Everyone was once again left baffled by Hua Yitang. They thought to themselves that this fourth son of the Hua Family was truly unreliable — first he had gotten into a shouting match with the Su Family, throwing the entire evening banquet into utter chaos, and then he had declared that Wang Jinlu had killed someone. The words had barely left his mouth before he suddenly changed his story and claimed the real culprit was actually Wang Jingfu. What on earth was this good-for-nothing trying to do?

Wu Da swiftly trussed Wang Jingfu up like a dumpling as well and laid him beside Wang Jinlu, though he had not gagged Wang Jingfu’s mouth. Wang Jingfu’s expression was one of stunned terror, and for a moment he had no reaction whatsoever. Wang Jinlu glared ferociously at Wang Jingfu, a strange gurgling laugh rattling in his throat.

On the platform, Su Feizhang let out a cold laugh. “Fourth Young Master Hua, is there a single truthful word in that mouth of yours?”

Hua Yitang raised an eyebrow and looked over. “Every single word Hua speaks is the truth.”

Things had reached this point, and even Prefect Chi could no longer hold his tongue. “Military Advisor Hua, solving a case requires solid evidence. One moment you name this person as the culprit, the next you say that person committed the murder — where is your proof?”

Hua Yitang said, “Lord Wang Jingfu’s answer just now is the evidence.”

Wang Jingfu jolted back to his senses and said angrily, “I merely asked Military Advisor Hua to handle this impartially — what is wrong with that?!”

Hua Yitang tilted his head, his eyes bright and gleaming. “The problem is that you failed to notice that what Hua said had a problem.”

“Wh— what?!”

“Tonight, Hua never once mentioned any murder case — especially not during the argument with the tenth son of the Su Family.”

Wang Jingfu’s eyes went wide and he looked around in confusion, only to see everyone shaking their heads and saying:

“Fourth Young Master Hua and Tenth Young Master Su were cursing each other the whole time — foul language, unbearable to the ears!”

“Fourth Young Master Hua opened with ‘eat dog excrement’ and closed with ‘eat dog excrement’ — everything he said was about… ahem… the Su Family’s romantic scandals…”

“Now that you mention it, he really never brought up any murder, and never said anything about hanging.”

Hua Yitang said, “Therefore, whoever did not know the content of Hua’s quarrel with Tenth Young Master Su is a suspect who was not on the sixth floor when the murder took place!”

Wang Jingfu’s face changed drastically.

Jin Ruo lowered his voice. “Have you also figured out that Wang Jinlu is not the killer?”

Ling Zhiyan said, “I only felt that this case had something suspicious about it —”

Lin Sui’an said, “I only felt that the evidence of the blood-stained murder garment was obtained far too easily —”

It did not fit the script of a mystery, nor did it fit with Hua Yitang’s role as the protagonist with his protagonist’s aura.

Jin Ruo’s expression soured a little. He scratched his head. “Could it be that the Hua fellow discovered it from the very beginning?”

Ling Zhiyan shook his head to indicate uncertainty. Lin Sui’an shrugged to indicate she had no idea.

This good-for-nothing was afflicted with the full-blown syndrome of a detective who loved to perform, loved to show off, and loved to keep people in suspense. If he did not say it himself, no one could ever hope to guess what schemes were turning in his mind. One could only infer a thing or two from his actions after the fact —

“Hua Yitang saying earlier that Wang Jinlu was the killer was probably just a smokescreen,” Lin Sui’an said. “It must have been to lull the real culprit into letting down his guard. When the real culprit believed the danger had passed, he could use words to draw him out and make him reveal himself.”

Hua Yitang looked over with a pleased smile. “The one who truly knows me is Lin Sui’an!”

Lin Sui’an: “……”

So this fellow actually enjoyed that feeling quite a lot, did he?

“Military Advisor Hua, to conclude I am the killer based solely on this is laughably rash!” Wang Jingfu said. “At the time, I had merely gone to relieve myself, so I did not hear you and the tenth son of the Su Family quarreling.”

Hua Yitang hid his mouth behind his folding fan and made an exaggerated expression. “Oh my? Lord Wang Jingfu also went to relieve himself? What a coincidence.” He raised his hand and snapped his fingers, and an officer of the Night Watch entered together with a servant from the Scattering Blossoms Tower.

The servant dropped to his knees with a thud. “I— I— I only had an upset stomach and accidentally went to relieve myself — I didn’t mean to overhear anything — I d— d— didn’t —”

“Did you hear something?” Hua Yitang asked.

The servant shuddered and kowtowed repeatedly. “I— I— I heard nothing!”

Hua Yitang’s voice grew slightly stern. “You need only tell me whose voices you heard. Say nothing more than that.”

The servant trembled. “I heard the voices of the Wang Family’s second young master and the Zhou Family’s eighth young master.”

“Was that Wang Jinlu and Zhou Gan?”

“Yes.”

Zhou Gan’s legs gave out and he slumped to the floor.

Wang Jinlu let out a muffled howling in his throat, nearly spitting out the rag stuffed in his mouth, which Wu Da promptly shoved back in more firmly. Wang Jinlu’s circle of dissolute companions broke into a chorus of lecherous laughter.

Lin Sui’an seemed to suddenly understand something. Ling Zhiyan furrowed his brow slightly.

“Zhou Gan, Hua asks you — who were you with at the time?” Hua Yitang said gently. “You must answer honestly!”

Zhou Gan raised his head — a pale face, dark eyes devoid of light, like a puppet that had lost its soul. “I was with —” his face twitched, and he clutched his collar. “Wang Jinlu.”

“When did you return?”

“When the Scattering Blossoms Tower was sealed for the first time —”

“During that time, did Wang Jinlu ever leave the sixth floor?”

“He did not…”

This confirmed Wang Jinlu’s alibi. Following the normal procedure for questioning, in order to verify the truthfulness of the testimony, the next question should have been to ask what Zhou Gan and Wang Jinlu had been doing at the time. But Hua Yitang switched to an entirely different question instead.

“Zhou Gan, were you able to hear the sound of Hua’s argument with the tenth son of the Su Family at the time?”

Zhou Gan was taken aback, and an indescribable expression flashed across his face. A faint reddish light glimmered in his eyes. “Intermittently, yes —”

“Then tell me — what case was Hua referring to at the time?”

“…It seemed to be a case of spreading seditious rumors —”

Hua Yitang nodded, then turned his gaze to Wang Jingfu. “There is only one washroom on the sixth floor — just two turns away. Both of you were using the washroom at the same time, so why was Zhou Gan able to hear Hua’s voice while you could not? The reason is simple: because at the time you were not on the sixth floor at all, but in the Swallow Hairpin Chamber on the fifth floor committing murder!”

Wang Jingfu’s face twitched wildly. “Military Advisor Hua, this line of reasoning is utterly absurd. Zhou Gan is in the prime of youth, with sharp ears and keen eyes. I am already past forty, and have recently developed an ear ailment — what is so strange about being unable to hear sounds from a distance?”

“Very well, even granting your hard of hearing — how do you explain the smell of blood in your hair?”

“When I was relieving myself, I accidentally cut my hand — this is my own blood!”

Fang Ke swiftly examined Wang Jingfu’s hand and gave a small nod in Hua Yitang’s direction.

Hua Yitang said, “What cut you?”

Fang Ke said, “From the shape and depth of the wound, it appears to have been a hairpin.”

“My hair bun came loose, and when I was putting it back in order, I accidentally cut my hand with a hairpin.” Wang Jingfu spoke with great confidence.

The moment he said this, the looks everyone directed at Hua Yitang grew increasingly distrustful.

As expected — a thoroughly unreliable good-for-nothing.

Su Feizhang leaned against the armrest. “Military Advisor Hua, the so-called evidence you have — could it be nothing more than these baseless speculations? Quite a stretch, I must say.”

Chief Historian Xia sent Hua Yitang a rapid series of meaningful glances. “Military Advisor Hua, do you have any other evidence?”

Hua Yitang waved his folding fan and said nothing.

Su Feizhang gave a short laugh. “Prefect Chi, in my view, an outsider must have entered the Scattering Blossoms Tower, committed the murder, stripped off the blood-stained garment, and fled.”

Prefect Chi said, “That… seems a bit too…”

Wu Da cupped his fists in salute. “Your subordinate has checked — during the evening banquet, not a single person left through the main gate, the rear gate, or the side gate.”

“What if they did not leave through a gate, but instead scaled the walls using martial arts?” Su Feizhang said. “For instance, that so-called Greatest Thief Under Heaven, Yun Zhong Yue — did not Master Wu report to the authorities this very morning that his wife had been abducted by this person? Tenth brother, have you not met this Yun Zhong Yue? What are his martial skills like?”

Su Yiyun said, “Yun Zhong Yue’s lightness technique is superb — he leaps and soars like a bird in flight. If it were him, killing someone and then jumping from the building to escape would be no difficult feat.”

Lin Sui’an understood clearly now. Su Feizhang was using this opportunity to whitewash Wu Zhengli while pinning the murder on Yun Zhong Yue.

Prefect Chi and Chief Historian Xia exchanged a glance with awkward expressions. “Military Advisor Hua…”

“What all of you say is quite reasonable,” Hua Yitang nodded, then snapped his fan shut with a sharp crack. “In that case, why don’t we all return to the scene of the crime together and reconstruct the sequence of events?”

Everyone: Huh??

A quarter of an hour later, Prefect Chi, Chief Historian Xia, Wu Zhengli, Wang Jingfu, Wang Jinlu, Su Feizhang, Su Yiyun, Duan Hongning, Manager Lu, and seven noble family representatives who had been chosen to attend — along with Lin Sui’an and Hua Yitang’s party — stood in a neat row outside the door of the Swallow Hairpin Chamber.

The great doors of the Swallow Hairpin Chamber were tightly shut. A faint smell of blood still drifted through the air. The bloodstains on the corridor floor had been wiped away, but traces of vivid red still clung to the gaps between the floorboards, bearing silent testimony to the carnage of what had occurred.

“When the bloodstains were discovered, the door was bolted from the inside.” Hua Yitang gave a signal, and Lin Sui’an struck the door open with a single palm. A fierce gust of wind poured out from within, sending everyone staggering. Suddenly, someone let out a scream — hanging from the rafters of the Swallow Hairpin Chamber was a figure.

Long black hair whipped about in the wind. The neck and both hands were suspended high by leather cords, feet dangling off the ground, swaying slowly. A blade was thrust into the belly.

The pampered children of noble families were instantly frightened out of their wits.

“Murder! Murder!”

“Another one dead!”

“Help!”

“Silence!” Su Feizhang bellowed. “Look carefully — that is not a person!”

Everyone trembled as they looked up, squinting carefully — and indeed it was not a person at all, but a figure fashioned from cloth, with horse-tail hair for its tresses and a wooden knife in its belly.

Everyone erupted in fury: Who was this meant to frighten to death? Could this good-for-nothing Hua Yitang have done this on purpose?

“Reconstructing a murder naturally requires restoring the scene as closely as possible,” Hua Yitang said, strolling in with his fan swaying, a smile on his face. “Originally I had intended to sprinkle some chicken blood and duck blood around, but unfortunately time was too short for a thorough setup — please forgive the hasty arrangement.”

Everyone: This fellow is smiling! He really did do it on purpose!

Lin Sui’an quietly observed the expressions of everyone present. The noble family scions were both shocked and furious. Su Feizhang and Su Yiyun’s expressions showed some uncertainty. Prefect Chi and Chief Historian Xia looked somewhat curious. Duan Hongning’s expression was sorrowful. Wu Zhengli frowned and surveyed his surroundings. Wang Jinlu and Manager Lu also appeared shaken. Wang Jingfu’s complexion grew increasingly terrible, his pupils contracting sharply.

Hua Yitang paced forward and pointed at the hanging figure with his fan. “At the time, Minina hung here just like this — a bloody puncture wound at the throat, a cavalry saber thrust into the belly, and leather cords about the thickness of a finger wrapped around her neck and both wrists.”

Someone in the crowd let out an “Ah” and then went quiet again.

Hua Yitang directed his fan at a particular person — a young man from the Ma Family, someone Lin Sui’an recalled as one of Wang Jinlu’s circle of “drinking companions.”

“This gentleman — do you have a question?” Hua Yitang asked.

The Ma Family young man waved his hands frantically. “No, no — I only thought the posture of the body was rather… strange!”

Wang Jinlu let out a vicious snort through his nose.

Hua Yitang raised an eyebrow. “Hua finds this posture quite significant. And so, I consulted with the brothers of the Yi Du Pure Gate, and the freshly obtained intelligence is as follows —”

Jin Ruo stepped forward, first rolling his eyes dramatically, and said, “Wang Jinlu of the Wang Family has a particular preference: when engaging in intimate acts with a partner, he enjoys suspending the person with leather cords, waiting until the suspended person’s mind grows dazed and disoriented, and only then proceeding.”

The Ma Family young man snickered. The expressions of everyone else became somewhat uncomfortable.

Lin Sui’an closed her eyes — she genuinely could not bear to hear this. Ling Zhiyan’s reaction was even more pronounced; his throat bobbed repeatedly, as though he was about to vomit again. Fang Ke promptly passed him a small porcelain vial. Ling Zhiyan hesitated, then gave it a sniff, and his complexion improved somewhat.

Hua Yitang said, “Who knew of this matter?”

Jin Ruo said, “Naturally, those close to Wang Jinlu —”

Everyone turned their gaze simultaneously to Wang Jingfu.

Wang Jingfu’s expression grew dark and terrifying. “His pack of dissolute friends know far better than I do!”

“That is fair — this is not difficult to verify.” Hua Yitang circled around the figure. “Perhaps that Yun Zhong Yue deliberately mimicked Wang Jinlu’s habits to frame him for the murder.”

Jin Ruo made a strange noise in his throat and quickly covered his mouth.

Lin Sui’an: “……”

Poor Yun Zhong Yue — the Greatest Thief Under Heaven had somehow been reduced to a brick, to be picked up and placed wherever someone needed him.

Skit

Yun Zhong Yue: Achoo! Why do I suddenly feel a chill…