262 — Breakthrough

“So now, we’ve got a few groups of people involved in the current case.”

The wind was blowing loudly outside. Zhao Zhi’s tone was equally icy and did not sound friendly at all. “The count of peace, Zeng Deyong, and the pacification commissioner, Lu Guangzong, both had the same box with secret drawers and the pattern for that box.”

“Sang Zheng, a citizen with foreign blood, personally made sure a ship with gold moved along smoothly, so he knew the route for the gold,” Song Caitang continued where he left off. “And the source of this gold has something to do with Lu Guangzong.”

The two parties were connected.

But they could not be certain if Zeng Deyong knew about the gold. They had no concrete evidence to suggest so.

Wen Yuansi paused to think. “Niu Xingzu was the one who made that box, then was silenced by Lu Guangzong later. Perhaps he had discovered some secret, but it wouldn’t be anything significant. Based on the way Fourth Missy Gan chose to live quietly in a small town far from the capital, she might have guessed a thing or two, but it wouldn’t have been anything significant either.”

That was why nobody really bothered to hunt her down and make sure she died. She was only scorned when she returned to Bianliang and tried to score a position within the Count of Peace’s household.

“There are two more people,” Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes as he tapped a finger gently against the table, “the person Lin Feizhou was looking for, or the person who helped Madam Gu. And Jing Yan.”

These two people shared a symbol.

“They should be part of the same group of people,” said Wen Yuansi, “but I don’t know if they were just accidentally involved in what happened 18 years ago, or if they were there with a particular motive.”

If they had been involved by accident, were they silenced because they had uncovered some secret?

But if they were there on purpose, what was their purpose?

All three turned to look at Qi Yan. They were clearly telling him to try and remember what happened 18 years ago.

“But I was still a child 18 years ago!” Qi Yan felt very aggrieved and clutched his head in protest. “And my uncle was only a teenager! What would he know? What great things would he have done? I really have no idea!”

Song Caitang turned away and a thought suddenly hit her. “There’s another possibility. Perhaps it’s not that the two of them held the same symbol, but they had been marked by someone else. Maybe they didn’t even know each other. Someone had marked them with the same symbol, to show that they were the same, to mark them as targets.”

18 years ago, perhaps Jing Yan hadn’t been at Beiqing Mountain. But something he did later or some secrets he discovered later gave someone reason to mark him and kill him.

Zhao Zhi and Wen Yuansi considered this possibility and agreed it was plausible.

Regardless of what these two people knew and why they were killed, the whole thing about secret communication, amassing of wealth and shipping of gold out of the country was definitely true. And these two people had been on the opposing side.

Among the people in this entire group, Lu Guangzong and Zeng Deyong were in the most convenient position because of their status and the power they had, so getting money was not a problem. Sang Zheng’s mother was a foreigner, so anybody of the same foreign race would trust him…

“Working together is really not completely impossible,” Song Caitang tilted her head slightly. “It’s just that… this is a rather high level way of doing it.”

Qi Yan scratched his head. “High level?”

Wen Yuansi laughed. “You can refer to the previous case concerning Li Zhengzhi and Zuo Xiuwen.”

Qi Yan was a little confused now. Why did Wen Yuansi mention the previous case?

“The cases are… connected?”

The leader of the bandits had lived a really good life pretending to be Zuo Xiuwen.

Zhao Zhi snorted to express his sympathy for Qi Yan’s lack of intelligence.

Song Caitang ended up explaining again, “Before the two men betrayed one another, they were partners in crime. It was just that Li Zhengzhi was smarter and made sure he left a back door for himself.”

Qi Yan blinked as he processed these words, then gasped as he realized what they were trying to say. “You really do need high level methods to survive being an official…”

After he finished sighing, he glared at Zhao Zhi. “It’s not that I’m too stupid to know that, I was just slow to react!”

Zhao Zhi merely scoffed as he raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t say anything.

Qi Yan then turned back to beg Song Caitang for more information. “So, Zeng Deyong and Sang Zheng were actually friends?”

Zhao Zhi couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Did you not hear her analysis earlier at all? The two men were just short of fighting each other outright. Would they be friends?”

Qi Yan was both angry and aggrieved. “But you just said…”

“Friends would definitely work together, but people who work together are not necessarily friends.” Wen Yuansi blew on his tea and spoke slowly, “We can’t control certain situations in life. There are times where you have to cooperate with others even if you don’t like them.”

“Your work life is one thing, your private life is another. Just because you work well together and you do your work properly doesn’t mean you won’t give each other fake smiles or that you wouldn’t try to backstab the other person later on.”

He said these words very calmly, as though he had gone through something like that before.

Qi Yan shuddered. Being in this line of work was dangerous.

Wen Yuansi then mentioned something else, “I don’t have any evidence and nobody was willing to confirm it, but I’m very sure Sang Zheng and Madam Wei are romantically involved.”

This was something he had already noticed when he questioned them at the count’s residence, and he was even more certain after conducting investigations over the past few days.

The two men could not possibly become friends.

Qi Yan clutched his head because it was beginning to hurt. “But that’s… that’s really crazy, no?”

Song Caitang recalled her first impression of Zeng Deyong and his wife. “No wonder…”

Qi Yan leaned over. “No wonder what?”

“I felt like something was off,” said Song Caitang with a frown. “Madam Wei was too confident, too full of herself, as though she was in full control of everything and she was just breezing through life. She enjoyed hearing others praise her and was very proud of that.”

But when she observed Madam Wei further after that, she felt that while Madam Wei was indeed very pretty and charming, and quite smart too, she wasn’t quite capable of doing something at this level.

Her environment was the one that gave her so much confidence.

This also explained how Zeng Deyong could be so protective and loving toward his wife while also lusting after other women so openly.

“If he truly loved Madam Wei, he wouldn’t fool around. But if it isn’t true love, there’s also no need for him to treat her like she’s so precious to him…”

There was something contradictory about Zeng Deyong as well.

He had no reason to fear Madam Wei.

They lived in a patriarchal society where men lorded it over women in the first place. The only thing that gave a woman advantage was the kind of family she came from, but Zeng Deyong came from an equally influential family, so he really had no reason to treat her like this.

“All of them might have been just putting on an act despite knowing the truth.”

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes, “This could be a gap we could use for a breakthrough.”

Qi Yan asked, “A gap we could use?”

Song Caitang, Zhao Zhi and Wen Yuansi exchanged glances and said in unison, “It’s time to interrogate them!”

It was clear that nobody was going to confess to anything at this stage, so they had to find a way to ask the suspects questions in order to get answers.

After quickly going through all the possibilities in his head, Zhao Zhi leaned forward and said, “Let’s go through the case again.”

Most of the details and the truth could be pieced together at this stage.

First, there was the incident at Beiqing Mountain 18 years ago. Various characters had been involved in some way or another and all the connections could be drawn out now. Madam Wei rescued Sang Zheng. Zeng Deyong happened to take a fancy to Fourth Missy Gan, who had been held captive by the bandits and later set free. The person Lin Feizhou was looking for had been there as well and this person had come across some sort of secret…

Five years ago in Qingxian, Fourth Missy Gan was there too. Zeng Deyong didn’t notice her, or perhaps he pretended he hadn’t. Madam Wei was upset to see her, so she wanted to kill her and actually acted on it. But Fourth Missy Gan got lucky and ran into Qiu Wenkang, who helped her to get out of this situation.

At the same time, perhaps because a secret got out, an organization killed Jing Yan and wanted to frame Qiu Wenkang for it. Perhaps they had an old feud with Qiu Wenkang, or perhaps they were actually trying to implicate the crown prince by implicating his head administrator in a murder case.

But in the end, Qiu Wenkang left quietly that night to attend to another matter in secret, so the guesthouse he booked for the night was rented out to someone instead, who turned out to be Lu Yuxue, who was travelling in secret. She was a young woman travelling on her own, so she would have done her best to keep her travels a secret.

That night, Jing Yan’s corpse was thrown into the yard of the guesthouse that was booked by Qiu Wenkang, but eventually occupied by Lu Yuxue instead.

Lu Yuxue had spent enough years in Bianliang to know all about the Count of Peace’s household. She thought the body in her yard was the result of a fight between Madam Wei and Fourth Missy Gan and was disgusted by it, so she just threw it over the fence to the yard next door.

Fourth Missy Gan knew that Madam Wei was trying to kill her and thought the body in her yard was a threat, so she became fearful and didn’t dare to report it to the authorities at all. Instead, she quickly buried the body and left Qingxian with her son in a hurry.

That was also how Jing Yan’s jade pendant ended up with her.

She thought of pawning it because she was in need of money, but decided against it in the end because she was afraid that doing so might bring trouble to herself.

After that, nothing happened for the next five years.

Perhaps Zeng Deyong and Sang Zheng only knew that Fourth Missy Gan existed, but did not know that she also knew about this little box with secret drawers and its pattern. This was only revealed after Lu Guangzong’s murder. If Fourth Missy Gan continued to keep a low profile, she might have been fine. But she returned to Bianliang.

She couldn’t hold Gan Zhixuan back, so she had no choice but to return to the count’s household in Bianliang with him. Regardless of whether she did anything or not, her return to the household in itself made her look like she was here to fight for power or fight for benefits.

When too many people were gathered together, all sorts of schemes and conspiracies would be conjured up. Anything you knew could become a threat or a way to blackmail someone else. And so, Fourth Missy Gan could not be allowed to live.

The murderer chose to kill at such a time because they realized someone else wanted to kill her too and wanted to ride on that…

“The person who used poison and the person who raped her might very well be the same person,” said Zhao Zhi.

That seemed shocking enough, but he wasn’t done, “The person who killed Jing Yan and Fourth Missy Gan might also be the same person.”

Zeng Deyong and Sang Zheng were definitely working together somehow, but whether they were working directly with one another or not, or what they were actually in charge of doing, was not clear at all.

Even after putting the facts of the case together, they were still unable to find an area they could use to crack the whole case apart.

“Jing Yan’s jade pendant,” said Wen Yuansi. “It’s very important for us to find out where it is right now.”

Song Caitang added, “And that very special mace that was used to kill him. Whoever has that mace is the killer.”

Once they had reached this conclusion, Zhao Zhi clapped his hands and said, “It’s getting late. Let’s head back to Bianliang.”

All the suspects were located in Bianliang. If they wanted to crack this case, they had to return to the city first.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

They still had subordinates investigating the clues, so they could analyze the facts and sort out their thoughts on the journey back. Doing that might give them some new insights.

But not long after they began their journey, someone came galloping after them on horseback. “Miss Song! There’s a letter for Mis Song!”

Because the case was of utmost importance, any letters for any of them were given priority and were delivered immediately. Zhao Zhi took the letter from the man and dismissed him.

After the man left, Zhao Zhi took one look at the letter and his expression instantly darkened.

He knew whose handwriting this was.

These rough scrawls with no elegance or structure, strokes that looked worse than a five year old’s handwriting, as though this person had just learned how to write.

He had received letters declaring war with this handwriting, so he recognized it immediately. This was a letter from the prince of Western Xia, Li Yuanfeng!

Li Yuanfeng had written a letter, but it was addressed to Song Caitang and not him. What did this mean?

Song Caitang realized that it was taking Zhao Zhi a long time to retrieve the letter, so she pulled back the curtain of her carriage and instantly spotted Zhao Zhi’s murderous expression.

“What’s wrong?”

Zhao Zhi did not respond.

Song Caitang stretched a hand out. “Isn’t that a letter for me?”

Zhao Zhi did not pass it to her. He paused to think, then got into the carriage. “I’ll help you to open it.”

Song Caitang smiled at him. “What did you say?”

Zhao Zhi did not seem embarrassed at all. “I’m going to open the letter for you.”

He didn’t seem apologetic about infringing on another person’s privacy.

But Song Caitang was unlike other women and could tell that he had a good reason to do this. “You recognize the handwriting on the envelope.” She stared at the words “For Song Caitang” and was fairly confident. “You know who sent this letter.”

Zhao Zhi didn’t hide it from her. “Li Yuanfeng.”

“Li Yuanfeng?” Song Caitang recalled the Night Sanctum case. “The Western Xia prince who pretended to be Xin Yongwang?”

Zhao Zhi pursed his lips tightly. “That’s him.”

Just thinking about that case, the state he had found Song Caitang in back then and what happened before and after that, put him in a very foul mood.

Even though he had taught Li Yuanfeng a really good lesson back then, he was still pissed off.

“Why is he writing to me?”

Song Caitang was rather puzzled. She had no interaction with this prince at all. And she had been threatened back then because the prince had been trying to use her to lure Zhao Zhi out. Why was he suddenly writing her a letter now?

Her gaze fell on the slightly yellowish colored envelope and she felt a little curious. “Go ahead and open it then.”

Zhao Zhi nodded. “Okay.”

He was very serious about handling the envelope and only opened it after he was certain there were no hidden triggers or poison deposits.

They were both really surprised. Even though it was strange to receive a letter from this man and his tone of voice in the letter was antagonistic, the contents were actually evidence for this case!