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

The princess's clothing chests were even harder to search than the Ministry of Revenue's accounting chests.

At least the tent box won't suddenly tell you that this is a spring casual outfit, that is an autumn casual outfit, and the one next to it, although also an autumn casual outfit, is only worn around the Double Ninth Festival.

Clothes will.

To be precise, it was the Qiutang Gathering.

She had all forty-eight boxes carried to the main hall.

Sixteen boxes of the late Empress's old clothes.

Xiao Lingyi's own thirty-two boxes.

The boxes were arranged in three layers, stretching from the doorway all the way to the back window.

Ah Liu stood in the middle, his face showing genuine despair.

"Young master."

"Um."

"Didn't Miss Bai say we didn't need to try them on one by one?"

"right."

"Then why bring them all out?"

Bai Zhi said, "I won't try."

"say."

She had two large scales brought in.

The weight, sealing rope, lock marks, and wear on the bottom of each box were all recorded.

The old order form from the Imperial Clothing Bureau is on the left.

The register of recent additions to the Princess's residence is on the right.

Xiao Lingyi's private notes are placed in the middle.

The three accounts are kept separate.

Do not copy each other first.

That's a good idea.

This at least prevents someone from taking one of the books and altering the other two too neatly in advance.

The first box is fine.

The second one is fine too.

The third one had an extra cape.

Qiutang said it was added last winter.

The princess's household records contain this information.

Xiao Lingyi's private notes also contain them.

The Imperial Clothing Bureau naturally did not have it.

The fourth box is missing a belt.

Xiao Lingyi glanced at it.

"I threw it away."

Why?

"Too ugly."

Bai Zhi asked, "Is there a record of it being cancelled?"

"no."

"Does the princess need to be recorded for throwing things?"

"Relevant to the case."

Xiao Lingyi was silent for a moment.

"repair."

She acknowledged the debt very quickly.

He just didn't look too happy.

This is normal.

No one would be in a good mood if their trunk was weighed in front of a whole room.

When they reached the eleventh box, Bai Zhi suddenly stopped.

This box belongs to the late Empress's old clothes.

Box label:

Changning secondhand clothing, item number four.

The contents include a gray-blue sick coat, two plain silk undergarments, and an old shawl.

Four items in the account book.

There were also four items in the box.

The weight is only two ounces different from what was measured at the Princess's residence three years ago.

It looks like there is no problem.

Bai Zhi, however, took out the gray-blue sick clothes separately.

"New."

Qiu Tang frowned.

"This garment has been in existence for at least eleven years."

"Old cloth".

"New Line".

Bai Zhi turned her armpit open.

Inside is a row of fine stitches.

"The old clothes were made with single-strand silk thread from the palace."

"This piece is made with double-stranded Su thread."

"The thread color has been distressed."

"But the rope can't be untangled after eleven years of rough edges."

Ah Liu went over.

"The thread still has rough edges?"

Bai Zhi looked at him.

"You have it too."

Ah Liu touched his head.

I didn't understand.

I looked at the old clothes.

The fabric is indeed old.

There are medicine stains on the collar.

The cuffs were also badly worn.

If you only look at the outside, it looks like a hospital gown that has been preserved for many years.

The stitching on the lining is too neat.

It was so neat that it looked as if someone had copied the old design and made a new one.

"Is the cloth real too?" I asked.

"It should be."

Bai Zhi said, "It might have been taken from other old clothes."

"Where are the medicine stains?"

"The physician must examine it."

Xiao Lingyi picked up the last requisition form from the Imperial Wardrobe.

There is a line on the form:

A sick coat from Changning.

Grey orchid.

Originally belonged to the Empress.

Zhaoning Commandery.

The moon shines again.

It will not be included in the burning records.

"This garment originally belonged to me."

she said.

"After the Empress Dowager died, Aunt Zhaoyue personally sealed it in a box."

"Why not burn it?"

Qiu Tang said in a low voice, "The sick clothes in the palace should be burned according to regulations."

Xiao Lingyi looked at the line "Not to be included in the Book of Burning".

So there's something inside.

The fake clothes are made to look convincingly real.

This indicates that the person changing clothes knew about this clothing list.

They also knew that the last tag might be hidden in the hospital gown.

They didn't find it.

So they made a fake one and put it back in the box.

"When was it changed?" I asked.

Angelica dahurica is used to check the rope of the box.

The sealing wax is the old wax from the Princess's residence.

The seal is genuine.

However, there is a very shallow mark below the knot.

"The box has been opened twice."

"An inventory was taken three years ago."

"The most recent one was no more than a month ago."

"Who can enter the wardrobe?"

Qiu Tang replied, "This palace, Your Highness, the head of the wardrobe, and two storeroom maids."

"Where is the head nanny?"

He died of illness two weeks ago.

"name?"

"The Meng family."

"Full name?"

Qiu Tang hesitated.

"In the mansion, she is only called Granny Meng."

Bai Zhi has already flipped through the monthly records of the Princess's residence.

"The name of the month is Meng Qiu."

"Originally from Qingzhou."

"Nine years after entering the government."

Who verifies the death certificate?

"Princess Mansion Medical Officer."

Where are they?

"Disappeared yesterday."

Another person who happened to die from illness.

Ah Liu sighed.

"The illnesses in Beijing have been quite sensible lately."

"Which account is short-staffed?"

"One person will fall ill on whichever side."

That's not funny.

But it's very accurate.

Xiao Lingyi ordered Meng Qiu's residence to be sealed off immediately.

Not all people from Yiku will be arrested.

Close the account first.

Check how many monthly allowances she received over nine years.

Who did you exchange values ​​with?

Who has received any B14 boxes in the past month?

I asked, "The fake clothes are made so that we would think the real clothes are still there."

"Where did Mai go?"

No one answered.

The main hall was quiet for a moment.

Zhou Suniang was helped in.

Her medication has reduced significantly.

Still weak.

She was wearing ordinary women's clothes.

It is no longer the Zhaoning court dress.

Xiao Lingyi had someone unfold the fake hospital gown.

Have you seen it before?

Zhou Su Niang stared at it for a long time.

Shake head.

"I've never seen this before."

Have you ever seen an old gray-blue garment?

Her expression slowly changed.

"I've seen it."

"Where?"

"In the car."

Which one?

"The one where they were pretending to be dead."

Xiao Lingyi and I both looked at her at the same time.

Zhou Su Niang's voice trembled.

"When they changed me into my court robes."

There's another woman next door.

"He's already dead."

"Wear the princess's everyday clothes outside."

"I put on an old gray-blue coat underneath."

"A woman said."

"The old clothes smelled of traditional Chinese medicine."

"Once it's burned, no one can find any mistakes in the inspection."

Xiao Lingyi tightened her grip.

"Who is that woman?"

"I don't know the name."

"She wasn't locked up with me while she was alive."

I've only seen him twice.

"There is a dark red wound on my left wrist."

"One of my right back teeth is missing."

"They call her Ah Xiu."

The female corpse in the third box remains in the princess's villa.

They were not taken to the mortuary.

Xiao Lingyi forbade anyone to prepare the body according to the Zhaoning standard beforehand.

They are not allowed to be buried haphazardly.

Only sealed.

Waiting for name verification.

I picked up the fake hospital gown.

It looks old on the outside.

It's new inside.

A genuine box.

A fake garment.

The person who changed clothes wants to find the brand name.

But they may not have found it.

If it had been found, the plaque should have already appeared at Changning Palace or Yong'an Stone Gate.

Not now.

That last card is very likely still sewn into the real garment.

And the real clothes.

At this moment, it is being worn by a dead person whose name is Zhao Ning.

I turned and walked outside.

Ah Liu asked, "Young master, where are you going?"

"Autopsy."

His face turned pale.

"Now?"

"Now."

"Will it be dawn yet?"

"You're not afraid of losing money."

"I'm scared."

"You stay here."

Ah Liu immediately shook his head.

"That won't work either."

Why?

The forty-eight boxes cannot be inspected simply by their box numbers.

The princess's old clothes had been moved to different warehouses twice.

First moisture protection.

Second fire prevention.

Each time the box is changed, the label is copied again.

Qiu Tang placed the three sets of box labels side by side.

The forty-sixth box was labeled "Winter Festival" in the first set.

The second set is for "use during illness".

The third set, however, was marked as "burned".

The box is still there.

The clothes were destroyed beforehand by a sign that read "burned".

Xiao Lingyi stared at those two words and remained silent for a long time.

Her mother's clothes, her own clothes, and a woman whose name had been changed were all eventually stuffed into the same trunk.

I want to say something lighthearted.

I couldn't figure it out.

She spoke first: "Continue the test."

The sound was very steady.

She simply clenched the cuff to create a crease.

Before resealing the forty-eight boxes, Qiu Tang suddenly asked, "Is it really just one piece of clothing that's missing?"

Bai Zhi raised her head.

The total number of items in the clothing trunk is recorded.

One hospital gown.

One inner lining.

A shawl.

However, according to the old system of the late Empress, sick clothes and clothing tags must be packed together.

Since the brand doesn't include clothing, they never stock up on any items.

The missing item in the forty-eight boxes might not be the fifty-seventh piece of clothing.

It was a plaque that should have been hung on the clothes.

We shone a light on the inside of each box lid.

Box number forty-two has two nail holes.

The spacing is exactly the length of a bronze medal rope.

The rope was removed, but the clothes in the box remained untouched.

Some people want us to think that what's missing is the princess dress on the dead.

Actually, the card that was taken first was the one that proved who handled the garment.

Xiao Lingyi instructed the female official in charge of clothing to report the contents of each box one by one.

When the female official reported for duty in early autumn, her voice trembled.

Meng Qiu died of illness three years ago.

Who took her suitcase key?

"Did not answer."

"Who is responsible for checking and sealing that forty-second box every month?"

The seal reads "early autumn".

The dead are doing things again.

Ah Liu, clutching the fake hospital gown, suddenly froze, unable to move.

"Will this outfit also be moved to a different box?"

"No," Bai Zhi said.

"People will take its place."

At the bottom of the box was a grain of incense ash commonly used in the Chengnan Villa.

After the fake sick clothes left the princess's residence, they were sent back at least once.

The person who returned it did not put it back in the original box.

They simply removed the old labels, leaving behind a seemingly complete inventory of clothing.

Forty-eight boxes, not a single piece of clothing missing.

What's missing is a step in the process.

The body that had been handled was now lying on the corpse in the east wing of the detached courtyard.

"The young master always tells me to stay."

"Something bad is going to happen next."

He spoke with great experience.

I cannot refute it.

Xiao Lingyi had already ordered lamps and a screen for inspecting clothes to be prepared.

She looked at the fake hospital gown.

"A princess's dress on a dead person."

"It's time to take it off."