The doctor suffers from amnesia, but not complete amnesia.

"You may do whatever you wish, but you must do your job well—His Majesty may be mild today, but he is not always so mild."

Qiao Yelan paid no attention to Cai Yan's words.

He couldn't possibly figure out how Qiao Yelan had persuaded Chen Fan—and if Chen Fan still wanted his life, he wouldn't have revealed the truth.

If Cai Yan is willing to continue guessing and continue to cause trouble in his position, then let him do as he pleases. It's a good thing to give the emperor some cause for concern—so that he won't start focusing his attention on Longmen whenever he has free time.

Wei Yanwu is a very good pawn, but Qiao Yelan doesn't want this pawn to be constantly watched by others, otherwise he would feel a little embarrassed to use it.

After leaving the palace gates, the servants of the Cai family were taken aback, but dared not utter a word. They simply turned away, not daring to look at them even once.

Cai Yan glanced meaningfully at Wang Zhi, who was guarding the area and had come over to take Qiao Yelan's wheelchair, then said nothing more and turned to get into his own car.

"Let's go, Eunuch Wang, His Majesty is still waiting for my report."

--------------------------------------------

"So, what's the situation with Cai Yan now?"

"Having recognized reality, they still harbored a sliver of wishful thinking, still hoping to use official tactics to gain more political capital for themselves in the future."

Qiao Yelan's voice lacked the warmth and tenderness she had when chatting with Cai Yan.

“He tested me and tried to sow discord among me. Although he seemed to have admitted defeat in his words, he never said a single word from beginning to end that he wanted to retire or be transferred to another sinecure. Clearly, sitting in the position of prime minister, he was still not thinking about how to retire safely.”

The emperor snorted coldly.

A person who hasn't considered retiring is naturally thinking about advancing—in other words, this Prime Minister Cai still wants to use his position as prime minister to do something more.

"I will not give him any chance of being reinstated—if he behaves himself as prime minister, that's fine, but if he dares to cause any trouble, he'll know how powerful I am!"

"Your Majesty, please calm down. Cai Yan is now all alone. No matter how much he wants to stir up trouble, he will definitely need manpower. I think it would be better to postpone putting the Prime Minister in shackles for now."

Qiao Yelan expressed his thoughts.

"Please speak freely, my dear minister."

The emperor waved his hand, indicating that he was currently in a period of unlimited trust in Qiao Yelan.

"Your Majesty now holds the Ministry of Personnel and is conducting the imperial examinations. However, it will take several years for these new officials to become capable of entering the court. Your Majesty still needs to rely on the current officials in the court to maintain the prosperity of the Great Yan Dynasty."

"The Imperial Household Department is just beginning to expand, and its intelligence network is still in its infancy. Therefore, it is difficult to give a definite answer as to who is truly loyal to His Majesty. However, it is clear at a glance who is not truly loyal to His Majesty."

A purge enthusiast, Khedrup's personal Minister of the Interior, and Vladimir the Great's razor, Lord Qiao Yelan offered his insights based on his extensive experience.

"In other words, those who can still be won over by Cai Yan after today, and who can speak for Cai Yan in court, are inevitably disloyal to His Majesty. Although this may harm the innocent, this is enough to distinguish between loyalty and treachery before the Imperial Household Department truly has the information on all officials."

The emperor narrowed his eyes slightly; Qiao Yelan's words had opened a door to a new world for him.

Yes, Cai Yan is the enemy. If bystanders support Cai Yan—

That passerby is also an enemy.

"So you might as well act a little more leniently and not impose too many restrictions on Cai Yan. Just stand by and watch. If anyone tries to curry favor with Cai Yan at this time, or if he manages to win someone over to do things for him, then Your Majesty can put them on your list and never employ them again."

"My dear minister, you have indeed made a good suggestion. Indeed, I cannot control the Great Yan without these people in the court. This method is indeed a way to distinguish between loyalty and treachery."

The emperor approved it on the spot.

"Minister Qiao, you have been working tirelessly since before the New Year and haven't had a proper rest. Today is New Year's Eve, so go back and get some rest. You can take the dishes I bestowed upon you directly out of the palace. There's no need to wait until midnight. Go to sleep early."

"Your Majesty is benevolent, and I should not refuse. However, I still need to go to Longmen to investigate the future expansion of the Imperial Household Department and to understand the scale of smuggling there. In this way, when the court is reopened on the sixteenth of the first month, I will have a memorial to present to Your Majesty to open up a new trade route."

Qiao Yelan bowed respectfully.

"It is Your Majesty's gift of food. Please allow me to take it with me. I have long heard of the skills of the imperial chefs. This is just a small indulgence. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."

"In that case, bring a few more dishes—besides the dishes, I never get tired of the glutinous rice balls from the palace. Come back soon, my dear minister, and I'll share a bowl with you on the Lantern Festival."

"Your Majesty, thank you for your grace."

Chapter Ninety-Five: A Thousand Faces

Yu Cheng, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, was sitting at a table piled high with various documents, all containing clues and information about the massacre of the Wang family and subsequent cases.

He had been sitting here all day.

Not far away, even though it wasn't dark yet, plumes of fireworks were already rising into the sky, as the people of the Great Yan celebrated Lunar New Year's Eve.

The room where Yu Cheng was sitting was dark and cold, with no lights on.

As a Taoist master, he could still see clearly what was in the room and the words on the scrolls; whether the lights were on or off was meaningless to him.

These clues, for example, are meaningless in solving the case.

The Ministry of Justice has issued an order that everything concerning these four cases must be transferred to the palace and handed over to the Secret Service and the Imperial Guards for investigation. The Court of Judicial Review and the Ministry of Justice are no longer allowed to interfere.

Yu Cheng took a deep breath, the cold, dry air entering her warm lungs, bringing with it a bone-chilling cold and a violent cough.

For the first time, as the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, he felt neither anger nor confusion regarding the case before him.

Rather, it was a lack of power.

The killers were very thorough, but they also didn't significantly disturb the murder scene. The only exception was the massive fire at the site where the Zhu Rong family was killed, which ultimately burned the bodies and most of their belongings beyond recognition. That was due to the Zhu Rong family's own Originium Arts, not the killers' deliberate attempt to cover it up.

The other three families only lost people; nothing else was lost.

So the problem with this case isn't that there were too few clues to find, but rather that there were too many.

Wangji Trading Company itself is not clean. The Dali Temple has already confiscated a large amount of unexplained assets, but they can still find new things every day. The same goes for Wang Shilang's family. Or rather, as the head of Wangji Trading Company, he has even more things hidden away.

Robbery? Vendetta? Dispute over the division of loot?

There are too many reasons to kill, yet each one ends abruptly.

Why not steal money in a robbery? Why not desecrate the corpse in a revenge killing? Why leave so much evidence for the Dali Temple to investigate when the profits are split unequally?

Finally, it was the words of an old constable that reminded Yu Cheng.

"These clues are just clues—they're all left to you by others, only half-finished. You can only investigate up to that point. After you finish investigating, you'll find that you can't advance any further. When you turn around, you'll find that you're still standing still."

The old constable said that he had only seen one case like this in his life, five years ago, when the Eastern Kingdom delegation died mysteriously in the capital of Dayan, causing a great uproar. There were a lot of clues left at the scene, but in the end, nothing could be found.

Five years ago, Yu Cheng was not in the capital, but he had indeed heard about the case.

"How was that case ultimately resolved?"

"How it was resolved? I don't know. The Prefectural Governor of the Capital later transferred the case to higher authorities, and it was eventually discovered that Ursus, in order to prevent the Great Yan from being persuaded by the Eastern Kingdom's delegation to send troops to aid them in the war, sent assassins into the capital. As a result, the late Emperor was furious, and the Minister of War personally led troops on an expedition to the Far East—hey, I've only ever seen that kind of expedition once in my life..."

At that time, Yu Cheng simply left the old man who was still boasting. After returning to the Dali Temple, he tried to find the case files, but in the end, all he could say was that they had been transferred to the palace, and that was all.

It wasn't until today, when an official order to transfer the same case file was issued to him, that Yu Cheng belatedly realized—

It seems somewhat familiar.

Was the case of the sudden deaths of members of that mission truly uncovered by the palace, or...?

He tried his best to rein in his wandering thoughts, which had even encouraged him to give up, and refocused his attention on his own thinking.

The decree transferring the case came down today. Although the officials of the Dali Temple are known for their cold-bloodedness, ruthlessness, and efficiency, they are not without such tricks.

This is his last chance. Fifteen days, from New Year's Eve to the Lantern Festival, the case will be in a state of flux between transfer and acceptance. As long as no one opens the window, no one will know whether the case has been transferred or not.

However, it is clear that only a minority of people are willing to work overtime—so Yu Cheng secured fifteen days for independent investigation.

He sighed, turned on the light, looked at the vast amount of documents in front of him, lit a cigarette, but didn't put it in his mouth.

Four bloody incidents, three children.

The children of Vice Minister Wang turned their attention to the Imperial Guards, the children of Zhu Ronghui turned their attention back to the imperial court, and the children of the gatekeepers set their sights on Prime Minister Cai.

Three children, three clues.

According to the old constable's remaining memories, all the clues in the case were fake, or rather, there might only be one truly useful clue, hidden among the many other options. By the time you've been exhausted by the fake clues, you might even think it's fake when you finally discover the real clue.

What if we disregard all of that?

He suddenly turned his head, pushed aside the pile of papers, and took out the one that was pressed at the bottom.

That was the case file of the murder of Manager Wang's entire family.

This is the very first case—now it's the one that no one cares about anymore.

If we were to disregard all other factors, we might as well just look at this case in isolation.

He seemed to be the most insignificant of the dead, yet he was the most unique—

Because there were no survivors in this family.

why?

The death of Manager Wang exposed the problems of Wangji Trading Company, which at the same time aroused the tension of Vice Minister Wang. So he almost recklessly tried to retrieve the things that had been searched from the Jingzhao Prefecture. His "rough" methods immediately caught the attention of the Dali Temple.

In the other three cases, the focus was on having survivors to draw attention to the case. Why is it that in the case of Manager Wang, there are no survivors at all?

If one person can be spared, they will desperately try to climb the social ladder to save their own life, and will be able to hold onto Vice Minister Wang tightly, which would be even more effective in drawing attention to the Ministry of Revenue.

The murderer's actions must have been purposeful, and leaving no survivors must have been because if anyone in the Wang family were still alive, it would be detrimental to his next move.

Ministry of Revenue...

What happened to the Ministry of Revenue?

The Ministry of Revenue lost a vice minister, and it seemed to receive only a lot of noise but little action. On the contrary, the Ministry of Personnel, which seemed to have no connection from beginning to end, saw its former Minister Gao Cheng fall from power.

—The killer's target was not the Ministry of Revenue!