Lose My Heart to the Lovely Kitten Princess - Chapter 28

Chapter 28 Who killed me?
Chu Yunshen turned to glance at Xiaowu. He immediately walked over to help Gu Ruoshan. Then Xiaowu pointed behind him as he said, “Sir Gu, this is His Highness’s coroner. He needs to perform an autopsy for Miss Gu’s remains. Can you please bring him to her body?”

Xiaowu couldn’t bring himself to say that her only remains were her head. Instead, Xiaowu deliberately referred to it as her body. Even then, Gu Ruoshan’s face turned pale the moment he heard him. When Gu Ruoshan recalled how cruelly his daughter died, and all that remained was her bloody head, he went, “PFFFT!” He was so sad that he suddenly coughed blood. His head was giddy, and it felt as though he could see his daughter waving at him.

“Sir Gu?” asked Xiaowu as he helped to support Gu Ruoshan while he fell backward. The servants standing beside them rushed over to help too. They held Gu Ruoshan up and shouted anxiously, “Sir!”

“Master!” cried Gu Ruoshan’s wife and mother of Gu Bixuan when she saw her husband faint. Then she screamed and passed out too.

“Madam!” The Gu residence went into chaos.

Cheng Xiaoxiao pawed at the gold lock on the cage for a long time but to no avail.

“Meow!”

Was there anyone out there?

Cheng Xiaoxiao used her chubby body to knock the cage hard. Little did she know how sturdy it was. After throwing herself at the cage until she saw stars, she failed to open the cage the slightest!

“Meow!”

Xiaowu!

Cheng Xiaoxiao wasn’t going to let Xiaowu off!

Cheng Xiaoxiao curled up in the cage sadly. Then she stared at the cage before glancing at herself.

Oh yes!

She was a cat now!

If she managed to squeeze her head through the cage, she could force out.

Then Cheng Xiaoxiao immediately stuck her head out in between two bars.

“Meow!”

She dug her claws into the ground and pulled hard. PFFFT!

Cheng Xiaoxiao managed to stick her head out of the cage.

“Meow!” cried Cheng Xiaoxiao happily. Then she mustered all her strength to wriggle and squeeze out of the cage. Before long, she managed to succeed.

The moment Cheng Xiaoxiao escaped the cage, she stuck her tongue out and made a monkey face at it. Hmph!

Nothing in the world could stop Cheng Xiaoxiao!

After she made a monkey face, Cheng Xiaoxiao turned and wriggled out of the cage. Then she darted towards the Gu residence.

When she first got to the mourning hall, there wasn’t a person in sight.

That was odd. Where had everyone gone?

A girl dressed in a plain green outfit suddenly walked out from behind the mourning hall. Her face was pale. No, her face was almost ghastly pale without a drop of color on it.

Cheng Xiaoxiao glanced at her unsuspectingly. Then she wanted to go elsewhere to continue her search. Where on earth had Chu Yunshen gone?

“Can you see me?” asked the girl in green suddenly as she stopped in front of Cheng Xiaoxiao.

Cheng Xiaoxiao sensed the jade pendant on her neck suddenly turn warm.

Cold air kept radiating from the woman, and it startled Cheng Xiaoxiao so much that her fur almost exploded.

Did this woman come floating over to Cheng Xiaoxiao with both feet in the air?

“Can you really see me?” asked the woman excitedly.

Ghost!

Cheng Xiaoxiao was terrified that she darted away instinctively.

Why could she see ghosts in broad daylight when she had yet to open her third eye?

Gu Ruoshan’s room was filled with people. After the physician treated Gu Ruoshan, he regained consciousness. Then Chu Yunshen put down his teacup and walked in to say, “Sir Gu, you must stay strong or else you will end up falling for that evil man’s ploy!”

Gu Ruoshan weakly breathed as he lay in bed. Then he replied, “Thank you for your concern, Your Highness! I can still hang on! I’m fine!”

“Laifu!” said Gu Ruoshan to his housekeeper, “Bring Prince Jing inside so they can perform a post-mortem on… the body.” His voice trembled when he said the last word. Everyone could sense Gu Ruoshan’s immense sorrow.

“Yes, Master!” replied the housekeeper with his eyes red after he walked up to Gu Ruoshan. He turned to Chu Yunshen and said, “Your Highness, please come with me.”

Chu Yunshen followed behind the housekeeper while Xiaowu trailed behind him with the coroner in tow. They walked over to the mourning hall, where the housekeeper took out an exquisite box from behind the hall and placed it in front of Chu Yunshen.

Chu Yunshen glanced at the coroner.

A white silhouette suddenly flashed by the moment the coroner was about to open the box and gave everyone a shock.

“Little fellow, aren’t you supposed to be in the cage?” asked Xiaowu as he grabbed the lion cat standing next to Chu Yunshen.

“Meow!” Cheng Xiaoxiao glanced at the woman in the room, who kept staring at her. She couldn’t help snuggling into Xiaowu’s embrace and covered her eyes with her paws.

“Don’t be afraid. I have only been here for a few days. You’re the first person who can see me,” said the woman dressed in green quietly as she stood next to Xiaowu and waved at Cheng Xiaoxiao.

“Why did it suddenly become so cold?” asked Xiaowu as he shivered. Then he turned to check the weather outside. It was bright and sunny outside, so why the cold wind?

Xiaowu turned to see that the coroner had opened the box. Then the intense scent of blood and rotting flesh filled the mourning hall.

“Master, why don’t you go rest? I can stand guard here while the autopsy takes place,” said Xiaowu deeply to Chu Yunshen as he covered his nose.

Chu Yunshen shook his head instead. He looked at the lion cat in Xiaowu’s arms. Then Xiaowu handed the cat over to Chu Yunshen as he said, “Master, the lock on the cage was made of gold plated black iron. Without the key, no one can open it, not even with fire or weapons! I wonder how the little fellow managed to get out?”

“Meow!” Cheng Xiaoxiao suddenly scratched Xiaowu before lunging into Chu Yunshen’s arms.

When Chu Yunshen saw her pouncing onto him, he instinctively pulled Cheng Xiaoxiao into his embrace. Then he stroked the fur on her back, which had exploded.

“Is that how I look after I die? It’s so sad.”

Cheng Xiaoxiao looked up at the woman in a green dress when she heard her voice. She was standing next to the coroner as he carefully studied the bloody head in the box.

Was this ghost Gu Bixuan?

After the incident which transpired at Huangquan Forest, Cheng Xiaoxiao found out she could communicate with spirits of the dead.

If Cheng Xiaoxiao could find out who murdered Gu Bixuan, she could help Chu Yunshen solve the case.

Cheng Xiaoxiao opened her mouth and went, “Meow.” But why couldn’t she speak like a human?

Cheng Xiaoxiao was stunned. She recalled the jade pendant hanging on her neck, so she grabbed it with her paws and closed her eyes and chanted, “Hear my order, jade pendant and open my eyes.”

When Cheng Xiaoxiao opened her eyes once more, she spotted a decapitated woman. Cheng Xiaoxiao was so terrified that she swiftly closed her eyes.

She wouldn’t have called upon her third eye if she knew how creepy it would turn out.

But now that she did, she couldn’t put the power to waste.

Moreover, Chu Yunshen was still around.

“Are you Gu Bixuan?” asked Cheng Xiaoxiao cautiously with her eyes closed.

The woman dressed in green frowned when she heard the cat speak. Then she asked, “Why can you speak like a human? Who are you?”

“It’s a long story. Let’s not get started,” replied Cheng Xiaoxiao as she opened one eye and used her paw to cover it. The sight was so horrifying that she didn’t dare to look the woman straight in the eye. Then she said hurriedly, “Tell me who killed you first? And where is the murderer?”

“Who killed me?”

Gu Bixuan turned her face and floated quietly next to Cheng Xiaoxiao. Then she leaned over Cheng Xiaoxiao’s head and said eerily, “I don’t remember.”

Cheng Xiaoxiao spotted a glowing green thread tied to her body. It reached all the way to the peach tree in the rear garden.

When Cheng Xiaoxiao looked under the soil, she saw a headless corpse buried there.

Was that the other half of Gu Bixuan’s body?

“Do you know how you ended up like this?” asked Cheng Xiaoxiao anxiously.

Gu Bixuan pondered before she said slowly, “On 28th February, I woke up in my room as usual. But I discovered no one at home could see me. I didn’t know what happened! I went out to see if anyone else could see me, but I couldn’t leave the residence and could only make it to the entrance.”

Then Gu Bixuan glanced behind her and continued, “A thread was pulling me from behind. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t leave the residence.”

Her body was buried in the rear garden, so she couldn’t leave.

Cheng Xiaoxiao looked at the shiny green thread behind her waist.

“Until…” The more Gu Bixuan went on, the more agitated she became. Then fear crept up her face as she said, “Dad received a box yesterday… with my head in it. My head!”

Gu Bixuan suddenly screamed shrilly, and Cheng Xiaoxiao hastily covered her ears.

Chu Yunshen noticed that the little fellow who had been quiet the entire time suddenly kept snuggling into his chest. He patted Cheng Xiaoxiao’s back gently. Then he glanced at the coroner as he chopped up some green onion and placed it on Gu Bixuan’s neck wound.

A few days ago, he read that cats had a particularly keen sense of smell, so the scent might be too pungent for the little fellow.

As Chu Yunshen comforted the little fellow, he watched as the coroner remove some paper from his wooden box. Then he dipped the paper in vinegar before covering the wound with it.

“Your Highness, the deceased, was killed on 27th February. She died a long time ago, so her body has started rotting. I need an hour more to determine the murder weapon,” said the coroner as he paid obeisance to Chu Yunshen.

“27th February?” said Chu Yunshen as he pondered. Then he asked Xiaowu, “When did Gu Bixuan leave the residence?”

“Your Highness, she left on 27th February,” replied Xiaowu as he bowed.

So Gu Bixuan was attacked shortly after leaving home.

Chu Yunshen stroked the cat habitually as he contemplated deeply.

“Why did I leave home?” asked Gu Bixuan. She attempted to poke the lion cat, but her hand went through the cat’s body. She lowered her head to look at her translucent hand. Then she said deeply, “Did I go meet Qianqian?”

“Have you really forgotten everything?”

Cheng Xiaoxiao sighed. Then she opened her eyes wide and stared fixedly at the decapitated Gu Bixuan.

If Cheng Xiaoxiao wanted to overcome her weakness, she had to face it head-on.

When Gu Bixuan shook her head a couple of times as it hung in mid-air, her neck remained motionless as her body stood on the ground.

Cheng Xiaoxiao suddenly held on tightly to Chu Yunshen’s robe with her claws. She stared curiously at Gu Bixuan before she inhaled a few times and told herself to calm down. Then after Cheng Xiaoxiao composed herself, she asked her, “Did you elope with a man?”

“That’s preposterous!” retorted Gu Bixuan suddenly. Her fingernails turned long and gnarly as she said, “I am the daughter of the deputy minister of the ministry of personnel. How can elope with a man?”

But as she spoke, Gu Bixuan’s face became filled with tears. They trickled down her cheeks like a broken string of pearls as she placed her hand over her heart and kept saying, “Why does my heart hurt so much?”

The coroner had just determined the murder weapon, so he went before Chu Yunshen with the box containing Gu Bixuan’s head. He pointed at the wound and said, “Your Highness, this murder weapon should be Feixie sword, which is renowned for its speed.”

“The Feixie sword? Master, I heard of an assassin organization which uses the Feixie sword!” said Xiaowu as he patted his head while he thought hard.

What kind of organization was it?

“Xiongming Sect,” said Chu Yunshen coldly as he stroked the cat, “Check on them!”

“Yes, Master!” said Xiaowu as he bowed.