“Aunt Fentao, please come inspect and see who has scratch marks or bite marks across their chest, back, or arms, let us begin with the Young Madam.”
Fentao responded, “Yes!”
She immediately walked over to Jinshu Fu’s side. Jinshu Fu unbuttoned his garments, while the servants below kept their heads obediently lowered, not daring to cast random glances. Haiyuan Wei, however, wanted to look, yet his line of sight was blocked by Fentao, allowing him to catch sight of nothing more than one of Jinshu Fu’s fair, slender arms.
At this moment, Haiyuan Wei also understood the intent behind Yunchan Wei’s demand for everyone to strip.
Yet deep inside, he felt entirely unfazed, because he had bound He Pan’s hands and gagged He Pan’s mouth back then, making it impossible for the other person to leave any marks upon his body.
Yunchan Wei’s tactic would evidently end up as nothing more than a fruitless attempt.
Fentao conducted a meticulous screening round, until finally only Zewen Wei and Haiyuan Wei remained.
Zewen Wei possessed bruises upon his body, but they clearly were not inflicted by humans, resembling instead the impact marks of some object. He offered an explanation, “These are injuries sustained from playing polo today.”
Confirming it repeatedly, Fentao nodded toward Yunchan Wei.
In the end, only Haiyuan Wei was left.
Carrying an air of absolute composure, Haiyuan Wei permitted Fentao to conduct her detailed inspection. Finding no trace of any wounds, Fentao retreated to Yunchan Wei’s side and whispered a few words to him.
After going through such a massive commotion, the outcome turned out to be completely empty-handed.
Zewen Wei adjusted his garments, voicing a couple of complaints under his breath, “It’s merely a servant, dead is dead, why make such a grand fuss over it? A complete waste of time.”
Upon hearing these words uttered aloud, a profound chill swept through the hearts of all the servants gathered below. Yet upon second thought, this world inherently functioned in such a manner; for individuals like them serving as slaves, their lives were as worthless as ants, with the ultimate authority over life and death firmly grasped in the hands of those holding superior status.
A cheap life indeed warranted no attention.
Their already bowed frames sank even lower, wishing they could press their faces directly into the yellow soil.
At that exact moment, however, a cold chuckle escaped Yunchan Wei. Rising abruptly to his feet, he declared in a stern voice: “He committed neither wrongdoing, nor was he a vicious and heinous individual, and now he has met an unjust death within my Wei estate, yet you declare ‘dead is dead’. Is this the benevolence, righteousness, and code of conduct of a gentleman that you were taught at the private school?”
“Well spoken.” Yizhi Wei strode over from the side. His battle armor remained unremoved, a precious sword grasped in his hand, followed closely in his wake by General Lin Xiang. As the two men walked forward, they naturally radiated a dignity that left others unable to stare directly at them.
Yizhi Wei walked to Yunchan Wei’s side, raising a hand to pat his shoulder: “What Xiqin said is entirely correct, what you do not desire, do not impose upon others; wishing to establish oneself, help others establish themselves. If you wish for your officials and subjects to cherish you in the future, you must necessarily possess a heart of benevolence and love.”
Haiyuan Wei muttered inwardly in contempt: what benevolence and love could this sort of “white-faced Asura” Yunchan Wei possibly possess? He was putting on a righteous act right now, yet back when he used to rip out people’s tongues and sever people’s limbs, he never blinked an eye.
Casting a glance toward He Pan’s corpse, Yizhi Wei stated in a deep voice, “First have him buried in the earth, this matter shall be investigated through to the end, the lot of you simply need to obey the Young Master’s instructions.”
The crowd chanted in unison: “Understood, Lord Husband!”
Failing to snag any evidence implicating Haiyuan Wei, Jinshu Fu walked with hurried steps, dragging Yunchan Wei back to their room before fetching paper and brush to write:
[I know who killed He Pan].
Staring at the sentence written by him, Yunchan Wei felt a mixture of amusement and exasperation, this silly goblin had only returned to the estate from outside yesterday evening, so where on earth could he have seen He Pan, and even if they had crossed paths, he shouldn’t possibly know the name of a minor page.
Yet right now, he was “confessing without being pressed,” terrified lest he failed to notice something amiss with him, rendering him simple-minded to the extreme.
In reality, Jinshu Fu was truly not foolish. He simply understood that Yunchan Wei possessed a meticulous mind and must have long since perceived the anomalies, recognizing that he was no ordinary mortal. Furthermore, over this period of time, Jinshu Fu had hardly concealed anything from him, otherwise he would never have poured the Yellow Springs Water directly into his body en masse.
Only, following the lake incident previously, Yunchan Wei’s choice to “play dumb and act ignorant” without exposing him instead caused Jinshu Fu to place an extra layer of trust in him.
This trust was bound to demand payment sooner or later. Although Jinshu Fu did not comprehend what love meant, Grand Master Jiuji had once mentioned: the very first step in loving someone is to trust the other party.
Jinshu Fu nodded in innocent bewilderment, prompting Grand Master Jiuji to pose another difficult puzzle for him: “Then what if the other party betrays your trust? What should you do?”
How had he answered back then? Ah, he cared little about it, stating simply: “If harmless to me, I pursue it no further, and we part ways; if harmful to me, I kill them outright to ensure a permanent solution.”
Grand Master Jiuji shook his head in disappointment toward him.
“What are you spacing out for?” A gentle flick landed upon Jinshu Fu’s forehead, and Yunchan Wei repeated his question, “Who is it, and where is the proof?”
Jinshu Fu wrote: [Haiyuan Wei, no proof].
Gazing at that name, Yunchan Wei displayed merely a trace of surprise: “The attendants serving around Haiyuan Wei have consistently been maidservants; I have never once heard of him harboring a fondness for the dragon-yang path.”
Yet Haiyuan Wei’s obsession with lust and desire was no secret. Though Haiyuan Wei was merely a few months younger than Yunchan Wei, barely after crossing fifteen, Niangzi Shuang had already added concubine maids into his quarters. Since Yizhi Wei never placed high expectations on these two secondary-branch sons, he paid little heed to affairs within the secondary courtyard.
However, regarding matters big and small across the estate, Yunchan Wei had been learning to manage and oversee them since childhood. There had indeed been a period when several young maidservants newly brought into the secondary courtyard vanished from sight for a long time, and according to his mother, some were sold off by Niangzi Shuang on the grounds of lacking nimbleness in their tasks.
That exact timeframe happened to coincide with his own physical condition worsening by the day, leaving him incapable of even looking after himself, let alone possessing the bandwidth to track the whereabouts of those maidservants.
Reflecting upon it now, Yunchan Wei sensed hidden anomalies, prompting him to tell Jinshu Fu: “Just tell me what you know, I will trust it without questioning your reasons.”
As he spoke these words, one of his hands rested upon the back of Jinshu Fu’s neck, kneading the soft flesh with a gentle pressure that felt both comforting and encouraging. Jinshu Fu felt that he constantly treated him like a small cat or dog, yet declined to quibble over it, merely reaching out to pry his hand away and stroke the nape of his neck that had been tickled by the kneading.
He then wrote: [The missing maidservants are also connected to him, but regarding this, I must ask you a question from earlier once more.]
Possessing astonishing memory, Yunchan Wei immediately recalled it upon hearing him mention it: “The body of purity one?”
Jinshu Fu nodded, marveling internally at how genuinely clever he was, far smarter than the likes of Long Xiao or Yanzha. Consequently, opening wide a pair of almond eyes, he lifted his head to gaze shiningly and fixedly at Yunchan Wei, awaiting his explanation.
To begin with, Jinshu Fu’s appearance was exceptionally striking; even under the fastidious scrutiny of someone like Yunchan Wei, not a single flaw could be picked out. This current state, blending obedience with adoration, appeared all the more endearing, causing Yunchan Wei’s heart to grow hot and skip a couple of beats entirely off guard.
This abrupt emotional surge made Yunchan Wei feel somewhat ill at ease. Giving a light cough, he averted his gaze and provided an explanation: “It refers to a woman’s chastity. If a woman claims someone robbed her of her body of purity, you can understand it as that person, against the young girl’s will, and her.” Yunchan Wei searched for a term an elf might comprehend better, “mated with her.”
This vocabulary remained excessively conservative, for Jinshu Fu proceeded to write directly: [Does mating mean the same thing as cross-breeding]?
Yunchan Wei: “…”
After a long pause, Yunchan Wei corrected him: “One cannot use the word cross-breeding between humans, it is vulgar.”
Having offered his correction, Yunchan Wei could not resist speculating in the depths of his heart: since Jinshu Fu understood this terminology, could it be… that Jinshu Fu’s original form truly belonged to some sort of animal?
He appraised Jinshu Fu’s face, turning it over in his mind before concluding it might perhaps be a cat? He had previously witnessed a certain variety of cat within Naga City possessing dense, lustrous fur interspersed with character-eight markings, rounded facial contours, and large, round eyes, rendering them exceptionally gorgeous.
The single point of greatest similarity was that such cats projected an arrogant demeanor while remaining fiercely clingy by nature, matching Jinshu Fu to a tee.
[Oh].
Picking up the brush once more, Jinshu Fu wrote: [Haiyuan Wei forcibly mated with those maidservants, along with He Pan today. The maidservants were murdered by Niangzi Shuang, while He Pan committed suicide by jumping into the lake.]
For a boy to suddenly be mixed in among so many girls and catch Haiyuan Wei’s fancy made the matter all the more bizarre. Yunliang had never favored male-male romance, and back at the Rouge Tower during the grand candle-lighting ceremony, this very He Pan sat without anyone placing a bid for ages, so how on earth did Haiyuan Wei suddenly develop a taste for this direction?
Recalling He Pan’s appearance, Yunchan Wei categorized it at best as delicate, and that red mole dotted on earlier added two extra portions of false exotic charm. The red mole!
This descriptor provided Yunchan Wei with a sudden, thunderous enlightenment while simultaneously filling him with uncontainable rage.
Noticing the fury abruptly radiating across his entire being, Jinshu Fu felt thoroughly bewildered, tugging lightly at his sleeve to write and inquire: [What is the matter?]
Reining in his emotions, Yunchan Wei cupped his rounded, exquisite half-cheek with his large, broad palm, gently rubbing his thumb pad across the red mole between his eyebrows as he answered calmly: “Nothing.”
It was simply that someone possessed the audacious courage of a bear or leopard, daring to covet what did not belong to them.
Should he chop off Haiyuan Wei’s hands and force him to eat them one by one, or sever that vicious root of his and dispatch him off to Panlong City, where male-male romance flourished?