Edited by Tnyhy

There were exquisite restaurants in the south of the city, and naturally there would be some ordinary shops. Most of the owners of these shops had acc.u.mulated their wealth and could be considered as a little wealthy, but yet could not rent the shops similar to the large restaurants. But even so, because of the unique location of the south of the city, it was still quite lively at the shops in this area.

Normally the shopkeepers or their wives would be busy with their own matters and when they were not busy, they would always liked to chat and drink tea. It was probably early today and there were not many customers, several adjacent shopkeepers gathered around the storefront to chat.

Just as they were talking about the weather that was getting colder day by day, they saw several children running over and each one of them were panting breathlessly. These few children were the children of this group of shopkeepers and would usually play together. The female shopkeeper that sells rouge took a look and suddenly became angry, "Dong-er, did you bring Ah Chun to the Wan Li Lake again? I made new clothes for Ah Chun yesterday and now it is all wet. Is your skin itching?"

Just as they were speaking, one saw the few shopkeepers coming over to discipline their own children. This was because this group of children were all in a mess. Their clothes were wet, messy and some even lost a shoe, as if they had ran over from somewhere in a rush.

Just as one wanted to say a few more words, that boy by the name of Dong-er started crying, "Wan Li Lake… There is people in the Wan Li Lake…"

As soon as everyone heard, they were startled before a middle-aged male said, "This is bad, Could it be that some child fell into the water?"

There were cases of children drowning in the Wan Li Lake all around the year. Even though it was not common in winter, it did not mean that it did not happen. If a child cracked the ice while playing, there were cases where they would die when they fall into the water. When the words were spoken, everyone faces changed. The female shopkeeper who was selling rouge was one who was warm hearted and quickly walked, "Why so still? Go and take a look first. We are all neighbours and would worry no matter whose child fell into the water. Go and look!"

As soon as every heard this, they all echoed the same sentiments and followed that female shopkeeper, and ran over to the surface of the Wan Li Lake.

When they reached the Wan Li Lake, they were stunned. They only knew that other than the children who were playful and would often come here, the usually desolated river was already surrounding by a number of people, and most of the people actually went towards the center of the lake.

"This… It cannot be that one fell into the water?" The female shopkeeper murmured.

If anything were to happen, some people would go forward to help and some people would watch the commotion, but there would not be so many people who would head to the center of the lake together. Especially when among the people heading towards the middle of the lake, many of them were the rich and n.o.ble gentlemen. This was somewhat unusual. This was not saying that the rich were not good but in this world, one would only swept the snow to others, and the rich would not care or manage the matters of the commoners but currently… Since when were there so many hospitable and friendly people in the Ding capital?

At this moment there were some people that were heading to the middle of the Wan Li Lake. Cai Lin was already so cold that he was s.h.i.+vering. Even though he was already wearing heavily and had a thick fur coat around him, the Wan Li Lake had always been much colder than the ground by a lot. It was especially so as the ice under one"s feet would drill the coldness from the sole up thus making Cai Lin, a delicate and spoiled gentleman, unable to bear with it.

"What is exactly on this lake?" Cai Lin asked the scoundrel friend that he always hangs out with, "Why make one come over here to look so early in the morning?"

Early in the morning, Cai Lin found the group of gentlemen that he usually hang out with, and planned to go to the gamble house to play, but who knew that his friend mentioned that there was a big incident on the Wan Li Lake and just had to pull him along.

"Actually, I do not know either." That person said, "But I heard the servants speaking, and thus pulled you along for a look." He approached Cai Lin and said in a low voice, "Normally we only read about corpses in books, but now one can actually see a genuine corpse."

"Corpse?" Cai Lin jumped in shock and quickly said, "I am not going." Even though he normally liked novelty things but the excitement was only on his mouth as he was timid to his bones. Even though he had the t.i.tle of a little overlord in the past, that was extinguished by Shen Miao two years ago during the academy exams, and now he was much more aware of his place.

That friend did not listen to excuses, "Since we have walked till here, then just take a look. Just a look, what are you afraid of?"

Cai Lin could not stand being incited by others and immediately said, "How am I afraid? I will now go and take a look with you! I want to see just what kind of thing it is for it to be meet with such excitement from you."

Both of them had already walked most of the way, and were currently very near to the center of the lake. When they reached the most central area, there were already many people surrounding it and pointing. The friend towed Cai Lin and pushed away the crowd and reached the front before pointing at the thing in the middle, "Quickly look, this is it!"

Cai Lin followed to look up.

The winter days in the Ding capital are cold and this was especially so recently. Whenever there is a bucket of water in the courtyard, on the second day, it was worth noting that it would definitely become a bucket of ice. As long as anything was drenched in water, such as the branches or the roof, after a night there would bound to be ice formed.

And in the center of the Wan Li Lake, there stood three "ice sculptures".

It was not accurate to call them ice sculptures. Those three persons were frozen in the ice, and one could clearly see through the icy surface to see those person"s appearances. It was because it was like so, people could clearly understand that this was not something that craftsmen could meticulously sculpt, and it was truly three live people who were frozen to death before turning into an ice sculpture.

And the thing that made people click one"s tongue in wonder, was the postures of the three persons.

The person that was in the center was apparently a female. Her clothes were untied and half of her body was revealed, and the male at her side was reaching out to untie her Dudou (aka lingerie) while the male behind held on to this female"s waist. The female raised her head and half leaned to the male at the back. Even though the expression was somewhat stiff, but this kind of erotic movements seemed to be a living spring drawing (aka erotic drawings), making one"s imagination roam. The layers of people surrounding the ice sculptures were mostly male. There were normal commoners, rich and n.o.ble gentlemen, some were curious but some had the mindset of looking, since it was there to look even though it was a corpse, it was after all a beautiful female. Moreover, this ice sculpture was so lifelike that it did not make one horrified but made one feel allured.

And the truth was overlooked.

People would always put their sights on things that they were interested in, and men would take delight in talking about where the spring drawings (aka erotic drawings) were from or where to find such wanton female, but no one had thought about what kind of case this was. Three people were frozen to death and it should have been a terrible matter.

Cai Lin stared at that three persons" ice sculpture. He was initially somewhat afraid of corpses but this ice sculpture was not at all scary, and instead there was some vulgar sense of pleasure thus he looked at it. The friend beside him said, "This female is beautiful looking. Look. How would a normal family be able to raise such a beauty and to be this tempting too."

The words that were used, were like one was providing a point by point commentary on a young lady who just arrived in a brothel.

Cai Lin was parroting his friend"s words and at the same time staring carefully at the female ice sculpture. Even though there was a thin layer of ice on the surface, one was able to vaguely see the facial features of the female. The facial features were delicate and beautiful and looked familiar.

Looked familiar?

Cai Lin asked, "I felt that this young lady is somewhat family. Think about it, is this one of the young ladies that we have seen in those restaurants?"

His friend carefully looked and shook his head, "Not possible. I have been to all the pleasure houses in the Ding capital and seen all the young ladies, but I have not seen this person before." He then said casually, "The Dudou (aka lingerie) that she wears is gold gilded. Maybe she is some n.o.ble or official family or even from the Palace."

His words were unintentional remarks but it stunned Cai Lin.

From the Palace?

He looked up towards that female, and what appeared in front was the memory of a Palace banquet, and a young female wearing a chiffon gold dress. That slightly sullen face merged with the current stiff face and it finally became a person.

"Princess Ming An!" Cai Lin cried out involuntarily.

"What?" The friend was startled. This friend was from a wealthy businessman family, and normally did not have the opportunity to encounter the n.o.bility from the Palace, thus he did not understand what Cai Lin was talking about.

However Cai Lin"s face changed in an instant. He finally understood why he thought that this female corpse was somewhat familiar. Previously during the Ming Qi"s tribute banquet, because he paid close attention to Shen Miao and because he once competed with Shen Miao on archery before, he also noticed Princess Ming An, who because the second him. At that time Cai Lin felt in his heart that Princess Ming An was a fellow sufferer, and empathised with her.

And the alluring postured female with the two men in the ice sculpture, if it was not Princess Ming An then who was it?

Even though Cai Lin"s words were not parroted by his friends, but the surrounding people had sharp ears and they quickly asked him, "The Princess Ming An that you mention, is it the Princess Ming An that came from the Qin country?"

"Really? The person inside is Princess Ming An?"

"How could a Princess of a country be like this… It is fake."

"Speaking of that, the clothes that this female wear really looked somewhat like the Princess"."

In the wake of this turbulent disturbance at the Ding capital"s Wan Li Lake, Princess Ming An and the two males extremely erotic positions, were being talked about by the people of the Ming Qi in delight, and it quickly spread into the Palace. Naturally, it also spread to the Shen mansion.

Because Shen Miao had a conversation with Xie Jing Xing in the middle of the night, she could not sleep afterwards and it was only when the skies were slightly brightening when she could vaguely sleep, thus she woke up late. When Jing Zhe and Gu Yu saw that Shen Miao was sound asleep, they did not dare to wake her up and when Shen Miao woke up to have breakfast, it was already quite late.

While she was sipping on the porridge that was made by the kitchens, she was thinking of the words that Xie Jing Xing said last night, when she saw Luo Tan running in from outside like she was on fire.

Under Gao Yang"s treatment, Luo Tan"s injuries had improved a lot these few days. Even though Gao Yang always stressed Luo Tan to rest calmly, but how would Luo Tan had the ability to calm down? She as usual did what she wanted, and sometimes she made others suspicious if she was the person who almost lost her life a couple of days ago.

"Youngest Biao Sister! Youngest Biao Sister!" Luo Tan rushed in and immediately sat opposite Shen Miao.

Shen Miao"s eyes did not even raise as she continue eating the porridge in her mouth. These days Shen Xin did not allow Luo Tan and Shen Miao to go out anymore, lest to encounter the kidnappers like the last time. Thus Luo Tan had to stay in the residence and most probably was bored out of her wits. Every time Shen Miao saw Luo Tan, she felt that Luo Tan was the one who should be the younger sister and became more tolerant.

"Youngest Biao Sister, do not eat first and listen to me talk about a major event." Luo Tan sat upright and still.

Shen Miao lack of a better option and placed the spoon in her hand down, "What happened again?"

"Princess Ming An is dead!" Luo Tan said, "Some people discovered her corpse at the Wan Li Lake early today morning, and she was together with two males… Doing that kind of stuff. But one did not know how they were frozen. Now the entire capital is talking about this matter!"