Following the direction where Wei Yi pointed, she looked at the stage set in the restaurant. On the stage, there was an old man with grizzled hair sitting on a chair holding an erhu. Next to him stood a pretty and delicate girl. Her age shouldn’t be more than 16 years old. She wore light blue clothes and had a very pretty smiling face.
The old man played the erhu while the young girl sang. A moment of leisure and enjoyment! Ji Yunshu fished out some money and gave it to Wei Yi. “Go and give her this. Tell her to sing ‘The Caged Woman’.”
“Alright!” He took the money and went to the stage. He stood in front of the girl with his tall physique towering over her, completely hiding the girl’s slender body.
After he did what Ji Yunshu told him, he returned to her side and said in a small voice, “Shu’er, I asked that big sister and she told me that her name is Mei Xiang’er. Her name is really nice to hear, but it still can’t beat Shu’er’s.”
Since when did Wei Yi learn to be a smooth talker?! The singer held the money in her hand and looked at Ji Yunshu with gratitude in her gaze. Other than gratitude, there was a hint of shyness within her eyes. It was not surprising. Even with her male clothing, Ji Yunshu couldn’t hide her tender and soft looking skin which gave her a charm that not even Jing Xuan could resist, let alone a common young girl.
Ji Yunshu departed from the restaurant with Wei Yi, but behind her, she could still hear Xiang’er singing “The Caged Woman”. They didn’t return to the Rong estate immediately and strolled around the streets instead. The merchandise found in the capital were many times more diverse and elaborate compared to Jingjiang. There were many objects that Ji Yunshu found which, even as an archeologist, she hadn’t seen before.
During the whole time, Wei Yi shouted at everything he liked; thus, Ji Yunshu ended up buying a pile of things that were useful and some that were not. The main point was that as long as Wei Yi liked something, she would buy it for him. In the end, they returned to the estate while holding a large pile of weird objects.
When they entered, she met Jing Rong who she wanted to avoid. Lang Po who was standing near him hurriedly retreated a few steps. He didn’t want Wei Yi to make him hold that pile of strange toys, thus he kept his distance. Jing Rong grabbed onto Ji Yunshu’s sleeve and asked her with quite a serious expression, “The capital governor sent you information concerning the missing girls case, was it useful?”
“Not at all!”
“Then, why do you still have the time to bring that guy out to play?”
Ji Yunshu fiercely glared at him. “Is this place a prison? Do you want to put shackles on me and forbid me from going outside?”
Jing Rong’s grim expression immediately cracked. “You know that that is not what I meant. This case is particularly thorny; I’m just worried that…” He had yet to finish speaking when he was interrupted by Ji Yunshu.
“Since I accepted the case, there’s no thorny matter that can’t be resolved. Shouldn’t you believe in me more?”
“Of course I believe in you!” He hastily replied without hesitation.
His reply made Ji Yunshu feel a bit embarrassed. Suddenly, a man ran into the estate in panic. He was wearing a uniform. It was someone working for the capital governor. The man was still panting, but he still bowed to Jing Rong and said, “Your Highness, the cap… capital go… governor wanted to… to inform you… That we found… a body, but…” The man took a deep breath.
‘A corpse?’ Jing Rong and Ji Yunshu’s expressions immediately sank. “Whose body?”
“It… It’s a woman’s corpse. A naked one… Furthermore…” The man closed his mouth when he spoke to that part. His face twisted into an ugly sight as if he was stopping himself from vomiting.
Jing Rong was someone who hated wishy-washy people the most. He strongly urged the man, “Hurry up and spit it out! Furthermore what?”
The man repressed the urge to spit out the contents of his stomach and continued but lowered his voice a bit, “Furthermore, the corpse’s hands were chopped off and her face… was also peeled off. We couldn’t determine her appearance because of that, and… the sight of it is extremely sickening.”
The corpse’s description was enough to horrify people. Ji Yunshu frowned. ‘The face was peeled off, and the hands were chopped off? What a strange murder.’