118: Chapter 74: The Young Girl 118: Chapter 74: The Young Girl The Governnt Officials were all native to Suzhou, among them many a skilled swimr.
Unfortunately, the Pingjiang River was too vast, and where exactly Yin Wanwan had sunk to the bottom remained unknown; the retrieval posed so difficulty.
Liu Pinrang ordered the search to continue, for if the person was indeed Yin Wanwan, as Ran Yan had claid, then whether she was dead or alive, she was key to the investigation.
“How can you be sure that she is Yin Wanwan?” Liu Pinrang asked in doubt, “Even though Wei Xia earlier ntioned that Yin Wanwan had been violated years ago, and the woman in the cabin just admitted to being violated by Zhang Fei, it’s also possible that Wei Xia was lying.”
“There’s Wei Xia’s testimony,” Ran Yan started, recalling the two female corpses pieced together at the Governnt Office, “and another point.
Neither of the reconstructed bodies had ever been pregnant or given birth.”
“You can tell from the bones whether or not they were pregnant?” Liu Pinrang wondered in amazent.
Ran Yan nodded, “If the person who was violated and drowned all those years ago was truly Yin Wanwan, then there should be birth scars on her pubic bone.
According to Wei Xia’s testimony, she should have been at least three months pregnant up until her death, yet the two skeletons we found bore no such scars.”
When Ran Yan first saw those two bodies, doubts arose in her mind: one, that Yin Wanwan’s body was not among the bones, and two, that Wei Xia was lying.
The first suspicion had two possible scenarios: either the deceased was not Yin Wanwan, or the skeleton found back then had not been subrged.
Ran Yan connected all the doubts and made this bold conjecture.
“So you’re saying Yin Si’niang was violated by soone, which led her to kill Yin San’niang and assu her identity?” Liu Pinrang also knew the strict rules of the Yin Family; Yin Wanwan’s life must have been difficult.
Having lived with her twin sister for many years, it wouldn’t have been hard to mimic her mannerisms.
“It’s not like that at all!” Wei Xia cried out desperately, her voice strained.
Liu Pinrang looked at her sharply, his voice cold, “Then tell us the truth.”
“It was Yin Wenshu!
San’niang was thrown into the Pingjiang River by Yin Wenshu!” Wei Xia blurted out a shocking piece of news, “I overheard that he wanted to sink his wife in a pond, so I persuaded my wife to find Qin Silang.
Then I drugged San’niang with sleeping incense, disguised her, and because Yin Wenshu feared that the scandal of his wife losing her virginity and becoming pregnant would tarnish the Yin’s reputation, he took advantage of the dark and windy night and threw her into the Pingjiang River!”
The Yin Family was not particularly powerful or influential; they relied solely on training their daughters to be virtuous and well-behaved, marrying them into prominent families to maintain their status.
The daughters, now part of those esteed clans, held their heads high because of the Yin’s reputation, lest they be looked down upon.
It was evident that if such a scandal was exposed, it would be a fatal blow to the Yin Family.
Yet Ran Yan still felt chilled to the bone; whether it was Yin San’niang or Yin Si’niang, they were his own daughters.
How could he have been so harsh?
Wei Xia’s words also confird Ran Yan’s guess; Yin Wanwan had miscarried before going to Qin Silang, otherwise Yin Wenshu would not have mistaken the person.
The case had made a significant breakthrough.
As long as the witness was securely kept and Yin Wanwan’s body was retrieved, along with the evidence from the autopsy, the case could be solved.
Wives sold for glory, wives discarded, patricide for wealth; such deeds were no longer unusual.
Although Liu Pinrang sighed in remorse, the case, now clear as day, greatly eased his stress.
Ran Yan had seen her fair share of murders, yet she still felt stifled in her heart.
About a quarter of an hour later, there was finally movent in the water.
As soon as the Governnt Officials on the boat saw Yin Wanwan being retrieved, they imdiately moved forward to help.
With several of them working together, it was easy to haul her aboard.
Yin Wanwan’s face was devoid of makeup, revealing a pale green visage.
Yin Wanwan had her eyes tightly closed, and at first glance, she looked no different from before.
But upon closer examination, one could see that indeed, she was sowhat dissimilar to the gentle Yin Miaomiao.
The tips of her brows and eyes turned up ever so slightly, and her features seed even more exquisite than Yin Miaomiao’s.
Wan Lu stood agape, and Qin Musheng was equally stunned, unable to utter a word.
In an instant, he finally recalled that Festival of Lanterns from over two years ago, the playful and bold young woman.
That day, he and a group of rry friends had just co down from a pleasure boat, laughing and walking towards the fair, discussing the preferences of several beauties in the city when, all of a sudden, a girl dressed in a cherry-red blouse and skirt and wearing a mask squeezed through the crowd, rushed in front of him, and blurted out, “Which young master are you from?”
Zhang Fei looked her up and down frivolously, “My lady, how could you not recognize the famous Qin Silang of the Qin family?”
Yin Wanwan ignored him, her dark and bright eyes fixating on Qin Musheng.
Hearing his identity, her eyes curved into a smile, bursting with dazzling brilliance, causing Qin Musheng, who had seen countless ladies, to be montarily dumbfounded.
The young girl tiptoed to Qin Musheng’s side and whispered, “My na is Yin Wanwan!”
Her breath was as fragrant as orchids, brushing against his ear.
Qin Musheng stiffened slightly, and by the ti he wanted to look at her again, Yin Wanwan, with a string of crisp laughter, had already darted into the crowd like a kitten, crouching and weaving through the crowded stalls.
Suddenly feeling even more cheerful, Qin Musheng left the group behind and said, “You guys go ahead and have fun, I’ll be right back.”
Everyone burst into raucous laughter, teasingly congratulating him on his good fortune that night.
However, Qin Musheng had no indecent intentions.
Even though he was indulged, he was just a boy of sixteen or seventeen.
Infected by Yin Wanwan’s liveliness and playfulness, he followed behind her for a while, but when he got to the riverbank, he couldn’t find that cherry-red figure.
“Hey!”
Just as he felt disappointed, he heard a call from a boat and quickly glanced over.
Yin Wanwan was leaning on the railing, her legs sticking out from the lowest part of the fence, and her cherry-red skirt fluttering slightly, like a blooming flower.
She cocked her head and peeked out from the fence, her slightly chubby face beaming with smiles, and a sweet dimple blossod on her right cheek, “So you’re Qin Silang?
You’re not what your sisters described.”
Qin Musheng looked up and asked with a smile, “What did they say about ?”
“They said you’re fickle in love, falling for every girl you see,” Yin Wanwan replied earnestly.
Qin Musheng had heard such remarks plenty of tis and usually took pride in them, but for so reason, hearing Yin Wanwan’s innocent answer made him feel a mix of annoyance and sha, and he snorted, “Then how do you tell I’m different from what they described?”
Yin Wanwan thought for a mont and said, “You smile like the sun; I don’t think you’re like they say you are.”
The river breeze was cool, and Qin Musheng shivered, snapping back from his mories to gaze down at the woman lying on the boat deck, whose features faintly resembled her charming look from years ago.
Yet now, her face was pale, and blood constantly spilled from her mouth.
A sudden sense of panic and regret occupied the depths of Qin Musheng’s heart.
Back then, Zhang Fei had taken a fancy to Yin Miaomiao and asked him to write a poem to ask her out.
Without thinking, he penned it swiftly and elegantly.
But the letter, sent in Qin Musheng’s na to the Yin household, was sohow seen by Yin Wanwan, who thus secretly went to the rendezvous alone.
Zhang Fei had only glimpsed Yin Miaomiao from afar and, discovering Yin Wanwan instead, mistook her and took her virtue.
(To be continued.
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