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

I still have Madam Wang's letter.

The paper is very thin.

Only two sentences were written above.

The person inside the door is real.

Wanting to save his mother, he came to Qingxia.

I stared at the word "mother" for a long time.

It was very quiet on the other side of the stone gate.

That cry of "An'er" just now seemed to have exhausted all the strength of the woman behind the door.

I want to open the door.

really want.

He had already placed his hand on the edge of the stone door.

The six card slots are right in front of you.

If we break down the door, we can at least take a look at whether the person inside is real or not.

But then the sound came from behind the door again.

"Don't open it."

It's lighter than before.

"The pipe... someone is listening."

I turned my head to look at the copper pipes at the base of the wall.

Gu Xingzhi had already ordered the inner guards to remove the copper shield for listening.

The copper pipe went straight up, through the old warehouse, and then into the direction of the county government office.

Nobody knows if there are other departments in charge.

Since Madam Wang dared to leave a letter, she is not afraid that we will find this place.

She might even be waiting for me to forcefully bang on the door.

If there is poison powder, falling rocks, or kerosene buried behind the stone door, then what I opened with my own hands was not a door.

It's a coffin.

I pulled my hand back.

"daughter."

There was no answer from behind the door.

"Can you hear me?"

After a moment, a very soft tap was heard.

a bit.

can.

How many people are inside?

Two times.

Only then did the Song Dynasty physician detect at least two breaths.

"Who is the other one?"

no respond.

Perhaps she doesn't know.

Perhaps I cannot say.

I asked again, "Is the medicine delivered through this copper tube?"

a bit.

"How often?"

There were three knocks on the door.

They paused for a moment.

Three more times.

Bai Zhi asked, "Once every three days?"

There was a knock on the door.

Physician Song's face darkened.

"A long-term, three-day dose of dream-locking medicine."

"No wonder he survived, and no wonder he never woke up."

"You just stopped taking the medication today, so you can't be overjoyed or angry, and you can't move yourself forcibly."

I look at him.

"Can you really see a doctor through a door?"

"At least it's safer than you recognizing your mother through a door."

That's not a nice thing to say.

That makes sense.

What I fear most now is not the fakeness of the person behind the door.

She was really alive, and I killed her just so I could see her sooner.

Xiao Lingyi squatted down and placed her hand on the other side of the stone door.

"Seal the copper pipe first."

"Leave one place for delivering water and medicine."

"The guards are rotated every twelve hours."

"Both goalkeepers must be present at the same time."

Gu Xingzhi nodded.

Four guards were left in the inner palace and four guards in the princess's residence.

Not a single person from the county government office is needed.

It's not that I don't trust the entire Yong'an County.

This county government office has been using the real seal to do far too much work for false purposes.

Regaining trust is harder than forging a new seal.

The woman behind the door suddenly knocked again.

Then came a very soft voice.

"The people outside..."

I pressed myself against the stone gate.

"What?"

"Written first."

My throat felt like it was blocked by something.

She was locked inside the door for eleven years.

When I woke up, the first thing he did wasn't to ask me to open the door.

I need to bring the seventy-two people outside to life first.

I really want to ask her who has kept her locked up for the past eleven years.

Does Shen Lie know?

Why did Bai Song hand the cards to her?

Was the first Lan Gu the one who saved her, or the one who later harmed her?

But these problems have to be put on hold.

Because there are still seventy-two people on the ground who don't even have names.

The living cannot wait for old stories to slowly reunite.

I stood up.

"Seal off the gate."

"No one is allowed to open it without permission."

"The medicine in the copper tube has been reconstituted by Physician Song."

"Each time medicine was delivered, Bai Zhi recorded the dosage, the Imperial Guards verified and sealed the medicine, and the Princess's residence verified it again."

Physician Song glanced at me.

"Aren't you going to guard it?"

"I'll go up."

"What are you doing?"

"Write back the living people."

Physician Song stopped cursing.

He opened the medicine box and began to re-formulate the medicine.

When we got back to the ground, it was almost dawn.

The old warehouse was still crowded with people.

The seventy-two rescued people were placed in a makeshift shelter.

Those with relatives were being held by their families.

Those without relatives wrapped themselves in old blankets provided by the county government and looked around blankly.

They have been locked up for far too long.

Some people remember their own name.

But I don't remember what year it is now.

Does anyone remember which way their house door faces?

They were told that other people had moved into their house.

There was another child who was only seven years old when he went in.

She is now eleven years old.

His mother held him and cried for half the night.

The child kept asking:

"Where's my dad?"

No one dared to answer.

His father died of illness two years ago.

The county government reported that the entire family had died from the epidemic.

The son is alive in the granary.

My father really died on the ground.

Even a fake account can contain a real dead person.

This is the hardest part to clean.

False accounts can be changed.

The person can't come back.

Sun Jing was detained in front of the warehouse.

Half an arrow was still stuck in his wrist.

Physician Song only stopped the bleeding; he didn't remove the tube.

The reason is:

"If you pull it out, you'll have to re-bandage it, which is a waste of medicine."

I think Physician Song's medical ethics towards prisoners are very consistent.

Lin Huan was also carried to the old warehouse.

He was sitting in an armchair.

His face was as white as paper.

His eyes, however, were very clear.

When Yan Xiaoyi rescued him, he had already stopped taking the Dream-Locking Medicine for three days.

I woke up twice during that time.

He bit the person who gave him the medicine the first time.

The second time, the medicine bowl beside the bed was smashed.

The fact that I can sit here now is not because the medicine is good.

The anger hasn't dissipated yet.

He did not bow to me first when he saw me.

Instead, we looked at the seventy-two people first.

Looked for a long time.

"One less."

I said, "Tian Cheng is inside."

Tian Cheng injured his lower back and was having his wound stitched up by a doctor.

Hearing Lin Huan's voice, he raised his head while still biting the cloth ball.

Lin Huan's eyes reddened.

"Are they all alive?"

Tian Cheng nodded.

"Seventy-two."

"Not one less."

Lin Huan closed his eyes.

It felt like I could finally let out the breath I'd held back for two months.

After a moment, he looked at me.

"Lord Shen."

"I have lost my official seal, my county, and the people."

"Please punish him first."

Sun Jing sneered from the side.

"Lord Lin is out of his mind; he even smashed his own county seal."

"All government affairs in Yong'an County are maintained by this official."

"If it weren't for me, this county would have been in chaos long ago."

Lin Huan did not look at him.

He took out only half a copper seal from his pocket.

It was the half of the Yong'an County seal that Yan Xiaoyi had sent to me.

"This is the true seal."

Sun Jing's expression changed slightly.

I crouched down to look.

The half of the seal was broken very irregularly.

The broken surface is old.

Lin Huan said, "On the eve of my arrival in the capital to report this, Sun Jing led men into my study and seized the seal."

"I smashed the county seal."

"The left half was hidden in the lining of the official robe."

"He took the right half."

I looked at the complete county seal that Gu Xingzhi had taken from Sun Jing's hand.

Why is what he has intact?

"Old printing molds are still kept in the county warehouse."

Lin Huan said, "Yong'an County recast its county seal thirty years ago, and the old mold has never been destroyed."

"Sun Jing had worked as a clerk in the Ministry of Revenue and knew how to take molds and recast them."

Sun Jing immediately retorted, "Nonsense!"

"Only a complete print is a true print!"

"Can half a piece of scrap copper really serve as evidence?"

Lin Huan raised his eyes.

"There is a spot of cast sand on the inner wall of the seal."

"Below the character '安' (ān)."

"The old model is not available."

Bai Zhi accepted the two seals.

He ordered someone to retrieve official documents from Yong'an County for the past three years.

The county seal from the first two years of Lin Huan's tenure has a very fine missing dot below the character "安" (An).

Like a needle tip.

There is no seal that Sun Jing has used in the past two months.

Bai Zhi dipped the half of the genuine seal into the ink.

Below the incomplete character "安", there is exactly the same sand dot.

"Registrar Sun".

She said, "Your seal is very well made."

"It's a pity the real thing is damaged."

"The old model is not available."

Sun Jing's expression finally changed.

The county seal is fake.

All official documents bearing the county seal that were previously considered authentic must now be re-verified.

Including Yong'an Emergency Report.

Order to release disaster relief grain from warehouses.

Book of Deaths Due to Epidemic.

Order to seal the underground warehouse.

There are also death certificates for seventy-two people.

I had someone set up a table in front of the old warehouse.

It's not a court hearing.

The actual county government office in Yong'an County is already dilapidated.

The trial will be held today in front of the granary.

Let all those who have not received food, have been written off, or have lost loved ones see this.

I placed the imperial edict for opening the accounts, bestowed by the emperor, on the table.

"Take care of one thing first."

Lin Huan asked, "What is it?"

"Reinstatement."

The county clerk looked troubled.

"Lord Shen, the authenticity of the county seal has not yet been determined."

"The identities of all seventy-two people must be verified one by one."

"As is customary, it will take at least three months."

I looked at him.

"March?"

"They were locked up underground for a year."

"After you get out, you have to live like a dead person for another three months?"

The clerk lowered his head.

"But what if someone impersonates him..."

Bai Zhi placed the list of seventy-two people who had died from the plague on the table.

"When the county government collected their grain rations using their names, they didn't mention that a three-month verification period was required."

"The temple didn't collect donations using their names either."

"Now that the living have returned, are we going to have to slowly examine them?"

I picked up the first book of deaths from the plague.

"No official household registrations will be issued today."

"Issu the reinstatement certificate first."

"Name, place of origin, family members, injuries, and witnesses are all registered."

"Three copies of the voucher are required."

"One copy for myself."

"One copy is temporarily kept in the county."

"The Censorate will take one copy."

"Anyone who dares to kill someone off should be asked why they're missing a single copy."

Lin Huan propped himself up on the chair and stood up.

My body swayed slightly.

They still didn't sit back down.

"As the magistrate of Yong'an County, I request that Lord Shen restore the household registration."

I looked at him.

"Your mark is only half left."

"The person is still alive."

He said.

"If it's printed badly, it can be recast."

"A person cannot die."

This statement makes a lot of sense.

It makes even more sense coming from the mouth of a county magistrate who was almost written as having died of illness in his own county seal.

I had someone bring the first survivor to the hospital.

It was the old woman who was recognized by her son.

She couldn't stand steadily.

The son was supporting him.

Bai Zhi asked for my name.

"Zhou Guiniang".

"Old records?"

"East entrance of Liuxi Village".

How many people are in your family?

The old woman cried when she spoke of her husband.

But I still answered each question one by one.

The son testified.

The neighbors testified.

She has an old injury on her right shoulder from when she was young, caused by being gored by a bull's horn.

All three elderly people in the village knew about it.

The old tax register also recorded that she was exempted from two days of corvée labor due to her injury.

It can be combined in all directions.

Bai Zhi wrote down the first certificate of reinstatement.

Lin Huan used half of the genuine seal to cover the left side.

I stamped the right side with the imperial seal.

Neither seal is complete.

When put together, they gave a dead man a name again.

I handed the receipt to Zhou Guiniang.

She didn't catch it properly.

The paper fell to the ground.

Her son quickly picked it up, brushed off the dust, and hugged it tightly to his chest.

"daughter."

"You're alive."

The old woman cried so hard she couldn't speak.

I don't think that's right.

She was already alive.

But now, the accountant is finally admitting it.

The process of restoring their household registration continued until late morning.

Just as the twelfth person was finished being examined, Bai Zhi suddenly pulled a page from Sun Jing's list of deaths due to the plague.

"The numbers are wrong."

I asked, "Where?"

"Lin Huan's complaint listed seventy-three people."

"This is just the old Yong'an warehouse."

"The same records of deaths from the epidemic can also be found in three other county registers."

She laid out several booklets in a row.

Yong'an.

Qingfeng.

Nanxian County, Qingzhou.

Same ink tail.

The same hidden mark for the character "静" (jing).

The same format for deaths from the epidemic.

She finished calculating quickly.

"Four hundred and twelve people."

The air that had just relaxed in front of the old warehouse suddenly sank again.

Seventy-three people are not a single account.

It's just one page.

The whereabouts of the other 339 dead people in the accounts are still unknown.