The second round of witnesses brought by Ming Shu were four young men in the dress of scholars, who were said to be close acquaintances of Shan Yuanming and quite familiar with his circle of connections.

Lin Sui’an looked them over and almost laughed — they were familiar faces. These were the provincial examination candidates who had helped Shan Yuanming block the road and hurl insults at Hua Yitang’s carriage that very afternoon.

The four men clearly hadn’t expected that the person here to investigate and solve the case was Hua Yitang himself. Their faces ran through a spectacular array of colors — ashen, livid, flushed, and purple — before they all ended up hanging their heads in unison, wearing the expressions of men who had never laid eyes on Hua Yitang in their lives.

Hua Yitang rolled his eyes and gave Ling Zhiyan a kick with his fan.

Ling Zhiyan could only make the best of it and act as lead questioner. He cleared his throat. “Your names, and what was your relationship with Shan Yuanming?”

All four were roughly the same age as Shan Yuanming — just past the age of twenty. From their dress, none of them came from wealthy households, and all were quite slight in build — from a physical standpoint, they were immediately eliminated as suspects. Knowing the gravity of the situation, they abandoned the pose of righteous protesters from that afternoon and answered honestly. Two of the four were from Hualin County in Qingzhou and fellow townsmen: their names were Qi Xi and Chen Wenhan. The third was originally from Chongshan County in Yuanzhou, and his name was Ma Qin. The fourth was from Huahai County in Jingzhou, called Zhang Qingyun.

Qi Xi: “We returned to the inn with Bai Ping at around the start of Shen.”

Ma Qin: “We hadn’t eaten the midday meal yet at that point — we were all starving. We were about to go to the Shangfeng Tower for some refreshments, but Bai Ping said he was physically and mentally exhausted and had no appetite, so he went back to his room to rest.”

Wan Lin: “Why was he physically and mentally exhausted?”

The four sat in tense silence, not daring to look at Hua Yitang.

Hua Yitang let out a long, drawn-out “Tch —”

Ming Shu stepped forward and murmured something in Wan Lin’s ear. Wan Lin’s eyes went round and he let out a couple of sounds of comprehension, and dropped the line of questioning.

“When did each of you last see Shan Yuanming?” Ling Zhiyan asked.

Chen Wenhan: “After eating, we went back to our rooms to rest and didn’t go out again.”

Ling Zhiyan: “Where are you staying?”

Chen Wenhan: “I’m in the lower hall of Yi Ye Ju.”

Zhang Qingyun: “I’m sharing a room with Brother Chen.”

Ma Qin: “I’m in the lower hall of San Ye Ju. I fell asleep early and didn’t see Bai Ping again.”

Qi Xi raised his hand. “At around the start of You, I was reading in the garden courtyard when I saw Bai Ping return in a hurry.”

Ling Zhiyan: “He came back alone?”

Qi Xi: “Yes.”

“Was there anything unusual?”

Qi Xi thought for a moment. “He seemed to have been walking very fast — his face was flushed. I called out to greet him, but he didn’t hear me. He rushed back to Frost Maple Hall in a great hurry.”

“Did you see him again after that?”

“Bai Ping has a stubborn temper — I didn’t dare to disturb him. I went back to my room a little later. Then — ” Qi Xi paused. “At around the third quarter of Xu, I heard someone shouting that there was a dead body in Frost Maple Hall. And since Frost Maple Hall only had Bai Ping staying there —”

All four sighed, and their expressions turned somber. They pressed their sleeves to their faces and began to sob quietly.

Hua Yitang narrowed his eyes and studied the expressions of the four. “I have one question that I’m rather curious about — why was it spreading through the ward that it was I who killed Shan Yuanming? And with such specific details about my appearance and what I was wearing — the very same outfit I wore when I entered the city today?”

The weeping stopped abruptly.

“Could it be that some people, harboring a grudge against me from this afternoon’s exchange of words — finding no other outlet for their resentment — took advantage of this opportunity when someone who had crossed me turned up dead, and decided to pin the murder on me to vent their frustrations?”

As he said this, Hua Yitang’s lips even carried a faint trace of a smile — but his pupils were ice-cold, his voice low and weighted with gravity. The pale white of his robe seemed to have been soaked through with the night’s darkness, giving off a peculiar, bewitching quality.

The four men, terrified, dropped to their knees one after another, their entire bodies trembling like a sieve.

“It was — it was us, in a moment of foolishness!”

“We were just running our mouths!”

“We never truly meant to harm Fourth Young Master Hua!”

“Fourth Young Master Hua, please be magnanimous and spare us!”

Wan Lin slammed the table in a fury. “Utterly outrageous! And to think you call yourselves scholars — unable to distinguish right from wrong, with no sense of consequence!”

Hua Yitang let out a contemptuous laugh.

Lin Sui’an was seeing this expression on Hua Yitang’s face for the first time and found it something extraordinary. This version of Hua Yitang… had a darkened quality to it, she thought — somehow more beautiful, more layered.

Jin Ruo and Fang Ke clearly couldn’t match Lin Sui’an’s refined appreciation for the aesthetic. Both wore expressions of wariness, and even Ling Zhiyan’s color changed a little. He nudged Hua Yitang. Hua Yitang’s expression flickered, and that bewitching quality dissolved at once. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief — everyone except Lin Sui’an, who was mildly disappointed.

“For spreading groundless rumors, obstructing the investigation of a criminal case — by statute, ten strokes of the rod!” Ling Zhiyan said coldly. “Present yourselves at the Jing Zhao Prefecture tomorrow to receive your punishment!”

The four kowtowed repeatedly. “Yes — yes — yes!”

Ling Zhiyan drew a breath and continued the interrogation: “Where did Shan Yuanming usually go? What did he enjoy doing?”

Qi Xi: “He was always with us — going to… going to the Court of Judicial Review…”

Jin Ruo: “Going to make trouble at the Court of Judicial Review?”

The four went crimson with shame and hung their heads even lower.

Hua Yitang: “What was Shan Yuanming’s lifestyle like day-to-day? His food, clothing, and expenses?”

The four, who now flinched at the sound of Hua Yitang’s voice, exchanged multiple glances before replying:

“In response to Fourth Young Master Hua — Bai Ping’s family circumstances were not good. He was quite frugal in his daily life.”

“Frugal?” Hua Yitang gave a cold laugh. “Every single item he was wearing came from the Hua Family clothing shop. They look unremarkable, but are all premium goods — his long robe was a thousand coins, his boots two thousand, his cap five hundred, his sash four hundred. It’s simply that you blind lot failed to recognize them.”

At that, all four were shocked.

“How can that be?!”

“He wouldn’t even eat a proper meal — “

Ma Qin faltered at that, his expression shifting. “Come to think of it, Bai Ping said, when we were all together, that he was saving money and could only afford one meal a day. We were all very worried that he’d ruin his health with such deprivation and often tried to offer him money, but he always refused. Looking back on it now, not only did he not grow thinner — if anything, he looked like he’d put on a little weight.”

Jin Ruo: “He must have been eating well on the sly and letting you think he was starving!”

Ling Zhiyan: “Think carefully — when did Shan Yuanming’s circumstances begin to change?”

The four furrowed their brows in thought for a moment and reached a conclusion.

“It was around the beginning of the tenth month. One day he turned up in new clothes, saying a patron had bought several volumes of his books and paintings, and that he intended to dress properly when going to the Court of Judicial Review, to better represent the cause of justice for scholars of humble origins across the land.”

“Yes, yes — and it was from that day onward that he began going every day to lobby the scholars who had been driven from the Feng Clan, encouraging them to hold a silent protest outside the Court of Judicial Review to plead the Feng Clan’s case.”

The beginning of the tenth month…

Lin Sui’an calculated quietly — that was right around when the Feng Clan examination fraud case had first been adjudicated.

Ling Zhiyan: “Did he ever mention who this patron was?”

All four shook their heads.

Hua Yitang: “Besides the four of you, was there anyone else he was particularly close to?”

More headshaking.

“We were together during the day.”

“We’d go to the Court of Judicial Review at the start of the day and sit in protest until just before the ward gates closed, then come back. After nightfall we each went back to our own rooms — we never saw him become close with anyone else.”

Wan Lin sighed heavily. “Nothing useful came out of this at all.”

“Not necessarily,” Ling Zhiyan said. “We have at least four threads to follow. First — someone was secretly financing Shan Yuanming. Their meetings were kept very discreet. The time of their meetings was most likely after nightfall. Second — whatever they were funding appears to be connected to the Feng Clan case. Third — the first contact between this person and Shan Yuanming was around the beginning of the tenth month. Fourth — Shan Yuanming went out alone today…”

Hua Yitang fanned himself slowly, murmuring: “Where did he go alone? Was he going to meet someone, or to do something —”

Wherever Shan Yuanming went last would certainly be a vital clue. But no one knew where he had gone. If only the eyes of the Jing Sect in the Eastern Capital were still here, finding all this out would be easy — Lin Sui’an couldn’t help glancing at Jin Ruo, who had clearly thought the same thing and was frowning hard.

At that moment, Fang Ke suddenly placed his large wooden case on the table with a resounding clunk. Without a word, he reached inside and produced a white ceramic jar, which sent Hua Yitang, Lin Sui’an, and Jin Ruo leaping up as if lit on fire. They retreated some ten steps in a panic, hearts hammering as they stared at the ceramic jar.

Good grief — what has he put in the jar this time?!

Only Ling Zhiyan and Wan Lin were entirely unaffected. Wan Lin even leaned in with curiosity. “What’s in there?”

Lin Sui’an wasn’t sure if she was imagining things, but when Wan Lin asked that question, she thought she caught the corner of Fang Ke’s mouth twitch upward by precisely one millimeter — like the ghost of a mischievous grin.

He retrieved a long-handled wooden ladle and a white porcelain bowl from his case, broke the seal on the ceramic jar, and scooped out a ladle of thick, viscous liquid into the bowl.

Even from several steps away, the smell hit them like a wall. It was a scent impossible to describe — something like vomit fermented for three full days and nights, mixed with two hundred rotten eggs and simmered down into an essence. Wan Lin stumbled back several steps and retched audibly. Jin Ruo twisted away and dry-heaved. Hua Yitang quickly produced two handkerchiefs and passed one to Lin Sui’an, while using his sleeve to cover his own nose and mouth — only in this way did the two of them escape the fate of coughing up bile.

“This is the contents of Shan Yuanming’s stomach.” Fang Ke fixed his gaze on Ling Zhiyan.

Ling Zhiyan went pale, retreated two steps, but composed himself noticeably better than Lin Sui’an and the others. His throat worked twice. He asked: “What has Fang Ke found?”

Fang Ke paused, his brows and eyes dropping slightly, as though faintly disappointed. “He ate well before he died.”

Everyone: “What?”

“Fish, prawns, meat, and wine.” Fang Ke stirred the gastric residue in the bowl. “Based on the degree of digestion, he ate approximately one to one and a half hours before he died — at around the midpoint of Shen.”

Wan Lin, nose and mouth muffled, his voice coming out flat: “So his last outing was to eat a meal?”

Lin Sui’an: “He returned at the start of Shen, went out for a meal at around the midpoint, and came back at the start of You — wherever he went wasn’t far.”

“The Shangfeng Tower at Shuangyuan Inn lists mutton soup noodles, steamed flatbread, wheat cakes, and spiced broth for the evening meal — no fish or prawns. He didn’t eat at the inn.” Hua Yitang fanned furiously to disperse the smell in the air. “At this time of year, fish is still manageable, but prawns — the price would be considerable. Not something a regular inn can supply. It would have to be a premier restaurant. Jin Ruo, how many premier establishments are there in Yongtai Ward? Where are they located?”

“There’s no need to check those restaurants.” Jin Ruo straightened up and cleared his throat. “The number one establishment in the South Market’s Red Charm Quarter, Fan Ba’s House, hosted a ‘Red Sleeve Fragrant Accompaniment Banquet’ today. One of the signature dishes — a steamed dragon atop a gilded dome — bought up all the prawn supplies in the southern part of the city. And also—” he raised an eyebrow. “The host of this banquet is Su Yiyun of the Su Clan of Suizhou.”

At that, everyone’s expression shifted.

Wan Lin swallowed hard. “A ‘Red Sleeve Fragrant Accompaniment’ flowing banquet — the legendary feast that runs from one dusk to the next?”

Ling Zhiyan: “Su… and those two strokes Shan Yuanming left — they do rather look like the opening strokes of the grass-script character for ‘Su’ —”

Hua Yitang: “The South Market is right next door — oh, what a coincidence!”

Fang Ke: “I presume I don’t need to go?”

Lin Sui’an slapped the table and rose to her feet. “Depart immediately!”

Skit

Lin Sui’an: Hurry up — if we leave now we can still catch the second half of the banquet!