My father ordered me to kill the emperor, but His Majesty bestowed a princess upon me instead.

There are two routes from the South Gate to the Water Gate.

One is the main road, bypassing the South City Military Command; it's wide, easy to walk, and easy to be seen.

The other is a narrow path along the old canal, which is muddy and difficult to travel at night, but it is fast.

I chose the second option.

Ah Liu sat in the carriage, no longer wanting to speak.

Every time he opened his mouth, the wheel would plunge into a mud pit, jolting him up several times. After a few such joltings, all he was left with was clutching the evidence book and questioning the meaning of life.

"Young master..."

"explain."

"Could we investigate a case next time that doesn't require us to go out?"

"for example?"

"For example, someone stole the neighbor's chicken."

I said, "Stealing chickens might also uncover the Ministry of Revenue's disaster relief funds."

Ah Liu fell silent.

I guess they think that with my current fate, it's really difficult to find only the Rooster.

Zhou Xian followed on horseback, already in such a disheveled state that he had lost all semblance of dignity befitting a member of the Ministry of Rites.

The hem of his official robe was stained with mud, and his hat was askew.

As he followed, he asked in a low voice, "Lord Shen, if we chase after Shuimen like this, it might alert the city's defenses..."

"Master Zhou."

"Um?"

"You'd better not think about city defenses right now."

"So what are you thinking about?"

"If Du Heng runs away, can Feng Ke protect you?"

Zhou Xian fell silent.

Qiu Tang didn't come along.

She remained at the South Gate to frame Wei San, Qing He, and Che He for fabricating a confession.

this is correct.

The evidence from the South Gate is also important.

With Ah Liu and Zhou Xian by my side, I'm already a burden enough.

Bringing more people from the princess's residence would actually make things less flexible at the water gate.

In the distance, the sound of the canal water gradually drew closer.

The water gate was hidden in darkness at night.

The canal on the south side of the capital city runs under the city wall. The water gate is usually half-closed, but at night only a small opening is left open for a small number of official scrap boats and palace miscellaneous boats to pass through. According to the rules, no passage is allowed after curfew, unless there is an urgent document from the palace or the Six Ministries.

That's how the rules are written.

But my biggest takeaway from these past few months is this: if the rules are written down and the money is put on the paper, people can squeeze through the cracks in the paper.

When we arrived at the water gate, we could already hear the sounds of fighting ahead.

Not big.

Short and urgent.

It's like someone who doesn't want to alert the city gate guards, but has no choice but to take action.

My heart skipped a beat.

Yan Xiaoyi caught up.

I reined in the horse, and my legs went weak again when I jumped off.

This time, Ah Liu saw it.

He opened his mouth.

I glared at him.

He immediately turned to look at the night sky.

"The moon is really dark tonight."

well.

sensible.

We walked down the earthen slope next to the water gate.

There is a small dock below, where three narrow boats are moored.

One of the boats was already half a meter from the shore, with someone poling at the bow and two men in black fighting with Yan Xiaoyi at the stern.

Yan Xiaoyi single-handedly blocked three people.

They were still talking non-stop.

"Shen An, if you had been any later, I could have been lying in the river."

I shouted, "Don't you know how to swim?"

"Being able to swim and wanting to die are two different things!"

When Ah Liu heard that there were people who wanted to live even more than him, he actually showed a hint of relief.

I don't have time to deal with him.

Inside the cabin, a man in blue was carrying a long box.

There is a mole on my left eyebrow.

Du Heng.

His expression changed drastically when he saw me.

"Pole the boat!"

The boatman struggled to pole the boat.

The ship slid into the dark hole in the water gate.

Once we enter the water cave and exit the city's irrigation canal, the darkness will make it very difficult for us to catch up.

I looked at Zhou Xian.

"Lord Zhou!"

Zhou Xian was taken aback.

"what?"

"Ministry of Rites waist badge!"

Realizing what was happening, he immediately shouted to the gatekeeper, "The Ministry of Rites is investigating! Close the sluice gate!"

Shou Ding, who had been standing there in a daze, finally moved when he heard the words "Ministry of Rites" and saw Zhou Xian's waist badge.

The two men rushed toward the winch.

Upon seeing this, Du Heng's face hardened.

One of the men in black on the ship immediately rushed towards the winch.

Yan Xiaoyi was entangled by the other two people and couldn't break free for a while.

I drew my short blade and sheathed it.

When the knife was drawn from the sleeve, the night wind seemed to be sliced ​​open.

Ah Liu's expression changed drastically when he saw my knife.

"Young Master!"

I know what he's afraid of.

Zhou Xian is here.

There is a guard.

There were people from the Ministry of Rites.

The risk would be extremely high if I were to draw my sword in public.

But if they didn't pull it out now, the winch would be destroyed, and Du Heng would leave.

I didn't hurt anyone.

I raised my hand, reversed my grip on the short blade, and smashed it towards the black-clad man's wrist.

It's not a thorn.

It's smashing.

The hilt of the knife struck the wrist bone, and the man groaned as the short knife fell to the ground.

The next instant, Yan Xiaoyi had already finished, kicking the man into the mud.

He glanced at me.

"Not bad."

I put the knife back into my sleeve.

"Did you borrow it to read?"

Zhou Xian has already seen it.

His eyes changed.

It wasn't fear.

Yes, it's confirmed.

I'm sure I really brought a knife.

But he doesn't have time to talk about it now.

The sluice gate winch turned, and the iron chains made a heavy sound.

The half-open iron gate inside the water gate slowly descended.

Du Heng became anxious.

"quick!"

The boatman pushed even harder.

The bow of the ship was just about to slip through the water gate.

Yan Xiaoyi kicked aside a man in black, then leaped onto the stern of the boat using a wooden post on the shore.

The ship lurched violently.

The boatman almost fell in.

Du Heng retreated while holding the long box.

Yan Xiaoyi said lazily, "Don't back down, or you'll have to feed the fish with the booklet in your hand."

Du Heng's face turned pale.

I stood on the shore.

"Du Heng, throw the box over here."

Du Heng looked at me and suddenly smiled.

He doesn't actually look fierce.

Some of them were even rather frail.

The mole on my left eyebrow was very faint in the darkness.

But when he smiled, there was no life in his eyes.

"Lord Shen, you've come to the wrong person."

I looked at him.

"Yeah?"

He patted the long box in his arms.

"You thought the official register was here?"

My heart sank.

He continued to laugh.

"You're very good at checking accounts, but you're too slow."

Yan Xiaoyi pressed the tip of her knife against him.

"Enough with the nonsense, Box."

Du Heng did not move.

The sluice gate was already halfway down, and the boat was stuck in front of the sluice gate, unable to move forward or backward.

Zhou Xian and his men finally reached the shore.

Du Heng glanced at Zhou Xian.

"Lord Zhou has also arrived. It's a pity you're too late now."

Zhou Xian gritted his teeth.

"Du Heng, why did you set fire to the books and steal them?"

Du Heng thought it was a joke.

"I'm just a clerk."

This phrase has come up again.

It's just a clerk's job.

I asked, "Who told you to do that?"

Du Heng looked at me.

"Does Lord Shen want to know?"

"think."

"Then go ask your father-in-law."

Zhou Xian's expression changed.

Ah Liu gasped.

My gaze darkened.

father in law.

emperor?

This statement is certainly not credible.

The accounting committee loves to steer the investigation towards the emperor.

Before he died, Qian Rong said: "You investigated the people around His Majesty."

Whether it's credible or not is one thing.

Whether it can sway people's hearts is another matter.

Du Heng stared at me, his voice low.

"The complete register of clothing belonging to the three prefectures north of the Yangtze River is not in my possession. The official register was sent to the palace long ago."

My heart skipped a beat.

Sent to the palace?

He continued, "You think we want to escape the city? No, Lord Shen. You people always think that evidence should be hidden outside the city. But the safest place is never outside the city."

His smile deepened.

"It's in the palace."

I didn't believe it immediately.

They didn't immediately disbelieve it.

The box in Du Heng's arms was still there.

He said the official register wasn't in his possession; perhaps it was a lie.

But if the box contains a fake, then the South Gate, the Water Gate, the Old Warehouse, and the charred corpse that night were all part of a chain of bait.

Their real purpose was to make us believe that the pamphlet had left the city, so as to cover up the entry of the official pamphlet into the palace.

Enter the palace.

wedding.

cuff.

Knife.

All the threads suddenly circled back to the palace.

Du Heng said, "Lord Shen, you are very clever. But clever people have a flaw: they always think that what they find out is the truth."

I asked, "What's that in your hand?"

Du Heng glanced down at the long box.

"Something deadly."

"Whose life?"

"your."

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly let go.

The long box fell into the water.

Yan Xiaoyi reached out to grab it, but only managed to grab the tail of the box. The lid was smashed open, and the contents spilled out.

It's not a booklet.

It was a few pieces of old cloth.

A piece with the character "方" on it.

A piece of scrap paper with the word "Southwest" on it.

There is also a short blade.

The short blade design is very similar to the "sheath" in my sleeve.

Ah Liu was so surprised that his voice changed.

"Young Master!"

Du Heng burst into laughter.

"Lord Shen, if this box were salvaged from outside the water gate, and inside were old clothes of disaster victims from Jiangbei, a travel permit from the southwest, and a knife just like yours, what do you think the Ministry of Justice would write?"

Yan Xiaoyi's face turned cold, and he struck Du Heng on the back of the neck with the back of his knife.

Du Heng groaned and knelt on the deck, still laughing.

"It's too late."

I looked at the old cloth and short blade scattered in the water.

The current wasn't strong, but it was enough to carry away small creatures.

Yan Xiaoyi had already jumped in to retrieve it.

Shou Ding also went into the water.

But I know that what Du Heng really wanted was not for these things to flow away.

It was to let me see.

They saw that the accounting committee had prepared a second set of knives.

If I hide my knife well, they'll hide a fake one for me.

If they can't find it in my cuff, they'll retrieve "Shen An's knife" from the water gate.

If Fang Liu's old clothes couldn't be sewn into my wedding attire, they would let it appear in the waterway outside the city along with the southwest road permit and the short blade.

There is no shortage of evidence.

They just keep changing locations.

I walked to the side of the boat and looked at Du Heng.

Where is the official register?

Du Heng looked up, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

"I told you, it's the palace."

"Where in the palace?"

He smiled but did not answer.

I said, "Aren't you afraid of dying?"

"I'm afraid," Du Heng said. "That's why I work for them."

"who are they?"

Du Heng's eyes suddenly turned strange.

It was as if he wanted to say something, or perhaps he was thinking of something more terrifying than death.

The next moment, his face turned ashen.

Yan Xiaoyi reacted the fastest, grabbing his chin.

But it was too late.

Du Heng's throat moved, and black blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

Ah Liu cried out in alarm, "Poison!"

My heart sank.

Is poison hidden under the tongue again?

No.

Yan Xiaoyi pried open his mouth.

Not under the tongue.

It's in the gap between the teeth.

Du Heng had long contained poison.

He knew he might be arrested.

He also knew that once he was caught, he would not be able to tell the truth about himself while he was alive.

Du Heng lay on the deck, staring at me.

With his last ounce of strength, he stammered, "Wedding...court...clothes..."

I bent down.

"Palace robes?"

His lips moved.

"Your Highness..."

The sound stopped.

Du Heng died.

He died in front of the water gate, and his death was far more real than that fake charred corpse.

Ah Liu's face was as white as paper.

"Young master, he said 'Your Highness' at the end? Which Your Highness?"

I did not answer.

Because there are too many answers.

Princess Zhaoning is Your Highness.

The Crown Prince is Your Highness.

The Second Prince is also His Highness.

The royal family has no shortage of princes.

Du Heng's last half-sentence is like a thorn deliberately left behind.

It hurts whoever gets stabbed.

Yan Xiaoyi retrieved the short blade and two pieces of old cloth from the water.

The short blade is dark and long, resembling the "Return to Sheath" sword.

But it's not my knife.

I took it and saw two tiny characters engraved on the inside of the handle.

Shen An.

Ah Liu's voice trembled.

"Young master, they even engraved your name on the fake knives."

I looked at the fake knife and suddenly found it funny.

I don't even have my name engraved on my own knife.

The accounting department is very generous.

Zhou Xian stood on the shore, looking at the knife, his face extremely grim.

He saw me draw my sword tonight.

Now I see another fake knife with my name engraved on it.

For him, it probably doesn't matter which hand is real and which is fake.

The important thing is that as long as someone is willing to write about it, Shen An's hidden knife case can become an ironclad case.

I put the fake knife into a sealed bag.

"seal up."

Ah Liu immediately took action.

Yan Xiaoyi went ashore and shook the water off his sleeves.

"Du Heng is dead."

"Um."

"I didn't receive the official register."

"Um."

He said it had been sent to the palace.

"I heard you."

"You believe it?"

I looked at the black hole in the water gate.

The iron gate had been lowered, trapping the sound of water inside, making a muffled noise.

I only believe half of it.

"What about your other half?"

"My other half, we'll see who's most afraid of me going to the palace tomorrow."

Zhou Xian suddenly said, "Lord Shen, before the wedding, the Ministry of Rites still needs to send the wedding ceremonial robes to the palace."

I looked at him abruptly.

"What palace robes?"

Zhou Xian's face turned pale.

"When the imperial son-in-law entered the palace to express his gratitude, he wore the wedding robes of the Ministry of Rites on the outside, and an inner garment bestowed by the palace on the inside. That inner garment did not come from the Ministry of Rites."

"Which way do we go?"

Zhou Xian whispered, "The inner court."

The inner court.

Palace robes.

Your Highness.

Du Heng's last words suddenly took on a different meaning.

On my wedding day, I wore more than just the Ministry of Rites' wedding attire.

There were also clothes bestowed by the palace.

If the Ministry of Rites' actions are only the first layer of the scheme, then the real killer move might be hidden in the robe bestowed upon the emperor in the palace.

I looked up towards the direction of the imperial city.

The night was deep.

The palace walls are not visible.

But suddenly I felt that the palace was like a giant box.

There might already be another garment inside the box.

Wait for me to wear it.