NOVEL NEXT
Chapter 51
As dawn broke, a wailing cry suddenly rang out from the jail cell, startling Baozhu, the guard on duty.
He scrambled to his feet.
He saw the female kidnapper sobbing uncontrollably.
As she cried, she shook and pushed the dwarf beside her: "Master, Master, what's wrong with you? Help, this ointment is poisonous, someone come quickly, come quickly!"
Yet no matter how loudly she wailed or how forcefully she shook him, the male kidnapper had already stopped breathing.
It was Baozhu's first time encountering such a situation, and he was a bit flustered. Who could he find this early? Everyone hadn't arrived at the yamen yet to start their shifts.
He stood at the cell door, looking around.
He spotted a tall, upright figure, like a guiding star.
"Mr. Jiang," Baozhu called out loudly.
Jiang Changtian walked over and asked, "Is there something the matter, Liu the Chief Constable?"
Baozhu had initially been flustered, but being addressed as Liu the Chief Constable, he unconsciously puffed out his chest, his face reddening slightly.
"Yes, it's like this. One of the two kidnappers we locked up seems to be in trouble. I'm not sure what's going on. Mr. Jiang, you know something about medicine, right? Could you please take a look?"
"Liu the Chief Constable, although I have some medical knowledge, the other party is a serious criminal. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to go in, especially since it involves my family. Would it be possible for me to take a look from out here?"
Hearing Mr. Jiang repeatedly address him as Liu the Chief Constable, Baozhu felt greatly respected and could only nod in agreement. Jiang Changtian then followed Baozhu to the cell where the two kidnappers were being held.
When the dwarf kidnapper's wife, Jianer, saw the visitor, she found him exuding an aura of nobility. Could this be the esteemed person who would plead for her and her husband's case?
Cradling her husband, Jianer knelt down and kowtowed, bowing her head to the ground.
"Your Excellency, please save my husband. He... he... Your Excellency, please call a doctor. My husband is in dire straits."
Jiang Changtian took out a blue patterned silk cloth and covered his nose with it.
He said to Baozhu, "Liu the Chief Constable, you should stand back. I'm worried it might be a malignant disease. We wouldn't want to risk infection."
Hearing this, Baozhu immediately retreated a good distance.
He hadn't taken a wife yet.
Jiang Changtian then addressed the people in the cell, "Pinch his philtrum and see if he responds."
Jianer forcefully pinched the dwarf kidnapper's philtrum, but he remained motionless.
Jiang Changtian shook his head and said, "By the looks of it, he's already dead, likely passing away sometime during the night. You must have been sleeping too soundly to notice. Tsk, tsk, judging by his expression, he probably died in agony, silently suffering until the end. You were sleeping right next to him and didn't hear a thing?"
Jianer looked bewildered. How could this be? Had her husband called out to her during the night?
Had he suffered greatly before his death?
How could she have been completely unaware?
She opened her eyes wide, wanting to refute his words.
But when she looked up at the nobleman, she saw him covering his nose with the silk cloth, his expression one of disdain.
Suddenly, her gaze fell upon the silk cloth in the nobleman's hand.
The more she looked at it, the more familiar it seemed.
"Your Excellency, where did you get that handkerchief?" she asked.
Jiang Changtian said to the woman in the cell, "I am no nobleman. I am the aggrieved party. Of the three young ladies you kidnapped, two of them are my own daughters."
Jianer suddenly dropped her husband's body from her embrace and sprang to her feet, as if wanting to charge out.
She shouted at Jiang Changtian, "I ask you, where did you get that handkerchief?"
Jiang Changtian unfolded the silk cloth he had been using to cover his nose. It was a beautiful silk fabric, but stained with some filth, dotted with red spots.
"This was given to me by my wife. I don't know where she got it from. Although it's silk, it was stained with some blood. But the cloth is of good quality, so I didn't want to throw it away and instead made it into a handkerchief. Ah, by the way, my wife said she kept her promise to you." Jiang Changtian covered his mouth and nose with the handkerchief and retreated.
He said to Baozhu, who was standing at the door, "Liu the Chief Constable, your work is indeed arduous and dangerous. You should also prepare a handkerchief. Next time you encounter a dead body like this, if it's a malignant disease, you could get infected. What a hassle. That woman seems to have been infected. She's acting crazy."
Baozhu hurriedly nodded. Mr. Jiang was truly a good man.
He watched as Mr. Jiang left.
When he turned back, he saw that the female kidnapper was no longer cradling her husband and wailing. Instead, she was muttering incoherently to herself.
He quickly retreated even further.
Finally, when people arrived at the yamen to take over the shift, Baozhu let out a sigh of relief.
He immediately led people to see the two kidnappers.
But suddenly, the female kidnapper charged and slammed her head against the wall, shattering the bricks. Her head was covered in blood, and she immediately breathed her last.
In an instant, the cell now contained two corpses.
Jiang Changtian returned to his side room and continued sorting medicinal herbs.
A faint light shone through the small window.
On the wooden window sill, three new lines had been carved.
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Small skit: Many years later.