Hua Yitang had struck such a showboating pose and delivered such a showboating line that Lin Sui’an had assumed his next sentence would be a definitive blow — the presentation of decisive evidence. Yet what she heard was —
“You traveled between the two wards through a secret passage!”
Lin Sui’an nearly threw out her back. What?!
This person was actually claiming that Jiang Dongyi’s alibi had a flaw in the form of a secret passage. If this were a locked-room mystery novel, the readers would be sending letter-knives in the mail.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Jiang Dongyi’s laughter shook the pools of blood on the floor into rippling circles, reflecting his contorted features. “Did everyone hear that? He claims I dug a secret passage?! This is the funniest joke I have ever heard! Hua the Fourth, have you gone mad? This is the Eastern Capital — the nation’s principal city — are people free to dig tunnels around like mice?”
Bai Xiang huddled under the table with his head in his hands. Su Yiyun lay slumped against a pillar. Bai Ruyi had shrunk inside the curtains, wrapped up like a cocoon, with only a pair of eyes peeking out. The remaining scions had huddled together, and in their faces, beneath the enormous fright, a wave of absurdity was now swelling — it was quite comical.
Even Ling Zhiyan was staring at him with a look that said, “Hua the Fourth, do you know what you’re saying?”
Lin Sui’an had no idea what her own face looked like, but judging from the throbbing at her temple, it was probably not a pleasant sight.
“Impossible for an ordinary person, naturally — but for someone of the Taiyuan Jiang family, it would be easy as turning over one’s hand,” Hua Yitang said.
“Oh? And how exactly would I build this passage? When would construction have started? How many days would it take? Where would the excavated earth be taken? From where to where would it run? Would it start from Fan Baniang’s room, bore through a ward wall, and connect to Autumn Garden Inn?”
“Not at all. You departed from the outer wall of Autumn Garden Inn’s rear, passed along the main street through Yongtai Ward, the Southmarket ward gates, the inner curved gate of the Red Charm Ward, and returned to Fan Ba’s establishment.”
Ling Zhiyan grew anxious and dropped his voice. “Hua the Fourth, what are you talking about? How could a passage like that possibly exist?!”
Hua Yitang: “Of course it exists!”
Su Yiyun scrambled shakily to his feet. “Utter nonsense. A passage of that kind would mean boring through the entirety of the Red Charm Ward and half of Yongtai Ward! Hua Yitang, to slander the Jiang family in this way — distorting black and white, spitting out vicious lies — is the height of absurdity!”
The aristocratic scions chimed in as well, though cowed by the awe of Lin Sui’an’s earlier battle, they only dared mutter quietly.
But Lin Sui’an noticed that even as everyone was refuting him, the smile on Jiang Dongyi’s face had quietly changed — from the look he had worn watching a clown perform to something much colder, something seeping with killing intent.
“Did I ever say the passage had to be underground?” Hua Yitang fanned his folding fan. “Jiang Dongyi’s passage is built entirely above ground!”
Bai Xiang poked his head out from under the table and bellowed: “What are you on about?! If it’s above ground it’s not a secret passage — it’s just openly, plainly —”
“That’s right — a perfectly open and plain passage!”
Lin Sui’an’s mind gave a clear ring. She understood at once. Ling Zhiyan’s eyes lit with a flash — he had grasped it too.
Yes. The ward-and-curfew system of the Eastern Capital, which seemed so impenetrable from the outside, actually had one thoroughly open, one might even say brazenly obvious “passage” — and it was precisely through that “passage” that they themselves had traveled, without obstruction, all the way from the Court of Judicial Review in the Imperial City to this place.
Hua Yitang: “You falsely claimed you were drunk and left your seat — that was around the you hour, while the ward gates were still open. You changed your clothing, disguised yourself, and entered Yongtai Ward without being noticed. During this time, you only needed to buy off a few entertainers to cover for you and say you were resting in Fan Baniang’s room — though perhaps you didn’t even need to bother. Inside and outside Fan Ba’s establishment, it was all Jiang family Golden Feather Guards on watch; Fan Ba’s was already your territory. And even if someone saw you leave, it didn’t much matter — what mattered was how you got back.”
“You came to Yongtai Ward, circled around to the outer wall behind Autumn Garden Inn, climbed over the wall, entered the inn, knocked on Shan Yuanming’s door, tortured him for information and failed to find what you sought, then killed him, stripped him of his belongings, and staged the scene to look like a burglar’s killing. By then, the xu hour had already passed, and the ward gates were closed. You deliberately made a commotion inside the room, letting the inn’s guests discover the body. While the inn fell into chaos inside and out, you slipped into the crowd and used this perfectly open and plain passage to travel without obstruction back to Fan Ba’s establishment, changed back into your original clothing, and appeared before everyone.”
“In this way, everyone believed you had been at Fan Ba’s the whole time — including myself. Every last person became a witness to your alibi.” Hua Yitang said. “I imagine everyone has already guessed what this perfectly open and plain passage is?”
The crowd exchanged glances, timid and unwilling to speak.
Hua Yitang let out a cold laugh and raised his voice: “It’s a night-travel permit!”
“Preposterous conjecture, utter gibberish!” Su Yiyun screamed. “Night-travel permits are matters of public order. Any official who requires one must have their office submit a list of names according to regulation, to be verified and approved one by one by the Jingzhao Prefecture, before being issued through the relevant departments and offices. How could anyone just casually obtain one?!”
“Clang!” A bloodstained purple silk handkerchief was tossed into the center of the hall, and inside it, as it landed, was a night-travel permit.
The hall fell into complete silence.
“It is true that the Jingzhao Prefecture is responsible for verifying the list of permit holders, but the agency responsible for manufacturing the permits is the Jinwu Guards,” said Jin Ruo, clutching a bundle under his arm as he kicked aside a blocking Golden Feather Guard and stepped up into the hall. He was limping slightly, a bruise had risen on his forehead, and a fresh gash ran along his cheekbone — he had clearly just come from a fight. “This night-travel permit was found in Fan Baniang’s room.”
Ling Zhiyan’s eyes opened wide with sudden understanding. “The newly appointed Right General of the Jinwu Guards from a month and a half ago — Jiang Hongguang — is a member of the Taiyuan Jiang family’s outer branch.”
Jin Ruo: “For the Jinwu Guards, having one extra night-travel permit made is easier than passing wind.”
“There is one thing Jiang Dongyi said correctly,” Hua Yitang said, his voice grave. “In the Eastern Capital — the nation’s principal city — the ones who burrow around like rats are precisely people like you!”
Lin Sui’an watched Su Yiyun, who had been indignantly refuting everything just moments ago, go pale. She felt a cold contempt in her heart. This is what you might call “commoners’ thinking limiting the imagination” — for an ordinary person, or even for a declining family like the Su family, getting hold of a night-travel permit would be like reaching for the stars. But for a powerful, privileged clan like the Taiyuan Jiang family, it was nothing more than a flick of the fingers. Perhaps they didn’t even need to lift their fingers — one glance from the top was enough, and the sycophants below would have it arranged perfectly without being asked.
Jiang Dongyi laughed. “That thing is in Fan Baniang’s room — what does it have to do with me?”
When he said those words, Fan Baniang’s body gave a violent tremor where she crouched among the entertainers.
Hua Yitang picked up the purple handkerchief that had wrapped the permit and shook it out. “And this?”
Bai Ruyi let out a startled “Ah!” and immediately looked toward Bai Xiang. Bai Xiang was frightened witless, shaking his head frantically. “Impossible! That’s not possible!”
Hua Yitang held the silk handkerchief delicately between two fingers. “This is made from silk native to Qingzhou and embroidered in the style most fashionable in Guangdu at present. It is considerably larger than a woman’s handkerchief — clearly a man’s. —”
“I remember now!” Bai Xiang let out a shriek. “That handkerchief — I used it earlier to wipe some wine that spilled on me — no wait, an entertainer knocked my wine over and grabbed my handkerchief and wiped it up, and then she said the handkerchief was dirty and wanted to throw it away for me!”
Hua Yitang: “Which entertainer? Can you still identify her?”
“Of course I can!” Bai Xiang staggered to his feet, swept his gaze across the entertainers, and immediately seized one by the arm. “It was her!”
The entertainer was trembling so violently with fright that tears rolled freely from her eyes. “I don’t know! I don’t know anything!”
“Please — don’t trouble her,” Fan Baniang crawled forward on her knees, the elaborate makeup on her face washed into strange rivulets by sweat. Struggling to keep her voice steady, she said: “That handkerchief — I thought the pattern was pretty, so I kept it. And the night-travel permit is also — also mine!”
Hua Yitang: “Yours?”
Fan Baniang nodded vigorously. “Hua the Fourth must know — Fan Ba’s business is largely conducted at night. A night-travel permit is naturally a convenience.”
“And the blood on it?”
“This — this…”
Hua Yitang’s expression grew heavy. “Fan Baniang — are you certain about what you’re saying?”
Fan Baniang slammed her head to the ground once more. “It truly is —”
A flash of something indescribable passed through Hua Yitang’s eyes. He spread the handkerchief wide between both hands, cutting Fan Baniang off: “What a pity — such a fine handkerchief, and there’s a pulled thread.”
At these words, with the exception of Lin Sui’an and her group, everyone was left momentarily baffled.
Fangke drifted over like a shadow, glanced at it once, and said: “The silk thread of this handkerchief matches the thread fragment found inside Shan Yuanming’s body. This should be the piece the killer stuffed into Shan Yuanming’s mouth.”
Fan Baniang’s head snapped up, bloodshot veins bursting across her eyes.
Hua Yitang’s voice cracked sharp and cold: “Is Fan Ba’s business in the murder trade as well?!”
“No — no no no no, it isn’t! It isn’t!” Tears poured from Fan Baniang’s eyes in torrents, and she prostrated herself on the floor, kowtowing again and again.
“Fan Baniang — the Eastern Capital is the Tang nation’s capital city, at the foot of the throne. No matter who it is, no matter what their pedigree, all who violate the Tang code shall be judged accordingly!” Although Ling Zhiyan appeared to be speaking to Fan Baniang, his gaze was fixed unwaveringly on Jiang Dongyi. “Killers shall be beheaded in accordance with the law!”
“These things are not mine!” Fan Baniang screamed.
Hua Yitang: “Then whose are they?!”
“I don’t know! I don’t know!” Fan Baniang struck her forehead against the floor with hollow thuds — within a few blows, blood had already begun to seep through.
“If these are not yours, then they were left behind by someone in your room,” Lin Sui’an said. “Unless I’m mistaken, only one person entered Fan Baniang’s boudoir tonight.”
“Ah yes,” Hua Yitang added, “Brother Jiang was even singing the praises of Fan Baniang’s bed being fragrant and soft!”
Jiang Dongyi casually rolled his neck, raised a bowl of wine, took a sip, swilled it around in his mouth, and spat it out. “This entertainer’s account is riddled with inconsistencies — entirely unreliable. And besides, that handkerchief is far too common, and a pulled thread is hardly remarkable. To use this as evidence is far too weak.”
Lin Sui’an stepped forward half a pace, unobtrusively signaling to Ling Zhiyan and Jin Ruo to be ready. Jiang Dongyi’s muscles were taut, his killing intent palpable — it seemed he was preparing to act personally. The Golden Feather Guards had been so difficult to handle; dealing with him directly would certainly be the real battle.
It looks like the second half is the true fight!
“Then what about this?!” Jin Ruo flung the cloth bundle in his hand, scattering its contents across the floor — several charred black fragments of cloth. “I snatched these from two of your subordinates. They should have been burned to nothing by now, but those two men were too busy drinking and playing around, and didn’t notice the blood-soaked clothing hadn’t been completely destroyed.”
“Oh my,” Hua Yitang crouched down and flipped over a piece of scorched fabric with his fan. “This appears to have blood on it. Could this perhaps be the clothing Brother Jiang was wearing when he killed Shan Yuanming?” He then flipped over a thicker piece of charred cloth. “Oh my oh my, might this be the cloak Brother Jiang wore to cover the bloodstained garment? And look here — a half-burned boot with blood on the sole as well.”
Jiang Dongyi sneered. “A few scraps of burned cloth, in this condition — how can they serve as evidence?!”
“Oh my oh my oh my, what is this?” Hua Yitang dug out a bulging pouch from among the charred, scorched cloth — judging by the sound, it was packed with copper coins.
Jin Ruo: “The person responsible for burning the clothing hid this away for himself.”
Hua Yitang stood, holding the pouch, then drew from his breast pocket the small pouch he had found beneath the floorboards of Shan Yuanming’s room and held them side by side. “How convenient — these two pouches are identical in design and color, are they not? Allow me to ask everyone to guess: from where did I obtain the pouch in my hand?”
Every head bowed low; no one dared even look, except Bai Xiang, who suddenly leapt to his feet and bellowed: “I’ve seen that large pouch before — it’s the one Shan Yuanming was wearing when he came to the banquet!”
Bai Ruyi frantically yanked his sleeve. “Bai the Third, hold your tongue! Hold your tongue!”
Bai Xiang flung him off. “Hold what tongue?! He stole my handkerchief to pin the murder on me — he was trying to send me to my death! If I’m going to die either way, I’ll make sure he goes first!”
Hua Yitang looked at Bai Xiang with considerable surprise, then turned his gaze to Jiang Dongyi. “Jiang Dongyi — how do you explain the fact that Shan Yuanming’s missing belongings have turned up here?”
Jiang Dongyi chuckled twice, loosened and shrugged off his outer robe, and tightened his wristbands. “Shan Yuanming and I have no grudge, no enmity — we had never even met before. Why would I kill him?”
“Perhaps it was for this.” Hua Yitang drew a copper key from his sleeve.
When Hua Yitang made the motion to take out the object, Jiang Dongyi’s pupils contracted sharply — but when he saw clearly what was in Hua Yitang’s hand, his pupils returned to normal. He smiled. “All of this for a key?”
“What matters is not the key, but what the key locks away —” Hua Yitang raised his voice: “It is something that will drive you to madness!”
“Oh? What is it? Why not bring it out for everyone to examine together?”
Jiang Dongyi’s smile grew wider. He had already realized — Hua Yitang had only found the key; he had not found what the key kept hidden. This thing would become a secret forever, buried in the pool of blood along with Shan Yuanming’s death.
This Hua Yitang was nothing but bluster!
Then suddenly, Jiang Dongyi’s smile froze.
Because Hua Yitang was smiling — and stranger still, Lin Sui’an beside him was smiling too. The two of them looked at each other and laughed “ha, ha, ha” three times, then spoke in unison: “It is a scroll book!”
Jiang Dongyi’s mind rang like a bell — as though a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head. He went cold all over.
Hua Yitang: “The title is quite interesting — it is a line of poetry: ‘Pluck the flower while it is in bloom, for the time will not always be right.'”
Jiang Dongyi’s ears were buzzing. “Silence!”
“A large red binding ribbon, four cun long, with a green silk cover —” Lin Sui’an recounted every detail from her golden finger, “and beneath the title is a seal bearing the character for ‘Feng’ —”
“Silence! Silence!!” Jiang Dongyi’s sharp shout cut Lin Sui’an off. Lin Sui’an smiled and closed her mouth — in truth, she hadn’t been able to make out the characters of the seal clearly at all.
“That scroll book is inside this box,” Hua Yitang said, pointing to the large wooden box by Fangke’s feet. “Why don’t we do as Brother Jiang suggested — bring it out for everyone to examine together?”
At these words, both Ling Zhiyan and Jin Ruo were stunned. They looked in unison toward Fangke, who — perhaps from years of maintaining a neutral expression that had left his facial muscles somewhat rigid — only cast Hua Yitang a mildly surprised glance. But the subtlety of such an expression was entirely beyond someone like Jiang Dongyi, who perceived only that the eerie pale man’s eyes were piercingly cold and cruel, as though they harbored the most terrifying curse in the world.
The last straw to break the camel’s back.
“He deserved to die! Shan Yuanming deserved to die! So do all of you! Anyone who knows about that scroll book deserves to die! You will all die here today! I’ll kill every last one of you! I’ll break your fingers one by one, just like I did to Shan Yuanming — so you die without even closing your eyes!” Jiang Dongyi’s eyes bulged, red veins spreading instantly across the whites like crimson spider webs. He kicked over the table with a crash, launched himself into the air, and drove his massive fist straight down at Hua Yitang’s head with ferocious force.
Everyone went pale with terror. Even those who wanted to flee found their legs had long since turned to jelly — they could only screech at the top of their lungs: “Ah ah ah ah ah ah! Help! Help!!”
Lin Sui’an grabbed Hua Yitang’s collar and flung him backward. “Everyone move!” Qian Jing flashed from its sheath, sweeping upward to meet Jiang Dongyi’s fist — but at that very instant, Ling Zhiyan bellowed: “Lin Niangzi, hold back!”
In that split second of the shout, Lin Sui’an suddenly sensed something wrong. Jiang Dongyi’s killing intent was overwhelming, but his speed was nowhere near as fast as she had expected. Could it be —
In the flash of thunder and lightning, Lin Sui’an abruptly changed her technique — she raised her wrist by half an inch, letting the blade wind graze past Jiang Dongyi’s scalp and no further. She spun in the air and flew out a kick, landing it squarely on Jiang Dongyi’s backside. Jiang Dongyi hit the ground without even a groan and went still.
Lin Sui’an froze in her mid-air kicking pose, utterly bewildered.
Whatever happened to the so-called Tiger of Taiyuan Commandery?
Whatever happened to the so-called fifth-ranked master of the jianghu?!
How was he such a weakling?!
“Jingzhao Prefecture investigation — make way for everyone!”
“Court of Judicial Review investigation — all uninvolved persons stand aside!”
Wan Lin led a squad of Jingzhao Prefecture officers pouring into the courtyard, and with them came the Court of Judicial Review’s officers as well. At their head was a young official in a red robe.
The two squads together numbered more than thirty people, and every single one of them stopped dead at the sight of the devastation inside and outside the hall.
Lin Sui’an quickly tucked in her leg and stood straight, doing her utmost to reduce her own presence.
“Investigating Censor Ling, this is —” The official in the red robe hurried to Ling Zhiyan’s side and lowered his voice. “The killer has been caught?”
Ling Zhiyan startled for a moment, then cupped his fists. “Reporting to Deputy Chief Justice Zhang — yes.”
Hua Yitang snapped his fan open with a crack. “Jiang Dongyi personally admitted to killing Shan Yuanming. Everyone present is a witness!”
Deputy Chief Justice Zhang drew a sharp breath, then looked once more at Ling Zhiyan, who gave a nod.
Suddenly, Bai Xiang let out a shriek. “Lin Niangzi won! Lin Niangzi brought down Jiang Dongyi with a single move! Just one move!”
Deputy Chief Justice Zhang: “What?!”
“We’re saved! We’re saved!” Bai Ruyi clutched at his sleeves and wiped his eyes in a frenzy.
Everyone was weeping. The scions wept clinging to each other. The entertainers bawled their eyes out. Sobs rose in wave after wave, a cacophony of weeping in every pitch and key — louder and livelier than the music at the banquet earlier.
Hua Yitang’s eyes shifted slightly. He cupped his fists and made a deep bow toward Lin Sui’an. “Jiang Dongyi had lost all reason and wanted to silence everyone in this hall. We nearly lost our lives here. Thank you, Lin Niangzi, for saving us!”
These words seemed to act as a signal. The second to rise was Bai Ruyi, the third was Fan Baniang, the fourth was Bai Xiang, and after them, more and more people stood, bowing deeply toward Lin Sui’an:
“Thank you, Lin Niangzi, for saving our lives!”
Lin Sui’an’s scalp prickled as she was bowed to from all sides. She hastily cupped her fists and called out: “Please don’t — please! It was nothing — a trifling matter, truly! That is, I mean to say — please, such a great courtesy — I am not deserving of it!”
At these words, even more people burst into tears — whether moved, or still shaking from the shock of it all.
Hua Yitang leaned over and fanned his little fan rapidly at Lin Sui’an. “Congratulations.”
“What congratulations?” Lin Sui’an was completely bewildered.
Hua Yitang smiled as radiant as a spring flower in bloom. “You guess.”
Side Story
Deputy Chief Justice Zhang Huai (head in hands): I only looked away for a few hours, and Ling Zhiyan has already caused this enormous a mess!
Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review Chen Yanfan (tearing out his hair): The Feng family business isn’t even sorted out yet, and now we’ve offended the Taiyuan Jiang family. This life is unlivable!
Rest day tomorrow (lying down)