Episode 185

There was usually a reason and motive for most murder cases. The Night Sanctum was closed to outsiders, it was in the middle of the night, Ye Nan was in her own room and not disrupting anybody else, so this couldn’t have been an accident. Someone had tried to kill her.

If a servant hadn’t found her in time and waited till morning to enter her room, Ye Nan would have already died.

But what was the motive this time?

Song Caitang frowned slightly. “For love? For money?”

The relationships between the people involved in this case were very complicated, but Liao Xingjian was already dead and the situation within the sect didn’t look good either. Ye Nan was the only successor and her father was in poor health, so she was definitely going to take charge of the sect. Whether it was for love or money, it would be better to let Ye Nan take charge of the sect properly first.

There was no need to try and kill her at this point in time. Ye Nan’s death would do no good to most people.

Unless… this person wasn’t after that.

Zhao Zhi had the same idea as Song Caitang. “It’s a revenge killing.”

Perhaps the killer had a feud with Ye Nan.

Song Caitang nodded. That sounded like the only possibility.

As a martial arts sect, Ye Nan would definitely have stepped on some toes. But right now, the Sanctum was closed to the outside world because of the sudden death of Liao Xingjian. In other words, the person who did it had to be someone who was already here.

Everyone in the Sanctum had interacted with both Ye Nan and Liao Xingjian to different extents.

Besides that incident four years ago, Ye Nan and Liao Xingjian had been on extremely good terms and they were always found together. Could Ye Nan’s enemy also be an enemy of Liao Xingjian?

Could that also be why Liao Xingjian ended up dead?

The killer hadn’t done it for love or money, but for revenge.

If that was truly the case, the killer must hate Ye Nan and Liao Xingjian a lot in order to go after their lives one after another!

“There’s one more thing. I saw…”

Zhao Zhi was speaking when someone suddenly came running out of nowhere and ran straight for Song Caitang. “Cousin!”

It was Guan Wan.

Song Caitang caught her in her arms. “It’s so late. What are you doing out here instead of sleeping?”

“I heard a commotion outside and heard that someone wants to kill the Young Mistress of the Sanctum, then I noticed that you weren’t around,” Guan Wan spoke rather anxiously and breathed a big sigh of relief after she saw that Song Caitang was alive and well. She stood back up properly and seemed a little embarrassed by how violently she pounced on her cousin. She bit her lip slightly and prodded the ground with her toes. “Are you… alright?”

“Silly girl, I’m alright. No need to worry.”

Song Caitang gently caressed Guan Wan’s hair and looked gently at her little cousin.

Her cousin had probably been awoken by the noise outside and was frightened. But instead of hiding in her room, she plucked up the courage to look for her. She must have been terribly worried.

And that was when Guan Wan finally noticed Zhao Zhi.

This tall man standing very conspicuously next to Song Caitang while exuding a rather icy aura.

“You…”

Guan Wan recognized him. Strangely enough, she didn’t feel afraid of him and even cupped a hand over her own mouth to stop herself from saying something she shouldn’t. Her round eyes turned to her cousin, then Zhao Zhi, then back to her cousin again, darting back and forth quickly.

She seemed to suddenly realize why her cousin had been so certain that they would be able to leave anytime they liked when she asked about it.

It was because the Surveillance Commissioner was here!

This man always took very good care of Song Caitang!

Guan Wan quickly straightened her clothes and bowed toward Zhao Zhi.

Her brilliant smile seemed a little more like… she was buttering him up.

Zhao Zhi did not seem to interpret this as anything else besides a simple greeting from the younger girl. He gave her a grave nod, motioned to her to be at ease, cleared his throat, glanced at Song Caitang, then looked away again.

He looked unaffected, but if you looked closely, you would notice a little twinkle in his eyes, like he was secretly feeling gleeful inside.

As though Guan Wan hadn’t merely greeted him but had called him “cousin-in-law”.

Song Caitang didn’t notice anything, however, and took Guan Wan’s hand in hers. “Everything’s fine now, so let’s go back to bed.”

Guan Wan normally didn’t catch on very quickly and wasn’t sensitive to most things besides food, so she couldn’t really see the dim sparks flying between Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang. But Guan Qing had taught her well, so her sixth sense and her sensitivity to dangerous situations were pretty strong. She seemed to have a naturally strong survival instinct, which she displayed perfectly in this moment.

“It’s alright, I know you aren’t able to sleep from this hour onward, so I’ll go back by myself, no need to worry about me.”

As she spoke, she started yawning and walked off without even waiting for Song Caitang to respond. She had abandoned her cousin almost perfectly.

Song Caitang didn’t even know what to say.

But Zhao Zhi was very pleased with Guan Wan’s actions and gave her a silent nod of approval in secret.

Guan Wan suddenly stopped in her tracks, pulled out a small package from her sleeve, turned to run back to Song Caitang and shoved the package into Song Caitang’s hands.

“What’s this?”

“Maple cake.” Guan Wan motioned to her to take it. Her eyes shone brightly, making her look sweet and adorable, “I know you can’t sleep at night, so I brought this along when I left the room. It’s for you. Alright then, I’m really going back to sleep!”

This time, she walked off without even turning her head back to look and she was out of sight within seconds.

The handkerchief wrapped around the cake was blown open by the night wind to reveal a reddish cake that was shaped like a maple leaf. It smelled sweet and refreshing, a familiar feel and smell to Song Caitang. This was what Guan Wan had made earlier that evening.

Song Caitang stared at it and went into a daze.

Zhao Zhi felt like something had struck his heart as he looked at her expression. His heart hurt.

“You… haven’t been able to sleep at night?”

Song Caitang nearly rolled her eyes at him. “It’s not like you didn’t already know.”

She couldn’t believe the guy who came to visit her so often at this ungodly time for so long would actually ask such a stupid question. Had he worked too hard today or something?

Zhao Zhi was slightly embarrassed, but he still said what needed to be said, “It’s bad for your health.”

Song Caitang seriously rolled her eyes at him this time. How could this man think he was qualified to chide her about that?

“Pot calling the kettle black much? We’re both not very good at sticking to routines and we don’t get very much sleep, so let’s just accept that and not make things difficult for each other.”

While that made sense, he was a martial artist and she was a young lady after all. They were not in the same situation!

He was about to say something else when Song Caitang’s expression shifted dramatically. “Zhao Zhi, help me to get her!”

Zhao Zhi raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask her for a reason. He flew into the air and landed in front of the person Song Caitang had pointed to.

The sudden appearance of a man flying out of nowhere scared the daylights out of Dong Xin. She clutched her chest fearfully, her heart nearly leaping out of her mouth.

Song Caitang quickly made her way over and asked directly, “Hongfeng. Do you know her?”

Dong Xin didn’t even have to say anything. The way she looked absolutely shocked by the question and threw Ye Nan’s room a quick glance told Song Caitang that she definitely knew who this person was.

When Song Caitang was trying to resuscitate Ye Nan, the situation was very urgent and she neither had the additional energy to listen closely nor was Ye Nan speaking clearly. She only knew that Ye Nan was calling for someone with a two-syllable name. Song Caitang had been very puzzled at that time, since the person that Ye Nan had thought of at the brink of death wasn’t her elderly father or Liao Xingjian, the love of her life, but this person. Either this person was much dearer to her than the two men, or there was some other special reason.

What reason would make someone on the brink of death think of her?

Song Caitang hadn’t been able to hear Ye Nan clearly, but when she stared at the maple cake that Guan Wan had given her and uttered the two words in her heart, she realized that they did seem like the two words Ye Nan had muttered earlier.

Those two words sounded like Hongfeng.

Adding Dong Xin’s reaction on top of that…

She was very certain that there was someone named Hongfeng in this Sanctum.

This person was not some small fry either. She was very, very important.

Song Caitang looked at Dong Xin calmly and emphasized each word, “Who is Hongfeng?”

Dong Xin’s gaze flickered. She seemed a little uneasy. “She’s just… a servant.”

“A servant?” Song Caitang didn’t let her go just yet. “Can I talk to her?”

Dong Xin shook her head. “She’s already dead.”

Already dead?

Song Caitang’s pupils constricted slightly.

“Did she serve Miss Ye previously?”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“Ten years.”

A servant who was dead.

Could it be that this servant’s death had something to do with Ye Nan? That’s why she was on Ye Nan’s mind even when Ye Nan was about to die?

If her death had something to do with Ye Nan, that would explain why Ye Nan was uttering her name at that point in time. But how was she related to Dong Xin and why did Dong Xin’s expression look like that when her name was mentioned?

And why did Dong Xin turn toward Ye Nan’s room?

After swiftly going through everything that she knew, Song Caitang reached a possibility.

“Hongfeng… was a member of your family?”

Dong Xin immediately denied it, “No, no she wasn’t.”

Song Caitang smiled faintly. “Then she must have been related to your lover.”

Even though Ye Nan didn’t really want to face what happened four years ago and everyone in the Sanctum didn’t mention it if they didn’t have to because they weren’t sure how Ye Nan would react, it was still something that everyone knew about. Ye Nan did not need to treat Xu Deye and Dong Xin differently because of what happened four years ago.

These two were able to behave so boldly because of some other reason.

Dong Xin wasn’t stupid but she wasn’t very clever either. She must have listened to Xu Deye and gave Song Caitang a rehearsed response, which distracted Song Caitang for a while.

The real secret between these two, the one thing they were counting on, was actually this servant named Hongfeng!

Hongfeng was someone very special to Ye Nan, so Ye Nan remembered her very dearly. Regardless of whether Ye Nan felt guilty, grateful or something else toward Hongfeng, she would be kind to Hongfeng’s family.

The family of servants would also be servants.

When she saw Dong Xin’s genuinely shocked reaction, Song Caitang was relieved. She had guessed it right.

This was now the correct direction for the investigation. Song Caitang sorted her thoughts out and looked more and more confident.

It was a good time to try out her earlier plans to catch Dong Xin in her own words.

“I knew it right from the start – on the night that Liao Xingjian died, you and Xu Deye had not been concentrating on work at all. Both of you were on a secret date near the groom’s study, right?

Dong Xin’s face paled and her fingers trembled.

Song Caitang stared steely at her. “So, the two of you heard some noise and noticed that Liao Xingjian was in the room? You were afraid that your little affair would be exposed, so you decided to kill him?”

“No… no… I didn’t…”

“You didn’t? So Xu Deye did it?”

“No! He didn’t either!” Dong Xin became frantic. “We did hear some sounds coming from the room and realized that Mr. Liao was inside and that he might have discovered us… but we wouldn’t have dared to commit murder!”

Dong Xin rushed to explain herself in a panic, and realized that she had said too much when she saw the smile on Song Caitang’s face.

She couldn’t believe she had let slip just like that!

She glared a little hatefully at Song Caitang. How did this woman find out about this? And how was she so good at trapping her!!

But she didn’t dare to glare at Song Caitang for long, because the tall man next to Song Caitang was clearly displeased by her glaring. He shot her an icy stare, as though he could kill her any minute…

Dong Xin became even more afraid and fell to her knees with a loud thud.

Song Caitang smiled faintly. “So, are you willing to explain everything to me now?”

Dong Xin bowed her head and was silent for a long time before speaking, “Both of us… our parents aren’t on good terms. His parents don’t like me and my parents aren’t willing to let me marry him. We… cannot let anybody find out about us.”

“The study was completely silent that night, so we thought that Mr. Liao wasn’t in and was resting in his own room. To our surprise, we heard some noise and we got a fright. We initially thought that once Young Mistress’ wedding was over, we’d admit to seeing one another secretly and beg her to forgive us. After all, both of us are servants, so she’d probably just punish us lightly and forget about it after that. But in the end… Mr. Liao was found dead the next morning. So, we didn’t dare to mention it at all.”

Song Caitang narrowed her eyes slightly. “You didn’t kill him. So, what were you afraid of?”

“We’ve always been very careful and that night was an exception. Besides Mr. Liao, nobody else would have known that we were there. Since he was found dead and we weren’t the ones who killed him… we didn’t think we should involve ourselves in this case.”

“Ye Nan didn’t suspect the two of you?”

“We’ve always been loyal to Young Mistress. We might have kept this from her, but she knows we wouldn’t do anything wicked.”

Song Caitang was facing the candle that lit up the corridor, so it illuminated her clean forehead and made her eyes bright. “Ye Nan has been exceptionally lenient toward you and Xu Deye because of Hongfeng, correct?”

Dong Xin kept her head down even as she trembled all over.

“Tell me, who exactly was Hongfeng and how did she die?”

Dong Xin didn’t know what to think or what to say, so her instinct was to just answer Song Caitang’s questions, “She is De… She’s Xu Deye’s older sister and Young Mistress’ head servant. One day, she accompanied Young Mistress on a mission and they ran into trouble. She died rescuing Young Mistress…”

“And because of that, Young Mistress has always felt guilty toward the Xu family, so she treats them very well. Xu Deye is the family’s only child left, so Young Mistress gives in to him more…”

Song Caitang started thinking hard. “Did Hongfeng get along well with others? Did everyone in the Sanctum know her?”

“Sister Hongfeng was lovely. She was pretty and kind, so everyone in the Sanctum liked her.”

“In that case…” Song Caitang’s gaze flickered. “What about guests? Hua Rong and Zhuang Qingyu, for example. Did they know her?”

Dong Xin’s reply was fast. “I’m not too sure about Hua Rong, but Pavilion Master Zhuang definitely knows Hongfeng and even helped her a few times.”