She took Shi Ting’s uniform as he removed it and hung it up, then poured him a freshly brewed cup of fruit tea.

“This is chilled fresh bayberry juice. I also steeped some bayberries in wine,” she said.

“Did the kitchen buy the bayberries?” Shi Ting picked it up and took a sip. It was sweet and tart with a cool, refreshing chill — quite delicious. He could not help drinking most of it.

“Ling’ai invited me out shopping today, and I saw fresh-picked bayberries and bought some.” Yan Qing smiled. “Ling’ai said that fruit in Di Guo is terribly expensive — nothing like here, where you buy it by the basin or basket.”

“Di Guo has no room to spare — whatever land there is gets used to grow more valuable things. So fruit cultivation naturally ends up lower in volume.”

Shi Ting took another long sip of the chilled bayberry juice. “Meng Xiangyang still has no idea that catastrophe is already upon him. He thinks that because he commands heavy troops, the Marshal will not dare touch him. But what he does not know is that Liu Qingnian’s faction stopped standing with him long ago. Once Liu Qingnian moves, he will take half of Meng Xiangyang’s strength with him. And on top of that, the Marshal has not been idle of late — most of the forces Meng Xiangyang has left are in the process of falling apart.”

Yan Qing refilled his cup with a little more bayberry juice. “Who fired that shot today?”

“Liu Yin.”

“Just as I thought.” Yan Qing understood at once. “The Marshal deliberately had Liu Yin fire that shot in the confusion. Even Meng Xiangyang himself was probably tricked — as for who actually fired it, no one will investigate. Everyone will firmly believe it was Meng Xiangyang, because at the time, only his hands held a gun, and only his emotions had snapped.”

Speaking of snapped emotions, Yan Qing suddenly thought of something. “Shi Ting, do you think Meng Xiangyang’s brother’s emotional snap that night was suspicious?”

Shi Ting made a sound of affirmation. “I had someone test his blood, but nothing of value was found.”

“If it was ingested in small amounts, it would metabolize quickly — not finding anything is normal.” Yan Qing thought it over. “Many anesthetics and psychoactive drugs can make a person mentally agitated, and in higher doses can produce hallucinations. In lower doses they cause heightened emotion — making the person more irritable and volatile than usual. Back in the Fog-Hidden Village, what Zhu San and his people inhaled was an overdose of the confusion drug.”

Shi Ting turned the cup in his hands. “If Meng Xiangyang’s brother truly took such a drug that night, then as long as someone arranged for him and Xie Jun to come into conflict, it would be entirely natural for Meng Xiangyang’s brother to develop murderous intent.”

Then his eyes brightened suddenly. “The only person who could get close to Meng Xiangyang’s brother and administer a drug without anyone noticing, while also engineering a conflict, would have to be…”

“Feifei?” Yan Qing arrived at the same thought.

“Yes. I overlooked this person before, but looking at it now, she must be closely connected to the case of Meng Xiangyang’s brother.” Shi Ting stood up and rushed out without pausing even to put on his uniform jacket.

By the time Shi Ting returned, night had fallen.

Yan Qing quickly had Jing Zhi warm the food and bring it in.

“Well? Did you find the person?”

“No.” Shi Ting sat down, travel-worn, a look of vexation on his face. “I was careless.”

Yan Qing set the warmed dishes on the table. “You are not a god — you cannot foresee everything. Besides, this is only our speculation; there is no evidence.”

“There is no evidence, but Feifei’s sudden disappearance is itself a point of suspicion — it just serves no purpose for the case.” Shi Ting drank a sip of water to soothe his parched throat. “Feifei is just a dance hall girl. For her to slip out of Shun Cheng and evade the Military Police Bureau’s pursuit — if there is no one behind her supporting this, I doubt anyone would believe it.”

“Are you suspecting—” A vague guess had already taken shape in Yan Qing’s mind.

“Not suspecting. Certain.” Shi Ting gave something like a cold snort. “In this case, whoever ultimately benefits the most is the mastermind.”

If one were to name the person who had benefited most from all this, it was none other than the Marshal.

Through this affair, the Marshal had not only seized the military authority from Meng Xiangyang’s brother’s hands but had also temporarily detained Meng Xiangyang. Meng Xiangyang would be released before long, it was true — but the Meng family as it now stood was no longer any real threat, for even they themselves did not know that in complete silence, the Marshal had already reduced them to an empty shell with no substance.

But then Yan Qing thought of Xie Zhiming’s expression at the forensic examination — that sorrow clearly etched deep in his heart and in his eyes, pressed down and suppressed by sheer force of will, a silent howl of grief. He had lost his only son. No one could understand his state of mind. No one could truly empathize.

She felt sadness, helplessness — and above all, an inability to understand.

“Xie Zhiming was the only one who could play this role.” Shi Ting seemed to read Yan Qing’s thoughts, and reached out to take her hand. “If it had been anyone else, even losing a son, they would not have dared stand against Meng Xiangyang. Only Xie Zhiming — with that character of his, upright and even somewhat stubborn — could stake his life to demand justice for his son. Xie Zhiming knelt before the Blue Brick Building, and the Marshal deliberately made the case public before everyone’s eyes: first, to strip away Meng Xiangyang’s brother’s military authority in Shun Cheng; second, to show all those who had supported Meng Xiangyang that this world belongs to the Marshal — not to Meng Xiangyang. No matter how rampant Meng Xiangyang may be, before the Marshal he is nothing but a dog on a leash. The Marshal can make him rise to prominence, and the Marshal can bring him crashing down.”

“Do you think Xie Zhiming knows?”

“Perhaps not at first — but by now, how could he not have worked it out? His son’s death was a move in the Marshal’s game. He and Xie Jun were nothing but pieces.”

Yan Qing opened her mouth, then stopped herself.

Shi Ting gave a quiet smile. The sharpness left his eyes entirely, and even his voice grew gentle. “You want to say the Marshal is heartless and without principle — is that it?”

Yan Qing let out a soft sigh and gave him a warm smile in return.

“Qingqing — if one day, I became a person like that, what then?”

“You won’t.” Yan Qing shook her head without hesitation. “You and the Marshal are not the same kind of person. So you will never become him.”

“That kind of faith from you makes me a little uneasy.”

“Don’t worry — you have me to keep watch over you.” Yan Qing ladled him a bowl of fish ball soup. “These are made from fresh yellow croaker — especially savory. Try it.”

Things had reached this point, and were developing toward their inevitable end without any surprises. Even if they dug out that Feifei at great effort, what use would it be?

Only now did Yan Qing realize that she had always underestimated the Marshal.