The cruel little princess

Ultimately, His Royal Highness Prince Rui never saw Shaoyao's confession, and thus had no idea his peculiar fetish had been spread throughout the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court. Every family with daughters carefully scrutinized their daughters. After all, His Royal Highness Prince Rui didn't have a Princess Rui yet. If he were to take a fancy to their daughters, wouldn't that be pushing them into a dangerous situation? Suddenly, several noble ladies in the capital quickly arranged marriages.

With the help of His Royal Highness Prince Jin, Wu Siqi once again met the legendary Rui'an County Master, who had been rumored to be so legendary in the capital. His Royal Highness Prince Jin dispatched nineteen guards, numbering from two to twenty, to surround Shen Youyou tightly, escorting her all the way to the teahouse.

Originally, An Er and his companions had been a little uneasy about going to the Shen Mansion to ask Shen Youyou out openly for the first time. Uncle Zeng had no idea what was going on with the dozen or so people surrounding them. On the one hand, he sent someone to tell the young lady not to come out, and on the other hand, he summoned everyone in the mansion to come out. The situation quickly became tense. "You bold thieves, how dare you break into General Shen's mansion in broad daylight? Are you taking advantage of the fact that there are no more people in the Shen family?" Uncle Zeng was not afraid to give in.

"Old man, we are here on the orders of Lord Wu Siqi, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, to invite Miss Shen out of the house for a meeting. We have been specially dispatched to protect her!" An Er put on a very humble attitude. This is the future mistress's house, so he dare not act rashly!

"You said you were ordered by Minister Wu. Do you have a token? Do you have the document?" Zeng Bo refused to give in. "My young lady is a delicate girl who just returned from the border. She doesn't know the Minister of Justice, and the Ministry of Justice doesn't know my young lady either. Don't even think about deceiving me!"

An Er thought to himself, "Oh no! We've had such a comfortable life at the border for the past six months. The soldiers in the barracks basically know us, and there's no need for tokens or anything like that. So, when we first returned to the capital, we didn't even bring our badges with us." "Sir, whether it's true or not, please come out and see for yourself! Please tell us, young lady, we really have something to ask of you!"

"What could the Minister of Justice want from my young lady? My young lady has never done anything wrong. Could it be that he is looking for my young lady to judge a case for him?" Uncle Zeng looked puzzled.

An Er: ...It is true... Just when An Er was tongue-tied and didn't know how to explain, Shen Youyou came out to rescue him.

"An Er, why are you here? What happened?" Shen Youyou was instructing Wu Di and the others on how to make a new cream in the big yard at the back when she heard the people sent by Zeng Bo telling her not to come out no matter what noise she heard. A group of people came from outside and asked her to go out to discuss something, but their identities were unknown, so she asked her not to take any risks in the backyard.

Upon hearing this, Shen Youyou couldn't sit still anymore. After all, he was a second-rank county lady personally appointed by the emperor, while Zeng Bo was of no rank or rank. If he ran into someone unreasonable, he would definitely suffer. No matter what, she, the young lady of the Shen family, had to step forward! So Shen Youyou rushed over from the backyard and saw the scene just now.

"Miss, do you really know this group of people?" Zeng Bo asked frankly.

"Yes, Uncle Zeng! They are the secret guards of His Royal Highness Prince Jin, and they usually protect the safety of His Royal Highness Prince Jin. This time they came..." Shen Youyou said and looked at An Er, because she didn't know what An Er came for.

"I'm here on the orders of His Royal Highness Prince Jin to protect the young lady. Lord Wu Siqi, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, has an important matter he wants to discuss with the young lady." An Er stated his purpose in a concise manner.

Shen Youyou immediately understood that Wu Siqi had something he was unsure about and wanted her help. He was also afraid that he would send his guards to her without authorization. Firstly, Shen Youyou didn't recognize their guards, and secondly, someone with ulterior motives might see them and think something was up. So, he asked His Royal Highness Prince Jin for help in sending secret guards, who wouldn't appear in public but were very familiar to Shen Youyou, to protect her safety.

Shen Youyou explained to Zeng Bo, "Zeng Bo, they are people I trust. When I was at the border, they protected my safety several times. This time, the Minister of Justice, Lord Wu, came to me to understand the situation. The day before yesterday, I performed the preliminary autopsy on Miss Mudan from Chunmanlou who was murdered by a female prostitute. Don't worry!" This explanation was better than not saying it. Zeng Bo's eyelids twitched and his heart was beating fast! My lady, the delicate little girl went out to enjoy the flowers and drink tea, why did you go out to perform an autopsy! ...Does the general know about this? How can I explain this to the general?

"Miss, what are you going out for this time? Do you still need to perform an autopsy?" Zeng Bo asked fearfully. He didn't know if the young lady would be frightened when she saw the corpse. The Ministry of Justice was also in a mess. Wasn't there anyone who could perform an autopsy? He had to find my young lady! No, are you bullying my young lady because she is inexperienced and has no one to rely on when she first arrived in the capital? No, I, Zeng Bo, have nothing to do in the mansion anyway. I have to accompany the young lady on this trip!

So the one who left the house was Zeng Bo, followed by Chun Tao, and protected by the secret guards. A group of more than twenty people arrived at Deshanlou.

Zeng Bo saw that it was indeed the Minister of Justice, Lord Wu, and His Royal Highness Prince Jin who were there. He quickly bowed and apologized, "This old servant did not know that it was indeed Lord Wu who had something to discuss with me. He stopped my young lady from leaving. I hope that the prince and Lord Wu will forgive me!"

"Uncle, you are being too polite. I was not thoughtful enough. I should have written a personal letter and sent it to your house for you to read before making a decision. I was reckless. I hope Lady Ruian will forgive me." Wu Siqi said.

Shen Youyou found their polite exchanges somewhat amusing. She looked up at His Royal Highness Prince Jin, signaling him to get to the point.

Prince Jin cleared his throat and said, "Let's get back to business. Princess Rui'an, please take a seat." He gestured to the chair next to him. After Shen Youyou sat down, Wu Siqi followed suit. He also asked the yamen runners to accompany Uncle Zeng to another table for some refreshments and to order food at noon.

Wu Siqi quickly told Shen Youyou the information he had compiled yesterday, and took out the confessions of Shaoyao and Xiaohong for Shen Youyou to read. Finally, he told Shen Youyou every detail of the questions he could think of and the secret passage of Chunmanlou.

Shen Youyou thought carefully after hearing this, then asked, "The problem now is that the case of His Royal Highness Prince Rui being framed involves His Royal Highness the Third Prince, Prince Xian. So you can't investigate further. Are you closing the case on the grounds that Shaoyao and Xiaohong framed His Royal Highness Prince Rui?"

"Yes! After the morning court session, His Royal Highness Prince Rui asked me to see the confession, but I didn't give it to him and said I gave it to His Majesty. Then I thought about it and realized that it involved two princes. If His Majesty asked me to continue investigating, I would continue investigating. If His Majesty didn't allow me to investigate and wanted to keep the matter quiet, I would stop investigating. So I presented the original confession to His Majesty, and after reading it, His Majesty told me not to investigate anymore. But I still have the copied confession. And..." Wu Siqi whispered to Shen Youyou, "I have kept another copy of the copied confession in case it is of great use in the future." Although he didn't explicitly say what use it would have in the future, His Royal Highness Prince Jin and Shen Youyou present were not stupid and knew it well.

"So now the only person left is the other female murderer of Mudan?" Shen Youyou asked.

"Yes!" Wu Siqi replied, "The exit of the secret passage we traced was an abandoned house. No one went in or out, so the clue ended here." Wu Siqi said a little irritably.

"Then let's reverse the reasoning. Neither Aunt Mei, the madam of Chunmanlou, nor Xiaohong, Mudan's personal maid, knew about the existence of this secret passage. That means only one or two people knew about it, or even just Mudan and the murderer!" Shen Youyou reasoned using reverse thinking.

"Yes, I think so too!" Wu Siqi replied.

"At the beginning, Mudan was very reluctant to live in Chunmanlou. Was it because she had someone in her heart and didn't want to disappoint her lover?" Shen Youyou asked.

"You could say that," Wu Siqi agreed. "Especially a woman like Mudan, who had such a high opinion of herself before her family fell on hard times! I also asked Aunt Mei at Chun Man Lou about this. Mudan was indeed a daughter of a wealthy Suzhou family, proficient in everything from music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. But later, her family fell on hard times, and she was sold to Chun Man Lou by her biological mother! So at first, she only sold her art and not her body. No matter how Aunt Mei tried to persuade her, she refused to sell herself. If Aunt Mei asked her to sell herself to clients, she would threaten to commit suicide. She even asked Aunt Mei several times how much silver she would need to redeem herself. But a few days ago, for some reason, she suddenly came to her senses and told Aunt Mei that she agreed to accept clients. That's why Aunt Mei organized this grand auction, hoping to make a fortune."