Chapter 81: Suffering for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Xu Shide will bear the infamy

After some communication with Di Renjie, Zhao Ji settled down beside Li Xian. In the blink of an eye, several months passed quietly.

On the surface, Zhao was conscientious and responsible. Whenever Li Xian went out, he would carefully prepare the ceremonial guards. In his spare time, he would diligently work in the East Palace and be on duty without fail.

In secret, with the assistance of Shen Tao and Xiao Bao, he secretly observed the every move of Crown Prince Li Xian, while monitoring Xu Shide and Wu Xiaojie from Chongwenguan.

On the surface, the three of them behaved themselves and did not make any moves. However, Zhao Ji was keenly aware of the undercurrent.

Recently, many old ministers of the Li Tang Dynasty, led by the Censor Li Zhaode, have written to Wu Zetian, asking her to pass the throne to the crown prince and return power to the Li Tang Dynasty.

This move undoubtedly put Crown Prince Li Xian in the spotlight.

Li Xian, who had always been good at forbearance, had to be more cautious in his words and actions. He even stopped leaving the Eastern Palace and dared not meet with ministers.

Di Renjie was appointed by Wu Zetian as the envoy of promotion and demotion in Jiangnan Province. He came to bid farewell to the crown prince, but was not summoned.

However, Xu Shide and Wu Xiaojie have not been affected for the time being. As usual, they spend their days enjoying the company of books in Chongwenguan.

Because of Wu Xiaojie's status as an old minister of the King of Yue, he lived in seclusion and rarely interacted with the outside world.

Xu Shide actually completely immersed himself in the role of a ninth-rank proofreader. Apart from occasionally contacting his internal guards, he spent most of his time building relationships with Wu Xiaojie and was extremely patient.

Since the two did not make any move, Zhao Jibian could only wait for the opportunity.

But this peace will soon be shattered tonight.

The wind starts from the tip of the green reed. Shangguan Wan'er just sent another message, informing Zhao Ji to go and see her again tomorrow.

Zhao Ji had some guesses in his mind. Most likely, Li Zhaode and others had pushed Wu Zetian into a corner. She was eager to find fault with Li Xian and wanted to suppress the arrogance of these old ministers of the Li Tang Dynasty.

"The emperor has issued an order to urge me here, and I'm afraid Xu Shide can't escape either." Zhao Ji thought to himself, "It seems that Xu Shide will take action against Wu Xiaojie soon, and I should go and take a look at the Blue Shirt Records."

Since entering the Prince's Palace, in addition to daily clocking in and out, Zhao Ji often sneaked into Chongwenguan to look for Wu Xiaojie's "Blue Shirt Records".

He vaguely remembered that in the original plot, Wu Xiaojie said before his death that there was a secret compartment under the south wall somewhere in Chongwenguan, and the Blue Shirt Notes was hidden in it.

After months of careful investigation, Zhao Ji finally determined the exact location of the Blue Shirt Record, which was on the south wall of the library.

He felt his way along the south wall and found an area on the wall that was slightly different from other areas.

I knocked gently, nothing happened, then I pushed hard and the secret compartment suddenly popped open.

There was indeed a book inside, but unlike the later whirlwind binding, butterfly binding, back binding, thread binding and other binding forms, the Blue Shirt Record was a scroll binding book. After all, during the Wu Zhou period, most books were still scroll binding and sutra folding binding.

When Zhao took out the Blue Shirt Note, he discovered that the scroll made of sandalwood was unusually thick, with a wooden button protruding outwards at the end, which seemed to be able to be opened.

After opening the wooden button, a thin silk book appeared inside the scroll.

Zhao took out the silk book, stood up and listened around, making sure that no one was around. He then lit a torch and used the dim light to memorize the contents of the picture.

Having a photographic memory is a standard feature of official prodigies. Zhao, thanks to his predecessor, was able to do this and remember everything he saw.

After a while, Zhao Ji extinguished the fire and carefully restored everything as if nothing had happened.

After returning to his residence, Zhao Ji painted the images that remained in his mind.

After a careful inspection, the top and right sides of the map were incomplete, with only a quarter of the map, which seemed to be the lower left corner of a map. "When Wu Xiaojie is plotted against by Xu Shide and takes the book to the prince, he can use the name of surveillance to take out this map. It's better to take a look at it, it's better to be prepared, and you never know when it will be useful." Zhao Ji thought.
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The next morning, which was Zhao Ji's day off, he entered the palace on time and visited Shangguan Wan'er as agreed before.

They still met in the side hall where they had talked last time. When Zhao Ji arrived, Shangguan Wan'er was already waiting there.

She was still sitting at the same table as last time, holding a cup of fragrant tea in her hand. As soon as she saw Zhao Ji come in, she stood up to greet him.

Zhao Ji also stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Greetings, talented man."

"General, please take a seat." Shangguan Wan'er pointed to the seat and the two sat opposite each other.

"General, do you know if there have been any major events in the court recently?" Shangguan Wan'er asked softly.

Zhao Ji nodded and said, "I know a little bit. Led by Censor Li, a group of ministers have written to the emperor to express their opinions. I guess Your Majesty wants to ask about the progress of the investigation into the Crown Prince's case, right?"

Shangguan Wan'er took a sip of tea and smiled, "Since the general already knows, I wonder what the results are?"

Zhao Ji sighed and said bluntly, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has always been law-abiding and careful with his words and actions. Recently, he has stayed indoors. It is not easy to find fault with him."

"As for the rumors that the Crown Prince and Yue King's traitorous son Li Gui were colluding to rebel, I have not seen any real evidence during my time in the East Palace."

Hearing what Zhao Ji said, Shangguan Wan'er frowned slightly, looking pitiful.

Seeing this, Zhao Ji was moved and asked tentatively, "Talented man, I wonder if His Majesty has summoned Xu Shide?"

Shangguan Wan'er's beautiful eyes sparkled: "You know everything?"

Zhao Ji smiled slightly and explained, "The talented person specifically told me about Chongwenguan, so how could I not pay attention to it? After some investigation, I found out that the only person who was transferred to Chongwenguan a year ago was Xu Shide. I also observed this person with my own eyes. He is a scholar, but he has extraordinary martial arts. He must be the inner guard."

Shangguan Wan'er nodded approvingly: "You guessed right, Xu Shide is the one who is in charge of investigating the prince's inner guard. His Majesty summoned him yesterday, but His Majesty only left Xu Shide to answer questions, and even I don't know what he said."

"Then I wonder what your Majesty's reaction will be after seeing him?" Zhao Ji asked, looking straight at Shangguan Wan'er.

Shangguan Wan'er did not answer directly, but just smiled and stared at Zhao Ji meaningfully.

Zhao Ji immediately realized that he shouldn't ask about Wu Zetian's affairs, and quickly apologized, "I just said something wrong, please forgive me."

But Shangguan Wan'er smiled sweetly and gently let Zhao Ji go: "Your Majesty was in a good mood after meeting Xu Shide. Why are you asking this?"

Zhao Ji raised his eyebrows, realizing that Xu Shide had told him something, otherwise Wu Zetian would not be in such a good mood.

Wu Xiaojie was probably doomed. His identity as a former minister of the King of Yue would be exposed sooner or later anyway. It would be better to go with the flow and use his identity to improve performance so that he could have an explanation to Wu Zetian.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will suffer, and Xu Shide will have to bear the blame.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji said, "It has something to do with Xu Shide. From what I've observed, his mind is not on the prince at all. Instead, he spends the whole day around Wu Xiaojie, a scholar at the Chongwen Hall, and is very attentive. According to the Chongwen Hall's servants, he started doing this a year ago, and everyone thought he was trying to curry favor with Wu Xiaojie."

"Xu Shide doesn't care about the crown prince, but cares about Wu Xiaojie. This shows that Wu Xiaojie's identity is extraordinary. He might be related to the King of Yue and his son. Xu Shide knew about it a year ago, but he didn't report it. He is so bold and has evil intentions."

Shangguan Wan'er narrowed her beautiful eyes and nodded slowly: "Okay, okay, I didn't expect Xu Shide to be so bold and presumptuous. He dared to lie to His Majesty without reporting the truth. Please wait here for a moment, General. I will report to His Majesty right away."

　Thanks to "Uncle95" for the reward again and again.

　　I suddenly realized when writing this that the Blue Shirt Records in the TV series is very strange. It uses a thread-bound book, which was only available in the Southern Song Dynasty. The map is also quite large, and is basically sandwiched in the book. Director Qian pretends to cut the thread every time he gets the book, which is very weird. So I made a little correction here, which has no impact on the plot.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)