Chang'an Xu's hometown

After a long time, the carriage arrived at the cottage in front of the courtyard and stopped there.

As the path leading to the courtyard was impassable, they alighted from their respective carriages.

Afterwards, they walked towards the path leading to the courtyard. On the path, they saw a black kitten running quickly into the grass in front of them.

Just then, they suddenly heard someone crying in a muffled voice.

They were very confused.

Why can I hear people crying here?

They were very scared, so they quickened their pace.

After a while, they passed the path and reached the courtyard.

In front of the courtyard gate, they saw that the person crying was their cousin's personal maid Liu Youxia.

They quickly walked over to her and asked, "What's wrong with her? Why are you here in front of the courtyard gate instead of serving Miss Cousin?"

She was very happy to see the third and fourth young ladies coming.

She wiped her tears and said to them happily: "Ladies, the reason why I am here is that I found that my good friend Xiao Liu is missing. She is also a maid of my cousin like me.

Today she told the slave that she met a woman today who might be her missing sister and she was very happy to meet her.

She and the woman agreed to meet today in the small house in front of the courtyard of the Prime Minister's Mansion.

Afterwards, we went to the market together.

But I waited for her in the market for a long time and she didn't come, so I came here to find her.

It was not found in the hut here in the courtyard.

So I looked for her around the hut, but I couldn't find her anywhere. I only found Xiao Liu's handkerchief in front of the courtyard door.

The gate to the courtyard was locked.

Slaves cannot enter.

I thought she might be inside the courtyard because I heard a miserable sound coming from the courtyard, and it sounded like her voice.

I was so worried about her, but the door was locked and I didn't have the key to open it.

I am too worried.

These days, I heard other colleagues say that many servants have disappeared in the mansion, both men and women, but more of them are female servants.

I was so worried that she might have disappeared like the other female servants. I cried out in worry.

The Third Miss and the others then asked, "When did this happen? How could a servant in the mansion go missing? Does the housekeeper know about this?"

She replied respectfully, "Miss, the butler doesn't know. The other servants who knew about this matter were afraid of being punished by the butler, so they didn't dare to report it."

The ladies were very surprised to hear her, so they asked their personal maids to find the butler. After a while, the butler came here. He had the key to open the courtyard gate in his hand, and he inserted the key into the keyhole.

With a bang, the door opened.

Then, they entered the courtyard together.

They could smell a strong smell of blood before they reached the center of the courtyard. They walked to the center of the courtyard and looked up, and saw a woman hanging on the largest persimmon tree in the courtyard.

The woman was wearing a green dress and was soaked, with blood dripping from her head.

The ladies all opened their eyes wide in surprise.

At this moment, Liu Youxia suddenly grabbed her hair tightly with her hands and held her head and cried.

Her body was shaking and she collapsed.

She saw that the woman in a green dress, who was hanging on the persimmon tree with blood dripping from her head and her body soaking wet, looked exactly like the Xiao Liu she had been looking for. She thought she might be Xiao Liu.

The third young lady and the others asked, "What happened here? Why is there a woman hanging on a tree? Blood is still dripping from her head.

The third young lady said to the housekeeper anxiously, "Quickly find a ladder and find a way to lower her down from the tree to see if she is still breathing or dead.

The butler replied respectfully to the Third Miss: "Okay, Third Miss. The ladder is in the utility room in the courtyard.

I'll get it right away, he said, and walked towards the storage room.

A moment later, the butler came back with a ladder. He leaned the ladder against the tree, climbed up the ladder, and lowered the woman hanging from the persimmon tree.

He put his hand close to her nose and found that she had stopped breathing.

Then he told the three girls that she was not breathing - she was dead.

The third young lady and her friends were extremely surprised to hear what the housekeeper said.

They thought that no one had ever died in the Prime Minister's Mansion, but someone was killed. This matter was very serious, and they had to tell their father, the Prime Minister, and ask him to find someone to investigate what happened here.

At this moment, Liu Youxia couldn't bear the housekeeper's words and fainted.