Chapter 543 The Palace Maid Who Died Gratuitously
Consort Zhao seemed to be frightened by her cold gaze and stopped talking. The group of people walked towards the other end of the imperial garden.
Mo Xuetong did not say anything and followed behind the madams, ladies, and young masters.
All the people followed the palace maid to pass by several rockeries and came to a remote place. By the lake of the rockery lay a female corpse. There was windy, so it was cool and refreshing at first. But now, because of this female corpse, the whole place was filled with gusts of cold wind and made people feel scared for no reason.
A few daring eunuchs went over, pulled the female corpse up, and laid it flat on the ground. Then they heard the palace maid who found the corpse scream with her hand covering her mouth. Suddenly, she pounced on the corpse and shouted in panic, “Your Majesty, it’s Fei Huan.”
“Fei Huan?” The Empress froze for a moment as if she didn’t remember this maid. She frowned.
Nanny Lin, who was beside her, took a few steps forward. She shivered in fear when she saw the female corpse’s face. She quickly stepped back to the Empress and said with a pale face, “Your Majesty, she is a third-class palace maid in the Tianfeng Palace, named Fei Huan. You ordered her to serve the madams and ladies in the imperial garden just now.”
The Empress was stunned as if she didn’t expect it to be a person from her Tianfeng Palace. Her face darkened. With a frown, she asked, “Who was the last one to see this palace maid?”
Whether as the Empress or the master of the Tianfeng Palace, she had to deal with this matter.
“Your Majesty, I, I came out with Fei Huan just now. Later, I saw a little maidservant waving to her, and then Fei Huan told me that she had something to do and asked me to go first. I thought that Fei Huan might have met someone she knew, so I left without paying attention to her. I didn’t expect that just after a while, Fei Huan, she, she…”
The palace maid, who had just pounced on Fei Huan, cried, “Your Majesty, you must exercise justice for Fei Huan. Fei Huan is loyal to you, so you can’t let the murderer go unpunished.”
“Go over and take a look.” The Empress nodded at a eunuch standing by her side. He was the highly skilled eunuch who guarded the Empress in the inner palace and was also in charge of the interrogation in the inner palace. He reached out two fingers to the maid’s neck. Then, he stood up and shook his head, gesturing that the maid was no longer breathing. Then, he squatted by the corpse and examined it for a while before he reported to the Empress.
“Your Majesty, the maid was strangled by someone. There is a pinch mark on her neck and the mark was thick, which shows that the murderer is a man. From the look of it, the man was fast and accurate. He is a martial arts practitioner. If he hadn’t practiced for more than 10 years, he wouldn’t have choked her to death like this.”
The interrogating eunuch answered in a sharp and accurate way.
The palace maid cried and asked, “But, who wanted to hurt Fei Huan? Fei Huan was kind to others and had never argued with others.”
“There’s something over there. Look!” Suddenly, someone pointed at the place where the corpse had just been picked up and screamed.
Everyone looked back and found that there was a piece of cloth in the crack of the rockery. The eunuch went over and quickly took out the cloth wrapped in it. Then the crowd found that it was a handkerchief. Since most of the cloth was in it, they just took it as a piece of cloth dropped from the murderer’s clothes.
“This should be the handkerchief dropped from the murderer!” someone asked.
“No, the handkerchief is so pink and delicate, and there is embroidery on it. It should belong to a girl. Look at the pinch mark on her neck. It’s obviously made by a man. How could it be the murderer’s?” someone else questioned in confusion.
Someone refuted on the spot, “Maybe it’s a handkerchief that the murderer hid in his arms. There must be a woman who has something to do with the murderer. That’s why the handkerchief appeared in his arms and was pulled out by the palace maid before she died. The reason why he didn’t take it may be it was too urgent and he didn’t notice it.”
Consort Yu, who was standing by the side, revealed a deep worry in her eyes when she heard this. She covered her belly with her hands and said with fear, “Your Majesty, since… such a thing happened, we must check it out.”
The Empress looked at the body coldly. Her thin lips moved and in a cold tone, she said, “Of course I’ll do a thorough investigation since someone killed people in the palace.”
As soon as they heard the Empress would do a thorough investigation, they all wandered a little more. They were in the imperial palace. Everyone could be the murderer. If the murderer couldn’t be found quickly, they would have to stay here and accept the investigation, which would delay the time. Besides, if it had to take a long while, it would be easy for them to be framed.
No one would be willing to be locked up and searched.
An Old Madam stood out first, reached out to the interrogating eunuch, and said, “Let me take a look at this handkerchief.” She was the mother of Duke Luofeng.
The interrogating eunuch looked at the Empress. As the Empress nodded slightly, the eunuch respectfully handed the handkerchief to the Old Madam.
The Old Madam picked up the handkerchief and looked at it in the light. She frowned, and looked at the people around her, showing suspicion on her face, but she couldn’t make up her mind.
After a while, she turned to Ling Rui’er and asked, “Consort Chu, can I have a look at your handkerchief?”
“My handkerchief?” Ling Rui’er had already panicked when she saw the handkerchief. She reached out to take out her handkerchief in order to compare it with it, but she found that her handkerchief had disappeared. She was flustered and her face was pale. She had only just returned and had wanted to see what happened. However, she had not expected it to fall on her.
When the Old Madam asked Ling Rui’er, a few sharp-eyed people immediately noticed that two characters were embroidered on the left and right corners of the handkerchief in her hands. The left one was “Ling” while the right one was “Rui’er”. When they were put together, it was obviously “Ling Rui’er”. How could everyone not be shocked by this?
It was Ling Rui’er’s handkerchief.
The Empress turned around, a trace of anger flashing in her eyes. She looked at Ling Rui’er unhappily and asked, “Rui’er, where’s your handkerchief?” If things went wrong today, it was all because of the stupid Ling Rui’er. How could she not be angry?
“Your Majesty, the palace maid poured some watermelon juice on my dress just now, and then I went to change my clothes. After that, the handkerchief disappeared,” Ling Rui’er said hurriedly. She didn’t know when her handkerchief disappeared, but her handkerchief had fallen into the palace maid’s hands.
“Yes. The palace maid deliberately poured watermelon juice on Third Sister just now because she wanted to steal the handkerchief from her. I wonder who ordered her to harm Third Sister.” Ling Yu beside Ling Rui’er suddenly had an idea and hurriedly explained for her. If someone found out that it was Ling Rui’er who had asked someone to kill the palace maid because of such a small matter, the girls of the Ling family would no longer have to marry anyone. No one dared to marry the girls of such a vicious family.
For her reputation, Ling Yu would not allow anything to happen to Ling Rui’er.
Her words reminded everyone. Only then did they realize that something like this had indeed happened. Perhaps the maid had really tried to frame Ling Rui’er. Otherwise, why would she have knocked into Ling Rui’er when she was standing well earlier? Furthermore, she had even wet Ling Rui’er’s clothes and caused her to change into a new set of clothes. During her absence, she had enough time to order someone to kill the maid. If the maid had really taken Ling Rui’er’s handkerchief first, it was really possible that someone had framed Ling Rui’er.
Or, someone wanted to frame King Chu behind her.
Suddenly, Consort Zhao came over with a slightly suspicious look on her face and asked, “What fragrance did you put on your handkerchief, Consort Chu?”
Indeed, the handkerchief was giving off a faint strange fragrance. Although it had been soaked in the water, it was still fragrant. Obviously, it was of a kind of superb fragrance.
This reminded Ling Rui’er. She hurriedly answered, “The fragrance I’m using isn’t of any ordinary kind. The Empress Dowager gifted it to me. It is said to be a tribute. I’m the only one in the entire Great Qin, who has it. There won’t be anyone else owning it.”
Ling Rui’er only wanted to prove that she was innocent this time, and she could not care less.
“Consort Chu, are you referring to the Longing Fragrance?” The interrogating eunuch’s eyes lit up and he asked immediately, “If yes, the fragrance won’t dissipate for a long time. It is said that it will last for 10 days, right?”
A strange look flashed in Ling Rui’er’s eyes. Then, she nodded forcefully and replied, “Yes, yes.”
“Consort Chu, do you think that if this fragrance will be left on other clothes once it contacted the clothes?” the interrogating eunuch continued to ask.
“This smell is very strong. As long as you touch it with your hand, it won’t dissipate in a short time,” Ling Rui’er responded with certainty.
“That’s great.” The interrogating eunuch squatted down in front of the body again, pulled the palace maid Fei Huan’s clothes, and sniffed it. After a while, he raised his eyebrows and said, “Your Majesty, this palace maid once hid the handkerchief in her arms. It seems that she stole the handkerchief from Consort Chu, but was assassinated later. And this handkerchief fell here on purpose.”
Ling Rui’er heaved a sigh of relief and scolded the palace maid Fei Huan harshly, “Bitch, you really wanted to harm me.”
“Since the murderer has flipped the handkerchief, shouldn’t there be a scent on his body too?” the Empress asked coldly.
The eunuch raised his lips and nodded. “You’re right, Your Majesty. Since the handkerchief was left on purpose, the person must have touched it. Please order people to take the interrogating dogs, Your Majesty.”
“Go, pass down my order and have the guards bring the interrogating dog here.” The Empress nodded, as she swept across Mo Xuetong’s face with a cold smile in her eyes. The interrogating dog was especially used by the Ministry of Justice to investigate cases. Its nose was hundreds of times sharper than an ordinary dog’s. No matter who did it today, they would not end well.
Standing by the side, Consort Zhao looked down, but there was a deep sense of pride in the corner of her eyes, and her face unconsciously showed a bit of vicious smile. Although the matter was somewhat different from her arrangement, fortunately, it was still in her original direction.
After a while, a small interrogating dog was brought to the front of everyone. Several imperial guards stood on both sides and arranged for everyone to stand in two rows. The interrogating eunuch took the handkerchief to the dog’s nose and the dog sniffed it. Then he took off the handkerchief and let the dog smell these people one by one. When it smelled the second person, the interrogating dog charged at her. If the eunuch hadn’t reacted quickly and grabbed it, Ling Rui’er would have been thrown down.
Even so, she was so frightened that she almost couldn’t say anything.
She was the master of the handkerchief and had been taking it for a while, so of course, the scent on her body was strong. The eunuch pulled the interrogating dog back and continued smelling. Mo Xuetong was behind Ling Rui’er. She was held by Mo Ye and stood there quietly. The interrogating dog circled her twice and walked down.
Obviously, it meant that this had nothing to do with Mo Xuetong either.
The Empress who was standing in the middle frowned slightly. She looked at Mo Xuetong suspiciously.
The interrogating dog passed by the feet of the crowd and sniffed from time to time. Everyone was nervous and afraid, especially for most of the people here were young ladies who were so scared that they were shaking. Suddenly, the interrogating dog barked and rushed toward a maidservant standing behind a lady. It bit the calf of the maidservant with sharp teeth and dragged the maidservant out tightly.
On both sides, the imperial guards who were ready to act pounced on the maidservant fiercely and caught her. They even took out all the things in her pockets and placed them in front of everyone.