Chapter 75: The Corpse
Xun Shu glanced past Li Xuanhe and caught sight of the bare feet jutting from the bed curtains. She averted her gaze and nodded gently, "Then I'll take a look outside. Maybe I'll find something."
Li Xuanhe took a few steps forward and lifted the bed curtain, and finally saw the eldest son of Pingyang Marquis, his elder brother.
He and his brother had an ordinary relationship and were not close, so he did not make a special effort to visit him after returning to Beijing. He did not expect that the first meeting between the two brothers after more than half a year would turn out like this.
He is standing, neatly dressed, the person handling the case; he is lying on the bed with his eyes wide open, naked, the victim in this case.
Bedding was piled haphazardly, and a corpse lay face-up amidst it, its eyes slightly open, pupils dilated, lips half-parted. Naked, its body was mottled with marks, staining its skin, hair, and bedding. Li Xuanhe grasped the corpse's jaw, but the joints were already stiff, requiring considerable effort to pry it open. It was obvious that the body had been dead for some time, yet it was discovered only at dawn.
There was no foreign object found in the body's mouth, nor were there any wounds on the body. Li Xuanhe remembered his master had mentioned this type of death, and a vague answer dawned on him.
Elsewhere, Xun Shu also scanned the rest of the room. Aside from the cups and empty bowls on the table, she found nothing suspicious. Puzzled, she couldn't help but ask, "If you weren't in the room, why did the servants invite guests in?"
"Few people in the mansion would come to the courtyard looking for me, but if you really think about it, everyone is my elder, so leaving them waiting in the courtyard is obviously inappropriate." Li Xuanhe put the bed curtains in place, turned around, walked a few steps to Xun Shu, and stopped. "The important things are stored in the study. This room only has some ordinary things, which are not afraid of being seen or damaged. So I told the servants that if someone insists on waiting for me in the courtyard, please come and rest in this room. When I went out with you last night, I didn't expect to return to the Dali Temple. The people in the courtyard only thought I would be back later, but they didn't expect me to be gone all night."
Xun Shu muttered, "We should have left someone waiting in the room. If there was someone else in the room, these two wouldn't..."
"Originally, there would have been people staying to serve, but I guess it was my eldest brother who drove them away. My eldest brother has an impatient temper and acts quite domineeringly in the mansion. If he doesn't allow people to stay in the house, who would dare to disobey him?"
There were no more clues in the room. Li Xuanhe called Chi Xiao into the house and ordered him to dismiss everyone. He also temporarily detained Jiang Lanxin in an empty room in the yard.
The yard was sealed off and no one was allowed to approach. All cases had to wait for the arrival of the Dali Temple officials before being dealt with.
While waiting for the people from the Dali Temple to arrive, Li Xuanhe and Xun Shu went to the place where Qin Lanxin was imprisoned.
The vacant room had been unoccupied for a long time, lacking a touch of life, but compared to an ordinary house, it was clean and comfortable. After all, she was the second daughter of the Qin family. Although she was inextricably linked to the death of Li Xuanhou, the son of Pingyang Marquis, she could not be held like a criminal. It was appropriate to place her here.
When the two entered the room, Qin Lanxin was already fully dressed and sitting on a chair by the window, her back to the light. Her brows were lowered, her hands tightly clutching a handkerchief, and she was trembling. When she heard the noise and looked up, she saw Li Xuanhe and Xun Shu entering the room. The light in her eyes flashed and then went out completely.
Li Xuanhe leaned against the Duobao Pavilion by the door, standing with his arms folded. He did not approach Qin Lanxin, but his eyes were fixed on her, not missing any of her expressions.
"Tell me, what happened last night."
Qin Lanxin froze, not knowing where to begin. She could only repeat the few words of her defense: "I didn't kill anyone. I didn't kill the prince."
This was like her only remaining life-saving straw, and she held on to it tightly, as if it was her last hope.
Li Xuanhe had no patience for her repetitive chatter and interrupted, "Qin Lanxin, the palace has just sent someone to report to the authorities. It won't be long before the Jingzhao Prefecture sends someone. The murder of the Pingyang Marquis's son is a serious case, and the Jingzhao Prefect may come in person. He's always been at odds with your father, and if he seizes this opportunity, he'll make things difficult for you or your father." He raised his eyebrows slightly, a sharp glint in his eyes. "As I said just now, the murder of the Pingyang Marquis's son is a serious case, which means the Dali Temple can seize the case. If I oversee this case, no matter what the outcome, you will be spared physical pain, and the Qin family will remain respectable. What do you think?"
How could Qin Lanxin not know that what he said was true? But there were some things she couldn't tell Li Xuanhe! She clenched her handkerchief into a ball, hesitated for a moment, and said hoarsely, "Send someone else...Send someone else from the Dali Temple, and I'll tell him what happened last night."
Li Xuanhe didn't compromise. "Qin Lanxin, I'm not trying to negotiate with you. It's getting late. Either you tell me everything that happened last night, or you can go to the Jingzhao prison and tell me."
Qin Lanxin's eyes were filled with tears, and she looked extremely pitiful. Li Xuanhe became increasingly impatient when he saw her like this, and sneered, "It seems that Miss Qin wants to see what the Jingzhao Prefecture prison looks like. Ah Shu, let's go."
After saying that, he pulled Xun Shu to leave. Before he reached the door, he heard Qin Lanxin's crying voice: "Wait! I said..."
Qin Lanxin took a deep breath, suppressed the embarrassment and humiliation in her heart, and told the whole story.
"Last night, I brought a bowl of sweet osmanthus and lotus seed soup from Baifulou to look for you, but I saw only a maid in the courtyard, and the door was closed. I thought you weren't there, so I was about to leave and wait for you to come back, but the maid said you were inside and told me to go straight in. I entered the room, but to my surprise, it wasn't you who was inside, but the prince. I chatted with him for a few words, and he saw the sweet soup I brought and snatched it away to eat... After that, he suddenly seemed to go crazy, took off his clothes, and then took off my clothes... I shouted loudly, but no one in the courtyard answered, as if everyone had left... And then I was... I was..."
Qin Lanxin lowered her head, wishing she could bury it in her chest. Her shoulders trembled like butterfly wings, and her sobs became more and more obvious.
The maid in his courtyard asked her to come in and wait. Li Xuanhe looked thoughtful and said, "Do you remember what that maid looked like?"
"It was dark, and the maid kept her head down, so I couldn't see her clearly. I just thought she looked quite thin. If I saw her again, I would probably recognize her."
"Okay, I'll have all the servants in the courtyard go to the veranda in a moment, and I'll have Miss Qin Er go and identify it." Li Xuanhe paused for a moment and continued, "You said that big brother suddenly went crazy after drinking the sweet soup? Did you put anything in the sweet soup?"
Born in the Pingyang Marquisate, Li Xuanhe had heard and witnessed countless dirty tricks used by the imperial harem since childhood, such as using drugs that incite virility to force marriages. There were men forcing women, and women forcing men. He knew the Qin family wanted Qin Lanxin to marry him, and that Qin Lanxin had some affection for him. So, mid-sentence, he wondered if she had added such drugs to the sweet soup. To his surprise, Qin Lanxin flatly denied it: "I brought that bowl of sweet soup back from Baifulou myself. I've eaten it myself, and there's nothing in it. The empty bowl is in your room now. If you don't believe me, take it and test it."
Li Xuanhe stared at her for a long moment, finding her expression somewhat odd, but not as if she were lying about this matter. He looked away and admitted his mistake without hesitation: "I'll have someone investigate this matter. If I misunderstood you, I will definitely apologize."
Qin Lanxin bit her lip lightly. Although her clothes were neatly arranged, she felt as if she had been stripped naked and thrown into the crowd, being scrutinized and ridiculed by others...but this person was the one she loved.
When had she ever suffered such humiliation in her life?
Looking at her, Xun Shu was somehow reminded of the girls from Ningyuan Village who were taken into Wei Wulang's mansion. Those girls, ostensibly bullied by Wei Wulang and losing their innocence, were then disliked by their families and forced to enter the Wei residence. How was Qin Lanxin's current situation any different? If the Crown Prince hadn't died, Qin Lanxin would have been forced into the mansion as a concubine, too. But now that he was dead, what would she do? The girls from Ningyuan Village used the cover of entering the Wei residence to live the life they wanted. But what about Qin Lanxin? What kind of life did she want? Would she have a second chance?
Xun Shu's eyes flashed with pity, which Li Xuanhe noticed. He pondered for a moment and then said, "I will investigate this case thoroughly. If it has nothing to do with you or the Qin family, the Pingyang Marquisate will certainly give you an explanation. I have one last question: who knew you came to see me yesterday?"
"Yesterday, after I returned home with the sweet soup, I went to my sister's courtyard first, and then to yours. In my sister's courtyard, I ran into the housekeeper, the old lady's maid, and many others... I hadn't kept it a secret that I was looking for you; many people knew about it. Now that you're asking me, I can't tell you everything at once."
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After receiving Li Xuanhe's letter, Li Song quickly rushed to Pingyang Marquis Mansion with a team of people to inspect the scene.
While the Dali Temple staff were busy, Chi Xiao gathered all the servants in the courtyard and lined them up under the eaves, allowing Qin Lanxin to identify them one by one through the window. After everyone had passed by the window, Qin Lanxin shook her head and said softly, "There's no one I saw last night. The person I saw last night was smaller than all of them."
This answer was beyond everyone's expectations. Chi Xiao asked her to identify it repeatedly. After confirming that it was correct, he reported the result to Li Xuanhe and added, "Master, is she lying?"
"I don't know." Li Xuanhe sat at the stone table in Xun Shu's courtyard, his fingers tapping unconsciously. "Is the investigation of Li Song's scene completed? Has the coroner arrived?"
"We've arrived and are examining the body. Lord Li brought along several experts who are skilled in identifying drugs. They've carefully examined the remaining tea in the teapot and the remaining soup, and have reached a conclusion. Miss Qin didn't lie about this matter. The soup was indeed pure, but the tea was laced with an extremely potent poison. If the dosage is not controlled correctly, it could render the user incapable of sexual activity or cause a yang explosion and death."
Li Xuanhe frowned: "Is the amount in the tea correct?"
"According to them, there wasn't much tea left in the teapot, but the medicine they added was already an overdose. If someone drank a cup of this amount of medicine, at best they would live like a eunuch, or at worst they would end up like the eldest son."
Xun Shu, listening from the side, clicked his tongue and couldn't help but ask, "So vicious... Who has such a deep hatred for the prince?"
"Perhaps this medicine wasn't meant for you, brother, but you drank it by accident." Li Xuanhe rubbed his sore forehead. "Call everyone in my courtyard here. I want to interrogate them personally. Also, ask those accompanying you to step outside the courtyard and have them wait for a moment."
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