Chapter 92 Dead
The next morning, Fu Yunxiu was awakened by a commotion.
The hangover from last night left him with a splitting headache, and in his dazed state, he couldn't even tell where he was.
"Mantou, who's making noise outside?"
The door was suddenly pushed open, and blinding sunlight streamed in, making it impossible to open one's eyes.
Fu Yunxiu instinctively raised his hand to block, and in the blurry shadows, he only saw a woman's figure walking towards him.
"Aman," Fu Yunxiu struggled to his feet and almost staggered toward the figure. After seeing who it was, Fu Yunxiu immediately became more and more sober.
His eyes betrayed his undisguised disappointment. "What are you doing here?"
"Fu Yunxiu," Shen Jiao was angered by his cold attitude and became increasingly hysterical, "I'm asking you, what gives you the right to cancel the wedding?"
“Miss Shen,” Fu Yunxiu took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, “our marriage was originally a transaction. Besides, wasn’t it you and your siblings who schemed against me first?”
"You...you knew all along?" Shen Jiao felt guilty, but this only made Fu Yunxiu more certain of his thoughts.
"As expected?" Fu Yunxiu gave a wry smile.
He said that Shen Yan was always upright and honest, so why would he make a fuss about his sister's marriage because of court affairs? Moreover, when he found out that he had someone he loved, he was very happy for him. Why would he suddenly put pressure on him to marry Shen Jiao?
He was too busy rescuing Fu Yunting to grasp the key points, but yesterday, Fu Yunting wrote to say that despite investigating his case, they still couldn't find who was trying to frame him. He also heard that the Emperor had long wanted to take action against the Left Prime Minister, so this case presented a perfect opportunity.
To others, this might seem like a lucky accident, but Fu Yunxiu felt that someone had deliberately set up this scheme to bring down the Left Prime Minister.
If the one who sets up the strategy is the Emperor, then the one who wields the pieces must be Shen Yan. Among all the students, he specifically chose Fu Yunting, not only because Fu Yunting was the third young master of the Marquis's mansion, but also because Fu Yunting was his own younger brother.
So this game was twofold: on one hand, to bring down the Left Prime Minister, and on the other hand, to force him to submit. It's his own fault for being so preoccupied with his own concerns that he failed to see the true nature of the game from beginning to end.
"You're bluffing me?" Shen Jiao's eyes widened in anger.
"So what if it is?" Fu Yunxiu sneered. "Compared to what you siblings have done, what I've done is nothing but a drop in the ocean." One of them played the bad cop to put pressure on him, while the other played the good cop to circumvent things from the side. What a clever tactic!
"Fu Yunxiu, stop beating around the bush. I'll just ask you, do you really want to call off this engagement?"
Shen Jiao had been confined to her residence for several days, and after finally managing to sneak out, she immediately came to Yongzhou. Therefore, she was still unaware that their marriage had been annulled, and that it had been approved by the Emperor.
"Yes," Fu Yunxiu answered decisively.
Seeing Fu Yunxiu's ruthlessness, Shen Jiao suddenly grinned maliciously, "Fu Yunxiu, are you really going to give up the marriage alliance with my General's Mansion for such a slut? What if I told you that slut is already dead?"
"What did you say? Impossible! Aman won't die, she won't die!" Fu Yunxiu subconsciously denied.
"Hahahaha," seeing his terrified and bewildered appearance, Shen Jiao laughed even more brightly, "How is it impossible? Falling off such a high cliff, even a god wouldn't survive."
"A mere concubine dares to steal my man, and you blame me for being heartless... uh..." Shen Jiao was pressed against the wall by Fu Yunxiu, whose hands were like iron clamps, tightly gripping her neck, and no matter how she struggled, she could not escape.
"Tell me, where is she?" Fu Yunxiu's eyes were bloodshot, his gaze almost bursting.
"I told you... she's dead. If you don't believe me... you can go to the Cliff of Return to look for her... maybe you can still find her." The hand gripping her neck tightened, and Shen Jiao's face turned bluish-purple, her consciousness gradually fading.
Just at this critical moment, Mantou broke free from the restraints of Shen Jiao's servant and rushed in, "Young master, young master."
Mantou grabbed Fu Yunxiu around the waist and pulled him away, allowing Shen Jiao to breathe. She then clutched her neck and coughed violently.
"Mantou, don't stop me." Fu Yunxiu struggled incessantly. "I'm going to kill her, I'm going to kill her."
"Young master, young master, please calm down." Mantou looked at the guards who were following closely behind him. "Quickly, take your young lady away, hurry up."
The guards hurriedly led Shen Jiao away, and Fu Yunxiu, as if all his strength had been released, collapsed to the ground, muttering repeatedly, "Impossible, impossible, she must be lying to me, Aman wouldn't do that."
Mantou also heard what Shen Jiao said.
Like Fu Yunxiu, he also didn't believe that Aman was dead.
"Find it, send people to find it, go to Turn Back Cliff, go to Turn Back Cliff."
Huitou Cliff is located west of Yongzhou, an area characterized by towering mountains, sheer cliffs, and deep valleys. Huitou Cliff is the highest and most precipitous of all these cliffs, and anyone who falls from it has virtually no chance of survival. Therefore, most people who reach this point choose to turn back and return the way they came, hence the name Huitou Cliff (meaning "Turning Back Cliff").
That place was in a remote location. Although there were other houses nearby, it was sparsely populated. How could Aman have gone there?
But Shen Jiao spoke with such conviction and certainty that Fu Yunxiu had no choice but to believe her.
"Young master, we've investigated. This cliff is at least eighteen zhang high. If someone falls off, it's estimated..."
“Don’t talk nonsense,” Mantou interrupted the guard captain. “You all look around carefully, and I’ll go into the village with the young master to ask around.”
There are also fields near this cliff. If Aman really came here, perhaps someone will have seen him.
The master and servant walked along the main road into the village. Before they reached the village entrance, they encountered someone returning from the fields.
"Uncle, may I ask if you've seen any unfamiliar faces in the village recently?" Mantou asked as he stepped forward.
“A stranger,” the old man scratched his head, thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Oh, I don’t remember. Go ask the woman at the village entrance. She’s good at asking questions. You can’t go wrong asking her.”
"Thank you, sir. I'm sorry to bother you."
Following the old man's directions, the two arrived at the first house at the village entrance. Knocking on the door, a woman of about thirty, holding a child, asked with a rather displeased tone, "What do you need?"
"Hello, sister-in-law. We'd like to ask if any unfamiliar faces have been seen in the village recently?"
"Why are you asking about this?" The woman looked him up and down. Mantou instantly understood what she meant, took out a string of coins from his pocket and stuffed it into her hand. "Thank you for your trouble, sister-in-law."
"Oh dear, how could I accept this?" Upon seeing the money, the woman grinned from ear to ear. "Let me tell you, you've come to the right place. There's nothing in this village that I don't know."
"Da Ya, we have a guest. Bring out your father's tea and boil some hot tea."
Mantou wanted to say no, they were just there to gather some information, but the woman was so enthusiastic that the two had no choice but to sit down in the courtyard.
“My husband’s surname is Fan, so you can just call me Sister-in-law Fan. Speaking of new faces, quite a few have come to the village recently,” the woman recalled. “The earliest ones probably started about five days ago.”
She remembered that five days ago, she and several other women went to the river to wash clothes, and from a distance they saw something lying on the riverbank. When they went over to take a look, they found it was a woman.
"The woman was lying there, and it was unclear whether she was breathing or not. It was Aunt Wan who was brave enough to go over and turn her over. That woman was really lucky; I heard she floated down from upstream."
"And then what happened?" Mantou asked.
"And then?" Sister-in-law Fan thought for a moment, "Then that woman was taken away by the widow who lived in the thatched house at the end of the village. It seems that the two knew each other."
“Take a look, is the woman you’re talking about her?” Fu Yunxiu took out a portrait of Aman from his pocket.
Sister-in-law Gu examined it carefully, feeling that it resembled something, yet also feeling that it didn't.
And isn't the man in this painting the same one standing right in front of us?
Sister-in-law Gu couldn't help but chime in, "Young master, this girl is the one you've been longing for."
“She is my wife,” Fu Yunxiu said.
In an instant, Sister-in-law Gu conjured up a dramatic scene in her mind. A wealthy young man wanted to marry a woman from a poor family, but his family objected and tried to separate them, leading the woman to jump into the river. Luckily, she survived.
In that instant, Sister-in-law Gu remembered something else, "Oh right, the night before last, soldiers came to search for this girl, and they also brought a portrait, but it didn't look this similar."
"Soldiers?" Fu Yunxiu frowned.
Sister-in-law Gu pondered her explanation, "They weren't exactly soldiers, but they were all dressed the same. All in black and wearing masks, it was quite frightening."
"Have they found it?" Fu Yunxiu asked.
"Well... I don't know. I went to my parents' house that day, and I only heard about it from the villagers the next day."
Fu Yunxiu could no longer sit still. If he guessed correctly, the soldiers that Sister-in-law Gu mentioned were probably Shen Jiao's men.
"Where is that widow you mentioned? Take me there quickly," Fu Yunxiu said.
"This..." Sister-in-law Gu hesitated. Mantou thought that the money was too little, so she took out her money bag from her bosom.
“It’s not about the money,” Sister-in-law Gu looked around and said mysteriously, “You don’t know, there’s an evil spirit in that widow’s house.”
Fu Yunxiu frowned.
"It's true, I heard she cursed her husband to death, was kicked out by her in-laws, and had a sickly child. Anyway, everyone in the village avoids her." As for why they still let her live in the village, it's because they really felt sorry for her as a widow and orphan.
Despite saying that, Sister-in-law Gu had already taken the money and soon took Mantou and the other person to the widow's house she had mentioned.
The renovated thatched house, though not new, was fairly clean. Various vegetables were planted in the yard, and several pairs of baby diapers were hanging on the railing.
The fence gate was open, and Fu Yunxiu pushed it open and went inside, but there was no one there.
"At this hour, she's probably gone to town again. Her child gets sick every few days," said Sister Gu.
Everything inside the house seemed normal, and nothing seemed amiss. Fu Yunxiu came out of the house, and the head guard in charge of searching the cliff suddenly ran over, "Young Master, we found this about two zhang below the cliff."
The red veil, like scalding blood, burned Fu Yunxiu's heart. He reached out several times, then withdrew his hand each time, afraid of seeing a bad outcome.
Seeing his hesitation, Mantou said, "Young master, why don't I take a look first?"
Aman takes out his veil to air it every year, so he is familiar with it.
"No need." Fu Yunxiu finally made up his mind, took the veil from the head guard and unfolded it.
The veil, torn by tree branches, still bears traces of dark red blood upon closer inspection. The mandarin ducks playing in the water on it remain exquisitely crafted, and the eyes of the ducks are embroidered with remarkable realism.
“My grandma is incredibly skilled with her hands. She can embroider any animal so vividly, especially the eyes, which look so lifelike. Even the best embroiderers in the capital praised her for her beautifully embroidered eyes.”
The pride Aman showed when she said those words is now replaced by the sorrow Fu Yunxiu feels when he looks at this veil.
"Aman, Aman!" Fu Yunxiu pressed the veil tightly against her chest and slumped to one side, but fortunately Mantou caught her quickly. "Young master, don't be too sad. There are plenty of veils with mandarin ducks. This veil may not necessarily belong to Aman."
“Yes, you’re right, it’s not necessarily Aman.” Fu Yunxiu, with his last bit of strength, suddenly ran out of the village like a madman.
On the cliff face, the other guards were still searching for clues. Upon seeing him, one immediately stepped forward to report, "Young Master, we just tied ropes and went down the cliff to search. Besides this veil, we also saw many broken tree branches; it seems someone did indeed fall. Moreover, the bottom of the cliff is densely forested, and we suspect there are wild animals. Young Master, Young Master!"
Before the guard could finish speaking, Fu Yunxiu had already tied a rope around his waist and was about to descend the cliff despite everyone's attempts to stop him.
"Young master, you can't go down there, it's too dangerous." Mantou and the head guard held him back, refusing to let him go down.
"Don't worry about me, Aman is still down there, I need to find her, I need to find her."
"Young master, please calm down."
"How can I stay calm? She's Aman, she's my wife! Let me go, I need to go down and find her. She'll be scared down there all alone." Seeing Fu Yunxiu so agitated, Mantou disregarded everything else and secretly gave the head guard a wink.
The head guard understood, and with a swift chop, the world finally fell silent.
"Six and Seven are responsible for escorting the young master back to the Marquis's residence. The rest of you continue the search." After giving the instructions, Mantou called the head guard aside and said, "Look for a way down to the bottom of the cliff."
He didn't believe that Aman had really fallen off the cliff, but everything before him seemed to indicate Aman's death.
Having gone without food or water for two consecutive days, and having endured such an ordeal, he was utterly devastated. Doctor Guo said that Fu Yunxiu's body was now at its limit; if he didn't rest properly, he might develop a chronic illness. Therefore, he prescribed a large amount of sedatives for Fu Yunxiu, which caused him to sleep for two days straight.
Meanwhile, Mantou hadn't been idle these past two days. The soldiers found a way down to the bottom of the cliff, and there were indeed fresh bloodstains there, but no bodies were to be found. It was estimated that the bodies had been devoured by wild beasts that came out to hunt at night.
As for the widow from out of town, Mantou didn't find out much, only that her surname was Chen and that she lived there with a child. Strangely, Madam Chen had also disappeared; no one knew where she had gone.
None of the women who washed clothes by the river that day could definitively say that the woman was Aman; they only gave vague answers like "looked like" or "approximately like." Furthermore, no one knew whether the woman ultimately escaped or was forced off the cliff by those people.
Perhaps, Aman is still alive.
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