Card Room

After reading Imperial Concubine Xian's long story, the cause and effect of the whole case was finally clearly presented in front of them.

Mo Xuemin speculated, "In recent years, several women have disappeared in Jiangzhou. Have they also been killed by her? Perhaps they saw her when she made secret contact with the Zhao people at Qingshan Temple?"

Xiao Lou nodded. "It's possible. The serial poisoning case in the capital was Imperial Consort Xian cleaning things up. She kills freely and doesn't care about how many more she kills."

Ye Qi lamented, "The concubine was truly powerful. Unfortunately, her teammates were extremely poor!"

Everyone, "……"

Xiao Ye's remark pointed out the key thing. Qi Fenghua was too slow to handle things and he didn't know what to do. His brain was also very simple. He couldn't even compare to half of the eighth prince.

The eighth prince was very talented but he didn't want to be emperor.

Not all princes wanted to be emperors. How good was it to be a leisurely lord to travel around the mountain and rivers to play? He could marry a few concubines without weighing the family power of the concubines and he didn't have to sit in the dragon chair every day listening to the ministers talk… in fact, the eighth prince was the most transparent person.

Xiao Lou spoke softly, "Imperial Concubine Xian was already in her 60s. It seemed she was really discouraged and didn't want to raise another puppet so she simply killed herself." He looked back at the woman lying in bed with a calm face and couldn't help stating, "She poisoned so many people. In the end, she poisoned herself with her own hands."

Yu Hanjiang stated, "This is also a death. At least there is a full body left behind and she isn't beheaded."

The room fell silent and there was a burst of sighs in everyone's hearts.

It didn't matter if Qi Fenghua didn't confess. Imperial Concubine Fei's suicide note said everything. She went freely and easily but what should the royal family do?

Yu Hanjiang frowned. "We must write to the emperor to decide how to settle this case. Long Sen, take the suicide note left by the imperial concubine and the secret letter I wrote. Bring them to the capital immediately. On one hand, you can discover what happened with the selection and you can also ask His Majesty how to deal with Qi Fenghua and the prince's mansion."

Xiao Lou handed the Li Qingzhao card to him. "It is too troublesome to go on the road. Send news to us immediately with the flying pigeon."

Long Sen nodded and set off that night.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang lay next to each other in the bedroom, both of them in a complicated mood. Xiao Lou stated, "This case is the most difficult one we have encountered at present. The clues were too scattered and there was no physical evidence…"

Yu Hanjiang told him, "The logic of the case is actually very clear but there are too many details and every detail must be grasped. Every person mentioned must be carefully investigated. The key to finally solving the case was actually the court gossip that the Ninth Princess told Qu Wanyue."

Xiao Lou smiled helplessly. "Yes, if Teacher Qu went missing or didn't pay attention to the gossip about the empress and concubines then we might be confused and wouldn't think about what happened 13 years ago."

Yu Hanjiang added, “If Liu Qiao didn’t take out the poison in time, we might’ve been wiped out as a group when the assassins besieged us outside Jiangzhou City. If Ye Qi wasn’t alert enough and was awake when Xue Yan went to the prison that night, he might’ve been killed.”

"There was also Old Mo who noticed the Yan women's jewellery patterns from the book on his bookshelf. If he didn't notice, we might've spent several days checking for the origins of the assassins and wouldn't have thought about Yan."

On closer inspection, the process of solving the cast was truly thrilling.

In fact, everyone had their own role in this secret room. They had to make good use of their identity to provide as many clues as possible to the captain.

This was the first time the team of eight had worked together to solve the case. Of course, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang were the main ones responsible for the reasoning and analysis, but the others couldn't drop the ball. If any one of them dropped the ball, it would be difficult to get the right reasoning.

The first A-grade secret room was so difficult. Yu Hanjiang felt he would have a headache if there was more role-playing later. In this secret room, the only thing that made him happy was the identities assigned to him and Xiao Lou. Xiao Lou was his wife.

At this time, Xiao Lou was laying beside him and the two of them were covered with the same bed quilt. They might be purely chatting but he felt happy. He even didn't want to leave the secret room.

Xiao Lou said, "Once Long Sen gives the evidence, the emperor should make a judgment. Then this secret room can be considered as cleared?"

"There is still a problem that hasn't been solved. Your brother went to Yan to try and contact the third prince of the Yan state. If he can help settle the war between Yan and Qi, we can probably pass this secret room perfectly and get an S-grade evaluation.

Xiao Lou nodded. "Yes, it seems that we will have to stay in this secret room for at least half a month."

Yu Hanjiang thought this was also good. He could stay in bed with his wife for half a month.

***

The next day, there was nothing to do so the bored Shao Qingge started arbitrarily spending a lot of money. He invited Yu daren to the largest restaurant in Jiangzhou and the other teammates followed. They experienced a feast in ancient times.

The case was closed and now they were just waiting for it to end.

Shao Qingge once again lay down to win and couldn't help smiling. "I can't take this gold outside. I will give you a few pieces of gold each and you can buy what you want to buy. Why not take this time to experience ancient customs?"

Everyone, "……"

Chief Shao really liked to play in the Hearts room as a tourist!

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang weren't in the mood to hang out. The two of them spent time waiting for Long Sen's news. Fortunately, that night, Long Sen sent a letter to the two people to report on the situation in the capital.

The selection had been perfectly resolved. The emperor was really fierce and caught the spy mixed in among the beautiful women. He also pulled out the ones embedded in the Ministry of Rites and put them all in prison awaiting punishment.

As for the second secret letter that Yu Hanjiang sent as well as the imperial concubine's letter, the emperor had read them carefully.

The crime of rebellion wasn't a trivial matter. According to Da Qi's laws, if Qi Fenghua was suspected of conspiracy then the entire prince's mansion should be buried with him. However, the emperor was kind and generous and knew this action wasn't good. After all, when the late emperor was deciding the crown prince, the eighth prince took the initiative to suggest the late emperor set up his grandson. Then in the year after the late emperor died, the fifth and sixth princes rebelled and the eighth prince helped calm it down.

It could be said that there would be no throne without the eighth prince.

So the emperor gave Yu Hanjiang a secret order—

Therefore, the emperor gave an order to Yu Hanjiang to secretly execute the imperial concubine and Qi Fenghua. Then he would have the general on the front line forge an obituary to be sent to the prince's mansion, stating that Qi Fenghua made a glorious sacrifice on the battlefield.

As for the murders at the prince's mansion, state that the assassins did it.

The emperor not only spared all of the prince's mansion, he also took the opportunity to reward the eighth prince. He declared that the title 'Zhenjiang King' would be hereditary and officially made the third and fourth young ladies princesses.

He heard that the third young lady and Qin Rui were in love but as a guard, Qin Rui didn't deserve the third young lady's status. Thus, the emperor decided to transfer the strong Qin Rui to the capital to serve as the commander of an imperial army, promoting him to nobility. This would allow him to marry the third young lady in a beautiful manner.

The fourth young lady's sweetheart was wrongly killed and the fourth young lady had low self-esteem due to the birthday on her face. The emperor decided to make her a princess and find her a good marriage. As for the fetus in Mrs Han's womb, if it was a daughter then she would be born a princess. If it was a son, he would be born a prince.

In addition, Yu daren was successful in solving the case but since it was a matter that 'can't be said', the emperor had Yu Hanjiang continue serving as the prefectural magistrate of Jiangzhou. He would spend several years in Jiangzhou while he was still young. In the future, Yu Hanjiang would be either the left arm or right arm of the emperor. The emperor would find an opportunity to return Yu Hanjiang to the capital and then he would be promoted.

Xiao Lou couldn't help sighing when he saw Long Sen's letter. "The emperor is truly ambitious and considered all aspects very thoroughly. In this way, people won't gossip about the eighth prince and he will be very loyal."

Yu Hanjiang nodded. "All the princes of the late emperor have died and there is only the eighth prince left. If the emperor uses the crime of rebellion to wipe out the eighth prince's family, he will become a cold-blooded tyrant in the hearts of the people. In addition, the incident 13 years ago involved too many areas. If the truth about the imperial concubine becoming the murderer behind the scenes was made public, people will say that His Majesty is a weak emperor who had a murderer beside him. After so many years of his eyes being blinded, he didn't even check Imperial Concubine Xian. This wouldn't be good for the emperor's reputation…"

Xiao Lou agreed. "So this case being kept a secret is the best result."

True or false, false or true. It was the case with history. The things historians recorded weren't necessarily the truth. What the emperor wanted his people to know was the so-called 'truth.'

***

Five days later.

The obituary from the front line, together with Qi Fenghua's body, was sent to the prince's mansion.

The emperor took advantage of 'Qi Fenghua sacrificing his life for the country' to strongly reward the prince's mansion.

Both the third young lady and fourth young lady became princesses and it was arranged for the fourth young lady to marry General Lin's only son.

The fourth young lady who always had low self-esteem finally took off her veil on the day she was crowned. The birthmark on her face actually looked pretty good with some makeup. The third young lady and Qin Rui were naturally very happy. Originally, Mrs Qing objected to the marriage but the emperor had personally arranged it and also gave Qin Rui a noble title. Later, Qin Rui became a commander of an imperial army in the capital. She couldn't say anything against it anymore. She knelt down and shouted 'long live' the loudest.

His eldest daughter and now his eldest son had died. The eighth prince's heartache was unbearable.

The next day, bad news came again. The imperial concubine at Qingshan Temple had died and her body was cremated. The eighth prince had no affection for her but he still went to the temple to light some incense for her.

Two days later, Xiao Yu also returned to Jiangzhou and brought good news. In Yan, the crown prince and third prince fought openly and secretly against each other. The crown prince was extremely hostile to Qi. After learning that his intelligence organization had been destroyed, he suggested to the old emperor that an all-out war should be started. Meanwhile, the third prince had a friendly attitude to the Qi state. He thought it wasn't wise for Yan and Qi to lose strength every year from a prolonged war. He was willing to ally with Qi. As long as Daqi helped him to the throne, he promised to mend things with Qi and sign a truce.

The emperor was naturally very happy to know this. He had the front-line General Lin cooperate with the third prince and the third prince directly killed the crown prince. Once the old emperor died and the third prince was enthroned, Qi and Yan signed an alliance and the years of war finally came to an end.

Once the plot progressed up to here, a prompt appeared at the same time in the eight people's floating boxes.

[Congratulations to Xiao Lou's contract team for perfectly clearing 9 of Hearts, Beacon in Troubled Times. The clearance took 17 days, 12 hours and 10 minutes. The clearance evaluation is S-grade. Now everyone has two choices:

First, stay in this world. The time flow rate in this world means one year is equivalent to one hour in the main city.

Second, return to the City of the Moon immediately.]

Yu Hanjiang glanced at Xiao Lou. "What do you choose?"

Xiao Lou was silent for a moment. "Go back? After all, we have to clear the instance as soon as possible to reach J of Clubs and meet up with Brother Jiu."

Yu Hanjiang nodded. "Okay."

In fact, he wanted to choose the first one.

If they weren't in a rush to clear the secret rooms and there weren't so many people eager to return to reality…

He really wanted to be in this world and be a lifelong husband and wife with XIao Lou.