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

Qin Keqing first left the city for Xiuzhou on August 19th, and it took her five days to return from Lin'an.

On the third day after she left the city, a group of representatives from the distant branches of the imperial clan suddenly appeared in Xiuzhou, willing to help the Prince of Puan's mansion.

The tea shop owner contacted by this group was surnamed Wang, and the tea shop opened three days before Qin Keqing arrived in Xiuzhou.

However, this cannot be used as evidence.

The opening time of Manager Wang's tea shop was registered with the government, and the coincidence with the time Qin Keqing left the city was merely a "coincidence." This was not the flaw that Tian Ruyi found.

The real flaw appeared the second time: On May 12th, Qin Keqing requested a letter from the Imperial Clan Court to send a batch of old military robes to the post station in the west of the city.

This entry appears in the dispatch records of the Imperial Clan Court. However, Tian Ruyi checked the reception records of the Chengxi Post Station for that day.

The post station records that a batch of military robes was received that afternoon, and the messenger who delivered them was a hunchbacked man of about forty years old, not a nineteen-year-old woman.

There was a time lag: after Qin Keqing received the dispatch letter, it was someone else who went to the post station in the west of the city to deliver the military robe.

So what did she do with the dispatch letter, and where did she go?

Tian Ruyi found the answer in the old visitor registration book of the West City Post Station.

On May 12th, two people used Zongzheng Temple tokens to exchange for horses at the post station.

One was "Zhang Ding, a clerk in the Imperial Clan Court," and the other was "Feng Yi, an eunuch in the Deshou Palace."

Neither of these two clues seems significant on their own.

But put together, it becomes one thing: On May 12th, Qin Keqing took the dispatch letter to the post station in the west of the city, but in reality, she did not deliver the military robe. Instead, she went to see Feng Yi.

She used a substitution method to hand over the task, and then met up with Feng Yi at the post station.

This confirms that Qin Keqing and Feng Yi had a direct but covert connection, and that Feng Yi was Zhang Quwei's superior, who was close to the Empress Dowager.

All the clues eventually converged on one point: the secret letter in the Empress Dowager's possession, which kept Qin Hui up at night, had a "transmission channel" that involved far more than just the Empress Dowager and Zhang Quwei.

It also has a side route that passes through Feng Yi, Qin Keqing, and eventually connects to Zhao Bocong.

Tian Ruyi compiled this discovery into a written report and entrusted Wan Qixie to present it to Qin Hui.

He didn't report it in person; he was too tired and needed to go back and get some sleep.

After reading the report, Wan Qixie did not send it out immediately.

He sat in the Imperial City Guard's duty room, reading the report over and over again three times, his expression growing increasingly grave.

Tian Ruyi's deduction was correct. However, Tian Ruyi was unaware of one thing: Qin Keqing was Qin Hui's daughter.

Few people in the Lin'an officialdom knew about this.

Qin Keqing was brought back to the Qin family when she was nine years old. Before that, she had been raised in Jiaozhou and rarely appeared in public after returning to the family.

Qin Hui never mentioned this daughter to outsiders, and many mid- to low-level officials were completely unaware that Qin Hui had an unmarried daughter in the world.

Wan Qixie was well aware of the significance of this matter.

If this report were submitted verbatim, it would be tantamount to telling Qin Hui: Your daughter is the deepest nail Zhao Bocong planted in the Qin mansion.

He hesitated all night.

Then he crossed out all the places in the report that mentioned "Qin Keqing" with a red pen and replaced them with "an unidentified female relative of the Prince of Puan's Mansion".

He drew very carefully, covering each character completely so that the original strokes were no longer visible.

He knew that Qin Hui would find out sooner or later on his own, but at least it wouldn't come out of his mouth.

On the morning of the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, Qin Hui finished reading the report submitted by Wan Qixie in the signing room.

He read very slowly, looking at each page at least twice.

After reading it, he closed the report, remained silent for a moment, and then said something to Wan Qixie.

"Invite Xiao Bieli here."

"What the Prime Minister means is—"

"Use Xiao Jinluo, not the Imperial City Guard."

......

It was the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, at dusk.

Xiao Bieli had been squatting outside the Dali Temple for an unknown amount of time.

He figured out the shift change times for the guards at the east gate, the patrol intervals for the scouts at the main gate, and the locations of the hidden sentries on the west wall at night.

They even found one, and the only, entrance to the prison area that could be entered without triggering an alarm: the smoke duct of the Dali Temple's kitchen.

The flue was only two feet square, barely big enough for an adult man to squeeze in, but the exit was behind the stove in the prison kitchen, and from the stove to the cell, one had to pass through two locked iron gates.

This entry point is essentially nonexistent.

But Xiao Bieli had already gone through all the "correct solutions" and the conclusion was the same: no matter what method he used, he could not bring his sister out of the Dali Temple prison area by himself.

His final conclusion was that he didn't need to bring it out; he only needed to go in.

Go inside, find Xiao Jinluo, then hold a knife to the neck of Wan Qixie or any night watchman, and use them as hostages.

Even with its limited manpower, the Imperial City Guard within the Dali Temple could not possibly allow a madman to kidnap his superior and break out of the Dali Temple.

He might die. But Xiao Jinluo might live, because if things escalate, Qin Keqing's intelligence network will immediately pass the news to Zhao Bocong, who can then intervene in the name of the Imperial Clan Court.

As long as the Imperial Clan Court intervenes, Xiao Jinluo's life will be saved.

The cost of this plan was Xiao Bieli himself.

He calculated it very clearly.

At the exact hour of You (5-7 PM), in the back alley of the Dali Temple, he prepared to take action.

The wind blew in from the alley entrance, making the iron hoops on the broken wooden barrel clang.

Xiao Bieli drew the knife from its bamboo sheath and wiped the blade with his sleeve.

Then he heard footsteps.

Behind him.

He turned around abruptly, the knife already in his hand, held to his chest.

A man stood at the entrance of the alley, wearing a blue cloth short jacket from the Imperial Clan Court, with a token from the Imperial Clan Court hanging from his waist.

It wasn't Qin Keqing, but a middle-aged woman in her forties with a square face, thick eyebrows, and a slight limp in her left leg.

Xin Qizong.

Xiao Bieli didn't lower his knife. "Who are you?"

"Xin Qizong." The old general took a step forward, his steps light but firm. "You may have heard of this name."

"It's alright if you haven't heard of it. I'm here to tell you that you can't go in right now."

"Get out of the way."

"No." Xin Qizong stood still, speaking as if it were a trivial matter. "If you go in, you'll die. If you die, your sister will truly have no hope left."

"If I don't go in today, the Imperial City Guard will interrogate her tomorrow. She's just an eleven-year-old child—" Xiao Bieli's voice paused, as if the knife had suddenly become heavier, "She can't withstand it. If she can't withstand it, she'll betray her brother. If she betrays her brother, Qin Hui will hang her and her brother together at the city gate for public display. Rather than let her suffer that, I'd rather go in today."

"Your sister has been in jail for four days, and the Imperial City Guard hasn't interrogated her even once in those four days. Qin Hui has no intention of interrogating her at all." Xin Qizong took another step forward.

Xiao Bieli still held his knife, but his brow twitched. "What do you mean?"

"It means your sister is bait; her value isn't in exposing you, but in getting you to jump in yourself."

"If you jump in, Qin Hui will also have you in his grasp. Then you and your brother will both become hostages for him to use against Prince Puan."

Xin Qizong stopped three steps away from him and did not approach any further.

"His Highness asked me to pass on a message to you: Tomorrow at noon, outside the main gate of the Dali Temple, you don't need to force your way in; someone will lead you in."