However, this time, to everyone’s surprise, Emperor Wen Hui did not give any orders to catch the murderers, nor did he offer a reward for people who caught the murderers. He only instructed the officials to investigate this matter and hand it over to the capital magistrate. The capital magistrate could handle the civil matters. but a tough case like this was simply too much for the magistrate to handle. Emperor Wen Hui obviously did not want to waste too much time on this murder case. Some smart people could tell that Prince Yu must have done something to make Emperor Wen Hui angry. Otherwise, why would Emperor Wen Hui be so indifferent this time? Perhaps Emperor Wen Hui was happy that the murderer helped him get rid of a problem.
However, speculation was speculation, and rumors were rumors. There were many rumors, some of which deviated from the truth, and some were infinitely close to the truth.
In the massacre, one person survived. This person was none other than Prince Yu’s new wife, Shen Qing. The old watchman was the first to notice that something was wrong with Prince Yu’s mansion. At that time, there were still many people on the street. Those who had guts rushed into Prince Yu’s mansion together. As for what they saw, just by listening to their descriptions was enough to send shudders down one’s spine.
According to the first batch of people who went in, the entire mansion was filled with frozen corpses and blood. The blood flowed all over the courtyard and was quickly frozen, making the entire ground look like a red glacier. The corpses were all covered in a thick layer of snow and were hard like sculptures.
Everywhere they went, it reeked of death and there was no sign of survivors.
Prince Yu’s corpse was in his bedroom. There was a knife wound on his chest, and there were two dead maids beside him. Shen Qing was unconscious at the door of the bedroom where there was gold and silver scattered all over the ground. At first, people thought that she was dead too, but when they kicked her, she suddenly woke up. Therefore, Shen Qing became the only person in Prince Yu’s mansion who survived.
To Shen Qing, this might be a good thing, but she was plagued by a horrible feeling. The entire Prince Yu’s mansion was wiped out, but why was she unscathed? If it was because Shen Qing was innocent and had nothing to do with Prince Yu, shouldn’t they also let the servants and guards live too? Clearly, the murderers weren’t a soft-hearted bunch. Moreover, beside Shen Qing, there was gold and silver jewelry, indicating that she was trying to escape.
Most importantly, apart from the knife wound on Prince Yu’s chest, there were also some wounds dealt by a woman’s hairpin on his neck. Shen Qing, who had just married Prince Yu, naturally became the most likely suspect.
Much evidence was pointing at the fact that Shen Qing had something to do with it. Shen Qing couldn’t possibly explain herself no matter how hard she tried. Everyone in Prince Yu’s mansion was dead, but why was she still alive?
The people from the capital magistrate’s court naturally wanted to capture Shen Qing and interrogate her. No matter if Shen Qing was related to this matter or not, she was the only survivor and witness. If they wanted to get to the bottom of it or just put on a show to let the citizens know that they were doing their job, they wouldn’t let Shen Qing off easily.
When the Shen family received this news, the officials had already arrived at Prince Yu’s mansion to arrest Shen Qing. When Ren Wanyun found out about this, she fainted. On the other hand, Shen Gui and Shen Yuan hurriedly packed up and were about to leave.
“Yuan, where are we going now?” Shen Gui was much more flustrated than his son. He knew that regardless of whether or not Shen Qing was really involved, she would still be punished. Although Emperor Wen Hui did not seem to flare up at this moment, who knew what was really on his mind? If he used this matter to go against the Shen family, they would be in real danger.
Shen Yuan said coldly, “Go to the capital magistrate’s court. It’s too late to go to the prince’s mansion now. The capital magistrate must know a lot of things.” After a pause, he glanced at Shen Gui. “Father, don’t worry. His majesty won’t blame you.”
