The cousin is beautiful but ruthless.

Chapter 252 What Did Zhao Jiahe Take Away?

After Zhao Jing'er returned, Li Jun sent a message to Princess Yongning, who rushed over as soon as she received the news.

Her only sibling was her younger brother, so naturally she didn't want to see Li Jun appear.

"I never imagined that this matter would involve you."

Princess Yongning clenched her hands tightly. She had thought that the two of them would be fine once they stayed out of it, but they just wouldn't let them go.

"Your Majesty, who is behind Zhao Jing'er?"

Either way is possible. Princess Yongning's thoughts were in turmoil, and she couldn't come to any conclusion.

Seeing Princess Yongning's anxiety, Li Jun still asked, "Who should we tell this to ensure we're at ease?"

Is it Li Sheng and Li Huaijiang's side? Or perhaps the Crown Prince's faction?

“Tell Father Emperor.” Princess Yongning’s eyes hardened. “Come with me to the palace. The safest course of action now is to tell Father Emperor. Let’s go now.”

Li Jun dared not delay and went to the palace with Princess Yongning.

Upon hearing that his son had narrowly escaped death, Lee Geon-kyu's eyes sharpened.

"Your subject has brought the lotus seed soup and handed it over to the imperial physician for examination. The results should be available soon."

Zhao Jing'er was already overly worried, so he had someone change her lotus seed soup without her noticing.

Zhao Jing'er's plan has failed, and she's busy destroying the evidence with the lotus seed soup, unaware of what has happened.

Li Jiangui's face was somewhat gloomy; the hands behind the scenes were reaching way too far.

Li Jun doesn't make enemies, yet she was almost harmed. Is she trying to drag the royal family down with her?

"You can stay here for the time being and don't need to go back to the manor. Zhao Jing'er will be kept in custody for now."

Li Jun felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders; she felt much safer by Li Jiangui's side.

"Thank you, Father."

Li Jun looked at Princess Yongning, who also planned to stay. The results from the Imperial Hospital hadn't come out yet, so she could wait for them.

Upon inspection, the lotus seed soup was indeed found to be contaminated with poison.

When Zhao Jing'er was arrested, she became frightened and confessed everything.

Yu Qi looked at the person kneeling on the ground, weeping bitterly. Zhao Jing'er was indeed quite easy to interrogate, but she didn't say anything useful.

The details were vague; she only said that a man in black threatened her and told her to kill Li Jun, and that she knew nothing else.

"Sir, I failed, and I was threatened, so please let me go?"

Zhao Jing'er was crying uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face.

"No."

Yu Qi coldly remarked that he should have someone keep an eye on Zhao Jing'er before leaving.

"What do you think?" Yu Qi asked Pei Du.

Pei Du was just about to lead his men to search Zhao Jing'er when he heard this and replied, "Zhao Jing'er's background is clean and simple, so she is indeed easy to manipulate. If the Third Prince dies and the First Prince cannot clear his name for a long time, it will be obvious who the beneficiary is."

Of course, all of this is just their speculation; without concrete evidence, it's all baseless.

"Go to the Third Prince's residence first."

The fact that she was able to sneak in and meet Zhao Jing'er without anyone noticing suggests that she is very familiar with the Third Prince's residence.

With frequent incidents over there, things aren't going smoothly for Li Huaijiang either.

"The search has already begun outside of Chang'an, Your Highness. I'm afraid that person has already escaped by now."

Zhao Jiahe has been missing without a trace, neither alive nor dead, and the people Li Huaijiang sent out have not been able to find her.

Does Li Jing possess extraordinary abilities to secretly take people away?

Li Huaijiang suddenly thought of a possibility.

"Perhaps Zhao Jiahe had already left before the incident occurred."

This explains why it's not easy for them to find the person if they are a step behind.

The palace maids frowned slightly; they had been completely fooled.

"What exactly did Zhao Jiahe take away?"

Li Huaijiang's unease grew stronger. He watched as the common people and scholars tirelessly pleaded for Li Jing's innocence every day, yet they had no concrete evidence to punish him. It was only a matter of time before Li Jing was released.

Releasing a tiger back into the mountains is absolutely unacceptable.

Li Sheng did not go to the Third Prince's residence; instead, he went to the East Palace.

The Eastern Palace was no longer as bustling as before; it was now as quiet as the Prime Minister's residence.

He searched everywhere, but he still couldn't find the bat-patterned box.

“Over the years, the transfer order must have been destroyed, but he shouldn’t have only hidden these things.”

Li Sheng looked at Li Jing's handwriting. Li Jing's handwriting had changed quite a bit. No matter how cautious he was, he hadn't had time to deal with these practice pieces.

However, there weren't many left. Li Sheng looked at these things and noticed that their handwriting didn't quite resemble Li Jiangui's.

He then went to the former residence of Zhao Yu, where Li Jing had given Zhao Yu many things over the years.

Zhao Yu's room had been tidied up. Li Sheng casually opened the makeup box and saw the peach blossom stationery that had been placed there for a long time.

The peach blossom-patterned stationery contained a few lines of poetry, but the handwriting was not Zhao Yu's; it should belong to Li Jing.

In the flow of those strokes, Li Sheng sensed some similarities between himself and Li Jiangui.

"Go find all the documents that Li Jing has handled over the years."

Li Sheng began to suspect that the transfer order was written by Li Jing himself. His younger brother was always intelligent, so it was not surprising that he could imitate Li Jiangui's handwriting.

The appearance of the bat-patterned box beside them further solidified Li Sheng's suspicions.

Li Sheng took Li Jing's manuscript back with him and examined it carefully.

Yu Qi noticed that Li Sheng was looking at documents, so he went over and glanced at him.

"This is Li Jing's?"

Li Sheng nodded.

"The handwriting on that peach blossom stationery is very similar to Father Emperor's handwriting in some places. Do you remember the transfer order I mentioned before?"

Yu Qi understood.

But can we really find evidence in these surviving documents?

"Even tigers have their moments of weakness." Li Sheng had a good attitude.

The two checked together until noon. Li Sheng pulled out a sheet, which was written by Li Jing to his staff.

Of the five lines of characters, one line, if he hadn't looked closely, really did look like it was written by Li Jiangui.

"look at this."

Li Sheng pointed out the line of text to Yu Qi.

Yu Qi didn't remember Li Jiangui's handwriting, but Li Sheng did.

After listening, he couldn't help but say, "If we can't find that transfer order, having this might not be of much use."

"Although the transfer order is gone, I wasn't the only one who saw it at the time; Wei Jianfeng saw it too."

What Li Sheng needs to do is to keep Li Jing here and prevent him from leaving. The matter has already been investigated to this point. If Li Jing is allowed to leave Dali Temple now, it will cause even more trouble later.

Yu Qi nodded. In that case, they would indeed have much more time.

When Li Jing learned that the handwriting had been discovered, he remained calm, somewhat unable to recall where he had slipped up.

Li Sheng placed the paper in front of him.

"I will uncover everything you've been hiding, one by one."

This piece of paper was quite old. Li Jing glanced at what was written on it and seemed to remember it.

Li Sheng really did investigate a lot of things, even digging up these.

"Brother, is there something wrong with this?"

Li Sheng glanced at him: "Back then, I received a transfer order."