An Ge nodded, calmly handed the sweet potato to Ji Lingxue, and turned around to set off the flare.
Ji Lingxue looked at the sweet potato in her hand and smiled bitterly. Her good mood for eating the sweet potato was shattered.
Xiao Yichen arrived at the same time as the people from the yamen. At this time, Ji Lingxue and An Ge were surrounded by people. The servant pointed at Ji Lingxue and An Ge and said that they were the murderers.
Ji Lingxue was upset. This was not the first time she was wronged, and she was used to it.
Xiao Yichen asked the people from the yamen to maintain order at the scene and clear a path. Seeing Ji Lingxue, Xiao Yichen shook his head helplessly. His princess was not very lucky. Recently, trouble happened wherever she went.
Xiao Yichen walked to Ji Lingxue. It was snowing heavily at the moment. He held Ji Lingxue's cold hand and asked, "What's going on?"
The servant answered first, "Needless to say, these two are the murderers. I was just fetching water from the well behind the yard when I heard some noise over here. I came over and saw the crime scene... These two people were standing under the tree, looking at the female corpse hanging from the tree. Their expressions were so calm, they must be the murderers..."
An Ge glanced over coldly, scaring the servant so much that he trembled. The first half of his sentence sounded confident, but the latter part became weak.
Ji Lingxue said, "Let me tell you my story. I was drinking tea in a teahouse today. The owner of the teahouse and Zi Su can both testify for me. A quarter of an hour ago, I saw it was getting late and was about to go home. I drank a lot of tea today, so I went to the toilet. When I came out, I heard some noise over here, so I came over to take a look. I didn't expect that someone had hung a female corpse on a tree."
Ji Lingxue pointed to the tree behind her and said this. At this moment, the snow was so heavy that the horrible, bloody face of the female corpse was covered with a thin layer of snow, and the bloodstains under the tree were also covered with blood.
Xiao Yichen asked seriously, "What noise did you hear? Was it someone calling for help, or was it the sound of branches?"
The trees in winter were frozen so green that it was inevitable that there would be some movement when a woman's weight was placed on them.
Ji Lingxue said: "It was the creaking sound of the branches. At first I thought someone was playing in the tree, so I came over to take a look out of curiosity."
Xiao Yichen continued: "So, you didn't see when the murderer left. It had been snowing for a short time at that time. Did you see any footprints on the ground?"
Ji Lingxue recalled and shook her head, "No, there were no footprints on the ground, and I didn't see the murderer leave."
An Ge said: "I came here by stepping on the wall, and I didn't see anything unusual around me.
Xiao Yichen nodded, looked down and saw Ji Lingxue holding a paper bag in her hand, so he took it, opened the bag, took out a piece of sweet potato, began to peel off the burnt skin on the outside, and started to eat the sweet potato.
Ji Lingxue's mouth twitched. This is not the right occasion. Your Majesty, are you that hungry
Seeing that Xiao Yichen did not continue to ask, the servant anxiously said, "Sir, it is very strange for these two people to appear here in the snow. Can't you rule them out as suspects by asking a few questions?"
Xiao Yichen looked up at the anxious servant, patted Ji Lingxue on the shoulder and said, "She is my princess, do you think she needs to kill someone herself?"
The simple words of protection warmed Ji Lingxue's heart. It feels good to be cared for by others.
The servant was speechless, feeling depressed as if he had eaten a fly. "It turned out to be the princess. You should have told me earlier. I wouldn't have said those doubts just now."
The head of the police station walked up to Xiao Yichen and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, the princess has preserved the scene for us. Can we get the female corpse down now?"
Xiao Yichen nodded, pulled Ji Lingxue to the side, and took the initiative to make way for others.
Ji Lingxue asked: "Prince, are sweet potatoes delicious?" Your Highness, you are used to eating such coarse grains, right? But isn't it a different experience to eat sweet potatoes at such a bloody crime scene
Xiao Yichen nodded, "Yeah, it's delicious." He raised his hand and rubbed Ji Lingxue's face. He asked, "I heard from Mo Xiang that you didn't sleep last night, but what happened?"
Ji Lingxue didn't want to talk about her negotiation with Ji Yuqing, so she changed the subject and asked, "I heard from the emperor that you are investigating the case of a missing girl in the capital?"
Xiao Yichen hummed, "I don't have any clues yet." As he had no clues in the investigation of the case yesterday, he went to Qingfeng Yashe to have dinner and gather information. Unexpectedly, he ran into Ji Lingxue and Xiao Yimo who came to have dinner by chance.
Ji Lingxue turned her head and looked behind her and said, "I wonder if this faceless female corpse is related to the missing girl case."
Xiao Yichen raised his eyebrows, "Most women would be frightened when seeing such a horrific female corpse, but my beloved concubine is very calm?"
Ji Lingxue smiled and said, "I was just startled just now, but I'll be fine once I get used to it." Besides, it's not like she hasn't seen rotting corpses before. She was the one who buried her mother's body with her own hands.
Xiao Yichen frowned. What do you mean it's okay once you get used to it? It made her feel like she was looking at corpses every day. Is she still a woman? It's impossible to show masculinity in front of her.
The faceless female corpse was brought back to the yamen. After an autopsy, the coroner determined that the time of death was just half an hour ago, which was the moment when Ji Lingxue just found the female corpse. There were signs of humiliation on the female corpse. Her skin was cut off directly with a thin knife, perhaps because they didn't want others to discover the identity of the deceased.
The deceased had no evidence of his identity, so the government had to post a notice asking people to come and claim the body.
After returning from the yamen, Xiao Yichen pulled Ji Lingxue to the dining table to eat together. The snow gradually stopped, but the temperature was very low. A brazier had been lit in the room early, and he felt warm all over as he ate.
The food on the table was all packed from Qingfeng Yashe. It had been reheated because of the cold weather, and didn’t taste as good as the original ones.
Xiao Yichen was eating very happily. Ji Lingxue put down her chopsticks and said, "Your Majesty seems to be in a good mood?"
Xiao Yichen smiled and said, "It's good to have you by my side. I have a feeling that the case of the faceless female corpse will be solved soon."
Just after they finished their meal, Chi Feng hurried back to the mansion to report that there was new progress in the case of the faceless female corpse. "The female corpse has been claimed. It's the herbalist girl from Dong Village."
Ji Lingxue frowned, "In that case, there is a high possibility that the remaining missing girls were murdered." They were humiliated and had their faces peeled off. The murderer might be a pervert.
Xiao Yichen nodded, notified the secret guards to strengthen the security in the mansion, and then followed Chi Feng to the palace.
The night is quiet, but tonight is destined to be restless...
Xiao Yichen and Chi Feng rode their horses towards the government office, but halfway there they heard an ear-piercing scream.
The two men stopped their horses and turned around. Chi Feng pointed in a direction and said, "Your Majesty, the sound seems to be coming from the entrance of the market."
Xiao Yichen nodded, and the two of them turned their horses around and ran towards the market entrance, only to see a night watchman fainted in the snow, with the gongs and drums thrown at his feet.
And there was a woman sitting on a snow pile not far ahead... No, it should be said that it was a female corpse, a faceless female corpse, her face was covered in blood and flesh, and her dark eyes were reflected by the snow on the ground, looking particularly creepy.
Even though Chi Feng was a tall and strong man, he was still disgusted by this perverted method of killing. He covered his mouth and ran to the side to retch.
Xiao Yichen jumped off the horse and walked around the corpse carefully.
The female corpse was sitting on a snow pile with her long hair hanging down to the ground. From a distance, it looked like she was sitting on the snow pile and looking up at the sky.
Xiao Yichen turned to look at Chi Feng, "Go and ask the people from the government office to come over."
Two female corpses appeared in the city in just one day. This was not a good thing. Fortunately, it was late at night and not many people saw it, so it did not cause panic.
Chi Feng nodded and muttered, "This murderer is really perverted. Why did he have to destroy the face of the female victim?"
Chi Feng worked very quickly. A quarter of an hour later, people from the yamen came hurriedly with the coroner. When they saw the pose of the female corpse, several men in the yamen were stunned. How could someone come up with such a bizarre idea for a murder? They killed the person and then pose her in a different way.
The captain walked up to Xiao Yichen with a frown on his face, "Your Highness, was this night watchman the first one to see the crime?"
Xiao Yichen nodded, "Yes, I came here because I heard the night watchman's shout. When I arrived, I only saw the night watchman lying in the snow, and I didn't see any suspicious people. The footprints left in the snow are probably from the night watchman. Let's compare his shoes."
The head constable quickly went to do it, and came back after a while and said, "Your Highness, these shoe prints were indeed left by the night watchman. It's strange, how did the murderer leave?"
Even if the murderer could climb walls and fly, he would have left traces. It was really weird that there were no footprints on this snowy day.
Xiao Yichen turned his head to look at the unconscious night watchman, curled the corners of his lips and said coldly: "Lock the night watchman into jail and ask him questions when he wakes up." Could this be a case of the thief crying "stop thief"
The female corpse that Ji Lingxue found during the day was hanging on a tree. It had just snowed, and the murderer's traces were easily covered by the heavy snow. Now it has been snowing for half a day, and there is a thick layer of snow on the ground. Even the most mysterious master cannot disappear out of thin air. The only explanation is that the night watchman may be the murderer. This case has nothing to do with the missing girl during the day.
When the captain of the police heard this, he thought it made sense and immediately ordered his men to carry the night watchman and the female corpse back to the yamen.
In Prince Chen's Mansion, Mo Xiang was holding cotton and cloth, sitting opposite Ji Lingxue who was doing an experiment. Ji Lingxue was using a small spoon to poison the rat food in the cage. The rats squeaked in pain after eating the food mixed with poison, and Mo Xiang's heart trembled when he heard the sharp sound. They were lives after all, and it was really cruel to treat them like this.
Ji Lingxue looked up at Mo Xiang and saw her sewing something with needle and thread, so she asked, "Mo Xiang, are you sewing clothes for the New Year?"
Mo Xiang said, "I see that your feet are always cold, so I want to make you a pair of cotton shoes. This way, your feet won't be cold all winter."
Ji Lingxue was touched. She was such a good maid and a caring little cotton-padded jacket. "Make a pair for yourself too. Next time it snows, we can go out and play in the snow together."
Mo Xiang twitched her lips and said, "Princess, you have forgotten that the prince doesn't allow you to play in the snow."
Ji Lingxue lowered her head and looked at the mouse in the cage again. The mouse was rolling and struggling in the cage, squeaking. A quarter of an hour later, the mouse lay on its back in the cage, scratching its belly with its front two paws, motionless.
Ji Lingxue snapped her fingers and said, "Okay, Mo Xiang, what do you think we should name this bottle of poison? How about calling it Rat Scratch?"
Mo Xiang's needle almost poked the wrong way, and finally looked at Ji Lingxue with a helpless look, "Princess, this name is so funny."
Just then, there was a sound from the window, as if someone threw a stone from outside and hit it. Ji Lingxue turned her head and looked at the window.
(End of this chapter)