Help! I just woke up and was stabbed by a big kid

"I'll have someone investigate right away." Zhen Suhang said solemnly.

Gu Yue nodded repeatedly. It was good that this person understood the importance of the matter.

"There is another person, Wen Qing from the Third Prince's mansion. Do you have any information about him?" Gu Yue asked.

"It seems that this person came to the Third Prince five years ago and has been working for him. However, he keeps a low profile and has never had any evidence against him. The Emperor has asked about this before, but I can't explain it." Zhen Suhang was embarrassed, and then he said, "Although we have our own intelligence department, most of them are used to gather gossips in the martial arts world, and it has only been established for a short time..."

"It's okay. I'll just leave the palace matters to you." Gu Yue didn't care. This person seemed to be a time traveler, but he didn't seem to have any approach to the protagonist of this world, Gu Xu. Either he was just a lucky starter who only cared about making money and treated the protagonist as a passerby; or he was just an ordinary time traveler.

The worst case scenario is that he is a time traveler, but from City A.

"Don't worry, I also have some connections in the palace." Zhen Suhang said with a smile.

"Has anything unusual happened in Luoyang in the past two years?" Gu Yue asked again. This kind of city gossip is always worth watching, right?

"Let me think... If you ask the royal family, there is nothing special in the past two years. The princes and the princes are all very well behaved. The third prince is now working in the Ministry of Rites, which is in charge of sacrificial ceremonies. It is said that his performance is mediocre."

There's usually no merit to be gained from taking care of this kind of thing, so Gu Yue nodded.

"And there's King Yin. We heard in our Huaizhong branch that King Yin's mansion had been robbed, so we wanted to publish it, but King Yin's confidant came and paid him hush money, so we didn't mention it anymore."

"The fourth, fifth and sixth princes are planning to move out of the palace next year. The fourth prince wanted to stay in the palace, but the emperor reprimanded him and arranged marriages for him to a principal wife and a concubine."

"Which girl is she?" Gu Yue asked.

"She is the eldest daughter of the Minister of Zongzheng Temple. The concubine is the youngest daughter of the Chief Clerk of Taichang Temple." Zhen Suhang replied.

"...Wait, that's not right. Qin Zhaoyue hasn't married a crown princess yet, right? What about the second prince and the third prince? Why did the fourth prince get married first?" Gu Yue discovered the highlight.

"The Crown Prince has a Crown Princess who has already been engaged. She is the daughter of the general Jing family. Because the marriage was arranged at birth, the two girls were born as twins. Over the years, there has been hesitation over which of them will marry the Crown Prince. Besides, Qin Zhaoyue has concubines in the backyard, so she can be considered unmarried." Zhen Suhang said.

Gu Xu stared at the tea leaves in the cup.

He continued to recall: "The second prince is not favored. His mother does not mention this matter, the emperor does not care, and the queen does not want to meddle in other people's affairs. There is no news that the second prince has taken a concubine. He is away from home all year round, so there is nothing explosive to write about in the news."

"As for the Third Prince... he really hasn't married yet. He has always refused. The Queen Mother likes the Third Prince very much. She dotes on him. Even though he doesn't want to marry, the old lady still protects him. Anyway, he is still young."

So it was the Fourth Prince's turn. Gu Yue understood.

"Oh, there is one more thing. The Xidi Kingdom on the northwest border has been a little restless recently. These are all rumors from the court meetings in the palace. Our people occasionally hear some of them." Zhen Suhang said, "If you are doing business, it is not recommended to go to Liangzhou recently."

"I see." Gu Yue nodded. He turned to look at Gu Xu, and seeing that he was staring at the teacup in a trance, he gently put his hand on his knees: "Anything else?"

"Hmm?" Gu Xu looked up, "And... when will the meeting be held, and when can we go back?"

He already knew everything they talked about.

After asking these questions, does "Gu Dashi" have any new ideas?

"It will be scheduled for five days later. I have also found an inn for you, and it is guaranteed to be safe. You need to show your room key to go upstairs in this inn, it is very private." Zhen Suhang said.

After having enough food and drink, the dinner ended successfully.

……

Late at night, in the Third Prince’s Mansion.

Wen Qing sat in the third prince's study and opened a pile of secret letters in front of him. Qin Zhaoning didn't often use this study, and over time, it became his office.

"Come in."

There was a noise outside, and a guard in black entered the room, clasped his fists and knelt down in front of Wen Qing: "Sir, I found out that Zhen Suhang left the city today and welcomed a gentleman who wrote for the bookstore into the city. They are the ones who went to the building to eat today."

"Go out of the city to welcome him? ...Which one?" Wen Qing raised his eyes.

"I heard that the bookstore is going to hold a personal signing event for the author of the most popular column "Unsolved Mysteries of Northern Qin" in the city recently, and they want to sell the hardcover single edition of this column. I guess that this gentleman is the author of this column, Yue Gu Qianshan."

Wen Qing’s fingers paused.

"Yue Gu Qianshan?" he recited slowly.

He took off the sachet hanging around his waist, slowly opened it, and picked out a small piece of page from it.

The two characters "Qianshan" are still clearly outlined, but the writing is very casual, without any attention to neatness.

He threw the little page corner on the table and laughed meaningfully.

"Sir?" The guard saw the piece of paper.

"What a coincidence." Wen Qing pointed at the piece of paper, "Get me a ticket for the book signing event."

"You mean, the disappearance of the traitor is related to Yue Gu Qianshan?" The guard perked up.

"Well. There's an 80% chance... that it's him. The remaining 20% ​​is that he has a close relationship with him. He will definitely show up at that book signing event." Wen Qing said.

"Why is that?" The guard looked at Wen Qing with reverence. "Perhaps that page contains something else?"

"These two words are at the end of the page, with an ink dot next to them." Wen Qing said, "Nowadays, people usually add a pause at the end of each sentence in informal manuscripts to indicate a pause."

He picked up the corner of the page and said, "This is clearly the end of the page, but there is no writing on the side, and there is a faint blank space. It is probably a signature. The writing is wild and unrefined, perhaps a rough draft."

"Then this could have been torn from a publication in a bookstore," said the guard.

"That publication doesn't use this kind of paper. Turmeric paper is rough and cheap, just right for drafting." Wen Qing put the paper back into the sachet. "He is most likely Yue Gu Qianshan himself, or his ghostwriter."

"Could it be that he is an avid bookworm? He copied a copy, and then..." The guard guessed again.

Wen Qing smiled without saying anything, opened the secret letter and read it carefully under the lamp.

The guard thought for a while and suddenly realized. If he was really obsessed with it, he would naturally show up at the book signing event.

……

Gu Yue and Gu Xu rested in the inn.

This inn is very luxurious, but due to technical limitations, the floors are not very high.

According to the master-servant relationship, Zhen Suhang arranged a room downstairs for three guards, and Gu Yue lived alone in the luxurious suite on the top floor. There was only one room, occupying the entire fifth floor. But within an incense stick of time, Gu Xu moved in with his luggage, saying that the guards' room was crowded and he was not used to it.

Gu Yue didn't know whether he had noticed his trick or not, but he agreed to it out of habit.

"Just now when we were eating..."