A raincoat wind and snow to the small garden

Chapter 21 Snowy Villa (V)

Chapter 21

On a snowy night, another death news came.

Xiang Xiaoyuan was woken up in the middle of the night. Jixiang knocked on the door anxiously, "Coroner Xiang! Coroner Xiang! This is terrible! Another person has died... The mistress sent a servant to call you. Please go and take a look!"

The little girl's voice trembled, as if she was terribly frightened.

Xiang Xiaoyuan changed into a white narrow-sleeved disciple's uniform that was convenient for autopsy. She washed her face, bit a scented pill mixed with mint leaves, and walked out of the room.

She held the pill in her mouth without chewing it, and her cheek bulged into a round ball.

Along the way, Xiang Xiaoyuan was thinking about the case and didn't talk to Jixiang.

Instead, the secret guard Ah Qi jumped out from nowhere and patted Xiaoyuan's shoulder playfully.

When she looked back, he used his lightness skills again and flew away, hiding in a place where Xiang Xiaoyuan could not see him.

After a while, Xiang Xiaoyuan got annoyed. She said to Ah Qi, "If you challenge me again, I'll complain to Senior Brother Huaiyu about you bullying a fellow disciple!"

Xiang Xiaoyuan had seen Huaiyu draw his sword against his colleagues who were fighting in the Xuanqi Division. She knew that Huaiyu was actually a person who was indifferent to everything. The fact that he was able to take care of these trivial matters might be because of the order of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

According to what Ah Qi said before, Huai Yu only has the emperor's orders in his heart, and he will not show mercy to anyone. So if Ah Qi is targeted by Huai Yu, he will probably not end up well.

As expected, Ah Qi landed on the ground and scrambled to the edge of the garden, begging bitterly, "Please! I was kicked for just talking to you yesterday. If you continue to complain, I'll be dead, won't I?"

Xiang Xiaoyuan was puzzled: "Why did Senior Brother kick you?"

Ah Qi: "How would I know? He just has a mean foot!"

"That must be because you recruited your senior brother. He won't bully others casually."

"You're such a dear Junior Sister!" Ah Qi's peach blossom eyes flickered. "You call me Senior Brother Huaiyu, why don't you call me Senior Brother?"

Xiang Xiaoyuan was a girl who took advantage of the situation. She smiled and called out, "Brother Qi."

Then he extended his hand towards him, "Where's the gift?"

"So Junior Sister is trying to blackmail me." Ah Qi flipped his sleeves in frustration and pulled out a folding fan with a flying needle hidden inside. "Forget it, I'll give you this hidden weapon."

"Thank you, Brother Qi." Xiang Xiaoyuan put the folding fan into his pocket without hesitation.

After walking a few steps, Xiang Xiaoyuan asked him, "Why don't I see Senior Brother Huaiyu?"

Ah Qi: "How should I know? I'm not his follower. But I might actually see Huai Yu at the crime scene later. If he finds out I'm hanging out with you, I'll get beaten up again. Forget it, I'm leaving now. Junior Sister, don't miss me too much."

Ah Qi came and went without a trace. As soon as he finished speaking, he rushed into the vast snow.

Xiang Xiaoyuan ignored him. When she arrived at the room where the accident happened, Chu Daofu had already examined the body.

The old man was in high spirits when he saw his new disciple. He had no place to express his love for his disciple. He raised his hand to beckon her over and deliberately tested Xiang Xiaoyuan: "What do you think was the cause of the deceased's injury?"

Xiang Xiaoyuan squatted down and examined it carefully.

This time, the deceased was a maid from the outer courtyard. She must have struggled violently before dying, dragging her body forward for a long time, leaving a trail of blood all over the ground. Looking around the small garden, Xiang spotted a dense spurt of blood on the wall about ten feet away. The blood was so dense that it resembled hanging black spider silk. The discoloration of the blood indicated that she had been dead for more than two hours.

Xiang Xiaoyuan knew what was going on. Pointing at the bed, he said, "She was attacked on the bed. The blood vessels in her neck must have been ruptured, so the blood splattered all over the left side of the bed curtains, and even on the pillow."

Xiang Xiaoyuan turned over the wounds on the corpse again. When the wound on her neck was exposed to everyone, everyone recognized that it was a bite wound from a wild beast.

Wu Jingnu gasped, "When did animals sneak into the villa? The guards are so careless, ignoring all the dignitaries in the villa!"

Zheng Erniang also felt sympathetic, her fingertips turning white as she grasped Wu Jingnu. "They actually bit someone to death! I will definitely punish them!"

Chu Daofu ignored the young ladies' whispers and instead asked Xiang Xiaoyuan expectantly, "In my opinion, was it done by jackals, tigers, or leopards?"

Xiang Xiaoyuan studied the bite marks for a long time. The teeth were square, with a dent, and the upper and lower rows were very neat, not like tiger or wolf fangs. If they were from a bird of prey, most would be cylindrical, with hooks on the crowns...

Xiang Xiaoyuan suddenly realized: "This is a bite mark left by a human."

Chu Daofu nodded in satisfaction. "Yes, that's exactly the mark left by human teeth. Xiaoyuan, let me teach you this: a woman's teeth appear softly outlined because her face is narrow, so her teeth are more evenly arranged and her dental arches are shorter. But a man's face is square and his bones are hard, so his teeth are more irregularly arranged and much larger."

"Therefore, the murderer who left these two rows of teeth marks is most likely a woman. However, if it were a young man, his teeth might be smooth, so we still need to pay attention to verify it."

Xiang Xiaoyuan was enlightened, her mind cleared up, and she said admiringly, "I will teach you."

As soon as these words were spoken, all the guests in the room fell silent.

They hesitated and said, "We are not barbarians who eat raw meat and drink blood. Who would eat raw meat? Besides, cannibalism is unbelievable no matter how you think about it..."

"It might be a female ghost. It's a ghost that hasn't grown fangs yet, so the marks it left behind are naturally human teeth marks."

"I said this snowstorm was strange, it seems to be the work of evil spirits..." The crowd was noisily discussing the tragic scene before them, arguing endlessly with each other.

Jixiang's face, however, was pale and she trembled constantly. She seemed to be in a nightmare, and she kept muttering, "The evil spirit in the demon-subduing formation has escaped. It's not enough for her to eat the Fourth Master, she wants to eat people too... It's all because the masters didn't celebrate the New Year at the mansion, leaving her alone at home. She's starving, that's why she's like this..."

Xiang Xiaoyuan frowned when he heard this: "I heard you talk about the demon-subduing formation earlier. What exactly is the Zheng family hiding?"

Before Jixiang could speak, Madam Zheng's trusted nanny came forward, covered the little maid's mouth and pulled her out the door.

Madam Zheng is the head wife of the family and is in charge of household affairs. Since such a big thing happened in the mansion, she naturally had to step forward to suppress these monsters.

Madam Zheng smiled towards Xiaoyuan and said, "The maids are uneducated and don't know the principle of 'a gentleman does not speak of strange things, supernatural powers, or demons.' Where did these filthy things in the Zheng family come from? They are just the result of a private quarrel among the servants, causing all this trouble."

After saying that, Madam Zheng glanced around, and her nanny immediately pushed out a trembling little girl. Her mouth was covered in blood. She looked up at Xiaoyuan, then lowered her head again.

Madam Zheng kicked her and said, "Tell me! What happened?!"

The little maidservant wept, "The one who died on the bed was Baizhu. I had always been at odds with her, and I was jealous of her close relationships with the other gentlemen in the mansion, which led to an argument. I couldn't defeat her in a fight, so in a fit of rage I bit her neck, severing her blood vessels and causing her to bleed to death... I was simply furious; I had no intention of killing anyone."

Xiang Xiaoyuan didn't comment. She glanced at the apples on the table, picked one up, and handed it to the little maid: "Take a bite."

The little maid had no idea what medicine was being sold in Xiaoyuan's gourd, but she didn't dare to resist and could only take a trembling bite.

He looked at the arrangement of the teeth on the apple and compared it with the tooth marks on the body.

She said, "It's not you. The tooth shape, arrangement and size are all wrong."

It is really surprising that the little maid was just a scapegoat.

For a moment, all the guests looked at Madam Zheng with strange eyes. It was obvious that she wanted to deliberately pull a maid to calm things down and avoid the spread of rumors that "the Zheng family was haunted by evil spirits."

You must know that the current emperor Xie Zhen relies heavily on the astronomical master Zizhu Zhenren. The older he gets, the more he believes in the motto of "fate's will" or the legends of evil spirits. People's words are to be feared, and they cannot afford to be disliked by the emperor.

Madam Zheng's lies were exposed in public. She had no choice but to kick the maid and scold her: "You lowly slave! You even dare to fool your master!"

Xiang Xiaoyuan even sniffed the scent of blood on the apples and said, "This is rabbit blood. Next time I have to take the blame, I'll at least have a mouthful of human blood."

"I, I deserve to die..." The little maid trembled and dared not say another word.

Xiang Xiaoyuan didn't like dealing with the dark tricks of these people. She brought several apples and handed them to Wu Jingnu and Zheng Erniang, saying, "Take a bite to prove your innocence."

Wu Jingnu saw everyone's eyes were directed at her, and her cheeks flushed with anger: "Are you doubting me? If I wanted to kill a slave, why would I fight her in hand-to-hand combat?!"

Xiang Xiaoyuan ignored her and set an example by taking a bite of the fruit and showing the tooth mark to everyone: "It's not me."

Then, she looked at Wu Jingnu and said calmly, "It's your turn."

Wu Jingnu was about to open her mouth and bite the fruit in public without any dignity. She felt too ashamed and embarrassed to admit her behavior. However, Xiang Xiaoyuan was so aggressive that she was in a dilemma. She could only cover her mouth with one hand, take the fruit with the other, take a big bite, and hand it to Xiang Xiaoyuan: "See, it's not me!"

"Yes." Xiang Xiaoyuan asked the maids to go down and get the fruits. Fortunately, in preparation for the birthday party, there were dozens of baskets of apples and pears that matured in winter. There were too many to count, and one was enough for everyone.

Xiang Xiaoyuan asked Yan Yun and Lin Qiyu to help him take a copy of the teeth marks on the deceased's neck, and then compared them one by one with the marks on the fruit, even the servants in the villa were not spared.

It’s a pity that after being busy all night, I couldn’t find any similar ones.

Xiang Xiaoyuan asked the chief eunuch Fusheng, "Have they all been verified?"

Fusheng frowned: "Except, except His Highness, but how could His Highness do such a thing!"

Xiang Xiaoyuan pondered for a moment and said, "I naturally believe that Your Highness is innocent, but the rules cannot be abandoned. Since you have to cooperate with the investigation, Your Highness cannot be exempted."

"You, you are so bold as to dare to provoke His Highness..." Fusheng was dumbfounded.

He remembered Xie Yunxue had asked him to look after Xiang Xiaoyuan on his way to the capital, but after returning, the Crown Prince hadn't shown any particular affection towards her, so it seemed their friendship wasn't very deep. Yet, Xiang Xiaoyuan had the audacity to actually provoke the Crown Prince. Wasn't she courting death?

Xiang Xiaoyuan said firmly, "I will go to see the prince."

Fusheng said with a sad face, "Oh, no! This old servant has some friendship with the coroner Xiang, so I want to give you a piece of advice. Your Highness received something from the Star Observation last night, and he's been gloomy all day. I'm afraid he's in a bad mood! If you still want to bump into him at this time, aren't you asking for trouble?"

"What is the Star Observation Center?"

"You don't even know how to observe the stars?" Fusheng was puzzled.

Shaked his head at Xiaoyuan.

Fusheng said helplessly, "That's a royal Taoist temple appointed by the emperor, a temple dedicated to the emperor's fasting and prayers, and a temple dedicated to the rites of passage. Inside the temple, there's the powerful Purple Bamboo Immortal, who can protect the country and its people and ensure their prosperity for thousands of years."

Xiang Xiaoyuan nodded and said, "Then I will try not to mention the matter of stargazing in front of Your Majesty."

Fusheng was stunned. Was this what he meant? He was clearly telling Xiang Xiaoyuan not to seek death!
Seeing her walking away from the small garden, the chief eunuch lifted his robe and ran after her: "Oh my dear, why won't you listen to my advice? When His Highness gets angry, he can kill people. Please listen to my advice!"

(End of this chapter)