Over the next two days, Lin Taichu devoted himself entirely to the investigation. He personally interrogated Granny Li. Although parts of her testimony were vague, it roughly matched certain points in the timeline.
Meanwhile, the people sent out to gather information gradually returned with news. According to the investigation, Wang Qinian was indeed on bad terms with Prince An, and the two had clashed in court many times over policy matters.
Prince An had always wanted to expand his sphere of influence, while Wang Qinian firmly opposed him, believing Prince An's actions would harm the nation's interests. Their conflict was practically an open secret in the court.
More importantly, the investigation revealed that Wang Qinian had recently made an expenditure from an unknown source, and the timing roughly matched when Granny Li claimed to have received the money.
Furthermore, someone had seen Wang Qinian's steward appear near Granny Li's home several times. However, there was no direct evidence proving that Wang Qinian had given the money to Granny Li, nor was there evidence that the steward had directly contacted her.
In addition, Lin Taichu investigated the source of the poison.
He discovered that preparing this poison required several extremely rare medicinal herbs. One of Wang Qinian's distant relatives happened to run a medicinal herb business and had the means to obtain those rare herbs.
Prince An, on the other hand, may have monopolized the capital's medicinal herb trade, but there were no records of those rare herbs in his stores.
All the signs indicated that Granny Li's testimony was not unfounded. Wang Qinian was indeed highly suspicious.
Moreover, the investigation showed that Wang Qinian and Prince An had not colluded in any way. On the contrary, they had long harbored deep resentment toward each other and were genuine enemies.
Lin