ILSITM Chapter 12

“Alright, let’s go through these ten cases in chronological order. First, let’s have Wen Rourou walk us through them,” I said, looking at Wen Rourou.

“Okay, I’ll start with the first case. The first case is the missing eunuch case, which happened in the first year of the Taichang reign. One night, after the palace gates were locked, someone discovered that a eunuch on night duty had mysteriously disappeared from the palace.”

“The second case is a theft, also in the first year of the Taichang reign. One night, in the Xian’an Palace, a priceless Chui Ji jade disc was stolen. A palace maid saw a masked person running out of the Xian’an Palace.”

“The third case is a murder, which happened in February of the first year of the Tianqi reign. Late one night, two palace maids were strangled to death…” Wen Rourou described this case in great detail.

“The fourth case happened in April of the first year of the Tianqi reign, an attempted murder. One night, a palace maid in the service of the Lady Fengsheng was attacked with a jade dagger by a masked person and nearly lost her life.”

“The fifth case happened in June of the first year of the Tianqi reign, a murder. One night, a palace eunuch on duty was strangled from behind.”

“The sixth case happened in August of the first year of the Tianqi reign, another attempted murder.”

“The seventh, eighth, and ninth cases were all murders, occurring in October, December of the first year of the Tianqi reign, and February of the second year of the Tianqi reign, respectively. In each case, a eunuch on night duty was strangled from behind.”

“The tenth case happened in April of the second year of the Tianqi reign, a theft. One night, in the Xian’an Palace, a painting by Zhang Zeduan, a painter of the Northern Song Dynasty, entitled *Bidding at Jinming Pool*, was stolen,” Wen Rourou had a good memory and knew the ten cases by heart.

“In these ten cases, the time between each case is exactly two months. I have a bold hypothesis: the missing person might be faking their disappearance, and that the person seeking wealth and committing murder is the very same missing person.” My hypothesis seemed outlandish, but it cleared many obstacles for subsequent investigation.

“You mean this person is still hiding in the palace?” Wen Rourou asked.

“According to all the files documenting these ten cases, the Northern Garrison Command searched almost every place in the Royal Palace after each incident, but found no clues,” Old Zhang said.

“Almost every place doesn’t mean every single place. There must be places that were overlooked, or places that weren’t searched at all,” I analyzed.

“Some places weren’t searched at all? Why weren’t those places searched?” Wen Rourou looked at me and asked.

“Was the Palace of Heavenly Purity where Emperor Zhu Youxiao lives searched? No. Because no one dares to search that place. Was the Tiger Cave searched? No. Because few people know about this cave, and even those who do wouldn’t dare search it. It’s the emperor’s private secret passage,” I said definitively.

“That’s right, it’s said that there’s a very secret cave beneath the Palace of Heavenly Purity called the Tiger Cave. It’s rumored that this cave leads directly to the inner palace. As for why such a secret passage was built? Some believe it’s to facilitate the emperor’s servants, others believe it’s for the convenience of the concubines to move around unnoticed, and of course, it’s more likely to be an escape route for the emperor in the Palace of Heavenly Purity in case of danger,” Old Lin added his understanding of the Tiger Cave after listening to my analysis and judgment.

In the afternoon, the four of us went to the Imperial Garden to meet Zhu Youxiao.

We first spent some time accompanying him in woodworking, and then I reported to him on the progress we had made in investigating the cases after we went to the Northern Garrison Command these past two days. Zhu Youxiao listened absentmindedly.

“Your Majesty, we want to enter the Tiger Cave to understand the situation inside. Please grant us permission,” I said, seeing that Zhu Youxiao was focused on his woodworking, deliberately interrupting his interest.

Zhu Youxiao was shocked when he heard what I said, and quickly put down the tool in his hand and asked, “The Tiger Cave is my private secret passage. What are you doing in there?”

“Your Majesty, we suspect that the ten cases you decreed are all the work of the same person, and we also suspect that this person may be hiding in the Tiger Cave, or entering and leaving the palace through this secret passage. Because of the needs of the investigation, we want to explore the Tiger Cave,” I revealed the direction of the case investigation.

After hearing what I said, Zhu Youxiao also felt that it made sense. Although he looked embarrassed, he still agreed to our request to enter the cave to investigate.

Under the steps of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, two eunuchs held a few lanterns in their hands.

We didn’t want the lanterns brought by the eunuchs.

The four of us were dressed for cave exploration, wearing headlamps and carrying compressed backpacks.

I took out my selfie stick and fixed my phone in the phone holder.

During this period, my fans have been growing by the thousands every day, and currently, I have nearly sixty million fans.

The entrance to the Tiger Cave was narrow, and no security door was installed.

Why wasn’t a security door installed? Think about it, the Palace of Heavenly Purity is the emperor’s bedroom, and the Royal Palace is already heavily guarded. In addition, there are guards around the Palace of Heavenly Purity, so installing a security door in a cave inside the Royal Palace would be redundant.

In the blazing hot July, the outside was unbearably hot, but as soon as we entered the cave, we immediately felt a coolness.

After walking for dozens of meters, the cave gradually widened, enough for four or five people to walk side by side, and the cave was about two meters high.

In this passage, we saw a lot of exquisitely crafted wooden objects placed on one side of the passage, both large and small.

The large objects were usually placed directly on the ground, including tables, chairs, beds, cabinets, rockeries, miniature palace models, and so on.

The small objects were placed on shelves, including Buddha statues, terracotta warriors, ship models, and so on, countless in number.

After walking for a while, we found another small cave on one side of the passage. The entrance to the cave was narrow, allowing only one person to pass through, and people had to bend over to enter.

Now, we have three choices.

Option 1: We ignore the small cave for now and continue walking through the large cave.

Option 2: We divide our four people into two teams, one team walks through the large cave, and one team walks through the small cave.

Option 3: We go through the small cave first.

After discussing it, we all agreed to go through the small cave first.

After entering the small cave, I don’t know how long we walked, but I, walking in the front, found that there was no way to go forward.

“It seems that there is no way forward, everyone stop,” I turned my head and said to Wen Rourou, Old Zhang, and Old Lin, who were behind me.

“How could there be no way forward?” Old Zhang and Old Lin said in unison.

I carefully examined the end of the cave with my headlamp, up, down, left, and right, and did not find a new cave entrance.

“Let’s turn around and go back the same way. The small cave has reached the end,” I made a gesture of surrender and then lifted the stone wall of the cave roof with both palms.

With a “bang,” my body suddenly fell, as if I had fallen vertically into another cave.

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