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

Chapter 125 Anti-Sealing

The short arrow was embedded in the wooden post, its tail feathers trembling slightly.

Everyone was staring at it.

The old doorman sat on the ground, his lips pale, unable to even utter a sound.

Yan Xiaoyi had already climbed over the wall and chased after him.

His movements were as fast as the wind, leaving no time for him to curse.

Captain Luo reacted quickly, immediately shouting, "Seal off the alley! Archers, climb the walls!"

The people of Bingmasi are finally acting like Bingmasi.

The torches quickly scattered, and the sound of knives rang out.

Manager Ma stood there, his face grim.

This arrow came at the worst possible time.

He had just been bitten by the pre-written seal when the gatekeeper of Qinghe Lane was nearly killed.

Who do you most want to silence?

Of course it wasn't me.

I wish the old doorman would live to see next year's Lunar New Year.

Captain Luo turned to look at Steward Ma, and his gaze was already suspicious.

Manager Ma immediately said, "These must be remnants of the Qinghe Lane gang, trying to silence us to avoid punishment!"

I nodded.

"Well said."

Manager Ma was taken aback.

I looked at Ah Liu.

"Note this down. Steward Ma said that this arrow was used by the remaining members of the Qinghe Lane gang to silence them in order to cover up their crimes."

Ah Liu peeked out from under the table.

"Young master, may I come out and write?"

"Can't I write under the table?"

"Yes, but the characters might be crooked."

"Write it crookedly."

Ah Liu immediately lay down on the ground and wrote.

His adaptability is getting stronger and stronger.

I walked up to the old gatehouse and squatted down.

"Is he still alive?"

The old doorman nodded, trembling.

"Live... to live."

"Then let's say something a living person should say."

His lips were trembling violently.

"This old man truly doesn't know..."

I pointed at the arrow.

"If you had taken just half a step to the left, you could have gone underground and continued into the unknown."

He cried.

really cried.

An old man was crying in a rather undignified manner.

"Lord Shen, I'm just a gatekeeper. Accountant Hu said I should say I don't know anything to anyone who asks. I dare not disobey."

"Where did Accountant Hu go?"

"have no idea."

I looked at him.

He immediately changed his tune.

"I really don't know! I only know that two groups of people came here this evening."

"Two groups?"

"First, a group of men dressed in blue carried the boxes away. Then another group came... a group carrying knives."

A thought struck me.

"What kind of person carries a knife?"

The old gatekeeper glanced at me, then at the people from the Ministry of Revenue and the Military Affairs Bureau, clearly not daring to speak.

I said, "If you don't tell me now, the next arrow might not miss."

He shuddered.

"It sounds like...like a southwestern accent."

Ah Liu suddenly looked up from under the table.

I didn't speak.

"Where is the leader?"

"Tall, broad-shouldered, right hand constantly pressing on the waist."

Xu Sandao.

really.

"What did they take?"

"account."

"How many?"

"Half a box."

I asked, "How much did the man in blue take?"

"One box."

"Who is the man in blue?"

"Like...like Mr. Du."

Du Heng.

Du Heng took a box first.

Xu Sandao took half a box.

The real accounts in Qinghe Lane have been divided up.

Some of them ended up in Du Heng's scheme and the Clearing Accounts Association's scheme.

The other part fell into the hands of the secret agents in the southwest.

This is really not good news.

Both sides want to use the account.

But their usage is completely different.

Du Heng used the tent to harm me.

Xu Sandao used a tent to coerce the emperor.

No matter who gets the tent, things won't be peaceful.

I continued, "Does anyone else know if there's a wooden sign hidden in the wall?"

The old doorman looked bewildered.

"What wooden plaque?"

Judging from his reaction, it didn't seem like he was faking it.

This suggests that the wooden plaque engraved with "Shen An Southwest" was not necessarily something that was usually placed in Qinghe Lane.

It's more likely that it was put in later, just waiting for us to check.

I stood up and looked at Captain Luo.

"Captain Luo, this man must be kept alive."

Captain Luo said in a deep voice, "The Military Command will keep an eye on it."

I smiled.

"It's not the Military Command that's keeping watch."

He frowned.

I said, "The Censorate, the Military Command, and the Princess's Residence, keep watch over them."

"The Princess's residence?"

"Princess Zhaoning's wedding dress is involved in this case. The gatekeeper is a witness in Qinghe Lane, so of course the princess's residence can see it."

Captain Luo thought for a moment and did not refute.

Manager Ma looked very unwell.

His purpose in coming tonight is to take over the site.

As a result, the situation on site is becoming increasingly beyond his control.

I took the temporary detention document that the Military Command had only half-finished and added a few lines.

The gatekeeper of Qinghe Lane testified: This evening, a man in blue took a box, suspected to be Du Heng; later, a man with a southwestern accent carrying a knife took half a box of tents. The Ministry of Revenue's entourage had a seal with the inscription "Southwestern Counter-evidence" written on it beforehand. The gatekeeper testified that he was previously silenced by a short arrow but did not die.

After I finished writing, I handed the pen to Captain Luo.

"sign."

Captain Luo glanced at it, his brows furrowing.

"Lord Shen, this involves the Ministry of Revenue and the Southwest..."

"That's why we should sign it even more."

"I am merely a captain in the military command."

"Because you're just a captain in the military command, you only write down what happened tonight. You don't judge who's guilty, you only prove what you saw."

Captain Luo remained silent for a moment, then signed.

Manager Ma said urgently, "Captain Luo, this matter is still unresolved!"

Captain Luo looked up at him.

"Master Ma, you brought the seal, you shot the arrow in our presence, and you confessed the crime in our presence. I cannot draw a conclusion, but I can bear witness."

This person is not bad.

It can survive.

I looked at Zhou Xian again.

Zhou Xian gave a wry smile.

"This humble official will also sign."

He signed the document even faster than Lieutenant Luo.

In the past few days, he has come to understand: sign quickly, die slowly.

When it was Ma's turn to take charge, he did not move.

I pushed the paper in front of him.

"Master Ma, you were here too."

"This humble official does not believe the gatekeeper's nonsense."

"I'm not asking you to admit it. I'm asking you to prove that he said it."

"What if I don't sign?"

I looked at him.

"Then I will write: 'Minister Ma of the Ministry of Revenue was present, therefore he refused to sign.'"

Manager Ma's face twitched.

Sometimes, being refused a visa is worse than being granted one.

Especially when he had a pre-written seal on him and was almost silenced at the scene.

He eventually signed it.

The characters were written with great effort.

It's like trying to pierce through the paper.

I felt a little better.

Paper is something that's really annoying when bad people use it to deceive others.

It looked much better when I used it to drag people into the water.

Yan Xiaoyi is back.

He was carrying a piece of black cloth in his hand.

"The person has run away."

"Who?"

"There were two people outside the wall. One shot an arrow, and the other caught it. Their skills were neither like those of someone from the Ministry of Revenue, nor like those of an ordinary servant in Qinghe Lane."

"Who does he look like?"

Yan Xiaoyi looked around but didn't say anything directly.

I understand.

Looks like someone from Southwest China?

Or like an inside guard?

He handed me the black cloth.

The fabric is coarse, but the edges have a bit of red clay on them.

It's red soil again.

This silencing arrow may not have been shot by anyone from the Clearing House.

It might be a covert operation in the southwest.

This judgment sent a chill down my spine.

If it was a man from the Southwest who wanted to kill the old gatekeeper, it means that Xu Sandao didn't want him to reveal that he had taken the money.

It's also possible that someone deliberately used the traces of the southwest to mislead me into thinking this way.

The most ingenious thing about the accounting committee is that every piece of evidence you see could be genuine, or it could be something they specifically showed you.

I covered it with the black cloth.

"Written: A piece of cloth left by an archer outside the wall, with red clay on it."

Ah Liu finally crawled out from under the table and dusted himself off.

"Young master, how thick will this case file be after it's been filled out?"

"Enough to kill someone."

"Who should we smash?"

"Let's see who sticks their head out first."

At this time, Qinghe Lane had been completely sealed off.

But it wasn't sealed by the Ministry of Revenue.

It is a three-way counter-blockade.

The Censorate sealed its tents, used secret wooden tags, and hid wooden plaques in the walls.

The sealed gatehouse of Bingmasi, arrows at the scene, and marks on the outer wall.

The Ministry of Rites found Zhou Xianfeng's old clothing trunk nails, ashes from the trunk, and empty trunks associated with the Ministry of Rites.

People from the princess's residence arrived shortly afterward and sealed the rubbing of the hidden mark "palace" and the rubbing of the old Qinghe plaque.

Manager Ma stood in the courtyard, his face looking as if he had swallowed half a fake account book.

He wanted to take over, but ended up getting himself involved.

I walked up to him.

"Master Ma, please give my regards to Vice Minister Zheng when you return."

He looked at me.

"What does Lord Shen mean by this?"

"Tell Minister Zheng that the accounts in Qinghe Lane are very clean."

Manager Ma's eyes flickered slightly.

I laughed and said, "It's as clean as if a dead body was just swept."

Manager Ma did not speak again.

He left with the people from the Ministry of Revenue.

They walked much slower than they had come.

Commander Luo left a detachment of soldiers to guard the alley.

Before leaving, he cupped his hands in a respectful gesture.

"Lord Shen, I will report to the South City Military Command the events of tonight truthfully."

I nodded.

"Just tell the truth."

He glanced at the case file in Ah Liu's hand.

"Lord Shen's investigations are quite... meticulous."

He probably meant to say "troublesome".

But I held back.

I considerately said on his behalf, "It is quite troublesome."

Lieutenant Luo smiled, a rare occurrence for him.

After most people had left, Qinghe Lane became even colder.

I stood in the courtyard, looking at that old plaque.

Qinghe Yicang.

The four characters, illuminated by the torch, resembled an old face.

Beneath this face lies grain, medicine, clothing, cards, and the palace.

It also conceals the hand of the Clearing House Committee.

Ah Liu leaned against the door, his eyelids heavy with exhaustion.

"Young master, shall we go back now?"

"Return to the Censorate."

Upon hearing the name of the Censorate, he completely collapsed.

"Writing another memorial?"

"Um."

"Could you write it tomorrow?"

"The Ministry of Revenue will write it tomorrow as well."

Ah Liu immediately regained consciousness.

"Then we need to write it first."

well.

He finally understood the importance of being the first to submit the document.

We left Qinghe Lane with the evidence.

As I passed the alley entrance, I glanced back.

The wooden plaque bearing the inscription "Shen An Southwest" was sealed inside the box.

It didn't kill me.

At least not tonight.

But it reminded me of something.

The Clearing House has gotten very close to finding out about my identity.

They're so close they can make wooden signs.

Make a fake knife.

Make fragments of the southwest road guide.

Perhaps they don't know yet that I am Shen Lie's son.

But they already know that the Southwest can kill me.

It can also be used to force me to kill.

As the carriage headed towards the Censorate, the sky was already beginning to lighten.

Ah Liu was so sleepy that his head was nodding off, but he was still clinging tightly to the evidence box.

I closed my eyes, but my mind was filled with Qinghe's secret memories.

户。

present.

South.

West.

palace.

The five words are like five nails, nailed to an invisible picture.

I haven't finished drawing it yet.

But the people in the picture have already started to use knives on each other.

Xu Sandao took away half a box of tents.

Du Heng said that the official register should be entered into the palace.

The Ministry of Revenue came to block the door.

A cover was hidden inside the palace robe.

The accounting meeting was set on fire to clear up evidence.

Everyone is racing against time.

I have to grab it too.

As soon as they arrived at the gate of the Censorate, the gatekeeper rushed out.

"Lord Shen, the people from the Princess's residence have been waiting for quite some time!"

My heart sank.

Qiutang's people?

Sure enough, a maid from the princess's residence stood under the eaves, looking very anxious.

It's not Qiutang.

It's Meng Xiaoman.

She's usually quick-witted and gossipy, but today she was so frightened her lips turned white.

"Lord Shen, His Highness has ordered me to find you immediately."

I asked, "What is it?"

Meng Xiaoman handed over a bundle.

The burden isn't heavy.

It was wrapped in old blue cloth.

There was a piece of paper on top.

To Shen An (personal address).

These four words give me a headache just looking at them.

"Who delivered it?"

Meng Xiaoman said, "I don't know. Someone left it at the side gate of the princess's residence before dawn. By the time the gatekeeper found it, the person had already left."

I opened the blue cloth.

Inside was half an account book.

The paper was thick, with burn marks on the edges, and two words were written on the cover.

Qinghe.

Ah Liu's eyes widened.

"Young master, is this the half that Master San Dao took?"

I turned to the first page.

There was a piece of paper inside.

The handwriting was stiff, like a knife scraping through wood.

Xu Sandao.

It says:

Young master, I'll give you the account.