Ma femme escalade le mur

Chapitre 37

The long string of words caused the two men's expressions to change repeatedly. Even the usually gentle Zhan Yun couldn't help but frown slightly, while Zhao Ting's face darkened, his dark eyes fixed on Duan Chen, his thin lips pressed tightly together, as if he were extremely angry. Both of them were simultaneously wondering, who could possibly make the usually cold-hearted Duan Chen willing to go through fire and water for him, risking his life for something that wasn't particularly valuable?

The morning passed uneventfully. During this time, the four met with Liu Yichen twice, both times to discuss how to recover the stolen weapons and prevent the perpetrator from striking again. After lunch, the group headed towards the "Hall of Gathering Righteousness," where Liu Yichen had already sent people to various courtyards to invite the guests to come again.

After counting the number of people, the butler returned to Liu Yichen's side and whispered, "Young Master, including Second Master Zhan and his friends, there are a total of one hundred and twelve people, not a single one is missing."

Liu Yichen nodded, about to speak, when he saw a pale yellow figure leap across the doorway and rush towards him, accompanied by a woman's shrill scream: "Uncle, uncle, help! Help!"

Chapter Eight: Thor's Footprints

Everyone was immediately startled. Liu Yichen felt a jolt in his heart, and his body swayed as Liu Manyie bumped into him. He quickly reached out to support his niece's shoulder: "Mandie, don't panic. What happened?"

Liu Manyie looked terrified, her cherry-pink lips had lost all color, and her whole body was trembling like a leaf, her legs constantly buckling. If it weren't for Liu Yichen's arms supporting her weight, she would have collapsed to the ground. "Uncle, Uncle... Cousin, Cousin, help..." Her soft voice trembled and changed tone, and Liu Manyie couldn't get a coherent sentence out. Finally, her eyes rolled back, her body went limp, and she fainted in Liu Yichen's arms.

Even those incoherent fragments of words were enough to make everyone present change color instantly. Liu Yichen, his face deathly pale, gritted his teeth, picked up his niece, and ran outside: "You all come with me, the rest of you stay here and don't leave!"

Rushing to Liu Manyie's room, Liu Yichen kicked open the door, carried his niece to the bed, and stepped back a few paces, about to leave, when he noticed a glimpse of pale pink peeking out from under the bed. Liu Yichen frowned, bent down to look under the bed, and asked, "Miss Yue, is that you?"

The bed made a muffled thud, followed by faint sobs: "Waaah... Young Master..." Upon seeing this, Liu Yichen quickly stepped forward, bent down and offered an arm: "Miss Yue, come out."

A small, fair hand timidly reached out and grasped Liu Yichen's sleeve, followed by the rustling of clothes. Yue Yiyi half-sat, half-kneeled as she crawled out from under the bed, her little face red from crying, her hair disheveled and covered in dust. Upon seeing Liu Yichen, she burst into tears: "Young Master, save...save Sister Yueru! Sister Yueru...she's so scary..."

Liu Yichen helped Yue Yiyi up, trying to get her to stand, but she stumbled and fell backward onto the bed, her flushed face contorted in pain. "I'm so sorry... I twisted my ankle." Ignoring her already swollen ankle, Yue Yiyi turned and reached out to touch Liu Mandie's forehead on the bed. "What happened to Mandie? Waaah... Young Master, it's all my fault. Is Mandie alright? Waaah..."

“Mandie is fine, she just fainted. Miss Yue, please stay here for now, I’ll go,” Liu Yichen took a breath and calmed himself down, “I’ll go check next door.”

"Guard this room well." Liu Yichen ordered his men who had come with him in a deep voice: "If anything happens to the two young ladies, bring your heads to me!" As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Yichen stepped into Lou Yueru's room next door. As soon as he entered the room, he saw Duan Chen standing by the bed, bending down to cover the person on the bed with a thin blanket.

Liu Yichen's heavy heart suddenly trembled. He strode forward, his deep voice trembling slightly: "Yue, Yue Ru, she..." Seeing the woman lying on the bed, her face pale and bluish, Liu Yichen's once bright eyes lowered, concealing the darkness within them. Veins throbbed on his forehead. He gritted his teeth, reaching out to touch Lou Yue Ru's nose with his finger. His already pale face gradually turned a lifeless gray.

Liu Yichen closed his eyes and reached out to pull the thin blanket covering Lou Yueru, but Duan Chen stopped him with a palm strike: "Second Master Liu."

The three people standing not far away also approached. Zhan Yun spoke first, his usually clear and gentle voice sounding somewhat dry: "Young Master, you'd better not look." Beside him, Zhao Ting, who had always had a cold expression, and Zhou Yufei, who usually had a carefree attitude, rarely put away his smile, and his peach blossom eyes were faintly red.

Liu Yichen answered with action. Ignoring Duan Chen's obstruction, he swung his arm, lifting a corner of the lotus-colored brocade quilt. Lou Yueru's purple dress was tattered, with reddish-brown bloodstains staining the pale purple fabric. Her arms, thighs, chest, and abdomen were covered with whip marks, but the fatal wound was a deep purple ligature mark on her neck.

Liu Yichen loosened his grip, pulling the blanket back over himself. In the instant he stiffened and turned away, a tear slid from his eye and fell onto the blue bricks. A deep frown creased his brow, and his hand, clenched tightly beside him, creaked. With a swift movement, he snatched the Thunder God Whip hanging above the carved bed, gripping it firmly in his hand. His large hands tightened their hold until, with a sharp snap, the Thunder God Whip, once renowned for its hardness and resilience, broke in two and was ruthlessly tossed out the door. When he turned back, his eyes blazed with a terrifying bloodlust, and his deep voice was tinged with bloodthirsty madness: "Find this man, and I will make him pay for his crimes in blood, even if it costs me my entire Wanliu Manor!"

“Young Master, we are also very sorry about Miss Lou’s matter.” Zhan Yun frowned and said in a low voice, “However, right now, all the guests in the manor should be careful, and you, the old master, and the two young ladies should be even more careful. Because this person is obviously here for the manor.”

Upon hearing this, Liu Yichen slowly closed his eyes, his chest heaving with each breath. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and squeezed out a sentence: "If you want revenge, just come to me." His deep voice was broken and hoarse, and the sorrow in his tone was almost unbearable to hear: "Why treat Yue Ru like this? She's just a child! My elder sister died early, leaving only this bloodline. I... I couldn't even..."

Liu Yichen turned his face away in embarrassment, wiping his face with his hand. "I'm sorry, elder sister, I'm sorry to the Liu family. I can't even protect a child, what right do I have to be the head of the Liu family..." His voice gradually lowered, the last few words almost muffled, making them difficult to hear. With his shoulders slumping and his temples slightly graying, Liu Yichen stood sideways by the bed, looking as if he had aged ten years in an instant.

"Young Master, please don't underestimate yourself," Zhan Yun said softly, her brow furrowed. Zhou Yufei chimed in with words of comfort, while Duan Chen walked out of the house and retrieved the Thunder God Whip, which had been broken in two. Upon seeing the whip in Duan Chen's hand, Liu Yichen's emotions flared again. She strode up to Duan Chen, snatched the whip from her hand, and was about to unleash her fury: "That beast..." Duan Chen reached out to stop her, but Liu Yichen brushed her aside, causing Duan Chen to stumble back a few steps. She accidentally stepped on her own skirt, and her back slammed heavily against a door. Ignoring the dull pain in her back, Duan Chen quickly cried out to stop her: "No!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ting and Zhan Yun quickly restrained Liu Yichen's arms in unison, while Zhou Yufei casually took the whip, which had been broken in two, from his hand, raised an eyebrow, and looked at Duan Chen: "Was it useful?"

Zhao Ting and Zhan Yun had released their grip on Liu Yichen. Zhan Yun apologized in a low voice, "I'm sorry, Young Master." Duan Chen quickly walked up to the group, took the two broken whips from Zhou Yufei, and placed them on a table to examine them carefully. The Thunder God Whip was four feet long with thirteen sections, made entirely of pure steel. When wielded in the air, due to its weight and the pure steel material, it resembled a silver snake dancing wildly, generating a fierce wind. Legend has it that its first owner, Old Master Lei, who was famous in the martial arts world decades ago for his "Seventeen Forms of Thunder God," possessed astonishing arm strength. When he wielded the steel whip, it could produce a whistling sound like thunder, hence the name "Thunder God Whip."

Just now, Liu Yichen had broken the whip in half, one half with seven sections and the other with six. The section near the handle was still gleaming, while the other half was stained with blood. Duan Chen frowned slightly, put the two pieces of whip together, and examined them carefully. The others gathered around, and Liu Yichen apologized in a low, hoarse voice, "I'm sorry, I lost my composure just now."

"It's nothing," Duan Chen replied softly, picking up the two pieces of the whip and walking towards the bedside. The whip was heavy, and Duan Chen struggled to hold it. Zhao Ting took the bloodstained piece from her hand and held it in his own: "Let me do it."

Duan Chen didn't refuse. He reached out and stretched out the other broken whip, suspending it above Lou Yueru's neck. The others nearby also figured out what was going on. "I'll take it," Zhan Yun said, taking the broken whip. Duan Chen bent down and carefully pulled Lou Yueru's collar open further to make it easier for the others to compare the whip marks.

"This..." Liu Yichen leaned even closer in surprise, and when he looked up again, his expression turned even colder: "It's Yue Ru's whip!"

Zhou Yufei turned and looked around the room, but couldn't find the soft whip that Lou Yueru always carried. Duan Chen walked to the foot of the bed, lifted the quilt to look at the soles of Lou Yueru's shoes, and muttered, "No wonder."

"What?" Zhan Yun and Zhao Ting asked at the same time, exchanged a glance, and then turned their gaze to Duan Chen, who was deep in thought with his eyes down.

Duan Chen turned around, quickly walked behind the screen, opened the window and looked out. His slightly furrowed brows gradually relaxed, and his phoenix eyes were fixed on the white snow outside the window: "Just as I thought."

Behind them, Liu Yichen and the others also stood by the window looking out. Zhou Yufei frowned, stuck his head out of the window, then straightened up and turned to look at Duan Chen: "What's wrong? I don't see anything!"

“They’re footprints in the snow.” Zhan Yun parted her pink lips, suddenly realizing, “That person entered the house from here! But these footprints…”

“Because he came with two people, but left alone,” Duan Chen said softly.

Zhao Ting raised his eyebrows upon hearing this, while Liu Yichen asked anxiously, "Miss, what exactly did you discover? What do you mean by 'one person' or 'two people'?"

“That’s how it is.” Duan Chen turned back to the bedside and pointed to the ligature marks on Lou Yueru’s neck, saying, “As you all have seen, the murderer used Miss Lou’s soft whip to strangle her, while the marks on her body were caused by the Thunder God Whip. In other words, the murderer used one whip to strangle her while simultaneously whipping and torturing her with another. Miss Lou is not a weak woman who can’t even kill a chicken. If the murderer committed the crime in this room, with Miss Liu and Miss Yue next door, and several of Master Liu’s men guarding outside, how come no one heard a thing?”

“Next, when we entered the room just now, the murderer used this Thunder God Whip to tie Miss Lou up here.” Duan Chen said, pointing to the wooden carvings on the edge of the bed curtains: “If his crime was really as I just described, and it happened in this room, then he had no reason to move the body, remove the soft whip, and replace it with this Thunder God Whip to rearrange the situation.”

They all nodded. Duan Chen then walked to the foot of the bed, lifted the thin blanket, and gestured for them to examine the soles of Lou Yueru's shoes: "What we just saw were merely deductions, or rather, guesses. This, along with the footprints outside the window, is concrete evidence." As he spoke, Duan Chen looked up at Zhan Yun and the others: "Do you remember what kind of shoes Miss Lou was wearing when we saw her by the plum grove this morning?"

Zhao Ting and Zhan Yun were slightly taken aback. After thinking carefully for a moment, they both shook their heads. Zhou Yufei frowned and thought for a while, then said uncertainly, "It doesn't seem to be this color."

Duan Chen nodded: "This morning, she was wearing a pair of light purple shoes, matching the color of her clothes. That means she changed into these silver satin shoes after returning to her room. But look at the soles of her shoes; she must have gone back to Merlin." It's normal that the three of them didn't remember the color of Lou Yueru's shoes, since women's shoes are usually mostly covered by their skirts, making them difficult for the average person to notice. But this morning, Duan Chen and Lou Yueru were locked in a fierce battle, so such details were naturally easy to observe.

"How can you be so sure it's Merlin and not somewhere else in the manor?" Liu Yichen felt something was off. After all, there were plenty of places in the manor with snow and mud, so how could she be so sure it was Merlin?

Duan Chen glanced at Liu Yichen, his expression completely unchanged: "Because I fought her in the plum grove this morning, and she left her whip there. I think she probably found it when she went back to look for it..."

Liu Yichen took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, his eyes fixed on Duan Chen. Zhan Yun, standing beside him, quickly spoke up: "Young Master..."

Liu Yichen raised a hand, indicating that Zhan Yun didn't need to say anything more: "Go on."

"We can verify this with Miss Liu and Miss Yue later to see if my guess is correct." Duan Chen's expression was calm, and his voice was cold. "But at the very least, Miss Lou must have been attacked elsewhere and then brought into the house through the back window. There are four rows of footprints outside the window, all the same, but two of them are noticeably lighter than the other two. The murderer must have come carrying a heavy object and left empty-handed, which is why they left such marks in the snow."

"Is it possible that Miss Lou's whip is still with the murderer?" Zhou Yufei asked, raising an eyebrow.