It was a small jade button with a bat pattern.
Exquisite and petite, it was undoubtedly valuable.
Jiang Si certainly didn’t believe this button had been torn from the two servants’ clothing. The remaining answer was obvious: the button had been ripped from the murderer’s – that is, the Heir of Marquis Chang-xing’s – garment by the ill-fated girl!
Clothes adorned with jade buttons would surely be made of the finest fabric. The likelihood of discarding such a garment due to a missing button was slim.
How would that piece of clothing be handled?
In all probability, it would first be stored away in a chest, waiting to be fitted with a new jade button.
Of course, this was reasoning based on common sense. Exceptions always exist. If the garment had been damaged, it might have been discarded.
But even then, there was no cause for concern. Even if the clothes were thrown away, the remaining jade buttons wouldn’t be discarded; they would still be kept.
In other words, those jade bat-patterned buttons must remain at the Heir of Chang-xing’s residence.
And this would serve as the most direct evidence pointing to the Heir of Chang-xing as the murderer!
Suppressing her excitement, Jiang Si quickly closed the female corpse’s left hand. She knew that not long after death, rigor mortis would set in. By then, it would be impossible to pry open the corpse’s left hand without causing damage.
This immensely important jade bat-patterned button needed to remain in the corpse’s hand as evidence to identify the murderer shortly.
Having completed these tasks, Jiang Si pulled up the bedsheet. As the blood-stained sheet was about to cover the girl’s pretty yet pale and ashen face, Jiang Si let out a soft sigh. She reached out her hand and placed it on the girl’s eyes, murmuring, “Sister, rest assured. I will avenge you. When that time comes, open your eyes and see. There is always justice in this world.”
If there wasn’t, she would wrangle it from heaven itself!
Jiang Si withdrew her hand, and the girl’s wide-open eyes closed.
At this moment, Jiang Si’s nose tingled, and her heart seemed to burn with a fierce fire. She felt an urge to cry.
But now was not the time for cathartic tears.
Jiang Si covered the corpse with the bedsheet, straightened up, and cast a final glance at the lonely body lying on the ground. Then, she walked back calmly under the moonlight.
Shortly after, two servants, hand in hand, inched their way towards the peony bushes.
They weren’t holding hands out of affection, but because they had nearly been frightened out of their wits earlier. After calming down, they knew they had to return to deal with the female corpse, yet neither wanted to walk in front. So they decided to hold hands, sharing the burden – no one at a disadvantage.
“Bro-Brother Lu-zi,” An-zi asked, trembling, his calves shaking even more violently than his voice, “Tell me, was I just seeing things earlier?”
Lu-zi appeared slightly better than An-zi, feigning composure as he said, “What else could it be if not an illusion? Ghosts don’t exist in this world!”
The young miss defiled to death by the Young Master certainly couldn’t be left in the garden like this. If he didn’t reassure An-zi, and An-zi became too scared to return, wouldn’t the task of burying the corpse fall solely on him?
“But, but I saw a female ghost just now. Brother Lu-zi, you didn’t see anything?” An-zi still couldn’t believe it, dragging his feet.
Lu-zi rolled his eyes fiercely. “I didn’t see anything! If you hadn’t suddenly screamed and run off earlier, why would I have been scared into running with you?”
Of course, he had seen it, but could he tell An-zi that? Not!
“So… it was just my imagination?”
“What else could it be? Think about it, if vengeful spirits existed in this world, why haven’t we heard a peep from all those young misses buried under the peonies? Come on, let’s hurry and bury the body so we can go back to sleep. Keep dawdling, and it’ll be daybreak soon.”
An-zi hesitated before nodding, reluctantly convinced.
The two arrived at the peony bushes to find the female corpse still lying in its original spot. Both let out sighs of relief.
“Let’s get to work,” Lu-zi said, picking up the garden spade they had dropped in their earlier panic. He spat on his hands.
An-zi collapsed on the ground, pointing at the corpse with a violently shaking finger, unable to speak.
“What’s wrong?” Lu-zi gripped the spade tighter, looking in the direction An-zi was pointing.
“Ha-hand…” An-zi stuttered, clearly terrified.
Lu-zi suddenly caught a whiff of urine.
What on earth had An-zi seen to be scared to the point of wetting himself?
The darkness made it hard to see clearly. Lu-zi took a step forward to look at where the corpse’s hands were.
A slender hand extended from beneath the sheet, clutching a garden spade!
Lu-zi felt a buzzing in his ears as hot blood rushed to his head.
At this point, he could no longer deceive himself. They had seen a ghost!
Lu-zi staggered backward and fell, landing squarely on An-zi’s lap.
Lu-zi’s loss of composure was the final straw for An-zi’s sanity. He violently shoved Lu-zi forward and leaped up, running away at full speed.
To hell with it all! He’d rather be killed by the Young Master than have his soul claimed by a female ghost.
There were ghosts!
Poor Lu-zi, caught off guard by An-zi’s push, fell face-first, his chin landing right on the female corpse’s feet.
Lu-zi: “…”
An-zi, having run some distance, noticed the lack of commotion behind him and couldn’t help but glance back.
The female ghost hadn’t moved.
An-zi involuntarily halted his steps.
“Come back quickly!” Lu-zi, having caught his breath, called out, controlling his voice.
An-zi stood rooted to the spot, feeling a chilly breeze between his legs.
“You son of a turtle, do you want to drag me down with you?” Lu-zi cursed loudly. “Can’t you see the corpse isn’t reacting? Hurry over here and dig the hole!”
“Brother Lu-zi, what if the female ghost is deliberately luring me over to catch us both in one fell swoop?” An-zi’s feet seemed glued to the ground, refusing to budge.
By this point, Lu-zi had thrown caution to the wind.
Who could be more wretched than him, with his chin resting on the corpse’s feet, sitting in someone else’s urine? The female ghost might as well strangle him and be done with it!
Lu-zi mustered up the courage born of desperation, got up, and began digging with the spade.
An-zi stood at a distance, watching nervously, ready to bolt at any moment. After observing for a while and seeing the corpse remain motionless, he gradually calmed down.
“Are you going to stand there until daybreak?” Lu-zi shouted.
An-zi struggled internally for a moment before slowly inching over.
With the two of them digging together, both being experienced hands, the speed increased dramatically. It didn’t take long to dig a hole.
With the female ghost’s earlier manifestation, neither dared to look too closely. They anxiously pushed the corpse into the hole, buried it, and hastily left this place of horror.
Back in their room, the two servants collapsed onto their beds without even washing their hands, gasping for breath.
Most of the time, the aftermath is more terrifying than the experience, fermenting over time into an inescapable nightmare.
“Brother Lu-zi, should we tell the Young Master about this?”
“Tell him what? That we saw a ghost? Would the Young Master believe us? He’d think we had other intentions, and we’d end up keeping the female ghost company.”
“No, we won’t say anything.”
The two servants reached an agreement, staring blankly at the ceiling beams until dawn broke.
Meanwhile, Jiang Si weaved through the shadows of the garden. As she was about to approach a tree, a dark figure lunged at her.