Warm fragrance cloud around

After not returning to the mansion all night, Lin Junnuan did not dare to go in through the main entrance. After making sure that Cheng Jiangyun had left, he lifted up his robe, sneaked into the house through the hole in the wall, and sneaked back to his yard.

The two maids, Chuntao and Xiahe, have been watching anxiously outside the room. Seeing Lin Junnuan coming back, Chuntao, who has a calm personality, only looks around her carefully to make sure that she is safe and sound. , and didn't care whether to exceed the rules, and immediately pulled Lin Junnuan into the room in a hurry.

"My eldest lady, where did you go last night, the slaves are dying of anxiety!"

Seeing that Lin Junnuan had changed into a suit of clothes, Xia He's voice faltered: "You didn't wear this suit yesterday, could it be, could it be..."

Lin Junnuan rubbed her face with squinted eyes, and said weakly: "Get me some water to take a bath, your lady is almost smelly now, ask someone to bring some light food."

Xia He's attention is particularly easy to divert. After listening to Lin Junnuan's order, she immediately gets busy, but Chun Tao is not easy to fool.

"Miss was drunk again last night?"

Lin Junnuan pretended to be weak and leaned on the seat, her tone was pitiful: "Well, um, I drank a little, it's okay, Chuntao, mother didn't notice that I wasn't here last night, did she?"

The only person in Chengyibo's mansion who can restrain her is An's. As for Chengyibo, everyone said that her daughter is her father's little padded jacket, and everything will be fine if she acts coquettishly and cutely.

Chuntao stood aside with a straight expression, and said with a serious look: "Madam was going to see Miss last night, but luckily the young master took her away in time, so that I can hide the fact that Miss is not there."

Lin Junnuan grinned and said, hey, he is indeed her good brother, he is very loyal.

"The young master said that he will come to get a thank you gift today."

"No problem, buy him everything you want." My younger brother should be pampered.

Xia He asked the wives to bring hot water. Lin Junnuan took a slow flower bath, and the tiredness caused by the hangover subsided a little. He was about to eat something warm and have a good sleep. Xia He held Xiangxiang came over.

"Miss hasn't put on makeup yet."

"If you don't go out today, you don't need to wear makeup."

"Powder always needs to be applied."

Xia He has always regarded maintaining Miss's beauty as her life's mission. Lin Junnuan couldn't resist her, so she sat sideways on the long couch, drinking porridge while letting her apply powder. Subconsciously, he took out the rouge and applied it to her face.

"Ah, Miss, forgive me, the servant is wrong."

After regaining consciousness, Xia He quickly knelt down and confessed to Lin Junnuan, but at this moment Miss Lin's attention was completely attracted by the scent of rouge.

"Where did you buy this box of rouge, it seems that you have never used it before?"

Xia He quickly took out the rouge box and took a closer look, "I didn't buy this rouge, don't you remember, miss? It was given by Princess Jiayi during this year's Flower Festival. I heard that she made it herself."

Princess Jiayi?Lin Junnuan frowned, picked up the rouge box and put it on the tip of his nose to sniff. Yes, the scent of this rouge was exactly the same as the smell stained on the window paper in Xu Qinglian's room.

Princess Jiayi is about the same age as Lin Junnuan, and she is the jewel in the palm of Princess Anhua.As the only eldest princess in Dachu, Princess Anhua is one year older than the present. Although she is not a compatriot of the same mother, she is respected and loved by the present. The status is not much inferior to that of the royal princess.

When mentioning Princess Princess, many people will subconsciously think of the word "arrogant and arrogant", but Princess Jiayi is not like that at all. This princess is quite accomplished in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, but she is not as arrogant and lofty as Xu Qinglian. She treats people with humility and gentleness, and often gives people a feeling of spring breeze. Even Lin Junnuan, who has always been very unimpressed with the daughters raised in ancient boudoirs, has to praise her a few words.

Lin Junnuan tried hard to search for the memory of Hua Chaojie in his mind.

Every year during the Flower Festival, the Eldest Princess’ Mansion will hold a grand Hundred Flowers Party, inviting unmarried princes and ladies to participate. In name, it is to show off their talents for viewing flowers, but in fact it is just a large-scale ancient blind date party. Lin Junnuan never used to join in the fun, and she didn't have much talent to show off, but this year she couldn't escape An's insistence.After all, she is going to grow up in the second half of the year, and she can start looking for a husband.

At the Huachao meeting, a few acquaintances got together, and for some reason, the topic of developing balm was brought up. Princess Jiayi said that she just made a few boxes of Hualu rouge a few days ago, and took it out to share with others.

There were only five boxes of rouge in total. Princess Jiayi kept two boxes for her own use, and distributed the remaining three boxes. In order to distribute them fairly, everyone even played a game of pitching pots. Lin Junnuan clearly remembered that the person who won in the end and got the rouge There is no Xu Qinglian in the picture, so the possibility that the rouge scent on the window paper was stained by the people of Xu's house can be completely ruled out.

"Chuntao, do you still remember, who were the other two people who got the rouge on the Huachao Festival?" She took Chuntao to the Hundred Flowers Fair that day.

Chuntao's memory has always been good, and she quickly recalled: "Miss Jiang Er from Duke Lu's residence, and Miss Fourth Min from Shangshu's residence."

Lin Junnuan was not familiar with these two people, that is to say, he could barely match their names with their faces.However, now it is finally possible to slightly narrow down the scope of the murderer, who has the opportunity to come into contact with Princess Jiayi, Miss Jiang Er, Miss Min Si, and her own Rouge.

Yes, in order to successfully find the murderer, she cannot easily rule out any possibility, even if it is someone close to her.

With new clues, Lin Junnuan's exhaustion was gone, and he didn't think about eating or sleeping anymore. He immediately got men's clothes ready, and after changing into them, he planned to run to Dali Temple.

Although his identity has been exposed in front of Cheng Shaoqing now, it is more convenient to act as a man when he is out of the house.

Xia He hugged the clothes she had changed in the morning, frowning tightly: "Miss, this robe should not belong to you, do you want to throw it away?" Xia He felt a little angry because of the men's clothes.

The clothes Cheng Jiangyun took out were made of exquisite and luxurious materials, and they should have been specially tailored for him, but Lin Junnuan's size fit them just right. It's in the back of my mind, so I naturally don't know how irritable the embroidered lady of Jianyuanhou's mansion was when she was woken up in the middle of the night to change her clothes last night.

"Let's put it away for now, the material is good, and I can wear it later."

Xia He puffed out her mouth in dissatisfaction, seeing that her master had already turned and left, apparently not paying attention to this matter, she snickered and stuffed the clothes into the bottom corner of the closet, out of sight.

***

When Lin Junnuan came to Dali Temple again, the gatekeeper brought her directly to Cheng Jiangyun. His respectful attitude was completely different from the last time. Obviously Cheng Shaoqing had already specifically explained to him.

There was no one else in the hall except Cheng Jiangyun. Lin Junnuan was about to tell him about his new discovery, but found that Cheng Shaoqing's expression was quite serious at this time.

"What happened?"

Cheng Jiangyun said in a deep voice, "The fifth victim has appeared."

"what?!"

"Last night at midnight, the murderer invaded the princess' mansion, and used incense to stun everyone inside and outside Princess Jiayi's boudoir."

"Princess Jiayi was killed?"

It was such a coincidence that she had just discovered that the smell of rouge had something to do with Princess Jiayi, and she was killed? !

Cheng Jiangyun sighed and shook his head lightly: "No. Fortunately, a servant girl was very vigilant and pricked her arm with a hairpin to stay awake, preventing the murderer from attacking the master, and calling for help in time to attract night guards, which made the murderer flee. Princess Jiayi was killed. It is a pity that the maid was stabbed a few times while obstructing the murderer, and died of serious injuries."

Lin Junnuan didn't know what expression to make at this time.If the maid is unconscious, it will be Princess Jiayi who dies. Although in this era, the life of the princess and the maid are very different, but in the end it is still a life for another, and I don’t know that the maid died before she died. Have you ever regretted it.

"There should be witnesses this time, what does the murderer look like?"

Cheng Jiangyun still shook his head: "The only person who had direct contact with the murderer was the dead maidservant. When the others woke up, they only had time to listen to her last words. The murderer had already escaped completely."

"But if this is the case, how can we judge that this night attack is the same murderer as the previous four cases?"

"First stun everyone with incense, and then take the opportunity to poison the victim. The method is exactly the same as before. Moreover," Cheng Jiangyun looked at Lin Junnuan with a serious face, "Princess Jiayi also asked Mo Shubai for help. painting."

"After Mo Shubai was imprisoned, we recorded a list of all the women who invited him to paint this year, and Princess Jiayi happened to be among them."

So that makes sense, Lin Junnuan nodded, and then thought of another question: "Now that Mo Shubai is in prison, but the murderer is still committing crimes, can it prove that he is not the murderer?"

"That's true. Mo Shubai's suspicion has been greatly reduced, but the possibility of an accomplice cannot be ruled out. After all, the motive for the murder is still unclear, so he cannot be released now."

All in all, it is useless not to be able to catch the murderer, Lin Junnuan exhaled irritably, and poured a cup of tea from Cheng Jiangyun's case table without notice.

"That one..." I have used the teacup.Seeing that Lin Junnuan had swallowed the tea in one gulp, Cheng Jiangyun secretly swallowed the words that followed.

"what happened?"

"No, it's nothing. Didn't I ask you to come back tomorrow? What's the matter today?"

"Oh, yes!"

Lin Junnuan patted the table, and finally remembered his reason for coming, and explained the discovery of Rouge to Cheng Jiangyun in detail.

"Princess Jiayi, Second Miss Jiang, Fourth Miss Min, and—" Cheng Jiangyun looked at her with a half-smile: "Miss Lin, the murderer is related to these four people, are you sure?"

"Yes, the rouge tastes exactly the same, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it."

Cheng Jiangyun thought for a moment, then took out a few sheets of paper from the pile of files on the table and handed them to her: "Take a look first, is there any problem with this list?"

Lin Junnuan took it over and took a look. This is a list of all the women who have asked Mo Shubai for paintings this year, including the four previous deceased and Princess Jiayi.

This list should be from the Danqing Pavilion. There are records of when the order was placed and when the painting was delivered. Lin Junnuan read it over and over three times, and suddenly a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, "Something is wrong, very wrong!"

Cheng Jiangyun's eyes brightened slightly, and a slight smile appeared on the corner of his lips: "What's wrong?"

"The order of the murderer's hands is wrong!"

Lin Junnuan squeezed towards Cheng Jiangyun excitedly, pointing to the list and explaining to him: "Look, the killing times of the first four victims were February 24th, February 26th, March [-]th, March [-]th, And they asked Mo Mo to paint on the third day of February, the [-]th day of February, the [-]th day of February, and the fourth day of March, in exactly the same order."

"But Princess Jiayi is different. She asked for a painting on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, but she was attacked yesterday. Obviously something is wrong!"