The Prime Minister’s Darling-Chapter 1508: Behind the Scenes Culprit (First Update)

Wang Xu stared at Gu Jiao, dumbfounded, "What are you doing sticking needles in him?"

"Coercing a confession," Gu Jiao said.

"You can coerce a confession with just one needle?" Wang Xu expressed disbelief.

Gu Jiao didn’t tell him it was a hallucinogen, to avoid him overthinking and assuming that Gu Jiao was manipulating the killer’s confession.

Gu Jiao watched the killer lying on the ground, his tense body gradually relaxing, understanding that he was experiencing hallucinations.

She couldn’t let him go too deep; otherwise, if he completely lost contact with the outside world, he wouldn’t hear any exterior sounds.

Gu Jiao tapped his shoulder with a rolling pin, and said sternly, "If you don’t want to suffer more, speak quickly. Who exactly is the killer?"

Gu Jiao had knocked the man unconscious long ago, and had only waited for Wang Xu to come over so that he could hear the killer’s name firsthand.

The killer didn’t struggle much and confessed honestly.

However, the name he gave was not the person Gu Jiao and Gu Changqing had in mind.

"Who is Li Ping?" Gu Jiao asked Wang Xu.

Wang Xu thought for a moment, "He probably didn’t mean Li Ping; he meant Li Pin, one of the ladies in the palace."

To confirm his guess, Wang Xu asked him a few more details about how Li Pin had instructed him.

Right now, the killer was in a muddled state, and would disclose everything he remembered without holding back.

From the confessions, it seemed indeed that it was the imperial harem’s Li Pin who had ordered him to assassinate Shangguan Yun.

Li Pin never told him why she wanted Shangguan Yun dead. Li Pin had no interactions with him, it was just that he happened upon an affair he had with a palace maid by chance.

In the Dayan Imperial Palace, eunuchs and palace maids having relations was forbidden, discovery meant a death sentence.

Li Pin blackmailed him with this, making him agree to help her get rid of Shangguan Yun.

"Does Li Pin have any grudges against Shangguan Yun?" Gu Jiao asked.

Wang Xu fell silent.

Li Pin had only entered the palace a few years ago, while Shangguan Yun had been confined in the Imperial Mausoleum more than a decade earlier; the two had no interaction whatsoever.

It wasn’t possible that they would have a grudge.

But Wang Xu’s silence wasn’t due to this, but rather because... Li Pin was very close to a certain empress in the Imperial Harem.

Gu Jiao looked at Wang Xu, "Who?"

Wang Xu spoke gravely, "Wanfei."

Wanfei, whose family name was Mu, was the legitimate daughter of the elder Mu and her mother was sisters with Mu Qingchen’s mother.

Initially struggling in the harem with no support, Li Pin’s life became much easier after she attached herself to the influential Wanfei, transforming from a mere dressing maid into the Li Pin of today.

"Does Wanfei have any grudges against Shangguan Yun?"

"There are grudges," Wang Xu sighed. "It was something that happened right after Shangguan Yun took the one-year-old Imperial Grandson back to Shengdu. Wanfei whispered to the servants that no one knew if that child was some wild seed picked up from outside. The then Princess Shangguan Yun overheard and, not content with just slapping Wanfei, also made her kneel in the Imperial Garden as an example to others. Back then, Wanfei wasn’t yet empress, she was only Wanpin, but it was still humiliating."

"The Princess’s power is that great."

"With Empress Xuanyuan and the Xuanyuan Family backing her, of course her power is great. Besides, as the only legitimate child, below the Emperor and Empress, only she is most esteemed."

It sounded like something the Xuanyuan Family would do.

This way, it seemed that Shangguan Yun was very protective of Xiao Qing.

"Guessing here is useless; to find out whether Li Pin was really instigated by Wanfei, we have to ask Li Pin," said Gu Jiao.

Wang Xu agreed deeply, "I will enter the palace immediately."

"Wait," Gu Jiao stopped him.

"Hmm?" Wang Xu paused, puzzled.

Gu Jiao pointed at his arm, "Your wound."

"Ah, this." Wang Xu had forgotten about his injury. Suddenly feeling a bit awkward, he gave a light cough and said, "It’s not a serious injury."

Still, when Gu Jiao approached with the first aid kit, he reluctantly extended his arm.

Gu Jiao took out a cotton swab with iodine from the first aid kit, cleaned his wound, and stitched three stitches.

Thanks to the anesthetic, it didn’t hurt at all.

Wang Xu gave Gu Jiao a complex look, moved, "Tha-, thanks."

Gu Jiao held out her hand, "One tael of silver."

Wang Xu, "..."

...

After paying the silver, Wang Xu left with the killer, face darkened, and returned to Duwei Prefecture.

Watching his departing figure, Gu Changqing asked, "He’s the killer, isn’t he?"

Gu Jiao replied, "He is. I looked at the back of his right hand; there was the crescent-shaped scar that Shangguan Yun mentioned."

A little earlier, when Shangguan Yun had regained consciousness briefly, Gu Jiao had taken the opportunity to ask her about the killer. Shangguan Yun hadn’t seen the killer’s face clearly, but she had grabbed his hand and felt the scar on the back of it.