Lin Sui’an could not sleep.

Lian Xiaoshuang lying in a large wooden box, the copper bells outside the window of the dressing table, the vivid embroidered crabapple blossoms, the horrifying bruises on Qu Hui’s arms…

Image after image spun past before her eyes like a revolving lantern. Lin Sui’an inwardly sighed, thinking she must have been infected by Judicial Inspector Ling’s dedicated work ethic. Reluctantly she climbed out from under her covers, rummaged through boxes and cases and found a set of night-traveling clothes to change into, strapped on Qian Jing, and creaked the door open. “Oh well.”

Hua Yitang was seated in the moonlit garden, his flowing robes adrift among the dappled tree shadows. The breeze stirred about him, and slender long blades of grass gently swayed and brushed. On his lap lay an ancient zither that shimmered with flowing light —

Lin Sui’an clutched her chest: Good heavens, this creature was out here in the middle of the night pretending to be some ethereal fox spirit, nearly scaring the life out of her!

Hua Yitang raised his arm gracefully, his glossy and slender fingers plucked a string — “zheng —” — and lifted his long, dense lashes, his handsome features radiant with a pearl-like glow. “Well?”

Lin Sui’an’s mind was full of question marks: “What?”

Hua Yitang looked aggrieved and plucked again with a “zheng.” “Do I look beautiful?”

Lin Sui’an: “Huh?”

Hua Yitang struck an overdramatic pose. “Which of us is more handsome — Sixth Young Master or I?”

Lin Sui’an squeezed her eyes shut hard, balled her fists, and charged forward. Her fist shot out with a burst of wind, causing Hua Yitang’s robes and sleeves to billow layer upon layer before settling back down again. The punch stopped a mere two cun from Hua Yitang’s nose — Lin Sui’an naturally could not bring herself to actually strike him; after all, his face was the only thing worth looking at.

“Hua Yitang, what nonsense are you up to now?!”

Hua Yitang stared straight at Lin Sui’an. The jet-black pupils of his eyes gleamed with rippling waves of light. His expression was rather aggrieved. “I am wearing ‘tears have wet the orchid-dewed robe’ today, and am pinned with ‘forlorn morning and evening pin,’ and have scented myself with ‘broken rain, remnant clouds, indifferent fragrance,’ and this zither is named ‘sorrow gathered to the jade-green brow’ …”

Lin Sui’an clenched her teeth. “So what?”

“You did not say ‘oh wow’ —”

“WHAT??”

“Earlier today, when Sixth Young Master Ling smiled, you stared at him and said ‘oh wow.'”

“Just for that?”

“Yes.”

Lin Sui’an was profoundly stunned, and completely unable to comprehend.

Just because she had marveled aloud at Judicial Inspector Ling’s face, this creature had gone through all this elaborate effort? What was the point?!

Hua Yitang heaved a long sigh. He set the ancient zither aside from his lap, laid it on the ground, stood up, smoothed his sleeves, and step by step drew closer. Hua Yitang’s expression was grave, his eyes bottomless, his entire body cloaked in a strange and unsettling commanding aura — Lin Sui’an caught a whiff of that “indifferent fragrance,” its opening notes richly intoxicating, its middle notes bittersweet and lingering, its final notes sweetly enticing — nothing like any proper scent —

By the time she came to her senses, Hua Yitang was already standing directly before her, his snow-white sleeves of ice silk and her black night-traveling clothes winding around each other in the breeze.

“Lin Sui’an, was there ever a single moment — even one — when you thought I was also worthy of an ‘oh wow’?”

…There was, actually… Lin Sui’an thought in a daze…

Yangdu City, when the white-robed young man stood in the moonlight, the moment he found the Feng clan’s secret school.

Heyue City, the moment he unveiled the hellish secret of the nightshade.

Dongdu City, the moment he pointed at Jiang Dongyi and condemned him as a bloated parasite feeding on the nation.

The Yunshui River, the moment he commanded everyone to break through the Nine-Palace Xuanwu Formation.

The Court of Judicial Review, the moment he held charcoal pencil in hand and calculated the geographic and psychological profile of the criminal.

Longshen Lake, the moment he impersonated the Flower God and called Cheng County’s people back to their senses…

There were so many times, so many…

Lin Sui’an smiled. “You are jealous?”

Hua Yitang’s throat worked. His mouth moved — “I… I am angry!”

Lin Sui’an raised an eyebrow.

Hua Yitang had genuinely grown angry. His brows knitted into a single knot. “Tell me honestly — what happened to you at the government office today? Why did Qian Jing suddenly ring? Could it be that your body is responding to the toxicity of the Longshen Fruit —”

“It truly is not!” Lin Sui’an quickly stopped Hua Yitang’s wild theorizing. “The memories of the white sacrificial victims suddenly surfaced again, so I momentarily failed to suppress my killing intent.”

Hua Yitang’s pupils contracted. He seized Lin Sui’an’s wrist.

“Do not worry, I am all right now.” Lin Sui’an pulled her hand free and patted Hua Yitang’s shoulder.

Hua Yitang pressed his lips together. “What did you see in Lian Xiaoshuang’s memories? Why have you not spoken of it with me?”

“Because…” Lin Sui’an scratched her forehead. “Lian Xiaoshuang’s memories are different from the ones before. The images are very fragmented, very chaotic — like something breaking out of its shell in the darkness, and there are a pair of blood-soaked hands crawling and crawling… I cannot make head or tail of it at all.”

“Could it be hallucinations triggered by consuming the Longshen Fruit?”

“Very likely.”

Hua Yitang was silent for a moment. “Jin Ruo said you have been missing someone.”

Lin Sui’an started. “Missing? Who?”

“What you said to that person called Seventh Master on the Brocade Lane today.”

Lin Sui’an’s forehead was covered in black lines: Jin Ruo, that big gossip — how does she let everything slip out.

“I was tricking that Seventh Master,” Lin Sui’an said. “I felt that man was somewhat familiar, as though I had seen him somewhere before, but also somewhat unfamiliar… The feeling was complicated.”

Hua Yitang fell silent again. After a long while, he said: “Today, when I saw the coroner’s examination records for victims seven and nine, I thought of the white sacrificial victims — and even thought of… Qi Yuansheng.”

Lin Sui’an’s eyes went wide.

“In fact, at the time I sent men down to the cliff base to search, but no body of Qi Yuansheng was found.”

Lin Sui’an’s eyes went even wider.

So this playboy had secretly done all these things without telling her.

“At the time I thought to myself — no body found is truly good news. Perhaps he could still survive.”

It must be said, Hua Yitang’s line of reasoning was very sound.

After all, this was a historical-costume mystery drama, and the probability of dying from a cliff fall was essentially zero.

“Could it be —” a wild thought suddenly struck Lin Sui’an, “— that you suspect Seventh Master is Qi Yuansheng?”

“Next time there is a chance to meet Seventh Master again, you might try tricking him with Qi Yuansheng’s name.” Hua Yitang let out a long slow breath and raised his head. “If it is him, I would like to see him too.”

The night air was cool and fresh, the mist faint and thin. The moonlight fell into Hua Yitang’s eyes, shimmering and rippling.

Lin Sui’an let out a silent “oh wow” in her heart, then immediately caught herself and could not help but break into a smile.

Hua Yitang seemed to sense something, and turned his head. Lin Sui’an saw her own reflection in his clear, bright pupils.

He is not quite right in the head, but that face is truly something, Lin Sui’an thought. Like an immortal beneath the moon, capable of stealing away your soul — wait?

Lin Sui’an’s heart had not yet been stolen away, but her little finger had already been hooked by Hua Yitang first. The snow-white ice silk of his cuff swept across her palm — three parts cool, seven parts ticklish.

Hua Yitang’s throat worked with uneasy tension, and his lips turned the lush, dripping crimson of a cherry.

Lin Sui’an swallowed, thinking it looked very sweet —

By exceedingly ill fortune, at this critical moment, someone coughed — thunderously — and Hua Yitang gave a violent flinch and let go, stumbled back several steps, and sat down hard on the ground, his face flushing to the color of a pig’s liver.

Lin Sui’an: “Pfft!”

Jin Ruo leaped down from the top of the wall with a look of profound disdain. “Hopeless!”

Jin Ruo had also changed into night-traveling clothes and had brought Ruo Jing with her.

Lin Sui’an was astonished. “Apprentice, what are you doing here —”

“I guessed that Master would surely want to make a nighttime visit to the Wu villa tonight,” Jin Ruo clasped her fists, “so I came specially to show Master the way.”

Lin Sui’an was immensely gratified. “The one who knows me best is my good apprentice!”

Hua Yitang scrambled to his feet like a moth flapping its wings, frantically brushed the grass off his clothes, and stammered: “Hua also also also also guessed it, so Hua specially specially specially specially came to —” — fished out a black lacquered bronze token from his sleeve — “— bring the city-exit pass.”

Jin Ruo snatched it in one move. “Kind thought duly received. You need not come. Master, let us go.”

Lin Sui’an bared her teeth in a grin, and together with Jin Ruo leaped up onto the wall, springing away into the vast night.

Hua Yitang stood staring at his own empty palm for a long while, then looked away at the direction where Lin Sui’an’s figure had vanished for a long time, and sighed in deepest lamentation: “I also wanted to go together…”

In the shrubbery not far away, Yita and Mu Xia held up four small branches as cover, their faces twin expressions of exasperation.

Yita: “Fourth Young Master — watching pig stone — too shy — very urgent!”

Mu Xia pulled at his own hair: “The scent I blended today was clearly ‘cloud-turning, rain-reversing, heart-yearning fragrance’ — Fourth Young Master remembered it wrong!”

The Wu Family villa was situated five li outside the Great Black Gate, situated by the banks of the Qingyuan River, and was said to have beautiful scenery — ideal for convalescence.

Lin Sui’an and Jin Ruo set off at a sprint from the northern gate of the government district, crossed the Western Black Bridge, and arrived at the Great Black Gate, where the third-watch drum had just sounded. The city guards took one look at the pass token and let them through without a word. The two walked along the main road for another half an hour before finally catching sight of the Wu Family villa.

The Wu Family owned five weaving workshops and three dyeing workshops, its wealth built on Shu brocade, placing it in the upper-middle tier among the ten great families. Remarkably, the family had even managed to produce a Military Affairs Judicial Military Advisor from within the clan, and was clearly in the midst of a period of rising fortunes. The manor had thus been built with a thoroughly nouveau riche character — four encircling courtyards, dozens of side rooms, and the rear residence enclosed a large plot of land for a private garden.

But strangely, in this vast manor, not a single patrolling servant could be found making rounds through the night. Jin Ruo had wanted to grab some hapless soul to guide the way but had no luck. The two blundered about like headless flies, wandering deeper and deeper, and at the far end of the garden discovered a two-story pavilion.

The pavilion was typical Shu architecture — steep black eaves, roof ridges pointing skyward, like a silent black beast crouching at the edge of a pond. In the moonlight, pale ripples shimmered, and mist rose all around.

Lin Sui’an felt a strange tension, as though countless fine, fragile threads of kite string floated in the air. When the wind blew, the threads drew taut, pulling out a woman’s broken, intermittent sobs.

“Wuu — wuu — wuu —”

Jin Ruo: “M-m-m-master, do you hear some strange sound?”

Lin Sui’an stroked her chin. “Could this be a haunted house?”

Jin Ruo’s face blanched white in an instant.

Lin Sui’an suppressed her laughter. “I’m joking.”

“Aaah —”

An even more piercing cry drifted over. Lin Sui’an and Jin Ruo both startled simultaneously and looked together toward the black pavilion.

This time they heard it very clearly — the sound was coming from inside the pavilion.

The pavilion windows were pitch black, the doors were unlocked, and the two entered without obstacle. The first floor contained only a simple screen, a floor couch, a tea table, and a bookshelf — very plain. They made a circuit and found nothing.

The second floor appeared to be a woman’s bedchamber — a wooden bed with thick heavy bed-curtains hanging from it, a dressing table set by the window, the dressing table kept very neat and clean, one wardrobe, one clothes rack, a set of robes hanging on the clothes rack. Lin Sui’an looked at it with a sense of recognition, and going closer for a better look confirmed that it was the outfit worn today by Wu Zhengli’s wife — Qu Hui — when she had come to the government office.

This was most likely Qu Hui’s bedchamber. But where had Qu Hui gone?

Suddenly, Jin Ruo’s eyes shifted. She lay down on the floor and listened carefully, then signaled Lin Sui’an to return to the first floor of the pavilion. They followed the wall around a full circuit, reached the wall on the southeast side, and knocked on it. “Master, there is a hidden room. Let me look for the mechanism.”

Lin Sui’an nodded and stepped back half a pace.

Jin Ruo clung to the wall like a gecko, feeling to the left, feeling to the right, crouched down and ran her fingers along the corner edge, then suddenly slammed her fist against the floor with force. The wall clicked with a sound, and a crack appeared — sure enough, there was a hidden door.

This hidden door was nothing compared to the one at the Longshen Temple. It was just an ordinary wooden plank door, with no automatically activating mechanism, and could only be pushed open by hand. Inside the door was a staircase leading downward, from which faint light shone.

Lin Sui’an heard the sound again, coming from the far end of the staircase, now considerably clearer — but it was no longer a woman sobbing. It was a man cursing.

The two lightened their footsteps and descended one step at a time. The cursing grew louder and louder.

“You shameless wench! You loose slut! You see a man and you can’t wait to bare yourself and throw yourself at him! Flirting shamelessly with the fourth young master of the Hua Family right under my nose — what, you want to warm his bed?! Ha! Take a look at yourself, you repulsive wretch — the Hua Family Fourth Young Master has wealth beyond measure and eyes set high in his head. You think a nasty thing like you has a chance?!”

Lin Sui’an recognized the voice. It was Wu Zhengli. She could not help but exchange a look with Jin Ruo, and they quickened their pace.

After a spiral turn on the staircase, the hidden room below gradually came into view. The first thing that met the eye was the chaotic tangle of white bed-curtains, like a hall of the dead, with crimson spots scattered across them like blood.

And there was a massive bed, its curtains swaying and shifting in the candlelight, shadows flickering through them. A human silhouette stood on the bed, kicking something on the ground over and over again with his feet, cursing incomprehensible filth. Then suddenly, he raised his arm. A dark shadow lashed down viciously — it was a whip.

The wind from the whip lifted the bed-curtains. Lin Sui’an’s pupils contracted violently. She saw clearly what was inside the curtains: Wu Zhengli was striking the crumpled object, which was a person with all four limbs curled up, covered all over in blood.

“Speak! Who is Lian Xiaoshuang’s wild man?! That cheap little strumpet — how dare she keep a man behind my back! Just her luck she died — if she were still alive, I’d beat her to death myself!”

The huddled figure on the bed shuddered violently and suddenly raised her head, letting out a sharp cry: “She was not a strumpet!”

The reddened whip marks and the smeared powder formed a grotesque picture on her face — white as snow, red as blood. It was Qu Hui.

Wu Zhengli flew into a rage and raised the second lash of the whip. “You dare to talk back —”

The whip did not come down. A gust of sharp wind seized Wu Zhengli’s arm. Wu Zhengli spun in horrified alarm and saw a masked face, and a pair of eyes brimming with killing intent. The next instant his entire body was flipped over, crashing to the ground with a heavy thud. A flesh-colored crumpled casing was flung before his eyes — Wu Zhengli was dazed for a moment, then suddenly realized that was his own hand. Every bone in his hand had been shattered — a piercing, devastating agony swept over him like a tide. Wu Zhengli let out a soul-rending scream — but before he could finish, Jin Ruo was already on top of him, raining blows down over his head. “Worthless filth!”

Lin Sui’an frowned and looked at Qu Hui. She was dressed in tatters, her hair loose and disheveled, the blood from whip wounds seeping through her clothing. Her eyes were jet black and terrifyingly blank. She stared blankly. “You —”

Her injuries were severe. She needed medical treatment immediately.

Lin Sui’an tore off a strip of bed-curtain, shook it out and wrapped it around Qu Hui, knelt on one knee, and gently, carefully scooped Qu Hui up crosswise in her arms. She said softly: “Do not be afraid. I will take you to see a doctor.”

Qu Hui’s body suddenly began to shake violently, and tears fell from her eyes.

“Who are you?!” Wu Zhengli lay sprawled on the floor, his gums soaked in blood. “Do you know who I am?! I am the head of the Wu Family — my cousin is the Military Affairs Judicial Military Advisor of Yidu!”

Jin Ruo landed another kick. Wu Zhengli howled — it sounded like a rib had snapped.

Lin Sui’an cradled Qu Hui and stepped straight over Wu Zhengli, walking toward the exit of the hidden room.

Wu Zhengli clawed himself forward like a madman. “She is my wife! She is mine! No one can take her away!”

Qu Hui’s breath stopped abruptly, and she grabbed violently at Lin Sui’an’s collar.

Lin Sui’an turned her head and looked back at Wu Zhengli coldly, as one might look at a repulsive insect. “My apologies to Head Wu — I have taken a fancy to Lady Qu. From this moment on, she is mine!”

Wu Zhengli spat out a mouthful of blood. “You you you dare kidnap a woman from a respectable family — you court death!”

“Mind your phrasing. What do you mean by ‘kidnap a woman from a respectable family’? Far too vulgar.” Lin Sui’an let out a cold laugh. “I, Yun Zhong Yue, the world’s finest thief, call this: the moon rises above the willows, and by midnight one comes to steal a heart.”

Before the words had faded, Jin Ruo’s giant foot came crashing straight down on Wu Zhengli’s nose, leaving a bloody great footprint, and one unconscious master of the Wu Family.

Skit:

Yun Zhong Yue, lounging in bed picking at his toes, suddenly sneezed. He looked around warily: Who is talking behind my back?

No update tomorrow