Chapter 28: The Ring
Qiandeng closed his eyes, nodded, and forced himself to suppress his anger before looking at the scene again.
Beneath the collapsed brick wall lay the remains of Shi Jingning's body. When the cemetery staff collected the remains, they had already cleared the surrounding brick floor. However, because the ground was warm, the snow had fallen and quickly melted, leaving water stains on the ground, forming a wet, dirty mess.
But these water stains are not evenly distributed on the brick surface. After all, there is a difference between old kitchen oil stains and fresh ones left by human burning.
Qiandeng felt a lump in her throat, her breathing stagnant. She slowly walked to the spot where Shi Jingning had died, forcing herself to carefully examine the remains of his body.
"His right hand is raised above his shoulder. What is in his hand? Have you found out?"
"Looking at the traces of grease seeping onto the ground, it must be meat. I remember there were also bone fragments, indicating a whole small animal." Ling Tianshui said this, turning back to ask the people in the kitchen outside, "I heard that the farm just received a batch of game, and it's being kept in the animal pen next door. Can you find out what this is?"
The cooks, Ayu and Aliu, came over and looked at it for a while, their faces troubling. "Among the game delivered this time, there are quite a few small ones like this. And because the fire was so big, the animal pens were also affected. All the animals in there were burned to death. We haven't even counted them yet..."
The people in the kitchen couldn't tell, and Qiandeng and the others didn't know anything about cooking, so they had no idea what to do.
Just as everyone was identifying the charred charcoal embers, Qiandeng looked up and saw that Ayu didn't look at the animal bone traces. Instead, he picked up a thin stick, stretched his head and stared at the stove with an anxious look on his face.
Qiandeng calmed down, looked towards the stove, and asked her, "What's wrong?"
It would have been fine if she hadn't asked. But when she asked, Ah Yu's eyes reddened a little: "Your Highness, the servant brought by Madam Dingxiang, the one named Lü... Lü Wulin, picked up my gold ring!"
Lü Wulin. Qiandeng remembered that Lady Dingxiang had mentioned her the person who had always been with Yang Huaijiang.
He seemed to be a long-term attendant, but in fact he was Lady Dingxiang's nephew. Finding a job for a relative in the husband's family was a common practice for wealthy families to support their children and nephews. Lu Wulin must have grown up with Yang Huaijiang, and their relationship was extraordinary.
"How did he take your ring?"
Ah Yu said anxiously, "I lost my ring two days ago. Everyone in the kitchen knew about it, but they still can't find it. Ah Liu just told me that this morning, Lü Wulin was rummaging through the stove, and there seemed to be a flash of gold in his hand, and he immediately put it in his arms! I was thinking, could it be that my ring fell into the stove ash and ended up being found by him?"
Qiandeng frowned slightly and asked again, "Why is Lu Wulin here cleaning the stove?"
Jin Tang knew about this and quickly replied, "Because the mansion is anxious to repair the kitchen, they called in all the staff to help clean it up. The Yang family also sent people to help, and I think he is one of them."
"In that case, if he picked up something here, he should hand it over to our house. There is no reason for him to take it away secretly!" A Yu said angrily.
Aunt Xuanji sighed and said, "How can I explain this... Let's not talk about whether the golden light Ah Liu saw was actually gold. After all, Lu Wulin isn't a servant of the palace. We are the host and he is the guest. How can we just ask him for something out of thin air?"
Ah Yu wiped her tears and asked, "Could it be that my ring is just going to disappear right before my eyes?"
Behind her, Ah Liu timidly tugged at her sleeve and said, "Actually, I couldn't see it clearly either. After all, I was quite far away. I was just dazzled by the golden light in his hand. When I turned around, his hand was already in his arms... But it wasn't the ring. I really didn't know."
Aunt Xuanji said, "True gold fears no fire, let alone buried in ashes. Try searching the furnace again; you might have lost it somewhere."
Ah Yu wiped away her tears in frustration and helplessly picked up the dustpan: "I hang around the stove every day, and when I lose something, it's picked up by strangers. What kind of life is this for me?"
Qian Deng walked out of the scene and headed towards the backyard without hesitation. She asked Cui Fufeng, who was traveling with her, in a deep voice, "Have you found out everything about the gentlemen's whereabouts yesterday?"
"I checked. This is the record I made based on their confessions and identifications by others."
Qiandeng took it and quickly browsed through it while walking.
Yesterday, at the beginning of the afternoon, Xue Xiyang heard that Yang Huaijiang had drugged the jewelry and publicly exposed his scandal. Ji Linyou, enraged upon hearing this, grabbed Yang Huaijiang and brought him to the county lady. Shang Luo immediately followed to watch the fun. Shi Jingning was about to deliver some snacks to the county lady, so the five of them met the county lady outside the storeroom, causing a minor disturbance.
Later, Qiandeng refused the pink fish that Shi Jingning gave him. He took it to his brother and sister-in-law to eat, and then returned to the kitchen with the empty bowl. Soon an accident happened in the kitchen and Shi Jingning died in the fire.
Among all the young men in the backyard, Jin Tang had the most evidence. When the accident happened yesterday, he and Qiandeng were cleaning up in the warehouse together. It was impossible for him to run to the kitchen under everyone's noses.
Yan Penglai said that he had been practicing in Zhaoyingxuan and had never left, but there was no witness.
In order to protect Meng Lanxi, Ling Tianshui and Meng Lanxi served as witnesses for each other. They stayed in Yilan Pavilion yesterday and only came here together when they discovered the fire in the front yard.
As for Xue Xiyang and Ji Linyou...
Qian Deng saw the record of "the two chatting in the Chrysanthemum Garden" and hesitated: "How could Xue Xiyang and Ji Linyou be together?"
"I know that!" Shangluo replied timidly with red eyes, "Because they all hate Yang Huaijiang!"
Qiandeng raised his eyes from the file and motioned for him to continue.
"We went back from the warehouse. Brother Jingning took the pink fish back to Liuhua Mountain House, and I followed Brother Xiyang and Brother Linyou. Brother Linyou was very angry and said that Yang Huaijiang was really not a good person and he needed to be taught a lesson. Brother Xiyang smiled and asked him, do you think someone like Yang Huaijiang would be easily defeated?"
At the time, Ji Linyou and Shangluo were both confused, while Xue Xiyang narrowed his peach blossom eyes and sneered, "In my opinion, his personality makes him prone to offending some ruffians - for example, he's inexplicably put in a sack and dragged into an alley to be beaten. It's a common occurrence, but it's useless to beat him, right?"
When Ji Linyou heard that the young people were causing trouble, his eyes lit up.
After all, his camp is full of young soldiers who are full of energy and have nowhere to vent. They are restless and want to cause trouble every day. There are always a few cases of beating people and making trouble every month.
He immediately stretched out his arms and embraced Xue Xiyang, whom he usually disliked. He lowered his voice and said with great joy, "Come, Xue Lecheng, tell me in detail!"
Xue Xiyang gave him a faint smile, knowingly saying, "I'm not as knowledgeable as you are about this. Captain Ji, tell me, who needs to lie down longer, the broken ribs or the knees?"
Although neither of them brought it up, a tacit understanding had been reached.
The two people, one of whom originally disliked the other's elegance and grace, and the other couldn't stand the other's rough and reckless behavior, suddenly hit it off at this moment and went to the Chrysanthemum Garden to drink tea together.
If nothing unexpected happened, the next time Yang Huaijiang went out, he might be dragged into an alley, put in a sack and beaten, and he would be lying in bed, completely missing the day of Mrs. Qi's funeral.
Beneath this seemingly harmonious and peaceful appearance where all the gentlemen were happily coexisting in the backyard, it turned out that there were already countless undercurrents surging. However, she, who was watching the flowers across the water on the shore, did not notice it in time.
Qiandeng suppressed his annoyance and glanced down at the file in his hand. He saw that Shangluo was near Liuhua Mountain House when the kitchen fire broke out yesterday, so he asked him, "Where were you when the accident happened yesterday?"
"I... I went to play with Huaining and the others, and I also wanted to... talk to Brother Jingning about the medicine. But I found out Brother Jingning had already left, and Huaining and the others were just coming back from playing hide-and-seek outside. I said I'd take them to write, but Huaining said her brother was in a bad mood and told her to go back and close the door tightly to avoid encountering any bad guys."
Shangluo felt something was wrong when he said this: "Strange, why would Brother Jingning say that? Is there a bad guy in the county lady's backyard?"
"Did Huaining say that?" Qian Deng asked, subconsciously exchanging glances with Cui Fufeng and Ling Tianshui.
Shangluo nodded without hesitation: "Yes, I have a very good memory, and I won't make a single mistake!"
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