A young, unmarried person speaking so calmly and seriously about being fated to have no children?

The Emperor was shocked, and beneath his shock, he felt pity.

The Eldest Princess and her husband had died fighting for the country, leaving only this one son—how could the family line be allowed to end?

He immediately summoned several veteran ministers and searched through the daughters of noble families, planning to arrange a marriage for Shen Qiyuan. Already past twenty, how could he not have someone to attend to him?

Not searching would have been better—once he started, the Emperor became confused: “Lord Liu, I remember your manor has several precious daughters of marriageable age. How is there only one left?”

Grand Preceptor Liu came to his senses and stepped forward with cupped hands: “Your Majesty, this old minister’s eldest daughter recently fell from a carriage and unfortunately perished. The concubine daughters have also recently found good matches, leaving only one young girl under ten years old.”

This matter, once mentioned, would normally have passed, but by unfortunate coincidence, Prince Yong was present today and couldn’t help speaking up: “How is it that Grand Preceptor Liu’s manor has been plagued with deaths lately? Just these past days, I heard rumors of beating a wet nurse to death, and today you say even the eldest daughter of the manor has perished.”

At these words, the Emperor’s gaze immediately fell on Grand Preceptor Liu: “Beat a wet nurse to death?”

“Your Highness must not make such slanderous accusations.” Grand Preceptor Liu said angrily, “That wet nurse drowned herself outside. The Ministry of Justice examined the corpse early on—how can you falsely accuse this old minister like this?”

“The Ministry of Justice examined it? This prince heard it was hastily buried without returning the bones to her hometown, which caused family and relatives to clamor at the Grand Preceptor’s manor gates.”

“Prince Yong!” Grand Preceptor Liu gritted his teeth. “Are such marketplace matters worth bringing before His Majesty?”

Prince Yong snorted and cupped his hands: “Imperial Brother has the world in his heart and naturally should hear the voices of the common people. This prince isn’t deliberately looking for trouble, but just as the grace of the Minister’s Tomb was granted, the Grand Preceptor’s manor has repeatedly caused fatal lawsuits—isn’t this failing His Majesty’s grace?”

The Emperor asked seriously: “Lord Zhang, has the Ministry of Justice received such a case?”

Minister Zhang stepped forward with cupped hands: “Your Majesty, we did receive it and examined the corpse of the deceased wet nurse, but the new coroner lacks experience. The examination report was improper and thus couldn’t be filed for reporting.”

After forcibly suppressing the Black Market Case without implicating more officials, quite a few Ministry of Justice officials had voluntarily resigned—the Emperor had heard of this.

He felt somewhat embarrassed: “If so, then let Lord Shen find a way. This case must be investigated to clear Lord Liu’s name, so future generations won’t criticize.”

“Yes.”

Thus, Shen Qiyuan didn’t get a marriage arrangement but instead received a secret edict.

The current Emperor wanted him to investigate the truth while also keeping the truth contained, unable to damage the reputations of Grand Preceptor Liu or the Emperor, who had personally granted the Minister’s Tomb.

Sighing lightly, Shen Qiyuan burned the secret edict: “Where in this world can both sides be satisfied?”

“My Lord.” Zhou Tingchuan frowned and reported: “This subordinate has already had over ten coroners in our department examine her. None found external injuries on the wet nurse’s body—she could only have drowned.”

Shaking the ashes from his fingers, Shen Qiyuan lowered his eyes: “How troublesome—I have to go to the Immortal Meeting Wine House again.”

Zhao Yanning’s corpse examination skills were as sharp as his tongue—things other coroners couldn’t discover, he had methods for. Now they could only ask him to help again.

But given his previous level of anger, he definitely wouldn’t be willing to return to examine corpses for the Ministry of Justice.

Shen Qiyuan clicked his tongue and said reluctantly, “Go to Treasure Hall and pick out a coral hairpin.”

Zhou Tingchuan didn’t quite understand the connection between coral hairpins and corpse examination, but still obediently agreed and prepared his carriage and horses.

Business at the Immortal Meeting Wine House was recovering, and Ruyi was busy bustling around the main hall, making pleasant conversation at this table and serving dishes at that one. Born with a jade-like face and flirtatious eyes, she inevitably had customers grab her sleeve and ask: “Has the proprietress been betrothed to anyone?”

Ruyi wasn’t one to be shy—she turned with a smile: “I naturally don’t betroth myself to others, only waiting for young gentlemen to betroth themselves to me. This gentleman is tall and handsome, though a bit thin—do try more of the good wine and meat in my establishment.”

Laughter filled the surroundings, and the customer wasn’t annoyed but enjoyed chatting with her even more.

However, there was one table that seemed unusual—Ruyi had glanced over several times, always feeling they had come to cause trouble.

Sure enough, as soon as the server brought over their dishes, they clamored: “Have your proprietress deliver them personally.”

Ruyi restrained the server who wanted to argue and took the dishes to place on their table: “I say, honored customers, if I serve the dishes, that will cost considerably more money. Did you gentlemen bring enough silver?”

The customer in the main seat snorted and grabbed her wrist: “I said the little lady here has no shame and is easy to provoke—look, here she comes.”

He gripped very hard, expecting her to struggle unsuccessfully and have to wrestle with him awkwardly. But Ruyi didn’t even move an eyebrow, her wrist fixed in mid-air—he couldn’t pull her forward even an inch.

Somewhat disbelieving, he stood up and pulled with all his might, but somehow his hand suddenly slipped and he tumbled backward, falling hard.

“Oh my.” Ruyi sympathetically stepped forward to help him up, brushing off his robes. “How careless of you.”

“You—” He was furious, his young face flushing red, finally showing the demeanor proper to a fifteen or sixteen-year-old youth. “You did that on purpose!”

Ruyi said reproachfully, “How could that be? Just now, the young master’s grip loosened on its own.”

As if! She had broken free from him!

People all around looked over with quiet laughter. The young master couldn’t save face and said angrily: “Kneel and apologize to me, or I’ll tear down your wine house today!”

Ruyi covered her lips and blinked: “Didn’t you just say you came to provoke me? Now it’s suddenly become tearing down the wine house?”

“You offended me first!” He stamped his feet in anger. “What business is it of yours why I came here!”

His voice was loud, and half the main hall looked over. But Ruyi wasn’t flustered—her eyes rolled around him once before she said: “Tearing it down would be good—I was just thinking this place is old and worn. I’ll trouble the young master to do it, and afterward I’ll go to the Wen family to collect the debt.”

At the mention of the Wen family, the young master’s arrogance immediately deflated. He looked around somewhat helplessly but still spoke stubbornly: “What Wen family? What are you talking about?”

Pointing at the jade pendant at his waist, Ruyi sighed: “Your sister has this same thing—I’ve seen it.”

Wen Zhenxue’s younger brother, the Wen family’s second young master—his fur hadn’t even grown in yet, but he had already come to cause trouble.

“You venomous woman, don’t drag my sister into this.” He became anxious. “Clearly you provided poor service first, and I just want you to apologize. Why are you bringing up other things!”

Her eyebrows lifting slightly, Ruyi smiled: “So you only want an apology—young master should have said so earlier.”

She pressed him back into his seat, and in front of the other two young masters, took a sip of wine, hooked her arm around the back of his neck, and fed it to him.