Ran Yan was momentarily stunned, "A letter? Who sent it?"
"It’s from Physician Liu," the guard replied, presenting a letter sealed with wax in both hands.
Ran Yan immediately tore it open, to find it was written in English! It must concern an important matter, otherwise he wouldn’t have been so cautious, not only sealing it with wax but also writing in English.
However, as Ran Yan read on, she almost cursed out loud. Liu Qingsong’s English was abysmal, riddled with grammatical errors and many phrases that made no sense whatsoever; in an entire sentence, aside from a few simple particles, not even one word was spelled correctly. If his English was that bad, why not write in Pinyin!
After staring at the letter for a while and guessing as best she could, Ran Yan managed to grasp some of the content.
The letter roughly said that Xiao Xuanzhi had gone to seek an audience with the Crown Prince, and afterward, the Crown Prince went to have an audience with the Emperor immediately.
Xiao Xuanzhi? Ran Yan was surprised. Xiao Xuanzhi, the son of the Lady of the East, was seeking an audience with Li Chengqian at this time? According to what Liu Pinrang said, it was Li Chengqian who was causing all this upheaval, and now he went to the palace for an audience... What for?
Ran Yan read the letter again and saw that Xiao Song was indeed not mentioned anywhere in it.
"Physician Liu also said that Junior Minister Sun’s son is missing, and asked for your help to find him," the guard added.
That was a piece of news that could somewhat ease Ran Yan’s mind. Sun Zhen must have been coerced into his actions because his son was in someone else’s hands, indicating he hadn’t yet become heartless and cruel. However, it was said that Sun Zhen hadn’t remarried for many years and only had this one son, whom he adored greatly. Whether the son was more important or righteousness was more important—everyone would weigh it differently, so Ran Yan also dared not be too optimistic.
"Continue the search as planned," Ran Yan said.
The later it got, the more concerned Ran Yan became. She quickly asked, "Aren’t the other people out looking for them? Has there been any news?"
"Nothing yet," the guard replied.
Ran Yan refused to believe that so many people could suddenly vanish without a trace!
"Search this compound first, then proceed with the original plan!" Ran Yan ordered.
The moon flowed over the sky, and the night at Qujiang was filled with a hazy beauty that was even more enchanting than during the day. Many scholars and gentlemen chose not to return home at night, staying over at Qujiang, making the nighttime business of the taverns extremely good.
Ran Yan first instructed a few guards to accompany her to check the attic. The previous guard had reported no living people, which meant there must be bodies.
Four guards went up first to investigate and, after confirming there was no danger, Ran Yan followed with her people, carrying torches up the stairs.
The attic wasn’t large, being only two zhang in length and width. There were five bodies on the floor. Upon a cursory glance, Ran Yan saw that all five were dressed alike, meaning the missing ones must be guards from Xiao Song’s side!
Ran Yan suppressed the turmoil in her heart and scrutinized the room carefully. There were slight traces of a skirmish inside the room; it seemed these people were lured here and ambushed, with scarcely a chance to struggle.
"Is my medical kit still here?" Ran Yan asked.
Upon hearing her question, the Team Leader instructed his subordinate to bring the medical kit over. Ran Yan took out a pair of gloves from the box and put them on, then crouched down to turn over each body one by one for inspection. She discovered that all had been killed by a broken neck without any external injuries.
"Lady, these are our men," the Team Leader recognized the men quickly.
Ran Yan nodded, at least now she could confirm that Xiao Song had indeed been here.
Standing up, Ran Yan used the light from the torch to examine the footprints inside the room. These men appeared to have come from the woods at the back, with more or less mud on their shoes. She recalled the staircase they had come up, and there didn’t seem to be many footprints.
"Let’s go," Ran Yan said, her voice barely falling when she suddenly halted her steps and looked around once more. "No, this isn’t right! Where did that person leave from?"
Since the attic had only two windows facing the courtyard, and the stairs led down to the corridor in the courtyard, whoever that person was should not have been able to escape their sight from where Ran Yan and her team stood in the courtyard.
The Team Leader quickly caught on and instructed, "Look around, see if there’s a secret door."
Everyone responded and began searching the walls and the floor.
Any secret door would likely have some gaps, and since there were no obstructions on the walls of the room, Ran Yan looked down at the floor.
The floor had several cracks, a consequence of the construction of the wooden flooring, seemingly nothing out of the ordinary.
Ran Yan’s gaze landed on a Persian carpet, "Give me a torch." Thɪs chapter is updated by novęlfire.net
She received the torch handed by a guard, and began to walk slowly along the edge of the carpet. After circling around, she indeed noticed something different, the carpet by the legs of the furniture had a faint crease.