CH 65

The inside of the box was carved with intertwined patterns. Such patterns were not ordinary flower pattern. They were lines and curves intertwining weirdly altogether, delivering a spooky and intimating chill.

There were two layers inside the box, with a few exceptionally beautiful stones on upper layer. Some were crystal clear like glass, and some were warm and flawless. Apparently they were priceless.

At the bottom layer, there were small things such as hair pins, combs, and bells. And there was a bundle of dark hair.

Those were common things and one could tell they were aged. It could be told they belong to a woman.

But the bundle of dark hair was strange.

“Meow.” Look at this.

Xia Liang was also checking the things in the box. Seeing Ji Yue was staring at other stuff, she stretched out her little paw and scratched the partition in the middle to tip him.

In an instant, a few shallow scratches were left on the thin board.

Hearing Xia Liang’s meowing and seeing her action, Ji Yue instantly understood what she meat. He then tried whether the partition was removable and then took it off easily.

“Liang, you are so smart. There is really something in it.” Ji Yue petted her little head.

“Meow.” It’s a random guess. What’s in it?

Xia Liang was a little shy but still very happy. She looked up at Ji Yue with her beautiful bright eyes, wagging her little tail.

Ji Yue was so amused by her cuteness. He took out a piece of yellowing paper from the interlayer, and said to her,

“It is a piece of parchment. There are some characters on it, but I don’t know them.”

Speaking of which, he passed it in front of Xia Liang so that she could take a closer look.

Xia Liang shook her head at the strange characters. She didn’t know them either.

“We can ask Li Shun about this box. It might be a breakthrough.” said Ji Yue while putting away the parchment back into the box.

Ji Yue was thinking of finding someone tomorrow to see whether he could interpret these words.

A man and a cat kept searching the room and found nothing valuable except for the box. So it was quite possible that Xiaomei’s death was related to it.

The moment Li Shun was caught, he knew he was screwed. He made a big mistake just because of his greediness of money. He would end up in jail eventually because he killed Xiaomei.

On thinking of that, all thoughts were blasted. The only thing left in his heart was regret.

When Ji Yue asked him, he told everything he knew.

“When I was gardening in the backyard, I dug out the box by accident. Xiaomei was there. I didn’t mean to give the box to the master because the box look fancy and it had a treasure in it. But Xiaomei didn’t agree with my doing. Until I half threatened and half tempted her, she agreed to keep the secret for me. When I tried to find a way to sell the box, a few evil things happened in the house. And the police kept coming in and out. I didn’t have the nuts to make any move. After Mr. Ji came here, you started to ask around. Xiaomei tried to tell you the truth because she likes you. I didn’t agree so we had a fight. I didn’t mean to kill her. I pushed her off the roof by accident. I…I was terrified. I didn’t mean to kill her! But, she made me! I didn’t mean to, I swear.”

Li Shun had a breakdown as he was speaking. He choked with sobs, burying his face in his palms.

Ji Yue frowned at his confession, he ignored his breakdown and kept asking, “when did you find this box?”

“A month ago.” said Li Shun.

A month ago, the healthy master and her lady started to get heavily sick, then their second daughter went crazy, later the lady died, and the eldest son too.

Ji Yue had a feeling that the box may be one of the reasons why there were so many creepy and unexplainable things having happened in the family.

The box was like a Pandora’s box. Once it was opened, it had caused so many misfortunes and disasters to Nangong family.

The more he thought, the more he wanted to figure out what the parchment said because he had a feeling that it had a big secret on it.

“What about this bottle?”Ji Yue took out the bottle he had just shown to Li Shun.

It was the bottle Xia Liang found in the garden.

Li Shun looked sluggish, but he then came to his sense as he heard Ji Yue’s question, “This bottle was also in the box. I tossed it in the garden because it looked unworthy. When you showed it to me earlier, I thought you already knew about the wooden box. So I got panicked and tried to run away Now I know you knew nothing of it at all.”

Li Shun felt regretted after he knew the truth. If he could have stayed calm at the time, he wouldn’t have been exposed.

“Hm” Nodded Ji Yue slightly, “I was bluffing. Actually I didn’t know anything about the bottle. Luckily I busted you with such a little bottle. You don’t need to blame the bottle. I still can prove that you are the murderer without the bottle through other proof. Since you already arose my suspicion, I will find a way to expose you no matter what. There is no way you can get away.”

On hearing his words, Li Shun‘s mere fluke mind to roam at large was totally gone.

After interrogating Li Shun, Ji Yue told everything to Nangong Ze and shared his own guessing with him so that he could protect himself.

After everything, Ji Yue then took Xia Liang and the box back to his room.

He cleaned Xia Liang and checked carefully to make sure that she was fine. A person and a cat finally got a chance to lie down on the bed. Finally, they had some bonding time together, thought Ji Yue.

Unfortunately, someone was knocking on the door at this time.

“Who is it?” Ji Yue moved Xia Liang away from his chest and got up.

“It’s me, Wang Yao.”