Lava

Kapitel 18

“My father… he was murdered, wasn’t he?” Her voice trembled slightly, and her body seemed to be swaying precariously.

This question was rather strange. Bai Yingyu hadn't overheard their conversation in the lobby, so why did she immediately think of this? Mo Yan glanced at her instantly: "Miss Bai, do you think there's something wrong with your father's death?"

"Did your father say anything to Miss before he left?" Zhan Zhao had obviously noticed this as well.

Bai Yingyu bit her lip and shook her head quickly: "No! He didn't say anything. My father has always been kind and generous. Why would he... lose his life for nothing!"

"...to lose one's life in vain..." These words swirled in Mo Yan's mind. She looked up and met Zhan Zhao's gaze. Neither of them spoke.

Seeing Zhan Zhao remain silent for a moment, everyone froze on the spot. After a while, the second concubine, who had come to her senses, hurriedly invited everyone into the study.

Seeing that Bai Yingyu was not in good spirits, the maid gently helped her to sit on the soft couch by the window in the study, and then brought her a bowl of longan tea before stepping aside.

"How exactly was my father murdered?" She put the tea aside and asked the same question again.

"A sword through the heart." Mo Yan's eyes darted around the study as she answered casually. Although she dared not look at the corpse, she had carefully read the coroner's autopsy records.

Upon hearing this, Bai Yingyu's hand holding the plain handkerchief trembled slightly, and tears immediately rolled down her cheeks. The other concubines also joined in with mournful cries, clearly unwilling to be outdone.

Zhan Zhao sighed inwardly: This girl, why can't she speak more tactfully?

Seeing everyone's reaction, Mo Yan realized that she had spoken rashly. She quickly smiled and carefully added, "So Lord Bai died instantly. He must not have suffered any pain. Please accept my condolences."

Unfortunately, her words seemed to have no effect. Sobbing continued in the study. Mo Yan looked at Zhan Zhao awkwardly, completely unsure how to handle the situation.

Comforting people was not Zhan Zhao's forte, especially since he had to comfort four women at the same time. He could only say, "Things have come to this, so please accept my condolences. Lord Bai's body is still in Kaifeng Prefecture. Lord Bao hopes that the prefecture will send someone to bring it back as soon as possible so that Lord Bai can be laid to rest."

Upon hearing this, there was an immediate silence. The concubines looked at each other, and for a moment no one responded.

"I'll go," Bai Yingyu said softly.

"Miss...your health..." a maid behind her said anxiously, but she waved her hand to stop her.

She didn't even look at the concubines, but just smiled sadly: "Yingyu is unfilial, making Lord Zhan laugh at her."

It was somewhat unreasonable to send such a frail young woman to the capital alone to carry the coffin, but this was, after all, a family matter of the Bai family, and it was not appropriate for him to say too much. So Zhan Zhao said, "I must check Lord Bai's past letters. If there is any impoliteness, please forgive me."

"Please make yourself at home, Lord Zhan." Bai Yingyu stood up, walked to the desk, and pointed to a row of drawers. "My father's letters are always kept here..." She smiled sarcastically. "Fortunately, they are letters. If they were house deeds, I'm afraid I would have to ask my concubines."

"you……"

The concubines were about to lash out, but seeing that there were outsiders present, they held back and said they had other things to do, and left the study.

Mo Yan was already standing to the side, opening a drawer and taking out several stacks of letters, slowly picking through them. She knew in her heart that the purpose of this trip was the account books. Although checking the letters was just a pretext, if she could find any clues about the correspondence between Bai Baozhen and Zhang Yaozuo in the letters, it would be a valuable piece of evidence.

After examining the letters for a long time, Zhan Zhao and Mo Yan were somewhat disappointed. Most of them were greetings and flattery from lower-ranking officials, while there were not a single letter from Bai Baozhen to his superiors, especially officials in the capital.

"That old fox..." Mo Yan muttered under her breath, her low voice not reaching Bai Yingyu's ears, but it drew a glance from Zhan Zhao. Both of them understood that Bai Baozhen couldn't possibly have no dealings with officials in the capital, but they didn't know where he had hidden these letters, or perhaps he had burned them all.

Stretching lazily and pretending to be tired, Mo Yan wandered around the study, her gaze drifting over the bookshelves and the calligraphy and paintings on the walls, before lingering for a moment on Bai Yingyu by the window.

She was dressed as a man, but her gaze was quite direct. Although she herself was completely unaware of it, Bai Yingyu felt uncomfortable being stared at by her. Even the two maids who were attending her were annoyed by her rudeness and glared at her several times.

"Please take your time looking around. I'll have someone clean the room and prepare some fragrant soup." Bai Yingyu stood up and said politely to Zhan Zhao, "My humble abode is simple and cannot compare to that in the capital. Please don't find it offensive."

Zhan Zhao quickly replied, "No need to trouble yourself, we've already settled in an inn in the city."

Bai Yingyu had also heard that although Zhan Zhao served in Kaifeng Prefecture, he had never been willing to associate with officials. In addition, the funeral in the mansion made things inconvenient, so she did not insist. She left a maid in the study to await her instructions, then excused herself from the two maids and went back to her small building to rest.

Mo Yan leaned against the window, watching Bai Yingyu's slender figure turn the corner of the corridor and enter the elegant little building not far away before turning back. The maid who remained behind, seeing her like this, became even more convinced that she had improper thoughts about her mistress, and her eyes showed considerable dissatisfaction with Mo Yan.

“Your young lady…” Mo Yan said to the maid with a smile, but was glared at by the maid with annoyance, which confused her. She couldn’t finish her sentence.

“Sir, our young lady is already betrothed,” the maidservant said quickly, her words sharp and witty.

"You were betrothed to someone, I heard it was the Sima family of Luoyang?" Mo Yan asked curiously, "Wasn't the engagement broken off?"

The maid was taken aback. She had thought that since they had just arrived in Suzhou, they wouldn't have heard of this matter, but she didn't expect that they already knew. Seeing that Mo Yan was still pressing for answers, she had no choice but to stubbornly say, "How can you believe the gossip outside? The Sima family hasn't returned the betrothal gifts and engagement money yet, so how can you say that the engagement has been broken off?"

Mo Yan shrugged, about to speak, when she suddenly saw Zhan Zhao turn to look at her with a warning look that she knew all too well, clearly telling her not to say anything out of turn.

"Come and take a look at these two letters," Zhan Zhao called to her.

"oh."

As she held the two letters up for comparison, Zhan Zhao looked up at the maid and said, seemingly casually, "I wonder if we have any tea? It's early autumn, and I'm a little thirsty."

"Please wait a moment, both of you."

Finding that no tea was served to the guests, which was considered extremely impolite, the maid hurriedly left the study to prepare tea and snacks.

Mo Yan thought Zhan Zhao would take this opportunity to scold her, but instead she saw him quickly turn around and look at something on the bookshelf.

"Are you looking for a hidden compartment?" She leaned closer and muttered to herself, "This bookshelf is obviously not going to have a hidden compartment. Usually, bookshelves with hidden compartments are quite deep, but this one doesn't seem like it."

Zhan Zhao ignored her and continued searching through the bookshelf, even opening and looking at the boxed books.

"If you were Bai Baozhen, where would you put the account books?" she asked with a grin, lightly tapping the blue bricks on the ground with her toes.

He still ignored her, squatted down at the bottom of the bookshelf, and after a moment, pulled a thick account book out of a small drawer with a "whoosh"...

Chapter Thirteen

"This is the account book?" Mo Yan asked happily, then frowned. "Are you sure it's the one we're looking for? It's so easy to find, it's not their family's private account book, is it?"

Zhan Zhao glanced through it and remained silent for a while—although this ledger was not a private account, he couldn't be sure if it was the one they were looking for.

Not far away, footsteps approached, and Zhan Zhao quickly put the ledger back in its place.