Chapter 37: Alarming the Snake
After a while, the guards took Di Renjie to the East Flower Hall in a hurry.

Di Renjie stayed up late yesterday to draft a memorial, so he looks a little tired now.

He summoned his energy and asked, "What happened? I heard from the guards that a poisonous snake bit someone to death?"

"Sir, please take a look at the body first." Zhao Ji signaled the guards to disperse.

Upon hearing this, Di Renjie walked forward, noticed the location of the corpse, and immediately frowned.

Then, Di Renjie squatted beside the body and began to examine it carefully.

Although Zhao Ji was familiar with the plot, he did not understand any autopsy techniques and could only watch Di Renjie fiddle with the corpse.

Di Renjie first checked the servant's pupils, then looked at the wound on the servant's throat, and finally rubbed the wound with his fingers a few times and put it near his nose to smell it.

"Sir, how is it?" Zhao Ji asked.

Di Renjie did not answer immediately. He stood there with a heavy expression on his face.

After a moment, he slowly said, "It's snake venom, the same kind that Li Er was poisoned with."

"Is it the same poison that Li Er was poisoned with?" Zhao Ji looked confused.

Di Renjie's words made Zhao Ji a little stunned. He thought he would have to spend some time analyzing with Di Renjie the direction of the servant's body.

Di Renjie explained: "When Li Erchu was poisoned, his complexion was the same as this deceased person's. The shape of the wound and some other symptoms were also very similar."

Zhao Ji recalled the appearance of Li Er lying on the bed, and then looked at the face of the corpse. Indeed, the complexion was black, but Li Er's poison had been half-removed by Di Renjie, so the black color was slightly lighter.

Di Renjie sorted out his thoughts and ordered, "Have someone clean up the body, and remember to give more money to the family of the deceased."

Then he turned and left.

Zhao Ji ordered the guards to collect the bodies and quickly caught up with Di Renjie.

The two men entered the main hall of the Governor's Mansion and sat down.

After confirming that there was no one around, Zhao Ji said, "Sir, a venomous snake injured someone in the East Flower Hall. Most likely, the viper went to see Fang Qian last night."

Di Renjie nodded with a complicated expression, "Yes, the appearance of this poisonous snake also means the appearance of the mysterious killer viper."

Zhao Ji looked at Di Renjie's tangled expression and said, "First it was Zhao Chuanchen, and now it's the servant of the East Flower Hall. I wonder who will be the next one."

"It seems we must catch this viper as soon as possible." Di Renjie took a deep breath.

Hearing Di Renjie say this, Zhao Ji showed joy on his face.

On the night of Zhao Chuanchen's death, Zhao Ji hinted to Di Renjie that Hu Jinghui was a traitor.

But that night Di Renjie just passed over the topic and did not give Zhao Ji a chance to speak.

Judging from the original drama, even though Di Renjie finally confirmed Hu Jinghui's identity as a viper, he still let him go, which shows how deep Di Renjie's feelings for Hu Jinghui were.

What Zhao Ji had been unsure about before was how far Di Renjie's suspicion of Hu Jinghui went.

Today, Hu Jinghui killed a servant, which probably touched Di Renjie's bottom line.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji asked tentatively: "What are you going to do next, sir?"

Di Renjie paced forward with his hands behind his back: "The only ones we can make a fuss about now are Viper and Fang Qian."

"Inform Yuan Fang later and mobilize everyone to search for poisonous snakes throughout the Governor's Mansion. Make sure everyone knows about this."

"Spread the rumor again. The more bizarre the better. Let the other party know that I have set my sights on this venomous snake and will track it down to the end. If we act like this, the other party will surely be unable to hold back. Once they make a move, our chance will come."

"What if he keeps his composure and doesn't take any action?" Zhao Ji asked.

Di Renjie smiled confidently: "Trust me, I will make him move."

Zhao Ji thought of Hu Jinghui's performance in the original play and nodded. Di Renjie said, "There is one more thing, which is to properly send the memorial I wrote last night to Chang'an and ask His Majesty for permission to mobilize troops."

"This round trip takes too long, and we must not make any mistakes. We cannot act rashly at this time, otherwise we can't guarantee that Viper will not become suspicious and secretly obstruct us."

Di Renjie continued, "So I will meet Fang Qian later, and use the excuse of petitioning the emperor to restore his position as governor, and send Di Chun to deliver two petitions, one true and one false. This way, we can conceal the truth and at the same time paralyze Viper and Liu Jin and slow down their actions."

Zhao Ji listened to Di Renjie's ideas and nodded repeatedly: "Your Excellency has thought it through thoroughly. This will ensure that nothing will go wrong."

It is possible that She Ling replaced the imperial edicts. In the Chongzhou case, he replaced the imperial edicts and caused the court to suffer a great loss.

Although we are in Youzhou now, no one can guarantee that nothing will go wrong, so it is better to be cautious.

"Okay, let's arrange it this way for now and we'll wait and see what happens." Di Renjie said.
-
After receiving Di Renjie's order, Zhao Ji called Li Yuanfang and mobilized all servants and guards to search for the poisonous snake in the governor's mansion.

Zhao knew that the search was only to alert the enemy and would not produce any real results, so he took Li Yuanfang to the East Flower Hall where the incident occurred to hide, and at the same time monitored Fang Qian's movements.

This action was indeed effective. Fang Qian and Hu Jinghui came over to check the situation at the same time.

Zhao Ji watched the two men approaching with a smile, and prepared to launch a psychological warfare according to Di Renjie's instructions. The words in the original drama came in handy.

"Chengyuan, Yuanfang, what are you doing? Mobilizing a large army." Hu Jinghui asked in confusion.

"Last night, a servant was bitten to death by a poisonous snake in the east toilet. The master ordered us to find the snake." Li Yuanfang was unprepared and told the truth.

Zhao Ji mentioned it casually: "Oh, it seems that the servant happened to live in the west wing next to Lord Fang, and was bitten to death in the East Flower Hall."

Fang Qian looked regretful when he heard this: "Ah! This is such a pity, so unlucky."

Zhao Ji looked at Fang Qian's explosive acting skills and waved his hands repeatedly.

"This is not bad luck, someone wants to kill him on purpose." Zhao Ji said with a gossipy look on his face.

"What do you mean, General?" Fang Qian's heart skipped a beat and he felt something was wrong.

Hu Jinghui and Li Yuanfang also looked at Zhao Ji in surprise, not knowing what Zhao Ji wanted to say.

"You may not know that poisonous snakes usually bite people on the feet or legs, but the wound on this servant was on the neck. This must be a trained poisonous snake."

Hu Jinghui seemed to be listening to a joke, with a look of disbelief: "Chengyuan, what you said is a bit too mysterious, and you have been trained. Haha..."

"I also heard it from Lord Di. How could your judgment be wrong?" Zhao Ji said deliberately.

When Hu Jinghui and Fang Qian heard Zhao Ji mention Di Renjie's name, the expressions on their faces immediately froze.

Li Yuanfang is a believer of Di Renjie: "Since it is said by the adults, it must be correct."

Fang Qian, who had received great favor from Di Renjie and had to maintain his image, agreed, "Yes, yes, Lord Di's judgment must be correct."

Seeing that the three people all said the same thing, Hu Jinghui wanted to confuse right and wrong but there was nothing he could do. He pinched his nose and said, "If that's the case, let's look for it again."

Only Hu Jinghui could find the poisonous snake. Even if everyone turned the Governor's Mansion upside down, they would not be able to find the poisonous snake.

Half a day passed and everyone found nothing.

"What do you think? I told you there wouldn't be any trained venomous snakes." Hu Jinghui said in a muffled voice.

"Otherwise, the fact that we can't find the poisonous snake proves that there is something fishy going on. The snake tooth marks on the servant's neck cannot be fake." Zhao Ji shook his head.

Li Yuanfang nodded: "Yes, if there really is a poisonous snake, we should be able to find it."

Hu Jinghui looked at Zhao Ji with hatred in his heart. Why do you talk so much?

Fang Qian quickly tried to smooth things over, "The Governor's Office is too big, so there are bound to be places that cannot be found. Maybe we missed something."

At this moment, a guard came with a message: "Master Fang, Lord Di wants to see you."

(End of this chapter)