Chapter 42

Murder mystery games are role-playing detective and puzzle-solving games. The gameplay primarily consists of self-introductions and a timeline presentation, the first round of evidence gathering and a focused discussion, the second round of evidence gathering and a focused discussion, and finally, voting.

Xue Jin'an had a vague premonition that this case was intertwined with the Consort Zhen case, and the Emperor would inevitably hold something back. This game had arrived just in time.

After all, as long as someone cast a vote during the voting phase, someone would definitely be voted out.

Xue Jin'an entered the game without hesitation.

[You have been matched to the scenario "The Prince's Temptation". You have joined the room. Your role is the Host.]

Xue Jin'an had expected to be the Detective, but to his surprise, he ended up as the Host in charge of keeping the process moving. However, upon seeing that the Detective was the Noble Imperial Consort Min, he understood the reason.

There was no Empress in the palace, and the Noble Imperial Consort possessed the authority to manage the six palaces. The assassination at the Imperial Study and this frightened-horse incident both occurred within the inner court, falling strictly within her jurisdiction—that was the first reason. The second and most important reason was that the Emperor had not revoked her authority to search the palaces and investigate cases.

As a side note, murder mystery games originally only featured three types of role cards: the Detective, the Suspects, and the Murderer, with the murderer's card hidden. Now, after the game had been adaptively modified through magical forces, alongside the suspects' cards for the imperial concubines, many strange new cards had been added.

For example, the Emperor was the Chief Judge, possessing the authority to veto a voting result once and forcefully order a revote; the Grand Empress Dowager was the Jury, possessing voting rights; Li鹤春 and the Chief Guard were special NPCs who would take action at specific moments.

As for the princes' identity cards, they were all gray and inscribed only with their birth order rather than their names. They were extremely perfunctory and sloppy, resembling mere background props, which made the Fifth Prince's red card reading "Victim (Mild)" stand out very conspicuously.

Xue Jin'an could not help but wonder: if the Third Prince were here, would the bracketed text on his identity card read "Severe" or "Critical"?

The rashes on the Third Prince had been preliminarily confirmed not to be an epidemic, but the imperial physicians could not be certain whether they were contagious, so he remained confined to the racecourse, burning with a high fever and unconscious to this day.

This had also resulted in Consort Xian glaring fixedly at Consort De with bloodshot eyes, wishing she could rush forward and strangle her to death.

While thinking along these lines, Xue Jin'an had not expected that Noble Imperial Consort Min would not even survive the first round of focused discussion before being stripped of her detective status.

They were still in the timeline presentation phase now. Several suspects were currently in their respective palaces, all claiming they only learned of the racecourse incident upon receiving news from the Imperial Hospital. Even Consort De gave this exact explanation.

"You're lying!" Consort Xian immediately slammed the table and stood up, pointing at her with a cold laugh. "That is your racecourse! When an event as monumental as an imperial prince falling from a horse occurred, not a single person reported it to you? Lin Yuenu, is it that you are so deeply unpopular that you cannot even control your own racecourse, or do you harbor malicious intentions all along, deliberately plotting to harm the prince?!"

Consort De remained completely unfazed by her accusations. She finished sipping the tea in her mouth before standing up. "Leaving aside what benefit harming the Third Prince would bring me, let us merely discuss this: if I truly intended to harm a prince, why would I choose my own territory? Wasn't the Imperial stables a better choice?"

"Naturally, because it is easier for you to tamper with things on your own turf!" Consort Xian argued with a self-righteous air. "Huan'er favors fierce horses, yet you demanded all the fierce horses be transferred away, luring Huan'er to your racecourse. What a truly venomous heart!"

Upon hearing this, Consort De knew she was utterly immersed in her own flawed logic; no amount of arguing would sway her. She simply gave up and repeated, "This consort has no reason to harm the Third Prince."

"How could you not?!" Consort Xian immediately seized upon this point, pressing her aggressively. "My son is about to turn fifteen and enter court to participate in state affairs. Doesn't that stand in the First Prince's way? Therefore, you struck first while the iron was hot, opting to kill him while his wings are not yet fully grown, so that no one else would contest the succession with your son!"

Consort Xian's words left everyone present utterly speechless. Could a matter like vying for the imperial succession be spoken of so brazenly on an occasion like this? Putting aside what an unmitigated scandal it was for imperial brothers to fight among themselves, simply consider that the Emperor was still sitting right here. Discussing the succession to the throne right before his face—wasn't this directly cursing the Emperor to die?

Even the Emperor could not help pulling a long face and reprimanding her sternly, "What nonsense are you spouting!"

Although it was a reprimand, his tone was not severe, sounding more like a reminder. Nor was the Emperor truly angry—completely unlike the emperor in the original text who, upon seeing an aging hawk, suspected it was a metaphor for his own declining years and a curse upon his life, subsequently throwing the falconer into prison.

In the original text, he had also severely berated the Sixth Prince, who had submitted a memorial pleading for the falconer, scolding him for failing to speak clearly yet attempting to act as a legal advocate: "Are you misleading the youth, or are you putting on airs specifically to show to Us?"

Because of a stutter, the Sixth Prince had suffered endless ridicule since childhood, but Consort Shu had never made him feel inferior, focusing solely on guiding him to read more so that his character would not be warped. He had never imagined that one day he would suffer an attack from the person closest to him.

The Sixth Prince instantly turned pale. Upon leaving the Qianqing Palace, his mind was so dazed that he missed a step and tumbled all the way down the heavenly stone stairs. Thereafter, he always claimed illness and refused to attend court, until the Eighth Prince ascended the throne and enfeoffed him as a Prince of the First Rank, whereupon he finally made a public appearance and brought Consort Shu—now a Dowager Princess—into his estate to wait upon her.

The current Emperor was still in the prime of his life, gradually gathering political authority into his own hands. He did not fear death, nor did he take these unintentional remarks to heart.

Not only was he not angry, but he even helped patch things up for Consort Xian with a couple of remarks. "We know you are anxious and grieving for Third Huan, but this matter is of grave importance; you must not jump to rash conclusions."

Consort Xian, however, mistakenly believed the Emperor was supporting her. Suddenly shedding tears, she whirled around, knelt solidly on the ground, and cried out in agony with red-rimmed eyes, "Your Majesty! My Huan'er is still so young, yet he has been harmed by a vile and venomous woman, and his life or death remains unknown to this day. I beg Your Majesty to dispense justice for my son!"

The Emperor was accustomed to Noble Consort Rong's pear-blossom-in-the-rain, soft-spoken weeping and complaints. It was his first time witnessing Consort Xian pull such a stunt, and her sudden loud outburst left his ears ringing. Looking at her uninhibited weeping posture, he could not help but slightly avert his gaze.

The Emperor looked toward the other party involved. "Consort De, what do you have to say?"

"A fabricated crime needs no excuse," Consort De stood up, bowed to the Emperor, and then turned to Consort Xian. "What this consort has not done, she has not done. Consort Xian, stop using your foolish brain to make random, baseless speculations about me; it is merely laughable."

"You!" Consort Xian, driven to the extreme of fury, raised her hand to deliver a slap.

With a crisp sound, it was Consort Xian's face that turned aside, a burning red welt blooming across her cheek.

In the prolonged silence, only Consort De's calm voice could be heard as she dropped Consort Xian's hand and asked, "Consort Xian, younger sister, have you calmed down now?"

Xue Jin'an keenly observed the corners of Consort De's mouth curve upward by three pixels, forming a smile visible only to Consort Xian.

"Vile woman!" Provoked into a frenzy, Consort Xian indeed lunged forward to beat Consort De. Consort De appeared frightened enough to take several steps back, her footing unsteady as if she were about to crash into a chair, but her hand actually reached out and grazed a riding crop resting on the table.

The Emperor's face sank. The Grand Empress Dowager, by contrast, continued sipping her tea with utter composure. The princes, who had never witnessed such a scene in their lives, stared with their jaws dropping open.

"Audacious!" the Emperor barked sternly. The special NPCs Li Chun and the Chief Guard were triggered and stepped forward to block them.

Xue Jin'an made a quick calculation and regretfully realized that this catfight of palace intrigue was destined not to be performed to the end. He simply took the initiative to enter the next phase, directly mututing everyone with a single click as he began reciting his lines: "We will now begin the first round of evidence gathering and focused discussion..."

His words carried more weight than an imperial decree. Almost the exact instant they left his mouth, the movements of Consort De and Consort Xian froze, and everyone returned to their original positions.

Evidence gathering had already been completed when they entered the Qianqing Palace. Xue Jin'an's magical power allowed him to view sporadic fragments of footage, much like watching a variety show version of a murder mystery game.

Aside from the various imperial concubines issuing commands within their palaces to search for clues, there was also the scene of the autopsy at the Imperial Hospital.

Ordinarily, there should have been only four corpses to examine: Zheng Xi from the Imperial Study, the assassin, Cuiyun discovered in the dry well of the Cold Palace, and the deceased imperial stable eunuch.

—Yes, that's right. The major event involving the delayed treatment of the Third Prince—an incident that left the imperial physicians tight-lipped and terrified—was the discovery of that eunuch's corpse lying horizontally upon the steps outside the Qianqing Palace.

His appearance in death was utterly horrifying: blood leaked from his seven orifices, his eyes stared and bulged, and his expression was distorted in agony. Judging by his purplish lips and bloodless fingertips, he had died of heart failure induced by poisoning.

It bore a striking resemblance to the manner of death of the assassin in the Imperial Study.

In the footage, the imperial physicians examined the body in turns. Suddenly, a relatively young physician seemed to discover something; he hesitated for a moment before whispering a few words to Head Physician Hu. The latter turned pale with shock and fright, abruptly leading a team to tear the archives of the Imperial Hospital upside down, ultimately unearthing two long-sealed medical case records.

Xue Jin'an's eyes immediately flashed with the images of two other corpses: one was an infant still in swaddling clothes, its tiny hands clutching a longevity lock; the other was a toddler of two or three years old, dressed in a bright yellow crown prince's ceremonial robe.

Xue Jin'an recognized that longevity lock; the former should be the Tenth Prince, born of Consort Zhen. As for the latter, Xue Jin'an had never seen him before, and his facial contours were entirely unfamiliar, but judging by his attire, he should be Xue Zhang, the second son of the late Empress Xiaojingyi.

At that time, the Emperor had already been initiated into affairs of the state for several years, yet the palace boasted only a single imperial prince, Xue Zhang. All the civil and military officials at court worried that the Emperor's imperial lineage was too thin, and with the precedents of the Emperor Yuan passing away three years after ascending the throne and the late Emperor dying prematurely in his prime still fresh in mind, the ministers successively submitted memorials requesting the establishment of a crown prince.

Naturally, the Emperor raised no objections and drafted the imperial edict establishing the crown prince, waiting only for the ceremonial attire to be completed so that an announcement could be made to Heaven on an auspicious day. Who could have anticipated that the crown-prince-designate would suddenly fall ill and die, causing the Empress to fall bedridden with grief?

Xue Zhang was ultimately buried with the rites of a crown prince. The ceremonial robes meant for celebration became his mourning garments. Because of this, the Emperor's dressing habits had altered; he henceforth favored wearing dark and crimson dragon robes.

So the claim in the original text that the Consort Zhen case was linked to the affairs of the former Empress Xiaojingyi was not a random, baseless accusation after all. Did the Emperor know about this?

Xue Jin'an watched the footage where an imperial physician, clutching the medical records, hurried toward the Qianqing Palace in a rush. In a fit of supreme fury, the Emperor cleared his desk in a single motion and proceeded to smash half of the Qianqing Palace to pieces.

Although the footage flashed by in an instant—too fast for the data to be fully collected—Xue Jin'an reacted with lightning speed and captured a screenshot. Enlarging it for a closer look, he indeed discovered that while the Emperor was consumed with rage, he showed no trace of astonishment.

Xue Zhang had not truly died of illness; he had perished from a gu-poison. Did Empress Xiaojingyi know? When he had previously established a Bluetooth connection with Li Chun and shared his field of vision, hearing those abruptly cut-off words, "Back then, the Empress," did it signify that...

The Tenth Prince had also died of gu-poison. Did Consort Zhen know?

Also related to gu-poison was the Fifth Prince; his heart condition stemmed from this very source. In other words, Noble Consort Rong possessed gu-poison in her hands. Did Consort Zhen know about these matters as well?

Xue Jin'an swept his gaze across everyone present in the hall. "The evidence gathering time has ended. We now enter the first round of focused discussion."

The moment his voice fell, Consort Xian could not wait to leap out once more. "Your Majesty, this concubine possesses evidence that Consort De murdered my son!"

[Consort Xian presents the evidence: "Imperial Stables Ledger"]

Consort Xian: "You claim you have no reason to harm my son? That is utter nonsense! It is clearly because my son discovered that you were privately illicitly trading imperial horses with the Imperial Stables. Fearing that your misdeeds would come to light, you sought to murder my son by means of the frightened horses! Do you confess to this or not?"