Without a doubt, Biqing was the key to solving the murder case. Who had left the Biqing flower seed on the white silk handkerchief? Meng Rui needed to find the answer as soon as possible.
Fang Zheng searched inside and outside the Du Residence once more, but didn’t discover the Biqing flower. Next, Meng Rui arranged for people to inquire at Suishui’s major flower markets and treasure shops. The Biqing flower was rare, so it was very difficult to buy, and thus its price remained prohibitively high.
After investigating like this for an entire day, after nightfall, Fang Zheng came running excitedly.
“Found it, I found it!” Fang Zheng swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said, “A Southern Border traveling merchant came to Fangbao Pavilion. He has Biqing flowers in his possession. I used my official tone to intimidate him a bit, and the traveling merchant told me the age and appearance of everyone who bought flowers. I had a portrait artist draw pictures based on his descriptions, one by one. Look at this one!”
Fang Zheng handed a female portrait to Meng Rui. Meng Rui’s thick eyebrows drew together: “So it’s her…”
“She nearly became a fish that slipped through the net. I’ll go arrest her right now!”
“Don’t rush, don’t alert the enemy.” Meng Rui pondered for a moment. “She doesn’t have the guts to kill Du Zhongtao, so at most she’s just a chess piece being manipulated by someone. There must be a mastermind behind her. First keep her under surveillance. We’ll cast a long line to catch a big fish.”
“However, she also reminded me of something. If the mastermind behind this wants to use Biqing to kill, then a single chess piece is far from enough. I need to go through every link, every person in the Du Zhongtao case once more.” Meng Rui’s eyes were like torches. “If everything is truly as I think, then he is too terrifying.”
Fang Zheng on the side listened in complete confusion.
“By the way, Brother Fang. Do you like eating snake?” Meng Rui suddenly asked.
Fang Zheng was startled: “Eat, eat snake… I have drunk snake gall wine, but I really haven’t eaten snake meat.”
“Then you need to go eat it. Visit every restaurant in Suishui City that sells snake soup and eat there once.” Meng Rui said mysteriously.
“Alright, alright then.” Fang Zheng grimaced.
The twenty-third day, slightly clear. Baleful stars dim.
According to the plan, Meng Rui and Fang Zheng split up to act. Meng Rui went to Li’s Tea House, Widow Sun’s home, and the Du Residence. Fang Zheng ran all over the city’s eateries and ate several dozen bowls of snake meat soup. At noon, the two met up at the Four Seas Restaurant.
Fang Zheng rubbed his bulging round belly and kept complaining. Meng Rui ordered some blue flower tea to aid digestion. Fang Zheng sipped the tea and shook his head: “I never want to eat snake soup again in this lifetime.”
“No need to speak so absolutely. How did the investigation go?” The reason Meng Rui had Fang Zheng eat snake soup was to conduct a covert investigation. Fang Zheng widened his eyes and nodded: “I found it. Of all eighteen food establishments and restaurants in the entire city, only Zizai Tower in the west of the city has been purchasing large quantities of snakes recently.”
“Zizai Tower.” Meng Rui repeated in a murmur, then stared at Fang Zheng with ill intent. “Brother Fang, are you still hungry?”
Fang Zheng pointed at his own belly and asked in return: “What do you think?”
“Then let’s skip lunch for now and come with me to another place.” Meng Rui and Fang Zheng left the Four Seas Restaurant and headed straight outside the city.
Not long after the two left, a human figure flashed out from the Four Seas Restaurant. He stared at Meng Rui’s gradually distancing figure, the corners of his mouth congealing into a cold smile.
Fang Zheng originally thought Meng Rui was going to Li’s Tea House. Who knew that after passing Li’s Tea House they continued forward. He couldn’t help but ask: “Where exactly are you going?”
“Almost there.” Meng Rui said while observing the surrounding environment. Suddenly his foot stepped on something. Meng Rui moved his foot—it was a polished small stone ball.
Meng Rui picked it up and at the same time stopped his footsteps: “We’re here. Start searching.”
“Search for what?”
“Search for bird droppings.” Meng Rui casually put the small stone ball in his bosom. Fang Zheng thought he had heard wrong, picked at his ear and asked again: “You said search for what?”
Meng Rui gestured: “A pile of bird droppings this big.”
Birds of a feather flock together. Now Fang Zheng also felt that Meng Rui was becoming more and more of an oddball. He sighed bitterly, rolled up his sleeves, and began searching for bird droppings. To find a pile of bird droppings among grass and dead leaves—how could that be easy? Fang Zheng had prepared himself for a long campaign. Who knew that after just searching for a moment, he suddenly felt something sticky on the bottom of his shoe.
He lifted his foot—stuck underneath was precisely a pile of bird droppings, exactly the pile that Du Zhongtao had flung off.
“That… Brother Meng, is this what you’re looking for?” Fang Zheng extended his foot toward Meng Rui. Meng Rui suppressed a laugh and said: “Brother Fang, you’re lightning fast.”
Holding Fang Zheng’s foot, Meng Rui scraped off some of the bird droppings and placed them in white silk cloth. Fang Zheng’s face turned a bit green. He quickly found a place to wipe his foot clean. Meng Rui used a small wooden stick to poke at it a few times: “Several days have passed, yet it still has considerable stickiness.”
Fang Zheng scratched his face: “Why are you looking for bird droppings?”
Meng Rui glanced at the nervous-faced Fang Zheng and said understandingly: “Don’t worry, this time I’m definitely not going to make you eat it.”
Putting away the bird droppings, Meng Rui said calmly: “Let’s go. Perhaps it’s time to close the net.”
The reason Chi Mountain was called Chi Mountain was because its shape was like a rectangular long ruler directly inserted into the earth’s crevice. Just past noon, a woodcutter wearing a bamboo hat carried two loads of firewood down from the mountain top. Halfway up the mountain there was a huge bluestone. The woodcutter put down his loads and rested for a moment.
The woodcutter was too tired and was already drowsily falling asleep.
Suddenly, two fingers lifted the woodcutter’s bamboo hat. The woodcutter abruptly opened his eyes, shooting out two sharp gazes: “Who!”
“The person you’re waiting for.”
The woodcutter tossed aside his bamboo hat. On his red, weathered face, his gaze was burning—he was none other than the Great Shi Dynasty Nanhu Camp’s Mounted General—Dongfang Shangwu. Dongfang Shangwu examined the person before him. He wore black clothing, was around sixty years old, his temples completely white, his hands hidden in long sleeves.
“You are?” Dongfang Shangwu paused and asked.
The black-clothed elder flipped his hand, revealing a brocade red token, then said: “General Dongfang, look carefully. The Crown Prince’s Blood Order.”
“So you are indeed the Crown Prince’s secret envoy.” Dongfang Shangwu also noticed the one hand the elder had revealed—every bone and sinew stood out like protruding tree roots. He couldn’t help but surge inwardly with emotion: “Could it be that you are…”
A sudden gust of fierce wind covered Dongfang Shangwu’s voice, but the elder smiled upon hearing it: “General Dongfang has good eyesight. It is indeed this old one.”
“Old Sir’s prestigious reputation is illustrious. Although Dongfang Shangwu is far away at the Eastern Sea, I have often heard of you. Since the Crown Prince has sent Old Sir, then the matter of Qingzhou is without worry.” Dongfang Shangwu said with confidence.
The black-clothed elder smiled faintly: “These few days I will temporarily not go to the Nanhu Camp—I still have some miscellaneous matters to handle. Today I meet with the General once. At the least in one or two days, at most in three or four days, I will go to the Nanhu Camp.”
“Then Dongfang Shangwu will await Old Sir at the Nanhu Camp.”
“General should return early. Don’t let others become suspicious.” The black-clothed elder instructed. Dongfang Shangwu shouldered the firewood loads. When he turned back to look, the elder’s figure had already vanished.
Hour of the Pig. After rising early and returning late, rushing about for an entire day, Meng Rui had little sleepiness. As soon as he closed his eyes, his younger sister Meng Wanxiang’s pale face floated before his eyes, her profound gaze seeming to blame her brother for not yet rescuing her. Meng Rui could no longer close his eyes and became completely awake.
The night was deep, and a cold wind had risen. Facing the window, Meng Rui spread the withered yellow letter paper in the moonlight. He had already made annotations under the Wa Kingdom text and began staring at every sentence, every character from beginning to end, wishing he could imprint them all in his heart.
Intuition told him that the unknown truth was all within these few strange lines, but aside from accidentally deciphering the “Biqing” clue, the remaining content was still completely unsolved. Meng Rui softly recited: “At the fifth watch, sparse and about to cease, one tree green and unfeeling. Intentionally gambling without fate…”
In an instant, two flames flickered in Meng Rui’s eyes: “Could it be… is it like this!”
Outside the window, the wind gradually intensified.