City patrol guard Jin Ruo was crouched on the ground, diligently measuring various traces on the surface with a thin rope. Ling Zhiyan stood to one side and observed, noticing that the young man truly had a systematic method — the rope moved like a wonderous flexible ruler in his hands, with measurement techniques and positioning that dazzled the eye. After measuring each trace, he would mutter to himself, seemingly performing some calculation.
People say that the land south of the Yangtze River produces remarkable talents — and rightly so. Who would have thought that even among lowly city patrol guards, there would be a hidden dragon and crouching tiger.
At that thought, Ling Zhiyan glanced over at Hua Yitang, only to find Hua Yitang frowning and staring at Lin Sui’an. Ling Zhiyan followed his gaze toward Lin Sui’an, and found her behavior even stranger — arms folded, staring at the city patrol guard Jin Ruo, with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile and a lifted brow that wasn’t quite lifted, her expression rather alarming.
Could this city patrol guard be suspicious?! Ling Zhiyan was startled, and upon a closer look at Jin Ruo, he did indeed spot something off.
Jin Ruo was sweating profusely — large beads of sweat sliding down his temples and soaking his collar. The weather in Yangdu was pleasant at this time of year, and he was dressed lightly, making this degree of perspiration quite abnormal.
Suddenly, Lin Sui’an let out a laugh. Jin Ruo shuddered so violently he nearly tore the rope in his hands apart.
Hua Yitang puffed out his cheeks and began furiously fanning himself in a huff.
Jin Ruo got to his feet and continued his examination along the inter-ward road. Lin Sui’an followed at a leisurely pace five steps behind him. Hua Yitang trailed Lin Sui’an at three steps, fanning himself at an ever-increasing pace — fast enough it seemed he might fan up sparks.
Ling Zhiyan: “…”
This was not at all what he had imagined.
This strange trailing formation continued for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, until Jin Ruo finished his examination.
“Based on the traces at the scene, the body was transported in an ordinary single-horse carriage,” Jin Ruo said, standing outside the wall of Ling Third Ward and pointing to a patch of ground. “The carriage stopped here for a period of time, then continued along the inter-ward road.”
Everyone followed Jin Ruo to the middle of the inter-ward road, where he pointed to the wheel marks on the ground. “The carriage stopped here. Two people got off and carried the body.”
“How can you be sure it was two people?” Ling Zhiyan asked.
“Stride length and the distance between the feet indicate height, and the depth of footprints can indicate body weight,” Jin Ruo said, pointing to either side. “Both sets of footprints were left by men — one is over eight chi tall, the other is between five and six chi. The footprints run parallel and forward, and they’re notably deep, which means the two were clearly carrying the torso together at the same time. Then they each went and placed the limbs separately around it.” At that, he frowned. “There’s one strange thing — when they were placing the limbs, they walked back and forth two or three times, and there are drag marks as well.”
“They were probably measuring the distance between the limbs and the torso,” Hua Yitang said.
“Why would they do that?” Ling Zhiyan asked.
“How should I know?!” Hua Yitang said.
“Can you track where the carriage went?” Lin Sui’an asked.
Jin Ruo shook his head. “Once past the sealed-off zone, the footprints and wheel tracks are too mixed up to distinguish.”
“Anything else?”
“Their steps were steady — unhurried, and calm.”
Lin Sui’an inwardly impressed. This young man’s ability to read scene traces was clearly several levels above that flatbread vendor. She had good reason to suspect this was the Ten Purity Sect’s ancestrally inherited skill, and these traces confirmed her earlier speculation — the killer quite possibly had connections to people inside the prefecture yamen and knew the city patrol soldiers wouldn’t come through here, which explained why the process of dumping the bodies was carried out with such unhurried composure. It further indicated the killer’s thinking was meticulous and their actions well-planned. The killer had used such elaborate methods to deal with the bodies — it was likely not merely a matter of venting emotion, but because there was a reason they had to do it this way.
Lin Sui’an had a feeling that this reason could very well be the key to breaking the case.
By the time they returned to the prefecture yamen, the midday meal hour had long since passed. Lin Sui’an was so hungry her stomach was sticking to her back. She’d thought she’d be lucky just to scrounge some working-lunch boxed meal from the yamen — but the moment she stepped through the door of the side hall, she was stunned.
A massive long table had appeared inside the room — identical in color, thickness, and dimensions to the one at the Hua Residence. On it sat a spread of countless dishes: chicken, duck, fish, and meat, each plate fragrant; an assortment of pastries in extraordinary shapes; golden cups and silver chopsticks stacked in neat rows. Mu Xia stood with head lowered and back straight beside the table, displaying a perfect professional smile.
“Fourth Young Master, the midday meal is ready.”
Hua Yitang invited Lin Sui’an to take a seat, then sat down himself with a casual swagger, fan in hand. Ling Zhiyan lifted his robe and took a seat right next to Hua Yitang.
“Hey!” Hua Yitang said.
Ling Zhiyan swiftly helped himself to a piece of fish and said, “I’ve long heard that Yangdu’s cuisine is renowned throughout the land — seeing it today, the reputation is well deserved. Many thanks for your generosity, Fourth Young Master.” He even remembered to invite his two subordinates to join, and Ming Shu and Ming Feng were not the least bit shy about it — they offered a “many thanks for the hospitality” and dove in with hearty appetites.
Hua Yitang’s expression darkened.
Since Ling Zhiyan had made himself so at home, Lin Sui’an felt it was pointless for her to hold back. She waved Jin Ruo over. “Come eat with us.”
Truth be told, Jin Ruo was quite decent-looking — an oval face, round eyes, and from years of working outdoors, the exposed skin was a healthy bronze. He looked at most eighteen or nineteen. He had been standing far off by the door, but when he heard Lin Sui’an’s voice, he first froze, then his face filled with wariness.
Wariness for what? Your scraggly feathers were already showing long ago.
Lin Sui’an mouthed silently: Stop pretending, beanpole.
Jin Ruo seemed to resign himself to his fate and plopped down beside Lin Sui’an, wolfing down his food with ferocious speed, as if eating this meal meant there would never be another.
Hua Yitang’s face went green. He shot Lin Sui’an sidelong looks full of accusation.
“Wasting food is shameful — with one more person eating, there’s less leftover,” Lin Sui’an said.
“Hua the Fourth,” Ling Zhiyan asked between bites, “when can you give me the information about the victims’ social connections you mentioned earlier?”
Hua Yitang set down his chopsticks — clearly having lost his appetite — gestured to Mu Xia to bring brush, ink, stone, and paper, then shoved some bowls to the side and began writing right there on the dining table.
“The relationship between Yan He, Bai Shun, Jiang Hongwen, and Feng Yuyi is a reflection of the relationship between their four families. The Yan, Bai, and Jiang Families all follow the Feng Family’s lead. The Bai Family has fallen into decline and relies on their grandfather’s remaining reputation to attach themselves to the Feng Family for survival. The Yan Family is a rising commercial newcomer in Yangdu in recent years — under the Feng Family’s backing they have aggressively expanded, and now stand in opposition to the Pei Family of Yangdu. The Jiang Family, like the Feng Family, is a family of scholars and literati. Jiang descendants hold prominent positions in the Feng Family’s private academy and enjoy a fine reputation in literary circles.”
Hua Yitang’s brush flew across the page, and in no time at all he had sketched out the relationships and power distribution of all four families. “As for the Feng Family’s sphere of influence — I imagine Inspector Ling is better informed than I am.”
Ling Zhiyan nodded. “The Feng Family patriarch, Feng Guangji, holds the position of Minister of Rites and is greatly trusted by the Emperor. The Feng Family’s literary reputation is far-reaching, and scholars from common backgrounds look to it with admiration. In recent years, it has even risen to stand on equal footing with the five great clans and seven elite lineages, and talk has spread in the Eastern Capital of a ‘six clans and eight lineages,’ with the Feng Family as the newly added one.”
Oh! A rising power! Lin Sui’an was thoroughly engrossed.
“To be frank, the Feng Family is currently at the height of its influence. The other great families either keep out of its way or seek to ally with it. Only Yangdu’s Hua Family has consistently stood against them,” Ling Zhiyan said, glancing at Hua Yitang. “Truly worthy of the title ‘the lone plum blossom of Lake Ze.'”
One had to admit Ling Zhiyan’s face gave him an unfair advantage — he was born with an air of resolute uprightness, and any compliment that might have sounded sycophantic from another person’s mouth came from him as nothing less than utterly sincere, making Hua Yitang light up with pride, fanning himself with a look of supreme satisfaction.
“The Ling Family built its name on military merit — your discernment is truly exceptional.”
“You flatter me, Fourth Young Master,” Ling Zhiyan said. “And so, Ling believes that if anyone in Yangdu City most thoroughly understands the Feng Family, it would be none other than the Hua Family.”
Hua Yitang’s fan stopped. Lin Sui’an nearly laughed out loud.
Ling Zhiyan’s implication was perfectly clear: stop fobbing me off with news that’s all over the street — what I want to hear is inside information.
Hua Yitang snapped his fan shut with a crack, shot Ling Zhiyan a sideways look, grabbed the brush, and bent his head back to writing. This time the pace was even faster — in the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he had filled several pages. He wrote one page; Ling Zhiyan read one page. With each page he read, the expression with which he looked at Hua Yitang grew stranger and stranger.
Lin Sui’an was too curious to resist, and grabbed a page for herself. It was all dry itemized entries that boiled down to four main categories: time, place, persons involved, and incident.
[Xuanfeng Year 5, Sixth Month, Day 8: Yan He and Pei the Seventh, Pei Shijun, had a brawl at Red Makeup Ward over competition for territory at a new cockfighting pit — one person seriously injured, thirteen lightly injured, five fighting roosters killed.]
[Xuanfeng Year 5, Sixth Month, Day 13: Jiang Hongwen and Chen Zhu competed in a poetry duel at the Four Seasons Teahouse in Juan Yu Ward. The two sides failed to come to an agreement, came to blows, and it escalated into a group melee — twenty people lightly injured.]
[Xuanfeng Year 5, Sixth Month, Day 30: Hua Yitang and Feng Yuyi arranged a polo match at the polo grounds — three seriously injured, twenty-eight lightly injured, the polo grounds closed for forty days.]
[Xuanfeng Year 5, Seventh Month, Day 7: At the poetry gathering of the Feng Family’s private academy, Hua Yitang and others, alleging the judging was unfair, engaged in a debate and verbal confrontation with Feng Yuyi and others — five seriously injured, forty-six lightly injured. Subsequently mediated and halted by the Yangdu prefecture yamen.]
My goodness. Dozens upon dozens of pages, every one packed with a detailed account of the various quarrels and brawls between these two groups of wastrels — the dates meticulously recorded, the causes of each conflict laid out with crystal clarity, truly a marvel to behold. What was more alarming still was that these several hundred entries had been produced entirely from Hua Yitang’s memory.
What on earth was this wastrel’s brain made of? A dedicated grudge ledger?
Ling Zhiyan’s features contorted with shock. “All of this — you deliberately kept track of it?”
Hua Yitang fanned himself. “Everyone in Yangdu knows: Hua Family’s Fourth Young Master is gifted with exceptional intelligence and a photographic memory.”
Ling Zhiyan was even more stunned. “Yet I’ve never heard that Hua the Fourth has sat for the imperial examinations…”
Hua Yitang was quite contemptuous. “I’m a wastrel — what would I want with those wretched examinations?”
Ling Zhiyan’s chopsticks snapped. Lin Sui’an thought he looked like he wanted to leap over and take a bite out of Hua Yitang.
“From Xuanfeng Year 5 to Xuanfeng Year 8, all the grudges and conflicts between us and the Feng Family are in there,” Hua Yitang said. “Not to flatter myself, but if we’d truly wanted to kill those fellows from the Feng Family, we’d have done it long ago — why wait until now?”
“Hua Family’s Fourth Young Master is quite candid,” Ling Zhiyan said.
“You could go around Yangdu City and dig up about seventy to eighty percent of this information on your own,” Hua Yitang said. “No point hiding it. Our battles with the Feng Family have always been open and aboveboard — we face them squarely and without shame, and we don’t fear your investigation. Rather than spending energy looking at us, you’d be better off looking at what can’t be seen.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“That skewed verse the Feng Family brought you — the original poem wasn’t written by me. I merely borrowed the flower and offered it up, and added fuel to the fire. Less than a month after that poem came out, a string of murders appeared,” Hua Yitang said, raising an eyebrow. “As you put it: most — pecu — li — ar.”
Ling Zhiyan thought for a moment, then rose, gave a bow to Hua Yitang and Lin Sui’an, and took his leave with Ming Shu and Ming Feng.
Hua Yitang finally breathed a sigh of relief, using his chopsticks to prod at some rice grains. He cast a sidelong glance at Jin Ruo, his expression pure reproach.
Jin Ruo tore off two more bites of lamb, wiped his mouth, stood up, and said to Lin Sui’an, “A word in private.”
Before Lin Sui’an could even react, Hua Yitang was already agitated. “Lin Sui’an, we are partners! What is there that I can’t hear?!”
“Well then, let me make introductions — this is Jin Ruo, of the Ten Purity Sect,” Lin Sui’an said, addressing them both in turn. “And this one, I don’t need to introduce, I imagine — Hua Family’s Fourth Young Master.”
Hua Yitang’s eyes went wide. Mu Xia, with perceptive grace, stepped out and pulled the door closed behind him.
Jin Ruo: “How did you recognize me?”
Lin Sui’an: “I’m not blind.”
“Don’t get smug — if I hadn’t chosen to reveal myself, you could have dug up three feet of earth and never found me.”
Lin Sui’an nodded. “Sure. So tell me — what sort of trouble drove the great you out of hiding?”
Jin Ruo’s expression darkened further. He sulked in silence for half a beat, then said, “There is a mole inside the Ten Purity Sect.”
Lin Sui’an immediately perked up. “Oh, really now?”
Hua Yitang pricked up his ears.
“What are you making those gleeful expressions for,” Jin Ruo said, clicking his tongue. “The mole leaked information from the Ten Purity Sect. The people it almost got killed — were you two.”
Lin Sui’an: “…”
Hua Yitang blinked. “Are you saying the person who sent the tip to Zhou Changping was — from the Ten Purity Sect?”
“The Ten Purity Sect does cooperate with the Yangdu prefecture yamen, but what information can be passed along and what must remain confidential — the Sect has its own rules. Lin Sui’an, as the holder of Qian Jing, is an outer member, which essentially makes her half a core member — the information she requests is classified at the highest level of secrecy within the Sect and would absolutely not be disclosed to official authorities.” Jin Ruo frowned. “But somehow, the information about Liuyue Tower leaked. I urgently recalled all sect members to investigate, yet found not a single trace of evidence pointing to any mole. Until the mole is identified, every sect member is a suspect. If it weren’t for the fact that I was afraid you might… I would never have come in person.”
Jin Ruo’s expression was tangled — clearly worried, yet straining to look like he wasn’t. It reminded Lin Sui’an of a pouty cat, and she suddenly had the urge to give him a squeeze, barely managing to hold herself back.
“What’s your position in the Ten Purity Sect?”
Jin Ruo answered defiantly: “Acting Sect Leader.”
Lin Sui’an: Oh, so he’s actually a deputy chief!
“And the Sect Leader?”
“Position currently vacant.”
“What exactly is the relationship between the holder of Qian Jing and the Ten Purity Sect?” Hua Yitang suddenly interjected.
Jin Ruo was furious. “None of your business!”
Lin Sui’an had already guessed about seventy to eighty percent of it, so she simply cut to the chase and laid it bare: “So Qian Jing is the keepsake of the Ten Purity Sect Leader.”
Jin Ruo leapt to his feet, his voice shaking. “You — you — you — you — you — don’t tell me you want to—”
Lin Sui’an raised both hands. “I have no interest in any sect leader position. The agreement we made before still stands — as long as you can beat me, I’ll hand Qian Jing over with both hands. But then…” Lin Sui’an narrowed her eyes and gave Jin Ruo a thorough up-and-down appraisal. This young man is an exceptionally rare high-level talent in forensic tracking — it would be an utter waste if he couldn’t be recruited to work for her.
“Ahem — ahem — ahem — ahem!” Hua Yitang coughed pointedly.
Jin Ruo’s face had gone green. “You — you — you — you — what are you trying to do?!”
Lin Sui’an put on what she considered her most benevolent smile. “Be our partner, and help us solve this case.”
Side Skit
Jin Ruo: Why does it feel like I’ve gotten onto a pirate ship? Lin Sui’an: Funny you should say that — I had the exact same feeling not long ago. Heh.