The Victim, Lin Feizhou

Time was tight and the servant whom Old Madam Li had sent to gather information did not have the time to write everything down nicely, so he had returned to give an oral report.

He quickly bowed and greeted everyone and started speaking before he had even fully gotten up from kneeling, “The victim is a student, his name is Lin Feizhou, he’s in his twenties, he’s not from the capital and has no friends or family here, so he doesn’t have any connections her. He’s come to Bianliang to prepare for next year’s imperial examinations.”

The imperial examinations were in February, so most students who lived further out would come much earlier than that to get used to the city and all that. This was nothing unusual.

But what the man said next bothered Song Caitang a little.

The servant straightened his back and said quietly, “He came here by himself without any companions taking the exams with him, or friends or partners. He had no assistant or servant to take care of him either and lived alone. His life was pretty simple. He spent most of his time studying at home, and if he came out, it was to buy books, or to shop at paper and ink stores and never went anywhere else. He was quite introverted, which is why he never bothered to make friends with the people around him and nobody is familiar with him…”

The victim had come to Bianliang earlier to get used to the city, yet he didn’t want to become part of its society?

Song Caitang asked, “Not a single person was close to him?”

The servant clasped his hands and seemed a little embarrassed that he couldn’t explain this either. “I don’t think it’s possible either. How could a person not make any friends at all? Life is tough and it’s hard to go through life alone. There would always be times when you would need help. But I honestly did not manage to find out if he had any close companions.”

Song Caitang paused and gave up asking about this. “When did the victim arrive in Bianliang?”

“Two months ago.”

“Where did he live?”

“In Jinyu Street, east of the city.”

“Jinyu Street?” Song Caitang turned to look at Old Madam Li. “I’ve not come here for a long time, but I’ve heard that this Jinyu City is a secluded and crowded place filled with unsavory characters.”

Old Madam Li nodded. “That’s right.”

Describing the place as one filled with unsavory characters was already being kind. This was a place full of gangsters, small-time criminals and other rough people. Most ordinary people wouldn’t choose to live there, never mind a clean cut student hoping to eventually make it into the imperial court.

But there was one good thing about the place. It was cheap.

If you weren’t picky and could deal with how filthy the place was, since the houses there smelled somewhat fishy and musty all year round, you could rent something for less than $50.

Song Caitang got it now. In other words, the victim, Lin Feizhou, was very poor.

But no matter how poor one was, they would still incur expenses.

Song Caitang put her teacup down. “You can always bring along your own clothes and other necessities, but what about food? How did he settle his daily meals?”

The servant replied, “He was not very picky about food and initially he settled all his meals at restaurants every day. But after some time, he stopped doing that and he would even skip eating for two days in a row. He was probably too poor and couldn’t even afford the cheapest meal around…”

But Song Caitang didn’t think that was the case.

A student might be poor, but they would know a way or two to make money. They could sell calligraphy, copy a book for a customer, or even help another person to write a letter. It was impossible for one to be so poor they couldn’t even afford food. How would one concentrate or have the mood to study for an imperial exam if they were struggling so hard to even make ends meet?

Humans couldn’t go without eating. If he wasn’t eating outside the house, then…

He might be going to other places to eat, or someone was sending food to him.

This student was a stranger, so if he did go out, someone would notice him. If he went to somewhere out of the ordinary to eat, the people around him would have noticed him. But if that wasn’t the case, then it was the latter.

A student in his twenties… a typical way to get food from others…

Song Caitang suddenly asked the servant, “What did this Lin Feizhou look like?”

“He had a broad forehead, thick brows and a bright countenance.”

In other words, he was good looking.

Song Caitang asked another question, “Did he look very much like the scholarly type?”

The servant nodded. “Yes, he did. He had the air of a poet or writer about him, and anybody who met him had good things to say about him. They all said he was clean and neat, polite and smiled often. He was introverted, but he definitely had a bright future ahead.”

Song Caitang tapped the table top with her fingers. “In that case… he would have attracted a lot of young ladies.”

The servant was taken by surprise. “Uh… I’m not sure about that. I didn’t ask.”

“Was this student a Buddhist?”

“Um…” The servant squirmed and said, “I have no idea. But that didn’t seem to stand out among the information I gathered.”

After that, Song Caitang asked a few more questions. The servant answered those he could, and shook his head honestly when he didn’t know the answer. He had been given very little time and Lin Feizhou was a fairly odd character, so there was only so much he could gather right now.

Finally, he concluded, “From everything I’ve heard, this Lin Feizhou has no friends at all, never mind enemies, so he doesn’t have any connection whatsoever with Mrs. Ji. Perhaps it was just an accident…”

“Alright,” Old Madam Li waved a hand, “you can leave us now.”

They only needed the facts and there was no need for his personal opinion. Song Caitang could analyze that herself.

Song Caitang cupped her hands around her teacup and stared quietly at it for a long time as she sorted through everything she had heard from the servant.

After some time, she turned toward Old Madam Li, “You were at yesterday’s ceremony too. Did anything leave any special impression on you?”

She had asked this question when they left Jingzhao Jail earlier and the old lady had taken the journey to think about it. “The impression I had at that time was that there were way too many people and it was way too chaotic. It was hard to see anything clearly and there were people everywhere who were screaming. But I do remember a few things.”

“The vice-commissioner of the General Accounts Bureau, Li Zhengzhi, and the vice-commissioner of the Census Bureau, Zuo Xiuwen, are two men in positions of the same level and they have different political opinions, but one is in charge of supplies for food, and the other is in charge of supplies for clothing. They’re both supplies, so their work overlaps a lot. Regardless of whether they’re at work or not, they’re always at loggerheads. They were both at the temple that day and glared very nastily at one another. It was hard to miss.”

“Zuo Xiuwen brought his wife and daughter, but they were not with him at that time. His wife, Madam Yu, had a tense look on her face as she focused on running away with her daughter in tow. Her daughter, Zuo Shanshan, was so scared that she couldn’t stop screaming and looked panicky…”

She sighed, “Perhaps because of the circles I’m in, I take more notice of court officials subconsciously, and that’s why I remember more about these people in fairly high positions. Now that I think about it, the situation was chaotic and everyone there was both horrified and scared. It was only natural for everyone to behave the way they did.”

She felt a little ashamed when she felt like what she was saying wasn’t of any help.

“It’s alright,” Song Caitang remembered everything she said about these few people and smiled at the old lady. “Could I take a look at the victim’s home?”

Old Madam Li paused to think, then nodded before grumbling a little, “Since the ‘killer’ for this case has already been arrested and she admitted her guilt, the court probably thinks they can close the case and probably wouldn’t bother to investigate the victim’s home or make many notes about it. I’ll get someone to send you there to take a look. If they let you in, you can take a quick look. Otherwise, I’ll get my servant to think of a way to get you in. If there’s simply no way, then come back first and I’ll think of a way. I have to see if I can do anything to let you inspect the body, so I won’t be able to accompany you there.”

“Sure,” Song Caitang nodded, “This isn’t an easy matter to settle, so just do your best. If it doesn’t work out, we can just think of something else.”

When Old Madam Li saw that the younger girl had looked worriedly at her but pretended to be unconcerned, she laughed and her voice was kindly.

“I will do as much as I can, and if I can’t, I won’t push myself unnecessarily. I’ll get you younger ones to do it. Don’t worry, Caitang.”

“Alright then.”

Song Caitang exchanged a few more words with Old Madam Li, then left the Wens’ with the butler along with her maid, Qingqiao, to head for Lin Feizhou’s home.

When Song Caitang and Guan Wan got whisked off to the Night Sanctum the last time, Qingqiao and Guan Wan’s maid, Xiaolan, were drugged and sent back to the Guans. Guan Qing ended up punishing them lightly, even though it looked like a heavy punishment. After that, they were sent to Bianliang with their respective Young Mistresses to serve them, so Xiaolan continued to follow Guan Wan while Qingqiao followed Song Caitang.

But after what happened the last time, Qingqiao had clearly learned her lesson. She didn’t talk as much as before and always kept her eye on Song Caitang, afraid that her Young Mistress would be in danger if she took her eyes off her.

After giving it some thought, Guan Qing decided not to let the other maid, Qinxiu, come along. After all… the maid was someone who was sent by Madam Zhang and Guan Qing was worried that something bad might happen if she was allowed to work out of her sight.

Song Caitang found it hard to adjust, though. Her round faced cheery maid had suddenly become a very somber person who wasn’t fun anymore and was constantly nervous and tense. She didn’t want to play pranks on Qingqiao, in case she frightened the poor maid again. She could only give the girl time to slowly find herself again.

But unfortunately, many days had already passed and she was still like this.

Qingqiao was still solemn faced and constantly tense. She really didn’t want what happened the last time to happen again.

Song Caitang sighed. Forget it. She just had to let time take its course.

Nobody spoke throughout the journey and they quickly arrived at the street where Lin Feizhou lived.

Song Caitang was bad at directions, but even she knew that this area led to a dead end.

The street was very, very long and Lin Feizhou lived right at the end. This was the tail end of Jinyu Street and only the one who lived here would walk all the way here. Living here alone was a little unsafe and scary, but it was definitely a place with plenty of privacy.

Guards in uniform were indeed standing at the door, but as Old Madam Li had said, even though the house belonged to a murder victim, they had arrested Madam Gu on the spot and she had already admitted her guilt too, so the court was ready to close the case. Even if a crime scene had to be investigated, it would be Zhaoze Temple and not this house. Nobody really cared about this place.

The guards were drinking too. It was clear they didn’t think this place was important.

The butler sent to come together with Song Caitang just needed to go over, say a few words, give them some money, and they allowed Song Caitang to go in as though they hadn’t even seen her.

After the butler had settled everything, he told Song Caitang, “Miss Song, we have to do this as quickly as possible, we cannot take anything from here and we cannot mess up the place or leave any traces behind.”

Song Caitang smiled at him. “Don’t worry, I know what to do.”

After they entered the house, the butler nearly slapped himself.

There were simply too few things in the house. There was… nothing to take.

Besides a simple table, chair, bed and a few essentials, there was nothing else. Take things away? There was nothing to take! He needn’t have worried about that!

Song Caitang scanned the room and frowned slightly.

The room was too clean and it was impossible to understand the owner more deeply from looking at it. This place looked more like a temporary abode than a place where one stayed long-term.

But winter had only started and it was still a long way more to the imperial examinations. The victim would have to stay here for another four months. The servant earlier said that the victim had arrived two months ago, so he was basically renting this place for a good six months. This was not a temporary abode at all.

She started walking around the room.

The beddings were folded neatly and there were still some clothes hanging outside the window. The papers on the table were stacked up, a pen was resting on the inkstone and the ink on it wasn’t completely dry yet.

It was as though the owner had only left for a while and was going to come back soon.

This place was not too far from Zhaoze Temple. Did the victim only intend to go out for a while and come back, or had he been called to leave in a hurry, so he didn’t have the time to tidy up his desk?

Song Caitang looked through the papers on the desk and noticed that most of them were poems.

She didn’t know much about the imperial examinations, but during her conversation with Wen Yuansi, he mentioned that while general knowledge was the most important for the examinations, knowing poems was important. There was a section in the examination about this.

So one definitely had to study and memorize poetry.

Majority of the poems on these papers were love poems.

Song Caitang narrowed her eyes slightly. This Lin Feizhou was practicing his writing and also… using it to express his true emotions?

After flipping through every piece, she discovered that these love poems could be placed in two general categories.

One of them was filled with intense passion in every line, so you would immediately identify it as a love poem. The other had a lot more hidden meanings and you had to think about it more carefully to understand what it was driving at.

She couldn’t help but conclude that if these poems were meant for another person, they would definitely be meant for different people.

Most importantly, while she couldn’t find any clues from the latter category, one of the papers from the former category had the word “Lv” on it, like it was a word that he couldn’t help but add on because he missed this person too much.

Lin Feizhou’s surname clearly wasn’t Lv, so this person…

Song Caitang turned to ask the butler, “Is there a family by the surname Lv around here? A family with an unmarried daughter?”

The butler paused to think, then said, “You know what? There really is one! It’s on the next street, which seems far, but it’s far only if you follow the winding street.” He pointed at the wall outside the house, “If you climb over this wall, you won’t be along Jinyu Street anymore. There’s a wealthy family on that other street with the surname Lv who has an unmarried daughter!”

As Song Caitang listened to him, she picked up her skirt and got ready to leave. “Let’s go over and take a look.”

It looked really near, but it took a long time if you had to follow the street.

But they were very lucky. They hadn’t gotten far when they saw a young lady wearing a mili, walking toward Lin Feizhou’s house. She went very near but did not go in or even attempt to go in. She just hid herself by the side and stole glances at it while wiping her tears away.

When she realized that Song Caitang had stopped and spotted her, she spun around with a start, like a frightened rabbit, and pressed down on her mili as she began to run.

If she hadn’t started running, Song Caitang might not find her suspicious. But once she started running, she immediately instructed the butler, “Get her!”

The girl couldn’t run any further and her hands were shaking.

Song Caitang took two steps forward and said, “My soul is already torn, the emptiness is only filled with dreams. Besides the moon in the sky, nobody knows. That poem by Lin Feizhou was written for you, right?”

This time, not only her hands were shaking. The girl was shaking all over.

“No, no… Not me…” She seemed to be too frightened and her brain seemed to be stuck for a moment before she suddenly blurted, “It has nothing to do with me! The one you should be looking for is the one with the surname Zuo!”

Then she ran off.

This time, she ran really quickly and switched directions as though her life depended on it. She was familiar with the streets here and moved very nimbly, so the butler wasn’t able to catch hold of her.

“Do you want to run after her?” the butler asked Song Caitang for her opinion. “I can call for someone to do that right now.”

Song Caitang shook her head. “No need.”

Even if she caught hold of the girl, if the girl didn’t want to cooperate, they were in no position to force her to.

In any case, while she could run, she couldn’t possibly find a new house to live in.

“Think of a way later, it’ll be best if you could go to the Lvs’ yourself and confirm if that girl just now was really from that family.”

“Got it.”

Song Caitang watched the butler leave, then lowered her gaze. A glint flashed in her eyes.

With the surname Zuo…

The fact that she had exclaimed something like that with such emotions at such a time meant that this person was probably a love rival.

With the surname Zuo…

Old Madam Li had talked about someone with that surname earlier.

Did that have anything to do with it?

She had seen a lot today and it was getting late. As she slowly walked down the street, she sorted through her thoughts. She wanted to go back to the Wens’ to see how things were going with Old Madam Li.

But before she could get back, she ran into trouble.

Trouble that was aimed straight for her.