Chapter 28
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Chapter 28:
Ming Xiang asked shakily, "Wha… what’s wrong?"
Li Chunzhou pointed behind her, indicating for Ming Xiang to look back.
Ming Xiang glanced behind her and saw that her light-colored dress was now stained red, with a terrifying bloodstain below.
Ming Xiang blushed instantly, looking embarrassed, feeling a kind of awkwardness usually only found in the real world.
She got her period.
Chihong pulled Ming Xiang up by one arm, as easily as picking up a baby chick.
Ming Xiang felt fear mixed with embarrassment and despair in her heart. She regretted breaking the cage on purpose, and lying to Chihong. Earlier, before Li Chunzhou came over, Chihong had stared at her coldly, as if looking at a dead person.
Tears the size of beans rolled down her cheeks again. Ming Xiang thought to herself, no matter what, it was too tragic to be killed during her period.
Periods, also known as menstruation, were considered unlucky for a long time. Even in the era Ming Xiang lived in, some temples would put up signs prohibiting women on their period from entering to worship the gods.
If someone in the family passed away, women on their period were not allowed to attend the funeral. According to their customs, women on their period were considered "impure", so when Ming Xiang’s grandmother passed away, she didn’t see her being buried.
Although death was inevitable, Ming Xiang still wanted to die a dignified death.
But this was something she couldn’t control. Under the loose summer pants, blood ran down Ming Xiang’s legs, leaving spots on the cobblestones in the courtyard.
Ming Xiang made a soft sob in her throat. She felt like she had dirtied the ground, and Chihong would probably be even angrier. So, her hope of dying peacefully seemed unlikely.
Maybe he would suffer the same fate as the player who died painfully in the building under Chihong’s knife.
Chihong silently carried Ming Xiang away, entering a room. Li Chunzhou followed closely behind, holding some menstrual pads in her hands.
The most common style of menstrual pads used by Daliang is a cloth strip wrapped around cotton or wood ash, tied around the waist with a thin string.
These cloth strips are not meant to be thrown away after use. Most people wash them and reuse them.
Wealthier households use paper instead of wood ash, wrapped in cloth on the outside. These are often disposable after one use, allowing wealthy women to change them anytime, while poorer families may use the same menstrual pad for a lifetime.
Menstrual pads are often not sold in stores, so they have to be made by oneself or female relatives at home. Therefore, each person’s menstrual pads may differ in some way. The ones Li Chunzhou held were made of silk fabric with intricate embroidery.
When Li Chunzhou handed the menstrual pads to Ming Xiang, she unconsciously said, "So pretty…"
"Right?" Li Chunzhou proudly lifted her chin, as many people around her didn’t understand why she would put so much effort into something like this.
However, Li Chunzhou really liked it. Now that Ming Xiang also said it was beautiful, she became happy. "You have a good eye!"
Ming Xiang still stood there stupidly, while Chihong picked up Li Chunzhou and they both walked outside the screen.
"Change." Chihong told Ming Xiang behind the screen in a few words.
Qi Leyuan walked out next to Chihong and typed, "Being a woman is really troublesome, luckily I’m not a woman."
"Yes," Li Chunzhou nodded, "Li Li is a mother hen."
Qi Leyuan: …
The two stayed outside for a long time, Ming Xiang still didn’t come out, Li Chunzhou belatedly reacted and looked at Chihong, asking, "Doesn’t she know how to use it?"
Chihong paused for a moment, then she walked behind the screen and taught Ming Xiang how to place it in her private area.
Ming Xiang frantically followed her instructions, but it got more and more tangled. She had just taken off her undergarments stained with blood, her top hanging down to her thighs, covering her buttocks and private parts.
Due to the shock from the ordeal, Ming Xiang’s legs were trembling slightly, but Chihong thought she was shivering because she was cold after taking her clothes off. So, she took the thin string from the menstrual pad and helped Ming Xiang tie it around her waist.
Chihong’s cold hand touched Ming Xiang’s warm skin, Ming Xiang’s cheeks still slightly blushing with shame, tears kept rolling down uncontrollably. She tried to wipe them away over and over again, but couldn’t clean them off.
After changing into new clothes, Ming Xiang walked out following Chihong.
Hongdou had just finished washing clothes and came back. She was quick and cheerful, got along well with Chihong, and naturally started working as soon as she arrived yesterday.
Li Chunzhou watched as Hongdou carried a wooden basin on her elbow, along with a pile of clothes like a little mountain. Despite knowing from over a hundred cycles before that Hongdou was hardworking, Li Chunzhou couldn’t help but exclaim, "Hongdou, you’re really amazing!"
Li Chunzhou gave her a thumbs up, circled around Hongdou, while Chihong stood by and subtly softened her gaze. She turned around to scoop up the dirt with a dustpan, cleaning up the bloodstains on the ground.
Ming Xiang stood there holding the broken cage, feeling lost like an empty envelope without a mailing address. She wished she could hide in a corner while admiring Li Chunzhou’s confident and radiant presence.
Ming Xiang suddenly realized that what truly attracted attention to Li Chunzhou was not just her beauty, but the relaxed feeling and confidence that beauty brought her.
Growing up enjoying the benefits of beauty since childhood, and receiving countless compliments and kindness from those around her, cultivated Li Chunzhou’s cheerful and carefree personality.
Unlike Gu Lingfan, Li Chunzhou didn’t have a complicated personality or sensitive, insecure thoughts. Whether in front of anyone, Li Chunzhou could naturally be affectionate, with every movement and expression unforced, laughing openly and confidently, naturally getting close to people as if it was expected. Like a web, she connected relationships between people effortlessly.
Beauty may catch the eye, but it is the inner confidence and boldness that truly attract people.
Unfortunately, such a personality requires a lot of love to thrive, and ordinary-looking girls often struggle to receive such affection.
Ming Xiang has always admired girls who are confident and outgoing, as she was born into a poor rural family and was not welcomed at birth. She had two older sisters who were sent away at a young age.
Ming Xiang was only born because her parents paid off a doctor at the local hospital to ensure her birth. The doctor had initially predicted she would be a boy, so they decided to keep her.
Being the third daughter, Ming Xiang was a disappointment to her parents, and this disappointment and anger was unfairly directed towards her.
Not only did Ming Xiang not receive enough love, she also did not have the necessary family support for proper growth.
With no one to guide her through life’s challenges, Ming Xiang grew up with a timid and fearful personality, always wanting to retreat in the face of difficulties.
Ming Xiang didn’t have strong memories of her two sisters who were separated from her at a young age, but when Chihong helped her with her menstrual belt, memories of her sisters flooded back.
—— Faintly remembered, unwelcome in the world, my sisters.
Sadness flooded Ming Xiang’s heart like waves. She watched three joyful people nearby, tears falling one by one. Ming Xiang wiped away her tears frantically, unable to speak.
***
Second Prince promised to visit Spring Flowers Tower today, but Li Chunzhou didn’t see him even after it got dark. Second Prince rarely breaks promises.
Li Chunzhou didn’t understand what was happening in the palace, nor why Liang Changfeng had a change of heart.
After Li Chunzhou absent-mindedly plucked a feather for the third time, Qi Leyuan couldn’t hold back anymore. He quickly typed, "Young lady, what’s wrong with you?"
"Just call me Lady Chun," Li Chunzhou replied absent-mindedly, soothing the spot where Qi Leyuan had plucked the feather. She said, "I really want to meet that ‘Administrator’."
Qi Leyuan hesitated, "You want to meet him? Why do I feel like you’re looking forward to it?"
"Do I?" Li Chunzhou blinked and smiled, "I’m just curious if the advisor who warned the emperor of evil spirits in the city is an ‘outsider’ like me, or someone who, like me, has memories of past lives…Li Li, have you received replies from other players?"
I almost forgot to check, let me see." Qi Leyuan opened the chat channel and scrolled to where they last saw Hongwu confidently say, "Xiang Mei is the culprit.
Gu Cai, "If you have free time, go see the doctor to check your brain."
Hongwu, "Why are you talking like that? Is my guess wrong? The population in Daliang is low, I have been checking the household registration for several years, the only twins from Minnan region are related to Spring Flowers Tower is Xiang Mei!"
Ji He, "…"
Cheng Yingchu, "It’s good that you want to help, but maybe detective work is not suitable for you."
Yan Qingze, "Hey, is there any update in today’s official gazette?"
A’ping, "Yes, there is."
A’ping: [Picture]
Qi Leyuan did not read the classical Chinese in the picture, but went directly to the translation of the story:
[Now let’s talk about the case from twenty years ago. In the household of the deceased, there was a wife in her early thirties and a pair of twin children. A year after the case, the girl of the twins drowned, and later the woman also died. This is a typical locked room murder case. The curious thing about it is that the head of the deceased was cut off, for reasons that you may already know: either to assume the identity of the deceased, or to fulfill a psychological execution purpose, extreme love or hate, to move, collect, or hide the body, to use the head for artifice, or to cover up certain traces on the head… What do you think is the reason behind this twenty-year-old headless case?"]
Qi Leyuan read this and furrowed his brow silently in his heart. Just from reading the words, he could imagine how smug and taunting the killer must have felt when writing this sentence. This frivolous attitude towards playing with people’s lives really made him feel uncomfortable for no reason.
But it didn’t end there. There was another paragraph below, "Actually, I can understand why you don’t want to waste time on this serial murder case. Out of the eighteen lives lost in the past twenty years, half of them were of lowly status like prostitutes and performers. So, the case is not impossible to solve, but all of you important people are just turning a blind eye."