Chapter 9 He is a murderer
Ning Qi looked at it carefully. The portrait on the wanted poster was drawn in great detail. It could be seen that the man was handsome. Looking at the lower half of his face, he did look very much like Xiao Sui. But the most obvious clue was the iron plate on the man's neck in the portrait. Its shape was exactly the same as Xiao Sui's.
She frowned as she continued reading, her expression growing increasingly grave.
"Princess, the report says this man broke into the Minister's estate in the suburbs in the middle of the night, took a liking to Miss Gu, and attempted to take advantage of her. Miss Gu fought back desperately and was brutally murdered by him." Qianyu's face was pale. "How could this be... Is this true?"
“Xiao Sui isn’t that kind of person.” Ning Qi said, clutching the hemp paper.
The system popped up at just the right moment, saying, "That's exactly the kind of person a villain is."
Ning Xi bit her lower lip. She had a feeling that Xiao Sui couldn't possibly do something so cruel. Even if the painting really was of him, there must be some misunderstanding.
She remembered the time she went to see Gu Xinxue, the maid she met there, who might know something, and the steward who was deliberately hiding something.
"Find two people for me," she immediately ordered the guards, then paused, "and don't mention Xiao Sui to anyone."
The subordinate obeyed the order.
Qianyu said with a worried expression, "Princess, if that servant is really such a dangerous person, we should hand him over. I'm worried that you might be in danger."
"Don't worry, if he really is that kind of trash, I will never let him get away with it." Ning Qi gripped the hemp paper tightly. "I'll go ask him first, and I need to find out the situation before making a decision."
"Yes." Qianyu accompanied her into the house.
Xiao Sui heard someone come in and looked up in the direction of the footsteps.
After the rustling of clothes, a delicate fragrance wafted over, and he realized that the young lady must be sitting opposite him.
Did he want to continue the conversation they were having? He felt inexplicably nervous, and his heartbeat became uncontrollable.
If this young lady truly desires his sincerity... he... might be able to give it, even if he has no idea who she is, and why she would conceal her identity from him.
After all, his sincerity was worthless; no one had ever wanted such a thing before.
After a brief silence, the young lady asked him, "Xiao Sui, I've never asked you before, what was your impression of me before?"
"Miss, what do you mean?" was an unexpected question.
"Didn't you know me before? What was your impression of me?"
"Why...why are you asking this?" He frowned slightly.
"I'm a little curious," a clear voice asked casually.
But this identity is clearly fake, so why is she curious about these things?
Could it be that she knows something?
Xiao Sui's brows furrowed, and his eye socket, which had lost its eyeball, began to ache. He paused for a moment, "Actually, I don't know much about you. We're just nodding acquaintances. I'm already quite surprised that you remember me."
The air fell silent again, and Xiao Sui realized that something had changed after the young lady left.
He waited patiently for her to speak, but he did not hear her voice. Instead, it was her older maid who said, "Miss, just in case, we should lock him up first."
Xiao Sui's heart pounded as if he had fallen into an ice cave. He could only see a blurry glimmer of light before his eyes. He stared wide-eyed at the source of the fragrance.
Why? One moment they're saying they want his true feelings, the next they're locking him up.
He waited for the young lady to explain things to him, but she didn't. He only heard footsteps leaving and the sound of the door closing heavily.
The candlelight seemed to have gone out, and we were plunged into complete darkness. We could no longer hear any sound, and the temperature in the room was getting lower and lower.
Xiao Sui felt cold, as if his whole body was frozen.
He remained motionless for a long time.
——
"Princess, we have found the two men. I have taken them to the Yandu Courtyard, where they will be interrogated when you return tonight."
During a break in class, Ning Qi received a message from a guard. After thinking for a moment, she asked, "How is Xiao Sui? Have you brought him food?"
"I delivered it twice, but he didn't eat a single bite."
Ning Qi clenched her fingers. She really wanted to believe him and hoped that today's interrogation would not disappoint her.
"By the way, Princess, the two people you are looking for are both imprisoned in the manor. We used some methods, and we hope you will not blame us."
Ning Qi frowned in confusion, but because of her weak spiritual power, the communication talisman could only convey a few words before it stopped working before she could ask for details.
However, she soon heard from her other disciples that the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat's manor in the suburbs had caught fire, and the cause was still under investigation.
Her guards were all at least Golden Core cultivators; sneaking into the manor and capturing two people wouldn't have been a problem for them. How did they cause such a commotion?
She always felt that something was amiss.
After finishing his cultivation at Huaguang Sect, Ning Qi immediately used the teleportation array to return to Yandu.
The steward and maid I saw that day were all hooded and tied up in a side room.
Ning Qi ordered his men to remove their masks.
The two women, their faces filled with terror, squinted for a moment to adjust their eyes before recognizing Ning Xi. "Princess, why did you capture us here?"
"I have something to ask you." Ning Qi took out the wanted poster and pointed to the portrait on it. "Did this person kill Gu Xinxue?"
"It's him, it's him!" the butler immediately shouted.
Ning Qi frowned, a chill running down her spine. "So what they say up there is true?"
The butler tilted his head back and read it aloud, nodding hurriedly, "Yes, it's true. Have you seen this person? Did you call us here to confirm this?"
Ning Qi put down the hemp paper in her hand.
The system gloated in her mind: "What did I tell you? A villain is a villain. He commits all kinds of evil deeds, including burning, killing, looting, and pillaging. Do you think he's some kind of pure and good person just because he hasn't become a demon god yet? Buying him back was a mistake!"
Ning Qi looked at a silent maid and asked, "Don't you have anything to say?"
The maid glanced at the steward and shook her head.
"Keep an eye on them," Ning Qi instructed the guards before leaving the side room.
Qianyu followed her, "Princess, let's hand over Young Master Xiao."
Ning Qi paused slightly. "I'll ask him one last time."
The atmosphere inside the room became noticeably tense. She looked at Xiao Sui, who was in almost the same position as when she left, and the food placed beside him was untouched. She ordered someone to take it away.
"Xiao Sui, did you kill Gu Xinxue?" she asked directly.
Xiao Sui raised his head slightly, paused for a moment, then relaxed his brows, looking as if he had just realized something. "So that's what it is."
Ning Qi narrowed her eyes slightly and repeated, "Did you kill her?"
Xiao Sui clenched his fist tightly, but unfortunately his fingers, which had not fully recovered, could not close completely; he could only hold it loosely.
After a few breaths, he suddenly lost his strength, and even his shoulders slumped a bit.
"I killed her."
Ning Qi handed the wanted poster to Qian Yu and had her read it aloud.
Xiao Sui's face gradually turned pale as he listened to what he heard.
She poked at the hemp paper and asked in a more emphasizing tone, "Is it as it says on the paper, that you had malicious intentions towards her and killed her when she resisted?"
Xiao Sui remained silent for a long time.
“I’m giving you one last chance.” Ning Xi’s voice turned completely cold. “If you don’t talk, I’ll report you to the authorities and send you to the Dali Temple prison. At that point, there will be no room for negotiation.”
While waiting, Ningxi clutched her skirt, not wanting that the person she had so carefully saved was actually a heinous villain.
Time flowed slowly and laboriously until Xiao Sui finally opened his mouth and said, "Miss, I killed her. My crime is unforgivable. Please send me to the Dali Temple."
Ning Qi slowly loosened her fingers, a delayed soreness lingering where they had been bent. Disappointment crossed her face. "I gave you a chance, and this is your answer?"
"Yes." Xiao Sui nodded. "Miss, you don't need to worry about me anymore."
Ning Qi closed her eyes, exhaled, and said to the guard, "Send him away."
She didn't look at Xiao Sui again, turned around and walked out of the house. Qianyu followed behind and comforted her in a low voice: "Princess, you don't need to be too sad. Out with the old, in with the new. How about I find you some new servants?"
The system immediately told her in her mind: "Stop buying anything. Focus on completing the mission and getting back to your own world. This is just a fictional world, not reality."
Ning Xi sighed and waved her hand wearily. She wasn't the type to fall in love with every girl she met, so it was unlikely that anyone would be so to her liking.
She watched as Xiao Sui was carried away like a prisoner by two guards, one on each side. As he passed her, Xiao Sui turned his head slightly to face her, opened his mouth, but then was dragged away without saying anything.
The two officials from the Ministry of Personnel had been released at her behest, and the steward grabbed the maidservant, preparing to leave.
As she passed by Ningxi, the maid kept staring at her, looking as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.
Ning Qi thought for a moment, then called them to a stop and said to the maid, "Come with me. I just remembered I have a new snow bracelet here. Take it with you; it'll be a keepsake."
The steward didn't dare to ask any more questions. He pushed the maid and Ning Qi told her to come inside with him.
Ning Qi walked to the dressing table, turned around and said, "If you have anything you want to say to me, just say it."
The maid looked up at her with teary eyes, her hands twisted together as if in great distress. Finally, she knelt down with a thud. "Princess, please do justice for our young lady! Someone else killed her!"
"What's the meaning?"
The maid wiped away her tears, hesitated for a long time, and finally gritted her teeth and said, "My young lady was harmed by... Master's concubine, Zheng!"
"Explain yourself clearly!" Ning Qi said, frowning.
The maid wiped away her tears and snot with a handkerchief, took a deep breath, and said, "A month ago, Aunt Zheng invited Miss to admire the flowers. Miss was bitten on the ankle by a small black insect. Miss said it hurt a lot. Since then, the place where Miss was bitten has started to rot and even spread to her calf. The doctor couldn't do anything about it. When Master found out, he immediately sent Miss to the suburbs to recuperate. But Miss started to become even stranger. She became incredibly strong and bloodthirsty. She almost bit my neck off."
The maid still seemed to have lingering fears when she spoke of it, "Master found a True Person from the Huaguang Sect. That person said that Miss was infected with demonic insects and was about to turn into a corpse demon. Even if she still retained consciousness, there was no hope of saving her."
Corpse Demons?! Ning Qi was shocked. So they've appeared here too? And the infected people can retain their self-awareness for a period of time?
This is quite different from the original book. Has she unlocked too little content?
However, according to the original book, this condition is irreversible, and no effective solution was found until the end of her storyline. The only solution was to kill the person immediately to prevent the infection from spreading to others.
"That lord said that the young lady must be killed as soon as possible, otherwise everyone in the manor would be infected, and even the master who had been in contact with the young lady would be in danger. So the master... abandoned the young lady. That master sent his disciple, the man on the wanted poster, to kill the young lady."
"So, Xiao Sui isn't what the wanted poster says at all? He's just acting on the orders of the real person?"
The maid nodded. "Yes, that cultivator is wanted for some reason and made up such a lie. But Steward Wu told me not to tell the truth. But now all of us maids and servants are locked up and may be killed. Please help us."
"You can stay here with me for now," Ning Qi said quickly.
However, Xiao Sui had already been sent to the Dali Temple, so she immediately sent a message to the guards.
Since Xiao Sui was acting under orders, could the arrest warrant be a trap? Who exactly wants to arrest him?
Ning Qi became increasingly alarmed as she thought about it. She hoped they hadn't arrived yet, because if they had, it would probably be too late!
A note from the author:
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My drafts are running low, so I won't be updating tomorrow or the day after. Please! [Please]
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