Xin Yongwang’s Target

“Cousin Caitang…”

A bright voice broke the silence. A slim figure stepped into the sunshine and ran into the small room facing the garden. It was Guan Wan.

She was holding her skirt with one hand and holding a plate of snacks in another. Despite running at that speed, the snacks did not fly off the plate and they were still steaming when she placed the plate in front of Song Caitang. The smell of something sweet, soft and sticky hit Song Caitang’s nostrils. It smelled really tempting.

“Guess who I saw?”

Dong Xin had purposely minimized her presence and stood in the corner like any ordinary servant. Guan Wan didn’t notice anyone else in the room at all and just stared at Song Caitang with her clear, almond-shaped eyes like she really wanted her cousin to ask her.

Song Caitang slowly glanced past Dong Xin.

She took Guan Wan’s hand with a smile and got her to sit down next to her. “What did you see? Something exciting?”

Guan Wan was finally not so nervous and scared anymore, and clearly Guan Wan’s emotions were more important than the murder case.

Dong Xin immediately felt alive again.

Guan Wan replied, “I saw the guy in charge of the Night Sanctum, that Xin Yongwang, talking to Ye Nan!”

Song Caitang poured some tea into a cup and passed it to Guan Wan. “Oh? What did they talk about?”

“I don’t know why but Ye Nan seemed very sad and was crying… Well, okay, I was standing quite a distance away, but Xin Yongwang definitely crossed the line!” Guan Wan drank all the tea at one go. “One is the leader of the sect and the other is the head of all the halls of the sect, so there’s nothing wrong with them talking to one another. But this time, Xin Yongwang actually put his arm around Ye Nan’s shoulder!”

“And he even coaxed her in a soft voice…”

Guan Wan leaned toward Song Caitang, fluttered her eyelids and whispered, “Xin Yongwang said something like, “Don’t worry, it’s all yours, I don’t want any of it” and “I just want to stay by your side forever” and then something about what happened four years ago…”

“It was all very… suspicious, like they’re romantically involved or something.”

Guan Wan fluttered her eyelids again, “He looked like he wanted to say more but kept holding himself back, and at the end, he boldly put an arm around her shoulder and said that he wanted to take care of her…”

“There’s definitely something up with this Xin Yongwang!”

After she finished speaking, she cupped her little face in her hands and looked up at Song Caitang nervously, like a kitten wagging its tail. “So… is that information useful? Will it help you to crack the case?”

Song Caitang smiled and stroked Guan Wan’s face as she nodded. “Wanwan is so clever. This is very useful to me.”

Guan Wan was trapped here because of her, yet the younger girl never complained at all. On the contrary, even if she was afraid, she tried to stay strong. She tried her best to make sure she didn’t give Song Caitang more work to do, or to worry about her, and even tried her best to be helpful. She never had to think about anything so deeply, yet she was doing that now. She was doing so many things she had never done before…

Song Caitang sighed inwardly. If Guan Qing were here, she would have felt so bad for her younger sister.

But Guan Wan didn’t seem to mind. She was relieved to hear that her information was useful to her cousin. She couldn’t wait for the case to be solved so that the killer could be caught and they could get out of here and send a message to Guan Qing to say they were safe and sound.

She knew her older sister would be worried since they hadn’t sent any message home in so long.

But after calming down, she felt her face redden.

When she noticed Xin Yongwang and Ye Nan having a private conversation, she felt that it would help the case and decided to eavesdrop on the two. But eavesdropping on others was not a nice thing to do, and she had a reputation to keep as a young, unmarried woman…

She felt a little embarrassed by what she did.

To avoid having to think about this, she awkwardly changed the topic, “What will the Young Mistress of the Sanctum do now? The poor girl. Her groom-to-be has died, and the head of the sect halls, Xin Yongwang, has confessed to her. If she feels comforted by this, then it’s a good thing. But what if Xin Yongwang isn’t sincerely in love with her?”

“The Night Sanctum is a huge family business and it’s hard for the Young Mistress to handle it all by herself, so she will eventually have to marry someone. If she marries someone who’s true to her, that’s great. But if she marries a bad guy, then she’ll lose both herself and her assets…”

“And that concubine too – she seems to be very magnanimous, but if you think about it, Liao Xingjian is the orphan of the elder sect leader’s friend and has been brought up by the elder sect leader from a young age. Since his father is an old friend of the sect leader, he must have some assets too. Liao Xingjian himself was very capable and I heard that he’s earned quite a bit for the sect. The concubine gave birth to his son, yet she’s not trying to fight for any of these things?” said Guan Wan, raising a finger for each point she made. She seemed rather upset on behalf of Ye Nan.

Song Caitang took a bite of the snack that Guan Wan brought. As always, her snacks were soft, sweet and fragrant, just like how Guan Wan was always so warm and kind.

And since there was actually a third person in the room listening to everything, Song Caitang felt that she should be involved in this as well.

She called Dong Xin by name and asked, “What’s going on with Xin Yongwang? Does everyone in the Sanctum know about him?”

Guan Wan finally realized there was someone else in the room. Her eyes widened as she blinked in shock and seemed to have even forgotten how to drink tea.

Song Caitang stuffed a snack into a hand to snap her out of her daze.

She felt even more embarrassed about herself and shrank back as much as she could.

Song Caitang left her alone and turned her attention to Dong Xin.

Dong Xin paused to think, then nodded. “Head Xin spent his initial years training outside of the Sanctum and carried out missions. He knew Young Mistress, but they did not interact much and he probably didn’t feel anything for her. Just a few years ago, he started working in the outer halls, then moved to the inner halls, so he slowly got more familiar with Young Mistress.”

“Two years ago, Young Mistress saved his life, and he probably started feeling something for her then. But he was also very respectful toward Mr. Liao and never crossed the line. The martial arts world’s rules aren’t as strict as those in the ordinary world, so as long as you do what you’re supposed to, nobody cares about what you think. He had never done anything inappropriate to Young Mistress, so his behavior just now… perhaps given the situation, he doesn’t want to suppress his feelings anymore.”

Song Caitang said, “In other words, Ye Nan doesn’t have any feelings for him.”

Dong Xin said, “I wouldn’t dare to say that I know what Young Mistress is thinking about, but given that she’s still willing to marry Mr. Liao even after everything that happened, her feelings for Mr. Liao must be true.”

Song Caitang looked at the maid in front of her and went into deep thought as she gently tapped the table with her fingertips.

Dong Xin used what happened four years ago as her shield and said a lot, but she didn’t say anything of particular importance either.

She kept saying that the rules within the martial arts world weren’t strict, but surely telling an outsider so much about her employer’s private business without any holds barred meant that this maid had something to fall back on.

And this must have something to do with Ye Nan.

Song Caitang’s guess was that other people had seen both Dong Xin and Xu Deye on the 13th day of the 9th month, and they had done something to make everyone list them as a suspect. Something like… being in a secret relationship.

Secretly talking to one another like this without being engaged or married would be something they wouldn’t want to let others know about, so they dared not admit to it either.

But they were able to fall back on something and someone higher up was protecting them. So despite being listed as a suspect by so many people, they wouldn’t get into much trouble.

Also, it wasn’t as though this maid hadn’t revealed anything at all. She wasn’t stupid, but she wasn’t using her brain either. Her replies were like templates, as though someone had taught her exactly what to say and how to say it. Perhaps she even had conversational practice, so she was able to give her responses fluently and mindlessly. She only paused to make you think she was thinking.

Since there seemed to be something going on between her and Xu Deye, it could very well be Xu Deye who taught her what to say.

It would be best to sound them out when they were together.

But now… she was in no hurry.

The more she was certain this matter had something to do with Ye Nan, the more Song Caitang felt that this Ye Nan had secrets to hide, and it was way more than just one big secret.

She decided to just wait it out a bit longer and analyze the situation further.

The biggest problem with this case was the amount of information. She felt that there was still a lot of information that hadn’t come to light yet.

A gentle breeze blew and she looked up to see an eagle fly across the blue skies. It was majestic, stubborn and arrogant… like the face of someone she knew.

Song Caitang could immediately imagine Zhao Zhi folding his arms, furrowing his brows and giving her a look of disdain.

Her fair fingers landed on the short bamboo flute and she subconsciously ran her fingers up and down the flute.

I will crack this case, she thought as her lips curled into a faint smile.

The Night Sanctum hunted high and low for almonds for several days, but couldn’t find any clues at all. The only thing they discovered was that the charcoal in the kitchen had been used before.

Song Caitang loved the night. It didn’t matter if it was early evening, close to midnight, or way after midnight. She liked them all.

She decided to take a walk, since she gained new information and insights each time. This time, she got something incredible.

She spotted Ye Nan with Xi Rui’s child.

The child was at most three years old, and was an adorable toddler standing at around three times the height of his own head. But he was a little timid, did not dare to kick up a fuss and didn’t seem to dare to even say anything. If he fell, he would cry from the pain, but only softly.

Xi Rui didn’t seem to spend a lot of time taking care of him. There were people all over the Sanctum anyway, so he wouldn’t get lost. She was only insistent on carrying him to sleep, but didn’t care where he went to in the day or what he did. The child just had to sleep with her at night, as though she felt safer like this.

Before night time, the child actually spent a large part of the day all by himself.

He didn’t like allowing the servants to carry him and didn’t like to walk too closely to the servants either. He was often running about all by himself and falling down constantly.

This time, he fell pretty badly. His head hit the thick tree roots and his eyes reddened instantly as he cried especially pitifully.

Ye Nan happened to pass by. She looked at the child with a very conflicted look in her eyes.

She reached out to the boy twice and took it back twice. She felt bad for him, but didn’t want to go near him.

But the boy was simply too pitiful. He didn’t even dare to shout for his mother out loud and his sobbing was difficult to bear.

Ye Nan finally couldn’t hold herself back and reached out to pat the boy’s head gently.

The boy knew who she was, but dodged her in fear, possibly because Xi Rui had taught him never to go near this woman. He cried even harder and even more pitifully, and his entire body was shaking.

Ye Nan shut her eyes, then pulled a small candy from her sleeve and stuffed it into the boy’s mouth.

The boy was a little stunned, but stopped crying immediately. Saliva began spilling out of his mouth as he sucked on the candy.

Ye Nan chuckled, but didn’t say anything and didn’t do anything else. She just walked past the boy and went on her way.

Song Caitang also spotted Xin Yongwang.

But this occurrence was rather strange. Xin Yongwang did not run after Ye Nan to prove his loyalty. He was squabbling with Hua Rong.

Within the Sanctum, the only person Hua Rong spoke nicely to was Ye Nan. He didn’t like anybody else, including Xin Yongwang. Xin Yongwang grabbed hold of his shoulders and he immediately shook him off. When Xin Yongwang tried again, he shook him off again and got more and more irritated.

Logically speaking, Xin Yongwang should have gotten angry too. His brows should have been furrowed, his expression fierce, and his gaze filled with a domineering, murderous intent. That would have been the aura of someone in his position that Song Caitang expected to see. But he didn’t look anything like that. He didn’t dare to do anything more than grab hold of Hua Rong’s shoulder, and only dared to keep blocking the younger man’s way as he spoke softly to him.

He seemed like he was trying to gain the younger man’s favor.

Song Caitang was flabbergasted.

Wasn’t Ye Nan Xin Yongwang’s only target?!