Jealousy Is Scary

Lu Yuxue was a capable woman who found every opportunity to squeeze herself in and make sure her presence was felt. Her feelings toward Zhao Zhi were real and deep, so her performance was sincere and anyone watching would feel moved to tears.

But not Song Caitang.

She wasn’t interested in what Lu Yuxue was trying to do here, so she wasn’t upset because she didn’t think Lu Yuxue was even doing anything meaningful. Once her attention was no longer on Lu Yuxue, she suddenly felt that… Lu Yuxue’s behavior was a little out of place.

She wasn’t sure if she was just overthinking it, but she sensed that Lu Yuxue seemed a little too concerned about the case.

Have you found out who’s the killer in this case? I heard it’s a serial murder case, no matter how busy you are, you have to take care of your health.

These words sounded like words of concern targeted at Zhao Zhi, but when coupled with this serial murder and the way Lu Yuxue behaved recently, the sense that this woman was somehow everywhere only grew stronger.

Song Caitang subconsciously glanced at Lu Yuxue a little more.

But Lu Yuxue only had eyes for Zhao Zhi, so she didn’t notice Song Caitang looking at her.

Because Zhao Zhi didn’t want to be entangled with her for too long, the two parties walked past each other quickly and there was no further interaction.

Qi Yan folded his hands behind his head and sighed while sounding somewhat gleeful, “My goodness, a woman’s jealousy can really be…”

Lu Yuxue’s disdain for Song Caitang was practically written all over her face.

Song Caitang wasn’t affected, but Zhao Zhi and Wen Yuansi were.

The two men looked at her differently. One looked apologetic and even upset that Song Caitang wasn’t jealous, while the other looked pained and upset for her, but was unable to say or express his emotions.

But the concern they had for her was as real and intense as each other. When their gazes met, the atmosphere grew tense and Qi Yan felt like he could hear the sounds of a thunderstorm approaching.

He quietly covered his eyes. “I was wrong… a man’s jealousy is even scarier…”

As the old saying goes, an insignificant comment by one could mean something significant to another. Qi Yan had merely made a passing remark, but that inspired Song Caitang and she suddenly thought of something.

Jealousy…

“I remember the women in these cases are all pretty women, regardless of their age.”

The first two, Hongyuan and Xinggu, were both previously courtesans with beautiful and elegant features. Madam Wang was married and was a prim and proper woman, but when she was single, she was known to be one of Bianliang’s prettiest women and was even nicknamed Little Diao Chan, after a famous emperor’s concubine.

“And the male victims,” Song Caitang narrowed her eyes slightly, “I overheard some casual conversations at teahouses. These were men who had a number of women, and a few of them were big customers at brothels.”

When it came to romance, this era was a lot more relaxed about the men than the women. Any man who didn’t spoil his concubine or murder his wife was already considered a good man. Some prominent families had a rule stating that men could only have a concubine after 40. Such men would be targeted by a lot of women who would be waiting to snag a rich husband. Patronizing the brothel was no big deal.

Prostitutes were playthings to men and their night time adventures never affected their reputation. At most they were known to be Casanovas, which had no bad connotation during this time. It was only a problem if they brought these women home, but anybody who wasn’t an idiot wouldn’t do such a thing. At the same time, their wives would not nag at their husbands about visiting the brothel. Doing that made them look desperate and needy.

Men who did not spoil their concubines, didn’t murder their wives, did not take in concubines at their whim and fancy, and lived principled and morally upright lives didn’t mean they wouldn’t visit the brothel. After all, to them, having sex was good for their health, it was perfectly legal, their supervisors didn’t care they were doing it, and their wives didn’t get angry either. So, why not?

Men, jealousy, brothels. Song Caitang began making a conjecture based on these keywords…

Zhao Zhi and Wen Yuansi’s expressions instantly changed.

The former said icily, “I will investigate right now.”

The latter looked serious too, “I will help.”

Only Qi Yan was still lost. “Wait, what? What just happened?”

Zhao Zhi yanked him to his side. “Come with me, I need you to do something…”

It was not appropriate for Song Caitang to visit such places, so neither he nor Wen Yuansi had any intention of bringing her along.

Not that she minded.

Everyone had their specialty. She left the running about to the men. Besides examining corpses, she had no interest in anything else that required so much physical energy.

And reality proved that her conjecture had been correct. It turned out that all the men in the case had been to Yuchun Court, and some of them were even regular customers!

As Yuchun Court’s top courtesans, Linglong and Ningyan would have served them personally at some point in time, even if they hadn’t served them often.

That made these two women’s involvement in the case a little suspicious.

Wen Yuansi had some work to attend to, so Zhao Zhi brought Qi Yan to Yuchun Court.

Linglong and Ningyan clearly had no idea why Zhao Zhi was here again, but they greeted him with smiles and quickly made him comfortable.

Zhao Zhi didn’t want to waste any time, so he asked Linglong directly, “Do you still have any impression of your customers from a few years ago?”

Linglong tilted her head. “You mean…”

“Sun Li, Liu Zhou, Shi Fangwu…” Zhao Zhi tapped his fingers against the table and rattled off a few names. “These men are all dead.”

Linglong was still confused and blinked at him. “Well… everyone has to die someday…”

Life was unpredictable. So what if they were dead? There was nothing surprising about that.

She noticed strange looks on Zhao Zhi and Qi Yan’s faces and realized she might have said something inappropriate, so she lowered her gaze and explained, “I’ve had so many customers over the years, I can’t even count the number anymore. I believe both of you know that I’m quite costly, so the only ones who can afford me would mostly be customers on the older side…”

The older one was, the closer to death they were.

It was an inauspicious thing to say, but she had several customers who had already passed on, so she was quite used to it.

She wasn’t alone. Yuchun Court, as well as other brothels, faced the same situation.

That part hadn’t occurred to Qi Yan. He realized what she was talking about quite quickly and sighed. “It’s been hard on you ladies too.”

Zhao Zhi frowned. “These men died in a similar fashion to Zheng Fangquan and Madam Wang.”

Zheng Fangquan was a man of extremely high standing and many parties kept tabs on him, so it was impossible to hide his death. Those who ought to know would know by now, so he didn’t try to sound her out and asked her more directly. “Do you have any idea why that would be the case?”

Linglong finally realized what Zhao Zhi was here for and her face paled considerably. “What? I… I have no idea… What’s going on? I’ve never heard about this before!”

She was so shocked and panicked, she nearly burst into tears.

But Zhao Zhi didn’t feel bad for her at all. “These men were all valuable customers of yours, so you were not just acquaintances. You say you don’t know anything at all?”

“I really don’t know anything! Please believe me, Your Highness!”

Zhao Zhi’s expression did not soften, so Linglong fell to her knees immediately.

He glared sternly at her. “On the night that Madam Wang was killed, you really ran into a man dressed in black?”

“I really did!” Linglong looked scared. “You… couldn’t find him?”

“How tall was he?”

“About 1.75 meters.”

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes. That height matched the black robe they had found, and her reaction time to his question was fine as well.

The problem was, even after so many days, he had only found this robe, which proved that this person did exist in that place that night. But as for who this person was, what his name was, and who he was, he had no clue.

He simply couldn’t get any answers.

No matter how late it was at night, there would be guards patrolling the area. How could a man exist and walk past without anyone noticing at all? He had used every resource he could get his hands on, yet he couldn’t find any traces of such a person at all. That was really strange.

Just like how a gray goose left their sound behind after flying past and water left marks where it once flowed, such a thing wasn’t possible. It had never happened to him before.

Ningyan was one who couldn’t stand being left out, especially if there was more attention given to Linglong, regardless of the reason.

Her slim fingers picked up a teacup and she took a sip before speaking in her sweet voice that was tinged with nastiness, “If you ask me, sis, I think it’s best not to pull any tricks in front of Prince Ping. If you have any secrets, I think you should admit them.”

That was definitely saying something. She must have seen something, otherwise she wouldn’t say something like that.

Zhao Zhi gave her the attention she craved and threw her a frosty stare. “You know something?”

Ningyan’s face reddened slightly as she held her handkerchief daintily and dabbed her lips. “I’m not so capable, so I don’t know much. But this older sister of mine is different. She had a thought in mind and that night - she tried to look for Madam Wang.”

She paused for a moment and was very smug when she saw how surprised everyone looked. Then she continued, “Who were you trying to speak up for, sis? Why don’t you share with all of us?”

Qi Yan interjected, “Speak up for someone? By looking up Madam Wang?”

“Oh gosh,” Ningyan blushed as though she felt she had said the wrong thing, but her expression quickly reverted to one of confidence. “Anyone with enough status knows that if you want a salt shipping license and you can’t get to Mr. Zheng, you can go to Madam Wang. It’s the same.”

In other words…

The fact that Madam Wang had a lot of say in the Salt Department was no secret. A lot of people knew about it.

Qi Yan winked at Zhao Zhi.

Zhao Zhi’s expression did not flinch and he continued questioning Ningyan, “How did you know Linglong was going to look for Madam Wang? Is it because of something you saw?”

“If I didn’t see anything, I wouldn’t have dared to say anything,” Ningyan threw Linglong a nasty glance from the corner of her eye. “That night, Mr. Jiang was really rough with me and I couldn’t take it anymore, so I told him I needed the bathroom and took a 15 minute break. Just then, I noticed her walking toward Madam Wang’s residence, but she was very hesitant. She’d take two steps forward, then two steps backward, as though she was in a dilemma.”

“And why else would she be headed for Madam Wang’s residence? She’s never been that friendly with Madam Wang in the first place, so if she was doing that… Are you secretly keeping a lover and you’re hoping to get some benefits for him?”

Zhao Zhi tapped on the table. “Linglong, explain yourself.”

“I’m sorry about this,”Linglong bowed toward Zhao Zhi, then looked at Ningyan. “Since you saw how hesitant I was, then you must also have seen that I did not go over in the end. Just like what you said, I’m not on super friendly terms with Madam Wang, plus it was very late and she had been busy all day, so she must have been very tired and it would not have been a good time to talk.”

“I’m not stupid. I had the idea, but I felt that it was not appropriate, so I decided not to do anything and went back to my room. But you—” Linglong seemed angry and her tone hardened, “why would you be observing me to that extent? If you were curious about what I was thinking about and doing, then you must have also seen that I had walked away. Absolutely nothing happened that night, but now you’re trying to push me into the deep end? And what have you done wrong? In order to cover your mistakes, you’re dragging me down instead…”

Linglong let out a bitter laugh. “Then again, that’s the way you always do things. I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Ningyan’s expression instantly changed and she pointed a finger at Linglong as she shouted, “Don’t you dare malign me like that! You’re the one who’s behaving suspiciously, so you could have just explained yourself! Why are you dragging me into this?!”

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became very tense.

Zhao Zhi suddenly remembered something…

Qi Yan thought of the same thing too.

On the night that Madam Wang was killed, the killer had poisoned her and killed her, but had not completed the full ritual they had created, like tying up her hands and legs… It couldn’t be that the killer had forgotten. It was more likely that something happened and the killer was interrupted and couldn’t continue, so they had no choice but to quickly leave the scene.

What could have interrupted the killer? Or who?

Was it one of these women?

Pak! Zhao Zhi slammed the table and asked Ningyan, “Did you see Linglong leave?”

Ningyan shrank back and said reluctantly, “Yes.”

“What happened after that? Did you do anything else?”

“I didn’t!” Ningyan looked upset. “Like I said, I was serving Mr. Jiang halfway and had snuck out without telling him, so of course I had to go back. People in our line of work can’t afford to offend our customers!”

Qi Yan recalled Jiang Shaoyuan’s statement and the various questions the investigation team had discussed before. “You and Jiang Shaoyuan both said that you slept for a while after you were done, but who knows if you were really asleep or just pretending? You might have taken this time to do something else.”

Ningyan instantly flew into a rage. “Are you suspecting me?! If you’re so good at your job, then find the truth and throw it in my face! What’s the point of questioning me like this?!”

Zhao Zhi stopped Qi Yan from speaking further and asked Ningyan, “About the men I mentioned earlier, Sun Li, Liu Zhou, Shi Fangwu – do you have any impression of them?”

“If Linglong doesn’t know, then I definitely have no idea,” Ningyan still looked annoyed. “So many customers come and go around here. Who would remember each one so clearly? Never mind the ones who aren’t outstanding. Even the ones who are, the ones who are so happy to see us and they give us lots of money and rare things, and even claim they’ll do anything for us - if they don’t come for too long, we’ll forget them too!”

Places like these did not lack customers, did not lack rich customers, and certainly did not lack infatuated customers. If they lost one, they’d find another quickly enough. If they were remembered less by the courtesans, then they might be considered aloof and cool. But if they were remembered by the courtesans, they might be labeled as emotional fools!

Happy to see the girls, give them lots of money and gifts, willing to do anything for them…

It was yet another casual remark that landed differently on the hearers’ ears.

Both men and women would feel jealous and want to protect those they loved. What if there was someone out there trying to protect one of these women?

Would this person go out of their way to kill anyone who might endanger her life or anyone with special feelings toward her?

“…Besides, women like us have been destined to achieve nothing in life since we were children. We don’t know how to do anything other than flexing our legs and waists when we see men. Any skill we have would be in bed, so how could we possibly have the strength to kill another person? Even if we’ve suffered and we wish we could kill the people we hate, we wouldn’t have the time either! We’re the most popular courtesans around here!”

Ningyan continued to ramble on and on.

The fact that she was still behaving so boldly and rudely in front of Prince Ping and saying such things… Qi Yan felt that something was not quite right. How could this woman be so bold? There must be more that they didn’t know about.

After Ningyan finished her long spiel, she suddenly realized that the room was quiet and tense. She suddenly realized that she must have gone a little too far and quickly cleared her throat before trying to find a way to round up this session, “In any case… this whole thing has nothing to do with me. I’m younger and only became popular over the last two years. Those men were all Linglong’s customers, so she’s the most suspicious! You should ask her more questions! She might have been the killer for all you know!”

Linglong scoffed. “You don’t have to talk about me like that even if you wanted to state that you have nothing to do with the case. Besides, how could I have had the strength to kill so many people?”

Zhao Zhi paused, then asked Linglong, “Is there anyone among your customers who treats you especially well, takes care of you, protects you, willing to do anything for you?”

Linglong was a little stunned by the question. “For me… not too bad, most of my customers are gentle toward me and would sometimes do things they normally wouldn’t just to make me happy. But even so, they would just spend a little effort and money, right? They wouldn’t… kill for me, right?”

“After all, I’m just a woman working at the brothel, a woman covered in dirt. I don’t have the right to enjoy real love, or to have someone who would never leave me, someone who would grow old with me,” Linglong glanced at Zhao Zhi, “like the lady by your side.”

Linglong said those last few words very quietly. They were filled with self-deprecation.

To her, if anyone was willing to go so far for her, their feelings for her must be real.

But she was not worthy of that sort of love.

She envied Song Caitang so much.