After waiting for a little over an hour, Lord Cao from the Ministry of Justice finally arrived belatedly. Today being Chinese New Year's Day, he had been drinking and by the haste of his approach, it was clear he had just left a feast. Because he had been summoned by Prince Heng's people, and the house servants had explained the whole situation to him in detail, Lord Cao, who typically seemed stern and sparing of words, had already understood the ins and outs of the matter before his arrival.
He led his subordinates inside. After entering, he first greeted Rong Heng, then ordered his men to start investigating the case, not dilly-dallying at all, not even glancing at his own daughter. He wasn't idle either, going straight to the Shopkeeper to understand what had happened at the time.
At this point, no one had come to question Tang Yuan yet. She simply kept her head down, sketching, indifferent to the commotion around her.
