GBP Chapter 471 Knowing people, knowing faces, but not knowing hearts
Chapter 471 Knowing people, knowing faces, but not knowing hearts
"Your Highness, isn't this normal? It's easy to draw the skin of a tiger, but hard to draw its bones; you can know a person's face, but not their heart."
How do you know that timid and cowardly demeanor isn't just a persona they've deliberately created?
He wore a disguise that made everyone lower their guard, even ignoring him completely.
The Prince of Xuan Nan nodded, but there was a hint of confusion in his eyes.
"It's true that you can know a person's face but not their heart, but what is this persona?"
"Well, it's the impression you give to others, which can be shaped and portrayed as a personality, temperament, daily behavior, and even the way you speak and your tone of voice."
"I see. You truly are a learned person. Your words are concise and to the point."
"Your Highness is too kind. I have finished reading the case files and have a good understanding of the situation. I will need Your Highness's help in the future."
The Prince of Xuan Nan put down the thick case file. "Why bother with all this? When His Majesty asked me to get involved in this case, we were already in the same boat. What's the point of talking about trouble?"
The two finished their last game of chess, and then the Prince of Xuannan got up and returned to the palace.
Jiang Xiaoqi couldn't help but sigh that, within certain specific contexts, the Prince of Xuannan truly belonged to the most privileged class of privileged classes.
Leaving the palace at night and returning in the middle of the night is no different from going home. That makes sense, isn't that their home?
After seeing off Prince Xuan Nan, Jiang Xiaoqi put away the thick stack of case files, opened the drawer under the desk, and found a slightly thinner case file inside.
He didn't show this book to anyone, not even His Majesty the Emperor. Sometimes, it's necessary to keep some things to yourself and have some trump cards up your sleeve.
Jiang Xiaoqi slowly picked up the thin case file, gently blew away the dust on it, and turned to the first page.
It contains seemingly insignificant clues that subtly reveal profound secrets, all of which he obtained through secret investigation.
Despite being only a thin book, it involves more people than the first book, and Jiang Xiaoqi suddenly felt that the Great Zhou Dynasty was completely rotten.
Shaking his head, he tossed the second case file into his spatial storage; it was more reassuring to keep this thing in his spatial storage.
The first thick case file was thrown back into the drawer. There were no secrets left in the past few years; everything had been made public.
Those who need to know already know all the information in this case file. Even if it's stolen, it doesn't matter. Minister Lin must have made a copy, and there are also backups in the palace.
Even the Prince of Xuannan would probably make a backup when he gets back tonight.
Just as Jiang Xiaoqi finished tidying up, she heard a slight noise outside the window. Alertly, she drew her soft sword from her waist and slowly approached the window.
A dark figure leaped through the window and rushed towards him with incredible speed. Jiang Xiaoqi dodged to the side, and the figure missed its target.
Ha! The Prince of Xuan Nan just left and he's already pulling this stunt!
Jiang Xiaoqi sneered inwardly, his soft sword twirling nimbly in his hand as he immediately engaged the dark figure in combat.
The shadowy figure launched a fierce and ruthless attack, but Jiang Xiaoqi was no pushover either. With her agile movements and superb swordsmanship, she held her own and even gained a slight advantage.
After several rounds, the shadowy figure seemed to realize that he was unlikely to win, so he suddenly made a feint and pulled out a hidden weapon from his pocket and shot it at Jiang Xiaoqi.
Jiang Xiaoqi quickly blocked with his sword. In the instant he was distracted, the dark figure took the opportunity to rush towards the table. Jiang Xiaoqi deliberately hesitated and did not stop it.
It seems they want to steal that case file; their information network is quite extensive.
Prince Xuan Nan, do you know that you cannot fully trust the people around you?
Jiang Xiaoqi shouted, "How dare you!" He rushed forward and kicked the dark figure away.
The dark figure fell to the ground, struggled to get up, and looked on in fear and surprise, as if he had never expected a scholar to have such fighting power.
Just then, several dark figures appeared outside the window, subtly surrounding the room.
The man in black on the ground seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Reinforcements had arrived! His master was indeed very thoughtful!
Jiang Xiaoqi frowned slightly. No matter how many come, they can't be allowed to leave unscathed.
Leave someone alive so you can pry out more!
Gripping his soft sword tightly, he was ready for a desperate fight.
Suddenly, several sword lights flashed simultaneously, and one after another, dark figures outside the house screamed and fell to the ground.
Jiang Xiaoqi knocked out the man in black inside the house before opening the door to check the situation outside.
"Your Highness?! You didn't leave?!"
It turned out that the Prince of Xuan Nan had returned and brought his men to provide support.
Under the siege of the guards under the Prince of Xuan Nan, these assassins were quickly subdued, but there was no time to leave any survivors, and most of them committed suicide by poison.
Jiang Xiaoqi breathed a sigh of relief, her gaze towards Prince Xuannan somewhat complicated.
"My Lord, what are you doing?"
"Being betrayed once is enough!"
Jiang Xiaoqi understood that the Prince of Xuannan's visit to the palace to inquire about the case was a pretense; his real intention was to expose the hidden mole within his own ranks.
As expected of royalty, they were kept in the dark themselves.
"Your Highness, these people..."
"They are all assassins. There are very few families in the entire capital that can train assassins; you can count them on one hand."
It seems that the Prince of Xuannan already knows whose people he is?
"They're just one of the people on the list. They're just as desperate. How could you not have a backup of this case file?"
I've seen it, His Majesty has seen it, and Minister Lin has seen it too. What's the use of just stealing the case files? The important thing is to properly clean up the mess we've already made."
"What Your Highness says is true. Exposing an undercover agent as the price, just for a publicly available case file, I wonder what this person is thinking."
Oh, no, now we've also lost seven assassins—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven! That's a huge sum of money!
Jiang Xiaoqi leisurely counted the black-clad men lying on the ground outside her room, each one of them dead with blood flowing from their seven orifices.
"Lord Jiang, they are all highly trained assassins. The poison they used to commit suicide was hidden in their teeth. It was a deadly poison that would kill on contact with blood. We couldn't stop them in time."
The speaker was a trusted confidant of the Prince of Xuan Nan. He was indifferent to the presence of so many assassins, but since this was the Jiang family's residence, they should have done a better job, at least not in such an unsightly manner.
Ultimately, having grown accustomed to the peaceful life in the prince's fiefdom, their vigilance had weakened, which is why they failed to stop these people from committing suicide earlier.
"It's not the commander's fault. At first, I also thought they were just petty thieves. Who would have thought that our little mansion would attract so many assassins?"
"Lord Jiang, these corpses can be handled by my men. This night has been exhausting. Perhaps you could take a day off tomorrow to get some rest?"
Jiang Xiaoqi didn't know the Prince of Xuan Nan's intentions, but she still went along with it, "Indeed, it's almost dawn. I haven't slept all night, and I'm going to doze off when I get to the Hanlin Academy. I'll listen to Your Highness and take a break too~"
The Prince of Xuan Nan has truly left this time, taking with him the bodies of all the assassins.
"Your Highness, there were clearly survivors in Lord Jiang's study! Why did you..."
The Prince of Xuannan signaled his men to stop talking. Instead of returning directly to the palace, the group went to deal with the corpses.
Of course, a thorough inspection is necessary before taking action, even if it is known that the assassin will not have anything of any particular significance on him.
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