Ma femme escalade le mur

Chapitre 12

"In the morning?" Xiao Duan thought for a moment, her delicate brows furrowing slightly, her phoenix eyes glaring coldly at Zhao Ting: "What fiancée? Don't talk nonsense." With that, she flicked her sleeve and turned to walk towards the intersection.

As he walked, Duan was still quite puzzled. He thought to himself, "Is this guy out of his mind?" Putting aside the fact that it was just a joke made by Registrar Tao, saying that his mistress had sent him a letter, even if he really had a fiancée, what business was it of his? Whether he was faithful or abandoned, honest or philandering, what did it have to do with him? It was utterly unreasonable!

Zhao Ting should have been even angrier after being glared at and uttered a cold remark by Xiao Duan. However, judging from Xiao Duan's demeanor, it was clear that he didn't have a fiancée. So, contrary to our young master's expectations, after being humiliated by a few words, Prince Zhao not only didn't fly into a rage, but instead pursed his thin lips and smiled slightly.

Zhan Yun was quite startled by Zhao Ting's smile. He had known this child for so many years, but he had never seen him so unpredictable. What was wrong with him? Had he gone mad from investigating the case? The three of them walked forward with their own thoughts, heading towards Song Qiao's house, when they saw a constable running towards them from the east, waving his hand as he ran, as if afraid that the three of them would not see him.

Running up to the three men, the constable panted, "We've been worried about not being able to find you! This is terrible! You must hurry to 'Zhu Xiang Ya She'! It's in complete chaos there! A young woman surnamed Zhu is holding onto a woman in a blue dress and insists she's caught the real culprit!"

The author has something to say: This case is not discussed in much detail, but I quite like it myself~ I'm engrossed in imagining that "Yunying Fried Noodles".

The case involves more than one person in Hangzhou Prefecture, so the people mentioned in this volume will be encountered again later, which can be seen as laying the groundwork for what's to come.

Well, actually, our Duan is quite good-looking, it's just that Zhao Ting, that brat, is acting strangely right now and keeps saying bad things about Duan.

Holding one's cheeks in one's hands—people are often the least honest with themselves. Hmm, I don't admire that trait.

So, dear readers, if you love me, just say so!

14

Chapter Nine: Jade Hairpin Stained with Blood • Bewilderment...

As the group crossed the broken bridge, they saw a crowd gathered at the entrance of "Zhu Xiang Ya She" not far away, all craning their necks to look inside. In fact, the door of the abode was tightly closed, and nothing could be seen from the outside. Some mischievous boys even climbed onto the wall to try and see what was happening inside, but were startled by the shout of a constable who ran up to them, and fell to the ground with a "plop," crying out in pain.

Xiao Duan reached out and tugged at Zhao Ting's sleeve, gently shaking his head to signal him not to go forward. Zhao Ting raised an eyebrow, and Xiao Duan released his grip, pointing to the wall facing the lake from the elegant residence. Zhao and Zhan understood, and the three of them turned and walked in that direction. Xiao Duan took two quick steps and leaped into the air, not even touching the tips of the grass on the wall, easily vaulting over it. Zhao Ting glanced sideways at Zhan Yun with a half-smile, and Zhan Yun smiled and shook his head, closing his folding fan, pushing off the wall with his toes, using the momentum to propel himself up, and the two of them nimbly landed on the grass in the courtyard.

What they were actually laughing at was that Duan's lightness skill was truly exceptional! That "Swallow Diving Through the Clouds" move alone could have stunned countless martial arts masters! If they hadn't accidentally clashed with Duan during their nighttime raid on the elegant residence, no one would have guessed that someone with such superb lightness skill would be so weak in combat. He'd be more than capable of dealing with ordinary thugs, but against a true master, with Duan's limited skills, he'd be finished in less than ten moves.

Inside the elegant residence, the constables, some standing and some sitting, were all exhausted from the ordeal. Upon seeing the three men appear before them, they all breathed a sigh of relief. The leader, Dafang, raised his hand to wipe his forehead and turned to look at the woman in the pink dress: "See? Two esteemed officials from the capital have arrived. Let's discuss this at the yamen; let's not cause trouble here."

Two brothers were patrolling the street when they heard wailing and screaming coming from the house, accompanied by the sound of things being smashed. A crowd had gathered at the entrance, pointing and whispering. Squeezing through the crowd, they peeked inside and saw several young women struggling, their hair disheveled, clothes in disarray, books and papers scattered everywhere, and broken porcelain shards strewn about. One girl, her face flushed red, was desperately dragging someone out, screaming that she was going to see the authorities. The girl being pulled along was crying pitifully, collapsing to the ground and sobbing, repeatedly saying, "It wasn't me, it wasn't me!"

The two constables were at their wits' end. They stepped forward, intending to pull the man away. "He wants to see an official, right? Perfect! If there's anything he can't explain, he can come with you to the yamen to see Lord Li!" But the girl in the pink dress standing nearby stopped them, saying, "No, all the ladies from the elegant abode are here. If you're going to leave, you should at least clear things up first. And what about those two gentlemen from the other day? Didn't they say they were here to investigate a case? Perfect! The real culprit has been found. Tell those two gentlemen to come quickly."

The two constables exchanged bewildered glances, at a loss for what to do. These girls were all pampered young ladies; the officers had chased thieves and arrested criminals, but they'd never actually interacted with women before! The two young men were also shy and easily embarrassed. They thought, "They absolutely refuse to leave; we can't just drag them to the yamen! How can we face them flirting with several girls in the street? We'll get a beating from Lord Li when we get back!"

Having run out of options, the two men discussed it and decided that one of them would stay here and the other would hurry back and call for help. Regardless of whether it was those two high-ranking officials from the capital or anyone else from the government office, they had to report to Lord Li that this matter was related to the serial murders of the past few days, and that they couldn't handle it!

The three approached and saw Miss Zhu with slightly disheveled hair, her beautiful eyes red and swollen from crying, her face pale, and her eyes streaked with tears—she looked utterly pitiful. Upon seeing Zhan Yun, she released the hand of the other girl, ran forward in small steps, and threw herself into Zhan Yun's arms, sobbing, "Young Master Zhan… Waaah…"

Zhan Yun was startled by the girl's collision. Looking up, he met Zhao Ting's mockingly dark eyes, then noticed Xiao Duan staring coldly at him with obvious disdain. Zhan Yun, who prided himself on his excellent temper and manners, couldn't help but sigh at the expressions of the two beside him. What had he done yesterday, sacrificing his virtue for information?

Zhan Yun reached out and took Zhu Qiaolian's arm, pulling her away a little, and asked in a gentle tone, "Miss Zhu, what's wrong?"

Zhu Qiaolian gently raised her hand, delicately wiping away tears with one sleeve, and said in a choked voice, "Young Master Zhan, I... I've discovered the real culprit! It really was the sisters from the elegant residence who did it. Waaah... Dieyou died so tragically... Waaah... And Sister Zhou too..."

Xiao Duan turned to look at Lan Lan, who was curled up on the ground. The woman in green who had pulled her away the previous afternoon stood beside her. She bent down and gently put her arm around Lan Lan's waist, softly urging her to get up. Lan Lan remained motionless, tears streaming down her face. Looking up at Xiao Duan, her large, doe-like eyes were filled with confusion and fear, her tender red lips bitten until they bled: "Young...Young Master..."

Xiao Duan stepped forward, helped Lan Lan up by the waist, and sat her down on a stool nearby. Lan Lan's tears flowed even more fiercely, her small, mud-covered hands tightly gripping Xiao Duan's sleeve: "Young Master, it really wasn't me, it wasn't me. I didn't..."

Xiao Duan straightened up, his cold phoenix eyes sweeping over everyone in the courtyard, and asked in a cold voice, "What exactly happened? Can anyone briefly explain what happened?"

The woman in the pink dress was the most composed. She rose gracefully, walked to the middle of the group, her brow furrowed, and said softly, "It's like this. We were just having tea on the second floor. Recently, a series of incidents have happened at the abode, so we thought we'd all get together and talk about it to see if we could find anything. Then, we heard someone arguing downstairs. When we went down, we saw Qiaolian holding Lanlan's hand, saying that she was the murderer who killed several of our sisters and that she wanted to take her to the authorities."

Zhu Qiaolian's beautiful eyes widened, and she raised her fair hand: "It's her! She's the murderer who killed Dieyou and her two older sisters!" Lanlan shrank back under her glare, shaking her little head like a rattle drum, and large tears fell one after another: "I didn't! It wasn't me, it really wasn't me."

The woman in the green dress patted Lanlan's vest repeatedly while glaring at Zhu Qiaolian: "Don't make false accusations! Everyone in this abode knows Lanlan is timid. She cried for days when a little white rabbit died a few months ago, how could she possibly kill someone!"

Zhan Yun frowned slightly and tapped her folding fan lightly: "Miss Zhu, you say Miss Lan is the murderer, but do you have any evidence?"

Zhu Qiaolian nodded, took out a jade butterfly hairpin made entirely of emerald green from her sleeve, and her eyes couldn't help but redden again. She looked up at Zhan Yun, her eyes brimming with tears, and as she spoke, tears fell from her eyes: "Young Master Zhan, this is the jade butterfly hairpin that I mentioned to you, the one that Dieyou bought the other day. I, as soon as I entered the door today, I saw her standing by the flower bushes, holding this jade hairpin in her hand. As soon as she saw me, she hurriedly tried to stuff it into her sleeve."

"Miss Zhu, may I have a look at the hairpin?" Xiao Duan stretched out his palm, his phoenix eyes coldly looking at Zhu Qiaolian.

Zhu Qiaolian nodded and handed the hairpin to Xiao Duan's palm. Xiao Duan picked up the hairpin by the head and saw that it was covered with slightly damp mud, and near the tip, there were also specks of blood.

Zhao Ting also came closer to examine it carefully. The two looked at each other but did not speak.

One of the constables standing nearby, a quick-tongued one, saw the hairpin and exclaimed, "Oh! It's still stained with blood! This must be from the hair of a murderer after killing someone..." Before he could finish, he swallowed the rest of his sentence under the glare of Dafang.

Xiao Duan looked up at Zhu Qiaolian and asked, "Miss Zhu, you're saying that this hairpin was worn in Miss Qian's hair before she died?"

Zhu Qiaolian nodded very firmly: "And I remember that she said at the time that she bought this hairpin for fifty taels of silver from the best jewelry shop in the city."

Xiao Duan then turned to Lan Lan and asked, "Miss Lan, how did you get this hairpin?"

Lanlan's body trembled slightly, her pearly white teeth biting her lower lip tightly. Large tears rolled down her cheeks one by one, landing on her light blue dress and leaving watermarks.

Zhao Tingjian frowned and said in a cold voice, "I'm asking you a question! Where did you get the hairpin?"

Lanlan's tears fell even harder, her large, doe-like eyes gazing blankly at Xiao Duan, her sweet voice trembling: "I... I don't know... I was going into the house, and when I got to the flowerbed, I saw something flashing on the ground. I picked it up and saw it was a jade hairpin. I... I don't know, it was... it was Miss Qian's..."

"You're lying!" Zhu Qiaolian's face turned red with anger as she questioned in a shrill voice, "If you really found it, then why did you hide it as soon as you saw me? Shouldn't you have taken it out and asked which sister dropped it? Or is your family really so poor that you don't care about anything else and just put it on your person first when you see a fine jade hairpin!"

These few words made Lanlan's face turn pale, her body tremble slightly, and she sobbed, "You, you... Our family is not as wealthy as before, but I will not take other people's things. I will not do such a thing, much less kill someone!"

The woman in green standing to the side also spoke up: "Zhu Qiaolian, don't seize the opportunity to kick someone when they're down and make false accusations! It's just a hairpin. We'll have to wait for the officials to investigate before we can make any decisions! You're just throwing mud at others like this. Maybe you're feeling guilty and trying to frame someone with a hairpin to divert everyone's attention!"

Zhu Qiaolian trembled with anger, her slender hand pointing tremblingly at the woman in green: "What a sharp tongue! Wang Sulei, you're usually closest to her, what, even now you still want to disregard the evidence and protect the murderer? Ha! I get it, maybe you two killed the person together, so that's why you—"

"Shut up, all of you!" The woman in the pink dress stamped her foot in frustration, a crack appearing on her usually calm face. "Our 'Bamboo Pavilion' is full of ladies and talented women, not shrewish or shrewish women! Look at you all, spouting nonsense and making wild guesses like madmen! What kind of behavior is this!"

The other women also spoke up, some wanting to offer advice, others wanting to argue. Just as things were about to descend into chaos again, Xiao Duan let out a cold laugh, a slight smirk on his lips: "Stop talking."

Zhao Ting remained expressionless, while Zhan Yun smiled faintly, both quietly observing the women of the elegant residence. Xiao Duan tucked the hairpin into her sleeve, her phoenix eyes coldly sweeping over the crowd: "Regardless of where this hairpin came from, the murderer is someone from the elegant residence. Stay here and wait to be questioned one by one."

Author's Note: Two updates~