Chapter 59: Motive?

Zhu Yuanzhang, Hu Weiyong, Lan Yu, and the madam of Wanhua Pavilion should all have known that Dong Li was at Wanhua Pavilion.

There is no need to mention Zhu Yuanzhang and the madam; one has eyes planted all over in front of Zhu Gaoxu, and I reckon that once his curiosity is piqued, he could even know what Zhu Gaoxu passed today, whether solid or liquid.

The other matter happened right before her eyes; she is absolutely one of the parties involved.

As for Hu Weiyong and Lan Yu, it was the madam who moved the backing out of Wanhua Pavilion for the Embroidered Uniform Guard yesterday, which he overheard by accident.

Among them, Hu Weiyong and Lan Yu should be shareholders of this Wanhua Pavilion; the commotion yesterday was not small, even the guests were driven out, and Wanhua Pavilion was sealed directly, so the madam should have told those two, meaning those two should also be among the people in the know.

And among these people, Hu Weiyong, who has a motive for murder, certainly counts as one; Dong Li did many dirty deeds for him, and now that Dong Li has no power, Hu Weiyong certainly does not want Dong Li to stay alive.

But Hu Weiyong must have had opportunities to kill Dong Li before, so why did he not make a move?

Yesterday he had already captured Dong Li and did not kill him, which already explains many issues; does it not feel a bit too late to kill Dong Li now?

Locking the stable door after the horse has bolted?

Zhu Gaoxu shook his head; he did not think Hu Weiyong was the type of person to hesitate. For matters like this, either one does not act, or if one acts, one must act as soon as the incident occurs; Hu Weiyong would not tolerate Dong Li living it up outside for such a long time.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang also knew Dong Li's whereabouts, he even had a bit of a motive.

Compared to that, Zhu Yuanzhang did not want him to get too close to people from the underworld, so killing Dong Li to extinguish his thoughts is also plausible.

Plus, Dong Li had previously sent people to assassinate him; since he did not cut the weeds and dig up the roots last time, he could take this opportunity to make up for the previous omission.

But Zhu Gaoxu believed that the person least likely to act among them was Zhu Yuanzhang.

There is nothing to say; the gap in status between the two is too great. One is the monarch of a country, and the other is nothing but a stray dog.

Would Zhu Yuanzhang be so idle as to go and trouble a small character?

I reckon he would be too lazy to even open his mouth.

As for Lan Yu, Zhu Gaoxu does not know.

Yesterday, Dong Li did not mention Lan Yu to Zhu Gaoxu.

The madam should also be impossible; is she sick to kill someone in her own shop?

And then not dispose of the body, just waiting for people to come and discover it?

The more Zhu Gaoxu thought about it, the more confused he became.

He simply stopped thinking about it, decided to hand this matter over to the Ministry of Justice to handle, and would intervene to investigate once it was about time.

Thinking this, Zhu Gaoxu left a few Embroidered Uniform Guards to guard the scene, then walked out of Wanhua Pavilion.

He did not say goodbye to Linger again; to prevent Linger from being sad again, Zhu Gaoxu chatted with her for a while after finishing breakfast and then let her go about her business.

Therefore, Linger did not see that bloody scene just now.

Dong Li was dead, but this did not really affect Zhu Gaoxu's life.

The New Army would arrive in a day or two, the Daming Gun still needed to be produced, and he planned to do some small business recently to earn some money; after all, constantly spending the money of the Yan Wangfu was not a good thing.

This gave him a feeling of being watched at all times.

Everything he did was recorded, and when he returned to the boss to ask for money from the Yan Wangfu, would they not know everything he had done?

Although he had no conditions to do anything out of line...

Zhu Gaoxu actually had quite a few ways to make money in his mind; he could make money by taking out any one of them.

Plus, Lao Zhu gave him one thousand taels of silver, which could just be used as startup capital.

Thinking in his mind, Zhu Gaoxu walked toward the Ministry of Works.

The New Army was arriving soon, and he planned to have the people at the Ministry of Works build some equipment to train the New Army.

Thinking about his get-rich-quick plan, he walked toward the Ministry of Works.

Before he knew it, he had already arrived at the place.

He went straight to Yan Zhenzhi's office, but this time Yan Zhenzhi was not sitting inside.

He asked someone at random and only then learned that even Yan Zhenzhi had been arranged by Lao Zhu to go to the military equipment side, not allowed to wander around.

Fortunately, this matter could be handled by finding anyone; he asked someone to bring paper and a brush, drew these pieces of equipment one by one according to his memory, and made notes in some places.

Then he handed these drawings to an official he did not know, instructed the other party to finish them as soon as possible and send them directly to the abandoned Military Camp in the suburbs, and then left the Ministry of Works.

Looking at the sky, he found that it was already mealtime before he knew it; Zhu Gaoxu did not want to go to Wanhua Pavilion, and with nowhere else to go, Zhu Gaoxu could only return to the Yan Wangfu.

After eating lunch at the Yan Wangfu, Zhu Gaoxu, who had been tired all morning, just thought there was nothing to do today and wanted to take a nap, but he did not expect that someone from the palace had come again.

This time it was not Eunuch Li, but just a little eunuch.

"Nanyang Commandery Prince, the Emperor summons you to the palace."

Hearing that he had to enter the palace again, Zhu Gaoxu's head grew large.

Now, basically every day, Lao Zhu would call him into the palace, as if he wished he could tie him to his waist every day.

This might be something other ministers or princes would beg for, but Zhu Gaoxu really did not care for this.

Rubbing his calves, which had been walking for a long time, Zhu Gaoxu had people prepare the Feudatory Prince Carriage, then followed the little eunuch toward the Imperial Palace.

There was no talk along the way, and after a day, the grandfather and grandson met again in the Study.