The first to arrive was the capital's night watchman.
Approaching and seeing the ground littered with corpses, he scrambled frantically down the street, running and screaming at the top of his lungs, "Murder! Murder!"
Hearing someone approaching, Xiao Rongche, unaware that Song Jinzhao and the others had already left, immediately shouted toward the sound.
"I am a prince! Save me, and I guarantee you a lifetime of wealth and glory!"
His face filled with terror, the night watchman fled without looking back, as if he had not heard a thing.
Running to the next intersection, he collided right into the patrolling bailiffs of the Jingzhao Prefecture.
The watchman rushed over and hugged a bailiff's thigh, the flab on his face trembling violently.
"Officers, there are dead people ahead! So many dead people!"
Xiao Rongche was still crying for help. The bailiffs vigilantly gripped their swords and charged forward.
At the foot of the Emperor, who would dare to commit murder?
The leading bailiff recognized Xiao Rongche at a glance.
He gasped, his eyes widening as he scanned the corpses on the ground.
When he saw Wang Nie and Qi Xiong, his blood ran cold, and he froze in place like a statue.
The envoys of the Shuobei Kingdom had been murdered. The sky was falling!
After calming down, he walked over to Xiao Rongche on weak legs. Seeing that the prince was uninjured, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and cupped his hands in greeting.
"This humble one, Lin Jingshan, head bailiff of the Jingzhao Prefecture, greets His Highness Prince Qi. Please forgive me for arriving late to your rescue."
Hearing that they were from the Jingzhao Prefecture, Xiao Rongche immediately waved his arms and demanded loudly, "Where are the assassins? Have they all been killed?"
Lin Jingshan hesitantly looked around, especially at the bodies lying on the ground.
"There are no other survivors around besides Your Highness. Who were the assassins, and how many were there in total?"
Before he even finished speaking, one of the bailiffs inspecting the bodies shouted to Lin Jingshan, "Head Bailiff, these two are still alive."
Lin Jingshan snapped his head around and realized the survivors mentioned were the envoys of the Shuobei Kingdom.
In an instant, his heart leaped to his throat. He rushed over to check their breathing and found they were indeed still alive.
"Head Bailiff Lin, they do not have a single wound on them, but they just will not wake up. It is like they are drunk."
With their breaths, a strong stench of alcohol wafted out. Their faces were flushed red, exactly as if they were dead drunk.
Lin Jingshan furrowed his brows and said sternly, "Take them back to the prefecture office first, and fetch a doctor."
The rest of the delegation was at the Huitong Guesthouse. With such an incident occurring, they needed the Prefecture Governor to make the call on what to do next.
Jiang Dongsheng, the Governor of Jingzhao Prefecture, had just taken off his clothes and was preparing for bed when his door was pounded loudly.
Madam Jiang sleepily opened her eyes. "What is wrong? Why all the commotion?"
Jiang Dongsheng helplessly picked up his outer robe and draped it over his shoulders.
"It is nothing, go back to sleep. There has probably been a case."
When he opened the door, an incoming hand nearly slapped him right in the face.
Jiang Dongsheng glared and roared at the person, spitting all over his face.
"What are you doing! Do you have a death wish?"
The bailiff hastily explained, "My Lord, someone assassinated the envoys of the Shuobei Kingdom and Prince Qi in the city. More than a dozen people are dead on the street."
The surroundings suddenly fell dead silent; even the wind seemed to stop.
"What!" he exploded with a shout so loud that a tile slipped from the eaves and shattered into pieces on the ground.
Without even putting on his trousers, Jiang Dongsheng dashed outside with only his outer robe draped over him.
He babbled rapidly, his voice quacking non-stop like a drake.
"How is Prince Qi?"
"Are the envoys alright?"
"Who are the assassins? Have they been caught?"
"..."
The cold wind of early autumn slipped into his clothes; it was still rather chilly in the middle of the night.
Running alongside him, the bailiff answered, "Prince Qi is unharmed, and the envoys are fine too. It is just that one is terrified and the other two are unconscious. Head Bailiff Lin has already sent for a doctor."
"The assassins have not been caught. By the time we got there, they had already fled."
Cold sweat poured out, quickly soaking his back and making him shiver with a dreadful chill.
Jiang Dongsheng sprinted all the way to the front hall of the prefecture office in one breath. Seeing two people lying on the floor and Prince Qi sitting in a chair from a distance, his heart instantly leaped to his throat.
He rushed over, his eyes scanning like a machine, looking as though he wanted to strip them naked to check for injuries.
Prince Qi looked fine, just a little pale in the face.
He then looked down at the two men lying on the ground, his heart pounding like a drum, feeling as if it would burst out of his chest the very next second.
"Are you sure they are just drunk? Why are they not waking up?"
Lin Jingshan's expression was somewhat hesitant.
"This subordinate has already checked. They are indeed uninjured. As for why they are not waking up..."
He thought for a moment before continuing, "Perhaps they could not hold their liquor and got too drunk, or they might have been drugged. I have already sent for a doctor, and he will be here shortly."
In his chair, having calmed down, Xiao Rongche could not help but slightly furrow his brows upon hearing this.
The assassins who ruined his plans halfway had fled, so the blame could be pushed onto them.
But if the drugging was discovered, it would pull up the radish and bring out the mud—it was highly likely the investigation would lead right back to him.
"Today is the wedding of the Princess of Shuobei and Prince Ying. These two drank quite a lot at the wedding banquet, so they must just be too drunk."
Hearing Prince Qi say this, Jiang Dongsheng's hanging heart finally settled down a bit.
He straightened his posture and ordered his subordinates, "In this vital capital region, right at the foot of the Emperor, who has the audacity to assassinate His Highness Prince Qi and the Shuobei Kingdom delegation?"
"Dispatch all bailiffs immediately to search through the night. We must bring these assassins to justice."
Lin Jingshan firmly clasped his hands together and replied with absolute certainty, "Your subordinate obeys."
With that, he turned and led his men out of the prefecture office.
