Chapter 440 - 285: Lady
A gentle breeze suddenly rose, and several sheets of paper fluttered down to Ran Yan’s feet. She bent down, picked up two of them, and glanced over them. Indeed, just as she expected, they were all about how Dou Chengfeng and others harmed Chai Xuanyi and how they intended to take liberties with Princess Wenxi.
Ran Yan had tossed and turned, unable to sleep last night, thinking over the entire case thoroughly.
There was a significant flaw in the case: Li Wanping knew that the murder was committed by Chai Xuanyi, so she took the blame herself and committed suicide to save his life. Then, as a person with only a day’s memory, how could Chai Xuanyi know about his hatred for Dou Chengfeng and the others?
There were two possibilities: one was that he had a habit of keeping records, and after losing his memory, he inadvertently saw what he had written before, thus reigniting his hatred. The second was that someone had reminded him and incited him to seek revenge.
Ran Yan felt that it would be difficult for mere words on paper to provoke a person to kill, so she was more inclined to believe the second possibility.
"What splendid handwriting," Ran Yan exclaimed in admiration before folding the papers neatly and slipping them into her sleeve. Seeing Ran Yan put them away, Wan Lu hurriedly gathered the rest of the papers from the ground.
Yuanyi’s complexion was deathly pale, and her lips trembled uncontrollably. After staring at Ran Yan for a long moment, she suddenly knelt on the ground and wept, "Lady, I truly didn’t know it would harm you... I never thought of hurting you..."
Her heart filled with fear, she did not notice that Ran Yan referred to Chai Xuanyi as "Lord Chai" instead of "my husband."
Ran Yan did notice the term of address and said coldly, "But murder is a capital offense! By inciting him to kill, aren’t you pushing him toward death?"
Upon hearing this, Yuanyi lifted her head. Her face, streaked with tears, revealed a grim mix of fear and malice. She stiffened all over, her shoulders quivering slightly, her eyes filled with resentment, "Those men deserved to die! They were worse than animals! They forced Ah Lang to smoke opium, and while they were smoking opium in the study, I heard Dou Chengfeng wanting to call you over..."