Why My Domineering Prince Regretted Filing for Divorce?-Chapter 564 - 467: A Huge Shadow

"What?!"

Shang Ruyi was greatly surprised, and the bowl in her hand slipped, shattering to pieces on the ground.

Yu Wenqian, standing nearby, furrowed his brows but didn’t ask any questions, silently walking over to look at them. Wo Xue said in panic, "Mr. Yin had Song Yu locked in a room up front, and additional guards were posted outside. But when they brought him his meal just now, they found him already dead."

"...!"

Shang Ruyi’s face darkened, and she promptly said, "Let’s go!"

Ignoring everything else, she rose and hurriedly left with Wo Xue.

When they arrived at the door of the room temporarily used to detain Song Yu, Yin Changyue and Dai Junliang were already there, surrounded by people in the room, and at the center lay Song Yu’s corpse in a pool of blood.

A short dagger was lodged in his chest, staining a large portion of his body with blood.

Seeing this person, who was just alive and had stubbornly argued with Shang Ruyi, now breathless, everyone exhibited different expressions, ranging from anger and pity to a touch of helplessness and panic.

But more than anything, there was confusion.

Song Yu had died just like that.

Was it a guilty suicide, or —

Shang Ruyi said nothing, only pressing her somewhat pale lips together as she looked down at the corpse. Song Yu’s eyes were bloodshot, his eyeballs bulging, his face twisted with terror and a hint of unwillingness, as if he had encountered something extremely dreadful before his death.

Facing such a scene, even under the blazing sun, even having just experienced the most brutal battlefield, Shang Ruyi couldn’t help but take a sharp breath.

But she wasn’t scared.

She was angry.

Not just her, even Wo Xue, who followed her, furrowed her brows, her delicate face filled with unchecked anger, and through gritted teeth, said, "How could this happen?"

"..."

No one answered her.

In fact, everyone who witnessed this scene shared the same feeling in their hearts.

And Yin Changyue and Dai Junliang, standing to the side, looked particularly sullen and their hearts heavy.

It was known that in this incident of a court official being murdered within the military, Yin Changyue, as the supervisor, would inevitably be held accountable upon returning to Daxing. His previous attempts at smoothing things over were aimed at suppressing the issue to extricate himself; however, the General’s wife refused to let it go and gathered all the evidence, forcing him to help clarify the case, thus completing a task and providing an explanation; yet, just as the case was cleared, the suspect died.

This time, even if the Fufeng battle ended in great victory, returning to the court would be difficult to report on.

Dai Junliang shared the same concern.

After a long silence between the two, Dai Junliang finally softly said, "Madam, we just arrived as well, and found only Song Yu’s corpse in the room. And—"

"What?"

"The window is open."

Everyone hurriedly looked up and found, indeed, the window on the other side was ajar, but since this room was meant to detain a suspect, the window should have been sealed shut.

Shang Ruyi furrowed her brows, "Why wasn’t the window sealed?"

A guard immediately said, "Madam, the window was initially sealed, but upon inspection, we found traces of it being pried open from the outside with a dagger, and there are footprints on the windowsill. It seems someone entered the room through the window."

"..."

Hearing this, Shang Ruyi fell silent.

After a long time, her eyes flashed coldly, and she said in a low voice, "So, Song Yu didn’t commit suicide."

As soon as she said this, the room grew even quieter.

Song Yu didn’t commit suicide.

In fact, seeing his terrifying and frightened expression before death, everyone had already suspected as much, and now it became even clearer.

He was murdered.

Only—

Dai Junliang thought for a moment, then turned to the guards at the door and asked, "Did you hear any noise from inside while you were on guard outside?"

The guards exchanged glances and shook their heads collectively.

The leader among them said, "After Lord Song was locked inside, he kept cursing us and threatening us. Following the orders of Lord Dai and Mr. Yin, we ignored him. After a while, Lord Song quieted down, so we thought he had tired himself out with all the shouting. We didn’t expect—"

"You heard no noise at all?"

"No."

Hearing their words, Dai Junliang furrowed his brows and murmured, "If indeed someone broke in to kill him, given Lord Song’s skills, could his opponent really prevent him from making any noise?"

Once again, everyone fell into silence.

After pondering briefly, Shang Ruyi was heard saying softly, "So, it wasn’t just one person who did this."

"...!?"

Everyone immediately turned towards her. Yin Changyue’s eyes widened in astonishment, "Madam, you mean—"

Shang Ruyi said, "At least two people were involved."

"..."

"Only this way could they subdue Song Yu, prevent him from making any sound to alert the guards outside, and kill him."

"..."

"As for the person who acted—"

Dai Junliang thought for a moment, then immediately said, "The official office is heavily guarded, outsiders can’t come and go freely. Moreover, this is the backyard, and with such an incident happening, I had already ordered strict supervision."

"..."

"The people in the backyard are just a few of us, and those who followed us."

"..."

"But none of these people have left."

Just when everyone was a bit puzzled, Shang Ruyi glanced around and suddenly said, "Just now, where are the two guards beside Song Yu?"

"...!?"

Everyone was momentarily stunned upon hearing this.

But immediately someone reacted; she was referring to the two guards who seemed somewhat slow-witted, even inept, during the "public trial" of Song Yu in the assembly hall just now.

Yin Changyue exclaimed in astonishment, "I, after having Song Yu detained, had them all dismissed."

Because they were not involved in the plot to assassinate the Great General, they were not detained together; when their master was detained, they were naturally told to leave.

At this moment, Dai Junliang seemed to understand something and immediately instructed the guard behind him, "Go, quickly find them!"

A few guards received the order and hastily ran off.

It was already past noon, and the sun above was like a burning fireball, baking the ground red; this room was like a blazing kiln, yet everyone inside felt an inexplicable chill rising from the depths of their hearts, as if a foreboding sense of doom was silently spreading.

After a while, the guards ran back.

Dai Junliang immediately asked, "How is it?"

The guard replied, panting, "Sir, those two are missing."

"What?"

"We asked around, and everyone said they hadn’t seen them. We searched the entire official office, even the barracks over there, but there was no sign of them."

Upon hearing this, Dai Junliang’s expression immediately darkened. He thought for a moment, then said promptly, "Quickly send people to search, conduct a citywide manhunt, we must find these two!"

"Yes!"

The few men immediately sped off again.

The surroundings became hectic once again, but Shang Ruyi stood aside, exuding an unusual chill; although the final outcome was not yet confirmed, she could almost foresee what the conclusion would be.

Those two people probably couldn’t be found again.

At this moment, she turned to look at Song Yu’s corpse. Even though it was covered by white cloth, the twisted, ferocious outline of his face just before death was still visible, and this was when Shang Ruyi finally realized something—

No wonder he died in such terror.

Evidently, even he did not expect those two guards, whom he considered slow-witted and incompetent, to suddenly become so agile and swift, breaking into the room where he was detained.

However, their purpose was not to save him but to kill him.

Even—at this moment, Shang Ruyi realized that those two guards were not truly slow-witted and incompetent.

Their clumsy appearance just now was an act.

It seems they had discerned that Shang Ruyi possessed enough evidence to convict Song Yu. At that time, even if he were temporarily saved, he could not escape the fate of being publicly tried by the court upon returning to Daxing City. If so, more people and matters might become implicated.

Therefore, their slow-witted incompetence at that time was actually a form of giving up, allowing Shang Ruyi and others to judge and detain him.

It was also to lower their guard.

Once they thought everything was under control, after detaining Song Yu, these two reappeared and killed him, making the assassination case against the Great General come to a dead end!

Looking at it this way, those seemingly slow-witted and incompetent guards were not Song Yu’s people, or perhaps, on the surface, they were Song Yu’s people, but in reality, they had another larger figure behind them.

The person whom Shang Ruyi wanted to interrogate Song Yu about.

This person had been hiding in the shadows from the very beginning. The battle at Fufeng was always shrouded under the massive shadow cast by this person—medicinal supplies were looted, Yu Wenye fell ill, Song Yu set fire to harm, up until just now when they finally interrogated Song Yu, he died before everything was fully resolved.

At such a time, to be silently killed—

Was silencing!

With just this thought, Shang Ruyi clenched her fist, her slender finger bones straining to a whiteness; yet an infuriating sense of powerlessness spread over her.

In the end, she was one step behind.

If at that time she had persisted just a little longer, perhaps, she could have interrogated this person out of Song Yu.

But—

At this moment, a tall, deep black shadow appeared from behind, blocking out the blazing sunlight outside, enveloping Shang Ruyi in that shadow.

Shang Ruyi suddenly felt her breath hitch.

She slowly turned around, lifted her head, and met those eyes that stood out in the sunlight’s shadow, appearing extraordinarily bright and exceptionally calm, as if they were untouched by any mundane filth, serene and pure.

It was Yu Wenqian.

His eyes were clear, and his expression was calm; he said, "Is everything taken care of?"