The wind is blowing and the clouds are moving, the mountains are covered with mist, and the snowflakes are falling.
"I have always heard that Crown Prince Yun of Shengle County spends all his time in lavish pursuits and is a fool. Now it seems that, as the Crown Prince said, what he hears from other people's mouths is not as good as what he sees with his own eyes."
"What?" Yun Qi picked up the jade pot in his hand, his robe was slightly loose, his wide sleeves had floating cloud patterns, and his mist was like a fairy or a demon. "Are you interested in this case?"
Lu Anran clasped his hands together, with the sweet potato slowly losing its warmth in his palms. Facing Yunqi's teasing smile, he said, "We are trapped here. Isn't the prince in a hurry?"
The jade pot tipped over, and the mellow wine flowed into his mouth. The wine touched his lips, bringing out a hint of enchanting vermilion. Yunqi chuckled and said: "Looking at the moon is like the left and right arms of this prince. Since I sent him to the scene, it is equivalent to This prince personally appears, which shows that my prince sincerely intends to leave the valley as soon as possible."
"Ah sneeze——"
Ten miles away, Guan Yue wiped a handful of hot sweat and really couldn't understand why he, a dignified guard of the prince's palace, was reduced to moving stones. If that kid Mo Yan knew about it, wouldn't he laugh out loud?
The wind and snow all over the mountain are not snow, but the tears he shed.
"The prince said before that there was more than water in the room, but what else could be wrong?" The situation was so chaotic that Lu Anran only glanced at the corpse briefly.
Yun Qi shook the wine pot in his hand, "The second son of the Yin family seems to be afraid of the cold. There are many charcoal basins in the house."
Lu Anran frowned and thought for a while. The charcoal basin was probably placed away from her, but she didn't pay attention. "It stands to reason that when a person is pushed into the bathtub and suffocated, there must be a violent struggle, but I have seen the corpse and there is no trace of anything on the upper body." There are signs of struggle, but there are abrasions on the knees and legs.”
Yun Qi raised his eyebrows, looking at a naked person quite a lot, "So?"
Lu Anran raised his eyes: "It is most likely that he was unable to resist at that time."
"Huh?" This voice came from his throat with a lazy tone, "You mean he was unconscious before he died?"
Lu Anran nodded: "It may be caused by drugs or external forces, but I need to examine the body to know."
Yun Qi looked at her and suddenly asked, "You suddenly said so much to me..." He raised his chin to the sweet potato in Lu Anran's hand, "Because of one sweet potato?"
Lu Anran was startled. These questions had puzzled him for a long time, but when he saw Yun Qi, he said them all without knowing it. He only realized after being reminded that it seemed inappropriate.
—
On this day, Lu Anran did not step out of the room until dark. He flipped through the "Qianjin Pharmacopoeia" in his hand and read a line of it for a long time without reading it. He simply put down the book and rubbed his eyebrows.
Until she smelled the fragrance and looked over, Chun Miao finally made plum blossom cakes. Each one was small and exquisite, shaped like a petal, with rouge in the middle, which was a joy to see.
Chunmiao took a snack box and said while putting it in: "As Mrs. Wei said, this thing is indeed a bit evil. How come a bathtub appeared out of thin air and people drowned in it? Is there really a ghost? Miss, please Why don't we stay in another house?" She thought that since someone died, it was really unlucky to live here.
"What kind of trouble does it take for a ghost to kill someone?" Lu Anran took a bite of the plum blossom cake. It was fluffy, soft, and sweet but not greasy. She was really in a good mood after eating sweets. Seeing Chun Miao put a small plate on it, she said casually: "Xu Jia and the others You have a big appetite, I’m afraid you won’t be enough with these, right?”
Chun Miao shook her head: "No, I was thinking that Prince Yun had given sweet potatoes to the young lady, so I would have to return the gift so that it would appear that our Lu family knows the rules and etiquette."
A sweet potato that the owner threw away casually, still needs to be reciprocated as a gift?
Lu Anran forgot to chew the plum blossom cake after one mouthful, and Chun Miao had already walked out the door with brisk steps. After realizing it, she began to ponder whether she had given Chun Miao too much advice before leaving home.
When Chun Miao came back, as the door opened, in addition to the cold wind and cold air, there was also the faint sound of words. Chun Miao rubbed her hands and shook off the snowflakes on her clothes.
"The strong daughter-in-law came just now. I expected that the wind and snow would delay her. I'm afraid the people from the county government won't be able to come today." No need for Lu Anran to ask, Chunmiao said to herself.
Lu Anran held up the pen and wrote down one word steadily, then asked, "What did Village Chief Yin say?"
"Village Chief Yin can't do anything. He can't do it tonight. He just said that he hasn't returned home in the morning and will send someone to have a look." Chunmiao took a pair of fire tongs and added a handful of charcoal. "It's just that the strong wife's words are a bit... It’s just human nature to complain.”
Before falling asleep, Chun Miao spread out her quilt on the ground and said with a hint of panic, "Whenever I think about the corpse placed in the west end of the yard, my whole body feels a little uncomfortable."
Maybe it was this worry that caused a gust of wind to blow up in the second half of the night, accompanied by the vaguely shrill cry of a female ghost, which made people shudder and unable to sleep.
When walking around the village the next day, every villager looked panicked and gathered together to discuss the matter of the female ghost asking for her life. It was obvious that Mrs. Tian's words yesterday had a big effect.
Lu Anran stopped casually, and a villager immediately noticed and said with a smile: "Miss in the city, are we not used to living in the countryside?"
After a few polite words, Lu Anran said: "What female ghost did you just say? Is she the eldest daughter-in-law of Village Chief Yin's family?"
"It's not that good." The woman grabbed a handful of longevity fruit and asked Lu Anran if he wanted it. She pressed it with two fingers, picked out two plump fruits and threw them into her mouth. Lifting it up, he said with a bit of mystery: "Just as I was talking, the female ghost cried all night last night. The windows in our house shook for a while. I saw a wisp of red clothes flash past, which scared me. I shivered and almost fell off the kang."
Chunmiao's hand holding Lu Anran trembled, and she opened her mouth wide: "Really?"
Someone said: "Yes, yes, I heard it too, the crying was so weird, my heart is still beating non-stop."
"But I thought about it carefully. When she was alive, Jin was a good person and helped many people. She was kind at heart. There is no reason to turn into a ghost and kill people randomly." The woman who ate the longevity fruit before was shaking. He took off the peanut red clothes stained on his sleeves and swore to the sky: "Look for whomever you should look for, don't look for me first."
A lean and dark-skinned woman carrying a basket next to her snorted and said with disdain, "Every kindness is done for others to see. It's not like you have an itchy bone and want to pounce on every man you see."
The woman who was kneading the longevity fruit sneered: "Isn't it just your man who helped the Jin family harvest the wheat? You are still thinking about it even after everyone died."
"What's wrong with a person's death, can his dissolute nature be erased?" the woman said with a stern expression.
Everyone laughed at her and said, "Ghosts can listen to people's words. Be careful if she comes to find you at night."
After talking for a while, and then mentioning that Da Zhuang and the other two villagers had not returned, the village chief finally sent someone to go to the county town to have a look. Seeing that there was nothing useful in asking, Lu Anran and Chun Miao quietly left the crowd, and the gossip gradually drifted away.
"Miss, it's really strange. In other people's words, the Jin family may be good at one moment, and bad at the other." Chunmiao's eyes showed confusion, "Who is he?"
Lu Anran lowered his eyes, and suddenly Yun Qi's words flashed through his mind, and he said smoothly: "Human character itself is not single, and it depends on whether a person is good or not, regardless of personal ethics."
After hearing this, Chunmiao nodded and said, "Isn't this what Prince Yun said to the young lady yesterday?"
Lu Anran looked sideways, Chun Miao got goosebumps when he saw it, and said slowly: "I think it's better for you to go back to Mengdu with Xu Jia."
"Oops!" Chunmiao looked at the back of Lu Anran and Shi Shiran walking forward and stamped her feet on the spot: "I will just stop telling the truth from now on."
Today the clouds have dispersed, the sky is rare and clear, the sun shines on the heaven and earth, everything is white, bright and warm.
Chunmiao walked around with Lu Anran and came back, and saw the little girl from the Yin family squatting in a shady corner of the yard, grabbing something unknown in her hand, and making a pulling gesture with her other hand.
As I got closer, I heard the little girl muttering: "...Bad woman, good father, father is the good father, Su Su's mother is a bad woman..."
Perhaps hearing footsteps, the little girl turned around.
Only then did Lu Anran see clearly that she was holding a big rooster by the neck with her left hand. The rooster rolled her eyes. She plucked out the beautiful feathers on the tail one by one with her right hand. The corners of her mouth were raised high, her face full of joy.
"Did you pluck the rooster's tail to make shuttlecock dumplings?" Chun Miao pointed at the big rooster, which was originally majestic but now looked a little bleak rather than majestic at all. "You're about to strangle it to death."
The little girl tilted her head and said with a smile: "Let's make a chicken tail flower for daddy. Sister, do you think it looks good?"
The innocent words, coupled with the straight eyes and weird smile, made Chunmiao feel creepy.
"You like your dad very much?" Lu Anran walked over.
The little girl Su Su held a handful of colorful feathers and nodded happily: "Yes, daddy is the best. Susu loves daddy the most."
Lu Anran looked at the rooster that had stopped moving, "Then your mother, why did you call her a bad woman?"
"Don't mention that bad woman!" Su Su suddenly threw out the big cock in her hand and smashed it viciously on the ground. There was a trace of evil in her two black eyes.
Chunmiao quickly pulled Lu An back to avoid the splashing snow foam.
"Shh!" Su Su put a finger to her lips, shook the feather in her hand, and slowly smiled a weird smile, "Don't mention the bad mother again, Su Su is going to find her father."
Chunmiao looked at Su Su's running back, then looked at the big motionless rooster on the ground, and hissed, "Why do you think this child is a little abnormal?" After saying that, she paused and declared heavily: "This family They don’t seem to be normal!”
—
After lunch, the courtyard of Village Chief Yin's house became noisy again, and many people swarmed in. By the time Lu Anran and Chunmiao rushed over, half of the village was already surrounded by people on three levels inside and three outside.
A man was lying on the ground at the end. The most shocking thing was his right leg, which was a bloody mess from the ankle to the knee, and he also fainted.
The gray-haired old woman lay on top of the man and cried bitterly. The young woman beside her knelt on the ground and cried with her young daughter in her arms. The child was frightened and began to cry loudly. For a while, they broke into tears.
The man who came back with the man was talking to Village Chief Yin. By coincidence, when Lu Anran came over, he only heard one sentence: "...the bridge cable to Wangjiacun has broken!"
