Chapter 3
Chapter 3
The Guardian General sat upright in the hall, her back ramrod straight, her face deathly pale.
Like a statue carved from ice and snow.
Yuan Nanshan and I questioned the little maid a while longer.
We learned a few basic details.
Nothing struck us as unusual.
No wonder the divination had shown that today would not go smoothly.
This matter was indeed troublesome.
First of all, according to the maid, Second Miss Wang had been cheerful, competitive, and independent by nature.
She was a true daughter of a military household.
Not some fragile young lady who would threaten to die at the slightest setback.
Second, there had been no warning at all before Second Miss Wang hanged herself.
Nothing had gone wrong at home.
Within the Duke Protector Mansion, her word was law.
It could be said she had anything she wanted.
Outside the mansion, everyone respected her family for its generations of loyal service.
She was also the Guardian General’s only younger sister.
What sort of great calamity could have driven such a noble young lady to take her own life?
To be honest, even I could not quite make sense of it.
Which meant that what she had done during the day she spent at the Grand Tutor’s Mansion was truly crucial!
Yuan Nanshan and I thought it over for a moment.
Then we decided to meet the noble young ladies.
Perhaps we could find some clues.
So we first went to see our old acquaintance-County Lady Qixia.
It had only been a month since we last met.
Yet County Lady Qixia’s once bright and lovely face was now shrouded in a layer of gloom.
She gave a long sigh and said,
“Master Yu, I keep getting caught up in murder cases. Am I having a run of terrible luck this year?”
“When I get home, should I find a Daoist priest to set up an altar and perform a ritual for me?”
Yuan Nanshan said speechlessly,
“County Lady, you still have the heart to joke?”
“General Wang is serious. If you still want to go home, hurry up and tell us everything you know.”
He was right.
I had secretly observed the estate just now.
The area around the manor was guarded by General Wang’s private soldiers.
Forget about anyone finding this place anytime soon.
Even if they did find it,
getting in by force would not be so easy.
Our few little lives were all in General Wang’s hands.
Killing us would be easier for her than crushing ants underfoot.
County Lady Qixia looked utterly worried and said again and again,
“But I… I really don’t know what happened!”
According to County Lady Qixia,
the poetry gathering that day had been no different from usual. Nothing unexpected had occurred.
Yet the very next day, she received news of Wang Ning’er’s death.
She, too, had been badly frightened.
She hurried to the Duke Protector Mansion to offer her condolences.
Another day later, Wang Ping’an rushed back from the border overnight
and began investigating the cause of her younger sister’s death.
County Lady Qixia said,
“Sister Ping’an came to the prince’s manor to question me, but I told her everything I knew. She simply refused to believe me…”
“Today, I originally came after receiving an invitation from the Elder Princess. Who knew I would be trapped as soon as I entered…”
All was fair in war.
It was too late to say such things now.
Yuan Nanshan said,
“Tell us everything that happened that day, every last detail. Do not leave anything out!”
County Lady Qixia’s delicate brows drew together slightly as she said,
“We really didn’t do much that day. We just talked for a while. After having tea and snacks, we went over to the pavilion to compose poetry.”
“Song Qingfang was the host, so she proposed that we each write a poem on the theme of ‘spring day.’ It didn’t have to be a five-character poem or a seven-character regulated verse.”
“She lit a stick of incense, and it burned for about an hour… Once the incense finished burning, everyone handed in their poems and we critiqued them together.”
“Thinking back on it now, Wang Ning’er did seem rather preoccupied… Unfortunately, I didn’t take it seriously at the time.”
I thought for a moment, then asked,
“During the poetry gathering at the Grand Tutor’s Mansion, were you together the entire time, or did you split up at any point?”
If that had happened,
then something unknown might have occurred.
County Lady Qixia said softly,
“At first, we were together the whole time. Later, when it came time to write our poems, we each went off to think.”
“But no one went far…”
“Song Qingfang and I stayed in the pavilion. Lin Xianzhi said she wanted to write about brocade carp, so she went to the pond to watch the fish. Wang Ning’er and Yu Chaoying seemed to have gone over to the rockery…”
After that, Yuan Nanshan and I asked a few more questions as usual.
County Lady Qixia answered them very smoothly.
For the moment, I could not see any problem.
Next,
Yuan Nanshan and I went to Song Qingfang’s room.
Miss Song was the Grand Tutor’s daughter.
In terms of status, she ranked only below County Lady Qixia.
She was also the organizer of this gathering.
I thought she might know more.