Spying

Song Caitang and Qi Yan quietly remained on the ladder and dared not make any sound as they watched Jiang Shaoyuan enter the room. His expression was a little tense and didn’t look too happy. Despite that, the clever top courtesan Linglong who always knew how to handle any sort of customer, was not excited at all. Instead, she frowned slightly and said, “The wind is strong and the waves are high right now. I think you ought to be more careful, Mr. Jiang.”

In other words, she was telling him that he had not come at a good time.

That made for a rather strange situation.

In order to speak so casually, one had to be rather familiar or close to the other person.

Qi Yan gasped quietly and stared at Song Caitang, his eyeballs nearly flying out of their sockets. Did you see that? There’s definitely something going on between these two!

Song Caitang nodded slightly and motioned to him to remain calm and keep watching.

Linglong spoke so directly and her voice was rather unfriendly as well, but Jiang Shaoyuan did not get angry with her and just looked straight at her. After staring at her for a long time, he clutched his forehead and sighed. “I noticed that Miss Song had just left this place. Prince Ping along with her, Mr. Wen and Mr. Qi always exchange information when they investigate a case and work systematically. They never do anything on a whim. She’s gone, so nobody else will come for a while, they won’t get in our way.”

It looked like he was admitting defeat. He couldn’t give her the cold shoulder for long.

But Linglong still looked frosty and didn’t say anything.

Jiang Shaoyuan took her hand and sat down by the table. “Which is great. Then you can sit down and tell me what’s bothering you.”

“I’m just a courtesan, so how could I be bothered by anything so much I have to burden someone else with it?” Linglong allowed him to hold her hand and did not withdraw it, and she had a faint smile on her face too, but she still didn’t look friendly.

Jiang Shaoyuan’s expression stiffened slightly and so did his voice. “Tell me honestly. Did someone make life difficult for you?”

Linglong looked downward. “I’m the top courtesan of Yuchun Court who will retire soon. Who would make my life difficult? Who would bother spending that kind of time and effort?”

She then looked up at him and said in a quiet voice that seemed to imply something else, “Everyone knows that you shouldn’t burn your bridges too easily just in case you meet the same person again later on. I’m sure you understand this principle too.”

“I don’t care about that!” Jiang Shaoyuan suddenly lost control and his eyes narrowed threateningly. “You know me. Since I’ve come here today, I’m not leaving so easily! Tell me who bullied you? Was it Ningyan? Did she get her backer to give you pressure?”

Linglong’s eyes widened and her voice went up a pitch, “Mr. Jiang! I’d advise you to calm down! Ningyan’s backer is the empress’ own father! Even though he’s been in poor health since the year before and can’t enjoy this sort of life anymore, he has always liked Ningyan very much and he’s so infatuated with her that even people outside Yuchun Court would be wary of her and give in to her because they’re so afraid it wouldn’t be enough. Don’t do anything rash and sacrifice yourself in the process!”

Jiang Shaoyuan focused on her and spoke even louder, “But there’s clearly something wrong with you lately! You can fool others, but not me!”

The air in the room instantly grew tense. It was pin drop silence.

But when Linglong fell silent again, Jiang Shaoyuan couldn’t stay angry anymore. He gently caressed her hand and stared at her earnestly and anxiously, “You know what kind of fate we have together! You can tell me anything! You know well… you know very well that I’m willing to do anything for you, even if it requires bloodshed! Regardless of who it is, as long as they dare to bully you, I’ll…”

“Mr. Jiang, watch your words!” Linglong was really agitated now. Her brows were furrowed and she was trying to keep her volume down. “We’re in broad daylight! Don’t you know what you can and cannot say?!”

Jiang Shaoyuan pursed his lips and looked a little regretful. He must have realized he shouldn’t have said what he just did. Even though this was a private conversation behind closed doors, this was not the right time.

“I know what you’ve done for me,” said Linglong as tears came to her eyes. She leaned on his shoulder limply like her body was made of water. “It’s enough… it’s really enough, don’t go on anymore… Otherwise, I’m afraid I’ll take more than my entire lifetime to repay you.”

“What I want is your entire lifetime!” Jiang Shaoyuan stared intensely at her as he wrapped his large hand tightly around her waist and declared domineeringly, “You’re mine!”

Linglong smiled.

She was already very pretty and she exuded a feminine charm that could make everyone swoon with just one smile. “You want me… but you’re getting so angry?”

As she spoke, her fair hand found its way to Jiang Shaoyuan’s chest. Her gaze and actions were clearly seductive.

Of course Jiang Shaoyuan couldn’t take it. His breathing immediately grew heavier.

Linglong was not only gently touching his chest, but she was also slowly undoing her own buttons.

“You want me, yet you waste so much time quarreling with me… Why, am I not pretty enough today, so you’re not ready to embrace me yet? Or my incense isn’t alluring enough, or my red curtains are not warm enough, so they annoy you?”

Jiang Shaoyuan couldn’t take his eyes off the scenery before him, his face turning red and white, his voice trembling as he whispered in defeat, “You know that… I can’t resist you…”

“I know, I know.”

Linglong held his face and kissed his head, her voice soft and gentle, filled with longing, “I don’t know how else to repay you except with my body.”

Jiang Shaoyuan couldn’t help himself. He hugged her tightly and bent his head as though to kiss her.

“Mr. Jiang, I’ve always had you in my heart. Always. I often have dreams about us being together forever. Wouldn’t that be lovely?”

Linglong said these emotional words in a low and seductive voice.

But at the same time, these words were also honest and sincere. She sounded like she cherished him, yet regretted that they could not be together. Those were words that would certainly set the hearer’s heart on fire.

After all, being together forever was an impossible dream for them.

Jiang Shaoyuan was already way past 40 and was the current head of the Jiang family. His son was also all grown up and married with children. He couldn’t possibly disregard his reputation and shame and take in a courtesan as his concubine now.

This was a reality that both Linglong and Jiang Shaoyuan understood well.

And because they knew that their relationship would never come to anything, they really should put a stop to it all instead of wasting each other’s time and emotions.

Every word and action Linglong did was like a stab in Jiang Shaoyuan’s throat. Jiang Shaoyuan had to admit that she had him wrapped around her finger, but he was enjoying this state of affairs too. So, as though he were a young man, he couldn’t hold up against her flirting and carried her to the bed.

Linglong pulled her arms around his neck and giggled.

It wasn’t clear if it was Jiang Shaoyuan who moved too quickly or because he failed to gauge the distance correctly with Linglong in his arms. Something near the pillow was knocked over and fell to the floor.

“Oh no!” Linglong whined, “You’ve broken something of mine.”

“It’s just something small, isn’t it? How many do you want? I’ll buy them for you.”

“What if it’s something you can’t buy?”

“How could that be? If I can’t buy it, then I’ll give you my life. My dearest Linglong, you’ll really be the death of me…”

Jiang Shaoyuan was in quite a hurry. In no time, the teasing and laughing in the room stopped and was replaced by heavy breathing.

In such times…

Qi Yan subconsciously shifted his gaze from the bed to the floor. Besides the thing that the couple had knocked over by accident, it was soon covered by pieces of clothing that belonged to the two in the room.

If he were by himself, he wouldn’t have cared. He was famous for sneaking onto rooftops and peeking into houses, so he had seen everything that usually happened at night. He wasn’t going to get shy and embarrassed about this sort of thing. In fact, at any other time, he would have gotten himself some snacks and slowly munch while passing comments, or purposely do something to scare the people in the room… he had totally done those things before.

But the problem was, Song Caitang was around today!

She was an unmarried young woman from a reputable family! How could she watch this sort of thing with him?! It would be an eyesore to her!

And what if Zhao Zhi found out about it? Zhao Zhi would definitely kill him, slice him and feed him to the dogs!

Qi Yan paused for only a moment before getting Song Caitang to her feet and running down the ladder. “Let’s go, let’s go! There’s no point in staying here!”

Song Caitang was speechless. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know about such matters, but it wasn’t nice to watch people in bed and she wasn’t interested either, so she left with Qi Yan.

Even after they had gone quite a distance, Qi Yan was still awkward about it. He looked left and right and didn’t dare to look Song Caitang in the eye.

“That Linglong is a professional courtesan, alright. Even though it’s daytime, she…” He meant to pass a remark on what they saw earlier, but after he started speaking, he realized that it sounded wrong and quickly switched directions. “But our conjectures were right! Jiang Shaoyuan has real feelings toward Linglong and has done a lot to protect her! We didn’t get to hear what he did exactly, but he did admit to doing such things for her. Perhaps he’s the killer we’re looking for!”

Song Caitang remained calm and silent.

Qi Yan didn’t notice her reaction because he was still getting all his thoughts out. “When we questioned the girls the other day, Brother Zhi said that Miss Ningyan was acting more boldly than most people would, so she probably had a powerful backer. But I didn’t expect her backer to be the empress’ own father! That old man is almost 70 years old, isn’t he? That’s gross! How could he still have such desires? And how could that Ningyan take it?”

“On the night Madam Wang died, Ningyan saw Linglong. Do you think there’s anything they’re hiding?”

“It’s too bad that Jiang Shaoyuan’s lusty desires got the better of him today. Everything had been going well, only for that to happen. We didn’t get a lot of clues in the end…”

What he had seen today gave him a lot of inspiration. He began to think about every detail and question anything that didn’t sound right.

After rambling on and on without reaching any conclusion, Qi Yan got a little agitated. “Tangtang, aren’t you going to say anything?!”

Song Caitang let out a low hum. “Linglong was not kept in the dark and she knew about a lot of things…”

Qi Yan stared at her in confusion. “What?” What did that mean?

Song Caitang looked at him. “If a clever person wanted to protect another person, they would not really want this person to find out about it.”

“So you’re saying Jiang Shaoyuan’s too stupid?” Qi Yan blinked. “But the fact that he could reach this position in the Salt Department and become Zheng Fangquan’s subordinate means he’s not stupid at all.”

No real fool would have been able to climb this high.

“Something else is going on? Or maybe Jiang Shaoyuan just likes Linglong but doesn’t really love her?” Qi Yan felt that he was going in the right direction. “There are a lot of plays about true love between a customer and a courtesan, but in reality, those are hard to find.”

Song Caitang remained calm. “If he didn’t truly like her, why would he have done so much for her?” Especially if he was willing to commit murder for her.

“It does sound contradictory…” Qi Yan got more and more confused. He scratched his head and said, “But either way, Jiang Shaoyuan had really done a lot to protect Linglong! That part’s true! He said so himself, Linglong did not protest, and even thanked him!”

So did he like her or not? Did he commit murder or not?

Qi Yan’s head was beginning to hurt.

But Song Caitang did not say anything.

Qi Yan tried to analyze the situation again. “Maybe there’s something else going on between them? Or perhaps Jiang Shaoyuan is protecting Linglong, but for another reason? Maybe Linglong is facing trouble from elsewhere but we don’t know about it?”

“Or maybe,” Song Caitang stared straight at Qi Yan, “someone is purposely making us think this way about them.”

Qi Yan figured that Song Caitang had a new conjecture in mind, but she wasn’t entirely sure and she didn’t have a lot of clues or evidence to prove it, so she wasn’t able to fully articulate it yet.

He didn’t press her for details, but they still had a case to investigate.

He punched his palm and said, “In any case, there’s a problem with Jiang Shaoyuan for sure, so we need to question him again! I’ll get Brother Zhi to come along and make him talk!”

Song Caitang approved of that. “Sure, you go ahead, I can go home myself.”

Questioning Jiang Shaoyuan again was very necessary. If they got good answers out of him, that would determine which direction their investigation would go in.

Song Caitang looked forward to the results from this interrogation.

Unfortunately, the first news she got was not results from Zhao Zhi and Qi Yan, but from Guan Rongrong.

They already had a plan ready. Zhao Zhi and Qi Yan were headed for the Jiangs’ together to question Jiang Shaoyuan. Song Caitang had no idea if Jiang Shaoyuan was cooperative or not, or whether he was honest or not. She didn’t even get any time to wait. Guan Rongrong marched to the Guans’ and got someone to summon Song Caitang to the living room.

Guan Rongrong was very anxious because her husband, Jiang Wenrui, was Jiang Shaoyuan’s son, making Jiang Shaoyuan her father-in-law.

Of course, she was only a concubine. Even if she were from an upper class background, she had used an underhanded method to get herself married into the Jiang family. She probably did not get to see Jiang Shaoyuan much and even if she did, he might not treat her nicely.

But Song Caitang knew why she was here.

This serial murder case was a big one and everyone knew Jiang Shaoyuan was involved. But before today, he was only someone connected to the case and was only asked a few questions. Today, after much investigation had been conducted, Zhao Zhi and Qi Yan had returned to the Jiangs to question him again. That changed everything.

A lot of people immediately came to the conclusion that Jiang Shaoyuan was probably the killer!