I traveled back to the Southern Song Dynasty and was actually outmaneuvered by Yue Fei.

Chapter 038: Secret Assassination

"Please come in, Miss Qin. I'll have Chun Tao prepare another room."

Shen Qingci placed the tray on the desk, turned and walked out. She paused at the door but did not turn back.

Qin Keqing stood at the door of the study for a while, raindrops dripping from the hem of her skirt.

She looked in the direction Shen Qingci had left, lost in thought.

"She's nervous," Qin Keqing said softly.

Zhao Bozong glanced at her.

"It's not because I came. She's nervous because she arrived here first but doesn't know how to stay. Your Highness, this Miss Shen has come to entrust her life to someone, hasn't she?"

Zhao Bocong did not answer.

But he knew in his heart that Qin Keqing's ability to judge people was even more impressive than her ability to gather intelligence.

Chun Tao was quick and efficient, and in no time she had prepared another room in the side courtyard, which was separated from the room where Shen Qingci lived by only one wall.

Zhao Bocong asked Liu An to help move things, because Qin Keqing's luggage was really too simple.

A coarse cloth bundle contained two changes of clothes, half a soapberry wrapped in paper, and a copy of the Diamond Sutra with frayed edges. There wasn't even a bronze mirror for dressing.

"Miss Qin, the side courtyard is small, but it's quite quiet." Shen Qingci stood at her door, watching Chun Tao make up the bedding for Qin Keqing. "If anything is missing, just let me know."

Qin Keqing nodded her thanks and pushed open the door to enter the house.

The moment the door closed, Shen Qingci turned around and her eyes met Zhao Bozong's.

The rain intensified again.

There were only the two of them in the corridor.

"How long has Your Highness known Miss Qin?" Shen Qingci asked.

"Two months."

"Does she know you are the Prince of Puan?"

"Know."

Shen Qingci remained silent for a while, then looked down at her hands folded in front of her. There was a thin red mark on her fingers, from when she pricked herself with a needle while embroidering that afternoon.

"The way she looked at you," Shen Qingci said, "didn't seem like a servant seeing a prince."

"What does that look like?"

"It's like one person seeing another, rather than seeing an identity."

Zhao Bocong remained silent.

"Qingci," he called her name.

Shen Qingci raised her head.

"No matter what happens, your connection to your hometown of Xiuzhou will never change in my eyes."

Shen Qingci looked at him, her eyelashes covered with fine raindrops, whether from the rain outside the corridor or something else, she couldn't tell.

She nodded, turned around and went back to her room, gently closing the door behind her.

Zhao Bocong returned to his study and sat alone at his desk for a long time.

Qin Keqing was an unexpected variable in all his plans, and Shen Qingci was an unforeseen outcome of all his schemes.

Two women, one is the eyes in the darkness, the other is the light in the world.

He wasn't sure what would happen between them.

But he was certain of one thing: Qin Hui's gray-clad man had been loitering outside Shunhe Tea Shop for two days with a chipped copper coin, and he didn't have much time left.

It was past midnight.

Zhao Bozong was awakened by a series of urgent knocks on the door.

Liu An's voice came from outside the door, extremely low, carrying something he had never heard from Liu An before—fear.

"Your Highness, Your Highness—something has happened!"

Zhao Bozong put on his coat, got up, and opened the door.

Liu An stood outside the door, holding a lantern in his hand. The light cast flickering shadows on his face, and his forehead was covered in sweat.

"What is it?"

"A body has been pulled from the moat." Liu An's voice trembled. "The Qin Prime Minister's men are searching the entire city for the assassin. The Criminal Investigation Department and the Imperial Guards have sealed off three alleys in the west of the city, and all residents are to be questioned. Shunhe Teahouse is also—"

Shunhe Tea Shop.

Zhao Bocong's expression changed slightly.

"Has Manager Wang left?"

"They're gone. They left the city before sunset."

Where is Qin Keqing?

"Miss Qin is still in the side courtyard. When I returned, Chun Tao was guarding her there."

Liu An took a breath. "Your Highness, the body we pulled from the moat was wearing gray clothes. It was the same person who met with me at the back gate every evening."

The man in gray is dead.

Zhao Bozong's mind was suddenly jolted, but he didn't let the shock show on his face.

"Go to the side courtyard and have Miss Qin bring all her belongings to the study. As for Miss Shen, have Chun Tao accompany her; don't go anywhere else."

Liu An responded and ran towards the side yard.

Zhao Bozong strode towards the study, and the moment he pushed open the door, several key points were already connected in his mind.

The man in gray was part of Qin Hui's intelligence network in Lin'an, specifically responsible for surveillance and rendezvous. Liu An, Qin Hui's spy planted at the entrance of the Prince's Mansion, reported Zhao Bocong's daily life to the man in gray every evening.

The contact person for this key piece is now dead, dead in the moat.

This means that someone else acted before him.

Is it Qin Keqing?

Impossible, Qin Keqing has been staying in the side courtyard all night.

Did Li Bao's men infiltrate Lin'an from Zhenjiang? Or did Niu Gao send assassins from Xiangyang?

Or perhaps it was Yue Yinping.

But he doesn't have time to think about it now.

When Qin Keqing pushed open the study door with her bundle in her arms, her hair was disheveled, indicating that she had just gotten out of bed, but her eyes were clear and she showed no signs of sleepiness.

She placed the bundle on the desk, took out a copy of the roster that Zhijia had left her, turned to a certain page, and handed it to Zhao Bocong.

"This is the record of the line from the man in gray."

Zhao Bozong looked down. The gray-clad man's name was not on the copy of the roster, but there was a note: Back gate of Prime Minister Qin's residence, contact person unknown, frequency: once every three days.

"He is not one of Qin Hui's men," Qin Keqing said. "He has another residence outside the mansion. He goes to the back gate of the Qin mansion every three days to receive instructions and then assigns tasks to his spies in various places. Today is the day he receives his task."

"So he went to see Qin Hui tonight."

"Or perhaps they met with someone close to Qin Hui, and then his body appeared in the moat." Qin Keqing paused. "Your Highness, Qin Hui is cleaning up his own network."

Zhao Bozong looked at her.

"The man in gray went to Shunhe Teahouse today and showed off a copper coin with a missing corner. His whereabouts have been exposed, and he has been targeted by another group of people. Qin Hui never shows mercy to his exposed spies."

Zhao Bocong remained silent for a long time before turning to Liu An.

Did you see him this evening?

Liu An nodded with a panicked expression.

"This evening, as usual, I went to the back gate. He brought new instructions, saying that Prime Minister Qin is going to investigate the Shunhe Tea Shop area recently, and that I should keep a close eye on how often His Highness goes to the west of the city. He also asked if I had seen a girl surnamed Qin."

Qin Keqing stopped holding the pen.

"I said I've never seen him." Liu An swallowed. "Then he left, heading west of the city. An hour later, his body floated up from the moat."

Zhao Bozong stood up and paced around the study.

He needed to confirm one thing: whether Qin Hui himself had killed the man in gray, or whether someone else had done it.

If Qin Hui cleared the area himself, it means that the man in gray had been exposed for too long and had become a burden.

But why tonight of all times? And why right after he went to Shunhe Tea House and tested Qin Keqing with the chipped copper coin?

There is another possibility.

Someone knew he had gone to Shunhe Teahouse today, knew that Qin Hui's spies had followed him all the way, and guessed that the man in gray would report to Qin Hui, so they preemptively silenced the man in gray.

This person knew he was investigating the intelligence network and was protecting him in secret, but chose not to show himself.

Could it be Feng Yi? Or Zhao Shiyi?