The Head of the Village hesitated.
Granny Feng had secretly arranged for two people to stay at the estate yesterday, even he hadn’t been allowed to see their true faces, and he was strictly forbidden from spreading the news.
Upon hearing Shaofuren’s words, he felt uneasy and wanted to go down the mountain to check.
But if Shaofuren stayed behind and something happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to explain it.
“Shaofuren, why don’t you come down the mountain with us? I’ll leave some people here to search?”
Ye Zhen was troubled. “Granny Feng is someone Mother relies on. If anything happens to her, Mother-in-law will blame me, and it won’t be good for her illness either.”
She smiled bitterly. “I stumbled all the way here last night. If I go with you, I’m afraid I’ll slow you down.The Head of the Village looked at her mud-stained shoes, her clothes and hair torn and disheveled from branches and thorns—she looked both awkward and exhausted.
She really wasn’t in any condition to travel.
In the end, he sent Zhuangtou Niangzi and Wan Xing down the mountain with some people, while he stayed behind.
No matter how important Granny Feng was, she was still just a servant, while Ye Zhen was the true master.
Having achieved her goal, Ye Zhen smiled faintly.
The Head of the Village was the Marquise’s man—he might have seen Xie Yunzhou before. If he went back, he would definitely help cover things up.
With him staying in the mountains, Wan Xing could carry out her task more easily.
The Marquise would eventually reap what she had sown.
Pulling her thoughts back, Ye Zhen immediately began calling out, “Granny Feng… Granny Feng… Where are you…”
Her voice was urgent, filled with anxiety and fear, as if she was terrified that something might happen to Granny Feng and she would be blamed by the Marquise.
The others thus concluded that Shaofuren must have had a difficult time in the Marquis’ residence as well.
They hurriedly joined in calling out.
Ye Zhen subtly drifted away from the group.
Meanwhile, Granny Feng, whom they were calling for, finally had company.
Screams of shock echoed around her.
Most of the people on the estate were poor, honest farmers. When they saw the murder scene, they were all terrified and at a loss.
At the same time, they were curious about the relationship between the two people on the bed.
Wan Xing, following Ye Zhen’s instructions, didn’t enter the room. She only glanced from outside the door and turned pale.
Before descending the mountain, Shaofuren had told her that Xie Yunzhou was at the estate but had been killed by her.
She had been bewildered the entire way down, unable to figure out what had actually happened.
Until she saw the corpses embracing each other.
So the young master had faked his death before. He was in love with Chi Heng—no wonder he never shared a room with Shaofuren after marriage.
She knew Shaofuren’s character well. If she hadn’t been forced into it, Shaofuren would never have resorted to killing, let alone maliciously slandering Xie Yunzhou as having a preference for men.
Shaofuren had always been strong and patient, yet she had cried earlier.
It must have been because after she entered the mountains last night, Xie Yunzhou and his lot had bullied Shaofuren.
Wan Xing’s heart swelled with hatred.
Those wretched scoundrels!
But she had a task to accomplish while descending the mountain.
As if terrified by the scene in the room, she screamed, turned, and ran to Granny Feng. “Granny, who are those two people in the room? What happened? Who harmed you?”
Granny Feng, tormented by pain, had long lost her senses. Her mind was fixated only on Ye Zhen’s reminder: only timely medical treatment could save her!
Her lips moved desperately.
Wan Xing cried anxiously, “Granny, what are you saying? I can’t hear you clearly. Can you write it down?”
Granny Feng struggled to lift her hand, and Wan Xing thoughtfully supported it.
After Granny Feng wrote the character for “doctor,” Wan Xing subtly applied pressure, causing Granny Feng to scrawl the character for “official” as well.
Wan Xing urgently asked, “Did you write ‘doctor’ because you want us to fetch one?”
Granny Feng, her consciousness blurred, had no idea what Wan Xing had guided her to do. Hearing the word “doctor,” she nodded repeatedly.
Wan Xing hurriedly said to Zhuangtou Niangzi, “Quick, Granny wants us to fetch a doctor and report to the authorities.”
Zhuangtou Niangzi was also frightened, but she didn’t move.
“Should we first inform the Marquise?”
Though unclear about the identities of the two individuals in the backyard, since Granny Feng had arranged for them to stay at the estate, they likely had some connection to the Hou Estate.
Their deaths were so undignified.
Once a doctor was summoned and the authorities notified, the matter would inevitably spread. She feared it would tarnish the Hou Estate’s reputation and incur the Marquise’s wrath.
Wan Xing seemed reminded by her words. “Zhuangtou Niangzi is right.”
She quickly released Granny Feng’s hand and apologized loudly, “Granny, please hold on a little longer. If we move swiftly, a round trip to Jingcheng should take no more than four hours.”
Four hours?
Granny Feng was so enraged she gasped for breath, her eyes rolling back. She couldn’t afford to wait even four breaths.
Seeing this, Wan Xing looked helplessly at Zhuangtou Niangzi. “Granny’s condition likely won’t allow such a delay. Zhuangtou Niangzi, you must decide. She is a witness, loyal to the Hou Estate, yet she urges us to report this to the authorities. This matter must be grave—perhaps she holds crucial evidence. If we delay and something goes wrong… When the Marquise investigates later…”
Zhuangtou Niangzi hesitated, uncertain.
Hearing the suggestion to involve the authorities, Granny Feng suddenly regained some clarity. They must not report it—otherwise, the Zhongyong Hou Estate would become a laughingstock, the young master would be posthumously disgraced, and the Marquise would go mad.
She then realized Wan Xing was Ye Zhen’s maid, surely colluding with her mistress to issue orders through her. They would shift the blame onto her later.
The Marquise would skin her alive.
What vile and cunning schemes these wicked master and servant had!
Filled with resentment, she pushed Wan Xing away and struggled to grasp Zhuangtou Niangzi, wanting to give her instructions. But to the onlookers, it appeared as Granny Feng’s fury at Zhuangtou Niangzi’s disobedience.
Zhuangtou Niangzi hesitated no longer.
Yet she still dispatched someone to Jingcheng to report the matter.
The county town was half an hour from the estate. By the time the Marquise received the news, the physician and county officials had long arrived.
Hearing that a homicide had occurred at the Zhongyong Hou Estate’s property, the County Magistrate came in person.
By his arrival, Granny Feng had already breathed her last, unwilling and resentful.
The Magistrate proceeded to examine the two individuals in the room. To his shock, one of them was Xie Yunzhou, and he exclaimed involuntarily, “Young Master Yunzhou?!”
Only then did Wan Xing understand why Ye Zhen had insisted she report to the county office. Shaofuren must have known the Magistrate was acquainted with Xie Yunzhou and anticipated his personal involvement.
Where the Magistrate went, crowds of onlookers were sure to follow.
With so many people, secrecy became impossible.
It was as if she now mustered the courage to look at the bodies. Recognizing one, she fell to her knees with a thud. “It truly is our Second Young Master! But wasn’t he reported dead three years ago while on duty? How could he be here? Who killed him?”
She promptly kowtowed to the Magistrate. “Your Honor, this is the Second Young Master of the Zhongyong Hou Estate! And Granny Feng—she was highly trusted by the Marquise and served as the young master’s wet nurse. She must have been killed protecting him. I beg you to swiftly investigate, apprehend the culprit, and avenge them…”
The Magistrate, recovering from his shock, realized this matter should not be publicized.
But it was too late!
Among the spectators were literate individuals.
The traces of intimacy remained on the bed—they had already deduced this was a shocking, yet thrilling, love suicide.
Who could resist sharing such gossip?
Nearby were estates of other nobles. Servants, eager to curry favor, rushed to inform their masters of the fresh scandal in hopes of rewards.
The Hou Estate’s young master, it was said, favored men, had abandoned his lawful wife, faked his death to elope with his guard, then changed his mind and sought to return. In a fit of unwillingness, the guard killed him in bed and followed him in death.
Even the Marquise’s trusted confidante Granny Feng was silenced on the spot, proving the Marquise had long known her son’s death was staged—perhaps she even assisted in the deception.
Tsk, tsk!
No theater troupe could stage a drama more thrilling than this.
Thus, the news swiftly spread through the surrounding areas and raced toward Jingcheng.
Meanwhile.
Ye Zhen had broken away from the main group.
She was searching for the perfect spot to stage a fall—the wound on her leg needed a plausible explanation.
Instead, she stumbled upon two groups fighting.
To be precise, two men in black were ambushing a bearded man.
One of the black-clad figures was familiar to Ye Zhen.
In her previous life, when Xie Yunzhou came to the dilapidated house, this man had accompanied him.
He was the one who suggested forcing her to submit by feeding her poison that felt like ten thousand ants gnawing at her flesh.
The pain had been excruciating, bone-deep.
Ye Zhen wanted him dead and feared he might report to Xie Yunzhou, complicating matters there.
But the bearded man was injured and seemed unlikely to defeat the black-clad assailant.
After a moment’s thought, Ye Zhen hid behind a tree and hurled stones as projectiles at the black-clothed person.
With her aid, the bearded man gained the upper hand.
“Meddling fool, seeking death!The man in black, struck in the eye by Ye Zhen’s stone, charged at her furiously, sword raised.
But Ye Zhen feinted east and struck west, blinding him with a handful of dust.
Seizing the opportunity, the bearded man smoothly ran him through with his sword.
With her enemy dead, Ye Zhen still needed to find a location and slipped away quietly.
When she finally found a suitable spot, she discovered it was already occupied.
By the same bearded man from earlier.
Ye Zhen debated whether to find another place.
Faint voices from the manor’s servants calling either “Granny Feng” or “Shaofuren” reached her ears.
Left with no choice, Ye Zhen stepped forward. “Are you jumping or not? If not, move aside.”