67

The light ray in the summer time was dazzling directly from the half opened lattice window on the top of the bed curtain, the person who was on the bed grabbed the side of the silk quilt to cover her face, she intended to continue her good dream.

Bang, bang, bang……. (A loud banging sound)

An intense knock on the door sounded almost deafening, even if one had covered the ears with hands, one was impossible to ignore, moreover, the person who came, appeared to have perseverance as knocking on the door sound was heard repeatedly. Zhuo Qing cursed lowly and did not have any choice to wake up from her beautiful dream!

Did this person want to die, whoever came to disturb somebody’s quiet dream first thing in the morning! Striving to get free of her misty eyes, Zhuo Qing was struggling to open the door.

Once the door was open, she only heard the young servant girl, ‘Fei-er’, who was assigned by Lou Xi Yan to attend to her, she was apologizing humbly and anxiously: “I am sorry, Madam, I am sorry. This young lady would not agree to wait for me to relay the news, she was just stubbornly rushing to come in on her own. I am sorry, Madam.”

“Fine, fine.” Zhuo Qing waved her hands to see clearly a grave expression of Gu Yun, Zhuo Qing thought that something surely happened. And she tried to find her urgently like this, it should be because of the murder case, right.

“Follow me.” Grabbing her wrist, Gu Yun just grabbed her to go out essentially.

Zhuo Qing grabbed her collar and said urgently: “Hold on, hold on, Miss, in any case, you should let me put on a dress, ok!”

She was only wearing the night clothing now and even though it was not regarded as being exposed, but it was only a thin robe. When one entered a village, one had to follow the local customs, in any case, here was the ancient time, if she went out with this clothing attire, she would estimate that she would be crushed to death by eggs and tomatoes.

Releasing her hand, Gu Yun urgently said: “Hurry up.”

Gu Yun’s completion was extremely ugly, Zhuo Qing also felt that this matter was urgent, she grabbed a raw white silk cheong sam to put on conveniently. Then she used the water that was near the headboard to wash her face by patting her cheeks randomly, Fei-er stepped forward to help her to comb her hair. Zhuo Qing waved her hand and while she was braiding her long hair in passing, she asked: “What happened?”

Gu Yun with a heavy voice answered: “Li Zhi is dead.”

Dead?! Zhuo Qing stared blankly and asked: “When? What is the cause of death?”

“Yesterday evening. The initial determination is poisoning, Dan Yu Lan is in the middle of investigating the Imperial bodyguards who were guarding and the bailiffs who were delivering the food last night. He will let you do the autopsy and I want to listen to your opinion.” Unexpectedly, Li Zhi could be poisoned to death inside the Ministry of Justice’s prison, this murderer really had a great ability!

Her hair was already tied up properly, Zhuo Qing nodded and answered: “I am good, let us go, ok.” Both people walked out for a couple steps, Zhuo Qing stopped her step suddenly, she faced Fei-er who was standing at the doorway expressionlessly and said: “You need to go and tell Prime Minister Lou that I and Qing Mo are going to the Ministry of Justice for a while, I will return in the evening.” He had said that she could have the freedom to enter or exit the Prime Minister’s manor last night, he would not interfere and restrict her movement. This being the case, he could be so lenient towards her and had confidence in her, she should also somewhat be accountable.

“Yes.” Fei-er nodded.

Gu Yun’s elegant eyebrows raised lightly, when did Qing start to be obedient like this, she even provided her own whereabouts? She remembered that Qing was working and busy for several days and several nights and did not see anybody in those days. There was no news at all so the elite’s company that had been chasing after her for two years felt defeated and finally gave up on her. But she took the initiative to explain her whereabouts today, Lou Xi Yan was indeed remarkable ah~

If this was an ordinary time, she would surely ridicule her about this, unfortunately, today was not the time to do that. Pulling Zhuo Qing, both people left the Prime Minister’s manor hurriedly.

The main entrance of the Prime Minister’s manor was on the other side of the trail, two people were just about to go out, but because of the two energetic silhouettes who just left the manor, they stopped their footsteps.

“A woman who is showing her face in public all day long, can you not control her? This kind of woman does not deserve to be your wife.” A muffled voice that carried a deep displeasure, Lou Mu Hai’s dark complexion declared his full dissatisfaction.

Smiling and looking at that white silk back, even if she was in a simple ornament, she was already so beautiful. Not paying attention completely to the person next to him who was really angry, Lou Xi Yan faintly smiled and answered: “I think that she is very good like this .”

If Qing Ling was like the so called girl from a wealthy family, the golden branch, jade leaves type (blue blooded nobility) who was always cautious and careful with her words, cautious and solemn in all respects, he could not be certain that he would be like this now where he could not control himself to love her dearly.

Lou Xi Yan could hardly cover up his bias to help her, it made Lou Mu Hai to loath Zhuo Qing even more, angrily said: “If you really like her, just accept her as a concubine, that will be good. Princess Chao Yun is dignified and beautiful, she has already admired you for a long time, she is the best choice to be your wife. You as the Prime Minister, and one of the Lou clan’s family member, you should really consider how to balance this concern, not only to follow your own heart’s desire!”

Lou Xi Yan groaned softly, he had already done a lot for the Lou’s family! His eyes flashed through a trace of deep resentfulness and disdained, Lou Xi Yan coldly answered: “At the second month of the three years’ prayer for blessing celebration, I intend to get married with Qing Ling after the celebration event. I will deliver the invitation card to the West General’s manor.”

“Lou Xi Yan! I am your dad!” Lou Mu Hai rebuked angrily, he did not pay attention completely to this disobedient son of his every time he returned, why could they, father and son not be able to be like the other father and son?!

Dad? Looking towards this relative who was glaring at him and then flaunting his own identity as a man, Lou Xi Yan was laughing. Why did he not see him as a dad when Xi Wu was born, when he was growing up and when mother was facing death? Raising his head with a trace of mocking smile, Lou Xi Yan with a cold voice, smilingly said: “I like this woman and just want to marry her as a wife, moreover, there will be only her. I am not the same like you, I, Lou Xi Yan do not need to lean on a woman to balance my official career.”

Finished speaking and also not caring on what the reaction from the person who was behind him, Lou Xi Yan turned around and went out of the Prime Minister’s manor. The complexion of the person who was left behind was ashen, the painful eyes of Lou Mu Hai were in a daze, watching at that meager rearview attentively, he was unable to move a single step for a very long time.

*******************************

The icehouse was still chilly, the several oil lamps were still shaking violently, this was the second time that Zhuo Qing was doing an autopsy at the Ministry of Justice.

There were ice and coffins everywhere, Gu Yun simply sat on the top of the coffin, she was listening to Zhuo Qing’s autopsy analysis: “According to the rigor mortis (the stiffness on the corpse), the livor mortis (the black bluish color on the corpse) appeared to be in the early phase on the corpse, the time of death of the deceased was between ten to twelve hours ago.”

“Eh, I am sorry, Madam Lou.” The young bailiff who was recording at the corner did not understand and he asked: “This, hour, what does it mean?!” (Hahaha… I was thinking why ZQ was using between 10-12 hrs in the paragraph above.  Remember that they don’t use hour). He wanted to do this matter everyday, just to record the conclusion of the examination of the corpse by the coroner, it must be detailed and accurate, especially for this Madam Lou so he could hand it over to Dan Daren. Every words that she said about the autopsy time would be recording without missing any word.

How could she forget that there was another person, seeing Gu Yun so she recalled that they used to work at the same place previously, she was used to use hour and just blurting it out a moment ago. Thinking, Zhuo Qing answered: “You just write five to six shichen, ok.” (1 shichen equals to 2 hours).

“Oh.” The young bailiff lowered his head hurriedly and recorded it down.

“The deceased’s complexion was greenish black, the eyeballs were protruded, mouth, nose, eyes had equal flowing foul blood. The skin was light bluish green color, fingernails were bluish dark, the abdomen was slightly extended.”

The deceased had not been dissected for the advance examination, Zhuo Qing asked: “Have Dan Yu Lan finished examining the corpse?”

Shaking her head, Gu Yun answered: “I was just about to look for him at dawn today, he just sent somebody to ask me to come, then I finally discovered at the prison that Li Zhi was dead. Dan Yu Lan only looked at it in a simple way to say that he died of poisoning, then asked me to ask you to come over to do the autopsy. He would wait at the prison to interrogate the Imperial bodyguards who were guarding last night.” Dan Yu Lan understood clearly that Qing’s autopsy skill was better than his skill.

Picking up the already prepared tools on the side, Zhuo Qing cut open the abdominal cavity carefully to carry out the in depth dissection.

“The inside thoracic cavity of the deceased were smidgen by dark red liquid, each of the internal organs in the thoracic cavity was in normal position. The esophagus mucous membrane was slightly corroded, the stomach area had the remnant of the food, the mucous membrane sticked together, the stomach wall had three corrosion holes. The myocardium was stiffed, the inner membrane had a small amount blood, kidney was greenish black, the skin of the membrane shed.”

The cause of death was very clear, Zhuo Qing took off her gloves and said: “The cause of death was due to food poisoning. But I did not have any toxicology report so I could not specify it for the time being, what kind of poison that he died from.”

Li Zhi was in the prison at that time, it was impossible to involve poison, even if he really carried it in order to want to kill himself, he could just take the poison directly and did not need to eat it with his food. There was no doubt that this case was a homicide case.

“Let us go.” Jumping off the coffin, Gu Yun took the lead to leave, Zhuo Qing was also following her to go out of the icehouse.

Gu Yun kept silent along the way, her complexion was heavy, Zhuo Qing asked: “What are you thinking?”

It was already mid summer, the sun was somewhat dazzling, Gu Yun stopped her footsteps near the big tree on the roadside, leaned against the tree trunk lazily, Gu Yun answered distressingly: “Our opponents are so much worst than we can imagine. The criminal who was inside the Ministry of Justice’s prison just died unexpectedly, moreover, how coincidental that he almost wanted to speak up about the inside story of the gold case! This person is indeed omniscient and omnipotent compare to us in the open, he is in the dark, it is not easy to want to bring him to come out.”

“You doubt Dan Yu Lan?” The person who knew that Li Zhi was almost falling apart and also who could kill a person inside the Ministry of Justice’s prison, the most possible person was Dan Yu Lan.

“He should not be that stupid to this degree.” Gu Yun shook her head and analyzed: “If he is the master of the matter behind all these, he can do this matter more beautifully, I guess it is because Dan Yu Lan who has interfered, the lead master is panic and does not hesitate to destroy all evidences at all costs. Yang Liu is dead now, Li Zhi is also dead, there are only two more Imperial bodyguards who were guarding the cave during that time. One is transferred to station in the East China Sea and one has already resigned the official position and nobody knows where he is now. The trails appear to have been broken, we can only wait Ye Mei and Ao Tian’s news tonight.”

She hoped that they would have good news, ok, but it was only a short three days, could they already find out about the gold case? The evidences that should be destroyed must have already been destroyed at an earlier time, right.

Extremely hot, using her hand to fan her face as wind, Zhuo Qing’s eyes were bright suddenly, she smiled and said: “Actually, there is one person who knows this and has not died, is not that so?”

There was one more person?! Gu Yun made a tapping sound with her fingers, she smiled and said: “We are going to find her.”

Two people’s footsteps accelerated unconsciously, they wished that she would not suffer any mishap either.

The light ray in the summer time was dazzling directly from the half opened lattice window on the top of the bed curtain, the person who was on the bed grabbed the side of the silk quilt to cover her face, she intended to continue her good dream.

Bang, bang, bang……. (A loud banging sound)

An intense knock on the door sounded almost deafening, even if one had covered the ears with hands, one was impossible to ignore, moreover, the person who came, appeared to have perseverance as knocking on the door sound was heard repeatedly. Zhuo Qing cursed lowly and did not have any choice to wake up from her beautiful dream!

Did this person want to die, whoever came to disturb somebody’s quiet dream first thing in the morning! Striving to get free of her misty eyes, Zhuo Qing was struggling to open the door.

Once the door was open, she only heard the young servant girl, ‘Fei-er’, who was assigned by Lou Xi Yan to attend to her, she was apologizing humbly and anxiously: “I am sorry, Madam, I am sorry. This young lady would not agree to wait for me to relay the news, she was just stubbornly rushing to come in on her own. I am sorry, Madam.”

“Fine, fine.” Zhuo Qing waved her hands to see clearly a grave expression of Gu Yun, Zhuo Qing thought that something surely happened. And she tried to find her urgently like this, it should be because of the murder case, right.

“Follow me.” Grabbing her wrist, Gu Yun just grabbed her to go out essentially.

Zhuo Qing grabbed her collar and said urgently: “Hold on, hold on, Miss, in any case, you should let me put on a dress, ok!”

She was only wearing the night clothing now and even though it was not regarded as being exposed, but it was only a thin robe. When one entered a village, one had to follow the local customs, in any case, here was the ancient time, if she went out with this clothing attire, she would estimate that she would be crushed to death by eggs and tomatoes.

Releasing her hand, Gu Yun urgently said: “Hurry up.”

Gu Yun’s completion was extremely ugly, Zhuo Qing also felt that this matter was urgent, she grabbed a raw white silk cheong sam to put on conveniently. Then she used the water that was near the headboard to wash her face by patting her cheeks randomly, Fei-er stepped forward to help her to comb her hair. Zhuo Qing waved her hand and while she was braiding her long hair in passing, she asked: “What happened?”

Gu Yun with a heavy voice answered: “Li Zhi is dead.”

Dead?! Zhuo Qing stared blankly and asked: “When? What is the cause of death?”

“Yesterday evening. The initial determination is poisoning, Dan Yu Lan is in the middle of investigating the Imperial bodyguards who were guarding and the bailiffs who were delivering the food last night. He will let you do the autopsy and I want to listen to your opinion.” Unexpectedly, Li Zhi could be poisoned to death inside the Ministry of Justice’s prison, this murderer really had a great ability!

Her hair was already tied up properly, Zhuo Qing nodded and answered: “I am good, let us go, ok.” Both people walked out for a couple steps, Zhuo Qing stopped her step suddenly, she faced Fei-er who was standing at the doorway expressionlessly and said: “You need to go and tell Prime Minister Lou that I and Qing Mo are going to the Ministry of Justice for a while, I will return in the evening.” He had said that she could have the freedom to enter or exit the Prime Minister’s manor last night, he would not interfere and restrict her movement. This being the case, he could be so lenient towards her and had confidence in her, she should also somewhat be accountable.

“Yes.” Fei-er nodded.

Gu Yun’s elegant eyebrows raised lightly, when did Qing start to be obedient like this, she even provided her own whereabouts? She remembered that Qing was working and busy for several days and several nights and did not see anybody in those days. There was no news at all so the elite’s company that had been chasing after her for two years felt defeated and finally gave up on her. But she took the initiative to explain her whereabouts today, Lou Xi Yan was indeed remarkable ah~

If this was an ordinary time, she would surely ridicule her about this, unfortunately, today was not the time to do that. Pulling Zhuo Qing, both people left the Prime Minister’s manor hurriedly.

The main entrance of the Prime Minister’s manor was on the other side of the trail, two people were just about to go out, but because of the two energetic silhouettes who just left the manor, they stopped their footsteps.

“A woman who is showing her face in public all day long, can you not control her? This kind of woman does not deserve to be your wife.” A muffled voice that carried a deep displeasure, Lou Mu Hai’s dark complexion declared his full dissatisfaction.

Smiling and looking at that white silk back, even if she was in a simple ornament, she was already so beautiful. Not paying attention completely to the person next to him who was really angry, Lou Xi Yan faintly smiled and answered: “I think that she is very good like this .”

If Qing Ling was like the so called girl from a wealthy family, the golden branch, jade leaves type (blue blooded nobility) who was always cautious and careful with her words, cautious and solemn in all respects, he could not be certain that he would be like this now where he could not control himself to love her dearly.

Lou Xi Yan could hardly cover up his bias to help her, it made Lou Mu Hai to loath Zhuo Qing even more, angrily said: “If you really like her, just accept her as a concubine, that will be good. Princess Chao Yun is dignified and beautiful, she has already admired you for a long time, she is the best choice to be your wife. You as the Prime Minister, and one of the Lou clan’s family member, you should really consider how to balance this concern, not only to follow your own heart’s desire!”

Lou Xi Yan groaned softly, he had already done a lot for the Lou’s family! His eyes flashed through a trace of deep resentfulness and disdained, Lou Xi Yan coldly answered: “At the second month of the three years’ prayer for blessing celebration, I intend to get married with Qing Ling after the celebration event. I will deliver the invitation card to the West General’s manor.”

“Lou Xi Yan! I am your dad!” Lou Mu Hai rebuked angrily, he did not pay attention completely to this disobedient son of his every time he returned, why could they, father and son not be able to be like the other father and son?!

Dad? Looking towards this relative who was glaring at him and then flaunting his own identity as a man, Lou Xi Yan was laughing. Why did he not see him as a dad when Xi Wu was born, when he was growing up and when mother was facing death? Raising his head with a trace of mocking smile, Lou Xi Yan with a cold voice, smilingly said: “I like this woman and just want to marry her as a wife, moreover, there will be only her. I am not the same like you, I, Lou Xi Yan do not need to lean on a woman to balance my official career.”

Finished speaking and also not caring on what the reaction from the person who was behind him, Lou Xi Yan turned around and went out of the Prime Minister’s manor. The complexion of the person who was left behind was ashen, the painful eyes of Lou Mu Hai were in a daze, watching at that meager rearview attentively, he was unable to move a single step for a very long time.

*******************************

The icehouse was still chilly, the several oil lamps were still shaking violently, this was the second time that Zhuo Qing was doing an autopsy at the Ministry of Justice.

There were ice and coffins everywhere, Gu Yun simply sat on the top of the coffin, she was listening to Zhuo Qing’s autopsy analysis: “According to the rigor mortis (the stiffness on the corpse), the livor mortis (the black bluish color on the corpse) appeared to be in the early phase on the corpse, the time of death of the deceased was between ten to twelve hours ago.”

“Eh, I am sorry, Madam Lou.” The young bailiff who was recording at the corner did not understand and he asked: “This, hour, what does it mean?!” (Hahaha… I was thinking why ZQ was using between 10-12 hrs in the paragraph above.  Remember that they don’t use hour). He wanted to do this matter everyday, just to record the conclusion of the examination of the corpse by the coroner, it must be detailed and accurate, especially for this Madam Lou so he could hand it over to Dan Daren. Every words that she said about the autopsy time would be recording without missing any word.

How could she forget that there was another person, seeing Gu Yun so she recalled that they used to work at the same place previously, she was used to use hour and just blurting it out a moment ago. Thinking, Zhuo Qing answered: “You just write five to six shichen, ok.” (1 shichen equals to 2 hours).

“Oh.” The young bailiff lowered his head hurriedly and recorded it down.

“The deceased’s complexion was greenish black, the eyeballs were protruded, mouth, nose, eyes had equal flowing foul blood. The skin was light bluish green color, fingernails were bluish dark, the abdomen was slightly extended.”

The deceased had not been dissected for the advance examination, Zhuo Qing asked: “Have Dan Yu Lan finished examining the corpse?”

Shaking her head, Gu Yun answered: “I was just about to look for him at dawn today, he just sent somebody to ask me to come, then I finally discovered at the prison that Li Zhi was dead. Dan Yu Lan only looked at it in a simple way to say that he died of poisoning, then asked me to ask you to come over to do the autopsy. He would wait at the prison to interrogate the Imperial bodyguards who were guarding last night.” Dan Yu Lan understood clearly that Qing’s autopsy skill was better than his skill.

Picking up the already prepared tools on the side, Zhuo Qing cut open the abdominal cavity carefully to carry out the in depth dissection.

“The inside thoracic cavity of the deceased were smidgen by dark red liquid, each of the internal organs in the thoracic cavity was in normal position. The esophagus mucous membrane was slightly corroded, the stomach area had the remnant of the food, the mucous membrane sticked together, the stomach wall had three corrosion holes. The myocardium was stiffed, the inner membrane had a small amount blood, kidney was greenish black, the skin of the membrane shed.”

The cause of death was very clear, Zhuo Qing took off her gloves and said: “The cause of death was due to food poisoning. But I did not have any toxicology report so I could not specify it for the time being, what kind of poison that he died from.”

Li Zhi was in the prison at that time, it was impossible to involve poison, even if he really carried it in order to want to kill himself, he could just take the poison directly and did not need to eat it with his food. There was no doubt that this case was a homicide case.

“Let us go.” Jumping off the coffin, Gu Yun took the lead to leave, Zhuo Qing was also following her to go out of the icehouse.

Gu Yun kept silent along the way, her complexion was heavy, Zhuo Qing asked: “What are you thinking?”

It was already mid summer, the sun was somewhat dazzling, Gu Yun stopped her footsteps near the big tree on the roadside, leaned against the tree trunk lazily, Gu Yun answered distressingly: “Our opponents are so much worst than we can imagine. The criminal who was inside the Ministry of Justice’s prison just died unexpectedly, moreover, how coincidental that he almost wanted to speak up about the inside story of the gold case! This person is indeed omniscient and omnipotent compare to us in the open, he is in the dark, it is not easy to want to bring him to come out.”

“You doubt Dan Yu Lan?” The person who knew that Li Zhi was almost falling apart and also who could kill a person inside the Ministry of Justice’s prison, the most possible person was Dan Yu Lan.

“He should not be that stupid to this degree.” Gu Yun shook her head and analyzed: “If he is the master of the matter behind all these, he can do this matter more beautifully, I guess it is because Dan Yu Lan who has interfered, the lead master is panic and does not hesitate to destroy all evidences at all costs. Yang Liu is dead now, Li Zhi is also dead, there are only two more Imperial bodyguards who were guarding the cave during that time. One is transferred to station in the East China Sea and one has already resigned the official position and nobody knows where he is now. The trails appear to have been broken, we can only wait Ye Mei and Ao Tian’s news tonight.”

She hoped that they would have good news, ok, but it was only a short three days, could they already find out about the gold case? The evidences that should be destroyed must have already been destroyed at an earlier time, right.

Extremely hot, using her hand to fan her face as wind, Zhuo Qing’s eyes were bright suddenly, she smiled and said: “Actually, there is one person who knows this and has not died, is not that so?”

There was one more person?! Gu Yun made a tapping sound with her fingers, she smiled and said: “We are going to find her.”

Two people’s footsteps accelerated unconsciously, they wished that she would not suffer any mishap either.