"I want to eat delicious food! Anything delicious will do!"
Hearing the madam mention the food, Niannian also felt a bit hungry in her stomach.
She patted her stomach and smiled with her eyes bent into crescent moons.
"Alright, little miss, please wait a moment. It'll be here soon. Then this humble one will take her leave first."
The madam waved her handkerchief and wiggled her waist as she left in front of Lu Yiyi's room.
Lu Yiyi's ghost was hovering behind Niannian. After the madam left, she said, "Benefactor, the Lu Yiyi inside should already be a corpse. You can just go in. There's a sandalwood jewelry box on the dressing table in my tent. There's the silver I've saved up. You can use it as you like. The silver just now was taken from there."
Shen Weixun nodded slightly. This girl Lu Yiyi was truly a smart one. She was extremely meticulous in her actions and observations. He wondered who on earth had been so cruel as to harm such a girl.
He pushed open the door and entered the room. Lu Yiyi's corpse was lying prone on the round table with her eyes tightly closed. She looked as if she was just asleep.
Shen Weixun didn't take the silver as Lu Yiyi had said. Instead, he directly called someone over.
With a very calm look on his face, he shouted. The madam rushed over in a hurry. Due to running too fast, she was out of breath. Leaning against the door frame, she gasped for fresh air and said, "Oh... sir... what's wrong with you?"
"Someone's dead!!"
Shen Weixun pointed at Lu Yiyi's corpse and said. His acting was definitely beyond his normal level.
"What? Someone's dead... Ah!!"
The madam was confused. She followed the direction Shen Weixun was pointing at. When she saw Lu Yiyi's corpse, she let out a terrified scream.
It wasn't actually a rare thing for someone to die in a brothel. This was a place that dealt in the business of buying and selling people. Occasionally, there were quite a few who were too stubborn after being bought in and were tortured to death.
But Lu Yiyi was different. She had a guest who was either rich or noble. The madam definitely couldn't afford to offend this person. This nobleman was obviously infatuated with Lu Yiyi. Now that she had died in her brothel, most likely she would suffer too.
The madam immediately sent someone to report to the authorities. She absolutely had to clear the Changchun Brothel of this matter, at least clear herself of any suspicion. When the constables heard it was a murder case, they rushed over with additional manpower.
This city was the main city. A murder case happening under the emperor's nose was a big deal. It not only showed that the public security was lax but also indicated that the imperial power was incompetent, unable to even manage the area under its own feet well. If this matter wasn't handled properly, these constables would either be dismissed from their posts for dereliction of duty at the least or be beheaded at the most.
To avoid destroying the scene, the coroner conducted the autopsy on - site. He examined it very carefully. Finally, the conclusion was that she had died from poisoning. The coroner also checked all the food on the table. It seemed as if the person who had poisoned her was afraid that Lu Yiyi wouldn't die. A large amount of poison had been put in each dish.
The cause of death had been confirmed. Next, they began to investigate the people in the Changchun Brothel who could have had access to Lu Yiyi's food. Everyone from the kitchen staff to the pimps was arrested and thrown into prison. Just as the soldiers were about to leave for interrogation, the wealthy young master that Lu Yiyi had mentioned came to the brothel.
This young master was extremely good - looking, with sword - like eyebrows and starry eyes, and an outstanding temperament. There was an indescribable nobility in every gesture. When this man came in, he looked puzzled. After seeing Lu Yiyi's corpse, his face instantly darkened, making it hard to tell his emotions.
The madam was so scared that her legs were shaking like a sieve. The soldiers who were about to leave also stopped in their tracks and knelt on the ground, not daring to even breathe loudly. The man slowly walked up to Lu Yiyi's corpse and reached out his hand to caress her cheek without saying a word.
"Who did this?" the man asked. His voice was not loud but carried an air of authority that made people feel breathless.
"Your subordinate just arrived and doesn't know yet," the leading constable replied nervously, afraid that the man would lose his temper and take it out on him.
"When was she discovered?" the man continued to ask.
"Just half an hour ago. Miss Lu was... was poisoned to death..." the constable continued to answer.
"You must find the murderer. If you can't find the murderer, all you useless people can go and be buried with her," the man said. Then he picked up Lu Yiyi's body and turned to leave, completely ignoring Niannian and the other two.
Lu Yiyi's soul stared at the man from behind. Her emotions were in turmoil. In fact, after so much time, she had already forgotten the little details of how she had gotten along with this nobleman. But there was still a feeling called love that was deeply engraved in her heart.
After the man left, the atmosphere in the Changchun Brothel obviously relaxed a lot. Shen Weixun leaned over to the madam's ear and whispered, "Madam, who is this big shot that scares you all like this?"
"Humph, that's the current emperor,"
The madam gave Shen Weixun a disdainful look. Obviously, she was in a very bad mood and didn't want to talk to them. She turned around and walked away.
Shen Weixun was shocked by this news. He subconsciously glanced at Lu Yiyi. He saw that she was also floating in mid - air with a shocked expression on her face. Then Lu Yiyi shook her head, let out a bitter laugh, and floated away from the Changchun Brothel alone. No one knew where she had gone to question her ghostly existence.
This matter could only be digested slowly by Lu Yiyi herself. The current emperor had killed her entire family, demoted her to slavery, and sold her to such a place. Then he had been intimate with her. The emperor's way of thinking seemed so abnormal. It was normal for Lu Yiyi not to be able to turn this corner all at once.
The beloved lover had turned into the enemy who had killed her father. Lu Yiyi definitely needed some buffer time.
Shen Weixun didn't go after her specifically. Instead, he stayed in her boudoir to look for clues.
The madam knew that the one who doted on Lu Yiyi was the current emperor. Most likely, everyone in the Changchun Brothel had been warned. So even if the girls in the brothel were jealous of Lu Yiyi out of envy, most likely they didn't have the guts to harm her.
A place like a brothel had a complex power structure. Many powerful families would specially raise some young women to send here in order to make their information channels more sensitive, using them as eyes and ears to gather information. An emperor coming to the brothel every now and then just to have something with Lu Yiyi was something these powerful families would try to win over. Naturally, they wouldn't harm her.
It was almost impossible for there to be someone who could have access to Lu Yiyi's food and had a grudge against her. So the murderer was probably not an obvious enemy of Lu Yiyi. It was even possible that it was someone Lu Yiyi thought was a familiar person who had the chance to deal such a deadly blow. The murderer had put poison in every dish, which obviously showed that the purpose was very clear: to kill Lu Yiyi.
They didn't believe at all that those constables were so useless that they couldn't even solve a murder case. Moreover, this was a matter that could cost them their heads. Naturally, they would spare no effort to investigate the case. Since the case would be solved, the reason why Lu Yiyi had become a wronged ghost should be that the murderer hadn't been brought to justice.
The murderer was probably able to escape because he had left the Changchun Brothel before the case was solved. Lu Yiyi had forgotten the cause of her death and everything that had happened after her death. It should be because the stimulation from this murderer was so great that she chose to forget to wipe out this painful memory.
This case wasn't as difficult as they had imagined. In fact, it could be said to be very simple.
In just half a day, they had caught the person who had killed Lu Yiyi. The time had just passed midnight, but the world didn't return to the normal flow of time as they had originally expected. Instead, it went back to the day when Lu Yiyi had died.
Every time they brought the captured murderer in front of Lu Yiyi, the time in this space would be reset.
They had conducted the experiment three times in a row. Whether they reported the matter, informed the authorities, or directly killed the murderer, Lu Yiyi couldn't bear the pain and chose to forget and start all over again.
When the world was reset for the fourth time, Niannian and the other two looked very frustrated.
She really couldn't figure out what Lu Yiyi actually wanted. This time, she skipped all the intermediate steps and directly caught the murderer and locked him in an alley. Looking at the young boy in front of them, all three of them fell into silence.
"Why did you kill your sister? Didn't she treat you well?" Niannian asked the little boy who was tied up tightly with a puzzled look on her face.
Yes, the murderer who had killed Lu Yiyi was her younger brother, the one she had hidden with great difficulty.
The first time this little boy was caught was when he went back to rummage through Lu Yiyi's inheritance and wanted to run away.
Just then, Niannian saw him and Lu Ming was caught red - handed. They had originally thought that once they had caught the murderer, the task was completed, so they hadn't asked about the cause and effect of the matter.
"She's not my sister. She doesn't deserve to be! A concubine's daughter can never be on the stage. My mother was right. She could be so successful in such a place and even have an affair with that dog emperor. She doesn't deserve to be a member of our Lu family!"
The little boy said through gritted teeth. When he mentioned Lu Yiyi, there was obvious disgust and contempt in his tone.
"She was just trying to survive. And she risked her life to hide you. Shouldn't you be grateful to her?"
Niannian was shocked by Lu Ming's ungrateful words and retorted.
"Humph! The descendants of our Lu family should have backbone. She was just greedy for wealth and didn't want to live and die with our Lu family. She made it sound so nice. A famous prostitute in the capital has shamed our Lu family. If she really considered herself a member of the Lu family, she should have killed that dog emperor and been buried with our Lu family. At the very least, she should have hanged herself to preserve the dignity of our Lu family."
Lu Ming kept talking about fame and dignity, belittling Lu Yiyi to nothing.
"You ate and drank your sister's, and yet you despised her. I ask you, where is your mother now?"
Zhang Zicheng's face turned green when he heard this kid's grand speech.
This ungrateful boy really made people grit their teeth in hatred.
"My mother is doing cleaning in the Changchun Brothel. The dog emperor demoted us to slavery. All the women in our family were sold to the Chunfeng Brothel..."
Lu Ming said embarrassedly. Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Zhang Zicheng.
"Your own mother is doing cleaning in the brothel. Your sisters are all serving customers in the Changchun Brothel. You survived because of your sister. How dare you look down on her? And even kill her?"
Zhang Zicheng snorted and looked at Lu Ming with a contemptuous look as Lu Ming's eyes shifted uneasily.
Niannian tilted her head and really couldn't understand.
She put herself in Lu Yiyi's position. If one day she and her family were in such a situation and her family members were willing to sacrifice for her, she would never despise them at all.