The ointment spread a cooling sensation over his hands, gradually calming Xiao Jin Yu's scorched nerves. Staring at the unfamiliar wounds on his hands, he frowned slightly. "Chu Chu, do you remember... how I got these injuries?"
"You don't remember? You scraped them on the ground last night when you crawled out to look for me."
Crawled out... What else did I do last night?!
Chu Chu cradled Xiao Jin Yu's hand, her fingertips gently applying the ointment over the wounds that stood out starkly against his pale skin. "If you hadn't crawled like that, I might never have figured out what was so strange about those corpses!"
Xiao Jin Yu froze. "Corpses?"
While continuing to apply the ointment with delicate care, Chu Chu explained clearly, "Mm... I noticed it yesterday while piecing the corpses together. Among those that weren't completely decomposed, more than half had similar wounds on their palms—some worse than yours, some milder. I couldn't understand why, and neither could my father or brother..."
"It wasn't until I was applying medicine to your wounds last night that it occurred to me—maybe they got them the same way you did, from crawling on the ground. So I asked my brother to go with me to the morgue to dissect a few badly decomposed ones. And sure enough, the vertebrae between their first and second lumbar segments were fractured. They couldn't even sit up, let alone walk. Isn't that strange?"
Xiao Jin Yu's expression had darkened momentarily at her imaginative reasoning, but now his brow furrowed tightly. "All of them were like this?"
"My brother and I each dissected five, and they were all the same." Having finished applying the medicine, Chu Chu carefully wrapped his hand in gauze. "I showed them to my father and grandfather. They both said the fractures must have been caused by a blunt object—the force applied skillfully enough to leave no marks on the skin or muscles, with the bones intact except for the broken joints." She added, "I wanted to tell Brother Jing, but he wasn't around."
Thank goodness he wasn't. If Jing Yi found out why she suddenly went to perform corpse examinations during the New Year festivities, he might as well never return to the capital...
"He went home for the New Year. He'll be back in a couple of days."
"Alright."
After bandaging his hand, Chu Chu brought it to her lips for a gentle kiss before tucking it back under the blankets. She then picked up the bowl of porridge to feed him.
After just a few mouthfuls, a sudden cramp seized Xiao Jin Yu's stomach. He leaned over the bedside and vomited, continuing to retch long after his stomach was empty. Cold sweat streamed down his cheeks from the pain. Supporting his trembling body, Chu Chu turned pale with fright. "Wang Ye, what's wrong... Is the water contaminated? Has the cadaveric poison flared up again? I'll go get Grandfather!"
Xiao Jin Yu quickly grabbed her arm, shaking his head with effort. When the vomiting finally subsided and his breathing steadied, he weakly explained, "Stomach illness... It's nothing serious..."
Chu Chu poured him a cup of warm water to rinse his mouth, carefully helped him lie down, and skillfully retrieved stomach medicine from the large medicine chest. After administering the medication, she wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with one hand while slipping the other under the blankets, locating the approximate area of his stomach to slowly massage and warm it.
"It's alright... It'll pass soon..."
"Let me massage it for you. It might help you feel better."
"You've been busy all night... You should rest..."
"I'm not tired."Chu Chu kept rubbing until his trembling subsided and he regained enough strength to lift his arms and pull her into his embrace.
"Chu Chu... did I really say I'd marry you on the ninth day of the new year?"
Chu Chu nodded against his chest, quickly adding, "You said it! No lying during New Year!"
"Mm, no lying... we'll do it on the ninth."
"But..." Chu Chu pursed her lips and looked up at him, "What about the Emperor's Imperial Decree?"
Xiao Jin Yu chuckled softly and patted her, "So you do remember there's an Imperial Decree..."
Chu Chu immediately clung tightly to him, afraid he might be angry, and said urgently, "I just want to marry you sooner!"
"Then don't worry about the Imperial Decree..."
Chu Chu lifted her head to look at Xiao Jin Yu's faint smile, "Really?"
"I'm here, what's there to fear..."
"Wang Ye, you're so good!"
Xiao Jin Yu gently stroked Chu Chu's hair, "About the case here... if you discover anything else, just tell me directly..."
Chu Chu blinked her bright eyes at him, "Isn't Brother Jing handling this case?"
Xiao Jin Yu nodded slightly, "I'll investigate, and he'll preside over the public trial..."
"Why?"
Xiao Jin Yu gave a faint, bitter smile, "If he investigates, how could the case be concluded before the ninth..."
He didn't dare imagine holding their wedding while this family was preoccupied with thoughts of over a hundred dismembered corpses.
Chu Chu smiled sweetly, "That's good! I've never seen Brother Jing conduct a public trial before!"
"I haven't either..."
"Really?"
"Mm..."
"Then let's go watch together when the time comes!"
"Alright... Chu Chu, what else did I say last night?"
"Lots of things."
"Oh?"
"I'm not telling you!"
"..."
Early on the second day of the new year, after Xiao Jin Yu had mostly sobered up from the alcohol, he told the Chu family he was visiting an old friend and took Chu Chu out with him.
"Wang Ye, who are we visiting this time?"
"Still my nephew, Xiao Jue."
Chu Chu pursed her lips and swallowed, "Wang Ye... he won't be angry that I overturned his chessboard, will he?"
According to the guards' reports, Xiao Jue hadn't touched any chess pieces these days.
Xiao Jue had long memorized that unfinished chess game - if he still cared about it, he could have easily set it up again.
There was only one explanation: this girl had somehow unwittingly resolved his mental block.
"He won't..."
"Then his temper is quite good too."
"He's always had a good temper."
As soon as Chu Chu stepped down from the carriage, she saw the two broken wooden doors that the guards had forced open last time still lying on the ground. The entrance to the courtyard was still piled with withered branches and dead leaves, and inside, there was complete silence.
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