"So he chose the king to be the one who conceived the queen." Song Shiyin said.

"That's right, but the queen didn't know about it, and on that day, the king gave the queen a medicinal meal, and the queen, without knowing it, was sent to the place of sacrifice, and under the gaze of everyone, she was conceived with that witch."

"A month later, the medicine woman came to give the queen a pulse, and she was pregnant, and this time the king's plan was more than half successful, and he just had to wait until the queen gave birth to a child."

"But why did the queen think that she had given birth to not a god, but a conjoined baby girl whom the king considered to be a hoodoo?" Song Shiyin asked again.

The merchant had heard the news before, and he quickly replied, "Because a long, long time ago, another kingdom in the desert gave birth to a conjoined child, and soon after, that country was plagued."

"The people began to think that it was the conjoined baby who was ominous, and they angered the gods, and they were angry, and they could not do anything but watch their end, and it was not long before the country was destroyed by natural disasters."

"Yes, the king also thought that the conjoined baby girl born to the queen was ominous, and it was only at this time that he realized that his plan had failed, and wanted to make up for it as much as possible."

"If the gods are not born, then according to the prophecy, the city of Sand will fall in his hands."

Song Shiyin asked again, "Where did that Wu Zhu go?" Is there any news of him after that?"

The merchant said, "The king has put him to death, and after he has conceived with the queen, the king will not allow a man who has his wife to live, even if he has just communicated with the gods."

Song Shiyin was stunned for a moment, although she expected the ending of Wu Zhu, she still felt very sad, she was pitiful for the queen.

The woman, who had been betrayed by her husband and then put to death, was a pure victim in all the events, completely kept in the dark.

At this time, Song Shiyin asked again, "King, does he really love the queen?"

The merchant shook his head, and he asked rhetorically, "Even if you love no matter how much you love, you don't have the right to love yourself so much.".

Song Shiyin sighed, and then thought of another piece of news they had discovered.

She asked, "Do you know anything about the previous king?"

The merchant only knew one thing, that is, the one known to everyone in the team, the queen was actually very capable, and the previous king admired the queen very much.

In a flash of inspiration, Song Shiyin blurted out: "The king, he chose the queen as the person to borrow the pregnancy, is it possible that it was premeditated? He may have held a grudge against the queen for a long time, so he wanted to find an opportunity to eradicate the queen."

The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, and Song Shiyin felt that this might be the truth.

Hearing this, the rest of the team also felt that this guess was a bit reasonable.

If it is true that Song Shiyin said this, then it is very likely that the merchant did not lie, he really did not know about the prophecy, then it is very likely that all this is a play directed and acted by the king himself, and it is he who put the parchment in the pile of goods.

Song Shiyin looked at the merchant again and asked, "Whose hand did you pass through when your goods were handed over?"

The merchant replied, "I have made it all myself, and I have been in my care since the goods were brought to Sand City, and the ones presented to the king are also the carts I loaded myself, so I have never been able to figure out how the parchment got in."

Song Shiyin's thinking told the operation, she was silent and did not speak again, sorting out all the clues little by little, if she took all this as the starting point of what the king did, she quickly made a clear vein.

But for the king, his motives were not enough, and if it was only to kill the queen, there was no need to lay out such a big picture.

He could have found another reason to make the queen wrong, so as to achieve his own ends, what did the king want to give birth to the gods?

Song Shiyin slowly closed his eyes and sighed, "It's still not right, there must be some other reason for the king to do all this.

」

"Could it be that what the prophecy says is true? Is Shacheng really going to die?" Bian Tingyu blinked and asked.

"I don't think so." The merchant suddenly opened his mouth and answered the question.

His answer drew everyone to look at him, and he cleared his throat and gave the reason: "I have been with him for three years, although it has been rumored that the king of Shacheng is a good king who is diligent and loves the people."

"But he gave me the feeling of being very disconnected, sometimes he was able to sacrifice some of his own interests for the sake of the people of Shacheng, but other times, he put the lives of the entire people of Shacheng at risk for the sake of inconsequential things."

"Anyway, I don't understand him." The merchant frowned and shook his head.

Song Shiyin motioned to the team with his eyes, and they walked to the corner of the room together and talked in a whisper.

"Do you think what the merchant said is true?" Bian Tingyu asked.

"Each has its own rhetoric, but for now, if the merchant is lying, then what is he trying to do?" Song Shiyin frowned.

Wen Yu also agreed: "According to what he said, he is a merchant from the plains, and the merchant is very profitable, and the money he earns on both sides is enough for him to squander his whole life, so why come to Shacheng to make this trip to the troubled waters?"

"That's right, the final outcome of all these events is nothing more than the destruction of Sand City, what is the use of a merchant?" Shen Yueru also echoed.

"So, the one who doubts the most is the king now?" After listening to the words of the three of them, Bian Tingyu concluded.

"I don't think we're far from the truth." Xu Chengtian said with certainty.

Everyone in the team nodded.

"So what do we do next?" This was the first time Han Shan had participated in the discussion of the team.

"The merchant knows a lot, and he is currently the only one who has direct access to the king without suspicion, and we need to win him over to our side." Wen Yu looked at the merchant and replied.

"Understood." Song Shiyin nodded.

The team returned to where they were.

At this time, Song Shiyin said to the merchant, "I can make a deal with you, and we plan to investigate the truth of all this."

"After this is done, we can let you leave the palace, and you can continue to go back to your plains to do business, after all, Sand City is likely to be destroyed."

The merchant was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect that the result of their deliberation was to pull him into cooperation, and asked, "You want to deal with the king?"

"We just want to find out the truth, and you can see our ability, talking here for so long, but no guards are aware of it, it is more than enough to save one of you."

The merchant thought for a moment and agreed.

Because he is still in the palace, it is because he knows too much, the king will not let him go, and he himself is powerless, and he cannot break through the encirclement of the guards.

So he simply stayed in the palace, eating and drinking, but he also wanted to go out, and he didn't want to be trapped here for the rest of his life.

Song Shiyin asked him again, "You have told us all the news you know about Shacheng, the king, and the queen, and we need more clues."

The merchant thought for a moment, but he didn't know where to start, and he said, "Well, ask me questions, and I'll answer them."

The team brainstormed one by one, took turns, and then the merchant answered them one by one.

"How much do you know about the previous king?" Song Shiyin asked.

The merchant raised his head slightly, his eyes drifting to the left, he pondered, and then hesitated, "I know very little about the previous king, only that there is such a person, and people in the palace will hardly mention him."

"Every time someone mentions the former king, the king stops him and says it will cause him sadness, so I don't know what kind of person the former king was."

What the merchants said matched what they had received from the people.

Several members of the team felt that this was a suspicious point, just

Even the people knew that the previous king admired the queen very much, wouldn't the current king hold a grudge?

Did he really love the previous king as much as he himself said? Does even mentioning his deeds make him sad? There may be another hidden reason in this.

"What about the Queen? Have you ever seen her?" Wen Yu asked.

The merchant nodded, "I met once, it was three years ago, when I presented the treasure to the king, and he was so happy that he specially held a banquet, and at the banquet, he brought the queen with him."

"The queen is not very beautiful, but her temperament is dusty, there is a faint smile on the corner of her mouth, and she is dressed in a gorgeous palace dress, which looks both majestic and gentle."

"During the feast, the queen seldom spoke, but more of a listener, sometimes smiling and nodding, sometimes only saying a good word."

"I've only seen her once. But the people in the palace have a very good opinion of the queen, and almost every palace member has received the queen's favor, and in my opinion, she should be a good queen who is gentle and loves the people."

"It's just, alas, I didn't expect her to end up like this."

After reminiscing, the merchant sighed, his eyes flashing with pity and unbearability.

The team was silent for a moment, if the king did it on purpose, then he really deserved to die.

The conversation then returned to the prophecy.

"Have you seen the parchment on which the king said that the prophecy of the destruction of Sand City was written?" Xu Chengtian asked.

"I've seen that on the day the king questioned me, he threw the parchment in front of my eyes, it was almost a whole parchment, and it looked very old."

"There were a few words written in ink, and when I looked closer, I smelled the smell of ink, and I became suspicious, and secretly glued my fingers, leaving ink on my hands."

"At that time, I was only thinking about how to deal with the king's wrath, and I didn't think about it, I just thought that it was because of the humid environment that it would cause deinking."

"Now that I think about it, maybe that's a clue too."

This clue was a big step forward for the group, and if it was true as the merchant claimed, it was evidence that the king had forged a prophecy.

"What about books? Have you seen a book that contains the law for dealing with the destruction of the country?" The question of the prophecy just now inspired Han Shan, and he also struck while the iron was hot and turned the topic to this.

The merchant shook his head: "After the king learned about this method, he only came to me to ask, and he asked me if I had seen a similar method of sacrifice in the Central Plains, but I have never studied this kind of myth and ghost, so I can't give him any opinion."

"I haven't seen that book."

After saying that, everyone in the team felt a little regretful.

At this time, the merchant patted his head, and he remembered a little, and he said, "When I went to look for the king, he was looking through a book."

"His argument at the time was that all the books were collected from people's homes, but I am a businessman, and I can see that some of the books are of poor quality and have some oil spots and stains on them."

"But there are other books that are very well preserved, and the materials are very high-quality, and the method that the king said is that the books are made of high-quality materials, and I was a little puzzled, but I did not take it to heart."

"In this way, the clue becomes clear, the prophecy is forged by the king, and the book is also prepared by him in advance, but there are still two problems that have not been solved." Song Shiyin said in a deep voice.

"The first question, the king could have arranged all this secretly, so why did he want to pull someone into the game? The second question is that we still haven't figured out what his real motives are."