Shang Yuanji still said to himself: "The third point, the maidservant Chunlan who served my mother suddenly disappeared. According to her aunt, Chunlan had asked to go home three days ago. Chunlan is fifteen years old and has been working in my house for a year and a half, and my mother loves her very much and takes care of her as half a daughter, and is also a confidant of my mother...... If my mother had died, she would have been sick three days ago. So, how could a confidant maid propose to go home at this time? My lord, what do you think this is not nonsense? ”

This third suspicion finally caught Nie Xiaoman's attention, and he slowly raised his head and asked.

"So who recommended the maidservant Chunlan? Is there a way to find her? ”

"My lord, it's bad that there's no way to find her! Otherwise, I would have been able to find out the circumstances of my mother's murder from Chunlan's mouth...... She is a native of Xujiahui, and was first recommended from a Huai'an restaurant surnamed Zhang, and now this Huai'an restaurant has long been idle. Where do you think you can find this? ”

Nie Xiaoman pondered again and continued to ask, "Are there anything else suspicious?" ”

Shang Yuanji sent the booklet to Xiao Yan again, and nodded again and again, "Yes." This fourth point is the most suspicious. Because of these suspicions, I asked my aunt who was present at my mother's funeral. She said there was no one but the rest of the family. Although we have no relatives in Jinling, why didn't we even have a neighbor on the left and right when we were buried? Then I asked who was the servant of the funeral. Sir, guess what she said? ”

Jing Mo smiled a little in his heart, and said in his heart: "Isn't this crazy scholar really crazy, why does he always let Xiaoman guess dumb riddles, what does your aunt say, how can Xiaoman know?" If you knew, what if you did? ”

Sure enough, Nie Xiaoman shook his head and said, "I can't think of it, what did she say?" ”

At first she changed color, and she couldn't answer. Then, shaking his head, he replied that he didn't know. Because I kept asking, she said that those husbands and servants were called by Chongming, but Chongming didn't know where to go! ”

Nie Xiaoman suddenly asked in a surprised voice, "Is Chongming also missing?"

"Exactly, I didn't see him when I came home yesterday, and I didn't see him back until the evening. I asked my aunt again and again, and she replied that she didn't know. My lord, what do you think they are not secretly messing with! ”

Nie Xiaoman suddenly stood up from the circle chair, flicked the placket of his shirt, put his hands in his trouser pockets, and paced around the room. Judging from Nie Xiaoman's attitude, Jing Mo also began to feel that this matter was serious in nature. Jing Mo thought at first that this scholar's words were a little nervous, and his conclusions could not be completely relied on. However, from the several doubts he listed, there are indeed obvious doubts.

The disappearance of the maidservant and his half-brother, as well as the uninvestigated and mourning servants, cannot but be suspicious.

But before Nie Xiaoman expressed his opinion, Shang Jiyuan cited several additional doubts.

Shang Yuanji said: "My lord, there are a few points related to me, I believe that they killed my mother, but also hurt my life!" But I'm not afraid of death! ”

Nie Xiaoman stood still, turned his head and asked, "How can you see it?" ”

"Last night I was in bed, tossing and turning. The more I thought about it, the more suspicious I felt, and I felt that there must be something strange about my mother's death. After midnight, still unable to close my eyes, I got up again, lit a candle and paced around the room for a while, then sat down and wrote down what I thought suspicious in this booklet. I had finished writing the four points I had just mentioned, and I was just about to put away my pen when I heard the faint sound of footsteps on the stairs. I was taken aback, listened carefully, but was quiet again. Because at that time, I knew that my aunt and my sister had already turned off the lights and slept peacefully, and the old mother in Jiangbei would never come upstairs in the middle of the night. ”

Jingmo asked a little nervously, "Oh, what about later?" ”

"My mother's bedroom is upstairs in the main room, but I live upstairs in the second room. At that time, the middle of the building was empty, and I was the only one upstairs, so in the middle of the night, there was a sudden sound of footsteps on the stairs, which naturally frightened me. I listened quietly for a while, and although I no longer heard any sound, my doubts had not yet disappeared. I opened the door softly, ready to take a look up the stairs. Alas! Sir, guess what I've seen? ”

Jing Mo almost couldn't hold back his laughter when he heard it, so he had to pretend to cough, and took a big sip of tea while picking up the tea, but he still couldn't stop coughing. Jing Mo scolded in his heart: "Where did you learn this scholar's faults, let others guess this and guess at every turn." I don't know if I'm crazy like this now, or if I have this problem on weekdays? ”

"Could it be your aunt outside your door?"

"Yes! ...... No. ...... It's not my aunt, it's my so-called sister Jin Chuan! ”

"Oh, and what did she do when she saw you?"

She was sure that I would open the door and come out, and suddenly she exclaimed in a low voice, and wanted to turn and retreat, but it was too late, I asked her what was the matter, and she said that she had seen the candlelight in my bedroom, and had come upstairs to tell me to rest early. My lord, this is a lie. She and her mother slept in the lower room of my bedroom, and she couldn't see my upstairs light unless she went out into the patio to peep. But in the middle of the night, why didn't she go to bed early, but go out into the patio to spy on my lights? ”

Nie Xiaoman didn't answer, put his hands in front of his chest, and began to walk around the study again, Jing Mo's curiosity next to him was active, so he asked questions instead of Xiaoman.

Jing Mo asked, "Did your sister have anything in her hand?" 、”

Shang Yuanji shook his head and said, "I didn't pay attention to this. She barely answered, and ran downstairs. But in any case, she must have had bad intentions at the time, because my relationship with her was very cold in the past, and she would never care about my sleep and went upstairs to comfort me. “

Nie Xiaoman stood still, raised his head, and said, "Even if Jin Chuan once came upstairs to spy on you, maybe it was because of your nervous reaction that aroused their suspicions, so if they wanted to find out what you had in mind after all, they might not murder you." What you just said seems to have gone too far. ”

Shang Yuanji closed the booklet and put it back into the bag, and at the same time opened his eyes and argued: "Lord Nie, you only know one thing, but you don't know the other. One more thing! This morning I was shy up, and I was sitting alone in my room, rethinking the suspicions I had discovered. My aunt, Lai, suddenly walked upstairs and opened the door of my room, still holding a bowl in her hand, and walked up to me with a terrible smile on her face. ...... Alas! Looking back now, that smile was terrifying! “

Shang Yuanji's cheeks suddenly turned white at this time, and a look of surprise shot out of those small eyes, obviously these memories did give him a powerful stimulus.

Seeing him like this, Nie Xiaoman walked up to him and patted him lightly on the shoulder with his hand a few times, as if to comfort him, before the scholar continued: "My lord, don't misunderstand. In the past, I treated my aunt like a biological mother, but my aunt always had prejudices, she seemed to be jealous of my efforts to learn because of Chongming's lack of growth, so she usually only pretended to be courteous to me, and never expressed true love. So the smile she had on me this morning must have been ill-intentioned. How can this not frighten me? ”

Nie Xiaoman said word by word: "Do you suspect that she wants to use poison to murder you?" ”

Shang Yuanji suddenly jumped up again, and pulled Nie Xiaoman's right hand on his shoulder hard, and he shouted:

"Ouch, Master Nie, you are so smart! Yes, it did! I believe that there must be poison oozing in that jujube soup! ”