Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 203: Bone Recognition
From that day on, Xiao Zong fell into an abyss of pain. Whenever someone looked at him, he would think that it was because he looked too much like Xiao Baojuan; whenever someone whispered, he would think that they were discussing his life experience.

But he had to pretend that nothing had happened, and paid his respects to the enemy who killed his father every day, treated his enemy's son as a brother, and managed the capital for his enemy.

Only when he returned home and was alone could he cry and wail, releasing the grief in his heart.

The excruciating guilt made it impossible for him to enjoy himself any longer, so he dismissed all his concubines, removed all the furnishings, and started living the self-abuse life he is living now.

But he still had a glimmer of hope in his heart... He asked the imperial physician, if a child born seven months after marriage was definitely not his biological child?

The imperial physician told him that it was not possible to say that absolutely, because there were still premature babies, whose chances of survival were just very low, but not absolutely impossible.

Xiao Zong then asked the imperial physician how to verify it. The imperial physician told him that blood test was used to identify relatives. He also told him that there are two types of blood test: blood test and bone test. The former is used to identify relatives with living people, and the latter is used to identify relatives with dead people.

This is also the verification method mentioned by Xiao Baoyin in the letter - take a bone of Xiao Baojuan, drop blood on it and test it.

After much thought, Xiao Zong decided to do as Xiao Baoyin said, otherwise he would be consumed to death.

However, Donghunhou was the king of the previous dynasty, and his identity was very sensitive. He was buried in the imperial mausoleum, and there were guards stationed there. Moreover, Qu'a County, where the imperial mausoleum was located, was located in the hinterland of Jiangnan, and was densely populated, so Xiao Zong could not act arbitrarily, so he could only take a long-term view.

He handed the matter over to his former brother-in-law Xie Mo, the royal advisor.

Although the Wang and Xie families have always been known as top aristocratic families, compared with the still powerful Wang family, the Xie family is now a bit declining.

Before Xiao Yan became emperor, he married his second daughter, Xiao Yuwan, to Xie Mo. Later, when he became emperor, in order to win over the Wang family, he actually ordered his second daughter to divorce and remarry into the Wang family.

Unable to bear the grief, Xie Mo wrote a tearful love poem and had it sent to the second princess. The second princess was deeply saddened after reading it and showed it to Xiao Yan, who was also very moved, but still did not let the two get back together.

Ordinary people cannot endure such a great humiliation, let alone the children of the Xie family?
Their common hatred for Xiao Yan made the two men quickly reach an agreement. Xie Mo ordered Xie Gui, who was the county lieutenant of Qu'a, to cooperate with Dong Dangmen and Mr. Qin, a subordinate of Xiao Baoyin, to complete this task.

Who would have thought that what they thought was a simple task like digging a carrot in the field turned out to be a complete failure. Not only did the three idiots fail to get the bone, but they also let Donghun Hou turn into a corpse king and fly away...

After that, things started to get out of his control. First, Jianling Guards felt that the truth could not be hidden and reported the case, and then Xiao Yan sent people from the Gouchensi to investigate.

In fact, things were not so bad up to this point. Everyone, including Xiao Yan, was obviously taking the approach of making big things small and small things nothing.

But during the Lantern Festival, Pan Yunu set fire to Suzaku Street and everything grew into a lotus. This changed the nature of the case. Xiao Yan was devastated and vowed to get to the bottom of the case!

This made Xiao Zong even more tormented. On the one hand, he turned his "biological father" into a zombie and ran around, which was even more unfilial. On the other hand, he was worried that the Gou Chensi would follow the clues and find him...

Xie Mo comforted him and said that he had only contacted Xie Gui and Dong Dangmen about this matter. Now that Xie Gui was dead, he only needed to silence Dong Dangmen and there would be nothing to worry about.

But Dong Dangmen actually hid himself. Xie Mo sent people to keep a close eye on Dong's house, but he didn't show up.

It was not until the day before yesterday that Gou Chen Si captured his son and forced Dong Dangmen out.

Upon learning that Dong Dangmen agreed to exchange him for his son, Xiao Zong became extremely anxious and no longer cared about avoiding suspicion. He called over his old acquaintances, the sisters Shui Bingbing and Shui Miaomiao, and took out the royal magic weapon 'Thousand Miles of Smoke and Waves', and asked them to kill Dong Dangmen.

He even sent out the Danyang navy just in case.

~~
In short, all that can be done has been done, and all that can be done is to wait for the result. Feeling upset and frightened, Xiao Zong wrote this highly artistic poem "Sad Falling Leaves".

Just after finishing the last word, he heard footsteps outside the door. The eunuch reported softly: "Your Majesty, Xie Advisor is here."

Xiao Zong put down his pen and paused for a long time before whispering, "Bring him in."

After Xie Mo entered the palace, Xiao Zong waved his hand, and the eunuch closed the palace door silently. He then quickly came to Xiao Zong and reported, "Your Highness is in trouble. Xie Hao sent back a letter saying that the two girls and Dong Dangmen were all arrested, and the Thousand Miles Smoke and Waves Map also fell into the hands of Gou Chensi."

"Damn you, you piece of trash!" Xiao Zong cursed bitterly before sighing dejectedly, "Got it, you go down first."

"Your Highness, time waits for no one, we must think of a solution quickly." Xie Mo said anxiously: "With Gou Chensi's ability, he will definitely be able to pry open their mouths. Especially Dong Dangmen, he knows everything!"

"Go down." Xiao Zong said coldly.

"Yes." Xie Mo had no choice but to retreat first.

Xiao Zong sat at the table, reciting the poem "Sad Falling Leaves" over and over again no less than ten times.

"Sad leaves falling, sad leaves falling. Life is like this, scattered and unsustainable..."

Before I knew it, I was in tears.

~~
After a long time, Xiao Zong wiped the tears from his face, stood up and walked to the bed, and took out a long and thin box from the secret compartment under the bed.

When he returned to the table and opened the box, he saw a rib lying quietly on the velvet lining.

This is a piece of Donghunhou's bone, which Minggui's people had given to him several days ago.

It was useless for Xiao Zong to hesitate, as he had not yet mustered up the courage to reveal the answer.

But now, he had to know the result. Because it would determine his next move - if he was not Xiao Baojuan's son, he could go to his father and surrender himself, crying:
"My brothers have been saying since I was a kid that I am not my father's son, but a bastard born to the Emperor Donghun. I was so upset that I wanted to open his tomb to check whether the rumors were true or not."

In that case, given my father's temper, he would most likely not scold him, but would comfort him instead.

But if he was Xiao Baojuan's son, he would never dare to turn himself in, and could only try to cover it up...

Xiao Zong was a serious person, so he did not drip blood on Xiao Baojuan's bones immediately. Instead, he found another arm bone from the table, which was a piece of human bone that he ordered his men to find at random.

Then he picked up the letter opener and cut the palm of his left hand. Bright red blood dripped onto the arm bone, but then all the blood slid onto the table without leaving any trace.

He then took a deep breath and dripped blood on Donghunhou's bones again. This time, all the blood beads seeped into the bones...

Seeing this scene, he sat down on the ground and was unable to recover for a long time.

ps.600 first order plus more
(End of this chapter)