A Sneaky Person
As the voices gradually faded away …
Ji Yunshu immediately ran out of the side door with Jing Rong following closely behind.
The manservant's legs were trembling and he couldn't walk. He could only stand on the spot, panicking and shivering.
The side doors on both sides of the ancestral hall led to the garden in the backyard. When they ran out, the laughter had already disappeared. What stood in front of them were the broken pieces of the rockery that hadn't been cleaned up yet.
Some of the rockery had fallen into the lake behind it, while others had been smashed into smithereens on the road.
Jing Rong looked around but didn't see anyone.
"There's no child in the marquis's estate," Ji Yunshu told him.
"Then you think …"
"In any case, it's definitely not a ghost. It's a person."
"This prince naturally doesn't believe in ghosts, but if it really was a child playing tricks, this prince would have caught up to him when I was chasing him. I wouldn't have even seen his shadow."
With Jing Rong's martial arts, it was indeed impossible that he couldn't catch up to a child.
Could it be that the child's martial arts were better than his?
That would be too strange!
Ji Yunshu was also perplexed. She turned her attention back to the fake mountains.
She moved to the side of the rockery and shone the lantern in front of her. The messy rockery seemed to have been 'uprooted' from the ground.
How much strength was needed to do that?
It was impossible for a person to do it alone.
But if many people pushed down the rockery, why didn't it attract any attention? Or rather, if many people pushed down the rockery, why didn't they leave any clues around it?
Suddenly, her eyes narrowed. She squatted down to investigate, and her gaze fell on the potholes left behind by the uprooted rockery and several small potholes beside it.
"This is the rockery?" Jing Rong asked.
"Yes. I passed by here last night but didn't pay much attention. Marquis Kang said that it was the work of a ghost, but look …"
She pointed at the large potholes and the small potholes beside them.
Jing Rong didn't understand.
Look at what?
There were several large potholes.
Actually, it was understandable that he didn't understand.
Ji Yunshu slowly explained to him, "I know how the ghost managed to push the rockery down. He must have found a long and sturdy iron rod and placed a medium-sized rock next to the rockery. One end of the iron rod was stuck into the ground, while the other end was pressed against the rock he found. With the help of the force, he pushed the other end of the rod down. The rod that was stuck into the ground exerted force, uprooting the rockery. That's why there are small potholes around these large potholes. These small potholes were left behind by the ghost who moved the rock here to use it. If he was really a ghost, he could have easily pushed the rockery down, so why would he waste so much energy?" Ji Yunshu slowly explained to him, "I know how the ghost managed to push the rockery down. So, someone did it on purpose. "
Hmm?
What kind of operation was that?
To put it bluntly, this was the principle of lever balancing.
It was normal for Jing Rong to not understand.
However, what shocked Ji Yunshu was that the sneaky person was quite smart. He actually thought of using an external force to push down the rock.
"Then, who could that person be?"
Ji Yunshu analyzed, "It's possible to push down the rockery in the middle of the night without anyone noticing, but to leave a child's handprint on the signboard of the Marquis's estate, and to entangle those tree branches on the way into the estate, it's impossible not to attract attention. Moreover, the Marquis has people watching outside. Wouldn't it be a little too difficult to cause trouble under their noses?"
"What did you think of?"
"I thought of Mo Ruo's words."
Hmm?
"He said that those people who were bewitched weren't sick at all. If it was an ordinary doctor who said that, I wouldn't believe it. But if it was Mo Ruo, I believe it. Since they weren't sick, why did they all pretend to be sick?"
It was very strange!
"Why don't this Prince hypothesize? Perhaps, all the people in the manor colluded together for a common purpose. First, it's the pair of shoes. Someone deliberately stole the shoes and used this incident to achieve an ulterior motive. Then, let's assume that the person who stole the shoes was Cai Da. Then, Cai Da gathered all the people in the manor to put on a show, including the people guarding the entrance. Thus, leaving a handprint on the signboard was a simple matter. In order to make people believe that it was a ghost who caused mischief, those who also participated in the incident pretended to be sick, making the matter even more mysterious. However, Granny Lin seemed to want to dissuade Cai Da, so when Cai Da returned to continue his mischief, she stopped him. The two clashed, and Cai Da accidentally killed her."
Ji Yunshu listened attentively to his hypothesis. When he finished, she nodded.
"Your analysis isn't unreasonable. If that's the case, then it's reasonable. But why did Cai Da do it? Also, how did that child's voice come about? "
"We'll have to ask him!"
After asking Cai Da, the truth would be revealed.
"Caw!"
Suddenly, a crow flew out of the darkness and landed on a piece of rockery that had fallen down.
"Caw!"
Its jet-black body proudly stood upright. It lowered its head and carved a few times on the rock. Then, it flapped its wings and flew away.
"Caw!"
It disappeared into the pitch-black night sky.
… …
On the other side, Jing Rong's imperial bodyguards went to the place where Cai Da was imprisoned. There were two people standing guard outside, squatting together and talking about something.
When they saw them, they quickly stood up.
After all, they were Prince Rong's men, so they were more polite. "Big Brother, what's the matter?"
"His Highness has ordered us to bring Cai Da over."
"Now?"
"Yes, now. Hurry up and don't let His Highness wait for too long."
"Yes, yes, yes!"
The two of them hurriedly did as they were told. One of them fumbled for a key and quickly opened the door. Because there was no light inside, they could not see clearly. They took out a match and lit a candlestick inside. Little by little, the light illuminated the medium-sized woodshed.
That person lifted the candlestick and stretched it forward, calling out, "Cai Da."
Just as he finished calling out …
"Ah!"
There was a scream.
At the same time, the candlestick fell to the ground with a clang. The originally illuminated room darkened again. The two people who went in scrambled out, their eyes wide open and their faces full of fear.
They both fell to the ground and pointed inside. "Cai Da, he … he …"
”
They couldn't even speak a complete sentence!
The imperial bodyguard vaguely sensed it. He walked into the room, picked up the candlestick on the ground, and lit it again.
Bit by bit, the light spread to Cai Da, who was sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall. His head was crooked, his eyes were rolled back, and his mouth was full of blood. A piece of his bitten tongue hung on the ground, dripping with blood. His death couldn't be described as tragic, but it was very disgusting.
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