Half an hour later, the fruit shop proprietor was brought to the flower reception hall of the prefectural office — his face mottled with bruises, sobbing as he knelt on the ground: “I confess! I’ll confess everything! Please, Fourth Young Master of Hua Family, spare my family!”

Lin Sui’an set Qian Jing flat across her knees and listened to the proprietor’s wailing laments. She felt nothing — not the slightest ripple. By the time she had walked from the records hall to the reception hall, the fury and grief within her had completely dissipated, leaving behind only an expanse of still, empty silence. As though something had been taken away, and yet as though something had been added.

Hua Yitang’s complexion was iron-grey, each word squeezed out from between his teeth: “What is your name? How have you made your living?”

“This humble one is Zhu Si. For the past three years I have earned my keep through the fruit stall.”

“And before those three years?”

“I… I did business in what we called ‘white livestock.'”

“What is ‘white livestock’? What kind of business?”

“White livestock — that is, girls from decent families, no older than twelve,” Zhu Si swallowed hard, “The business was abducting young girls and selling them.”

Although she had already suspected as much, Hua Yitang’s heart sank. “Who were the buyers?”

“Our trade had rules — the snatchers handled the taking, the sellers handled the selling, and the middlemen handled the connecting. Only the middlemen knew who the buyers were.”

“Who was the middleman?”

“I truly don’t know — that person always covered his face and disguised his voice to speak —” The proprietor glanced up at Hua the Fourth, and flinched with a shudder. “But I know he had to have connections among Yangdu’s powerful families. His boots were deerskin — not the kind just anyone can afford.”

“Powerful families? Are you referring to Hua Family?”

“No, no, no, not at all — not Hua Family. Hua Family has only been established in Yangdu for six or seven years, and the Family Head runs it with extremely strict principles, dealing only in legitimate major trade. They would never stoop to anything like this.”

Zhu Si first delivered a flattering compliment, then swallowed hard, glanced around the room, and upon seeing that there was no one inside except Hua the Fourth and one young woman, his tension began to ease. “If I’m being honest, because Hua Family holds the ground here in Yangdu, this kind of trade was actually at its lowest here — Yangdu could be called something of a clean exception. Not like An’du, that place was —” He paused. “Really, it was the same in every dynasty. Those powerful families all had certain… little tastes. Common people they didn’t fancy — they preferred girls from decent families, and especially the young ones. The younger the better. The cleanest ones. The most enjoyable to —”

Hua Yitang: “Enough!”

A blade-wind swept past Zhu Si’s scalp with a hiss. He felt only a sudden chill at the top of his head — his topknot dropped to the floor, and his hair splayed across his face in a tangled mess. He was so frightened he lost all control of himself, kowtowing frantically: “Young miss, spare me! Young miss, spare me! I speak only the truth — those powerful men were truly not human! I was so poor I could not survive, and that is why I fell into this cursed trade — I have agonized over it every moment since, as if my heart were being burned. That is why I erected memorial tablets for those children, praying they might be reborn soon and, in their next lives, not be born as people…”

Zhu Si could not continue. The room had grown terrifyingly cold — the back of his neck was frozen — though nothing was there, he had the sensation of a blade pressed against him. He craned his neck upward to look. Hua Yitang’s eyes were bloodshot, his face a frigid mask. And beside him, the young woman’s expression was perfectly calm — and yet Zhu Si felt that whatever lay beneath that calm expression was more terrifying still.

The young woman spoke: “Who else was involved in this trade? Who were they? Where are they now?”

Zhu Si wiped sweat from his forehead in repeated strokes. “That I truly do not know — everyone in this line of work used false identities. No one dared show their true face. And I washed my hands of it three years ago — all the connections have scattered long since. You could beat me to death and I still couldn’t tell you!”

“Why did you stop three years ago?”

“Because…” Zhu Si seemed to find this difficult to bring himself to say. “Someone sent a message out of nowhere from Feng Family, saying to stop.”

Hua Yitang’s eyes flashed: “Feng Family?!”

Zhu Si: “Feng Family may not be as wealthy as Hua Family, but Feng Family has people at court, and even private dealings with Administrator Zhou. When Feng Family put out the word, we did not dare disobey. Feng Family also provided a sum for resettlement — a lot of the others left Yangdu and were never heard from again. I couldn’t bear to leave the property I’d built up, so I hid in an outer county for half a year and then slipped back, changed my name, and opened the fruit stall…” At this, Zhu Si dissolved into another round of weeping. “Fourth Young Master, I have been an honest merchant these past three years — I have not touched this wicked trade again. Death is what I deserve, but my family knew nothing of any of this — they are innocent!”

Hua Yitang tightened his grip around his folding fan. With a crack, the handle split.

Jin Ruo had found out where Zhu Si lived, and Zhu Si’s entire family’s lives were in Hua Family’s hands. He would not dare lie. This lead in the case had been severed.

Abruptly, Lin Sui’an rose to her feet and asked a single question: “When you set up those memorial tablets — did you know that those girls were all dead?”

Zhu Si pressed his forehead to the floor in repeated bows: “Everyone in our trade knew… white livestock — they could never survive…”

“And their bodies?”

“This humble one does not know! I truly do not know!”

Lin Sui’an gave a single nod. Her expression was utterly still. “I understand.”

Hua Yitang watched Lin Sui’an walk out the door in a daze, her figure dissolving into the sunlight. Then he jolted — and leapt to his feet, bursting through the door after her. Outside, there was no trace of Lin Sui’an. Jin Ruo and Manager Xu were having a conversation and looked at Hua Yitang in surprise.

Jin Ruo: “Done with the interrogation so soon?”

Hua Yitang: “Where is Lin Sui’an?”

“She left.”

“Which direction?”

“Straight through the courtyard.” Jin Ruo was perplexed. “She probably just went to the privy?”

“What was her expression like?”

Jin Ruo and Manager Xu exchanged a glance. “No different from usual.”

It is very different! Though utterly unlike anything that had happened before, Hua Yitang felt a fierce wave of unease. Something moved in his chest — he broke into a sprint toward the guest quarters.

Lin Sui’an walked into the guest quarters, pushed open the door, and found Doctor Yue in the middle of inserting needles. Feng Yuyi and Bai Shun were still unconscious on the bed. A chair had appeared beside it, along with a small wooden desk, brushes and ink not yet put away — clearly someone had been writing here recently.

“Investigator Ling and Feng Song came by?” Lin Sui’an asked.

Doctor Yue: “They left a little while ago.”

“Feng Song wrote out a testimony?”

Doctor Yue let out a cold laugh, pressing her needles in with somewhat more force than necessary. “I’m just a physician — I can neither read nor understand these matters.”

So Ling Zhiyan had already completed his transaction with Feng Song — Feng Yuyi’s life in exchange for testimony about the underground school.

Lin Sui’an stepped forward and looked at Feng Yuyi’s face. “When can he die?”

Doctor Yue removed a needle, and gave a disdainful sniff. “He can no longer die.”

Something struck the hollow empty space in her chest, rattling it. Lin Sui’an drew a steadying breath. “Doctor Yue — you mentioned earlier that after taking Five-Stone Powder, the heart grows restless and the body needs to expel the heat, and physical strength increases. Could you elaborate?”

Doctor Yue finally looked at Lin Sui’an properly, her expression curious. “You’re an unmarried young woman — why would you want to know about this?”

“Please speak plainly.”

Doctor Yue hesitated for a moment. “Simply put — the body grows feverishly hot and urgently needs physical union to release the heat, and this continues until the drug’s effects are fully expelled.”

“How long does that take?”

“That I cannot say…”

“What is the state of the person during the union? What do they see?”

Doctor Yue truly struggled to continue, but the young woman before her fixed her with a pair of jet-black eyes that were unwavering and unavoidable.

“Like being transported to the heavens… I suppose…”

“More specifically,” Lin Sui’an pressed. “What would the eyes perceive at that time?”

Doctor Yue considered it. “From what I have heard others describe — something like a hazy, drifting sensation, as though one were walking in a celestial realm.”

So that was it… now it made sense.

Lin Sui’an closed her eyes. She finally understood what it was she had been seeing in the memories within Yan He and Jiang Hongwen.

Those were the visions they had seen after consuming Five-Stone Powder — which was why everything appeared shrouded in a layer of white mist. And those sharp, piercing screams, those bloodstained teeth — teeth that hadn’t even finished growing in, the full set of permanent teeth still incomplete — all of it had come from very young girls.

They were what Zhu Si had called “white livestock.”

The memories held in the dead do not lie. Yan He and Jiang Hongwen’s memories were nearly identical — both had purchased white livestock. Yan He and Jiang Hongwen were both Feng Yuyi’s lackeys. Feng Yuyi must have purchased them as well… Lin Sui’an tightened her fingers. Then there was only one possible reason for Feng Family to order all the abduction networks disbanded: because of some unavoidable circumstances, they had acted to conceal the crimes of their sons and destroy the evidence.

The people in those abduction networks might have left for distant places — or more likely had been silenced.

That Zhu Si had survived was probably nothing more than luck.

But Zhu Si knew far too little. This lead had been severed, and moreover, his words could actually be used to prove that Feng Family were the great benefactors who had dismantled the abduction networks.

How bitterly ironic.

Lin Sui’an shifted her gaze to Feng Yuyi on the bed. She had never formed much of an impression of this man. Looking at him now — sharp cheekbones, ashen complexion — he was nothing but a breathing corpse.

If he and Bai Shun were to die, could her golden finger show her more? Could she find more leads? Were some of those girls perhaps still alive? And even if… even if none of them were still among the living — could she find where their bodies were?

The air around her grew strangely thick, as though time itself had slowed. Lin Sui’an listened to the faint, tenuous sound of Feng Yuyi’s labored breathing — so weak it was nearly nothing. Even without Qian Jing, all it would take was the lightest press of her hand over his mouth and nose —

“Lin Sui’an!” A thunderous crash erupted behind her. A figure burst in, trailing warmth and sunlight, and seized her wrist in a tight grip. “Are you alright?!”

Hua Yitang’s voice drove into her eardrums. Only then did Lin Sui’an realize — she had already extended her hand. Her palm was less than three inches from Feng Yuyi’s mouth and nose. Doctor Yue had gone chalk-white with terror.

“You…” Hua Yitang studied Lin Sui’an’s expression with great care. “Are you feeling unwell again?”

Lin Sui’an registered the temperature of her own fingers and shook her head. “I am fine.”

This time, her body had not slipped from her control. There was none of that peculiar trembling sensation. She had simply, and purely… wanted to kill Feng Yuyi.

“You cannot,” Hua Yitang said, low and firm. His grip on Lin Sui’an’s wrist was tight enough to ache. “It is not worth it.”

“They all purchased white livestock…” Lin Sui’an said, slowly and haltingly. She knew her words lacked logic, and were becoming more so by the moment. “Those children — their baby teeth hadn’t even finished falling out. They were still just children. Very young children. Are they all dead? Where are their bodies? Where are their families?”

The deep reddish flush of unshed tears rose into Hua Yitang’s eyes. He took half a step forward, and gently, lightly, wrapped his arms around Lin Sui’an. Lin Sui’an’s forehead came to rest against Hua Yitang’s shoulder. She heard his voice, soft and gentle as a passing wind:

“I will find them. Trust me.”

Lin Sui’an closed her eyes. Tears fell onto the flower-petal silk of Hua Yitang’s robes.

How humiliating. Lin Sui’an thought — she was actually crying into the shoulder of a sixteen-year-old child. Fortunately, her self-control was decent enough. She had only let tears fall; she hadn’t made a sound. He probably… hadn’t noticed, had he?

Lin Sui’an observed Hua Yitang covertly as he sat in his seat. Back in Hua Family’s residence, Yangdu’s premier young scoundrel had decisively abandoned his understated dress, returning to his magnificently luxurious robes, aromatic incense trailing around him — there were even two extra hairpins in his topknot that hadn’t been there before. Whatever miracle of grooming he had applied, his skin glowed as smooth as a freshly peeled egg, and his long lashes looked brushed with a coat of ink.

Most striking were those eyes, fixed in focused concentration on the ward map — beautiful and completely absorbed.

Lin Sui’an looked and looked, and without meaning to, began to drift into a daze.

Truth be told, Hua Yitang hadn’t actually embraced her earlier. His arms had only encircled her loosely, without touching her body — proper and entirely correct in conduct. His shoulder was quite solid, nothing like the impression his delicate, theatrical air usually gave. That was probably an illusion created by the extravagant, flowing style of his everyday clothing.

“Ahem,” Hua Yitang cleared his throat with some discomfort. “What is it?”

Lin Sui’an kept her gaze perfectly level — watching until she could see the flush creeping up to the tips of Hua Yitang’s ears — before she spoke. “Can you really find them?”

She was asking about the bodies of those girls.

“Yes,” Hua Yitang answered with absolute certainty.

He was not speaking carelessly, nor was he being arrogantly boastful. As Mu Xia and Mu Zhong came in and out in rapid succession to deliver reports, Lin Sui’an became more and more convinced: this person was wasted as a young scoundrel. He should have been a data analyst, dedicating himself to scientific research and making his own contribution to the advancement of civilization.

Mu Xia’s information covered mainly the Feng, Yan, Bai, and Jiang families along with other families subordinate to the Feng faction: their territorial divisions, power structures, personal connections — with particular attention paid to the mapping out of manors and properties outside the city of Yangdu. With his formidable capacity for data analysis, Hua Yitang circled every location with any possibility of concealing bodies, then eliminated them one by one.

Mu Zhong focused his investigation on Feng Family’s territory: shops and manors. This portion startled Lin Sui’an even more — because every single location Mu Zhong reported was strangely familiar to her. The cockfighting ring in Red Makeup Ward, for instance — it was actually an underground gambling den operated by Feng Family. The Four Seasons Teahouse in Jade Scroll Ward had sold Five-Stone Powder two years ago, with a proprietor belonging to Bai Family. The polo field in West Wind Ward was actually the Yan Family’s underground gambling-on-polo operation.

Nearly every one of these locations could be matched to a corresponding entry in Hua Yitang’s small black record ledger — every one of them a significant site where he and Feng Yuyi had brawled and quarreled over the years.

“So you were doing it on purpose the entire time?” Lin Sui’an asked.

“As Yangdu’s premier young scoundrel, even my fights have standards — one simply cannot throw punches arbitrarily and demean oneself.” Hua Yitang seemed to be growing somewhat agitated, his fan snapping back and forth at a furious pace, while his gaze swept across the ward map faster and faster. “No — no, no, no, something’s wrong! Has Jin Ruo not returned yet?”

“Here he is — who’s calling for me?” Jin Ruo walked in at a brisk clip, seized a cup, and gulped down several large mouthfuls of water. “Asked around. Every establishment in Yangdu that deals with funerary and burial affairs, public or private, has never had any business handling the remains of white livestock. The odds of them being transported out of the city are very low.”

Hua Yitang: “Is the information reliable?”

“Feng Family has fallen, and the Jiang, Bai, and Yan families are barely hanging on themselves. With Hua Family the sole dominant power in Yangdu now, there’s no reason for anyone to cross you. It’s the truth,” Jin Ruo said. “Those children’s bodies — they should still be somewhere inside Yangdu.”

The speed of Hua Yitang’s fanning increased further. His fingertip traveled along the ward map to Yangguan Ward on the northernmost edge of the outer city. His eyes sharpened to a cutting edge. “Then there is only one place left — the Feng Family private school.”

Has everyone truly forgotten the lead from the golden finger… (teary-eyed)