That night was destined to be anything but peaceful. Although Yan Qing went to bed early, she slept soundly because Lingxi stayed with her.
The moment I opened my eyes in the morning, I was told, "Master, after you fell asleep last night, everyone went out."
This was entirely within her expectations, so she wasn't particularly curious. It would be strange if these people stayed without a purpose.
Putting everything else aside, judging solely from the attitude of his servants, Master Sima was certainly not the great philanthropist that others described him to be.
However, things were worse than she had imagined. During the meal, a maid came to report that Young Master Liang had died in his room.
"What?!!"
She recognized the maid who brought the news; she was the same maid who had served Young Master Liang these past two nights. Lingxi had told her that her name was Fangzhi.
"Fangzhi, tell me how you discovered it." After his initial shock, the old monk quickly calmed down and immediately spoke up.
"This servant... This morning I fetched water for Young Master Liang to wash up, but he didn't open the door for a long time. So I mustered up the courage to go into the room, only to find him lying on the bed, bleeding from all seven orifices. He looked extremely frightening!"
Alright, everyone decided to skip their meal and head straight to Young Master Liang's room.
As a result, the room was empty, and there was no sign of Young Master Liang at all.
Dr. Zhang immediately became angry, "Fangzhi, what do you mean by this? Are you deliberately deceiving us?"
Fangzhi was almost in tears. "It's true, Young Master Liang's body was still here this morning. I'm not lying!"
"Hmph! Playing tricks!" Doctor Zhang didn't believe her at all; none of the servants here seemed like good people!
"Let's go!"
"Wait a minute!" Yan Qing called out to him. When Doctor Zhang saw that it was Yan Qing who spoke, his attitude immediately softened. "I wonder what advice you have for me, Miss Su?"
“Come here and take a look.” Yan Qing stood by the bed and pointed to the clean sheets. “There’s no sign of anyone sleeping on these sheets. They’re obviously newly made.”
With a slight effort, she ripped the entire sheet off, revealing an identical sheet underneath. Dr. Zhang was utterly speechless.
Because the bed sheet was covered with scattered bloodstains, the bloodstains were a slightly dark red color, clearly indicating that someone had just spilled them.
"But bloodstains are useless if there's no one there, right?"
Yes, Yan Qing also found this question very strange. The room was neat and tidy, with no signs of fighting, and the sheets weren't wrinkled much, indicating that Young Master Liang hadn't died in a fight.
Based on the bloodstains on the bed sheet and Fangzhi's words, the initial conclusion is that it was not suicide.
But where did the body go?
Everyone worked together and turned the house upside down, but in the end they found nothing.
Just as everyone returned to the front hall dejectedly, Madam Luo appeared, looking utterly terrified.
"Young Master Liang hanged himself in the ancestral hall!"
What? ! !
The group arrived at the ancestral hall without stopping. Before they even entered, they could see a male corpse hanging straight above Sima Yuanwai's black coffin.
Everyone was shocked; it really was Young Master Liang!
Young Master Liang was clearly dead; a belt was tied around his neck, obviously taken from his clothes.
Blackish-red blood flowed from his eyes, nose, and mouth; his eyes were wide open, and he looked like he had died with his eyes wide open in disbelief.
The horrific sight of death greatly shocked those present. The previously composed Madam Zhang suddenly vomited.
"Amitabha, what a sin, what a sin!" An elderly monk, who had also become much more serious, muttered to himself, "Could that thing be real?"
Then he turned to Madam Luo and asked, "Madam, did Master Sima mention any treasures to you before his death?"
Luo looked completely bewildered. "What treasure? I don't know anything about it?"
"Amitabha!" Yi Jing sighed deeply, looking again at the two corpses, one hanging and one lying, in the ancestral hall. His tone grew even heavier.
"Since things have come to this, I will not hide anything. To be honest, I received a message from Master Sima saying that he had found the whereabouts of that thing and asked me to come and take a look. I wonder if you all have the same reason?"
Upon hearing his words, Dr. Zhang's expression changed drastically. After a long silence, the couple exchanged a glance before Dr. Zhang finally spoke.
"That's right, my husband and I are also curious about that legendary thing."
The monk stroked his beard and said something startling, "As far as I know, Physician Zhang, you severed ties with Master Sima three years ago, didn't you? I heard the dispute was quite serious!"
"That's still not as good as you. Although you are a monk, you come here every few days to ask Master Sima for money under some pretext. Surely he has something on you?"
Dr. Zhang didn't hold back and immediately exposed Yi Jing's true colors.
However, the old monk was thick-skinned and remained calm even after being exposed, smiling without saying a word, maintaining the air of a wise man.
“We’re just squabbling around. This Young Master Liang is Master Sima’s mortal enemy. Master Sima almost lost everything in the raw silk bargain-hunting incident half a year ago. The person he hates the most right now is none other than Young Master Liang.”
Dr. Zhang continued with his startling remarks, pointing to the figure hanging from the rafters, and said...
"If I were Master Sima, I would not let him go even if I died."
His words, coupled with the tragic death of Young Master Liang, sent chills down one's spine.
After revealing each other's secrets, the two turned their criticism on Yan Qing and her brother. Yan Che was the first to be targeted.
The old monk smiled and said, "Master Mu, it is said that you insisted on building the artificial lake in the backyard. I heard that since the artificial lake was completed, one or two servants in the mansion die every day—if I were you, I would not dare to come here at all."
There's such a thing? Not only Yan Qing, but even Yan Che himself didn't know. The dungeon description was only one sentence long—how could he possibly know anything about it!
Old monk, since you're so talkative, why don't you say more?
Yan Che adopted a mysterious attitude, "It cannot be said, it cannot be said."
Unable to uncover the inside story, the two could only turn their attention to Yan Qing.
"Ms. Su, what brings you here?"
Yan Qing glanced at Luo Shi, noticing that she remained silent with her head down. She could only smile and say...
"I don't have as many formalities as you guys. I'm just here to see my good friend off."
She was stunned after saying that. That wasn't what she intended to say; she had meant to say that she was there at Madam Luo's invitation to attend the ceremony. How did it end up sounding like she was saying it to a friend?
This is really strange; she only glanced at Luo Shi once the whole time.
This Mr. Luo is strange.
To her relief, no one believed her at all.
All eyes turned to the last two people. Luo was alright, but the man in black turned deathly pale.
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