Reincarnated as the daughter of my mortal enemy, all I want is to ascend the throne.

Li Qingyan sat on a pile of books.

"I want to go. For three consecutive years, a group of girls in their twenties have been sold into Guiyuan City. What about the original girls? Are they alive or dead?"

"The corpses found in Linyang City were simply because the group of people escaped and there was no time to deal with them."

How many more girls have died without being discovered?

"Li Yan's daughters were also from other families."

"The Ministry of Justice has only been in your hands for a short time, yet you've already uncovered quite a few old cases that turned out to be wrongful convictions. Can the Court of Judicial Review guarantee that there are no bad people involved?"

The Ministry of Justice has not been completely cleaned up yet. In order to hide his own people and to balance the power, Li Yan has not only his people in the Ministry of Justice, but also people from several other factions, just to make them fight among themselves.

Li Yan frowned. "Let Yan Xu go with you."

Li Qingyan shook her head. "No, the banquet order is too obvious. Let Yan Li come along."

"What good is that good-for-nothing? He's mediocre in both academics and martial arts. He's the one protecting you, not you."

Li Yan immediately started cursing, clearly showing his long-standing dissatisfaction with Yan Li.

Li Qingyan glanced at Yan Xu, "Aren't you going to do anything about it?"

Yan Xu returned her a look, "We've been fighting for years, I can't control it."

Li Qingyan brought Xi Zhao and others along, including Hong Yu and Cheng Yan, before Li Yan felt relieved. However, she still needed to write to him every two days.

Having finally obtained Li Yan's permission to leave the capital, the moment he boarded the carriage, he saw Yan Li's bitter and resentful face.

"Your Highness, there are far too many people..."

The team has a total of 35 people.

Li Qingyan rubbed her face; this was still the result after the reduction.

Li Yan wished he could summon a troop of White Tiger Army soldiers. He knew she was going to investigate a case, but others thought she was going to attack the city.

Zheng Taohua disguised herself and followed Li Qingyan.

They pretended to be sisters. Zheng Taohua, using the alias Guan Tao, was the leader of the caravan. The two were orphans, and Guan Tao had to take her younger sister Guan Yan with her to make a living by traveling with the caravan.

They're in the liquor business.

Tianshui Village has an excellent natural spring, making it ideal for brewing wine. Almost every household in the village brews their own.

As soon as the caravan arrived at the village entrance, Zheng Taohua couldn't help but lift the curtain to look. The usually bustling village road was almost deserted.

The children rushed home as soon as they saw the caravan.

"That's not right."

Zheng Taohua's expression changed several times. She had lived in the village since she was a child, and because merchant caravans often came to buy wine, the children in the village were always very welcoming to the visiting caravans; there was no such situation of them avoiding her.

She looked at the nearby tavern, where there used to be a family of seven sisters selling wine, but now they were all gone.

What happened in Tianshui Village in those three years?

Zheng Taohua couldn't wait to get off the carriage, and she was swaying as she walked.

"Yan Li, help her a bit."

Li Qingyan didn't have time to go down and quickly asked Yan Li to go and help her up.

Zheng Taohua took a deep breath, shook off Yan Li's hand, and stood up straight. "I'm fine. Little sister, let's go take a look."

Li Qingyan nodded and followed beside her. Occasionally, she would glance at Zheng Taohua; this girl was much stronger than she had imagined.

But as we walked along, every house was closed.

It wasn't until Zheng Taohua saw a woman with somewhat disheveled hair that she called out, "Auntie."

Upon seeing Zheng Taohua, the woman quickly grabbed her hand. "Taohua, have you seen your cousins? Where have they gone?"

The woman was agitated, her eyes were cloudy, and she looked completely disoriented.

Li Qingyan frowned. This woman was insane, yet she could still recognize Zheng Taohua. She must be a family member.

At this moment, a man appeared behind the woman and grabbed her arm. "Yu Niang, this isn't Tao Hua. We haven't seen Tao Hua for years. Come home with me."

The man was only in his thirties, yet his temples were already gray.

Zheng Taohua asked in a trembling voice, "Uncle, what happened in this village? And what's wrong with this aunt...?"

The man, Uncle Zheng, took a step back and looked at them warily.

Zheng Taohua took out the documents. "We are a caravan from the south. We heard that the wine here is good, but we don't see many people here."

Uncle Zheng glanced at the document, then at Zheng Taohua and Li Qingyan, and the caravan's wagons behind them. The caravan's insignia were printed on them. Only then did he feel relieved.

"Come with me."

Apart from Zheng Taohua's father, everyone else in the Zheng family made a living by brewing wine, and they owned a large brewing facility.

The courtyard is exceptionally large, capable of accommodating over a hundred people.

There was a water vat at regular intervals, and a place to store grain not far away.

The courtyard used to be very lively, but now only Uncle Zheng and his wife are left.

Uncle Zheng gave Auntie two dolls and asked her to sit quietly to the side. Only then did he begin to entertain Zheng Taohua and Li Qingyan.

He sighed, "Three years ago, the gardeners from our area were hired to go to Flower Valley, and they all disappeared without a trace not long after. My sister-in-law was one of them."

"My younger brother also went missing while searching for his wife."

"My poor niece disappeared soon after she started searching for her parents."

"Our whole family was looking for them. Then, within a few months, teenage girls in the village started disappearing."

"Nobody dares to go out."

"Every household stayed indoors."

"I thought everything would be fine as long as I stayed home."

"But one night, my two daughters also disappeared."

"The child's mother went mad too."

Uncle Zheng was indeed a businessman; he spoke very succinctly. Three years had already made him somewhat numb.

"You two sisters should get out of here right away, it's too dangerous."

When Uncle Zheng said these words, he exuded an indescribable weariness.

Li Qingyan took a deep breath. Smiling, she looked at Uncle Zheng, "Uncle, do you know what kind of flowers those people are going to plant?"

"I remember it was some kind of orchid. It seemed very rare, so they spared no expense in hiring a florist."

At first, the villagers suspected that they had kidnapped the girls, so they went to look for them. The people who planted the flowers in the flower valley let them in. But there were only flowers in the flower valley, and no young girls at all. The gardeners were not in the flower valley either.

They asked the gardeners where they had gone, and the people of Orchid Valley all gave the same answer: the gardeners had left long ago.

Moreover, those people said that if they had any doubts, they could go in and find someone at any time.

The villagers went back and forth many times, but found nothing. They reported it to the authorities, and the soldiers searched the area. Still, nothing was found.

They could no longer venture into the flower valley.

Especially after orchids went missing from Flower Valley, people were sent to guard it. This made it even more difficult for them to get in.

Zheng Taohua was stunned by what her uncle said. He had clearly told her that her parents had gone to Yuzhen.

But she has no right to ask now, and she can't ruin Li Qingyan's important plans at this time.

Upon learning of the Flower Valley, Li Qingyan sent people to infiltrate the laborers, convinced that there was something wrong with the Flower Valley.

She and Zheng Taohua traveled around like a real caravan, searching for wine and then staying in the town.

Many young women in the neighborhood have disappeared.

However, after reporting it to the authorities, they investigated for a long time but found no information.

As a result, fewer and fewer people live in the nearby villages, but no young women have ever disappeared from the town.

After staying in the town for a few days, Li Qingyan waited for Yan Li to return.

Yan Li's brows were furrowed ever since he returned.

He took some soil out of his pocket and handed it to Li Qingyan.

"Your Highness, this is the soil they use to plant flowers, but something feels off to me."

Li Qingyan took a light sniff; there was a strange fragrance, and a faint fishy smell.