Chapter 6: Home-style Tofu (Part 6)
Leng Yue maintained this startling posture, raising her teacup toward the tearful Jing Yi as she declared, "The deceased's lips are tightly sealed with no soot in the mouth. This indicates the body was burned after death. Good news."
Leng Yue appeared quite pleased, but Jing Yi couldn't comprehend what she found so delightful about the situation.
This feeling was rather unsettling, especially since her satisfaction stemmed from examining a charred, blackened corpse, which made it even more disturbing.
Jing Yi silently glanced at the corpse still positioned beneath Leng Yue's legs.
After watching her forcibly pry open the corpse's mouth with a dagger and then randomly stirring inside with a brush several times, his sympathy for the corpse's unfortunate state had completely overshadowed his initial fear of its appearance.
Jing Yi shook his head slightly and sighed with profound pity. "Whether burned before or after death, the outcome is the same - they're dead and charred. What's so good about that?"
Leng Yue shoved the cup back into Jing Yi's hand, stood up, moved to the side of the corpse, and rolled her eyes. "If I stabbed you to death and threw you into a fire versus setting you on fire and burning you alive slowly, which would you choose?"
Jing Yi pursed his lips. "Being burned alive."
"...Why?"
Jing Yi blinked innocently. "Although being burned alive is more painful, the process takes longer. You might not be able to bear watching halfway through and rescue me, so I might not die after all."
"Don't worry about that. If I can't stand watching, I'll just stab you to death."
"..."
Ignoring Jing Yi's face that had instantly darkened to rival the charred corpse, Leng Yue knelt beside the body and carefully examined it from head to toe. Just as she finished examining the front and flipped the body over, she heard Jing Yi gasp sharply.
When the corpse lay flat, nothing seemed unusual, but upon turning it over, Jing Yi noticed a palm-sized hole in the back of its skull.
Jing Yi stared in shock at the equally blackened cavity, finally murmuring after a long pause, "Did he... die from having a hole smashed in the back of his head?"
Leng Yue's hand tracing the edge of the hole trembled, nearly slipping inside.
Judging by how he described the cause of death, he really didn't seem like someone who had handled homicide cases before...
How had she described such a corpse to Prince An the first time she saw one?
The deceased had half their head missing?
Probably.
She could still recall Prince An's expression when he looked at her back then - just thinking about it sent chills down her spine...
"Remember... this isn't called 'having a hole smashed in the back of the head.' This is called 'extensive occipital bone fragmentation and detachment.'"
As she spoke, Leng Yue traced around the black hole's perimeter. "Areas of the skull that suffered trauma before death tend to exhibit this condition after prolonged exposure to fire. So this victim likely sustained a heavy blow to this part of the head before being burned."
Jing Yi frowned and fell into thoughtful silence.
Jing Yi had the refined, pale complexion of a scholar. This face became particularly handsome when he frowned in concentration - so much so that even the typically impatient Leng Yue was willing to wait quietly for him to finish thinking.
After maintaining an elegant posture throughout his contemplation, Jing Yi pressed his thin lips together and slowly spoke. "According to what you're saying... doesn't that mean his cause of death was having a hole smashed in his head?"
"..."Never mind, a dent is just a dent...
After all, the case files for this investigation weren't under his jurisdiction, and his explanation wouldn't end up on Prince An's desk anyway.
"Right, that's what I meant."
Receiving Leng Yue's confirmation, Jing Yi eagerly suggested several possible weapons—including a watermelon—that could have dented someone's skull. While listening, Leng Yue silently finished examining the charred corpse's back. She returned the corpse to the box exactly as she had removed it, closed the lid, and without asking Jing Yi for the key, pulled a thin silver hairpin from her bun. With a few deft twists in the lock, she secured the box.
The moment the box clicked shut, Jing Yi's weapon speculations ceased abruptly. He stared blankly at the hairpin she had just reinserted into her hair.
He had initially assumed that on their wedding night, she had concocted some story to coax Uncle Qi into giving her the key to this box. He never imagined she would unlock it this way.
If she could open any lock like this...
Just as a flicker of concern crossed Jing Yi's eyes, he heard Leng Yue sigh while leaning on the box lid. "We can't keep him in the residence any longer... I'll take him out. Then I need another favor from you."
Having already assisted with the autopsy, what else could he refuse?
"At your service, my lady."
"Keep an eye on that servant Uncle Qi knocked out earlier."
Jing Yi was taken aback. "You suspect Laba committed the murder?"
"He didn't kill anyone—at least not this person. I just think he's about to do something even more foolish than murder. Keep a close watch on him."
"Alright."
After Jing Yi left, Leng Yue tidied the chaotic study and casually peeled a large red double-happiness character—originally pasted on the door for their wedding—and stuck it on the box containing the charred corpse. She then summoned two servants, had the box loaded onto a carriage, and transported it straight to Prince An's residence. After instructing the gatekeeper that it was a return gift for Prince An, she calmly turned the carriage around and headed home.
The round trip took less than an hour. When she left, the residence had been perfectly calm, but upon her return, Uncle Qi was already anxiously pacing behind the entrance screen wall.
"My lady, you're finally back! Please hurry and check on the young master! He... oh dear, I don't know what's come over him. You must see for yourself!"
This was the second time that day Leng Yue had seen Uncle Qi on the verge of tears yet unable to articulate the situation. She sighed inwardly.
In truth, Uncle Qi's predicament in this household mirrored her own. Both had known Jing Yi for many years and believed they understood everything about him. But only after living under the same roof and facing daily life with him did they realize some things weren't as ideal as they had imagined.
Patting Uncle Qi's arm like a comrade-in-arms, Leng Yue said gently, "Uncle Qi, don't worry... Where is he now?"
"In the back... in the fish pond."
Leng Yue froze—this answer surpassed her expectations. "What is he doing in the fish pond?"
"Chatting..."
Leng Yue processed this, repeating word by word, "Jing Yi... is in the fish pond... chatting?"
Uncle Qi sniffled and nodded.
That single statement exhausted a lifetime's worth of imagination for Leng Yue. So when she personally witnessed Jing Yi submerged in the fishpond, all she could do was stare in stunned silence.Jing Yi loved koi fish, and this pond was specifically dug to raise them. It was deep in the center and gradually shallower toward the edges. Jing Yi sat at the pond's edge where the water was about half a person's height, just submerging his chest and also the neck of the person clinging tightly to him, their face buried in his shoulder.
The pond water was exceptionally clear—so clear that even from a distance, one could see Jing Yi's submerged hand gently patting the back of the person in his embrace. The one being comforted held onto his waist as if clutching a lifeline, murmuring something under their breath.
It was unclear how long the two had been huddled together in this position. Most of the koi in the pond had grown accustomed to these two oddities, treating them as if they weren't there, while only a few curious ones still circled around them.
Though the face was hidden, the hairstyle, the contour of the skull, and the line of the neck revealed that the person nestled in Jing Yi's arms was a man—one so young that calling him a man felt slightly premature.
If her memory served her right, the owner of that back of the head should be Laba, the one Uncle Qi had knocked unconscious in the study with an inkstone.
She had told him to keep an eye on Laba. How had he managed to get both himself and Laba into the fish pond within just two hours?
As Leng Yue approached, Jing Yi maintained his original posture but shot her a series of urgent glances, stopping her three steps away from the pond's edge. He then lowered his head and spoke to the person in his arms in a voice as gentle as rippling water, "Alright... it's over now. Go take a bath and rest."
Jing Yi's voice was pleasant to hear, especially when he spoke softly—like a gentle autumn breeze, refreshing on the surface yet rich beneath. As he spoke, a few willow leaves drifted down from the golden weeping willows by the pond, landing softly on the water alongside his words, creating an atmosphere of tenderness.
Leng Yue raised an eyebrow, contemplating whether she should step away for a moment, when the person in Jing Yi's arms lifted their head. A pale, dazed face looked up at Jing Yi, eyes unfocused, and pleaded, "Save her..."
"Certainly."
Laba repeated this plea over a dozen times, and Jing Yi meticulously responded each time with the same assurance. Leng Yue stood by the pond's edge and listened to all of it.
Save her?
Who was she?
As Laba continued, his voice grew weaker and weaker. Jing Yi waited until he fell silent before helping him to his feet and guiding him back to shore.
Once the two were on land, servants who had been waiting nearby on Uncle Qi's orders brought dry clothes. Jing Yi wrapped both sets of clothing around the shivering Laba and watched as the servants helped him stumble away, step by unsteady step. He let out a bitter smile, then sneezed heartily.
In the eighth month of the year, the air still held the warmth of late summer, but the water had already taken on the chill of deep autumn.
Leng Yue's heart softened with pity, and she was about to take off her outer robe to drape over him when her gaze swept over Jing Yi and she noticed he was dressed in white.
A very white, very thin set of robes that, when soaked through...
Her hands paused on the ties of her robe.
Just then, a maid approached carrying a tea tray, but before she could get close, the items on the tray clattered noisily to the ground.
If he were to walk back to his room like this, the household would surely be thrown into chaos.
Without hesitation, Leng Yue grabbed Jing Yi and leaped onto the rooftop. With a few light steps, they landed in the courtyard where his bedroom was located.
No sooner had their feet touched the ground than Jing Yi sneezed again.I never knew the August wind could feel so bitingly cold...
Leng Yue bundled Jing Yi into the house, then turned to instruct the maid to prepare bathwater. When she returned to the room, Jing Yi had already stripped off his wet clothes, leaving them scattered across the floor. He sat cross-legged on the bed, wrapped in a quilt that formed a plump triangular shape, with only his head exposed. Though he wore an inexplicable smile, his face was pale and his lips were tinged blue—clearly frozen to the bone.
Leng Yue poured a cup of hot water. Jing Yi extended a hand from under the quilt to take the cup, sipped it slowly twice, and then said, "You were right... He really did something foolish."
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