After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

The chubby boy said the murderer got out from behind the coffin. He took a candlestick, lit the floor of the sleeping chamber, and searched carefully. Xu Rui followed behind, hunched over, and also managed to discern some clues.

There were many footprints on the ground, most of them complete, except for one pair of half footprints. These half footprints must belong to the assassin, who was prepared and walked on tiptoe.

“Miss Lu, this old servant thinks that we can’t tell anything from these footprints.”

"Eunuch Xu is amazing!" Lu Zhiyuan gave Xu Rui a thumbs up.

Xu Rui mimicked Lu Zhiyuan's gesture, giving a thumbs-up and asking in confusion, "Miss Lu, what's this...?"

“Praise means you’re great, you’re amazing.” Lu Zhiyuan pointed to two incomplete footprints on the ground. “Could you please ask Eunuch Xu to find two pieces of paper for me?”

"Miss Lu, please wait a moment." Xu Rui personally brought over two sheets of paper.

Lu Zhiyuan used the rubbing method to extract the two halves of the footprint from the ground, cut them out, and pieced them together. Xu Rui's eyes lit up, and he exclaimed, "Wonderful! This is actually a complete footprint! This old servant is foolish; I only saw that the footprints on the ground were messy, and I never thought there was such a way to piece together the two halves. But these footprints are of different sizes; how did Miss manage to find the perfect two halves from so many footprints?"

"You flatter me, sir. It's just that you have a keen eye."

Lu Zhiyuan was staring at the footprints on the paper when His Highness the Crown Prince arrived, stepping past the crowd to stand before her. Xu Rui, seeing this, tried to bow, but the Crown Prince stopped him with a gesture. Xu Rui stepped back, making room for the Crown Prince, who stood behind Lu Zhiyuan, looking at the footprints she had already pieced together in her hand.

"These footprints don't look like a man's." A sudden breath of hot air on her ear made Lu Zhiyuan turn around sharply.

She was short and bumped into the Crown Prince's chin. The Crown Prince winced in pain, his brows furrowing slightly, but he immediately patted Lu Zhiyuan's head and said, "So clumsy, you really are just a child."

"You talk as if you're not a child yourself." Lu Zhiyuan glared at him. "Why is His Highness the Crown Prince here in the middle of the night?"

His Highness the Crown Prince couldn't help but flick her head: "What are you saying? I am the Crown Prince, the eldest grandson of my grandmother. If something happens in my grandmother's palace, it is only natural for me to come and investigate. Moreover, I am here on the orders of my father and mother."

"You talk too much!" Lu Zhiyuan rolled her eyes at him. "The footprints are definitely not men's; it's a woman wearing men's shoes. Look at these footprints; the sides are empty. The assassin deliberately left them to mislead people."

"Even if we know she is a woman, we cannot find her. The harem is full of women."

"Who said that?" Lu Zhiyuan turned her head and winked at His Highness the Crown Prince, then whispered, "She touched the Empress Dowager's coffin. Not only were there traces of her clothes touching it, but there were also fingerprints on the coffin."

The Crown Prince said, "If she escapes, she will surely hide her clothes to avoid suspicion. The palace is heavily guarded; she certainly won't take the clothes with her. As long as we find the clothes..."

Lu Zhiyuan rolled her eyes again: "So what if we find the clothes? Even if there's paint from the coffin on the clothes, you still won't know who wore them."

The prince said, "Have people try them on one by one; those whose clothes fit are the assassins."

Lu Zhiyuan turned her head: "I really doubt how you became the Crown Prince. If she can wear men's shoes, she can wear men's clothes. Even if she wore women's clothes, there are countless women in the palace with similar figures. How did Your Highness identify the murderer?"

"This..." His Highness the Crown Prince was stunned: "If you can't confirm it, why did you mention clothes?"

"Fool, the clothes are physical evidence, and since they are physical evidence, we definitely need to find them. However, what truly confirms the murderer's identity is the fingerprint left on the coffin."

"Fingerprint? Fingerprint?" The Crown Prince looked at his fingers. "We can't just call everyone in the palace and have them line up and press their fingerprints on the coffin one by one. Even if I agree, Father and Mother won't. And even if Father and Mother agree, Grandmother can't wait. There are so many palace maids here. If there's a mistake, the person will escape."

“You really are stupid.” Lu Zhiyuan rolled her eyes at him again. “Fine, ask His Highness the Crown Prince to help us get the palace maids in the Empress Dowager’s palace to line up, including the noble ladies and the maids brought by the royal relatives. In short, everyone who has been here before and after the incident should line up outside.”

Before His Highness the Crown Prince could give any instructions, Xu Rui had already gone to carry them out.

During the mourning period, there weren't many palace servants in the Empress Dowager's palace. Each concubine, prince, and member of the imperial family was only allowed to bring one person. Lu Zhiyuan checked them one by one, taking the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before finally finding the person. She was dressed as a palace maid, but not brought by any of the concubines, princes, or princesses. She wore embroidered shoes, but the shoes were covered in lint of a different color, the kind only found on new shoes. Her clothes had obvious wrinkles, especially around the waist, where there were marks from a belt. Combined with the lingering paint on her fingertips, it was confirmed that she was the assassin.

Upon seeing this, the female assassin immediately pulled out the hairpin from her hair and lunged at the unsuspecting Lu Zhiyuan. The Crown Prince saw this and immediately tried to stop her, but before he could reach her, he saw the assassin holding the murder weapon and lying straight back.

A needle was stuck in her throat, its tip blackened, clearly poisoned. Seeing that Lu Zhiyuan was unharmed, His Highness the Crown Prince breathed a slight sigh of relief. "Are you alright?"

"Thank you for your concern, Your Highness. I am fine." Lu Zhiyuan stretched her arms. "It's fortunate that I was prepared beforehand."

His Highness the Crown Prince asked in surprise, "Are the silver needles yours?"

Lu Zhiyuan gave a soft "hmm" and asked the Crown Prince in return, "I am a physician. Is it inappropriate for a physician to carry silver needles with him?"

It's perfectly normal for a doctor to carry silver needles, but it seems inappropriate to poison them. After all, this is the inner palace, under the watchful eyes of everyone. Before the Crown Prince could speak, Lu Zhiyuan removed the silver needle from the female assassin's neck and fed her a pill as well.

The female assassin, who had been lying dead, suddenly opened her eyes and struggled to get up from the ground. She was immediately pinned down by the guards.

"Please have the guard take her away." Lu Zhiyuan turned to look at the Crown Prince: "Take her to His Highness's Eastern Palace. To attempt an assassination in public, and repeatedly at that, it's impossible to say that she wasn't the mastermind behind it."

“Even if there is a mastermind behind this, it should be handed over to His Majesty for handling.” A concubine stepped forward: “Bringing her to the Eastern Palace rashly, what punishment would you receive if it endangers His Highness the Crown Prince’s safety?”

"Who is she?" Lu Zhiyuan asked the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince glanced at her and replied, "Consort Yu should be the daughter of Yu Chang of the Court of Imperial Stud. She is quite close to that lady of the Brocade Palace."

"I understand now, Fang family. This female assassin is most likely related to her." Lu Zhiyuan nodded, walked up to Yu Meiren, stood on tiptoe, looked into her eyes and said, "I was too far away to see clearly just now, but now that I'm closer, I think your eyes are extremely beautiful, especially the shape of your eyes, which is quite similar to that of the Empress."

"Miss Lu is too kind. How could I possibly compare myself to Her Majesty the Empress?" Consort Yu lowered her eyes.