The archives housed neatly arranged rows of books, all meticulously categorized and cataloged with numbers, making them incredibly easy to browse.
Paying no mind to the Crown Prince, Yang Xuanse dashed straight into the aisles and successfully located the registry of instructors and students.
The Crown Prince trailed behind him at a leisurely pace, showing zero urgency to dig for clues. Through the gaps in the bookshelves, he quietly observed Yang Xuanse. He watched as the young man scrutinized the registries with intense focus, occasionally letting out a soft, faint cough.
Just what kind of family and environment could have raised someone like Yang Xuanse? the Crown Prince wondered to himself.
He was timid and sycophantic, yet brimming with a rigid sense of justice and morality. Take those spies who had died during the investigation, for example; Yang Xuanse had never even met them, yet he was capable of feeling genuine fury on their behalf. At the same time, he possessed an almost laughable naivety, genuinely believing that murderers simply shouldn't kill people.
How absurd. The culprit had already slaughtered so many; why would they hesitate to kill a few more?
If there was one thing about Yang Xuanse that the Crown Prince found truly incomprehensible, it was the fact that he seemed to have grown up in a world completely devoid of suffering. Yet, even in the legendary realm of the gods, surely it was impossible to remain completely untainted by the scent of blood?
The Crown Prince scrutinized the man time and time again, but no answers presented themselves. Even the most fiercely sheltered, pampered young master of a noble household wouldn't be as innocent and kind-hearted as Yang Xuanse. It was truly a marvel.
But naivety is good, he mused. Naivety makes him easy to deceive.
Oblivious to the Crown Prince's watchful gaze, Yang Xuanse was currently racking his brain trying to decipher the text in the registry. The amount of information recorded for each instructor varied.
The shorter entries were easy enough to understand, but the longer ones were an absolute nightmare. Since the ancient text lacked punctuation, he had absolutely no idea where one sentence ended and the next began.
Left with no other choice, Yang Xuanse carefully peeked over the top of the books to locate the Crown Prince. He spotted him at the adjacent shelf, casually flipping through a book. The man looked so devastatingly handsome he could have been pulled straight out of a premium card in an otome game.
But good looks couldn't put food on the table—or solve a murder case. Snapping out of his brief daze, Yang Xuanse marched around to the other side of the bookshelf. Standing on his tiptoes, he popped his head through an empty space on one of the higher shelves and flashed a bright smile. "Your Highness..."
Whenever Yang Xuanse used that specific smile and tone of voice, the Crown Prince knew immediately that he wanted a favor.
That cowardly demeanor he’d displayed in the carriage had been nothing but a facade; the boy could change faces faster than one could flip the pages of a book.
Just like a child, the Crown Prince thought. Fickle, greedy, and inherently selfish.
Though he sneered inwardly, his face remained a mask of perfect serenity. "What is it?"
"I can't figure out where the sentences break," Yang Xuanse admitted, carefully sliding the registry through the gap in the shelf toward him.
"I actually find it quite peculiar," the Crown Prince remarked, reaching out to accept the book with seemingly casual interest. "You claim to be educated and literate, yet you do not know how to parse a sentence?"
Resting his arms against the shelf, Yang Xuanse let out a helpless sigh. "You could say I specialized in mathematics and business. It's just like the Imperial Academy here—no single student masters every single subject offered. I chose the path of numbers and commerce, which means my grasp of advanced literature is somewhat lacking."
Mathematics was understandable enough, but at the mention of "business," the Crown Prince couldn't help but glance at Yang Xuanse's foolishly innocent face.
He opened his mouth, then shut it again, ultimately deciding to swallow his words. Voicing his thoughts would have been far too insulting, and his impeccable upbringing simply did not permit him to launch unprovoked verbal attacks.
In the end, the Crown Prince had to manually transcribe the rest of the registry for Yang Xuanse to read. He quickly realized that simply dictating the text aloud wasn't enough for Yang Xuanse to fully comprehend it.
Resigning himself to the task, the Crown Prince patiently copied out the contents, deliberately spacing out the text to indicate where the sentences ended.
Yang Xuanse would then silently translate the text into modern characters in his head, which made the information vastly easier to digest.
By the time they finished decoding the entire registry, the sky outside had completely darkened. Over the course of their work, Le Jiu had to slip inside twice just to replace the burnt-out candles.
Having reviewed the complete list of instructors, Yang Xuanse spread out a large sheet of Xuan paper and began mapping out timelines and events to analyze the data.
The turnover rate for teachers at the Vice Minister’s academy was exceptionally high. Alongside his own proteges and retainers, the school also hired a fair share of impoverished scholars who had yet to pass the imperial examinations and desperately needed money.
These scholars typically worked part-time or on short-term contracts, teaching only for a brief period in exchange for daily wages.
Such high staff mobility drastically increased the difficulty of their investigation. Every individual had their own separate life trajectory. If they had to run background checks on every single one of them without the aid of modern technology, it would take months to make any headway in this ancient era.
Even though the Crown Prince arguably possessed the most extensive intelligence network in the entire country, they still wouldn't be able to produce results on such short notice. Worse yet, such a massive sweep would almost certainly alert the culprit.
Halfway through drafting his timeline, Yang Xuanse suddenly noticed a peculiar detail: one of the teachers held a secondary position. He hurriedly pulled out that specific sheet of paper and turned to the Crown Prince. "Your Highness! Look at this one! Tell me, would the academy keep a registry for the people hired to transcribe books?"
The Crown Prince took the page and examined it closely before shaking his head. "No. I checked earlier. There is no registry for transcribers, though the records do indicate which texts are originals and which are copies."
"That doesn't help us," Yang Xuanse groaned. "I was just thinking... if the culprit isn't among the teaching staff, perhaps they're one of the transcribers. But if it is a transcriber, we can't exactly go around the academy asking questions without tipping them off. The moment they catch wind of an investigation, they'll bolt."
A profound sense of despair washed over him. If he just had access to a modern database, uncovering the murderer's identity would have been a breeze!
It was no wonder ancient times were plagued by so many wrongful convictions and unsolved mysteries. The sheer lack of convenience made a proper investigation physically impossible, no matter how hard one tried.
Hearing this logic, the Crown Prince also furrowed his brow. Before he could devise a countermeasure, a sharp signal from Le Jiu sounded from outside. In a flash, the Crown Prince used a burst of inner qi to extinguish the candles in the room.
Plunged into sudden, pitch-black darkness, Yang Xuanse jumped out of his skin. Before a scream could escape his throat, a hand firmly clamped over his mouth. The subtle, elegant fragrance of red sandalwood drifted into his nose. Before he could even process what was happening, he was bodily dragged backward into the shadowy corner of the bookshelves.
A moment later, a faint, hushed voice brushed against his ear. "Shh."
It was the Crown Prince.
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