Perfect Encounter - Chapter 56.1
PROOFREAD BY AFREANA
Chapter 56.1
An Ruochen hung her head and headed to her room when she met Fang Yuan on the way. Steward Fang looked clean and decent, smiled kindly, and asked her softly, “I heard that Steward An wanted to see this?” He uncovered a part of the cloth package in his hand.
An Ruochen looked down and saw that it was Zhao Jiahua’s case file.
An Ruochen raised her head in surprise, and Fang Yuan said calmly: “If we talk about who is the most familiar with the Governor’s connections, no one in this Purple Cloud House can beat me. But since Chief Li is unwilling, Steward An shouldn’t make this known.”
An Ruochen nodded her head repeatedly.
Fang Yuan handed her the package, bowed, turned his head, and left.
An Ruochen hurried back with the file in her hand. The case record says Zhao Jiahua left a suicide note in her handwriting, poorly written. Confessing that she killed her daughter by mistake and that her daughter came for revenge. Her daughter was suffering from a cold, and she wanted to accompany her in the underworld.
An Ruochen suddenly remembered what Zhao Jiahua had said to her. Zhao Jiahua said she was not very literate. But, actually, it was the opposite. She had signed the case record in the Governor’s office, and her written note must be available at her house. But she had deliberately said that she was not very literate.
An Ruochen stared at the file. The suicide note was fake. If Zhao Jiahua left a letter or a message for her, it must be fake. This was Zhao Jiahua’s lead. She prevented someone from doing this kind of thing under her name.
An Ruochen re-evaluated Zhao Jiahua. This woman was too clever. She needs to check her every word again.
At this point in time, in the Shi Ling Cliff barracks, Big Long was also reading a letter. In the letter, there were only three characters: “Yes, I will.”
Only three characters, yet he read it for a long time. Felt like the letter was not “Yes, I will,” but some other lengthy argument.
Chu Qing came over and commented, “Miss An’s writing is good. There is a bit of charm in her handwriting. I think she is a smart girl.”
Big Long swept him a glance and did not say anything.
Chu Qing continued: “This answer is concise and strong, good and full of understanding. I think she is an obedient girl.”
Big Long folded the letter and kept it in his bosom, ignoring Chu Qing. Without being at war, he felt Chu Qing was so idle.
“I’m not dawdling, General. I’m telling the truth.” Chu Qing wanted to emphasize but was kicked out of the tent by Big Long.
“Make arrangements for handing over the captives tomorrow, don’t make any mistakes.”
Chu Qing slunk away with his hands behind his back. My dear General, he already made the arrangements. There was no need to instruct him. Aren’t the words “Yes, I will.” quite good? But, the General was still unsatisfied.
Meanwhile, on Li Xiu’er’s part, the plan was not going well. She thought about Lu Daniang’s words and did not dare to trust her wholeheartedly. But it was better to hide for a while. She planned to take her mother and sister with her, saying she would take her mother to the suburbs to see a doctor. Stay there for a moment and then come back. However, it was almost the end of the year. The timing was not good. After a busy day, when she saw that her husband was in a good mood, she asked for permission to take her mother to see a doctor and leave for a while, but he immediately rejected her. The main wife, Mrs. Jiang, even scowled at her. She scolded her for choosing this busy time to cause trouble, trying to make the Jiang family look bad, and showing off her importance. A concubine was just a concubine, not something precious. She shouldn’t take herself as some big deal. If she dares to leave, then she shouldn’t come back.
Jiang Wei allowed his wife to scold her and did not provide Li Xiu’er any help. Li Xiu’er burst into tears, and these tears suffered another round of scolding.
She returned to her room in silence, knowing it was impossible to leave in a good way. She could not sleep. The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she was. Thoughts surfaced one after another – that her marriage was not as good as it should be, that her mother was ill, that she was being taken advantage of for her weaknesses, and that she had to live in fear for her life without knowing when it would end. She couldn’t stop crying but didn’t dare to sound it out. She was afraid of being scolded again if she disturbed the next room.
She cried and then slept for a while without knowing what time it was. In a daze, she heard some movement that was not quite right, and then she smelled the smell of burning fabric.
Li Xiu’er was startled, and the words of that woman today immediately came to her mind. Zhao Jiahua was dead, and you are coming next.
She jumped up and quickly put her clothes on. She took the bag she had secretly packed from under the bed. Then she looked outside the door, the store in front of her seemed to be smoking black, and two figures were sneaking towards the warehouse. There were a lot of fabrics there. It seems they set the fire to burn the warehouse. And two other people were coming towards her room.
Li Xiu’er was so frightened that she covered her mouth and quickly dodged behind the wall, afraid to be seen by them.
The whole house was on fire. Everyone will be rushing to extinguish it. They would smother her in this room, throw her into the fire, then say that she was accidentally burned to death while putting out the fire. Li Xiu’er closed her eyes, her heart pounding. According to the situation today, if her husband and Mrs. Jiang went to report the case, they would say that she was holding a grudge and burned the store. As a result, she was trapped and got accidentally burned to death.
Li Xiu’er thought of this, carried the bag, and quietly hid by the rear window. She was about to climb out to escape, but after some consideration, she reached for a vase and climbed out of the window while holding it. Then she struggled to throw the vase in the direction of the roof. Regardless of the result, she ran to the back courtyard. She rushed through the courtyard door towards the street corner and hid in the shadows.
Not knowing whether the vase hit the roof or fell to the ground, it fell with a loud bang in the silence of the night.
Li Xiu’er heard it. She felt she did her best and prayed for everyone’s safety. She also wanted to live. Then, she disappeared into the night.
Soon, the panicked screams of “water,” “fire,” and “someone, help!” drowned the Jiang family clothes store. The fire was blazing and lit up the night sky. Before dawn, it already awakened half of Zhonglan City.
The conflagration in Jiang’s family clothes store was so big that it burned the adjacent buildings as well. Soon the whole street woke up, and everyone was busy putting the fire out. But then someone took advantage of the fire and burglarized the houses while the people were out, busy. There was a lot of shouting, crying, screaming, and cursing.
Yao Kun, the Governor, was also contacted. When he heard about this, he sent people to extinguish the fire. After hearing that the flames were rapid and the thieves rampant, Yao Kun wore his official clothes and went to the scene to supervise personally.
When the day turned bright, they finally managed to extinguish the fire. There were houses collapsed, people killed or injured, and the whole street covered in black and water, a mess.
Yao Kun organized the rescue and sent officers from door to door to inquire about the situation. The city’s medics treated the injured, cleaned the bodies, and marked them with the location. Then, they looked for family members o the deceased to identify and claim them. But how did the fire start, was it an accident or arson? The constables would conduct investigations door-to-door.
Lu Daniang mixed in with the crowd, asking questions with familiar neighbors. Listening to the incident, she sucked in a breath of cold air.
The fire started at the Jiang family clothing store. His house was full of flammable clothes and fabrics. A man was standing guard at night, so everyone was uncertain how the fire began. But that guard has disappeared. Concubine Li Xiu’er also disappeared. It was unknown whether she was among the burnt bodies.
The Governor asked Jiang Wei and his wife, Mrs. Jiang, about it. Mrs. Jiang said that last night Li Xiu’er made a fuss about returning to her mother’s house and taking her to a doctor, but they disagreed. Li Xiu’er cried and made a scene. Mrs. Jiang suspected Li Xiu’er wanted to burn some clothes to vent her anger, so she lit a fire. Yet, she didn’t expect the fire to be out of control, resulting in a tragedy.
“My Lord, you must catch that bitch and cut her in a million pieces.” Mrs. Jiang cried out.
But Boss Jiang Wei said Li Xiu’er was honest and timid. She was usually hardworking and would not do this kind of thing. Maybe she didn’t have time to run when the fire started and got killed. He said that with tears flowing.