Several servants who were closer had already surrounded the chair beside the green gauze cabinet, while Zhou Ziyan from inside the cabinet had already run out and was standing trembling with her maids.
Zhou Ziqin rushed over, asking, “What happened?” Then looking up at the green gauze cabinet, his face suddenly changed.
The bright lights by the water pavilion shone on the boat dock by the shore. On the chair beside the green gauze cabinet, Qi Teng sat motionless with his head drooping, his whole body limp and powerless. On his chest, a bloody hole was still oozing blood.
Zhou Ziqin immediately walked up to him, first checking his breathing, then feeling for a pulse on his neck, before standing up and saying softly, “He’s already… gone.”
Everyone around couldn’t help but cry out in shock.
With the Military Commissioner’s Administrative Assistant suddenly dying in the Prefecture Lord’s mansion, both Fan Yingxi and Zhou Pang’s faces changed color. Zhou Pang knew the gravity of the situation, but having come from a civil service background, he didn’t know how to react for a moment and could only stand there dumbfounded.
Fan Yingxi’s face quickly flashed with anger and fear. His deputy had suddenly died – who knew if someone wasn’t targeting him? Moreover, what was the reason for dying here?
He was about to explode but suddenly realized the Prince of Kui was beside him, so he had to forcefully suppress all his emotions and asked Li Shubai for instructions: “Your Highness, my office’s Administrative Assistant has died here – how should the Prefecture Lord Zhou and I best handle this?”
Li Shubai looked at Huang Zihua and reassured him, saying, “Yang Chonggu by my side has solved several cases in the capital, and is quite capable. If General Fan needs help, feel free to make use of his services.”
Fan Yingxi hurriedly said, “I wouldn’t dare refuse! Please give your instructions, Your Highness. If we could have Master Yang’s help, this case would naturally be resolved easily!”
Huang Zihua no longer paid attention to these people’s courtesies around the corpse. After giving Fan Yingxi a courteous bow, she immediately walked to the corpse’s side to examine the marks on the body.
Qi Teng’s expression was relatively peaceful the attack was sudden – he was killed before he could react, so his expression showed no particular fear or distortion. His body was still soft, slumped in the chair, hands hanging down, back against the chair, head drooping. If not for the bloody hole in his chest, others might think he was just taking a nap.
Zhou Ziqin said softly beside her, “Look at the back of his left hand.”
Huang Zihua lifted both his hands and examined them carefully.
The back of his right hand was normal, but on the back of his left hand, there were several uneven small spots scattered there. Only upon careful close observation could one see they were small wounds, like being bitten by a small cat, or marks left after blisters from hot oil splashes had burst, irregularly scattered at the junction between the back of his hand and wrist.
“These are wounds from a few days ago, they’ve already scabbed over. After a few days when the color fades, they’ll heal, probably only leaving a few barely noticeable small scars on the back of his hand,” Huang Zihua said.
Zhou Ziqin nodded: “Yes, but we don’t know where these small wounds came from, or if they’re related to this murder case.”
“Small wounds from several days ago, and today’s death… they don’t seem to have any connection however you look at it.” Zhou Ziqin said while still recording it in the autopsy document.
Seeing no other abnormalities on Qi Teng’s body, Huang Zihua stood up and observed the surroundings.
All the people watching the dance were on the dock clearing in front of the water pavilion. This area was surrounded by water on three sides – to enter this area, apart from going through the water pavilion, the only way was to come by water.
However, after walking around the dock, she found no traces of anyone coming from the water on the steps by the water’s edge. Not just the dock, but under the trees by the water pavilion, beside the shrubs, and on the lakeside rocks – there were no watermarks anywhere.
Tea and refreshments had already been set out in the water pavilion, with Zhou Pang and Fan Yingxi accompanying Li Shubai for tea. However, with Fan Yingxi facing his subordinate’s corpse and Zhou Pang watching his future son-in-law’s death, neither had the mood to appreciate tea.
Only Li Shubai was still drinking tea as usual. Seeing her return silently, he put down his teacup and asked, “No traces of outsiders entering?”
“Yes… the killer can only be one of us present. The servants attending here, me, Zhou Ziqin, Zhang Xingying, Yu Xuan, Wang Yun, Miss Zhou, Prefecture Lord Zhou, General Fan, even… you, Your Highness, are all suspects.”
Li Shubai slightly furrowed his brows, stood up, and walked out of the water pavilion with her, his gaze falling on Zhou Ziyan who was still trembling beside her maids.
Huang Zihua understood his meaning and lowered her voice to say in his ear: “Yes, the time of the incident should have been during Madam Gong Sun’s dance, no more than half an incense stick’s time. Among the people watching the dance at the front, if anyone tried to sneak to the back to kill someone, even with dim lighting, their silhouette would surely have been seen by others. Only the green gauze cabinet, because Miss Zhou was inside, was set up at the very back of the crowd. And because Qi Teng came to Miss Zhou’s side, her four maids had all moved aside under the trees. Therefore, the person most likely able to kill without attracting others’ attention should be the person who was beside him at the time – Zhou Ziyan.”
Li Shubai withdrew his gaze from Zhou Ziyan and said lightly, “A young lady about to be married killing her future husband in public – it’s rather shocking to hear.”
“Besides questioning Miss Zhou, there’s one more thing – we should quickly search everyone to see if we can find the murder weapon. If we can’t find it, we’ll probably have to search in the water.”
Four constables from Shu Prefecture’s Chengdu Prefecture came in during the night to search for everyone present at the time, including Yu Xuan.
He silently took off his outer garment to let them search him. However, his demeanor carried a hint of suppressed melancholy, forcefully restraining his displeasure.
Wang Yun behind him very readily stood up to indicate the constables should search him. After being cleared, he smiled at Yu Xuan and said, “Being suspected of such a thing is quite depressing, isn’t it?”
Yu Xuan wasn’t familiar with him, so he didn’t respond, only glancing at him.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, isn’t that right?” he said leisurely again.
Yu Xuan knew what he meant – referring to when he had submitted Huang Zihua’s love letters to Military Commissioner Fan Yingxi, causing Huang Zihua to become the murderer who poisoned her whole family and fled for her life.
He silently turned his head to look at Huang Zihua.
She was standing behind the Prince of Kui, who had turned back and was saying something to her. The scene was chaotic and noisy all around, she hadn’t heard clearly for a moment, so he bent down and said it again closer to her.
That usually cold face showed a rare gentle expression, and when he spoke, those eyes fixed constantly on her couldn’t hide the tenderness that seemed about to overflow.
Yu Xuan’s expression darkened, but he immediately turned to look at him again, his voice barely audible yet just loud enough for him to hear: “What does she have to do with me? After all, I’m not the one with a marriage contract to her.”
His words were light and calm, yet they made Wang Yun’s heart – as Huang Zihua’s fiancé – suddenly contract.
But he had always been well-mannered, and ultimately still suppressed the flame in his heart, only smiling slightly at Yu Xuan and saying, “Indeed, though I wonder which is better – having an official status, or being nameless and of unknown origin – what do you think?”
Yu Xuan coldly turned his face away and spoke no more.
Everyone present had been searched, with no results.
“Chief, there’s… there’s a discovery…” a constable came running over, moving close to Zhou Ziqin’s ear, stammering and afraid to speak.
Zhou Ziqin quickly grabbed his ear: “Speak quickly! What’s there to be hesitant about now, are you trying to kill me with anxiety?”
“It’s… it’s on the hem of Young Master Fan’s clothes…” he said softly.
Zhou Ziqin took two steps at once, rushing to Fan Yuanlong’s side. This unfortunate fellow had just been pulled away by Yu Xuan earlier, had vomited by the shrubs, and after vomiting had fallen right asleep on the ground. Now he had been pulled up and was crouching there drinking hangover soup, covered in dirt and vomit, a complete mess.
Zhou Ziqin didn’t care about the filth anymore, crouched down and grabbed the hem of his clothes to look – two fresh bloodstains.
Fan Yuanlong pulled at the hem of his clothes, still mumbling: “What are you looking at my clothes for? I’m a man too, is it nice to look at…”
Fan Yingxi saw something was wrong, came over, and first yanked Fan Yuanlong up, both angry and anxious: “You little bastard, what’s this on the hem of your clothes?”
Fan Yuanlong said vaguely, “Isn’t it… just dirt?”
“Dirt? Look again!” he raged.
Zhou Pang quickly came out to play peacemaker and deflect hatred from his son: “General Fan, the matter isn’t clear yet, and looking at your young master’s state, he’s still confused from drinking. Don’t frighten him now, let’s question him slowly later, what do you think, General?”
Fan Yingxi was furious, let go of his son’s filthy and smelly clothes, and violently pushed him to the ground: “You little beast! What exactly did you do while drunk? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
Li Shubai said from the side: “It’s not necessarily your son. After all, what killer in the world would wipe their weapon clean on themselves and then throw it away?”
Fan Yingxi was greatly relieved and quickly bowed to Li Shubai, saying: “Your Highness speaks truly, I was truly confused with anger!”
Zhou Pang also quickly ordered Zhou Ziqin: “Investigate thoroughly! You must find the real killer quickly, see who dares to wrongly accuse Young Master Fan!”
Zhou Ziqin responded compliantly, and Huang Zihua crouched down with him to examine the bloodstains on Fan Yuanlong’s clothes.
The blood had just dried, still bright red, with long streak marks that weren’t parallel. Obviously, after killing the person, the killer grabbed Fan Yuanlong’s hem and wiped the bloody weapon on it, front and back, leaving two streaks.
Zhou Ziyan, who had been trembling in a corner all this time, suddenly pointed at Huang Zihua and cried out: “What about that eunuch, hasn’t he not been searched yet?”
Zhou Pang immediately scolded: “Nonsense! Master Yang is a nationally renowned detective who has solved many strange cases in Chang’an, and is in the prince’s service – how could he be suspected of this crime?”
Huang Zihua looked at the constables responsible for searching, feeling quite awkward. This measure had been proposed by her and Zhou Ziqin – although they knew the possibility of the murder weapon still being on the killer was extremely small, it was still a necessary procedure, but now it had come to herself.
Zhou Ziqin was still examining Qi Teng’s corpse, his hands probing the wound to determine the weapon’s characteristics. Hearing what they said, he quickly stood up, holding up his blood-covered hands, saying: “I’ll search, I’ll search! I’ve never searched a eunuch before, I need to study why Chonggu’s posture always seems more graceful than others, his bones must be different from others! So nobody fights me for this! I’ll get angry with whoever tries to steal this from me!”
Huang Zihua was speechless and could only turn back to look at Li Shubai.
Li Shubai, standing behind her, lightly placed his hand on her shoulder and said: “She is from my Prince of Kui’s mansion. As Prefecture Lord Zhou just said, you would all consider searching her to be disrespectful to the Prince’s mansion out of consideration for me. However, I have always conducted myself righteously. Since she is involved in this matter, being searched is not unreasonable. Therefore, I will personally search for her – firstly, none of you need worry about offending the Prince’s mansion, and secondly, everyone will be treated equally. Does anyone object?”
Everyone quickly said: “Of course not! The Prince is truly upright and strict!”
Only Wang Yun lowered his eyes and smiled, Yu Xuan stood silently under the trees, and Zhou Ziqin had a dejected face as he reluctantly watched them.
Li Shubai continued: “Zhang Xingying is also in my service now. Ziqin, haven’t you always admired his martial skills? You can try him.”
“Oh! Zhang Xingying is mine? Wonderful!” Zhou Ziqin immediately wiped his hands clean and pounced over, gripping Zhang Xingying’s arm and clicking his tongue in admiration, “Brother Zhang, your muscles are impressive, let me feel them properly!”
Zhou Pang was truly speechless and could only cough once – after all, a major incident had occurred with the death of the Military Commissioner’s Administrative Assistant, couldn’t they show a bit more restraint?