Gutan Village, September 3rd. The rain would not stop.
At Widow Sun’s house, Wu Wen had found the foot wrappings. Inside the wrappings was embroidered the character “Tong.” It was almost certain they belonged to Tong Baiquan. It seemed the romantic affair between Tong and Sun was not baseless rumor after all. Widow Sun’s corpse was still laid out in the side room. Though the door was shut tight, wisps of poisonous stench still drifted over, making one nauseous.
Wu Wen touched his head and thought for a long while, then suddenly said excitedly, “My lord, I’ve figured out Tong Baiquan’s motive for killing Widow Sun.”
“Speak.”
Wu Wen said, “According to what Niu Sao told us, after Lady Tong died, Widow Sun no longer wanted to continue sneaking around. She demanded that Tong Baiquan marry her properly with formal ceremony, but Tong Baiquan was concerned about his dignity as village chief and unwilling to take a widow as his wife. Widow Sun then threatened to expose the scandal publicly, so in his rage, Tong Baiquan killed her to silence her.”
“As for Ding Laocai, that was purely a monetary conflict. Unable to repay the debt and repeatedly pressured by Ding Laocai’s demands for payment, Tong Baiquan incited his son to kill Ding Laocai.”
Li Si patted Wu Wen’s shoulder in approval. Wu Wen’s reasoning was logical and reasonable. With the physical evidence of the foot wrappings and the testimony of Niu Sao, it could be considered substantiated with both evidence and witnesses.
But intuition told Li Si that things shouldn’t be this simple. Intuition was truly a wondrous thing. Sometimes it was like a bedbug—you hated it so much you wanted to stomp it dead with one foot. But sometimes it was like a spring of water in the desert of your life, upon which success, failure, life, and death all depended.
Li Si decided to investigate the Ding residence once more. At the Ding residence, Li Si said, “When we previously investigated the Ding household, we mainly focused on the main hall and side rooms. This time we’ll expand our scope to include the courtyards and cross-courtyards, including the covered corridors and ornamental gates.” The two divided the work simply—Wu Wen would investigate the front area, Li Si would handle the rear.
The east cross-courtyard yielded nothing. The endless curtain of rain became the greatest obstacle to investigating outdoors. Li Si came to the west cross-courtyard. Behind a moon gate stood a catalpa tree. From the corner of his eye, Li Si seemed to notice something. He approached the catalpa tree.
On the trunk was an indentation the size of a teacup rim, as if someone had punched it inward with a fist.
In the shadows, Li Si found a birdcage as well. The iron ring had similarly been punched inward by someone’s fist. The bird was long gone from the cage, but there were several feathers—some yellow, some blue, and one red tail feather. Li Si immediately thought of the red-tailed little bird that had screeched at Tong Jie. Could that little bird have been raised by Ding Laocai?
Li Si called Wu Wen over and said, “People often say that flowers and birds are objects for expressing sentiment, inherently without emotion. But that’s not actually the case. Some domesticated pet birds view their masters as friends and can protect their owners just like an old dog would. So if the red-tailed little bird truly was Ding Laocai’s bird, then it’s very likely seeking revenge for its master.”
“And there’s this indented outline.” Wu Wen’s eyes brightened. “We should bring Tong Jie here to compare it with the indentation. If it matches, it proves Tong Jie once committed violence at the Ding residence. This could serve as circumstantial evidence for Tong Jie’s murder. Combined with Niu Sao’s testimony and the foot wrappings, the Tong father and son are undoubtedly the primary suspects.”
“What should we do next? Should we apprehend the father and son directly?”
“Wait… hold on a moment.” The cold qi in Li Si’s body grew increasingly heavy, and he couldn’t help shivering. “The Tong father and son are indeed suspicious, but it would be premature to conclude the case definitively.” Li Si’s face grew paler and paler.
Wu Wen noticed this and advised, “It’s all my fault for being too careless. When I get busy with a case, I forget that my lord’s body is still unwell. I even forgot to have you drink the cold-dispelling medicinal decoction we got from Physician Xing today. I’ll accompany my lord back to drink it right away.”
Li Si said, “I’m not in a suitable state to investigate the case at the moment. I’ll leave this to you. My body is still manageable—I haven’t reached the point where I need someone else to take care of me. I’ll go back by myself.”
Wu Wen couldn’t prevail against Li Si’s stubbornness and could only agree.
Li Si left Ding Laocai’s mansion and decided to go to Physician Xing’s medicine hall. Just moments ago he had been fine, but now Li Si not only felt cold all over his body and broke out in cold sweat, but his hands and feet were also weak. Fortunately, he only needed to walk a little farther ahead to reach the medicine hall.
But just at that moment, Li Si suddenly heard singing—faint and indistinct, like a pure, spiritual sound from beyond the white clouds. In its ethereal, pure beauty, it was so familiar. Listening carefully with his heart… Li Si heard it. The lyrics of the song were:
“Soul beneath the stars, white snow upon the celestial mountain. I will guard you—Kalavinka… Kalavinka!”
Li Si’s heart stopped in that instant. This was “Kalavinka!” It was her, Shen Rou… She was in Gutan Village, right beside him.
“Rou’er!” Li Si forgot his exhaustion and cold, forgot everything else, and like a moth drawn to flame, he followed the ethereal sound farther and farther.
Memory roared like the sea, filling Li Si’s world. In that year…
That year on an afternoon, the sunlight was bright. Li Si lay beneath a warm flowering tree gazing up at the sky. The gentle breeze blew softly, and that girl in white dress with a sweet smile appeared in his world.
That year, they had known each other for a long time. He mustered his courage beneath the flowering tree where they first met and said to the girl, “Shen Rou, don’t you know that for these six years, I’ve come here to sleep every day because… I wanted to see you.”
The girl smiled like a flower, lightly biting her vermilion lips as she replied, “You silly fool, how could you not know that I came here to pick flowers every day just to wait for you to say those words.”
That year, they melted into each other’s gaze. That girl named Shen Rou sang for him the most beautiful and moving song of the Damo tribe’s holy spirit “Kalavinka,” expressing hope for their love: “Soul beneath the stars, white snow upon the celestial mountain. I will guard you—Kalavinka… Kalavinka!”
That year, he promised to protect her forever.
That year, the girl named Shen Rou was abducted from the Li residence by mysterious men in black. He only found a blood-stained embroidered shoe beneath a small bridge over flowing water. His heart felt as if cut by knives. He swore an oath: no matter who had taken her, even if he had to shed the last drop of blood in his life, he would bring Shen Rou back, bring her back to that flowering tree, hear her sing again, embrace her in his arms, never parting in life or death.
That year would never end!
“Shen Rou!” Li Si called out.
The vision of Gutan Village disappeared, and he saw only a dark red luminous endless corridor. Li Si ran forward recklessly, but he could never catch up to Shen Rou. Shen Rou swayed in the distance ahead in the corridor. She half-turned to gaze at him, her vermilion lips moving gently.
Li Si couldn’t hear Shen Rou’s words, but he understood. Shen Rou was saying, “You shouldn’t have come down this path. Go back.”
Shen Rou’s figure gradually became hazy and indistinct. Li Si saw Shen Rou’s lips move gently as she slowly faded away.
“Whoosh! Whoosh!” The environment suddenly changed. The dark red corridor vanished, and Shen Rou vanished too. Li Si plunged into bone-chilling pond water. Sinister cold qi surrounded Li Si. He was like a stone statue rapidly sinking to the bottom of the pond.
“You swore to rescue me and bring me back. You’ve already lied to me once—do you want to lie to me a second time?” Shen Rou’s words seemed to float by his ears. He couldn’t let her down again! So he couldn’t die yet… Li Si ignited his desire to live.
Li Si bit through his lip. The pain gave him the strength to surge toward the surface. The instant he broke through the water’s surface, Li Si glimpsed in a daze that at the bottom of the pond, red eyes were watching him.