Chapter 64 The Corpse This isn't her at all
Pei Yu'an just kept nodding, insisting that his mother had jumped down herself.
Pei Xiaoyun's heart gradually grew cold as stone, and her flickering eyes were extinguished by a bucket of cold water poured over her head.
He released Pei Yu'an, had the servants take her back to settle in, and went to the edge of the steep cliff by himself.
The waterfall, with its splashing droplets, soaked his clothes; below lay a deep, frigid, and bottomless abyss.
Does she really not want to live anymore? Would she jump from such a height, even if it means being smashed to pieces?
Why? Because the baby is gone? Does she not want to live anymore?
She still refused to be with him and was determined to die.
He was dizzy and disoriented, and only by leaning against the stone wall could he stand up. He swallowed the metallic taste in his throat, and then suddenly remembered something and immediately called for help.
"Surround this mountain for me. Don't let any of the pilgrims, woodcutters, fishermen, or hunters on the mountain escape. Go door to door and conduct a thorough search."
Pei Yu'an is only three years old. Even if he can't lie, what he sees may well be a smokescreen by Ming Ying.
He wouldn't completely believe what a three-year-old child said.
She was cunning and scheming; he had fallen for her tricks before.
Never before had he closed his eyes in such sincere prayer, praying that she had run away again and was hiding somewhere in the mountains.
If she is still in the mountains, he will always be able to find her.
The roaring sound of the water pulled him back to reality. He stared at the damp, jagged rocks and the pitch-black, icy pool, his eyes stung as if pierced by a needle, and his brow throbbed violently.
"Send more people to the cold pool below to retrieve the fish. Also send people to Taiping Lake on the outskirts of the city and the ferry docks. Do not leave the fish anywhere else."
After issuing the order, he followed the road and went to the bottom of the cliff himself. Staring at the turbulent lake, Pei Yu'an's resolute words echoed in his ears, as if he could really see her leaping off the cliff.
Since her miscarriage, she has been mentally unstable, often shouting at night. On several occasions, she would pick up broken tiles, hide them in her palm, and stare at them blankly.
She is not fully recovered yet...
They fished at the bottom of the cold pool for a day and a night. A sudden rain fell, and Pei Xiaoyun stood still, guarding the spot, his face growing increasingly grim.
At this time, the subordinates who had been checking the people in the mountains returned and reported that they had not found any trace of her in the mountains, nor had any suspicious people come down the mountain. They had also checked the few farmhouses on the mountain and found that she was not hiding there.
He hesitated for a moment, then, unwilling to give up, he spoke in a hoarse voice: "Go again—"
"Master, we've made a discovery," the subordinate who was retrieving the item reported back.
Pei Xiaoyun's heart skipped a beat, her voice trembling as she asked, "What...did you discover?"
The subordinate showed him a pearl hairpin, which had just been retrieved from the bottom of the pool. One of the three pearls was missing, probably due to a violent impact from the rock wall that broke it apart.
Pei Xiaoyun gripped the hairpin tightly, the sharp shaft making his cold palms turn white.
These are the three pearls from the South China Sea that he obtained during the battle of Hangzhou. He used them to make this hair ornament for her and personally placed it in her hair.
Not being able to find someone is far more nerve-wracking than finding them.
They were nowhere to be found, neither alive nor dead.
"Continue." He leaned against the stone wall, his lips turning slightly purple from the cold.
She can swim, so even if she did jump in, there's a possibility she could swim away.
"The people on the mountain can leave now. Quickly send men to the city gates to thoroughly search any women traveling alone, and don't let any men go unchecked either. See if any are disguised as men or have their faces covered."
If she had actually swum ashore, his men would have assumed she had fallen into the water and would have rushed to the bottom of the cliff to retrieve her, thus missing their chance. She would probably no longer be on the mountain by now.
He truly hoped that she was still a living, breathing person, and that she was just lying to him again.
“The others—” He sighed deeply, looking at the empty, dark pool, knowing that nothing could be retrieved from there. He didn’t say a word, but it felt like a knife was cutting into his heart. “Go to Taiping Lake, the ferry crossing, and the dock to continue the search.”
We need to be prepared for both possibilities before we find her.
Whether they caught a living person in the city or pulled a corpse from the lake, he dared not think about the latter.
—
After descending the mountain, the two men escorting Mingying saw that her condition was not good and quickly carried her to the clinic.
This clinic is called Tongjitang.
The senior doctor who practices medicine is renowned far and wide, and he is quite skilled at treating snake bites.
He examined the wound and determined that the snake that bit Mingying was not highly venomous, but it should not be underestimated.
The old doctor stroked his beard and took out a heated silver needle: "Luckily, you were brought here early. I'll prick your skin with the needle, squeeze out the poisonous blood, and then give you this medicine, so it won't be life-threatening."
"Doctor, is applying the medicine not working?" one of the two men asked.
They were entrusted by the young master to meet the young lady in the capital. Even a grown man would frown at the sight of such a wound, let alone a young lady with delicate skin.
“That will work,” the doctor said. “Then you will recover faster. With the medicine applied, you will be able to get out of bed and walk around in two or three days.”
"I'm not afraid of pain." Mingying took a bowl of medicine and became more conscious. She had heard that applying the medicine required lying down for two or three days, which was definitely not going to work.
In this situation, every second counts, and there is no time to lose. She grabbed the doctor's hand and said, "Doctor, please begin."
Her tricks could only fool the servants temporarily. Once Pei Xiaoyun arrived, she would not escape his notice. If he realized what was happening and Feng Cheng came to arrest her, she would have no chance of escape.
The doctor nodded, respecting her wishes, and used the silver needle in his hand to pierce the blackened and swollen skin on her calf.
"Uh..." Mingying clenched her teeth, beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, and her fingernails dug into her palms.
No matter how much pain it causes, as long as I can leave, it's all worth it!
Soon, a clump of dark blood was squeezed into the basin. Fortunately, she tightly bound the wound with her skirt ribbon, and the toxins only accumulated in her right calf.
After squeezing out the toxic blood, the wound was cleaned with medicated wine and then the medicine was applied again. Half an hour later, the pain gradually subsided.
Mingying noticed that the wound was sometimes cold and sometimes hot, and she regained some sensation and was able to exert some strength.
She got off the bed and struggled to put on her shoes.
Upon seeing this, the doctor advised her, "Young lady, please lie down for a while longer. The remaining poison is still at the wound. If you get up too soon, it may cause chronic pain in the future."
Mingying put on her dried coat and casually tied her hair into a messy bun. She was determined to leave, as quickly as possible, as long as she could save her life.
"Brothers, thank you in advance." She looked at the two young men and bowed slightly. "My injuries are fine. We need to get out of the city as soon as possible, or we might not be able to leave."
If all this effort is wasted, many people will be implicated.
Pei Xiaoyun will go crazy again and take her anger out on many people.
“Miss, there’s no need for such formalities. If it weren’t for your saving our lives on the battlefield, we wouldn’t be where we are today. In that case, we have a travel permit here. Let’s leave the city as soon as possible.”
So the three of them, in a carriage, arrived at the city gate before dusk.
There were three times more soldiers at the city gate than before, and they were rigorously screening people leaving the city. People were queuing up to have their travel permits checked.
Mingying sat in the carriage and slightly lifted the curtain to look out. She saw a lone woman being detained by soldiers.
"Stop! Where are you going all by yourself?"
The young woman, trembling with fear, produced her travel permit: "My husband has passed away, and I am returning to Shanxi Prefecture for his funeral."
"Attending a funeral?" The soldiers found her suspicious, and noting that she looked young, was thin, and was traveling alone. They immediately confiscated her travel permit and detained her.
Mingying hurriedly lowered the curtain, her heart pounding like a drum.
The interrogation and detention of a lone woman must have been Pei Xiaoyun's order; how did he catch up so quickly?
If she leaves the city alone, she will undoubtedly be caught and brought back.
When it was their turn to bring their carriage, the soldiers checked their travel permits. After glancing at the names on the permits, one of them casually asked, "Are there three siblings?"
“That’s right, that’s right,” said the man driving the carriage, sitting outside. “My younger sister has contracted smallpox and nothing we do can cure her. She gets itchy all over when she’s exposed to light. I’m taking her to Luzhou to find a traveling doctor to treat her.”
The officers and soldiers dared not let the people go easily, so they lifted the curtain of the carriage and peeked inside.
Mingying lay on her side on the couch, covered with a tattered garment, occasionally letting out a weak cough.
The soldier felt uneasy about the contagious smallpox, but seeing that the three siblings behaved normally and their travel permits were correct, he raised his hand and let them leave.
The moment the carriage drove away from the city gate, the sound of horses' hooves came from behind, and an order was issued to close the city gate and arrest the thieves in the palace.
Mingying pinched her sweaty palms and listened to the heavy sound of the city gate closing behind her, and breathed a sigh of relief.
The carriage moved forward, with ancient roads and rolling green hills in the distance. The setting sun shone on us, bringing boundless warmth.
—
Pei Residence.
Pei Xiaoyun suffered from the poison three or four times and finished all the pills in the porcelain bottle before she felt a little better.
Every time I close my eyes, I see her image.
He felt a tightness in his chest, as if something was tearing and churning inside him, and he felt like he was about to vomit blood again.
Just then, a guard brought back the woman who had been detained at the city gate and came in to report.
"Master, we've detained a suspicious woman in the outer courtyard."
Pei Xiaoyun's knuckles tightened instantly. She gasped, a surge of heat rising in her chest. She rose from the armchair, knocking the pen holder on the table, and rushed out.
He said that she was cunning and wouldn't really try to kill herself!
He wanted to ask her why she did this, why she scared him so much that he couldn't sleep at night.
She's still sick, so she definitely doesn't really want to leave him. If she finds staying at the manor boring, he can take her out for a stroll tomorrow to relax.
He suppressed his excitement, thinking that when he saw her, he should talk to her properly and not force her to blame him. Otherwise, even if he found her this time, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't be able to find her again.
That unfathomable, icy pool was etched in his heart, like a bottomless pit, dragging him down.
Upon arriving at the courtyard, they indeed saw a woman standing in the center, her figure partially obscured by the latticework hanging from the corridor.
She had her back to him, her hair was disheveled, and she was slender. At first glance, he thought she looked a lot like Mingying.
She is Mingying.
He walked briskly towards her, took her arm, and exhaled the warm breath he had been holding in his chest: "Aying, why—"
The woman, who had been brought here, was clearly frightened. She shook off his hand, knelt down, and kowtowed: "My lord, please spare me! I really am going back to my hometown in Shanxi to attend my deceased husband's funeral. I am not a thief!"
Pei Xiaoyun's heart skipped a beat, and the blood that had been surging through her body just moments before instantly froze and cooled.
The voice wasn't as delicate or as gentle as hers.
He didn't even need to look at her face to know it wasn't her.
As if he had suddenly fallen from a high platform, feeling empty and helpless, he slumped down on the stone bench in the veranda.
This used to be her favorite spot; she would sit here and watch the flowers.
The woman was still kowtowing and begging for mercy. He rubbed his throbbing temples and summoned someone: "Bring some travel money and let her go."
The moon has its phases of waxing and waning.
The moon that was full yesterday is now a crescent tonight, unable to illuminate the shadows in the courtyard.
His eyes reflected the pomegranate blossoms she had planted, now in full bloom, and he felt as if he were floating on clouds.
Where is she?
—
In a quiet room in the east courtyard, the sound of a child sobbing could be heard.
Pei Yu'an has been making a fuss about finding his mother, and he hasn't stopped crying since he returned from Baima Temple.
She cried so much that she developed a high fever. She had just taken medicine, but she was still feeling cold all over. There was a pot of glowing red charcoal burning in the room.
Lu Xue, the personal maid, wrung out a hot towel to wipe her face, tucked the blanket around her, and gently comforted her, "Miss, don't be sad. She's a lucky girl, she'll be alright."
These maids, naturally, saw what they saw and immediately began to speculate that Miss Ming had lost her child, misrecovered, and, depressed, had jumped off a cliff to her death.
After all, during that period, many servants said she had gone mad.
The water at the bottom of that pool is so turbulent; it's been almost three days. Even if they manage to pull the person out, it's probably too late...
Miss Ming is too cruel. Miss is also her child. She committed suicide in front of Miss. How heartbroken Miss must be.
Although he thought this way, he couldn't say it out loud.
"Miss, please rest. The master is very resourceful; he might find the person by tomorrow morning."
Pei Yu'an's face was red from crying, and he mumbled between sobs, "Sister Luxue, I want the kite that Mother and Uncle taught me to make."
"Alright, I'll go get it." Lu Xue had taken care of her for three years, and seeing her young mistress like this, she couldn't help but tear up.
After Lu Xue left, Pei Yu'an stopped crying, but his tears flowed even more profusely.
She knew in her heart that her mother would not be coming back.
She saw it; her mother was running along that path, going to a new place and never coming back.
There were always words she couldn't understand on her kite, and she also heard what her mother and uncle were saying.
Mother wanted to leave because she didn't like Father.
She touched the small lock on her body, wondering if her mother liked her.
Wiping away tears with my palm, I felt a stinging pain in my eyes and saw Lu Xue's figure.
Lu Xue brought a kite and placed it beside her pillow, comforting her for half an hour. Seeing that she gradually calmed down and closed her eyes, she turned and left.
Pei Yu'an opened her eyes and stared at the kite for a long time. She remembered when her uncle taught her how to make kites, he would hold her and hold her hand to teach her to draw the eyes of a mountain eagle.
Uncle won't come back.
Mother won't come back either.
She lowered her hand, and the kite fell into the charcoal brazier. The flames engulfed the paper, burning everything to ashes.
—
For half a month, Pei Xiaoyun had barely closed her eyes; her eyes were dark and her face was gaunt.
That morning, he slept for a quarter of an hour, and in that quarter of an hour, he had a dream. He dreamt that Mingying fell into the lake and reached out her hand to him, begging him to save her.
He reached out to pull her, but before he could touch her fingertips, everything vanished, and he instantly woke up.
He didn't believe it; dreams are always the opposite of reality.
He dreamt that she fell into the water, which means she didn't fall into the water, but went somewhere else.
He couldn't find anyone alive in the city, so he ordered the city gates opened and waited at the gates to detain and question lone travelers, but none of them were her.
He sometimes goes to the shores of Taiping Lake to watch them take boats, dive, and even pole down to retrieve fish.
But he would often stand on the bridge for a while and then leave; he didn't want to stay any longer. You could say he was running away.
He was afraid he would actually see something with his own eyes.
If she can return to him safely, he will grant her any wish. If she doesn't want to get married, so be it. He will accompany her wherever she wants to go.
He had no interest in handling government affairs. When he returned to his residence, he heard a group of maids gathered under the moon gate talking about something.
"Miss had a fever all night, but it finally broke this morning." It was Lu Xue who spoke first.
"Poor thing, I can't understand why Miss Ming would jump off a cliff and commit suicide."
"Perhaps she was in poor health due to the miscarriage, and I don't know why she jumped down. She couldn't think straight!"
"It's strange, the fetus was perfectly fine, how could it suddenly miscarry?"
"It is said that the master did not want her. Miss Ming caused the master to lose the war in the past, and the master wanted to torture her to get revenge."
The maid who was speaking sensed a chilling aura approaching from behind, and her spine went cold. She turned around and saw Pei Xiaoyun standing behind her. She immediately knelt down and kowtowed, fearing for her life.
Some even slapped themselves, crying, "Sir, spare us! Sir, spare us! We were just being cheeky, we were just saying it casually!"
Pei Xiaoyun clenched his knuckles until they cracked, his eyes filled with a cold mist. Hearing these words, he felt not so much anger, but a heavy sense of guilt that gripped his entire body.
"Get out of here, all of you," he said coldly.
The maids, as if granted a pardon, fled in panic.
Silence fell around him, and he slumped down in the corridor, his body tense.
It wasn't just them; he'd heard a lot of rumors these past few days, saying that she lost her child, couldn't understand it, couldn't bear the torment, and found an opportunity to jump off a cliff to commit suicide.
child.
It wasn't that he didn't want children, nor did he intend to retaliate against her.
All of this was something he hadn't anticipated.
He dared not close his eyes, for if he did, he would see her screaming in pain after her miscarriage and crying for help as she fell into the water.
If a few days ago he still had some confidence that he could find her and thought she had run away, then the lack of news over the past few days has completely shattered his last hope.
Why can't we find him? Could he really have sunk to the bottom of the water?
He got up and stumbled towards the east courtyard to visit his daughter.
Pei Yu'an's fever subsided, and he was fed by a maid. He slowly swallowed a few mouthfuls of porridge, and when he saw Pei Xiaoyun come in, he kicked off the round stool and grabbed his arm: "Father, have you found Mother?"
Pei Xiaoyun paused for a few moments, then lifted her back onto the stool, took the bowl from the maid, and fed her porridge. "Soon, I will find her. Don't cry anymore. Eat your food."
He looked at the pair of eyes that resembled hers, then quickly looked away, his words laced with unspoken ambiguity.
He touched her forehead; it was no longer burning hot, and her fever had indeed subsided. He then gave her a few more instructions, telling her to eat well, and that he would bring her mother back.
As I was leaving, I noticed a pool of ashes in the charcoal brazier and asked her, "What was that burning?"
"My kite accidentally fell in."
Pei Yu'an wiped away her tears with her small hands.
Pei Xiaoyun suddenly thought of the day they sat in the pavilion making kites, and a dull ache rose in her heart.
This kite might have a special meaning for her.
She must be very sad that the kite was burned.
He looked at her and said slowly, "But you still have the lock your mother gave you, don't you?"
She left something for her daughter, but nothing for him, not a single word or phrase. She left quietly and heartlessly, and he didn't even know if she was alive or dead.
Pei Yu'an seemed to remember something, touched the lock, and tears dripped onto it.
Pei Xiaoyun stared at her lock, stunned for a moment, when suddenly a flurry of footsteps came from outside the door.
"Master, we...we've retrieved a female corpse. The body had been submerged in the water for a long time and was no longer recognizable as human, but it seems that we can still identify her by her clothing."
Upon hearing the news, Pei Xiaoyun choked on her breath and suddenly bumped into a pear wood side table, causing several vases on it to crash to her feet.
His usually steady steps were hurried and disordered; from the house to the courtyard, he could clearly see the stripes on every stone brick.
In the courtyard, there was a wooden frame with a white cloth covering the corpse. In the summer heat, and after being soaked in water for so many days, the skin of the corpse's dangling hand had turned an abnormal purplish-green and had swelled up.
He dared not lift the white cloth, but stared at the half-drooping hem of the dress and recognized it as the clothes she had worn that day.
The white hem of the skirt was so glaring.
The pleated skirt petals were like sharp knives, piercing his heart.
He was poisoned again, but this time he felt no pain at all, and didn't even notice that a few drops of black blood were flowing from the corner of his mouth.
Pei Yu'an followed him out. He heard her shrill, violent cries, forced himself to calm down, and turned to order the servants, "Quickly take the young lady away."
She had already witnessed her own fall off the cliff and couldn't bear to see such a scene again.
Pei Yu'an was carried away by a maid. Only when the crying faded into the distance did Pei Xiaoyun reach out her trembling hand and slowly lift the white cloth.
The skin beneath the white cloth was swollen and rotting from being soaked in the water. Perhaps it had hit sand and rocks while floating on the lake bottom, leaving it unrecognizable. Not a single piece of good flesh was visible, and black hair was mixed in with the blood and flesh, making it a horrifying sight and emitting a foul stench.
Everyone present changed their expressions drastically, frowning and backing away.
Pei Xiaoyun moved closer and closer, staring at the misshapen face for a long time, calmly admiring it as if she were appreciating an object.
It's her, but it doesn't seem like it's her.
After an unknown amount of time, he calmly closed the white cloth, his face seemingly unaffected. Suddenly, he bent over slightly, coughed up a mouthful of blood, which slowly dripped onto the white cloth, and then everything went black.
"Master, Master, please accept our condolences!" Several people stepped forward to help him up.
Pei Xiaoyun pushed those people away, her eyes flashing with a flickering madness, and questioned them: "How could she look like this? She doesn't look like this! This isn't her! You dare to try and fool me with some other corpse? Are you all tired of living?!"
“Master, we’ve searched the entire moat, and we only found this one body.” The subordinate explained with a forced smile. “The body sank in the direction of the White Horse Temple. The coroner did a rough examination, and the time matches up.”
"This isn't her! This isn't her!" Pei Xiaoyun kept repeating this sentence no matter how they explained.
How could she have ended up lying here so quietly, looking like this, completely unlike herself?
No one had ever seen him so out of control, and no one dared to step forward to persuade him. They could only watch as he stood there, frozen in place, guarding a rotting corpse.
"Kong Qing." Pei Xiaoyun suddenly called out to the person beside her, pointing to the corpse, "You know her well, look, is this her?"
Kong Qing didn't know how to answer. He was certain in his heart that this was Miss Ming, but he dared not say it outright: "This subordinate...this subordinate did not know."
Pei Xiaoyun seemed to have received a satisfactory answer, and suddenly revealed a cold smile, "You also think it's not her, right?"
-----------------------
Author's note: He's gone mad! [rainbow emoji][rainbow emoji]
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