The full moon hung in the sky, its light frosty. The peony petals were slightly closed as if the charming, lively girls from daytime had removed their finery and fallen into slumber.
Jiang Si took a light sniff and her expression immediately darkened. Without further hesitation, she retrieved the gardener’s spade that had been left by the wall for who knows how long. She slowly circled the peony bushes, searching for the strongest source of the putrid smell.
Soon, Jiang Si stopped at a spot. In the moonlight, she crouched down to examine it. The soil there looked looser as if it had been recently turned.
Jiang Si tightened her grip on the spade. She had a vague idea of what she might find beneath these peonies, and it would be a lie to say she wasn’t nervous. However, she had to see for herself to put her mind at ease.
Jiang Si dug in with the spade, scooping up a shovelful of earth. Without a lantern and only moonlight to see by, she couldn’t discern the soil’s color. She gritted her teeth and continued digging, shovelful after shovelful, as the stench around her grew stronger.
As the mounds of earth on either side grew higher, another thrust of the spade suddenly hit something. Jiang Si’s heart raced as she immediately stopped to look.
Among the dark yellowish soil, she could make out an object but couldn’t identify it. Jiang Si steadied herself and leaned in for a closer look, finally recognizing what it was.
It was a human hand!
Jiang Si jerked backward, her heart pounding like thunder. She was certain it was a human hand. Buried beneath these alluringly blooming peonies was not some cat or dog, but a human corpse!
However, this wasn’t enough. This was the back garden of the Chang Xing Marquis’s mansion. Even if the buried corpse were exposed, the mansion could still find a scapegoat. Who could prove that the victim beneath the peonies was killed by the Chang Xing Marquis’s heir? If the mansion insisted it was the work of a servant, they had a hundred ways to exonerate the heir. At most, the Chang Xing Marquis’s household would suffer a reputation for poor management.
She couldn’t alert them yet!
This thought flashed through Jiang Si’s mind. Disregarding her nausea and fear, she quickly used the spade to refill the hole she had dug.
The moon retreated behind clouds, deepening the night’s darkness.
Just as she filled in the last shovelful of earth, Jiang Si suddenly froze. She smelled fresh blood!
Although she heard no other sounds, her nose couldn’t be deceived. More surprisingly, the smell of blood was growing stronger, meaning its source was getting closer.
Jiang Si gripped the spade tightly and quickly crouched down, using the peony bushes to barely conceal her form. She peered through the branches toward the direction of the smell.
Her eyes suddenly widened.
People were coming!
Two figures, one in front and one behind, were carrying something in her direction.
At that moment, the moon emerged from behind the clouds. In its light, Jiang Si could see they were two young men dressed as servants.
What they were carrying—
Jiang Si stared fixedly at the object between the two men. With the strong smell of blood constantly assaulting her senses, she was certain of what it was.
It was a corpse wrapped in bedsheets!
At this time, in this place, with that pungent smell of blood, she certainly wouldn’t naively believe the person wrapped in the sheets was still alive.
Were they here to bury a body?
Jiang Si’s mind raced as she watched the two servants draw nearer. Though shocked, she wasn’t panicked. If worst came to worst, she could handle two ordinary servants.
Of course, for Jiang Si now, not being discovered was the best outcome.
As the two servants came closer, Jiang Si grew calmer, even her thundering heartbeat returning to normal. Danger always coexisted with opportunity. Though the sudden appearance of these two brought the risk of discovery, it also gave her a chance to learn more.
The two servants stopped not far from the peony bushes and set down their burden. One of them said in a low voice, “Let’s get to work. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go back.”
The other grumbled, “I thought this girl would live a few more days. Who knew the young master would finish her off today? Such bad luck. I had gone to bed early tonight…”
Peering through gaps in the foliage, Jiang Si carefully observed the two servants. She noticed their feet were wrapped in soft cloth, and their faces showed no signs of tension as they spoke.
A chill ran through Jiang Si’s heart.
Knowing to wrap their feet in soft cloth to reduce noise and showing no nervousness indicated that they were quite experienced in burying bodies in the dead of night. And this experience meant that countless bodies had been buried this way.
“Stop complaining. The young master went out tonight and came back looking upset. He probably had something that didn’t go his way and took it out on this girl. We can only say she was fated to die today.”
“Brother Lu, I don’t know why, but I feel uneasy. Do you think we’ll face retribution for doing this so many times?”
Hidden behind the flowers, Jiang Si bit her lip and smiled coldly. She would ensure they faced retribution!
It was clear now that after leaving her room, the Chang Xing Marquis’s heir, unable to vent his evil desires, had targeted the now-dead girl before them.
From the servants’ conversation, she could confirm that the dead girl wasn’t a maid from the mansion, but an innocent girl from outside.
“Retribution? Do you believe in that? In the past two years, we’ve buried at least eight or ten bodies of the young master. Have you seen any of them turn into vengeful ghosts seeking revenge?” The other servant dismissed the idea. “Besides, the young master killed them. We’re just helping bury the bodies. We’re letting them rest in peace, so you could say we’re doing a good deed. How could we face retribution?”
There was one thing the servant didn’t dare say aloud: If anyone were to face retribution, it would be the young master first.
Jiang Si’s expression darkened as she listened.
She was right to decide to deal with the Chang Xing Marquis’s heir, this beast, as soon as possible. Otherwise, who knew how many more girls he would harm?
“You’re right. Alright, let’s get to work.” The previously worried servant walked in Jiang Si’s direction.
Jiang Si gently twisted her gold bracelet, quickly considering which drug would be most suitable to deal with these two.
Just then, the servant called Lu shouted, “Let’s change locations. We buried someone there not long ago. Oh right, that girl’s family sold tofu.”
The other servant sighed, “Actually, that girl was quite pitiful. I saw her selling tofu with her mother…”
Lu snorted, “If the young master hadn’t noticed her, how would she have ended up here? Anzi, what’s wrong with you today? You’re being so sentimental.”
“Ah, Zi Ying and I got together today.”
“Oh, you’ve tasted a woman’s flavor and now you know how to cherish them. But if you keep dawdling, it’ll be daybreak soon.”
“Let’s work, let’s work.” The two left the sheet-wrapped corpse lying alone on the ground and walked towards the corner of the wall.
“Hey, why is there one less spade?”