The dry branches and waste soil that had originally filled the well were overturned, and two dark eye sockets stared directly at Prince Lu.
Prince Lu’s gaze went blank, and his mind emptied.
What was that thing?
Erniu, noticing Prince Lu peering motionlessly with his head extended, let out a bark.
It had discovered something strange. Why was this person showing no reaction?
The dog’s bark instantly startled Prince Lu awake. He realized what it was almost instantly.
In great shock, Prince Lu’s body swayed and he fell in. Fortunately, his reaction was still quick enough to grab the well’s edge with one hand.
“Erniu, help quickly!” In his panic, Prince Lu called for help without caring whether Erniu could understand.
Erniu hurriedly came over and bit down on Prince Lu’s wrist that was clinging to the well’s edge.
Originally, without Erniu’s bite, Prince Lu could have quickly climbed up with his strength. Now the outcome was obvious: the big man fell in cleanly.
A sky-piercing scream rang out: “Help—”
Rushing over, Yu Jin paused and called out: “Fifth Brother, are you in the well?”
Hearing the scream, Prince Qin and the others who ran over were startled: “Fifth Brother (Fifth Brother) fell into the well?”
Only Prince Xiang trembled, his lips unable to make a sound, his face as pale as a ghost.
How could this happen, how could this happen?
A tragic cry came from the bottom of the well: “Is there no living person up there? Hurry and get me out!”
Brotherly affection truly is as thin as paper. These bastards had all come over, yet they could only shout.
Hearing Prince Lu’s cries, Prince Xiang snapped out of his daze and roared at the servants who had followed: “Quickly pull Prince Lu up!”
He remembered instructing his subordinates to fill the well before. Perhaps Fifth Brother had just fallen without discovering Cui Mingyue’s corpse—Prince Xiang clung to a glimmer of hope.
Soon, several servants worked together to pull Prince Lu up.
“Cough, cough, cough!” Sitting on the ground, Prince Lu coughed violently, his complexion no better than Prince Xiang’s.
Prince Qin stepped forward, his face showing concern: “Fifth Brother, are you alright?”
Prince Shu stood to the side, secretly shaking his head.
No wonder Fifth Brother was bullied by Fifth Sister-in-law to the point he couldn’t lift his head. Chasing Erniu and falling into a well, then unable to climb out—this was too useless.
As Prince Lu, scorned by Prince Shu, tried to move away from the well, a skeletal hand fell from his body.
Looking at the dry bones that had fallen to the ground, and then looking at Prince Lu, everyone’s expressions changed drastically.
Prince Lu painfully grinned at Prince Qin: “Elder Brother, what do you think? Am I alright or not?”
Prince Qin fell silent, staring at the lone skeletal hand.
Prince Lu felt so wronged he was nearly crying: “There’s a skeleton in the well. When I fell in, I bumped right into that skull… Peh, peh, it nearly disgusted me to death…”
He had certainly seen dead people before, but he had never seen a skeleton, let alone imagined that one day he would have such an intimate encounter with one. Just thinking about the scene from earlier, Prince Lu wanted to wail loudly, disregarding his male dignity.
“Fifth Brother is saying… there’s a dead person in the well?” Prince Shu was the first to react. His peripheral vision swept over Prince Xiang’s pallid face as he strode towards the well to look inside.
The empty eye sockets of the skull at the bottom of the well stared back at him silently.
Prince Shu’s scalp tingled, and he hurriedly averted his gaze.
Prince Qi, seemingly disbelieving, followed closely to look. Upon seeing the situation in the well, he immediately froze.
Prince Shu looked at Prince Xiang and asked meaningfully: “Did Eighth Brother know there was a dead person in the well?”
Prince Xiang shuddered and flatly denied: “Sixth Brother, don’t talk nonsense. How would I know there was a dead person in the well!”
“Then what’s the story with these dry bones in the well?” Prince Shu was unwilling to let go of this opportunity to strike at Prince Xiang and pressed on.
Eighth Brother was clearly in league with Fourth Brother, and Fourth Brother was his fierce rival. Now that he had a chance to strike at the opposition, he certainly couldn’t let it go easily.
Prince Xiang struggled to maintain his composure: “Who knows? There are so many people in the prince’s mansion, and without a mistress to manage things, perhaps some evil servant harmed someone and hid the body in the abandoned well…”
Prince Xiang’s panic subsided as rationality returned.
Cui Mingyue had already become nothing but dry bones. As long as he firmly denied it, who could prove that the skeleton in the well was the long-missing Miss Cui?
Yes, as long as he didn’t admit it, no one could do anything to him!
Prince Xiang unconsciously straightened his back.
“Since a skeleton has been discovered in the well, we should report it to the authorities.” A cool voice rang out.
Prince Xiang was startled, then quickly looked towards the speaker, his tone resolute: “Absolutely not!”
Yu Jin’s face showed bewilderment: “There’s been a murder. Why can’t we report it?”
Prince Xiang sneered: “Seventh Brother speaks so lightly of it. A skeleton appears in an abandoned well in Prince Xiang’s mansion—how would that sound if it got out? Your brother can’t afford to lose face like this!”
Yu Jin grew increasingly perplexed: “Could it be that for Eighth Brother, face is more important than the truth?”
Prince Xiang faltered, then said angrily: “Seventh Brother, don’t talk as if you’re not involved. If this happened in your mansion, would you make a fuss about reporting it?”
Let alone within the royal family, even among ordinary wealthy households, it wasn’t uncommon for one or two people to die violently in a year. But who had ever heard of anyone reporting such cases?
Unexpectedly, Yu Jin nodded without hesitation: “Of course I would. If we don’t find the murderer, what if they commit evil acts again in the future? When your sister-in-law’s elder sister encountered a startled horse while going to offer incense, your sister-in-law immediately reported it to the authorities. Eighth Brother is a man, how can you be less sensible than a woman?”
Provoked by Yu Jin’s words, Prince Xiang grew extremely anxious but stubbornly refused to yield: “That’s the business of your Prince Yan’s mansion. You may not care about reputation, but I do. I’ll find a way to root out the evil servant, but reporting to the authorities is absolutely out of the question!”
Yu Jin smiled lightly: “Eighth Brother’s adamant refusal to report this… could it be that you have a guilty conscience?”
“Who has a guilty conscience? If Seventh Brother keeps talking nonsense, don’t blame me for being impolite!”
Prince Shu was delighted to add fuel to the fire and advised: “Eighth Brother, I think Seventh Brother has a point. The truth is more important than saving face.”
Prince Lu was even more supportive: “I don’t care. Today I’ve been utterly disgusted, and I can’t let this go just like that. Eighth Brother, if you’re unwilling to report it, I’ll go tell Father Emperor.”
Seeing Eighth Brother’s stammering appearance, the person in the well might have been one of those beautiful maids or pretty young servants, harmed by Eighth Brother.
Hiss— He had thought it would be good enough to be on par with Eighth Brother, but could there be a chance to trample him underfoot?
Prince Lu became excited at the thought, momentarily forgetting to settle accounts with the large dog that had caused him to fall.
Meanwhile, Erniu seemed to have been forgotten by everyone, squatting in the corner and wagging its tail listlessly.
Seeing that Yu Jin, Prince Lu, and Prince Shu all advocated reporting to the authorities, and even threatened to tattle to Emperor Jingming, Prince Xiang lost the courage to persist.
If he stubbornly refused to agree, he feared he wouldn’t be able to clear himself of suspicion.
Thinking that he had handled things quite cleanly after killing Cui Mingyue back then, Prince Xiang finally nodded.
Let them investigate. Now that Cui Mingyue had rotted into nothing but white bones, he didn’t believe that Zhen Shicheng, the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, could uncover anything!
Seeing Prince Xiang nod, Yu Jin swept his gaze over the nearest servant of Prince Xiang’s household and said coolly: “What are you still standing there for? Didn’t you hear your prince wants to report to the authorities?”
The servant was stunned for a moment, then bowed and ran off quickly.