Chapter 43
The lady in pink had a deathly white complexion. When she saw Madam Gao, she immediately struggled and said, “Madam! Official Yu brought people to the residence and took away Eighteenth Miss, saying that Eighteenth Miss is a murder suspect!”

“What?” No matter how good Madam Gao was at pretending, when she heard that her own daughter became a suspect, she still turned pale with fright, and said with a stern voice, “Explain clearly! What happened?”

The maidservant in pink was frightened to the point of shrinking her neck and explained, “Official Yu said that the half-piece broken nail that was coloured with red nail polish that they found on Wan Lu’s wounds, coincidentally Eighteenth Miss’s nail also broke in the Yin residence… Moreover, someone testified that on that day Eighteenth Miss and Seventeenth Miss argued in the Yin residence’s garden. So Official Yu said that Miss is a suspect.”

It was true, Ran Yan’s servant had no enmities with anyone in the Yin residence, even if a conflict happened, it would not be to the point where she would be murdered. However, Eighteenth Miss had always found Ran Yan objectionable, if she had lost her temper and committed murder, this would be a persuasive reason.

Madam Gao’s surprise gradually calmed down, her expression also recovered. She turned her gaze towards Ran Yan and asked calmly, “Did you sisters really argue that day?”

Ran Yan replied honestly, “Yes.”

Ran Yan did not need to explain the specifics, she believed that very quickly Madam Gao would know what had happened clearly. After all, there was still one maidservant from the Yin residence there at the time to testify.

“We have allowed Third Miss Yin to see something shameful.” Madam Gao smiled apologetically towards Yin Miao-miao.

Yin Miao-miao comforted softly, “Do not worry, Madam. We all know what kind of temperament Eighteenth Miss has, she would not do something like this. I believe that Provincial Governor Liu and Official Yu are both judicious people.

“Many thanks for Third Miss’s consolation.” Madam Gao seemed like she really breathed a sigh of relief. After saying farewell to Yin Miao-miao and Ran Yan, she led a group of maidservants and left.

Yin Miao-miao also said goodbye to Ran Yan. Before she left, she told Ran Yan, “On Qixi (the seventh day of the seventh month), if you’re planning to go to Pingjiang river, send someone to my residence to inform me, we’ll go together.”

“Alright.” Ran Yan agreed, and sent her out of the estate.

On her way back, Ran Yan could not help thinking, did Ran Meiyu actually have time and motive to kill Wan Lu? She thought carefully for a while. Judging from the wounds on Wan Lu’s body, she was first attacked on the back of her head. However, because the thing used to attack her was not sharp, adding to that the perpetrator did not use enough strength, therefore she might have only temporarily lost her ability to resist because she was dizzy. For some reason the perpetrator discarded the original murder weapon and did not use it, and changed to using hands to strangle her, but had inattentively broken off her own nail.

It was entirely possible that this sequence of actions happened before Ran Yan arrived in the garden. Previously Ran Yan had determined that there was more than one perpetrator. Thus, if it really was done by Ran Meiyu, it was very possible that she had discovered that Ran Yan had entered the back garden, and deliberately rushed out to delay her.

What about the motive for murder? According to Ran Yan’s memory, Ran Meiyu indeed could not be said to be kind hearted, but there were many ways for her to control Wan Lu and vent her anger, why would she choose murder?

“It is not impossible for Eighteenth Miss to want to kill Wan Lu.” Miss Xing said.

“Why?” Ran Yan asked.

Bringing up Ran Meiyu, Miss Xing had a face full of loathing, “Eighteenth Miss had malicious thoughts since she was young. How many times has she harmed you in the past? Wan Lu is hot-tempered and clashed with her many times. It is possible that she still carries a grudge in her heart!”

Ran Yan smiled faintly, she remembered those events, but it did not happen to her, in the end she could not fully sympathise. Miss Xing went through a lot of suffering and detested Ran Meiyu bitterly. She prayed in her heart that Ran Meiyu will not be released this time.

“Perhaps she wanted to teach Wan Lu a lesson and went too far.” Miss Xing muttered.

Ran Yan started, what Miss Xing said was extremely possible. Ran Meiyu thought that she accidentally killed a person, therefore while panicking in fear, she created an illogical suicide scene.

“Has Wan Lu woken up?” Ran Yan asked. These things, as long as Wan Lu woke up, everything would be easily solved.

“Last night she woke in a daze for a moment. This morning she opened her eyes for a brief while, but when I called her she did not answer.” Miss Xing said worriedly.

“She did not answer?” Ran Yan furrowed her brows. The brain was central commanding officer controlling the body and was easily injured. If Wan Lu turned into a fool or lost her memories…

Thinking of this, Ran Yan walked towards Wan Lu’s room with quick steps. Miss Xing saw that her expression was not good, thus did not question further, and followed closely behind.

Wan Lu had woken up, her eyes half open, her gaze dull as she allowed Madam Liu to feed her medicine. She still was able to swallow the medicinal soup of her own initiative, but when she swallowed her expression showed great pain. Ran Yan knew that she was choked by someone, then hanged, it was inevitable that her throat was injured.

“Wan Lu.” Ran Yan took the bowl of medicine and sat in front of the bed to personally feed her the medicine, “Drink the medicine, after 3-5 days it won’t be as painful anymore.”

Wan Lu’s eyes moved slightly, her gaze shifted to Ran Yan. Her pale and chapped lips trembled slightly, but she could not speak. Tears suddenly rolled down from her phoenix eyes.

The large stone in Ran Yan’s heart was finally placed down. It seemed that Wan Lu’s IQ was not greatly affected, her memory seemed to have not been affected much either, this much was enough. Ran Yan privately hoped that Wan Lu would forget that cruel act. She herself had died before and knew that that kind of fear was sufficient to become a nightmare throughout one’s life. She often looked at corpses, so she was calmer than an ordinary person regarding life and death, even so, every midnight-dream still left her drenched in cold sweat.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry. These few days you weren’t able to eat, what if you cry until you have no energy left?” Ran Yan’s words were true, Wan Lu had already starved for one day and one night, even water she drank very little of, if she cried like this, very quickly she would go into shock.

Miss Xing also said, “That’s right, wait till you’re better, then cry however you want, I guarantee I will not mock you.”

Wan Lu heard these words and a wisp of a smile emerged on her wan face.

Ran Yan added a significant portion of sedatives in the medicine, after Wan Lu drank the medicine she quickly fell asleep.

“Miss, how is Wan Lu?” After exiting, Miss Xing asked.

Ran Yan said, “She’s alright, only that there is a sharp pain in her throat now, she cannot swallow things. See if there are any tonics in the things Madam Gao sent over, stew it in water and feed her.”

“I thank Miss on Wan Lu’s behalf!” Miss Xing bowed.

Ran Yan’s steps halted, one could not see any expression on her face, she merely said in a calm voice, “In future, don’t say these kinds of words anymore. It makes one’s heart rather hurt.”

“Miss?” Miss Xing looked at Ran Yan uncomprehendingly. She only performed the most common etiquette and could not think of anything that she did wrongly.

Ran Yan’s tone relaxed a little and said, “The both of you and I share trials and tribulations together, we do not have merely a master and servant relationship. If I have a bite to eat, I definitely would not mistreat you, this is what I ought to do. In this world, I also only have you two to rely on and trust. To me, you and Wan Lu are my mothers and sisters. You drew such a clear line between us, how can it not make me sad?”

Miss Xing’s eye turned slightly red, her tears fell continuously, she quickly fished out a handkerchief to wipe her tears. After steadying her emotions, she sighed, saying “Miss is truly loyal, in future you will definitely have a good home, Madam will also protect Miss.”

Ran Yan smiled faintly, and did not reply. Miss Xing constantly did not leave the topic of her home (aka marriage) alone, she listened till her ears had formed calluses. If she had replied even half a sentence, she would definitely bring on an unending stream of nagging.

“Miss Ran.”

Ran Yan was just preparing to take off her clog shoes and entering the veranda, but heard someone calling her. She turned her head to look, it was actually the duizheng sent by Provincial Governor Liu – Yang Yong.

Yang Yong said, “The provincial governor invites Miss Ran over for questioning.”

Miss Xing frowned and said, “It is getting late, can it not wait till tomorrow?”

Miss Xing was very dissatisfied with Provincial Governor Liu in her heart. Each time he had called her Miss out for questioning, it was at night. If this spreads out, who knew what would happen! As a provincial governor of a province, and as someone filled with righteousness, how could he be this ignorant of etiquette?

Yang Yong said unyieldingly, “Speed is crucial in solving cases, this is an established rule.”

The sky gradually darkened, through the dim light, Ran Yan carefully looked at this Yang Yong once again. His square face in the shape of the 国(country) character, his nose looked like a hanging gallbladder, his two eyebrows resembled two swords suspended at the brow ridge, his face filled with righteousness, making those who see him know that this person does not have much evil thoughts.

“Since it is the rule, I will go over.” Ran Yan was afraid that these provincial soldiers would believe that the murderer had already been caught and relax their guard, so she paused for a while and said, “Yang duizheng, leave a little more people behind to protect the witness. If the murderer was someone else, failing to kill once, I am afraid that they would strike again.”

Yang Yong looked at Ran Yan, “Alright.”

Miss Xing took a satin coat to drape over Ran Yan’s shoulders and exhorted her a few times, insisting that Ran Yan take Shao Ming along before she was a little reassured and sent her(RY) onto the governmental office’s carriage.

Ever since Ran Yan extravagantly rewarded him with half a string of coins, Shao Ming had a pleasant manner towards Ran Yan. Interacting with her afterwards, he also felt that Ran Yan was a good mistress. Additionally, he knew that Ran Yan was about to be return to the main residence, thus he curried favour with her with even more enthusiasm. After all, he had no future staying on the estate here.

“Shao Ming.” Ran Yan estimated that there was still some time before they would reach the city, thus took advantage of this period of time to deal with some matters.

Shao Ming who was sitting beside the driver heard Ran Yan’s voice and quickly said, “What is the matter, Miss?”

“Come in.” Ran Yan said.

Shao Ming was suspicious, but still pulled open the curtains and entered the carriage. He did not dare to go forward, and only sat kneeling awkwardly near the carriage door.

“Are you willing to follow me.” Ran Yan went straight for the main topic, but then thought that this question was a little ambiguous, thus supplemented another sentence, “To work for me.”

Ran Yan had made discrete inquiries about Shao Ming’s background. His home was at Shao village that was 2.5km north of the Zhou family estate. His family only consisted of his elderly mother and a younger sister. Even though like the other boy servants, he also flattered his superiors and bullied his juniors, but he was very caring towards his mother and younger sister, his character was not bad. After deliberately interacting with him for the past few days, she discovered that Shao Ming did alright in every aspect, thus took this opportunity to rope him in. Ran Yan understood that with all of her current advantages, as long as she opened her mouth, he most likely would agree.

Shao Ming was wild with joy. He originally already had this intention, naturally he hurriedly agreed, “I am willing, of course I am willing.”

“You have to consider it carefully.” Ran Yan looked at him solemnly and said word by word, sentence by sentence, “Since you have decided to follow me, you must do two things: one is loyalty! Two is put in all your effort!”

Shao Ming’s hairs stood on end under Ran Yan’s gaze, but he knew that this was not the time to shrink back, thus said firmly, “Shao Ming vows to be loyal to Seventeenth Miss Ran for the rest of my life, to put in all my effort in my work, I will never go back on these words!”

Ran Yan nodded, satisfied. Shao Ming was very quick-witted and knew that he had to be loyal to her, not the Ran family, “Remember your words today well, abide by them, I definitely would not treat you unfairly. If one day you betray me, I definitely would have a way to make you unable to live and unable to die.”

Shao Ming trembled, and repeatedly agreed.

Ran Yan placed him on a “probationary period”. These few days of brief interaction and a clean family background could not prove anything. He still had to be put through a test of time. She set this period of time as half a year.

The driver outside was the exclusive driver of the government office, he naturally had heard of the methods of winning people over used by the inner residence. Ran Yan’s matters, he had also roughly heard about it, a lone female being accepted back into the main residence, she definitely would have to think of ways to rope in a few people she could use. The driver looked at Shao Ming who was coming out from the carriage, and thought to himself, Seventeenth Miss Ran has quite a good eye for people.

Night curfew was implemented in the city, but the government office was obviously not restricted by this when handling cases. The accompanying prefectural soldiers displayed the command plate, very quickly they passed through and entered the city.