In reality, Concubine Xiao was equally, if not more, dissatisfied; she would not accept even if such a daughter-in-law were to be served on a silver platter to her for free. But- “For the title of Crown Prince, Yi’er, you must marry her. If you were to become the future Emperor, it would become an easy decision whether you want to keep that woman or not.”
What she meant was, the decision to kill her or not could be made so easily! For the title of Crown Prince, for the throne, all Jing Yi could do was to grit his teeth and force himself to swallow this foul-smelling ‘medicine’.
……….
At the Rong Estate.
Jing Rong was still contemplating what birthday gift to prepare for his Imperial Father’s birthday. He decided to take Ji Yunshu’s advice and hence looked over the list Lu Jiang prepared earlier for an expensive gift. There were countless items listed, but none caught his fancy.
“Your Highness, all of the precious items are already listed here,” Lu Jiang offered.
Jing Rong muttered to himself, “Something more high-profile? What should we present?”
“How about this Eight Deities folding screen? Such a gift would surely be appropriate for His Majesty’s chambers.”
“No,” Jing Rong refuted immediately. He asked Lu Jiang once more, “What are the Crown Prince and Prince Yi presenting this year?”
“The records are not available yet.”
Jing Rong sighed. If it were like previous years, all he had to do was to present an inkbrush, sparing him all this trouble! If that’s the case – he slapped his thigh, “Come, let’s head for Bamboo Creek Garden!” Time to visit my little wife! Lu Jiang wanted to tag along, but was forbidden by Jing Rong.
Upon reaching Bamboo Creek Garden, Jing Rong was shocked at the sight of the courtyard – all 67 coffins had been opened. Brush in hand, Ji Yunshu circled these coffins, checking with the name list of the Imperial Duke’s household she obtained from the Ministry of Revenue. Engrossed in her work, she had not noticed Jing Rong’s arrival.
Jing Rong’s face grew worried. He approached her, “Are there problems with all these skeletons?” Ji Yunshu was startled by his voice suddenly ringing by her ear, her brush almost fell to the ground.
She steadied herself and took a deep breath, waving the list as she explained, “I discovered that of the listed 67 servants in the Imperial Duke’s estate, 31 were female and 36 were male. Of these skeletons, the numbers of female skeletons matched up and so the missing corpse must be male. Of these 36 men, eight were aged above 65 years old – these corpses are easily identifiable from the density of the bones and are all present. Additionally, there are 15 bodies aged between 12 and 20 years old which I have identified. The remaining age groups would be difficult to distinguish without more advanced technology and tools, so, the missing servant can be cross-checked and identified with the last 13 sets of male skeletons.” This would be much more time-efficient – there would be no need to work on this for over a year!
Jing Rong was astonished at Ji Yunshu’s discovery, “If what you said is true, then we are one more step closer to the truth.”
Ji Yunshu nodded. Just as she was about to speak, a servant ran in from the front yard, paying his respects to Jing Rong, “This servant pays his respects to Prince Rong.”
Jing Rong recognised this man – he was one of Qin Shiyu’s men, “What’s the matter?”
“Lord Qin sent this servant to inform Teacher Ji that Old General Li wants to meet him.”