Tiny Golden Ball

Separated by only one wall, Wen Yuansi conducted a trial in the yard outside, while Song Caitang remained in the room with her gloves on to examine the body.

The sunshine shone brightly and they only needed to tilt their heads in order to see each other’s shadow.

Song Caitang paused briefly, shocked by how fierce Wen Yuansi was.

She didn’t expect the gentle, considerate and elegant Wen Yuansi to have such a stern and fearsome side as well.

She imagined that someone like him would have started slow, even when questioning suspects. He would take his time to set the stage before moving on, take one steady step at a time toward his goal. But he turned out to be so feisty right from the beginning.

He started off with the most sensitive of statements and declared it so loudly too. Then he showed that he knew a thing or two, but did not tell the other side exactly how much he knew. This was a carrot and stick approach that attacked and comforted the other party’s mind repeatedly in such a short time. Who would be able to hold up under such a questioning style?

This method of questioning was not gentle at all!

Song Caitang knew she didn’t have to worry about the case, given how it was advancing. The details of this case would definitely come to light today.

Actually, she had pretty much put the case together already.

There was a crack in the relationship between the three sworn brothers for a long time, but perhaps Shi Qun and Ximen Gang had not noticed it. For a long time now, An Pengyi had become unwilling to be the useless youngest brother whose only role was to obediently sit outside and keep watch while his brothers got their hands on the loot.

He wanted to be treated fairly and he wanted each brother to have equal rights. He wanted to know what they stole each time, who they sold it to, and how much the loot was sold for, instead of just waiting for the eldest one to give him a supposedly equal share.

Unfortunately, he was a poor fighter, so he only dared to think about these things and pull a few dirty tricks in secret, but dared not actually confront the other two about it.

Ma Sanniang was Ximen Gang’s woman, so perhaps An Pengyi really liked her, or perhaps he just wanted to spite Ximen Gang – in order to prove to himself that he was better than the other two brothers, he managed to get Ma Sanniang to become his lover.

Ximen Gang was an uncouth and straightforward man, but he wasn’t stupid. After some time, he could tell that he had been betrayed, so Ma Sanniang became very afraid. Compared to the rough and ruthless Ximen Gang, it was only natural for her to prefer the sweet and softhearted An Pengyi.

An Pengyi had imagined what he could do many times, but he had merely been too timid or failed to find a chance to execute his thoughts. This time, he couldn’t get out of trouble with Ximen Gang, so he decided to make his dreams a reality.

He probably went to Shi Qun and said something to make Shi Qun unhappy with Ximen Gang, or perhaps he had even made use of Ma Sanniang’s relationship with Ximen Gang to obtain some actual information about Ximen Gang, which made Shi Qun believe what he was saying.

And so, on the night of the 8^th day of the 2^nd month, after they had spent time drinking together, Shi Qun went to confront Ximen Gang. Perhaps Ximen Gang had not admitted to what Shi Qun was accusing him of, or perhaps Ximen Gang did admit to having such thoughts. Either way, they decided to fight each other to the death.

An Pengyi had been secretly watching them all this time and was already prepared for this. After Shi Qun had beaten Ximen Gang to death, he pretended to be horrified and grief-stricken, so Shi Qun would definitely have to approach him and try to calm him down. When Shi Qun did that, he released a venomous snake that bit Shi Qun and killed him.

Shi Qun had just been engaged in a tough fight, so he would be very tired and his heart would be pumping blood around his body very quickly. The snake venom would take effect very quickly. Besides, with his youngest brother showing great anxiety and concern by his side, he would be relieved to have help and wouldn’t shout for help.

Then, after Shi Qun was already dead, An Pengyi had to start cleaning up the scene. He had thought of everything. First, he smashed Ximen Gang’s face beyond recognition. Ximen Gang and Shi Qun were similar in height and build, so as long as one wasn’t a very close friend or relative, it would be too difficult to say for sure who the body belonged to. As for Shi Qun…

The river flowing from the north of the mountain was a good place to dump him.

The water in the lake was quiet and still, but the current was very strong at the waterfall section. It continued flowing into shallower streams that steadily went down the mountain and toward the city moat.

An Pengyi dragged Shi Qun’s body to the lake and put it where the current would carry it away. That was how the body ended up going all the way down and appearing on the shore near the city gate.

If the body ran into an unforeseen whirlpool, it might have gotten stuck in the dam instead of remaining in the waters.

It was very cold that day and temperatures were below zero that night, so it made sense for someone to think this man froze to death. Winter this year was especially cold, so someone froze to death almost every single day. Nobody at the coffin home would have suspected anything.

That was also why the corpse arm she had spotted at the coffin arm had been wet…

An Pengyi was very clever and he had thought of an excellent way to dispose of the body. It was safe, quick and cleared him of any suspicion all at the same time. The body was found so far away and he had supposedly caught a bad cold after the last dinner gathering they had. How could he possibly be the murderer?

Ximen Gang had clearly died from fighting with someone of similar build and strength, so his killer, without a doubt, was Shi Qun. As for An Pengyi, there were the answers that Zhao Zhi got out of him, the clues from Shi Qun’s corpse and all the other evidence they had collected.

For example, the first thing they had found, the piece of cloth with blood in the tree next to the lake, was definitely left behind by An Pengyi. He had been moving through the forest in the night with Shi Qun’s corpse. In order to avoid being seen, he would have had to hide himself in awkward places from time to time, and left that piece behind in the process.

One just needed to check through An Pengyi’s clothing and find something that matched the cloth or was missing a piece.

The moss on Shi Qun’s body grew in the water and his body was still wet when it was sent to the coffin home. One could dive into the waters to the north of the mountain and see if the same moss grew there…

Wen Yuansi had already sent his men out to investigate these areas when he left the room. It would be best if An Pengyi pled guilty during the trial, but even if he didn’t, the evidence would speak for itself!

In fact, Song Caitang felt some admiration for An Pengyi. You could say that he was timid, since he managed to endure the unfairness for so long without doing anything. But you could also describe him as a very bold person. Once he had decided what he wanted to do, he did exactly what he had planned without the slightest bit of hesitation. He cleaned up the scene of the crime after committing it, and still had the mood to go to Yun Nianyao’s room with the intention to steal…

Meanwhile, Wen Yuansi continued his aggressive questioning outside the room and it was moving along well. Song Caitang soon just shook her head and stopped listening to what was going on in the yard, choosing to focus on the victim’s chest.

Shi Qun’s body was quite badly decomposed and green net-like patches had already formed, so it was going to be hard to see the wounds on the body clearly. It took her much effort to eventually conclude that the different color on the skin here was not a wound or a bruise, but a tattoo.

The tattoo was in the middle of the chest and it was done halfway. Or rather, there was only the top half and the bottom half was missing. It covered a large area, so it looked like the man wanted the tattooist to leave the rest for another day because it was too painful to bear.

Upon closer look, she discovered that the tattooist had not only stopped once, but many times.

The color of the tattoo was not consistent, and upon closer inspection, the style was different. Some lines were clearly drawn in a smooth, pretty way, while some were crooked and the ink bled in some parts. The last bit was even weirder. It started off crooked, then more steady. It wasn’t pretty, but it did look like the person had practiced and became better. And based on the direction of the lines, it looked like Shi Qun had done this to himself and not someone else.

The full picture looked somewhat like a tiger’s head and the different parts had been tattooed on at different times. He had found someone else to do this when he first started, and the time between each section seemed very long.

But when she continued to observe the tattoo and she started tearing naturally from staring too hard, she discovered something else.

She focused her attention on part of the picture and zoomed in. It seemed to form a picture of its own!

Part of it looked like mountains and valleys, some looked like a river, some looked like a house…the rounded ears of the tiger’s head had a uniquely designed dock too!

There were no words in this picture, but it said a thousand words. She couldn’t help but wonder what these things were hinting at.

They were tattooed on at different times but in great detail. It had been a long time, and it had only reached half a tiger’s head worth of lines. There had to be some deeper meaning behind it

Could it be…an address?

Shi Qun was trying to remember the addresses of the places in this tattoo?

Besides that, Song Caitang couldn’t think of anything else.

But whatever for?

She thought of the loot that An Pengyi had failed to find, how messy Shi Qun’s room had been, and how he seemed confident that nobody would be able to find anything even if they ransacked his room…

Could this be where the loot was placed?

Shi Qun made sure that he remained the leader of the three brothers. He was the sole guardian of the loot and he was the one who decided what happened to it. He decided when to sell which item so…only he would know where he kept everything.

Could these mountains, rivers and docks represent where he kept the loot in the past?

And if that was the case, could this tattoo contain clues about the item they stole from Yun Nianyao’s room?

Given the time he had, he wouldn’t have had enough time to sell it away. If he hid it nearby, then it had to be somewhere in Tianhua Temple!

Song Caitang stopped staring at the supposed ear of the tiger and went down to the latest section of the tattoo.

The left side of the tiger looked like it had been changed recently…

She held her breath as she took a closer look and discovered something that resembled a lotus flower.

A lotus flower…

But it wasn’t summer now. They weren’t in bloom now.

Was she mistaken?

She narrowed her eyes slightly as she tried to think hard. An idea soon struck her.

She was in Tianhua Temple, a Buddhist temple. Of course there were lotus flower symbols everywhere!

Just then, there was a knock on the small window in front of her. Zhao Zhi leaped in.

“This corpse stinks.”

“You’ve woken up?” Song Caitang didn’t even look up at him. He was someone who had gone through actual battles with no fear, yet he found this corpse smelly? “The door’s wide open, but you chose to come in through the window? What’s wrong with you?”

“Someone’s conducting a trial in front of the gate. Didn’t you know that?”

Zhao Zhi yawned as he walked over and looked at the corpse in front of Song Caitang, “Any discoveries?”

“Yup.”

Her eyes flickered brightly as she told Zhao Zhi her conjectures.

Zhao Zhi lowered his gaze and fell into deep thought for a while, “I know where to find lotus flowers in Tianhua Temple.”

“I really don’t know! I only committed murder! I don’t know what was stolen that day!”

The sound of An Pengyi confessing to his crimes resounded from outside the room.

Wen Yuansi’s trial was going as smoothly as expected. An Pengyi had confessed!

Zhao Zhi raised an eyebrow and said in a mocking voice, “That’s fast.”

They walked to the other large window in the room in time to listen to An Pengyi’s confession.

He had indeed used Ma Sanniang to find out Ximen Gang’s thoughts on this trip. They had spent a long time following Yun Nianyao, but they did not strike because she was an aristocrat and her family was too prominent. But while Shi Qun was able to hold himself back, Ximen Gang wasn’t able to. Ever since they chose this life of crime, they had never come across anyone this wealthy. He had never seen the sort of things an aristocratic woman brought with her!

The ultimate goal for anyone in this line was to chance upon something really valuable and live the rest of their lives without having to work. This was a good opportunity and it was worth the risk, so why didn’t Shi Qun go for it?

Ximen Gang was unhappy with Shi Qun’s decision, and not only was he thinking of snatching their recent loot from Shi Qun, but he was also thinking of stealing from Yun Nianyao. Even if Shi Qun didn’t want to, he was going to do it.

This was not only a clash in ideology, but Ximen Gang was also challenging Shi Qun’s authority.

After An Pengyi found out about these thoughts, he waited for a good time. In the afternoon of the 8^th day of the 2^nd month, he told Shi Qun about what he knew and deliberately spiced it up. Shi Qun was obviously unhappy to hear those things, so after nothing came out of a drinking session that night, he called Ximen Gang to a more secluded part of the mountains to, well, have a heart-to-heart talk.

Clearly that talk didn’t end well. It ended in a string of tragedies…

With An Pengyi’s confession, the Ximen Gang and Shi Qun case was considered to be cracked. Wen Yuansi banged the gavel and declared the case closed.

At the end, An Pengyi was handcuffed and led out by the runners, while Song Caitang and Zhao Zhi walked out of the corpse examination room.

Wen Yuansi stopped to look at them as though he was wondering why Zhao Zhi was here. But Zhao Zhi did not look at him and marched up to An Pengyi.

“The bamboo raft in the lake. Did you cut that?”

An Pengyi looked confused for a moment, then noticed Song Caitang standing behind Zhao Zhi. He knew why Zhao Zhi was asking this question.

He nodded.

Zhao Zhi’s gaze darkened, as though they were full of nothing but ice, “What about the fire? Were you the one who tampered with the lamp?”

An Pengyi hung his head, “Yes.”

“What about the arrow in the middle of the night? Was that you too?”

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes slightly. He was ready to kill someone.

But An Pengyi shook his head this time, “What arrow?”

When he saw how Zhao Zhi was staring murderously at him, the terror he had felt the night before instantly overwhelmed him. He shook his head vigorously and even his teeth chattered, “I don’t know! I really don’t know anything about that! I wouldn’t dare to do that! You’ve been watching me very closely over the past couple of days, so I wouldn’t dare to do anything!”

Song Caitang’s expression was tense and her gaze flickered.

She had wanted to ask An Pengyi these questions too, but Zhao Zhi beat her to it.

An Pengyi had been very bold indeed. He had managed to accomplish so much in such a short time. Just the things he did to her were impressive. On the day she examined Ximen Gang’s body, she went to eat after the examination and went to the lake shortly after that. Zhao Zhi said that the bamboo raft had fallen apart not too long after she had left. That same night, a fire started outside her residence, and Zhao Zhi said that someone had tampered with the lamp.

In other words, during the time she took to eat, An Pengyi heard about the incredible results of her autopsy and became wary. He quickly came to a decision and tampered with the lamp outside her residence. As for the bamboo raft…perhaps that had been a coincidence.

Perhaps An Pengyi had been feeling unsettled and dived into the lake to see if Shi Qun’s body had been washed downstream or not. And of all the people to approach the lake, she arrived at the lake.

Since the chance presented itself, he decided to cut the rope that tied the bamboo pieces together…

But since he had admitted to doing it, she didn’t bother to think about how it happened. She was more concerned over who shot that arrow.

She didn’t have any enemies who would hate her like this. The only person who would want her dead would be the killer in one of the murder cases.

Since it wasn’t the Ximen Gang case, then it was obviously the Yun Nianyao case.

Who in the world could the killer be?

Song Caitang had a feeling that she was very close to this person now.

“Let’s go.”

While Song Caitang was still deep in thought, Zhao Zhi walked toward her.

“I’ll bring you to those lotus flowers.”

Zhao Zhi was really no gentleman. His speech and actions exuded the same arrogance and disregard that his body did. After saying those words, he just turned and walked off first without waiting for her.

Wen Yuansi frowned slightly with a slightly disapproving look in his eyes.

He looked at Song Caitang.

But she pointed at the body in the room and mouthed “there are new clues, come quickly after you’re done with your official duties” and left as well.

Wen Yuansi stared back at An Pengyi, who had lost his earlier indignation and was now cowering in fear, and sighed inwardly.

“Come along, we need to bring him to the prison.”

Now that he had arrested the perp, he had a pile of administration to attend to.

Zhao Zhi brought Song Caitang to the pagoda.

Tianhua Temple was a Buddhist temple and there were lotus flowers beneath each statue of Buddha in every main worship hall. But none of the lotus flowers could compare to the one at the top of this pagoda.

This pagoda had a total of seven stories and covered a huge area. A spiral staircase was built inside so that people could go upstairs. There was nothing special about the lower six floors. Only the seventh floor had an entire wall painting on the side facing north. The prettiest and most intricately painted part of the picture were the realistic lotus flowers.

The pagoda did not hold anything valuable inside, but it was used for special rites every year, so it was closed to the public and the door downstairs was kept locked at all times. But Zhao Zhi had special rights and could bring Song Caitang up to the highest floor.

If he could bring her in for official reasons, someone else could sneak in during the night too…

As Song Caitang thought about these things, they arrived at the top floor.

Sometimes riddles were just so strange. When you think really hard and simply can’t find an answer, you imagine that the answer must be really deep and difficult to arrive at. But once you get an important clue, then it seemed like it wasn’t trying to be difficult at all. It was right under your nose all along.

The wall painting was pretty and the lotus flowers were beautiful and awe-inspiring. It was easy to look for hidden contraptions on the petals too.

It didn’t take Zhao Zhi and Song Caitang long to discover an area that seemed abnormal. They pressed on that part and turned the brick…

A space the size of a palm appeared at the bottom of the mural. A tiny ornamental ball made from gold was placed there.

The ball was very intricately crafted and it was the color of pure gold. Even Song Caitang stared at it in wonder for a long time, “It’s so pretty…”

Zhao Zhi looked closely at the ball in his hand and realized that the pattern on the ball could be rotated.

He turned it a few times but didn’t notice anything special about the design.

“Let me take a look.” Song Caitang stretched her palm out.

The ball didn’t seem dangerous, so he passed it to her.

When he did so, he was very careful to make sure he didn’t come into contact with her hand.

Song Caitang’s attention was focused on the ball and actually didn’t laugh at him for this. Her brows were slightly furrowed as she began rotating the design gently.

As she rotated the ball, she squinted a little, got to a particular angle, then motioned to Zhao Zhi to lean in, “Look at this. What does this look like to you?”

Zhao Zhi leaned over and stood with his head next to hers. His expression tensed up when he saw what the design looked like now.

A word had appeared. It was a “Lu”.