With things standing as they were, he found it inconvenient to go in, and after standing there a moment, returned to his own room.

Had it not been for the matter of discussing the newspaper announcement of the engagement with his parents, he would most likely have already gone to find Wang Bide by now.

The night before, a martial actor named Yang Yutian had died at the Keyu Theater. When the body was discovered, it was found hanging high from the bedroom rafters. The police who arrived had given it only a cursory look and provisionally ruled it a suicide—but the forensic examiner later discovered something stuffed into the corpse’s throat, and upon extracting it, found it was a single rice dumpling.

After the police left, the theater troupe’s owner, Bai Fengfei, grew increasingly troubled the more he thought about it, and remembering Inspector Wang Bide, whom he’d met at the birthday banquet, called him that very night to ask for help solving the case, hoping the culprit could be found as soon as possible.

That afternoon, while He Yunqin had been at school writing a paper, he’d received a call from Wang Bide, who only said something seemed off about the rafter the body had been hanging from, and asked him to come take a look.

Once he arrived at the scene, he understood exactly what had struck Wang Bide as strange. Judging from the marks in the dust on the rafter, Yang Yutian had clearly struggled fiercely before death—and judging from the extent of the struggle, it couldn’t have lasted less than seven or eight minutes.

Though Yang Yutian had been a martial actor in life, given his physique, death by mechanical asphyxiation would have taken at least three minutes at minimum. If he had been hoisted onto the rafter while unconscious and had then woken and struggled desperately to survive, given that the rope was already around his throat, it was simply impossible for him to remain conscious for seven or eight minutes.

Which meant he had been fully conscious when he was hoisted up onto the rafter.

But this man stood five feet eleven inches tall—who could possibly have had the strength to hang him alive from the rafters with a rope?

Thinking this over, He Yunqin paced a few steps in his room. It was so late now—he wondered whether Wang Bide had made it back from the Keyu Theater yet, and whether there’d been any new discoveries tonight.

He heard what sounded like some commotion outside. Thinking of the tone the Duan family had taken earlier, and not wanting to stir up any further misunderstanding, he didn’t bother going out to look. He went into the bathroom and took a bath. The moment he came out, he heard someone knocking at the door, and a servant said, “Second Young Master, the Master and Madame would like you to come see them.”

He rubbed his eyebrows. This was probably related to the matter with the Duan family.

He reached his parents’ bedroom door, knocked, and went in. Old Master Duan and Madame Duan had already left; his elder brother was not present either. Only his father and mother remained in the room.

His father’s brow carried a trace of displeasure; his mother’s brow was lightly furrowed. Seeing him enter, his mother glanced first at his father before speaking. “Zhuyun told us you went to walk Miss Yu to school this morning?”

Engagement or no engagement, He Yunqin had no wish for his parents to learn the primary reason behind it. He said nothing of the Yu family’s current predicament, only gave a soft “Mm,” which passed as tacit confirmation.

A great weight seemed to lift from Madame He’s heart. Her son had now, at last, formally acknowledged to his parents that he was indeed courting Miss Yu—her earlier misgivings could finally be set aside.

He Mengmei’s expression also brightened somewhat. He gave a low grunt and said, “Since you’re so fond of this Miss Yu, why don’t we arrange for the two of us to meet Mrs. Yu this week? If both sides are satisfied, it would be best to settle the marriage matter sooner rather than later.”

Compared to the day before, his father’s manner now carried a faint note of urgency. He Yunqin, recalling what Old Master Duan had said in the room just now, frowned. “Did Uncle Duan say something just now?”

He Mengmei’s face showed a flicker of displeasure. He turned away, pipe clenched in his mouth, and sat heavily in his chair.

Madame He, too, looked somewhat embarrassed. “The news that your sister-in-law was drugged at the birthday banquet reached Old Master and Madame Duan’s ears. To seek justice for their daughter, Old Master Duan personally came to reproach your father and your elder brother severely. He said that the reason the He and Duan families originally made this match was for a union of wealth and beauty, with mutual affection between the young couple, and that ever since their daughter married into our family, given Mingyi’s fine upbringing and impeccable manners in dealing with people, whether as daughter-in-law or wife, there was never the slightest fault to be found in her. Yet despite having such an exemplary daughter, the He family still failed to cherish her properly, letting her be maligned twice over without cause, stirring up talk across all of Shanghai—”

Well aware her son had done nothing to be ashamed of, and being protective of her own by nature besides, she couldn’t help but look displeased as she continued. “He said people outside are all saying you and Mingyi are having an affair—that malicious gossip could destroy a city, and if Mingyi weren’t so strong-willed, she might well have taken her own life by now. He also said that with Mingyi being so accomplished in every way, if our family’s Second Son still refuses to marry after all this time, perhaps he really does have designs on his own sister-in-law—and if so, they’d take their daughter straight back to her maiden home, to avoid any appearance of impropriety and spare her from being unfairly dragged into your affairs sooner or later. Your father, to defend you, grew angry and firmly declared that you already have a girlfriend—a woman just as accomplished and beautiful as Mingyi, someone not only you but we too are satisfied with, and that marriage is imminent. He told the Duan family not to go believing rumors and stirring up trouble over nothing.”

As she spoke, she raised her arm to show her son the large damp patch on her sleeve. “Look—the moment Madame Duan arrived, she threw her arms around me, saying her daughter had suffered such wrongs, crying until I could barely move. It was only after your father said what he said that she finally let me go. Just as they were about to leave, Old Master and Madame Duan happened to run into the Lu father and son downstairs. Because of what happened the other day, Young Master Lu had been carried over by his father’s servants to apologize in person. Though he’d recovered somewhat, he still wasn’t fully conscious, and lying there on the stretcher, muttered a few things about school in his daze. Your elder brother’s face fell the instant he heard it. Old Master and Madame Duan, hearing this, assumed you truly were fond of Mingyi—one went off to make trouble for Old Master Lu, the other turned right back around to confront you directly. Seeing things being dragged onto you like that, and my head aching from it all, I simply said the wedding date was already set—next month. That my son currently has eyes only for this Miss Yu, and holds no feelings whatsoever for Mingyi.”

He Yunqin listened patiently through all this. Though he found himself, on reflection, not entirely averse to marrying sooner rather than later, the fact that this matter had come about under duress from these various incidents left him feeling far from comfortable. He raised his eyebrows. “Is the Duan family’s daughter precious, and the Yu family’s daughter not? Just to clear my sister-in-law’s name, are we to hastily drag Miss Yu in to save the day?”

He Mengmei looked somewhat abashed, giving a soft snort through his nose. Madame He sighed. “This whole affair, if you want to place blame, is your mother’s fault for losing her composure—getting tangled up by Madame Duan and Old Master Duan’s words for that whole while, and letting myself get cornered into saying what I said. But that said, since she’ll be a wife you formally and properly marry, even if the timeline is a bit rushed, your father and I would never treat Miss Yu with anything less than full respect.”

In truth, she reflected to herself that, having taken quite a liking to Hongdou, she was actually rather pleased at the prospect of her son marrying sooner rather than later.

He Yunqin said nothing. He had, after all, come here specifically to discuss the engagement with Hongdou. Once the news made the papers, all of Shanghai would know Yu Hongdou was to be his wife—marrying sooner or later hardly made much difference in the end. He also knew that, compared to the Duan family’s concerns, his father cared more about his elder brother’s feelings—ever since this scandal had broken, his elder brother had been caught in an impossible position on all sides, and to avoid a rift between the brothers, his father was eager to see him married as soon as possible. He understood this well enough. But thinking of how this matter was now entangled with both the Duan and Lu families, and how the wedding date had been set in such haste because of it, he couldn’t help but feel Hongdou was being shortchanged. And thinking further, that if it weren’t for his own insistence on investigating the case, which had in turn implicated Yu Chongyi and left him with evidence in Bai Haili’s hands, he and Hongdou would never have been forced into this rushed arrangement in the first place.

The feeling was something like heartache—as though a small thorn had lodged itself lightly in his flesh, difficult to shake off. He fell silent for a long moment; his parents said nothing either, clearly waiting for him to state his position.

He stood, considered a moment—his parents’ mood was soft now, a good time to press his case—and said, in the casual tone he habitually used with his parents, “If Miss Yu is to marry into our family under these circumstances, it would reflect poorly on the He family’s sense of decency, no matter how you look at it. I remember when Elder Brother and Sister-in-law got married, the wedding was held with great fanfare. To make it up to Miss Yu, your son would like to make a few requests.”

Things having reached this point, what else was there to do? With various parties all taking their turns on the stage, the whole affair had become a tangled mess—even sitting down calmly to sort through it thread by thread would hardly untangle it now.

Among his many scattered thoughts, the one thing he could say with certainty was this: he felt not the slightest reluctance at the prospect of marrying Hongdou.

He paused, then said seriously, “In short—your son wants Miss Yu to marry into the He family in full glory and honor.”

Fearing his younger son might feel slighted, He Mengmei secretly breathed a sigh of relief at these words and laughed. “You little rascal, I knew you’d seize the chance to make demands. Go on then, tell us what you’d like to give Miss Yu—your mother and I will agree to all of it. We won’t let Miss Yu suffer the slightest wrong.”