“Where’s the hydrangea painting now?” Zhou Ziqin asked.

“That I don’t know… don’t know when the hydrangea was replaced with pine trees—please wait a moment.” Qi Fu said, walking to the door and shouting outside: “A’Gui, A’Gui!”

A youth of fourteen or fifteen years ran over: “Uncle Fu, what is it?”

“Weren’t you helping the master manage the study? Where’s that hydrangea painting from inside?”

The youth tilted his head to look at the pine tree painting, bewildered: “How would I know? Perhaps the master thought pine trees looked better, so he changed it.”

“Get out, get out!” Qi Fu waved his hand to drive him away, then turned to them with an apologetic smile: “Looks like the master changed it himself, we servants just have to go along with him, right?”

It seemed this Qi Teng was poor at managing his household; now that he was dead, the mansion was in complete chaos, making investigation impossible.

Huang Zixia could only gesture for Qi Fu to leave, and then search for clues in the room with Zhou Ziqin. Zhou Ziqin immediately went to check the bookshelf and drawers, while Huang Zixia circled the room once and saw something in the waste paper basket, which she reached out to retrieve.

It was a dark blue sachet. This sachet had a steady color and old-fashioned style, with lotus flowers embroidered stiffly and lifelessly on it, clearly the work of an unskilled embroiderer.

Huang Zixia held up the sachet, examining it carefully before her eyes. Zhou Ziqin came over to look and said: “Probably an old sachet, the color faded, so Qi Teng threw it away.”

Huang Zixia shook her head: “Though the sachet’s color is subdued, this lotus flower pattern is only used by married women, symbolizing many sons. Do you think Magistrate Qi would use such a pattern?”

Zhou Ziqin scratched his hair embarrassedly: “But how would young ladies use such an old-fashioned color?”

“Young ladies wouldn’t, but older married women certainly would, wouldn’t they?”

Zhou Ziqin’s mouth formed a round shape: “So… it’s a keepsake from his mother?”

Huang Zixia was somewhat helpless: “A mother’s keepsake thrown in the waste paper basket? And Magistrate Qi came from a great clan, would his mother use a sachet of such workmanship? Would it even be worth keeping as a keepsake?”

Zhou Ziqin blinked and asked: “Then…”

“Have you forgotten what Tang Zhu Niang’s nephew Tang Sheng once said? At that time, Tang Zhu Niang had taken out a sachet slightly but put it back, saying she’d rather take it back to make a pair of silver hairpins—but when we examined her belongings after her death, we didn’t find that sachet, remember?”

Zhou Ziqin suddenly realized: “When the killer pushed her off the cliff, they took her sachet!”

“Very likely, it’s this sachet.” Huang Zixia said, holding the empty sachet.

“But Magistrate Qi was so wealthy, why would he rob a servant woman’s money?” Zhou Ziqin thought for a moment, then said, “Then… perhaps someone else saw the money and acted on impulse, robbing her on the mountain path, and then this sachet happened to be picked up by Magistrate Qi?”

“If it were a robbery, the bundle would have been ransacked messily, how could the clothes inside still be folded neatly? The perpetrator targeted this sachet specifically, subdued her, took the sachet from her bundle, then pushed her directly off the cliff.”

Zhou Ziqin immediately understood: “Her nephew!”

Huang Zixia was exasperated: “If her nephew was really that cruel, he would have grabbed it right then in Shuangxi Lane when he saw her take it back, why would he need to chase so far later to kill his aunt for money?”

Zhou Ziqin asked again: “But why would Magistrate Qi want to rob Tang Zhu Niang’s sachet? And after robbing it, why throw it away?”

“Of course because the sachet itself wasn’t important, but what was inside was very important—perhaps, it would reveal his identity.”

Huang Zixia said this while putting away the sachet, and handing it to him.

Zhou Ziqin put away the sachet, looked up outside, and quickly pulled her, saying: “Look, look.”

Huang Zixia saw Qi Fu’s group secretly hiding things again, and casually said: “Never mind, let’s find what we need first.”

“But what do we need?” Zhou Ziqin said while aimlessly following her in searching through things.

Huang Zixia pulled out a slightly yellowed paper from a thick stack of documents and placed it before him, saying: “For example, this.”

Zhou Ziqin looked once and his eyes immediately lit up: “Zhong Hui’s handwriting?”

“And it’s a letter from the ninth day of the twelfth month of the first year of Jiaping, signed by Zhong Hui, Minister of the Imperial Secretariat.” Huang Zixia placed it on the table, saying flatly, “This should be the handwritten letter that Wenyang asked Yu Xuan to study.”

“How strange… why would this be here? Isn’t this Wenyang’s?” Zhou Ziqin picked it up to look, then craned his neck to look at the other letters in her hand, “What are these?”

Huang Zixia spread those letters out before him: “Gold-flecked paper, Xue Tao letter paper, peach blossom envelopes, what do you think?”

Zhou Ziqin leaned in to look closely but caught a whiff of powder fragrance. He hesitantly asked: “These couldn’t be… love letters, could they?”

“They are love letters, and all from courtesans.” Huang Zixia said, pulling out one to look at, which read:

Hearing magpies brings joy while lying on a pillow,

Too lazy to rise and see flower branches.

All day good omens arrive,

Only longing remains unseen.

—Written personally by Juanjuan of Changchun Garden on a winter day while warming her hands.

Zhou Ziqin was immediately moved, saying: “Though the poem might not be great, the sentiment in it is touching…”

“For such poems, they just find someone in their establishment who knows a bit about writing, then write one for each girl, and when the girls meet clients who like refinement, they write it and give it to them, just to gain a reputation as talented women.” Huang Zixia said while taking out several other papers to look at, and sure enough they were all similar patterns, thinking of the gentleman, missing the gentleman, waiting for the gentleman, and such, with signatures like “Lanlan writing at midnight dreams return,” “Yuanyuan testing her brush under red candles,” “Xiaoyu completing makeup and matching rhymes,” each more sincere and moving than the last.

Zhou Ziqin sighed in amazement, then said with some relieved trepidation: “Fortunately Ziyan didn’t marry such a person, otherwise wouldn’t she be angered to death.”

Huang Zixia was also a bit curious about his sister: “Her intended husband died, she must be very sad now?”

“Not at all, actively looking for the next candidate.” Zhou Ziqin said, his hand suddenly pausing as he pulled out a snow-wave letter paper from the stack, “Eh… this one is a bit strange.”

Huang Zixia took it and found the snow-wave paper was printed with elegant blue fret patterns, having a different interest from the other flowery, amorous letters, as if washed clean of powder.

She read the text on it, finding it also different from the others—

Once lamented sharing peach,

Once rejoiced cutting sleeve.

Caps and carriages fill Chang’an,

No young lord matches in all the world.

Zhou Ziqin covered his face, showing disgust: “This cobbled-together writing is terrible… why not find someone better to ghostwrite.”

Huang Zixia pointed at the signature below, saying: “Don’t look at the poem, look here.”

Zhou Ziqin looked carefully but didn’t see anything special: “Night Wandering House Pine Wind deeply admiring the gentleman’s collar.”

“Night Wandering House… Pine Wind?” Zhou Ziqin seemed to taste something different.

“Yes, do you remember what Fan Yuanlong said last time, about going to Night Wandering House to find male courtesans? So, I think this should be a… male brothel in Chengdu Prefecture.”

Zhou Ziqin’s mouth formed a circle, his face glowing with excitement: “This means we can visit pleasure houses in the name of official business? And it’s… it’s male brothels? Oh my, my parents are strict, I’ve never been to such places, just thinking about it makes me nervous!”

Huang Zixia didn’t see any nervousness on his face, only excitement and anticipation. She thought for a moment, put down the letters, and walked out, saying: “I need to go back first.”

Zhou Ziqin quickly followed: “Go back for what?”

She lowered her head somewhat guiltily, saying: “To report to Prince Kui first.”

Zhou Ziqin nodded thoughtfully: “Right if a eunuch goes to a pleasure house without telling superiors beforehand, how would we expense it later?”

Thinking again, he caught up: “Hey hey hey, Chonggu, wait! Since the government’s paying, why do we need to tell Prince Kui?”

When they arrived at Li Shubai’s place, the scene was quite awkward.

An old steward from the Military Commissioner’s mansion was leading several beauties out, and upon seeing Huang Zixia and company arrive, quickly approached with a fawning smile: “Ah, Eunuch Yang, you’re back!”

Huang Zixia looked at the group of beauties behind him and immediately understood what was happening, just nodding without speaking.

“Commissioner Fan was worried the prince would be lonely having come from afar, with no one to play music or add fragrance, so he bought several outstanding daughters of good families to send over, but the prince doesn’t seem interested…”

Huang Zixia said: “The prince has always been fastidious, disliking others close to his person, it’s the same in the prince’s mansion, Steward Liu need not select more serving girls.”

Steward Liu suddenly understood: “So that’s it. Then in a few days, I’ll find some proper-looking young men to bring over.”

“Ah, that’s not what I meant…” Before Huang Zixia could stop him, Steward Liu, believing he had discovered a secret, had already eagerly left with his group of women.

Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin looked at each other, both showing pained expressions.

When Li Shubai heard them explain this upon their return, he also showed a helpless expression: “Let them be, anyway, wanting to plant people around me isn’t an easy thing.”

Zhang Xingying said solemnly: “Though I am but one person, I swear to defend the prince’s safety to the death!”

Li Shubai glanced at him, saying flatly: “The governors of several nearby prefectures have also come, I’ll meet with them today. Among them are some I once commanded in Xuzhou, I’ll naturally select some people I know well to come over, you needn’t shoulder everything alone, it’s too tiring.”

“This servant…” Zhang Xingying grabbed his hair, not knowing how to respond.

Huang Zixia knew he was a straightforward person, usually stuttering when speaking, let alone understanding the several layers of meaning in Li Shubai’s words. So she quickly spoke up: “This afternoon, I need to request leave to go to Wutong Street with Zhou Ziqin.”

To Huang Zixia’s surprise, Li Shubai had absolutely no reaction, just waving his hand and saying: “Go ahead.”

She hesitated, while Zhou Ziqin thought Li Shubai didn’t know where Wutong Street was, so added: “That’s… Chengdu Prefecture’s most famous pleasure district, Wutong Street.”

Li Shubai nodded, standing up to leave: “Mm.”

While Huang Zixia was anxiously observing Li Shubai’s expression, he acted as if nothing was wrong, asking: “Regarding Qi Teng’s death, do you have any clues now?”

“We have some, but they’re not sufficient.” Huang Zixia nodded, remembering she had brought the testimonies from their group earlier, so took them out to show him, saying: “After you left that day, we questioned everyone present, the statements are here.”

Li Shubai took them, scanning each one very quickly, just glancing at each, and then he stopped at Yu Xuan’s.

Huang Zixia leaned to his side, bending to look at that testimony, but didn’t find anything amiss. She pondered for a moment, looked toward Li Shubai, and found his gaze fixed on the last part of the testimony, on a palm print Yu Xuan had pressed.

By rule, people involved in cases had dedicated scribes who recorded their questioning, and after writing would sign and press their palm print, to ensure truthfulness and prevent people from speaking nonsense that would affect official business.

Yu Xuan’s palm was slender, with proportionate joints, making a very beautiful print.

As she stared at it slightly dazed, she heard Li Shubai’s voice, saying softly, like a sigh: “This palm print, I’ve seen it before.”