Hearing that the body had disappeared, Ming Huashang and Ren Yao exchanged a look, and both felt a bone-deep unease — as though ghost-shadows truly pressed in around them. The scholar trees swaying outside the window looked like countless ghostly claws, hovering over the Wei household from above.

Every strange occurrence had begun after Wei Baixuan died. Ming Huashang had a dim sense that the key to it all lay in the vanished body. She thought for a moment, then said carefully, “Is it possible — could Second Young Miss not actually be dead? Could what they saw have been a mistake?”

“Da-langjun saw it with his own eyes,” the maid said, her eyes going wide with alarm. “When they broke the door down, the other servants all saw Second Young Miss lying on the ground, the blood still coming from the wound at her throat — everyone was terrified. Only Da-langjun walked up close and examined her, then said she was dead and sent people to go and inform the Proprietor. The difference between a living person and a dead one is so plain — Da-langjun could not have made a mistake.”

True enough. Wei Moyuan had also studied the making of puppets — he could not possibly confuse a false person for a real one. Ming Huashang suddenly realized something and asked, “When Wei Moyuan sent the servants off to report, what did he do?”

This stumped the maid. She bit her lip, uncertain: “I’m not sure — Da-langjun must have been standing guard at the door, I would think?”

Ming Huashang asked, “So you are saying that after Wei Baixuan was discovered, aside from Wei Moyuan, no one knew what was happening at the scene. By the time Proprietor Wei arrived, the body had already vanished?”

The maid hesitated. “That… would seem to be the case.”

Ming Huashang nodded slowly, then asked, “How many days was Wei Baixuan kept in the workshop?”

This the maid remembered clearly, without much effort: “The fourteenth of the second month — Second Young Miss quarreled with Da-langjun and Third Young Miss, then quarreled with the Proprietor as well, and the Proprietor had her shut up in the workshop. It caused such an uproar that everyone in the household was on edge, so I remember it very clearly. The next day — the late afternoon of the fifteenth of the second month — the person delivering the meal found the food hadn’t been touched. Not daring to trouble the Proprietor, he went to Da-langjun for guidance. Da-langjun took the key and went to the workshop to coax Second Young Miss into eating. But no matter how long he tried, there was no response from inside. He pushed the door and it wouldn’t open, and Da-langjun felt something was wrong. He had someone break the door down — and that’s when they found her.”

“During those one and a half days, was Wei Baixuan alone in the workshop?” Ming Huashang pressed.

“Yes,” the maid said. “The Proprietor was angry — who would dare walk into trouble? Everyone steered clear of the workshop those two days. We all took the long way around.”

No one daring to go near the workshop — which meant in turn that if someone had gone in during that window, no one would have noticed.

Ming Huashang asked, “You mentioned just now that Wei Moyuan arrived with the key — so the door was locked at the time?”

“Yes.” The maid let out a sigh. “I don’t know what Second Young Miss said to the Proprietor, but she truly made him furious — he had her locked into the workshop to reflect on herself, and forbade anyone from pleading her case. Only Da-langjun, who was closest to the Proprietor, would have dared force the door open.”

Ming Huashang thought to herself: truly a thorough businessman, Wei Yanqing — even when he was disciplining his apprentice, he chose the workshop as the room for confinement, so that while being locked away to think things over, she was still at the worktable. Not a scrap of remaining value went untapped.

Ming Huashang asked, “What kind of lock was on the workshop door — and who had keys?”

“The Proprietor earns his living by his craft, and is very protective of his methods. So the workshop uses the most secure kind of lock available, and the windows are all sealed tight — only one small opening is left so that meals can be passed through. There are times when noble patrons want an order very quickly, and the workshop will run through the night. The Proprietor locks the door in those cases too, to keep outsiders from interrupting or learning the craft, and assigns one person specifically to pass food in.” The maid laid it all out carefully. “As for keys — the Proprietor, Da-langjun, Second Young Miss, and Third Young Miss each have one.”

The workshop was different from the storeroom — it was used constantly, and for convenience, each apprentice had a key of their own. Ming Huashang found this somewhat troublesome to work through: on the surface, the workshop was locked, but it was by no means a truly sealed room. There were several people with the means and opportunity to approach it unseen, and it was impossible to narrow down who it might have been.

Ming Huashang said, “It is a pity that Second Young Miss died so young. But life goes on — after her death, have any arrangements been made within the household? For instance, what has been decided about the betrothal between Wei Baixuan and Wei Moyuan, and who will now take over the workshop?”

The maid shook her head. “The Proprietor hasn’t said yet. But Da-langjun and Third Young Miss have always cared for each other — now that the obstacle is gone, the two of them ought to be able to come together openly…”

Before the maid could finish, Ren Yao’s eyes suddenly sharpened and she spun around sharply: “Who’s there?”

Both Ming Huashang and the maid were startled. The maid, thinking it must be another haunting, went pale with fright and stumbled backward. Ren Yao was already striding to the window, and yanked it open with force.

Outside was a row of scholar trees, standing tall and silent. Not far away, a garden servant was walking toward them carrying tools, and when the window was suddenly thrown open, he too was startled.

Ming Huashang and the maid came over as well. When Ming Huashang saw the person’s face she caught her breath. He walked with a slight limp, and his face was covered in scars of varying depths, the worst of them cutting across the bridge of his nose — nearly splitting his entire face in two. He looked deeply alarming.

The maid recognized him and said with obvious irritation, “What are you doing here — who told you to come over?”

The garden servant bent forward with a bow, head down. “This old one has come to prune the trees.”

Ming Huashang asked, “Who is this?”

“The household’s garden servant — responsible for the care of the trees and plants in the courtyard.” The maid turned back to the garden servant, her tone all impatience: “There are important guests today. Be mindful of frightening them, you old wretch — now get out of here!”

The garden servant bowed toward the maid, appeared entirely acquiescent, picked up his shears and tools, and left. Ming Huashang watched his retreating figure, and suddenly called out: “Wait.”

The maid was a little surprised. “Miss Cui — he is nothing but a lowly garden servant…”

“No matter — I would like to ask him something.” Ming Huashang smiled and said, “Old sir, when did you arrive here?”

The garden servant stopped, keeping his head bowed, and said: “The Proprietor asked me to tend to the garden. I finished pruning the front section and have only just come here.”

Ming Huashang looked toward the flower beds not far off. They were neat and uniformly trimmed, with cut branches and fallen leaves still scattered on the ground — clearly pruned just recently. She asked again, “When you came this way, did you see or hear anything outside our window?”

“No,” the garden servant said. “I had just arrived when the window was opened. I saw no one.”

The maid said, “There are so many trees in the courtyard — it might have been a bird just now. Young Miss, perhaps you simply misheard?”

Had she misheard? Ren Yao’s brow was knitted tight. She studied the man up and down, the suspicion in her gaze undiminished. Ming Huashang asked, “How did you come by those scars on your face?”

The garden servant lowered his head further, and said: “I fell while traveling.”

Ren Yao was not convinced. “Even if you fell while traveling, you’d only break the skin. How could a tumble leave marks like these?”

The garden servant was quiet and submissive, and yet beneath that calm there was something else — a difficult-to-name shadow. “What the Young Miss describes is the case when one is not traveling in great haste. When the urgency is extreme, one falls like this.”

Both Ming Huashang and Ren Yao felt something was off about this man. The maid said with an imperious air: “There are distinguished guests today — your services are not required. Off with you, and stay well away from here.”

The garden servant bowed in silence, picked up his things, and left with his uneven, limping gait.

The maid said with distaste, “Miss Cui, please don’t pay him any mind. The man has always been like this — old, ugly, a misfit wherever he goes, always wearing that gloomy, sullen look. He gives me an unsettled feeling. The Proprietor is simply too kindhearted, to have let someone like him through the gates.”

An unsettled feeling? Ming Huashang caught an edge in the word — it was a term that carried real personal feeling to it. Why had the maid chosen to describe the garden servant that way?

“Has he done something?” Ming Huashang asked. “What happened?”

The maid looked uncomfortable, hesitated, and then finally said it haltingly: “It isn’t anything specific, really. It’s just — it’s just that — he has his eye set on something far above his station!”

Ming Huashang sensed there was more to it. She asked gently, “What do you mean?”

The maid squirmed and fidgeted — then finally, as though steeling herself, said: “Miss Cui, I am only telling you this — please don’t repeat it to anyone. That old, ugly garden servant out there — he has been pursuing Second Young Miss!”

Ming Huashang raised an eyebrow slowly. The maid, thinking she wasn’t believed, rushed to add: “It’s the truth — he followed Second Young Miss everywhere, and was always staring at her. He even bought things for her from outside the household, but Second Young Miss was so furious she threw them all away and forbade him from ever appearing before her. As if someone like him could compare to Da-langjun — truly absurd, laughable.”

Ming Huashang turned this over quietly. The maid went on for a few more minutes, then, seeing that Ming Huashang had gone quiet, said with good sense, “Miss Cui needs to rest — I will not disturb you further. I will be right outside — if the Young Miss needs anything, just call.”

When the maid had shut the door behind her, Ren Yao said, “The Wei family is genuinely complicated — love affairs tangled in every direction. I’ve lost track of it all. What do you make of this?”

Ming Huashang ordered her thoughts, then spoke with calm clarity: “Every strange thing began after Wei Baixuan died, so let us start with her. Setting aside the possibility of supernatural causes — Wei Baixuan was confined in the workshop, and everyone with a key — Proprietor Wei, Wei Moyuan, and Wei Zhùyàn — could have accessed her. All of them are suspect.”

“At the time she was found, blood was still coming from the wound at her throat — which means the killing had not long occurred. The doors and windows were all sealed, the only possible access being the small opening through which meals were passed, and no killer could have left through that. My inference, therefore, is that the killer had not left the scene at all. Wei Moyuan was the first to arrive — he sent everyone away, which may have been out of concern for Second Apprentice Sister, or it may have been to protect someone. By the time the others returned, the body had vanished. If there are no ghosts in this world, then the body was moved by a person. And the killer was clever — they knew to destroy the most critical piece of evidence first, and then shift everything onto the language of the supernatural. That way they could escape entirely.”

Ren Yao was bewildered. “But why move the body?”

“To conceal the evidence,” Ming Huashang said. “As it stands now, we cannot see the body, and everything we say can only rest on conjecture. The killer was shrewd — they knew to remove the most important evidence first, then attribute everything to ghosts. That way they slip free. As for who the killer might be, I still cannot say with certainty. Each of the people I named could have had a motive.”

Ren Yao was startled. “You mean — all the strange happenings at the Wei household were also staged by the killer?”

“I cannot be sure,” Ming Huashang said. “I haven’t seen any of the hauntings firsthand, so I can’t determine what state of mind drove the person to arrange all of this. I wish I could go and look at the place where Wei Baixuan was killed.”

“The maid said the Proprietor had Daoist priests come and perform rites — the scene has probably been largely disturbed by now.”

Ming Huashang sighed. “Then we can only fall back on reasoning. Who would have had a reason to want Wei Baixuan dead?”

Ren Yao thought aloud as she went: “Wei Moyuan has reason — Wei Baixuan had told Proprietor Wei about his and Wei Zhùyàn’s secret, and the Proprietor had threatened in fury to drive them both out. He might have acted out of retaliation, or to protect his claim to the inheritance. And the fact that he was the one who forced his way into the workshop, at precisely the moment after Wei Baixuan was killed, could mean he staged the whole thing himself to appear innocent. By the same logic, Wei Zhùyàn also has reason — Wei Baixuan was on the verge of taking everything from her. She might have killed out of desperation, and Wei Moyuan may have sent everyone away to cover for her. Then there is that strange garden servant — if he truly cared for Wei Baixuan, could he have used that access to take advantage of her while she was confined? He might even have conspired with Wei Moyuan — the garden servant first attacked and wounded Wei Baixuan, then Wei Moyuan timed his entry to announce her death, sent everyone away so the garden servant could carry the still-living Wei Baixuan out of the workshop, and then he kept her imprisoned somewhere to satisfy his own…”

Even as she said it, Ren Yao felt a wave of revulsion. Ming Huashang added: “I think you have left out Proprietor Wei. He is not as simple as he appears — everything in the Wei household, however unrelated to him it seems on the surface, was in fact set in motion by him at every step.”

The thought made Ren Yao feel the Wei household was oppressive and ghost-ridden — she could not bear to stay in it a moment longer. She thought it over, and found herself still unable to resolve one thing: “Regardless of which of them is the killer — once Wei Baixuan was dead, their purpose was accomplished. Why would they continue staging hauntings at the Wei household? Frightening Wei Zhùyàn into this kind of frantic state — what could they possibly gain from that?”

Ming Huashang raised an eyebrow slightly and regarded Ren Yao with an expression between amusement and something more serious: “Ren Jiejie — do you truly believe Wei Zhùyàn has been genuinely frightened out of her wits?”

Ren Yao inhaled sharply. “What do you mean by that?”

Ming Huashang recalled in careful detail the scene of Wei Zhùyàn’s apparent breakdown: “After we heard the scream and rushed over, all we saw was Wei Zhùyàn striking a puppet. She kept insisting she had seen Wei Baixuan’s ghost — but no one else could corroborate it. Then when the puppet head flew—”

Ming Huashang paused. The two of them silently recalled a person they found equally disagreeable, and by mutual, unspoken agreement skipped over that part. Ming Huashang continued: “When the head flew through the air, Wei Zhùyàn watched it with what looked like genuine surprise — and for a moment she stopped crying and flailing. When I pulled the head back in, she instinctively thanked me. But the moment Proprietor Wei became angry, she sank back into apparent frenzy.”

Ming Huashang gave a faint shake of her head, and looked toward Ren Yao: “Ren Jiejie — a person who controls their emotions that fluidly — do you truly think she has lost her mind?”

Ren Yao’s brow furrowed deeply, and she said in disbelief, “So you are saying she is feigning madness — pretending to have seen a ghost? What purpose would that serve?”

With too little evidence, Ming Huashang could not be certain — but one thing was clear: Wei Zhùyàn was doing it to protect someone.

From what the maid had described, Wei Zhùyàn was a proud, beauty-conscious person. For her to willingly let her hair down and play the madwoman, it had to be someone of singular importance to her.

“We must find evidence,” Ming Huashang said with a sigh. “Without evidence, every conjecture we have is nothing but a castle in the air. The best outcome would be finding Wei Baixuan’s body — a person that size cannot simply vanish without a trace. And there is also the garden servant — I keep feeling there is something strange about him.”

Ren Yao asked, puzzled: “He is only a servant who tends the flowers and trees — what could be strange about him?”

Ming Huashang shook her head slowly. “I cannot say what it is. Just instinct — something is not right.”

As they talked, a voice sounded at the door: “Miss Cui — are you feeling any better?”

Ming Huashang knew at once it must be someone Ming Huazhang had sent to check on her. The information she needed to gather had been gathered. Her “heart ailment” duly recovered on its own: “Much better. Does Elder Brother have instructions?”

“Yes,” the maid said. “Master Cui says it is time to leave — he has sent me to ask whether the Young Miss has recovered enough to travel.”

Ming Huashang and Ren Yao rose together. “I am well enough now — let us go.”

Ming Huashang walked out of the guest room and met Ming Huazhang and the other two in the main hall. Ming Huazhang heard footsteps and turned, his dark eyes sweeping over Ming Huashang, then said, “Proprietor Wei, we have troubled you greatly today — we will take our leave.”

Wei Yanqing, all warm enthusiasm, said, “Master Cui, what are you saying? That each of you graced this humble residence today has been our honor!”

Ming Huazhang smiled briefly and said, “Proprietor Wei — please have what I asked for ready promptly. I am in some urgency.”

Wei Yanqing’s smile faded slightly. “The Young Master may rest assured — the Wei family will not fail in this charge.”

The visit had been long and eventful, and by the time they stepped out of the Wei household gate, the sun was tilting westward and streaks of pale color lit the sky at the horizon. Ming Huashang spotted a stall vendor beginning to pack up his goods and said quickly, “Elder Brother, one moment.”

Before Ming Huazhang could say anything, Ming Huashang was already dashing over. The vendor looked up and smiled when he saw her: “Young Miss — still not headed home? I was thinking the cheese would have gone off by now sitting there all day, so I made two fresh portions just now. I was worried about how to get them to you.”

Ming Huashang had been intending to enter the Wei residence earlier and hadn’t wanted to carry things in, so she had left the two packaged portions of cherry cheese with the vendor for safekeeping. He turned out to be a man of his word — he hadn’t kept a single thing, and had even made two fresh servings to replace them.

Ming Huashang felt genuinely touched, and said warmly, “Thank you so much, Proprietor. With a hand this skilled, your business is sure to flourish — and if I can’t get a place in the queue next time, you must make sure to save one for me.”

The vendor laughed till his face creased. “Thank you for the kind words, Young Miss. Do come back and give us your custom.”

“Of course I will.”

After taking her leave of the vendor, Ming Huashang picked up the two paper-wrapped parcels and ran back toward Ming Huazhang. Jiang Ling had been puzzled about what she was doing, but when he saw her returning with packages in hand, it came back to him: “She actually remembered?”

Ming Huashang arrived just in time to hear those words, and said, “Of course I did. These are for my Elder Brother — how could I forget?”

She held the two parcels out toward Ming Huazhang and Xie Jichuan: “Elder Brother, Brother Xie — this is the cherry cheese. It is excellent — you should try some.”

Ming Huazhang had known that Ming Huashang was late today because she had stopped to eat, so the cheese itself came as no surprise. What surprised him was that she had remembered to think of him.

When Ming Huashang had gone bounding toward the stall, something quiet had stirred in him — and then he watched her come back carrying two packages.

Ming Huashang stopped in front of Ming Huazhang and waited, full of hope, for her elder brother’s reaction. But no matter how long she waited, Ming Huazhang made no move to take it.

Ming Huashang began to feel faintly anxious. Was he truly this impossible to please? He had clearly been happy eating cherries earlier — why was he refusing now?

Xie Jichuan felt not the slightest sympathy for Ming Huazhang’s situation, and smiled pleasantly as he reached out: “Thank you, little sister. Jingyán doesn’t care for sweets — I’ll take his portion for him.”

He genuinely moved to take it too. Ming Huazhang reached the end of his patience and brought his hand down sharply on Xie Jichuan’s arm: “You still have blood on your sleeve. Go and sort your appearance before touching other people’s things.”