A Completely Besotted Woman

After a quick analysis of the case, everyone confirmed what they had to do next and split ways.

For Li Maocai, the gangster, as well as Madam Gu in prison, Zhao Zhi arranged for two others to follow and observe them separately. As for Zuo Xiuwen’s home, Qi Yan was going there himself to find out what sort of ingredients had been going through the kitchen recently. If he could confirm that Zuo Shanshan was involved with Lin Feizhou, he would try to think of a way to sound her out.

As for Lv Mingyue, Zhao Zhi was going to accompany Song Caitang to go to her place and ask her some questions.

Guan Wan sent lunch at the perfect timing. She probably already figured that her cousin wasn’t going to get back in time and she wouldn’t be the only one needing lunch, so she sent a huge pile of food. There were cold dishes, hot dishes, stir fried dishes, soup – it was enough to cover an entire table. She even threw in some fruit and dessert. There was more than enough for everyone.

Qi Yan buried his face in food, finishing his share in no time. He felt that it wasn’t enough, so he packed two large boxes of dessert before heading off.

He had moved too quickly and taken too much, so Zhao Zhi couldn’t even stop him in time.

But Song Caitang wasn’t bothered at all. After all, Qi Yan was lagging behind when it came to speed and quantity.

Her little cousin, Guan Wan, was so tiny and so slim, yet she managed to whip up so many dishes in such a short time and hoped that they could finish everything? Was she trying to stuff them to death?

She was so glad that there was someone who could really eat.

Now that they were full, they could start working.

Song Caitang and Zhao Zhi walked out together, and they ran into someone she recognized the moment they set foot on the streets.

It was Wang Liu.

He was standing at the corner of the street, looking very suspicious. He immediately shrank back when he spotted her.

Song Caitang narrowed her eyes slightly.

This man who had pretended to know her from before… was very interesting.

Zhao Zhi noticed she was looking at Wang Liu. “Who’s that?”

“Someone unimportant. Ignore him.”

Song Caitang continued walking.

She had already told Butler Hu to help her watch out for this man, so she would eventually find out who he was and whether he really knew her from before. The case was more important, so Zhao Zhi didn’t have to distract himself with a small matter like this.

“Okay.”

Zhao Zhi looked like he had shrugged it off like she told him to, but once he turned, he placed a hand behind his back and gave a signal with his fingers.

His guard, who was hidden in the shadows, saw the signal and immediately flew off to carry out Zhao Zhi’s instructions.

Lv Mingyue’s family was rich and her father, Lv Angui, was a merchant. Land in the east of the city was cheaper, so he had a house with three gates built here. He had some shops within the city and countless more outside the city. Even though he wasn’t an official, he lived a luxurious life.

But there was one thing that was really strange. As they approached the house, they could see from afar that the best and most intricately designed residence of the house had no large pine trees or majestic fittings. Instead, it was decorated with chiffon and silver bells, as though the one living in this residence was a young girl instead of the head of the family.

When he heard that a relative of the emperor was here to visit, Lv Angui came running out so quickly with a hand over his best hat that his nose was already dripping with perspiration. That’s how much importance he was giving this occasion. “Greetings, Commandery Prince Zhao!”

“Get up,” said Zhao Zhi before taking the chance to ask, “You have an important female guest living in the main residence of your house?”

Lv Angui replied, “I wouldn’t dare to lie to you, sir, but the one living there is my daughter.”

“Oh?”

“My parents have already passed away and my son is in business, so he spends most of his time away. He’s a rough fellow so there’s no need to pamper him like that. His wife doesn’t mind either. As a result, I gave this main residence to my younger, unmarried daughter, Mingyue. This way please, Commandery Prince Zhao.”

Zhao Zhi followed him into the main living room. “That’s just as well. I have come precisely to talk to her. Squire Lv, please ask your daughter to come over.”

Lv Angui had a conflicted look on his face.

Zhao Zhi raised an eyebrow. “Why, it’s not possible?”

“It’s not impossible, it’s just that… my daughter… my daughter has fallen ill!” Lv Angui fell to his knees. “She’s very sick and the doctor said she has to rest quietly, so it’s hard for her to have any visitors right now…”

Zhao Zhi was not hindered by these words. He flipped his robe aside and sat down with ease, then used his chin to motion to Song Caitang to sit down as well. Lv Angui shifted his kneeling position slightly, but he still mostly faced Zhao Zhi.

“Did you know that obstructing civil duties is a crime?” Zhao Zhi’s voice was sinister, as though his voice were weapons of war. It made one seriously shudder.

Lv Angui shook with fear. “Why… why do you say that? That’s really not my intention! That’s really not my intention at all, my lord!”

“Oh?”

Zhao Zhi’s little “oh” alone was terribly imposing.

“I wouldn’t dare to! But my daughter is really very ill and she speaks nonsense from time to time, so I’m afraid she wouldn’t be of any use to you and this meeting will be of no help to either party…” Lv Angui carefully raised a suggestion, “Why don’t you wait for a few more days? Once my daughter gets better, I’m sure she will cooperate with you.”

Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang exchanged glances.

She was sick at a time like this? Wasn’t that too much of a coincidence?

Song Caitang shook her head slightly.

She had just seen Lv Mingyue when she visited Lin Feizhou’s place the day before. Lv Mingyue had been a little panicky, but she was still physically healthy. To fall so ill that she couldn’t have visitors within the span of less than a day…

Perhaps she wasn’t severely ill but she didn’t want to, or didn’t dare to face any visitors.

Also, the way Lv Angui was trying to stop them from seeing her was a little too stiff and nervous. He was clearly terrified.

“Alright then.” Zhao Zhi did not push him further and actually stood up and started walking back out. “If anything happens in the future, your household will take responsibility for it.”

Lv Angui was so frightened, his voice went up in pitch, “My lord! Don’t go! Don’t go!”

Zhao Zhi stopped walking, but he did not turn around.

Song Caitang stepped in at this juncture to quietly remind Lv Angui, “Commandery Prince Zhao came today to carry out his civil duties according to procedure. He just needs to ask a few questions and does not intend to hurt you. But if you insist on getting in his way of work and make his work more difficult than it has to be… If something bad happens, then you’re in more than just a little trouble. He’s Commandery Prince Zhao, after all.”

Lv Angui nearly collapsed from fear.

She was right. This man was not just a commandery prince, but a relative of the emperor, a man who was incredibly capable and also a man capable of doing and finding out absolutely anything.

He couldn’t afford to lie to him or hide anything from him!

Lv Angui immediately bowed with his head on the floor. “My lord, please wait here for a while. I will get my daughter to come over right now!”

As he scrambled out of the room to fetch his daughter, Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang sat down again.

“There’s something… different about the air around this family.”

Immediately after Song Caitang pointed that out, Zhao Zhi nodded and frowned slightly. “There is.”

They waited a good ten minutes before Lv Mingyue emerged with her parents, Lv Angui and Madam Liu.

She could walk just fine and looked very healthy, but her face was unnaturally pale. She was clearly in very poor spirits.

Lv Mingyue looked like she was 17 or 18 and had slightly more mature features compared to her peers. But her hairstyle, her accessories and even her clothes were like those of a young girl, as though she had never grown up…

She wasn’t exceptionally pretty, but she did look clean and pure. She also carried herself like someone who had been well pampered.

After she gave Zhao Zhi a quick bow, she kept very close to her mother and refused to sit down by herself, insisting on clinging onto her mother.

Madam Liu felt a little embarrassed by the situation and explained to Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang, “My child is a little… timid.”

Zhao Zhi did not know how to deal with girls like that, so he just asked her straight up, “You know Lin Feizhou, don’t you?”

Lv Mingyue immediately clutched her handkerchief tightly. “No, I don’t know him… no, wait, I do, I know him…”

This response was… completely different from when Song Caitang ran into her. She was now in a daze and spoke incoherently, as though she had gone through some trauma.

Zhao Zhi did not seem to notice her distress and went further with an even more sensitive question, “Were both of you in a relationship?”

Lv Mingyue completely stiffened up as she shook her head vigorously. “No… no… wait, no… yes… yes…”

She became even more worked up, as though she didn’t know how to answer his question properly. Her eyes reddened and she began to cry.

“There’s no need to deny it,” said Zhao Zhi in a low voice. “I already know about your relationship with him.”

“No… there’s nothing between us, it has nothing to do with me…” Lv Mingyue covered her ears with her hands and burst into tears. She turned and screamed hysterically at her parents, “It’s all your fault! You made this happen! It’s all your fault! I already said that I don’t know anything, but they’re still pushing me like this…”

Madam Liu pulled her into her arms and patted her back gently, “Yes, yes, it’s all my fault… Yue’er, it’s alright, no need to be scared…” As she patted her daughter’s back, she started to wipe her own tears as she apologized to Zhao Zhi, “Yue’er isn’t normally like that, she’s just really frightened… She went through a major illness when she was very young and we nearly lost her, so as her parents, we dote on her a lot and can’t bear to see her suffer any lack. She’s the apple of our eye. We really wanted to raise her well and make sure she married a good man and have her own family… We would have died without regrets… But she turned out to be so ill-fated…”

Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang exchanged glances.

Song Caitang interjected, “Madam, you don’t have to be so worked up. Commandery Prince Zhao is not here to arrest anyone. He just wants to ask some questions. If Miss Lv has nothing to do with this murder case, then she doesn’t have to be afraid of anything. She just has to answer all the questions about the case honestly. The authorities will not tell anyone else about what she has said.”

What Song Caitang was implying was very clear. Any criminal investigation was conducted according to the laws of the land and required concrete evidence. If you did not do anything to flout the law, you wouldn’t have any reason to be afraid to be questioned. But if Lv Mingyue continued to be so scared and uncooperative, then they would have reason to suspect that she was involved in this case.

The courts only asked about the case and not about private matters. They were not out to ruin any woman’s reputation.

Madam Liu breathed a sigh of relief when she heard these words. She patted her daughter’s back gently and said, “Alright now, be good. I’ll be right here, so don’t be scared.”

Lv Mingyue wasn’t as tense anymore, but she wasn’t any less worked up.

This time, Song Caitang gave Zhao Zhi a look to tell him not to say anything. She asked the girl herself, “How long have you known Lin Feizhou?”

Lv Mingyue’s voice was very soft. “Two… months.”

“How did you get to know him?”

“He helped me… A thief stole my bag… he nabbed the thief for me.”

“Then you got to know each other better after that?”

“…Yeah.”

Song Caitang glanced at Zhao Zhi.

Lin Feizhou had only arrived in Bianliang two months ago, supposedly to start preparing himself for the exams happening the next year. And immediately after he arrived, he got the chance to meet Lv Mingyue and quickly became familiar with her, starting with just being friends and quickly becoming engaged within just two months…

This Lin Feizhou seriously didn’t waste a single minute.

Song Caitang looked at Lv Mingyue. “Was he good to you?”

Lv Mingyue sounded a little shy. “He was very good to me.”

“I noticed that he’s not very well off. Did he ask you for anything?”

Lv Mingyue seemed to go into a short daze, but shook her head. “No.”

“What about you? Did you try to give him anything?”

“I did, I wanted to give him things… My family doesn’t lack money, but he can’t even afford to eat three meals a day and he can’t bear to throw his clothes away even though they’re all old and faded. I wanted him to live more comfortably so that he could focus on studying, but he didn’t want anything… He was only willing to eat some of the simple dishes I cooked for him…”

Lv Mingyue sounded a little depressed as she spoke.

Song Caitang raised an eyebrow. “So, on the day of the ritual at the temple, you cooked noodles for him?”

Lv Mingyue stared at her in shock. “How… did you know?”

“And you slipped an egg in as well?”

Lv Mingyue’s eyes widened and her mouth nearly fell open. Her entire expression was saying: How did you know that too?

Song Caitang did not answer her and lowered her gaze.

So, the noodles found in the victim’s stomach had come from her.

“Were you also the one who asked him to go to Zhaoze Temple?”

Lv Mingyue’s hands were trembling, but she didn’t dare to hide any facts. “Yes… He didn’t want to go initially because he was still studying, but I kept insisting and he finally gave in.”

“Both of you went up the mountain together?”

“Yes.”

“When did you split ways?”

“Not long after we arrived at the temple… I dragged him along to pick a divination lot about marriage, but there were too many people waiting to get their lots explained, and we ended up losing sight of each other.”

Was it really because it was too crowded? Or had the victim done that on purpose?

Song Caitang tilted her head slightly. “You didn’t become anxious?”

“He would come back. I knew that.”

Lv Mingyue said those words with great confidence, but also with a tinge of sweetness and bitterness.

The confidence and sweetness came from her faith in their relationship, but the bitterness… was probably because the man she loved was already dead.

Song Caitang went on, “Did you ever suspect that he had other reasons for getting close to you?”

“I thought about it initially… but what would he want out of me?” Lv Mingyue bit her lower lip. “He was so nice, so gentle and so considerate, and he loved cleanliness. He was never as uncouth as other men. He was very knowledgeable, ambitious and talented, so he would definitely pass the examinations next year, be promoted quickly and have a bright future ahead of him. My family is not influential in any way, just that we’re more well to do than most. What good would that be to him? I’m not extraordinarily beautiful either… He was simply too nice. I had become too attached to him and he felt that he should not let me down and wanted me to be happy for the rest of my life…”

Song Caitang frowned slightly as she glanced at Zhao Zhi.

Zhao Zhi nodded in response. They were of the same opinion.

Lv Mingyue had fallen deep into the love trap that Lin Feizhou had set up for her.

But that made sense.

Lin Feizhou was not going after beauty and Lv Mingyue really wasn’t the prettiest. Besides, he had been a swindler for so long, he had seen all sorts of women by now. Work was work, a mission was a mission. He probably wouldn’t have really fallen for one of his victims.

Money? Lv Mingyue clearly didn’t look like she was from a powerful enough family, though.

Lv Mingyue’s circle was also very simple and there were no suspicious characters within her circle.

As Song Caitang tried to think, she casually moved on, “Your parents must have prepared a lot of dowry for you, I’m sure.”

Lv Mingyue turned red in the face, so her mother helped to answer this question, “I only have one daughter, so of course I had to give her the best. I’ve been preparing her dowry since she was a child, so besides making sure she’ll have more than enough to eat, wear and use, I also kept all the things she used when she was a child. I wanted her to take them along to her future husband’s house as a keepsake.”

Dowry…

Something she used before as a child…

A thought suddenly struck Song Caitang. “When Miss Lv was a child, did anything special happen?”

Both Lv Angui and Madam Liu stared at her blankly.

After pausing for two seconds, they finally smiled awkwardly in confusion and asked, “Anything special? You mean…”

Song Caitang threw Zhao Zhi a quick glance.

Zhao Zhi nodded.

This husband and wife were quite interesting.

Zhao Zhi tapped the table with his fingertips as he said in an aloof voice, “Of course, it would be something that was special in your opinion.”