Card Room

Chapter 166 - Beacon in Troubled Times 16

Jiangzhou’s prison.

The girls and boss of the Fragrant Sky House were collectively placed in jail. These girls usually sang and danced. They got up every day and put on exquisite makeup and beautiful dresses and were flattered by the children of rich families. When had they experienced something like this?

The moment they saw the cold, damp environment of the dungeon, everyone started to complain.

“How can people sleep in such a dirty place?”

”There isn’t even a bed.”

“The assassin had nothing to do with us. Tell Yu daren and quickly let us go!”

The bailiff responsible for their imprisonment became impatient and shouted angrily, “Shut up! If the assassin comes from your Fragrant Sky House and the prince becomes angry then all of you will be beheaded! Wanting to be picky in a dungeon? A dungeon isn’t a place for you to sing and dance. Be obedient or I will go in!”

The man was burly and had a loud voice. The girls became pale with fright and they closed their mouths, not daring to say anything else.

Ye Qi remained silent in the crowd.

A total of 12 people from the Fragrant Sky House were arrested. Four of them were locked in one cell for a total of three cells.

The conditions in the dungeon were really poor. There was no bed, the floor was covered in messy hay and the sound of rats could be heard in the corner. A fat rat passed by, causing a few girls to panic and scream. Some of them took off their shoes to hit the rat and the cell was chaotic.

Ye Qi sat in a corner and thought seriously about what happened.

He had received an S-grade evaluation for 2 of Hearts, 3 of Hearts and 4 of Hearts. In the fifth, sixth and seventh levels, he followed Group Leader Yu and Professor Xiao to solve the case and gained a lot of reasoning knowledge. He was sure that the case in this secret room wouldn’t be as simple as the assassination of the prince.

At that time, the assassin ran away and the prince locked up all the people of the Fragrant Sky House out of anger. What happened after that? Who would be the first one to die? He was thinking then when he suddenly saw a bailiff coming over and asking, “Who is Miss Ye?”

Ye Qi stood up. “I am.”

“There is a son of Shao who came to see you.” The bailiff smiled.

The surrounding girls heard this and cast looks of envy and hatred at Ye Qi. Everyone knew that Young Master Shao recently spent a lot of money raising Miss Ye. They didn’t expect Young Master Shao to be so kind and righteous that he was even willing to come see her when she was in prison!

Ye Qi heard these words with a bright eye and immediately followed the bailiff.

Outside the door, Shao Qingge stood while holding a folding fan and posing like a noble son, a smile still on his face. He saw Ye Qi come out and took out a piece of silver from his pocket, handing it to the bailiff. “You worked hard.”

The bailiff happily accepted the money and said, “The two of you talk slowly! You can talk casually until the daren comes back. I will guard the door.”

Ye Qi, “......”

Shao Qingge did a really good job of spending money to buy the bailiff.

Shao Qingge smiled and placed a food box on the table. “You haven’t eaten yet? Have some snacks first.”

Ye Qi hadn’t eaten dinner in order to prepare for the performance. He originally planned to eat after returning to the Fragrant Sky House. The result was that rather than eating, he was caught and imprisoned in jail. His stomach had been growling with hunger so seeing the food container, he immediately opened the lid, grabbed the snacks and gorged on them.

He had experienced the hardships of eating leaves in the Nightmare Room so he cherished food. When eating pastries, he wouldn’t leave the smallest scraps. He held the many small snacks in his hands and ate them cleanly, his actions like a hungry little squirrel.

He had been sitting on the hay in the cell and there were some pieces in his hair.

Looking at his hungry appearance, Shao Qingge’s heart inexplicably softened and he couldn’t help reaching out and pulling out the weeds on this person’s head. “Is this your first time going to jail? Are the conditions very bad?”

Ye Qi looked up in a depressed manner. “Are you still in the mood to joke? Do you want to try pretending to be a woman every day, wearing a dress, and then arrested and imprisoned?”

“You sound aggrieved? Why don’t I have Yu daren let you out?”

Ye Qi quickly calmed down. “Definitely not. We can’t let it go until the case is clear. It doesn’t matter. In any case, the plot arranged for me to be in the Fragrant Sky House so it must need me to collect clues from the Fragrant Sky House.”

He ate until he was full. Then he wiped his hands and looked at Shao Qingge. “After we were taken, did another accident happen at the prince’s mansion?”

Shao Qingge nodded. “The eldest young lady is dead. She hung herself.”

Ye Qi immediately exclaimed, “It definitely isn’t suicide!”

Shao Qingge told him, “Xiao and Yu are still there investigating the clues. They specifically had me come to see you. In fact, everyone is very concerned about you.”

Ye Qi’s heart slightly warmed. “I’m fine, it is just sitting in jail for a few days. I don’t know much about the Fragrant Sky House. I’ve thought carefully and the assassin should’ve long been embedded in the sword dance team.”

Shao Qingge asked with interest, “How do you know she didn’t kill one of them and is an impostor?”

“Impossible.” Ye Qi shook his head. “I have been practicing with them these days and this set of sword dance moves is very complicated. A temporary replacement won’t be able to perform it some completely. You watched the dance at the prince’s mansion. The five people were very synchronized, every movement was uniform and the rhythm was very accurate. This isn’t possible if it is a temporary replacement.”

“Yes, that’s true.” Shao Qingge carefully recalled the dance just before. The five people did cooperate in a tacit manner. The movements were very proficient and the effect of the dance was amazing. They had obviously been practicing together for a long time.

“They always covered their faces when rehearsing. In order to distinguish each one, I purposely remembered their eyes and eyebrows. They are the five people who performed today. Therefore, the assassin should’ve planned this a long time and mixed in with the Fragrant Sky House in order to assassinate the prince at his birthday banquet.”

“...” This person looked quite cute when carefully analyzing and Shao Qingge couldn’t help smiling. “Are there any other clues?”

“I checked the remaining four girls just now. The assassin who ran away was called Xue Yan. According to Aunt Qing, she has been in the Fragrant Sky House for a year. It seems that she has been planning to assassinate the prince for a long time. Is it the same group of people who want to assassination Group Leader Yu?”

“Okay, write it down. I’ll pass it onto Group Leader Yu.” Shao Qingge wrote down all the clues provided by Ye Qi.

Taking too long would raise suspicions so Shao Qingge let Ye Qi go back first to rest.

The bailiff took Ye Qi to a cell where he was alone. This cell was much cleaner than the cells the other people lived in and it was covered with brand new bedding. Ye Qi stared with wide eyes. “Where did the bedding...”

The bailiff smiled. “This is what Young Master Shao asked us to prepare for you. Young Master Shao is worried that you will suffer in jail and specifically asked to send you new bedding.”

Ye Qi entered the cell with a warm heart.

This person’s mouth might be broken but his heart was still very good.

The evils of money worked just as well in ancient times.

Ye Qi inwardly sighed. Money was good. He went to prison but wasn’t the same as others!

***

At the same time, the prince’s mansion.

After questioning all the people in the prince’s mansion, Xiao Lou compiled the transcripts and followed Yu Hanjiang to collect clues from the deceased’s residence.

They found many copied scriptures in the eldest young lady’s room and some waste paper in the basket. They were scraps from when she wrote to the Ninth Princess. It was obvious that when she was writing the letter, she felt very contradictory and didn’t think about the content of the letter. Instead, she changed her words as she wrote.

The handwriting on the scrap paper was the same as the handwriting of the letter given to Yu Hanjiang by the Ninth Princess. The content of one page of a scrap paper was similar to the final letter but there were a few words that had been mistakenly written. The eldest young lady should’ve rewritten it again for a complete version.

The evidence proved that the letter the Ninth Princess gave to Yu Hanjiang was indeed written by the eldest young lady.

In addition, there was a brand new dress in the room that was neatly placed to one side. This should be the new clothing that Mrs Yun had prepared for her daughter at the time in order to attend the prince’s banquet. However, the eldest young lady didn’t change into it and was still wearing the plain, white clothing.

Unfortunately, the most important evidence wasn’t found.

Where was the poison that the eldest young lady had consumed before she died?

Was it a snack, a meal or her tea?

In ancient times, food couldn’t be tested in a laboratory. Generally, silver needles were used for poison testing. Xiao Lou picked up the snacks on the table and tested for poison using the silver needles. He found there were no toxins in the several servings of pastry or in the tea.

He asked the personal attendant who served the eldest young lady and she said that the eldest young lady went out at shenshi (3-5pm) and didn’t let anyone follow. The eldest young lady never came back afterward and she hadn’t eaten in the room before going out.

The shenshi time, this was around 16 o’clock.

The time of the eldest young lady’s death was around 18 o’clock. No one knew what she had seen or encountered after going on.

Yu Hanjiang also took Xiao Lou, Mo Xuemin and Long Sen to search Miss Qi Yiwei’s residence.

Unexpectedly, the herbs that Liu Qiao said she brought were still here and the paper bag containing the herbs hadn’t even been unsealed. It seemed that the fourth young lady hadn’t used these herbs to make poison?

Nothing particularly important was found at the residences of the second and third young ladies.

By the time the search of the prince’s mansion was finished, it was almost early in the morning. The entire prince’s mansion was blocked and the ladies gathered in the hall with different expressions. Yu Hanjiang searched everything and asked what he wanted to ask. It wasn’t easy to continue disturbing them so he said goodbye to the prince.

The prince personally escorted them to the door, telling them to solve the case as soon as possible. Yu Hanjiang promised that he would try his best.

Long Sen and Qu Wanyue stayed at the prince’s mansion while Yu Hanjiang, Xiao Lou and Mo Xuemin returned to the prefectural magistrate’s residence.

Shao Qingge and Liu Qiao were waiting for them there. Once they saw that the trio had returned, Shao Qingge immediately stepped forward and asked, “How about it? Did you get any clues about the murderer?” As a Hearts room slag, he was used to lying down in the Hearts room and winning. Based on his understanding of Xiao and Yu, the two of them came back so late because they turned the prince’s mansion upside down.

However, the thing that surprised Shao Qingge was that Yu Hanjiang’s face wasn’t confident and was filled with a hint of confusion. Yu Hanjiang frowned and replied, “There are many clues and it is very messy. At present, we can’t lock onto the murderer.”

The listening Mo Xuemin couldn’t help interjecting, “Isn’t the murderer Lin Shaobo who ran away?”

Liu Qiao was also curious. “Didn’t Lin Shaobo and the fourth young lady conspire to do it?”

Based on the analysis at the prince’s mansion just now, wasn’t Lin Shaobo the most suspicious?

Yu Hanjiang whispered, “It isn’t that simple. The fourth young lady’s medicine isn’t missing and we can’t find the poison anywhere. Thus, we can’t easily draw conclusions.”

He looked at his teammates before taking them to the cell to see Ye Qi.

Ye Qi was in a cell alone. The little boy was sleeping under a quilt, a white ear exposed as his entire body was curled up in a ball like a small, alert animal.

Xiao Lou saw the quilt covering him and couldn’t help wondering, “Where did the quilt come from?”

Shao Qingge smiled. “I had someone prepare it. I can’t let Miss Ye sleep on messy hay.”

Xiao Lou saw Ye Qi shrink into a ball and couldn’t help expressing distress. “This time, we really wronged him. The ground of the cell is wet and cold and it is currently autumn. It must be very uncomfortable to sleep on the ground like this.”

Ye Qi was passively lying down and woke up to see everyone. He immediately ran over and asked, “You came back. How is the case?”

Yu Hanjiang told him, “The case is complicated. The two cases should be related but we haven’t found a contact point yet. Shao Qingge told us that you know what the assassin called Xue Yan looks like. Can you draw her?”

Ye Qi carefully thought about it. “I haven’t studied art and I can’t draw her. However, I specifically remember her eyes and eyebrows. If I see her again then I can definitely recognize her.”

The other side was wearing a veil and her face, eyebrows and eyes were difficult to distinguish. It seemed that only Ye Qi could recognize the person.

Yu Hanjiang told him, “It is late so you rest first. If there are any clues then I will have Shao QIngge notify you. Before the case is solved, I can’t let anyone in the Fragrant Sky House so I will have to wrong you. Stay in the dungeon first and we will investigate the case as soon as possible.”

Ye Qi nodded and smiled brightly. “It doesn’t matter. I can sleep anywhere.”

Shao Qingge thought of Xiao Lou saying the ground was wet and cold and he told Ye Qi, “The quilt is very big. You can lay on half of it and cover yourself with the other half so that the ground won’t be cold. I will have them bring in a brazier for you later so you don’t get cold.”

Ye Qi joked, “Thank you, gold master father.”

Shao Qingge smiled. “Your welcome, this is what a financial baker should do.”

Shao Qingge was really able to handle matters. He secretly gave the bailiff in charge of the prisoners silver coins and a brazier was soon brought to Ye Qi’s room. Compared to the other cells where the girls were starving and frozen, Ye Qi enjoyed the treatment of a VIP cell.