Dad, open the door. I'll bring your mistress back for you.

"Ah——" Fuzi's scream came from the servant's room.

"problem occurs."

"problem occurs."

Shen Jingwan and Xiangxue spoke at the same time, looked at each other, and hurried out.

The courtyard in Ganhua Hutong was not big to begin with. When the two men went out, they saw that the door of the servants' quarters was wide open. Fuzi was slumped down at the door, her body trembling. The candlesticks were scattered on the ground, and the wax was flowing down the steps. The moonlight cast a pale shadow on Fuzi's body.

Shen Jingwan and Xiangxue walked to the door of the servants' room and picked up the candlestick on the ground. Shen Jingwan wanted to help Fuzi, who was sitting on the ground, but she was lying on the ground and could not be pulled up.

"The...Miss...is dead...dead." Shen Jingwan rolled her eyes and muttered in her heart, "The young lady is dead, so you are dead, and your whole family is dead."

Shen Jingwan took the candlestick and looked into the room in the light of the candle. Just one glance almost gave her a heart attack.

A pair of legs were spinning in the air in the room. Shen Jingwan raised the candlestick above her head and realized that it was Mrs. Liu who had hung it on the beam with a rope.

Xiangxue was also frightened when she saw this scene. She screamed and backed away repeatedly until her back hit the wall.

Shen Jingwan pretended to be calm, but her body couldn't stop shaking, and her voice trembled as she said, "Fuzi, go report to the police."

When Fuzi heard this, his face turned pale as paper, his hands trembled, and he staggered to his feet. Just as he was about to walk out, he was stopped by Xiangxue.

"You can't go to the police!" Xiangxue shouted, her voice piercing. "No matter what the reason is, if you go to the police and beat the drum to complain, you will be beaten with ten sticks first. Will you go, me, or Fuzi?"

Her eyes swept coldly between the two of them, finally stopping at Fuzi.

Fuzi was so frightened that his face turned pale and he kept shaking his head until his head almost left a shadow.

"Besides, what master would report to the police just because of the death of a servant? She committed suicide out of shame for not doing what I asked her to do. Even if she hadn't died, I would have punished her severely. Now that it's all over, she'll be spared the punishment." Xiangxue's tone was cold and ruthless, as if human life was worthless in her eyes.

Shen Jingwan took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.

She was indeed frightened just now. For a moment she even forgot that she was in ancient times and wanted to use the thinking mode of her previous life to solve the problem.

She realized that here, servants were like objects, their lives and deaths controlled by their masters, and it was almost impossible to rely on their masters to report the case.

She turned to look at Xiangxue, her eyes full of helplessness and confusion: "Mom, what should we do?"

Xiangxue frowned, thought for a moment, and then said, "Let's put her down first. We'll find someone to throw her body into the mass grave tomorrow morning."

Shen Jingwan nodded. She reached out and tried to hold Liu Pozi's legs and put her down.

However, she found that Liu Pozi's body was stiff and difficult to move.

Seeing this, Fuzi hurried over to help, but she still couldn't control the trembling all over her body.

Xiangxue looked at the two of them and shook her head helplessly, "Neither of you has a complete brain."

As she spoke, she took out a pair of scissors from the basket on the table, stepped on a stool and cut the rope that was hanging Liu Pozi.

Shen Jingwan and Fu Zi put Liu Pozi on the ground. From the moment she entered the door, Shen Jingwan felt that something was wrong, so she held up a candle and began to examine it carefully.

"Mom, Mrs. Liu didn't commit suicide." Shen Jingwan suddenly stood up straight and said.

Xiangxue rubbed her arms with her hands and said, "Don't scare me, this guy is hanging from the beam. How could he not commit suicide?"

Shen Jingwan placed the candlestick next to Mrs. Liu's face and pointed at the strangulation mark on her neck. "Mother, look at this. If she died by hanging, this red mark should be pointing upwards. But you see, this red mark is slightly upwards, almost horizontally pointing backwards. This means that she was strangled from behind by someone slightly taller than her, and then hung from the beam."

After seeing the strangle marks on Granny Liu's neck, Xiangxue quickly stepped back and stood with Fuzi. "You must have seen it wrong. Granny Liu usually doesn't go out except to buy groceries. How could she have made any enemies? It's impossible."

"I remember something was wrong." Shen Jingwan suddenly said in surprise.

Xiangxue was so frightened that she trembled. "If you have something to say, please talk to me nicely. Don't be so alarmed. If you scare me, I'll kill you."

"The ground was empty when we came in. Normally, people who commit suicide by hanging should first step on a stool, and then kick the stool after the rope is put around their neck, waiting for death. But when we came in, there were no fallen stools around Mrs. Liu."

"How could the murderer be so stupid as to pretend to be Mrs. Liu and commit suicide, leaving such a big flaw for himself. Maybe Mrs. Liu can fly." Xiangxue said cautiously, although she didn't even believe it herself.

"Mother, is it possible that this was a flaw left intentionally by the murderer, and that killing Granny Liu was also a warning to us?"

Xiangxue now clearly thought of the note that Fuzi had just brought back.

"It's the Shen Mansion." Xiangxue said gritting her teeth.

"Mom, let's run." Shen Jingwan dragged Xiangxue back to the main room and began to pack up. "Your life is at stake. If we don't run now, it might be too late."

Xiangxue grabbed Shen Jingwan who was packing her luggage and said, "Why are you in such a hurry? If you run away now, it will be just what they want."

Shen Jingwan pulled her arm out of Xiangxue's hand. "Oh my god, how can I not be anxious? Someone can sneak into our yard and kill people without making any noise. If we don't run away, I'm afraid that it will be us, mother and daughter, hanging from the beam tomorrow."

Xiangxue stretched out her finger and poked Shen Jingwan's forehead, "Look at your achievements."

She was no longer anxious. Instead, she sat down and said, "If the people from the Shen Mansion wanted to kill us, they would have killed us today when they killed Mrs. Liu. Why wait until tomorrow? Since they didn't attack us today, it means that we are still useful to them. Now they just want to scare us and keep us in peace."

Xiangxue looked around the dilapidated, secluded room and said, "There are only four of us in this courtyard, and we don't even have a guard. It's not surprising if someone comes in and kills someone. I've had enough of this shabby place. Tomorrow morning, I'll take you to a courtyard with guards."

Shen Jingwan touched Xiangxue's forehead with the back of her hand, "Mom, are you scared out of your wits? Who would let us live in a courtyard with guards? Or are you going to take me to live in the prison? The prison has guards, and it's not easy for someone to enter and kill people."

Xiangxue glanced at Shen Jingwan with disdain. "You only care about the government prison. Let's go back to the Shen Mansion. You said you would marry me when you gave birth to a son. Now your father won't even come. How can I give birth to a son alone? Now, even if it means being a concubine, I want to enter the Shen Mansion. I don't want to live in fear anymore."

Shen Jingwan smacked her lips. It was not that she wanted to discourage her mother. If the Shen family really wanted her mother to marry into the mansion, she would have done so long ago. She was almost eleven years old, and her mother was still just a shameful concubine. She had been living on the promise of giving birth to a son for more than ten years. She didn't know how long she would continue to deceive herself.

"Mom, why don't we not go back to the Shen Mansion? We can live far away from the capital."