"It seems this guy knows very well why Third Young Master Hou died."
Li Xuan was on the roof, observing Zhao Four, who was trembling in his quilt, through the 'skylight' he had opened.
"And this matter must be related to him."
"Otherwise, why would he be so scared?"
Zhao Four was now hiding at home, still terrified like this, presumably he knew very well in his heart that he would be next.
Li Xuan looked up and surveyed the Zhao family.
The defenses of the Zhao family were still very strict; guards could be seen patrolling everywhere.
It would likely be difficult for the killer to break into the Zhao family and take Zhao Four's life.
"If Zhao Four keeps hiding at home, it should be hard for the killer to succeed."
Li Xuan stayed on the roof for a while longer but found nothing more.
Zhao Four was determined to hide in his quilt.
Seeing him so scared, he must truly believe a female ghost is coming for his life.
Li Xuan felt a bit bored, shook his head, and left the Zhao family.
He no longer cared whether Zhao Four lived or died.
If you do nothing wrong, you don't fear ghosts knocking on your door.
Even if Zhao Four really died, he probably deserved it.
Li Xuan was now more curious if Ankang Princess had found anything.
As Li Xuan climbed out of the Zhao family's courtyard wall, Xu Lang slowly emerged from the shadows.
He knelt before Li Xuan, and Li Xuan unceremoniously jumped directly onto his shoulder.
"Li Xuan, should we go meet the young lady now?"
Xu Lang asked Li Xuan.
Li Xuan nodded; Xu Lang was very perceptive, which saved him the trouble of writing.
When Li Xuan and Xu Lang returned to Hu Yu House, it was almost noon.
Hu Yu House was exceptionally quiet during the day because of the continuous incidents last night.
Hu Yu House was open during the day, but it was far less lively than at night.
Moreover, the daytime performances were more refined and elegant, not as explosive and fiery as those at night.
Li Xuan and Xu Lang returned to the private room on the second floor and found that no one was there yet.
Ankang Princess and Yuan'an Princess had not yet returned.
Li Xuan sat at the table, while Xu Lang stood to the side.
On the table were tea and refreshments that a Hu Yu House attendant had just brought up.
Li Xuan boredly watched the hall on the first floor.
On the stage, there were only singing and musical performances, and only one or two tables of guests were sparsely seated, making it uncharacteristically quiet.
Last night's liveliness felt like a dream, making it seem unreal.
Li Xuan looked up towards the upper floors.
The stairs from the third floor to the fourth floor had been sealed off, with a wooden sign that read "Under Renovation."
Next to the wooden sign were two people guarding it; they didn't look like Hu Yu House thugs but rather Hou family servants.
Li Xuan remembered that Zhou Mama of Hu Yu House was under house arrest in her boudoir on the fifth floor.
"I wonder if Zhou Mama has realized her belongings are gone."
The belongings Zhou Mama had hidden under her pillow, ready to take when she fled, were conveniently collected by Li Xuan into the di hong bone ring last night.
Since this was Zhou Mama's territory, Li Xuan guessed she would definitely have a way to escape if she wanted to.
But if she discovered her belongings were gone before escaping, he wondered if she would still manage to get away cleanly.
Li Xuan greeted Xu Lang, then quietly slipped out of the private room window and climbed upstairs.
Xu Lang saw Li Xuan going upstairs but acted as if he hadn't seen anything, standing straight like a spear, maintaining his professional demeanor even when alone.
Li Xuan easily climbed to the fifth floor, and before he even got close to the window, he heard a rummaging sound.
He clung to the window with his paws, then peered through the gap, and indeed saw Zhou Mama frantically searching the room.
The formerly neat room was now a chaotic mess, with various items scattered on the floor.
Zhou Mama's hair and clothes were disheveled, her eyes bloodshot, and her expression haggard.
"Where are my things, where are my things…?"
Zhou Mama muttered to herself, her eyes filled with panic.
She clearly remembered packing all her belongings last night, putting them into a small wooden box that only she could open, and then hiding it under her pillow.
Zhou Mama wanted to escape last night, but then she found the small wooden box under her pillow was gone.
Later, the Hou family put her under house arrest, which conveniently allowed her to search for her belongings, but even now, after turning the room upside down, she still hadn't found anything.
"Robbed?"
"How could such a coincidence happen…?"
"Could it really be a ghost haunting this place?!"
Zhou Mama sat on a chair, suspicious, unconsciously biting her nails, appearing very nervous.
"Impossible, impossible…"
"If there were really ghosts, how could the business on Flower Street have lasted until now?!"
"Someone must be secretly causing trouble, it must be."
Zhou Mama sat for only a moment before getting up again, pacing anxiously around the room.
Now Third Young Master Hou was dead, Aymu was still missing, and she herself was under house arrest by the Hou family.
If this continued, her best outcome would be bankruptcy, then returning to her old profession.
At that point, she would be sold to pay off debts, and her latter half of life would be completely ruined.
Clearly, Zhou Mama was not one to sit idly by.
Zhou Mama climbed onto her bed and pressed various spots on her bed frame; after a while, a clicking sound of a mechanism rang out.
"Meow, she really had a backup plan."
Li Xuan, secretly watching from outside the window, couldn't help but mutter to himself.
The mechanism under Zhou Mama's bed was very ingenious; as the clicking sound echoed, a passage appeared beneath her bed frame, dark and leading to an unknown place.
And miraculously, the space under her bed was still clearly visible to Li Xuan, without any changes.
"She even utilized visual and spatial illusions; the craftsmanship is quite good."
Li Xuan praised.
Zhou Mama cautiously lowered her lower body into the passage.
This passage seemed to be like a slide, allowing one to slide down.
Zhou Mama braced herself with both hands at the entrance of the passage, seemingly hesitant.
She was probably still reluctant to abandon her belongings.
But now, the arrow was on the bowstring, and it had to be released.
Finally, Zhou Mama gritted her teeth, let go of her supporting hands, and with a whoosh, slid into the passage.
Li Xuan quickly climbed through the window, then leaned into the passage to look inside.
In the dark passage, Zhou Mama's figure was no longer visible, but the sound of clothes rubbing against the slide could still faintly be heard.
"This Zhou Mama really knows how to have fun."
Li Xuan was hesitating at the entrance of the passage whether to slide down with her, but as soon as he poked his head into the passage, he couldn't help but frown.
"This smell…"
Li Xuan twitched his nose and immediately recoiled two steps in fright.
And just then, the passage entrance began to slowly close, with the mechanism automatically clicking.
But at the very last moment before the passage closed, Li Xuan distinctly heard a scream coming from inside the passage.
And the owner of that voice was none other than Zhou Mama.
"Oh, this…"
As a faint burnt smell wafted into his nostrils, Li Xuan believed that Zhou Mama was probably in grave danger now.
"Was it already prepared in this secret passage?"
Li Xuan felt a chill of fear; he hadn't expected the killer's preparations to be so thorough, leading Zhou Mama right into the trap.
If he hadn't smelled that familiar scent at the passage entrance just now, he probably would have suffered the same fate as Zhou Mama.
Li Xuan looked at the closed passage and immediately shook his head.
"No, I can't chase from here."
He leaned over the closed passage, sniffing hard with his nose, and after locking onto the scent, he immediately climbed out the window, searching for the source of the smell.
Outside, the smell was much fainter, but Li Xuan found the scorched smell becoming clearer and clearer.
"Downstairs."
Li Xuan went all the way to a first-floor window, then, like a hound, tracked the scent all the way to the back courtyard of Hu Yu House.
It was his first time setting foot here, and he found that the back courtyard of Hu Yu House was quite large.
The courtyard was surrounded by many low-rise bungalows, which looked like they could house many people.
The kitchen, carriage house, and storerooms were also arranged here, indeed occupying a considerable amount of space.
It seemed that just the property of Hu Yu House alone was probably a considerable fortune.
Li Xuan followed the scent to the storeroom and found that the smell was coming from beneath the storeroom.
He searched in the storeroom for a long time before, by following the direction of the smell, he found a hidden entrance to a cellar.
Since there was no one in the storeroom right now, Li Xuan directly opened the cellar entrance.
Although it was pitch black inside, it didn't bother Li Xuan.
His pair of glowing green cat eyes could see things clearly even in this environment.
Li Xuan went all the way to the deepest part of the cellar, where he found that the scorched smell was indeed emanating from the corner of the wall, but there was no path ahead of him.
"Huh, the smell is definitely coming from behind this wall."
"There must be a mechanism, right?"
Li Xuan fumbled around on that wall, tapping and knocking.
He found that the sound from the corner of the wall was a bit off; he pressed it a few times, and the wall suddenly sank inwards, then rotated, revealing a narrow passage.
As the passage opened, Li Xuan's vision suddenly brightened, and the scorched smell filled his nostrils even more intensely.
Inside the dark secret room, a corpse was burning fiercely, and the green flame from last night was on the corpse; as the green flame burned, a smell like rotten garlic filled the air.
Li Xuan knew the smell was poisonous, but it had no effect on him.
Judging by the body shape and the unburnt clothes on the body, this was undoubtedly Zhou Mama.
Li Xuan sighed, guessing that Zhou Mama probably never imagined, even in death, that she had jumped into the fire pit herself.
"Burned like this, there's no saving her."
Li Xuan walked around Zhou Mama's corpse and went to inspect the exit of the passage.
Previously, Zhou Mama had followed this path, sliding all the way from her boudoir on the fifth floor to this secret room in the cellar.
Li Xuan sniffed, then gently touched the slide inside the passage with his paw.
He ended up touching some sticky liquid.
Li Xuan carefully examined the liquid on his paw and sniffed it a few times, already understanding what it was.
"Because of this stuff, this place has become a slide that can't even be touched?"
Li Xuan shook his head with a sigh, quickly shaking off the sticky liquid from his paw.
He didn't want to burn himself out of curiosity.
Next, Li Xuan wandered around the secret room in the cellar; since Zhou Mama was turning into a raging inferno with her remaining body, the secret room was quite bright.
Inside the secret room were some clothes and disguise props, as well as a wooden box containing scattered silver, roughly estimated to be about one hundred taels.
These one hundred taels of silver ranged from silver ingots to tiny Small change, which should be very convenient to use in the market.
It was probably travel money Zhou Mama had prepared for herself for years, in case she needed to flee.
Li Xuan unceremoniously put it into the di hong bone ring.
After that, there was nothing else in this secret room.
Aside from clothes and travel money, there were no documents or anything else Li Xuan had expected in the secret room.
After all, this was a cellar, and the dark, damp environment was not suitable for storing such things.
Li Xuan was still very regretful about Zhou Mama's death; he originally had many questions he wanted to ask Zhou Mama, but now it seemed hopeless.
Li Xuan looked back at the still burning corpse, then silently walked out of the secret room, re-closing the mechanism in the corner of the wall, restoring it to its original state.
Zhou Mama's death was not without value.
At least, Li Xuan felt that if the news of Zhou Mama's disappearance got out, the killer would definitely come to take a look.
The killer must want to admire his meticulously crafted masterpiece, right?
Thinking about this, Li Xuan had already left the cellar and quietly returned to Hu Yu House.
Using his identity as a Little Cat, he returned to the private room on the second floor without alarming anyone.
And when he returned, he found that Princess Ankang and Princess Yuan'an had already returned.
The two princesses were huddled together, whispering softly, not knowing what they were discussing.
However, their sneaky appearance made Li Xuan chuckle a bit.
"This detective game is really getting them more and more into character."
Li Xuan suddenly jumped onto the table, startling both of them.
"Li Xuan, you came back without even making a sound."
Princess Ankang complained, patting her small chest, then naturally hugged Li Xuan into her arms.
Princess Yuan'an, on the other hand, suddenly blushed and her heart pounded, looking intently at Li Xuan.
"Li Xuan, you were so close to me just now."
"I could even smell his scorched, stinky body odor."
"As expected of the Little Cat I fancy, even his scent is so unique."
Princess Yuan'an held her flushed face, looking infatuated.
Li Xuan and Princess Ankang were now used to it and simply pretended not to see Princess Yuan'an's current state.
"Ahem."
Princess Ankang cleared her throat, startling Princess Yuan'an awake.
"Sister, let's continue discussing the current case."
"Uh, okay, okay, sister."
Princess Yuan'an suddenly realized, putting away her infatuated look.
She cleared her throat and then spoke:
"Sister, I've inquired about it."
"The rumors of ghosts on Flower Street have indeed always existed, but they've been particularly intense in recent days."
"This is all because a girl died tragically last month, and people are saying she came back for revenge."
"Coupled with the strange occurrences lately, the story has become more and more believable."
It's true, Princess Yuan'an had indeed managed to clarify the ghost haunting during her morning outing.
This showed that she wasn't completely incapable of investigating cases; she just hadn't taken it seriously before.
Now that she herself had become curious, the efficiency of her investigation immediately increased significantly.
Listening to Princess Yuan'an's words, Princess Ankang also looked serious.
"Sister, did you find out the name of that girl who died?"
Li Xuan and Princess Ankang both had an expected answer in their hearts; they now needed to confirm it with Princess Yuan'an.
However, Princess Yuan'an shook her head:
"Sister, I inquired about this, but I couldn't get a definite answer."
"I heard that the girl who died wasn't famous; she was just an ordinary girl on Flower Street, not a courtesan or anything."
Upon hearing this, Li Xuan and Princess Ankang couldn't help but look a bit disappointed.
But then Princess Yuan'an changed the subject, lowering her voice as she said to them:
"But there's one thing I found out clearly."
"That dead girl used to be in Hu Yu House."
"But when I inquired with the Hu Yu House staff, they all stammered and refused to elaborate, probably because Zhou Mama forbade them from discussing it."
Li Xuan couldn't help but sigh upon hearing this.
Thus, Zhou Mama's death was perhaps inevitable.
"Sister, if I'm not mistaken, the girl who died was most likely Xixi."
Ankang said with a complex expression.
She had previously learned about Gray Gray's assessment of Dr. Fang and Xixi through Li Xuan.
Ankang had a good impression of people who could rescue stray cats.
She felt that at the very least, they should all be kind people.
Gray Gray had said that Xixi hadn't visited him for over a month.
Although Ankang had prepared herself mentally, she still felt a little sad.
Especially when many clues provided by Yuan'an matched theirs.
Then, Ankang also told Yuan'an the information they had previously gathered from Dr. Fang.
After listening, Yuan'an said without hesitation:
"The murderer is most likely Dr. Fang, isn't he?"
Li Xuan and Ankang couldn't help but fall silent, as they had also guessed the same.
"But we have no evidence now, it's all just circumstantial."
Ankang said.
Unexpectedly, Yuan'an shook her head:
"Sister, you probably don't know, but the person who died this time is the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel's son. If the authorities learn of the clues we have, they can simply arrest him first."
"As for the remaining evidence, they can naturally pry it out of Dr. Fang's mouth."
"By then, even if the murderer isn't him, he will have to be."
What Yuan'an said was true.
"Therefore, before we reach a conclusion, the clues we have cannot be revealed at will."
Ankang said sternly.
"No one knows about the relationship between Dr. Fang and Xixi, at least my previous investigation showed that."
The relationship between Dr. Fang and Xixi was told to Li Xuan by Gray Gray.
But apart from Gray Gray, a cat, when Ankang later inquired about information on Flower Street, no one knew about the relationship between these two people.
It seemed that their relationship should be a secret.
Seeing the two princesses finish communicating the clues they had found, Li Xuan also began to share his own clues.
He tapped the table with his tail, attracting the attention of the two princesses, and then dipped his paw in water to write a few words on the table.
"Zhou Mama is dead."
Ankang and Yuan'an were both startled, but neither doubted Li Xuan's words.
"Li Xuan, when did this happen?"
"Just a short while ago, Zhou Mama's body is still burning."
Li Xuan continued to write.
Then, he wrote down what had happened earlier for the two princesses to see.
"This secret passage of Zhou Mama's should be her own secret, how did the murderer know about it?"
Yuan'an asked curiously.
Surely Zhou Mama wouldn't widely publicize such a secret passage, would she?
Even if someone in Hu Yu House knew the location of this secret passage, it should be Zhou Mama's confidant.
This couldn't help but make Yuan'an begin to waver in her idea that Dr. Fang was the murderer.
Even if Dr. Fang had a close relationship with Xixi from Hu Yu House, how could Xixi, an ordinary girl, know about Zhou Mama's secret passage?
Zhou Mama's secret passage was clearly tampered with by the murderer, which caused her to fall into the fire pit and be burned to death.
The two princesses fell into deep thought.
At this moment, Li Xuan wrote a few more words.
"The murderer might go to check Zhou Mama's body, we need to send people to watch the cellar, perhaps they can encounter the other party."
"Li Xuan is right!"
Ankang and Yuan'an nodded in unison.
Their simultaneous words made them smile at each other.
Then, Ankang looked to the side.
"Xu Lang, can you spare some people to watch the cellar, with shifts rotating every twelve hours?"
"Miss, no problem, I'll arrange it right away."
Xu Lang stepped forward and readily agreed to the matter.
"If it were me, hearing that Zhou Mama had disappeared, I'd probably want to confirm it too."
"The murderer went to such great lengths, it's probably not an ordinary grudge."
"Alas—"
Ankang couldn't help but sigh.
The person she had spoken to in the morning was already dead in less than a day, separated by life and death. This feeling made her feel somewhat unreal.
But now there was no more time for Ankang to lament.
Li Xuan tapped the table with his tail again, then continued to write:
"Zhao Four should know the details; he might be the murderer's next target."
"If we want to know the truth, he is an important breakthrough."
"If even Zhao Four dies, I'm afraid the truth will only be known by the murderer himself."
Then, Li Xuan simply wrote down what he had seen in Zhao family.
Zhao Four's terrified reaction made it obvious to anyone that there was a problem.
Plus, Zhao Four and Third Young Master Hou always had conflicts, making them sworn enemies.
As the old saying goes, your enemy knows you best.
"It seems we need to find a way to meet Zhao Four."
Ankang pondered.
"Sister, should we reveal our identities?"
"Otherwise, I'm afraid Zhao family won't let us in."
Yuan'an said with some concern.
Ankang thought for a moment, then asked:
"Hmm, what were the rules for us leaving the palace to investigate this case?"
Yuan'an thought for a moment, then said with some uncertainty:
"I remember Chief Zhao only emphasized that the investigation process needed to be recorded."
As she spoke, Yuan'an looked up at the two eunuchs responsible for recording for them.
These two people never said a word all day long, their presence was so low that it was almost nonexistent.
If it weren't for them bringing it up now, they would have almost forgotten that such a person had been following them all along.
"Besides that, he only emphasized things like reporting to the Internal Affairs Bureau before leaving the palace, and after that, it seems he didn't mention any other rules."
"Hmm, it seems this month's competition is quite free."
Upon hearing this, Li Xuan also realized that something was off.
Their previous competitions had relatively clear rules, but this month seemed a bit too free.
And Emperor Yongyuan had always liked to hide little easter eggs in competitions.
Li Xuan guessed that the rules of this month's competition being so free probably had Emperor Yongyuan's own intentions.
"Since that's the case, then us revealing our identities to visit Zhao Four wouldn't be breaking the rules, would it?"
Ankang said, looking at the two Eunuchs responsible for recording.
But those two Eunuchs seemed to be deaf, not even reacting at all.
Ankang shrugged and spread her hands to Yuan'an:
"It seems there's no problem."