Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The bamboo forest was on a small hill to the west of Chang’an, with a dilapidated thatched cottage beside it.
‘When Qiao Jinniang arrived, she saw that the thatched cottage was full of dust. It turned out that the old groom who buried the baby had died more than ten years ago.
There were very few villagers here, and after inquiring about it, she finally found the place where the child was buried.
Qiao Jinniang saw a small raised mound, and on top of the small mound, there was a trumpet creeper.
Nuomi handed her the prepared joss sticks.
Qiao Jinniang took the joss sticks and bowed to the small grave.
“Sister, if you can hear me in the underworld, I think you can understand, right? After all, you don’t want to see someone using your name for evil deeds, right? Although I have to dig your bones out of your grave for an investigation, I will properly re-bury your bones, give you a good funeral and make you a
memorial tablet.”
After Qiao Jinniang offered the joss sticks, the lean coroner said to her, “County Mistress, please go to the side in case the bones scare you.”
Qiao Jinniang said, “No matter what, she is my younger sister. I don’t need to shy away from it.”
‘When the secret guard dug out the corpse, there was still a layer of rotten swaddle on it, but the phoenix embroidered with gold thread on the swaddle could still be vaguely seen.
The coroner opened the swaddle, revealing the white rotten bones inside.
When Qiao Jinniang sawit, she asked coroner, ‘Master Coroner, do you think this corpse is a half-year-old child, or a child only one month old?”
The coroner said, “Judging from the size of the corpse, it is a baby about one month old. A half-year-old child should have already had deciduous teeth, so this corpse is a child only one month old.”
Qiao Jinniang felt unspeakable sadness. Her guess was right!
It wasn’t Mrs. Zheng’s daughter who died, but her biological sister!
The girl of the twins!
How dare the Zheng family swap the children so boldly?
And her mother didn’t even find out that neither of her daughters were her real daughters?!
Qiao Jinniang asked again, “Can you see the cause of this child’s death?”
She didnt think that the Zheng family would deliberately murder her sister so as to swap her with their own daughter.
After all, although the Zheng family had gradually declined at that time, they still had the title of a duke, so there was no need for them to take such a risk.
The coroner checked the little skeleton carefully, and when he saw the broken bones in the back of the body, he said, “It seems that this child was killed by a fall.”
Qiao Jinniang gave the coroner a silver note and said, “Please help me put the corpse in the coffin and find a temple to store the corpse.”
“County Mistress, you can rest assured. I will definitely handle this matter with care.”
Qiao Jinniang said, “I hope you keep this matter a secret, and don’t reveal it to anyone.”
This is a family scandal. No matter how bold Qiao Jinniang was, she dared not to publicize this matter, disregarding the opinions of her elders.
Besides, her conjecture was really unbelievable, and it was not easy to make the Zheng family confess guilt just with a corpse.
Back at the Duke Mansion, Qiao Jinniang went to her grandmother’s courtyard.
Qiao Ruofeng was about to get married, so she had been staying with Old Madam Qiao recently. After the matter of Prince Mediocre, she seemed to have grown up overnight.
Seeing Jinniang, Old Madam Qiao said, ‘Jinniang, we are talking about the matter of the Guest Welcoming Building. I heard from maids that this matter was discovered by your Tasty Pavilion?”
Qiao Jinniang nodded and said, “Yes, our Chef Yang has seen Minanghua Fruit before. The business of Guest Welcoming Building suddenly becomes so weirdly booming, so I guessed there must be a reason.”
After Old Madam Qiao asked Qiao Ruofeng to leave, she said to Qiao Jinniang,
“Actually, Minanghua Fruits appeared in Chang’an a long time ago.
“The Empress Dowager has had a different taste from ordinary people since she was a child, and she is very picky about food.
“Her husband, the last emperor, once invited chefs from all over the country and held a culinary competition in Chang’an for her.
“However, she lost her sense of taste after she was out of favor with her husband.
“After His Majesty ascended the throne, the Empress Dowager wasted away day by day.
“His Majesty is quite filial, and he had also invited chefs all over the country, but no chef could satisfy the Empress Dowager.
“Then a chef who came from the Southwest appeared, who is the father of that Concubine Li from Earl Cheng’en Mansion.
“The Empress Dowager then conferred on him the surname Li and only loved to eat the dishes he made. The status of Chef Li became unparalleled. ”
Old Madam Qiao took a sip of water and continued. “That day, on the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet, I found the Minanghua Fruit.
“When I was young, I lived in the Southwest with your grandfather for a period of time, so I knew Minanghua Fruit. I reminded the Empress Dowager but it tuned out that she knew about it all along.”
“Tam afraid that the Guest Welcoming Building will not be punished this time. In the end, His Majesty won’t do anything to them for the sake of the Empress Dowager. So, don’t dig any deeper into the matter, OK?”
Qiao Jinniang said, “But the Empress Dowager seems quite healthy? She doesn’t look like she is addicted to Minanghua Fruit at all.”
Old Madam Qiao said, “Carefully control the amount and you won’t become addicted to Minanghua Fruit.”
Qiao Jinniang sat beside Old Madam Qiao and said, “The matter of the Guest Welcoming Building will be handled by the Ministry of Public Security. I am not afraid that the Guest Welcoming Building will steal away my restaurant’s business, so I won’t bother with them.
“But there is something that I have to get to the bottom of.”
Old Madam Qiao asked with a little doubt, “What is it?”
Qiao Jinniang said firmly, ‘I’m sure Qiao Ruoshui is not my mother’s biological child, but Mrs. Zheng’s daughter.
“And the girl of the twins, my own sister, has long since died.”
Old Madam Qiao slapped the Buddha beads on the table angrily. ‘Jinniang, even if Ruoshui is not on good terms with you, you shouldn’t say that she is not your mother’s daughter.”
Qiao Jinniang said, “If Concubine Qian hadnt spoken out that Ruoyun was not Mother’s daughter, would you believe that a merchant girl in the small town of Lin‘an is your own granddaughter?
“Grandma, if you think I slander Qiao Ruoshui because I’m at odds with her, then I have nothing to say.
“But then I will have to report this matter to the Ministry of Public Security to seek justice for my dead sister. ”
Old Madam Qiao looked at the frank eyes of Qiao Jinniang and said, “But Ruoshui looks so much like you. How much alike are you two!”
Qiao Jinniang said, “Earl Zheng and Mother look very much alike too. If she is Earl Zheng’s daughter, we are cousins. Many cousins look alike.”
“Besides, Grandmother, why does Brother not look like Qiao Ruoshui at all? They are twins!”
Old Madam Qiao really didn’t want to believe it. None of the two daughters of Duke Anyuan was their own flesh and blood?
The matter concerning Qiao Ruoyun had already been secretly laughed at by everyone in Chang’an, and if this happened again, the Qiao family would definitely become a joke in Chang’an.
Qiao Jinniang told Old Madam Qiao about the corpse she saw today.
“Grandma, although only a corpse can’t be the ironclad proof, there must be something unusual about that matter.
After all, the corpse is a one-month-old child but the Zheng family’s daughter was already half a year old when she ‘died’. I’m sure we can find many clues.”
“A normal child would already have deciduous teeth when he is half a year old, can walk at one year old, and can speak at two years old..”
Old Madam Qiao said helplessly, “At that time, your mother gave birth to the twins at the Zheng family. When she gave birth to your brother, she had metrorrhagia. She didn’t wake up until a month later, and the imperial physician said she’d better not move and better recuperate where she was.
I went to the Zheng family to visit your mother and your brother, and their lives were hanging by a thread.
Iwas so worried about them that I didn’t pay much attention to the baby girl.
By the time your mother came back with your brother, the twins were already a year old.
At that time, Ruoshui was stronger than your brother and spoke earlier…
But I just thought that it was because your brother almost died when he was born. *
When I look back on this matter now, there were really a lot of strange things about it..
