Chapter 18: Grade A Yellow, Lotus Lake (7)
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They found Kong Yueming.
Only, what they found was her corpse.
Dressed in green, Kong Yueming floated face-up on the water. Her body was slightly swollen, her eyes wide open. The farmer who had hauled her out said regretfully, “She drowned.”
Every member of Snow Moon Pavilion present wore a grim expression.
“The lake is deep,” the farmer continued. “Perhaps she lost her footing and fell in. Ah…”
Jixiang collapsed beside Kong Yueming and began to weep bitterly.
Xu Yiliu’s mind was filled with the image of Kong Yueming curled beneath the quilts the day before, saying that she was afraid. The death of a living person inevitably brought her grandmother to mind. For once, she found herself lost in thought. Even with her eyes closed, she seemed able to see Kong Yueming floating in the water, head tilted back as she gazed at her.
Chen Diandian’s trembling voice pulled her back to herself.
“The body… what should we do with it?”
Xu Yiliu was just about to speak when Fang Xiaoyi got there first.
“Bury her somewhere, the way we buried Ruyi.”
At that, Jixiang sprang to her feet and wailed, “You cannot! Our young mistress’s parents are both still alive. How can she be buried here without explanation or ceremony? Why must you humiliate our young mistress like this, Miss Fang?”
Fang Xiaoyi looked embarrassed. She had been focused only on disposing of the corpse and had momentarily forgotten that this was ancient times.
In an age when people believed that one’s body, hair, and skin were gifts from one’s parents, servants—who were scarcely regarded as human—and the children of prestigious families could never be treated according to the same customs.
Seeing this, Xu Yiliu stepped before Fang Xiaoyi and said gently, “Miss Fang was startled. She was speaking nonsense. How could she possibly mean that? Surely you haven’t lost your wits as well?”
A question was often enough to bring someone back to their senses. Jixiang immediately stopped wailing and stared at her through tear-filled, round eyes.
“Then tell me, what should we do?”
Xu Yiliu said, “First, find a few older women from the village. Give them some silver and have them clean and dress your young mistress. Then clear out a cool room and move her body there. Preserve it properly for now. You can use the money to hire a courier and have him ride at full speed to deliver word to your household. We’ll wait here.”
Jixiang’s expression improved considerably.
Fang Xiaoyi breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at Xu Yiliu’s back, she felt deeply fortunate.
She had thought only of the fact that she was the oldest and the sole teacher among them. When something like this happened, she had instinctively tried to take the lead and stand at the front—only to nearly bring disaster upon them with her careless words.
Fortunately, someone had known how to adapt.
Following Xu Yiliu’s instructions, Jixiang hired several village women, then hurriedly wiped her face and ran out to find someone who could deliver the message. The five members of Snow Moon Pavilion did not exactly stand by coldly, but neither did they come close.
Fang Xiaoyi hesitated before saying, “Should we go examine the body? There might be clues.”
Chen Diandian and Ge Hua both looked troubled.
They had been frightened badly enough already. Neither wanted to go near the dead woman again and invite misfortune, terrified that they might be the next to die.
Ji Lianxing turned and left. Ge Hua did not have time to call out to her, so he could only jog after her awkwardly.
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“No need,” Xu Yiliu said. “The village women are going to clean and dress her, aren’t they? We can ask them about it afterward. Unless one of us has studied forensic medicine or medicine, we probably wouldn’t notice anything anyway.”
Fang Xiaoyi found this very reasonable and asked, “What do you want to do next?”
“Eat.”
Fang Xiaoyi and Chen Diandian both froze.
Everyone was a little hungry after waking up that morning, but clearly, that was not what she had been asking about.
Chen Diandian, simple-minded as ever, genuinely began thinking about what to eat. Fang Xiaoyi, however, frowned and studied Xu Yiliu’s composed face for a long while.
“You…”
Was she truly hungry, or did she simply not want to reveal anything to them?
Xu Yiliu only smiled. “The villagers rise early. I can already smell breakfast. Come on, let’s go.”
Ignoring their gazes, she set off.
Without Kong Yueming, the group was indeed somewhat quieter. But this was the state Xu Yiliu was most accustomed to.
Fang Xiaoyi and Chen Diandian followed behind her at a cautious distance. They seemed to want to approach and speak with her, yet did not know what to say.
Breakfast had already been laid out one dish at a time in the main hall. Xu Yiliu sat in her usual place and ate rice porridge filled with nuts and dried fruit, along with pastries, in complete satisfaction.
In the same room, everyone except Ji Lianxing glanced at her from time to time.
Unable to restrain himself, Chen Diandian asked, “How can you still feel like eating? Aren’t you afraid of dying?”
Xu Yiliu looked at him curiously. “Who says they aren’t afraid of dying?”
“You,” Chen Diandian said.
“I never said that.” Xu Yiliu wiped her mouth with a handkerchief. “I simply haven’t figured out how Kong Yueming died. I noticed nothing before she went to sleep or while she was sleeping, and I’m still completely baffled.”
Chen Diandian was puzzled. “Then how can you eat so heartily?”
Xu Yiliu smiled. “Does eating properly, rather than being unable to taste one’s food, determine anything? No.”
Chen Diandian was left speechless. He could not refute her.
“Other than before and during sleep,” Ji Lianxing suddenly said, “what about the rest of the time?”
The fog that had perpetually clouded Xu Yiliu’s mind suddenly cleared. She raised her head and met Ji Lianxing’s gaze.
“Yes. I was thinking along the wrong lines.”
The first mission she had encountered had taken place in a shopping mall. Although the method of clearing that mission had been convoluted, its conditions for death had been quite direct. Inevitably, she had applied the same way of thinking here, fixating on Kong Yueming’s death as something connected to her behavior before or during sleep.
“Yesterday, she came with me to Lotus Lake. She mentioned a pavilion in passing.” Xu Yiliu thought for a moment, then recounted the matter honestly.
For some reason, she always felt as though her mind had filled with water during this mission, leaving her a few beats slower than usual. At certain crucial moments, she felt that she had seen something, yet whenever she tried to think carefully, her mind became blank.
Since something was wrong with her condition, she might as well tell them everything. Setting aside Chen Diandian and Ge Hua, Fang Xiaoyi and Ji Lianxing were both fairly reliable. Perhaps one of them would find a breakthrough.
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Fang Xiaoyi quickly asked, “What pavilion?”
“I suspect it was the Pavilion in the Middle of the Lake. At the time, I felt that something was wrong, so I pressed Kong Yueming about it. Yet she actually said that she hadn’t spoken at all. After that, she became even more suspicious and paranoid.”
A chill ran down Chen Diandian’s back. “That sounds like something from a horror movie… like she was possessed.”
Ji Lianxing looked at Xu Yiliu. “Why didn’t you mention this yesterday?”
“Yesterday, I…” Xu Yiliu began to explain, but the words stopped at her lips.
Yes. Why had she not remembered to mention it yesterday?
Fang Xiaoyi comforted her. “Perhaps you were a little flustered yesterday. It’s normal that you didn’t think of it.”
Normal?
No. It was not normal.
Xu Yiliu fell silent.
She knew herself better than anyone. Long ago, she had ceased to fear anything. When she had asked Chen Diandian who was not afraid of death, she had been speaking literally—she truly was not afraid.
If she was not afraid, then how could she have been flustered?
Because Xu Yiliu did not respond, an eerie silence settled over the room. Everyone lowered their heads, appearing to stare blankly at their breakfast. No one knew what the others were thinking.
Xu Yiliu replayed everything that had happened the day before in her mind. She had no time to consider Ruyi’s or Kong Yueming’s deaths. More important was the fact that something was wrong with her.
She…
She pinched herself, summoned the data panel, and read through it line by line:
[Host: Xu Yiliu
…
Intelligence: 81–20 (Temporary reduction in intelligence; recoverable)
…
Additional notes:
1. Lack of sleep and inadequate nutrition. Improving dietary balance and getting more rest are recommended.
2. Mild exposure to an unidentified influence. The host is advised to resolve the matter promptly.]
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