A crown princess who doesn't do infrastructure construction isn't a good doctor.

For the next few hours, the atmosphere at Hongde Academy was somewhat subtle.

People dressed as servants walked along the corridor from time to time, but judging from their demeanor, they were not ordinary servants.

"Who are those people?"

Xia Yuanzhou opened the window a crack and looked outside, where people were occasionally going into other people's rooms, which puzzled him.

Gu Huaiyuan replied, "They should all be people sent by the Kong family to investigate. They should have some suspicions about the strange nature of Master Kong's illness."

Xia Yuanzhou closed the window and turned around.

"But is the investigation being conducted so openly and honestly?"

"They just want to be aboveboard, so they won't be labeled by unknown people with ulterior motives."

Xia Yuanzhou still seemed to understand but not quite, but Song Jun, who had been resting on the bed, said: "This literary gathering has been full of unexpected events. I can say that I was unlucky and offended someone, but the fact that Master Kong is in a coma or even seriously ill is definitely not simple."

Gu Huaiyuan turned his gaze over, and Xia Yuanzhou was also looking at Song Jun.

"How to say?"

After glancing around, Song Jun gestured for the group to come closer and said, "When you all went out, someone passed by here. They probably thought no one was around, and I overheard part of what they were saying."

"What did they say?"

"One of those people was probably not from Hongde Academy. He asked another person if he had succeeded, and that person probably nodded. After that, the person seemed to hesitate and mentioned that Confucius shouldn't have just disappeared like that. He was then warned."

Did they say anything else?

Song Jun shook his head.

"That's all. The rest were just promises of benefits. Oh, right, the one who probably drugged me mentioned that his family was in dire straits, and he was just pointing to the benefits after the deed was done."

Xia Yuanzhou clapped his hands and said, "That is indeed a clue. We can investigate from this angle."

However, Gu Huaiyuan shook his head in disagreement after hearing this.

"We cannot and should not interfere in this matter."

Although Xia Yuanzhou was an impatient person, he wasn't stupid. Gu Huaiyuan must have his reasons for saying that. After staring at Song Jun for a while, Xia Yuanzhou slumped his shoulders in defeat.

Seeing this, Gu Huaiyuan slightly curled the corners of his lips and said, "We may not be able to do anything, but there are others who can."

"Ok?"

Xia Yuanzhou looked up, and then a smile appeared on his face as he seemed to remember something.

"That's right, let's go find Young Master Qin!"

Before he could finish speaking, Xia Yuanzhou tried to get up, but Gu Huaiyuan stopped him.

"Don't rush. There are too many people around, and even the slightest disturbance will arouse suspicion. We can't be hasty."

In the room separated by only one room, before Xia Yuanzhou could say anything, the others already knew most of the ins and outs of the matter.

Shuo Han was skilled in movement, but to be on the safe side, he did not come to Qin Suiyou and the others' room at this moment. Instead, he sent someone to deliver a letter.

After the group passed it around and read it once, they couldn't help but gasp in slight astonishment.

"Wow... was Confucius really this kind of person?"

Looking at the things recorded on the paper, Ke Zuo, who had only caught a glimpse of Kong Qi from afar a couple of days ago, sighed.

"He challenged several wealthy young men he disliked, but unexpectedly, one of his former rivals became an advisor to Prince Jing. Now, taking advantage of Prince Jing's lineage's desire to control the movements of scholars across the land, he seeks revenge."

"Everyone has a dark past."

Lu Xi rubbed his head, feeling a little embarrassed when he thought about his childish behavior when he was a child.

Upon hearing this, Beitang Yan looked at Qin Suiyou with curiosity in his eyes. He was curious to know if his wife had any dark history, but he was sure that whatever she did would be very cute.

However, after Lu Xi spoke, Ke Zuo said, "Brother You doesn't have that."

Lu Xi paused, thinking of Qin Suiyou's behavior as a child, which was exactly the same as it was now. He pursed his lips. He knew why Qin Suiyou was so mature at such a young age, but he couldn't say it.

"He was an accident and cannot be lumped together with ordinary people."

However, these words still failed to shut Ke Zuo up. He said, "Hey, don't you know what kind of person you are? If we're talking about accidents, you and your brother are one of them, but you've been childish for ten years straight."

"Tsk, Ke Zuo, you want to fight me, don't you?"

Ke Zuo turned around and stood behind Xu Chi, but he was still saying, "That's right, look, look, I didn't even say anything and you got angry. Fighting is not acceptable, it's uncivilized. Don't you know that a gentleman uses words, not fists?"

Lu Xi exhaled several breaths through his nose, frowning like a little calf.

"Hmph, I'm no gentleman. Today I'll show you what it means to talk the talk instead of the walk."

As he spoke, Lu Xi darted forward, swiftly bypassing Xu Chi who was merely symbolically blocking his way, and after grabbing Ke Zuo, began to subject him to "inhuman" torture.

The commotion was quite loud, and Ke Zuo's screams were also quite loud. Before Qin Suiyou could stop it, someone outside knocked on the door to ask what was going on.

"It's nothing, we were just joking around. We've been too tired these past few days, so we were just relaxing. We're sorry if we bothered you."

"Yes, yes, I'm really sorry. Did we disturb the people in the other rooms? Should we go and explain?"

The two who were "kicked out" to explain took turns talking, making the people who came to inquire almost suspect that they had some kind of mental problem. After looking inside and finding that nothing was damaged, they nodded and left.

They were actually worried that the people inside might damage something in the house without thinking. Although Hongde Academy was large, much of the money and effort was saved, especially in the early stages when they spent a lot of money and effort to prepare for the literary gathering.

On the other side, in a room that looked significantly larger than the one given to the students, Prince Jing and Prince An sat facing each other, with a chess game in front of them at a stalemate.

After listening to his subordinates' report, Prince Jing looked up at Prince An.

"Master Kong is unconscious. He took medicine today, but it seems that some evil person has poisoned the medicine. Are you aware of this?"

Listening to Prince Jing's pretentious self-criticism, Prince An sneered inwardly but showed no outward expression, saying in surprise, "I just found out."

The implication is that once you've said it, I know it.

Seeing Prince An looking at him like he was a fool, Prince Jing wondered what good fortune his younger brother had done in his past life to have a son like Beitang Yan. He smiled and shook his head.

“Brother, sometimes you can’t be too out of the loop. If you keep this up, you won’t get far from what’s happening in the neighboring courtyards.”

Prince An pretended not to understand the implication and said, "Your Majesty, you are too kind. I am a person who is devoted to learning. I just need to do my own thing and I can't care about anything else. Knowing too much is not good for me."

Prince Jing rolled his eyes inwardly. He didn't completely believe Prince An's words. Although he looked down on Prince An, he was wary of Beitang Yan. Beitang Yan was now highly accomplished. Although he had suffered brain damage and lost his memory, which reduced the chances of Prince An's mansion, it didn't mean he had truly lost his chance.

"Let's all go back tomorrow. This literary gathering has been full of twists and turns, and I'm afraid it's going to reach the higher-ups."

Thinking that his goal was about to be achieved and that he had won over eight or nine out of ten of the people Prince Jing needed, he no longer wanted to stay.