Just as both were caught in confusion.

A sound of flute music drifted over.

That flute sound was melodious and sad, sometimes gentle, sometimes slightly urgent, sometimes crisp, sometimes low, yet very pure.

Full of longing and yearning!

Full of weeping and lamenting!

Those who heard it couldn’t help but feel somewhat sorrowful.

Such an elegant and excellent man—who would connect him with someone who stole disaster relief silver?

That flute sound continued for a very long time before stopping. Only after the sky gradually darkened did Wen Xian leave.

Jingrong and Ji Yunshu also returned to Anchang Courtyard.

Having followed him all day, aside from reaching that conclusion, they gained nothing else useful.

That day, Lang Bo also secretly infiltrated the Si family residence, searching room by room under cover of darkness.

He found nothing!

Over the next few days, Ji Yunshu and Jingrong continued following Wen Xian. That fellow went to Laihe Residence every morning, then to collect medicine, went home, went to the outskirts…

Repeating!

This day, after Wen Xian came out of the medicine shop, the two followed behind, their pace neither fast nor slow.

Suddenly a group of children rushed out and crashed into Wen Xian all together.

The several packages of medicine in his hands fell to the ground. The strings came loose and the medicine inside scattered out.

Those children, having bumped into someone, ran off in a swarm.

Wen Xian wasn’t upset. He crouched down to pick up the scattered medicine. The dirty pieces he casually threw on the ground, then walked off as if nothing had happened.

Looking at the scattered and dirty medicinal materials on the ground, Ji Yunshu stopped, used a handkerchief to collect the medicine onto it, and wrapped it up properly.

“Why pick up this medicine?”

“Take it back for Muruo to look at, to see exactly what kind of medicine this is, and why he comes to collect it every other day.”

Oh!

After returning, Ji Yunshu directly took the medicine to Muruo.

“What kind of medicine is this?” she asked.

Muruo sat languidly in the courtyard, weaving something with bamboo.

He glanced at that wrapped package.

“You and Jingrong followed that fellow for several days and brought back just this? And it’s just ordinary medicinal materials.”

Undisguised disdain!

Ji Yunshu asked, “Ordinary medicinal materials? What are they for?”

“Nourishing the body.”

“Just for nourishment?”

Muruo frowned, stopping the movements in his hands. “I could tell what this medicine is even with my eyes closed. What it’s for? It’s for nourishment, no mistake.”

His tone was arrogant!

Ji Yunshu was speechless.

Muruo said, “Actually, you don’t need to trouble yourself. This medicine should be for Wen Xian himself.”

“For himself?”

“The night the black-clothed assassins attacked, I noticed his complexion wasn’t right. He clearly has an internal ailment, probably something he was born with. This kind of person is born weak and sickly, so taking nourishing medicine long-term is very normal.”

“Oh!”

So that meant this only tiny bit of a clue was completely useless? She had indeed followed him for nothing these past few days.

She hadn’t discovered any information at all!

After these several days, Lang Bo also returned to report, “The Si family, up and down, we’ve turned over every bit of ground. There really is no secret passage. After that black-clothed person went in, he never came out again. It’s like he completely vanished into thin air.”

Now even Lang Bo himself was doubting himself, truly wondering if his eyes had been playing tricks on him.

Otherwise, how could a living person just disappear?

Jingrong pondered for a moment. “The Si family must have some mechanism we don’t know about. They could silently switch the disaster relief silver from that iron-walled storage room, so naturally hiding someone in an ordinary room would be an easy matter.”

“Are you saying the Si family knows mystical escape techniques?”

Jingrong just felt something was strange somewhere, but didn’t know exactly where.

After a short while, he slapped his hand on the table. “Could it be that there’s a problem with the post station’s storage room?”

“But inside there are iron walls, and didn’t Your Highness already look? Aside from that door to enter, not even a mosquito could get in.”

His eyes lit up as he suddenly stood.

“Go to the post station.”

…

The post station.

Seeing people arrive, Attendant Official Lin couldn’t help but tremble. He came forward to inquire, “Why has Your Highness come?”

Without another word, Jingrong led people straight toward that storage room, ordering them to open it.

As the door opened, the smell of rust and metal rushed out.

He stepped inside, circled around several times, and tapped on the iron walls many times with his hand.

He just wouldn’t believe it!

“Tear down this storage room.”

Eh!

Hearing this, Attendant Official Lin quickly said, “Your Highness, that cannot be done! This storage room is specifically for storing the court’s disaster relief silver. If we tear it down…”

“Disaster relief silver?” Jingrong’s gaze was cold. “All these years, have you seen any disaster relief silver?”

“This…”

He hadn’t!

“A useless room—what’s the point of keeping it?”

Attendant Official Lin had no words of opposition!

His mouth twitched as he stopped trying to prevent it.

Jingrong ordered, “Tear it down!”

Lang Bo then called out to his people, and together with people from the post station, they began tearing it down.

Chain hoists, crowbars, sledgehammers, iron shovels…

Any useful tools were used.

Fortunately, ancient buildings had no steel reinforcement, so tearing it down didn’t take much time and was quite easy.

Under everyone’s continuous “attacks,” that storage room was finally torn down, leaving only one iron wall at the end.

“Your Highness!”

Lang Bo shouted loudly!

“There’s a hidden compartment on this wall.”

Jingrong went over to look and discovered that whether or not a mechanism had been triggered, a square opening had appeared on that iron wall.

Like a window.

And on the other side of the wall was an ordinary room for storing merchants’ goods.

“So there really was a secret passage.”

Lang Bo was amazed. “Who designed this hidden compartment? You can’t tell at all from looking at the wall, and I don’t know how it opens.”

Jingrong questioned Attendant Official Lin, “What’s going on?”

“This subordinate official doesn’t know!”

He too was dumbstruck!

Looking at that iron wall that had suddenly revealed an opening, his whole body trembled.

Jingrong said, “It seems the disaster relief silver was secretly switched out this way.”

“Your Highness, this truly has nothing to do with this subordinate official!” Attendant Official Lin quickly said. “Please, Your Highness, investigate clearly.”

“Then you’d better explain why this wall has a hidden compartment.”

“This…” He quickly thought. “This storage room was built by the best craftsmen from Yufu. I truly didn’t know there would be a hidden compartment in this iron wall. Even with ten heads, this subordinate official wouldn’t dare do such a thing.”

Terrified, his hands and feet trembled.

Jingrong looked at him, clenching his fist. “Which people built it? Bring them all here.”

One command!

Soon, the master craftsmen and workers who had built this storage room back then were all summoned.

Everyone was shocked to see that the iron wall they had built years ago actually had a square hidden compartment.

They looked at each other in bewilderment!

Attendant Official Lin said, “Your Highness, because it was for storing disaster relief silver, the craftsmen and workers hired were the best, and all had clean backgrounds.”

Jingrong ignored his words and looked toward those craftsmen.

He asked, “You built this storage room back then. Can any of you tell this prince who designed this hidden compartment in the wall?”

No one spoke!

“This matter concerns the disaster relief silver and relates to the court. Why don’t you speak quickly?”

The crowd was so frightened they quickly knelt on the ground.

One of them raised his head and said, “Your Highness, this hidden compartment was absolutely not put there by us. We truly don’t know!”

Lang Bo stepped forward. “You’d better confess honestly, otherwise when evidence is found, your lives will be forfeit.”

“We’re wronged! We honestly built this storage room. We truly don’t know how this hidden compartment came to be here.”