Yan Qing knew he was asking a question he already knew the answer to, so she decided to ignore him. Instead, she slipped out of his arms like a small fish and prepared to roll over to the other side to sleep.

But the moment that thought arose, a certain someone stretched out a long arm and pulled her back.

“Can’t sleep unless you’re holding me?” Yan Qing teased him.

“Let me try.” He closed his eyes. “Maybe a miracle will happen.”

Yan Qing pinched his nose and wiggled it left and right. “Then I’ll watch you sleep.”

He opened one eye. “That would make it even harder for me to sleep.”

“Alright.” Yan Qing gently stroked his face. “Let me tell you a bedtime story.”

Shi Ting listened, putting a small distance between them, and gazed at her with focused attention, quietly waiting for her bedtime story.

Yan Qing cleared her throat. “Once upon a time there was a little girl named Little Red Riding Hood. One day, her grandmother fell ill, and her mother asked her to take some pastries to her grandmother…”

The night was quiet and still, and in the vast open space only her soft, gentle voice remained. As she told the story, her expression changed with the plot — showing sadness and joy — her eyes bright and shining like stars.

“In the end, the big bad wolf died, and Little Red Riding Hood went home. She swore she would never speak so easily with strangers again, lest she be eaten by the big bad wolf.”

Yan Qing finished and asked excitedly, “Well? Was it a good story?”

He gazed at her quietly, smiled, and moved forward a little. “I want to eat you up.”

Yan Qing: “…”

It seemed he had completely missed the moral of the story.

“Actually, the main lesson of this story is to teach us…” Before Yan Qing could finish her lecture, her lips were once again covered by his kiss.

His palm threaded through her hair and cupped the back of her head, making the kiss grow more passionate and intense.

……

A few rooster crows from outside the window in the early morning were like an alarm going off, and roosters from every household began their relay of morning calls.

When Yan Qing was half-asleep, she felt something warm on her face.

She opened her eyes and saw Shi Ting propped up on one arm, his fingertip gently stroking her face. His narrow eyes seemed to hold sunlight — warm and comfortable.

“Morning.” His voice carried a hint of low hoarseness.

“Morning.” Yan Qing, somewhat drowsy, turned her head and spotted his fingers, then suddenly opened her mouth and bit down.

“Are you a dog? Biting people.” Shi Ting made no hurry to pull his finger away.

Yan Qing asked indistinctly, “Last night while I was sleeping, did you secretly do anything?”

Shi Ting pulled back the blanket covering both of them and put on an innocent expression. “Miss Yan is fully clothed. What could I have done?”

Yan Qing looked down, then finally released his finger.

From outside came the sound of drawing water — a bamboo pole turning a windlass.

“Let’s get up.” Yan Qing sat up. “We still need to investigate the case today.”

“Mm.” Shi Ting was wearing a white shirt, now somewhat wrinkled, but when working outside the city, one couldn’t afford to be too particular about clothing.

“Let me give you a massage first.” Shi Ting put on his outer coat. “I heard from Murong that they give you leg massages every morning and evening — it helps with recovery.”

He helped Yan Qing sit up. “In the future when you marry into my family, I’ll be the one doing this.”

“By that time, my legs might already have healed.”

“That would be the best outcome of all.” As he spoke, his slender fingers pressed along the acupoints on Yan Qing’s legs with just the right amount of pressure.

Yan Qing hadn’t expected that he was also an excellent masseur — every acupoint found with perfect precision.

She believed this was no coincidence, so she asked curiously, “How are you so good at this?”

“I recently studied some books on the subject. Today is my first chance to put it into practice.”

Thinking that he had learned these tedious massage techniques for her sake, Yan Qing felt a warmth in her heart and couldn’t help but kiss him on the cheek.

At her sudden initiative, Shi Ting was first stunned, then thoroughly satisfied.

“Seventh Brother.” Bai Jin’s voice came from outside the door.

“Wait a moment, almost done.” Shi Ting replied.

He finished the massage and helped Yan Qing put on her outer coat.

By the time everyone had washed up, Bamboo Pole had already finished cooking breakfast.

After eating, Shi Ting divided the list of names Widow Zhang had provided into two halves — Bai Jin would visit one half, while Shi Ting and Yan Qing would visit the other.

While Yan Qing went to the restroom, Bai Jin sidled up to Shi Ting and asked in a low voice, “Seventh Brother, how did last night go? Did you manage to get Sister-in-law?”

Shi Ting gave him a cool glance. “What filthy thoughts do you have rattling around in that head of yours?”

“Seventh Brother, we’re both men — men understand men best. Last night it was just the two of you, one kang bed, one blanket, two people — you don’t need a brain to figure out what could happen.”

Bai Jin received a heavy smack on the back of his head. “I’d say it’s you who has no brain — no need to think about it.”

“What are you two talking about?” Yan Qing appeared behind the two of them, wheeling her chair.

“Nothing, nothing.” Bai Jin rubbed the back of his head with a wry smile. “Seventh Brother told me to focus on solving the case.”

“Let’s go.” Shi Ting stepped forward and took over pushing Yan Qing’s wheelchair.

Xiqian Village was divided into several smaller hamlets, with no obvious boundaries between them — sometimes just a small bridge and a ditch separated one from another.

Hu Sizhu’s reputation in Xiqian Village could be said to be known by every household. At the mention of his name, people invariably clicked their tongues.

“That scoundrel deserved it — sooner or later he was bound to meet a bad end.”

“Forcing a girl to hang herself — it must be that girl’s wronged spirit coming to collect the debt.”

Shi Ting and Yan Qing visited several households of victims. Though these families harbored deep hatred for Hu Sizhu, they all indicated they had received compensation. Some families, fearing damage to their reputation, said not a single word about what had happened to their daughters and chose to remain silent.

It was precisely because these people dared not speak up that Hu Sizhu had acted with impunity, growing ever more brazen.

Upon hearing someone mention the girl who had hanged herself, Shi Ting asked, “Madam, was that girl’s name Hu Fen’er?”

“Yes, that’s her.” The old woman sighed. “Such a fine young girl — she was about to get married — and then this happened.”

“Could you take us to Hu Fen’er’s home?”

The old woman was very enthusiastic and led the way with a bamboo basket of corn on her arm. After rounding several corners, she stopped in front of a mud-brick house.

“This is Hu Fen’er’s home. Let me knock for you.” The old woman knocked firmly on the door, and a woman came and opened it.

“His Second Sister-in-law, this official wants to ask about Fifth Miss.”

Hu Fen’er was the fifth child in the family, and neighbors called her Fifth Miss.

Hu Fen’er’s mother glanced at Shi Ting and stepped aside. “Please come in, both of you.”

After Shi Ting and Yan Qing entered the house, Shi Ting’s gaze swept around the courtyard. The home could be described as utterly destitute — everything was dilapidated and falling apart.

“Madam, how many people live in your family?”

“Twelve people,” Hu Fen’er’s mother answered.

Twelve people living in these three mud-brick rooms — how on earth did they manage?

“My father-in-law and mother-in-law are bedridden and paralyzed. My eldest and second sons are married but can’t afford to build a house, so we all live together.”

“Can you tell us about what happened to Hu Fen’er?”

“Fifth Miss passed away this April. Early that morning before dawn, she went up the mountain to do farm work. At noon she didn’t come home to eat, and then in the afternoon she suddenly came home from outside. At the time I saw her hair had a lot of grass stuck in it and her buttons were fastened wrong. I asked her what happened, and she cried and said Hu Sizhu had dragged her into the cornfield and violated her…”

Yan Qing found it strange that when this woman spoke about her own daughter, her expression showed only slight distress — no sign of great grief or outrage.

“When I heard this, I went with my husband to find Hu Sizhu’s father. When we came back, Fifth Miss had hung herself from a rafter with a rope.” Hu Fen’er’s mother let out a sigh.

“How was Hu Fen’er’s relationship with her brothers and sisters?”

“Her third and fourth sisters have already married and moved away — they haven’t been back in several years. Her eldest and second brothers are also married now. When she had free time, she helped watch over the children.”

“Is Hu Fen’er your youngest child?”

“No, I still have a youngest son — he’s ten years old this year.”

Yan Qing thought: because Hu Fen’er was a girl, she was not valued from the moment she was born. She did farmwork and watched children. In this family she was treated like a laborer, and even her marriage was likely arranged just to collect a bride price. She hanged herself, and her parents collected ten yuan in compensation and let the matter drop just like that — what a tragic girl.

“Who are her in-laws-to-be?”

“They’re from Lishutun.” Hu Fen’er’s mother answered. “The bride price hasn’t even been given yet.”

“Had Hu Fen’er met this fiancé of hers?”

“No.”

“Then what does he do? Could you take us to see him?”

Hu Fen’er’s mother looked over with a strange expression. “Why would you want to see him? He’s a simpleton.”

After leaving Hu Fen’er’s home, Yan Qing was filled with many feelings.

“Hu Fen’er’s parents married her off to a simpleton for the sake of a bride price, and then accepted ten yuan without holding Hu Sizhu accountable. Is a woman’s life so cheap in their eyes?”

“This place is naturally nothing like Shun Cheng. People have too many children to feed, and sometimes when a daughter is born, she’s tossed straight onto the roadside to die.” Shi Ting said, “When I was investigating cases before, I went to one village that had a place called ‘Fly Ditch.’ Corpses would be thrown into that ditch every so often — some stillbirths, some girls whose families disdained them and had no one to take them in, left there alive and abandoned. Because there were so many bodies, flies swarmed everywhere. ‘Fly Ditch,’ ‘Infant Ditch’ — the name came from that.”

Yan Qing sighed helplessly. In the modern era, this would all count as intentional homicide.

“It looks like the Hu Fen’er lead has run dry.” Yan Qing’s expression fell. “Hu Fen’er’s parents are so cold and indifferent, her eldest and second brothers are both settled with families, and the only possible suspect — her fiancé — is a simpleton. None of these people could have avenged Hu Fen’er.”

Shi Ting stopped and gazed into the distance. “Perhaps we’ve been going in the wrong direction from the start.”