Zhou Ziqin opened and closed his mouth, but ultimately still placed the several small bowls on a tray and carried them back to his quarters. Li Shubai and Huang Zixia followed him to the courtyard, waiting by the door.

Neither of them spoke. The weather was dim and gloomy, shrouding the creeper-covered corridor. The last few lotus flowers of late summer stood lonely and proud above their emerald canopy, an unusually vivid and striking crimson.

A long wind carrying summer’s final heat rolled across the lotus pond toward Huang Zixia, enveloping her body.

There was thin sweat on her body, pricking like needlepoints against her skin. It was quickly evaporated by the hot wind, leaving only an almost imperceptible pain.

All that remained was wind on the water’s surface and the gentle rays of the setting sun.

Huang Zixia leaned against the railing, taking a long time to catch her breath, staring blankly at Li Shubai before her.

Li Shubai also looked at her, without saying a word.

Dusk enveloped them, and the entire prefect’s mansion was deathly quiet.

The sunset scattered like broken gold across the near and distant water surfaces, light dancing on the ripples, dazzlingly bright.

Four years.

Here, she had transformed from an innocent young girl into a young woman who would stop at nothing; also here, she had fallen from an envied talented lady into a despised murder suspect.

She had thought she had already experienced the most unbearable suffering in life, and tasted the most heart-wrenching and gut-wrenching flavors, she had thought that in this world, there shouldn’t be anything more terrible waiting for her—

Yet she hadn’t imagined that when the truth arrived, it would be even more terrifying than anything she had imagined.

Her body shook violently, in this late summer early autumn sunset, yet her entire body was chilled to the bone marrow, cold sweat seeping from her forehead and body, fine as needlepoints.

She gripped Li Shubai’s hand tightly, asking him in a hoarse, dry voice: “Could it be that I… personally delivered that bowl of poisoned soup, sending all my family members to their deaths?”

Li Shubai silently gazed at her, seeing her eyes open so wide, but those eyes were the color of dead ashes, without any light flickering in them.

That young woman who had traveled thousands of miles, who had been pressed down disheveled in his carriage yet still stubbornly said she wanted to clear her family’s name, the flame that had always danced in those eyes had been extinguished.

The belief that had always supported her journey was gone.

Li Shubai held her hand, feeling that bone-deep coldness. Because of the chill emanating from her body, a painful coldness also welled up in his heart. He slowly raised both arms, embracing her, suppressing the tremor in his voice as he said softly: “No, it wasn’t you.”

“It was me! I carried that bowl of soup over, and I ladled it out for them, I asked them each to drink it, everything… was me!”

She cried out uncontrollably, her body was held tightly by Li Shubai, unable to struggle, but the muscles in her face were twitching slightly, terribly frightening.

Li Shubai’s heart jumped in alarm, he pressed her near-maddened form against the railing, looking directly at her as he commanded in a low voice: “Huang Zixia, calm down!”

She forcefully grabbed his arms, trying to throw him off herself. But how could she be his match, she was easily restrained by him, her wild struggling only resulting in ragged breathing.

She heard him say softly by her ear: “I said it wasn’t your fault, so it wasn’t. You were just one link in this murder by proxy, you were used, completely unaware. And who you should hate most is not yourself, but the person behind it all.”

Her movements slowed, staring at him blankly.

He stared at her, enunciating each word: “You’ve experienced so much hardship, finally step by step reaching this point. Rather than staying here with regret and self-blame, you should rise and strike, expose the other party’s plot, clear your name, and capture the true culprit for your father and mother, elder brother, grandmother, and uncle – that’s what matters!”

Huang Zixia stared at him for a very long time, before finally opening her mouth, squeezing out a few broken words from her hoarse throat: “The reason… I need to know his reason…”

“Yes, that’s what’s important for you now, not self-recrimination!”

In his words, she gradually calmed down, and after a long while, those dead ash-colored eyes finally welled up with mist, large teardrops sliding down, falling onto his hands with tiny stings of pain.

He looked down and saw that she had just scratched several small wounds on his hands, and the falling tears seeping into the wounds caused him slight pain.

He silently raised his hand, gently wiping away her tears, then carefully tucked her disheveled hair behind her ears. His typically cold sharp eyes now appeared exceptionally gentle and clear, containing a lake of water unknown to others, when he presented it to her, it could embrace her completely, the world’s wind and rain could never invade.

He gazed at her, slowly saying: “If you’re too tired, then rest a while. Leave it to me with peace of mind, I will walk with you.”

She wept profusely, crying uncontrollably in his embrace for a long time.

But finally, he heard her choked voice, low and blocked, yet finally squeezing out word by word, with immense difficulty: “No, I was right… I’ve finally made it through hardships to this point, at this final moment, I will also try my best to do well, I will… personally bring everything to an end!”

After who knows how long, Zhou Ziqin’s tightly closed door suddenly opened, his face bluish-purple, eyes wide, he ran out wildly to stand before them, mouth open and breathing heavily, unable to speak a word.

Li Shubai had already released Huang Zixia, the two sat on the corridor railing, half a foot apart, neither too far nor too close.

Huang Zixia straightened her back, letting it leave the pillar, standing straight before Zhou Ziqin.

Li Shubai opened his mouth to ask: “What are the results?”

Zhou Ziqin breathed rapidly, forcing himself to control the violent heaving of his chest before finally squeezing out four words: “Aconite poison! All five bowls!”

Huang Zixia’s rigid body seemed to lose all strength and go soft. Li Shubai supported her, letting her sit on the waterside corridor, gently patting her back.

She finally caught her breath, the darkness before her eyes and the roaring in her ears gradually receding.

She rested her head against the pillar, closing her eyes and saying softly: “The case is solved.”

Zhou Ziqin opened his mouth wide, staring at her blankly: “Solved? Which case? Is it Fu Xinruan’s case? Or Qi Teng’s case? Tang Zhuniang’s?”

“All of them, and, the case of the former Shu Prefecture Governor Huang family.” She used up the last strength in her chest, enunciating each word, “These three cases are connected by an invisible thread. Now we have caught the end of this thread, next, we just need to pull hard, the curtain covering everything will fall, and this case will be over.”

“Over…?” Zhou Ziqin chewed on her words, feeling immensely desolate in his heart – he still had no clues at all, how had the other party already understood everything?

“Yes, this case, no, should say, these three cases, are all solved now.”

The sky had darkened, and heavy dusk had already enveloped all of Chengdu Prefecture. However, at one command from the Prince of Kui, before lanterns were lit, all relevant persons had arrived here.

Although they didn’t yet know what had happened, even the Sichuan Military Commissioner Fan Yingxi hurriedly brought his son to the prefect’s mansion.

Wang Yun came together with them, wearing an ice-blue silk outer garment, when he saw Huang Zixia, although his face still carried his usual gentle smile, he ultimately didn’t look well.

Prefecture Governor Zhou Xiang had already set up chairs at his mansion’s waterside pavilion dock and had his daughter shield her face with a fan, entering the gauze screen.

Gong Sun Yuan and Yin Luyi arrived together, seeing that everyone who had been present when Qi Teng died had arrived, they nodded to Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin, and both sat down in the waterside pavilion.

Yu Xuan also arrived shortly after, wearing a sky-blue lined robe, silently sitting down by the waterside pavilion, as low-key as ever.

What puzzled everyone was that Master Mu Shan from Guangdu Temple, who hadn’t been here that day at all, had also been invited over, with a rush mat set for him outside the waterside pavilion.

All the musicians who had been present that day in Chengdu Prefecture, the prefect’s mansion’s servants, Zhou Ziyan’s maids, and even Tang Zhuniang’s good-for-nothing nephew Tang Sheng had been found and summoned.

After everyone was either seated or standing in place, Li Shubai looked at Huang Zixia, nodding to her in indication. Huang Zixia stood up and said to everyone: “I’ve invited everyone here today because of a murder case that occurred at the prefect’s mansion a few days ago, namely the case of Military Commissioner’s Office Judge Qi Teng’s murder.”

As soon as the words were spoken, everyone below fell silent. Fan Yingxi stroked his beard without speaking, Zhou Xiang frowned in contemplation, Gong Sun Yuan lightly embraced Yin Luyi’s shoulders in comfort, while Fan Yuanlong had already called out: “What? Qi Teng’s case? Does Eunuch Yang have leads?”

“I already know who the perpetrator is, how the killer murdered Judge Qi in front of everyone’s eyes, and where the murder weapon was hidden.”

Fan Yingxi looked at Li Shubai, seeing him sitting behind Huang Zixia but not speaking, and already knew he was aware of this matter. So he immediately followed up: “Eunuch Yang, this matter is no small thing! The person who dealt with my office’s judge might have a grudge against me, or might harbor dissatisfaction with the prefect, the prince, or the court, they must be severely punished!”

“General Fan’s concern for the court and worry for the prince is a good thing, but the cause of this matter has nothing to do with any affairs of state or country, the only cause was simply a matter of love,” Huang Zixia said lightly.

When Fan Yingxi heard these words, his face immediately showed shock, but Li Shubai saw the tension in his gaze slightly relax. After all, if it had nothing to do with the court and the Prince of Kui, then he as Military Commissioner wouldn’t need to take responsibility, and as for the death of a subordinate judge, he wasn’t particularly concerned.

“The death of Judge Qi, at the time everyone except Master Mu Shan was here.” Huang Zixia’s gaze swept across everyone’s faces one by one, seeing some nervous, some focused, some shocked, some confused. She paid no attention to anyone’s reactions, just slowly pointed at the waterside pavilion, continuing, “In this case, there are two things that were key obstacles to us solving the mystery and capturing the killer – first is time.”

Everyone nodded involuntarily, clearly all deeply agreeing.

“The killer struck and killed Judge Qi, of course within the short time of that dance. Because before the dance, we were taking our seats, at that time Judge Qi was still carrying a round stool to the gauze screen, talking with Miss Zhou. Even after it began, he was also talking with Miss Zhou, until, when Young Master Fan was vomiting by the shrubs, he stopped talking, and could never speak again.”

Zhou Ziqin nodded and said: “So, his time of death was during or after Young Master Fan’s vomiting, that is after the flower petals were flying and Madam Gong Sun entered the gauze screen and released the butterflies.”

“However at that time, everyone had evidence making it impossible for them to be the killer, because almost everyone was under others’ gazes, the Prince of Kui, Commissioner Fan, Governor Zhou… even down to the mansion’s maids and servants, none could have quietly left to go to the back to kill someone. And the scene evidence also showed no signs of any outsider sneaking in, which means, the killer was right there on the waterside pavilion dock at the time, that is, one of us.”