Chapter 43 Informs Me Someone Wants to Harm Me
In front of the Shen family's house in Yangliu Hutong, Shen Yan said to A Qing with a hint of helplessness, "I've arrived. You can go back now."
She had told Aqing several times on the way that if he arrived at the inn, he could leave first and didn't need to see her off.
But Aqing kept shaking her head and making gestures that she couldn't understand, insisting on continuing to follow, until they arrived at the Shen family's door.
Now that they had arrived at the Shen family's residence, Shen Yan felt it inappropriate to invite him in, so she bid him farewell once again.
This time, Aqing didn't use the same hand gestures as before. Instead, she pointed to the west of the city, then pointed to Shen Yan, and then made another series of gestures.
Shen Yan tried hard to understand, but unfortunately she had never learned sign language and was not familiar with A Qing, so she couldn't grasp it for a while.
Aqing looked a little anxious. After thinking for a moment, she simply pointed at Chen Yan and then made the throat-slitting gesture again.
Everyone could understand this action. The guards from the Prince's mansion who were escorting Shen Yan home saw this and quickly stepped forward to stand between the two, watching A Qing warily.
Aqing ignored them, simply repeating the same actions: pointing to the west of the city, then to Shen Yan, and then slitting her throat.
Shen Yan's heart tightened, and she vaguely understood something. She tentatively asked, "You mean... someone in that direction wants to kill me?"
After saying that, he felt his statement wasn't quite accurate, so he changed it to: "Someone wants to harm me."
Aqing nodded hurriedly.
He and Shen Yan were strangers before, so it wasn't convenient for him to come directly to her and say these things.
Now that they know they both retain memories of their past lives and remember their past connections, Shen Yan should believe her.
Since that's the case, he naturally had to tell her about Lin Si's situation so that she would be on guard.
Unfortunately, he couldn't speak and couldn't directly say Lin Si's name, so he could only tell Shen Yan in this way.
Shen Yan suddenly realized that A Qing might have been following her for some time now, and perhaps it was during this time that he had noticed something.
Following Aqing's words, she carefully recalled who she had offended and who she had made enemies with.
Yingzhou can be disregarded. Their family gets along well with the local villagers and neighbors, and has no grudges against anyone. Even if there were any grudges, they could have settled them while in Yingzhou; why bother coming to the capital?
As for the capital... she had only been here a short time and hadn't gone out much before, so she didn't have the opportunity to make enemies even if she wanted to.
There are really only two things that can be considered true enmity.
Firstly, in the incident at the Cheng'an Marquis's residence, she did not commit suicide as the mastermind behind it all wished.
Secondly, she had a conflict with Miss Yang at the flower-viewing banquet in the palace.
Ah Xiang once said that the Yang family always liked to smooth things over and would suppress any problems they could, trying to avoid making a big fuss. The fact that they sent Yang Huiru to the estate not long after the incident also shows that they wanted to settle things peacefully.
Under these circumstances, the likelihood of them retaliating afterwards is low; the most likely scenario is...
Shen Yan's heart skipped a beat; she felt a mix of nervousness and barely suppressed joy.
What's nerve-wracking is that I might still be being watched by the person behind the scenes, but what's exciting is that things that have been going nowhere are finally starting to look clear.
Compared to being completely in the dark and not even knowing who harmed you, being able to figure out who was behind it all is undoubtedly much easier.
Seeing that Ah Qing kept pointing in the same direction without changing, she asked expectantly, "Do you know who that person is? Do you know where he lives?"
Aqing nodded.
He personally went there and even staked out the place for several days to avoid any mistakes.
Shen Nian was overjoyed and couldn't help but clench his fist, saying, "Come on, take me to see it."
As he spoke, he started to walk towards the entrance of the alley again.
When Aqing saw that she was going to go herself, she quickly shook her head and waved her hands, pointed to the courtyard gate behind her to indicate that she should go home, then pointed to the guards of the Prince's Mansion next to her, and then pointed to herself, making a walking gesture with two fingers, indicating that they could follow her.
The guards from the Prince's mansion nearby understood what they were talking about and hurriedly said, "Yes, Miss Chen, you should go home first. We'll follow Ah Qing."
Fearing that Shen Yan wouldn't listen, he explained further, "Since the other party wants to harm you, they must recognize you. You don't know kung fu and don't know how to conceal your whereabouts. If you inexplicably appear near that person's residence and are seen, it might alert them."
"Why don't we go with Ah Qing and find out what's going on first?"
Although Ah Qing "said" that someone wanted to harm Miss Shen, it was just his "saying".
Even if it's true or not, they couldn't possibly barge into someone's house and arrest them based solely on a mute person's "testimony," could they?
Therefore, today we can only go and find out who the other party is, and then report the matter to Deputy Commander He so that he can make a decision.
Shen Yan knew she wouldn't be of much help, and after being persuaded by the guards, she quickly calmed down and nodded, saying, "Alright, then I'll trouble you to make the trip with A Qing. Be careful and stay safe."
The guards nodded, and as usual, two of them stayed to guard the entrance of the Shen family's residence, while the rest left with Aqing.
After they left, Shen Yan turned around, pushed open the courtyard gate, and returned home.
She went straight to the main room after entering, and before she even stepped across the threshold, she saw Madam Su coming out of the room.
Looking at the familiar face before me, memories of my past life suddenly resurfaced.
Shen Yan's eyes stung with tears. She took two quick steps forward, threw herself into Su Shi's arms, and choked out, "Mother."
Mrs. Su was startled and hurriedly asked, "What happened? Who bullied you? Who were you talking to outside just now? Why haven't you come in for so long?"
Just as Shen Yan reached the door, the maid in the courtyard heard the commotion and reported it to Madam Su. Madam Su waited in the room for a long time but did not see her come in, so she came out to check herself.
As soon as he came out, he saw Shen Yan rush into his arms with red eyes.
Shen Yan is the only daughter in her family. She has both the charm of a young lady and the resilience and composure of a mature woman.
To avoid causing her parents worry, she became more and more composed as she grew older. The only time she lost her composure in recent years was at the Cheng'an Marquis's residence; there had been no other incidents like that.
Shen Yan simply held her tightly without saying a word. After a long while, she looked up and murmured, "No, I just feel...it's so good to see Mother."
It's so good to see her mother standing alive and well in front of her, instead of the mother who was trapped under the ruins and bleeding profusely.
Su frowned, clearly not quite believing it.
"You see me every day, what's wrong today? Did you suffer some grievance outside? If you did, you must tell your parents. Don't keep it to yourself."
“Really, no,” Shen Yan said. “I just… I just saw how lively it was outside, everyone was traveling with their parents and families, and I was all alone, so I felt a little sad.”
Madam Su looked her up and down a few times, and reluctantly believed her story. She took her hand and promised, "Your father and I will definitely go with you next year."
She couldn't help but regret that she should have let her husband accompany their daughter out today.
Shenmingshan is on holiday today and was originally at home.
But shortly after lunch, a colleague sent someone to deliver a message, saying that an ancient book in his home had been damaged, and that he had heard that Shen Mingshan had some experience in restoration, so he asked if Shen Mingshan had time to go and help take a look.
This colleague had taken good care of Shen Mingshan when he first entered the Hanlin Academy, and Shen Mingshan couldn't refuse, so he went to help him. That's why he's not home right now.
Su regretted not letting her husband go with their daughter, but upon further reflection, she realized that was not right.
"Didn't you have an appointment with the Prince today? Why are you all alone? Did he abandon you and run off with someone else?"
Aci is terrified of water, and they went to the Yanliang River today. If Prince Ping really abandoned her, then it's no wonder she's in this state.
Seeing that she had misunderstood, Shen Yan quickly shook her head: "No, no, the prince has been with me the whole time."
He quickly changed the subject.
"To be honest, today was a bit unlucky. For some reason, a murder occurred on the pleasure boat that the Crown Prince was traveling on, and it even involved the Prince."
"Several officials have filed a complaint with the Emperor, and the Prince has been summoned to the palace."
Madam Su was indeed drawn to her words and frowned, asking, "What's going on? What murder case is it that's related to the Prince?"
Shen Yan took her hand and led her into the house, saying as they walked, "It's sunny outside, let's go inside and I'll tell you slowly."
………………
Inside the Prince An's mansion, the servants in the main courtyard stood far away on both sides of the corridor, not daring to approach the door even a step closer.
Inside the room, a servant knelt on the ground, trembling like a leaf.
"How exactly did Su Lan die?!"
Prince An shouted sternly.
The servant was pale, and large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, dripping onto the floor with a barely audible sound.
"I don't know. When I left, Su Lan was fine, she just fainted. Who knew... who knew she would suddenly die?"
"You don't know, and if you don't know, who does?"
Prince An grabbed a teacup from the table and smashed it forcefully at the servant.
"I told you to just go through the motions, but you actually took advantage of the situation and slept with her!"
"Now that the person is dead, you're saying you didn't know?"
Although he didn't give many instructions when he was giving orders to his servants on the pleasure boat, he didn't actually tell them to do anything to Su Lan. In fact, Su Lan wasn't even chosen by him, but by the servant himself.
He thought it was a simple matter. He just needed to find a lone maid or servant, knock her unconscious from behind, and take her to an empty room. Then, when someone was passing by, he would walk out of the room wearing the green dress embroidered with bamboo, deliberately showing his back to the person.
The servants initially did as he instructed. To avoid any mishaps, they specifically chose Su Lan, a gentle palace maid from the Fifth Princess's side, because both mistress and servant were easy to control.
But after he knocked Su Lan unconscious and brought her into the room, he saw that Su Lan was quite beautiful and actually had evil intentions. He took advantage of her unconscious state and did something indecent to her.
Although this extra step was taken, the servant felt that it did not affect the task assigned by his master. After completing the task, he reported back to Prince An, indicating that everything had been done.
But when the person was finally found, he was dead.
The man panicked, thinking he had hit Su Lan too hard when he knocked her unconscious. Although she seemed fine at the time, she died not long afterward.
But later, when the people from the Dali Temple boarded the ship to inspect it, they clearly said that Su Lan had been smothered to death!
In all honesty, he never did such a thing!
With the Crown Prince in charge and so many high-ranking officials on the pleasure boat, a murder would be impossible to contain. He's not stupid; why would he commit violence at a time like this?
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A note from the author:
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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