Chapter 45: Change

It's already the middle of the night, and the nights are always much cooler in the late summer and early autumn seasons, although you can still hear a few cicadas, but the sound always seems a little weak, just like Zhong Lishuo's mood at this moment, it is a mess, and it is a little irritated to be disturbed by the sound of cicadas.

The moonlight peeked into the room through the cracks in the half-hidden window lattices, and sprinkled a silvery color on the ground. Zhong Lishuo just felt cold when he stared at the miserable whiteness, and couldn't help but shrink back.

It has been more than a month since Jin Se assassinated him last time, and he was injured and rescued by Xuan Ming, during which Zhong Lishuo sent a lot of people to inquire about their news, but the incident happened suddenly, and it was night, and almost no one saw it. But Zhong Lishuo didn't want to die, and then again, he had been away from the palace for some days, but there was very little news about Shangguan Hong and the prince in his hands, although there was already some evidence that Shangguan Hong had murdered the court officials, but after all, the prince could not be involved, which couldn't help but make Zhong Lishuo a little anxious. Moreover, the families of those who were murdered were always afraid of reprisals and did not dare to come forward to testify, and the current situation did not do Zhong Lishuo much good.

When Zhong Lishuo was worried, the door of the study was knocked gently, rhythmically three times, Zhong Lishuo raised his head, coughed lightly, and the door opened a crack more than one person wide, and Chen Tong slipped in through the crack in the door. Walked straight up to Zhong Lishuo and saluted:

"Your Highness." Zhong Lishuo waved his hand, and Chen Tong stood up.

"Did you find anything?" Chen Tong bowed his head slightly:

"The provenance of the dagger that His Highness asked me to check is already known." When Zhong Lishuo heard this, he immediately came to his senses and sat his body upright:

"Say it quickly." Chen Tong looked up at Zhong Lishuo, took out the dagger that Jin Se used to assassinate Zhong Lishuo from his arms, and said:

"This dagger is well crafted, but there is nothing new about it. Only this material is produced in the Western Regions. And the dagger itself is limited by its curvature, it is not something that we produce. When Zhong Lishuo heard this, he frowned and said:

"The dagger of the Western Regions, my father was friendly with the son of the Western Regions when he was young, and it would not be special if some items from the Western Regions flowed in. Say whatever you want, don't learn from those Wenchen sellers, I'm really annoyed by this. When Chen Tong heard this, he felt a little embarrassed, so he stepped forward and pointed to a subtlety of the handle of the dagger and said:

"Your Highness might see this subtle word?" When Zhong Lishuo heard this, he hurriedly took the dagger in Chen Tong's hand, and against the moonlight, he couldn't see the small characters engraved on it, and he could only vaguely distinguish the word "Xuan", or it was written in Western Regions characters.

"What is this?" Zhong Lishuo was a little puzzled. Chen Tong saw that Zhong Lishuo didn't fully understand what he meant, so he took the candlestick on the desk and lit it. The dim light instantly illuminated the small room. Chen Tong placed the dagger in the candlelight, and at this time he could see the small words on the dagger more clearly.

Zhong Lishuo was looking at the few small words, and when he was hesitating about its meaning, Chen Tong took out another piece of white silk with a few words on it, and put it in front of Zhong Lishuo:

"Your Highness, this is the word translated from those Western Regions characters." Zhong Lishuo hurriedly took it, compared it with the words on the dagger, and then looked at the words on the white silk.

"Shangguan Xuan." These three words appeared on the white silk, Zhong Lishuo couldn't help but be stunned, and he faintly felt in his heart that there was some kind of connection between this Shangguan Xuan and Shangguan Hong. Zhong Lishuo was just about to raise his eyes and ask Chen Tong if he knew who this Shangguan Xuan was, when he saw a meaningful smile on Chen Tongyi's face:

"I know what Your Highness wants to ask. His Royal Highness knows that Shangguan Hong's family has a son and two daughters, and the only son is named Shangguan Yi. However, it was found out that Shangguan Hong also had a son, who was born to a singer who was given to him when His Majesty was not in charge of the government in order to get Shangguan Hong's minister. His Majesty wanted to use this woman and the child born to him to blackmail Shangguan Hong, but he didn't know that Shangguan Hong's wife was very jealous, and Chen Shangguan Hong forced the woman to death when he was not at home. Shangguan Hong was very angry when he learned about the incident and asked His Majesty to confess, but after His Majesty learned about the incident, he gave several beauties to Shangguan Hong. After Chen Tong finished speaking, Zhong Lishuo seemed to understand in his heart, but he didn't understand it very well:

If so, where did the woman's child go? How could the Shangguan Hong family not have the child's name on the genealogy? Chen Tong seemed to have guessed that Zhong Lishuo would ask him like this, and the corners of his mouth were provocative:

"I don't understand it, but now that I think about it, it's much clearer. He found out that Shangguan Hong was very interested in the woman given to him by His Majesty, although he was not very good to that woman on the surface, he was afraid that his wife would be unfavorable to that woman. A person on duty in Shangguan Hong's family once said that the child's name was Xuan'er. So you can think about who this Shangguan Xuan is. Zhong Lishuo listened and nodded, but there were still some doubts in his heart:

"There's nothing wrong with saying this, but this Shangguan Xuan has been without news since he was a child, and now he suddenly appears, isn't there something hidden? Besides, this dagger was originally taken from Jin Se, what does she have to do with Shangguan Xuan? Chen Tong looked at Zhong Lishuo, and a hint of cunning flashed in his eyes:

"Your Highness might as well think so." As he spoke, he leaned forward and said, "Your Highness, do you remember the man who rescued Jinse that day?" Zhong Lishuo lowered his eyes and nodded, and suddenly he was shocked:

"You mean him?" Chen Tong shook his head:

"It's just an inference that His Royal Highness already knows that Jin Se is the killer of the Phantom Pavilion, and the man is still here for her, and the relationship between the two of them is not ordinary, so it is very likely that the man is also the killer of the Phantom Pavilion. Besides, His Royal Highness already knew that Shangguan Hong was related to the Phantom Pavilion, and now there was this extra dagger, so Shangguan Hong was already inseparable. Zhong Lishuo suddenly squinted at Chen Tong in front of him, and a trace of doubt rose in his heart.

Chen Tong looks honest on the surface, when will he grow this Jiuqu heart, he is now useful to Zhong Lishuo, if it is useless, people like him will never dare to stay by his side.

Zhong Lishuo thought like this, and unconsciously had the intention of killing Chen Tong, but he felt that it was inappropriate, if he killed him now, no one would get close to him in the future, it was not the right time. Zhong Lishuo endured it, provoked a stiff smile, and nodded approvingly to Chen Tong:

"I don't even see that you still have such thoughts." When Chen Tong heard this, he always felt uncomfortable, but he couldn't say anything. Zhong Lishuo exhaled, got up, and retracted the dagger into his sleeve:

"Alright, you can go back." As soon as Zhong Lishuo finished speaking, he heard the door "squeak" and opened.