When the book-traveling little detective meets the two-faced prince

"Second brother shouldn't make such a mistake." The Third Chief muttered to himself, then waved his hand to the three people next to him and said, "You guys go out and look for Second Chief."

"Yes!"

The frowns on the two men's faces had never relaxed. After a brief exchange with the big boss, the third boss moved closer to the big boss and asked in a low voice, "Should we go ask the owner of the manor to come out?"

"This..." The boss looked at the closed door, unsure of what to do.

Lin Lezhi looked at the closed door, thoughtfully.

Having displeased the owner of the manor last night, the eldest boss's worry about offending the owner again was written all over his face.

The middle-aged man who had just spoken moved his buttocks restlessly as if the chair he was sitting on was hot, and then he stood up and said impatiently: "Why did the owner call us here? I'm still busy at the mine. If this deal can't be done today, I won't waste time here."

"Wait a moment, Boss Hu." The third boss hurriedly stepped forward to stop Boss Hu, "Boss Hu, please take a seat first. I will go and ask the owner of the manor to come out."

Boss Hu pushed away the hand that the Third In Command was trying to help him and sat down again in a bad mood.

The third in command looked towards the owner's room, with a fearless look in his eyes.

To reach the door, they still needed to climb a very high staircase, but the Third Master stood at the bottom of the staircase and did not go up. After his Adam's apple rolled up and down several times, he clasped his fists and shouted, "Master, several patrons have arrived. Please come out of the house."

"........."

The response from everyone present was silence.

Suddenly a figure ran up the stairs, grabbed the door with dirty claws, pushed the tightly closed wooden door, and knocked on it with his fingers, but the thick wooden door did not move at all.

The door was locked from the inside.

Qingchuan widened his eyes, which were filled with disbelief, while Xiao Yihuo stood aside without any emotion.

Seeing the person suddenly appearing in front of him, the third in command was startled. He strode up the stone steps and was about to grab Lin Lezhi's collar. Fortunately, Lin Lezhi dodged quickly and was not caught by the third in command.

The third master was furious, but afraid of disturbing the owner of the manor, he suppressed his anger and said, "What are you doing out here? Go back quickly!"

Lin Lezhi spread his hands, looked at the closed wooden door, and said calmly, "You can go back, but it's more important than my business as the owner of the manor. Don't the two heads find it strange?"

"What do you mean?" The third in command's eyes darkened.

"Has the owner of the manor come out since he entered the room last night?"

"Never."

"Has the owner of the manor ever stayed in the room for such a long time in the past?"

"Never."

Lin Lezhi pointed to the four patrons sitting on the chairs and said, "You just checked these four patrons, and they are indeed the guests invited by the owner of the manor, right?"

The third boss was beginning to get impatient, and the doubt in his eyes deepened. He gritted his teeth and said, "Speak to the point!"

Lin Lezhi deliberately raised his voice, looked at everyone and said, "That's it. From last night to now, even the most sleepy people should have woken up. Moreover, the noise we made from just now to now is not small. Judging from how respectful you were to the owner of the manor last night, I think the owner should be in a bad mood and has something important to do today."

Lin Lezhi paused and continued, "Then may I ask, are you really sure... that the owner of the manor is in the house now?"

Seeing that the two heads were still stunned, Lin Lezhi added: "In other words, the owner of the manor hasn't come out of the house for such a long time, don't you worry about his safety?"

Upon hearing this, the third and first boss' expressions changed.

The originally relaxed faces of the patrons present also became a little stiff.

The big boss walked forward quickly, pushed Lin Lezhi open, and banged on the door with all his might, making a loud clang. He shouted in panic, "Master, Master! Are you in there——!"

"If I were you, I would just kick the door down," Lin Lezhi kindly reminded, "If the two heads are afraid of angering the owner of the manor, I can do it for you."

The eldest boss glared at Lin Lezhi, then shouted towards the door: "Master, I'm sorry!"

After saying that, the boss kicked the door open, then entered the room with the third boss, and Lin Lezhi followed behind.

The moment he stepped into the room, Lin Lezhi was stunned for a moment, then went back to the door, looked at the stone steps and the ground outside, and then went in and out several times.

"Lezhi, is this fun?"

A gentle voice sounded behind him, but Lin Lezhi only felt horrified. He turned around and chuckled a few times, then hurried into the room and quickly distanced himself from Xiao Yihuo.

After entering the room, Lin Lezhi didn't even look around. Just by looking at the expressions of the two heads of the house, he knew that the owner of the manor was not in the room.

The big boss was incredulous and said, "That's impossible. I clearly saw the owner of the manor being brought in last night. He turned off the lights after everyone left."

"Could it be that my second brother went out with the owner of the manor?"

"Impossible. We spent the entire night yesterday searching for handwriting in the yard, and there are always guards in the manor. If the manor owner had gone out of his room, he would have been seen."

Lin Lezhi looked around. Everything in the room was neatly arranged. The valuable things were still there, with no signs of mess.

Even the bed, which must have been slept in by someone, was so smooth that it didn't look like anyone had slept there.

Under the bed, there was only a pair of shoes.

The shoes were also neatly placed with the toes facing outwards, as if an invisible person was taking off his shoes and getting into bed.

There were a lot of people outside. Yang Hancai had to squeeze through the door and finally got into the house. He took a quick look at the situation in the room and came to Xiao Yihuo's side.

When he saw the shoes in Lin Lezhi's hand, he said "eh", but then shook his head as if to deny his thoughts.

Lin Lezhi held the shoes in front of Yang Hancai.

"Have you also discovered that there is something wrong with these shoes?"

"There is something wrong with these shoes, but...but how could it be him?" Yang Hancai still didn't believe his own judgment and asked puzzledly.

At this time, a bony finger stretched out from behind Yang Hancai. The owner of the finger took the shoes with a faint smell of medicine and said without hesitation: "If my guess is correct, this is a pair of official boots."

"Brother Qingchuan is right." Lin Lezhi stood up, looked at Qingchuan and continued, "The soles of these shoes are one inch higher than the shoes worn by ordinary civilians. They are indeed a pair of official boots. Only civil and military officials can wear such shoes."

Yang Hancai recalled the question Lin Lezhi had asked him in the dungeon last night, and suddenly realized, "You asked me those questions last night. Could it be that you already knew that the owner of the shoes was from the government?"

But Lin Lezhi did not respond immediately. Instead, he thought carefully about the scene of last night. The owner of the manor looked angry from beginning to end.

"According to the laws of Northern Qi, officials who buy and sell human beings are guilty of a capital crime. How could an official knowingly break the law?" Xiao Yihuo said from the side.

After hearing this, the head of the family walked over with a look of wanting to tear someone apart. "What nonsense are you talking about? Our manor owner is definitely not a member of the government."

Lin Lezhi quickly stepped forward to help, saying, "Don't be angry, Boss. We only said that these shoes belong to the government. We didn't say that your owner is a member of the government."

After that, Lin Lezhi walked towards the four customers, clasped his fists and asked, "May I borrow some of your letters?"

After the three men looked at each other, they all took out the letters. Only the woman stood there, looking at Lin Lezhi quietly with a smile in her eyes.

Lin Lezhi walked towards the beautiful sister and said politely, "Sister, could you lend it to me to read?"

The woman did not take out the letter from her bosom immediately. Instead, she smiled and looked at Lin Lezhi charmingly and said, "This letter is not a shameful secret, but...if I give it to you, how will you repay me?"

Lin Lezhi was not afraid of the situation. Instead, he responded to the woman's words and said with a joking smile, "How do you want me to repay you, sister?"

The woman raised her eyes and looked at the hairpin on Lin Lezhi's head.

She touched Lin Lezhi without caring about the dirt on his body. Lin Lezhi wanted to avoid it, but the woman's fingers wrapped around the hair hanging by his side, and then placed her slender white fingers on the plum blossom hairpin. As soon as she touched the hairpin, Lin Lezhi took a step back.

As the woman came closer, Lin Lezhi smelled a faint fragrance from her body.

The woman smiled and said, "I think the hairpin on your head is quite beautiful. It makes people happy. If you really want the letter in my hand, please give me the hairpin."

"If you want something else, I'll give it to you, but this hairpin is really not good enough."

The woman looked at Lin Lezhi with a smile, "Oh?"

Lin Lezhi recalled what Xiao Yihuo had said when he was holding the peace knot and said, "This hairpin is very special to me. I really can't give it up."

Hearing this, the woman put her handkerchief to her mouth and nose and smiled slightly, then raised her eyes and said, "Look how scared you are, what use do I have for your broken hairpin, take it."

The woman took out the letter from her arms and handed it to Lin Lezhi.

"Thank you, sister." Lin Lezhi said with a smile, then opened the letter and finally saw the words on the red stamp on the letter.

The word "punishment".

Turning around, Lin Lezhi met Xiao Yihuo's gaze. After just a glance, Xiao Yihuo shifted his gaze away and looked at the letter in Lin Lezhi's hand.

Lin Lezhi spread the letter in front of the first and third bosses and said, "Since the seal your manor master carved is a word for punishment, it must be a word related to him, right?"

The two heads of the family did not speak.

Yang Hancai stretched his neck curiously to take a look. Lin Lezhi tilted the letter towards Yang Hancai so that he could see the words clearly.

"Brother Yang, you said before that the official who was the last in office of Magistrate Li was named Yan, right?"

Yang Hancai retracted his gaze and nodded, "Yes, that's right, the full name is Yan Jingyi."

Qingchuan took the letter from Lin Lezhi, read it carefully, thought about it, and looked at Lin Lezhi puzzledly: "This word 'punishment' has nothing to do with Yan Jingyi. Could it be that one person has two identities?"

Although, Lin Lezhi understood that Qingchuan was analyzing the case and had no other intentions.

But as a person living under someone else's identity, it always sounds a bit weird. Lin Lezhi raised his finger and scratched his cheek, then smiled awkwardly and said, "This... maybe this is possible."

The third boss stepped forward, grabbed Lin Lezhi's collar, and squeezed his joints until they creaked. "After all that talk, you still suspect that our manor master is a government official."

"Don't be angry, Third Master. Don't be angry. We are just analyzing the situation. Before we find the owner of the manor, it's just speculation and it doesn't count."

“No, this is bad—!”

The three human traffickers who were sent out crawled into the manor, looking frightened, as if they had seen something terrible.

Several people leaned together to barely stand.

The third in command let go of Lin Lezhi's collar and walked out of the house with the first in command. Seeing this, the people surrounding the door immediately made way for him.

Seeing the few people standing in the yard in a disorderly manner, the eldest boss cursed and then shouted: "What are you shouting for? Damn it!"

Lin Lezhi straightened his collar, which had been pulled messy, took a long breath, and followed him out.

As soon as I went out, I saw a few people kneeling on the ground. Their faces were ashen, their foreheads were covered with sweat, and they nodded and shook their heads. Several of them wanted to speak, which made their speech sound completely illogical.

“…It’s…it’s a ghost.”

"No...it's not a ghost, it's a person, yes, it's a person."

The Third Master frowned and said, "One person speaks, the others shut up."

One of them was still relatively calm, and said with rapid breathing, "Reporting to the two leaders, it's... it's the owner and the second in command, he... they seem to be... dead."

Upon hearing this, the faces of the first and third in command changed.

The boss: "Are you serious?"

"Really...really. Absolutely true."

The Third Master: "Lead the way."

The three people had obviously seen a horrific scene and clearly didn't want to go anymore, but due to the two bosses, they gritted their teeth and nodded.

On the way there, Xiao Yihuo and Lin Lezhi walked side by side, while Qingchuan and Yang Hancai walked in front of them.

"You were just being too naughty."

Xiao Yihuo said this out of the blue, and there was no emotion in his words. Lin Lezhi thought for a moment and said, "You mean the time I went to knock on the door? It's far worse than you stepping forward to stop the knife. Let's just be friends."

Xiao Yihuo glanced at Lin Lezhi, without explaining, and walked quickly forward.

Lin Lezhi was confused and looked at the surrounding scenery. Seeing that he was left behind, he quickly walked a few steps to catch up, walked to Qingchuan's side and said, "Qingchuan, do you think this route is familiar?"

Qingchuan glanced at Lin Lezhi and responded, "We walked past here last night."

When they arrived at the location, everyone's faces turned pale with fear. Lin Lezhi's pupils suddenly shrank, he frowned, and his eyes darkened.

This is where the injured man was buried last night.

In front of the grave, the second in command was standing, his eyes staring straight ahead, holding his long knife in his hand, ready to swing down, the tip of the knife covered in blood.

Under the blade, the man was wearing the clothes that the owner of the manor had worn last night. His head had been chopped off and rolled to the ground beside him.

On that head, there was still a black gauze hat.