20demayo Chapter 306 The Third Prince Visits
Chapter 306 The Third Prince Visits
The entire Jiang family sighed and lamented. In the end, the only thing they could do was appease Prince Ning and see what to do next.
Mr. Jiang glared at Mrs. Jiang: "Next time Qiu comes to visit us, you're not allowed to give him a cold look and scold him, understand?"
Jiang's mother was filled with hatred. In her eyes, it was the third son who did it on purpose, causing the second son to never come back. But thinking of the fact that Si Mutong was still alive, she could only nod.
The second sister returned home in the evening. She was exhausted and barely ate any dinner. As soon as she got back to her room, she opened the booklet that Wan Cheng had left behind and began to study it carefully.
Si Muyan led Xiaoxia to the door: "Second sister?"
The second sister quickly got up, opened the door, and scooped Xiaoxia up in her arms: "Is Xiaoxia a good girl?"
"Good girl." Xia'er hugged her second sister's neck. "Mother hasn't spent much time with Xia'er these past few days, and Xia'er is unhappy."
The headmistress is still there, but only Si Muyan and her younger sister practice every day. The second sister says she has something to do and asks for leave every day, which makes the headmistress very unhappy.
Especially after learning that she was investigating her brother's case, she didn't even learn the rules, but went out and showed her face in public, asking around everywhere.
The headmistress's face was long, and she repeatedly told her to know what was important and what wasn't.
However, the second sister stubbornly refused to listen to her, and Si Muyan and the youngest sister protected her, saying with tears in their eyes that if they didn't have a younger brother, what would be the point of learning all these rules? They might as well pack their bags and go back to the countryside in Lingnan.
Thus, the headmistress could only turn a blind eye.
The second sister was always out early and back late, either asking about the Wan family's situation or going to Feng Zizhou to inquire about the progress of the case. When she came back, she would stay in her room writing and drawing, and no one knew what she was writing.
Anyway, Xia'er hadn't seen her mother for several days.
The second sister held her daughter and gently apologized, "Xia'er, it's all my fault. I've been so busy these past few days that I forgot. Once I'm done with work in a couple of days, I'll definitely spend every day with you, okay?"
"Okay." Xiaoxia said in her childish voice, giving her second sister a kiss on the cheek, a kiss that melted her heart.
Si Muyan walked to the table, looked at the crumpled booklets on it, and asked, "Did you find anything out about this?"
The second sister picked up Xiaoxia and sat down at the table. Afraid that Xiaoxia would move around, she pushed the booklet towards Si Muyan and gave Xiaoxia a rag doll that Si Muyan had made in her spare time to play with.
"Today I went to Wan Cheng's parents' house and searched for quite a while before I finally found them. I actually found something out."
The second sister briefly recounted what had happened during the day, pointing to the booklet.
"Look, elder sister, those booklets record what happened after Wan Cheng became the Third Prince's study companion. There is a record every three days, and if something more important happened that day, it is recorded in more detail."
Si Muyan picked up a book and flipped through it, finding that two pages were folded over and marked.
"Did you make this mark?"
The second sister nodded: "Yes, you can clearly feel that Wan Cheng's mentality is not right from these two pages of records. One page says that they went to a courtyard and looked at the sauerkraut vat in the courtyard."
“Something’s wrong with the sauerkraut jars.” Si Muyan turned to that page, looked at it carefully, and nodded, saying, “There must be something wrong with these sauerkraut jars.”
The second sister pointed to another book: "There's another one. I also folded a page of it. It describes the hillside behind the royal estate. Although it doesn't specify what happened, he vomited several times after he went there."
If it were a common illness, vomiting would be nothing more than a passing mention, but that page seemed to have been written for a long time, with traces of paper that had been soaked and then wiped dry, like tears.
Si Muyan nodded slowly.
The second sister continued, "There are three other places that don't quite match up either. After looking at them carefully, I think they must have been recorded after the Third Prince led them to torture and kill animals. Wan Cheng's state of mind was also different each time, from fear and panic to helplessness to unease."
Si Muyan glanced through it, closed the booklet, and asked, "What do you plan to do now?"
"Tomorrow is the last day." The second sister took a deep breath. "It's impossible for me to find out on my own. I plan to go to Prince Ning first thing tomorrow morning."
Si Muyan nodded: "I just don't know where Prince Ning will be tomorrow."
The second sister hurriedly said, "I met Feng Zizhou yesterday. He said that Prince Ning goes to the Dali Temple every morning before going out to investigate cases."
She didn't know what the Prince of Ning had found out, and guessed there wasn't much progress. There were Consort Xin's people in the palace; if anything had happened, they would have been dealt with long ago.
Even if tomorrow passes, it's still just the best I can do.
"If I hadn't been injured in the back and had gone to recuperate, I might have found out about these things much earlier." The second sister sighed softly, tidied up the booklet, and put it away close to her body.
As luck would have it, the second prince came to visit early the next morning.
Si Xingzhi had met the Second Prince, but the Second Prince said he remembered that the three young ladies were frightened at the hunting grounds and wanted to see them.
Upon hearing this, the second sister was at her wits' end and said to Si Muyan, "Eldest sister, just say that I have something to do today and it's inconvenient for me. If I'm delayed, I might miss seeing Prince Ning."
"Okay, go ahead."
Upon meeting the Second Prince, Si Muyan and her younger sister exchanged greetings.
"Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to visit us, Your Highness. We sisters are both fine now."
The second prince looked over expectantly, but only saw two young women; the girl he longed for was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh, is the Second Miss still injured? Hasn't she arrived yet?"
The younger sister replied, "Your Highness, my second sister has gone out today on some business."
The Second Prince frowned: "What is the Second Miss going out for?"
The younger sister paused for a moment, then did not answer.
Just then, the doorman announced, "Miss Du has arrived."
Originally, when the Second Prince visited, the head of the household should have received him, or at most the mistress of the household should have joined in. The young ladies of the household did not need to show up.
Upon hearing that her best friend had arrived, Si Muyan and her younger sister bowed and withdrew.
They had just come out of the main hall when they saw the Second Prince come out right behind them, hurrying away.
The younger sister was quite surprised: "The Second Prince came all the way here to pay a visit, but no one came looking for him. Where is he going in such a hurry?"
Si Muyan frowned slightly, also finding the Second Prince's behavior very strange.
She said, "When the three of us are not together, outsiders always have to try to figure it out, and they might not even be able to tell who it is. But today, when the Second Prince came, before we could even introduce ourselves, he knew that Second Sister wasn't here..."
The younger sister also realized, "That's right, logically speaking, the Second Prince has only seen us a few times, so how can he tell us apart so clearly?"
The three sisters look quite similar, yet they are also different. When they stand together, they can be recognized at a glance, but if they are separated, unless they are close friends or family, who can recognize them at a glance?
"Did the Second Prince come here today specifically to see my second sister?"