The backdrop can also be propped up.

Chapter 357 Escaping the Huang Mansion 23

Upon arrival, Huang Muyan entered the main hall. Lu Renkui, along with the other people's personal maids and servants, waited outside the main hall until the second round of questioning was over.

The questioning took longer than Lu Renkui had imagined—probably because the main event, which should have been the third questioning session, was moved to the second session because of her and Huang Muyan.

But the sun is so strong and it's so hot. Lu Renkui sighed, wondering if this time they could directly deduce that the butler was the murderer.

After basking in the sun for a while, just as Lu Renkui heard the people next to him complaining quietly, a burst of laughter suddenly came from the main hall. It sounded like the butler's voice, followed by the butler's voice again, cursing loudly.

The cursing was in a dialect that Lu Renkui couldn't quite understand.

Finally, it seemed the butler was dragged away, and the cursing subsided.

But in any case, the questioning finally ended, and people came out of the main hall one after another.

The first to emerge was Madam Wang, supported by Wuchou. She wiped away tears with a handkerchief while muttering, "Master can rest in peace now..."

Upon hearing this, Lu Renkui knew that the housekeeper must have been identified.

Next came the ladies and their children. The servants who had been standing at the entrance of the main hall went over to their masters and followed them.

Huang Muyan came out and frowned involuntarily when she saw the servants standing in the scorching sun. But by this time, there were hardly any people still waiting for someone. Huang Muyan immediately spotted "Xiao Wan" trying to get closer to the shade of the tree. She waved to "Xiao Wan" and said, "Guixi, let's go."

Upon hearing this, Lu Renkui immediately hurried over. It was so hot that she was practically dying from the sun—although the temperature wasn't that high, the glaring sunlight shining directly on her face was still very uncomfortable.

Xu Qinying and Zhou Hefang walked at the back, discussing the reason why the steward poisoned Master Huang. The steward became more and more agitated as he explained his reasons for killing Master Huang, and before he could finish speaking, Madam Wang ordered his men to drag him away through a side door.

"The steward has stayed in the Huang residence for so long in order to avenge his daughter, really..." Zhou Hefang stopped mid-sentence and sighed.

Xu Qinying took a deep breath and then began to think about what she felt was wrong: "The poison used to kill Master Huang was not the poison of the heartbreak grass, but arsenic, but this brand of arsenic is not available here."

"So how did the butler, who has never been to the South, manage to buy the arsenic brand that's only sold in the South?"

Huang Muyan and Lu Renkui, who was inside Mu Wanqing's body, were not far from Xu Qinying and Zhou Hefang, so Huang Muyan could hear Xu Qinying and Zhou Hefang's conversation if she listened carefully.

Huang Muyan frowned when she heard the two discussing how the steward, who had never left the Huang residence, had obtained the arsenic token from the south. She remembered that her second brother had served as a soldier under a warlord in the south, and her third brother had also done some small business in a coastal city in the south.

"It seems like this was premeditated," Huang Muyan thought to herself.

Then Huang Muyan heard Zhou Hefang behind her start speaking again: "It seems this case is closed. Miss Xu, where do we go next?"

“Let’s tell Madam Wang, and then we’ll set off for Beiping,” Xu Qinying said after thinking for a moment.

“Okay, I’ll go see if anyone is willing to give us a ride. These past few days, people have been saying there’s going to be a war, and the whole town is in a state of panic. I don’t know if we can find a rickshaw.” Zhou Hefang thought to herself as she began to recall the places in town where the rickshaw pullers often frequented.

"Are you two planning to leave today?" Huang Muyan couldn't help but ask when she heard Xu Qinying and Zhou Hefang discussing leaving the Huang residence.

"Ah? Oh dear, Miss Huang!" Xu Qinying belatedly realized that Huang Muyan had been walking ahead of them, but she was so engrossed in her reasoning that she hadn't noticed.

While thinking to herself that Zhou Hefang must have seen the two of them but didn't say anything and continued to talk to her about reasoning, Xu Qinying apologized to Huang Muyan: "I'm sorry, Miss Huang, we were just engrossed in our conversation."

"It's alright, I often do that too—I get so engrossed in reading that I lose track of time," Huang Muyan said understandingly, then asked Xu Qinying, "Are you leaving the Huang residence? Won't you stay a couple more days?"

“We have nothing to do here, and we might even disturb your funeral preparations. Now that the cause of Mr. Huang’s death has been determined, it’s a relief for my father. We should get up and head to our destination as soon as possible,” Xu Qinying explained to Huang Muyan. “Besides, the war situation has been changing recently, and if we delay for a few more days, we might not even be able to leave the town.”

"Oh, I see." Huang Muyan listened to Xu Qinying's words and pondered to herself—she had heard fighting around when she came back, but it hadn't reached this area yet.

"It seems better to leave as soon as possible," Huang Muyan thought to herself. "No matter what, leaving early is always safer."

The patrols have become much more lax in recent days, after all, the eldest brother has just taken office and is not yet familiar with the affairs of the manor. Huang Muyan thought that these next few days should be the best time to leave.