In the darkness, eyes met briefly and then quickly averted, as two hands simultaneously groped on the ground, trying to grasp the only source of light until they accidentally collided.
Yuanxi felt the warmth of another hand against hers and immediately felt embarrassed and awkward. She hastily tried to withdraw her hand, but it was firmly held by the other. His eyes gleamed faintly in the darkness, his voice low and enticing: “Why are your hands so cold?”
“It’s all because of you scaring me!” Yuanxi struggled to suppress the words that nearly slipped out of her mouth, her face flushing as she forcefully pulled her hand away. Finally, she found the candle and lit it once more. In the flickering candlelight, she discovered a pair of probing eyes staring intently at her. Feeling a bit nervous, she smoothed her hair and lowered her head, unable to meet his gaze.
Xiaodu couldn’t help but sneer inwardly. He had deliberately left the body in the room in a conspicuous manner, curious to see if anyone would be unable to resist the urge to come back and peek. He hadn’t expected to catch the culprit, but instead, he found his restless newlywed wife. And now she was acting like a frightened little bride as if he had mistreated her. Well, since she was unwilling to speak, he would have to interrogate her himself.
“Why did you come here?”
Yuanxi felt the menacing aura emanating from the figure in front of her, and the atmosphere in the room suddenly became oppressive and unbearable. Fortunately, she still had some clarity in her mind and knew that only by telling the truth could she quickly dispel his suspicions. So she lowered her head and whispered, “I… I feel like there’s something wrong with this body.”
“Oh?” Xiaodu narrowed his eyes, curiously appraising her. “You only took a quick look outside, why do you think there’s something wrong with the body?”
Yuanxi dared not look at him, only pointing to the bloodstains on the wall and saying softly, “If she had been hit against the wall and died, the blood would have sprayed from the back of her head and splattered everywhere. But these bloodstains are flowing evenly downward, so…”
“So what?” Xiaodu quickly pressed for an answer.
“So I speculate that this blood was poured onto the wall after her death.”
Xiaodu’s heart skipped a beat as many things suddenly made sense to him. He glanced at her and said, “Why does a young lady from the Prime Minister’s Manor need to learn about solving cases?”
Yuanxi knew he was teasing her on purpose, feeling a bit annoyed but still replied honestly, “It’s not… I just enjoy reading such books and picking up a bit of knowledge.”
“Just because of the theories in your books, I’m supposed to believe what you say?” Xiaodu asked, moving closer to her with his hands behind his back.
“It can be confirmed!” Yuanxi turned excitedly to face him, but as soon as her eyes met his, which were so close, her heart fluttered, and she quickly turned back to the corpse. Xiaodu felt a twinge of discomfort. Why did she seem to find him scarier than the corpse?
Yuanxi composed herself and walked over to the body, holding the candle to illuminate the wound at the back of the head. She said, “As long as we use a knife to open her skull, we’ll naturally know how she died.”
Xiaodu listened with skepticism and casually remarked, “Then why don’t you do it now?”
Yuanxi’s face, illuminated by the candlelight, froze for a moment before she blushed slightly and said, “I’ve only seen illustrations in books and never actually touched a corpse. If I’m not careful, I’m afraid I’ll damage important evidence.”
Xiaodu furrowed his brow and said, “Then let’s call for a coroner.” Suddenly, he realized that if he called for a coroner, it would mean involving the authorities, and if anything went wrong, he wouldn’t be able to handle the consequences.
Yuanxi remained silent but fixed her gaze on Xiaodu’s hands, which were steady and calloused, indicating a familiarity with weapons and death. If anyone was suited to handle a knife, it was him. Xiaodu followed her gaze and understood her meaning. Unable to contain his anger, he shouted, “As the Marquis of Xuanyuan, you want me to help you examine a corpse!”
Seeing him getting angry, Yuanxi softened her tone and said, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. We can find any military officer, but it seems they’re all drunk. Looks like we’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”
Xiao Du stared and weighed the situation, and finally had to admit that it was easiest and most reliable to do it by himself. But also some unwillingness, this woman obviously looks soft and weak, why can always eat herself to death? He then slatted his face, reluctantly took out a dagger, and walked to the corpse to gaze at it.
Due to putting it too long, the body has long been stiff, Xiao Du’s knife skillfully cut along the wound, until the skull picked off a piece of meat, the smell of decay from which spread out, suddenly surplus room, Xiao Du’s hand stops.
Xiao Du’s hand stopped. The familiar odor of rotting meat, and the feeling of the blade piercing into the flesh, reminded him of some memories that had been deliberately forgotten, and now the memories raged over, causing his entire body to chill, wanting to vomit but unable to do so. Just at this moment, a warm scent drilled into his nose, it turned out to be Yuan Xi who was eager to know the result and unknowingly leaned against his side, Xiao Du rubbed his nose, and for the first time he felt that the smoky scent of a woman’s body smelled so good, the
Yuan Xi did not know what was in his mind, pointing to the peeled flesh and blood, and excitedly said, “Look, the color of the blood on this wound is different!” Xiao Du hurriedly came closer to take a closer look, sure enough the blood color of the outer edges of that wound was brighter, while the area near the skull was maroon in color, the color of stale blood, and the traces of a hard object stabbing into the skull could still be faintly seen, he immediately understood that someone had stabbed her to death with a hard object first, and then purposely slammed the body against the wall to form a new wound, and that bright red blood was also intentionally sprinkled on it only later on.
He pondered again: Zheng Long had indeed admitted to his affair with the maid, and the marks on her thighs confirmed it. But the maid had been dead for a while. How could this be explained? With these thoughts in mind, he glanced in that direction. Yuanxi followed his gaze and, being knowledgeable in medicine, naturally understood the sticky substance there. This made her blush, avoiding eye contact.
Seeing her reaction, Xaio Du felt he had regained some ground. He deliberately sighed, “I suppose I shouldn’t be the one to examine this.”
To his surprise, Yuanxi nodded with a blush, adding, “We should find an experienced nanny to examine this area.”
Xiaodu’s smile faltered for a moment, feeling somewhat deflated. However, he listened as Yuanxi once again expressed her view: “I believe the culprit might be a woman.”
“And what makes you think that?”
“Look,” Yuan Xi pointed to the wounds on her neck, “These wounds should have been scratched by a woman’s fingernails,” her words trailed off, and then suddenly her eyes widened again as she jerked her hand over towards the corpse’s neck… …
”What? You mean I screwed a dead man!” After hearing Xiao Du, Zheng Long’s face brushed white, his expression as ugly as if he had just swallowed a fly.
Xiao Du was amused in his heart, but still said with a stern face, “That’s for you to ask yourself, look carefully, is the one who helped you into the room her or not?”
Zheng Long looked at the swollen face on the bed and immediately felt his stomach flooded with sour water, but he was too drunk, the maid was dressed pretty much the same, and the body’s face was full of wounds, it was impossible to determine.
Xiao Du looked at him scared sweaty look, only feeling a night of idle gas expressed a lot, slowly said: “you don’t worry about it, already found the house of the Sister examined, her body does not have □□ existence, visible and you are not cloud rain that person. And from her neck found a piece of broken armor coated with cardamom, kill her should be a woman. I think someone deliberately lured you into a trap and then took advantage of your sleeping death to move the body over to deliberately frame you.”
Zheng Long breathed a sigh of relief, and then stormed out, “If I find out which one dared to harm me, I will peel her skin and whip his tendons!” He looked towards Xiao Du’s already somewhat tired side face, and then said with a wailing face, “All hanged on my momentary lust, ruining the Marquis’ wedding night.”
Xiao Du was stunned at his words, then walked over to the window slightly hooked his lips, and said, “This is no harm, this daughter of Xia Xiang is quite interesting, before I figure out her bottom line, I won’t give a chance for her to carry an heir.” His gaze became stern again, slowly lifting the window page, then said, “I only want to know now, who in the end, made such a good show!”
At this moment, the sky gradually reveals the first red haze, the mist rises, and the birds cry softly, this night finally will be over.
Yuan Xi for remembering the early morning to give in-laws tea, although has been tossed to the extreme tired, but did not dare to sleep to death, only took off the outer robe in bed and dozed off, heard the sound of the drums, and hurriedly let An He and Sister Yu for her to wash and dress up, and pull up a drop horse bun, and hurriedly out of the door.
Walking to the veranda in front of the flower gate, Yuanxi saw Xiaodu standing with his arms crossed beside a pillar, dressed in a moon-white cloud-patterned silk robe. Bathed in the morning sunlight, he appeared radiant like a precious tree in bloom. When he saw Yuanxi coming out, he smiled warmly and said, “Madam, did you sleep well last night?”
Yuanxi couldn’t help but roll her eyes inwardly, forcing herself to respond like him. At the same time, she couldn’t help but sigh inwardly: Why was it that even after a sleepless night, this man could quickly regain his composure, while she had to desperately apply powder and rouge just to make her complexion less terrible? Beside her, Li and Anhe also hurriedly greeted Xiaodu. Anhe, who had been caught by him outside the door yesterday, now looked like a mouse meeting a cat, hastily bowing and hiding behind Yuanxi, afraid to speak up.
Following Xiaodu through the corridor, Yuanxi finally arrived at the main room where the old Marquis and his wife were. Upon entering, she saw the room filled with people standing or sitting, all dressed in luxurious robes. The golden hairpins on their hair buns swayed, making her a bit dizzy. Already feeling a bit unsteady due to fatigue, she accidentally stumbled as she stepped over the threshold, falling forward.
Just as Yuanxi felt ashamed, thinking she would embarrass herself in front of everyone, a pair of large hands firmly caught her. When she looked up, she met Xiaodu’s concerned gaze. He softly reminded her, “Madam, be careful.” As if he were the most gentle and affectionate husband in the world, Yuanxi blinked in surprise, momentarily forgetting to be embarrassed, and allowed him to support her into the room.
Sitting high at the top of the room, Xiaoyunjing nodded approvingly at the scene. Beside him, the princess had a faint expression, her eyes only briefly glancing at Yuanxi, showing no emotion like a calm ancient well.
Yuanxi collected herself and quickly knelt to greet the couple, taking the teacup handed to her by her maid. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Father, Mother, please have some tea.”
Xiaoyunjing took the tea, took a sip, and then handed over a red envelope. Yuanxi thanked him and took the opportunity to observe her parents-in-law: the old Marquis had a square face and broad shoulders, with sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, exuding a kind of martial aura. In comparison, Xiaodu’s features were somewhat too delicate. As for the princess, although adorned with jewels, she seemed very frail, yet also exuded a hint of charm despite her illness, unable to conceal her former beauty. However, her eyes, even when smiling, lacked any warmth. When they stared directly at Yuanxi’s face, she couldn’t help but tremble inexplicably.
She quickly lowered her head to hide her inner panic. Then she realized something: what should she do next? Suddenly, the room fell silent, everyone tacitly refraining from speaking, waiting for the new bride to say a few words of flattery. But Yuanxi was completely unprepared for such a situation. The more nervous she became, the more her mind went blank, unable to remember what to say.
Xiaodu couldn’t help but smirk as he watched Yuanxi’s frustrated expression, covering his mouth with his fist to conceal his amusement. He had never seen a new bride so awkward. But from the looks of it, she truly seemed inexperienced, or perhaps her cunning ran too deep, fooling them all. As for which one was her true self, he had plenty of time to find out.
Yuanxi stood awkwardly in the center of the room, feeling the sweat bead on her forehead as she watched her husband leisurely standing by, showing no intention of helping her. Thankfully, just then, a soft call from outside the door broke the awkward silence.
“Oh dear, I’m late!”