Lu Wanning was stunned. The handwriting was written by Sheng Jinyu? But his handwriting should be quite delicate and elegant, not so vigorous.
The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed them back and changed the topic. "So, did His Highness the Prince of Yu used to be in charge of the documents here?"
The document clerk was an old man with a long beard hanging on his chest. His eyes were rather cloudy. He squinted and thought for a long time before smiling. "It wasn't him. It was his uncle. His uncle was once the most famous chief clerk in the Supreme Court of Judicature. It's a pity... sigh..."
Lu Wanning only knew that the maternal family of His Highness the Prince of Yu was not prominent. It was said that it wasn't a small family in the past. The noble concubine was extremely favored by the emperor after entering the palace and was promoted step by step. Unfortunately, once something went wrong, the whole family was demoted. In the end, there were only the noble concubine who entered the palace and the lady who married into the Lu family left.
So the uncle of the Prince of Yu used to serve in the Supreme Court of Judicature.
The document clerk didn't say much. He just handed the rubbing to Lu Wanning for her to look through. "Anyone who wants to serve in the Supreme Court of Judicature has to come to me to study the previous case files. It may take at least three to five months, or even several years. This is the basic skill. If the princess wants to study seriously, the first thing is to pass my test."
Lu Wanning's eyes widened. "Do I still have to take an exam?"
The document clerk laughed. "Of course you do."
Seeing that her mind was not on this, he didn't persuade her any more. He just turned around and got busy with his own things.
Lu Wanning looked at the register and then flipped through the case files, looking at them absent - mindedly. She originally thought that the case files should be exciting and very attractive stories. Unexpectedly, after reading them, they were all boring. Most of the case files had a beginning but no end. They were recorded in detail and there were even hand - drawn pictures. Unfortunately, she really couldn't understand them or find anything significant.
It was impossible to reverse a case based on these.
Who recorded these? The document clerk said that the previous document clerk was the uncle of the Prince of Yu. What kind of person was he? Did the Prince of Yu taking over the Supreme Court of Judicature have anything to do with his uncle?
While flipping through, a case file caught Lu Wanning's attention. It was a case about a family in the capital city about fifteen years ago. Logically, the family in this case file shouldn't be a low - status family, but even their specific surnames and names were not clearly written. It only said that the male head of the family was originally a decent person. He was injured and broke his leg in a sudden incident, and then his personality changed greatly. He did a lot of evil things...
The following was vague and inconsistent.
Lu Wanning frowned and flipped through it for a while but couldn't find anything special. There were just a few pictures drawn later, which seemed to be the crime scene and the people involved.
The last one was a wanted notice.
Lu Wanning picked up the portrait on the wanted notice. People's painting skills were quite good at that time. The painter had drawn the person so vividly that, looking at it, the face somewhat resembled His Highness the Prince of Yu.
However, His Highness the Prince of Yu's face was more angular, while this person had a somewhat feminine air and looked rather gloomy.
Lu Wanning rubbed her eyes and thought that she must be crazy. Was she so eager to curry favor with someone that she even thought a wanted criminal looked like the Prince of Yu?
After carefully looking through this old wanted notice, Lu Wanning found a few words at the bottom, which seemed to be the person's name: Yan Songbai.
Yan? There didn't seem to be anyone with the surname Yan in the capital city. Anyway, she had never heard of it.
This case had no clear beginning or end and seemed strange. The strangest thing was that the wanted criminal had been captured and the case had already been concluded. Why was it placed among the unresolved case files?
Lu Wanning took the case file to find the document clerk. "Sir, is this case file placed in the wrong place? This case has already been concluded."
The document clerk picked up the case file and took a look. Immediately, his face changed greatly. He picked up the case file and asked, "Where did you get this?"
Lu Wanning pointed to the place where the case file was. "I just randomly picked one. I saw this one at the bottom, so I picked it up to have a look."
The document clerk quickly walked over and examined it carefully. He returned to the table, put the case file into the drawer and locked it. Then he said, "This doesn't belong here. Maybe my student came here yesterday and accidentally put it in. It doesn't matter. Princess, you can go and look at other things."
Lu Wanning frowned and thought that there must be something wrong with this. She could ask her father about the things that happened fifteen years ago.
In the Prince of Yu's Mansion, Sheng Jinyu was writing a letter at the desk.
Sheng Songyan sat in front of the window and was in a daze for a while. He said rather annoyedly, "These days have been really helpless. There are so many affairs in the court, but why did the emperor suddenly notice me? I've had to hide in the brothel these two days. Fortunately, you're back today. Otherwise, I would have been bored to death."
Sheng Jinyu raised his eyebrows. "Where's He Nanfeng?"
Sheng Songyan spread his hands. "You know that guy. He doesn't care about anything for the sake of a woman. I haven't seen him for a few days. He said that he went to the suburbs to collect herbs to please that Imperial Academician Jiang. Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
Sheng Jinyu slowly put down his pen. He called in the secret guard, rolled up the letter paper in his hand, sealed it and asked him to send it out.
"I've said that love will only delay things."
Sheng Songyan nodded and then asked, "The prefect of Zhezhou came here with great difficulty. I tried every means to keep him, but as you know, with my reputation as a playboy, he didn't even look at me. I didn't dare to reveal too much. By the way, what were you doing these days? You missed such a good opportunity in vain, and the crown prince got the whole Zhezhou... Ah, just thinking about it gives me a headache."
Sheng Jinyu stood in front of the bookshelf. He stretched out his hand as if he wanted to take a book, but in the end, he didn't. He just sneered. "Love really does delay things."
Sheng Songyan was confused. "What?"
Sheng Jinyu shook his head slightly. He turned back and sat down at the table and asked, "How is the situation with the Prince of Xiao?"
Sheng Songyan replied, "The Prince of Xiao is now looking for trouble with the Supreme Court of Judicature everywhere, while the Supreme Court of Judicature is always being submissive. In terms of public opinion, the Supreme Court of Judicature hasn't suffered a loss. Don't worry."
Sheng Jinyu glanced at him but didn't say anything.
Sheng Songyan quickly added, "No, Jinyu, this matter isn't under my control, right? I don't know what those people in the Supreme Court of Judicature are up to. The Prince of Zhennan has never taken the bait. What can we do?"
Sheng Jinyu sneered. "They're so stupid. Later, tell Lord Fang to stir things up."
"Stir things up?" Sheng Songyan stroked his chin. After a while, he laughed. "Jinyu, your idea is brilliant. If he throws away his dignity and makes a big fuss, the Prince of Xiao won't be able to stand the provocation and will only try every means to suppress him. Now the Princess of Zhaoming is in the Supreme Court of Judicature. That girl is very reckless. We're not afraid that she won't take the bait. As long as the Princess of Zhaoming can't stand it, the Prince of Zhennan won't sit idly by."
Sheng Jinyu narrowed his eyes and pointed to a letter on the table. "Don't be too happy too soon. This is a letter sent by the spy in Luocheng by carrier pigeon yesterday."
Sheng Songyan took a look and raised his head in surprise. "Are they in the north of the desert going to stage a comeback?"