Chapter 53: The fruit of Liu Chang's evil deeds? The murder weapon? ...
What was Liu Chang's murder weapon?
Startled, Lord Liu stared blankly at the blood-stained scimitar at his feet. His Adam's apple rolled up and down, but his pale lips could not utter a word.
This scimitar... was indeed left behind by his son Liu Chang after he killed someone in the restaurant. He had clearly ordered someone to hide the scimitar shortly after the incident, so why did it suddenly appear in Prince Rong'an's hands at this moment?
Qin Yanheng, chin slightly raised, sat on the couch, looking down at Lord Liu, not missing a single glimpse of his expression. Seeing the beads of sweat on Lord Liu's forehead, Qin Yanheng sneered silently.
Half an hour ago, in the restaurant.
Perhaps because he was used to being flamboyant, Qin Yanheng took the initiative as soon as he entered the room and sat on Madam Hongmei's soft couch. He poured himself a cup of tea, then took a sip of the tea and raised his eyes slightly to look at the waiter who was shivering at the door.
Even that one glance could make the waiter, who often saw distinguished guests, feel panic and tremble all over.
"Are you the waiter who served food to Liu Chang and others on the day the incident happened?" Qin Yanheng put down his teacup, his tone calm but with royal dignity.
Upon hearing this, the waiter nodded his head like pounding garlic. After a moment, he seemed to feel something was wrong and replied in a trembling voice, "My lord, I was the only one in the restaurant that day. I will take all the responsibility for anything that happened..."
Halfway through his speech, the waiter covered his eyes and sobbed. He felt wronged. The murderer, Liu Chang, was the son of Lord Liu of the Jinwu Guard. How could a waiter like him offend him?
After the incident, the official on one side and the restaurant owner on the other side both made fun of him. After settling this month's wages tonight, he would be kicked out of the restaurant. It was a great honor for him to be alive and well now!
"Prince Rong'an, please make the decision for me! If Your Highness can save my life, I will tell you everything about this matter." The waiter was crying breathlessly. He wanted to kneel down to Qin Yanheng, but Xuanying immediately stepped forward to stop the waiter and asked him to stand while talking.
"Tell me everything you know. If you hide anything... you will be treated as a criminal for deceiving the emperor." Qin Yanheng looked at the waiter.
The waiter nodded repeatedly. "Young Master Liu, Young Master Cao, and Young Master Wei are drinking buddies. They often meet here for drinks at night. One day, perhaps the three of them got a little tipsy, and I don't know if it was Young Master Cao or Young Master Wei who jokingly called Young Master Liu 'a cripple with normal legs.' But Young Master Liu, who couldn't take a joke, stood up, drew his sword from his waist, and chopped off Young Master Cao's head."
A lame man with normal legs? What did that mean? Luo Qingling took the teacup from Qin Yanheng and glanced at him suspiciously. Unexpectedly, the latter looked away silently, clenched his fist, placed it to his mouth, and coughed softly.
"Go on." Qin Yanheng raised his chin towards the waiter, motioning him to continue.
"The reason I didn't report this to the police is because..." The waiter silently lifted his sleeve, revealing his scarred arm. "Lord Liu threatened me to hide the scimitar and not let any word leak out, otherwise my life would be in danger."
This Lord Liu is a complete thief! He even concealed the truth and falsely claimed that Liu Zhang and Liu Chang were missing, trying to divert the Dali Temple's attention to the missing people. If Wei Er, who was drinking with Liu Chang, wasn't Wei Fuxian's younger brother, they probably wouldn't have known about this incident yet. Luo Qingling was furious.
Qin Yanheng stood up slightly and took the scimitar handed to him by the waiter. The blade was stained with blood. He looked at the scimitar left and right, then waved to Xuanying, who immediately disappeared from everyone's sight.
Liu Mansion.
The scattered gazes focused, and after listening to Qin Yanheng's description, Lord Liu's face suddenly turned pale. He clenched his fists in his sleeves, and his nails dug into the flesh. However, at this moment, Lord Liu didn't care about the pain, and his eyes were full of hatred.
That waiter at the restaurant shouldn't have let him live! He was too soft-hearted.
Someone suddenly grabbed his neck, the force so strong that Lord Liu couldn't break free. He could only raise his head, following the young man's hand. He looked at the invaluable Prince Rong'an in front of him and slowly forced a smile. "That Cao He is just a poor peasant. His life is worthless. Let my son Liu Chang kill him. At most, I will pay some money to Cao's father. Prince Rong'an is a prince, a rare talent. Why would you care so much about the life of an ant?"
As he spoke, the hand that was holding his neck gradually tightened. Lord Liu couldn't breathe and his face turned red.
"According to Lord Liu, apart from saints, no one in the world is more important than my life, is that right?" Qin Yanheng opened his thin lips slightly, his eyes piercing with contempt as he stared at Lord Liu and spoke word by word, "Then can I also crush you to death at will?"
What Lord Liu said just now was a disguised admission of the crimes of himself and his son Liu Chang. At present, it is still unknown who killed Liu Zhang, and the murderer Liu Chang is also missing and his whereabouts are unknown.
Qin Yanheng was too lazy to say more. He suddenly pushed Lord Liu aside, then stood up, stepped over him, and walked straight out the door, where Luo Qingling and Xuanying were still waiting for him.
"Your Highness," Xuan Ying stepped forward and whispered, "I just followed your instructions and went to the Cao family home to look for him. Father Cao wasn't home. Furthermore, the house was covered in dust, as if it had been empty for a long time. The neighbors all said that Father Cao had suddenly disappeared not long ago."
Another person disappeared? Qin Yanheng frowned, nodded and said coldly: "Give the order, search for them immediately."
The main hall of Liu's mansion.
The table was laden with tea and snacks, ordered by Lord Liu's concubine, Lady Lu. In the hall, Qin Yanheng lowered his eyes slightly as he toyed with the scimitar in his hand, which was still stained with Cao He's blood. Beside him, Luo Qingling poured herself a cup of tea and casually picked up a piece of cake.
The two sat naturally in the host's seat, just as they had before. Luo Qingling had long been accustomed to Qin Yanheng's tendency to take over, and no one dared to stop the young prince. Luo Qingling took a sip of tea and glanced up at Lord Liu and his concubine Lu, who were kneeling in the hall. Lu looked at Qin Yanheng without blinking, a smile in her eyes.
"Your Highness, is there anything else you would like to eat? I'll have someone prepare it right away." Mrs. Lu raised the corners of her lips and asked in a pinched voice. As she spoke, she leaned forward slightly, and a flash of white fell into Luo Qingling's eyes.
Perhaps because summer is approaching, the capital has been particularly hot and humid these days. Just now, when Luo Qingling and others broke into Liu's mansion, Lu and Lord Liu were enjoying a feast in the bathtub, looking very happy.
Just when Qin Yanheng broke into the side room to interrogate Lord Liu, Lu hurriedly put on a gauze dress and went out to prepare food for everyone. Now there was the scene of Lu standing in the hall in light gauze.
Could it be that this Lu Shi had some other feelings for Qin Yanheng? While sipping tea, Luo Qingling quietly shifted his gaze to Qin Yanheng. Not long ago, when they were at the Dali Temple, this Lu Shi seemed to have expressed an interest in Qin Yanheng. It was unknown if Qin Yanheng had seen the snow scene just now.
His sight passed over the snacks on the table and slowly moved to Qin Yanheng's face——
A pair of beautiful eyes with distinct black and white were looking straight at her at this moment.
"cough……"
Luo Qingling was suddenly choked by the tea. She coughed lightly, put down the teacup, and silently turned her gaze back to the snacks in front of her, pretending nothing had happened.
"Why do you always look at me with sneaky eyes?" Qin Yanheng asked.
How could this person be like this! She was already embarrassed by peeking, and she was caught on the spot and exposed immediately. Didn't she have any dignity left? But she didn't peek on purpose, did she? She was just curious about Qin Yanheng's reaction to Lu's attitude. She couldn't just ask directly, right?
Luo Qingling didn't know how to explain herself, so she pursed her lips and didn't want to speak. After a moment, she looked at the peach cake in front of her and asked, "I just wanted to ask if the young prince would like to eat this peach cake. If not, I'll finish it."
After she finished speaking, Luo Qingling felt a surge of heat on her cheeks, as if it was specifically meant to expose her lies.
She didn't know whether Qin Yanheng noticed her unnaturalness. Anyway, Luo Qingling was unwilling to even look at him, and she didn't know what his expression was at the moment.
The two of them were silent for a while, each with their own thoughts, and no one in the main hall dared to speak.
Everyone was waiting for news about Xuanying.
Because Liu Chang and his mother Liu Zhang disappeared in the mansion at the same time, and Liu Zhang's body later appeared in the garden of Caiyifang, the two believed that Liu Chang's life was most likely in danger at this moment, so Qin Yanheng ordered people to dig three feet deep near Liu Zhang's body to search for him, and at the same time, not an inch of land of the Cao family and the Liu mansion could be spared.
There were hurried footsteps outside the courtyard, and a mysterious figure passed through the archway and appeared in front of everyone.
"Your Highness," Xuanying stepped over the threshold and walked into the main hall, quickly coming to Qin Yanheng's side. "There's nothing unusual in the Liu Mansion."
How could this be?
Luo Qingling looked puzzled, as did Qin Yanheng beside him. Before either of them could speak, Lord Liu suddenly stood up and was about to speak, but Qin Yanheng's cold gaze frightened him so much that he knelt back down. He raised his head and spoke.
"Prince Rong'an, it was wrong of me to conceal the fact that Liu Chang murdered someone, but I was indeed unaware of the inexplicable disappearance of my wife and children in the mansion. I had people search the mansion from top to bottom a long time ago..." Lord Liu begged Qin Yanheng to find out the cause of death of his wife Liu Zhang and the missing son Liu Chang.
"As a father, how come you don't even know where your wife and children are? You spend all day soaking in the bathtub with this Lu. I think the court has raised you to be a waste. How can the court believe that you are capable of serving as an official if you are not even a competent father? I think the post of Jinwu Guard, Lord Liu, can be handed over to someone else."
Qin Yanheng glanced at Lord Liu with disdain in his eyes. Lord Liu trembled in fear, not daring to express anger or speak. Seeing this, Qin Yanheng stood up and continued, "Go to Liu Zhang and Liu Chang's rooms. I want to see how two living people could suddenly disappear from the mansion."
After passing through two gardens, a medium-sized courtyard appeared in front of them. It should be the courtyard of Liu Zhang and Liu Chang. At this moment, it was pitch black without a trace of light.
Luo Qingling followed Qin Yanheng, and the two walked side by side into the courtyard. There were two side rooms in front of them, one of which was smaller and very close to the red wall. The red wall of this small courtyard was not very high, and there was no other obstruction on the top of the wall. Luo Qingling stretched out his hand to weigh it, and then another idea came to his mind.
She leaned close to Qin Yanheng and whispered, "Your Highness, this wall is so low that it seems you can get in without any Qing Gong skills."
Hearing this, Qin Yanheng looked up in the direction she was looking and saw a branch of plum blossoms on the roadside extending over the red wall into the courtyard.
Luo Qingling's words were indeed correct. Could it be that the murderer had sneaked into the Liu Mansion late at night and murdered Liu Zhang and Liu Chang? Then how did he evade the servants on duty at the Liu Mansion and the night patrol officers in the capital to move the two bodies out of the city?
"Brother Heng——"
A call from outside the yard interrupted Qin Yanheng's thoughts. He turned around and saw Song Yutai jogging towards him, a little out of breath.
"Brother, I sent several teams to search the capital and its suburbs, but we couldn't find Liu Chang's body." Song Yutai said as he nodded to Luo Qingling.
Liu Chang’s body cannot be found. Could it be that he is still alive?
Then where would Liu Chang be?
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