There’s Really Work

“It’s time for you to go.”

Zhao Zhi’s low voice had just resounded next to Song Caitang’s ear and she found herself in a warm embrace the next second.

She was a little confused.

Go? Where? Did she have another appointment today?

She paused to think. No, she didn’t.

So, it was Zhao Zhi acting up!

She wasn’t going to leave with him just like that. She pointed at Guan Wan. “Wanwan is still here!”

She was here to accompany her cousin to shop!

But Zhao Zhi wasn’t taking no for an answer. “I’ll send some people to protect her. For now, you have to finish the work you’ve left unfinished.”

Work? She knew there was definitely no unfinished work left.

She quickly figured it out. Zhao Zhi was just making things up to take her away from this place.

And since it definitely had nothing to do with Guan Wan, it had to do with… Wen Yuansi then.

Zhao Zhi was jealous?

She knew his temperament and knew that there was nothing she could do about things right now, so she had no choice but to wave goodbye to Wen Yuansi.

Wen Yuansi folded his hands behind his back as he watched them disappear on horseback. His gaze deepened.

It had only been a few months since he last saw her.

Was he too late?

But Wen Yuansi was a gentleman. He couldn’t stop Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang from leaving, but he had to take care of the situation at hand. He turned to look at Guan Wan, who was waving to Song Caitang. “I’ll send you home?”

“No need, I still have a lot of things to buy and I’m afraid I’d take a long time,” Guan Wan waved her hands frantically and smiled shyly. “I’ve got plenty of servants with me today, so I won’t trouble you, Mr. Wen. Please go ahead and continue with what you were doing, don’t worry about me…”

With that, she ran off without even waiting for his reply.

Wen Yuansi took a look at the group with her and only left after he was sure that she was accompanied by a lot of people and had good bodyguards as well.

Guan Wan could go around by herself without any problems, really. Bianliang was a very safe place, it was still daytime and she had brought enough people with her. Nothing bad would happen to her.

When her cousin was busy with a case, she would end up having to walk around by herself, so Zhao Zhi would send a few guards to protect her. She was well used to that and didn’t think she had to be afraid of anything. She started humming merrily as she skipped into the market. It was shopping time!

But she had only taken a few steps into the market when she ran into someone.

It was a teenager who was very tall and an unhealthy sort of skinny. Only his eyes were as brilliant as the stars, as though it contained the entire milky way.

Ji Yuanjia smiled at her. “Don’t recognize me anymore, young lady?”

“Oh…” Guan Wan’s gaze flickered as she slowly replied, “It’s you.”

She felt a little guilty.

When Ji Yuanjia was one of the suspects in a case Song Caitang was investigating, she thought that he was a bad guy who committed crimes and made her cousin go round and round in circles, so she complained about him for several days. But in the end, it turned out he was completely innocent…

Guan Wan felt a little bad, so she pulled out two tiny cookies wrapped in a handkerchief from her sleeve and offered them to him. “You can have these…”

Ji Yuanjia’s gaze intensified as he stared at the two tiny cookies that would be gone in less than a second.

Guan Wan got a little annoyed.

These were the cookies that she had packed along to munch on in case she got hungry! If he didn’t want them then forget it!

She was about to take them back when the young man took the cookies from her palm deftly.

“Thank you.”

Guan Wan nodded.

Since he had accepted them, she didn’t feel guilty anymore. They didn’t owe each other anything!

She waved goodbye to him, “I’ll head off to sh—”

Before she could say the word “shop”, Ji Yuanjia smiled and said, “To thank you for the cookies, I’ll go shopping with you and see you home after that.”

Guan Wan blinked at him several times. “Huh?”

What did that mean?

Ji Yuanjia hurried her along. “Don’t just stand there. Come along now.”

Guan Wan was confused. “Uh… alright…”

The naïve and simple Guan Wan had no idea what was going on, but she didn’t think too much of it. The moment she spotted condiments she liked, she threw her confusion behind her and proceeded to enjoy her shopping.

Her cousin, however, was in a slightly awkward situation.

Things were slightly awkward for Song Caitang, but not too uncomfortable. It was a little difficult to describe this situation.

Several vague images seemed to flash in Song Caitang’s mind. She felt like this situation and these emotions had happened to her before. She had experienced this a long time ago and was used to it.

Blackie galloped especially fast and the ride was bumpy, so Song Caitang had no choice but to stay close to Zhao Zhi. Sometimes, she even had to cling onto his arms to steady herself.

The horse was galloping along quickly, so their hair and capes were flapping wildly and nobody would be able to recognize who was on this horse. But Song Caitang’s cheeks still turned red in embarrassment anyway.

“What in the world are you trying to do?!”

Zhao Zhi pursed his lips and refused to back down. He replied calmly, “Work.”

Song Caitang rolled her eyes.

She wasn’t going to believe that! Work, my foot! The case was closed, so there wasn’t any more work left to do!

But forget it.

Song Caitang decided against talking and just quietly looked ahead.

They had gone past the noisy marketplace and the crowd. The forest in winter was a little bare. Besides some yellowish wild grass, everything was bare. The road was long and winding and she couldn’t see the end of the road.

It felt as though they could just keep going and going. They wouldn’t stop and they didn’t have to stop.

It wasn’t a bad feeling.

In the howling wind, Song Caitang couldn’t hear a lot of sounds. She could only feel her own heart beating as well as Zhao Zhi’s. After a while, they were beating at almost the same time.

His heartbeat was strong and resilient.

At that moment, Song Caitang felt a little lost. Just moments ago, she told Ling Qianqian that she didn’t know her own heart and didn’t know what she was fighting for. But what about herself? Did she really know herself?

She shut her eyes and let the wind blow against her face.

Should she try to get her memories back? She had to consider that very seriously.

Zhao Zhi, on the other hand, probably didn’t know how to deal with the situation he had created. He kept the horse going for a long, long time without stopping.

Eventually, it was his good brother, Qi Yan, who came to his rescue.

The messenger from Qi Yan said that Qi Yan had an extremely urgent matter to discuss with them.

Zhao Zhi led the horse downslope again and calmly said to Song Caitang, “Work.”

Song Caitang glared at him.

This was just a coincidence! Did he think she was stupid?!

But Qi Yan’s matter was very serious indeed.

The moment she looked at his face, she knew that this was a very important matter to him.

Qi Yan was frowning very hard and pursed his lips tightly. He looked very troubled and was more solemn than she had ever seen him before. He didn’t fan himself, he didn’t have any dramatic antics and didn’t boast. His gaze was very intense and he seemed rather agitated. His fingers were trembling even.

“I think… I’ve discovered something really huge.”

As Qi Yan spoke, he retrieved the jade pendant from Lin Feizhou’s case and passed it to Zhao Zhi.

This jade pendant was probably why Lin Feizhou had approached Lv Mingyue in the first place. It had come from Madam Gu, who got it from a person she had randomly helped 18 years ago during the chaotic battle at Beiqing Mountain.

Lin Feizhou probably had no idea whose daughter Lv Mingyue really was, otherwise the swindler in him would definitely have gone to blackmail Madam Gu and Zuo Xiuwen. He probably knew very little about what happened 18 years ago and was just trying to look for this jade pendant. He might be connected somehow to the owner of this pendant, so he might be trying to take revenge, or repay a favor, or he just wanted it as a memento.

Song Caitang and Zhao Zhi both turned to stare at Qi Yan. This jade pendant had something to do with him?

Qi Yan knew what they were thinking and didn’t say anything. He proceeded to fish out a small but extremely clear magnifying glass and passed it to them too.

Glassmaking was not very advanced during this time and they couldn’t make really good magnifying lenses, but similar things did exist. There were certain special techniques that the older craftsmen were aware of.

Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang took turns to use the magnifying glass to find a symbol that was very small and intricate, like a tree branch or a totem, that was inscribed on the jade pendant. It was so tiny, you couldn’t see it at all without this magnifying glass.

Song Caitang still didn’t understand what this was all about. But Zhao Zhi suddenly frowned hard and looked grim.

She knew this was no small matter.

Qi Yan lowered his gaze and said very quietly, “I’ve seen the same symbol around Jing Yan before.”

He knew Song Caitang didn’t know anything about his past, so he explained to her, “Jing Yan was an uncle who brought me up. We share the same ancestors, but somehow, his branch of the family fell from grace and they were not very well off. I was sickly as a child and lived in the ancestral home for a period of time, so I spent my days with him. He saved my life, he taught me a lot of things, he was a cheerful and upright man who liked helping others. He was a really good person… Five years ago, he suddenly died. I don’t know who killed him and for what reason. He just died without anybody knowing what really happened. The last thing he did for me before dying was probably to save me…”

Qi Yan’s eyes reddened slightly. “I was very playful when I was younger, so he saved me more than once. But nobody seemed to care or value his life. The family gave him a very quick and simple funeral, and nobody mentioned him again after that. Nobody cleans his grave on Tomb-sweeping Day either.”

“But,” Qi Yan pursed his lips tightly as his gaze grew intense, “I can’t let this go. I told myself a long time ago that I must find his killer and avenge him!”

What caught him by surprise was the fact that this uncle was now connected to the Lin Feizhou case.

The two symbols were identical. Were his uncle and Lin Feizhou looking for the same person? Were they acquainted with each other?

But 18 years ago, this uncle was still very young. He was only a teenager back then.

Qi Yan couldn’t figure it out. Getting to this point had already exhausted all his energy. He implored Zhao Zhi, “Brother Zhi… help me, won’t you?”

Zhao Zhi nodded. “Since we’ve got a lead, we can start investigating from there.”

Song Caitang added, “I’ll help you examine the body.”

Qi Yan hung his head again at these words. “But my uncle… there was nothing left of him.”

There was no body to examine.

“Nothing at all?” Song Caitang frowned. “How did you know he died then?”

Qi Yan pulled a long face. “I wasn’t there at that time, but the elders all said so. They said he had died and there was no need for further explanation. They didn’t look like they were lying.”

Song Caitang paused to think, then said, “A person’s body wouldn’t vanish just because they’re dead. Even if it was burned, there would be ashes and some bits of bone. Either they lost the body or they couldn’t find it. And if we can find the place where he died, that would be of great help to us.” She looked very seriously at Qi Yan. “Don’t feel too discouraged, let’s work hard together. Five years isn’t too long ago, really. We’ve seen unsolved cases that date back ten or even twenty years ago.”

Zhao Zhi added, “We’re solving a murder case here. You might be bad at it, but not everyone is. Qi Yan, you ought to have faith in Song Caitang.”

Qi Yan brightened up. “Is it… really possible?”

“Uh huh,” Song Caitang nodded. “But it’s not a very good time to do anything now, since it’s almost New Year’s. Even if we wanted to get things done, we can’t get help, since they’re celebrating the new year too. Don’t be too anxious, we’ll take it one step at a time.”

Qi Yan nodded and slowly exhaled.

He had already waited five whole years. Another month was nothing in comparison.