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

Chapter 72 The Old Laundry Bureau

When I entered the princess's villa for the second time, Qiu Tang looked at me differently than she would at a guest.

It's like watching someone who's just crawled out of a coffin but insists on continuing their journey.

"Lord Shen, it's already quite remarkable that you can still walk."

I leaned against the door frame and said earnestly, "Thank you for the compliment, Miss Qiutang."

Qiu Tang said, "I'm not exaggerating."

"Then let's assume it is."

She glanced at me, then said nothing more.

Xiao Lingyi was in the study.

A lamp has been added to the table, and several old directories are placed next to it.

She obviously wasn't asleep either.

This made me feel a little better.

I'm not the only one struggling through this ordeal.

When she saw me come in, she first looked at my expression, then at the verification record in my hand.

"Why not treat it?"

I placed the examination report of the severed finger, Granny Han's examination report, and half a piece of embroidered handkerchief on the table.

"Ji Qing's severed finger had an old wound that was more than ten years old, resembling acupuncture or finger-pinching torture in the palace. Granny Han did not simply die of illness; she was awakened by a single sentence and then given another acupuncture."

Xiao Lingyi's fingertips stopped.

"A replacement injection?"

"This technique may have been used in the old laundry department, needlework room, and inner palace ward."

She lowered her eyes and looked at the words on the medical report.

The candlelight fell on her profile, cold as frost.

"The old laundry department."

The way she uttered those four words seemed to carry the grime of eleven years ago.

I asked, "Does the princess know?"

"Among the old servants around the Empress Dowager, many came from the old laundry department."

She opened an old directory on the table.

"The laundry department sounds lowly, but it's actually the place where you see the dirtiest things in the palace. Bloodstained clothes, sick clothes, clothes of the dead, robes that have been changed, and undergarments stained with medicine all have to pass through their hands."

I nodded.

"So if Aunt Lan wants to examine the mortuary clothes, she will definitely go to the laundry department."

"Grandma Han is one of them."

"But Granny Han is dead."

Xiao Lingyi did not respond.

Her finger hovered over a page in the directory.

"After the Empress Dowager passed away, a number of people were dismissed from the laundry department."

"Clearance out?"

"Retirement due to illness, retirement due to old age, being released, or being transferred. The names all sound very nice."

"What's the reality?"

"Qing people".

She looked up at me.

"Shen An, you're in charge of checking accounts, you should know that the cleanest page in the ledger is often the dirtiest."

I gave a wry smile.

"What the princess said sounds very much like something I have said before."

"That means you're not too stupid."

For a moment, I even detected a hint of praise in my voice.

But it was gone very quickly.

Xiao Lingyi continued, "After Aunt Lan passed away, the laundry department dismissed seven people within a month. Granny Han left the palace and went to the Clean Clothes Lane. Two others died of illness on the way, two others disappeared without a trace, and one person was transferred to the Cold Palace and was no longer recorded in the registers."

"Where is Lanwu?"

She turned to another page.

"Lanwu is not a palace lady-in-waiting; she is merely Aunt Lan's niece. Logically speaking, if Aunt Lan has an accident, she shouldn't be implicated."

"But she has disappeared."

"So she must know something, or she has something that someone else wants."

I looked down at the list.

"Lanwu was released from the palace in the winter of the eleventh year of Chengxi and settled thereafter, and has no official record."

He was later unregistered.

Two words: very clean.

That's pretty amazing too.

Once a person loses their status, it's as if they've been wiped off the paper on the main beam.

She can die, change her name, be sold, or be hidden.

As long as no one investigates, just pretend she never existed.

I asked, "The princess has been searching for three years, and still hasn't found it?"

"I found a little bit."

Xiao Lingyi took out a small piece of paper from the inner compartment of the roster.

"The person in charge of settling Lanwu back then was not the chief envoy of the inner court, but a former laundry lady surnamed Su."

"Your surname is Su?"

"Su Qingniang".

As I looked at that name, a thought struck me.

Will Lanwu's surname be changed to Su?

"It's possible," Xiao Lingyi said. "When the palace is clearing out old people, they often use fake names. By changing a person's name and registering them under the name of a childless former palace woman, their original status can be erased."

"So Lanwu may no longer be called Lanwu."

"right."

I rubbed my temples.

The person hasn't been found yet, but their name is already gone.

The investigation into this case has been incredibly considerate of my suicidal thoughts.

Xiao Lingyi suddenly pushed a hidden card in front of me.

"The old laundry service register is not in the inner palace treasury, but in the hands of the female clerk in charge of foreign affairs. With this token, you can go find someone."

"Who?"

"Meng Xiaoman's aunt, Aunt Meng."

I was taken aback.

I know Meng Xiaoman.

That low-ranking maid in the princess's residence is quick-tongued, gossipy, and prone to overthinking.

Her aunt actually had connections to the old laundry department?

Xiao Lingyi noticed my confusion.

"Meng Xiaoman is a chatterbox, but her aunt is very steady. She used to work in the laundry department, and later left the palace to manage the old clothes for the princess's residence for a while."

Is it reliable?

"More reliable than you."

I:"……"

I can't refute that.

After all, my identity is not exactly clean.

Xiao Lingyi added, "Aunt Meng might have a copy of the deregistration list. That's something they used to protect each other. The official list in the palace can be altered, but the copy in private might not be so easily changed."

I nodded and put away the hidden card.

"I will go and investigate."

"Please sit down."

I was taken aback.

"Princess?"

"You're swaying while standing."

"Omi Akira."

"Your shadow is swaying."

I glanced down at it.

The shadow under the lamp was indeed a bit unsteady.

This is a bit awkward.

I sat down.

Xiao Lingyi asked Qiutang to bring her a bowl of soup.

When I saw the color, my heart sank.

"A stimulant soup?"

Qiu Tang said, "No, ginseng soup."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

I took a sip.

It's still bitter.

I looked at the bowl.

"Do you people in your palace believe that anything good should be made with hardship?"

Xiao Lingyi said calmly, "Sweet things can make people sleepy."

"I get sleepy even when I drink stones now."

She glanced at me.

"Then why aren't you asleep?"

"Ji Qing wasn't arrested, Qian Rong didn't confess, Aunt Lan wasn't contacted, and one page is still missing."

"If you die, there's no need to investigate any of this."

"I will try my best to live."

"You sounded very reckless when you said that."

Her mouth sometimes makes its appearance even before Bai Zhi (Angelica dahurica) does.

After drinking the ginseng soup, I felt like I could barely hold on for another half my life.

Just then, Qiu Tang came in and whispered, "Your Highness, someone from the palace has come to urge you again."

Xiao Lingyi looked at me.

"Father knows you are here."

My heart sank.

"So fast?"

"When you left the palace, you didn't go to the Censorate immediately, nor did you take any route that the Imperial Guards could see. If Father didn't know this, then he wouldn't be Father."

That makes sense.

I asked, "Your Highness, how do you think I should respond?"

"Truly."

"Should I go and see the princess first?"

"They said you need to verify the secret marks on the three holes to investigate Aunt Lan's old case."

"Shouldn't we come to see the princess first?"

"But it sounds like a crime investigation."

I discovered that the princess is also very good at writing folded paper.

She just doesn't write.

She makes others feel bad.

I got up to say goodbye.

Xiao Lingyi suddenly said, "Shen An."

"Your subject is here."

"If Aunt Lan were still alive, she might not believe me."

I was taken aback.

Why?

Xiao Lingyi lowered her eyes.

My surname is Xiao.

That was said very softly.

But it made my heart sink.

Aunt Lan was a former concubine of the late Empress.

If she had truly faked her death and fled due to the emperor's silence, the old accounts in the imperial treasury, and the palace purges, she might not have believed the emperor, nor might she have believed the emperor's daughter.

Xiao Lingyi has been standing inside the palace walls since birth.

This is her identity.

It was also her shackle.

I said, "If she doesn't believe the princess, then I'll make her believe the account."

Xiao Lingyi looked at me.

"You're always talking about accounts."

"Because people are too good at lying."

"You lie too?"

I paused for a moment.

"meeting."

She was not surprised.

"Then you'd better not lie to me."