This Young Man’s Really Handsome

“It’s really hard to say.”

Fuliu wasn’t sure, so he didn’t dare to give a definite answer. “We men aren’t as sensitive as women. Yuetao was a very timid girl when she was younger, so even though she grew more confident with age, she often cried secretly at night. I don’t know if she had ever been upset with the way Mi Gaojie treated her, but she was always fierce whenever they argued.”

“Mi Gaojie wasn’t so nasty to Yuetao at first and was nice to her too, but because Yuetao kept ruining his plans, he started to… honestly, given the way he cussed at her, I wouldn’t think he regretted being like this to her at all.”

In other words, there was no way to ascertain this point.

Song Caitang and Zhao Zhi exchanged glances for a moment and sighed quietly.

It didn’t really matter if they didn’t get an answer to this part. There were more important questions to ask.

Zhao Zhi asked Fuliu, “What happened between Wenxiang and Yuetao between the Ghost Festival and the Double Seventh Festival?”

This time, Fuliu did not respond immediately.

He suddenly became a little wary. The questions so far had been pretty general, so he didn’t mind answering them. But this question seemed really specific…

“Are you guys… court officials?”

Zhao Zhi threw another piece of silver to Fuliu.

And he also threw an arm over Song Caitang’s shoulder and pulled her toward him. “We’re just curious. What else would us guys get all curious about?”

Once he made that move, his body language instantly became more flirtatious. And that wink he gave Song Caitang made him look like one of those wastrels who spent all their time having fun with women.

He behaved flirtatiously, but it wasn’t repulsive.

“Don’t you agree?”

Since he threw the question to Song Caitang, she had no choice but to go along with it. She grinned and said, “I totally agree, bro! I’ve been really curious about this! It’s the time of the year where the courtesans compete with each other, so of course we want to hear more about the courtesans!”

As she tried hard not to throw up from cringing at her own acting, she stepped on Zhao Zhi’s foot.

She stepped on his foot hard.

Real hard.

And did it a few times.

She refused to believe that there was no other way to get Fuliu to talk!

Why couldn’t they just tell Fuliu they were here to officially interrogate him? He would have no choice but to say all these things anyway! Why did they have to do it this way?

Zhao Zhi remained completely unmoved. He only used the fingers on his hand around her shoulder to tap her shoulder gently, as though he was trying to comfort her.

Her rash act of stepping angrily on his foot only made her angrier.

She was stepping on his foot with all her might, but it felt like nothing to him.

ARGH!

She told herself to calm down. Be steady. She was a well brought up woman.

After taking a moment to persuade herself, she smiled confidently at Fuliu, “Of course, if you’re willing to talk, no problem. We can always find someone else who’s willing to tell us the stories we want to hear.”

As she spoke, her gaze casually floated past the bag of silver pieces hanging on Zhao Zhi’s belt.

Fuliu’s eyes lit up.

This was easy money! He wasn’t going to let anybody else earn it!

“How could you say that after we’ve built up such good rapport! Who else would know these two girls better than me? There’s no need to call on someone else, I’ll tell you everything I know. Please don’t be angry, let me tell you all about it…”

As he spoke, he smiled and caused a number of wrinkles to appear around his eyes, which made him look even uglier.

He probably had no idea how ugly he looked when he smiled so hard and continued smiling as his voice actually grew more confident, “The Ghost Festival and the Double Seventh Festival are important days for every flower boat on Qingling River. Even if there was no courtesan competition, we would be extremely busy at this time of the year. Our girls would be running from one event to another, and they’d be busy from noon all the way until the next morning, and they wouldn’t even get the chance to sleep…”

At this point, he rubbed his hands and threw a lecherous grin at Zhao Zhi, “Of course, I’m talking about sleeping in a literal sense, not sleeping as in… I’m sure you know what I mean.”

Zhao Zhi frowned. “We’re asking about the two girls here, so stick to it!”

“Yes, yes, I’m sorry about my stupid mouth,” Fuliu glanced at Song Caitang as he slapped his own mouth. “I won’t do that again.”

He didn’t slap his mouth hard, but his arm had moved very dramatically to look like it was hard.

Song Caitang almost clapped for him.

“So, moving on. What did Wenxiang do during the Double Seventh Festival? How many events did she go for and who did she meet with?”

This was a serial murder that occurred so close to one another. There had to be a reason for it. These two cases were definitely connected somehow.

Zhao Zhi added after some thought, “What was Yuetao’s reaction to it? What did she do?”

Fuliu paused to recall, “There was so much activity that day, so many events, so many people, I can’t really remember all of it clearly, so it would be easier if a few of us sat down to talk about it. Which event do you want to know about the most?”

Zhao Zhi exchanged glances with Song Caitang, then put his wine cup down on the table. “The most important event of the day. Wenxiang and Yuetao’s reactions and conflicts.”

“Oh! That’s easy!” Fuliu slapped his thigh. “The most important event on the Double Seventh Festival was the last one at night, the one hosted by all the young masters! Conflict? Of course there was conflict! This event was supposed to go to Yuetao, but Wenxiang snatched it from her!”

It was Yuetao’s event, but Wenxiang snatched it from her…

So, was the killer’s original target Yuetao? But Wenxiang ended up getting killed because she took over the event?

But if that was the case, what pattern was the killer following when it came to choosing targets?

No, that still didn’t sound right.

Song Caitang frowned slightly and shook her head. If Wenxiang wasn’t a target, why did she have that butterfly hairpin?

All three female victims had butterfly hairpins, and she did not think it was a coincidence.

Zhao Zhi clearly did not think so either.

He tapped a finger against the table. “Did Wenxiang behave strangely at the event?”

“Behave strangely…” Fuliu tilted his head as he tried to remember what Wenxiang was like that night. “I don’t think so? If anything, she was dressed more prettily than usual, because the event was important to her. That made sense – the guests that night were all famous young masters who would pay her handsomely. If she could become a favorite of theirs, she would make a lot of money in no time! Wenxiang felt that she had a bright future ahead and made a big show of sending blusher to Yuetao. She even said, “Little girl, be good and stay at home, leave such big events to your older sisters. Don’t think that just because you’re a little prettier than some girls, you can get anything you want. You’ve got a loooong way more to go!””

These words were especially sarcastic and rather memorable, plus Fuliu did a good job of repeating them in that sort of tone. Song Caitang and Zhao Zhi could practically imagine how arrogant and smug Wenxiang must have looked.

After a moment of silence, Zhao Zhi asked, “What about Yuetao? How did she react?”

“How else? She was angry. She went back to her room and threw things on the floor, cut up her clothes and broke a whole bunch of things…”

“What about after that?” Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes. “Wenxiang didn’t come back and went missing for several days. How did she react to that?”

The pimp could fool the customers, but she couldn’t hide this from the people living in the brothel. They were fierce rivals, so Yuetao must have been watching Wenxiang’s every move and she would have known when Wenxiang went missing.

“Her event on the Double Seventh Festival had been taken from her, so Yuetao didn’t get any business that night and she was in a foul mood. The boss went to console her and asked her to get some rest. But someone forgot to close the window properly and the maids were afraid of getting scolded, so they didn’t check her room either, and so Yuetao caught a cold and was so dizzy the next day, she couldn’t even get out of bed. The boss quickly called for a doctor and we were busy for a while with that… I think it was the afternoon of the 9th day that Yuetao discovered that Wenxiang had not come back. She asked her maid and confirmed it. She threw her cup and said, “Serves her right! Don’t ever come back! Better if she’s dead! That’s what you get for stealing my chance!””

Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang both asked a lot of questions. As long as they paid up, Fuliu was willing to answer them. His answers were to the point and detailed too.

Song Caitang suddenly thought of asking from a different angle, “You seem to know everything in such detail. Are you watching by the side every time the girls have an event?”

“That’s right,” Fuliu nodded. “The work is hard and the girls have a temper too, so there are times when they offend the customer and they don’t know how to deal with it. Even if they don’t offend the customer, it’s no good to leave a bad impression even on the customer’s servants. There are many things that people like us have to take care of.”

This question helped Zhao Zhi to find a new angle too. “If the girls are disobedient, you are also in charge of punishing them, right?”

“Well, that…” Fuliu rubbed his hands and grinned. “Of course. But it happens a lot less than in the past.”

As for how courtesans were punished at such events… Zhao Zhi didn’t want to talk about it with Song Caitang around. It was too filthy to talk about.

Fuliu looked like he was very good at this too.

Zhao Zhi put his wine cup down with a soft but crisp thud and the room fell silent for a while.

Bam! The boat suddenly started swaying wildly.

A voice accompanied the footsteps on the boat, “Who is… who is curious about… Wen… xiang and… Yuetao?”

The intruder was probably drunk. His face and neck were red, his footsteps were unsteady and he stumbled over his words. When he saw the people on the boat, he shook his head hard and shouted, “Don’t… move! Let me… have a good… look!”

Song Caitang was speechless.

Fuliu quickly whispered to them, “He’s a regular named Yu Mingzhi, but he doesn’t come to us very often because he’s usually at Yicui Place next to us. He’s a patron of Miss Wushuang from Yicui Place.”

It was hard to tell if it was because Yu Mingzhi’s footsteps were too unsteady or if he dropped it on purpose, but the wine flask fell from his hands and he burst out laughing. “Your boss… is really amazing! The girl’s… dead, but… she can still… earn from her! That’s… that’s… impressive!”

As he laughed, he started making his way toward Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang. “Brothers, BURP! Dead people… are no fun… why don’t you… come with me to look for… Miss W-wushuang! Don’t… don’t think that just because… she’s got a name that means unrivalled, she’s… proper… you know what she’s… unrivalled at? She’s unrivalled… in bed! So soft, so… sweet, so… coquettish, so wild… she’s unrivalled in bed… for sure! HAHAHA! HAHAHAHA!”

Fuliu awkwardly came forward to pull Yu Mingzhi back. “He’s Wushuang’s diehard fan and he’s had a bit too much to drink. Don’t bother with what he’s saying, I’ll get someone to take him away.”

Song Caitang was a little curious. “He likes Wushuang, but he’s willing to get more customers for her?”

She didn’t quite understand that logic. If he liked the girl, wouldn’t he be more possessive of her? But here he was, trying to get her more customers. What was he thinking?

“It’s precisely because he likes her,” Fuliu was used to this practice and didn’t think it was anything unusual. “He wants Wushuang to earn more money and he wants her to get better at her job. He wants more people to know how good she is… If she’s happy, he’d be happy. If she’s not happy, then… he won’t just be willing to spend more money on her or spend more time coaxing her. Committing murder and arson for the smile of a beautiful woman isn’t just something that happened in history, you know?”

Song Caitang gulped.

She felt that calling him a “fan” was an insult to the word.

The aristocratic circles were so messed up.

“Oh my, this young man’s really handsome! An aura like the moon! Like jade! What a fair face! How interesting!”

When Fuliu tried to pull Yu Mingzhi away, he swayed closer to Song Caitang. His eyes instantly lit up lustily when he saw Song Caitang and he could even speak more smoothly than before.

“When did Miaoyin Court start offering men? Fuliu, how could you keep this from me…”

“Gosh, Young Master Yu! He is a customer!”

Fuliu ran in front to pull him back some more, but he was too slow and Yu Mingzhi had already stretched a hand out to pinch Song Caitang’s face.

Pak!

A small round object came flying and hit Yu Mingzhi’s hand. Song Caitang thought she heard the sound of a bone breaking.

“OWWWW!” Yu Mingzhi yelped as he clutched his hand. “It’s broken! My hand’s broken! MY HAND’S BROKEN!”

Fuliu tried not to roll his eyes. “Young Master Yu, your hand’s perfectly fine. It’s not broken.”

“It’s not?”

Yu Mingzhi brought his hand closer to his face and inspected it for a moment, shook his head hard and stared at it again, to the point where he was cross-eyed. He finally broke into a smile and said, “Yeah, you’re right, it’s not broken… Why was it so painful then? Did I get candle wax on it?”

Song Caitang glanced at Zhao Zhi.

He seemed to be angry.

His expression hadn’t changed. It looked as emotionless and distant as ever. But the look in his eyes. The dark black color of his eyes seemed to be stirring up a storm, like the sky before a thunderstorm hit.

But Yu Mingzhi didn’t think a little pain could deter him from having fun with this handsome young man in front of him. It was just candle wax, after all.

He licked the back of his hand and grinned lecherously as he suddenly leaped and pounced toward Song Caitang.

“You’ve got quite the fiery temper, eh?”

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes as he pulled Song Caitang into his embrace and raised one of his long legs to give Yu Mingzhi a kick that was hard enough to send him flying out of the window.

SPLASH!

That… was loud.

Song Caitang stared at Zhao Zhi.

“I could have dodged that myself.”

She really could have.

She looked at Zhao Zhi very earnestly.

Zhao Zhi helped her to sit back down again, his brows knitted so tightly, the crease could squish a fly to death. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have let you come along.”

Song Caitang did not like the tone he used.

She felt that she had to stand up for herself at this point, otherwise she wouldn’t get a chance to do something like that ever again.

“Is it because you think all women are useless?”

Zhao Zhi raised an eyebrow with a warning look in his eyes. “Song Caitang.”

Song Caitang looked back at him with a calm and confident expression on her face. “I admit that there are situations that disadvantage women and they might need others to help them at such times. But there are other times when I think you ought to trust me more, otherwise…”

“…Otherwise, I think it’s not possible for us to be friends anymore.”