nucmednet Chapter 219 The Dancer, Lotus City
Chapter 219 The Dancer, Lotus City
The Seventh Princess launched into a tirade of accusations, leaving Lu Yifeng speechless. Su Mowan glanced at Lu Yifeng's expression, smiled, and gestured to the Seventh Princess to stop.
The Seventh Princess pursed her lips and said, "What I said wasn't wrong."
Seeing that Su Mowan's expression was calm, Lu Yifeng asked, "Is your friend the one who was wrongly accused?"
"Ah."
Su Mowan nodded, a flash of anger crossing her eyes, but it vanished in an instant.
Lu Yifeng clicked his tongue, somewhat surprised.
"Li Junmo's reputation isn't very good, but I never expected him to do something like this."
Li Junmo would never do such a thing.
Su Mowan believed that Li Junmo wouldn't dare to do this even if he had ten times the courage, without the instigation of the person behind him.
However, even though he was acting under someone else's orders, he did it this time, and there's no guarantee he won't do it again in the future. This kind of person should not be tolerated.
The carriage arrived in front of Qingchengfang.
The group got off the car one by one, with Lu Yifeng lagging behind. He looked up at the signboard of Qingchengfang, then glanced at the surrounding layout, and suddenly said, "Qingchengfang is not a good location; the feng shui is bad."
"..."
Several people looked at him.
Su Mowan frowned and teased, "I didn't expect Young Master Lu to know about feng shui."
"I know a little bit."
Lu Yifeng said modestly.
The words were humble, but the tone was quite proud.
Su Mowan wasn't interested in asking him what was wrong with him. The feng shui of Qingchengfang wasn't her concern. What she cared about was Qingcheng's innocence and the truth of the case.
He could only urge, "Young Master Lu, you can slowly make your moves after we solve the case. Let's go inside now."
Song Chuwen's official sedan chair was parked at the entrance of Qingchengfang, and the sedan chair bearers remained in place to wait, indicating that Song Chuwen had already gone inside.
Lu Yifeng could tell at a glance that there were other people around, so he frowned and whispered to Su Mowan, "Don't reveal my name, or it will cause a lot of trouble."
Su Mowan glanced at him sideways.
"What are you afraid of? You're not a wanted criminal by the government, there's no need to hide it."
He's certainly not a wanted criminal, but he's the infamous Poison Immortal! If word gets out, not only will he attract enemies, but he'll also have to deal with the government officials.
As for why we need to deal with the government officials, it all comes down to a case from six months ago.
He had many enemies, had killed many people, and had gotten himself into trouble.
He didn't want to get involved with government officials unless absolutely necessary.
Lu Yifeng glanced back, adopting a lordly air: "These are my conditions for helping. Whether you agree or not is up to you."
"Alright, alright, I'll just call you Young Master Lu anyway."
As Su Mowan spoke, she took the lead and headed towards Qingchengfang.
As soon as I entered, the headmistress of the brothel greeted me with great eagerness: "You've finally arrived! Lord Song instructed me to gather all the girls in the brothel upstairs, just waiting for you!"
After the headmistress finished speaking, she glanced at Lu Yifeng inadvertently. Although she was curious, she didn't dare to look at him for long.
Su Mo was late, so she went upstairs to the second floor.
The Seventh Princess followed closely, keeping a distance from Lu Yifeng.
About twenty young women, dressed in alluring and revealing clothing, were gathered in the corridor on the second floor. They were clearly dancers from the Qingchengfang dance hall.
Presumably, Song Chuwen summoned the dancers to ask them questions.
The dancers stood in twos and threes, whispering amongst themselves, their faces showing tension.
Su Mowan walked lightly, but the jade pendants on the Seventh Princess's waist swayed with her steps, making a crisp clinking sound.
So the dancers who were chatting in twos and threes turned around one after another, and when they saw Su Mowan, their eyes flashed with envy or jealousy.
Su Mowan glanced over and noticed that two of the dancers looked at her strangely.
A dancer, quite beautiful and with a graceful figure, was standing some distance away. She was looking at her with hostility.
The other one was closer, and while her figure and appearance were above average, she was still somewhat inferior to the first one. This person looked at her with a wary gaze.
The gaze of the previous dancer is easy to understand; it's simply a normal emotion arising from seeing someone more attractive than oneself.
As for the following...
Su Mowan glanced at her indifferently, then walked into the wide-open room without stopping.
Song Chuwen was in his room, studying the table and window for a while.
Su Mowan stopped, about to introduce the person, when she turned around and realized that Lu Yifeng had not followed her in.
"Master Lu?"
Su Mowan called out in confusion.
"coming!"
About ten seconds later, Lu Yifeng entered with a faint smile on his lips, clearly showing a different mood than when he first entered the building.
Su Mowan raised an eyebrow in confusion.
Did he see a familiar dancer in the corridor and chat for a bit? Is that why he's in such a good mood?
She didn't need to pry into Lu Yifeng's private affairs, so Su Mowan directly introduced the person.
"This is my friend, Young Master Lu, whom I invited."
Song Chuwen nodded to Lu Yifeng.
Su Mowan then introduced Lu Yifeng, saying, "This is the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Lord Song."
"I have heard of Lord Song's name. The fact that he personally came to investigate such a minor case today shows that Lord Song is a very competent official."
These words implied that Li Junmo was incompetent, but Song Chuwen didn't mind. He smiled modestly and said politely, "This case still needs Young Master Lu. Can Young Master Lu see anything?"
"You'll only know once you see it."
Lu Yifeng was rather aloof. After saying this, he walked around the room by himself, sniffing the air every now and then, as if he were smelling something.
That's impressive.
Su Mowan wasn't idle either; she checked all four windows.
There are two windows at the front and two at the back, two opening onto the corridor and two opening onto the backyard of Qingchengfang.
The two windows facing the corridor were undamaged and showed no signs of abnormality, so Su Mowan walked towards the other two windows.
Song Chuwen leaned closer and pointed to a tiny scratch, saying, "There are some marks here."
Leaning closer, Su Mowan frowned slightly, then looked into the backyard from the angle of the narrow scratches.
My gaze lingered on one of the sycamore trees.
Song Chuwen naturally understood her meaning, turned around and made an assumption in the direction of the bed, but then found that it was not true, and his sword-like eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"If we look at this mark, the plum blossom needle should have been shot from that sycamore tree, but following this route, the plum blossom needle couldn't have hit the bed."
In other words, if someone were standing in the sycamore tree, the entire area around the bed would be a blind spot, making it impossible for the plum blossom needle to hit Yuge's side of the neck directly.
"Could it be that the person was in sight, the plum blossom needle hit them first, and then someone else got them into bed?"
"But it can be confirmed that the plum blossom needle was shot into the side of the neck some time after the person died."
"Yeah, I'm totally confused."
If Yuge died from poisoning first, slumped over the table, it would indeed be possible for the arrow to strike him from the paulownia tree. But would the person who poisoned him have waited a while to come back and check if he was dead?
Even if they came back to check, they wouldn't bother putting the body on the bed.
Yu Ge was found dead in bed.
Su Mowan felt that there must be something she had overlooked, but she couldn't figure it out at once. The various signs at the scene were also contradictory, which made her feel frustrated.
Her limited intelligence doesn't seem to be enough for this kind of brain-intensive task.
Song Chuwen was also puzzled.
He couldn't figure out what went wrong, but being in this line of work, he didn't show any anxiety despite his confusion.
Also, since Qingcheng, who was involved, wasn't his friend, his expression was much better than Su Mowan's.
Just then, Lu Yifeng, after sniffing around the room, suddenly frowned, gripping the teapot on the table, and asked in surprise, "Why is there only the Antidote Powder?"
Song Chuwen was unaware of the poison that Yu Ge had been poisoned with. Upon hearing Lu Yifeng's words, he turned his gaze to Su Mowan.
Su Mowan had no choice but to repeat Lu Yifeng's previous assessment to him.
Song Chuwen's brows furrowed even more deeply.
Su Mowan's expression was also solemn. Both the Sorrow-Relieving Powder and the Soul-Snatching Powder were unique secret medicines of the Hundred Flowers Sect. What grudge did the Hundred Flowers Sect have with Yuge, or perhaps Qingcheng?
"Young Master Lu, are you sure this only contains the Worry-Relieving Powder?"
Lu Yifeng raised an eyebrow, somewhat displeased: "Are you questioning my judgment?"
"of course not."
Su Mowan shook her head: "Then how did the Soul-Stealing Powder get into Yu Ge's body?"
Lu Yifeng was truly stumped by the question.
His eyes darted around twice, then he frowned and said, "Wait a minute, let me take another look."
Song Chuwen, who was standing to the side, seemed to have thought of something, and a glint of light flashed in his eyes: "Then please continue to investigate, Young Master Lu. Let's go and ask them questions first."
These words were spoken to Su Mowan. Unbeknownst to her, the two had actually become an ally, which made the Seventh Princess a little depressed.
She couldn't help but think, "If only my third brother were here, he would definitely be much more capable than Song Chuwen!"
Su Mo went out with Song Chuwen later that evening.
The Seventh Princess also wanted to go, but Su Mowan stopped her: "You, Yinshuang, and Feng Yue stay here to accompany Young Master Lu."
The Seventh Princess didn't like the arrogant Lu Yifeng, but she still pouted and stayed.
The teaching nanny was waiting at the door of Yuge's room.
As soon as Song Chuwen and Su Mowan went out, she quickly stepped forward and said, "Your Excellency, the dancers in the brothel are already waiting here. What do you think?"
When Su Mowan came in earlier, she specifically instructed the headmistress not to reveal her identity in front of the dancers. Therefore, the headmistress did not mention the title of Princess Consort in front of the dancers.
The dancers tensed up again when the supervising matron approached. Their hushed conversation ceased only when a sudden voice rang out.
The man said, "What's there to be afraid of? The magistrate is just telling us what to say and what to do. As long as we haven't done anything wrong, there's nothing to be afraid of."
After the dancer finished speaking, she glanced meaningfully at another dancer.
The dancer being watched felt a flicker of guilt and panic in her eyes.
Su Mowan looked up and caught the expression on the face. She also noticed that the speaker was the beautiful dancer, the one who had shown her some hostility earlier.
The one who felt guilty and flustered was the dancer who had been watching her with wary eyes as she went upstairs.
Su Mowan took a few steps forward, stopped beside the beautiful dancer who had spoken, and tilted her head slightly to ask, "How should I address this young lady?"
The beautiful dancer scanned her up and down, then said with a hint of arrogance, "Liancheng."