Chapter 32 Blood Handprint
Qian Deng breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't help but reflect on what happened twenty years ago. However...it didn't seem to have anything to do with the present; it actually freed her from the predicament, allowing her to leave.
As she stepped out of the courtyard, she remembered a small thing and curled her fingers to Aunt Xuanji.
Aunt Xuanji understood and waited at the gate of the courtyard.
After a long while, Lü Wulin finally staggered out, observing the anxious look on Young Master Wu's face. Aunt Xuanji, naturally unconcerned with the Yang family's affairs, simply asked him privately if he had found anything while cleaning up the kitchen embers.
"Things..." Lu Wulin glanced at Aunt Xuanji, baring his teeth in a "you know what I mean" smile. "Aunt, tell me, what valuable thing is it? If you found it, how much is your family willing to pay to find it?"
As soon as Aunt Xuanji saw his expression, she knew he must have found the ring. She thought to herself, Ah Yu was just a cook, so how heavy could the ring be? She doubled the market price and asked, "How about two strings of gold?"
"Tsk..." Lu Wulin laughed immediately, even showing a hint of disdain on his face. "Okay, then I'll go dig through the ashes again and see if I can find it. After all, two strings of cash! That's a lot of money!"
Judging from his sarcastic tone, he obviously thinks the amount is too little and is ready to extort money.
Aunt Xuanji was a female historian from the palace, so how could she bargain with such a petty person? She smiled at him and said, "It's not a big deal. If you can't find it, then forget it."
Seeing her turn and leave, Lu Wulin reached out to stop her, but thinking about the psychological gap between the two guan and himself, he retracted his hand and sneered at her back, "Okay, I'm not in a hurry anyway. When you need help, come back and make an offer!"
Aunt Xuanji caught up with Qiandeng and told her that Lu Wulin was asking for an exorbitant price, and was not satisfied with just two strings of cash for a gold ring.
Qian Deng was in no mood to bother with such trivial matters. He simply said, "Forget it. After all, they are relatives. If we force them to pay, it will inevitably damage the relationship. How about this? You cut off a few coins of gold for Ah Yu and let her find a craftsman to make another one herself. Then we'll forget about it."
After Aunt Xuanji left, Qiandeng, Cui Fufeng and Ling Tianshui sorted out the files, trying to restore the case.
Meng Lanxi has confirmed that Yang Huaijiang's face was corroded by his prescription. The broken medicine jars and scattered medicine residues in the kitchen and Huaining's testimony all match what Yang Huaijiang said.
"The question now is, although Yang Huaijiang and Shi Jingning had an argument in the kitchen, will Yang Huaijiang kill or set fire to something because of it?"
Ling Tianshui said simply, "That's quite simple. We've confirmed that the fire in the kitchen was caused by the firewood storage behind the stove. Therefore, the fire was unstoppable, instantly engulfing the entire kitchen and leaving Shi Jingning with no escape. Therefore, we only need to confirm whether the time Yang Huaijiang left the kitchen matches the time the fire started, and we can quickly deduce the cause."
Cui Fufeng also agreed: "Although the people in the kitchen were resting when the fire started, there are still many people in the mansion. Since Huaining was able to run into them, then there must be someone else who saw it when it happened."
Qian Deng remembered that Jing Ning had been seen in the kitchen that day, so he said, "I will pass on the message and ask everyone in the mansion to recall whether there was any unusual movement at the end of the afternoon yesterday."
Sure enough, someone in the palace did see Yang Huaijiang at the end of the hour of Wei.
"Yesterday at the end of the afternoon, this old servant saw Young Master Yang running out of the kitchen."
The person who came to report was the mansion's gardener, Old Wei. Seeing the gloomy sky and the possibility of snow that evening, he brought a few bundles of straw to cover the hostas in the front yard. Just as he was paving the path not far from the kitchen, he saw Yang Huaijiang.
"I saw a man in blue covering his face as he rushed out of the kitchen, stumbling all the way to the backyard. At the time, I had no idea why he was so out of control, let alone who he was. But seeing that there was no movement in the kitchen, I felt strange, but I just let him go." Old Wei recalled the situation, rambling, "If I hadn't heard the county lady ask about the strange incident at the end of yesterday afternoon, I really wouldn't have taken it seriously."
Qian Deng frowned unconsciously: "When Yang Huaijiang left, there was still no movement in the kitchen?"
"Yes, I finished laying the straw mat and moved to another courtyard. It was a while before I heard the sound of the fire, so I didn't connect the two events." Old Wei confirmed, "The kitchen is right next to that jade hairpin path. If there was an accident at that time, how could I not see the fireworks!"
"Then this doesn't make sense." After Old Wei left, Cui Fufeng said thoughtfully.
Qiandeng lowered his eyes and nodded.
Before this, they actually thought that Yang Huaijiang was lying. He was most likely angry and killed someone after his face was burned, then set the kitchen on fire and pretended to escape the scene by accident.
Unexpectedly, what Yang Huaijiang said was true. When the kitchen fire broke out and Shi Jingning died, he had indeed left the kitchen and returned to the backyard, covering his burned face.
"Besides, there are some things I can't quite understand," Cui Fufeng said. "Shi Jingning has been in the kitchen for a long time, having trained in the Guanglu Temple. The kitchen is always clean and tidy after use, so the cooks are happy for him to use it to prepare meals for the county lady and her younger sisters. But this time, after he chased Yang Huaijiang away, he saw the stove overturned and the clay pots broken. How could he allow the kitchen to be in such a mess? Common sense says he would have cleaned up immediately after Yang Huaijiang left."
"This means that the time between Yang Huaijiang's departure and the kitchen fire was very short, and Shi Jingning didn't have time to clean up the mess." Ling Tianshui said this, then remembered the animal ashes he had seen at the scene and asked again, "But if that's the case, how do you explain the food that fell beside the body? If Shi Jingning was preparing meat and vegetables while boiling medicine, then the food should have been in the pot or on the stove when the fire broke out, not at his fingertips. Obviously, he had grabbed it from the nearby animal pen before the fire started."
Qian Deng immediately said, "So, Yang Huaijiang's words are contradictory. If he had run away immediately, Shi Jingning would not have left the kitchen tidy. If he hadn't run away, Shi Jingning would not have gone to get the ingredients. And judging by the situation at the scene, Shi Jingning didn't clean the kitchen and grabbed the ingredients from the animal pen. Isn't that strange?"
Cui Fufeng nodded: "I agree with the county lady. Yang Huaijiang is lying. At least, part of what he said is a lie."
Ling Tianshui has always been unafraid to assume the worst of others, let alone someone like Yang Huaijiang: "First, think of a way to pry open Yang Huaijiang's scalded mouth."
Just as they were discussing, there was a sudden noise outside.
Immediately, Liuli knocked on the door outside, her voice full of surprise and joy: "County Lady, no...it's not good!"
Qian Deng motioned her in, and after examining her complex expression, he couldn't see anything wrong. "What's wrong?"
"Madam Dingxiang is making a scene in Gutengzhai, saying she's going to force my cousin to move out!"
Qian Deng raised his eyebrows slightly: "Why, do you dislike our palace for not taking good care of his son?"
"That's not the case. It's... Madam Dingxiang discovered two bloody handprints on the rockery at the entrance!" Liuli's face was filled with fear, nervousness, and a hint of gloating. She gestured and said, "The prints were in the snow on the rockery, and the concave part was particularly obvious. There were also traces of blood on the snow next to the handprints and on the vines and rocks exposed below! She screamed in shock and almost fainted. When Aunt Xuanji found out, she quickly took us to check it out, but Madam Dingxiang was determined to leave and refused to stay in the backyard..."
Qian Deng said "Oh" and stood up and said, "Then I'll go take a look and persuade Madam Dingxiang."
"Madam Dingxiang said that she definitely won't live in the backyard of the palace anymore and will move to the Huang Mansion. She said that the cousin is family after all and will definitely take good care of her brother."
This meant that the Changhua Palace was no longer her family.
Qiandeng didn't care. After all, that was the extent of his relationship with Madam Dingxiang, so there was no need to take it to heart.
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