The Double
Chapter 767 - 227: Silencing_4

Chapter 767: Chapter 227: Silencing_4

She suddenly couldn’t bear to think about it any longer.

Situ Jiuyue, carrying a basket filled with flowers, entered the Alchemy Room. But instead of starting her alchemy, she set the basket down and walked to the edge of the courtyard, staring out at the snow-covered ground in a daze. She must have been thinking about General Jih’s incident again; no matter how cold her tone or how calm her expression, her heart was not without its fluctuations.

The two girls stood in the courtyard, a vast expanse of white around them, each lost in her own thoughts, feeling the fickle nature of life, the changes of the world, and an indescribable sense of helplessness and bitterness.

Time passed, so long that the snow had stopped, so long that Xiao Hong in the cage woke up, opened its little black bean-like eyes, and flew to the eaves, tilting its head as it looked down at Jiang Li and the other.

Jiang Li said, "Miss Jiuyue, I’d like to visit Uncle at the Ye Residence. Would you like to check on Ah Zhao’s wound? You promised last time to imbue Ah Zhao’s whip with poison. I wonder if it’s ready; if so, let’s deliver it to Ah Zhao today."

Her heart felt extraordinarily stifled, desperate to use something else to alleviate the suffocation within. Otherwise, she would be overwhelmed by these sorrowful emotions, unable to think of anything else for a while. She wanted to see Ah Zhao, her father, Ye Mingyu, Ye Shijie, hoping to give her own heart a momentary reprieve.

She thought Situ Jiuyue would feel the same; if Jiang Li were no longer there, Situ Jiuyue would certainly not visit the Ye Residence alone.

Situ Jiuyue paused for a moment, looking at Jiang Li with confusion. The last time she had seen Xue Zhao, she indeed mentioned that she could imbue Xue Zhao’s whip with poison. She hadn’t expected Jiang Li to remember.

"Miss Jiuyue, let’s go together," Jiang Li said.

Situ Jiuyue didn’t refuse. She said, "Alright."

They left the Duke Residence, boarded the carriage, and moved with exceptional speed, as if trying to escape from certain emotions. Tonger and Bai Xue looked at each other, neither knowing what had happened, only feeling that there was something strange and unusually quiet about the atmosphere between Situ Jiuyue and Jiang Li.

The carriage clattered to a halt in front of the Ye Residence. Jiang Li and Situ Jiuyue jumped down together, probably because it was so cold, the Ye Residence’s pageboys were not at the door. Tonger stepped forward and knocked on the door using the brass lion head door knocker of the Ye Residence.

No one answered for a long while.

Jiang Li felt it was odd; could it be that Ye Mingyu wasn’t there? But even if Ye Mingyu wasn’t there, the Ye Residence’s pageboys should still be inside. It couldn’t be that such a large mansion was completely empty. As she thought that maybe Ye Mingyu was practicing swordplay inside and hadn’t heard, she stepped forward to knock again. Suddenly, her gaze froze.

A thin streak of red could be seen oozing through the crack of the large gate of the Ye Residence. The streak was so thin, and with the weather so cold, the traces of blood had frozen solid in front of the gate. If one did not look closely with focused attention, it would almost seem like an illusion.

Jiang Li’s gaze solidified, and Situ Jiuyue, sensing something was amiss, stepped forward to see and frowned. Without another word, she pushed open the door.

A "clang" echoed.

As the door swung open, a gust of air, heavy with the stench of blood, hit them in the face. Not far from the entrance lay a pageboy who would always greet Jiang Li with a smile, now lying in a pool of blood, one hand stretched out towards the door as if he had tried to open it. And then, his life was forever frozen in that moment.

Tonger screamed, Jiang Li’s heart raced with panic, and she lifted her skirt and ran inside. Along the way lay the Ye Family’s pageboys and guards, strewn haphazardly. Each of them had been finished off with a single cut, the wound piercing from their chest to their back, a sight of exceptional horror. Jiang Li couldn’t help crying out, "Uncle! Mr. Xue! Ah Zhao! Cousin Ye! Hai Tang!"

Situ Jiuyue followed closely behind, but did not hear any response. Jiang Li was so startled that she was on the verge of breaking down into tears, nearly fainting. Ye Mingyu and Ye Shijie treated her like family, which goes without saying, but what about Xue Zhao and Xue Huaiyuan? Their family had just reunited. Could they really be facing such a misfortune? Was fate playing a cruel joke on them?

Jiang Li was nearly mad with worry. She searched everywhere but couldn’t find the bodies of her relatives. She didn’t know whether that was good or bad. Then, she heard Situ Jiuyue shout, "Xue Zhao!"

Jiang Li’s heart skipped a beat, and without thinking, she ran over. There, she saw Situ Jiuyue standing still in the courtyard, which was in complete disarray. The bodies of several guards lay on the ground, Xue Zhao’s wheelchair was overturned beside them, and half of a whip was buried in the snow.

Situ Jiuyue picked up the whip with trembling hands.

The whole Ye Residence had been searched inside and out, but there was no sign of them. None of the remaining people had survived; it was as if the place had become hell.

"Miss, what should we do? We should report to the authorities first. It’s not safe here. What if those villains haven’t left yet, and what if they harm you?" Bai Xue said, visibly scared.

Jiang Li took the whip from Situ Jiuyue’s hand. Since they hadn’t found the bodies of Xue Zhao and the others, her heart began to settle, and she was able to think more clearly. She shook her head, "Those villains aren’t here."

Situ Jiuyue and the two maids looked at her.

"All of the servants of the Ye Family are dead, uncle and Cousin Ye are missing. If it were the work of an enemy, why would they take Mr. Xue and Xue Zhao, and even Hai Tang, who was just a servant? These people are all closely related to me. The person behind this might not be targeting them, but me," she said.

Situ Jiuyue asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"They didn’t kill Mr. Xue or uncle because there are no bodies here. If they were dead, they could have left the bodies here. It’s clear that the goal wasn’t to kill, but to take them away and hide them to threaten me."

"Threaten you?" Tonger asked, "Threaten you with what? Do they want you to do something for them?"

Jiang Li said, "Miss Jiuyue, can you come here for a moment?"

Situ Jiuyue and Jiang Li stepped aside as Situ Jiuyue frowned and looked at Jiang Li, "What are you thinking?"

"Someone wants to target the Jiang Family, but they don’t need to start with me. I don’t have much influence over the Jiang Family, and my father wouldn’t compromise even if they used me to threaten him. So I think it might not be about the Jiang Family, but rather..."

"Are you talking about Jih Heng?" Situ Jiuyue immediately said.

Jiang Li nodded, "Since you said that Jih Heng was off to do something very important, it might be equally important to the other party. I think their goal is to use the lives of the Ye Residence to threaten me, and then I will have to threaten Jih Heng in turn."

"What... will you do?" Situ Jiuyue asked hesitantly.

Jiang Li said, "I think they will soon send a message to tell me what to do. We’ll have to play it by ear."