C42 Part3

....

When the two majestic figures arrived, the Ministry of the Internal Affairs was shocked and almost fainted blue, turning into a mess.

Fortunately, the Prince Regent and the Crown Prince came here not to take people, but to find records.

The Internal Service Bureau did not dare to neglect and arranged many people to search together for the records about Chang Qing, and they soon found the records book.

Murong Yu and Murong Ci read it briefly and brought the book back to the East Palace. Although the records in the book were very few, they understood immediately the content.

....

At late night, the Palace lanterns gradually went out, and the only people around were the guards on guard that passed by from time to time.

They walked slowly under the sky full of stars, with the moonlight swaying like a veil.

Murong Yu suddenly said,

"Does Your Royal Highness think there's a possibility that Chang Qing might have been killed by someone else?"

"If Chang Qing was forcefully poisoned and killed by someone else, he wouldn't lie on his bed so peacefully, and his clothes wouldn't be so neat."

Murong Ci carefully recalled the situation of the scene.

"No murderer persecuted or poisoned Chang Qing.

However the murderer maybe just went to meet Chang Qing, said something to him, put down the arsenic, and then left.

This King thinks this is a possibility."

His warm voice was dark and deep, mixed with the dark and silent night, and had a different kind of dark charm.

"The reason why Chang Qing willingly took the poison to commit suicide may be because perhaps the murderer was kind to Chang Qing.

Perhaps Chang Qing wanted to protect the murderer and Chang Qing knew the murderer's secret, so only his own death could keep the secret from being exposed."

Murong Ci admired his speculation and mind: she had to admit that this kind of possibility was not impossible...

'Only Chang Qing knew the truth.'

She sighed,

"These clues led us to another dead-end path again..."

Murong Yu walked very slowly, with his deep eyes piercing the dim light in the dark night,

"Perhaps we can infer some of the facts from some other clues."

He continued,

"Chang Qing was seventeen or eighteen years old when Manager Liu An met him, and King Rui happened to be there, too.

Isn't it weird that the dignified Prince, King Rui, who was so favored by His Majesty, praised a humble little boy?"

Murong Ci was suddenly shocked,

'Why didn't I think of it?'

"Could it be Chang Qing was one of the eyes and ears of King Rui in the Palace?!"

She said flatly.

"It is very likely.

In the past, after King Rui and King Jing were killed, His Majesty ordered a strict investigation to check all Palace members.

Half of the Palace members were either killed or expelled from the Palace.

However, there will always be one or two fish that slip through the net.

Chang Qing might be one of the few fish that slipped through the net."

"Chang Qing adopted Xiao Yin, and Xiao Yin's life is a mystery, then could it be... Xiao Yin was related to King Rui?"

This speculation and hypothesis were so bold that even she took a breath of air.

Murong Yu said:

"Xiao Yin first laid out the Blood Jade in the Fengtian Temple, and then assassinated you, ready to die, and then committed suicide by taking poison.

Perhaps he committed suicide to protect his party, most likely to protect those behind the scenes."

Murong Ci was shocked when she heard this.

She felt the cold night breeze coming from all directions, and her hands and feet suddenly became cold.

'Take out a small thread and you'll pull out the whole string...'※

※※

(N.B.) A Chinese proverb, meaning "once you solve a little struggle, that will lead to solving the whole problem".

※※

'Xiao Yin may be related to King Rui, so the person behind the scenes that Xiao Yin tried to protect is most likely the remnant of King Rui?

Where is King Rui's remnant hiding?

And what are their motives?

Also, the whole Ballad layout pointed to Murong Yu, so why did they want to point to him?'

Thinking of this, she got so startled that she felt sweaty and had a chill on her back.

....

That night, Murong Yu stayed in the East Palace and took her to inspect Xiao Yin's residence.

Then so many things happened:

They ran around the whole Palace and visited most of the Palace places together, spent the middle of the night clarifying the mystery and making bold assumptions.

Presumably she had doubted his intentions from the beginning...

She felt as if he was trying anything possible to remove himself from those weird suspicious cases that had happened recently.

Now, with these speculations, he pointed his finger at King Rui's remnant, making her even more sure of his hidden intentions...

However, his bold speculation was not completely impossible.

"This is just this King's speculation.

Let's wait and see the results of Shen Zhiyan's autopsy tomorrow."

Murong Yu's black eyes narrowed coldly, and the starlight fell in his eyes, like a dazzling, mysterious and deep abyss that would swallow people.

Murong Ci peeped at him sideways, and he happened to turn his head, too.

As their eyes collided, her heart was a little flustered, and she immediately turned back.

'I don't know what's going on...

It's...dark in front of me.

A little bit of starlight, a little bit of redness...

The sky is like...spinning,

It's dizzy--...'

When he noticed the abnormality, she was already falling to the ground--...

His iron arms picked her up and took her in his arms.

He called in a deep voice:

"Your Highness...! Your Highness...!!"

She leaned on him softly, with her eyes closed.

Her face was as pale as paper under the starlight and her lips were so white, not half bloody.

The bandaged wound on her left arm was bleeding, and her robe was dyed red.

It took a lot of blood to make her faint.

Murong Yu hugged her and hurried to the East Palace.

....

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END of CHAPTER 42 PART 3

.....................to be continued