Chapter 299 Rules of Freedom

"It seems that this guy knows very well why Hou San died."

Li Xuan was on the roof, observing Zhao Si, who was trembling in his bed through the "skylight" he opened.

"And this matter must have something to do with him."

"Otherwise, why would he be so scared?"

Zhao Si is hiding at home now, and he is still so scared. I guess he knows in his heart that he will be the next one.

Li Xuan looked up at the Zhao Mansion.

The defense of the Zhao Mansion is still very strict, and guards can be seen patrolling everywhere.

It would be difficult for the murderer to break into the Zhao Mansion and take Zhao Si's life.

"If Zhao Si had been hiding at home, it would be difficult for the murderer to succeed."

Li Xuan stayed on the roof for a while, but did not find anything more.

Zhao Si was determined to hide in his bed.

Seeing that he was so scared, he must have really felt that there was a female ghost asking for his life.

Li Xuan felt a little bored, shook his head and left the Zhao Mansion.

He no longer cared whether Zhao Si was dead or alive.

If you don't do something wrong, you won't be afraid of ghosts knocking on your door.

Even if Zhao Si really died, he should have deserved to die.

Li Xuan was now more curious about whether Princess Ankang had found anything.

When Li Xuan climbed over the wall of Zhao's house, Xu Lang also slowly walked out from the shadows.

He half-knelt in front of Li Xuan, and Li Xuan jumped directly on his shoulder without any courtesy.

"Master Xuan, shall we go to meet the young lady now?"

Xu Lang asked Li Xuan.

Li Xuan nodded. This Xu Lang was very perceptive, which saved him the effort of writing.

When Li Xuan and Xu Lang returned to Hu Yulou, it was almost noon.

Because of the incidents last night, Hu Yulou was particularly deserted during the day.

During the day, Hu Yulou was also open, but it was far less lively than at night.

Moreover, the performances during the day were more fresh and refined, not as exciting and hot as at night.

Li Xuan and Xu Lang returned to the private room on the second floor and found that no one was there yet.

Princess Ankang and Princess Yuan'an had not returned yet.

Li Xuan sat at the table, while Xu Lang stood aside.

On the table were tea and snacks that Hu Yulou's waiter had just brought up.

Li Xuan looked at the hall on the first floor with boredom.

There were only performances of singing and music on the stage, and there were only one or two tables of guests, which was very deserted.

Last night's bustle was like a dream, which made people feel unreal.

Li Xuan looked upstairs.

The stairs from the third floor to the fourth floor had been blocked, and there was a wooden sign that read "under repair".

There were two people guarding the wooden sign, who did not look like Hu Yulou's thugs, but should be the servants of the Hou family.

Li Xuan remembered that Hu Yulou's mother Zhou was under house arrest in the boudoir on the fifth floor.

"I don't know if Mother Zhou has discovered that her belongings are gone."

Mother Zhou had previously hidden her belongings under her pillow, which she was going to take with her when she ran away. Last night, Li Xuan conveniently put them into the Emperor Hong bone ring.

After all, this is Mother Zhou's territory. Li Xuan estimated that if she wanted to run away, there must be a way.

But if she found out that her belongings were gone before she ran away, I don't know if she would just get away.

Li Xuan said hello to Xu Lang, then quietly went out of the window of the private room and climbed upstairs.

Xu Lang saw Li Xuan going upstairs, but he just pretended not to see it. He stood by with his back straight like a spear, and even if there was no one, he still maintained a professional attitude.

Li Xuan climbed to the fifth floor easily, but before he got close to the window, he heard a rummaging sound.

He grabbed the window with his claws, and then looked inside through the gap. Sure enough, he saw Mother Zhou rummaging around in the house.

The originally tidy room was now in a mess, with all kinds of things scattered on the ground.

Mother Zhou's hair and clothes were also in disarray, her eyes were bloodshot, and her expression was haggard.

"Where are the things, where are the things..."

Mother Zhou muttered in her mind, her eyes full of panic.

She clearly remembered that she packed up all her belongings last night, put them in a small wooden box that only she could open, and then hid them under her pillow.

Mother Zhou wanted to get away last night, but found that the small wooden box under her pillow was missing.

Later, the Hou family put her under house arrest, which made it convenient for her to find her belongings, but until now, she has searched the house and found nothing.

"Are you thieves?"

"How could there be such a coincidence..."

"Is it really haunted!"

Mother Zhou sat on the chair suspiciously, biting her nails uncontrollably, and looked very nervous.

"Impossible, impossible..."

"If there is really a ghost, how could the business on this flower street be so successful now!"

"Someone must be playing tricks in secret, it must be like this."

Mother Zhou sat for a while, then stood up again and turned around in the room anxiously.

Now Hou San is dead, Ayimu is still missing, and she herself has been placed under house arrest by the Hou family.

If this continues, her best outcome will be bankruptcy and then returning to her old business.

When she is sold to pay off her debts, her second half of life will be completely over.

Obviously, Mother Zhou is not someone who will sit and wait for death.

Mother Zhou climbed onto her bed, and then pressed on her bed board, and after a while, there was a sound of a mechanism.

"Meow, there really is a back-up plan."

Li Xuan, who was peeking out the window, saw this scene and couldn't help but say in his heart.

The mechanism under Mother Zhou's bed is very delicate. As the mechanism sounded, a passage appeared under her bed board, and it was pitch black and no one knew where it led to.

And the magical thing is that Li Xuan can still see the space under her bed clearly, and there is no change.

"It actually uses visual and spatial illusions. The craftsmanship is very good."

Li Xuan exclaimed.

Mother Zhou carefully put her lower body into the passage.

This passage should be like a slide, and you can slide down.

Mother Zhou supported the passage with both hands, and seemed a little hesitant.

I'm afraid she still couldn't bear to part with her belongings.

But now the bow is on the string, and it has to be shot.

Finally, Mother Zhou gritted her teeth, let go of her supporting hands, and slid into the passage with a whoosh.

Li Xuan quickly climbed into the window, and then leaned over to the side of the passage to look inside.

Mother Zhou could no longer be seen in the dark passage, but the sound of clothes rubbing against the slide could still be vaguely heard.

"This mother Zhou is really good at playing."

Li Xuan was hesitating at the entrance of the passage whether to slide down with him, but as soon as he put his head close to the passage, he couldn't help frowning.

"This smell..."

Li Xuan moved his nose and immediately took two steps back in fright.

At this moment, the passage began to slowly close, and the sound of the mechanism sounded automatically.

But at the last moment when the passage was closed, Li Xuan clearly heard a scream coming from inside the passage.

And the owner of that voice was exactly Zhou's mother.

"Ah this..."

As a trace of burnt smell entered his nose, Li Xuan believed that Zhou's mother was probably in danger now.

"Did they prepare in this secret passage a long time ago?"

Li Xuan felt a little scared. He didn't expect that the murderer was so well prepared that Zhou's mother fell into the trap.

If he hadn't smelled the familiar smell at the entrance of the passage just now, he would have been unlucky with Zhou's mother.

Li Xuan looked at the closed passage and shook his head immediately.

"No, we can't chase from here."

He leaned over the closed passage and sniffed hard with his nose. After locking the smell, he immediately climbed out of the window and looked for the smell.

When he got outside, the smell became much more blurred, but Li Xuan found that the burnt smell was becoming clearer and clearer.

"It's downstairs."

Li Xuan came to the window on the first floor, and then, like a hound, he followed the smell and came to Hu Yulou's backyard.

It was his first time to step into this place, and he found that Hu Yulou's backyard was not small.

There were many low bungalows surrounding the backyard, which seemed to be able to accommodate many people.

The kitchen, carriages and warehouses were also arranged here, which really occupied a large area.

It seems that Hu Yulou's real estate alone is probably a considerable fortune.

Li Xuan followed the smell and came to the warehouse, and found that the smell came from under the warehouse.

He searched in the warehouse for a long time, and then found a hidden cellar entrance through the direction of the smell.

It happened that there was no one in the warehouse now, so Li Xuan opened the entrance to the cellar directly.

Although it was pitch black inside, it was not difficult for Li Xuan.

His pair of green cat eyes could see things clearly in this environment.

Li Xuan came to the deepest part of the cellar. He found that the smell of burning was coming from the corner of the wall, but there was no way in front of him.

"Hey, the smell is coming from behind this wall."

"There must be a mechanism."

Li Xuan searched on the wall and knocked for a while.

He found that the sound in the corner of the wall was a little wrong. He pressed hard a few times, and the wall suddenly sank inward, and then turned, revealing a narrow passage.

As the passage was opened, Li Xuan's vision suddenly brightened, and the smell of burning filled his nose.

In the dark secret room, a corpse was burning fiercely. The green fire on the corpse was the green fire from last night. As the green fire burned, the smell of stinky garlic filled his nose.

Li Xuan knew that the smell was poisonous, but it had no effect on him.

Judging from the body shape and the clothes on her body that had not been burnt, this was undoubtedly Mother Zhou.

Li Xuan sighed. It was estimated that Mother Zhou never thought that she had jumped into the fire pit herself.

"It's burnt like this, there's no hope."

Li Xuan walked around Mother Zhou's body and went to the exit of the passage to check.

Earlier, Mother Zhou had slid from the boudoir on the fifth floor to the secret room in the cellar along this path.

Li Xuan sniffed it, and then gently touched the slide in the passage with his claws.

As a result, he touched some sticky liquid.

Li Xuan looked at the liquid on his claws carefully, sniffed it a few more times, and understood what it was.

"Just because of this thing, this place has become a slide that can't be touched?"

Li Xuan shook his head and sighed, and quickly shook off the mucus on his claws.

He didn't want to set himself on fire because of his curiosity.

Then, Li Xuan walked around the secret room in the cellar again. Because Mother Zhou was turning her body into a raging fire, the secret room was very bright.

There were some clothes and props for disguise in the secret room, and there was also a wooden box for storing loose silver, roughly estimated to be about 100 taels.

These 100 taels of silver ranged from silver ingots to loose silver, which should be very convenient to use in the market.

I think it was the money that Zhou's mother had prepared for her to escape all year round.

Li Xuan put it into the Emperor Hong bone ring without hesitation.

Then, there was nothing else in the secret room.

In the secret room, there were only clothes and money for escape, but no documents as Li Xuan expected.

After all, this was a cellar, and the dark and humid environment was not conducive to storing those things.

Li Xuan was still very sorry for Zhou's mother's death. He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask Zhou's mother, but now it seemed that there was no hope.

Li Xuan looked back at the burning body, then walked out of the secret room silently, closed the mechanism in the corner again, and restored it to its original state.

Zhou's mother's death was not worthless.

At least, Li Xuan felt that if the news of Zhou's mother's disappearance spread, the murderer would definitely come to take a look.

The murderer would definitely want to appreciate his carefully crafted masterpiece.

Thinking of this, Li Xuan had already left the cellar and quietly returned to Hu Yulou.

With his identity as a kitten, he returned to the private room on the second floor without disturbing anyone.

When he came back, he found that Princess Ankang and Princess Yuan'an had returned.

The two princesses were huddled together, whispering quietly, and no one knew what they were discussing.

But seeing their sneaky appearance, Li Xuan couldn't help but laugh.

"This detective game makes them more and more into the game."

Li Xuan suddenly jumped onto the table, scaring the two of them.

"Ah Xuan, you didn't even make a sound when you came back."

Princess Ankang complained, patted her chest, and then naturally hugged Li Xuan into her arms.

Princess Yuan An, who was standing by, suddenly blushed and looked very nervous, staring at Li Xuan.

"Ah Xuan, you were so close to me just now."

"I can smell his burnt and smelly body fragrance."

"As expected of the little cat I like, the smell on his body is so different."

Princess Yuan An hugged her flushed face with an obsessed look.

Li Xuan and Princess Ankang were no longer surprised, and just pretended not to see Princess Yuan An's current appearance.

"Hmm."

Princess Ankang coughed dryly, awakening Princess Yuan An.

"Sister, let's continue talking about the case at hand."

"Uh, okay, okay, sister."

Princess Yuan An suddenly realized and put away her stupidity.

She cleared her throat and said:

"Sister, I have inquired."

"There have always been rumors of ghosts on Huajie, but they have been particularly severe in recent days."

"It's all because a girl died miserably last month, and people said she came to seek revenge."

"Plus, there have been strange things happening recently, and this matter has become more and more true."

It's true that Princess Yuanan actually found out about the ghosts during her morning outing.

It can be seen that this guy is not completely incapable of investigating cases, but he just didn't pay attention to it before.

Now that she herself has become curious, the efficiency of the investigation has increased a lot.

After hearing what Princess Yuanan said, Princess Ankang also looked solemn.

"Sister, did you find out the name of the dead girl?"

Li Xuan and Princess Ankang both had an expected answer in their hearts, and they now need to compare with Princess Yuanan.

Princess Yuan An shook her head:

"Sister, I have asked about this matter, but I have not been able to get a definite answer."

"I heard that the girl who died was not famous. She was just an ordinary girl in the red-light district, not an oiran or anything like that."

Hearing this, Li Xuan and Princess Ankang could not help but look a little disappointed.

But then Princess Yuanan changed the subject and lowered her voice to say to them:

"But I have found out one thing clearly."

"The dead girl was in Hu Yulou before she died."

"But when I asked the people in Hu Yulou, they all hesitated and refused to elaborate. I guess it was because Mother Zhou did not allow them to talk about it."

After hearing this, Li Xuan could not help but sigh.

In this case, the death of Mother Zhou might be inevitable.

"Sister, if I am right, the dead girl is most likely called Xixi."

Princess Ankang said with a complicated expression.

She had previously learned from Li Xuan what Huihui said about the other doctor and Xixi.

Princess Ankang still had a good impression of people who could save stray cats.

She felt that at least they should be kind people.

Huihui said that Xixi had not visited him for more than a month.

Although Princess Ankang had some psychological preparation, she still felt a little uncomfortable.

Especially when many clues brought by Princess Yuanan can match theirs.

Then, Princess Ankang also told Princess Yuanan the news they had previously inquired from Doctor Fang.

After listening, Princess Yuanan said without thinking:

"The murderer is most likely Doctor Fang."

Li Xuan and Princess Ankang could not help but remain silent, because they also guessed so.

"But we don't have evidence now, it's all just personal conviction."

Princess Ankang said.

Unexpectedly, Princess Yuanan shook her head:

"I'm afraid my sister doesn't know, this time the person who died is the son of the Minister of Personnel. If the clues we know are known by the government, they can also arrest him first."

"As for the rest of the evidence, they can naturally pry it out from Doctor Fang."

"By then, even if the murderer is not him, it must be him."

Princess Yuanan said the truth.

"So, before we have a conclusion, the clues in our hands cannot be revealed at will."

Princess Ankang said seriously.

"No one knows about the relationship between Doctor Fang and Xixi, at least that's what I found out earlier."

The relationship between Doctor Fang and Xixi was told to Li Xuan by Huihui.

But apart from Huihui, Princess Ankang didn't know the relationship between the two when she was looking for information on Hua Street.

So it seems that their relationship should be a secret.

After the two princesses finished communicating the clues they had found, Li Xuan also began to share his own clues.

He patted the table with his tail to attract the attention of the two princesses, and then dipped his tail into water and wrote a few words on the table.

"Mother Zhou is dead."

Princess Ankang and Princess Yuan'an were both shocked, but they didn't doubt Li Xuan's words.

"Ah Xuan, when did this happen?"

"Just a while ago, Mother Zhou's body was still burning."

Li Xuan continued to write.

Then, he wrote down what happened before for the two princesses to see.

"This secret passage of Mother Zhou should be her own secret, how did the murderer know it?"

Princess Yuan'an asked curiously.

Mother Zhou wouldn't publicize this kind of secret passage, right?

Even if someone in Hu Yulou knew the location of the secret passage, it should be a confidant of Mother Zhou.

This made Princess Yuan'an begin to waver in her idea that Doctor Fang was the murderer.

Even if Doctor Fang and Hu Yulou's Xixi were close, how could Xixi, an ordinary girl, know Mother Zhou's secret passage?

Mother Zhou's secret passage was obviously tampered with by the murderer, which made her jump into the fire pit and burn to death.

Both princesses fell into deep thought.

At this time, Li Xuan wrote a few more words.

"The murderer may go to check Mother Zhou's body. We have to send someone to watch the cellar, maybe we can run into him."

"Ah Xuan is right!"

Princess Ankang and Princess Yuan'an nodded in agreement.

The two spoke in unison, making them smile at each other.

Then, Princess Ankang looked aside.

"Xu Lang, can you assign someone to watch the cellar and take turns to guard it for twelve hours?"

"Miss, no problem, I'll arrange it right away."

Xu Lang stepped forward and agreed to it.

"If it were me, I would probably want to confirm it if I heard that Mother Zhou was missing."

"The murderer went to such great lengths, I'm afraid it's not just an ordinary grudge."

"Alas--"

Princess Ankang couldn't help but sigh.

The person who was still talking to her in the morning died in less than a day, and the two of them were separated. This feeling made her feel a little unreal.

But now there was no time for Princess Ankang to sigh.

Li Xuan patted the table with his tail again, and then continued to write:

"Zhao Si should know the details, he may be the next target of the murderer."

"We want to know the truth, and he is an important breakthrough."

"If even Zhao Si is dead, I'm afraid only the murderer knows the truth."

Then, Li Xuan simply wrote down what he saw and heard in the Zhao Mansion.

Zhao Si's fearful reaction, anyone can see that there is something wrong.

In addition, Zhao Si and Hou San always have conflicts, and they are mortal enemies.

As the old saying goes, the one who knows you best is your enemy.

"It seems that I have to find a way to meet Zhao Si once."

Princess Ankang pondered.

"Sister, do we need to make our identities clear?"

"Otherwise, I'm afraid the Zhao Mansion will not let us in."

Princess Yuanan said with some concern.

Princess Ankang thought for a while, and then asked:

"Hey, what are the rules for us to go out of the palace to investigate the case this time?"

Princess Yuanan thought for a while, and said uncertainly:

"I remember that General Manager Zhao only emphasized that the process of investigating the case needs to be recorded."

As she said, Princess Yuanan looked up at the two eunuchs who were responsible for recording them.

These two people didn't say a word all day long, and their presence was extremely low.

If they hadn't mentioned this now, they would have almost forgotten that there was such a person following them.

"Besides that, it was emphasized that they had to report to the Ministry of Internal Affairs before leaving the palace, and it seemed that no other rules were mentioned afterwards."

"Huh, it seems that this month's competition is quite free."

Hearing this, Li Xuan also realized that something was wrong.

Their previous competitions had relatively clear rules, but this month's competition seemed to be a bit too free.

And Emperor Yongyuan has always liked to hide little easter eggs in the competition.

Li Xuan estimated that the rules of this month's competition were so free, and it might be Emperor Yongyuan's own intention.

"In this case, it wouldn't be considered a violation of the rules if we made our identities clear to visit Zhao Si, right?"

Princess Ankang said, looking at the two eunuchs in charge of recording.

But the two eunuchs seemed to be unable to hear what she said, and didn't even react at all.

Princess Ankang shrugged to Princess Yuanan and spread her hands:

"It seems there is no problem."

Thanks to the book friends 20230405173851278 and Angel Loves to Laugh for their support.

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I know that the book friends feel sorry for Bai Miao and don't want me to work overtime.

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