“I won’t go. I refuse to go.” Faced with the two maids who stepped forward, Yan Qin began to throw a tantrum.
Madam Shi had lived the better part of her life without ever feeling such humiliation. Though the assembled ladies and misses were restraining themselves from openly mocking her, she still felt her face burning with shame.
“Drag her out.” Even Madam Shi’s well-cultivated composure cracked at this moment. She pointed toward the door, the hair bun at the back of her head trembling along with her gesture.
The farce came to an end when Yan Qin was hauled out of the hall. As for the luncheon that was to follow, it was unlikely that anyone would stay to put themselves through further discomfort — after all, Madam Shi’s expression had already grown dark enough to drip water.
Shi Ting and Yan Qing walked out of the Shi family’s main gate together.
Noticing that he still had his scarf in hand, Yan Qing stopped. “Let me put it on for you.”
Shi Ting crouched halfway before her and handed the scarf to Yan Qing.
“What kind of place is the Sanheyuan? Why did Yan Qin react so strongly when she heard the name?”
Shi Ting gazed at her soft, delicate face, her lips lightly moistened, and found his thoughts wandering. Only after she called out to him did he answer. “Do you know that Madam is not the original wife?”
“Oh?” Yan Qing’s expression showed surprise.
“Before Madam, the Marshal had another wife. That wife was perfectly well when she first married the Marshal, but within two years she developed a condition of the mind, acting erratic and unstable every day. The elder Madam feared she might go out and harm someone, so she had her confined in the Sanheyuan. In the first several months after she was locked in, she screamed through the nights. The maids were too frightened to go near, and could only slip food through a hole at the bottom of the door. Five months later, the Sanheyuan suddenly fell silent. A few days after that, when the maids were delivering food, they suddenly noticed a foul odor. One of them reported it to the elder Madam, who had someone open the door — the wife had been dead for many days. Her body was in an advanced state of decomposition, and beside her was a mass of rotting flesh.”
“Rotting flesh?” Yan Qing’s brows knitted. “Could it be that she had been with child?”
Shi Ting nodded. “It turned out she had already been pregnant when she was locked away in the Sanheyuan, though no one had known. By the time her death was discovered, the infant had been nearly six months along. The baby that should have been inside her had turned into a putrid mass — those present at the scene were terrified out of their wits. Afterward, maids began to claim they often heard the sounds of a child crying and laughing from within the Sanheyuan, and the story of a vengeful spirit grew more and more elaborate in the telling.”
Yan Qing said, “There’s no such thing as a vengeful spirit. It’s nothing more than postmortem fetal extrusion. When a pregnant woman dies, gas from decomposition builds up inside the body and can force the fetus outward — that is what causes this kind of phenomenon.”
“The women of the inner quarters would have no knowledge of such things, so the story was passed on and grew more sensational with each retelling. Over time, the Sanheyuan became an abandoned, ill-omened residence that no one cleaned or dared to approach.”
For Madam Shi to punish Yan Qin by sending her to the Sanheyuan — it seemed she was truly furious this time. Still, Shi Guang was unlikely to stand by and do nothing, since Yan Qin was his proper wife taken through formal matchmaking. And in this incident, Shi Guang had certainly been involved.
“How did you know that Yan Qin had enlisted Yan Ling?” Shi Ting asked curiously.
“In the beginning I wasn’t entirely certain, but one thing was undeniably true: when something behaves strangely, there is always a reason behind it. Yan Ling and I rarely interacted, yet she suddenly began appearing in my courtyard with excessive cordiality. Nine times out of ten, she was hiding something. On the day she suddenly came to play cards with me, I became watchful and had Di Huai conceal himself in the room to observe quietly. As it turned out, we really did catch her maid in the act.”
“Did you deliberately place the scarf I sent you in the cabinet?”
“Of course not. I’m no fortune teller — I had no idea their target would be a scarf.” Yan Qing smiled. “But the scarf I worked so hard to knit for you — how could I leave something like that lying out in plain sight? The moment I finished it, I put it away and locked it up. Even Jing Zhi thought the one in the cabinet was the one I had made.”
She sighed softly. “One can only say Yan Ling had bad luck — she happened to steal the very scarf Yan Qin had sent to you. I said nothing and simply waited to see what tricks they would pull.”
Shi Ting’s expression grew serious. “Yan Qin alone could not have taken things this far. This was certainly a scheme she hatched together with Shi Guang. Shi Guang’s aim was to prevent you from marrying me, while Yan Qin’s aim was to prevent me from marrying you. Two people with the same goal naturally found it easy to align.”
“I imagine that after going through this, Shi Guang and Yan Qin will settle down for a while. Otherwise, the first person to be worn to death by all this would be none other than Madam Shi.”
Yan Qing’s nimble hands moved back and forth around his neck, and finally drew one end of the scarf through the gap in the middle, smoothing the surface flat.
He was wearing a fur-lined fitted leather jacket today, with black trousers and boots. The scarf at his neck was undoubtedly the finishing touch to an already striking appearance.
“All done. Does it look good?”
Shi Ting glanced down. “I’ve never seen this style of knotting before. It looks good.”
Yan Qing naturally couldn’t tell him it was a Korean-style knot, the most fashionable method in the modern era — though this layered style was suited only to men of his tall, broad-shouldered build.
“Right, I forgot to ask — have the toxicology results for Shu Banxue come back yet?”
“They came back long ago. I already had someone deliver them to Long Yunxiao.”
“Was it aconitine poisoning?”
Shi Ting looked at her with some surprise. “It was.”
“Aconitine is extremely toxic, but after processing and hydrolysis it can be used medicinally, and is most effective for treating rheumatic paralysis and joint pain. Folk medicine practitioners often soak aconitine in liquor to treat illness, which is why aconitine poisoning cases are not uncommon. The lethal dose is only three to five milligrams.”
Yan Qing sighed softly. “The symptoms of aconitine poisoning closely resemble those of an epileptic episode, and it metabolizes relatively quickly in the body. If Long Yunxiao hadn’t preserved the body in time, it would have been nearly impossible to detect aconitine in the deceased.”
“So the killer knew the properties of aconitine and was well acquainted with Shu Banxue’s epilepsy condition. That is how they were able to commit murder invisibly. If Long Yunxiao hadn’t grown suspicious, Shu Banxue would have died a wrongful death.”
Yan Qing asked, “Has Long Yunxiao asked you to help investigate the killer?”
“No. He said he would investigate on his own.”
“Because he knows the killer is someone close to him, and naturally doesn’t wish to involve your assistance. If this person turns out to be someone dear to him, he can deal with it as he sees fit — but if it were handed over to the military police, killing is a capital offense.”
Shi Ting suddenly asked, “Do you know what Long Yue studied abroad?”
“Isn’t it criminal investigation? Doesn’t he always call himself a detective?”
Shi Ting said with meaningful deliberateness, “He studied pharmacology.”
Yan Qing was struck speechless.
After a brief silence, Shi Ting asked, “Where are you going now? Back home?”
Yan Qing shook her head. “After Yan Ling gets back to the mansion, Er Yitai will certainly come to my courtyard to plead for her. I can’t bear to watch them weep and wail — it’s tiresome.”
“Then come sit at the military police headquarters for a while?”
“Since Director Shi has extended such a warm invitation, I’d be happy to oblige.” She gave a playful wink.
Shi Ting smiled and pushed her wheelchair toward the car.
Only after their figures had disappeared did a figure emerge from the shadows of the gate. His face was dark as stilled water, and the hand at his side had clenched into a fist.
He stood like that for quite a while. Only when his emotions had settled did he turn and walk back into the courtyard.
Madam Shi was furious, and a maid was kneading her shoulders.
“Where is the Second Young Master?”
Shi Guang strode in. “Mother, were you looking for me?”
“Look at the wife you married — what sort of conduct is that? She’s made me absolutely livid.”
Shi Guang’s expression darkened. “If I recall correctly, Yan Qin was chosen by Mother.”
Madam Shi was left momentarily speechless by this. “It’s all because of that shameless woman, Yan Furen, who kept pushing her daughter on us in every conceivable way back then. If she hadn’t, the Shi family would never have brought such an ill-omened creature into the house.”
“Yan Qin behaved improperly this time, but sending her to the Sanheyuan seems rather too severe.”
Madam Shi looked up. “Weizhi, you were aware of this affair, weren’t you?”
Shi Guang did not deny it.
Madam Shi let out a heavy sigh. “That Sixth Miss of the Yan family has already been betrothed to Seventh Brother — why won’t you let go? If the two of you keep stirring up trouble like this, I won’t have any face left.”
“I’m sorry, Mother. I didn’t expect things to develop this far either.”
“Forget it. I can see that Sixth Miss Yan is no easy character herself, and with Seventh Brother constantly shielding her, that brain of Yan Qin’s is no match for her.” Madam Shi gritted her teeth. “And this Luo Huaimeng — I treated her well, yet she goes against me at every turn. If not for her and her son meddling in things, you could have married that Sixth Miss long ago, and none of this trouble would have arisen.”
“Has Mother considered — if Yan Qing were to marry into this household, with her intelligence and resourcefulness, should she ally with Er Yitai, it would be anyone’s guess who would hold sway over the inner quarters? Even San Yitai might be no match for the two of them.”
“I’m not one to look down on Luo Huaimeng, but she was originally my maidservant. I don’t believe she would truly dare to get the upper hand over me.”
“The principle stands, but Mother would do well to guard against it.”
“What are you suggesting?”
Shi Guang curved his lips slightly. “As long as the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is kept on uneasy terms, Er Yitai acting alone would certainly be no match for Mother.”
Madam Shi let out a cold snort. “Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours. On the surface you appear to be looking out for me, but really you want to make things difficult for Seventh Brother.”
Shi Guang laughed. “I knew I couldn’t hide it from Mother.”
“All right. Put your mind at ease. Others may not know Luo Huaimeng well, but I do. The match she had her eye on wasn’t even this Yan Qing to begin with — if not for Seventh Brother kneeling in the courtyard all that time, she never would have agreed. As the saying goes, a forced melon is never sweet. There’s nothing I need to do — that future daughter-in-law of mine will have a hard enough time with her. Just sit back and watch.”
“Everything is at Mother’s discretion.”
“All right. Take Yan Qin away. The Sanheyuan she does not have to go to, but house arrest is unavoidable. Have an etiquette teacher hired as well to properly instruct her in the manners befitting a prominent household, so she stops embarrassing us like this.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Shi Guang walked out of the courtyard and cast a glance toward the far horizon.
It was not out of any fondness for Yan Qin that he protected her. But as long as that troublemaker Yan Qin remained, she could keep this household in chaos and turmoil. If he was to have no peace, then no one else deserved to rest easy either.
—