Shen Zhiyan went to the inn where Lan Mengse and Cao Mama lived, but did not get any useful clues. It can be said that Cao Mama disappeared out of thin air at the inn in the middle of the night.
Murong Ci pondered for a moment, took out the square silk handkerchief and asked Lan Mengse, "Look, is this Lan Ruowei's silk handkerchief?"
Lan Mengse sobbed softly, and when she saw her questioning, she took Sipa and looked at it, and said in a hoarse voice, "It's Sister Ruowei's Sipa."
"Why are you so sure?" Murong Ci asked.
"My lord, please look, the four corners of this silk handkerchief are embroidered with a word, Concubine, Meng, Xuan, Wei."
"I understand. The concubine represents Lan Concubine, Meng represents you, Xuan represents Lan Ruoxuan, and Wei represents Lan Ruowei herself." Shen Zhiyan saw the inside story at a glance, "But Lan Ruoxuan's relics are not This kind of spa."
Lan Mengse explained: "Sister Ruowei values friendship and is the best friend to me, Concubine Se and Ruoxuan, so she specially bought a silk handkerchief and asked the three of us to embroider a word in our name on the handkerchief. Since then, she has been Treasure this silk handkerchief."
He suddenly realized, "So that's how it is."
She continued: "Actually, Sister Ruowei did this to imitate the three sisters, Concubine and I. There are many rumors in the market, and Concubine and I are praised as the three beautiful sisters of Zhuijinfang. We three sisters are the best. I bought three identical silk handkerchiefs and embroidered our names on the triangle, each with a silk handkerchief as a souvenir. Even if we are separated and grow old, we will still remember our friendship."
Murong Ci uttered the question that had been lingering in his heart for many days: "I only heard you say Lan Fei Se, and what is Yi Yan called in Yangzhou Zhui Jin Fang?"
"The other person is Lan Bise. But she left Xiujinfang five years ago."
"A few years ago, you were only twelve or thirteen years old."
"The three of us are the same age, eighteen this year. Five years ago, we were thirteen years old, but someone had already taken a fancy to us." Lan Mengse was slightly embarrassed, "Many people bought us at a high price back then, but my mother paid us I was still young, so I declined those people. In fact, I also know that my mother wants to wait a few years, and our worth will be higher before selling us."
"Where did Lan Bise leave Zhujinfang five years ago and was bought by a wealthy businessman?" Murong Ci asked.
"I'm not very clear. That's what my mother said. Bise should have been bought by the rich and powerful in the capital." Lan Mengse suddenly remembered something, and blinked her long eyelashes, "By the way, before going to bed last night, Madam Cao Tell me about Bise."
"What did Mammy Cao say?" Shen Zhiyan also found this interesting.
"Grandma Cao also suddenly thought of Bise, saying that she is also in the capital, so I might as well ask her for help." Lan Mengse said, "It has been five years since Bise left Xiujinfang, so I don't think it's right to ask her for help. Okay. Besides, we don't know which family Bise married into, Cao Mama went on to say that she has a way to find Bise, and this matter is on her shoulders."
"So, will Madam Cao go to look for Bi Se, but she hasn't come back yet." He speculated.
"It's also possible." She apologized, "My lords, it's my fault. I'm too impatient. Maybe Madam Cao will come back at night. I'm causing trouble to your lords."
"It's okay." Shen Zhiyan said softly, "Then why don't you go back to the inn and wait. If Madam Cao hasn't come back tomorrow, you can come to Dali Temple again."
"Okay." Thinking that Madam Cao might be fine and just went to find Lan Bise, Lan Mengse's mood improved a lot.
"So, Mammy Cao knows which family Lan Bise married into." Murong Ci's premonition is not very good, maybe Mammy Cao will not come back.
Qin Ruo took Lan Mengse to the side hall to rest, Shen Zhiyan saw His Highness thoughtful, and asked, "What is Your Highness thinking?"
Murong Ci raised his eyes to look at him, and said: "I always think that Madam Cao is more dangerous than good."
"Madam Cao should go to look for Lan Bise, so there won't be any accidents."
"I can't tell you why, let's wait until tomorrow."
"Then I will take Lan Mengse out of the palace first. If there is any definite news about Madam Cao, I will send a message to His Highness."
She nodded and sent him out.
However, at dusk that day, Murong Ci received the news that a female corpse was found in the suburbs, suspected to be Madam Cao.
She didn't have time to eat dinner and rushed to Dali Temple.
Shen Zhiyan was dealing with the corpse with his apprentice in the morgue. When he saw His Highness, he put down the things in his hand, told his apprentice a few words, walked up to His Highness, and said in a deep voice, "Lan Mengse hasn't come to identify the corpse yet, so we can't be sure about it right now. The female corpse is Mammy Cao.
Seeing that the corpse had no head, she thought, "It's also a headless female corpse."
He nodded, "This headless female corpse was found in the woods in the southern suburbs. The officials of Jingzhao Mansion and Dali Temple were looking for the head of the deceased. I went to the scene to see the woods in the southern suburbs should be the first crime scene. At that time, the female body was exposed in the woods, only covered by some fallen leaves. The deceased had no coat on her body, only a middle coat."
"Is the modus operandi the same as the murder of the Lan sisters?"
"Same, the incision on the neck is very smooth, the murderer cut off the head at a very fast speed. The murderer should be the same person."
"Why did the murderer kill Cao Momo?" Murong Ci was puzzled. "The murderer was an old acquaintance with the Lan sisters, so he should also be an old acquaintance with Cao Momo and Lan Mengse. Could it be that the murderer had some reason or secret? A few people in Zhujinfang know about it, so the murderer must kill to silence him."
"Lan Mengse is in danger." Shen Zhiyan's eyes widened suddenly, "Is Lan Feise in danger?"
"Let Lan Mengse live in Dali Temple first, the murderer should not dare to sneak into Dali Temple to kill people. Besides, Lan Mengse can be with Miss Huang." She looked at the sky full of haze, it was about to rain, her bright eyes were cold , "You order a few yamen servants to secretly protect Lan Mengse, and strengthen inspections at night."
"I'll arrange it." A vague idea appeared in his mind, as if something was about to come out.
"The murderer killed and silenced. It is very likely that the murderer was also from Zhujinfang. He wanted to keep his secret from being leaked, so he killed and silenced. Lan Bise"
"Blue color"
They said the name in unison and smiled at each other.
Murong Ci went on to analyze; "Lan Bise married into a powerful family, maybe she is already the head of the house, and she has a good reputation. She doesn't want to spread the secret that she is a Yangzhou skinny horse. She knows that her former sisters are in the capital, so she plans ahead and kills her. .”
Shen Zhiyan interjected: "Lan Ruoxuan and Lan Ruowei are singing in Deyue Tower, they are famous in the Imperial Capital, and they are in the limelight. Lan Bise heard about this and came to Deyue Tower to see it in person, but she should dress up in disguise, The Lan sisters didn't see her, or didn't recognize her. Lan Bise was worried that her secret would be leaked sooner or later, and she would kill her. I was worried that Lan Feise was also in danger, so I sent someone to tell Master Jiang to tell him more Be careful in the mansion."
She felt that with Master Jiang's ability, no matter how many nurses were hired, they would not be able to stop the murderer.
However, they have tried their best.
At this moment, Lan Mengse, who came in a hurry, stood outside the corpse room, looking inside but dared not come in, her gentle and delicate eyebrows were full of panic and sadness.
Murong Ci signaled Qin Ruo to pull her in to identify the corpse, Lan Mengse approached step by step, her arms trembled, her legs trembled so badly that she could hardly stand, if Qin Ruo hadn't supported her, she would have collapsed already.
"Miss Lan, do you know if this deceased is Mammy Cao?" Shen Zhiyan said sadly.
"Headless," she grieved hoarsely, tears flowing from her almond-shaped eyes, her pale face full of pear blossoms and rain, full of sorrow and grief, "Madam Cao has a dark red birthmark on her left arm, which resembles a quail egg." normal size"
The apprentice stroked the sleeve of the deceased, and sure enough, there was an oval dark red birthmark on the left arm.
Lan Mengse cried bitterly, tears flooded her smooth face, "Mother Cao"
Weeping uncontrollably, so distraught that she couldn't breathe, she fainted.
Qin Ruo carried her to the guest room to rest for a while, Murong Ci understood her feelings, the successive blows crushed her, it was not easy for her to hold on until now.
Unexpectedly, the premonition came true.
Shen Zhiyan began to examine the autopsy in detail, and said solemnly: "The deceased, Madam Cao, was about forty years old. There were no other wounds or bruises on the body of the deceased. The nails on the ten fingers were clean and intact, and there were no breaks. It can be seen that there was no entanglement with the murderer. The sharp blade sliced off quickly, the cut on the neck was very smooth, the sharp weapon should be a long sword, and the murderer who killed Lan Ruoxuan and Lan Ruowei should be the same person."
"When was he killed?" Murong Ci asked sadly.
"It should be around four o'clock today." He took off his thin gloves, "Your Highness, do you still remember what happened at night that Miss Lan said? Madam Cao was in her room when she got up to go to the toilet at night. Miss Lan felt a little bit aware, but soon I fell into a deep sleep, isn’t that strange? I guess, the murderer was outside at that time, using something like misty smoke to stun Madam Cao and make Miss Lan fall asleep, so that Miss Lan didn’t wake up until three days a day.”
"Then the murderer took Cao Mama away and came to the southern suburbs. Cao Mama may have woken up. The murderer cut off her head with a sword, then took off her coat, and threw her head into a secret place. In this way, Cao The identity of the nanny is not easy to be known." She continued to speculate.
"Before we speculated that the murderer might be someone from the palace. From this point of view, the murderer walked in and out of the palace as if he was walking on the ground, and he did a good job."
"If the murderer is not someone from the palace, Lan Bise should not have martial arts. The murderer should be a guard in Lan Bise's mansion, or a killer hired by her with money."
They frowned at the same time, which noble family Lan Bise married into, I'm afraid only the owner of Yangzhou Zhuijinfang who is thousands of miles away knows.
Do you want to send someone to Yangzhou to ask
Afterwards, Murong Ci went to visit Lan Mengse and said to her, "Miss Lan, it's not safe for you to live in the inn alone, and you'll be staying in Dali Temple temporarily."
Lan Mengse wept into tears, distraught and devastated, without any objection.
Wu Zang Temple grunted, Murong Ci saw that it was getting late, and Qin Ruo hurried back to the East Palace.
But God was not good, as soon as they walked to the door, the autumn rain started to fall.
There was a paper umbrella in the carriage, and Qin Ruo ran over to get a paper umbrella to shield His Highness from the rain. Murong Ci saw a carriage approaching, and then Murong Yu came over with a splashed ink paper umbrella.