CH 26

Zhèng Yún Ní’s wretched expression stagnated, “What is Hou’ye… saying?”

Everyone stared at Huò Wēi Lóu, equally surprised. Zhèng Yún Ní was crying so mournfully, and pleading so loudly for him to save her mother, how did he manage to discern that she left Da Furen in the fire?

Da Furen was her biological mother.

Zhèng Wén Ān was right beside Zhèng Yún Ní, and he frowned once he heard those words. He asked: “What does Hou’ye mean by those words?”

Huò Wēi Lóu looked at Zhèng Yún Ní with a deep and cold gaze, then glanced past the back of Zhèng Yún Ní’s hand. Because Zhèng Yún Ní was pleading Huò Wēi Lóu, one of her appendages was pulling on his robe hem, and it was on the back of this hand where several eye-piercing injuries were laid. Those injuries were red, swollen, and trickling with blood since it had yet to scab over; anyone could see that these injuries were made recently.

Zhèng Yún Ní followed Huò Wēi Lóu’s line of sight to look towards her own hand, her complexion changing instantaneously. She immediately retracted her hand and continued to sob, “These scratches were from the bamboo branches when [I] was running out just now, chen’nü does not understand what Hou’ye is trying to imply, and only begs Hou’ye to please save Mother…”

Rising to his feet, Huò Wēi Lóu did not even turn his head back as he said: “Bó Ruò Yōu, come here.”

Bó Ruò Yōu was standing some paces behind Huò Wēi Lóu, and she immediately walked over once she heard that. Huò Wēi Lóu glowered at Zhèng Yún Ní from a higher point of elevation, “Stretch that hand out.”

Zhèng Yún Ní’s weeping countenance was like a pear blossom with raindrops, but Huò Wēi Lóu seemed to be completely blind to it. His manner of speaking was ice-cold and harsh, Zhèng Yún Ní sniffled twice, but she still stretched out her hand while trembling and shaking.

梨花带雨 (pinyin: li hua dai yu) – tear-stained face of a beauty.

Bó Ruò Yōu borrowed the fire light to inspect Zhèng Yún Ní’s hand, and very quickly, she stated in a heavy tone, “The Oldest Young Lady’s hand was scratched by someone. The three streaks on the back of her hand are bleeding, and the other streak of injury on her palm is also red and swollen. The Oldest Young Lady’s injury is on her right hand, and the perpetrator who harmed her, was using a claw grip motion, and they were using their left hand. Because the little finger is lacking in strength, it did not leave a mark on the back of the Oldest Young Lady’s hand.”

Bó Ruò Yōu’s voice was melodious and completely undaunted, her description all the more careful, and she even used her own left hand to demonstrate it on the back of Zhèng Yún Ní’s hand. In a short moment’s work, everyone could imagine how the two had pushed and pulled.

Zhèng Yún Ní sobbed and immediately said: “Chen’nü remembered wrongly, this injury was left behind by Mother. Mother wanted to run into the forest to chase that fire light, and when chen’nü was trying to pull her outwards, Mother scratched and injured chen’nü’s hand…”

Bó Ruò Yōu’s pupils dilated, “Oldest Young Lady is lying again, if you were pulling Da Furen, then Oldest Young Lady would be the one grabbing Da Furen’s hand, and correspondingly, the wound should be left on the back of Da Furen’s hand, and Oldest Young Lady’s fingernails should also be stained with Da Furen’s blood.”

It was only when someone was being grabbed and a struggle ensued, that injuries would usually be left on the back of their hands. This type of scenario happened frequently, and once Bó Ruò Yōu uttered those words, everyone came back to the senses. Zhèng Wén Ān could not help but ask: “Yún Ní, what happened exactly?”

Zhèng Yún Ní’s hand stopped at the corner of her eye, in the midst of wiping away her tears. Despite being exposed in a few consecutive times, she was not anxious or panicked yet. Upon seeing Zhèng Wén Ān pose the question, she looked at Zhèng Wén Ān miserably, “Fine… Since it has been seen through, then there’s no need for me to continue hiding it. I even want to ask Fifth Uncle, who exactly is the murderer? Why is it that when Mother saw her, not only was she not afraid, but she even treats her like an old friend? The murderer clearly tried to burn us alive, and yet Mother insisted on chasing the murderer, heedless of the fire burning around her. She didn’t just want to follow the murderer, she even went as far as dragging me along, I… if I didn’t break away, then I would have burned to death…”

Zhèng Yún Ní was crying as she said: “I didn’t intentionally leave Mother behind, it’s really because she didn’t want to leave. If I stayed, wouldn’t I be burnt alive? Fifth Uncle, who is that murderer exactly? Does Mother and the murderer have some relationship that can’t be publicly known?”

Zhèng Yún Ní still changed her tune in the end, except Zhèng Wén Ān did not know how to answer her questions in the moment. He raised his eyes to look at Huò Wēi Lóu, voice choked and rough, “Hou’ye, Yún Ní doesn’t know about what happened in the past…”

When Zhèng Yún Ní heard that sentence, bewilderment emerged in her tear-rimmed eyes. “Fifth Uncle, what happened back when? I realised that there was something wrong with the situation, so I tried to conceal it, Fifth Uncle, could it be… could it be that everyone already knows about it, and only I don’t?”

Zhèng Wén Ān did not dare to meet Zhèng Yún Ní’s questioning eyes, and he could only lower his head and sigh.

During Zhèng Yún Ní’s tearful complaint, Bó Ruò Yōu was also scrutinising the other parts of her body apart from her hand. She was wearing a bright and splendid red skirt which was currently mired with mud everywhere, and her hair was in a mess from running. Bó Ruò Yōu’s eyes became deeper and heavier the more she observed.  The fire in the forest started spreading outwards from the east, and would a person who lived in darkness for years use fire as a means to kill someone?

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Huò Wēi Lóu did not acknowledge Zhèng Yún Ní’s questions at all, simply looking at her and asking: “You said that there was drizzled tung oil in the forest?”

Zhèng Yún Ní sobbed and nodded, “Yes, the scent smelled off to chen’nü, and when [I] finally reacted, it was already too late…”

If there was tung oil, then the current intensity of the fire was within expectations.

Huò Wēi Lóu then asked Zhèng Wén Ān: “Where is tung oil stored within the residence?”

Zhèng Wén Ān stilled, “In the southeast storehouse…”

Zhèng Yún Ní immediately said: “It must… must be the murderer who stole the keys to the residence storehouse again. Since she can steal Datura stramonium, what does stealing tung oil even count for?”

Certainly, the murderer used Datura stramonium as a knock-out drug every time she committed a homicide, and she would always arrive without a shadow and leave without a trace; entering the residence storehouse once more to steal the tung oil could not be considered as outlandish, but Huò Wēi Lóu’s pupils shrank, “You said that Da Furen chased after the murderer, and where did the murderer flee to?”

Zhèng Yún Ní pointed towards the east, “Towards that side—”

Presently, the wind was blowing towards the west, and the fire started blazing from the east. The murderer had employed fire to commit the crime, and yet she couldn’t judge even the wind direction, choosing to run towards the more dangerous place instead? Huò Wēi Lóu’s brows creased slightly. He was about to speak when Bó Ruò Yōu stood up and said: “Hou’ye, please borrow a step to speak.”

The arch of Huò Wēi Lóu’s eyebrows proceeded to raise slightly, then he turned around and walked to the side. Bó Ruò Yōu followed, sidling up to Huò Wēi Lóu before she started murmuring in a low voice.

The group could only see that Bó Ruò Yōu was talking the entire time from their distant position. Huò Wēi Lóu listened with rapt attention but he did not verbally respond, only occasionally nodding to express his agreement. Very quickly, Huò Wēi Lóu slanted his body to call a few embroidered emissaries to his side, issued a few instructions, and those people immediately bounded towards the southeast direction, while the remaining person turned around and left.

After the subordinates left, Bó Ruò Yōu continued to converse with Huò Wēi Lóu in a low voice, except with the whistling winds, crackling fire, and the long distance, no one knew what they were talking about. After waiting for a short while, the stray embroidered emissary returned, with a government hireling by his side.

Huò Wēi Lóu questioned that government hireling briefly with a frown, to which that government hireling nodded and answered in a respectful manner. Huò Wēi Lóu nodded his head after hearing his answer, then told the government hireling to leave.

Huò Wēi Lóu said another line to Bó Ruò Yōu, and Bó Ruò Yōu shook her head.

Huò Wēi Lóu seemed to exhale inaudibly before walking back with Bó Ruò Yōu, only choosing to speak when he was in front of the group: “Since tung oil was used to light the fire, the murderer must have gone to the residence storehouse to steal the tung oil. Benhou has already dispatched some men to the storehouse to investigate, and see if they can find any clues.”

Having said that, Huò Wēi Lóu shifted his gaze towards the fire, “The most urgent task right now, is to save the people first.”

The fire was becoming bigger, but the two agile-looking embroidered emissaries who entered the fire site just now had yet to come out. Huò Wēi Lóu’s brows knitted together tightly, and the others had their hearts similarly suspended, genuinely afraid that the two embroidered emissaries had sent themselves to their ruin.

Zhèng Yún Ní’s tears had yet to dry, still wearing a mournful expression as she gazed at the fire, but she was also paying attention to Bó Ruò Yōu and Huò Wēi Lóu in her peripheral vision, as if she was appraising what the pair were discussing just now. After returning to the group, Huò Wēi Lóu’s expression was self-composed, whereas Bó Ruò Yōu’s gaze was deeply pensive, as if she was suspecting something.

All of a sudden, Huò Wēi Lóu’s gaze turned towards her.

Zhèng Yún Ní’s pupils trembled slightly, but she forced herself to feign calmness, not allowing her line of sight to move. Huò Wēi Lóu then asked: “Did you catch a clear view of the murderer’s appearance just now?”

Zhèng Yún Ní immediately said: “Of course, her body figure was thin and weak, and very short and small as well. She was wearing Zumu’s robe and was extremely sinister and terrifying in appearance. After seeing that chen’nü and Mother fell for her scheme, she issued a nasty laugh and said that she had been waiting for us for quite a long time, and then she lit the fire…”

Zhèng Yún Ní gave a detailed description, and it did sound believable as a whole. Huò Wēi Lóu posed another question: “Where did you go in the afternoon? The murderer was waiting for both of you after setting up the ploy, or perhaps, she was already following by then.”

Zhèng Yún Ní replied coolly, “In the afternoon, chen’nü went to the Buddha-worshipping Hall.”

In an instant, everyone’s gaze landed on Zhèng Yún Ní’s person, and Zhèng Yún Ní said: “After Zumu died, the Buddha-worshipping Hall was closed off, and Second Uncle and Third Uncle were murdered later, so I was incredibly scared in my heart. I wanted to go to the Buddha-worshipping Hall to pray since yesterday, but I didn’t dare to move around arbitrarily. It was only this afternoon that I went to the Buddha-worshipping Hall to chant a roll of scriptures.”

The Buddha-worshipping Hall was remote. After the officials inspected it, no one had gone to the Buddha-worshipping Hall for many days, and this also meant that while no one could be a witness for Zhèng Yún Ní, no one could definitively say that she was lying.

But Huò Wēi Lóu wrinkled his brows when he heard that, as if he had discovered something suspicious, “You said that the murderer saw you, and she said something, was her spoken language coherent? What kind of voice did she use to speak?”

With trepidation remaining from the trauma, Zhèng Yún Ní uttered: “She spoke very fiercely, all in one breath, voice… her voice is a girl’s voice….”

“Apart from that sentence, did she say anything else?”

Zhèng Yún Ní nodded, “She seems to have a deeply-seated hatred towards us, as if she had been waiting for this very moment, I don’t know who she is, but she doesn’t look very old…”

Huò Wēi Lóu questioned: “Was there a scar on her face?”

In all consideration, this was the first time Zhèng Yún Ní met the murderer face-to-face in such close proximity, and she escaped from right underneath her hands. Zhèng Yún Ní jerked her head, looking more fearful, “She… She does… that face is way too terrifying, it… it’s just like the stupid girl’s face, it gives the impression that she’s a vicious and merciless person just by looking at it.”

Once those words settled, it basically confirmed Bó Ruò Yōu’s theory about how there were two stupid girls within the residence.

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Out of the blue, Huò Wēi Lóu stated: “You’re lying again.”

Zhèng Yún Ní froze, and everyone’s expression distorted slightly as well. Huò Wēi Lóu said: “Speaking more results in more flaws, but you’ve already thought about how you were going to answer, which is why it can’t be considered as a panicked response. However, benhou has met countless heavy offenders; whether a person is speaking the truth or spouting falsehoods, it is obvious to benhou at a glance. From the moment you ran out from the fire, you were simulating an attitude, if it was truly what you said later, of how your mother proactively chased after the murderer, you could have omitted the details in between and first plea benhou to save her, but you emphasised that she was left behind for the sake of saving you from the start till end.”

“In the moment of life and death, you just ran out of the inferno and was wholeheartedly begging for [your] mother’s safety, and yet you managed to think of so many reasons in that short timespan to prevaricate us. The only explanation for it is that you’re lying. You had so many reasons at your disposal, and yet you used this excuse, simply to show that the mother and daughter had deep feelings for each other, if nothing else. You feel guilty and ashamed in your heart, hence your eagerness to save your mother.”

As Huò Wēi Lóu looked at Zhèng Yún Ní, his countenance was strict to the point where it was pressuring to the heart and soul, “Appearing eager to save your mother while also crying miserably garners sympathy, which makes people treat you as a victim and believe your words, thus removing any doubts from you.”

The tears at the corners of Zhèng Yún Ní’s eyes had yet to dry, and once she heard those words, her tears started streaming down again, “Hou’ye… Hou’ye is actually doubting chen’nü? Does he suspect that chen’nü genuinely fled for her life alone, and told Mother to stay in the sea of fire?”

In addition to those tearful eyes, Zhèng Yún Ní’s face of innocence genuinely made it difficult for people to imagine that she was acting.

Huò Wēi Lóu narrowed his eyes, “That is not the only thing you are lying about. The first series of lies was exposed by the coroner, so you found a second set of excuses at great speeds, and you also said that the murderer spoke to you viciously, but when benhou questioned the government hireling who just met the murderer, the government hireling said that when he encountered the murderer tonight, the murderer suffered from a loss of speech and stammering, which means she’s basically incapable of forming a complete sentence.”

Huò Wēi Lóu looked at Zhèng Yún Ní coldly, “Since she can’t say a complete sentence, how did you manage to hear her speak those words in one breath? The only possibility is that you’re lying, you’re framing the murderer as someone who is poisonous and vengeful on purpose, but in doing so, you happen to echo the conjectures that everyone has about the murderer. For a time, no one doubted you, but your mistake is that you have never heard the murderer speak.”

Zhèng Yún Ní suddenly stiffened as she stared at Huò Wēi Lóu who was a standing a few meters away, even forgetting to cry in the moment. There was clearly a raging fire behind her, but she could not sense the scorching heat in the slightest. All the living things in the heaven and earth suddenly went silent, and it was as if she was inside an icy cave in the middle of winter.

“I… I heard wrongly…. I was extremely afraid then, I only saw the viciousness and cruelty that was displayed all over her face, I didn’t hear her very clearly. Yes, Hou’ye is right, her speech was indeed broken apart, it was just her visage that was malevolent to the extreme.”

Zhèng Yún Ní’s demeanour was distressed and terrified, but even until this point, she was still biting down on the fact that she had heard wrongly.

Hè Chéng and rest trusted Huò Wēi Lóu, and they naturally understood his suspicions which made it all the more convincing, but Zhèng Wén Ān and Zhèng Wén Róng were looking at Huò Wēi Lóu, then Zhèng Yún Ní, not knowing who they should trust in this instance.

At this moment, Zhèng Yún Ní cried again and said: “Hou’ye is saying that I’m lying, but why would I lie. Without any rhyme or reason, why would I come here? I escaped from a fire, and I nearly lost my life ah…”

Huò Wēi Lóu’s eyes grew heavy, “Because, this fire was started by you.

“It is not the murderer who lured you over, but it was you who lured the murderer over.”

The hand that Zhèng Yún Ní had placed on the side of her face stiffened, and her expression stagnated slightly as well, but she issued a wretched laugh, “What is Hou’ye saying? The murderer is so vicious, and I couldn’t avoid her fast enough, so why would I lure her over?”

Huò Wēi Lóu glanced at Bó Ruò Yōu, who proceeded to step forward and state: “Because you don’t want her to land in Hou’ye’s hands. In the afternoon, Hou’ye was digging the well, and you knew that Hou’ye had made an important discovery, which meant the murderer could no longer hide, so you would rather kill the murderer with your own hands than allow the murderer to land in Hou’ye’s grasp.”

Against Bó Ruò Yōu, some ferociousness immediately seeped into the bottom of Zhèng Yún Ní’s eyes, “What are you saying? I am the Oldest Young Lady of the Marquis Residence, and that murderer, is just a criminal that can’t be seen in the light. Her offences overflow the skies, and why should I brave such a huge risk to kill her? You said that I was the one who started the fire, but where’s the evidence?”

She fired back this question; chest braced with bamboos. And it was at this moment where the embroidered emissaries, who had left just now, returned together.

胸有成竹 (pinyin: xiong you cheng zhu) – fig. a card up one’s sleeve, or ‘forewarned is forearmed’.

One of them was holding an object in his hand as he walked up to Huò Wēi Lóu’s side to murmur something in a low voice. Subsequently, he handed the object to Huò Wēi Lóu, and it was at this instant where everyone clearly witnessed that it was a white jade earring.

Huò Wēi Lóu gazed at the earring in his palm, then examined Zhèng Yún Ní, his eyebrows bunching together, “You said that you went to the Buddha-worshipping Hall this afternoon, but why did your earring appear in the southwest storehouse?”

Zhèng Yún Ní’s complexion changed greatly. Her hair around her temples were in disorder, with tendrils of inky hair falling down next to her ears, so the bystanders couldn’t see if her earrings were still there. But when she touched her own ears hastily, they discovered that the earring on her left ear had gone missing.

If it was prior to this discovery, she could grit her teeth and deny it, but her earring was iron-clad evidence that she had been to the residence storehouse, and she had no choice but to admit it.

“I… I…” Zhèng Yún Ní’s eyes were completely red. As she mumbled, she rolled her eyes with a flustered expression. All of a sudden, she raised her head like she was going for broke, “Yes, that’s right, I started the fire, but it’s only because I was disdaining all of you for being ineffectual in the handling of the case. My Third Uncle has already been dead for two days, and yet all of you couldn’t take down the murderer. Since none of you can catch her, I decided to avenge Zumu, Second Uncle, and Third Uncle with my own hands. I knew that the murderer was definitely looking for her next target, which was why I specifically lured her out, and then tried to burn her to death. She took the lives of my paternal grandmother, and my second and third uncle, what’s wrong with wanting her to pay with her life?”

Zhèng Wén Ān and Zhèng Wén Róng paled with fright upon hearing that speech, since they did not expect that Zhèng Yún Ní would be so daring at such a young age, to the extent where she took the risk of finding the murderer just for revenge. Zhèng Wén Ān’s eyes were red too, “Yún Ní, why did you have to take such a risk…”

When Huò Wēi Lóu heard Zhèng Yún Ní’s words which declared her awe-inspiring devotion to righteousness, his eyebrows narrowed slightly. He was only certain that Zhèng Yún Ní was putting up a show, and Bó Ruò Yōu had confirmed his suspicion that she had committed arson beforehand. Although she was openly admitting that she started the fire now, he could not shake off the feeling that something was amiss.

With Zhèng Yún Ní’s mindset and tactics, how could she possibly risk her own safety to simply avenge her paternal grandmother and uncles?

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It was at this moment where he heard Bó Ruò Yōu’s voice.

“You wanted to take the murderer’s life, not because you wanted to avenge your paternal grandmother and uncles.”

Bó Ruò Yōu opened her mouth once more, staring at Zhèng Yún Ní with deep and serene gaze, and unexpectedly, there was a vestige of pity and grief in the depths of her eyes. Zhèng Yún Ní turned to look back at Bó Ruò Yōu, plastering a tearful and cold smile on her whole face, “It’s you again… What did you guess this time? You’re just a small and insignificant coroner, I’ve already allowed you to check my injury, what else do you want to say?”

Zhèng Yún Ní was half-crying and half-smiling, looking somewhat deranged and possessed at the same time. “I wasn’t really avenging Zumu? Then what did I do it for? She disturbed our Marquis Residence by causing a pandemonium, and took three lives, doesn’t she deserve to die?”

Zhèng Wén Ān seemed to be absolutely supportive of these words as he sighed deeply, “Had [we] known earlier, [we] wouldn’t have kept her back then.”

Once those words landed, the expression on Zhèng Yún Ní’s visage stiffened momentarily for some bizarre reason.

Bó Ruò Yōu observed her, “Did you hear that? That’s what they’re thinking, if they didn’t keep you back then, none of this would have happened…”

Bó Ruò Yōu’s voice was tinged with melancholy, though it was extremely serene and confident. Everyone looked at Bó Ruò Yōu, but they were visibly stunned, as if she had gone insane as well.

Zhèng Wén Ān opened his mouth, “I… I was talking about that child…”

The witty Zhèng Yún Ní seemed to turn into stone at that moment. Her eyelids jumped violently, and she didn’t know what kind of expression she should be displaying in response. She managed to squeeze out a smile after much difficulty, but it was rigid and strange, and it was uglier than a crying expression.

“You… What are you saying…”

Bó Ruò Yōu gazed at her, eyes brimming with pity, “I wasn’t entirely convinced at the start, but with how you have staked everything in one throw today, and how your reasons and excuses happen to match up, it finally allowed me to understand.”

Zhèng Yún Ní’s lips twitched, as if she wanted to say something to stop Bó Ruò Yōu from talking further, but it felt like the strength in her body had been siphoned away, nor did she have any idea on how she should begin salvaging the present situation. Furthermore, Bó Ruò Yōu was not going to give her another chance to quibble or cover it up.

“You are clearly unaware of the past affairs, but when you were fabricating your excuses, you stated that the murderer said that line to you, because you understood that the murderer has been harbouring this hate towards the people in the residence for many years. You brought along your mother today because you knew that the murderer and your mother have the most direct relation. You and your mother both, would definitely suffice in luring over the murderer, and you said that your mother chased after the murderer, because, you have always known the murderer’s identity—”

Zhèng Wén Ān’s complexion changed a few times, “No… that’s not possible… it’s not possible for Yún Ní know about that…”

Bó Ruò Yōu’s tone of voice chilled. Her delicate figure reflected the flames that were rushing to the skies, and there was an unexpected sternness exuding from her as well, “If she was the real Zhèng Yún Ní, then it’s natural that she wouldn’t know about what happened that year. But what if, she was the child that was hidden in the secret room ever since she was born?

“She personally experienced it, no one is clearer about what happened that year than her.”

Everyone was stunned speechless, and it was also at this moment, where Zhèng Yún Ní, who had been crumpled on the ground the entire time, suddenly found the strength from somewhere to climb up, pulling the hairpin from her hair coils to thrust it towards Bó Ruò Yōu—

The change was too abrupt; no one could have anticipated that Zhèng Yún Ní would dare to leap up and harm someone in front of a crowd. Bó Ruò Yōu was not standing far away, the others had been collectively horrified by Bó Ruò Yōu’s short statement, and that included Zhèng Wén Ān who was the closest to Zhèng Yún Ní, and even he couldn’t stop Zhèng Yún Ní in time.

Only Bó Ruò Yōu’s complexion changed as she back away quickly, but with Zhèng Yún Ní suddenly pouncing on her like she had gone insane, and Bó Ruò Yōu stumbling over a dried-up branch underneath her foot, she nearly failed to dodge in time. In the instant where the flint and stone sparked, a figure shielded her at the front—

Huò Wēi Lóu seized Zhèng Yún Ní’s wrist in one strike, and only a snapping noise was heard before she was flung backwards. In the next second, Zhèng Yún Ní collapsed to the ground in pain, her body curled together as cold sweat poured down her face instantaneously.

The hairpin left her hand and her dark hair danced with the wind. Zhèng Yún Ní steeled herself, and when she raised her head again, her countenance was full of frenzy. She was grimacing from the pain, but she still enunciated every word to Bó Ruò Yōu: “Shut your mouth… I’m not… I’m not the one who was hidden away…”

Huò Wēi Lóu turned his body to look at Bó Ruò Yōu, and only saw Bó Ruò Yōu recovering her composure, though she was not frightened. Then, Huò Wēi Lóu asked: “How did you know that she was the one who was hidden away that year?”

Since Bó Ruò Yōu was saved by Huò Wēi Lóu again, her eyes were harbouring three parts of gratitude as she looked at him. Upon hearing that, she replied: “The bona fide Zheng da xiaojie was astonishingly clever at four-years-old, and exceedingly talented in zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. But when she was six-years-old, she was so severely afflicted with hysteria that she lost the ability to speak. When min’nü initially heard about it, she only felt that the illness had damaged her, and was later made aware that the reason why she succumbed to hysteria was because she was lost during a winter night that year.

“While the Marquis Residence is large, the Marquis Residence put in an all-out effort to search for the Oldest Young Lady when she was lost. Despite that, the search was completely fruitless; no one knew what the reason was that year, but now that a buried culvert underneath the Marquis Residence has been discovered, then everything makes sense.”

Huò Wēi Lóu frowned, “She entered the buried culvert? Did she go in from the well opening? But the well isn’t shallow, and how did she come out?”

Bó Ruò Yōu said with some prudence, “Min’nü couldn’t figure it out at the start, but there was a lotus pond that was filled later on. Min’nü surmises that the entrance underneath the mountain in the lotus pond is usually out of sight, but it was coincidentally discovered by the real Oldest Young Lady. She entered the buried culvert, met the other Young Lady that was being hidden away, and the hidden person proceeded to lock the real Oldest Young Lady inside, whilst she walked out on her own.”

Bó Ruò Yōu peered at Zhèng Yún Ní, “Which was why she didn’t know how to talk or recognise people when she just came out, like she had been afflicted with hysteria. It can be assumed that no one taught her how to talk because she was being raised underground, and her fear of light and proclivity to slip into cupboards, all these are also because she has been living in the darkness ever since she had a consciousness; she’s accustomed to the darkness and is thereby naturally afraid of light.”

Cold intakes of air sounded from time to time, and as Huò Wēi Lóu listened to Bó Ruò Yōu’s utterance, his eyes were dark and unfathomable. Zhèng Wén Ān and Zhèng Wén Róng did not dare to believe at the beginning, but perhaps because they were recalling all kinds of details from that year, they sank into a confounded stupor.

On the other hand, Zhèng Yún Ní was neither smiling nor crying as she listened to Bó Ruò Yōu speak, though her gaze was strange and crazed, as if she could become completely insane in the next second, “Truly good at guessing ah, but… do you have any evidence?”

Bó Ruò Yōu only looked at Huò Wēi Lóu, “Hou’ye, when we went to that underground hidden room, we found a verse manuscript that was extremely similar to the murderer’s handwriting, that was a seven-character poem from the previous dynasty, and Hou’ye has seen the handwriting in person. While it can’t be considered as the best quality, it still has a shape and form. They didn’t even teach the hidden child how to speak, so why would they teach her how to recite verses or write characters?”

Huò Wēi Lóu said: “Unless the real Oldest Young Lady had been swapped inside, because she started her education at four-years-old, and she had extraordinary talent.”

Zhèng Yún Ní abruptly sneered, “What kind of evidence is that? I am Zhèng Yún Ní, what buried culvert and secret room, I don’t know anything. It will be my and His Second Highness’ big wedding next month, how dare you treat me like this?”

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Fu gonggong had been astonished at the side lines, and he never had the opportunity to speak then. At this moment, however, he chortled and said: “Oldest Young Lady… Ah no, fake Oldest Young Lady, just a false birthdate reporting alone constitutes as a crime of deceiving the monarch, to say nothing of how ȳou are a fake. Ȳou still want to marry His Second Highness? What a great spring dream that is…”

Once Zhèng Yún Ní heard those words, her expression became more crazed. But it was at this moment where Hè Chéng, who was standing and facing the fire, pointed towards the fire and exclaimed in alarm: “Hou’ye, they have been saved—”

Everyone turned around to look over in succession, only to see that amidst the flame and smoke, the two embroidered emissaries that had entered the fire, were each holding onto a person they had monopolised by force to rush outside. The embroidered emissary at the front was the first to come out, and he was holding Da Furen – whose entire back and clothes had been scorched – in his arms, and in the arms of embroidered emissary behind him, was a scarred-face girl in ordinary lined robes.

She was witheringly thin like firewood, her visage was unnaturally pale, and the burn scar on the left side of her face was purplish-black. At first glance, she was practically identical to the stupid girl, but when the night wind lifted the hair that was blocking the right side of her face, everyone present could distinguish the fact that even her bone structure shared an eight-part similarity with Zhèng Yún Ní—

As Zhèng Yún Ní watched her biological sister who had murdered three people being rescued, a grin – full of bizarreness and hateful resentment – emerged on her already crazy face. She smiled cruelly; her staring eyes never straying from the scar on the girl’s visage.

Bó Ruò Yōu’s heart lurched and plummeted, “Did you go back to the secret room afterwards? The scar on her face, was burned by you?!”