Chapter 543 - The Palace Maid Who Died Gratuitously (1/2)

Consort Zhao seemed to be frightened by her cold gaze and stopped talking. The group of people walked towards the other end of the imperial garden.

Mo Xuetong did not say anything and followed behind the madams, ladies, and young masters.

All the people followed the palace maid to pa.s.s by several rockeries and came to a remote place. By the lake of the rockery lay a female corpse. There was windy, so it was cool and refres.h.i.+ng at first. But now, because of this female corpse, the whole place was filled with gusts of cold wind and made people feel scared for no reason.

A few daring eunuchs went over, pulled the female corpse up, and laid it flat on the ground. Then they heard the palace maid who found the corpse scream with her hand covering her mouth. Suddenly, she pounced on the corpse and shouted in panic, “Your Majesty, it’s Fei Huan.”

“Fei Huan?” The Empress froze for a moment as if she didn’t remember this maid. She frowned.

Nanny Lin, who was beside her, took a few steps forward. She s.h.i.+vered in fear when she saw the female corpse’s face. She quickly stepped back to the Empress and said with a pale face, “Your Majesty, she is a third-cla.s.s palace maid in the Tianfeng Palace, named Fei Huan. You ordered her to serve the madams and ladies in the imperial garden just now.”

The Empress was stunned as if she didn’t expect it to be a person from her Tianfeng Palace. Her face darkened. With a frown, she asked, “Who was the last one to see this palace maid?”

Whether as the Empress or the master of the Tianfeng Palace, she had to deal with this matter.

“Your Majesty, I, I came out with Fei Huan just now. Later, I saw a little maidservant waving to her, and then Fei Huan told me that she had something to do and asked me to go first. I thought that Fei Huan might have met someone she knew, so I left without paying attention to her. I didn’t expect that just after a while, Fei Huan, she, she…”

The palace maid, who had just pounced on Fei Huan, cried, “Your Majesty, you must exercise justice for Fei Huan. Fei Huan is loyal to you, so you can’t let the murderer go unpunished.”

“Go over and take a look.” The Empress nodded at a eunuch standing by her side. He was the highly skilled eunuch who guarded the Empress in the inner palace and was also in charge of the interrogation in the inner palace. He reached out two fingers to the maid’s neck. Then, he stood up and shook his head, gesturing that the maid was no longer breathing. Then, he squatted by the corpse and examined it for a while before he reported to the Empress.

“Your Majesty, the maid was strangled by someone. There is a pinch mark on her neck and the mark was thick, which shows that the murderer is a man. From the look of it, the man was fast and accurate. He is a martial arts pract.i.tioner. If he hadn’t practiced for more than 10 years, he wouldn’t have choked her to death like this.”

The interrogating eunuch answered in a sharp and accurate way.

The palace maid cried and asked, “But, who wanted to hurt Fei Huan? Fei Huan was kind to others and had never argued with others.”

“There’s something over there. Look!” Suddenly, someone pointed at the place where the corpse had just been picked up and screamed.

Everyone looked back and found that there was a piece of cloth in the crack of the rockery. The eunuch went over and quickly took out the cloth wrapped in it. Then the crowd found that it was a handkerchief. Since most of the cloth was in it, they just took it as a piece of cloth dropped from the murderer’s clothes.

“This should be the handkerchief dropped from the murderer!” someone asked.

“No, the handkerchief is so pink and delicate, and there is embroidery on it. It should belong to a girl. Look at the pinch mark on her neck. It’s obviously made by a man. How could it be the murderer’s?” someone else questioned in confusion.

Someone refuted on the spot, “Maybe it’s a handkerchief that the murderer hid in his arms. There must be a woman who has something to do with the murderer. That’s why the handkerchief appeared in his arms and was pulled out by the palace maid before she died. The reason why he didn’t take it may be it was too urgent and he didn’t notice it.”

Consort Yu, who was standing by the side, revealed a deep worry in her eyes when she heard this. She covered her belly with her hands and said with fear, “Your Majesty, since… such a thing happened, we must check it out.”

The Empress looked at the body coldly. Her thin lips moved and in a cold tone, she said, “Of course I’ll do a thorough investigation since someone killed people in the palace.”

As soon as they heard the Empress would do a thorough investigation, they all wandered a little more. They were in the imperial palace. Everyone could be the murderer. If the murderer couldn’t be found quickly, they would have to stay here and accept the investigation, which would delay the time. Besides, if it had to take a long while, it would be easy for them to be framed.

No one would be willing to be locked up and searched.

An Old Madam stood out first, reached out to the interrogating eunuch, and said, “Let me take a look at this handkerchief.” She was the mother of Duke Luofeng.

The interrogating eunuch looked at the Empress. As the Empress nodded slightly, the eunuch respectfully handed the handkerchief to the Old Madam.

The Old Madam picked up the handkerchief and looked at it in the light. She frowned, and looked at the people around her, showing suspicion on her face, but she couldn’t make up her mind.

After a while, she turned to Ling Rui’er and asked, “Consort Chu, can I have a look at your handkerchief?”

“My handkerchief?” Ling Rui’er had already panicked when she saw the handkerchief. She reached out to take out her handkerchief in order to compare it with it, but she found that her handkerchief had disappeared. She was fl.u.s.tered and her face was pale. She had only just returned and had wanted to see what happened. However, she had not expected it to fall on her.

When the Old Madam asked Ling Rui’er, a few sharp-eyed people immediately noticed that two characters were embroidered on the left and right corners of the handkerchief in her hands. The left one was “Ling” while the right one was “Rui’er”. When they were put together, it was obviously “Ling Rui’er”. How could everyone not be shocked by this?