“You may rise.” When Long Yang saw that Chu Yi was still kneeling on the floor, his voice deepened.
Chu Yi had no choice but to obey. Pulling himself together, he asked, “Have you discovered anything, Master?”
Having followed Long Yang for so long, Chu Yi had come to know Long Yang very well.
He could understand what he was thinking from a simple glance.
Long Yang nodded. “Either there’s a mole in the palace or the kidnapper’s highly familiar with the palace layout and the guards’ shift changes. This person must have taken advantage of the shift change to sneak Weiwei out.”
Usually, there would be a break between shifts.
Chu Yi’s expression turned grim. “I suspected that there was a mole too, so I spent the past few days investigating that possibility, but I didn’t find anything, so I think we can rule that out.”
Since the possibility of a mole had been ruled out, that would make the second theory more probable.
In other words, Weiwei’s kidnapper was extremely familiar with the palace layout as well as the guards’ shift change.
Such a person must have stayed in the palace for a long time and learned about the guards’ patrol rotation schedule thoroughly.
Long Yang immersed himself in thought.
This person was familiar with the palace and had lived in the palace for very long. They abducted Weiwei, but they had no intention of killing her and did not even use her to demand a ransom.
Now that all these had been ruled out, it could only mean that the kidnapper’s target was Weiwei herself.
All signs considered, this person clearly had some sort of obsession with Weiwei.
Long Yang knitted his brow.
Who on earth could have kidnapped Weiwei?
“I heard that on the day the Empress went missing, someone sneaked into the room next to hers and knocked out the nannies, and Yin’er and Yaoyao even cried. Have you asked the nannies if they’d seen the person’s face?”
Chu Yi nodded. “I have, but both of them said they didn’t. They had been attacked from behind.”
Long Yang drummed his knuckles against the edge of the bed, his eyes narrowed. All of a sudden, a person came to his mind.
“I know who it is.” His voice was icy.
Chu Yi hurriedly asked, “Who?”
“If my guess is correct, the Empress’s kidnapper is Long Chi.” When Long Yang finished speaking, his face was veiled in a thick layer of frost and murderous intent.
“Him?” Chu Yi could not stop himself from exclaiming.
Long Yang pursed his lips wordlessly, a menacing glint in his eyes.
After a while, he sneered. “I didn’t think he’d have the guts to return to the imperial capital, sneak into the palace, and kidnap the Empress.”
Regaining his composure, Chu Yi frowned and said, “But no matter how familiar he is with the palace layout, there’s no way he could have left with another person without anyone knowing. Well, unless he has some kind of burrowing ability.”
As far as he knew, Long Chi was good at martial arts but not so much in Light Body Skill. At least, he was better than Long Chi in that aspect.
There was no way Long Chi could have left with the Empress without causing any disturbance.
“Chu Jiu and a few guards rushed into the room when they heard the commotion, but they soon realized that something was wrong and returned to the Empress’s bedchamber. That whole back-and-forth scramble didn’t even take fifteen minutes. After that, I had the guards seal off all the palace exits, but the kidnapper seemed to have vanished into thin air. There was no trace of him at all.” Chu Yi was perplexed. “Does he really have some kind of burrowing ability?”
Long Yang’s face hardened. “Come with me to the Eastern Palace.”
Chu Yi was startled. When he came back to his senses, his master had already left the bedchamber, and he immediately hurried after him.
The Eastern Palace.
Chu Yi and the imperial guards searched almost the entire place but did not find anything.
Only the study was left.
After standing in place for a moment, Long Yang started toward the study.
This used to be Long Chi’s office.