When the case came to light, Li Zhun waved his sleeves and ordered the government officials to bring Feng Lin, who accidentally killed her husband, and He Si, the murderer who deliberately killed Lian Xiang, back to the county government office. In addition, he also took away several corpses dug out from the dry well of the He family. These corpses were all female, aged between 16 and 25 years old. Except for one highly decomposed corpse, the rest were all bones.
The cause of death was unknown, there was no physical evidence, and the bones were all considered suicide. The He family only had to cooperate with the government to issue a certificate of closure.
It's late night and people are quiet. In the mourning hall, candlelight is swaying in the wind, and the coffin is placed horizontally at the west end of the mourning hall. Under the shrine, several aunts sat on futons and took a nap. Suddenly, a cat meowed from the mourning hall. Several aunts opened their eyes one after another and leaned against one another involuntarily.
Hearing the sound of "meow", the brave aunt got up, looked around, and landed on the coffin at the west end. I saw the coffin lid shaking constantly, making a strange and harsh sound. The aunt stepped forward and saw a pair of green eyes exposed in the staggered coffin, and then she screamed and fainted to the ground. The remaining few saw something was wrong and scattered away.
There was a sound of very light footsteps outside the hall, and Zhou Yuan, dressed as Chunhong, walked in.
She checked on the aunt who fell on the ground, and after confirming that she was just fainted from shock, she clasped her hands together and silently said sorry to her, then opened the coffin and took out the little black cat inside.
"Little one, you're quite clever." Zhou Yu'an looked around at the situation inside the coffin while petting the cat.
The appearance of "Xiu Ying" made He Hongyi lose his mind. Coupled with the tragic death of his beloved son and the discovery of the female body in the dry well, he flawlessly paid attention to the copper key still hanging on He Bingtian's body. He Bingtian's clothes were changed with the help of the aunt in the house, and the matters related to the burial were handled by the housekeeper. If nothing else, the key is still with He Bingtian.
Zhou Yu'an reached out and wiped it. The key was not placed in the sachet, but was placed among the funerary objects as He Bingtian's personal belongings. As soon as she picked up the key, the back of her hand went numb and the key fell to the ground.
"Using stones as hidden weapons, you are very poor and have no intention of killing me." Zhou Yu'an hugged the cat and turned around: "This brother is also here for the key?"
Their eyes met, and the person turned out to be Shen Chongming.
Zhou Yuan was a little surprised.
"My dear, what a coincidence!"
"What a coincidence!" Shen Chongming pointed his sword at Zhou Yu'an: "Where is your master?"
"At this hour, of course we are in the room." Zhou Yu'an blinked: "Do you not know where Mr. He lives, young master? You can lead the way if you want me to, there is no need to point with a sword."
"I'm not asking about He Hongyi!" Shen Chongming's sword moved forward an inch.
"Not Mr. He?" Zhou Yu'an frowned: "Then I really don't know who you are talking about, young master."
"The tattoo behind your ear is the symbol of Prince Qi's palace. Are you still going to pretend to be stupid?"
There is a tattoo behind Zhou Yuan's ear, the size of his thumb, with a design like a copper coin, half of which is hidden in his hair. She thought it was Chunhong's birthmark, and when pretending to be the other person, she traced the pattern on it, but she never thought it was the mark of Prince Qi's palace.
Could it be that...Chunhong is from King Qi? Her purpose of sneaking into He Mansion was not only to take care of Su Niang and avenge her mother?
This He Mansion is getting more and more interesting.
Seeing Zhou Yuan's eyes change from confusion to understanding, and then from understanding to full of interest, Shen Chongming raised his eyebrows slightly - he actually felt that this change in her eyes was somewhat familiar.
"Whether you believe it or not, I am not from Prince Qi's Mansion." Zhou Yu'an faced his sword: "I came to the He family for this key. I need to take something from the secret room of the He family."
"what?"
"No comment, but if your purpose is also this key, we can reach some cooperation." Zhou Yu'an looked at him: "I am working in Hefu right now, and you are doing things in the name of the county government master. It's definitely not as convenient as me. How about, after opening the secret room, we'll split the account, you want nine, I want one. If you don't tell, I won't tell, no one will know that we did this."
"What if I refuse?"
"Then you have to try if you can silence me tonight."
A little cold star went straight to Shen Chongming's eyebrows. Because the distance was too close, he only had time to block it with his hands.
Zhou Yu'an pulled out the short knife from his waist like lightning and stabbed Shen Chongming in the abdomen. Shen Chongming turned his wrist and slashed down with his long sword. With a "clang" sound, Zhou Yu'an's short sword fell to the ground. She narrowed her eyes and smiled, then stabbed a silver needle into Shen Chongming's arm with her backhand.
His arm lost strength instantly, Shen Chongming stepped back and looked at Zhou Yu'an warily.
"Don't worry, my silver needle is not poisonous." Zhou Yu'an jumped slightly and sat on the lid of He Bingtian's coffin: "Now, can we discuss it?"
Shen Chongming looked at Zhou Yu'an without moving.
"Speak, why are you like this?" Zhou Yu'an patted the coffin lid: "Don't you talk a lot during the day when you are pretending to be a master? If you don't say anything, I will take the key and leave."
There was a soft sound of "plop", the lights went out, and the mourning hall suddenly became dark.
The moonlight filtered in quietly through the window lattice. Shen Chongming put his arm around Zhou Yu'an and took her to the corner. Just as Zhou Yu'an was about to speak, Shen Chongming's breath hit her ears. She suddenly felt a little uncomfortable and her face seemed to be burning.
"Someone!"
Shen Chongming lowered his voice, making her ears itch, and she couldn't help but scratch his legs. He immediately tensed up and looked at the person in his arms motionless.
Suddenly, he smiled, no sound, only the corners of his mouth raised.
Outside the mourning hall, following the sound of hurried footsteps, a slim woman wearing a cloak and a hood walked in. She first checked the situation in the mourning hall, then pushed the coffin away and searched inside the hall by the moonlight.
After a while, there was another sound outside the mourning hall. This time the sound was very mixed, there were at least a dozen people. When the woman saw this, she quickly closed the coffin and hurried out.
Just as Zhou Yuan was about to move, Shen Chongming led him out of the window on one side. When the servants of the He family entered the mourning hall, the opened window just closed.
In the backyard of the He family, beside the dry well, the mud dug out of the well during the day still smelled fishy.
Zhou Yu'an leaned against the locust tree and looked at the belt hanging in the air that had not been taken away by the officials.
"Sir, are you going to cooperate with me?"
"The girl's proposal is good, but -" Shen Chongming put the copper key in the sleeve in front of Zhou Yu'an: "This cooperation also requires some bargaining chips. What is the girl's bargaining chip?"
"Of course it's the golden key in Mrs. He's hand." Zhou Yu'an snapped his fingers: "Compared with the young master, I have a better chance."
"Deal!" Shen Chongming turned around and said, "After the girl gets the golden key, you and I will discuss cooperation."
"My lord!" Zhou Yu'an stopped him: "The first corpse recovered from the dry well was not Xiu Ying! The maid who sneaked into the mourning hall was named Sui'er. She was originally serving Feng Lin. There seemed to be someone like me behind her ear. The exact same birthmark.”
