Chapter 264
Chapter 264
We now had an answer regarding the Seventh Concubine’s death.
According to the wretched hag, she had heard a splash on the night the Seventh Concubine fell into the well. When she went outside, she saw Master Luo rushing into his study in a panic.
Assuming Master Luo was not the killer, the splash had been loud enough for the hag to hear from inside her room. There was no way he could have missed it while standing outside. After hearing such a loud noise, he should have gone to investigate.
In other words, Master Luo should have been the first person to discover that the Seventh Concubine had fallen into the well.
Instead, he had fled to his study in a panic, a clear sign of guilt.
So the hag’s theory was not without reason. Master Luo had most likely killed the Seventh Concubine.
“Men care about their dignity, and Master cares even more than most. How could he tolerate a shameless woman who slept with another man walking around Luo Mansion every day? It was a slap in his face. Besides, everyone in the household knew Seventh had committed adultery.”
The hag giggled. “But I was the one who spread the story. I told the maids to make sure the rumor reached Master. As for whether Seventh truly slept with another man, I honestly don’t know.”
The steward gasped, then burst out laughing. “Madam, what a brilliant move! If you hadn’t spread that rumor, the young and beautiful Seventh Concubine would have remained Master’s favorite. If she hadn’t died, Master might never have taken another wife.”
“That was a masterful scheme.”
A chill ran down my back.
So the wretched hag had deliberately started the rumor that the Seventh Concubine was unfaithful.
Even she did not know whether the Seventh Concubine had actually committed adultery.
Which meant the Seventh Concubine might have died unjustly.
She had been young and beautiful, so naturally Master Luo adored her. Her status in Luo Mansion would have been second only to his. Offending the Seventh Concubine would have been the same as displeasing Master Luo, and none of the other concubines would have dared disrespect her.
But after the hag spread that rumor, Master Luo began to despise and neglect the Seventh Concubine. Her status in the household plummeted, and the hag and the other women bullied her constantly.
Later, Master Luo was probably unable to get past the thought that the Seventh Concubine had betrayed him, so he pushed her into the well and drowned her.
If that was true, then Xiuzhu really was Master Luo’s biological daughter!
That wretched hag was beyond vile!
Her vicious slander caused the Seventh Concubine’s death, and later she beat the woman’s daughter to death with her own hands.
If only I really had traveled through time. I would have stabbed her to death myself!
“But did the Ninth Concubine really die from illness?” the steward asked.
Seventh Master remained calm, but I was shocked.
The Ninth Concubine had died of illness?
If the Luo Mansion Massacre occurred in the winter of the year Xiuzhu died, then the Ninth Concubine must have died soon after Xiuzhu.
“Of course she died from illness.”
The hag said coyly, “I thought her death was strange too. She always seemed so healthy and energetic, and I’d never seen her sick. Then all of a sudden, she died of an illness.”
“But who can say with these things? After that little bastard Xiuzhu died, she was always arguing with me like a madwoman. Anyone who didn’t know better would’ve thought the little bastard was her own child.”
“But her death proves one thing. No one who opposes me in Luo Mansion comes to a good end. She deserved to die.”
The steward chimed in, “Naturally. There was something truly sinister about the Ninth Concubine. When she first married into the Luo family, everyone thought she resembled the dead Seventh Concubine. People whispered that the Seventh Concubine’s Ghost had lingered and returned for revenge.”
“More importantly, someone saw the Ninth Concubine fiddling with objects used by wandering folk practitioners in her room. It was uncanny. And she cared for the Seventh Concubine’s daughter Xiuzhu as though the girl were her own. To be honest, even I was a little afraid of her. She always seemed to carry some kind of wicked air.”
“With her dead, Luo Mansion is peaceful again.”
Then the adulterous pair resumed their activities.
Something about their conversation bothered me. I looked at Seventh Master and asked, “Seventh Master, what do you think?”
He stared blankly ahead. “They’re truly hideous.”
His gaze was still fixed on the bed. I snapped, “I’m asking what you think about the Ninth Concubine!”
He returned to his senses. “Oh, the Ninth Concubine. There is definitely something wrong there. Something seriously wrong. What do you think?”
I said, “The Ninth Concubine suddenly died of an illness for no apparent reason. Even that wretched hag found it strange. I don’t think the Ninth Concubine actually died.”
Seventh Master frowned. “But there were forty people in Luo Mansion. Aside from Luo Xiuzhu, whose body was never found, the other thirty-nine corpses were all present.”
Before he could finish, Seventh Master froze. He had noticed the flaw in his own words.
The locals did not know that Xiuzhu had already died inside the Luo household. The file had never said that the Ninth Concubine died before the massacre either. It only stated that Master Luo took two more concubines after the Seventh Concubine’s death, bringing the total population of Luo Mansion to forty.
We now knew that the wretched hag had killed Xiuzhu before the massacre, and that the Ninth Concubine had supposedly died before it as well. That meant the supposed household of forty had actually contained only thirty-eight living people.
If so, why had thirty-nine bodies been found after the massacre?
There had not been one corpse missing from the scene.
There had been one corpse too many.
So who did that extra body belong to?