Long Yunxiao’s words made Yan Qing’s heart give a startled lurch.

Whether it was Long Yunxiao or Shi Ting, both were perceptive men — and so it was natural that they could sense something different about her. What neither of them would ever imagine was that a person could cross over from another era in a parallel world and arrive in an entirely different existence.

Even she herself had never anticipated that she would be living, under a different identity, in another world entirely.

Long Yunxiao clearly had no real expectation of an answer — he was talking to himself more than anything: “Perhaps it’s precisely that different quality about you that makes me…”

The remaining words he swallowed silently back down. He would not let her know what was in his heart. Some feelings, if they could not be spoken aloud, were better buried deep.

“Mr. Long, it’s just up ahead,” the driver called out. The carriage moved into a patch of woodland, the road narrowing and growing rough and uneven.

After a stretch of jolting, the carriage slowly came to a stop. Yan Qing lifted the cotton curtain and found herself looking out at a bleak, desolate grove.

The leaves had long since all fallen, leaving the trees bare and skeletal. Scattered here and there among the trees were a few graves.

Most of these graves were unclaimed solitary mounds, with not even a single offering placed upon them.

Hei She brought Yang Yongkang into the grove. Yang Yongkang glanced around for a moment, then pointed to one of the mounds. “It’s this one. My wife told me that when they buried her brother, the Lin family found a spot on a desolate slope. She also said they built a small earth-god shrine at the head of the grave so it would be easy to identify — on the surface it looked like an earth-god shrine, but inside was a small tombstone. They did it this way to avoid attracting attention while still giving the eldest Lin brother a marker.”

The half-person-high shrine had already collapsed. Dead branches and fallen leaves were heaped all over it.

Hei She’s men stepped forward to sweep away the debris, then removed the stones and branches from the top of the shrine. What was finally revealed inside was a tombstone made of marble.

This tombstone was slightly shorter than an ordinary gravestone, but sheltered within the shrine, it had been spared the erosion of wind and rain. On the stone face, several large characters were carved with perfect clarity: Tomb of Lin Zhi.

The Lin family had been exceedingly careful. Beyond the two characters of Lin Zhi’s name, they had disclosed not a single detail about the Lin family. Even someone who came across this stone might easily mistake it for one of countless people sharing the same name.

“Yes, that’s it,” Yang Yongkang said, his voice thick with emotion. “My wife said that to avoid causing unnecessary trouble, they only carved her brother’s name simply on the stone. The Lin family also waited until after the warlords had gone before they dared come each year to pay their respects. Later, my father-in-law had someone read the omens and was told the grave was not auspicious for relocation — that moving it would damage the Lin family’s roots — so the Lin family abandoned the idea of reburying him.”

Yan Qing swept a glance over the bleak surroundings. “You say the Lin family came each year to pay respects — yet there’s not a single fresh sheet of spirit paper on this grave. The place is completely abandoned.”

Yang Yongkang lowered his head somewhat shamefacedly. “They came to pay respects at first, for a few years — but then they gradually stopped coming, and the grave fell into ruin.”

The Lin family had lived off the wealth Lin Zhi had left behind, yet as time passed, their feelings for the man who had already died grew thinner and thinner — until in the end even a simple visit was too much to ask.

“If this is the right place, begin digging,” Long Yunxiao said. “By the look of the sky, there may be snow.”

Hearing Long Yunxiao say this, Hei She immediately had his men take up tools and begin excavating.

Several people worked together energetically. Very soon the soil had been cleared away and the coffin exposed below. The Lin family had bought a plain coffin at the time — after more than a decade, it had begun to rot, and a light tap of the spade was enough to dislodge a piece.

Once those around the coffin had shoveled the earth to either side, the black-lacquered coffin came fully into view.

The entire Lin family had been burned to death, and the neighbors had helped with the burial — there was not even a coffin for them, just laid in a pit one atop another. Lin Zhi, at least, had a coffin to his name. But according to what Yang Yongkang had said, the body had already been largely consumed by wild animals.

Indeed: when the coffin was opened, nothing lay on the yellowed silk padding but a set of fully decomposed white bones, the skeleton overgrown with all manner of web-like matter.

At the sight of those bleached bones, Yang Yongkang immediately turned away and refused to look, muttering under his breath: “Forgive us, Brother-in-law. Forgive us, Brother-in-law.”

Long Yunxiao helped Yan Qing down into the space beside the coffin. A stale, putrid smell rose up to meet them.

Long Yunxiao frowned. “This Lin Zhi also died with his eyes open, as they say — buried in this place, with no peace year after year.”

Yan Qing pulled on the gloves she had prepared beforehand and reached in to lift out Lin Zhi’s skull.

“The skull bears many animal bite marks — Yang Yongkang was right that this body was gnawed at by wild animals,” she said, turning the skull carefully in her hands. “Look here — there are two bullet holes, and they are highly irregular in shape.”

“That doesn’t look like an ordinary bullet’s work,” Long Yunxiao frowned. “An ordinary bullet should produce only one clean entry wound.”

Yan Qing nodded, then bent down to begin examining the rest of the remains.

She extracted everything of uncertain significance, while Long Yunxiao used a paper bag to store each item one by one. Over these past days he had grown thoroughly accustomed to acting as her assistant, and had come to genuinely enjoy it.

Watching her find the clues of a case in one silent body after another, and then analyze them one by one, he found it an endlessly thrilling and exhilarating thing.

He had never before been involved in anything like this. Accustomed as he was to a life of violence and bloodshed, he had never concerned himself with how each body died or what had caused the death — to him, death was simply death.

“The bones bear many gnawing marks — the work of a large animal,” Yan Qing said. “The muscle groups have sustained severe damage, with only a small amount of sinew still clinging to the frame.”

“I’ve heard there are three-mountain tigers in the woodlands around here.”

Three-mountain tigers were fairly common in the mountains of Wu Jia Jie. They hunted all manner of animals in the hills for food, and occasionally a hungry three-mountain tiger would come down from the mountain and attack cattle, sheep, and even people.

If a body had been chewed by a three-mountain tiger, having the bones left was already quite fortunate.

After Yan Qing finished examining the remains, the two of them climbed back out of the grave together.

Yang Yongkang asked anxiously: “Can the grave be filled back in now? My father-in-law had a fortune-teller look at it and said this grave is inauspicious — it shouldn’t be forcibly moved, and it shouldn’t be forcibly opened, either. Will he hold it against us?”

Seeing his tense expression, Yan Qing reassured him: “He won’t blame you. He also wants the world to know how he died and who truly killed him.”

“Didn’t the warlords kill Brother-in-law? Who else could it have been?” Yang Yongkang asked, at a loss.

Yan Qing said nothing, and instead had Long Yunxiao take the collected items back to the carriage.

The weather was cold, and standing in the bitter wind to talk was not wise.

Hei She directed his men to restore the grave to its original state, while Yan Qing removed her gloves and held her hands over the small brazier that Murong had already lit.

When Long Yunxiao lifted the curtain and settled into the carriage, his tall frame made the cabin feel immediately cramped and narrow.

He set the items they had retrieved a moment ago on the table. Murong leaned forward at once to look. “Miss, what are these black, gritty-looking things?”

Long Yunxiao answered on Yan Qing’s behalf: “Iron shot.”

“Iron shot? How did iron shot get into Lin Zhi’s body — and so much of it?” Murong was puzzled. “Wasn’t he shot to death? Surely bullets wouldn’t turn into shot after ten-some years?”

“Bullets are generally made of copper — they can’t turn into shot,” Yan Qing said. “What entered Lin Zhi’s body was never bullets to begin with. From the very start, it was iron shot.”

She looked across at Long Yunxiao: “Even ten or more years ago, warlord armies were equipped with sophisticated firearms. I recall that the Su Nation exported large quantities of rifles into this region.”

Long Yunxiao nodded: “This iron shot generally comes from locally made firearms — crude handmade guns. These weapons were common among the major brotherhoods ten or more years ago. A gun like that is typically used at close range. The destructive force is heavy and concentrated, and it kills very quickly.”

“So the one who killed Lin Zhi all those years ago used this kind of improvised firearm — not a weapon from a regular military force. From the severe damage to Lin Zhi’s skull and the injuries to his chest and abdomen, we can determine he died from this kind of makeshift gun.”

Murong was stunned. “Then you’re saying Lin Zhi wasn’t killed by the Commander’s men?”

“Back then, the Shi family army was invincible precisely because of its superior equipment. If the Commander had wanted Lin Zhi dead, he would never have sent a few men armed with homemade firearms. So Lin Zhi’s death very likely had nothing to do with the Commander.”

Murong placed a hand lightly on her chest in relief. “Thank goodness it had nothing to do with the Commander.”

“Long Yunxiao, Lin Zhi was himself a brotherhood member back then — there may have been someone he crossed. Have Steward Tang look into this thoroughly. In all of this, there is surely an element we have missed, and that element determines the direction of the entire case and where the truth lies.”

Long Yunxiao nodded. “I’ll have Steward Tang look into it right away.”

Though Long Yunxiao agreed readily, Yan Qing knew how troublesome it was to dig into events from more than a decade ago — the manpower and resources that would need to be mobilized were incalculable.

Long Yunxiao had always agreed to her requests without hesitation, no matter how seemingly impossible the task, always giving the impression it was a trivial thing.

Yan Qing was grateful to him, but as he himself had said — between friends, there was no need for so much ceremony.

If one day Long Yunxiao needed something from her, she would throw herself into helping without a second thought.

“Did you take your medicine today?” Yan Qing’s sudden question made Long Yunxiao’s expression shift instantly.

As he was busy looking in all directions to avoid the subject, a calm, unruffled voice came from outside: “Mr. Long refused to take his medicine this morning. He secretly poured it out.”

Yan Qing looked at Long Yunxiao, a smile on her face but a question in her eyes.

Long Yunxiao surrendered helplessly: “I’ll take it when we get back. I definitely will.”

Murong covered her mouth and laughed quietly to herself. Whether it was the renowned Director Shi or the formidable Long Yunxiao, before their young miss, both turned into large, docile cats. At one word from the young miss, they retracted their sharp claws and transformed instantly from fierce tigers into tame kittens.

This was probably the singular charm that belonged only to their young miss.