mesbooks Chapter 292 It was me who harmed Niu Dan!
Chapter 292 It was me who harmed Niu Dan!
"Miss Luo! Miss Luo!"
Luo Xiaoran's eyes looked as if she wanted to eat Chen Ji in front of her. She couldn't hear Chen Ji calling her, but just kept asking: "Who is it! Who is it!"
"Luo Xiaoran! Wake up!"
Chen Ji shook off Luo Xiaoran's hand that was on his arm, and took the initiative to put his two big hands on Luo Xiaoran's shoulders. His voice was as loud as his shouting on the battlefield, trying to calm her down.
This was the first time Chen Ji called Luo Xiaoran by her name. Before, for various reasons, he only called her "Miss Luo."
Chen Ji had never seen Luo Xiaoran so out of control. In his impression, Luo Xiaoran could be clever, cunning, steady, and mysterious, but she was never as distraught and crazy as she was now.
"Luo Xiaoran, I promise you that I will find the murderer who killed Niu Dan. Please calm down first, okay?"
Chen Ji seldom mentioned his identity when interacting with Luo Xiaoran. The phrase "this king" when he referred to himself represented that he made a promise to Luo Xiaoran in his identity as the King of Yan, and it was an oath that he would never cancel.
Luo Xiaoran's dilated pupils slowly focused, and Chen Ji saw his anxious face reflected in Luo Xiaoran's eyes, which was a little strange. This was a rare expression on his face.
Big tears rolled down from the corners of Luo Xiaoran's eyes. She stared at Chen Ji blankly, her rationality returned a little, and deep pain appeared in her eyes.
“It’s all my fault. I was too conceited and always thought I could do it by myself. I ridiculously thought I could find the cow eggs like last time.
Niu Dan trusted me with all his heart, but I failed to protect him and let him die here alone. How scared must he have been before he died?
I have guessed that it was An Luhai who kidnapped Niu Dan. As long as I ask you to help look for him in the county government office, we can find Niu Dan and he would not have died tragically. He was only seven years old!
I don't want to trouble you every time something happens. I always feel that things are not at the end of their rope and I can handle it myself, but I messed it up!
The price of messing up all this is Niu Dan's life!"
Years of fighting on the battlefield have made Chen Ji accustomed to hiding his sadness deep in his heart, but his heart is as heavy as Luo Xiaoran's, and is filled with deep self-blame and anger.
"All the secret guards in Prince Yan's mansion were slaughtered, and Grand Tutor Li also died tragically. Chen'er is missing, and everything has not been figured out yet. Luo Xiaoran, are you sure you want to continue to be crazy like this?"
Luo Xiaoran's eyes trembled.
Yes, she has no right to be sad now. She should repent after catching the murderer!
"Your Highness Prince Yan," Luo Xiaoran heard herself say, "What do you think about the attack on Prince Yan's Mansion this time?"
Seeing that Luo Xiaoran was no longer indulging in grief and self-blame, Chen Ji secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Recalling what he had seen and heard when he entered the Prince of Yan's Mansion, he slowly expressed his speculation:
“The soldiers guarding the mansion and the servants were all asleep, but there were no obvious injuries on their bodies. They must have been drugged in their food.
The secret guard's food was different from theirs, so he was not drugged. When the killer broke in, he fought with him.
The secret guards of Prince Yan's Mansion were no fools. In the end, they were all wiped out. This shows that there were a lot of killers and they were very skilled in martial arts.
Judging from the bloodstains on the ground, they also lost a lot of people, but they still had time to drag the bodies away and deal with them, which means they had plenty of time.
If the assassins were coming for the Prince of Yan's Palace, they would not have spared the lives of the soldiers and servants guarding the palace. They only fought with the secret guards because the secret guards had the responsibility to protect the palace and blocked their actions."
Having said that, the killer's purpose is self-evident.
"Their target is Chen Er. Chen Er has either been captured by them or killed by them, but we haven't found the body yet."
Luo Xiaoran continued Chen Ji's words. She first proposed the worst-case scenario, and then said another possibility:
"The best scenario is that Uncle Li discovered the arrival of a large number of assassins, and he asked someone to take Chen'er away first, while he stayed behind to delay time, and thus... died tragically!"
After Luo Xiaoran finished speaking, she couldn't help but look at Li Heng and Niu Dan. The tragic deaths of the old and the young irritated her nerves inch by inch, making her feel as if her heart was burning with oil.
Luo Xiaoran quickly closed her eyes tightly, calmed down for a few seconds, and then opened them again, suppressing the madness in her eyes:
"But I don't understand, if the killer's target was Chen'er, why did he go to so much trouble to bring Niu Dan from Fuyuan County Office to Prince Yan's Mansion, and then... brutally kill him?"
Chen Ji couldn't figure out this problem for a while.
In his opinion, why would a killer bring a child with him when he goes on a mission? Wouldn't it be a burden? And why did he kill the child and leave him at the mission site?
"Although I can't figure this out, there is one thing I can be sure of. Everything that happened in Prince Yan's Mansion must have something to do with Princess Qingyi!"
Luo Xiaoran suddenly raised her head and looked at Chen Ji. With the mentality of grabbing a life-saving straw, she caught the target of revenge and analyzed it incessantly:
“Niu Dan was captured, and someone left a note asking me to look for clues in the marriage cards. As a result, I accidentally ran into Concubine Bai and was almost bitten by a snake. I almost fell from a tree.
It was An Luhai who did it. He was also the one who kidnapped Niu Dan in order to lure me to Anruo Temple to be a scapegoat for the assassination of Concubine Bai.
The mastermind behind the scenes was Princess Qingyi, who was at odds with Concubine Bai and had motives to harm her. Even An Luhai's so-called "suicide out of fear of punishment" might have been her way of silencing her.
Uncle Li once said that Princess Qingyi would not let Chen'er go. The reason she didn't take action before was to paralyze everyone. In her mind, she had already planned everything!
She chose an excellent and extremely special day, the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and arranged two assassinations at the same time.
An assassination attempt was aimed at Concubine Bai, and because it was carried out in public, it had to be done using secret and dark methods.
The other assassination is aimed at Chen'er. While you are not at Prince Yan's Mansion, the killer will come to your house and assassinate you openly.
As for Niu Dan, could it be because I accidentally saved Concubine Bai and ruined Princess Qingyi's plan that made her hate me?
But Emperor Tianqi has said that the incident of Concubine Bai being in danger is over, so Princess Qingyi can't frame me and can't do anything to me for the time being, so she's taking it out on the ox egg?"
The more Luo Xiaoran spoke, the more she felt that her analysis made sense. When she talked about Niu Dan, the self-blame and guilt deep in her heart were like surging volcanic lava, ready to explode at any moment!
"That must be the case. An Luhai is Chen Lingyi's man, so she knows that Niu Dan is in An Luhai's county government office.
She hated me, so she wanted to kill Niu Dan at the same time as she assassinated Chen Er in Prince Yan's Mansion to take revenge on me!
It was me who harmed Niu Dan, it was me who killed him!"