"No Wedding Unless Enemies and Lovers" 《不是冤家不拜堂》Chapter 132

 Xiao Yi Chen gave an en and walked out of the study, constable Shao was the first to follow him to the scene of the crime, and carried the faceless female corpse which was still hanging on the tree down, daring and careful, actively investigating this case.

Xiao Yi Chen walked out of the prince's residence, constable Shao stood perfectly straight outside the prince's residence gate on the snow, currently the sun overhead had melted quite a lot of the snow.

Seeing Xiao Yi Chen walk out of the prince's residence, constable Shao cupped his hands in greetings, but was stopped by Xiao Yi Chen waving his hand, "Forget the courtesy, speak of proper business."

Constable Shao nodded, he was about to speak when he saw a figure of the princess run out, it was Ji Ling Xue who had changed clothes, "I heard there's progress with the case, I also want to see."

You were just punished by the emperor this morning, now you're running around?

Xiao Yi Chen frowned, before he could refuse, Ji Ling Xue said: "Unfortunately I was the first person to discover the faceless female corpse, I was implicated as the murderer so I must come with you to find the real culprit."

Xiao Yi Chen laughed and accepted, turning to constable Shao, "Tell me the progress, what did you find?"

Constable Shao said: "This morning, when someone was washing clothes at the moat, they found a person's skin floating , even though they were frightened, they quickly reported it, the coroner and I immediately rushed there, coroner Jing found that skin belonged to the faceless female corpse."

Xiao Yi Chen nodded, it had been snowing these last two days, the surface of the moat had frozen over, until today the sun came out and melted the ice, quite a few diligent women went to the moat to wash clothes early in the morning, the murderer couldn't possibly have gone early in the morning, waited for the moat to thaw and threw the skin in, the skin was thrown into the moat when the body was discarded, then it froze over with the snow.

The three of them came to the yamen's mortuary, that female corpse didn't rot as the temperature was recently low, now the whole skin was reapplied to the corpse's body, the white thin skin was illuminated by the winter sun, the incompletely rotting red flesh underneath could be seen, it made people feel a chill to the bones.

Xiao Yi Chen walked to the female corpse looking down at the skin, he then raised his head asking constable Shao, "Where's the person who reported it?"

He knew Xiao Yi Chen would ask this, constable Shao pointing in the direction of the lobby: "They're still waiting in the lobby."

Xiao Yi Chen pulled on Ji Ling Xue's hand to the yamen's lobby, a forty something years old plump woman stood in the lobby, wearing a blue outfit which had been lost its colour from washing, seeing Xiao Yi Chen and Ji Ling Xue walk in side by side, the woman's eyes flashed, she immediately lowered her eyes in greeting.

Xiao Yi Chen asked: "Tell me how you discovered the skin."

Mentioning the skin, the woman paled, she probably was thinking of that strange situation, "Around one - three am I was awoken by the sound of birds, seeing the snow had stopped outside, I thought about how I haven't washed clothes for a few days, I went to the moat while it wasn't bright yet, at first everything was fine but when the first ray of light hit, I saw there was a lump of white thing floating in the water, I thought it was a handkerchief, I used a branch to pick it up that's when I saw it was skin, I was so scared my heart was in a mess and rushed to report it to the authorities."

In the end, the woman patted her chest sobbing: "This official, how can there be skin in the moat, it's too frightening, I don't dare to wash clothes there anymore."

Xiao Yi Chen nodded, this woman had spoken in detail, everything was in order, she didn't look like she was scared at all?

Xiao Yi Chen nodded, "Fine, this prince understands, you can go back first, recently martial law has been strict in the city, if there's nothing don't go out alone."

The woman bowed, turning around she rushed out.

Xiao Yi Chen said to constable Shao: "Send someone to keep an eye on her."

"She" of course was that woman who made the report and left just now, intuition told him, this woman wasn't simple.

Leaving the yamen, Xiao Yi Chen and Ji Ling Xue returned to the tree where the corpse was hung, this was at the rear courtyard of the teahouse, not a lot of people came by, but the murderer clearly didn't use light martial arts to hang the corpse then leave, then how did he do it?

Ji Ling Xue was thinking about this question, she stood under the tree, looking at the rear window on the second floor of the teahouse, then the height of the branch, abruptly she headed into the teahouse.

Xiao Yi Chen's eyebrows twitched, catching up with Ji Ling Xue asking: "Where are you going?"

Ji Ling Xue said: "I want to confirm my suspicion."

What suspicion? This place had already been searched how many times by people in the yamen, the guests and waiters  in the entire teahouse had been interrogated, no clues were found, but Ji Ling Xue seemed to really have discovered something, Xiao Yi Chen smiled, with both hands behind his back he followed Ji Ling Xue up to the second floor of the teahouse.

The private room on the second floor of the teahouse directly faced the big tree which the corpse hung from, Ji Ling Xue pushed open the window, meeting the north wind, Xiao Yi Chen took out a small piece of silver to get the waiter to leave, walking to Ji Ling Xue he asked: "What are you looking at?"

Ji Ling Xue confidently clapped and said "I finally know how the murderer hung the corpse onto the tree without leaving a trace."

"Tell me about it." Xiao Yi Chen looked at Ji Ling Xue with respectful attention.

"Find two thin hemp ropes, two iron hooks and a sack of a hundred catty rice, then I'll show the prince an experiment.

Xiao Yi Chen nodded, looking at the sky, An Ge who was hiding instantly disappeared, not long after he delivered the things Ji Ling Xue wanted.

Xiao Yi Chen looked at the rope, hooks and rice on the floor, asking: "Why did you choose to use rice for the experiment?"

Ji Ling Xue spread out of hands smiling: "Because a hundred catty of rice is the same weight as the corpse, I can't find something else to substitute it so only rice, afterwards it can still be taken home to eat."

https://translatingsloth.blogspot.com/

Xiao Yi Chen's lips twitched, it seems when he was with Ji Ling Xue the word "eat" couldn't be avoided.

Ji Ling Xue squatted on the floor tying the ropes onto the hooks, using her strength to pull on them, after making sure the hooks were fixed on the rope, she walked to the window getting Xiao Yi Chen to throw the rope with the hook onto the branch.

Afterwards the sack of rice was tied to the ropes, the teahouse was on a rather high terrain, that tree was rather close, thus the sack of rice was easily transported, accurately falling onto the tree.

Xiao Yi Chen used a bit of power, the ropes which were hooked on the branch obediently retracted, he turned to look at Ji Ling Xue, asking in curiosity: "How did you figure it out?"

Ji Ling Xue pointed at the tiny rope marks on the window sill, "This is the evidence, on the left was left behind by the murderer, right side was the result of our experiment, what does prince think of my experiment?"

Xiao Yi Chen's lips raised, "You solved the mystery that has perplexed me for days."

As there had been no signs of the murderer over these last few days, quite a few people thought there was a demon killing people, everyone was anxious.

Ji Ling Xue smiled, spreading out her hand: "Then prince will reward me!"

Xiao Yi Chen reached out to scratch Ji Ling Xue's palm, Ji Ling Xue felt it was ticklish and pulled back her hand, glaring at Xiao Yi Chen, "Prince you're so stingy!"

Xiao Yi Chen said: "I'll reward you with a sweet potato." As he spoke he pointed at the stand which was selling sweet potatoes on the street.

Ji Ling Xue suddenly jumped onto Xiao Yi Chen's back, hugging his neck she said: "Quickly carry me down, it's quicker to go through the window!"

Xiao Yi Chen: "..." Did he look like a "horse"?

Xiao Yi Chen only felt gloomy for a moment, very proficiently carrying Ji Ling Xue out of the window.

An Ge blinked, watching Xiao Yi Chen carry Ji Ling Xue on his back he joked: Prince, where's your honour, do you not want it anymore?

Xiao Yi Chen carried Ji Ling Xue to the roast sweet potato stand, the old man selling sweet potatoes eyesight blurred, suddenly a pair of people appeared in front of him.

The woman said: "Uncle, give us two sweet potatoes."

The old man smiled, picking up two sweet potatoes he put them into a bag and handed it to Ji Ling Xue, Ji Ling Xue carried the sweet potatoes and left, Xiao Yi Chen was left to pay.

That night, Xiao Yi Chen received the news from constable Shao, something was wrong with that woman who reported to the authorities.

Xiao Yi Chen asked JI Ling Xue who was just checking over the rat in the cage, "The moon looks good tonight, let's take a look together?"

Ji Ling Xue looked up holding the porcelain bottle, "You can see the moon every day, it won't get any prettier."

Xiao Yi Chen coughed, standing up: "Then princess rest early." As he spoke he left.

Ji Ling Xue called after him, throwing the bottle to him: "Take it to protect yourself."

Xiao Yi Chen took it, putting it into his chest, he smiled: "Good."

Once Xiao Yi Chen left, Ji Ling Xue called for Mo Xiang.

Mo Xiang glanced in the direction of Xiao Yi Chen's study, "Princess, why has prince left again?"

Other women would be eager for their man to stay by them every day, yet her own princess always chased prince away.

Ji Ling Xue gave an indifferent en keeping her head lowered as she moved the abacus back and forth, "Prince needs to investigate the case these days." These words explained Mo Xiang's misgivings.

Mo Xiang gave an oh, placing the padded shoes she finished in front of Ji ling Xue: "Princess, take a look at the shoes I just made, see if it fits."

Ji Ling Xue gave an en, still not raising her head as she moved the abacus about.

Mo Xiang leaned over asking: "Prinecss what are you calculating?"

Ji Ling Xue shook her head: "Of course I'm calculating my loss and compensation for the chef and medical expenses, I need to make these clear so I can ask imperial uncle for it back tomorrow."

Mo Xiang gave an oh, "Chef is really pitiful, she has no income after injuring her hand, I heard she has five children to support, her husband's legs aren't good, the burden of supporting the family falls on her, right now the two backbones of the family are disabled, their family will go cold and hungry."

Ji Ling Xue stood up asking: "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

Mo Xiang blinked, "I only heard Xiao Si speak of it accidentally."

What's more even if the chef's family was pitiful, it has nothing to do with princess, you hired her as a chef, her salary was originally higher than others.

Ji Ling Xue glanced at the sky outside: "Tomorrow, buy some tonics to visit them."

Mo Xiang nodded, "Alright, there some tonics in the prince's storage, why don' this servant ask the housekeeper to find some?"

The next day, Ji Ling Xue got Mo Xiang to get them first thing, she strolled around the residence, seeing a man in a green gown sitting in a pavilion far away, Ji Ling Xue called for a maid asking: "Who is that man?"

The maid shook her head: "Prince let him stay here, I'm not sure who he is."

Ji Ling Xue gave an oh, she had no intention to greet him, turning she took another path coming across a brightly dressed Ji Yu Qing

Ji Ling Xue looked at the sky, asking: "You're dressed so celebratory, are you attending a wedding?"