Chapter 411: The Corpse

Chapter 411: The Corpse

Yu Yonghuai saw the Earl of Qin'an looking utterly devastated, snorted coldly, and shoved the Earl of Qin'an away.

The Earl of Qin'an stumbled, unable to regain his balance, crashing into the wall of the alleyway with a loud "bang"!

The Earl of Qin'an's face twisted in pain.

But he couldn't care about anything else at the moment, reaching out to An Ningxin: "Xin Niang..."

An Ningxin, with tears in her eyes, quickly curtsied to Yu Yonghuai and Xingxing as a farewell gesture, then hurried back to the small courtyard and slammed the door shut with a loud bang!

Leaving the Earl of Qin'an stranded outside!

Yu Yonghuai snorted coldly, looking at the Earl of Qin'an who looked like a lost dog, cursed him, saying he deserved it, and strode off with Xingxing.

Then, in the dead of night, flames erupted outside the General of the Western Garrison's residence, and the gate was pounded heavily!

The gatekeeper, utterly confused, opened the door, only for people from Shuntian Prefecture to rush in, asking where General of the Western Garrison Yu Yonghuai was.

The commotion roused half the Yujia family from their sleep.

Xingxing's quarters were closest to the main residence, so naturally, she was also awakened.

Hearing the chaos outside, she threw on her clothes and came out to see, only to find that officials from Shuntian Prefecture had come to 'escort' her big brother to the prefecture for questioning.

Xingxing was utterly dumbfounded.

The Yujia family was nearly in chaos.

Yu Yonghuai, however, turned around to comfort them, assuring them it was nothing, that the officials from Shuntian Prefecture were merely questioning him. He hadn't done anything wrong, would be released after questioning, and would return soon.

Li Chunhua was so anxious she burst into tears, insisting on going along. Wei Pozi decided, "Go, all of you go!"

The officers from Shuntian Prefecture, tasked with 'escorting' Huai Geer, hesitated, but Wei Pozi quickly asserted her status as a Third Rank Shuren.

She held a royal title!

Li Chunhua seemed to recall something, hastily stifling her sobs: "And me, I'm also a Fifth Rank, Fifth Rank Yiren..."

Seeing how frightened his grandmother and mother were, Huai Geer thought it best they accompany him, as they wouldn't rest easy at home.

After all, Huai Geer knew in his heart that he hadn't committed any crime, so he wasn't afraid of being interrogated by the authorities.

The officers from Shuntian Prefecture had no choice, and in the end, they took half of the Yujia family back to Shuntian Prefecture.

Although it was the middle of the night, the prefecture's yamen was brightly lit, and in the empty hall, a woman was weeping bitterly, her mournful cries echoing out, making those who heard it feel a sense of sorrow.

Before Yu Yonghuai and his family even reached the hall, the sound of weeping had already reached their ears.

Xingxing, wrapped in her cloak, felt a pang in her heart.

She recognized that voice, wasn't it the voice of the Countess of Qin'an from earlier?

Li Chunhua, somewhat frightened, hugged her son's arm: "Huai Geer, it's not that you've wronged some girl, and she's come to confront you, is it?"

Crying so miserably, could it be that her son had wronged someone?

Yu Yonghuai was somewhat speechless: "Mother, what are you thinking about?"

With that, he led the way, striding toward the courtroom.

The constables of Shuntian Prefecture watched Yu Yonghuai's fearless demeanor from the corner of their eyes, thinking to themselves that since the General of the Western Garrison seemed so unbothered, this matter probably had nothing to do with him.

Unfortunately, someone higher up had ordered that the General of the Western Garrison be given a hard time this time.

As low-ranking officials, they didn’t dare go too far, but they could make a bit of trouble for the General of the Western Garrison in the process, making a big spectacle of arresting him from the Yujia family—this, too, could count as making the General suffer, right?

As Yu Yonghuai stepped into the courtroom, the Yujia family trailed closely behind, but since they weren’t allowed to enter the courtroom without permission, they had to stop at the threshold.

It was only then that everyone noticed the source of the mournful cries: a woman lying over a corpse with eyes wide open, trembling as she wept.

The Yujia family hadn’t expected to be faced with a corpse right off the bat and were all startled.

But Li Chunhua, ever blunt and quick to bounce back, immediately exclaimed, "Hey, isn’t this the Countess of Qin'an? ... Then this body is..."

Li Chunhua sucked in a sharp breath.

No one answered her; only the woman's sobs echoed faintly in the empty courtroom.

Xingxing’s eyes were fixed on the corpse on the ground.

Just a few hours ago, this body had been furiously yelling at her big brother and Lady An, but now it lay there with wide, unseeing eyes, a pitiful sight.

Who else could it be but the Earl of Qin'an himself?

Xingxing quietly stepped forward, tiptoeing to get a better look at the Earl's body.

There was a deep, bone-deep gash on the Earl's throat, and blood had drenched his body, suggesting he’d been killed by a slit throat.

As Xingxing examined the Earl's body, the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture was politely questioning Huai Geer about the case.

The Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture was a third-rank official, just like Huai Geer. Though civil officials had a tougher time climbing the ranks than military ones, given that Huai Geer was a young general in His Majesty's favor, the Prefect treated him with great courtesy.

"General Yu, it's truly a disturbance to have you come here in the middle of the night," the Prefect said politely. "It's just that someone in that alleyway claimed to have seen you in a conflict with the Earl of Qin'an yesterday evening, and that you even struck him... Then, late at night, the night watchman found the Earl dead at the entrance of that alley. Therefore, I specifically invited General Yu to come and clarify the situation."

Yu Yonghuai nodded. "So that's what happened. But given the way Shuntian Prefecture came to my residence to arrest me, I thought I had committed some grave crime of treason."

The sarcasm in his words was clear, but the Prefect could only pretend not to notice and laughed it off, "...The subordinates must have misunderstood. General Yu is magnanimous, so please don't hold it against them."

The Prefect had no choice. Someone higher up had instructed him to give Yu Yonghuai a hard time, but the Prefect also knew that General Yu was currently a favorite of His Majesty. If he, the Prefect, were to openly make things difficult, it would be too obvious.

He could only hint to the constables to put on a show for outsiders.

"...So, General Yu, what are your thoughts on the Earl's death?" the Prefect quickly changed the subject.

Yu Yonghuai smirked, as he could guess some of the motives behind the "small fry causing trouble." But at the moment, he was more concerned about how the Earl of Qin'an had suddenly died and didn't feel like arguing with the Prefect about the earlier incident: "...If you ask me, I can only say I have no thoughts. Earlier, I did get into a fight with the Earl, but he insulted me, and I merely threw him aside and left with my sister. Looking at the Earl now, covered in blood, surely you can't say I killed him by throwing him, can you?"

The Countess of Qin'an suddenly looked up, her face streaked with tears.

Her daughter had just celebrated her first birthday not long ago, and she had not yet borne a legitimate son before the Earl died.

How could she protect the Earl's estate from the wolves now?!

"It's also possible that the Earl discovered your affair with someone else, so you killed him to silence him!" the Countess cried out.