The daughter of a noble family is reborn, and she is doted on by her godmother.

"Madam? What did you say?" Liu Jie pressed.

"He's just a prefect. Don't forget who's the boss here."

Deng Wanyi ignored it and played with the hairpin in her hand.

"Although my Deng family has declined somewhat in recent years, the Empress Dowager is still here. Where won't she give us some face? Let's test the waters later. If she cooperates, we won't say much. If she doesn't cooperate... what is a female scholar? The Empress Dowager doesn't like women showing their faces in public. It was all the Empress's doing."

Deng Wanyi put the hairpin back in her hair and calmly stated her position.

"Madam, have you received any news?"

Looking at his wife's expression, Liu Jie had an idea.

My wife is usually quite prudent. Although she comes from the Deng family, she won't easily abuse the family's power when it comes to matters involving the family's backing.

The Deng family has declined considerably in recent years, a view shared by almost everyone in the family, which is why they have been acting with extreme caution for a long time.

My wife is bringing this up suddenly now; she must have received some news.

Deng Wanyi smiled and nodded, then took a letter out of her sleeve.

"Yes, I received a letter from my aunt, the Empress Dowager. She told me quite a few things. She wants us to cooperate with my cousin..."

The couple lowered their voices, plotting something.

After the two finished discussing, Deng Wanyi burned the letter in her hand, staring at it as it burned to ashes.

"The newly appointed prefect of Changgan—Zhu Ling, is it? Looks like I'll have to meet you."

Meanwhile, at the government office...

Liu Zhou'er has been following the new prefect for a day now.

“Zhou’er, don’t be too nervous. We’re old acquaintances. Such a connection is rare in life. Don’t be reserved. Although many eyes are watching us from the prefect’s side, we’re all on the same side, so don’t worry.”

"Thank you, Teacher Zhu. Ah, thank you, Prefect Zhu." Liu Zhou'er raised her hand and bowed to Zhu Ling.

"Don't be shy. You should go and get some rest. Your sister Xiaoyu and I still have some case files to review. We stay up late, so you can rest."

Zhu Ling finally made contact with her secret informant these past few days and obtained some past files, but with so many files, she needed to sort them out carefully.

"I can help too." Liu Zhou'er didn't want to just rest; she wanted to do something.

Zhu Ling paused for a moment, then nodded. "That works too. More people mean more help. We happen to have a few coroner's papers. You know medicine, so I wonder if you're familiar with them?"

Liu Zhou'er's expression softened slightly, with a hint of helplessness. "This... Doctor Xue had me examine some before, so perhaps I can still discern some things, but I'm not really familiar with it."

"It's okay, something is better than nothing. It should be able to help us take a look."

Xing Xiaoyu encouraged Liu Zhou'er, and the three of them divided the received case files and studied them together.

This secret informant, named Wan Qing, ran a tofu shop in Changgan City. His hidden identity was a junior colleague who had previously worked as a coroner in the county government.

Three years ago, the original coroner's surname was Li and his given name was Fu. He was all alone because his profession as a coroner had prevented him from getting married.

This informant was a junior member of Li Fuyuan's family. He had lost both his parents in his hometown and came to Changgan City to seek refuge with Li Fuyuan. The two had originally planned to live together.

When Li Fu first arrived in Changgan, he already felt that he might be in trouble, so in order to protect himself, he did not reveal their relationship to others.

Li Fu simply gave Wan Qing some money so he could start a small business and have a means to make a living.

Later, Li Fu took some special documents to the tofu shop. Wan Qing didn't think there was anything wrong at first, but a month later, Li Fu was found dead at home.

Wan Qing immediately realized there was a serious problem. After reviewing the case files, she found a letter addressed to her. It briefly described Li Fu's ordeal and instructed Wan Qing to be extremely careful and never take anything outside unnecessarily.

As for these special documents that were sent over, Wan Qing didn't quite understand the details. They recorded cases from a certain period of time, including the mysterious deaths of two prefects and some scattered minor cases.

This matter is of great importance, and Wan Qing dared not take it lightly, so he carefully hid these files. Moreover, over the past few years, he has been trying to find a trustworthy person.

Unfortunately, the previous prefect colluded with the forces behind this, leaving Wan Qing with no choice but to go into hiding.

This time, Wan Qing thought about it for a long time before deciding to contact Zhu Ling's people. After several attempts, he finally confirmed the situation.

Wan Qing led Zhu Ling's men to his own tofu shop and handed over most of the collected documents to them.

“Uncle Li’s life was quite tragic. He died innocently and tragically, and I can’t avenge him. I’m already very sorry for him. We ordinary people dare not confront the power of the government. I’m sorry, but I need the most important case file to save my life.”

Zhu Ling understood Wan Qing's choice and didn't mind too much. After all, there must be a reason why this coroner kept so many case files. Even without the two most crucial ones, some clues could be found in the other case files.

Besides the cases of the two prefects' mysterious deaths, there are a total of five other case files.

In terms of time, the five cases spanned three years, occurring around the same time as the cases of the two prefects. Judging solely from the identities of the deceased, they seemed to have little connection.

The officials from the government office decided to study the files immediately. Xing Xiaoyu and Liu Zhou'er were also involved. The three of them got right to work and immediately began studying and copying the files.

Just as I was about to pick up my pen, I heard knocking on the window again. It was the knocking signal that Yun and her daughter had agreed upon before their arrival.

"Boss Yun, Qingqing, what brings you two here?" Liu Zhou'er had never seen the two of them climb in through the window before, and was quite surprised to see them.

Yun Qingjin climbed in through the window and immediately saw Liu Zhou'er. She quickly stepped forward and hugged her, saying, "Sister Zhou'er."

"Okay, okay, I'm fine. What brought you all here?"

Since arriving at the Yun family mansion, Yun Qingjin's closest relationships have been with Aunt Hua and Liu Zhou'er, in addition to Yun Yuke and Miss Yuan Chen.

Especially since Yun Yuke and Yuan Chen would often go out to do business, at home, Liu Zhou'er and Aunt Hua would take care of her the most.

So when it was confirmed that Liu Zhou'er would be away for several days, Yun Qingjin felt inexplicably worried.

"Ah...it's Aunt Hua who's worried, so I came to check on Sister Zhou'er on her behalf." Yun Qingjin knew she had been a bit too impulsive, and now she lowered her head, feeling embarrassed.

"Huh? How come I remember someone was more worried about your sister Zhou'er than Aunt Hua when she went out?" Yun Yuke smiled at her daughter, mercilessly exposing her.

"Alright, alright, I'm fine now." Liu Zhou'er was also thinking of her younger sister, and hearing Qingqing thinking of her warmed her heart.

"Perfect timing, you're here. Since you're here, why not help us with something?" Zhu Ling didn't ask any more questions. Since the people had come to their door, they should make the most of it.

Zhu Ling briefly recounted his recent meetings with the informant Wan Qing to Yun Yuke and Yun Qingjin, while pointing to a stack of files on the table.

"Sister Yun, you've come at just the right time. I was planning to make a copy of these documents first, and I would appreciate it if you could take the originals back and keep them for me." Zhu Ling had originally intended to keep the documents herself, but seeing her friend's arrival, she could make the arrangements now.

Xing Xiaoyu was slightly uncertain, but she had witnessed Yun Yuke's continuous assistance during this period. After thinking about it, she felt there was no problem and agreed with Zhu Ling's conclusion.

Without further ado, the five of them divided the work and quickly finished copying the relevant files. Yun Qingjin hadn't neglected her reading and writing these past few years, and now she was finally catching up.

Yun Yuke put down her pen and frowned.

"Phew... I've copied it once, and I also glanced at the copy you made... I didn't find any problems. These victims don't seem to have anything in common."