Pan Chi finally withdrew his hand that had been suspended in mid-air. Seeing Zhu Yan wipe away her own surging tears and calm down, he managed to smile again.
However, this time his smile wasn’t the deliberately carefree one from before, but rather a forced and even helpless one.
“You’ve fallen in love with him,” Pan Chi stated in the most neutral tone, voicing the fact he found hardest to accept since waking up.
Zhu Yan looked at him and calmly replied, “He is my husband.”
The atmosphere in the room suddenly became heavy and depressing. Forced by her gaze, Pan Chi shifted his eyes to the window, trying to distract himself, but to no avail.
Although he had spent half his life laughing and joking, this time he had truly fallen in love. But having fallen in love, he couldn’t take it back, and it was unbearable.
“Even if you’ve fallen in love, there’s nothing to be done. You’ll just have to be a widow,” Pan Chi said deliberately, sighing with feigned pity, only to receive a roll of the eyes in response.
“Shen Du will not die,” Zhu Yan declared firmly.
Seeing that Zhu Yan finally showed an expression other than sorrow, Pan Chi let out a long breath. But the sadness in his heart was uncontrollable. He pinched himself hard, forcing back all his emotions, and said provocatively:
“It doesn’t matter if he dies. Considering that Shen Du saved my life, I’ll take good care of you, so you won’t have to be a widow.”
Receiving no response, he stole a glance at Zhu Yan.
He saw her seemingly gathering strength.
“Shen Du is unconscious from poisoning, his life hanging by a thread, and here you are wishing him dead,” she said.
“Even when you were poisoned back then, he never cursed you like this.”
“To think you’re a scholar-official of both civil and military arts, yet you show such poor manners, ungrateful for the kindness shown.”
“All these years, you’ve only known how to travel and enjoy yourself. The debts of romance you’ve accrued probably can’t be repaid in your next life. How can you compare to even one of Shen Du’s fingers?”
Pan Chi wasn’t annoyed. He grinned at Zhu Yan, who was pointing at his nose and scolding him with a flushed face. Seeing Zhu Yan glare at him angrily, he finally reined in his smile and rubbed his nose.
“It can’t be that bad, can it?” he said softly.
“Oh?” Zhu Yan retorted, “Then pray to tell, Young Master Pan, in what way are you superior to my husband?”
Pan Chi pretended to think for a long time. Suddenly, as if struck by inspiration, he looked at Zhu Yan with a very sincere expression.
“Well, I do have some advantages,” Pan Chi said, glancing sideways at Zhu Yan with a rakish air, “At least I’m lucky enough to live longer, so I can take care of you more in the future.”
This Pan Chi, his mouth needed a good smacking.
Zhu Yan was already worried about Shen Du, and Pan Chi’s words frightened her, suddenly making her feel as if Shen Du was about to die while Pan Chi was still alive and kicking. In an instant, her tears flowed like a broken dam.
Pan Chi was at a complete loss and could only try to console her patiently:
“Don’t cry anymore. Look, with me, a scholar-official of both civil and military arts, and you, a coroner skilled in solving cases, how could he possibly just die like that?”
These words didn’t stop Zhu Yan’s tears; instead, she cried even harder.
Choked with tears, Zhu Yan couldn’t utter a complete sentence, otherwise she would have given him a good scolding.
Seeing that he had made Zhu Yan cry again, Pan Chi felt deflated. “There must be a way,” he said.
He thought for a long while, then unfolded the crumpled letter and looked at it again. He walked over to examine the map of Gannan Prefecture, pondered for several moments, then frowned and said, “You mentioned earlier that the poison Shen Du might have ingested was from the Western Regions. Come and look, why are all these things related to the Fire Moth Party connected to the Western Regions?”
This was probably the most sensible thing Pan Chi had said since waking up. Zhu Yan immediately stopped crying, wiped the tears from her face, and walked over to look, frowning as well:
“Are you sure?”
Before she could think further, Pan Chi explained: “‘Breaking out of the cocoon to become a butterfly,’ the illusory arts, this poison – they all come from the Western Regions.”
“And there’s the fire moth.”
“Fire moth?” Zhu Yan didn’t understand. Her swollen eyes struggled to open as wide as possible, staring at Pan Chi, afraid of missing any information.
Spurred by her expression, Pan Chi dared not say much more and spoke directly:
“Fire moth – remove the ‘moth’ character, and you’re left with just ‘fire.’ When I was in the Western Regions, I did hear a legend.”
“What legend?”
Pan Chi shook his head. He wasn’t sure either and decided not to mention it to avoid confusing the clues. “There’s another suspicious point,” he said.
“What is it?”
“Tracing it back to the source, the person above the Fire Moth Party seems to have no connection to the Western Regions,” Pan Chi said, referring to the person everyone knew about. “As is widely known, Lai Luozhi is from Lintong County in Yongzhou, not far southeast of Chang’an. It’s thousands of miles away from the Western Regions, with absolutely no connection. How could there be so many ties to the Western Regions?”
Zhu Yan, being naturally perceptive, had a sudden realization upon hearing his analysis.
Since Lai Luozhi had no connection to the Western Regions, that only left the Yingzhou territory.
She immediately suggested going to the county office to check the household registers. Pan Chi was naturally willing to go along, but he said, “Why don’t you stay here to look after Shen Du, and I’ll go?”
“It’s fine. With one more person, we can find out sooner,” Zhu Yan waved her hand and walked out first.
Pan Chi had no choice but to quickly follow.
After checking the household registers, they went to interrogate the Half-Face Ghosts who had been arrested earlier.
They soon discovered that Wang Buzui was also a local from Yingzhou. He had been active in the Gannan area with the Half-Face Ghosts for years. The registered victims were mostly locals from the Gannan area or travelers from Jiangnan who had come for business. There were no records of any connection to the Western Regions.
“Neither the Fire Moth Party nor the Half-Face Ghosts have any connection to the Western Regions,” Zhu Yan said.
She spread out her notebook, which listed all the information they had collected. Her brow furrowed slightly, and she couldn’t help but wonder how this organization, from top to bottom, was composed entirely of people from the Central Plains, with no connection whatsoever to the Western Regions.
“But the doctor said the poison Shen Du ingested was related to the Western Regions,” Zhu Yan said.
Pan Chi was also puzzled: “And there’s the curved sword that appeared in the headless case, and the brass knuckles in the bride case.”
“How do we explain the human preserves used to resurrect people at Guangchun Hall, and the death aura and Buddhist incense on Lai Luofu and Wang Buzui?”
Zhu Yan said, “Buddhism cultivates the mind, Taoism cultivates the body. Buddhism cultivates for the next life, and Taoism for this life. When the deluded mind has no abode, the true mind begins to settle. Such evil techniques could never be tolerated by Buddhism. Even in Taoism, cultivating immortality techniques is only about cultivating oneself, using primordial Qi to achieve a golden body through Taoist cultivation. How could there be techniques that absorb others’ fortune to cultivate oneself? Such a thing is unheard of throughout the Central Plains.”
They found themselves at a dead end.
Seeing Zhu Yan’s worried expression, Pan Chi, at a loss for what to do, picked up a brush and said, “Why don’t we go through everything from the beginning?”
He then listed all the information they had gathered since entering Gannan Prefecture on paper, finding connections one by one. Although this method was slow and inefficient, it had the advantage of producing error-free results.
But after all their efforts, the clues still led nowhere. No matter what, they couldn’t connect these people to the Western Regions.
Zhu Yan neatly stacked the papers.
The person across from her looked up slightly: “Not going to search anymore?”
Zhu Yan pursed her lips, her jawline tense, not responding, quietly tidying up the table.
Pan Chi also fell silent, his gaze following the papers changing positions in Zhu Yan’s hands, not saying a word.
She reached out to take the paper in front of Pan Chi, but he picked it up and handed it to her.
Zhu Yan silently accepted it, softly saying “Thank you.”
Pan Chi felt a dull pain in his heart. He lowered his head to help her tidy up. Soon, the stone table that they had made a mess of earlier became much neater.