Chapter 114 Madam Xu, who disregarded the traditional virtues of obedience, submission, and chastity.
With this lead, Shen Wen's investigation quickly focused on the Xu family's kiln workshop near Shili Pavilion outside the capital.
When Li Jin arrived, the kiln owner, accompanied by several maids, stood at the door and curtsied: "If you've come to see my husband, Xu Liangcai, then you're too late."
"He hurriedly packed his bags the day before yesterday, saying he was going to Yangzhou to discuss business, and he has been gone for two days."
Li Jin glanced at the female owner of the earthen kiln, peeked into the empty courtyard, and asked with some doubt, "Is the kiln business closed down?"
The woman in front of me shook her head helplessly: "I'm not doing it anymore, I can't keep doing it."
"If it's already unsustainable, why bother talking about business?"
The woman fell silent, her lips pressed tightly together, as if there were some unspeakable words she had forced down her throat.
Seeing this, Zhou Zheng stepped forward and raised the black dragon plaque from the Six Doors: "The Six Doors are handling this case, and we hope you will cooperate, young lady."
But the woman in front of him remained unmoved. After a long while, she said, "I am just a woman. I don't know what the Six Doors are or what kind of case you are handling. If you have nothing else to do, please forgive me for not keeping you company."
After saying that, she called to the maid beside her and turned to walk inside.
"Young lady," Li Jin said, watching her retreating figure, "do you know Yingge?"
The woman in front of him paused for a moment, her steps faltering, but only for a moment. She didn't turn around, didn't speak, and acted as if she hadn't heard him, continuing forward.
“She’s dead.” Li Jin’s voice rose a little. “She died two months ago, under your husband Xu Liangcai’s bed.”
Sunlight filtered through the large jujube tree beside him, falling on him, dappled patterns of light rippling gently in the breeze. Li Jin stood with his hands clasped, head tilted slightly back.
The woman stopped in front of the door, slowly turned around, and looked at him with disbelief.
"She's dead?" she asked in surprise.
To be honest, Jin Shu didn't understand why the woman in front of her didn't show any emotion when she heard that her husband might be the murderer.
But he became exceptionally focused when he heard news about his lover.
The kiln fire had been extinguished for who knows how long, and the courtyard was empty and deserted.
The group followed her, passing through the hundred-meter-long kiln area, stepping through the moon gate, turning past the screen wall, and standing in front of the Xu family compound.
“Xu Liangcai doesn’t come back often,” she said. “The whole family depends on me and my two concubines.”
“Even the factory outside, I’m actually the only one supporting it.” She gave a bitter laugh as she looked back at the three people behind her. “He’s out there, living a carefree life, fooling around with that Yingge.”
As she stepped across the threshold of the main courtyard, she raised her arm slightly, and the maids around her immediately bowed in understanding, bringing out basins of water for everyone to wash their hands and sit down.
“I am illiterate and have never been to school, so I really don’t know anything about the Six Doors. I have offended you. But you said that Yingge is dead, and it was a case you were handling, so it must be related to the Three Judicial Offices.”
She sat on the octagonal chair in the main hall, leaving the seat next to her to Li Jin.
“The Six Doors are the Three Judicial Offices,” Li Jin said, lifting the hem of his robe as he sat down opposite her.
"Then..." the woman paused, "...is Yingge really dead?"
“He’s dead.” Taking the tea from the side, Li Jin said, “He died two months ago.”
The woman nodded knowingly, looking relieved, and sighed, "Good riddance, good riddance..."
Her heartfelt praise startled Li Jin, who was blowing on the foam on her tea.
He glanced at the woman out of the corner of his eye, and asked calmly and casually, "What's so good about it?"
Looking at the woman's slightly pleased profile, Li Jin and Jin Shu roughly guessed that this was a melodramatic love triangle.
But when the girl said those words, all the speculation about a love triangle crumbled into dust.
Li Jin thought he had misheard, and Jin Shu and Zhou Zheng also looked shocked, their eyebrows raised high.
"If possible, I urge Your Excellency to arrest Xu Liangcai and bring him to justice as soon as possible, so as to comfort Yingge's soul."
Li Jin, who was holding the tea, was stunned for a long time before asking in surprise, "Is Xu Liangcai really your husband, and the head of Xu's Porcelain Company?"
“No.” The woman looked disgusted. “He is my husband, but Xu’s porcelain can be made without him.”
The woman in front of him took a deep breath and calmed herself down: "To be honest, sir, two months ago, Xu Liangcai was having a huge fight with the manor because of that Yingge girl."
She picked up her teacup and took a sip: "I have agreed to let Miss Yingge become my concubine. This is the biggest concession I, as the head mistress, can make to a 'performer' who sells her body and her art and has a bad reputation."
"Hmph." She sneered, "But Miss Yingge is clearly a woman of skill."
Setting down her teacup, she pointed to the entire Xu family compound before her: "The condition she set for Xu Liangcai's marriage was that she would be the mistress and I would be the concubine."
The woman in front of him, exuding an air of dominance, smiled with narrowed eyes as she looked at Li Jin beside her: "Therefore, the family was thrown into chaos."
“Normally, I give him money when he asks for it. He goes to brothels to keep entertainers. As long as he doesn’t bother me, I don’t care,” she said. “A woman’s life isn’t solely about men. Luckily, I don’t understand the traditional virtues of obedience to men. If I were as obedient to him as my two concubines, I don’t know what this brothel would have become.”
Jin Shu truly admired this domineering woman who disregarded traditional virtues.
Although illiterate, she has clearly lived a life of her own.
Li Jin was silent for a moment, then asked, "Then why did you extinguish the kiln fire and dismiss the workers?"
The woman gave a bitter smile and waved her hand: "Two months ago, he suddenly came back and said that he had severed ties with Yingge and would live a good life with his family from now on."
"The first thing he did was move his whole family." The woman took a deep breath. "At the time, I thought he had turned over a new leaf, but now I think he must have committed such an unforgivable crime and wanted to run away."
She turned to look at Li Jin and said seriously, "I'll have to trouble you, sir, to bring this villain to justice as soon as possible, so that my family won't have to live in constant fear, worrying about when he might sneak back."
The slyness on his face, intertwined with barely concealed joy, truly opened the eyes of all three of them.
I really never expected that such a thing could happen in the world.
Afterwards, Li Jin asked for a few places that Xu Liangcai might go before bidding farewell to Madam Xu.
Upon returning to the Six Doors, he almost immediately handed the clues to Shen Wen, only to be hastily blocked by Bai Yu.
He glanced at Jin Shu and gestured for Li Jin to go aside and talk.
"Your Highness," Bai Yu bowed, "intelligence has come from the palace..."
He lowered his voice and said, "On the day of the Mid-Summer Festival, Princess Li Qian wanted to go on a trip and insisted that His Majesty make Mr. Jin his bodyguard."
Li Jin didn't take it seriously, fiddling with the fan in his hand: "It's alright, let her make a fuss. His Majesty won't let her get so close to a coroner."
As soon as he finished speaking, Bai Yu looked troubled: "...His Majesty has agreed."
With a click, the blade of Li Jin's iron fan pinched his own hand. He looked up, shocked, at Bai Yu: "You agreed?!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
