Chapter 49 Mother-of-Pearl Incense (12) Perhaps it refers to the population of this household...
At the foot of the bed was a hanging rack, on which hung a set of clothes, which looked like Lu Yan'er had changed out of last night. The handkerchief that strangled her must have been taken from this rack by the murderer. Jiu Li hung up the curtains, and then saw that Lu Yan'er was wearing a blue gauze dress that was see-through, which should be a nightgown.
She turned and beckoned to the maid, beckoning her in and asking, "Did you hear any noise after you went to sleep last night?"
The maid glanced at the bed, then quickly looked away and shook her head. "I didn't hear anything. Our house has a high wall; I can hear someone climbing over, let alone knocking on the door."
Jiuli then walked to Yu Qi's side and whispered, "I think the murderer is probably familiar with Lu Yan'er. Otherwise, if she had climbed in through the window, Lu Yan'er would have shouted. But not only did she not shout, she didn't even put on a decent coat."
Yu Qi had already thought of this, and nodded and smiled approvingly at her.
After seeing Yu Qi examine the body, Xu Bai asked about Lu Yan'er's relatives. The maid said that she was originally bought by a madam, and she hadn't seen any relatives come to visit her in recent years. Since she was redeemed two years ago, she simply stopped contacting the madam and is now all alone with no ties.
Xu Bai had no choice but to discuss with Miss Tang, “I will first have someone carry the body to the yamen and post notices to find relatives and friends for the deceased. If no one comes to collect her body after three days, I will have to trouble you, Miss, to take care of her funeral arrangements. Don’t worry, Miss, all the silver she left behind will be given to you to use and distribute at that time.”
Since it wouldn't be a waste of time anyway, Miss Tang naturally agreed. Xu Bai then ordered Zhang Da to return to the yamen and call people to carry the body.
As Miss Tang and the others walked downstairs, she sighed, "How pitiful. Just the other day she was telling me she was planning to get married. Who knew that man proposes, God disposes."
Upon entering the courtyard, Yu Qi asked the maid, "Is Lu Yan'er engaged to anyone?"
The maid shook her head. "I haven't heard of that."
Miss Tang turned her head and said, "That means she didn't tell you."
"Hey, do you even need to tell me, young lady? I see her every day. If she were talking about marriage with someone, wouldn't I know? Although the customers she's currently serving are all regulars, I haven't seen her discussing marriage with any of them."
"That's strange, she did tell me that day that she wanted to get married."
Yu Qi turned to Miss Tang and asked, "When did Lu Yan'er bring this up?"
"Just the day before yesterday. The day Miss Guan led you to my house to find me."
Miss Tang remembered clearly that shortly after Youjun and the others left that day, after lunch, a guest came to invite her to a game of mahjong. The table was set up in the Luo family courtyard. After carefully dressing up, she went to the game with her maid. Coincidentally, there were many people at the table, and many girls were also sitting at the game. Because she was thinking about what Youjun had told her, she took the opportunity to quietly ask the seven girls at the table if they had bought any jewelry in the past two days.
Everyone said no, but Lu Yan'er, with her eyes gleaming, said, "I did get a string of coral beads the other day. I must say, they're top-quality, warm and lustrous, with very few flaws, and the price was fair too. Hey, why are you asking about this? Do you need more jewelry?"
Miss Tang sat down next to her. "Who did you buy it from?"
Lu Yan'er smiled and said, "Someone came to my house with the goods and asked about them. I don't think that person is a decent person, and the goods probably didn't come from legitimate sources, so I didn't dare to ask for a high price. It's a good deal to buy them. Do you want to buy them? See if he comes again in the next couple of days. If he does, I'll keep him here for you. He doesn't have many things, but everything he has is of good quality."
Miss Tang raised an eyebrow. "What, you haven't heard?"
"What did you hear?"
She frowned deeply. "That seller seems to be a petty thief. He stole people's jewelry and is looking for buyers everywhere. He came to my house the day before yesterday, but I didn't buy anything from him. Who knew that yesterday we would pull a corpse out of the river? It was that thief!"
Lu Yan'er was greatly shocked. "Is that so? I did hear them talking about someone dying in the river, and it turns out it was him?"
"And what's more, this petty thief's death seems a bit suspicious."
Lu Yan'er frowned. "How did you know?"
“In the morning, the eldest daughter of the Guan family brought two people to ask me about the lost item. They said they were the owner of the lost item. From what they said, it seemed that they were not only looking for the lost item, but also investigating the matter of the dead person.”
Lu Yan'er fell silent for a moment, then asked, "Oh, so you're asking about the jewelry on behalf of those two owners? I bought those coral beads with real gold and silver, I didn't steal them!"
Miss Tang smiled and patted her on the shoulder, "Hey, what are you afraid of? She doesn't look like someone who's short of money. If she asks you to get her things back, she'll naturally make up the money for you."
Lu Yan'er nodded with a smile, her expression gradually becoming somewhat dazed, until the guest she was accompanying lost the drinking contest and brought the wine cup to his lips, at which point she came back to her senses, smiled, and accepted the wine.
After the banquet, Tang and Lu traveled together in a sedan chair for a while. Halfway there, Lu Yan'er, having drunk too much, asked to get out of the sedan chair and vomited in an alley. Tang naturally got out of the sedan chair and offered her a handkerchief and patted her back. After Lu Yan'er finished vomiting, her maid had already bought a bowl of water from the street. She rinsed her mouth, dismissed the sedan chair bearers, and, taking advantage of the westward shift and the rising wind, said she wanted to walk a bit. Tang, who had also drunk a couple of cups, felt uncomfortable from the swaying of the sedan chair, so she also asked her maids to follow behind and accompany her.
The two strolled slowly and chatted. Miss Tang remarked, "I hate drinking too much alcohol; it makes people drunk to death."
Miss Lu laughed and said, "There's nothing we can do. It's the business we're in. You're doing well, though. In the past two years, with Miss Guan's help, we've gained several wealthy and generous customers. We don't have to entertain the other stingy customers as much, and we're not short of money."
"Even if I wanted to socialize less, do you think my mom would agree? You're so much better off; no matter how much or how little you make in business, it's all yours."
“Whether I earn a lot or a little, I have to be able to earn something. My business hasn’t been good these past two years. I’m getting older, unlike those sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls. This can’t go on like this year after year. I think I should get married before I get old and lose my looks.”
Miss Tang glanced at her in surprise. "Get married? That doesn't sound like you. Didn't you used to say that being someone's concubine was less profitable than running your own business? Getting married is certainly good, but who would want someone of our background as a principal wife? Has someone hinted at this to you?"
Lu Yan'er looked straight ahead, a smile playing on her lips, as if she were plotting something.
"She only mentioned it twice. I asked her who was going to marry her, and she just smiled and didn't say anything. But the way she looked at her didn't seem like she was just talking nonsense. It seemed like she really had this intention."
As Miss Tang finished explaining, she furrowed her brows and shook a silk fan, trying hard to understand. Given Lu Yan'er's usual character, she would never marry just anyone as a concubine. Even if it was a wealthy man, she wouldn't inherit a single penny of his estate, only a few taels of silver for daily expenses, and she'd still have to be mindful of the eldest son's feelings—it wasn't a worthwhile arrangement for her.
"If she were to get married, she would definitely want to be the principal wife, and she would never marry a poor man. She still has several hundred taels of silver in her pocket, and she wouldn't be willing to give away the money she has earned for nothing."
The maid nodded hurriedly, like a chicken pecking at rice, "Miss Tang is right. Our young lady has a plan in her mind and is very shrewd."
Seeing that Yu Qi had the patience to listen to this half-day of idle chatter, Xu Bai guessed his meaning and instructed the maid, "Here's what you do, make a list of your young lady's usual guests. Mark who she is very close to and who she has quarreled with. We need to check them one by one."
The aunt slapped her palm. "Oh dear, I can't write."
Jiuli stepped forward and said, "Tell me, and I'll write it down."
Just as they laid out paper and pens in the main room, Zhang Da led his men back. Two constables carried Lu Yan'er's body out. Xu Bai wanted to go back to find Lu Yan'er's relatives and friends, so he also wanted to go with Zhang Da and the others first. While Yu Qi was still checking the rooms, he went to the main room and said to Jiu Li, "I'll take your string of coral beads back to the yamen first. You can retrieve them after the yamen has filed the case."
Jiuli nodded. Seeing that Jiuli's hair was shiny and black, and she wasn't wearing the blue amber butterfly hairpin he'd given her, he smiled and asked, "Don't you like that blue amber hairpin?"
"Hmm?" Jiuli scratched his head and smiled sheepishly. "I was so confused when I woke up this morning that I couldn't remember to wear anything."
He looked closer at the pale blue patch on her eyelids. "Didn't you sleep well last night?"
"Don't even mention it. I had a nightmare last night. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back asleep."
The dream was strange; she dreamt that her lost mother-of-pearl box sank into the water, and when she reached out to retrieve it, she couldn't get it out. Instead, she pulled out a handful of waterweed, which instantly turned into a wet bunch of hair in her hand.
Thinking of this, she suddenly opened her eyes, put down her pen, and ran upstairs.
Just then, Zhang Da came to call him, and Xu Bai came to the courtyard to say goodbye to Yu Qi. Yu Qi only gave him a few perfunctory replies and then turned around and went into the kitchen to check.
The kitchen is quite large. There is a bed made of planks near the back door. It has three stoves. People in the courtyard have many banquets, so they naturally need more stoves. However, I just heard that the Lu family only has one cook named Lao Han. How can one person manage to buy vegetables and cook?
There was also a tall row of cabinets, with wine jars on the top. The shelves in the middle were filled with various exquisite bowls and plates, as well as all kinds of bottles and jars. Upon opening them, it was clear that Lu Yan'er was a person who knew how to take care of herself. There were jars filled with various ingredients such as donkey-hide gelatin, ophiopogon japonicus, codonopsis pilosula, red dates, and goji berries, as well as several jars of lotus seeds, both dried and fresh, which she probably used to make medicinal soups.
He was picking up a handful of fresh lotus seeds to examine them when suddenly a man rushed in, snatched the jar from his hand, and said irritably, "Who are you? What are you doing rummaging around here? Who's going to take responsibility if you break anything?! I'm already struggling to pay for my own things, do you expect me to take responsibility for yours?"
Yu Qi sized him up; he appeared to be in his forties, slightly overweight, with a carrying pole behind him containing two baskets full of meat and vegetables. He asked, "Are you Old Han, the cook?"
The maidservant happened to hear the noise and rushed over, quickly telling Old Han, "This is the magistrate from the yamen. The girl is dead, and they are investigating."
"The girl is dead?" Old Han was slightly startled. He glanced at Yu Qi, then looked away and asked, "She was perfectly fine yesterday, how could she be dead?"
"I was just as surprised! You went to buy groceries this morning, and some adults came over. I went upstairs to call the girl, but no one answered the door. So I pushed the door open, and there she was, strangled to death on the bed! It almost scared the wits out of me!"
Old Han was somewhat shocked after hearing this, but felt no pity whatsoever. "That girl is dead, what are we going to do about our monthly pay?"
"An official said that we should first take the girl's body and silver jewelry to the yamen for registration, and then find relatives and friends to collect her body for a few days. If no one comes to collect it, the funeral arrangements will be handled by the Tang family girl, who will then settle the accounts with us."
"Okay, but the girl said she'd deduct fifty coins from my pay this month. Will she still do it?"
"Miss Tang, you won't have to pay any extra."
Yu Qi, who had been listening to the two of them say this, suddenly interjected, "Does Lu Yan'er often deduct your wages?"
Old Han snorted coldly, "Giving her a few wages is like taking it for free. She's always unhappy about it. She'll search high and low every month, trying to find a few mistakes to deduct from your pay. She's so good at calculating, no wonder she was able to save enough money to buy her freedom at such a young age. But what's the use of buying her freedom? She'll still be selling her body anyway!"
The maid advised, "The girl is already dead, so you should say less."
Yu Qi smiled slightly and examined Old Han for a moment before taking out a silver ingot. "We were just worried about being stuck here without food. Anyway, you have fresh meat and vegetables here, so why don't you trouble yourself to prepare a meal for me? Here's the silver."
The maidservant hurriedly accepted the money with a smile, but Old Han glanced at it and asked, "How many people are eating here?"
The maid said, "There are only two of them left."
Yu Qi thought that Zhang Da would definitely come soon, so he changed his answer to three. Old Han waved his hand and said, "Whether it's two or three, you don't need this money. The grain, rice, oil and vegetables are now unclaimed, so I can't accept your money. Just give me twenty coins as a token of my hard work."
Yu Qi glanced at the cabinet with a smile, "Since these things are no longer owned, why don't you two take them and divide them up? It wouldn't be a waste of your time serving Lu Yan'er."
The maid just smiled and didn't say anything, while Old Han looked disdainful. "Who wants hers! I don't want what's not mine, and why does she try to withhold it from me?! Even if she were alive, I could have taken some things from the kitchen to cover my losses, but I'm a reasonable person and I've never taken anything! But she's always suspicious that I'm stealing her food and drinks, and she keeps finding ways to deduct from me!"
Yu Qi nodded with a helpless smile, but his gaze fell on Lao Han with a sharp chill.
After a while, he heard someone coming downstairs with a thud. He went out and saw Jiu Li carrying several pieces of Lu Yan'er's clothes on one arm and two large sachets in the other hand as he walked into the main room.
He followed him into the house. "What happened to these clothes?"
Jiuli placed the items on a chair, then picked up the clothes to smell them, then picked up the sachet to smell them. "It seems that there are two completely different fragrances on these clothes. Please smell them."
Yu Qi picked it up, smelled it, and nodded, saying, "This sachet contains mugwort, cloves, and mint. But in addition to these fragrances, this garment also has a strong agarwood scent."
Jiuli stroked the small table and turned to sit down. "That's right. This is the scent of my mother-of-pearl inlaid box. I noticed something was off when I was upstairs. But strangely, I didn't find my box when I searched upstairs, nor did I find the red agate bracelet inside. There was only the coral bracelet."
Yu Qi sat down as well. "You mean that Lu Yan'er most likely bought that red agate bracelet too?"
"Who knows? We'll have to ask that maid."
Then they called the aunt back to the main room to ask her. The aunt recalled and said, "I remember it was around dinner time that day. Business was good. Two families came to set up tables and entertain guests. There were many people, both upstairs and downstairs. I was helping Old Han in the kitchen. The courtyard gate was not closed when people were going in and out, and that vendor came in—"
Tang Chengguan entered the courtyard carrying his bundle. He saw a large table of wine set up in the main room, with about ten men and women sitting around it. In the kitchen on the left, the stove was blazing with activity, and a servant had set up a low table where people were eating and drinking. There seemed to be sounds of drinking games and arguing coming from the room upstairs.
Seeing the bustling scene, he thought his business had taken off and was about to go into the main room to ask someone to inspect the goods when his maid ran out of the kitchen and stopped him, shouting, "Who are you? You just barge into people's yards when the gate is open! Get out, get out!"
While arguing, Tang Chengguan opened his bundle to show her, "I have some good stuff here, do you want it? Look, it's really good stuff! Cheaper than in the shops, really, if you miss this deal, you'll be the ones who lose out!"
The maid was urging him to leave when Lu Yan'er caught a glimpse of the contents of his bundle through the upstairs window and quickly called out, "Wait! Let me come down and take a look."
Finally, he ran downstairs, fanning himself, and ordered Tang Chengguan to spread the bundle on the ground and open it. Inside were several pieces of jewelry, made of gold, silver, and jade, as well as a mother-of-pearl box containing a red agate bracelet.
She spotted the bracelet at first glance, and when she asked the price, it was three taels of silver. She turned away, deliberately raising her voice to sneer, "You dare say it's cheaper than in the shop? Three taels of silver right off the bat, you really dare to ask for that much!"
So that all the guests could hear and see who would be willing to pay for it for her.
Tang Chengguan quickly stood up and smiled, "Miss, don't think I don't know the market. I've had the prices agreed upon with someone beforehand. This bracelet is made of top-quality red agate; it would cost at least five taels of silver in a shop."
"Then why don't you sell them in a shop? These things of yours don't look like they came from legitimate sources. It's only because the shops don't want to take them that you're coming to our place."
"Don't worry about where I came from, as long as you pay me, it's yours."
She'd been talking loudly for ages, but no one had come out to buy it for her. She was too embarrassed to stand there and refuse to buy it, so she had to settle for second best and ask about the red coral bracelet.
This was alright, it only cost one and a half taels of silver, and I was prepared to pay for it myself. But then the customer who was setting up the table in the main room came out with a smile and said, "I'll buy this for you." He then took out some silver and paid for it.
Lu Yan'er wanted the red agate bracelet again, but then she thought that the other party hadn't said anything when they heard about three taels of silver, but only agreed to take it when they heard about one and a half taels. If she asked for it again, it would be a waste of breath, and she didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of so many people.
So he had no choice but to give up. Having received this one, he sent Tang Chengguan out and immediately accompanied the guest into the main room. As he did so, he turned to the kitchen and ordered, "Old Han, cook another shad and bring a jar of jasmine wine upstairs!"
The maid returned to the kitchen and heard Old Han spitting as he cooked, "Pah! Is this slutty woman blind? I have eight hands and I can't keep up with all this, adding fish and wine. Why doesn't she do it herself? She just keeps ordering people around!"
The maid hurriedly advised, "I'll move the wine over. You just focus on cooking your dishes. Hurry up, or the young lady will get angry."
The servants sitting in the kitchen teased Old Han, "You only dare to talk behind people's backs. In front of your girls, your mouth is like it's been drugged. You can't utter a single word! We have an idea for you though. Since you live under the same roof, one day when she's sleeping, go to her room and sleep with her too, and get your revenge! Anyway, she makes a living this way, so even if you sleep with her, it's hard to go to the authorities. Who can tell if you slept with her for free or if you're just doing her a favor?"
Everyone burst into laughter, and Old Han's face was flushed red, whether from anger, embarrassment, or the smoke from the stove.
He scooped out the food from the pot with a few quick shovelfuls, then angrily threw the pot back onto the stove. The spatula clanged and rattled inside the pot, as if it were venting his anger on his behalf. He didn't say a word, and continued to hurry to the base of the wall to collect the shad.
After listening carefully, Jiu Li learned that Lu Yan'er had only glanced at the mother-of-pearl box and hadn't actually bought anything. It was impossible for the clothes to still have a trace of the box's fragrance lingering on them. Besides, her trunk was filled with thick autumn and winter clothes, so it was completely irrelevant.
No! This maid must have missed something. The box must have been in Lu Yan'er's hands, and she must have put it in the clothes chest!
But the aunt insisted, "It really didn't happen. I was right there and saw the customer pay with his own eyes. He handed the coral bracelet to our girl, then tied up his bundle and left. It happened on the evening of the tenth of the month. I can't remember it wrong!"
Jiuli placed one hand on the table and tapped it lightly. "Could it be that the customer later agreed to buy the agate bracelet for Lu Yan'er, and then went out to catch up with Tang Chengguan?"
"The man selling things is called Tang Chengguan? Oh, I didn't know that. I was carrying the wine upstairs and didn't go into the main room when I came down. I was helping Lao Han pick and chop vegetables in the kitchen."
In other words, it's possible that the scene was chaotic at that time.
The maid talked to her for a while, but was still a little confused. "Miss, why do you keep asking about that box? What does it have to do with our young lady's death?"
Jiuli was pondering when she was asked this question, and she couldn't give a clear answer. It was just a feeling; she always felt that there was something strange about that box. First, the fragrance was different from ordinary sandalwood. Second, it seemed that her house started to be haunted after she got the box. Later, the box was stolen by Tang Chengguan, who died. Then it fell into Lu Yan'er's hands, but she also died, and the box still disappeared without a trace.
While he was still wondering, Yu Qi asked the maid, "How did you get into that room upstairs this morning?"
The maid came up to him again and said, "I pushed the door open to go in. Our girls don't lock the door when they sleep at night."
Why didn't she bolt the door?
“Her room is upstairs, and Lao Han and I sleep downstairs. Even if someone enters the yard, we two will naturally wake up first, so what is she afraid of? Besides, people in this business often get drunk, and even if they want to lock the door, they often forget. Furthermore, sometimes she gets so drunk that she oversleeps, and if someone comes, I can knock on the door for a long time, but she won't hear me, so she simply doesn't lock the door.”
So, the murderer might not have climbed through the window, but entered through the door. Another possibility is that the maid wasn't disturbed in the middle of the night, and the murderer wasn't an outsider, but someone from the family, so there was no need for her to cross the courtyard wall.
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Author's note: Thank you for reading.
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