"Mmm..."
Xiao Jin Yu didn't know how much he wanted to hold her and sleep properly, but the nightly routines kept repeating these past few days - high fever, coughing, vomiting...
By early morning, he was tormented into delirium, his gaze unfocused. Clutching Chu Chu, he kept begging her not to leave. Though she had seen him more seriously ill than this, she had never heard him speak in such a humble tone before. Her heart ached with both pity and fear as she held him tightly, not daring to let go. Only when dawn broke and Xiao Jin Yu's fever subsided, completely draining his energy, did he finally fall into a deep sleep.
When Xiao Jin Yu woke up groggily again, the sky was already bright. Chu Chu was still nestled in his embrace, looking up at him with blinking eyes.
"Wang Ye, you're awake?"
Xiao Jin Yu wanted to raise his hand to touch her face, but found he couldn't muster any strength, not even enough to move his arm. He could only offer a somewhat helpless smile and call her name softly, "Chu Chu..."
Chu Chu stroked his slender frame. After the fever broke, his body felt as cold as jade that had never been warmed. "Wang Ye, are you still uncomfortable?"
Xiao Jin Yu shook his head slightly, noticing Chu Chu's slightly reddened eyes. "It's nothing, just caught a chill..."
"Let me make you something to eat. You probably haven't eaten well these past few days."
"Not yet..." As Chu Chu started to pull away from his embrace, Xiao Jin Yu felt an emptiness in his heart, as if an important part of himself had been torn away. "Stay a little longer... Tell me, what about those three corpses?"
Chu Chu stared at him blankly. "Corpses?"
"...You said last night that you suspected those three didn't hang themselves voluntarily."
Last night he wanted her to forget, but she refused. Now she'd forgotten completely...
"Oh! Right!" Chu Chu suddenly perked up, her gentle eyes instantly sparkling, a mysterious smile curling at the corners of her mouth as she leaned closer to Xiao Jin Yu. "Wang Ye, guess what I found in that □ hard-lifting victim's room?"
With that tone and expression, Xiao Jin Yu was certain it was something he could never guess correctly even if he tried for a lifetime... So he randomly blurted out, his gaze falling on Chu Chu's chest wrapped in the red bellyband, "Steamed buns..."
Chu Chu burst out laughing. "You must be starving! And rice porridge too!" But then she pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Not like rice porridge, but actually quite similar to rice water... Premium rice water."
Xiao Jin Yu was slightly taken aback. "Rice water?"
He had asked about this when he first saw the three hanged men - all the examinees ate fried rice that night, where would rice water come from?
Chu Chu smiled with pursed lips, her small hand slipping under the blanket to search around. When she pulled it out again, her soft fingers were holding up something white and turbid, extending it right before Xiao Jin Yu's face. "This!"
Xiao Jin Yu's pale face instantly flushed bright red.
Chu Chu chuckled with delight, as if she had seen right through him and discovered some unspeakable secret of his...
Indeed, there was a secret, one that Xiao Jin Yu couldn't bring himself to speak even with a knife to his neck.
Although it all came from his own body, seeing it like this...
Xiao Jin Yu's face alternated between red and dark. "Chu Chu... just telling me would be enough, no need to show me..."
"Your skin is too thin! I was afraid you'd be embarrassed if I just said it!"
"Thank you..."Chu Chu examined the white stickiness clinging to her fingertip that had made Xiao Jin Yu wish he could vanish into the ground, and remarked with unshakable composure, "When I checked that man's room last night, this stuff stuck to his bedding was still damp... His was slightly darker than yours, a pale yellow—must've been holding back for quite some days."
Xiao Jin Yu found his gaze inexplicably drawn to Chu Chu's finger. Had his own days of restraint been any shorter...?
"Wang Ye, tell me, how could he suddenly think to hang himself right in the middle of doing... that?"
Xiao Jin Yu suddenly realized what he was staring at and hurriedly shut his eyes, pretending to meditate with closed lids. "Didn't you examine those three corpses... confirmed they all died by hanging?"
Chu Chu nodded without hesitation. "They did stop breathing while hanging from the beam, but they probably didn't climb up there willingly."
Xiao Jin Yu stiffened slightly, brows furrowing as he opened his eyes to look at Chu Chu's earnest expression. "You mean... it wasn't suicide?"
"Exactly!" Chu Chu's gaze shone clear. "If someone strangles a person half to death before hanging them from the beam, the death appearance would be identical to hanging—completely indistinguishable!"
Xiao Jin Yu was taken aback. This wasn't unknown to him, but after Xue Rucheng had examined the bodies and declared them hanging deaths, and after Chu Chu's meticulous inspection had reached the same conclusion—with no signs of forced entry or struggle in the room, and the remaining food and water completely clean—he had naturally concluded it was suicide by hanging.
A thin layer of cold sweat formed on Xiao Jin Yu's forehead. With his mentor present who hadn't raised objections, his momentary carelessness had nearly led to such a major oversight. Fortunately, the case wasn't closed yet...
"Chu Chu..."
"Hm?"
"Thank you..."
Chu Chu smiled sweetly, grabbing the dirty clothes she'd taken off before being pulled into Xiao Jin Yu's embrace last night to wipe the stickiness from her fingers. "You're welcome!"
Xiao Jin Yu offered a faint, bitter smile. "If you hadn't spoken up... I might not have lived much longer."
Chu Chu's smile froze on her face. "What?"
"Since taking charge of the Three Law Divisions, I established this rule: any official in our dynasty who misjudges a case due to negligence must spend at least three months in prison for reflection... When Grand Tutor Xue once misjudged Xiao Jue's case due to oversight, he reflected in prison for a full year..." Xiao Jin Yu's gaze toward Chu Chu held an indescribable tenderness. "If I were imprisoned, I probably wouldn't last three days..."
He realized that at some point, he had become afraid of death.
"No!" Chu Chu threw herself into his arms. "You're the best! You're the head of Six Doors! You'd never misjudge a case! Never!"
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