with half of his butt leaning against the cold couch, his long gown just highlighting his tall figure.

At this moment, a guard from the palace happened to be looking at him. He unconsciously used some seductive tactics, and his peach blossom eyes revealed his extraordinary charm as they moved around.

"."

The guard shuddered all over and subconsciously tightened the hilt of the knife in his hand.

This scholar's eyes are so scorching!
In the backyard of the palace, the old eunuch Li Zhong and the groom in front of the prince's carriage were confronting Prince Changting and others.

"Your Highness, it's not that I don't believe it, but the assassin last night was incredibly powerful. Even though I and the guards tried our best, we couldn't protect Your Highness."

Li Zhong looked at the prince, whose face was as gloomy as iron, as if he didn't know how to spell the word "death". He continued, "If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is like this, how capable are the guards around His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to have escaped danger from Bai Luo's hands?"

"Your Highness, don't say that there are masters who can help you. On the contrary, when His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was assassinated yesterday, there was an assassin who was no less powerful than a martial arts master who secretly assisted him."

Upon hearing this, a retainer beside Prince Changting could no longer contain his anger and immediately said, "The Crown Prince has already suffered from dementia due to the assassination attempt. Could this be false? You said a martial arts master assassinated the Crown Prince. Are you suspicious?"

"shut up!"

Zhu Sheng frowned and scolded, and the retainers beside him dared not say anything more.

"Li Zhong, let alone the fact that I only have one son, even if Huai'an is still healthy, I will never do anything that is detrimental to the Yong Dynasty."

Zhu Cheng spoke slowly, each word powerfully. "You failed to protect our master. You are derelict in your duty. The Crown Prince was assassinated in my residence because of my inadequate protection. I have already sent a trusted confidant to present the charges to Your Majesty. When the time comes to punish him, I, Zhu Cheng, will not hesitate."

When Li Zhong heard Prince Changting say that he had failed in his duty, he felt like he was being hit in the sore spot.

His expression changed drastically, and his voice became sharp and pale:

"Your Highness the Crown Prince is the heir apparent to a nation, so noble! This is no offense, but a matter of state, and there can be no room for error. Since the prince says that His Highness has dementia and is not like an ordinary person, I dare to ask His Highness to appear before me. If so, I will apologize to the prince. When I return to the capital, I will explain this matter to His Majesty and ask the virtuous doctors of the Imperial Hospital to treat His Highness."

Zhu Sheng looked indifferently at the prince's attendant who was still nagging him. After a while, he slowly said, "Then please follow me to the prince's residence."

The residence of the Prince of Changting.

Zhu Huaian was being chased by maids and servants in the yard.

In the pavilion, Princess Changting wiped her tears, looked away, and looked at the Wu brothers who were a little restrained in front of her.

"I know that you are Huai'an's friends, and you are among the top three in this year's provincial examination. As a mother, I am very pleased that Huai'an can make friends with you, but Huai'an is now..."

Princess Changting sighed softly and entrusted the matter, "I would like you to stay here for a few days. If you can help the Crown Prince regain his consciousness, that would be great."

While they were talking, a group of people rushed into the yard from outside.

The princess sent someone to inquire, but the prince ordered her to go back and only asked his subordinates to bring Zhu Huaian before everyone.

"Hey, elixir, my elixir, I won't give it to you!"

Zhu Cheng looked at his beloved son who was sucking and biting the pebble in his hand, and his eyes couldn't help twitching.

"What are you all standing there for? Put down what the prince is holding!"

The little fat boy had good food in the palace, and he had been very strong since he was young. How could the maids and servants snatch it from him?

One by one, they were knocked to the ground by Prince Zhu, and the yard suddenly became chaotic again.

The guards at the palace did not dare to use any brutal force. They were restrained and had to work very hard to pry open the prince's mouth and take out the pebble covered with saliva.

Li Zhong came up to Zhu Huaian, forced a smile, and asked tentatively: "Your Highness, do you still recognize me?"

When Zhu Huaian saw Li Zhong’s feminine face, his mouth suddenly pursed and he started to cry loudly.

"The elixir, the old monster stole my elixir, I can't be an immortal anymore!"

Li Zhong's smile froze. He stood up and looked at King Changting.

"Your Highness, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince does seem to be suffering from dementia." While Li Zhongchou was formulating his words, he subconsciously looked at the real old prince.

The groom, who had a paralyzed expression, continued to stare at Master Zhu, as if trying to confirm whether the other party was really stupid.

Li Zhong gritted his teeth at the sight and said, "I know a little bit about medicine. Your Highness, please move aside so I can take a closer look at the Crown Prince's condition."

Zhu Cheng frowned and asked, "What do you want to do?"

"Your Highness, what have you said? Do I dare to harm the Crown Prince? I just want to confirm it once more. When I return to the capital, I can testify for Your Highness and say a few good words for Him in front of His Majesty."

Zhu Cheng recalled the frail and elderly appearance of Emperor Longping, hesitated for a moment, and finally said, "I will trust you for once. Remember, you only have half an incense stick of time."

After saying this, Zhu Sheng ordered the guards to stay and monitor Li Zhong's every move, while he went to the pavilion alone to wait.

On the spot, Li Zhong waved to his subordinates and whispered something in their ears.

When the subordinate came again, he had a cloth bag in his hand, which seemed to contain a ball of wet and soft mud.

"It stinks! What's that in your hand?!"

Li Zhong took the cloth bag and ignored the palace guards who were questioning him. He smiled and groveled before Prince Zhu. He then unfolded the cloth bag and said, "Your Highness, the old monster has returned the elixir. It's still soft. Would you like to try it?"

Zhu Huaian's eyes lit up when he heard this and he came forward.

"Ugh!" The little fat man leaned back tactically, covering his mouth and nose with both hands and said, "This elixir stinks!"

Li Zhong's smile widened. "Good medicine tastes bitter, but it's good for the disease. This elixir stinks to begin with. If Your Highness doesn't take it, it will lose its effectiveness!"

Zhu Huaian was full of curiosity. He endured the stench, pinched his nose with one hand, and dipped the other hand in the lower half of the "magic pill" and put it into his mouth.
　Two chapters in one
　　
　
(End of this chapter)