Chapter 609 - 611: This time someone really got killed
Once Yu Hongxiu fell asleep, Bai Ruozhu looked apologetically towards Fang Guizhi, and whispered, "I didn’t manage to take care of you just now, and brought you here only to be frightened."
Fang Guizhi quickly shook her head, "The situation was urgent just now. If treating Sister Hongxiu had been delayed because of me, I wouldn’t be able to rest easy for the rest of my life."
Bai Ruozhu patted her shoulder and said, "You help me guard Sister Hongxiu here, I will go out and see whether it was an accident or deliberate." As she spoke, her eyes flashed with determination. She refused to believe that it was just a coincidence that those two bumped into Yu Hongxiu on their way to the restroom.
Fang Guizhi nodded, "Alright, go quickly."
Bai Ruozhu pulled Tu Ying out of the room, and gave her a heartfelt thanks. Tu Ying patted her chest, saying very magnanimously, "This little help? This is something I should do."
Bai Ruozhu couldn’t help but glance at this girl’s chest, she always pats it this way, won’t it flatten out? But looking at her, she realized that probably due to martial training, Tu Ying’s development was quite good.
"Lady Kuai, can you explain what happened? How did you bump into Hongxiu?" The elderly lady in the main hall asked the sobbing Lady Kuai with a stern face.
Lady Kuai gritted her teeth, and with immense pain, knelt down to the elderly lady, crying, "Madam, I really didn’t do it on purpose, it seemed like... it seemed like someone stepped on my dress." As she spoke, she carefully glanced at Lady Wang next to her. Lady Wang’s family held a higher position than Lady Kuai’s, she couldn’t afford to offend Lady Wang, but she also couldn’t afford to offend the elder madam.
Bai Ruozhu pulled Tu Ying into the main hall, and quietly stood on the side to observe the reactions of everyone in the room.
Upon hearing Lady Kuai’s words, Lady Wang hurriedly said, "You mean to say I stepped on you? You can’t just make such accusations because you weren’t careful."
The elderly lady narrowed her eyes, looking at Lady Kuai she said, "You said your dress got stepped on, there should be footprints. We can just check in front of everyone."
Lady Kuai quickly nodded, "Right, I came from the garden where the plum appreciation was held. It was a bit muddy, there must be footprints."
Bai Ruozhu silently nodded. As expected, the old madam was wise, and this Lady Kuai wasn’t a fool either.
A maid immediately stepped forward to lift Lady Kuai’s dress and begin the inspection. Sure enough, there was a large footprint. Lady Wang’s face color changed slightly on the side, but she didn’t seem too flustered.
Lady Kuai let out a sigh of relief, and then said, "When I fell, it seemed that someone also bumped into me from behind. Madam, I don’t want to absolve myself, but I’ve always been careful. There’s something off about today."
The elderly Madam Meng looked at Lady Wang, and asked, "Did you step on Lady Kuai’s dress?"
Lady Wang shook her head, "Not at all."
The elderly Madam Meng wasn’t in a hurry, she said, "Then take off your shoe. We can compare the footprint on Lady Kuai’s dress and know the truth."
Lady Wang was straightforward and she immediately took off her shoe and handed it to the maid standing beside her. The maid compared it to the footprint, Lady Wang’s shoe was smaller than the footprint, and not by a small margin.
Suddenly, Lady Kuai said, "I remember now, the person who followed behind us when we were walking, was Lady Wang’s maid."
Madam Meng looked around, but did not find the maid with an unfamiliar face. She turned to Lady Wang and asked, "Where is your maid? Didn’t I say that all the people present must come?"
Lady Wang showed a surprised expression, "Where is Ruyue? She was with me just now, when did she disappear?"
In the midst of the chaos just now, nobody noticed the maid. Especially when Wang Miaoshuang brought many people with her, and those ladies brought their maids as well. So even though the maid who caused the accident escaped, nobody noticed.
Madam Meng’s expression turned incredibly dark. She ordered to the guards, "Search for her. Even if she has escaped from the Meng residence, you must catch her and bring her back! If she did nothing wrong, why would she run away instead of staying by her mistress’s side?"
Lady Wang bowed her head, then suddenly fell to her knees and said, "Madam, it’s my fault for not disciplining my servants properly. Please punish me."
Madam Meng snorted coldly, gazing at her she said, "I should punish you. I don’t believe for a moment that you couldn’t realize all this time your own maid was missing. If you found out but didn’t report it, what exactly were you planning?"
Lady Wang was kneeling, but she kept her back straight, "Please inspect clearly, Madam. Even if I have to face punishment, I don’t have any complaints."
Bai Ruozhu saw the atmosphere had become tense, she quietly left with Tu Ying to check on Shuxin. She had seen Shuxin before, she twisted her waist and had many bruises on her body from the fall, so she was in a lot of pain. She used acupuncture on Shuxin to alleviate the pain and then gave her a bottle of trauma medicine, instructing her to use it the next day. She also gave her a prescription for blood circulation medicine.
Soon, a commotion arose from the yard. A guard came and reported, "Reporting to Madam, we found a female body in the lake. It’s likely Lady Wang’s maid Ruyue. But as to not upset you, we didn’t bring the body here, it’s being kept outside of You Ran Residence."
The elderly lady’s eyes widened, "How did the person die?"
"It seems that she committed suicide by throwing herself into the lake, there are no signs of struggle on her body," the guard replied.
Upon hearing this, Bai Ruozhu furrowed her brows. A Plum Appreciation Banquet had somehow resulted in this kind of incident, not only causing Yu Hongxiu to almost have a miscarriage, but also taking a life. Could it be that someone has arranged this in advance?
She couldn’t help but turn her gaze towards Wang Miaoshuang, only to see that shock was also apparent on Wang Miaoshuang’s face. She thought that either Wang Miaoshuang was an excellent actress, or she truly didn’t know about this.
Then she turned her gaze towards Lady Wang, Lady Wang had already started crying, "How could Ruyue be so rash? Even if she made a mistake, it was unintentional. Why did she chose to end her life so abruptly?"
Bai Ruozhu strode into the hall, looked at Lady Wang, and asked, "Why are you crying? Shouldn’t you confirm if the body is your maid Ruyue first? You haven’t even seen the body, how are you so sure it’s her?"
There was a momentary panic on Lady Wang’s face, and her back was not as straight as before, she said with a flickering gaze, "Ruyue is usually timid, so I just assumed she would have committed suicide out of desperation. You’re right, Miss Bai, I should go and check now."
After saying that, she hurriedly got up from the ground, not caring about her demeanor at all, and rushed towards the You Ran Residence.
Madam Meng made a gesture to a guard, hinting they should follow Lady Wang.
Bai Ruozhu locked eyes with Madam Meng, they both understood each other’s suspicions and had apparently arrived at the same conclusion.
Upon checking the corpse, Lady Wang began to cry loudly again, sobbing and saying, "It really is Ruyue. Why was this girl so rash? Even if she made a mistake, it was unintentional. Why did she have to end her life?"
Nanny Lu came out and coldly told Lady Wang, "Alright, you have identified the body, now go back and report." After that, Nanny Lu turned to a guard standing nearby and said, "The old madam says to report this to the authorities. Now that a life has been lost, it should be properly investigated by the government office."