Reasonable Explanation

“That’s exactly why I’m asking. Please help me to understand, Mr. Jiang.”

Wen Yuansi exuded an elegant and humble charm, so even if he was putting on a fake smile, he still seemed so warm and kind. It made him approachable, so many people were drawn to him and would be comfortable to tell them what they really thought inside. He had used this technique to deal with many situations. It never failed him.

But unfortunately, Jiang Shaoyuan had been prepared for this, so he didn’t walk into that trap.

“What’s so hard about that? I’m Zheng Fangquan’s subordinate and I report to him directly. We see each other in the office every day and I’ve been to his house countless times. I’m familiar with where every room is, when his guards and servants change shifts, as well as all sorts of secrets,” said Jiang Shaoyuan rather confidently. “That day, we were having a gathering, so while the hosts were busy, the servants were even busier, so they weren’t able to keep an eye on everything and I was able to sneak past them. And even if someone noticed me, it wouldn’t have mattered. Everyone in the house knows who I am. I could make up some lie and they’d believe me.”

That… actually sounded reasonable.

Song Caitang asked, “When you entered the room, Madam Wang had fainted? Or died?”

Jiang Shaoyuan scoffed. “Didn’t you hear me just now? I said she had fainted!”

“You sure about that?” asked Song Caitang as she watched his expression.

Jiang Shaoyuan paused for a moment before repeating what he said earlier, “She’d fainted! I checked and she was still breathing!”

No matter how confidently he said those words, his hesitation already showed that he wasn’t really that sure.

But actually, it was normal to be unsure. Many murderers were not sure exactly when their victims stopped breathing.

Song Caitang asked again, “What was the first thing you did after entering the room?”

“Of course it was to draw the curtains and screens to let the room air,” Jiang Shaoyuan sounded gleeful again. “The room was filled with toxic fumes. Of course I was prepared for that.”

Qi Yan gnashed his teeth and clenched his fists. That was yet another logical answer!

Was it possible that… Jiang Shaoyuan was really the killer?!

Wen Yuansi asked, “What about after that? What did you do?”

“I used a vase to smash the back of her head. I intended to kill her, so of course, I made sure to do a good job.” Jiang Shaoyuan raised an eyebrow. “Surely your team wasn’t stupid enough to miss the vase, right? It was right by the bed, on top of the round, tall, three-legged table.”

Not only were his responses logical, but he was able to provide accurate information on the items used and where they were.

This was really very strange.

“Why did you kill her?”

“Because she deserved to die.” Jiang Shaoyuan became furious at the mention of Madam Wang, as though he had suffered at her hands in the past. “As a woman, she did not keep the values a wife ought to have. She cuckolded her husband, had an affair with her father-in-law, and her son isn’t even her husband’s! She’s a shameless slut, a loose and licentious woman who has done so many disgusting things, and she even managed to coax Zheng Fangquan into allowing her to be involved in his work! She kept going against me and getting in my way! If I don’t kill her, I’d have to live with this anger in my heart forever!”

Wen Yuansi stole a quick glance at Song Caitang and confirmed what she was trying to do. He went on to ask, “So why did you remove her skirt?”

Jiang Shaoyuan scoffed. “She’s the one who thinks her skirt should be removed by others. I was just helping her to fulfil her wish. What’s wrong with that?”

“What about Zheng Fangquan? Why did you remove his pants?”

“Because they’re the same sort of person! They pretended to be faultless, mature and reliable, but they were actually filthy people! Downright despicable people!” The more Jiang Shaoyuan spoke, the angrier he got. “I didn’t just pull his pants off. I peed on his butt too! Didn’t you notice that?”

Everything he said made sense and matched the clues they had found. But other than Qi Yan, the other three remained calm and did not allow Jiang Shaoyuan to lead them on. They continued trying to sound him out, “So, after killing Madam Wang, you left.”

“I didn’t,” Jiang Shaoyuan’s smile widened, “someone interrupted me.”

“Who?”

“Don’t you already have the answer? That’s right, it was Linglong.”

“I don’t know why she appeared at that hour or why she was looking for Madam Wang, but she saw me commit murder and was too shocked to even react,” Jiang Shaoyuan smiled faintly. “I quickly had a new idea. Regardless of whether anyone had seen me or not, I’d committed so many murders and there’s a high chance I left some clues behind. So, I had to make some preparations in case I got arrested…”

Qi Yan was suddenly enlightened. “That’s why you did that to Linglong! You even got that black robe ready and taught her what to do! You made her look for an eyewitness so that she could tell them there was a suspicious person lurking around the area!”

And the eyewitnesses she found happened to be Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang.

Jiang Shaoyuan’s smile broadened. “She’s just a courtesan, so it’s easy to make her do my bidding. She was scared, but she dared not disobey me.”

Song Caitang couldn’t help but exchange glances with Zhao Zhi. This man was so well-prepared.

But the more perfect his statement was, the more suspicious it seemed…

Wen Yuansi had a bad feeling that today’s questioning wasn’t going to go well.

And he was right. They were feeling emotionally drained after failing to get honest answers from him.

Jiang Shaoyuan managed to explain everything logically. He covered not only his whereabouts, but his motive and the list of people he had killed. How did he choose his targets? They were all people connected to the salt shipping business, were close to Zheng Fangquan and Madam Wang, and they all opposed him. They all had some feud with him and had gotten in his way at some point.

Every explanation made perfect sense.

The team had suspected that this serial murder was connected to the traitor they were looking for, because the box with secret drawers and the routes used to send all that gold away were connected to the salt department. It was simply impossible to erase any suspicions around Jiang Shaoyuan!

Qi Yan pretty much believed everything he said. He started to think that the team was wrong. The killer they were looking for was actually Jiang Shaoyuan!

Jiang Shaoyuan probably realized this too, so he got more and more arrogant as time passed and he smiled brightly at the team. He was sure they couldn’t find any loopholes!

…

Since Jiang Shaoyuan had turned himself in and did sound like he was really the murderer, he had to be dealt with. Zhao Zhi called his men over, “Take him away and lock him in a cell for the time being.”

He was just going to be locked away for now. It was not the end of the case.

“I think we’re going to get even busier from now on.” He looked grimly at his three companions.

Song Caitang and Wen Yuansi nodded. They knew they had a long and tough road ahead, but they were prepared to work hard.

Qi Yan didn’t get it, but it didn’t matter. He knew he could trust the rest to lead the way and he would eventually get it.

After this episode, the investigation team wasn’t the only ones who were busy.

Because Jiang Shaoyuan had admitted to committing murder, the entire Jiang family was in chaos. This time, they didn’t care about their image anymore. Besides sending Guan Rongrong to the Guans, everyone from the Jiang family paid the Guans a visit too. The Guans’ gate was about to collapse from the sheer number of visitors.

Guan Rongrong just pretended that she was ill and refused to leave her room. And even though the Jiangs kept trying to come into the house, Guan Qing made sure the gate was not opened to them. That helped to maintain peace within the house.

Guan Qing even spent a lot of money on hiring guards for Song Caitang. She made sure all of them were highly skilled in martial arts, because she was afraid that someone might try to threaten her while she was conducting her investigative work.

That made Zhao Zhi rather unhappy.

He was busy, but he could take care of his girl himself! He didn’t need Cao Zhang to take care of her!

That’s right, these highly skilled guards were actually hired by Cao Zhang.

Guan Qing was a capable woman, but it was easier for someone in the martial arts scene to be good martial artists.

The case remained unsolved and these guards around Song Caitang annoyed Zhao Zhi greatly. But of course, he couldn’t vent his anger on Song Caitang. He had to be even nicer and gentler to her. After all, his rival was watching. If he wasn’t good enough to her, his rival would step in and do a better job!

If he kept making mistakes, he would prove to be a useless fellow! His girl wouldn’t want him anymore!

When he really needed an outlet, he took it out on his juniors.

He had subordinates to bully at work, and he had one Qi Yan to bully when he was trying to crack cases.

Even though the pressure was mounting, an idea suddenly struck Qi Yan. “We can’t find any loopholes surrounding Jiang Shaoyuan and Linglong, but aren’t we certain that Jiang Shaoyuan has true feelings for Linglong? Why don’t we tell Linglong that there’s more to this case but Jiang Shaoyuan refuses to talk, and then get her to convince him?”

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Qi Yan unfolded his fan and fanned himself hard as his eyes lit up. “If Linglong doesn’t agree to do this, then it’s a problem!”

He nearly complimented himself for coming up with such a brilliant idea.

Zhao Zhi raised an eyebrow and smacked his lips as he nodded. “I see you’ve grown a few brain cells.”

But he didn’t grab the back of Qi Yan’s collar any less tightly.

Qi Yan’s voice was squeaky from how tightly Zhao Zhi was gripping his collar, “Brother Zhi! Please let me off! I want to show Tangtang my new white jade hair accessory today!”
“You said… who?” Zhao Zhi leaned closer to him.

Qi Yan trembled for a moment and sputtered, “Tang… uh… I’m talking about the maid who cleans the pond at home!”

As he said that, he broke free of Zhao Zhi’s grip and fled as quickly as he could.

When Wen Yuansi and Song Caitang arrived and heard Qi Yan’s idea, they both thought it was a good plan, so they started making preparations. They had to plan how to explain this matter to Linglong, what to do if she was willing to do it, how to eavesdrop on their conversation and so on.

Once they were done discussing, Song Caitang, Qi Yan and Wen Yuansi went to look for Linglong and asked her if she could talk to Jiang Shaoyuan.

Linglong agreed immediately. “Sure.”

Her brows were slightly furrowed and she looked rather worried. “Actually… I still refuse to believe that he would do something like that. I don’t know if he can take the terrible prison conditions either.”

Qi Yan rolled his eyes like an arrogant, rich, young man. “Gosh, her acting is soooo real.”

The team had already decided beforehand that he should act this way.

After all, if the authorities sympathized with her, they would seem suspicious. Being sarcastic or antagonizing might yield some unexpected results.

Linglong lowered her gaze and did not get angry. “You represent the authorities, so if you give me an instruction, I will not dare to go against it. But the perp has been found, yet you bully me like this. I think… that might affect your reputation.”

She did not say that his behavior was bad. She just reminded him about keeping a good reputation.

Qi Yan snorted. What reputation did he have? And what reputation did he hope to keep? With Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang around, he could continue pretending he was an amazing person! That was good enough for him!

Song Caitang stared intently at Linglong. “This serial murder really has nothing to do with you?”

Linglong did not answer her question directly, “Miss Song, Mr. Jiang has admitted his guilt.”

Song Caitang suggested otherwise, “But we suspect there’s more to this than meets the eye. He might be lying to take the rap for someone else.”

“Take the rap for someone else? Why would he do something so silly?” Linglong’s eyes were wide and she clamped a hand over her mouth, as though she was very surprised.

Wen Yuansi smiled faintly. “That’s why we are here to ask if you could help. We’re hoping for you to not only visit Mr. Jiang, but to also help to persuade him to speak to us honestly. If there’s anything he’s hiding from us, it would be better to tell us instead of keeping it a secret.”

Linglong bowed and agreed, “It is my honor to help the authorities with a case.”

Qi Yan stepped aside to lead the way. “Let’s go then. Or… does Miss Linglong need time to get ready?”

Linglong ignored his sarcastic remark and smiled as she said, “There’s no need for that. Let’s go.”