Chapter 2

Chapter 2

There was indeed something strange about this case.

Lady Xu was a favored concubine in a noble household, a woman shut away in the inner residence. What sort of enemy could she possibly have made?

Scheming, framing, and quiet backstabbing among the womenfolk were common enough, but who had ever heard of them resorting to outright murder?

According to the case file, Lady Xu had not lost any valuables.

The murder weapon had also been something picked up at the scene.

It was very possible the culprit had not planned this in advance, but had acted in a fit of rage.

Could Lady Xu have had an enemy who hated her enough to want her dead?

Or had she been carrying on with some man outside the household and stirred up a romantic scandal?

Either way, the investigation would have to begin with Lady Xu’s relationships.

The deeper I read into the file, the more my head hurt.

It turned out that on the day of the incident, the marquis’s mansion had invited relatives and friends from over a dozen households.

There had been forty or fifty female guests alone!

Add in the women already living in the marquis’s mansion, and the number came close to a hundred!

I looked at Yuan Nanshan in speechless disbelief. “…Isn’t this like finding a needle in the ocean?”

I knew nothing good would come of this once it landed in my lap!

Yuan Nanshan chuckled and said, “This case involves the inner residence, so it isn’t convenient for Dali Temple to investigate. But the marquis’s mansion is pressing us hard. We can only count on you.”

“Reading faces and telling truth from lies through conversation is your specialty, Master Yu.”

So now he remembered I was a fortune-teller?

Chapter 4

I read through the case file once and raised my first question.

“Lady Xu was the Marquis of Ningyuan’s concubine. Why is her son the heir apparent?”

Could a concubine-born son be petitioned as heir apparent?

Since when was the court so accommodating?

Yuan Nanshan said, “You haven’t been in the capital long, so there are many things you don’t know. The Ningyuan Marquis Manor has few descendants. The marquis has no legitimate son, only this one concubine-born son.”

So there had been no other choice.

I said, “Then forgive me for speaking frankly, but I believe there is a sixty percent chance the Marchioness is behind this case.”

No matter how one looked at it, once the Marquis of Ningyuan passed away, the heir apparent would inherit the title.

The Marchioness would be placed in the most awkward position.

A dignified first-rank lady would have a concubine standing over her head. Who could swallow such humiliation?

Yuan Nanshan, however, did not think much of it.

“The Marchioness, Lady Song, is indeed a suspect, but in my view, the suspicion is not especially strong.”

“The heir apparent is already fifteen and about to discuss marriage. If the Marchioness wanted to act, she would have done so long ago. Why wait until now?”

That was not without reason.

I cleared my throat and said, “I do not think this case is difficult. The incident happened inside the marquis’s mansion, deep within the inner residence, where outsiders could not easily enter.”

“But because of the birthday banquet, the pool of suspects has expanded.”

It seemed I would have to put some real effort into investigating.

Yuan Nanshan looked as if he wanted to pat my shoulder, but then remembered the need to avoid impropriety between men and women. Awkwardly, he said, “Master Yu, I have great confidence in you. Go ahead and do what you must. Once the case is solved, I will see that you are richly rewarded!”

I bowed to him. “Thank you, my lord.”