Yao Ling felt a headache coming, because this matter involved the three kingdom ah~ Yao Ling could feel that they would be in big trouble soon if they didn't handle this case carefully. Their plan didn't involve killing Han Xiang because of the ugly aftermath, but they still ended up in trouble.
Yao Ying and Lin Jian quickly came inside the room when they received the sad and shocking news. All of them were waiting for Yao Ling's autopsy result with an uneasy feeling all the time. Yao Ling confirmed that the blood letter was indeed written by Han Xiang. Han Xiang bit her own index finger and the wound was still there, but the blood had dried up. The wound matched Han Xiang's teeth mark.
This letter was a hot potato to all of them...
General Hu knew that he was at disadvantage at Lin Zhou, because it wasn't his own kingdom and he couldn't dispatch his men to seek help. It would attract too much attention and he didn't want to risk that. Besides, after reading his own letter, he felt like he owed the princess. She didn't have to give him a way out and yet, she did. She remembered him even before she took her last breath. He could only seek help from Yao Ling's party and go along with them, after all, he still didn't want to reveal his ident.i.ty.
However, judging from how Yao Ling did the autopsy to Han Xiang's corpse, he couldn't conceal his ident.i.ty and Han Xiang's for long anymore. If he knew that they already knew about his ident.i.ty from the start, he would probably vomit blood. He disguised himself for nothing ah~.
Yao Ling gave Xiao Yu a vial and told her to make Xiao Fang smell it, so it would make her wake up. She knew Xiao Yu would do her job well, thus, she didn't pay more attention to them. After that, Yao Ling carefully took a look at Han Xiang's body at the inner chamber of the room and she didn't let the men come in, because she wanted to protect Han Xiang's last dignity. She wasn't going to let them see her body.
General Hu was against it at first, because he didn't know whether he could trust Yao Ling with this matter. Yao Ling merely said, "It's up to Hu Gong Zi, but to get more clues, it's better if we do the autopsy as soon as possible. If other people find out about this, I reckon this matter will be taken to the local magistrate."
Yao Ling didn't try to push General Hu to let her check the body even though she was desperate. She maintained her calmness despite her agitation. The more she looked indifferent, the more General Hu would believe that she was a neutral party and wouldn't sabotage the result.
After a few moments of contemplation, General Hu nodded his agreement and let Yao Ling do the autopsy. He couldn't let this matter spread out before he found out the truth and if this involved the local magistrate, this matter would blow out of proportion and he couldn't risk that. His life was on the line, after all.
Yao Ling found out that Han Xiang was drinking a poison as her suicide method and she searched for the trace, trying to find out where the poison came from. Han Xiang was supposed to be in a healthy state of mind, so why did she choose to suicide all of a sudden? Somehow, Yao Ling felt that she was taking a part on indirectly making her kill herself if this was indeed a suicide case. She felt guilty, because she made Xiao Fang have a closure with Han Xiang, but in turn, she made Han Xiang die.
Yao Ling could only sigh, pitying the princess. She looked at Han Xiang's smiling face --- she looked happy and peaceful. It was like she had been waiting for this death for a long time.
There was no sign of being attacked on her whole body, but she noticed something was wrong on Han Xiang's necklace. She could detect the poison's trace on the surface even though it was only faint. Yao Ling used a handkerchief when touching the necklace to avoid touching it directly. There was actually a small compartment inside the necklace to hide the poison and she tried to smell it to determine what kind of poison it was. Yao Ling had seen her wearing this necklace from the start, so this necklace should be really belonged to Han Xiang.
Yao Ling smelled the poison and knew that this was actually a simple poison but lethal. It was directly extracted from the scorpions and very pure, thus, it was very deadly. Yao Ling sighed... if she prepared this for a long time, did she really hope that one day she would be in a clear mind to kill herself?
No matter how she looked at it from several angles, it was indeed a suicide case. General Hu wouldn't dare to find another physician to confirm, because they couldn't reveal themselves. This matter would shock the whole world ah~.
Yao Ling relayed the news to the others and the room fell into a silence. At this point, General Hu knew that he couldn't cover up their ident.i.ties anymore. He softly told his stories to the trio and they pretended to be surprised when they heard what General Hu said.
Yao Ling even went as far by gasping and asking, "She's the princess? But... she committed suicide... what would happen to you, General Hu?"
General Hu knew that he was in a deep trouble, so he humbly asked for the trio's help. He begged their help to serve as witnesses just like what Yao Ling had predicted. Yao Ying tactfully answered that they needed to know all the details in order to help him because they didn't want to jump into a pit. Not only that, they weren't from Han Kingdom and there was a possibility the Han Emperor would think that their words were unaccountable.
General Hu understood their point of views and he couldn't force them. He could only hope that Xiao Fang was able to persuade them, because he saw that lately her relations.h.i.+p with the trio was quite good. When Xiao Fang was awake, four pairs of eyes looked at her at the same time and it made her feel slightly uncomfortable.
"Why... are all of you looking at me like that?" Xiao Fang asked.
Yao Ling patted her shoulder to calm her down and explained everything. Her eyes emitted the sadness that she felt and her mind kept wandering around, however, she tried to listen to Yao Ling's explanation. She bit her lower lips until it bleed, realizing that Han Xiang was indeed gone and she killed herself. Why didn't she realize it sooner? She should have known that Han Xiang must have felt the same depression just like the Ce Fei --- her mother.
If she had seen it sooner, would the result be different? If she worked fast enough just like Tao Gu Gu and gave her hope by let her getting her freedom back, would Han Xiang still smile at her just like how she used to be? Even if she wished for a lot of things, but there was no medicine for regret.
Han Xiang had already gone...
Yao Ling tried to comfort her by hugging her, but it seemed like Xiao Fang's soul went out of her body. She could only stare blankly at nothing. Yao Ling decided to drop the bomb and asked, "Xiao Fang ah~ don't you want to take a look at Han Xiang's letter?"
Xiao Fang was startled and quickly asked Yao Ling back, "What letter?"
"She left one for you," Yao Ling answered briefly.
"Where is it?" Xiao Fang asked and her previous blank expression was gone, it was replaced by anxiousness.
Yao Ling gave her the letter and Xiao Fang opened the letter with trembling hands, feeling afraid of what she was going to read... She didn't chase away the others because she knew that sooner or later she had to tell them everything if she wanted to ask for their help.
Xiao Fang could only look at the letter in distress...