“This commoner pays respects to Your Highness the Third Prince and to the Judicial Affairs Minister.”
More than a dozen people knelt before them, including the heavily pregnant wife of the Grant Tutor, Steward Wang, and several attendants and maids.
Compared with their previous visit, the Grant Tutor’s Manor seemed even more desolate. Mu Xueshi was still unused to people kneeling before him, so the moment he heard the Third Prince excuse them from ceremony, he quickly helped Steward Wang and the Grant Tutor’s wife to their feet.
“Mother, you’re about to give birth, aren’t you?” Mu Xueshi asked bluntly.
The lady inadvertently caught sight of Mu Xueshi’s face through the veil and was instantly stunned, so much so that she did not even register what Mu Xueshi had said.
Mu Xueshi felt somewhat uneasy as well. He edged closer to the Third Prince, rose on tiptoe beside his ear, and whispered, “Is it very impolite here to ask about a woman’s pregnancy?”
The Third Prince merely straightened Mu Xueshi gently and said nothing, only casting the lady a cold glance.
That glance was calm as usual, yet it made the lady’s heart pound with fear, her complexion gradually turning pale.
Mu Xueshi was baffled by the atmosphere and stood at the side, not even daring to speak. After a while, when he saw the Third Prince walk forward, he followed along beside him in small steps.
“Why did you look at Grant Tutor Mu’s wife like that just now?” Mu Xueshi only dared ask once they had entered the room.
The Third Prince turned and stared at Mu Xueshi for a moment, then tapped his forehead with one finger. “Don’t ask random questions.”
“Tell me.” The Third Prince’s reaction only made Mu Xueshi even more curious.
The Third Prince lightly grasped Mu Xueshi’s cheeks with one large hand and warned, “Do not forget why you came here.”
Mu Xueshi rolled his eyes at the Third Prince inwardly and said with a mouth full of disdain, “I don’t even want to know!” One day, when I get you drunk, I’m definitely digging out every shady thing you’ve hidden in your heart.
After such a long time had passed, the main hall where Grant Tutor Mu had been murdered no longer held any clues to speak of. Even the dark burn mark on the floor that Mu Xueshi had initially discovered had lost its original outline after being cleaned. The case had already lacked clues to begin with, and now it had become even more of a headless case.
“Huh?” Mu Xueshi was sitting in the main hall out of sheer boredom when he suddenly remembered something.
“Why haven’t I seen Wu Cai this whole time?”
The Third Prince cast Mu Xueshi a glance, indicating that he did not know where Wu Cai was either.
Mu Xueshi stood up from the chair and gestured with his fingers. “I feel like this Wu Cai must know something. Last time, when he tried to frame me, everything he said sounded so logical.”
The Third Prince did not refute him, though he knew the person who had wanted to frame Mu Xueshi last time might not necessarily have been Wu Cai.
“Steward Wang, Steward Wang.” As Mu Xueshi thought this, he ran outside.
Steward Wang was walking through the courtyard. Hearing Mu Xueshi call out, he quickly made his way over.
Seeing that Steward Wang’s legs and feet were not nimble, Mu Xueshi dashed over to him in a few quick steps and asked breathlessly where Wu Cai had gone.
Steward Wang bent his back and coughed several times, then smiled kindly at Mu Xueshi. Deep furrows appeared across his dry, wrinkled old face. “Judicial Affairs Minister, Wu Cai is in the woodshed.”
Mu Xueshi did not head to the woodshed right away. Instead, he said to Steward Wang with some embarrassment, “Steward Wang, please don’t call me ‘Minister’ from now on, and don’t bow to me either. If you’re willing, just call me Young Master like before.”
“How could that be…” Steward Wang slowly said in a hoarse voice. “In the past, I called you Young Master because the master was still above you. Now Young Master is not merely Young Master anymore, but has also been appointed by the palace as a third-rank official. How could this old servant continue calling the Judicial Affairs Minister Young Master…”
“Fine, fine, whatever you say…”
Mu Xueshi quickly cut Steward Wang off, intending to go to the woodshed first and handle proper business rather than continue communicating with the old man. One sentence had taken five minutes. At this rate, if he tried to talk the old man around, it would probably be tomorrow morning by the time he succeeded.
When he reached the woodshed, the Third Prince was already standing there. Apart from the Third Prince, there was also an old man with disheveled hair lying on the ground, pinching a moldy steamed bun from a bowl with his fingers and slowly bringing it to his mouth.
Mu Xueshi could not help sighing inwardly. This was probably a retired servant. So there were such pitiful people in the Grant Tutor’s Manor too. But why had he never seen this person before? Had he been locked in the woodshed like this all along?
After quite a while, Mu Xueshi finally came back to himself and asked the Third Prince beside him, “Why did you come too?”
“I was worried you would be afraid, so I came to look with you.”
Mu Xueshi stubbornly said there was nothing frightening about looking for a person, but after hearing the Third Prince’s words, he still could not help feeling happy for a while.
“Who did you come looking for?” Mu Xueshi asked.
The Third Prince said calmly, “Wu Cai.”
The person lying on the ground suddenly began coughing in a hoarse voice, and the coughing grew more and more severe, as though he were about to cough his heart out.
“Then… where is Wu Cai?” Mu Xueshi said, indicating that he had not seen him at all.
The Third Prince raised his chin, indicating that the person lying on the ground was him.
Mu Xueshi still looked utterly confused and asked the Third Prince, “Is he… Wu Cai’s grandfather?”
The Third Prince did not know whether to laugh or sigh. He let out a breath and said to Mu Xueshi, “He is Wu Cai.”
“Ah!” Mu Xueshi’s legs immediately went weak, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.
When the person lying on the ground heard Mu Xueshi’s cry, he suddenly burst into loud laughter, laughing as he said, “Adultery, adultery… Hahaha…”
Before Mu Xueshi could recover, the man abruptly stood up and stared straight at Mu Xueshi without saying a word.
“You really are Wu Cai?” All the hairs on Mu Xueshi’s body suddenly stood on end.
The man moved his lips, then giggled for a while and said, “Adultery… adultery…”
Mu Xueshi edged closer to the Third Prince before asking the man, “Who… who committed adultery?”
“You. You committed adultery.”
The man patted his chest with his hand, then suddenly began spinning in place. The iron chains at his feet clattered with each step, filling the entire woodshed with dust and chaos.
Futile Devices Scans 
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