Yun Chu stood up to take her leave.

Chu Yi saw her out of the prince’s residence. Seeing her walking back on foot, his brows furrowed: “Chengxu, arrange for a carriage.”

Chengxu wanted to say that late at night, carriages and horses were forbidden on the capital’s streets.

But then he thought, what kind of person was their prince? When suppressing bandits, he often returned to the capital in the middle of the night, and even the city gates had to open for the prince. What was the matter with traveling by carriage at midnight?

He immediately arranged for a carriage.

Naturally, Yun Chu was about to refuse.

“The Qin family’s remaining supporters haven’t all been captured yet. If Miss Yun were intercepted on the road, it would be my fault.” Chu Yi made a gesture. “Miss Yun, please.”

Before Yun Chu had come of age, people often addressed her as Miss Yun.

But after marrying, everyone called her Madam Xie. The three words “Miss Yun” made her feel slightly unaccustomed.

Even after she left the Xie family and had no relationship with Xie Jingyu, outsiders should address a married woman like her as Madam Yun.

However, bringing up such matters of address seemed too deliberate.

She nodded her thanks to Chu Yi, took Qiutong’s hand for support, bent down, and sat in the carriage. The carriage slowly moved forward.

She heard another set of hoofbeats beside her. Lifting the carriage curtain, she saw that Chu Yi was actually riding his horse right beside her carriage.

“I’m going to the Court of Judicial Review to take over Qin Mingheng’s case.”

Chu Yi couldn’t help but explain.

Only after explaining did he realize that the Court of Judicial Review should be to the west, yet he was following her eastward.

Yun Chu didn’t ask any more questions, lowered the curtain, and traveled smoothly all the way to the entrance of the Xie residence.

The two guards at the gate immediately saluted: “We greet Prince Pingxi!”

Chu Yi nodded, watching as Yun Chu stepped through the Xie family’s main gate.

Yun Chu felt a burning gaze constantly falling on her from behind. Without turning back, she knew it must be Chu Yi.

After coming of age, she had been called the capital’s number one beauty. Whenever she went out, she could feel many such gazes directed at her from all around.

Later, she gradually went out less.

When she did go out again, she had already become a married woman, wearing a married woman’s hairstyle. She rarely felt such blatant gazes anymore.

She found it somewhat hard to believe—could Prince Pingxi have feelings for her…

She shook her head.

Impossible.

She must be overthinking it.

Only after the Xie family’s main gate closed did Chu Yi withdraw his gaze.

He looked at the guards stationed at the Xie residence entrance and spoke: “Relay this prince’s command—everyone withdraw.”

She still held a place in her heart for that man. If the funeral couldn’t be held and mourning couldn’t be announced, he feared this matter would become a lifelong burden on her heart.

He hoped she could quickly forget Xie Jingyu…

“Your Highness, someone just came to report.” Chengxu stepped forward and lowered his voice. “Your Highness previously had people investigate Doctor Qin. Your subordinate’s men searched throughout the capital for half a month and found three or four Doctor Qins, but none were former imperial physicians from the palace.”

Chu Yi recalled.

At the wedding of the Xie family’s eldest daughter, Xie Ping, he had learned from Xie Jingyu that Yun Chu had once hired an old imperial physician named Qin for Xie Jingyu.

Military texts say: know yourself and know your enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without defeat.

Therefore, he had specifically arranged for people to find Doctor Qin, with the purpose of learning about Xie Jingyu’s physical condition.

Such a small matter, investigated for over half a month, yet still nothing had been uncovered.

“Your subordinate changed his approach to the investigation.” Chengxu continued. “I spent some silver and had servants from the Xie household who had seen the old imperial physician Qin each draw a portrait. Then I went to the magistrate’s office to have an artist composite a single portrait. Finally, your subordinate found him. It turns out this so-called old imperial physician Qin was actually an old man selling tofu in Doufu Alley in the capital. Your subordinate had guards take the old man for tea. Starting from ten taels of silver, increasing to one thousand three hundred taels of silver, wasting a full three hours before the old man finally loosened his tongue and revealed that it was Madam Xie who found him and asked him to impersonate a palace imperial physician…”

Chu Yi, whose expression was usually cold and composed, showed a look of astonishment.

Yun Chu asked a tofu seller to treat her husband?

That meant she fundamentally didn’t hope for her husband to recover?

Why would she do such a thing?

Question after question rose in his mind.

But there was no time for him to think deeply.

He immediately said: “That old man—where is he now?”

If his people could investigate this matter, others should be able to as well…

“After the old man divulged the information, he was detained, awaiting Your Highness’s decision!”

Chu Yi pressed his lips together.

Matters concerning Yun Chu—he couldn’t afford to be careless.

As for this old man—to say he had betrayed Yun Chu, yet it took over a thousand taels of silver to pry open his mouth. One must know that selling tofu yielded only two or three taels of silver profit per month.

To say he hadn’t betrayed Yun Chu, yet in the end, through threats and inducements, he had revealed the person behind it all.

Kill him?

That seemed inappropriate.

Not because he was softhearted.

Rather, if one day Yun Chu learned he killed without batting an eye, he wouldn’t even have a chance to explain.

He paused for quite a while before speaking: “Send this old man and his entire family to Luochuan.”

Luochuan was his fiefdom, within his sphere of influence. Staying in Luochuan with his people watching would ensure absolute safety.

Chengxu immediately accepted the order and went to handle it.

The people guarding the Xie family entrance immediately dispersed.

Xie Zhongcheng’s face was full of disbelief. This daughter-in-law had just gone out in the middle of the night once and resolved the Xie family’s great trouble. From this, one could see the Yun family’s position in the capital.

If only she had acted sooner—Jingyu wouldn’t have died from drinking too much…

But now, he had no way to reproach this daughter-in-law. He feared she would truly throw up her hands and quit…

Xie Zhongcheng forced himself to maintain composure and take charge of the overall situation. However, all the servants in the residence had run away, and there were too few usable people. Many tasks required doing things personally.

He had the several concubines hang white banners and white lanterns throughout the residence. He personally went to buy the best coffin within his means and, together with Yuan Shi, placed Xie Jingyu into the coffin.

“Yu’er, my son!” Yuan Shi cried until her heart broke. “You suffered in this life. In the next life, be a pure and honest person, living smoothly until old age…”

The coffin lid slowly closed. Yuan Shi collapsed to the ground.

The concubines covered their faces and wept bitterly. A group of children who didn’t understand also cried along. The room was filled with the sound of sobbing.

Yun Chu stood before the coffin and looked at Xie Jingyu one last time.

Once the coffin was completely sealed, she lit three sticks of incense and inserted them into the incense burner. With this, the grievances between them were completely ended.

News of Xie Jingyu’s death quickly spread throughout the capital.

The Xie family had already been at the center of controversy during this period. One incident after another had continuously trampled on the common people’s bottom line. Now that Xie Jingyu was dead, everyone only felt gratified.

“Embezzling silver—he deserved to die. Getting to keep his whole corpse was already letting him off easy.”

“I wondered how he dared take the He family daughter as a concubine. Turns out he wanted to learn from the He family about embezzlement techniques. Tsk tsk!”

“The three children Xie Jingyu had with the He family daughter—the eldest son committed matricide, the eldest daughter schemed against Prince An’jing, the youngest son killed his own great-grandmother. It seems they were rotten from the root.”

“Even with the Yun family’s legitimate eldest daughter as such an excellent mistress to raise them, she still couldn’t straighten them out. Poor Miss Yun.”

“…”