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

When Qin Shangyi uttered the words "Lan Gu," no one in the hall immediately responded.

The Vice Minister of Rites knelt on the ground, his face ashen.

The half-sheet of paper in his sleeve was still lying on the table.

The first three lines are copied verbatim from Shen Lie's fake letter.

The last line has an extra sentence:

If Shen Anruo does not obey orders, then kill Zhao Ning to prevent future troubles.

The ink was newly added.

The paper came out of the Imperial Clothing Bureau.

The person delivering the paper wore a gray-blue veil that had been used by the Qingyi servants of Changning Palace in the fourteenth year of Chengxi.

One fake letter, two versions.

The version they showed me was designed to force me to go to Qingxia.

The version shown to the court officials was meant to convince everyone that if I disobeyed my father's orders, I would kill my own wife.

The person who wrote the letter was very knowledgeable about the court.

He knew that the easiest place for a knife to break was not on the blade.

The emperor looked at Qin Shangyi.

Why is the person in plain clothes nameless?

Qin Shangyi knelt in the hall and whispered, "It's not that I have no name."

"It means that you don't need to use your name when handling matters."

"When the Changning Palace was inspecting old clothes, sick clothes, and the belongings of palace servants, someone was needed to handle these unusual items. The Empress was afraid that ordinary palace servants would not dare to touch them, so she set up the Clean Clothes Duty."

"Whoever is on duty will wear a gray-blue veil."

"Why is she called Lan Gu?"

"The first elderly man in charge of cleaning clothes was surnamed Lan."

"After she passed away, people still used the old name for her."

Another person has died, but their name remains.

This time, however, the name left behind was not for receiving food rations.

It was so that no one else would have to leave their name behind.

I asked, "When did the first Lan Gu pass away?"

"The thirteenth year of Chengxi."

"A year before the late Empress's death?"

"Yes."

"Was an autopsy performed?"

"no."

I've seen too many dead bodies these past few days that haven't been examined.

Everyone here is busier than me.

The emperor asked, "Who will be in charge of the Qingyi (clothing) duties from now on?"

"Han Shangfu".

What happened after Han Sang-bok went missing?

"Feng happy sent someone to temporarily take charge."

Feng happy was in charge of the gate.

Liu Shen was in charge of the medicine.

Pei Shen sent a letter.

Wang Song adhered to the rule that everyone was only responsible for a small section.

After the late empress died, the Qingyi Bureau was not abolished.

It's just that instead of dealing with old clothes, it's now about dealing with things that can't be shown to others for the accounting committee.

Gu Xingzhi asked, "How many gray-blue veils are there?"

"According to the old register of Changning, twelve pages."

"Where are you now?"

"The former warehouse of the Imperial Warehouse."

Gu Xingzhi turned around without waiting for the emperor to give another order.

Xiao Lingyi said, "I will go with you."

The Vice Minister of Rites suddenly exclaimed, "Your Majesty, I have been deceived!"

"Who's lying to you?"

"The palace maid said that this letter was an authentic copy sent from the inner court."

"What else did she say?"

The Vice Minister of Rites moved his lips.

"You won't tell me?"

Gu Xingzhi turned around and glanced at him.

The Vice Minister of Rites immediately said, "She said... Grand Secretary Wang was only the first one."

Many people in the hall had a change in expression.

Wang Song just collapsed.

Some people then took the list of former officials and continued to purge them.

The accounting review did not stop because Wang Song handed over his seal.

It's just that the licensee has changed.

I asked, "Who's next to make the payment?"

"have no idea."

"She only instructed me to present that line of text to His Majesty today."

Why am I looking for you?

"She knew that I had no teacher-student relationship with Grand Secretary Wang."

"So you think you're very clean?"

A person who had no teacher-student relationship with Wang Song was the first to step forward with a fake letter after Wang Song's downfall.

This is the person the Clearing House likes the most.

As long as you stay true to your future.

When we arrived at the Imperial Clothing Bureau, the gates were already sealed off.

I've been here more than once.

The late empress's sick clothes, old palace needles, and black thread from her wedding dress all originated from here.

A government office that was in charge of clothing was more likely to kill than many prisons.

The current female official in charge of clothing at the Imperial Clothing Bureau is kneeling inside the door.

She wasn't involved in Seung-hee's past, but she clearly knew that anyone could be taken away today simply because of a "I don't know".

So the first thing I said when we met was very straightforward.

"The gray-blue veil is missing a side."

Gu Xingzhi asked, "When did it become less?"

"It was still there when we took inventory last night."

Who will take the inventory?

"Mother He of the Clothing Room".

Where are they?

"It's gone."

"Open the door."

Her hands were shaking violently when she opened the door.

There were twelve wooden boxes against the wall.

The lid of the box is engraved with the numbers one through twelve.

All of them are still here, from the first to the eleventh.

The twelfth one is empty.

This means the veil wasn't taken away just last night.

Someone wiped off the old dust from the empty box last night, making it look like it had just been stolen.

If Bai Zhiruo were here, she could probably start cursing someone with just one glance.

Although I'm not as good at spotting dust as she is, I can still see a faint watermark on the inside of the box lid.

It looks like someone put a wet cloth in there.

Xiao Lingyi used a silver hairpin to pick up a little bit.

"The smell of medicine."

The physician, Song, was summoned back from the Imperial Hospital.

When he entered, his face was even darker than the old warehouse door.

"What's wrong now?"

"The veil is sick."

"The veil is not a disease."

"There might be someone wearing a veil."

"Awakening Powder"

I exchanged a glance with Gu Xingzhi.

When Sun Ajin was kidnapped, the kidnappers also brought a sedative.

First, drug the person into submission.

They are forcibly woken up only when they need to put their fingerprints on the paper or speak.

Mother He from the laundry room may not have escaped.

Her identity may have been stolen.

I asked Fang Dianyi, "Where is the laundry room?"

"Next to the scrap yard door in the backyard."

The door was locked from the outside.

Fang Dianyi said that Mother He lived alone.

Last night I was also in charge of collecting hospital gowns that were waiting to be sold.

There were no signs of struggle outside the door.

Gu Xingzhi was about to kick down the door.

"Check the crack in the door first."

A small piece of blue cloth was stuffed under the door.

It felt like someone inside was pushing it out little by little with their fingers.

Gu Xingzhi did not wait any longer.

He kicked the door open.

It wasn't until Qiutang discovered that the innermost box of hospital gowns was heavier than the others.

Four words are more useful than a lock.

No one would open it if they saw it.

Gu Xingzhi pried open the wooden cover.

Mother He was curled up inside.

The person is still alive.

The physician dragged the person out, and while inserting acupuncture needles, he cursed the Imperial Wardrobe.

"A hospital gown box containing a living person."

"The medicine box was filled with counterfeit medicine."

"Can't these boxes in the capital be used to pack things that are actually needed?"

Because there was a gray-blue veil under the hospital gown box.

It's not the missing side.

A tiny "长" character was sewn on the inside.

When Qin Shangyi arrived, she knelt down after only one glance.

"This is the veil of the first Lan Gu."

"In the thirteenth year of Chengxi, it should be burned along with her sick clothes."

Instead, it was hidden at the bottom of a hospital gown box for eleven years.

I asked, "How is it different from the twelve-sided face we have today?"

Qin Shangyi opened the inner lining.

"The old veil has double-lined blue patterns."

"Later, the Qingyi Value system was reformed, and only a single line was used."

A pair of cards.

The things the late empress initially set out always had a second person as a witness.

After the accounting was revised, only a single line remained.

Physician Song finally managed to wake up Mother He.

The moment she saw Gu Xingzhi, she began to struggle.

Gu Xingzhi said, "The person has already left."

She gradually calmed down.

"Who came last night?"

"A... palace maid."

"Wearing a gray-blue veil?"

"She held up an old Han Shangfu token and said she wanted to take the twelfth veil."

Why won't you give it to me?

"The old license plate is already obsolete."

"So she took action?"

"no."

Mrs. He took a few breaths.

"She said, Aunt Lan is back."

"Then he showed me half a card."

"What character?"

"Clothes."

Yixianlan brand.

I asked, "What does she look like?"

"I can't see the face."

"sound?"

"Very young."

"Where are your hands?"

Mother He closed her eyes and recalled.

"His left hand was wearing a leather glove."

"Missing a little finger?"

"How did Lord Shen know?"

Lan Gu, who delivered a fake battle report at the North Post Station in Tongzhou.

I also went to the Imperial Wardrobe last night.

She took the gray-blue veil first.

Take the dead man's urgent card again.

Finally, the two fake letters were delivered to the Censorate and the Vice Minister of Rites, respectively.

Overnight, she passed through the palace gates, the Secretariat, the Ministry of War, and the south of the city.

It's because every door recognizes the old cards she holds.

I asked, "What did she do after she took the veil?"

"Going through old clothes."

"What are you looking for?"

"A bundle of old clothes and military documents brought to Beijing from the southwest in the fourteenth year of the Chengxi reign."

More than one of Shen Lie's old letters ended up in Wang Song's hands.

Another batch is hidden in the Imperial Clothing Bureau.

"Found it?"

She took out several sheets of paper from the lining of her old clothes.

"They took another set of rubbings of characters from the silk."

Place the old characters under a thin silk cloth, lightly brush with pine soot powder, and then trace the strokes.

The imitated characters are exactly the same as the original characters.

No wonder every stroke of that letter last night sounded like my father's.

It wasn't learned by following a few military letters.

It was directly traced.

Gu Xingzhi immediately checked the old clothes hanger.

Three bags are missing from the innermost row.

The registration records state:

Old robe of the Southwest Army.

Everything about it is related to fake letters.

On the table was an ink dish that had not yet been washed.

The ink is mixed with black sand from Qingxia Gorge.

There were also a few scraps of paper next to it.

Several words were repeatedly drawn on it.

Wang Song has been eliminated.

The second edition, which was obtained by the Vice Minister of Rites, was also among them.

The last line, "Kill Zhao Ning," was practiced seven times.

The first draft was very rough.

By the seventh time, his handwriting already resembled his father's by about 70%.

Xiao Lingyi picked up the scrap paper.

"The person who wrote the calligraphy was in the Imperial Wardrobe?"

"She didn't write it."

"She brought someone with her."

"Who?"

"A man."

"The gray robe of the man in Qing Dynasty clothing."

"There is a scar behind my right ear."

I immediately recalled the clerk from the Ministry of Rites who reached out and tugged at my right sleeve on my wedding day.

After being apprehended by the princess's residence, he claimed that he was only temporarily added to the ceremonial team.

Later, it was handed over to the Inner Guard, and the records state that he died of illness that night.

I turned to look at Gu Xingzhi.

His face was frighteningly cold.

Who performed the autopsy on Chen Ping's body?

"Inspection of the inner palace."

"The person who handled it?"

Gu Xingzhi paused for a moment.

"Feng happy's former subordinates."

Another person who didn't actually die.

Chen Ping knew that I had hidden the sheath three inches from my right arm.

He had seen Shen Lie's old letters.

He will transcribe his father's characters.

I couldn't draw my sword in public on my wedding day, so I'll try a different approach now to convince the entire court that the sword is still in Shen Lie's hands.

I looked through the scraps of paper on the table.

One of them has half an ink mark on the back.

It is the small seal of the Wang family's west courtyard.

Chen Ping wrote a letter on behalf of Lan Gu.

Lan Gu gave the order on behalf of Madam Wang.

Lady Wang then sent the entire grain route to Qingxia.

The three of them finally connected on a piece of scrap paper.

Gu Xingzhi asked, "Are we going to pursue Chen Ping?"

"Chase."

"Where is Aunt Lan?"

"She won't go down the same path twice."

I looked towards the back door of the hospital gown room.

That place is directly opposite the gate of the Imperial Clothing Bureau's waste disposal area.

Carts carrying old clothes left the palace every day.

The grey-blue veil was merely her status upon entering.

The mobile hospital gown delivery truck is the only way out.

Fang Dianyi retrieved the list of people who left the palace last night.

The first vehicle was delivered to the external pharmacy of the Imperial Medical Academy.

The second vehicle was delivered to the kiln in the south of the city.

The third vehicle had nowhere to go.

The section for the escort bears an old seal of Han Shangfu, which had been invalidated for eleven years.

I asked, "When will the third carriage leave the palace?"

"Last night at midnight."

"Weren't the palace gates sealed off?"

Gu Xingzhi's expression grew even colder.

"What was sealed were official vehicles and transfer orders."

"Disease gowns and medical supplies vehicles are not allowed to linger in accordance with epidemic regulations."

It's also the best lock I've ever used.

I looked at the list of people leaving the palace.

The third mobile hospital gown delivery truck did not go to the pharmacy.

They did not go to the kiln to burn clothes.

It disappeared after it went out of the south gate.

Chen Ping might be on the bus.

There is a Lan Gu.

There is a silk with rubbings of characters.

There may also be old talismans that were transferred from the Zhongshu Bingfang (Secretariat).

At the very bottom of the list, there was one more item that shouldn't have left the palace.

A box of old clothes belonging to Lady Wang, a noblewoman.

Lady Wang did not leave the capital in those three carriages that led her home.

She wore a gray robe and a gray-blue veil as she left through the palace gates.