Chapter 24: Home-style Tofu (Part Twenty-Four)
"You think I have no evidence?" Leng Yue curled her lips, her phoenix eyes narrowing as she flashed a fiery smile. "If I arrested you without evidence, and the presiding official couldn't get anything out of you no matter how hard they tried, you'd be acquitted, and I'd be the one taking the beating. Do you think I'm a fool too?"
Jing Yi raised an eyebrow, a faint smile playing on his lips.
No, of course not.
Where in the world would you find such a fair-skinned, red-lipped, and exquisitely shaped fool?
Sun Dacheng's face turned the color of a rosewood club under Leng Yue's seemingly casual remarks. "You... What evidence do you have?"
Leng Yue's smile deepened. Her delicate features, illuminated by the flickering flames from the stove, were indescribably radiant. "Didn't it occur to you before asking that I have no reason to tell you? If I call you a fool, do you really have to act like one?"
Sun Dacheng choked on his anger, nearly passing out from the strain.
"Enough, enough..." Leng Yue said in a tone gentler than one would use to soothe a cat. "Save your words. When the trial begins, you can shout them at the presiding official as much as you want. Even if you're a fool, he'll make everything clear to you."
As Jing Yi walked out the door with a leisurely smile, Xu Qing, who had been glaring furiously at Sun Dacheng, suddenly realized something and hurriedly said, "W-Wait! Madam, do... do I have to go to jail too?"
Leng Yue glanced at him lightly, her delicate brows slightly furrowed. "What do you think?"
Xu Qing was baffled, staring blankly at Leng Yue, whose expression still held a trace of a smile but whose gaze had turned cold. "I... I didn't do anything!"
"Didn't do anything?" The warmth in Leng Yue's smile faded. "You discovered the body but didn't report it to the authorities. Instead, you moved and hid it privately, causing the body to go missing and the crime scene to be destroyed. Wasn't that you?"
Xu Qing's confidence deflated instantly. He pursed his lips, scratched the back of his head, and his voice grew much weaker. "Y-Yes, that was me, but I did it because..."
Leng Yue's brows twitched imperceptibly, and she raised her voice to cut him off. "No matter your reasons, you did it, so I have to arrest you. That's what the law dictates... If you have grievances, save them for the trial, just like this fool here."
Leng Yue didn't know if Xu Qing understood her intention, but at least he gritted his teeth, hung his head, and fell silent.
Just as Leng Yue breathed a half-sigh of relief, another timid voice spoke up.
"Um..." Zhao He, who had only just grasped about half of what was happening, timidly raised a hand from inside the crate. "Madam, if I heard correctly, it seems... I have nothing to do with this. Why must I go to jail too?"
Leng Yue lightly licked her lips.
Indeed, Zhao He had nothing to do with this case.
But since Jing Yi had stuffed him into the crate as well, it meant he intended to take him along. As for why..."No rush, no rush..." Jing Yi stepped through the doorway with a beaming smile, followed by six burly men who looked utterly bewildered. "It's getting late. Let's get settled in the Dali Temple Prison first, and we can chat leisurely later. There's plenty of time... Come, come, just these three crates with people inside. Carry them and follow me. Once we reach the destination, each of you will receive five taels of silver, with food and drink provided to your heart's content."
When Jing Yi had recruited these six men, he had merely mentioned that the Dali Temple needed to retrieve some items and required extra hands to move a few crates. Little did they know the crates contained their own stewards, clerks, and kiln workers...
Though initially uneasy, the moment they heard about the silver reward and the promise of food and drink, their worries vanished into thin air.
"Right away!"
The six men loaded the crates onto a large cart used for transporting porcelain and flanked it energetically as they followed Jing Yi toward the Dali Temple Prison.
Leng Yue trailed silently behind, step by step, until they reached a street corner. There, she halted abruptly, slipping deftly into the nearest alley. Only when the cart had completely disappeared from view did she leap onto the rooftops, soundlessly racing off in another direction.
Xiao Yunde’s residence.
Leng Yue didn’t even bother knocking. Instead, she descended directly from the roof into the desolate courtyard and slipped noiselessly into the bedroom, which felt even colder than the yard.
The room was grand yet dim, permeated with an unseasonable chill. Qin Hehuan lay curled on the vast bed, facing the wall, still dressed in the elegant attire she had worn that morning. But the commanding presence she had exuded earlier was gone. Her faint, hoarse sobs, delicate as silk threads, lingered in the frigid bedroom, steeped in bone-deep sorrow.
Leng Yue approached the bedside without a sound and let out a soft sigh. "Stop crying."
Startled by the sudden voice, Qin Hehuan trembled and bolted upright. Through tear-blurred eyes, she recognized Leng Yue in her blue robes. Stunned, she hastily wiped the tear stains from her face and instinctively clutched her prominently swollen belly. "You... you? What are you doing here again?"
The makeup on Qin Hehuan’s face had already been streaked by tears, and her hurried wiping revealed large patches of deathly pale skin. The bruise at the corner of her mouth stood out starkly against her bloodless lips.
So, even though Qin Hehuan glared at her as if she were a thief, Leng Yue found it hard to muster any anger.
"I came to tell you," Leng Yue said calmly, her tone mild, "Zhang Chong is dead, and his killer has been found. They should be locked up in the Dali Temple Prison by now."
Clutching her belly, Qin Hehuan bit her lip lightly. "Good riddance..." she murmured. Then, supporting her slender waist with one hand, she rose slowly and steadily, fixing Leng Yue with an icy, expressionless face. "If you’re done talking, get out. Otherwise, I’ll call for help. Don’t think I don’t know—even you government officials can be punished for trespassing."
Leng Yue showed no intention of leaving. She raised a hand and pointed at Qin Hehuan’s prominent belly. "If you call for help, I’ll call attention to this. Let’s see who gets scared first. How about that?"
Qin Hehuan’s face stiffened, her complexion turning another shade paler. "You... what do you actually want?""The murderer who killed Zhang Chong is named Sun Dacheng, also a worker at the porcelain kiln. He resembles Xiao Yunde in height, has dark skin, a sturdy build, and speaks with a suburban Beijing accent. He claims he witnessed you handing the money pouch to Zhang Chong, which provoked his murderous intent toward Zhang Chong... Tell me the truth—how exactly did your money pouch end up in Zhang Chong’s hands?" Leng Yue finished speaking slowly, then added indifferently, "Think carefully. Do you want to tell me now, so it goes directly into the case records, or wait for the presiding judge to extract it word by word from Sun Dacheng’s mouth in court, in front of all the commoners of the capital?"
Qin Hehuan’s face grew even paler, her lips trembling slightly. Her barely upright body also shook faintly. After a long silence, she spoke with the weakness of severe illness, "If I tell you... will he really not say it in court?"
"If you don’t speak now, I’m going home for dinner."
Panicked, Qin Hehuan blurted out, "I gave it to him!"
"Why did you give it to him?"
Qin Hehuan hesitated, and Leng Yue turned to leave toward the door.
"He... he saved me!"
Leng Yue frowned and turned back, watching Qin Hehuan—who had slumped silently onto the bed, clutching her stomach—and said, "He saved you, so you gave him the money pouch as thanks. Then you turn around and say he harmed you, that he deserved to die... Are you mocking me, or yourself?"
"No..." Qin Hehuan shook her head vigorously, two plump tears rolling down her cheeks. The earlier coldness in her vanished completely, her voice so faint it seemed to drift from the deepest depths of the underworld. "I was just walking casually on the street when that Sun Dacheng appeared out of nowhere, covered my mouth, and dragged me into a small alley... Zhang Chong happened to live in that alley. By chance, he came out and called out to Sun Dacheng. Sun Dacheng got scared and ran off... Zhang Chong wanted to report it to the authorities, but I was afraid my husband would find out, so I gave him the money pouch and begged him not to say anything. He agreed. But then yesterday, my husband suddenly returned and asked where the money pouch was. I couldn’t explain, so he beat and cursed me, saying the child I’m carrying is some bastard’s spawn, and he... he killed the child right before my eyes..."
Leng Yue’s heart tightened, but her brow relaxed slightly.
This made sense.
The person Zhang Chong had raged about wanting to kill before his death now matched up.
Qin Hehuan gently stroked the cotton-padded bulge of her stomach, letting out a bleak, cold laugh. "If it wasn’t Zhang Chong going back on his word, could it have been Sun Dacheng who went and told my husband himself?"
Leng Yue wanted to tell her yes.
But before she could open her mouth, a voice as gentle and smooth as jade drifted down from the rafters, cutting her off.
"I’ll bet two celery and pork buns—it was Sun Dacheng who told him."
Before the words faded, a white figure flashed, and a person grinning like a flower appeared beside Leng Yue, holding a soft paper package in one hand and a stack of stiff paper packages in the other.
Why was this guy sticking to her like a plaster...
For some reason, while Leng Yue felt the urge to kick his backside, she also sensed the faint, gloomy chill in the room dissipate abruptly, as if it had brightened considerably.
Qin Hehuan, however, felt the exact opposite.
It was the first time Qin Hehuan had seen a living creature float down from the rafters, dressed in flowing white robes, without making a sound when landing...
Not daring to look at his face, she clung to the bedpost and let out a scream like a stuck pig.
Jing Yi nearly jumped back onto the rafters from her shriek.Leng Yue sighed resignedly in her heart, already prepared to explain to the servants who would come running at the noise why she and Jing Yi were in their mistress's room and had nearly scared the lady to death. Yet even after Qin Hehuan screamed herself hoarse, not a single soul appeared.
Leng Yue shot Jing Yi a sidelong glance and whispered, "Did you chase the servants and maids away again, as far as possible?"
"Of course," he replied. "I couldn't just stand by and watch you get reported to the magistrate and beaten with bamboo rods. The pain would be on your body, but it would ache in my heart."
"...Get back up on the beam."
"Don't be like that. I came down because I noticed the buns were getting cold. I brought them especially for you—interrogations always make you hungry, and going hungry for too long hurts your stomach... Feel them, aren't they almost cold?"
"Not bad, they still have some warmth."
"They're best eaten while hot..."
"Hmm..."
Qin Hehuan finally recognized Jing Yi's voice. When she timidly raised her head, the two people standing before the bed were already each holding a large meat bun, munching away.
As they ate, they blinked their eyes in unison, staring at her.
Qin Hehuan was on the verge of tears. "You... get out!"
"Mmm... just a moment." Jing Yi slowly finished the remaining bun in his hand, his tongue lightly tracing his softly colored lips before speaking. "There are three more matters to discuss. Once I'm done, we'll leave."
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