I'll tell you the secret and let's laugh together!

They were in a hurry on the road, and the system used the excuse that it needed to sort out the previous and subsequent events, so it didn't say much. The gatekeepers at the Du Mansion all knew Ning Zhiyi, and no one stopped her at all.

When Ning Zhiyi was about to arrive at the main hall of the Du Mansion, the system began to narrate, "Host, I have found out that Cao Ning, Du's confidant, has been killed and his body was thrown into the woods outside the city. The current Cao Ning is disguised as one of the Third Prince's staff members."

After Du Cheng put Xiang Yijiao in jail, he returned to his mansion. He was sitting in the hall drinking tea at this time. When he heard this, the teacup in his hand lost its balance and fell directly onto the table.

"Dad, are you okay?"

Du Shaofeng stood up to check, and saw that the scalding hot tea had burned a large area of ​​Du Ting's hand red.

"Nothing. Cao Ning has been with me for more than ten years and has been doing his job diligently. How could he end up like this? What on earth does the Third Prince want to do?"

Du Shaofeng lowered his head and said nothing. He understood that any words of comfort would be pale at this time, and he could only let his father digest the news alone.

[Tong'er, why did the Third Prince do this? He went to so much trouble, so his plan must be something big, right?]

[Host, not only Lord Du's confidants, but also many important people in the capital have been replaced by the Third Prince's people. Those who are willing to be coerced and bribed by the Third Prince and betray him can live, while those who would rather die than betray their old master have been killed and replaced.]

[Tong'er, I understand. What you can't get will be destroyed. The Third Prince must be brewing a big plan. If these adults are willing to surrender to him, everything will be fine. If the adults are unwilling to surrender, then he will use spies to frame them and eventually get rid of them! ]

[That's pretty much what you think, host. The Third Prince's real intention is much more sinister than this. He wants to use the spies he planted to create a fake drama of the Crown Prince, the Sixth Prince, and the ministers colluding to rebel, in order to deceive the Emperor and make him feel resentful towards the Crown Prince and the Sixth Prince.]

Ning Zhiyi knew that the Third Prince was a restless person just like Concubine Jiang, but she didn't expect him to be so restless!

All day long I'm either doing this or that, and the key is that I can't accomplish anything and I'm just busy doing nothing all day long.

In fact, according to the original storyline, the third prince was blessed with good luck, and basically he could succeed in everything he did, and he was in an invincible state.

Knowing that Ning Zhiyi was about to walk to the hall, Du Cheng immediately asked Du Shaofeng to invite "Cao Ning" over.

Cao Ning and Ning Zhiyi arrived at the hall almost at the same time. Ning Zhiyi greeted them with a smile, "Hello, Uncle Du, Hello, Brother Du."

"Zhiyi is here, please sit down, someone bring tea!" Du Ting had already adjusted his mood before Ning Zhiyi arrived, and greeted her with a smile.

"Bring some plates of cakes and fruits over, and be quick!" Du Shaoyun had asked the cook at the Du residence to learn many of Ning Zhiyi's favorite snacks, so Du Shaofeng directly ordered someone to get them.

"Thank you, Uncle Du, thank you, Brother Du." Ning Zhiyi thanked the two of them obediently, and then he turned his gaze and looked impatiently at Cao Ning who was sitting next to him.

'Cao Ning' looks like a middle-aged man who has just turned thirty, with two wisps of beard. Just looking at his face, he has the temperament of an elegant uncle, but it is strange that only the face of a person can give people this feeling. If you look at his words, deeds and movements, you will feel that this person is not elegant at all, but just a man with rude manners.

"Uncle Du, who is this?"

"Zhiyi, let me introduce you to Cao Zhubu, an old man who has been with me for more than ten years. He is also the person I trust the most. If you need help and can't contact me, just contact him. He will do his best to help you."

"Ha, since Uncle Du said so, my niece really does have something that I need Cao Zhubu's help with." Knowing that this person was someone else in disguise, Ning Zhiyi had a plan in mind.

Cao Ning didn't want to help, but he couldn't offend Ning Zhiyi, and he couldn't go against Du Cheng's words, so he could only nod in agreement.

"Please tell me, Miss Ning. As long as I can help you, I will definitely do my best."

This sounds very nice, but the underlying message is also very clear: if you can help, you will definitely help, and if you can't help, you naturally won't help.

"Don't worry, Master Cao. You can definitely help me with this. Uncle Du, you know that my niece loves to play. On the way to the Du Mansion, I saw a few children playing a new game, which was to put their hands on their noses and push them up hard, pretending to be pigs."

Ning Zhiyi paused here and deliberately looked at Cao Ning's expression. After noticing his flickering eyes, he smiled and continued, "A few children were playing happily. Suddenly, one of them covered his head and fell to the ground, saying that he couldn't breathe. The other children thought he was lying, so no one paid any attention to him. But after a while, the child fell into a coma and was later sent to a clinic to be revived."

"My niece wants to know whether the child really suffered from oxygen deprivation from playing the pig nose imitation game or whether he was deliberately acting strangely to scare people."

Of course, this story was not something Ning Zhiyi saw on the way here; she made it up on the spot.

Du Shaofeng knew a little about the art of disguise, which was to stick a special piece of skin on the face, and usually abnormalities could be found on the neck.

However, he felt that Ning Zhiyi's method was not bad. Since it was a piece of skin attached to the face, as long as the nose was raised, the whole face would become abnormal.

"Uncle Cao, this favor is relatively easy to help. Please try it. I also want to know if this kid is pretending or not."

Cao Ning stroked his beard and smiled shyly, "Shao Feng, Master knows me well. I am a dull person and don't understand the tricks played by these kids."

"Shaofeng, you have a lively personality and are usually liked by children. Why don't you help Miss Ning?"

"Hey, Uncle Cao, if I do this, Zhiyi will think I am teasing her on purpose and won't believe my demonstration results. You should do it. You are fair-minded. No matter what the results are, Zhiyi will definitely believe it."

How could Cao Ning do something that would expose his true identity? He wanted to refuse, but Du Cheng didn't want to let him go. He had to follow Ning Zhiyi's plan so that he would not fall out of the group of spectators.

"Shaofeng, your uncle Cao is embarrassed. Why don't you go and help him? Zhiyi, you should go too and help Cao Zhubu together."

"No! No need!" Cao Ning stood up immediately in fright, but was pushed back by Du Shaofeng.

Ning Zhiyi took this opportunity to say, "Thank you, Master Cao. I'm so sorry," but the polite words did not affect her clean and neat movements at all.

He held up Cao Zhubu's neck with one hand and used the other hand to forcefully bend Cao Zhubu's nose upwards.

The sudden increase in strength made Cao Zhubu cry out in pain, "It hurts, it hurts so much!"

Ning Zhiyi did not stop and continued to increase her strength. With great force, a miracle happened. Under the influence of her extraordinary strength, the fake skin on Cao Ning's nose was torn off!

Seeing the nose fall off, Ning Zhiyi realized that it was time for her to show off her acting skills again, and she screamed:

"Oh no, his nose has fallen off. How horrible! How horrible!"

After shouting to confirm that he had successfully attracted the attention of Du Ting and Du Shaofeng, he rolled his eyes and immediately fainted magnificently.

[Oh yeah, Tong'er, I fainted. I recently discovered many best ways to eat melons. Now I am an unconscious patient, and no one will greet me. This way I can spend all my time eating melons. How great is that.]

The system didn’t know why Ning Zhiyi had been obsessed with finding the perfect place to eat melons recently. It didn’t know what to say, so it could only stick to its previous approach and continue praising him.

[Yeah, the host is really smart, this method is great, these tricks will be of great help to us in eating melons. ]

Du Shaofeng is also a talented actor. He immediately pretended to be shocked and about to die. "How can you have another nose after losing one? No, the one you just pulled off was a human skin mask. Who are you? What is your purpose in pretending to be Uncle Cao and entering the mansion?"

When the man pretending to be Cao Ning saw that his identity was exposed, he was worried that his identity would be leaked and would bring danger to his family. He moved his lips, trying to bite the poison bag under his teeth so that there would be no evidence to prove his wrongdoing.

Du Shaofeng didn't give him this chance, and reached out to remove the man's jaw. "It's not that easy to die, you still have sins to atone for!"

The father and son knew the real mastermind behind the scenes, but they couldn't say it out now. Ning Zhiyi took the initiative to suggest:

"Uncle, I have just learned a new disguise technique. Why don't I be the spy among spies? I will pretend to be Cao Zhubu and wait for the person behind the scenes to contact me. This way, I will know who wants to harm you."

Du Ting understood the real purpose of Ning Zhiyi's visit. There was no reason for him to refuse. "Okay, but if it's too dangerous, forget it. Your own safety should be the most important thing."

"I understand. There will be no danger."

"Father, tomorrow is the day when the Third Prince will choose his concubine. Should we take 'Master Cao' with us?" Du Shaofeng knew who was behind the scenes and took the initiative to lead the topic towards the Third Prince.

Ning Zhiyi was afraid of missing the opportunity, so he said, "We must go. We must go to places like this where there are many people and many eyes. Only in this way can we better and faster lead out the real culprit behind the scenes."

Du Ting pondered for a while, thought carefully about the cause and effect, and agreed after making sure that Ning Zhiyi would not be in danger.

"Zhiyi is right. The more occasions like this, the easier it is to lead out the person behind the scenes. In this case, let's go together."

"Okay, Uncle Du, Brother Du, I'll go back and get ready. You guys go ahead and get busy."

Ning Zhiyi left after saying hello. She still had to go to Cheng'en Marquis' Mansion to find Third Master Guan and discuss the matter of the Third Prince's selection of a concubine tomorrow.

......

Early the next morning, Ning Zhiyi got up sleepily. Knowing that there were a lot of things to do today, she changed her usual image of someone who had trouble getting up, and sat up without waiting for Tanchun to call her.

After washing up and having breakfast, "Zhiqiu will be going out with me today. You three should behave yourself in the mansion. I will bring you some delicious food when I come back."

"Thank you, Miss!" Tanchun and the other three responded with smiles on their faces.

Knowing that her identity today was someone close to Du Cheng, her first stop was Du's Mansion. Du Cheng looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar person in front of him with blank eyes.

He said it was familiar because he had seen this face for more than ten years and saw his body with his own eyes last night.

I say strange because the expression on this face is completely different from the person in my memory, and according to common sense, this person will never appear again.

"This disguise is really amazing. I have been with Cao Zhubu for more than ten years, and I can't see any flaws. I believe that other people will not be able to see any clues either."

"Thank you for the compliment, sir!" Ning Zhiyi had the props given by the system, and could even imitate the voice vividly. Then she switched to her own voice, "I wonder if my uncle has found the whereabouts of Cao Zhubu?"

"If Cao Zhubu had betrayed my uncle, or agreed to be his accomplice to the person behind the scenes, he would not have died. On the contrary, if Cao Zhubu had been killed, it means that he would rather die than betray, and that's why he was killed."

Du Ding's eyes were bloodshot, and he said hoarsely, "Yes, his body has been found."

At this point, his voice choked up, "The body is covered with wounds. He was beaten to death! We have worked together for more than ten years. Although we are not brothers, our relationship is better than that of brothers. He suffered such a disaster, I must avenge him!"

"At the same time, I have arranged for someone to protect his family and will take care of all matters concerning the Cao family. Brother Cao's son is diligent and studious, and I will train him well."

Ning Zhiyi nodded. This was the best arrangement. Then the three of them walked in silence all the way to the Third Prince’s residence.