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

As I stood outside Guangchu Gate, holding the palace token given to me by the emperor, I suddenly felt a pang of regret.

It's not that I regret investigating the case.

She regretted not eating a couple more pancakes at the palace gate earlier.

When a person is starving, everything looks like a pancake.

The heavy door studs of Guangchu Gate looked to me like a row of roasted sesame seeds.

If Ah Liu were here, he would definitely say, "Young master, you're not just hungry, you're almost out of food."

It's a pity Ah Liu isn't here.

He was still guarding Liu Laoqi at the Censorate.

I only have Yan Xiaoyi by my side.

He leaned against the wall, his eyelids drooping, looking even more sleepy than I was.

I asked, "Did you sleep last night?"

"Going to sleep."

"When?"

"When you enter the palace."

"How long did you sleep?"

"Half a cup of tea."

I remained silent for a moment.

"That's what you call sleeping?"

Yan Xiaoyi glanced at me.

"For me, that's considered wealthy."

I suddenly realized that not all the people around the emperor were superior to others.

Some people are just suffering in a different place.

Guangchu Gate was not an ordinary palace gate.

It is located next to the outer and inner treasuries of the palace. There are not many carriages and horses coming and going on weekdays, but anyone who can pass through here must have a sign, a register, and a seal.

It's difficult for ordinary people to even get close.

I am able to stand here entirely because of the palace token in my hand.

The guards at the gate had a subtle expression after looking at the palace plaque.

They wanted to stop him, but didn't dare to.

I've seen that kind of expression a lot lately.

From the Ministry of Works to the Qian family mansion, and then to the palace gate, everyone who saw me looked at me like I was a mouse that shouldn't be alive.

I'm afraid of getting my hands dirty if I beat them, but if I don't, they're an eyesore.

The gatekeeper bowed and said, "Lord Shen, His Majesty has issued an edict that you may only check the records, but are not allowed to enter."

I nodded.

"I can read, but I don't know the way, so I won't go in."

The captain couldn't tell if I was being sarcastic, so he had no choice but to send someone to fetch the register.

Before long, two gatekeepers brought in a wooden box.

The wooden box was locked, and a seal was affixed to the lock.

The seal is still very new.

It looks brand new, like I just remembered to put it up.

I glanced at the seal.

"The entry and exit log from last night has been sealed?"

The gatekeeper bowed and said, "Your Excellency, the entry and exit register for Guangchu Gate is updated daily, as per the established procedure."

"When will it be sealed off?"

"After midnight".

"Who issued the seal?"

"Clerk on duty."

"Who's on duty today?"

The gatekeeper paused for a moment.

"Liu the clerk".

Where are they?

"I'm sick."

well.

There are three types of people I fear most when auditing accounts.

The dead, the runaways, the sick.

Because they are all very convenient.

I smiled.

"What a coincidence that you fell ill."

The gatekeeper was sweating profusely.

"Lord Shen is joking."

I'm not joking.

But I didn't expose it.

Now is not the time to expose the gatekeeper.

The wooden box was opened, revealing two booklets inside.

An authentic book.

A supplementary booklet.

The paper in the main book is neat, the ink is pure, and the writing is even more beautiful than the articles I wrote during my scientific expeditions back then.

The supplementary register is more rudimentary, recording miscellaneous items such as temporary entry and exit, vehicle and horse license checks, and verbal authorization.

I'll turn to the main book first.

There was a record at the end of last night.

Two blue-curtained carts were used to transport old artifacts back to the inner warehouse.

Brand names: Guangzi Thirteen, Guangzi Fourteen.

getting Started.

Verification seal: Inner warehouse/material storage room.

Duty Officer: Liu Cheng.

Door seal: Zhang De.

This is similar to what Gu Xingzhi said.

Two blue-curtained carts were ostensibly there to transport old artifacts from the materials warehouse back to the warehouse.

I asked the gatekeeper, "What are these 'old objects'?"

The gatekeeper said, "Old items in the materials room belong to the inner treasury. We only check the tags at the gate, not the items themselves."

"Not going to investigate?"

"According to the rules, we won't check."

"What if someone is hiding inside?"

The gatekeeper turned pale.

"Lord Shen, please be careful with your words."

"What if there's a tent hidden inside?"

He dared not speak anymore.

I looked down and continued reading.

There are introductory notes.

There are also records of people leaving the house.

At the third quarter of the Hai hour, Guangzi went out.

The character 广 is missing from the fourteenth section.

I tapped the pages of the booklet with my fingertips.

"What about the character '广' in the fourteenth position?"

The gatekeeper was taken aback.

"Perhaps it's still in the inner vault."

"Are the old artifacts being transported back to the warehouse, but the trucks never leave after they're stored?"

"Carriages will also be kept in the palace."

"Is the green-curtained carriage an imperial carriage?"

The gatekeeper's forehead was covered in even more sweat.

"This... I don't know."

I turned to the supplementary booklet.

The two vehicles are also listed in the supplementary register, but the handwriting is noticeably messier.

The character 广 has a small hook after the number thirteen.

The character "广" is left blank after the number fourteen.

It was completely empty.

It's too clean.

I picked up the booklet and looked at it against the light.

There are shallow indentations on the back of the paper.

Someone had written something there, but later scraped it off.

I asked, "Bring the knife."

The gatekeeper was taken aback.

Yan Xiaoyi took a small knife out of his pocket and handed it to me.

I look at him.

"How did you bring a knife in here?"

"I am not going to the palace."

"This is the palace gate."

"Outside the door."

He spoke with absolute certainty.

I couldn't refute it.

I gently scraped away the blank space behind the character "广" (Guang) with the tip of my knife.

The paper is very thin.

After a couple of strokes, a little bit of light ink was revealed underneath.

It's not a character.

It's half a symbol.

It resembles the "walking" radical in the Chinese character for "retreat".

I frowned.

So the word "retreat" was written here before?

Did Guangzi Shisi ever leave the house?

Then why scrape it off again?

I continued flipping through the pages and, sure enough, found a record that had been added in the miscellaneous section.

At the hour of Hai (9-11 PM), a minor official from the inner treasury submitted a supplementary report with a token, stating that the character "广" (Guang) number fourteen had been left in the treasury and had not yet been released.

The ink on this line is newer than the ink before and after it.

I looked up and asked, "Who submitted the supplementary report?"

The gatekeeper said, "I am a minor official in the Imperial Treasury."

"What's your name?"

"I don't know."

"What does it look like?"

"I don't remember."

I laughed.

"The people who were supposed to be reporting the passage of carriages and horses at Guangchu Gate don't even remember?"

The gatekeeper's face grew paler and paler.

The gatekeeper couldn't help but speak up: "Lord Shen, palace gate affairs are complicated, and it's common for gatekeepers to forget things for a moment."

I looked at him.

"Were there many carriages and horses entering and leaving Guangchu Gate last night?"

The captain paused.

I pointed to the booklet.

"From 7 PM to 9 PM, there were a total of four carriages, two teams of eunuchs, and three storehouse keepers. If this number is considered complicated, then the Guangchu Gate is usually too quiet."

Yan Xiaoyi lazily added from the side, "Being idle is quite nice too."

No one cares about him.

I continued by asking the gatekeeper, "How many fingers does the person who submitted the report have on their left hand?"

The gatekeeper's expression changed immediately.

very fast.

It's so fast that others might not even see it.

But I saw it.

"You remember him," I said.

The gatekeeper knelt down with a thud.

"Lord Shen, I'm just a gatekeeper, I really don't know anything!"

I sighed.

I've heard this phrase so many times since last night that I'm practically sick of it.

Too many people don't know this.

But for everyone who didn't know, people around them had died, their tents burned, and their carriages stolen.

"I didn't ask you what you know." I squatted down to look at him. "I'm just asking you, does the person who submitted the supplementary application have six fingers on their left hand?"

The gatekeeper's lips trembled.

The captain's expression also turned grim.

"Lord Shen..."

I didn't look at him, I just stared at the gatekeeper.

"explain."

The gatekeeper pressed his forehead to the ground, his voice barely audible.

"Yes."

My heart sank.

"Wearing official boots?"

"Yes."

"A golden crane on the cuff?"

The gatekeeper looked up abruptly, his eyes filled with fear.

That one look was more effective than anything he said.

He had seen it.

Six fingers.

Official boots.

Golden-lined crane.

Moreover, this person personally went to Guangchumen to submit a supplementary report, changing the Guangzi Fourteenth from "leaving" to "remaining in the warehouse without leaving".

In other words, the vehicle that actually transported the goods was likely not the Guangzi Thirteen.

It is the character 广, number fourteen.

Someone made it disappear from the account.

I lowered my voice.

"Who is that person?"

The gatekeeper trembled even more violently.

"have no idea."

"What cards did he have?"

"Inner warehouse material room sign."

"Who gave him the license?"

"have no idea."

"What did he say?"

The gatekeeper swallowed hard.

He said... to settle the accounts.

My fingers paused.

These two words again.

Settle accounts.

These two words are like a key, enabling iron workshops to open, old warehouses to move boxes, carriage and horse shops to change accounts, and Guangchumen to supplement its registers.

It's no longer just a sentence.

It's a secret order.

I asked, "Where did the character '广' (Guang) go after it left?"

The gatekeeper shook his head.

"I don't know. I only saw it leave the house, but later that person came to report that he had made a mistake and that the carriage hadn't left."

Who inspected the car when it left the house?

"Liu the clerk".

It was that ailing clerk, Liu, again.

I looked at the captain.

"Where does Clerk Liu live?"

The captain hesitated.

"Lord Shen, Liu Cheng is a palace gate clerk. Although he is not an inner official, he is not someone that an outside official can interrogate at will."

I took out the palace token.

"His Majesty has granted me the authority to examine the entry and exit records of Guangchu Gate. I can examine whoever wrote the records."

The captain's face stiffened.

"But His Majesty also said that no one is allowed to enter."

I looked at him.

"Does Liu Cheng live inside the gate?"

Captain: "..."

He clearly regretted saying that.

The gatekeeper whispered, "Liu, the clerk, lives in the third room in the east alley outside Guangchu Gate."

I put the booklet away.

"No need to bring the main register, just borrow the supplementary register."

The captain immediately said, "The booklet cannot be taken away."

"Then copy it."

I looked at Yan Xiaoyi.

Yan Xiaoyi looked at me.

I looked at the gatekeeper again.

The gatekeeper immediately scrambled to his feet: "I'll copy it, I'll copy it!"

While the gatekeeper was copying the documents, I walked to the side of Guangchu Gate and looked at the cart tracks under the gate.

The stone slabs of the palace gate were polished to a shine, and the wheel tracks were very shallow.

But there was a very fine white powder in the crack in the rock.

I squatted down and picked up a little bit.

Stone powder.

Ah Liu isn't here, so there's no one to shout "It's stone powder again!" for me.

I could only shout it out in my heart.

Yan Xiaoyi squatted down beside him and took a sniff.

"And incense ash."

I look at him.

"Your nose is that good?"

"It's better when you're sleepy."

Why?

"I'm afraid I'll be poisoned to death while I'm asleep."

That's a very valid reason.

Incense ash is used to suppress moisture.

Xiao Lingyi once said that when seasonings were sent to the palace from the inner warehouse, incense ash was often used to suppress moisture.

The stone powder and incense ash in the cracks of the Guangchu Gate indicate that a cart carrying stone containers or storage boxes did indeed pass by last night.

Just as I was about to get up, I suddenly noticed a scratch on the corner of the wall next to the doorway.

It's very shallow.

Like the residue left by a wheel rim rubbing against something.

Next to the scratch, there was a bit of blue cloth.

A carriage with a blue curtain.

I reached out to take it, but Yan Xiaoyi stopped me.

"Don't touch it."

He used the tip of his knife to pick up the fabric threads.

Beneath the fabric, there was a dark red tinge.

blood.

Very few.

If it weren't pasted on a blue cloth, it would be almost invisible.

My heart sank.

There might be someone in the fourteenth carriage of the Guang character.

Or someone was hit, dragged, or crushed.

Liu Laoqi said he would exchange the six boxes of goods for a small carriage with green curtains.

But what if there are more than just boxes in the car?

What exactly did that Guangzi No. 14 car, which had no record of leaving the area, take with it?

The gatekeeper quickly copied the pages into the register.

I took it and glanced at it.

He's fairly honest.

At least the key items are still there.

Before I left, I asked the gatekeeper one more question:

What are the facial features of a person with six fingers?

The gatekeeper hesitated for a long time.

"He kept his head down, so I couldn't see his face clearly."

I'm a little disappointed.

The gatekeeper added, "But he smells of medicine on him."

"What does that smell like?"

"Like...like bitter almonds."

Bitter almonds?

A thought struck me.

The old doctor said that the poison Liu Laoqi was poisoned resembled aconite, but not entirely.

If a poison has a bitter almond flavor, it may be mixed with something like almond cream to mask the taste or accelerate its release.

The six-fingered man smelled of medicine.

He was not just a messenger.

They might also have been responsible for poisoning.

I put away the copybook and turned to leave Guangchu Gate.

After walking for a while, Yan Xiaoyi suddenly said, "Someone is watching us."

"Whose people?"

"have no idea."

"In the palace?"

"picture."

I didn't turn around.

It's not surprising that people in the palace are watching us.

It would be strange if they weren't watching.

As they reached the end of the palace path, a person came towards them.

Pei Shen.

He still had that gentle demeanor, with a servant following behind him.

My gaze fell on the attendant.

He was of average build, with his head bowed and eyes downcast, his hands tucked into his sleeves.

The hand is not visible.

The cuffs were clean and tidy.

There are no golden-thread cranes.

Pei Shen saw me, stopped, and smiled, "Lord Shen."

I cupped my hands in greeting.

"Lord Pei."

"I heard that Lord Shen traveled to the southern city last night and went to the palace to see His Majesty today. The young man is in very good health."

I said, "It's alright, the main thing is that I can't afford to have a bad fate."

Pei Shen smiled.

"Investigating cases is hard work, but Lord Shen must also remember that cases have varying degrees of importance, and the court has its own rules."

coming.

It was that same gentle, cotton-like tone that concealed a sharp edge.

I said, "Thank you for your guidance, Lord Pei. I am of low rank and cannot see the political situation clearly; I can only see the accounts."

Pei Shen looked at me, his voice gentle.

"Accounts can be true or false. Misreading the accounts can be deadly."

"If you see it correctly, you will too."

He was slightly startled.

I continued, "So it's better to be right. At least you'll die knowing why."

The smile in Pei Shen's eyes faded slightly.

His attendant behind him kept his head down the whole time.

I deliberately stepped aside by half a step.

As the attendant walked past Pei Shen, a faint fragrance wafted by.

It's not the scent of flowers.

It's not incense either.

Like bitter almonds.

My fingertips tightened suddenly.

Yan Xiaoyi was beside me, her eyelids slightly open.

He smelled it too.

After Pei Shen walked away, I did not look back.

But I know that the hand of that attendant was hidden in his sleeve the whole time.

The six-fingered man may not necessarily be Pei Shen.

But there was indeed a hidden hand beside Pei Shen.