He was also struggling. That person’s scent was everywhere here. These were the ones he had carefully selected!
Little Lezi had a sudden inspiration and coughed lightly, “Master, shouldn’t we let General Xiaotian smell the scent of paulownia wood—”
Pan Hai’s eyes lit up.
That’s right, this was the Crown Prince’s chambers. The Crown Prince’s scent was everywhere. It would be strange if Erniu could find anything just by smelling the Crown Prince’s scent. Smelling the paulownia wood was the right approach.
Pan Hai felt like slapping his forehead.
He had been stuck on the wrong track and wasn’t as quick as Little Lezi.
Fortunately, paulownia wood wasn’t hard to find. There were some planted in the garden, and soon an attendant brought back a paulownia branch.
Pan Hai handed it to Erniu to smell, then pointed at the Crown Prince and made a gesture mimicking a meat bone.
Erniu glanced sideways at the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince exploded in anger, “Pan Hai, don’t be too insolent!”
“This slave wouldn’t dare.”
Erniu ignored the verbal sparring between the two and turned to run off.
The sounds of searching gradually stopped. They had searched all around the chambers and still found nothing, forcing them to pause.
Erniu sniffed here and there, seemingly having found a target, and headed straight for the inner chamber of the Crown Prince’s quarters.
Two attendants followed him.
Erniu entered the inner room, sniffed around, and ran to the window, placing his front paws on the windowsill.
The two attendants looked at each other, one muttering quietly, “Has General Xiaotian discovered something?”
“What could be here? Surely not the Crown Prince’s smelly socks…”
“Don’t talk nonsense. That’s still the Crown Prince. If we can’t find anything today, all of us, including the Superintendent, will be in big trouble.”
“Woof! Woof!” Erniu started barking.
Hearing the commotion, Pan Hai hurriedly walked in, followed by the Crown Prince, whose face had turned pale.
Seeing Pan Hai enter, Erniu barked even more intensely at the windowsill.
Pan Hai walked over, staring at the windowsill and frowning in thought.
Erniu, unable to bear it any longer, extended his paw and pushed, knocking a potted plant off the windowsill onto the floor.
The flower pot was porcelain and shattered with a loud crash, scattering flower stems and soil.
“Stop!” The Crown Prince cried out in anguish.
Pan Hai’s eyes narrowed. He bent down and picked up something half-exposed in the soil.
It was a figurine made of paulownia wood, with a needle stuck right in the center of its chest. On the back were written eight characters representing a birth date and time.
Pan Hai gripped the figurine tightly and suddenly looked at the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince had already collapsed on the ground.
“Take the Crown Prince to the Qianqing Palace!” Pan Hai suppressed his inner excitement and anger, shouting.