No Longer Breathing

Gan Zhixuan’s sobbing was truly heartwrenching.

After he was finally done crying, he asked Song Caitang and Wen Yuansi with reddened eyes, “Was my mother really the killer? She really killed Lu Guangzong?”

But neither Song Caitang nor Wen Yuansi answered him.

Regardless of what others said, or what Fourth Missy Gan had written herself, without evidence, they could not jump to conclusions.

Her admission of guilt was very questionable.

That day, Qi Yan had spotted someone wearing Pang Qian’s official robes, and Fourth Missy Gan had spotted the same person. The two did not know each other and did not come into contact, so they could not be in cahoots.

The time that person in Pang Qian’s clothes had appeared was very odd, so that person might very well be the killer.

If Fourth Missy Gan had been that person, she wouldn’t have said that she saw this person at all.

As for why she was admitting it now and had run off to commit suicide…

Song Caitang and Wen Yuansi had their own view on this.

But this was not the time to think about this. Finding Fourth Missy Gan was more important.

They had not received any news at all, which meant that Zhao Zhi wasn’t making any progress.

Every minute was precious!

Fourth Missy Gan might still be alive!

Song Caitang breathed in and out slowly to calm herself down. She asked Gan Zhixuan, “Do you still remember what that note said?”

Gan Zhixuan wiped his tears away, “It said that… she was the one who caused Commissioner Lu’s death… that it was her fault that the authorities had been busy for so long. She was tired, feeling guilty, and couldn’t hang on anymore, so she wanted to just pay for her crime…”

“She told me not to be afraid because I didn’t have to be. She always liked water, so she knew from a long time ago that the water would be her final resting place… if I couldn’t find her and pull her body out, I could just take it as a water burial. If I found her, then I should just find a cheap coffin and bury her by the water, and not take her far away…”

Song Caitang’s eyes trembled slightly, “You said… she likes water?”

Gan Zhixuan nodded.

“What sort of water?”

Gan Zhixuan shook his head, “How would I know?”

Even Wen Yuansi couldn’t stand it. He snorted, “You don’t know anything about your mother. But your mother knows everything about you.”

He looked at Song Caitang and said, “This entire house is so clean and well taken care of, so Fourth Missy Gan probably loves clean and quiet places. She wouldn’t care for a place that’s crowded, where the water’s dirty, or where the shore is a mess.”

Song Caitang nodded in agreement.

But Gan Zhixuan’s eyes widened, “How do you know that?”

They ignored him and continued trying to think.

Knowing that wasn’t enough to narrow down their options by much. Luanze had plenty of clean and calm waters for them to choose from.

Song Caitang scanned the clean room and the dress on the screen, then suddenly thought of something.

“Do you know where your mother likes to go? Where she would go? What was she wearing at that time? Surely you know this, right?”

Anyone who wanted to kill themselves would often take note of the last impression they wanted to leave on the world, especially women. Fourth Missy Gan was leaving the house as well, so she couldn’t have gone out looking drabby. She would have put on a nice set of clothing that she liked.

And there was definitely a good reason why she liked this particular dress and why she wanted to wear it at a time like this.

Gan Zhixuan stared blankly at them for a long time, then shook his head.

Wen Yuansi stared back at him, “That was the last time you saw your mother, but you only remember your nasty comments and you don’t even remember what she was wearing?”

“I didn’t know it would be the last time I would see her!” Gan Zhixuan’s face was all red, his embarrassment quickly turning into anger, “Besides, aren’t all women’s clothing the same? How can I tell one from the other!”

Song Caitang narrowed her eyes, “Surely you can remember the color, right?”

She marched up to the closet and opened it loudly, “Like you said, your mother is thrifty and doesn’t like ‘nice’ clothes. That means she has very few nice pieces, and you would definitely know those. Look in here and see which color is missing! Which dress is missing from these nicer ones?”

The two of them were staring so fiercely at him, he got scared and quickly looked inside the closet…

Song Caitang was right. He could actually tell the clothes apart.

His mother didn’t have a lot of nice clothes, and she hadn’t bought new ones in years since she just alternated between what she already had. He couldn’t remember exactly which one she was wearing that day, but to look for the one that was missing from the closet…

“It’s an azure colored dress!”

Azure colored…

Song Caitang asked a follow-up question, “What sort of skirt did it have? A luoqun? A yuehuaqun? Xiangqun?”¹

“It was a bafuqun!” Gan Zhixuan had a confident look in his eye, “When this dress was made five years ago, my mother described it this way many, many times. I had no idea what it meant, but I remembered it. It’s a bafuqun!”²

“What about the embroidery?”

Song Caitang spoke very quickly and moved closer to him to pressure him into recalling as much as he could, “The skirt couldn’t be completely plain. What did it have? Peach blossoms? Pomegranates? Grapes?”

“N-no, they weren’t peach blossoms, not pomegranates either…”

He clutched his head and was forced into a corner from how closely Song Caitang came toward him.

It finally hit him, “Orange daylilies! They were orange daylilies!”

Song Caitang stopped walking toward Gan Zhixuan and turned to meet Wen Yuansi’s gaze.

Orange daylilies had slim stems and orange petals arranged like a lily’s. It was also known as the “announcement of a son” plant and “forget your worries” plant.³

Fourth Missy Gan liked this flower?

Of course she did. If she didn’t, why would she embroider it onto her clothes? And these were her highest quality and most expensive clothes too.

Wen Yuansi remarked, “Orange daylilies grow easily. They grow in humid places, but can withstand dry weather. They like the sunshine, but can survive in the shade too. It’s a plant with a strong will to live.”

And because it was also known as the “announcement of a son” plant, it was used to signify the blessing of having a son. Married women with no sons often wore dresses with these flowers embroidered on the hem to the temple to pray for a son. Those with sons would also wear such dresses to pray for their sons.

It was little wonder that Fourth Missy Gan liked these flowers.

So… they had to think in this direction.

A lake that was clean, uncrowded, where orange daylilies grew.

There wouldn’t be a lot of such places at this time of the year.

Song Caitang had just read through the geographical records of Luanze two days ago and the content was still fresh in her mind. She started searching through her memories for such a place…

There was only one!

After shutting her eyes to think, she shouted, “The Cuixian Lake in the east of the city!”

She immediately ran out of the house.

Wen Yuansi quickly ran after her while telling his men to bring Gan Zhixuan along.

But after Song Caitang ran down the street and hit another street, she turned toward the west instead of the east.

Wen Yuansi was speechless for a moment, then called out, “Miss Song! It’s this side…”

Song Caitang’s face reddened a little when she heard his voice.

She had a good memory and she could memorize the map, but when it came to actually finding her way…

Oops.

If Zhao Zhi were here, he would have laughed loudly at her. But Wen Yuansi was much more gentlemanly. His expression was as serious as ever, as if he had not noticed that she had run the wrong way. There wasn’t a single smile line on his face.

He didn’t make her feel embarrassed at all.

“Uh… yeah, let’s go,” she ran back to where Wen Yuansi was and followed him instead.

He furrowed his brows slightly and said, “Give me a moment. I’ll tell my men to send the message to Surveillance Commissioner Zhao.”

Reality proved the difference between those trained in martial arts and those who weren’t.

Song Caitang and Wen Yuansi had traveled as quickly as they could and even took a horse carriage. But by the time they arrived at Cuixian Lake, the entire place was filled with people.

Zhao Zhi was standing on the highest point on a rock to instruct the runners who could swim best. He was like a spear that stuck out a head above the rest, so they spotted him immediately.

Qi Yan had made it to the lake as well. He saw Song Caitang from afar and waved to her.

Perhaps he had also realized that it was too hard for her to get through the crowd, so he personally came over to open up a path for her.

Wen Yuansi… obviously just followed behind her.

“How is it? Have they found her?”

After the last time they went drinking, Qi Yan found Wen Yuansi exceptionally agreeable and felt that this man was a very considerate one. He didn’t mind that Wen Yuansi was around and said, “Nope, I just got here and Brother Zhi got here not too long before that. He said there wasn’t anybody here when he first arrived, and didn’t see Fourth Missy Gan either, but he didn’t want to take any chances, so he got his men into teams to start searching the area.”

“All these people…”

“They just got here too! Brother Zhi was in a hurry to conduct the search, so he didn’t get to keep the news under wraps. Everyone on the streets saw them come here, so they came too…”

Qi Yan just said whatever came to mind without needing Wen Yuansi to probe him.

“If a person throws themselves into a lake, they’d sink and float to the surface only a few days later… and they’d look awful by then. We’ve got to find her today. It’s really amazing though – when I first got here, I marveled at how Miss Song managed to guess this was the right place. But when I looked out at the rough lake waters, I felt pretty awful. I’m hoping we can find Fourth Missy Gan, but at the same time, I thought that perhaps it would be better if we can’t find her…”

No news was good news. If they couldn’t find her, then there was a possibility that she had gone elsewhere, or that she had changed her mind about killing herself.

But Wen Yuansi said, “That’s hard to say. Fourth Missy Gan seems very determined this time.”

Fourth Missy Gan was pretty and did use her beauty to get what she wanted from time to time. Others might frown on her for doing this, but she was also a person with strong opinions. Once she had decided to raise her son herself and never let him find out who his father was, she gritted her teeth and did just that.

Once she had made a decision, she would see it through to the end.

This time was no different.

As she pushed through the crowd, Song Caitang glanced at the restless lake waters, then met Zhao Zhi’s gaze in the distance.

She shut her eyes for a while. She wanted to be as optimistic as Qi Yan, but given what she knew of Fourth Missy Gan’s personality… if she couldn’t be found outside of the lake, then… she would be inside.

A patch of dark clouds suddenly came from nowhere, blocking the sun and making the winds extremely cold. It was almost the fifth month of the year, yet the temperature dropped so hard that their clothing wasn’t sufficient to keep them warm anymore. They felt the chill in their bones.

Time passed by silently.

Everyone knew what was going on now, so even the onlookers kept quiet and stood still with anxious and worried looks on their faces. Nobody laughed, made noise or gossiped among themselves.

A life was at stake right now.

Everyone just waited in silence.

It was hard to say how long they waited for.

All of a sudden, a drenched head popped out of the water, “Found her! I found her! She’s here!”

Everyone in the lake, especially those closest to him, quickly swam over to help. An uproar went through the crowd watching as they all took a step forward and started talking excitedly among themselves.

“Get her head out first! She might still be alive!”
“Check if she’s still breathing!”
“Do your best guys! Watch out for the sharp rocks on the side! Don’t go too far out!”

Everyone was clearly hoping that the person who had slipped beneath the surface of the lake for so long was still alive.

But…

When the runners carried Fourth Missy Gan onto the shore and put a finger under her nostrils to see if she was still breathing, they shook their heads.

“She’s not breathing anymore.”

The entire crowd fell silent, then a sigh was heard. Soft chatter started again only after a long time.

“What a pity.”
“I heard she was only in her thirties. That’s too young to die.”
“Why was she so foolish?”

There were all sorts of comments among the people. Most of them didn’t know who Fourth Missy Gan was. They didn’t know why she wanted to kill herself, and definitely had no idea that she had left a suicide note that confessed to a murder.

Song Caitang came to where she laid.

Fourth Missy Gan was indeed wearing an azure colored dress with orange daylilies embroidered on it. The dress was badly crumpled and the belt was loose; her face was pale and her wet, messy, black hair was plastered on her face. The colors made each other stand out even more – the blue seemed bluer, the white seemed paler, and the black seemed blacker.

She was still beautiful, but there was no life in her and she didn’t look as neat and tidy as she normally was.

Song Caitang touched her neck to check for a pulse and confirmed that it wasn’t just too weak for the runners to detect. There was none at all.

Was the woman… really dead?

But she was still a little warm.

Song Caitang did a quick check of Fourth Missy Gan’s neck, hands, arms, chest.

After examining so many corpses, her nose wasn’t the only thing that was sharper than most others. Her hands were also able to sense what temperature something was at.

For an adult body in spring, their bodies would fall less than 1 degree Celsius every hour indoors. But it would fall much faster in water, falling at an average of 3 to 4 degrees every hour. The temperature of their limbs and torso might fall at different rates.

But Fourth Missy Gan’s body… was still warm.

Song Caitang started thinking quickly to calculate what time Fourth Missy Gan might have gone under the surface based on her current body temperature…

It might have happened just before Zhao Zhi arrived!

Even if she wanted to commit suicide, she wouldn’t have died immediately, since she would have hesitated and struggled for a while. Fourth Missy Gan struggled for a long time!

In that case…

She might have spent less than half an hour in the water!

Half an hour was the time taken for someone to drown.

It was not common for bodies to seem dead when they weren’t but when it happened, it was often because they stopped breathing.

This woman could still be saved!

The chances were slim, but Song Caitang had to try!

She placed her hands on Fourth Missy Gan’s abdomen, felt it for a moment, then called out to the nearest runner, “Throw her legs over your shoulder so that her back is against your back, then start walking! Hurry!”

The runner was confused. The woman was already dead, so what was all this for?

He turned to look at Wen Yuansi for his opinion, to see Wen Yuansi nod at him and motion to him to listen to her. Zhao Zhi acted even more quickly, flying over and commanding him, “Listen to her instructions!”

The runner had no choice but to carry Fourth Missy Gan the way Song Caitang had described and started walking.

After he took just two steps forward, Fourth Missy Gan vomited a large amount of water. He took another two steps forward and she let out more water. She just kept going as he walked…

She had swallowed too much water!

“What are they doing?”
“Are they trying to save her?”
“But she’s already dead and she’s no longer breathing, so how are they going to save her? Blow air into her so that she starts breathing again? That’d be crazy, wouldn’t it?”
“Hey, don’t sound so doubtful, will you? Do you see that young lady over there? That’s Miss Song! She’s got the hands of the devil but the heart of Buddha, so she can revive the dead! She did just that a couple of months ago, saving a man on the streets! She’s doing it again! She’s going to snatch this woman away from the Lord of Hades!”
“Snatch this woman, my foot! I’m not going to believe that! Do you know how much it takes to do something like that?!”
“Ha! Watch out, you’re going to get slapped in the face for saying that! Miss Song’s definitely going to revive that woman!”