Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Jinling, Qingyin Pavilion.

After saying goodbye to Jia Cong, Zou Min'er returned to the inner courtyard alone. When she arrived at the gate of the inner courtyard, the strong woman guarding the gate opened the door for her with a smile.

Zou Min'er was absent-minded along the way. Today, when she met Jia Cong, he became a little different from before.

That passionate and joyful look always appeared in Zou Min'er's mind, as if Jia Cong was always staring at her.

Her heart felt hot, and she felt dizzy and overwhelmed by a strange emotion.

When they were together, it was only because of the imperial order, they worked as colleagues, helped each other, and got what they needed.

There is an insurmountable estrangement and knot between her and Jia Cong due to their painful past.

As they get along and adjust to each other more and more, for their own purposes, that hard and stubborn knot in their hearts seems to retreat to an inconspicuous corner temporarily, but it will not fade away.

Sometimes she would wonder what would happen to them now if they had met for the first time in Ziyun Pavilion that day and none of those tragic events had happened afterwards.

But there are no ifs in this world. There is only the greed and tyranny of human hearts, and the coldness and cruelty of the world.

The passion and longing that arise from youth and yearning, and from the heart, will eventually be covered by the hard reality and will never see the light of day.

She knew that although Jia Cong was young, he possessed a wisdom and sophistication rarely seen among his peers, and he was very aware of the unspeakable entanglement between her and him.

Therefore, every time he faced herself, he maintained the necessary calmness and distance. They were like a pair of familiar strangers, which was just right for them.

But today he suddenly became abnormal. There was a burning and joy in his eyes, and Zou Miner could understand what it meant.

Even if it was just an impulse hastily generated by a sudden change, she felt it was extremely precious, because it showed that some things existed unconsciously but were real.

Zou Min'er walked alone in the long and winding corridor in the backyard, her thoughts surging and difficult to control. The hard and heavy knot in her heart seemed to be slowly softening...

However, the situation at the Zou Mansion back then emerged in her mind again. Under the siege of heavy troops, her father drew his sword and splattered blood all over the wealthy and happy birthday banquet!
A deep sense of guilt of betrayal weighed on her heart like a mustard seed on Mount Sumeru, causing the tenderness that had just emerged in her heart to fade away like the tide in an instant.

……

It was approaching evening, the time when banquets and entertainments were at their most prosperous in Qingyin Pavilion. Most of the ladies from Qule, who lived in the backyard, had gone out to entertain guests.

The entire inner courtyard seemed quiet, and the corridor leading to her room seemed to be extremely long, giving the illusion that there was no end.

Zou Miner was so preoccupied that she was absent-minded that she didn't even notice someone was following her silently...

She just walked to the door of her room, opened it with her key, and was about to enter the house.

Suddenly someone grabbed her from behind, put strong arms around her neck, and covered her mouth tightly with hands. She didn't even have time to struggle before she was taken into the room.

Zou Miner smelled the scent of powder behind her, and pressed against her back was a soft and plump chest. Before she could recover from her shock, she determined that the person holding her hostage was a woman.

She felt lightning-like powerful blunt blows to different parts of her body. Each blow made her feel excruciating pain. She instantly lost the ability to move and fell limply to the ground.

Her captors tore off her sleeves and gagged her.

She fell to the ground and tried to raise her head so that she could see the face of the person who was holding her hostage.

The man stood in front of Zou Miner, looking down at her, his eyes filled with cold murderous intent.

Zou Min'er was filled with fear. This person was tall and had a straight back. Judging from her clothes, she was actually a maid in Qingyin Pavilion.

Moreover, Zou Min'er had seen her before. Just now in the private room on the third floor, Jia Cong knocked over the tray in her hand when he left.

She endured the severe pain in her body, her heart full of confusion as to why a maid in Qingyin Pavilion would suddenly attack her.

She suddenly thought that ever since Mrs. Wu recognized her identity, Jia Cong began to worry about her safety and had suggested several times that she move to his house.

She had just agreed to move to Xinglongfang tomorrow, but she was a step too late and could not avoid the risk.

……

The strange maid was very confident in her skills. She just covered Zou Miner's mouth and ignored her.

Seeing her close the door gently, Zou Min'er began to search for things in her room.

The way she searched the room was very special. She searched almost every inch of the room and even pried open a few wooden boards on the floor.

But every time she searched a place, she would carefully return everything to its original place, so that no one could see any signs of the search.

Zou Miner has been working in the China Railway Company for quite some time. She has been taught by Du Qingniang and has a good vision and insight.

The maid's shrewd skills in subduing herself and her methods of searching the room were not possessed by ordinary street thieves.

He is even more capable than the most elite veteran spies of the China Railway Corporation.

I have seen her true face. People like her probably won't be left alive...

Zou Min'er is no longer the weak daughter of an official. She has experienced harsh circumstances in recent years, which has hardened her heart.

But she was still young after all, and her fear of death was natural.

The maid searched every corner of the room in an orderly manner. Zou Min'er was gradually surrounded by great fear and her mind went blank.

She tried hard to calm herself down, thinking back to Jia Cong's passionate and joyful gaze in the private room on the third floor today. It was like a warm current that quickly calmed her down.

……

At this time, the maid opened Zou Miner's suitcase and began to rummage inside, taking out pieces of clothing one by one.

After searching them carefully, he placed them neatly on the bed, as if he was afraid of messing them up.

However, Zou Miner could see that she was going to check her clothes and then put them back into the suitcase as they were, so that no trace of search could be seen.

At this time, the maid took out a tiger-patterned jade leather belt from the suitcase, and Zou Min'er widened her eyes slightly.

This jade belt is her most special thing. Back then in Ziyun Pavilion, she and Jia Cong both took a fancy to this jade belt, and finally Jia Cong gave it to her.

In the past few years, no matter where she went or what situation she was in, she would always carry this jade belt with her.

Moreover, she also hid something in the jade belt, whose origin was unknown but very important.

Whatever her purpose was, she didn't want the maid to damage the jade belt or discover what was hidden in it.

But the maid struck her with blunt force blows in several strange places, which not only caused her to feel pain all over, but also completely disabled the movement of her hands and feet.

She used all her strength to wriggle her limp body a few times on the ground, pretending to look casually at the desk in the room.

There was a secret compartment at the bottom of the desk, where she also hid something.

But in the current situation, she felt that the things in the compartment of the desk were far less important than the tiger-patterned jade-plate leather belt.

The movement of Zou Miner's body immediately attracted the attention of the maid.

She quickly noticed the abnormality in Zou Miner's gaze and followed her gaze to the desk.

She sneered in a low voice, her voice slightly hoarse and magnetic, and threw the jade belt in her hand aside.

He walked to the desk, felt around with his hands, and soon found the secret compartment.

Zou Miner saw her pull out a shiny short blade, which looked neither like a knife nor a sword, and looked very sharp.

The maid pried slightly with a short blade and opened the interlayer.

Zou Min'er secretly breathed a sigh of relief when she saw this scene. The other party had discovered the interlayer, which was enough for her to ignore the jade belt. ...

Some secret reports from the CRRC Corporation Limited were hidden in the mezzanine, as well as an iron plate with the identity of Zou Miner from the CRRC Corporation Limited.

The maid was overjoyed and read through the stack of secret reports from the carriage commander at an extremely fast speed.

Finally, he looked at the iron plate for a moment and chuckled softly, his voice so sinister that it made people feel scared.

"If Zou Huaiyi knew that his daughter had become a spy for the CRRC, I wonder what he would think."

After hearing this, Zou Miner was horrified. This maid actually knew her identity, which must be related to Mrs. Wu.

"The boss has always wondered why you were involved with Jia Cong. Now that you are from the Zhongchesi, everything is easy to explain."

Zou Min'er felt a chill in her heart. Could the boss this woman was talking about be the remnant of the big case at the Water Supervision Bureau back then, or the person behind it?
The maid put the secret report and the iron plate back into the compartment of the desk, and then carefully restored the compartment to its original state.

He turned around and helped Zou Min'er up, letting her sit against the edge of the bed.

Zou Min'er saw that she had a long face, delicate features, and a pair of eyes that, although not very big, were bright and gleaming with a sinister edge.

She raised the short blade in her hand, placed it across Zou Miner's neck, and asked in a sinister voice, "Did your father leave you the secret account of the Water Conservancy Bureau? Where is the thing hidden?

If you tell the truth, I will let you live!"

Zou Miner's eyes lit up slightly. It turned out that this man was holding her hostage for the secret accounts of the Water Supervision Bureau left by her father.

Although it was the first time she heard of such a thing, since it was called the secret account of the Water Supervision Bureau, it must be closely related to the major case of the Water Supervision Bureau that year.

My father didn't leave this thing to me at all. So who did he leave it to that made this woman and the person behind her go to so much trouble to find it.

She thought of the jade belt in her mind, but she restrained her actions and did not reveal any clues.

The woman saw the thought and hesitation in her eyes, sneered, and slightly tightened the short blade across her neck.

Zou Miner felt a sharp pain on her neck. Her delicate and white skin had been cut, and the collar of her thin silk lining was soon stained red with blood...

……

At Jia Cong's urging, Jiang Liu drove the carriage very fast. On the crowded streets, this driving speed was beyond the normal range.

The galloping of horses and the rolling of vehicles raised a cloud of dust, causing people on both sides of the street to hide and respond with curses and complaints.

When the carriage turned at an intersection, it even knocked over a fruit stall. After Jia Cong made sure that no one was injured, he let Jiang Liu continue driving without stopping for even a moment.

However, they had been away from Qingyin Pavilion for some distance, and not every section of the way back allowed them to gallop on horseback. They could only maintain a speed faster than walking or running.

The maid that Jia Cong bumped into in Qingyin Pavilion did not seem unusual to him at first.

But when he left Qingyin Pavilion and passed by the seafood market again, the fishy smell of sea water in the market suddenly touched his inner thoughts.

It allows him to instantly connect many inadvertent details.

When he bumped into the maid, he helped her pick up the tray that had fallen to the ground.

At that time, he discovered that the backs of the maids' hands were all covered with perfumed powder. Although he found it a little funny, he just thought it was a woman's natural love of beauty.

He didn't even care much when he saw the spilled wine washing away the powder on the back of the servant's hand, revealing a strange scar.

He even arrogantly thought that the maid applied powder on the back of her hand just to cover up the ugly scar.

When he picked up the tray and the maid picked up the spilled wine glass, they both stood up at the same time. Because they were so close, he could smell a faint strange odor on her hair.

However, the strange smell of the maid's hair was masked by the slightly strong smell of makeup on her body and was not very obvious. At most, it just made him twitch his nose.

……

Only when his carriage passed the fish market again did the strong smell of sea water suddenly wake him up.

The scene he had just encountered in Qingyin Pavilion was not as simple as it seemed.

Jia Cong grew up in a small town on the southeast coast in his previous life. He was very familiar with the living habits of the fishermen who went to the sea.

These fishermen make a living on the sea all year round and come into contact with sea water almost every day.

If their skin is allergic or abraded after being soaked in sea water, it will leave scars that are difficult to fade away. The people who go to the beach call it scale, and some scale will even stay with them for a lifetime.

The wine washed away the makeup on the back of the maid's hand, revealing a scar that, judging by its shape and skin color, was the kind of scale that one would get from someone who makes a living at sea.

The faint odor in her hair was the fishy smell of sea water.

She could put powder on her skin to cover up the smell of sea water, but she couldn't put powder on her hair, which would leave subtle flaws.

At that time, Jia Cong bumped into her in a hurry, and it was impossible for him to think of so many things without any external stimulation.

These details only show that this maid used to make a living on the sea.

But this alone was not enough to make Jia Cong so frightened and anxious that he rushed back to Qingyin Pavilion.

In addition to confirming that this maid was someone who lived on the sea all year round.

He also thought that the maid was also tall and slender, not only similar in figure to Zou Miner, but even more similar in figure to the female corpse in Tianjing Lane!

According to the inference of the coroner and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the female corpse in Tianjing Lane was most likely killed by the Water Rakshasa.

Shui Luosha is a capable female bandit under the command of Liu Ao, a giant pirate in the East China Sea. She has lived on the sea for many years, otherwise she would not have been given the bandit nickname Shui Luosha.

Although he couldn't find direct evidence for the time being, Jia Cong was certain in his heart that the maid he bumped into in Qingyin Pavilion must be the Water Rakshasa in disguise!
Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many coincidences.

This easily explains why the woman in Tianjing Lane was disfigured after being killed. It was because Shui Luosha didn't want people to recognize who she was.

Jia Cong thought of the first time he saw the maid in Qingyin Pavilion, with the same tall and slender figure and the same politeness.

But Jia Cong could clearly remember that he did not smell any obvious scent of makeup on the maid that time.

It is common sense that a low-level maid who does menial tasks would not wear makeup.

If you have met someone once, without any direct communication and even don't know their name, you can probably only remember their general appearance.

Some details of body shape and appearance will naturally be ignored.

Jia Cong was already certain that the tall maid he met twice was actually two people with similar figures and appearances.

The two encounters were actually less than three days apart.

The first person you encounter must be the woman who was killed and disfigured in Tianjing Lane.

But the maid I met today was actually a water Rakshasa in disguise.

In order to sneak into Qingyin Pavilion, Shui Luosha killed people and disfigured them, using someone else as a substitute. Jia Cong was not clear about the other party's real purpose.

However, the hidden danger of Zou Miner's identity being leaked was always on his mind, making him feel uneasy.

A cruel and bloody female bandit deliberately sneaked into Qingyin Pavilion. The first thing Jia Cong thought of was that she might be harmful to Zou Miner.

That's why he was so out of character and rushed back to Qingyin Pavilion in such a hurry.

He hoped that his guess was wrong and Zou Min'er was still safe and sound... (End of this chapter)