Songhua Lane, Fu residence.

Fu Xinruan had been famous throughout Jiangnan since she was twelve, with various entertainment houses competing to hire her to compose music and choreograph dances. Since she had no mother or matron taking cuts from her earnings, after coming to Shu Prefecture, she bought a small courtyard in Songhua Lane and lived alone.

Zhou Ziqin tore off the official seal on the door and took out the key to unlock it.

Huang Zixia saw another note pasted on the door, which read “I’m at Yunlai Inn in Zizhu Lane, must come.”

There was no signature below, only a small paper kite drawn at the bottom.

While Huang Zixia was still looking, an elderly woman from next door saw them and hurriedly came over to tell Zhou Ziqin: “Young man, that’s an official seal, you’ll get in trouble for tearing it off!”

Zhou Ziqin tugged at his official uniform and smiled: “Auntie, I am the official.”

The elderly woman quickly asked again: “Does this mean… there’s been progress in the case?”

“Not yet, that’s why we’re investigating, aren’t we?”

“Oh my, hurry and investigate! There was a murder in this courtyard, and two people died! Everyone around here is terrified, we can’t even sleep well at night!”

“Alright, Auntie, just leave it to us.” Zhou Ziqin said, then suddenly remembered something and asked, “By the way, Auntie, let me ask you something – did that Master Wenyang come here often?”

“How would I know? This Miss Fu had such strange habits! She only had one old woman serving her and never went out. We rarely even saw her shadow – she’s lived here for over a year, and I’ve only seen her four or five times, let alone any Master Wen! But I must say, she was truly beautiful, just looked like she had a bad fate. The first time I saw her face, I knew her life wouldn’t be good!” The elderly woman shook her head, then looked Zhou Ziqin up and down, “Let me tell you something, I’ve seen many people in my day, and I have a good eye for these things. Take you for example – I can tell you’d make a good match with my niece from my mother’s side. How about this: leave me your address, and when my niece comes to visit, I’ll let you know. What do you think?”

After finally shaking off this suddenly eager matchmaking auntie, Zhou Ziqin unlocked the door, quickly went inside, and closed it, leaning against it to catch his breath: “No wonder Fu Xinruan never went out. If these neighbors caught her, wouldn’t that waste an entire day?”

Huang Zixia and Li Shubai thoroughly agreed, consoled him with a few words, and then went inside to investigate.

The front courtyard had a small skywell, with two clusters of flowering fruits and several pots of orchids. On the altar table in the hall, there was an incense burner and implements, with a portrait of a woman being worshipped. The woman was dressed in brocade and jade, dancing with a sword, her clothes and ribbons flying in the wind, appearing like an immortal.

Huang Zixia’s gaze fell on her hands. The sword she held was a dark-colored iron sword, short and small, not like a longsword, and certainly not like an implement for sword dancing – rather, it looked more like an inconspicuous rusty dagger.

Li Shubai’s attention was also on this dagger, and he said softly: “Did you see that dagger?”

“Yes, does Your Highness know its history?”

“This is the dagger Emperor Taizong gave to Empress Wu to tame the ‘Lion Stallion,’ later bestowed to Lady Gongsun, who passed it to her disciple Li Shi’er. Seventeen years ago, when the Six Ladies of Yunshou entered the capital, this was the dagger Gongsun Yuan used in her dance offering.” Li Shubai said, his gaze falling thoughtfully on her again, “This dagger was originally Emperor Taizong’s item, made from cold iron sent from overseas. Twenty-four were forged, but only this one was chosen by Taizong to carry personally. Legend says the overseas cold iron never rusts, yet who would have thought that upon leaving the palace, it would become so rust-covered as it is now.”

Huang Zixia said: “It shows legends can’t be trusted.”

Li Shubai nodded: “That’s why when the late emperor saw this dagger in Gongsun Yuan’s hands, he sighed deeply, saying that something Emperor Taizong had cherished so much had become like this – time flows on, truly sparing no one.”

Huang Zixia recalled that the late emperor had been called “Little Taizong,” most admiring Taizong’s brilliance. Looking at the dagger in the painted woman’s hand and thinking of Li Shubai’s father’s feelings, she couldn’t help but feel melancholy.

Behind them, Zhou Ziqin had secured the door bolt and ran over to call them: “Can we start investigating?”

“Let’s look at the back first.” The three walked to the back, where they saw crape myrtles in full bloom in the small courtyard, clusters of purple flowers blooming in layers, exceptionally beautiful, partially concealing the music pavilion and study.

They entered the study and saw several floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with scrolls. Huang Zixia opened a few to look at, but they were all like heavenly symbols to her.

Li Shubai took a look and said: “Four-string four-phase Yan music half-character notation, these are pipa sheet music, probably used when Fu Xinruan was choreographing or composing. The others must be music scores too.”

Huang Zixia looked again – she could understand some of the qin notation but was completely lost with the dance notation, so she had to put them aside.

Zhou Ziqin found a stack of papers in a drawer, his eyes lighting up as he quickly said: “Look at this!”

They went over to look and found it was a stack of handwritten papers, the handwriting identical to that in Wenyang’s study.

Zhou Ziqin quickly flipped through the stack of Buddhist scriptures and found that the last page indeed ended with “Subhuti, what is called the Buddha-dharma is not Buddha-dharma. Subhu-“

The character “ti” matched perfectly with the following text, and the handwriting was the same. Zhou Ziqin patted the scripture in his hand and said: “Since they were together, Fu Xinruan must have things left by Wenyang, and here they are.”

Huang Zixia nodded, saying: “This scripture must undoubtedly be Wenyang’s.”

“But a scripture doesn’t help us solve the case.” Zhou Ziqin dejectedly threw it onto the dusty table, saying, “We need to find other evidence to know why they committed suicide together.”

Li Shubai looked at the stack of papers and asked Huang Zixia: “Have you noticed anything different about them?”

Huang Zixia knew the table was covered in dust and he wouldn’t touch it, so she flipped through them herself, nodding: “Yes, it seems useful.”

Zhou Ziqin quickly grabbed the stack of Diamond Sutra copies, repeatedly asking: “Where? What’s different?”

Huang Zixia explained: “These papers have wide margins on all sides, we suspect they might have been intended for butterfly binding.”

Zhou Ziqin was puzzled: “What’s wrong with butterfly binding? It looks nice.”

Huang Zixia could only give up and stood up to walk to her wardrobe and trunks, opening them to examine them carefully. Inside were one or two men’s undergarments, which she handed to Zhou Ziqin to compare with Wenyang’s regular clothes. Then she looked through Fu Xinruan’s daily clothes and saw that for the current summer, she mostly had brightly colored, light gauze clothes in goose yellow, light blue, moon white, and peach pink, indescribably lively and vibrant.

Standing before this wardrobe of clothes, she couldn’t help but be moved, unconsciously running her hand over the various gauzes and silks, watching their light, bright colors blend into an entire spring and summer palette before her eyes.

Zhou Ziqin, who was going through the men’s clothes, turned to look at her and couldn’t help laughing: “Chonggu, it’s one thing that you look like a woman, but you even like women’s clothes?”

Huang Zixia wordlessly closed the wardrobe door and began examining Fu Xinruan’s jewelry box, saying: “One look, and I can tell you don’t understand women.”

Zhou Ziqin mocked her: “Oh as if you understand them so well.”

Huang Zixia ignored him and opened the jewelry box before her. The box contained many hairpins and ornaments, besides the usual flowers and birds, there were also various unique pins and rings with dragonflies and crickets, quite lovely. There were also several gold jump rings and jade bracelets, all pressed beneath the hairpins.

Under all the jewelry was a separate red sandalwood box, pressed at the very bottom.

Huang Zixia opened that box and found an extraordinarily lustrous mutton-fat jade bracelet. Under the daylight streaming in from the window, the entire jade surface was suffused with a faint glow, as if shrouded in a layer of thin smoke, enchanting.

She held the bracelet up to her eyes and looked at it for a long while. The jade’s color seemed to flow with the changes in daylight, capable of transforming into countless shapes within.

Such a rare treasure, no wonder Fu Xinruan had kept it separately in a small box, carefully preserved.

Huang Zixia put the bracelet back in the box and asked: “Did Gongsun Yuan come here before?”

Zhou Ziqin said in surprise: “Impossible, right? When Gongsun Yuan came, Fu Xinruan was already dead, and this place was sealed after the autopsy was completed, the seal shows no signs of being tampered with. Besides, the courtyard walls are quite high – could she have done some roof-walking to get in?”

“Mm… so she must have bribed the old keeper at the mortuary to see Fu Xinruan after her death?”

“Should be,” Zhou Ziqin said.

Huang Zixia looked thoughtfully at Li Shubai. Li Shubai naturally understood her meaning and immediately knew what she was thinking: “That bracelet.”

Before Gongsun Yuan entered the mortuary, but after Fu Xinruan’s death, that bracelet had already appeared at Gongsun Yuan’s side.

How it appeared in her hands was a question worth pursuing.

Li Shubai took the box from her hand, removed the lustrous jade bracelet, and held it up to examine carefully.

Huang Zixia saw his brow slightly furrow and asked softly: “Does Your Highness recognize this bracelet’s origin?”

Li Shubai turned to look at her. The bracelet was so translucent that the sunlight refracted off it and reflected onto his face, making the curve of his lips seem to show an anxious and surprised expression in the light’s reflection.

He said softly: “This is an old item from the palace.”

Huang Zixia was stunned.

“Moreover, it was carved in the inner palace not long before father emperor passed away.”

He didn’t say whose it was, but Huang Zixia knew that when the late emperor was elderly, the person closest to him was only Duke Li Run’s mother, Consort Chen who later went mad.

Li Shubai knew she must have realized this, so he nodded slightly and said: “A palace item appearing beside a courtesan who committed suicide – there must be complex reasons behind this.”

Huang Zixia nodded and asked again: “Are you sure… it was that person’s?”

“Yes, I often visited when Father Emperor was ill before his death. She always attended his sickbed personally, and this bracelet was her beloved possession, often worn on her wrist. The luster and patterns I saw then, I will never forget.”

Huang Zixia nodded and returned the bracelet to Zhou Ziqin. Seeing him also turning the bracelet over and over to examine it, she changed the subject and asked: “By the way, Ziqin, didn’t you say Fu Xinruan had a maidservant here? She was sent home later because she was getting married – has this maidservant been found?”

“Oh, we’ve already sent people to look for her. They say she’s from Hanzhou, very close by, and should be found in a few days.” Zhou Ziqin said, quickly putting down the bracelet and coming closer to her with a beaming smile, saying softly, “They say this maidservant was an excellent cook, especially her Sichuan pepper chicken, so fragrant it drew attention from the whole Songhua Lane. When the time comes, we can ask her to cook some for us to try!”