in2ebook Chapter 158 Fragrance
Chapter 158 Fragrance
The Handan Courtyard was guarded by soldiers from the general's mansion. The courtyard was quiet. Looking inside through the red gate, a coffin was parked right in the middle.
There were no white banners everywhere, no one was wearing sackcloth, and only a fat little maid was kneeling at the door wiping her tears.
Xie Yunshan stepped into the courtyard with his brows furrowed.
How could a beautiful girl die so quietly...
"General..."
The tears in the little maid's eyes were like beads that had broken off the string. She knocked her head against the stone slab and said, "Please, Your Majesty, give the girl justice..."
"Girl...she died so tragically!"
As I approached the west wing, a faint smell of blood entered my nose.
Xie Yunshan grabbed the maid's arm with one hand and lifted her up. "Tell me in detail what happened yesterday."
"Yesterday...Yesterday the girls felt that the house was too hot and stuffy, so they stayed by the pond in the back garden to cool off. A few girls also played mahjong in the pavilion..."
Qingyun did not return to the west wing until dinner time. Since Xie Yunshan was not at home and there was nothing to do in the evening, she always went to bed early.
"I saw the girl was going to sleep, so I stayed outside to watch her."
"I didn't hear any sound that night, but when I went into the inner room to call the girl in the morning, I found... I found that she was dead!"
Xie Yunshan: "You have been outside this whole time?"
The little maid nodded with tears in her eyes, "The young lady loves me. There are too many mosquitoes outside and it is cold at night, so she let me sleep on the soft couch outside."
General Xie pursed his lips. After all, she was only a few years older than Jiang An...
"Okay, go with the housekeeper and I'll arrange some light work for you."
The little maid refused and pretended to kneel down again, "General, the girl has no relatives around her, please let me accompany her for a while..."
"I beg you, General!"
"well!"
Xie Yunshan sighed. It was very troublesome to kneel down all the time.
"Then you stay outside. When I have finished my inspection, I will arrange Qingyun's funeral."
Jiang Jichen stopped Jiang An who was about to follow him and patted her on the head, "Wait here for me to come out."
Tuanzi pouted, "Okay~"
An An is very sensible. She knows that Jiang Jichen thinks the scene in the west wing is ugly and doesn't want her to see it.
The old father raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Why are you so well behaved today?"
Jiang An tilted his head, his high-tied black hair moved with it, and his expression was lively, "An An has always been very well behaved!"
Xie Yunshan and Jiang Jichen opened the door of the west wing, and a strong smell of blood wafted out. There seemed to be another sweet fragrance beneath this pungent smell.
Xie Yunshan, who was walking in front, didn't care. After all, it was normal for a girl's boudoir to smell better.
The moment the door closed again, the smells were blocked out, leaving Jiang An and the chubby maid staring at each other.
Tuanzi showed her friendly dimples and pulled out a piece of candy wrapped in oil paper like a magician.
"Give."
The little maid was timid and didn't dare to answer, "Thank you, my dear..."
Jiang An peeled off the candy wrapper and put it into her mouth.
She sat at the railing of the corridor and said, "I'm not a noble person. Just call me An An."
The little maidservant was simple-minded. She was in the backyard and had no idea of Jiang An's identity, so she relaxed a little from being cautious.
In addition, the two of them were of similar age, so when facing the little girl, they felt more relaxed and temporarily put aside their sadness.
"Are you the only maid in this yard?"
The little maid's cheeks bulged, and the sweet taste of sugar spread in her mouth, making her relax. "No."
"There are three girls living in Handan Courtyard. The girl in the main house has two maids, and the girl in the east wing also has a maid."
"There are two maids doing odd jobs in the courtyard, and a boy trimming the branches."
Because this was the backyard, the servant did not appear very often. Every time he came in, he had to ask for permission from the housekeeper and several girls in the yard.
The little maid pointed to the peach tree in the yard that had obviously been pruned and showed it to Jiang An.
"Yesterday, Xiao Yuan came to the courtyard. The three girls were playing mahjong in the back garden. When he came back, he had left."
in the house,
The west wing is not big. After pushing open the door, the inner room is on the right hand side separated by a veil.
The soft couch that the little maid mentioned was right next to the table on Xie Yunshan's left hand side. On the couch was a thin blanket that she had not had time to tidy up when she got up in the morning, scattered randomly.
Jiang Jichen picked up a bamboo flute from the shelf and held it in his hand, then lifted the veil and looked into the inner room.
He frowned slightly, moved his hands more vigorously, lifted the veil and walked in.
This scene is really too ugly...
The dressing table in the inner room was in disarray, several pearl hairpins and jade bracelets were swept all over the floor, and blood splattered everywhere.
Above the bed, a small river formed by blood spread out. After the blood dried, it turned dark red and almost merged with the stone slab.
General Xie felt a lump in his throat and looked at the scene in front of him in shock.
It is hard to imagine what kind of hatred could lead to such a horrific fight.
He lifted his foot, and saw a broken jade bracelet...
Looking down at the jade bracelet, Xie Yunshan remembered something about Qingyun.
Qingyun is a girl who sings in a tavern. She has no relatives at home and has no ability to survive as a woman, so she can only sing and play the pipa.
After drinking once, he happened to see the girl being blocked by a drunk man.
How could the dissolute and free-spirited General Xie just sit there and watch? Not only did he drive the man away, he also brought Qingyun back home and let her live in the backyard.
His general's mansion can still feed a girl.
Thinking of Qingyun's eyes that were always filled with water, Xie Yunshan looked up at the naked woman lying on the bed, with several knife wounds in her body.
He told Jiang Jichen about Qingyun's life story. Xie Yunshan's voice was deep in the silent inner room.
Qingyun is from Chongzhou and has no relatives at home, so these are things that can be easily found out.
Who would a carefree girl like this offend?
Xie Yunshan ignored his snow-blue robe, wrapped Qingyun in a blood-stained quilt, and carried her horizontally to the bed.
Because it had been so long, her body had become stiff, her slender fingers stretched out stiffly and twisted in a strange way, and an expression of fear remained on her gray face.
It was Xie Yunshan's action that allowed Jiang Jichen to see clearly that the woman had been stabbed more than a dozen times, but none of the stabs hit her vital parts.
Judging from the cut surface, this person is cruel and ruthless...
So he did it on purpose, deliberately letting Qingyun die from excessive blood loss.
Xie Yunshan covered Qingyun's bloodshot and bulging eyes with his hands, "That little maid is sleeping in the outer room, how could she not hear such a loud noise!"
Jiang Jichen lowered his eyes and looked at the strange mark next to his shoe.
That was a shoe print. The soles of the person's shoes must have been covered with mud to leave such a mark on the stone floor.
However, the direction of the shoe prints is extending from under the bed...
Jiang Jichen's narrow eyes flashed with sharpness, "There is a fragrance in this room."
"When I came in just now, I found some incense ash in the incense burner outside. This girl must have the habit of burning incense before going to sleep at night."
The murderer mixed a certain dose of aphrodisiac into the incense, which could not only make the maid fall asleep, but also wake Qingyun, who was stabbed, from her coma and endure death soberly.
Xie Yunshan was stunned, his eyes moved away from Qingyun's face and looked at the prince, "You mean someone took advantage of the maid's sleep and came into the inner room and killed Qingyun?"
Jiang Jichen pointed at the shoe print and said, "This person should be hiding under the bed."