Forcing me to become a concubine? Remarrying the Ninth Prince, she'll be pregnant all over the

Lin Wantang was so remorseful that she wanted to beat herself to death.

How could she forget this, be careless and underestimate her enemy, and treat Shen Huai'an like a fool?

In his previous life, there was also an incident where tribute from Luzhou was looted and a luminous pearl was stolen. The emperor punished Wei Wujiu for this and ordered him to investigate within a time limit, but by the time the emperor's birthday was approaching, there were still no clues or leads.

Finally, on the day of his birthday, Shen Huai'an arrived late, apologized, and said that he had received a secret report and led men to pursue and seize the goods. He eventually caught the robbers at the Dingxian government office and recovered boxes of tribute and luminous pearls.

Shen Huai'an pleaded guilty again, because the Dingxian branch office belonged to him, and Li Huaimin, the prefect of Luzhou, was someone he had strongly recommended. He had been corrupt before and then theft occurred. He could not escape blame in terms of morality and reason, and asked the emperor to punish him severely.

The emperor did have doubts, but at the time, many of his ministers discussed the matter and strongly advised against it, saying that if the crown prince was indeed behind all of this, why not hide the looted tribute and luminous pearls elsewhere, instead of hiding them in his own estate? Wasn't that just protesting too much? Clearly, someone was deliberately stirring up trouble and framing His Highness the crown prince.

After much political maneuvering, the emperor finally listened to his ministers and dispelled his doubts about Shen Huai'an. Instead of punishing him, the emperor bestowed upon him many rewards. The bond between father and son, and the loyalty between ruler and subject, were thus well solidified through this incident.

This was also a clever move by Shen Huai'an after he had deliberately created a false impression in his previous life.

Lin Wantang thought that in this life, Shen Huai'an would act the same way he did in the previous life, but...

"Young master... no, does the young lady also think that Miss Liu's leg ailment is inappropriate?"

The doctor spoke first, as if he had found a kindred spirit, and became more talkative: "Oh, young lady, you are intelligent. It seems you and I are thinking the same thing. I just felt that after practicing medicine for so many years, I couldn't be wrong!"

"The pulse diagnosis of that Miss Liu shows no sign of her leg ailment at all; on the contrary, she is full of energy, as if she has practiced martial arts for many years and has a very strong internal strength. As for her two so-called injured legs, even through the blanket, I couldn't find any dislocation or fracture of the bones..."

The doctor had already said these words to Wei Wujiu, and Wei Wujiu didn't want to hear them again, so he interrupted and said, "I understand, doctor, please leave. Someone will give you double the travel expenses."

The doctor was taken aback, wanting to say a few more words, but a guard in imperial guards approached and gestured for him to leave. Before leaving, the guard warned, "Doctor Liu, you must not spread any information about tonight, otherwise..."

The doctor jumped in fright and quickly nodded, "I know, I know! I promise I'll keep my mouth shut and won't let a single word slip out!"

Only then did the Imperial Guards lead the doctor away.

With no one else around, Wei Wujiu looked down at Lin Wantang again. Before he could speak, another Imperial Guard rushed over.

"Reporting back, sir, all the tunnels have been explored, and twenty-three young women of varying ages, none of whom are locals, have been found. They have all been rescued, but the women are unwell, and several are seriously injured. What should we do?"

Wei Wujiu frowned, and instead of giving orders, asked, "Have you found anyone else in the tunnel?"

"Reporting to your Excellency, Commander Zhang and his men captured more than a dozen of the household guards. They were tyrannical and reckless. After being subdued, they all took poison and are now dead."

Wei Wujiu didn't find it particularly strange, so he just hummed in agreement and asked, "Anything else?"

"Reporting to you, sir, that's all for now."

Wei Wujiu and Lin Wantang exchanged a glance, understanding each other perfectly. Wei Wujiu then instructed the Imperial Guards, "Take this young master Lin over there. Let her examine those girls and treat their illnesses to save their lives."

"yes!"

The Imperial Guards respectfully rose and led Lin Wantang to the backyard.

The twenty-three girls who were rescued were almost all injured, with varying degrees of injury, but fortunately they were all superficial wounds. Lin Wantang was busy treating them and also asked them a few comforting questions.

Unfortunately, those girls all suffered the same fate as Yong'an: they were kidnapped in a daze and then abused and humiliated by the servants. Their suffering was indescribable, but none of them had direct contact with Liu Yuniang or Wang Hu.

In other words, it cannot be identified.

Even so, Lin Wantang could not dismiss her suspicions about Liu Yuniang. In her spare time, she said to Zhang Qian, "Lord Zhang, please send a few people to keep an eye on Liu Yuniang and make sure she doesn't run away."

Zhang Qian nodded and was about to give orders to his men when he learned from the approaching Imperial Guards that Liu Yuniang had sensed she had been exposed and was trying to escape. Fortunately, Wei Wujiu was in the front yard and managed to thwart her attempt.

"But for some reason, Liu Yuniang was particularly cooperative, insisting that she had been confused for a moment and was willing to confess everything, only asking for leniency."

Lin Wantang listened and vaguely felt that something was still not quite right, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

She worked anxiously all night, and by the next morning, she had finally settled the twenty-three girls and treated their injuries. The county government then took over the task of finding and sending the girls home one by one.

After a night of cleaning, the courtyard has basically been restored to its original appearance.

Wei Wujiu ordered all the Embroidered Uniform Guards to rest on the spot and return to the capital the next day. He moved to his study, feeling tired after a long night, and strode into the couch. He leaned against a soft pillow, raised his chin slightly, and ordered Li Jinzhi, who was sitting next to his desk, "Grind ink and draft a memorial for me, explaining all these things clearly and making it sound nice."

Li Jinzhi, who had been diligently preparing, replied listlessly, "Yes, Your subordinate obeys."

Wei Wujiu remained silent, resting his chin on his hand and closing his eyes slightly. He was about to take a nap when he suddenly heard footsteps. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Lin Wantang knocking on the door and entering.

She, too, hadn't slept all night and had been busy non-stop. Now that she had finally found some time, she didn't even have time to drink a cup of hot tea. As soon as she entered, she bowed to Li Jinzhi and then walked towards Wei Wujiu: "Commander, the situation is urgent, please listen to me first—"

"Whether you believe my previous divination or not, you must believe that I had no intention of harming the governor. Moreover, the looting of tribute and the theft of the luminous pearl may very well be related to my father. However, we have been investigating here for several days and conducted a large-scale search last night. Apart from those twenty-three girls, there was nothing else. This is one of the strange things."

What about tribute? What about luminous pearls?

They found no trace of it. Last night, Zhang Qian and his men only found a huge sandalwood box in the tunnel. The seal on it indicated that it was a tribute from Luzhou.

But the seal was broken, and the box was empty.

The tribute inside had vanished without a trace, and the rest of the boxes were nowhere to be found either.

The tribute presented by Luzhou consisted of twenty-eight boxes, each heavy with rare treasures. Among them was a separate box made of Phoebe zhennan wood, containing a priceless luminous pearl.