Chapter 549: Chapter 552: Alien King
Hua Manman asked about the matter at the Ministry of Justice.
"How is the investigation into the Heir of Prince Qing’s poisoning case coming along?"
Li Ji looked at her with a half-smile. "You seem quite concerned about the Heir of Prince Qing."
Hua Manman didn’t detect the jealousy in his tone; she just thought this guy had a twisted way of thinking.
She said irritably.
"I just want to know why the Heir of Prince Qing was targeted. I want to learn from it so I don’t make the same mistake in the future."
Li Ji was quite satisfied with this answer.
He stopped teasing her and said slowly.
"Didn’t you suspect before that the poisoner was someone close to the Heir of Prince Qing? I made a special trip to the Ministry of Justice today and interrogated all five of the other Princely Heirs."
Hua Manman asked curiously, "Did they confess?"
Li Ji chuckled. "Of course not."
Those five Princely Heirs weren’t fools. Why would they admit to poisoning someone?
No matter how the Regent King questioned them, they all insisted they had never poisoned anyone.
If they had been ordinary suspects, the Regent King could have made them experience every form of torture in the dungeons.
But he couldn’t do that to those five Princely Heirs.
They were the next in line to inherit their positions from the various Vassal Kings, and they were also the Regent King’s leverage to control those Vassal Kings.
Before the matter of reducing the Vassal Kings’ power was settled, not a single one of these Princely Heirs could come to harm!
Li Ji could neither kill them nor torture them.
Hua Manman was very disappointed.
"Then what’s to be done?"
’As long as the true culprit isn’t caught, my own safety can’t be guaranteed.’
Li Ji’s lips curved into a mysterious smile. "Although they’ve adamantly denied it, I already know which one of them is the poisoner."
Hua Manman was pleasantly surprised and quickly asked, "Who is it?"
Li Ji glanced at Jiao Gui, who was standing in attendance nearby.
Hua Manman immediately said to Jiao Gui.
"You may leave us."
Jiao Gui hesitated for a moment. ’This is the Yu Royal Mansion,’ she thought, ’and the Regent King is right here. The Young Master shouldn’t be able to cause any trouble.’
So she obediently withdrew.
The door was closed.
But Jiao Gui didn’t go far. She stood outside the door, her ears pricked, trying to hear what the people inside were saying.
Inside the room, Li Ji gestured toward the door with the hand holding his teacup and said pointedly.
"You need to be careful."
Hua Manman had long known that Jiao Gui was not on her side.
’It’s no big deal.’
’I’m not from the Yu Royal Mansion to begin with and feel no sense of belonging here. It’s only normal that the people in the Yu Royal Mansion would be wary of me.’
’We’re all just cautiously testing and using each other.’
Hua Manman: "Never mind her. Hurry up and tell me who the poisoner is."
Li Ji beckoned to her with his finger.
"Come closer."
Hua Manman obediently moved closer.
Watching her beautiful face draw nearer, the smile in Li Ji’s eyes deepened.
"A little closer. We have to discuss this secretly so no one else finds out."
So Hua Manman moved a little closer still.
Just as her cheek was about to touch the tip of his nose, a Cheng Yaojin suddenly burst in.
Li Xun’s small head squeezed its way in.
Like the Milky Way that separates Niu Lang and Zhi Nu, he lay between the two of them.
He blinked, his little face full of curiosity.
"What secret are you two talking about? I want to know, too."
Li Ji: "..."
’This damn son is truly my greatest nemesis in this life!’
He irritably pushed the boy away.
"This is for adults. What’s a little kid like you nosing around for? Get away!"
Li Xun hated being treated like a child more than anything.
Because his father always used that same line to put him down.
Normally, he would have thrown a fit and bickered wildly with his father.
But his mother was watching right now.
He couldn’t ruin the well-behaved image his mother had of him, so he turned his head, threw himself into his mother’s arms, and started to fake-cry with a WAAAHHH.
"Mother, Father is being mean to me again!"
Li Ji: "..."
’The little brat’s tattling skills are getting more and more polished!’
Hua Manman patted the child’s head and said to the Regent King.
"Don’t be so harsh with him. He’s just a child."
Li Ji was thoroughly incensed. "How could you side with him and not me?!"
Within his furious tone, there was even a barely perceptible hint of feeling wronged.
’Clearly, he used to be the person Manman cared for and liked the most, but now she was siding with someone else against him.’
’Sure enough, now that we have a son, does that mean he, the husband, has to take a backseat?!’
Li Xun, however, was delighted.
He deliberately bared his teeth at his father. "Did you hear that? Mother told you not to be mean to me."
Li Ji reached out to grab his ear.
"You little brat, you’re asking for it!"
Li Xun quickly shrank back into his mother’s arms, still shouting, "Mother, save me!"
This father-son duo was giving Hua Manman a massive headache.
She swatted away the Regent King’s outstretched hand, then let go of the child in her arms and had him sit up properly.
Hua Manman said, her head aching, "Alright, that’s enough from both of you."
’Day after day, life is just so chaotic.’
She forcibly separated the two of them.
In the end, Li Ji sat on the left, and Li Xun sat on the right.
Hua Manman sat in the middle.
She gave a light cough, interrupting the father and son’s staring contest.
"Let’s get back to the important matter. Who is the poisoner, exactly?"
Li Ji slowly uttered two words.
"Li Qi."
For a moment, Hua Manman didn’t realize who that was.
Li Ji took the initiative to explain, "Li Qi is the Heir of Prince Zheng."
Only then did Hua Manman remember that the Heir of Prince Zheng was the fattest one.
’So his name is Li Qi.’
’I never would have thought. He’s so round and looks so easygoing, yet he’s capable of poisoning someone behind their back.’
Hua Manman was very curious. "How do you know he’s the one who did it?"
Li Ji naturally knew because of his Mind Reading Technique.
He gave a deliberately mysterious smile.
"You’ll find out later."
Hua Manman assumed he didn’t want to answer, so she skipped the topic and asked instead.
"Do you have any proof?"
Li Ji said lazily, "If I had proof, I would have convicted him long ago."
The matter was tricky precisely because there was no proof, and he couldn’t use torture.
Hua Manman: "So we’re just going to let it go?"
Li Ji: "With me, nothing is ever ’let go’. Just wait and see. Even the slyest fox will eventually show its tail."
Seeing his confident demeanor, Hua Manman guessed that he must already have a plan.
She tactfully refrained from asking any further questions.
’In any case, as long as I know who the real culprit is, I just need to be more on guard in the future.’
’Everything else has nothing to do with me.’
Her attention was drawn to another matter.
"The Heir of Prince Qing is named Li Yu, and the Heir of Prince Zheng is named Li Qi... Do all the Princely Heirs from the royal mansions have the surname Li?"
Li Ji gave an affirmative reply: "Yes."
Hua Manman pointed to the tip of her own nose.
"Then why is my surname Lu?"
Li Ji started to laugh. "Because your Yu Royal Mansion is that of the only Alien King among all the Vassal Kings."
Everyone in the world knew this.
Only the amnesiac Hua Manman didn’t know.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter