The Victim Had A Lover

The entire place fell silent.

Everyone’s eyes were on Li Maocai as they waited for him to answer Zhao Zhi’s question.

Li Maocai looked at Li Zhengzhi, then at Ji Yuanjia, then trembled as he bowed his head again.

“That is indeed what happened…”

“I was too far away and couldn’t hear what they said, but I could see clearly if they did anything to the man and what they did.”

“I was about to walk past when I saw Lin Feizhou stop Mr. Li in his tracks. He was very serious as he spoke about something, but Mr. Li ignored him and tried to keep walking, but Lin Feizhou refused to let him leave. Mr. Li became infuriated and grabbed hold of the victim’s collar, then pressed him against the wall. I think Mr. Li scolded him, but he did not hurt the victim. Doing that made it hard for Lin Feizhou to breathe and he didn’t have strength to hold Mr. Li back anymore, so Mr. Li shoved him aside and walked away.”

“Lin…” Li Maocai bowed very low and his voice was trembling, “Lin Feizhou was just a student and was very weak. Mr. Li clearly did not use that much strength, yet he ended up sitting down and coughed for quite a long time before recovering. He had just recovered when Ji Yuanjia came by.”

“It is true that it was Ji Yuanjia who first started talking to Lin Feizhou. But I… was really too far and couldn’t hear them well. They did not get into any argument and did not say much to one another before going separate ways. Ji Yuanjia looked fine, but Lin Feizhou didn’t look too good. Perhaps he was in a bad mood after Mr. Li had done that to him earlier.”

Li Maocai seemed very afraid to offend the men involved, so he described what he had seen in great detail and did his best to make sure it sounded like Li Zhengzhi and Ji Yuanjia were not bad guys.

Zhao Zhi tapped his whip handle against his palm. His eyes met the sunshine and seemed faraway. “I see… you said earlier that when they got into a scuffle, they mentioned money? When was money mentioned? Who was the victim fighting with?”

“B-both…”

Li Maocai kept his forehead against the floor and barely even dared to breathe.

He couldn’t afford to offend either of the men he was talking about.

“That’s very interesting…” Zhao Zhi looked at Li Zhengzhi and Ji Yuanjia. “How do you explain that?”

Li Zhengzhi was emotionless. “Lin Feizhou had mistaken me for someone else. After he stopped me, he said that I owed him money. I don’t even know who he is, so how could I owe him any money? Would someone in my position today owe someone like him money? That’s ridiculous.”

Ji Yuanjia politely bowed slightly and responded in a clear voice, “I was the one who wandered off out of curiosity and ended up having to ask someone for directions, so I thought it was only correct to give him a little tip. The victim had given me directions and I wanted to thank him for it, but he didn’t want the money.”

Both their statements made perfect sense given the situation and there was nothing fishy about it.

If they were lying, they must be excellent actors.

Li Zhengzhi glared at Li Maocai on the floor before looking up at Zhao Zhi. “The details of the case are all clear now, right? The coroners have done their inspection, the weapon found matches the weapon that would have been used. There are no other problems with the process and there are no other points of suspicion in this case. You can relax now, Commandery Prince Zhao.”

Zhao Zhi stopped tapping his palm with the whip handle. He smiled at Li Zhengzhi, but there was clearly no warmth in that smile. “Whether the case has been cracked or not is my problem. Not yours.”

Li Zhengzhi raised an eyebrow.

Zhao Zhi suddenly cracked the whip. It flew and stopped in midair at high speed, creating a loud and long sound. His voice was quieter and insinuating after the cracking sound of the whip, “Why, instead of fighting with Mr. Zuo, you’re here to find trouble with me? There’s been a terrible drought this year and many places are facing a shortage of grain. Have you settled that already? Don’t tell me… you’d eventually need the commoners and the merchants you look down on so much to band together and resolve this sticky situation for you?”

Song Caitang knew at that moment that Zhao Zhi was suspicious.

Li Zhengzhi and Zuo Xiuwen had always been at odds with one another. They absolutely refused to be on the same side regardless of what they were talking about or where they were. But when it came to this case, their reactions were miraculously identical…

Song Caitang continued thinking about these things as she proceeded to sew the body up. Her slim fingers held a needle and sewed through the layers of muscle. She was nimble and it didn’t take long for her to sew up the stomach and put it back inside the victim’s abdominal cavity.

Coroner Zhou rubbed his hands as he watched, and finally couldn’t hold himself back anymore. “Do you want me to take over?”

Song Caitang froze for a second, then smiled. “Sure.”

She passed the needle and thread to him.

Coroner Zhou had cut bodies open before, so while he didn’t have professional knowledge of the internal organs, he could sew just fine. When she saw that he was doing well with the sewing, she left him alone and went to wash up.

Qingqiao helped to remove her protective coat and exclaimed, “Oh no! Young Mistress, you’ve dirtied your clothes!

The protective coat was made from the thickest and most waterproof material available in the market, but it was not completely waterproof and sometimes things happened during a dissection, so it was common for one to dirty their clothes by accident.

Qingqiao was prepared for this and had an extra dress on hand. She pointed to one side, “I asked about it earlier, there’s a room over there, you can change your clothes inside.”

Song Caitang nodded. “Got it.”

There was Zhao Zhi to control the situation here so she didn’t have to worry about it. She didn’t take note of the conversation and just threw Zhao Zhi a glance. He caught it and nodded, waving his hand to dismiss her.

He had guards everywhere here, so he knew she would be safe.

And she was indeed perfectly safe. No matter how far she walked, whether there were a lot of people or not, there were guards everywhere. They were watching at all times and they were also very quiet.

After she finished changing, she started heading back. When she turned the corner, she spotted a young lady walking in a hurry.

She turned to look and noticed that the bathroom wasn’t too far away.

The lady probably needed to use the bathroom urgently. It was natural for one to need the bathroom after standing and watching for so long, after all.

She continued walking to the end of the corridor and turned again. The young lady had already come out of the bathroom. But even though she had relieved herself, she didn’t look relieved at all. She seemed a little panicky.

When Song Caitang paused to look harder, she realized that an older woman was waiting for the younger woman a short distance away. Based on how close they seemed to one another, they were probably mother and daughter.

“That’s Zuo Xiuwen’s wife and daughter. His wife is Madam Yu, his daughter is Zuo Shanshan.”

A voice suddenly rang out beside Song Caitang’s ear and it was familiar to her, so she didn’t even bother to turn her head. “You know them?”

Qi Yan scoffed. “Who in Bianliang doesn’t know them? One is a woman as fierce as a tiger, and the other thinks the world of herself. But I digress. Tangtang, we’ve not seen each other for so long but you don’t seem excited to see me at all… I’m so sad, I’m so upset…”

As he spoke, he pretended to clutch his chest like a girl pretending to be frail and sickly. It was exaggerated and gross.

Song Caitang was speechless.

She looked behind him and said, “Investigating Censor Zhao.”

Qi Yan instantly straightened up and went back to looking like a top disciple of his master. He smiled confidently and turned around, “I’m just kiddi… Song Caitang! You lied to me!!”

There was nobody behind him! Zhao Zhi wasn’t here!

Song Caitang burst out laughing this time.

Qi Yan was still so fun to tease!

“Let’s go.”

She did her best to stop laughing and continued walking back to the main room.

Qi Yan was angry, but there was nothing else he could do but obediently follow behind her.

Before leaving that little corridor, she took one last look at Madam Yu and Zuo Shanshan’s back view.

The Zuo family seemed to play a very odd role in this case.

“Cousin…”

Before she could get back, Guan Wan suddenly came running toward her and panted, “That Ji Yuanjia! I’ve… I’ve seen him before!”

Song Caitang was immediately alert. “You’ve seen him? Where?”

The case was still nowhere near solved, and both Ji Yuanjia and Madam Gu were important people connected to the case. Guan Wan hardly went out of the house, so how did she know him?

“The ship. On the ship.”

Guan Wan placed a palm on the pillar to steady herself as she took two deep breaths. “The ship we took out of Luanze. Remember I told you before that I saw this young man who was so skinny he was just skin wrapped around bones, but his eyes were really bright and lovely looking? After that, we got back on a different boat and didn’t see him again… So his name is Ji Yuanjia.”

“I gave him so many cookies! He seemed so polite, but he’s turned out to be a bad person?”

Guan Wan didn’t know that Song Caitang was worried for her and had just come to share this matter with her cousin. She went on to grumble, “If he’s really such a bad person, I’ll ignore him the next time I see him and I’ll never make cakes for him again!”

Song Caitang didn’t know what to say. Did her cousin seriously care for food and nothing else?

“Cousin, are we going back now?” Guan Wan stared at Song Caitang hopefully with her large, watery eyes.

But Song Caitang shook her head. “I still have to discuss some matters with Investigating Censor Zhao.”

“Then we might miss lunch…”

Qi Yan looked up at the sun after hearing this and frowned quizzically.

It was a couple of hours before lunchtime. Why would they miss lunch?

But Song Caitang understood her cousin well and suggested, “Why don’t you go back and start preparing first? I’m done with the autopsy part, so I won’t take too much longer.”

Guan Wan paused to think, then nodded gravely. “Alright then. I’ll go back and start cooking, then if you don’t come back in time, I’ll get someone to send the food here.”

Song Caitang smiled and nodded. “Sure.”

She was right. Guan Wan had been concerned about this. When she said that they might miss lunch, what she really meant was that they might miss the timing to start preparing lunch.

When Qi Yan saw the two cousins happily wave goodbye to each other, he felt defeated.

He felt that he really couldn’t understand women.

After that, Qi Yan and Song Caitang continued their journey back to the main room.

Song Caitang asked Qi Yan, “Zhao Zhi got you to look for Li Maocai?”

Qi Yan nodded. “Brother Zhi finds this case highly suspicious and was already on it a while back. He got me to investigate the case secretly in the meantime.”

“Then… did you manage to find out anything about a young lady with the surname Lv?”

Song Caitang narrowed her eyes slightly as she thought about what happened when she went to check out Lin Feizhou’s home the day before.

Qi Yan immediately looked around warily, then said, “We’ll talk about it inside.”

The autopsy was done, so Coroner Zhou was in charge of settling all the paperwork after that. Zhao Zhi had taken control of the situation and sent everyone on their way before finally walking over to the next room where Song Caitang and Qi Yan had already been waiting for a while.

Song Caitang poured tea into a cup and pushed it toward Zhao Zhi. She looked at Qi Yan, “Can we talk about her now?”

Qi Yan scratched his head. “There is indeed such a young lady. Her surname is Lv and her full name is Lv Mingyue. She and Lin Feizhou promised to marry one another.”

“She lives near Lin Feizhou?”

“Yup. He’s just a street away. This street is small but it’s really something. One side of the street is filled with poor people and a whole bunch of gangsters and other thugs, but the other side of the street is full of rich people. Of course, you won’t find the super rich, the aristocrats or the powerful, but many ordinary wealthy families live in this area.”

“So, this girl’s family was rich.”

Qi Yan nodded. “Yep.”

Zhao Zhi stared blankly at the tea in front of him. His gaze shifted to Song Caitang’s slim and fair hand, then he suddenly picked up the cup and downed its contents in one go.

Song Caitang noticed that, despite how much attention she was paying to the case. “Are you very thirsty?”

She sat the closest to the teapot, so she reached out and poured him another cup.

He downed it again.

Song Caitang poured him another cup and he downed that one too.

She was worried that Zhao Zhi’s quick drinking of the tea might be bad for his health and these few cups were definitely enough to quench his thirst for now, so she stopped pouring tea for him and said quietly, “If you’re still thirsty, you can drink some more later.”

Zhao Zhi nodded, his eyes twinkling brightly.

Qi Yan felt like… Everything seemed normal, yet he felt like he had eaten something he shouldn’t have.

Something like… the food for the dogs his family kept.

It was ridiculously hard and had no salt at all. It was fragrant, yet it was as good as the most bitter thing you would experience in life, a weight that one could never be able to carry!

Zhao Zhi was also excellent at multitasking, so while he satisfied his longing for Song Caitang as he looked at her, his brain was listening to Qi Yan and thinking about the case. He knew where he was, what they were supposed to be doing and who said what just now.

He tapped the table with his fingertips. “Do the Lvs know about this matter? How is their reaction? What was Lv Mingyue doing that day?”

Qi Yan had a constipated look on his face as he was forcibly pulled back to the case. “They probably knew and were happy about it. The Lvs have been preparing the dowry recently. Lin Feizhou died at Zhaoze Temple and Lv Mingyue was around as well. My guess is that they secretly agreed to meet there. These two have a lot of dramatic stories…”

Qi Yan started gesticulating wildly as he continued recounting what he had heard.

As the expert in gathering gossip, he was the best at getting this sort of information. Lin Feizhou didn’t like leaving his house, didn’t like to talk, had a boring personality and very few people would notice him. The city had very strict social norms too, so any young lady with even the slightest bit of status wouldn’t leave the house if they didn’t have to. Lv Mingyue and Lin Feizhou had used every method they could think of to develop this relationship that started with love at first sight. This relationship was full of excitement, so it was impossible to remain unaffected.

As though he was rehearsing a stage play, Qi Yan acted out each act with great emotion and romanticism.

These two longed for each other so much, so they tried to seize every chance they could to meet with one another. If there was no chance, they would create a chance.

A busy ritual at a temple was the best chance.

Qi Yan could not confirm this based on the information he had gathered, but he guessed that the truth wasn’t far from this.

At the end, he shrugged. “I didn’t have a lot of time and this was a big job. I only managed to get as far as Lv Mingyue and didn’t get anything else.”

“Only Lv Mingyue?” Song Caitang remembered those love poems she found on the victim’s desk and her gaze flickered. “What about the other woman?”

That question stumped Qi Yan. He blinked at her. “There’s another woman?”

Wow, this frail student was really something!

He trusted Song Caitang’s words wholeheartedly, so hearing that there was one more woman involved instantly lit up his tabloid-loving heart. He rubbed his palms together and said, “I’ll go and look for her next, so just wait for my good news!”

Zhao Zhi summed up the case roughly, “So, we’ve got a few people connected to this case now. Lv Mingyue, Ji Yuanjia, Madam Gu, Li Zhengzhi, Li Maocai.”

Zuo Xiuwen’s attitude was a little ambiguous, but they would need to conduct further investigations before they could confirm if he was connected to the case or not.

“Lv Mingyue was the victim’s lover, so she would know the most about him and she might know quite a lot. I’ll call her in for questioning.”

“Li Zhengzhi seems to have a very harsh stance toward this case too,” said Song Caitang. “We can’t be sure if he’s lying or not, so we have to keep an eye on him. Also, Li Maocai…”

Qi Yan was the most qualified to comment on this man. “I’ll continue following him! He doesn’t look like he’s lying, but I sense that he’s hiding something.”

“As for Madam Gu…” Zhao Zhi looked thoughtful. “If she’s the killer, then it might have something to do with her son, Ji Yuanjia.”

Ji Yuanjia had just happened to need directions? That sounded like too much of a coincidence. Could it be that Ji Yuanjia knew Lin Feizhou?

Song Caitang turned so that her profile was against the sunshine, so her long lashes cast a semicircle shadow below her eyes, making her look pretty and serene. “There’s too little useful information. And so far, there’s nothing that can explain where those expensive ingredients found in the victim’s stomach came from. I think we’ll get something if we investigate this part as well.”

It was true that if you had the right connections, a rich family could get their hands on abalones and sea cucumbers. But Lv Mingyue’s family didn’t seem rich enough to have such connections.

The victim had eaten these things just before he died. The source of the food and why he ate them were both important clues.

Zhao Zhi nodded. “I’ll get someone to investigate.”

“One more thing.”

Song Caitang hesitated for a moment before deciding to say it anyway. “The other day, I went to look at the house that the victim rented. I have a suspicion that I’ve not mentioned so far.”

“The victim, Lin Feizhou, might have been a swindler.”