After a long while, Madam Yan came back to her senses.

“Why is Lord Ji asking about this? We’ve renovated this place.”

“But the layout hasn’t changed, has it?”

“That… hasn’t changed.”

Ji Yunshu said straightforwardly, “Take me there.”

“Right… now?” Madam Yan was shocked, her tongue tying up.

But Ji Yunshu had already stood up. “The case is urgent. Please lead the way.”

Although Madam Yan was extremely unwilling, since the person held a yamen token in her hands, she dared not refuse to lead the way.

She could only lead them there tremblingly.

That room was located at the end of the third-floor corridor.

The door had two locks.

One rusty old lock!

One new lock that had just been put on!

“This is it.” Madam Yan said.

“Open it.”

“Lord Ji, there’s nothing left inside. It’s just a storage warehouse.”

“Open it.”

Madam Yan sighed. She could only find the keys and open the door.

The moment the door opened, a gust of cold air and the smell of decaying wood rushed out.

It made one’s nose wrinkle from the choking odor.

Aside from a ray of light refracting in from outside the door and falling on the floor inside the room, all around the room was pitch black.

It was clearly broad daylight, but inside it was so dim that not a trace of light entered. Those several windows had been nailed shut with wooden boards, not allowing even a crack.

Not even a mosquito could fly in.

At this moment—

Shi Zijin pulled out a fire striker from his waist, precisely found a candlestick in a certain place inside the room, and quickly lit it.

The room gradually brightened.

Inside had indeed become a warehouse, with things piled everywhere—all sorts of messy items.

Ji Yunshu turned her head and asked Madam Yan, “Are Ye’er’s previous belongings still here?”

“Yes. Some of the things piled in this room are hers—the bed, table, chairs, clothes rack, and screen. Everything’s here anyway. I didn’t dare throw them away. You know, when someone dies so miserably, if the things they used while alive were thrown away or burned, this… if something strange happened, I couldn’t continue this business. But I also couldn’t let it affect business, so I could only seal off this room and turn it into a warehouse. Fortunately, she was a singing girl, not one of our girls who entertained guests, so the room assigned to her was also off to the side, at this end, so it doesn’t really affect things much. But for peace of mind, I still had the windows nailed shut and the door locked.”

Ji Yunshu listened while taking the candlestick from Shi Zijin’s hands. She walked a few steps inside, bringing the candle flame close to the pile of miscellaneous items, moving it bit by bit until it reached that rosewood bed.

The bed was piled with all sorts of messy things—broken copper and scrap iron, everything.

The light moved to the side, then to a screen carved with exquisite patterns.

Whether from being moved or pressed by those things, one corner of the screen was somewhat worn, exposing wood fragments beneath the red lacquer. Beside it were several scratch marks.

Because she couldn’t see very clearly, she brought the candle flame closer, while reaching out to touch the broken corner of the screen. Only then did she discover that it was a triangular top corner piece that had been mounted on, which could be directly removed.

She removed it and held it in her hand, turning it left and right several times before clearly seeing those scratch marks. They didn’t look like marks left by human fingers scratching, but rather like they’d been clawed by sharp talons.

She asked, “Did you keep cats here before?”

Madam Yan nodded. “We kept a few. The girls all liked them.”

“At that time, whose cat was the one that died in Miss Ye’er’s room?”

“Shui Lian’s. When that cat died, she cried for a while. Tell me, if Ye’er wanted to commit suicide herself, why did she have to strangle that cat?”

She sighed.

Ji Yunshu didn’t tell Madam Yan that Ye’er hadn’t committed suicide. She handed that corner piece to Shi Zijin, then walked to those tightly nailed windows, tapping on the boards with her hand a few times, then shaking them a few times.

“Have someone remove the boards.”

“Remove them?” Madam Yan quickly said, “Lord Ji, I run a business here. Since something happened in this room, I deliberately had people nail the windows shut. If you want to open them… it’s really difficult!”

“Just open them so I can take a look. After I’m done looking, you can have someone nail them back up.”

“That’s acceptable.”

Madam Yan breathed a sigh of relief and quickly called several people over to remove the windows.

Because they’d been nailed too tightly, it took quite a bit of effort to remove them.

The room finally saw light.

Ji Yunshu stood before the window, leaning her head out to look outside. Behind was an alley. Because this room was on the third floor of Zhichun Tower, it was very high. Looking down from above, that back wall had no supporting points at all. Unless someone knew martial arts and qinggong, they could climb down from here.

But… what about that cat?

Her mind was full of fog, going round and round, still stuck on that cat.

If the murderer wasn’t Qiao Zihua, then the murderer must have hidden in the room beforehand. When leaving, they also left by jumping out the window, which is why when Qiao Zihua woke up, he said the originally closed window was open.

Where did the cat come from?

Unless, after the person who knocked out Qiao Zihua jumped out the window to leave, someone else came in, and the cat also slipped inside.

Thinking of this, she was somewhat puzzled.

She turned and asked Madam Yan, “Can I meet that Miss Shui Lian?”

“Yes.”

She readily agreed and immediately had someone call Shui Lian over.

Shui Lian twisted her graceful body as she stood at the doorway, holding a black cat in her arms, absolutely refusing to come in.

She snorted several times toward the inside of the room.

“My previous cat died in there. I don’t want to go in.”

Fine. If you won’t come in, then I’ll come out, okay?

Ji Yunshu walked out to stand before her and asked, “Do you remember, three years ago on the day Ye’er died, why was your cat in this room?”

“How would I know? Business was very good that day. I entertained several clients and shut the cat in the back courtyard. Who would have known it would appear in Ye’er’s room? A perfectly good cat just died like that. I’d been raising it for quite a while.” Shui Lian, thinking of that beloved cat dying, felt her teeth itch with hatred.

Ji Yunshu thought for a moment and asked no more.

“If there’s nothing else, I’m leaving. I still have clients waiting.” Shui Lian then turned to leave while holding her cat.

But the cat suddenly leaped down from her arms.

That small body darted around beneath the feet of the hurrying crowd.

Who knows who suddenly reached out a hand and grabbed the cat, holding it up.

“Meow~”

The little cat cried out in pain, its four paws flailing about.

Seeing this, Shui Lian quickly stepped forward, snatching her beloved cat from that person’s hands, then fiercely cursing at the person.

“You damned cripple, if you dare hurt my cat, I’ll butcher you.”

The person called “damned cripple” was an odd-job servant at Zhichun Tower, over thirty years old, with legs of uneven length. He wore a procurer’s hat, but the left side exposed a large portion of his hair, covering half his left face. The one eye that showed was particularly sinister, like a cat’s eyeball. If you stared at it too long, it sent chills down your spine.

The man bent his back, his expression gloomy. Without saying a word, he left.

Ji Yunshu happened to see this scene. She stared at that departing figure for a moment, then her gaze lowered and she caught sight of something gleaming protruding from the sleeve hanging from the cripple’s right hand—several glinting objects, like thin silver needles.

But they were slightly thicker than silver needles.