Xiao Residence.
Xiao Ning looked at Li Si, and Li Si likewise looked at Xiao Ning. Xiao Ning waved his hand and said, “Brother Li, what’s wrong with you?”
Li Si sat across from Xiao Ning. “I want you to meet someone.”
“Who?”
Li Si called toward the door, “Come in.”
Three people walked in from outside the door—a constable escorting a masked man, and another person who was Ashan, the magician from Shanliu Ju.
Xiao Ning looked at the three people at the door in confusion. Li Si said, “Remove the black cloth.”
The masked man revealed his face—it was actually the blind old man who had impersonated Wei’er’s grandfather. The blind old man groped around and asked, “Where is this? Official sir, I’ve told you everything I know. Please let me go, let me go.”
Xiao Ning’s expression was somewhat gloomy, then he shook his head. “Brother Li truly has impressive methods to have already captured this fellow.”
“Actually, from the moment I saw him at Shanliu Ju, I had my suspicions,” Li Si said. Xiao Ning furrowed his brow and asked, “What about him made Brother Li suspicious?”
“His accent,” Li Si said. “At Shanliu Ju, this blind old man spoke with an accent from the southeast region of Suzhou, while his granddaughter Wei’er, though she rarely spoke, I could still tell had a Qingzhou accent. The Shanliu Ju owner said Wei’er had depended on the old man since childhood, but two people who depended on each other had different accents—isn’t that very strange?”
“This was only strange. What truly made me suspicious of him were his story segments.” Li Si opened his memories and slowly recounted, “‘Heroes of the Grasslands,’ ‘Sudden Wind Rising,’ ‘Intertwined Branches’—the Shanliu Ju owner said the blind old man told only these three stories over and over, and the order never changed.”
Li Si swirled the cold tea in his teacup, his gaze locked on Xiao Ning’s face. “I discovered the mystery in the stories. In Zheng Hounian’s case, Zheng Hounian died in an inn, struck in the chest with a knife, dying from massive blood loss. In the blind old man’s tale ‘Heroes of the Grasslands,’ the young man angrily beheads the tyrant also in an inn, and the tyrant also dies from a single fatal knife wound to the chest. Then in Shang Yun’s case, the escort Shang Yun died in the Cuishui River, the cause of death being sudden death from poisoning. In the blind old man’s tale ‘Sudden Wind Rising,’ the protagonist’s ending is being captured by barbarian soldiers, forced to drink poison wine, then thrown into the turbulent waters of the Kuo River. In Tao Nan’s case, Tao Nan was strangled to death, stuffed into a stone figure, then hidden in a cellar like a secret chamber. In the blind old man’s tale ‘Intertwined Branches,’ the disappointed woman ultimately hangs herself in an ancient empty tomb, buried underground.”
“What astonishing similarities. When I suddenly thought of this mystery, I sought out Ashan and had him closely watch the blind old man’s every move. He was to notify me at the slightest sign of trouble.” Li Si paused. “The blind old man and Wei’er hurriedly left Shanliu Ju without any explanation, which made Ashan somewhat suspicious, so he secretly followed the old man and young girl. Outside Suishui City, the old man and young girl actually separated. Ashan could only continue following the blind old man.”
“After I confirmed the old man’s whereabouts, I had someone send word to Lord Li, and we captured this strange old man,” Ashan said, jumping in as if claiming credit. Li Si nodded at him approvingly.
“Brother Li’s attention to detail is exquisite!” Xiao Ning couldn’t help but clap his hands. Li Si said, “After finding the blind old man, I learned he was a genuine blind person, but he wasn’t the fated one I was looking for. The blind old man confessed that a mysterious person spent large sums of money to hire him to play grandfather to a little girl. He was like a puppet on strings, completely following the mysterious person’s intentions, which naturally included what story segments to tell.”
“Yes, yes, the story segments were also read to me by him. He had me memorize them and then tell them to the tea customers at Shanliu Ju. It was all his arrangement and has nothing to do with me,” the blind old man immediately interjected when he heard Li Si mention him.
“I suddenly thought of Wei’er. She never mentioned the blind old man was her fated one. I almost fell into another trap.” Li Si shook his head and smiled bitterly. “Meng Xiu, Wei’er, the blind old man—all were merely chess pieces, one after another.”
“If the fated one isn’t the blind old man, then who could he be?” Li Si’s gaze was profound as he stared at Xiao Ning. “When I was at my wit’s end, I suddenly saw it.”
Li Si placed the first miniature carved walnut he had received on the table and said clearly, “Every step the true mastermind behind the series of murders took had its unspeakable deep meaning. The imitation killings were thus, the murder case relics were thus, and the miniature carved walnuts were also thus. The other three walnuts all contained hidden iron filings indicating the fated one’s hiding place, but this one walnut had nothing. Why would it appear?”
Li Si looked at the walnut, divine light flowing in his eyes. His tone shifted, becoming excited. “Just recently, I finally penetrated the walnut’s truth.”
Xiao Ning’s eyes stared unblinkingly at the walnut, a mysterious smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. “I’d like to hear the details.”
“I discovered this walnut at the old residence and picked it up to examine. In the walnut was also a man wearing old-colored constable clothing. He was also holding a walnut and examining it. I naturally assumed with certainty the man was myself, but this was actually another scene-switching misconception set up by the mastermind, and I had completely fallen into it. Although the man in the walnut had blurry facial features, his eyes were clear. His gaze wasn’t actually looking at the walnut but toward the tabletop. The hand holding the walnut also had a downward sinking momentum, which indicated the man wasn’t picking up the walnut but wanted to put it down.” Li Si spoke forcefully word by word. “Not picking up, but putting down. The person putting down the walnut—he is the true mastermind behind the entire series of murders. He is also the fated one I’ve been desperately searching for.”
“The fated one has a mind as fine as silk and astonishing courage. He told me his true identity long ago—it just depended on whether I could discover it.” Li Si nodded approvingly, then continued, “The fated one is in this walnut. The old-colored constable clothing indicates he’s a constable. The slight bulge on the right waist of the constable clothing indicates he wears his saber on his right waist. In all of Suishui City, only one person fits these two conditions—you, Xiao Ning.”
“The fated one went through great pains using the walnut mystery to indicate his hiding place. His purpose was to meet me once at Biyun Temple in his capacity as the fated one. With such painstaking effort, how could he not appear?” Li Si sighed. “Actually, the fated one appeared at Biyun Temple long ago, right by my side. I just never imagined this person would be my fated one. Isn’t that right, Xiao Ning?”
Xiao Ning no longer denied it at this point. He paced to the window and looked at the dark clouds in the sky, saying softly, “When I was small, I couldn’t see the sun, so I could only hope for nightfall each day when I could see the moon. The hardest thing at that time was when clouds covered the moon—then my world contained only darkness.”
With the same faintly melancholic tone as four years ago, the same deeply gazing posture, Li Si looked at his profile and slowly said, “Lou Tianming!”
The corner of Xiao Ning’s mouth curved upward in a shallow arc. He smiled. “You already guessed it was me.”
“Only a surviving bloodline from Budong Manor would be enough to make Meng Xiu panic so much that he bore all the crimes and even sacrificed his life without daring to speak the truth.” Li Si sighed. “Because Meng Xiu knew the bloody terror of Budong Manor. Since Budong Manor was founded, over two thousand people have died. After Meng Xiu saw through your identity, he had thoughts of certain death. What Meng Xiu couldn’t let go of was only his son, Meng Fanchuan.”
“God-Catcher Li speaks correctly. Meng Xiu bore all the crimes for me and promised to end his own life himself, so I agreed to spare Meng Fanchuan.” Lou Tianming, disguised as Xiao Ning, said, “Past causes, present effects. This is his destiny.”
“The fabric remnants in Tao Nan’s abdomen—you left those too, didn’t you?” Li Si said. Lou Tianming nodded. “I forced him to swallow them. Since Meng Xiu was willing to bear the crimes, naturally some evidence was needed to help him. Besides the fabric remnants, I also had Meng Xiu spy on your side room multiple times. Oh, and that damaged robe—I also had him throw it in a conspicuous place.”
Li Si pondered for a long while, then looked at Lou Tianming’s eyes and brow and asked, “What miraculous medicine did you use to change your purple eyes to black eyes?”
“I searched everywhere for reclusive famous physicians and finally found a folk remedy. By dripping the juice of a numbing medicinal grass into the eyes, then drying it with fire wax, a black protective membrane can form over the purple eyes. With this protective membrane, I can move about during the day like ordinary people. People can only see the black eye membrane but cannot find my purple pupils.” Xiao Ning shook his head. “But after covering with this eye membrane, my eyes often become dry and painful, and I can’t help but blink constantly. Sometimes my vision is blurry.”
“Yes. These past few days you’ve been constantly blinking and rubbing your eyes. I also found it strange.” After hesitating, Li Si said again, “Lou Tianming, in that great fire that burned everything that year, how did you escape?”
“Mother saved me.” Lou Tianming spoke of the Miao Borderland Ghost Woman, the perpetrator of the Budong Manor murder case. Lou Tianming gazed toward the distant horizon, sinking into some kind of memory, and slowly said, “Mother exhausted all her power carrying me out of the fire scene, then hid in a nearby mountain cave. She died that very night. I buried Mother’s remains, then wandered aimlessly like a wandering ghost drifting across the vast earth. I didn’t know where I should go, nor where I could go.”
“I lost my family, lost my home, and lost my faith. I almost lost all hope of living. Finally, I thought of you. I regarded you as an enemy. I wanted revenge on you, to challenge you. But I don’t hate you—I’m even grateful to you. It’s just that I needed a reason to live. It sounds very confusing. Can you understand?” Lou Tianming looked deeply at Li Si. Li Si nodded. “Sometimes more terrifying than death is living without any念 (thoughts/attachments).”
“To challenge you, I had to become stronger. Using Budong Manor’s hidden silver, first I found a folk remedy to change my purple eye color, then I studied much knowledge in various fields. I didn’t know where to find you, so I could only hide in the Suishui City marketplace, secretly monitoring Suishui County Yamen and Xiao Ning. I firmly believed you would eventually return.” Lou Tianming smiled, his smile as sweet as a young child’s. “Finally, I waited for you.”
“Then you carried out the series of plans you had thought up beforehand,” Li Si said. Lou Tianming nodded. “Actually, I prepared three completely different schemes and plots. This was just one of them.”
“The story segments told by the blind old man—you deliberately left those as clues too, didn’t you?” Li Si said. Lou Tianming nodded. “To compete with you on equal terms, I waited four years. I didn’t want to miss even the opportunity for a final meeting, so I left a few small traces.”
Li Si smiled faintly. “Regardless, your true form has been exposed. The remaining schemes are also useless now.”
Lou Tianming gazed at Li Si. “I prepared four years for today’s meeting. How could it end so easily?” Lou Tianming’s tone became cold and desolate. “Don’t you think two people are missing?”
Li Si was startled, then blurted out, “Gao Ling and Meng Fanchuan.”
Lou Tianming smiled. This time his smile became enchanting and beguiling. “And also your old friend, Xiao Ning.”
“I’m leaving. Within two days, the three will return.” Lou Tianming walked to the door. Li Si didn’t stop him. After Lou Tianming’s figure disappeared, Li Si looked at the empty doorway and murmured in a low voice, “Life’s gatherings and partings have no basis, with fate we may meet again…”