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?

Zhou Ziqin stuck out his tongue, then had to search seriously, before saying: “No weapon.”

Li Shubai looked down at Huang Zihua, asking softly by her ear: “Is this alright?”

Huang Zihua nodded slightly, looking up at him. She remembered when they were in danger, in the cold forest, she had held him, pressing close to help warm his body. When changing his bandages repeatedly, she had already seen and touched his half-naked body.

How strange, thinking back now, it seemed like a dream. The skin that had pressed so tightly together, the breath that had mingled so lightly, those heart flutters that had scattered in their hearts, had almost all become their secret along with that darkness. But from then on, even without saying it aloud, things between them had already changed.

So she just lowered her head, obediently raising her hands to stand before him. She felt his hand fall on her shoulder, then slide down along her arm to her wrist and sleeve. When his fingers touched her palm below the wrist, they both felt their blood flow seem to quicken slightly.

He released her hand, moved to her waist, and circled once, confirming there was nothing hard about that soft waist, then he bent down, feeling down her legs to her ankles.

Like a gentle vine, winding softly along her body. She suddenly felt that perhaps being bound like this wasn’t so bad.

When he withdrew his hand and straightened up to look at her, he couldn’t speak for a moment.

How strange, it was his expression that showed some nervousness, his breathing slightly uneven. Yet she was relaxed and natural, giving him a slight smile, even lifting her foot to point her toes before him, saying with a smile: “Nothing in the shoes either.”

Li Shubai looked at her smile and felt his heart suddenly contract, an unprecedented wave of heat flowing through his entire body, making the hands that had touched her involuntarily clench tight.

After a long while, he finally turned back to look at everyone and said: “No weapon.”

By now, everyone present had been searched, with no weapon found.

Zhou Ziqin then ordered the constables to search every place in the area thoroughly, then found several good swimmers to drain the pool to search for the weapon.

The ground in front of the water pavilion was very even, paved neatly with square bluestone slabs. Because of the Prince of Kui’s arrival, the servants had cleaned the weeds growing between the stones again during the day. The bluestone slabs were very clean, and except for two rows of shrubs planted along the water and several lake rocks, it was spotless and completely visible.

Zhou Ziyan had been searched by the maids and was feeling dejected. Seeing Zhou Ziqin only busy arranging for others to search the water for the weapon, she suddenly called out again: “Brother, haven’t you noticed something obvious, you idiot? That dancing Madam Gong Sun had two swords in her hands!”

Zhou Ziqin looked at his sister speechlessly: “Didn’t you see the swords she used before she went on stage? They weren’t even sharpened, okay?”

Gong Sun Yuan had also just been searched and had been standing silently to the side. Hearing this, she went to the railing to bring those two swords over, presenting them to everyone.

Indeed, both the long and short swords in her hands were unsharpened. Although they were painted with silver paint on the blade to enhance that cold glinting effect, forget about killing someone – they probably couldn’t even cut slightly thicker grass.

Zhou Ziqin made an “eh” sound as soon as he handled them, feeling something was off, then raised his hand to tap the blade, hearing only a light “tak” sound – it turned out these two swords were not only unsharpened but were made of wood. The hilts were carved with gold-inlaid flower patterns and set with various gemstones, but the blades were made of wood.

Madam Gong Sun explained: “As I’m getting older, iron swords have become somewhat tiring to dance with. Moreover, I often dance before distinguished guests, so using such dangerous weapons wouldn’t be appropriate, and they’re also inconvenient to carry on long journeys, so I had these two wooden swords made some years ago, just for appearance.”

Zhou Ziqin looked amusedly at his sister, seeing she still wouldn’t admit her mistake, then pulled Wang Yun over: “Come, come, Brother Yunzhi, quickly help me smell if there’s blood on these.”

Wang Yun couldn’t help but laugh: “I only know a bit about incense, how can you ask me to smell this?”

“Oh come on, your nose is very sensitive anyway.” Zhou Ziqin forcefully pushed the two wooden swords under his nose.

Wang Yun had no choice but to reluctantly smell them, then shook his head saying: “No blood smell, but there is a bit of an earthy smell.”

Huang Zihua took them to look and found that the shorter sword had some sand stuck to its hilt, obviously having been dirtied.

Gong Sun Yuan saw it too and said somewhat irritably: “When changing positions during the performance, I just put the swords down on the ground and didn’t pay attention. I hope I haven’t worn off the inlaid gems and gold patterns.”

Huang Zihua glanced at the water pavilion floor, then at her clean clothes, but said nothing, just returned the wooden swords to her.

“Chonggu, come quickly and look at this wound with me.” Zhou Ziqin saw the pool wouldn’t drain quickly, so he first pulled Huang Zihua to the corpse’s side, pointing at the wound saying, “I’ve just examined the wound and deduced the weapon must be a dagger about an inch wide, and the blade very thin. The killer’s technique was very clean, seemingly experienced – one stab to the heart, no cry, instant death.”

While Huang Zihua was looking at the chest wound, Wang Yun came over too, saying from behind: “The killer was truly bold. We were all watching the dance nearby, and although Administrative Assistant Qi was at the back, Miss Zhou was also beside him – to dare kill someone in public like this, isn’t that incredibly audacious?”

Huang Zihua nodded, then looked at Administrative Assistant Qi’s face again, noticing a slight red mark on his right cheek. She held up a lantern to look carefully, finding it was a small curved fingernail mark.

“A fingernail mark,” Huang Zihua said, examining it carefully.

Zhou Ziqin turned over Qi Teng’s hands to look – his nails had just been trimmed, and very short at that.

“The killer must have been behind him, left hand covering his mouth and nose, right hand quickly stabbing the dagger into his chest. That’s when the killer’s nail left the blood mark on his face,” Huang Zihua said.

Zhou Ziqin immediately jumped up, saying: “Check fingernails! Who has long nails?”

The longest nails were Zhou Ziyan’s, followed by those four maids, then Yin Luyi and Gong Sun Yuan. Besides the women, several servants also had long, untrimmed nails.

Zhou Ziqin’s face immediately fell: “Do we… have to question my sister?”

Huang Zihua crouched down, pulling her jade hairpin from her silver hairpin: “What’s wrong?”

Zhou Ziqin crouched beside her, almost crying: “Who dares to question that tigress? Unless they don’t want to live!”

“But your sister is highly suspicious, isn’t she?” Huang Zihua drew in the sand, going through everyone’s positions, “Your sister was sitting in the green gauze cabinet at the back, and the four maids, because your sister was sitting with him, had all moved to under the trees in front… in other words, if she wanted to kill someone, everyone was in front, no one would discover it.”

Zhou Ziqin nodded, then quickly said: “But, it’s good enough that my sister can get married, how could she possibly kill her husband?”

Huang Zihua turned to look at him, seeing that although he was mocking with his words, he was already so anxious that sweat was breaking out on his face. She sighed and said: “Wipe your sweat, good brother.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she suddenly remembered that she too once had such a brother, who though constantly expressing disdain for his sister always dealing with corpses, would jump out to stand in front of her whenever something happened, rolling up his sleeves and shouting at anyone who dared bully his sister.

She couldn’t help but feel melancholy, and no longer teased him deliberately, only saying to him: “Don’t worry, your sister isn’t the killer.”

Zhou Ziqin was overjoyed, quickly asking: “How so?”

“Because at the time, your sister was sitting in the green gauze cabinet, and Qi Teng happened to be sitting on your sister’s right side.” Huang Zihua gestured to the green gauze cabinet nearby. This was a frame set up in summer to prevent mosquitos and flies, with a bamboo bed in the middle, and gauze curtains hanging down to the ground, also good for concealing women. “In theory, your sister indeed had the opportunity to lift the gauze curtain and stab a dagger she was carrying into Qi Teng’s chest, but the fingernail mark we found on Qi Teng’s face completely clears your sister of suspicion.”

She gestured for Zhou Ziqin to enter the gauze cabinet, then had him sit on the small bamboo bed, lean toward Qi Teng’s corpse on the right, and pose as the killer would have at the time.

Zhou Ziqin leaned his body as much as he could but found it didn’t work no matter what.

Huang Zihua said: “You see when you sit on the bamboo bed in the green gauze cabinet, then try to lean right, left hand covering Qi Teng’s mouth and nose, right hand raising the dagger, you’ll definitely…”

Before she finished speaking, there was a thud – Zhou Ziqin had already lost his balance from this position and fallen headfirst under the bamboo bed.

“Fall,” Huang Zihua just finished these words.

Zhou Ziqin got up rubbing his face, asking: “So, my sister’s suspicion has been cleared?”

“Yes, among everyone present, there are several people for whom committing the crime would have been most difficult.” Huang Zihua used the hairpin in her hand to point at the terrain map drawn on the ground, pointing at the green gauze cabinet, saying, “One is your sister – if she wanted to kill him, she would have had to come out of the green gauze cabinet, then circle to behind Qi Teng to kill him, and Qi Teng would surely have been paying attention to her, how could he have been completely unaware when she acted?”

“What else?” Zhou Ziqin hurriedly asked.

Huang Zihua’s hairpin pointed toward the water pavilion: “Madam Gong Sun was dancing in the water pavilion the whole time it happened, everyone’s eyes were on her, so she had no time or opportunity to commit the crime.”

Zhou Ziqin nodded firmly, then pointed his finger toward the large lantern in front of the water pavilion: “Also Yin Luyi, who was adjusting the lights and managing props like flower petals, standing by the lantern next to the water pavilion – if she had moved, everyone would have seen her.”

“Right, so she had no opportunity either. Additionally, those sitting in the front – the Prince of Kui, your father, and General Fan – they were always in everyone’s focus, even standing up would have been noticed, let alone going to the back to kill someone?” Huang Zihua’s hairpin erased three more people, “Then there’s you, me, and Zhang Xingying standing beside the chairs, but – our possibilities are a bit higher, because during the dimmed lights, with flower petals flying and Madam Gong Sun releasing butterflies on stage, while everyone was amazed, perhaps we could have sneaked to the back and then back again. With enough luck, perfect timing, and quick movements, perhaps we could have avoided the eyes of those behind?”

“Then wouldn’t Wang Yun, Yu Xuan, and Fan Yuanlong be even more suspicious than us? If they ran to the back to commit the crime, their success rate would be higher than ours.”

“Yes, for this crime, the further back someone was, the more likely they could have done it. And Fan Yuanlong and Yu Xuan left midway, so only Wang Yun was left in the last row.” Huang Zihua said while wiping her jade hairpin clean on Zhou Ziqin’s clothes before inserting it back into her silver hairpin, “There are also the musicians performing by the water pavilion, the four maids standing under the trees, and the six servants who came to attend – ten people in total, enough for you to question tonight.”

But Zhou Ziqin was concerned about something else, pulling at his sleeve to look: “Why did you clean your hairpin on my clothes?”

“Because your sleeves are already stained with blood, you’ll have to change them anyway.”

“That’s true.” Zhou Ziqin said, then simply took off his clothes and threw them on the ground.