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.”

Huang Zixia was startled, asking in a low voice: “Your Highness has seen… his palm print?”

“What’s strange about that? I also hold the position of Minister of Justice, though I usually leave affairs to Chunzhan and don’t manage much, I’ve reviewed all closed case files.” He glanced at her, then said flatly, “Everyone’s palm print is different, the three main lines on the fingers, and countless fine lines, are all unchangeable from birth. That’s why the law requires palm and fingerprints, to prevent cunning troublemakers from finding loopholes.”

“But… so many palm prints, Your Highness just glanced and can… remember them all?” Huang Zixia asked incredulously.

Zhou Ziqin, his heart blooming with joy at the prospect of visiting the pleasure district, immediately wagged his tail and tried to curry favor: “His Highness is naturally gifted, of course, he remembers! Don’t believe it? Let’s prove it to you!”

Speaking thus, he pulled out a sheet from the stack of documents Li Shubai had just looked at, covered everything except one palm print, then asked: “Your Highness, do you remember whose palm print this is?”

Li Shubai glanced at it and said: “Wu Jiying, household servant of the prefect’s mansion, responsible for sweeping the west garden and managing gardening tools.”

Huang Zixia felt she wanted to worship the person before her. Things he’d just glanced at twice, he could remember, truly a divine person.

Her gaze fell on Yu Xuan’s testimony, and she hesitated before asking: “Then… where did Your Highness see Yu Xuan’s palm print before?”

Li Shubai frowned, thinking for a moment. It wasn’t until Zhang Xingying had changed clothes and came running to wait outside the door that he suddenly made a soft “oh” sound and said: “Two years ago, when I first took the additional position of Minister of Justice, to familiarize myself with affairs, I reviewed all case files from the past ten years. His palm print appeared in a file from five years ago in Guangde Ward of Chang’an.”

Huang Zixia asked again: “What about the rest?”

“He shouldn’t have been the culprit, but… I didn’t pay attention at the time, honestly, I’m not quite clear now.” He glanced at her, saying slowly.

Huang Zixia seemed thoughtful, her lips parting slightly as if wanting to say something, but she stopped herself.

He didn’t look at her either, first feeding two pieces of fish food to the small fish in the glass bowl on his desk, and after seeing it eat quietly in the bowl as before, he said: “I’m leaving first. If there are other clues, I’ll tell you again.”

Huang Zixia felt he didn’t seem like he couldn’t remember, but if he wouldn’t say clearly, there must be a reason.

As she pondered, suddenly like a flash of lightning in her mind, she couldn’t help calling out: “Your Highness…”

Li Shubai turned back to look at her.

“Back then, when we first met, in the carriage…” She finally understood something that had puzzled her for a long time, her heart beginning to beat irregularly, “When you looked at my palm then, you immediately guessed my identity, recognized that I was…”

Li Shubai smiled slightly, nodding and saying: “Your palm print appears on many case files.”

Huang Zixia couldn’t help smiling too, saying: “I knew it… how could someone’s entire life be seen from palm lines.”

Seeing that Zhang Xingying and Zhou Ziqin had already walked out of the hall, she was close by, raising a smiling face to look at him brightly.

Whether it was due to the slight surge of warmth in his chest urging him on, he didn’t understand, but he actually raised his hand and lightly flicked her forehead, saying: “Clever all your life, confused for a moment.”

She raised her hand to press her forehead, laughing and calling out “Aiya!”

They smiled at each other, then suddenly seemed to realize something, feeling slightly awkward.

He turned his head away, hurriedly saying: “I’m leaving.”

“Yes…” She also lowered her head, not daring to raise it again.

Zhou Ziqin hadn’t thought at all about why Huang Zixia’s cheeks remained slightly red after leaving the Military Commissioner’s mansion. His mind was entirely focused on exploring the unknown world, excitedly saying: “See? I knew His Highness wouldn’t mind you going to the pleasure quarters—any way you’re just coming along with me to broaden your horizons~”

When they reached Wutong Street, it was nearly dinner time, and the sky was slightly dim.

Zhou Ziqin stood on Wutong Street, looking at the endless brothels stretching as far as the eye could see, the street filled with red lanterns and green wine flags, immediately overjoyed: “Chonggu, do you know? My heart is so excited right now!”

Huang Zixia could only give him a sideways glance: “Let’s go.”

The pleasure houses on Wutong Street were all registered with the government office, and considered legitimate businesses. Several madams and pimps standing at the street corner saw them and came over openly to solicit them, praising how beautiful their girls were.

Zhou Ziqin righteously raised his hand to stop them: “We’re going to Night Wandering House today.”

“Aiya…” Their faces immediately wrinkled like washcloths, “Such fine young gentlemen, so you like that kind—look, the one with two old peach trees planted at the alley entrance at the end of the street is it.”

To their surprise, Night Wandering House’s business was quite good. When they entered, they saw many rooms already had people playing music and drinking, several people’s singing voices were quite outstanding, Zhou Ziqin even stopped to listen for a while, with a satisfied look of “Today I’ve seen the world.”

Huang Zixia remained normal, asking the approaching pimp: “Is Pine Wind here?”

The pimp quickly said: “Yes, yes, he’ll come right out, you two… just want one person to accompany you?”

Zhou Ziqin looked at the silent Huang Zixia, and could only pat his chest: “Right, we just… just like having one person accompany us!”

Seeing these two seemed quite forceful, the pimp quickly went to announce them, and Pine Wind immediately came out, attentively serving them tea and water, burning incense, and tuning the qin. When about to sing a “Song of Longing,” Huang Zixia stopped him and asked: “You must have been here for many years? What kind of clients do you usually have?”

Pine Wind said in a soft voice: “This humble one has unfortunately fallen into this life for six years now. There are many regular customers, but truly few as talented and handsome as you two~” As he spoke, he leaned toward her. Although Huang Zixia was tall, Pine Wind was still a man, half a head taller than her, and now with his lowered eyes leaning over, that coquettish manner looked awkward no matter how you looked at it.

Zhou Ziqin righteously pulled him over, gesturing for him to sit properly. Pine Wind looked wronged, asking: “How much longer do you two want to dawdle?”

Zhou Ziqin, full of righteousness, shouted: “I’m not dawdling with you, I just want to ask you, that, that…”

Speaking to her, he realized that because he was so focused on seeing the world, he’d forgotten why they’d come here, and could only look pitifully toward Huang Zixia.

Huang Zixia said: “We’re actually not here for pleasure, just that recently a friend had something happen, so we came to inquire about some things—among your regular customers, are there any notable people from Chengdu Prefecture?”

Pine Wind immediately deflated, lazily leaning on the table and propping his chin to look at them, saying: “Nonsense, my Pine Wind’s charm is widely known, aren’t there many who like me in Chengdu Prefecture? Not to mention others, even in the Military Commissioner’s mansion, some favor me…”

Zhou Ziqin blurted out: “Magistrate Qi from the Military Commissioner’s mansion?”

Pine Wind gave him a sidelong glance, saying: “Who’s Magistrate Qi? I’m talking about…”

He lowered his voice, the boastful expression between his brows almost blinding the three people’s eyes: “You can’t tell anyone, okay? It’s Military Commissioner Fan’s son, he came to favor me once…”

Huang Zixia wordlessly recalled Fan Yuanlong’s appearance, then took out the letter found in Qi Teng’s room from her sleeve and placed it before him: “Did you write this?”

Pine Wind glanced at it and nodded: “Yes.”

“Do you remember who you wrote it for?”

Pine Wind said somewhat troubled: “How would I know that? This poem was written by some Scholar Liu, I’ve written it scattered about maybe fifty or sixty times, many clients like to pretend to be refined, as if visiting someone who can write poetry makes it more cultured.”

Zhou Ziqin asked again: “Do you remember who they were?”

Pine Wind looked at him like he was an idiot: “Sir, do you think that’s possible? Of our clients, except for those from out of town who don’t mind, local people generally sneak over quietly at night, barely any are willing to reveal their names, mostly saying they’re called ‘Li First’ ‘Wang Big’ ‘Liu Second’ unless they’re regulars and come often enough to exchange names. Even Commissioner Fan’s son, I only vaguely learned from others’ hints.”

Huang Zixia then asked directly: “So actually, you don’t know who you gave them to?”

“If you want, I can write one for you too.” Pine Wind smiled.

The much-disdained Zhou Ziqin persisted: “Think again, maybe you forgot…”

“Then, do you know Wenyang?” Huang Zixia asked.

Pine Wind made an “ah” sound, saying: “Him I do know, we’ve been regulars for three or four years, different from others. Oh right, he even said he liked my name best, pine wind untying sashes, mountain moon shining on qin playing—my qin playing isn’t bad either, would you like to hear?”

Huang Zixia shook her head and asked: “So, he must have this poem too?”

Pine Wind covered his mouth and laughed: “Yes indeed, I wrote this poem for him too. When he saw it he shook his head, then said, people really can be so different. I got upset and asked who I was worse than, but he just stroked my hair and said, even I can only look up to him, what do you have to think about.”

Speaking to her, his face showed no gloomy expression, still smiling and saying: “I thought about it and it’s true, I’m a servant of others, who would think I’m better than anyone? He’s not some superior person either, can’t others have someone they admire in their hearts?”

Huang Zixia silently lowered her eyes, pondering for a long while, then turned to look at Zhou Ziqin who had already dropped his jaw, saying: “Let’s go.”

Zhou Ziqin was still in shock, seeing her already standing and walking out, quickly caught up and grabbed her sleeve, urgently asking: “Chonggu how can you still be so calm? Did you hear? That Wenyang who died for love, he, he liked men!”

“Yes, I know.” Huang Zixia nodded and said.

Zhou Ziqin was somewhat depressed: “With that calm face of yours, you must have known early again! You never tell me anything, how can we be good friends?”

Huang Zixia said flatly: “You should have noticed when those poetry society people were talking.”

“What? What did they say that I don’t know about?”

Huang Zixia was also helpless with Zhou Ziqin, just as she was thinking, Pine Wind caught up from behind, grabbing their sleeves and shouting at them: “Don’t go—”

Zhou Ziqin was bewildered, seeing him still clinging to his arm, quickly shook him off asking: “What?”

Unexpectedly Pine Wind was light and soft, and when shaken off immediately crashed to the ground, his forehead even bleeding, immediately shouting: “Help! Help! These two customers drank tea without paying and tried to run, when I tried to stop them they hit me!”

The bouncers kept by Night Wandering House immediately grabbed clubs and rushed out, Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin quickly apologized: “Sorry, didn’t know you had to pay for tea here…”

Before they finished speaking, several clubs had already swung down without discussion.

Zhou Ziqin stepped forward, taking a club hit for Huang Zixia, grimacing in pain: “This is bad Chonggu, will we die here today?”

“Then reveal your identity!” Huang Zixia growled softly.

“Reveal what? If my parents find out I used official business as an excuse to visit brothels, I’d rather die here!”