When the Deposed Crown Prince Was Reborn as Troublemaker - Chapter 79

Only County Magistrate Li knew that he was finished — the ledger he had hidden inside had been taken away!

“Do you know if anyone entered our room today?” County Magistrate Li crawled out from under the bed and grabbed Madam Li, who was standing nearby.

“Ow, what are you grabbing me for — you’re covered in… my new dress!” Madam Li could not help but shriek.

County Magistrate Li knew there was no use reasoning with the foolish woman before him, so he went directly to question the servants in the room.

The maidservant who had been attending them answered County Magistrate Li, trembling before his furious gaze. “Today, apart from Madam’s afternoon rest and the two maidservants who attended her, no one else entered this room.”

County Magistrate Li’s expression darkened. He turned to the steward beside him and said, “Go fetch those two maidservants for me.”

“Yes.” The steward immediately left, taking two manservants with him.

Shortly after, the two maidservants who had attended Madam Li during her afternoon rest were brought forward. Their faces were filled with fright, as they had no idea whatsoever what had happened.

“Please spare us, Master! Please spare us, Master!” The moment they were brought before him, the two maidservants began kowtowing and begging for mercy.

“I’m asking you — what did you do inside that room!” County Magistrate Li demanded, his face dark and grim.

The two maidservants knelt on the ground and said in a panic, “We didn’t do anything, Master — we didn’t do a thing!”

County Magistrate Li’s eyes turned vicious. He said, “It seems you won’t tell the truth. Someone come and —”

Before County Magistrate Li could finish his words, Madam Li came striding out of the room with her hands on her hips and hurled a teacup at him, then began berating him. “Old Three Li, who are you putting on such a great official’s airs for? You lose your own things and instead of looking for them yourself, you come to reprimand these two little maidservants I raised with my own hands.”

“I know the people I’ve brought up better than anyone — they would never steal!” Madam Li said, reaching out as she spoke to pull the two trembling maidservants toward her. “You’ve served me for so many years; of course I trust you. Get up.”

The two little maidservants helped each other to their feet with Madam Li’s support. Madam Li then looked at County Magistrate Li and said, “Hmph — those things you lost? My two maidservants wouldn’t even deign to touch them. How could such clean, innocent hands be dirtied by that horse piss of yours?”

“You—!” County Magistrate Li was so enraged by her words that he nearly suffered a heart attack.

Madam Li immediately shot him a withering glare and said, “What about me?”

“I…”

“What about you?”

“…” County Magistrate Li was already so furious he was rendered speechless.

Madam Li wore an expression of utter contempt and said, “Reeking of urine and just standing there, not even knowing to go wash yourself.”

With that, Madam Li turned to her two maidservants and said, “Ah Hua, Ah Guo, come — let’s go rest in the courtyard next door for the night.”

Her words had barely fallen before County Magistrate Li watched his wife sweep away with the two little maidservants without a backward glance.

In that moment, County Magistrate Li truly felt as though he could barely breathe from rage.

The steward standing nearby could not help but say, “Master, Madam is right — why don’t you go wash up? I’ll go and check everyone who’s entered the courtyard today.”

“Do that.” County Magistrate Li said. In any case, he had already made up his mind to go find the “Xie Tan” he had locked away in the corner of the Li mansion.

Meanwhile, on the other side, a shadow guard placed the stolen ledger before You Yusui, and both You Yusui and Cui Yan could not help but show expressions of utter disgust.

“Take it away, take it away!” You Yusui leaned back and pinched his nose shut.

Beside him, Cui Yan also instinctively raised his sleeve to cover his mouth and nose — he was clearly just as repulsed by the ledger.

“How can he be so revolting,” You Yusui said, frowning.

Hiding a ledger beneath the floor tile where the chamber pot was kept — did he never find it disgusting when he actually needed to use it?

“Your Highness, please look at it — we still need to confirm whether this is the real ledger,” Cui Yan said.

“No, no — take it away, take it away. I can’t make sense of ledgers,” You Yusui replied, his every fiber radiating refusal.

Cui Yan was equally helpless, and could only set the ledger aside to air out, then had someone bring strong liquor and sprayed it liberally over the ledger as a rudimentary disinfection.

You Yusui, who had seated himself as far away as possible, turned to the shadow guard who had stolen the ledger and asked, “Is there anyone among the shadow guards who knows how to read a ledger?”

You Yusui’s idea was to simply hand this task off to You Fengyun’s shadow guards — after all, You Fengyun’s shadow guards were certainly loyal to the bone.

What You Yusui had not anticipated, however, was that the shadow guard paused in suspicious silence for a moment before answering, “There is no one among the shadow guards who knows how to read a ledger.”

You Yusui could not help but draw a sharp breath. “Aren’t you shadow guards supposed to be able to do everything?” he asked.

“We can kill, change our appearance, construct mechanisms, interrogate prisoners…” The shadow guard before him reported to You Yusui with complete earnestness, listing off the skills a shadow guard was expected to have.

Yes — they could do everything, except read a ledger. You could ask them to dress as women and seduce men, and they would do it. Reading a ledger, though, was something they had never been trained for.

You Yusui listened as the shadow guard rattled off the skills of a shadow guard in a mechanical voice like reciting items from a menu, and felt a headache coming on, so he quickly cut in.

“Stop, stop, stop — I’ll ask you just one thing: can you read?” You Yusui asked.

“I can,” the shadow guard answered.

“Go make a copy of this ledger for us.” You Yusui pointed at the ledger sitting on the table.

“Yes.” The moment the words fell, the shadow guard took the ledger and vanished swiftly from You Yusui’s sight.

Once the ledger was taken away, You Yusui felt he could finally breathe again. He immediately called for someone to take away the table the ledger had been sitting on.

“Fussy,” Cui Yan said plainly.

You Yusui replied with perfect matter-of-factness, “This prince is the Crown Prince — it is only natural to be fussy.”

Just then, a shadow guard who had been keeping watch over County Magistrate Li suddenly appeared before You Yusui and said, “Li Ren has already discovered that the ledger is gone.”

Upon hearing this, You Yusui’s expression instantly turned serious. He picked up a silver hairpin and idly poked at the candle flame before him and said, “Faster than expected.”

You Yusui turned to Cui Yan and said, “Tomorrow morning, tell those people this prince woke in the night in fright, having dreamed of evil spirits giving chase, and was left in a state of fearful unease. Requiring the protection of the gods and Buddha, this prince wishes to invite everyone to accompany him to Jinyun Temple to offer incense.”

You Yusui refined his reason for visiting Jinyun Temple once more, making it more convincing and impossible to refuse.

“I must trouble Imperial Physician Cui to help this prince put on this act,” You Yusui said.

“Have I performed too few acts alongside Your Highness?” Cui Yan smiled, though he feared that if word leaked out, the one most worried would be Huo Xiling, crouching in the hills awaiting orders.

At these words, You Yusui could not help but give a soft laugh.

By this time, County Magistrate Li had already bathed and changed his clothes. When he emerged, the household steward was still interrogating the servants.

None of the servants admitted to having stolen County Magistrate Li’s belongings, and after questioning them at length, the steward had gotten nothing out of them.

“Master, what would you like…” the steward said hesitatingly upon seeing County Magistrate Li step out.

County Magistrate Li knitted his brows and said to the steward directly, “No need to keep investigating. I’m going out for a bit.”

County Magistrate Li then headed straight for the courtyard where “Xie Tan” was being held.

You Yushan, who was being held by County Magistrate Li as Xie Tan, had made no attempt to escape — partly because he was injured and it was inconvenient to do so, and partly because he trusted that Li’s subordinates would find him soon enough.

Just as You Yushan was preparing to bide his time there for a few days, County Magistrate Li suddenly pushed open the door to his room.

“Junior Minister Xie truly has impressive means — with one feigned show of surrender, you lowered my guard, and today you had my ledger stolen away!” County Magistrate Li said with a cold laugh, looking at You Yushan lying on the bed.

Having said that, County Magistrate Li walked over to the writing desk where the brush and ink were laid out. The paper on top was completely blank — the memorial to the court that he had asked You Yushan to write had not a single character on it.

“It seems Junior Minister Xie had anticipated today long ago — otherwise you would not have left the memorial I asked you to write for the court entirely blank,” County Magistrate Li said, his entire bearing cold and sinister, like some species of serpent.

You Yushan was equally helpless. When he had studied alongside his brothers, his heart had been entirely devoted to martial training — knowing enough characters to get by was sufficient. As for official documents, those were always written by his advisors on his behalf; there had never been any need for him to put brush to paper himself.

He had not written the memorial County Magistrate Li had instructed him to write simply because he could not squeeze out a single word — how was he supposed to write something he had never written before?

“Hmph — Junior Minister Xie, you were toying with me all along and never had any intention of cooperating with us!” County Magistrate Li said, drawing close to You Yushan with a menacing air.

You Yushan felt a chill run over his entire scalp, and quickly shot back. “If I were the one who could silently steal your ledger without anyone knowing, why would I stay here instead of leaving?”

County Magistrate Li stared at You Yushan, as though turning this question over in his mind.

You Yushan then said, “Fa… His Majesty has a contingent of shadow guards by his side — could it be that these shadow guards followed us here as well, and someone in your household let something slip, which is how the ledger came to be stolen?”

“Impossible. No one knew where I hid the ledger, and no one would ever think to look for it there,” said County Magistrate Li — and yet, in his heart, he had already begun to believe You Yushan’s words.

Xie Tan and the Crown Prince were cousins. When the Crown Prince ascended the throne in time, the honors and power Xie Tan would receive would far outweigh those gained from resolving a corruption case. County Magistrate Li believed that anyone who was not a fool would choose to cooperate with him.

If it was not someone of Xie Tan’s who had taken the ledger, then who had stolen it? Could it truly be that His Majesty had kept a hand in reserve and dispatched shadow guards to come here?

You Yushan saw County Magistrate Li sink into deep thought and could not help but breathe a silent sigh of relief. Fortunately, the words he had made up on the spot had managed to muddle County Magistrate Li’s thinking.

Before County Magistrate Li could think it through, the sound of gongs and drums suddenly rang out from within the mansion, followed by the explosion of firecrackers, and the entire Li mansion erupted into noisy commotion.

“What’s happening?” County Magistrate Li stepped out of the courtyard and grabbed a servant who was banging a gong nearby.

“Master, we’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“The Crown Prince woke in a fright — he dreamed of evil spirits giving chase. Imperial Physician Cui had us strike gongs and set off firecrackers to drive away the evil spirits. Imperial Physician Cui is now calming the Crown Prince, so please come quickly and have a look!”

The moment the words fell, County Magistrate Li hurried off in a rush toward the Crown Prince’s courtyard.

The room was ablaze with lamplight. The Crown Prince, draped in his outer robe, was leaning against Cui Yan. His complexion was deathly pale, his entire bearing haggard and worn, and fine beads of sweat even clung to his temples — he looked every bit as though he had just been jolted awake from a nightmare.

Seeing this, County Magistrate Li hastily bowed to You Yusui, who was half-sitting up on the sleeping couch, and said, “This official pays his respects to the Crown Prince.”

You Yusui raised his eyes and beckoned to County Magistrate Li, saying, “County Magistrate Li has come at just the right time. This prince was just about to ask you which temples near Dayang County are considered particularly efficacious.”

The expression on You Yusui’s face was one of obvious lingering fear, carrying both the relief of someone who had narrowly escaped disaster and an anxious apprehension about what was yet to come.

County Magistrate Li did not doubt for a moment that the Crown Prince had just endured a terrifying nightmare — but within a radius of several dozen li, there was only one temple, and that was Jinyun Temple!