Episode 101

A lot of time had passed since Niu Xingzu’s unfortunate demise. It was difficult to find out what happened back then, and it was even harder to figure out the truth.

The case seemed very closely related to Lu Guangzong’s death. Because of how Fourth Missy Gan and the rest were related to one another, Zhao Zhi and his team could not help but start to suspect that Niu Xingzu’s death had something to do with Lu Guangzong. Or perhaps, Lu Guangzong was indeed the one who had killed Niu Xingzu.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t any evidence that could prove that, and Lu Guangzong was already dead. The case seemed to have become an unsolvable case.

But one would eventually be able to find some. The truth would come to light once the team conducted further investigation.

After the four of them discussed the case, all of them suddenly had a premonition that if they could crack Lu Guangzong’s case, they would be able to understand Niu Xingzu’s case a lot better.

They went back to the main topic of today’s discussion after that.

Wen Yuansi continued with the clues he had gleaned, “I don’t think Pang Qian is the killer for this case.”

Song Caitang asked, “Why do you say that?”

“He has an alibi.”

“He went to the pub that day, though,” Zhao Zhi’s lowered gaze slowly moved toward Wen Yuansi, “But according to his own statement, he left in the evening and didn’t return after that. Do you know where he went after that?”

Wen Yuansi nodded. “Yi Garden.”

Pang Qian had gone to Yi Garden.

Yi Garden was the most costly but fairly low profile and private courtesan house in Luanze.

They had a lot of courtesans with great talent and very understanding toward their guests, so they had a lot of customers. They had very strict rules as well, so they were able to keep their customers’ secrets safe.

“Miss Qin was the one who accompanied him.”

Not only had Miss Qin accompanied Pang Qian the whole night, but the mamasan, the other servants and even some of the guests had seen Pang Qian and could vouch for that.

But they could only keep secrets from the average person. Nothing was truly a secret in such a place, unless you never went there, or you never said anything while you were there.

“So, Pang Qian is no longer a suspect?” Qi Yan pointed to his own eyes, “Then who was that I saw that night? It was really a man dressed in Pang Qian’s official robes!”

That person would have to be an impersonator.

But who could have had access to Pang Qian’s official robes?

Wen Yuansi shook his head. He had no idea.

But there was one thing that bothered him. “There’s something off about Loo Zhong, the Lu family butler. He probably knows a lot, but he’s very tight lipped and refuses to say anything. And no matter who I mention, his expression remains exactly the same, except when it came to Fourth Missy Gan.”

“He’s suddenly very wary when I mention Fourth Missy Gan.”

Qi Yan’s eyes widened, “Could he know about what happened back then? That Fourth Missy Gan blackmailed Lu Guangzong…”

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes as he considered these things, “If that were the case, he would also know Lu Guangzong’s secrets, like where he hides his money, what he’s been doing behind everyone’s back, and how he’s able to maintain such a good reputation.”

“Actually, the story of how Loo Zhong came to the Lu family,” Song Caitang tapped her fingertips on the table, “and became Lu Guangzong’s most trusted butler seems unusual too.”

She went on to tell them what Lu Shen told her about the butler, emphasizing on the fact that Loo Zhong claimed his entire family was dead and he had never returned to his hometown. Yet nobody seemed to have noticed this and nobody ever asked about it.

In other words, Loo Zhong was taken at his word. Nobody knew if he was lying or if he had other ulterior motives.

Zhao Zhi looked at Song Caitang, his eyes so black, they gleamed like the stars, “I will investigate this man.”

Song Caitang nodded, “What about you? You haven’t shared your findings yet.”

Zhao Zhi removed something from his sleeve, “I found this.”

Qi Yan was the quickest. He grabbed it and put it on the table for everyone to see.

It was a rock.

The rock was rectangular, with one side polished smooth, and the other side carved. But the carving was very poorly done and looked terrible. Nobody could tell what was being carved into it at all.

The workmanship was bad and the rock itself was of very low value. This was clearly some random, worthless and useless rock picked up from the mountains.

Where did this even come from?

Everyone turned toward Zhao Zhi.

“This is the thing that Manager Liu, Liu Gui, had kept hidden for a very long time. Something he’s stolen from Lu Guangzong.”

Thanks to Cao Zhang’s repeated threats, Liu Gui grew more and more antsy and was worried that he had lost this item. When he ran to check if it was still there, Zhao Zhi caught him red-handed.

“Liu Gui was too afraid of me and confessed.”

Zhao Zhi’s voice was calm and aloof, “He’s been so confident of blackmailing Lu Guangzong because he had witnessed Lu Guangzong accepting bribes with his own eyes. Lu Guangzong wouldn’t want anyone to know about this since that would affect his reputation adversely. This rock was something that Lu Guangzong dropped when Liu Gui was following him, so Liu Gui picked it up and kept it.”

“He has no idea what this rock is, but he knows that this rock is extremely important, because Lu Guangzong became very anxious when he couldn’t find it. He did a thorough search but made sure nobody knew he was doing that. He didn’t want anyone to find out.”

Zhao Zhi snorted, “So, because he could give an eyewitness account and he also had this rock, Liu Gui felt that his plan was perfect. But before he could discuss matters with Lu Guangzong, Lu Guangzong went missing, then died.”

Liu Gui’s words might not be entirely trustworthy. If he were the killer, he wouldn’t just confess to that. But he hadn’t been lying about this rock.

That much, Zhao Zhi was sure.

Song Caitang was reminded of how An Pengyi had refused to say anything when they were investigating the Tianhua Temple case. But after Zhao Zhi interrogated him for just one night, An Pengyi obediently answered every question…

Could Zhao Zhi have done something similar to Manager Liu to make him speak the truth too?

Zhao Zhi noticed the change in Song Caitang’s expression. He raised an eyebrow as his lips curled into a knowing smile. Even his gaze seemed faraway now.

Song Caitang’s heart skipped a beat. He knew what she was thinking about! And he was admitting to it!

“As of now, nobody knows what this rock really is for, but it’s definitely of some use.”

Everyone agreed with that statement from Zhao Zhi.

Something that could have made Lu Guangzong himself anxious had to be something out of the ordinary. It might not be worth much, but it was useful in some way.

Wen Yuansi paused to think, then said, “I’ll pay the Lu family another visit and see if there are any other hidden rooms or areas in the house.”

They discussed a lot about the case.

There were a few areas of great interest, like what Lu Guangzong really was like as an official and his reputation.

Before he died, Pang Qian was the only one slinging mud at the old man and nobody really cared. But now that the old man was dead, nobody was going to bother keeping any secrets about him anymore. Once everyone checked with each other about what they knew, they might uncover a lot of things about Lu Guangzong’s past. He might have accepted bribes, extorted money, killed people, framed others and more.

Things could turn scary fast when one’s reputation was upturned. Lu Guangzong’s reputation had been so excellent in the past. But once the truth about him was revealed, a lot of people would be cursing him instead.

To think that the common people had such sad looks on their faces when Lu Guangzong’s body was discovered. They even talked about offering incense in front of the Lu family residence as a way of showing respect to the dead man, but now…

The Lu family was in for a hard time.

Niu Xingzu’s case had been dragged out as a result, and even though the truth about that case was not out and cracking it was not the main point, but it contained a lot of details that required further investigation. Digging up the past would help everyone understand more about Lu Guangzong.

Song Caitang even felt that even if she hadn’t discovered Niu Xingzu’s body, his existence would still eventually turn up during the investigation of Lu Guangzong’s murder case.

Lu Guangzong had not been a good official and he had a lot of secrets. After all these layers were peeled off, the pleasant, smiling face that everyone remembered about Lu Guangzong became suspicious.

“I have a feeling…”

Song Caitang tilted her head slightly as her fingers absent mindedly slid round the rim of her teacup and she frowned, “I feel like we’re being led on.”

Everything that had happened felt like someone was deliberately trying to reveal Lu Guangzong’s true colors. As though someone wanted the truth to come to light.

She had said those words calmly and at a low volume, but it struck the hearts of the other three men pretty hard.

If this whole thing had been planned right from the start, then they were just passively doing what that person wanted them to do.

And if that were the case, that person must be watching all this time.

Was someone doing this because the situation was favorable? Or was the killer doing this all by themselves?

Song Caitang could sense the tension in the air, so she eased her frown and smiled, “It’s just my guess, I don’t have any proof of that. We’d better focus on the actual evidence we have.” She looked toward Zhao Zhi, “You brought my books and maps along, right?”

Zhao Zhi nodded and placed those things on the table.

“Song Caitang, your turn to share your findings.”

She got up and stood in front of the map, “I have a bold guess about who kept Lu Guangzong captive and made him go missing.”

Qi Yan let out a loud “wow” and his eyes were so wide, they nearly fell out of their sockets. He asked excitedly, “Who was it? Who??!”

Wen Yuansi looked at Song Caitang, his fingers interlocked and his mind deep in thought.

Zhao Zhi got it immediately. He narrowed his eyes and said, “Lu Shen.”

“Lu Shen,” said Song Caitang at almost the same time. Their voices resounded neatly.

They couldn’t help but turn to look at each other with a slight gleam in their eyes.

Song Caitang turned away quickly and continued explaining her conjecture, “When I talked to Lu Shen, he gave off a sense of shame and guilt from time to time. He was deeply angry with Lu Guangzong, yet very regretful at the same time, which made him want to let everything out. He wanted to vent his frustrations, or even explode…”

“He suffered under the pressure of his father’s authority and wanted to prove himself, so he was very obsessed with becoming an official like his father. A chance came along and he just needed to fork out some money in order to get a chance to climb the career ladder. He really wanted it, but his father would not give him any money.”

“Pure hard work wasn’t paying off, so he started thinking of alternative ways. Since he was capable of searching Lu Guangzong’s study, kidnapping and making his father ‘disappear’ isn’t completely impossible.”

After Song Caitang was done explaining Lu Shen’s psychology, she went on to talk about some key observations she had of Lu Guangzong on the day he died, particularly about his shoes, “Lu Guangzong had walked a long way and the soles of his shoes were very worn out. The place he had escaped was clearly some distance away. Given how he had traveled alone on foot without any horses or carriages, this distance can’t be that far either. So, my guess is that,” she used a slim finger to draw a circle around the mountains on the border of Luanze, “the place he was kept captive in was either in the mountains, or somewhere around it.”

“The mud on his shoes were a little reddish, and according to official geological records, that’s a unique point about the Yun mountains in the west.”

“Several of the Lu family members are officials, so their official annual income is not low and they cannot be considered poor folk. Besides the houses that everyone knows about, they definitely have other private estates. But I only managed to find these few…”

Song Caitang’s eyes sparkled and her voice was excited. Her body seemed to be surrounded by an intelligent aura that caught everyone’s attention and made it hard for them to peel their eyes away.

She pointed to several areas on the map, and poked especially hard at the ones in the west, “But that’s not enough information to go on. We need to find out who are the servants under Lu Shen and if he has any close friends he can trust.”

Her gaze scanned the three others at her table, her eyes blazing with anticipation, “If my guesses are correct, then investigating these areas will definitely yield results!”

Qi Yan got extremely excited and leaped from his chair as though he had just been given an energy boost, “That’s right! We’d definitely yield results!”

A moment later, Zhao Zhi tapped the table with his knuckles, “Since Lu Shen did not admit to it, it means that he doesn’t want anybody to know about this. We must not do anything that could arouse his suspicion…”

“I’ll settle the house in the mountains.”

The authorities couldn’t simply arrest a person without evidence. But once there was concrete evidence, any guilty party would have to fall in line whether they liked it or not!

The corners of his eyes slanted upward slightly, creating a faint smile line on his face. Only half his face was in the evening sun, so the smile in the sunshine made him look like an aloof but elegant aristocrat, while the side in the shadow made him look like a distant and sinister demon.

Zhao Zhi was handsome, but he looked dangerous too.

But Song Caitang wasn’t afraid of him. She met his gaze, raising her chin slightly so her beautiful smile basked in the setting sun, “I’ll settle the rest!”