CH 186

The chief of the policemen had a strong impression of this woman who looked pretty and delicate but whose character was cunning, and even though the light was dim at night, he recognized her as the person who had stopped them on the street that day.

The chief of the policemen looked inside, his attitude was arrogant, “It’s just you alone?”

Hong Ling pretended to yawn, “Yes ah, sir.”

The courtyard was so dark that it was hard to see anything. The chief of the policemen pushed her aside and barged in rudely. The west and east rooms were unlit, so it was impossible to tell if anyone was staying there.

“You’re not the only one on the household register.”

“Oh, you are talking about my sister.”

“Where is your sister?”

Hong Ling suddenly pretended to be very angry, she gritted her teeth and said: “My sister followed my heartless brother-in-law home, you don’t know, not only is my brother-in-law having an affair outside, he even stole my sister’s dowry and sold it for silver in order to have the affair! I want to take the knife to kill him, this poor ghost, this cheap thing, even if he’s dead …”

The chief of the policemen’s eyebrows furrowed into a knot, and he impatiently waved his hand, interrupting her, “All right, all right, no one wants to hear this.”

Hong Ling’s eyes made circles, like a village woman fond of gossips who had finally found a person to pour out her gossips to. She even had the audacity to ask for the sword at his waist, “Sir, can you lend me this one for two days? I’ll go back and cut down the toy of that heartless and lungless beast.”

The chief of the policemen pushed her away with a harsh expression, “Scram, scram, scram.”

Hong Ling took advantage of his movement to sit down on the ground, and the tears in her eyes immediately started rolling down, she opened her mouth and started crying and sobbing loudly.

The chief of the policemen was annoyed by her, his ears were buzzing in pain, he also did not want to bother with this shrewish young girl any longer, so he perfunctory made a round in the courtyard round, before bringing his people to leave.

When they were far away, Hong Ling got up from the ground, and locked the door of the courtyard with shaking hands, before sneakily walking to the woodshed. She called Ming Zhu’s name in a whisper.

Ming Zhu slowly revealed her body, “They’re gone?”

Hong Ling nodded her head.

Ming Zhu was relieved, but she was still too weak to stand up, so she directly sat down on the straw pile, not able to completely relax even after the ordeal had passed. Grabbing tightly the straw under her, she asked, “Hong Ling, how similar is the person on that painting compared to me?”

Hong Ling did not want to tell her the truth, for fear that she would worry, and stammered, trying to deceive her. But there was no way she could fool Ming Zhu. She stared at her, and relentlessly asked her, “How similar is it?”

Hong Ling had no choice but to say, “Seventy to eighty percent.”

There was no difference, it could even be said that the portrait was almost identical, even her charm was perfectly portrayed.

Ming Zhu’s heart turned cold, and her legs went limp. Now she could only feel fortunate that she had not showed her face for too long, and that she wore a veil when she went out, so not many people had seen her face.

The chief of the policemen worked all night, but still found nothing. The search went on for three to four days, but they couldn’t find the person on the portrait given by the crown prince, but a drunkard from the brothel house said he had seen her.

But when he was interrogated in more details, they heard him drunkenly say that he had seen her in a dream.

Smelling the odor of alcohol on the man’s body, the chief of the policemen cursed, saying he was bad luck, and tossed the man aside before going back home.

The prefect’s hair was falling out because of this matter. He definitely wouldn’t be able to find this person for a while, but he couldn’t report that to the crown prince, so he could only go seek Lord Song, and politely inquire about the date of their return to the capital.

Song Huaiqing was also a bit angry, Zhao Zhi had really gone too overboard on this matter, it simply did not look like something that he would do.

For a dead insignificant concubine-born daughter of the Ming family, why the need to make such a fuss and move arms, plunging the city of Yangzhou into a state of panic.

Whenever Song Huaiqing thought of Ming Zhu’s beautiful and disaster-bringing face, he just wanted to sneer, when she was still alive, she had made a lot of troubles, and now that she was dead, it was like her spirit wouldn’t go away, she was still bringing disaster.

Once Zhao Zhi was determined to do something, his mind couldn’t be easily changed. When the prefect learned that the crown prince, based only on a pouch with a lotus pattern, firmly believed that his beloved concubine had escaped to Yanzhou, he felt complicated.

(TL’s note : on the previous chapters, the pattern on the pouch was a fox, now it’s lotus flowers, I guess the author made a mistake)

He gathered his courage to pour cold water on the crown prince, “Your Highness, this style of pouch can be found all over the street.”

After saying this, he raised his eyes to look at the man standing under the corridor, a long and straight figure, with long black hair against his thin back. During early morning, the hazy mist infected the air with some dampness, his eyebrows and eyes looked carefree and gentle, but in reality, they were saturated with a cold chill. His eyes, cold and indifferent, looked ahead as he said, “No.”