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Home/ There’s A Beauty / Chapter 59 (Part 2)

“This….what is this?” The old man almost fainted after just looking at it once, not to mention others. As everyone looked in shock, several black cats rushed to the corpse to feast on it. One of the cats picked up half of the destroyed heart in its mouth and quickly disappeared into the bushes.

You Shu had a bad premonition, and he was about to chase after that cat, but it was nowhere to be seen. After thinking about it for a while, he decided to press this matter down. He pinched the corner of his master’s clothes and said in a low voice, “Let’s go to Nanyuan and have a look.”

The Ninth Prince also has the same intention. Recently, many strange things kept happening in the Zhao Mansion. First, it was the inexplicable explosion of Zou Shi, then the ghost wall appeared out of nowhere, and now this skinned corpse. Could it be that all of these things are related to You Shu’s killing of Tao Hong? But what could be the connection? He thought about it in his heart, and then led the young man to Nanyuan.

The few people who had turned their backs and did not dare to look at Tao Hong’s body came back to their senses and hurriedly followed. It is said that a family’s dirty laundry should not be publicised, but today is really such a coincidence, and they can’t hide it even if they want to.

Nanyuan is an abandoned small courtyard, overgrown with weeds and dilapidated eaves, with few people coming here on weekdays. Today, for some unknown reason, many cats and dogs suddenly ran into the yard, howling around a dry well, as if they were salivating. This attracted the attention of a servant and he came here to check, and then he became so frightened that he lost control of himself on the spot.

At this time, the cats and dogs have been driven away, and the corpse has also been carried out. The steward with a few more courageous servants was guarding the area from not far away, and when they saw the Ninth Prince coming over, they quickly knelt down to greet him.

The Ninth Prince ignored them, and directly lifted the black cloth to examine the corpse, not to mention showing shock, he didn’t even frown. You Shu’s expression was equally flat, he picked up a branch to fiddle with the corpse, and said slowly, “This female corpse is fifteen years old, with a height of about five feet and three inches. She was still alive when she was skinned and her heart was dug out. She died within two hours.” Judging from this, this must be the real Tao Hong who was killed by the monster.

“How did you know that she was still alive when she was skinned and her heart dug out?” the Ninth Prince asked curiously.

You Shu pointed to the blood hole in the chest and explained, “If a person was still alive, the skin here will be elastic. If the heart was taken out, the flesh around the wound would naturally roll up, just like this.” He used a tree branch to point at the bloody wound, and as for the real identity of the corpse, he knew it in his heart but couldn’t tell, because no one would believe that there were two Tao Hong in the world, and the latter killed the former, took her skin as his own, and even ate her heart while she was alive.

The Ninth Prince nodded in praise, “My family’s You Shu is very knowledgeable.”

Is it because you have killed many people that you have such insight? The old man and others who were following behind slandered them in their hearts. They only glanced at the corpse before turning around quickly, wanting to throw up.

The Ninth Prince pulled You Shu to the side and asked, “Do you want to investigate this murder case yourself or report it to the officials? If you investigate it yourself, I will not interfere. If you want to report it to the officials, then I will investigate it myself.”  

This matter concerns the safety of his beloved, that’s why he attaches great importance to it. Although he said that he will not interfere, in fact he wanted to do a secret investigation, and it will be easier to act that way. It has only been two hours since the girl’s death, and she was skinned alive with her heart dug out. There must have been a lot of noise, but none of the hidden guards he sent noticed anything wrong. No matter how he looked at it, this matter is very unusual. People from the Zhao Mansion also couldn’t find any results after trying for a while.

The old man also had his own considerations, so he quickly refused. Recently, many people have been killed in the mansion, and Zhao Yusong also committed adultery with Zou Shi before. If the Ninth Prince, who is so thorough and insightful in everything, is really asked to investigate, then wouldnt he pull out all the carrots and bring out the mud, uncovering all those dirty scandals? Fortunately, for You Shu’s sake, His Highness did not intend to intervene forcefully, and the situation can still be remedied! Therefore, this incident can’t be reported to the officials.

Seeing the Second Master and the Third Master looking at his beloved with suspicious eyes and unfriendly expressions from time to time, the Ninth Prince added, “If you are worried, this king will send an assistant to bring someone to conduct an autopsy. He is very strict and will not talk about this incident outside.” Without waiting for the old man to refuse, he dispatched a guard beside him to bring the person.

The guard who came along with him immediately disappeared into the night, and after a while, he came back holding a middle-aged man with disheveled hair wearing obscene clothes and pants. Everyone took a closer look and found that it was the old minister of Dali temple himself. The whole world knows that this person is selfless and very insightful. He can identify the cause of death of an ordinary corpse with a single glance, and he will never disregard justice to please the people in power. He also pointed at the Ninth Prince’s nose several times, cursing him fiercely, saying that he was violent and reckless, unworthy of being a crown prince.

When the old minister himself came for an autopsy, even the old man dared not question the truth of his words.

After hearing what happened, the minister was quite ready to move. However, the national law said: In such a case, unless someone reports it to the officials, the Yamen is not allowed to intervene without authorization. This is because of the respect for the patriarchal clan system. Although national law is higher than patriarchal system, it cannot be suppressed uniformly. During the autopsy, the hidden guard had already left the Zhao Mansion with another broken corpse, he found a desolate area, burned it to ashes, and buried it afterwards.

“This is a female corpse, aged between fifteen and eighteen years old, with a height of about five feet and three inches. The time of death did not exceed two hours, and the cause of death was skin peeling and heart-digging.” His judgement was no different from You Shu.

Skin peeling and heart-digging, what kind of ruthless person can do such a cruel thing? Everyone looked at You Shu in unison.

Before You Shu could speak to defend himself, the Ninth Prince had already spoken, “You Shu was in the palace today, and he didn’t return until eight o’clock in the evening. After dinner, he went straight into his room and didn’t come out again. This woman died two hours ago in the Nanyuan courtyard of the Zhao Mansion, no matter how you count, You Shu didn’t have enough time to kill. He should be eliminated as the suspect, and you need to search for the culprit in the Zhao Mansion. And before that, you should also confirm the identity of the deceased?”

The Minister from the Dali Temple nodded in praise and said, “His Highness is right. How about leaving this matter to me?”

The old man immediately dispelled his suspicion of his grandson and flatly refused. The minister wanted to persuade him again, but was forcibly carried away by the hidden guard. The Ninth Prince squeezed the soft palm of his beloved and said, “I know more about You Shu’s temperament than anyone else. Not to mention killing people, he dared not even step on an ant, and he is very soft-hearted. You can investigate yourself, but don’t even think about framing people. Otherwise, this king will not give the Zhao family any face. Don’t think that this king is blind because he stays in the palace every day. What scandalous thing Zhao Yusong did last night, you know it in your heart, and this king is also aware of it. It’s just that I am too lazy to care about it.”

The old man was startled for a moment before nodding in trepidation. The Second Master was even more terrified, and he quickly knelt down and kowtowed to apologize.

You Shu never thought he was a good person, so when the master said this, he blushed a bit, feeling very uncomfortable, but it was also inexplicably sweet. Is the master protecting him unconditionally and trusting him for no reason? Thinking this way, he held his master’s fingertips and shook them gently.

The two of them left together, and they repeated their routine of ‘you sent me to the palace, then I sent you back home’, and it was an hour before they let each other go. At this moment, the old man had already sent someone to secretly count the people in the mansion, but no one was found missing, and no one heard any suspicious noises.

Who can resist being skinned and having their heart dug out? Who wouldn’t scream in pain? It doesn’t make sense that no one saw or heard anything in such a huge Zhao mansion, right? The more the old man thought about it, the more strange he felt, and when he recalled the tragic death of Zou Shi, his hairs stood on end. Could it be that the Zhao Mansion was contaminated with some kind of evil?

Thinking of this, he rushed to Zhenguo Temple overnight to ask the eminent monk to come back and dispel the evil spirits. However, he forgot to question You Shu why he cut Tao Hong alive, and the insiders were afraid of his ruthless means, so they also kept their mouth shut, and maintained a safe distance from him.

You Shu was worried all night, and when he woke up the next day, he was happy to find that his parents treated him the same as before.

Days passed by, but the murderer was never caught, and they also couldn’t find out the identity of the female corpse. In the end, this matter was left unresolved. Fortunately, nothing strange happened in the Zhao family again, and the Ninth Prince did not inform Princess Mingzhu about Zhao Yusong’s adultery with his sister-in-law, so their marriage was finally preserved.

When the Zhao family was busy preparing for the grand wedding, a groundbreaking event also occurred in the imperial court. At some point, the other four nations joined hands to station troops at the northwest border, saying that the Ninth Prince of Xia Qi was descended as a demon star and would cause disaster to all living beings. They asked Emperor Zhongkang to kill him immediately and establish a new crown prince, otherwise they would send troops to suppress them.

The total number of these coalition forces was at least over a million, while Xia Qi’s troops on the northwest border only amounted to 300,000. If a war really starts, the major border towns will be penetrated by the iron cavalry one by one, thus hitting the gates of Shangjing. Now the danger of national subjugation was at hand.

Before Emperor Zhongkang could express his position, many courtiers came forward and begged him to hand over the Ninth Prince for the sake of the common people. However, some courtiers bluntly stated that even if the Ninth Prince dies, the coalition army will still send troops. So it would be better to fight them with all our strength!

Emperor Zhongkang seemed to be considering the situation, but in fact, he had already made a decision in his heart. He will never hand over his son, if they want to fight, then he will fight to death without surrendering. But what made him feel chilled was that all the princes, along with the empress, stood up and tried to plead with him to put the Ninth Prince to death immediately, as they pretended to be emotional and reasonable.

Emperor Zhongkang was so angry that his fingertips were trembling. He looked at the sixth prince, then at Princess Mingzhu, and finally at the queen, and asked sharply, “It’s fine for others to say it, but one of you is his blood brother, one is his blood sister, and the other is his own mother, did the biological mother not care about his son’s life at all?”

“Then have you ever cherished the common people of Xia Qi? Have you ever cared for the common people in the world?” The Empress asked back.

When the Emperor and the Empress were arguing incessantly, the Ninth Prince and You Shu were practising calligraphy in the study. The hidden guards came over frequently and reported the movements of the court, along with everyone’s reactions one by one.

The Ninth Prince wrote down the word “Minzhi” and said with a smile, “You Shu, this is my given name, you remember it carefully.” He wrote down the word “Changye” again, and sighed, “This is my courtesy name, because father believed that I was the reincarnation of Emperor Zongsheng, he was afraid of offending him by using his name, so he chose this as my courtesy name. Only you and father know about it in the entire Xia Qi.”

These words sounded like a farewell, which made You Shu’s heart tremble. He quickly grabbed his master’s arm to persuade him, “Master, don’t listen to their nonsense, even after you die, they won’t make peace with us. Instead, they will drive straight in and divide up the whole Xia Qi. There is no absolute interest, and the four nations will not abandon their past grievances and cooperate together, and this interest undoubtedly includes Xia Qi’s extremely rich land along with the great rivers and mountains. Let’s go to the northwest and fight them, I will help you kill those one million soldiers. I said that I can do anything for you, and one day, I will even pluck the stars for you.”

The Ninth Prince didn’t really intend to stretch out his neck for the executor’s sword and die. What he wanted was a promise from the young man that he would never give up. 

Suddenly, the sorrow in his heart disappeared completely, and he laughed loudly, “Okay, let’s go to the northwest and fight. If Emperor Zongsheng can bring the whole Kyushu together, I can also dominate the world.” Even if there are thousands of difficulties, including mountains of swords and seas of fire, with you by my side, I have no fear.

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