A few days later, after several days of winter rain, the weather finally cleared.
By the city moat, a few girls, thirteen or fourteen years old, were flying kites on the grass.
“Haha, Qian’er, your butterfly kite is flying so high. How did you get it up there?” one girl said enviously.
“Actually, I couldn’t fly a kite at all a couple of days ago. My parents taught me how to fly kites yesterday,” Qian’er said very humbly.
“Your parents are too good. My parents don’t even let me play,” the girl mumbled.
“Ah—”
Suddenly, a scream reached their ears.
The girls scattered and fled.
Qian’er and the little girl hurried over to see what was happening, asking, “What’s wrong with you? What happened over there?”
“Th-there’s a dead person over there!”
The girl who was stopped by Qian’er said, her face full of panic.
Upon hearing this, Qian’er bravely walked over cautiously.
Seeing the naked female corpse on the ground clearly, she was also startled and became flustered.
She put down her kite and ran home quickly.
Yan Song had just finished a case and sat down in his study when he saw his daughter running home from outside in a panic.
“Yan Ziqian, what’s wrong with you?”
Yan Song’s thick eyebrows furrowed. His daughter had always been refined and rarely acted so rashly.
“Father… Father, there’s a body by the city moat,” Qian’er said, panting and stammering.
“A body? By the city moat—”
Yan Song shot up from his chair.
“Come, take me to see it!”
With that, he stepped out the door.
Yan Ziqian followed behind her father.
***
In Jinxiu Pavilion, Leng Ruo Li was busy helping guests choose dresses.
For the past two or three days since her clothing store reopened, business had been booming. The clothes were not enough to sell, and some customers ordered custom-made ones, exhausting her staff. However, no one complained.
“Miss, at this rate of business every day, we’ll be able to open a branch store soon.”
Shi Zhenghe’s clean face was beaming. He had never seen such good business in all his years of running a clothing store.
“Don’t rush. Once the customers’ novelty wears off, business won’t be as busy as these past few days,” Leng Ruo Li said with a sweet smile.
“Then, if business slows down at the store, Miss, what will be your strategy to deal with it?” Shi Zhenghe asked curiously.
“I have one, but I don’t want to tell you,” Leng Ruo Li said mysteriously.
“Oh, oh!”
Shi Zhenghe felt a bit awkward.
“Haha, Zhenghe, I was just joking. I’m still thinking about it,” Leng Ruo Li said, looking at Shi Zhenghe’s expression, and suddenly found it amusing.
At this moment, Shi Qingqing rushed into the store from outside.
“Brother… Brother, by the city moat… there’s a body,” Shi Qingqing said, panting.
“Qingqing, why did you go to see the body?” Shi Zhenghe said reproachfully.
“I went to the grass by the city moat with my village friends to fly kites,” Shi Qingqing pouted a little, displeased.
“Qingqing, are the bodies male or female?” Leng Ruo Li asked casually.
“Miss, they are all female bodies. There are five young girls’ corpses,” Shi Qingqing replied.
Upon hearing this, Leng Ruo Li was immediately stunned and recalled something Jun Mohan had told her.
“In which direction by the city moat were they found?” Leng Ruo Li asked again.
“To the north of the city moat, very close to the imperial palace. The Minister of Justice is already there and has stopped us common folk from gathering.”
“Oh, oh, Zhenghe, please keep an eye on the shop for me. I need to go out for a bit.”
Leng Ruo Li instructed Shi Zhenghe.
With that, she quickly walked out.
On the street, she happened to meet Jun Mohan, who was also heading towards the city moat.
“Let’s go, come with me to the city moat!”
Jun Mohan’s clear voice came.
Without waiting for Leng Ruo Li’s agreement, he reached out his long arm, lifted her onto the horse, and they rode together towards the city moat.
By the city moat, Yan Song was ordering his subordinates to bring up the five bodies from the river.
When Leng Ruo Li and Jun Mohan arrived at the riverbank, the five bodies had already been covered with white cloth by the soldiers.
Yan Song saw Jun Mohan and Leng Ruo Li approaching and saluted them respectfully.
“Your subordinate greets Prince Leng, Miss Leng!”
“Lord Yan, please rise. I have been ordered by the Emperor to investigate this case. Have you found any clues, Lord Yan?”
“Your Highness, these five deceased are all young girls, wearing palace maid attire, and they were all… all violated to death.”
Hearing this, Jun Mohan and Leng Ruo Li frowned. They both thought of the same thing and looked at each other, speaking in unison, “Could it be him (the Black Robe)?”
Because the Black Robe was severely injured using the technique “Cai Yin Long Ying” that day, she had heard from Jun Mohan that if he wanted to recover quickly, he needed to absorb the blood of virgins. The imperial palace had many palace maids, and most of them were virgins. Could the Black Robe be hiding in the palace?
Oh god! This is too terrifying!
If the Black Robe is not found, how many more women will die in the future?
While thinking, Leng Ruo Li walked over to the five deceased and reached out to lift the white cloth to look. The five bodies were already bloated by the river water. The bruises and claw marks on their bodies were still visible. She could no longer collect their essence.
“Your Highness, please go into the palace and inquire if any palace maids have gone missing recently,” Leng Ruo Li said to Jun Mohan.
“Alright!”
Jun Mohan nodded.
Half an hour later, Jun Mohan searched the Xi Yan Palace.
The two managing嬷嬷 (senior female attendants) knelt on the ground, trembling with fear.
“Several days ago, five palace maids from your Xi Yan Palace went missing. Why did you not report it to the Empress?”
Jun Mohan’s gaze was like a knife, sweeping over the two managing嬷嬷 kneeling before him, his tone as cold as frost.
“Your Highness Prince Leng, spare us! We, your servants, were afraid of being held accountable, so we did not report it to you… We have lost palace maids before, but we were not questioned,” the two managing嬷嬷 tried to quibble.
“Hand over the list of those five palace maids, their home addresses, and their family circumstances to me,” Jun Mohan ordered.
“Yes, yes, yes. We will go and get their list now and give it to Your Highness,” the two managing嬷嬷 said fearfully.
“Mm, Yin Chen, take a few brothers and follow behind them.”
Jun Mohan gave Yin Chen a look. Yin Chen understood immediately. This was to prevent the two managing嬷嬷 from tampering with the list or being silenced by someone in the shadows.
After the two嬷嬷 left, Jun Mohan continued to question the new palace maids kneeling on the ground.
“When you were resting in Xi Yan Palace that night, did you notice anything unusual?”
Jun Mohan closely observed the expressions on the faces of these palace maids.
Everyone shook their heads.
One of them replied, “Your Highness, we were very tired that night and fell asleep shortly after lying down. We didn’t notice any commotion. We don’t know how those five palace maids went missing. When we woke up the next day, we found they were gone. We also reported it to the two managing嬷嬷, but they only searched for a short while, couldn’t find them, and then they stopped looking.”
“Yes. We all went to look,” the palace maids said in unison.
“I understand. You may all withdraw,” Jun Mohan waved his hand at the palace maids on the ground. The group of palace maids left, but one of them behaved somewhat strangely.