The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

Lu Weiyuan discovered that Luochuanke was indeed very good at telling stories.

In the lobby of the government office, with a dead body still lying on the scene, she easily used words to bring several people with completely different positions back into the story that she had not been able to finish before.

Yue Mingye, the top prostitute in Tianwu Pavilion, was very young, which was the best age for a woman in the eyes of the world. She was only seventeen years old when she died mysteriously in the river.

And her "rival" Xi Fangfei, who had become famous before her, was only one year older than Yue Mingye.

As flower girls, they all gained great fame at the age of seventeen, but they died of suffocation on the same day of the same year, and very likely at the same time.

Xi Fangfei died because of the long silk wrapped around her neck. When her mother in Yuping Pavilion found her, she had fallen into the room staggeringly and was already dead. However, the patrons from the previous night said that they had left early and Xi Fangfei was still alive when they left.

The maid who usually served Xi Fangfei also confirmed that after the patrons left that night, Xi Fangfei had spoken to her and asked for bathing water and incense to cover up the smell of alcohol. However, when the hot water and incense were delivered, she had already hanged herself from the beam.

There were no signs of a fight at the scene. Xi Fangfei's posture of hanging was very standard. The length of the silk was just right. There was nothing unusual about the height of the stool used as a footstool and the distance after being kicked over.

All the traces in the room indicate that she committed suicide.

Yue Mingye, who died on the same day, also passed away suddenly after receiving the last guest of that night.

Unlike Xi Fangfei, Yue Mingye was carefully selected by those who manipulate the industry of flower girls behind the scenes. She can be regarded as the best one, so her temperament is more arrogant than the former - she often requires that after receiving guests, she must give herself some time alone to clean the traces on her body and calm her mind.

The people in Tianwu Pavilion gradually got used to her quirks and got used to preparing toiletries in advance next to where she was receiving guests, and then not disturbing her during that time.

It was for this reason that the people in Tianwu Pavilion did not realize until dawn that Yue Mingye had disappeared from her room for no reason. When she appeared again, the young Hua Niang, who was famous in Tongzhou, had been drowned.

There were also no signs of a fight, nor much struggle. The other end of the red silk tied around the waist was wrapped around a huge rock that appeared out of nowhere. The two worked together to firmly fix Yue Mingye's body in the river.

She also appears to have committed suicide.

But no one could explain clearly where the huge stone came from, which required the combined efforts of three or four constables to move.

"......It is precisely because of the strange appearance of this stone that the previous prefects of this government did not really classify the Huayue case as an ordinary case of Hua Niang committing suicide. However, there was really no clue of homicide, and too much time had passed. Over time, it became an unsolved case." Prefect Tang said, stroking his beard.

He glanced at Qi Shaofeng and said, "Especially... not long after that, the son of the Qi family, who had painted for Yuemingye and made her famous, and won the first place in the Flower Boat Festival..."

Qi Jibai died tragically.

Just outside the water city, in a forest beside a large lake where the fish are said to be very plump and sweet, it seemed that he had been torn apart by wild beasts, and only a few remains were found. The reason why he was identified as the deceased was that among the remains, only his head, which was filled with fear, was still intact.

"Strange, it's really too strange." Prefect Tang kept sighing.

Qi Shaofeng's face turned ugly. He looked at Lu Weiyuan again and said, "My fourth brother died miserably. That's why I was angry when I heard the two girls talking about him like that on the boat. No matter how he was when he was alive, he is gone now. It's better to be more tolerant."

Lu Weiyuan smiled at him, and suddenly realized that this young man from the Qi family in Tongzhou seemed to have other purposes. Otherwise, it was Luochuanke who had been telling the story, but he was specifically looking at him when he spoke...

It seems that he is not as ignorant as he appears.

It is really disgusting that he just pretends to be ignorant and lets the vicious dog bite him.

Lu Weiyuan smiled and said, "A dead person is just a dead person. Could it be that a playboy who has accomplished nothing has become gilded with a layer of gold after his death, and everyone who sees or mentions him has to respect him spontaneously?"

"There are so many dead people in this world who were neither good at literature nor martial arts, who never did a single good deed, and who never contributed a bit to the world. Do you have to kowtow to each of them to show your respect?"

"The customs of the Qi family in Tongzhou really make a short-sighted girl like me marvel." Lu Weiyuan said the most sarcastic words in the sweetest voice.

Even though Qi Shaofeng had been hiding it very well, he couldn't help but reveal a bit of embarrassment in his eyes at this moment, as if he didn't understand why a young girl like her had so many reasons to say, and was so... difficult to be convinced by her own point of view.

"Snapped!"

Seeing that the two seemed to be about to quarrel, Magistrate Tang gave Lu Weiyuan a warning look, then slammed the gavel and said, "Okay, this is a court, silence!"

He looked at Luochuanke again: "What the young lady said is all what I already know. Since the young lady dared to say that the murderer from many years ago is acting again, then I believe the young lady must have other clues that are unknown to the public, right?"

The tip of Lu Weiyuan's ear moved slightly.

Just now, she heard the footsteps outside the government hall suddenly increase, but the footsteps were a little messy. Only one-third of them were the footsteps of warriors, another one-third were no different from ordinary people, and the rest... were a little weak, as if they were too weak, or as if... they were deliberately walking on tiptoe.

Luo Chuanke was not disturbed by the quarrel that almost developed. She pretended to recall the past and nodded, "Although I was still young when the incident happened, my home was nearby, and that night was the full moon, so I rarely had the chance to go out of the house to enjoy the moon, so..."

She said that because she was young and active, and did not accept the discipline of her nanny and mother, she took advantage of the moon-viewing time to sneak out through a small door.

"I still remember what I saw at that time. It seemed like a big thing was slowly paddling across the river, or swimming across. Anyway... it wasn't in human form." Luo Chuanke gestured with his hand. "Now that I think about it, the part of that thing that floated above the water seemed to be a piece of stone, a very ordinary bluestone with some cloud-like patterns on it. It shone in the moonlight and was quite beautiful."