She mistakenly got into the bridal sedan chair and married a sickly but powerful minister, becoming

The princess opened the second script, her mood now quite calm, unlike the anger she felt when she first heard the opera yesterday.

After reading the whole story, she realized that it was a veiled reference to the scandals of the Yongyi Earl's family, only with similarities to royal secrets.

No matter how incompetent and tyrannical the late emperor was, as long as the matter concerned the dignity of the imperial family, it had to be covered up to some extent.

The eldest princess spoke up: "Tell them that there's no need to investigate any further."

If Shen Mingzhu bribed the lead singer to ruin Shen Qingtan, then the second person to bribe the lead singer, even if not Shen Qingtan, would be connected to her.

The Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) are all shrewd and intelligent, and they probably suspected Shen Qingtan, but they didn't have any evidence.

Today, she specially invited Shen Qingtan to the Princess's residence as a guest, so the Imperial Guards were unsure of her attitude.

Therefore, before finding any evidence, they sent someone to report on the progress and test her attitude to see if she wanted to investigate thoroughly.

The female official replied, "This servant will go and report back immediately."

"Wait a minute." The princess called to the female official and instructed, "If those who were abducted have not committed any evil deeds, then help them find their biological parents."

"Yes." The lady-in-waiting did not leave, but asked, "Your Highness, the troupe leader also instructed us to do something. One of the children was kidnapped and sold by him. Should we investigate?"

Then, she took out a written agreement and a jade pendant: "These are things that the Embroidered Uniform Guard found at the troupe leader's residence. According to the troupe leader, they are tokens left by the people who bought the child."

The eldest princess frowned deeply: "They even sold the children?"

The lady-in-waiting nodded: "The specific details will have to be conveyed to you by Lord Liu."

The eldest princess really wanted to know how many things the troupe leader had done, so she ordered a female official to bring in Lord Liu from the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

A short while later, Lord Liu entered the main hall and bowed to the Princess.

The eldest princess asked, "How many children did that person sell?"

"Your Highness, he only sold one person." Lord Liu took out a thick stack of confessions and turned to this case: "At first, the troupe leader refused to confess, and we had to use torture to pry his mouth open."

"He said that back in the day, when he set up a stage in Nanling Prefecture to perform operas, he abducted three or four children he had his eye on. When they were about to leave, a well-dressed servant approached him and asked him to kidnap a little girl who was watching the opera from below the stage."

"The little girl was dressed very richly, and a young boy brought her to see the play. The servant told the troupe leader that the little girl was his young mistress's child."

"Because the child's father came from a wealthy family, while the young lady's family was of humble origin, the man forcibly took the child away and refused to grant the young lady a proper status."

"Her young lady could not bear the pain of being separated from her child, and she was determined to get the child back no matter how much money it cost."

“The troupe leader was afraid of getting into trouble and would never abduct children from wealthy families. However, the other party offered a lot of money, and he was greedy for money, so he still took the risk and snatched the child.”

"The troupe leader was wary, worried that someone was setting a trap for him. So he had the servant write a statement guaranteeing that she had entrusted them to abduct the person. Finally, just to be on the safe side, he also stole the servant's jade pendant."

Lord Liu recounted all the specific details of the troupe leader's crime.

The eldest princess frowned. It seemed that this was probably the first time the troupe leader had abducted a child from a wealthy family, and he was afraid of getting into trouble, so he had kept these two pieces of evidence with him all these years.

Suddenly, a clear and melodious voice rang out.

"Lord Liu, there were other people with the little girl. How did the troupe leader manage to abduct her?"

Lord Liu looked in the direction of the sound and saw that Shen Qingtan's expression was a little strange, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong.

“They were openly robbing her. They specifically hired several martial arts performers to fight each other. When the fight reached the little girl, they attacked the boy who was with her. Taking advantage of the chaos, they snatched the child, smothered her with sleeping pills, and took her away.”

Lord Liu continued, "The troupe leader said the reason he remembered it so clearly was because after the child was abducted, the person who had previously lost the child reported it to the authorities. He hurriedly led his men out of the city to avoid trouble, and that's when he noticed that the bracelet on the little girl's wrist was very unusual. Fearing that he would get into trouble, he didn't dare to take anything from the child. He only returned the child to his client when things calmed down."

Shen Qingtan murmured, "Is that so?"

Lord Liu replied, "Yes, the troupe leader said he was terrified at the time. If he hadn't taken on this job, he would have moved to another location long ago. The little girl was also very unruly, so he could only wait for the effects of the drug to wear off before applying more medicine to make her unconscious again. If the authorities continue their strict investigation for a few more days, he will kill the child and flee for his life."

The reason he knew so much detail was because he was handling a case assigned by the eldest princess, and he dared not be careless, so he interrogated every little detail of every matter.

Shen Qingtan pinched her fingers hard, her gaze falling once again on the document and jade pendant in the princess's hand.

She was so familiar with this jade pendant that she could identify it just by touching the patterns with her eyes closed.

Because Wei's mother had an identical one, which she said was a token of love given to her by a man, but she didn't know how she lost it.

Madam Shen then rewarded her with a piece of top-quality Hetian jade. Wei Mama's husband used this jade to make her a jade pendant exactly the same as the one she had given him as a token of their love.

The only difference is the quality of the jade material; one is inferior and coarse jade, while the other is top-grade Hetian jade.

The carved patterns are no different.

She once thought that Madam Shen had taken advantage of her separation from her family and then secretly abducted her.

To everyone's surprise, Madam Shen actually hired people to rob her!

"This little girl is quite lucky to be alive." Shen Qingtan suppressed the turmoil in her heart and tried her best to remain calm: "Does the troupe leader recognize the buyer?"

"The other party was very cautious and did not show themselves. The servant was of ordinary appearance, and the troupe leader had long forgotten what he looked like," Lord Liu said. "They abducted several children together. At that time, the city was in chaos, and he did not dare to inquire about which family the little girl belonged to."

"Alright, you were originally working for the Emperor. I obtained the Emperor's decree to have you do this job." The Princess pressed her temples and handed the document and jade pendant back to Lord Liu: "Transfer them all to the Court of Judicial Review for processing."

"Yes." Lord Liu left.

Shen Qingtan's lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something but then stopped herself several times.

Since this was her first time dealing with the Princess, and she hadn't yet figured out what kind of person she was, Shen Qingtan didn't dare to rashly ask the Princess to help her get the Imperial Guards to continue the investigation. After all, the Imperial Guards weren't something the Princess could just mobilize at will.

At least she is now one step closer to the truth. After returning, she asked Zhao Yi to help send someone to the government office in Nanling Prefecture to investigate which families had reported the matter to the authorities back then.

-

Shen Qingtan returned to the Duke's mansion from the Princess's residence. The doorman informed her, "Second Madam, Boss Qin is waiting for you in the main hall."

Mr. Qin has arrived. Could it be that his brother-in-law has sent a message?

Thinking of this, Shen Qingtan quickly walked towards the main hall.

Halfway there, she saw the servants of the manor walking briskly in one direction with joyful faces: "Hurry up and go collect your reward money. Why are you so slow?"