He Must Be The Killer!

Song Caitang’s words were like a clap of thunder that really shocked Zhao Zhi and Qi Yan to their core.

Qi Yan didn’t even blink as he stared at Song Caitang and even stuttered, “Y-y-you said you know wh-who it is? Wh-wh-who is it? Who?”

Zhao Zhi was a little more sensitive and instantly knew that Song Caitang must have picked up on something.

“The girls did leave clues behind.” Song Caitang looked at Zhao Zhi with a sparkle in her eye. “What are your thoughts?”

“The strange fragrance.” Zhao Zhi was referring to the smell that emerged from Yuetao’s stomach when it was cut open, which was recorded in her autopsy report. “Wenxiang’s best skill was perfuming. Her methods and recipes were unique, so even if another person could not identify it, Yuetao would have been familiar with them.”

“My guess is that after Wenxiang had been fooled and finally captured by the killer, she must have felt very indignant and would want to find a way to tell others who it was, especially her younger sister.”

The two girls were very close, so while the older sister protected the younger sister as most would assume, the younger sister was also doing her best to protect her older sister. They were the ones who knew each other the best. Wenxiang knew that if she got out of this safely, all would be well. But if she died, Yuetao would definitely try to avenge her.

She didn’t want Yuetao to walk down the same unfortunate path as her, so she would think of a way to leave some clues behind, or to stop her, or to warn her.

Using her spices would be the easiest method.

Even though it was difficult to make something under such circumstances, an expert perfumer would see many things as ingredients. Everyday items could be used too.

“But I know too little about spices, so I’m not sure if that’s really what happened and I don’t know how to go about investigating this aspect.”

Zhao Zhi guessed that Yuetao got the message too late and she had already walked into a trap set up by the killer. The killer was in full control, so she couldn’t kill him and she couldn’t escape either.

“So, your opinion is,” Song Caitang fell into deep thought, “Yuetao had no choice but to swallow some spices when the situation was very tense and she might be found out anytime. Or rather, she had deliberately swallowed those spices to hint to us that the person who killed her and her cousin were actually the same person.”

The smell of anything one ate would come out from the mouth. Some of these spices had a very strong smell, so they would be able to last several days.

Unfortunately, the body ended up in water. After being soaked for some time, the smell had faded a lot. Song Caitang had not noticed any smell on the day the body was discovered.

Qi Yan was about to go mad. “So many courtesans have been killed, so it’s obvious that this guy’s a psycho killer! Who cares about leaving behind special hints?! Who’s the killer! Tell me! Gosh! This is driving me nuts!”

“I’m right here and I’m not going to disappear. Why are you so anxious?” Song Caitang smiled at him. “I suppose you’ve forgotten that if not for our Surveillance Commissioner Zhao here pushing the investigation further and wider than this case itself, none of the previous victims would have been found.”

To most people, these girls were merely courtesans, shameless women who sold their bodies. It was hard to even estimate how many of them were out there. The flower boats only cared about making money and didn’t care if their courtesans died, the courts didn’t like to have anything to do with them, and they had no families to push for a thorough investigation. Nobody knew or cared if there was one more or one less, or even ten more or ten less.

If not for Zhao Zhi, Wen Yuansi and Governor Zhang might not be able to hold up against the pressure from higher ups to just abandon the case. And even if they were able to, their positions were much lower than Zhao Zhi’s and they would not be able to find out so much in such a short time.

If the case was missing important clues, it might not be classified as a serial murder. Besides, the weather was warm and bodies decomposed fast at such temperatures. If just one coroner was negligent, then Wenxiang and Yuetao’s deaths might end up like all the victims before them. It would be shocking for a while, but eventually the case would be thrown aside without any conclusion.

Qi Yan finally realized what she was trying to say and scratched his head. “Oh, you’re right… when they died, they didn’t know that Brother Zhi would end up taking charge of this case…”

“So,” Zhao Zhi looked down at Song Caitang with a slight twinkle in his eye, “what are your findings?”

Song Caitang grew serious. “Why was Yuetao special?”

Zhao Zhi’s eye twitched a little.

That had been the hardest question so far and they still didn’t have an answer.

Why was Yuetao the only one who was different? Nobody else had anything stuffed into them. Why only Yuetao?

“Before this, we thought that Yuetao was special to the killer and he had treated her differently as a result. But what if…” Song Caitang’s gaze flickered, her calm and faint voice seemingly more charming in the night, “this wasn’t something that the killer did?”

Qi Yan shuddered because the other possibilities he thought of filled him with fear. “If it wasn’t the killer… but how could that be? The killer was the one who put those things there!”

“Of course, he was the one who put them there. But what I mean is,” Song Caitang glanced sharply at Qi Yan, “was the idea of putting them in there something he had suddenly thought of himself? Or was it Yuetao who wanted it?”

Qi Yan’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. “Yuetao herself wanted it? But why would she? That would have been so painful! So awful! Was she dumb or something?!”

She was being abused at that point in time and was probably on the verge of collapse. Why would she want to add to her pain?

Qi Yan could not understand.

“Yuetao was not dumb. She was actually very clever.” Zhao Zhi understood what Song Caitang was saying. He shut his eyes slightly and looked very grim. “She was doing that in order to communicate with us.”

Song Caitang’s eyes were watery, as though she felt very sad, and felt it was such a pity that a bright young woman had died like this. In the end, she could only let out a quiet sigh.

“She must have been in great pain and very frightened, and she might have just hoped for a quick death. She knew that nobody cared about the lives of courtesans, so nobody would bother even if she died, and the authorities might not bother to investigate the case thoroughly. Even so, she still wanted to leave clues behind as hints for the investigators.”

She wanted to bring the killer to justice!

Qi Yan gasped after she had explained this. What a clever and resilient young woman Yuetao was!

Song Caitang went on, “The killer is an abusive person, so he would be satisfied only when the victim expresses fear through not just her words, but also the way her body naturally reacts from how terrified she is. But if Yuetao already seems terrified, yet dares to make such a request, what do you think the killer would do?”

“He would… think that this woman is shameless, and he was not going to get the gratification he wanted. So since she wanted more…” Qi Yan’s teeth were chattering. “The killer would abuse her even harder!”

Yuetao must have suffered a lot more pain than the victims before her.

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes. “Men can’t resist a challenge.”

If Yuetao dared to push him, the killer would dare to give her more. And he would give her even more than what she wanted, because it would make him feel even more excited.

Song Caitang went on, “So, the killer made a mistake here. He acceded to her request, and Yuetao was able to successfully use this to tell us who the killer is.”

“So who in the world is the killer?” Qi Yan only got more agitated thinking about this. “The clamshells, the pearls, the turquoise, the gold and silver beads… these are all just stuff you can buy anywhere and they were not marked at all. How would we know who the owner is?”

If they decided to search along these lines, then they would be going back to square one, no?

Song Caitang raised a brow, an intelligent spark gleamed brightly in her eyes. “What do these things have in common? What else are they besides just valuable items?”

What else were they?

Qi Yan was stumped.

He had no idea!

Song Caitang threw him another hint, “They all have colors.”

Qi Yan’s jaw dropped. “They all have colors? I mean, everything in the world has colors…”

Zhao Zhi’s eyes suddenly widened as he thought of something else. “They’re color pigments.”

Song Caitang nodded. “That’s right. They’re color pigments used in paints!”

Clamshells were for making white paint, turquoise for making green paint, pearls for a more silvery white, while the gold and silver beads could be ground into gold and silver powder…

Song Caitang had watched a TV show that talked about this. Many precious stones used in women’s jewelry, the ones of high grade, were all used in paints. The more picky a painter was, the more they would be concerned with the sort of pigments they used. Sometimes, they refused to buy paints from retailers and would rather make them themselves.

These valuable items were unmarked, but they were definitely very high grade items. Anyone could see that.

And if that was the right direction to take, and Yuetao was using these as clues, then there was only one possibility.

The killer was Liu Zhenghao!

He was the only one among the suspects who knew how to paint, and he was a very good painter with very high standards!

He was also from a prominent family, so he had plenty of money and servants. He could go anywhere he wanted and bring as much stuff as he liked without a problem.

Zhao Zhi’s gaze became distant and frosty as he gnashed his teeth loudly, “Liu. Zheng. Hao.”

It took a long time for Qi Yan to snap himself out from his shock.

“But we visited the Lius today… he doesn’t look like a murderer at all. He was honest and cooperative too. We said we wanted to search for something and while he was initially reluctant, he agreed to it eventually. The difficult one was his father! Liu Qinian was the one who deliberately made it difficult the whole way!”

Zhao Zhi snorted, “Isn’t it very normal for a father to protect his son?”

A frightening reality struck Qi Yan. “You mean Liu Qinian knows…”

“With a logical deduction and suspicions in place, along with other clues and evidence, it’s just enough to get a search warrant from the courts,” said Zhao Zhi. “I’ll go to the Liu’s again tomorrow.”

Just after he said that, some noise came from beyond the water pavilion. The lights from lanterns were coming toward them.

Zhao Zhi’s expression suddenly fell as he grabbed hold of the back of Qi Yan’s collar and leaped onto the roof within seconds.

It was Guan Qing.

The stars shone dimly from above, while the candlelight in the lanterns danced about. The wind caused the surface of the water to ripple. Guan Qing wore a long blue skirt and a simple ponytail to the side. Her skirt flapped a little in the wind as she walked over elegantly.

Song Caitang was surprised when she finally managed to see who had come. “Why aren’t you asleep at this hour, Eldest Sister?”

“I’m waiting for an important piece of news, and I couldn’t sleep after I was done with all my work, plus I was just feeling really bored. I remembered you often suffer from waking up in the middle of the night, so I thought I’d come over.” Guan Qing frowned. “Why didn’t you light the candles? Also, I thought I heard some noise coming from here…”

As she spoke, she walked around the room once with her lantern to check. “You’ve got rats here?”

Yup. Two very large rats, thought Song Caitang.

But she couldn’t say that. She looked out a little worriedly, then mumbled, “I didn’t hear anything. Maybe… it’s just the sound of the water?”

She poured some tea and got Guan Qing to sit down and have a drink.

Guan Qing finished inspecting the room, then looked out of the window, but did not find anything amiss. She sat down at the table with a frown, “This area is so humid and it’s so far from the inner house. Grandmother and I didn’t like the idea of letting you stay here, but you like it so much and you don’t seem worried at all…”

“This will not do. I’m going to put more guards around here, in case your useless ears fail to pick up any suspicious sounds.”

Guan Qing clapped her hands as she made her final decision.

In most cases, she would not change her mind no matter what, so Song Caitang just smiled faintly and said, “Sure.”

Now that this matter had been addressed, Guan Qing looked worriedly at Song Caitang, “This waking up in the middle of the night thing. Do you want to see a reputable doctor about it? It’s no good to be like this all the time.”

“It’s alright,” Song Caitang waved her hands about, “my body feels fine and I don’t feel unwell anywhere. Look - I don’t even have dark eye rings. I’m sleeping enough.”

Song Caitang felt that she was really alright. She had enough sleep and her body did not show any signs of illness or fatigue, so she should be fine.

But she knew she couldn’t make Guan Qing stop worrying about her, so she changed the topic, “You seldom work till this hour. Did something bad happen to the business?”

“We’re facing a drought,” Guan Qing sighed. “The weather has really been bad this year. It’s been too hot for too long, so the harvest has been poor and Luanze’s output has decreased too…”

Things were fine now, but Guan Qing was worried that they’d run into problems in the near future.

Song Caitang didn’t know much about the business, and the two people on her roof made it hard for her not to be distracted. Her gaze would wander toward the window from time to time.

Zhao Zhi and Qi Yan should have left by now, right?

She really hoped that things would go well when they went to the Liu’s the next day.

Thinking about that made her shake her head slightly as she told herself not to jinx it.

As the two young ladies chatted in the room, Qi Yan was nearly getting choked to death on the roof.

He used all his strength to get the large hand gripping his collar to let go, but failed. At the same time, he was afraid of making too much noise and attracting attention, so he had no choice but to keep struggling. He glared at Zhao Zhi and kept struggling as he used his exaggerated stance and expression to tell Zhao Zhi that he was excellent at being sneaky! He was an expert in walking on walls and flying from rooftop to rooftop!

Holding onto him like this not only failed to keep him from moving and making noise, but it stopped him from doing anything else too! Brother Zhi, snap out of your daze!!!

It took Zhao Zhi a long time to realize this and he finally let go of Qi Yan silently.

His expression remained calm and serious, like he always was. He wasn’t even frowning.

But Qi Yan noticed something amiss.

“You’re perspiring?” He came closer and noticed that Zhao Zhi’s face was covered in sweat. His voice nearly cracked in disbelief, “Why are you sweating so much?”

This was very strange! His Brother Zhi had never been nervous before!

This man had done really crazy things in the capital! He’d challenged and turned families upside down, he’d beaten up members of the empress’ family, he’d even joined the army and fought wars along the border. He’d never been afraid of anything before! Yet, he was sweating profusely now!

Qi Yan tried to console him, “Bro, don’t worry, we didn’t get caught, Guan Qing didn’t see us…”

As he spoke, he suddenly understood why Zhao Zhi was so nervous. “Oh my god, Bro! You’re afraid of getting caught?!”

This guy didn’t fear heaven or hell, or even the emperor. But in tiny Luanze, in Song Caitang’s little house on the lake, he was showing signs of nervousness and fear?!

Zhao Zhi glared at him. “Shut up.”