Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 235 Difficulties
After the phoenix carriage that respectfully sent Princess Yongkang away left, all the ghostwriters gave Ren Yuan a thumbs up and praised him endlessly, saying, "Great job, Deputy Captain Ren, you're really tough!"

"Haha, no wonder you told me not to be impulsive. Turns out you were the one who was impulsive." Chen Baxian also hugged Ren Yuan's neck tightly.

"Alright, stop making trouble." The Fifth Dimension shouted, and ordered: "Hurry up and find the whereabouts of Princess Changle!"

"Yes!" The ghostwriters immediately responded in a deep voice and went to look for clues separately.

However, after searching until dark and questioning everyone alive in the princess's mansion, no useful clues were found. The only thing left was to place hope on Nangong.

~~
At midnight that night, Nangong lit incense and fell asleep.

A Yao stood by her side, and when the incense stick was almost burned out, he quickly woke her up.

When Nangong opened his eyes, he saw A Yao looking at him expectantly.

She sighed and said, "I didn't find it. Maybe it's not in the capital. I'll expand the search area later."

The hypnotic spell had no effect on Nangong, so she could only rely on natural sleepiness. After a long while, Nangong finally felt sleepy again, and quickly lit another stick of incense and fell asleep.

This happened several times throughout the night, and she only pushed the door open and came out in high spirits at dawn.

Ren Yuan and the others from the Fifth Dimension were waiting outside the door. Seeing this, they were overjoyed and said, "Seeing you are so happy, there must be a result?"

"I just had a good rest." Nangong shook his head and said softly: "But I have looked for Princess Changle's 'Dream String' several times and couldn't find it."

"What's going on?" everyone asked in confusion.

"Generally speaking, either the person is dead or no longer in this world." Nangong replied: "The result of the spirit divination is that she is still alive, so it should be the latter."

"Could it be the Qiankun magic weapon?" Ren Yuan asked in a deep voice.

"Yeah. This is normal. If it is really as you guessed, and Xiao Zhengze hid Princess Changle, he would definitely be on guard against our investigation. If he didn't have the means to conceal the secret, he wouldn't dare to be so bold." The Fifth Dimension nodded.

"The Thousand Miles of Smoke and Waves Map has this effect." Zu An said.

"The Thousand Miles of Smoke and Waves Map is now in the Xuanji Tower. The royal family should not have a second magic weapon." Nangong said.

Ren Yuan shook his head and said softly, "Maybe there is."

"We can't rule out this possibility." The Fifth Dimension also agreed: "The so-called 'Seven Treasures of the Imperial Palace' are all old records from the beginning of the country. More than a decade has passed, and the princes must have obtained new magic weapons."

"No matter what, we have to find the princess quickly." After a pause, he said in a deep voice: "Otherwise, those mad dogs will bite people at random."

"But it looks like it will be hard to find someone for the time being." Nangong said worriedly.

"Yes, things are complicated." The Fifth Dimension agreed, and told Ren Yuan and others, "Be careful during this period, and try not to separate when you go out."

"Lord Wei, are you worried that Xiao Zhengze will take revenge?" Ren Yuan asked softly.

"Yes." Diwuwei nodded and said, "For many years, this beast has relied on the fact that he is the emperor's nephew and no one can control him. He is ferocious and arrogant, lawless, and does all kinds of evil. He is unwilling to suffer any loss. Last time we arrested Dong Xian, he held a grudge against us."

After a pause, he lowered his voice and said, "What's more, according to Xiahou Hong's confession after he was arrested, he and his brother owned half of the shares in the Red Spirit Pill business. It's not an exaggeration to say that they are the bosses behind the scenes. Now that we have completely destroyed their business, they will definitely seek revenge given their personalities."

"No wonder we brothers were like eating gunpowder when we arrived yesterday." Ren Yuan sneered and said, "It turns out they are here to pick a fight." "Well, it's obvious that they are here to pick a fight, so there's no point in swallowing our anger. It's better to just make the conflict clear and have a real fight." The Fifth Dimension raised his eyebrows, showing a rare sense of brilliance.

"That's what I mean." Ren Yuan nodded and said proudly, "You can be a thief for a thousand days, but you can never be on guard against thieves for a thousand days. Since we have offended them, we might as well get rid of them as soon as possible!"

"How can it be that easy?" Zu An poured cold water on him, "Since Xiahou Hong has revealed that they are the bosses behind the scenes, why are they still acting like nothing happened? Did General Chen not report it, or did the Emperor not care?"

"General Chen also reported it, and the emperor also asked about it." Diwu Wei smiled bitterly and said, "But they insisted that they just couldn't get over the favor. They had no knowledge of it, no involvement, and no share of the money. The emperor reprimanded them, and it was over."

"The emperor is really kind to his family." Zuan spat.

"Yes." Diwuwei nodded and said, "There is nothing to say about Xiao Zhengde. Who made the emperor feel ashamed of him?"

"Alas..." Ren Yuan sighed helplessly. He had been in Beijing for half a year and had already gotten to know the key figures in the capital. Naturally, he knew where the Lord Wei's words came from...

At that time, Xiao Yan was henpecked. His wife Xi Hui gave birth to three daughters in a row, and he had no son in his forties. He did not dare to take a concubine, so he adopted Xiao Hong's third son Xiao Zhengde as his successor to his own lineage.

So when Xiao Zhengde was a child, he called Xiao Yan "Father".

However, after Xi Hui's death, Xiao Yan was left alone and soon gave birth to his eldest son, Xiao Tong. When Xiao Tong was born, Xiao Yan led a large army from Xiangyang to attack Jiankang, killed Donghun Hou, and established the Daliang Dynasty.

That year, Xiao Zhengde was twelve years old and still had unrealistic fantasies. After Xiao Yan ascended the throne, he actually thought he could become the crown prince.

But in the end, Xiao Yan still appointed Xiao Tong as the crown prince. Xiao Zhengde was sent back to his clan, and not only did he not become the crown prince, he did not even become a prince. This made Xiao Zhengde very dissatisfied, and as he grew older, he became more and more resentful, and began to kill and rob, and did all kinds of evil things to vent his anger.

Xiao Yan felt guilty and was always very indulgent towards him. At most, he would scold him when he was angry, and the crime would be left unresolved.

"It can be said that as long as we don't cross the emperor's bottom line, we can't do anything to this guy." The Fifth Dimension sighed and said, "That's why we try not to conflict with them. In the end, he really thinks we are easy to bully."

"Yeah." Ren Yuan nodded and asked, "But we are dealing with Xiao Zhengze now. He doesn't have as much face as his brother, right?"

"Of course, but Xiao Zhengde likes to deliberately take the blame on himself, so that he can enjoy the emperor's rage, but he has no choice but to let him go." The Fifth Dimension said in a deep voice: "So when dealing with Xiao Zhengze, we must also take Xiao Zhengde's factors into consideration, otherwise we will definitely be passive."

"Understood." Everyone nodded.

"In fact, Xiao Zhengze must know where the person is." At this time, Zuan said the correct nonsense.

"Of course, as long as he hid it..." everyone said.

Ren Yuan suddenly suggested: "If we can't find the princess for the time being, we can first arrest Xiao Zhengze on other charges. As long as we arrest him, we will always be able to pry open his mouth."

"That's a solution." Diwuwei thought for a moment and agreed, "His crimes are too numerous to list. We in the Gouchen Division have accumulated many old and important cases."

Then he ordered Nangong: "Take your men to check the files and see if there is any good material that can make Leshan Hou drink a pot of wine."

Then he said to Ren Yuan: "Take your men and continue to search for the princess's whereabouts!"

"Yes!" the two responded in a deep voice.

ps. It’s gone today.

(End of this chapter)