My Wife is Unbeatable in the Whole World, Touch Me If You Dare!

Ministry of Personnel.

Archives.

Several figures descended from the sky, landing softly in the courtyard.

In the dead of night, Li Nuo wouldn't dare visit the Ministry of Personnel alone.

But with Jiaren Yiren and Anning accompanying him, he felt full of security.

Li Nuo had already investigated; there would be people on duty at the Ministry of Personnel at night, but security was lax. Approximately every hour, someone would pass by the outside of the Archives.

He asked Jiaren and Yiren to stand guard in the courtyard while he and Anning went into the Archives to search.

There were two doors to the Archives. The first door was the entrance to the Zhanggu Office, and inside there was another door that led to the actual storage room.

Although both doors were locked, to Li Nuo, any lock was as good as nonexistent.

With just a thought, the two large locks hanging on the storeroom clicked open.

Inside the storeroom, there were many rows of bookshelves, stretching farther than the eye could see. They split up to search, Li Nuo for He Dong's files, and Anning for Xu Zhi's.

Li Nuo, carrying a candle, searched along one of the rows of bookshelves.

He had previously learned that to facilitate searching, the archives were categorized by surname. He would find what he wanted by looking through the officials with the surname He.

The surname He wasn't a common one, and the officials' files with that surname didn't even fill up one bookshelf.

Li Nuo quickly found what he was looking for.

He opened the file, moved closer to the candlelight, and looked up.

He Dong became an Advanced Scholar in the twenty-second year of Zhisheng and his first official position was that of Pharmacy Head at the Medicine Storage Bureau in the Eastern Palace.

All arrangements in the Eastern Palace were modeled after the court; the Medicine Storage Bureau was a medical institution under the Eastern Palace, dedicated to serving the Crown Prince, similar to the Imperial Hospital of the court.

The Medicine Storage Bureau was headed by the Medicine Storage Bureau Minister, assisted by the Medicine Storage Bureau Prime Minister. Whenever the Crown Prince fell ill, the attendant doctors would diagnose and recommend treatment, while the Pharmacy Head and medicine boys were responsible for the tasks of preparing and processing the medicine.

Although the position of Pharmacy Head was not high and did not carry much power, it was sensitive and important.

After the dissolution of the Eastern Palace, He Dong joined the Imperial Hospital, and the highest position he reached was that of a Secondary seventh-rank Imperial Physician Prime Minister.

He Dong was now dead; four years ago, he accidentally drowned during a boat trip.

Another Eastern Palace officer, another accidental death.

However, knowing about the cases of Wu Zongguang and Zheng Tianxing, Li Nuo would not believe that He Dong's death was an accident.

At that moment, Anning's voice came from not far off the shelves: "Found it!"

Li Nuo returned He Dong's file to its place and quickly walked toward her, taking the file she held.

Xu Zhi became an Advanced Scholar in the twenty-second year of Zhisheng; his first official position was that of Garment Head at the Inner Straight Bureau of the Eastern Palace, responsible for managing the Crown Prince's clothing. After leaving the Eastern Palace, he also entered the Taichang Si and reached the position of a Standard seventh-rank Chief Clerk.

Three years ago, he died of poisoning after eating a poorly processed pufferfish.

Anning looked at Li Nuo and asked, "Did you find anything?"

Li Nuo put this file back in its place too and said, "We'll talk when we get back."

With Jiaren and Yiren present, they smoothly returned to Li Mansion despite the curfew in place.

As soon as they entered the room, Anning impatiently asked, "What did you actually discover? Hurry up, you're killing me with suspense!"

Li Nuo now confirmed, saying, "Zhao He was silenced because he had come across a certain secret."

Anning, unable to wait, asked, "What secret, and who silenced him?"

Li Nuo said, "The words of King You today are not very credible. He's clearly hiding something. If nothing unexpected happened, it was King You who killed Zhao He. Moreover, Zhao He was murdered right after leaving King You's Mansion, suggesting that whatever he discovered must have been a substantial secret. So significant that King You would risk being suspected in order to kill him as soon as possible..."

Anning grew more puzzled as she listened and asked, "What kind of secret is it?"

Li Nuo had no reason to hide anything from Anning and said, "After the Crown Prince passed away from illness, many former Eastern Palace officials died under mysterious circumstances in recent years. I suspect..."

Before Li Nuo could finish, Anning said with shock, "You suspect that the Crown Prince didn't die from illness but was instead murdered? And the perpetrator was King You?"

As a practitioner of Legalism, she virtually understood with just a hint.

Li Nuo nodded and said, "Since Zhao He, as a member of the Archives, had access to all officials' files, I suspect that it was due to uncovering this event that he was silenced by King You."

Anning still had a doubt and asked, "But if this is really something elder brother King You did, why would Zhao He dare to go to him? That doesn't make sense..."

Indeed, it was something that seemed inexplicable.

Would a mere ninth-grade official of the Ministry of Personnel dare to threaten King You?

Even if he were looking for someone, it should have been King Han, King Chun, or another prince.

Of course, the smartest approach would not be to confront anyone but to keep the matter to himself.

Such an affair, if true, and once investigated, would surely result in bloodshed and chaos throughout Chang'an. There's no way a minor ninth-grade official could escape unscathed.

This case, as far as it has been investigated, is no longer significant why King You wanted to silence Zhao He.

This case will be the biggest one Li Nuo has encountered since he began practicing Legalism.

Involving the former Crown Prince and the current Prince, if he could clear up this case, the reward would also be enormous.

He had just broken through to the Third Realm and might be promoted directly into the Fourth Realm.

And Anning...

The same case meant something entirely different to Anning and him.

To Li Nuo, it was merely a big case.

But for Anning... the dead were her close kin, and the murderer was also her kin, avenging kin with great justice led to a maxed-out Legalism BUFF...

In such circumstances, the cultivation she gained would be far more than what Li Nuo could acquire.

A single case might allow her to advance directly into the Fifth Realm.

Li Nuo looked at Anning and asked, "Do you remember what disease the Crown Prince had when he died?"

At that moment, Li Anning's expression also seemed somewhat confused.

Could King You, her elder brother, possibly be the killer of the Crown Prince, her brother?

The impact of this realization was too great for her.

After a long time, she came back to her senses and said, "I was very young at that time; I am not clear about the specific illness, but I remember that my brother the Crown Prince had a lung disease, he would be out of breath after walking a bit, and later he died because of that lung condition..."

Although Li Nuo didn't have the cultivation of the Medical School, he was very familiar with it.

The True Qi of the Medical School had a remarkable effect on treating external injuries, almost producing immediate results.

But for non-traumatic conditions, unless one was of a High Realm in the Medical School, their effectiveness was very limited.

On the surface, the Crown Prince died of lung disease, but from the deaths of these Eastern Palace officials, those hidden in the shadows seemed to be very skilled at creating perfect accidental deaths...

If the Crown Prince's death was related to this case and it was cleared up, the reward would be unimaginable.

To thoroughly investigate this case, Li Nuo needed a complete list of Eastern Palace officials.

The next day, Li Nuo arranged with his wife to have lunch at the Song Residence after leaving in the morning.

After lunch, just as Song Zhe was preparing to return to his government office, he suddenly heard Li Nuo's voice from behind, "Lord Father-in-law, please wait."

Song Zhe turned around and asked, "What is it?"

After hearing Li Nuo out, he expressed his surprise, "What do you want the list of Eastern Palace officials for?"

Li Nuo said, "There is a case that requires this list."

Song Zhe shook his head and said, "Unfortunately, two months ago, when the Ministry of Rites was organizing the Archives, some files were found to be damaged by insects, and the list of Eastern Palace officials was among those destroyed documents..."

Li Nuo paused for a moment and asked, "Aren't there backups of the files?"

Song Zhe said, "Those were not considered important documents; it's impossible for them to have backups. Once destroyed, they are gone forever."

After cautioning his Lord Father-in-law not to tell anyone else about this matter, Li Nuo left the Song Residence.

It was probably not a coincidence that these documents were destroyed by insects.

Clearly, some people did not want anyone to investigate the list of Eastern Palace officials from those years.

It was not very realistic to go through the Archives file by file.

Li Nuo walked into the Honglu Si and sighed lightly, a flash of inspiration struck him as he entered the government office.

No, besides the Ministry of Personnel, there was another department that would keep a record of officials' names.

It was the Honglu Si!

The Honglu Si was responsible for the etiquette of the court ceremonies, especially the grand ceremonies at the beginning of each year, which were the focus of the Honglu Si's work.

During those days, all ministries of the court, including the Eastern Palace officials, had to take turns presenting their duties to the emperor.

The Honglu Si had to plan everything in advance, including the order of the departments' presentation to the court, the standing positions of the officials, etc.

Therefore, the Honglu Si must have their list.

Li Nuo was truly a confused participant, having overlooked this matter.

This also made him somewhat reflective.

He entered the Honglu Si with a sense that there was some divine arrangement at play.

He had been serving well as a Minister of the Rites, when suddenly the court inexplicably assigned him to the Honglu Si.

Had he not been assigned to the Honglu Si, he would not have attended the Prime Minister of Guanglu Si's funeral and would not have made that significant discovery.

Without entering the Honglu Si, he also would not have been able to access the list of Eastern Palace officials from over a decade ago.

Could all this really be the will of the heavens?