After the wizard left, Lin Taichu hurried to the bookshelf and opened a hidden compartment. Besides the box from earlier, there were several letters inside.
He picked up one of the letters. The handwriting was from the Central Plains, and it described colluding with the prime minister, intending to use the Jin Kingdom to eliminate the loyal officials at court before coordinating from within and without to seize Great Qi's realm.
"So it really was him!" Lin Taichu said angrily.
Gao Yang picked up the box and opened it. Inside were some black insects that looked revolting. "What are these?"
"I don't know, but they definitely aren't anything good," Lin Taichu said. "They might be related to the king's illness."
Just as they were about to take the letters and the box away, voices sounded outside. The wizard had returned with several princes.
The two quickly hid behind the bookshelf.
They heard the First Prince say, "Wizard, Father King has been acting stranger and stranger lately. What exactly did you do to him?"
The wizard sneered. "What do you mean by that, First Prince? I'm merely helping Your Majesty recuperate. Don't you want Your Majesty to get better?"
The Second Prince said, "Recuperate? I think you're harming Father King! You feed him those strange things every day, and now Father King can't even recognize us!"
"Insolence!" the wizard snapped. "Everything I do is by Your Majesty's command. Questioning me means questioning Your Majesty!"
The Third Prince said, "We aren't questioning Your Majesty. We just think your ritual is too sinister. It doesn't look like treatment at all. It looks more like..."
"Like what?" The wizard stared at him. "Say it if you have something to say. Stop hemming and hawing."
The Third Prince gritted his teeth. "It looks more like