HLnovel Chapter 224 Dust on the Table
Chapter 224 Dust on the Table
Who would kill a nanny in charge of affairs in the Eastern Palace, especially on the second day after the Crown Prince and Crown Princess's wedding?
Her eyes flickered slightly, and she asked the steward who was usually close to this old woman. The steward pondered for a long time before shaking his head. He was the steward in charge of all affairs of the Eastern Palace, and he only met with these old women in charge of specific affairs on fixed days and at fixed times. His questions were all about official business, rarely touching on their private lives.
The butler looked outside, called out a name, and summoned someone in.
The girl, around fifteen or sixteen years old, bore a resemblance to the old nanny in her features. She had worked under the nanny since entering the household, and she must know things others didn't. The girl entered with her head down, paused, pursed her lips, and then glanced at the old nanny still hanging from the beam. She seemed very nervous, but not surprised by the nanny's suicide.
The young girl's name was Chunxi, and she entered the palace two years ago. She originally served the Empress, but was punished by being forced to sweep the courtyard all night for accidentally bumping into the head maid. In late autumn and early winter, she was thinly dressed and caught a cold, and was further punished by being forced to kneel, nearly dying in Fengzao Palace. It was the Crown Prince who brought her back from Fengzao Palace and entrusted her to the care of a nanny. After recovering, she stayed by the nanny's side as her assistant.
The old woman was eccentric, had no children or family, but she had a strange quirk.
"What quirk?" Lu Zhiyuan stared at the stool that the old woman had kicked over on the ground.
The tables, chairs, and benches in the palace were all matching sets. The bench where the old woman hanged herself was moved from the round table, and it was the same size and height. Judging from the height at which the old woman was hanging, the bench was at least half an inch above her feet.
He lifted the stool and placed it at the old woman's feet, then said to the steward, "Have someone put the old woman down!"
The butler understood the moment he saw the stool.
The old woman did not commit suicide; she was murdered.
His gaze fell on Chunxi, and he asked sternly, "Who does she usually associate with?"
"This servant does not know!" Chunxi said, "The old lady does not like to be close to people, and she does not allow anyone to approach her room. Ever since this servant came to this courtyard two years ago, I have rarely seen her go out during the day. She either stays in the storeroom all day organizing her spices, or she stays in her room with the doors and windows tightly closed."
As if she had thought of something, Chunxi's eyes lit up, then dimmed.
“The old woman often goes out at night, and occasionally she will perform sacrifices in the courtyard. The sacrifices usually take place in the middle of the night, right in front of that big tree. I saw it once, and it was just like a normal sacrifice. Incense was burned, candles were lit, and there was paper money.”
"Before the big tree? Do you know who she is worshipping?"
Chunxi shook her head: "This servant has not seen the memorial tablet, nor dares to ask the old woman. The look she gave me frightened me."
Why not report this to the steward?
“The old lady has been kind to me. The matter of the sacrifice is the old lady’s own business and has not affected anyone else, so I have not reported it to the steward.”
"You really didn't see the person drinking tea with the old woman?" Lu Zhiyuan pinched the sachet hanging from her waist: "I'll give you a chance to tell the truth. You can try to hide it if you want, but this sachet doesn't contain incense, it contains all sorts of little pills, some of which can make people tell the truth."
Chunxi knelt down with a thud, trembling as she said, "This servant has only heard that person's voice before, it sounds like... it sounds like a eunuch."
Father-in-law?
Besides the Crown Prince, the steward, Lu Yun, Han Ting, and the guards and personal guards, the rest of the Eastern Palace consisted of eunuchs. The Eastern Palace was very large, with at least three hundred to five hundred eunuchs of all ranks. It was indeed quite difficult to select a suspicious person from among these three hundred people.
Was that why he killed the old woman?
The old woman knew him; they were in cahoots. If the fake spices were exposed, both he and she would die. Unsurprisingly, he chose the death of his friend over the death of himself.
Judging from the tea set, the old woman was a tea lover and had a certain appreciation for tea. The tea stems left in the cup, the wiping marks on the table, and the concealed struggle and dragging marks on the floor prove that the person killed the old woman while she was washing the tea and then staged it as a suicide.
Liu Ying touched her nose and asked, "What are those marks that Your Highness mentioned? I looked at them very carefully, but I didn't find any of them."
"Squat down and look at the tabletop in the light."
Liu Ying crouched down and looked at the table as Lu Zhiyuan had instructed. Sure enough, there were several clear marks on the table. Although the water stains had been wiped clean, the wiped and unwiped areas showed two different colors under the light.
Simply put, the places that were cleaned early in the morning have already accumulated dust. The dust is not thick, and you can't see it with the naked eye. But if you squat down and hold it up to the light, you can see the dust on the table very clearly.
"Saw?"
"I see it! I see it!" Liu Ying exclaimed in surprise. "Floating dust, the floating dust on the table."
"What else is there besides dust?"
"Anything else?" Liu Ying scratched her head. "Water stains? There are water stains on the ground that haven't been cleaned up yet."
“And those cushions on the stool,” Lu Zhiyuan reminded her. “Everything in the room is not only neat and orderly, but look at these cushions. Two of them are crooked, and one has been re-tied. The way they are tied is messy and definitely not something the old nanny did herself. And the cushion on that stool is missing.”
"There really aren't any left!" Liu Ying said. "If we're going to use them for washing, we should use the whole set."
“There was something on the cushion, and the murderer took it.” Turning to the butler, he said, “Have someone search in those nooks and crannies, especially the most remote places. It might not be the cushion; it could be burnt debris.”
After saying that, he walked to the big tree.
Lu Yun had already ordered his men to dig up the large tree. Beneath it lay many fragments, mixed with half-rotted paper money. Underneath the paper money were several wooden figures, some large, some small, some male, some female, without facial features. Their birth dates and times were carved into their backs.
Lu Zhiyuan asked the housekeeper to come and take a look, and was immediately shocked.
"The birth dates on this wooden figure are those of the Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince, and Your Highness."
"There are some for me too?" Lu Zhiyuan asked with delight, forgetting even to refer to herself, simply using the word "I". She pointed to the wooden figures and said, "Which one is mine? Let me see?"
She was completely unfamiliar with her birth date and time, only remembering the month and day, but she couldn't figure out the details of the Gengshen year or the Jiazi year. Only after seeing clearly the characters engraved on the back of the little figure did she realize that it was Lu Zhiyuan's birth date and time, the original owner's birth date and time.
The wooden figure was rather ugly. She picked it up and showed it to Han Ting: "The jade figure you gave me is much better. This one is too ugly. I can't see any resemblance to me at all."
Han Ting's eyes were icy cold, and he wished he could whip the old woman into a pulp. Out of respect for the Crown Prince's steward, he suppressed his anger and said, "This is a folk magic, its intentions are malicious, and its heart is deserving of death. Judging from the color of this wood, it has been buried underground for seven or eight years."