Chapter 172 - 170: The Highly Suspicious Theft Case (First Update)

Chapter 172: Chapter 170: The Highly Suspicious Theft Case (First Update)

The expressions on the people’s faces changed instantly. Young Madam Jiang’s lips trembled slightly as she stared intently at Xu Jing and asked, "Doctor Xu, why do you say that?"

Xu Jing had carefully considered before deciding to speak of this matter. This morning, when she arrived at the Marquis Huaiyin’s residence, Zhao Shao Hua had informed her of Jiang Erlang and this Young Madam Jiang’s identities.

The Jiang Family held the hereditary title of Duke Xing. Jiang Erlang and Young Madam were full siblings, and their father was the current Duke Xing. Jiang Erlang, Jiang Yu, was only twenty-three years old but had already been appointed as a Commander of the Heavenly Martial Army. He was acknowledged as outstanding not only within the Jiang Family but also among the younger generation of the entire Great Chu, making the Jiang Family value him highly.

He said the Jiang Family did not secretly instruct Guangming Hall to suppress Tianyi Hall, which was likely true. Zhao Shao Hua’s assertion that the Jiang Family would reprimand Guangming Hall was probably also through his actions.

In that case, extending some goodwill towards the siblings was no bad thing. If Jiang Erlang spoke a few more words when reprimanding Guangming Hall, the path for Tianyi Hall could become smoother in the future. Even without this layer, establishing good relations with the Jiang Family, one of the four major families in Great Chu, would only be advantageous and not harmful for Xu Jing.

Reminding Young Madam Jiang now was just a minor effort on her part. It was an opportunity presented on a silver platter, not to be wasted.

Xu Jing organized her thoughts and said, "I initially felt suspicious when I saw the prescription. If Young Madam Jiang had been taking the medicine strictly according to the prescription, her condition theoretically should not have worsened. Although human emotions can affect the body, unless one encounters a devastating blow they cannot bear, momentary sadness or despair would at most delay recovery but not further deteriorate one’s condition.

Moreover, the event that threw Young Madam Jiang into emotional turmoil happened several years ago. When Little Xue Tuan had just died, Young Madam Jiang was not struck down by illness. How could the same matter affect Young Madam Jiang more severely after all this time?"

This argument simply crushed her intellect as a doctor underfoot.

Young Madam Jiang was taken aback, her face growing somber. Jing Dan couldn’t help but add, "Doctor Xu voiced what I couldn’t figure out during this period! Although that painting by Fourth Young Lady did stimulate Young Madam, when Young Madam saw Little Xue Tuan’s tragic state, she was far worse than now—sleepless at night and frightened by the slightest noise, barely eating. Yet at the time, aside from becoming quite thin, she wasn’t ill at all!"

Jing Shui hesitated and said, "But when Little Xue Tuan died, Young Madam’s health was fine. This time, Young Madam caught a cold first before seeing that painting, so if you must compare the two, the circumstances are somewhat different."

Jingyi furrowed her brows, "However, this concerns Young Madam’s safety. Any suspicion, however small, cannot be ignored. Could it be there’s something wrong with that prescription?"

"No."

Xu Jing shook her head, giving the three maidservants a meaningful look and said, "As I mentioned earlier, there’s nothing wrong with the prescription. And my conclusion that someone in the residence might be targeting Young Madam Jiang is not solely based on her illness. Jingyi mentioned earlier that Young Madam Jiang has been plagued by bad luck recently. Besides this overwhelming illness and Fourth Young Lady’s painting, there was also a theft in Young Madam Jiang’s room. Could I inquire about the details of the theft in Young Madam Jiang’s room?"

Jingyi immediately nodded and said, "Of course. We discovered the theft in Young Madam’s room three days ago, which was the second day after Young Madam caught a cold. Young Madam had taken medicine for a day, but not only did she not get better, she developed a fever. We were in a panic, completely focused on attending to Young Madam. It wasn’t until just before bedtime that Jing Dan went to fetch a comb to groom Young Madam’s hair and noticed that the jewelry box seemed to have been tampered with. When she quickly opened the jewelry box, she found it was missing six hairpins!"

Xu Jing glanced around; Young Madam Jiang’s room was quite spacious, with the dressing table by the window on the left side of the entrance, five or six steps away from the bed. She raised an eyebrow slightly and said, "Young Madam Jiang has been bedridden these past few days, and the dressing table is in the same room as Young Madam. It would be difficult for a thief to steal without alerting anyone, wouldn’t it?"

"No, quite the opposite," Jing Dan shook her head and said, "when Young Madam started running a fever, she was in considerable pain. We were flustered, and among the three personal maidservants by Young Madam’s side, we were short-handed. We had to temporarily bring in a few maidservants from outside to help.

On the day of the theft, often only one of us was in the room, and at times all three of us were preoccupied outside. So even if someone did have itchy fingers, we wouldn’t have known."

Xu Jing, contemplating, said, "However, you should have a rough idea of who entered or exited Young Madam’s room that day, shouldn’t you? It shouldn’t be too difficult to find out who the thief is."

Jing Shui bit her lip and said, "That’s true, but Young Madam’s illness hasn’t improved. How do we have the mind to search for thieves? We could only report it to Chief Manager Lv. I heard that Chief Manager Lv had already interrogated all the servants who came to Young Madam’s room that day and had searched their rooms but found nothing."

Xu Jing thought for a moment and suddenly stood up, saying, "May I have a look at Young Madam Jiang’s jewelry box?"

Young Madam Jiang promptly nodded and had Jing Dan take her to see it.

Young Madam Jiang used a lacquered, gold-embellished, gem-inlaid jewelry box with four layers, very exquisite and luxurious, with different jewelry in each layer. The hairpins were placed in the second layer.

At this moment, four step-shaking hairpins lay alone in the second layer. Xu Jing blinked slightly and asked Jing Dan, "Among the stolen hairpins, were there any step-shaking ones?"

She suddenly remembered that when they mentioned hairpins, they might not be referring only to hairpins.

Women often used three types of objects to fasten their hair—hairpins, hair clasps, and step-shaking hairpins. The three are not the same: a hairpin has only one prong for fastening, a hair clasp has two, and a step-shaking is an upgraded version with tassels or pendants hanging from hairpins or hair clasps.

When Young Madam Jiang and the others spoke of the thief taking six hairpins, they might have been using ’hairpins’ as a general term.

For a lady like Young Madam Jiang, who wasn’t lacking for money, wouldn’t acquiring any piece of jewelry be as simple as moving her lips? Yet, why were there only step-shaking hairpins in this jewelry box, with no hairpins or hair clasps?

Could it be that Young Madam Jiang particularly favored step-shaking hairpins?

Jing Dan shook her head, apparently finding it quite baffling as well. "We mentioned earlier that the thief was rather amusing. Initially, this jewelry box held ten hairpins, specifically four step-shaking hairpins, three hairpins, and three hair clasps. But the thief only took the hairpins and hair clasps.

We speculate that because step-shaking hairpins each have dangling pendants, carrying them could easily attract attention, and the pendants might fall off, exposing the thief’s whereabouts. So the thief only stole the hairpins and hair clasps.

Tsk, although he only took six hairpins, if he manages to sell them successfully, it’d amount to quite a sum of money!"

But Xu Jing, looking at the four step-shaking hairpins within the jewelry box, frowned slightly.

Was the thief truly afraid of being discovered, so he didn’t take these step-shaking hairpins?

In other words, is there a specific purpose behind stealing only all the hairpins and hair clasps?