Jiangzhou Prison.
The girls and the owner of Tianxiang Tower were all imprisoned. These girls were usually good at singing and dancing, and every day they would put on exquisite makeup and wear beautiful dresses. They were pampered by rich young men. They had never suffered like this before.
Upon seeing the cold, damp environment of the dungeon, the group began to complain: "How can anyone sleep in such a filthy place?" "Exactly, there isn't even a bed." "The assassins have nothing to do with us, tell Lord Yu to release us immediately!"
The guards responsible for watching over them grew impatient with the noise and shouted angrily, "Shut up! There's an assassin in your Tianxiang Tower. If the Prince gets angry, you'll all be beheaded! You dare to complain about the dungeon? The dungeon isn't a place for you to sing and dance—behave yourselves, you lot, get in there!"
The man was burly and had a booming voice. The girls were so frightened that their faces turned pale, and they all shut their mouths, not daring to say another word.
Ye Qi remained silent as he followed the crowd.
A total of twelve people were arrested at Tianxiang Tower, and they were placed in three cells, four people to a room.
The conditions in the dungeon were indeed terrible. There were no beds, the floor was covered with a mess of dry straw, and the squeaking of rats could be heard from the corner. A fat rat passed by, causing several girls to scream in panic, and some even took off their shoes to hit the rat. The cell was in complete chaos.
Ye Qi sat in the corner, seriously considering what had happened.
He had previously achieved an S-rank rating in Red Heart 2, Red Heart 3, and Red Heart 4. In levels 5, 6, and 7, he worked with Captain Yu and Professor Xiao to solve cases and learned a lot about deduction. He was certain that the case in the locked room was not as simple as the assassination of the prince.
When the assassin escaped, the prince, in a fit of rage, arrested everyone present at Tianxiang Tower. What happened after that? Who would be the first to die? Just then, a constable approached and asked, "Which one of you is Miss Ye?"
Ye Qi stood up: "Yes, that's me."
The constable smiled and said, "A young master Shao has come to see you."
Hearing this, the girls around Ye Qi looked at her with envy, jealousy, and resentment. Everyone knew that Young Master Shao had recently been spending money to support Miss Ye, but they never expected him to be so loyal and righteous, even coming to see her while she was in trouble!
Ye Qi's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he immediately followed the constable out.
Outside the door, Shao Qingge stood tall and elegant, holding a folding fan in his hand, striking the pose of a spoiled young master. His face was still beaming with a smile. When Ye Qi came out, he took out a piece of silver from his purse and stuffed it into the yamen runner's hand: "Thank you for your trouble."
The constable happily accepted the money and said, "You two can chat anytime! You can talk as much as you want until the magistrate returns. I'll keep watch at the door for you."
Ye Qi: "..."
Shao Qingge found it surprisingly easy to bribe the yamen runners.
Shao Qingge smiled slightly, took a food box and placed it on the table: "You haven't eaten yet, have some snacks first."
Ye Qi hadn't eaten dinner at the Prince's Mansion in preparation for the performance. He had planned to go back to Tianxiang Tower for a late-night snack after the performance, but instead of having a snack, he was arrested and thrown into jail. His stomach was growling with hunger, and when he saw the food box, he immediately opened the lid, grabbed some snacks, and wolfed them down.
He had endured the hardships of surviving by eating leaves in the Nightmare Secret Room, so he cherished food all the more. When eating pastries, he would not leave a single crumb, holding the small pieces of pastry in his hands and eating them clean, just like a starving little squirrel.
He had just sat in the haystack in the cell for a while, and some bits of hay were stuck to his hair.
Seeing his hungry and disheveled appearance, Shao Qingge felt a sudden pang of tenderness. He reached out and gently removed the weeds from his head, jokingly asking, "First time experiencing prison, huh? Are the conditions here really that bad?"
Ye Qi looked up dejectedly: "You still have the mood to joke? Try wearing skirts and dressing up as a woman every day, and see if you get arrested and go to jail?"
Shao Qingge said softly, "You sound quite aggrieved? How about I ask Lord Yu to let you out?"
Ye Qi quickly calmed down: "Definitely not. We can't let him go until the case is solved. It's okay, it's necessary for the plot anyway. They arranged for me to be in Tianxiang Tower, so there must be clues in Tianxiang Tower that they need me to collect."
He had finished eating, wiped his hands, and looked at Shao Qingge, saying, "After we left, did something else happen at the Prince's Mansion?"
Shao Qingge nodded: "The young lady is dead. She hanged herself."
Ye Qi was stunned for a moment, then immediately said, "It definitely wasn't suicide!"
Shao Qingge said, "Yu and Xiao are still investigating the clues over there. They specifically asked me to come and check on you. Actually, everyone is quite concerned about you."
Ye Qi felt a slight warmth in his heart and said, "I'm fine, I'll just be in jail for a few days. I don't actually know much about Tianxiang Tower. I've thought about it carefully, and that assassin must have already infiltrated the sword dance troupe."
Shao Qingge asked with interest, "How do you know she didn't kill one of the dancers and impersonate her?"
"Impossible." Ye Qi shook his head and said, "I've been practicing with them for the past few days. This sword dance is very complicated. If someone had replaced me at the last minute, I wouldn't have been able to perform it so completely. You saw the dance at the Prince's Mansion just now. The five of them were very synchronized. Every movement was neat and uniform, and they were very accurate in keeping with the rhythm. Someone who replaced me at the last minute couldn't have done that."
"Yes, that's true." Shao Qingge carefully recalled the dance from just now.
The five people were indeed very well-coordinated, their movements were very skilled, and the effect of their dance was quite amazing, clearly indicating that they had practiced together for a long time.
"They always wore masks during rehearsals. To distinguish each person, I made a point of memorizing their eyes and eyebrows, and I was able to match them with the five people performing today. So, the assassin must have planned this all along, posing as a dancer in Tianxiang Tower. This time, he took advantage of the performance at the Prince's birthday banquet to infiltrate the dance troupe and assassinate the Prince."
"..." This guy looks quite cute when he's analyzing things so seriously, Shao Qingge couldn't help but smile and ask, "Are there any other clues?"
"I just checked the remaining four girls. The escaped assassin is named Snow Goose. According to Aunt Qing, she stayed in Tianxiang Tower for a year. It seems that she had been planning the assassination of the prince for a long time. I wonder if she is the same group that assassinated Lord Yu."
"Alright, I've got it. I'll pass on everything you've said to Lord Yu." Shao Qingge memorized all the clues Ye Qi had provided.
To avoid arousing suspicion by being away for too long, Shao Qingge told Ye Qi to go back and rest first.
The constables took Ye Qi to a cell alone. The cell was much cleaner than the others' cells, and it even had brand-new bedding. Ye Qi's eyes widened: "Where did this bedding come from...?"
The constable smiled and said, "This was prepared for the young lady by Young Master Shao. Young Master Shao is truly chivalrous and worried that Miss Ye is suffering in prison, so he specially sent a servant to deliver new bedding."
Ye Qi walked into the cell, feeling a warm glow in his heart.
Although Shao Qingge has a sharp tongue, he has a good heart.
Money, though evil, was equally effective in ancient times.
Ye Qi thought to himself, "It's good to be rich. Even going to jail is different for you!"
***
Meanwhile, at the Prince's Mansion in Zhenjiang.
After interrogating everyone in the Prince's Mansion, Xiao Lou organized the transcripts and went with Yu Hanjiang to the deceased's residence to gather clues.
They found many copied scriptures in the young lady's boudoir, and some scraps of paper in the wastebasket. These were drafts of letters the young lady wrote to Ninth Princess. Most of them were only half-written before being crumpled up and thrown away. Clearly, she was very conflicted when writing the letters and had not thought about the content of the letters. Instead, she revised them as she wrote.
The handwriting on the draft was consistent with that on the letter Ninth Princess gave to Yu Hanjiang. One page of the draft was also similar to the final letter, except that a few words were misspelled and corrected. It seems that the young lady rewrote a complete version based on it.
This evidence at least proves that the letter Ninth Princess gave to Yu Hanjiang was indeed written by the young lady herself.
In addition, there was a brand new dress in the young lady's room, neatly placed to one side. This should be the new dress that Madam Yun prepared for her daughter to wear to the prince's banquet. However, she did not change and was still wearing that plain white dress when she died.
Unfortunately, the most important piece of evidence was not found.
—Where did the poison that the young lady ingested before her death come from?
Is it snacks, meals, or tea?
In ancient times, food could not be tested in laboratories. Coroners usually used silver needles to test for poison. Xiao Lou picked up the snacks on the table and tested them with silver needles, finding no toxins in the pastries or the tea.
When asked, the maidservant who serves the young lady said that the young lady went out at Shenshi (3-5 PM) in the afternoon without letting her follow, and had not returned since. She did not eat in the room before going out.
Shenshi, which is around 4 PM.
The young lady died at 6 PM. What she saw or experienced after she went out remains unknown to everyone.
Yu Hanjiang then took Xiao Lou, Mo Xuemin, and Long Sen to search for the residence of Fourth Miss.
Surprisingly, the medicinal herbs Liu Qiao mentioned were still there, and the paper packets containing them were even unopened. It seems that the poison wasn't concocted using these herbs by the Fourth Miss?
No significant discoveries were made at the residences of the Second Miss, Third Miss, and the other ladies.
By the time the search of the Prince's mansion was completed, it was nearly midnight. The entire mansion was sealed off, and the ladies and young women gathered in the main hall with varying expressions. Yu Hanjiang had searched everything he needed to search and asked everything he needed to ask, so he didn't want to disturb them any further and took his leave.
The prince personally escorted them to the door, urging him to solve the case as soon as possible. Yu Hanjiang assured him that he would do his best.
Long Sen and Qu Wanyue stayed at the Prince's Mansion, while Yu Hanjiang took Xiao Lou and Mo Xuemin back to the Prefectural Government Office.
Shao Qingge and Liu Qiao were waiting for them there. Upon seeing the two return, Shao Qingge immediately stepped forward and asked, "How did it go? Have you found any leads on the murderer?" As a heartless guy, he was used to winning without lifting a finger in the heart room. Based on his understanding of Yu and Xiao, the two of them returning so late probably meant they had turned the manor upside down and left no clues unchecked.
However, to Shao Qingge's surprise, Yu Hanjiang's face did not show confidence, but rather a hint of confusion. He frowned slightly and said, "There are many clues, and they are very complicated. We cannot identify the murderer yet."
Mo Xuemin was stunned upon hearing this: "Isn't the murderer Lin Shaobo who escaped?" Liu Qiao also asked curiously: "Didn't Lin Shaobo and the Fourth Miss conspire to do it?"
After analyzing the situation at the Prince's Mansion, isn't Lin Shaobo the most suspicious?
Yu Hanjiang said in a low voice, "It's not that simple. The Fourth Miss's medicinal herbs are all in order, the poison was not prepared by her, and we haven't found the medicine that poisoned the Eldest Miss yet, so we can't draw conclusions easily."
He gave his teammates a wink and then led them directly to the cell to see Ye Qi.
Ye Qi was kept in a cell by himself. The little guy was sleeping in his blanket, with only one white ear showing. His whole body was curled up like an alert little animal.
Xiao Lou noticed the blanket covering him and asked in confusion, "Where did this bedding come from?"
Shao Qingge said with a smile, "I had it prepared. We can't let Miss Ye sleep in this messy haystack, can we?"
Seeing Ye Qi curled up in a ball, Xiao Lou felt sorry for him and said, "He's really been wronged this time. The cell floor is damp and cold, and now that it's autumn, it must be very uncomfortable for him to sleep on the floor like this."
Ye Qi was awakened by the noise. When he saw everyone, he immediately ran over and said, "You're back! How did the case go?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "The case is quite complicated. The two cases should be related, but we haven't found any connection yet. Shao Gongzi has already told us about your testimony. Can you draw what the assassin named Snow Goose looked like?"
Ye Qi thought about it carefully and said, "I have never studied art, so I can't draw it, but I have memorized her eyes and eyebrows. If I see her again, I will definitely be able to recognize her."
The other person's face was covered, and it would be difficult to identify them even with just drawn eyebrows and eyes. It seems that Ye Qi will have to be the one to recognize them.
Yu Hanjiang said, "It's already very late, you should rest first. I'll have Young Master Shao notify you if there are any clues. Before the case is solved, no one in Tianxiang Tower can be released. You'll have to stay in the dungeon for now. We'll investigate this case as soon as possible."
Ye Qi nodded, smiling brightly: "It's okay, I can sleep anywhere."
Remembering Xiao Lou's comment about the damp and cold ground, Shao Qingge said, "The blanket I gave you is very big. You can spread out half of it and cover yourself with the other half, so the ground won't be cold. I'll have the yamen runners bring you a brazier later, so you don't catch a cold."
Ye Qi joked, "Thank you, sponsor."
Shao Qingge chuckled: "You're welcome. It's what a benefactor should do."
Shao Qingge was indeed capable; he secretly slipped some silver coins to the guards watching over the prisoners, and soon a brazier was brought to Ye Qi's cell. Compared to the girls in other cells who slept in haystacks, starving and freezing, Miss Ye was enjoying the treatment of a "VIP cell."
****