Episode 110

It was evening by the time the crowd around the lake had dispersed. The mood was a little depressing.

Song Caitang had a lot on her mind, so she walked away quietly and did not talk to Zhao Zhi at all.

Zhao Zhi did not offer to see her home either.

Wen Yuansi was very busy too, so he didn’t take notice.

Qi Yan, however, noticed and immediately abandoned Zhao Zhi. He did not ask why Zhao Zhi was not responding and didn’t seem to care if Zhao Zhi was in a good mood or not. Instead, he ran over to offer to see Song Caitang home.

And…apologize for his cousin’s behavior at the same time.

“My cousin has been spoiled by everyone at home…”

“She can be very petty at times too, and she’s really gone too far this time. I’ll help to tell her parents about it…”

“If you want to teach her a lesson, I promise I won’t intervene! I’ll just stand by the sidelines and I will not help her, so you can do whatever you like to her…but do me a favor, will you? You can do whatever you like to her, but don’t hit her face, okay? It’ll be hard for her to find a husband if her face is affected…”

Qi Yan kept talking and talking, but Song Caitang did not respond to him at all.

That made Qi Yan rather nervous. Could it be that his cousin had really crossed the line and Song Caitang was really angry?

Song Caitang had already entered her house gate, yet he tried to walk in with her. She raised an eyebrow and reminded him, “Mr. Qi, you ought to be heading back.”

Qi Yan saw the word “Guan” carved into the entrance to the estate and got what she meant, “Ohh! Right, right…I’ll go back now.”

But he wanted to confirm if she was angry or not, “Then about what I said just now…”

The smile on Song Caitang’s face was so pure and innocent, “What did you say just now?”

Qi Yan was speechless for a moment.

“N-nothing…I’ll head off then. See you, Song Caitang.”

“Have a safe journey back, Mr. Qi.”

It had been a long and tiring day, but even after lying down in bed for a long time, Song Caitang couldn’t sleep. She kept thinking about the details of the case, the parts that had been worked out, the clues, how to investigate certain aspects further, what new directions they could take, which suspects had not been cooperative, whether they had been lying or keeping mum about certain things…

Zhao Zhi and Wen Yuansi would have been able to think of all the things she was thinking about, so they would probably be doing a lot of investigating and interrogating, and they would have to take time to summarize what they gathered and analyze it…

The night wind gently blew through the window and past her face. The dim moonlight shining in resembled the rippling surface of a lake.

Song Caitang had a very long dream.

The dream was very strange and random. Sometimes she was a coroner, sometimes she was a general, sometimes she was the god of war, who had turned into an immortal from her years of cracking cases, training soldiers and fighting wars. She was invincible and all powerful, too perfect to be human. But regardless of whether she was being professional or not, whether what she said was true or not, whether the commands she gave were good or not, there was always someone protecting her from behind. Everybody listened to everything she said. That was incredulous.

One person constantly stood behind her. He was silent and huge, but he did not speak at all. His face was covered in layers of light, so she could not make out his features. But for some reason, Song Caitang knew this person was very important. She tried to get him to talk and ask for his name, but even until she woke up from her dream, she had failed to achieve either goal.

Unlike how she normally was when she woke up in the middle of the night, Song Caitang was not in good shape when she woke up. Perhaps the dream had been too tiring, or perhaps she had too much on her mind. She sat down with some pen and paper in the moonlight to write down everything she knew about the Lu Guangzong case in an attempt to figure out more things, but nothing came out of it and her right eyelid kept twitching. She finally decided to stop thinking about it and went back to bed.

She was shaken awake.

Qingqiao rarely did something so rude. Song Caitang frowned before her eyes opened.

“Young Mistress! Wake up, Young Mistress! Eldest Young Mistress is in trouble!”

Guan Qing?

Song Caitang woke up with a start, “Eldest Young Mistress is in trouble? What trouble?”

“The authorities!” Qingqiao’s face was pale with anxiety, “Men from the courthouse took Eldest Young Mistress away! They said she might be connected to Commissioner Lu’s case and was at the pub that night too, so she might be the killer!”

Song Caitang hopped out of bed to get dressed, “Who sent these men? Did they have any evidence?”

“They were sent by Governor Li. They didn’t take her away immediately and said that they wanted to ask her some questions, but Eldest Young Mistress doesn’t have the best temper and might not have phrased her words well, so the runners got angry and took her away by force!”

Qingqiao was too anxious, so her hands and feet stiffened up and she had trouble helping Song Caitang to get dressed. Qinxiu came over to help as she said quietly, “Cousin Young Mistress, don’t worry. The authorities must have sufficient evidence in order to convict a person, and they have to be even more careful if they’re bringing a woman in, so it will take quite a while. Eldest Young Mistress was only invited to make a trip to the courthouse, so she will be fine. Take your time to calm down and make your way over, she’ll still be there when you arrive.”

Song Caitang turned to look at Qinxiu.

Qinxiu brought a cup of tea over, “We still have time, so why don’t you have some tea to quench your thirst?”

Song Caitang did feel thirsty since she just woke up, so she took the tea from Qinxiu.

She had noticed that the only ones serving her in the room were either Qingqiao or Qinxiu. Huamei was nowhere to be seen.

That…was probably not Qingqiao’s doing.

Qinxiu…

Was a real talent.

Song Caitang lowered her gaze as she passed the empty teacup back to Qinxiu, “Watch the house.”

She then walked out of her residence with Qingqiao. Qinxiu did not fight to come along or show any displeasure. She quietly bowed and said, “Yes, Cousin Young Mistress.”

Song Caitang went to speak to her grandmother before leaving the house.

Madam Bai had Guan Wan to accompany her and they were both relatively calm. Guan Wan was probably hiding her anxiety because she didn’t want her grandmother to feel worried, but Madam Bai was really calm. She even told Song Caitang that she had already sent someone to the courthouse to check things out and that she didn’t think anything bad would happen, so Song Caitang need not be too afraid.

Song Caitang wasn’t afraid at all. Something had happened and she just had to deal with it. She was certain that Guan Qing couldn’t be the killer. There must have been a misunderstanding somewhere.

But the authorities wouldn’t arrest someone for no reason either.

Governor Li was the type who sided with whoever was in power and wasn’t a good official by any measure, but the law prevented him from doing anything that crossed the line. He had to have evidence in order to arrest someone. Guan Qing must have really been at the pub that night. That was why this was happening.

Lu Guangzong had been at the pub at night, and everything had happened at a small, low-class pub too. A young, unmarried daughter of a respectable family should not be found in such a place, or out at such a time.

So, why did Guan Qing go there?

While these thoughts were running through her head, she heard the sound of a folding fan being unfolded, followed by a man’s voice outside her carriage window, “Miss Song, I’ll go with you.”

Qi Yan?

What was he doing here?

Before she could respond, Qi Yan had already hopped onto the top of the carriage, used his fan to lift the curtain of the window and stuck his face in, “There’s one thing I need to tell you.”

He scratched his head and looked into her eyes, “On the day that Lu Guangzong died, I was at the pub too, remember? I said I saw the leader of the Green Gang, Cao Zhang, flirting with a young woman. I even used that to poke fun at Cao Zhang. Remember that?”

Song Caitang nodded, then narrowed her eyes “You mean, that woman…”

“Yup, that was your cousin, Guan Qing!”

Qi Yan used his fan handle to knock his head repeatedly, “I’m an idiot, really. I remembered everything clearly and I even told myself that I had to mention this when we were all trying to sort out the clues, suspects and the timeline. But before I could talk about it, Cao Zhang shifted the topic and I totally forgot…”

“Then again, you women are to blame too. You girls look completely different with and without makeup. I saw Guan Qing at the Gao family’s party , but because she was dressed and made up soooo differently from that night at the pub, I only felt that she seemed familiar, but thought maybe it’s because she’s your cousin. Many exciting things happened that day too, so I didn’t dwell on it too much…I might have thought of it much earlier otherwise!”

Cao Zhang was involved…

Song Caitang figured this must have had something to do with the family business.

Manager Liu had suddenly shifted his loyalty to Madam Zhang because the two of them were hoping to use their knowledge of Lu Guangzong’s secret to earn money from the Green Gang. But that was not going to be easy. Striking a deal legally already required lots of negotiating and compromising, so striking a deal with a gang was going to be way worse than that.

Guan Qing didn’t want the two of them to ruin the Guan family’s reputation, so she tried to find a way to strike a deal with the Green Gang. She was going to represent the Guan family instead.

But Cao Zhang had only just become the leader of the gang. Guan Qing had no prior dealings with him or contact with him. It was going to be hard to get a chance to meet with him, so…

Many thoughts were running through Song Caitang’s mind and she quickly fell into deep thought, so she didn’t hear a single thing Qi Yan said to defend himself.

The carriage arrived at the courthouse in no time. Qi Yan was generous with tipping the guards, so they were able to get to the main hall without any problem.

Governor Li was interrogating Guan Qing.

“You’re not going to say anything? That’s your idea of cooperating with the authorities to investigate a case? Only the killer would be so afraid to speak up! Guan Qing, did you kill Commissioner Lu or not!”

Guan Qing looked at the teacup in her hands with a calm expression on her face, “Governor Li, if you insist on making a wrongful conviction by forcing me to admit to being the killer when I’m not, then I have nothing to say.”

“You’re not the killer?”

“I am not.”

“Then why won’t you say why you were there? Why were you at the pub that day? What did you do there?”

“It has nothing to do with the case and it is my private business. I do not wish to talk about it.”

Governor Li slammed the table hard, “Private business? I think you’re involved with that Cao Zhang and you’re too ashamed to talk about it!”

“Governor Li, please watch your words!”

Guan Qing put the teacup down on the table and glared angrily at the man, “I am a woman, but I have never dared to think badly of any person without any proof. So, this is the sort of person you are! I get it now!”

“It’s true that I did meet with Leader Cao, and you think I’m the murderer just because of that? Isn’t that a little too simplistic?” She took a few breaths to hold her anger in. She pressed her slim fingers against the table, her eyes glowering furiously, “I didn’t know that Commissioner Lu was at that pub at all! I have no dealings with Commissioner Lu, plus he wasn’t wearing his official robes and looked a complete mess, so it would have been difficult for me to recognize him. I’ve already said that to you many times, why won’t you believe me?”

Governor Li snorted, “Miss Guan is a businesswoman alright. You certainly have a way with words. But according to Cao Zhang’s statement, he was there to meet with Commissioner Lu, and didn’t mention anything about meeting with you. Don’t you think it’s not very nice of you to forcibly drag him into this so that he would take the blame for what you’ve done?”

Guan Qing remained steady as she stared straight at Governor Li and scoffed, “So, you’re admitting that you were wrong?”

Governor Li froze for a moment.

He just accused her of being secretly involved with Cao Zhang, but now, he was saying the two of them didn’t know each other and that Guan Qing was lying and trying to use Cao Zhang as a shield…

What he said contradicted each other, which was really slapping himself in the face.

But he was thick-skinned enough to ignore something like that. So, he slammed the table again and glared at her with a solemn and authoritative look on his face, “I am an official asking you questions about the case in accordance with the rules! You are to answer my questions honestly!”

Guan Qing’s lips curled upward slightly into a sarcastic smile, “It’s true that I didn’t arrange for a meeting with Leader Cao. I paid for information and found out that he would be going there. I purposely went to the pub to wait for him.”

“And you waited until he came?”

“That’s right.”

“What did you say to him?”

“Nothing much.”

“What happened after that?”

“Nothing.”

Guan Qing only admitted to having gone to the pub that night and talking to Cao Zhang, but did not admit to having seen Lu Guangzong because she did not know him personally and would not have been able to tell who he was either. She was also still not willing to tell Governor Li what she talked to Cao Zhang about.

Governor Li was livid, “According to the statement of one of the customers, you were at the pub for a very long time. You were there some time between 7 to 9pm, and you only left at 11pm! What were you doing there for so long? You only met with Cao Zhang for a while and exchanged two sentences? Then Cao Zhang left and ignored you, but you just sat there and waited shamelessly? Were you seriously just being shameless?”

Guan Qing narrowed her eyes.

Now that she understood what sort of person Governor Li was, she didn’t bother telling him to watch his words. She laughed and stared straight into Governor Li’s eyes, “I’m afraid Governor Li doesn’t understand how merchants work. To have a successful business, one has to be trustworthy, be resilient, be steadfast. If one doesn’t even have the determination to cut a deal properly, how can you be certain of what path to take next?”

She was defending herself, but also insulting Governor Li.

Instead of taking the time to search for more clues, figure out the killer’s motive or gather evidence, he was making up stuff and wasting time on her in an attempt to quickly conclude the case. That wasn’t the right way to crack a case at all.

Meanwhile, Song Caitang was still outside with Qi Yan. She frowned slightly as she turned to him, “Why is Governor Li the one dealing with the case? Where’s Zhao Zhi?”

“Brother Zhi said he had to attend to something urgent, and has to leave for one full day to investigate something that happened in the past.”

Qi Yan thought that Song Caitang was worried about her cousin and tried to console her, “Don’t worry, before he left last night, he told me he would only be gone for one full day and he’ll definitely come back after that. This old man isn’t going to get the case.”

“This old man used some dirty tricks to get himself involved and Brother Zhi doesn’t know about it. But Governor Zhang, Magistrate Wen and myself are all here, and Brother Zhi still has authority over the case, so we’ve got everything covered. The old man won’t dare to do anything crazy, so your cousin is going to be fine.”

Song Caitang nodded. She looked back at Guan Qing, who was sitting up straight and staring confidently at Governor Li. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, “I want to talk to her.”

“Sure.”