Night had fallen, with deep twilight already enveloping the entire Chengdu Prefecture. However, at the King of Kui’s command, all relevant personnel arrived before the lanterns were lit.
Though still unaware of what had transpired, even Fan Yingxi, the Military Commissioner of Western Sichuan, hurriedly brought his son to the Prefecture Governor’s mansion.
Wang Yun arrived with them, wearing a light purple silk outer garment. When he saw Huang Zixia, though his face still carried his customary gentle smile, he appeared rather unwell.
Prefecture Governor Zhou Xiang had already set up chairs at his waterside pavilion’s dock and had his daughter enter the gauze chamber with a fan concealing her face.
Gongsun Yuan and Yin Luyi arrived together. Seeing that everyone who had been present during Qi Teng’s death had arrived, they nodded to Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin, then both took their seats in the waterside pavilion.
Yu Xuan also arrived shortly after, wearing a sky-blue traditional robe, silently taking his seat by the waterside pavilion, maintaining his usual low profile.
To everyone’s confusion, Master Mu Shan from Guangdu Temple, who hadn’t been present that day, was also invited and given a meditation cushion outside the waterside pavilion.
All the musicians who had been present that day in Chengdu Prefecture, the servants from the Governor’s mansion, Zhou Ziyan’s maids, and even Tang Sheng, that good-for-nothing nephew of Tang Zhuniang, were all located and summoned.
After everyone had either taken their seats or found their places to stand, Li Shubai looked toward Huang Zixia and nodded at her. Huang Zixia stood up and addressed everyone: “I’ve invited you all here today regarding the murder case that occurred at the Governor’s mansion a few days ago—the case of Qi Teng, the Administrative Assistant of the Military Commissioner’s office.”
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone below fell silent. Fan Yingxi stroked his beard without speaking, Zhou Xiang frowned in contemplation, Gongsun Yuan gently embraced Yin Luyi’s shoulders to comfort her, while Fan Yuanlong had already called out: “What? The Qi Teng case? Has Eunuch Yang already found leads?”
“I know who the perpetrator is, and how the killer managed to murder Administrative Assistant Qi in plain sight, as well as where the murder weapon was hidden.”
Fan Yingxi looked at Li Shubai, seeing him sitting behind Huang Zixia without speaking, and realized he was already aware of this matter. He immediately chimed in: “Eunuch Yang, this matter is no small affair! The person who dealt with my office’s Administrative Assistant might bear a grudge against me, or perhaps harbors dissatisfaction with the Governor, the Prince, or the court—they must be severely punished!”
“General Fan’s loyalty to the court and concern for the Prince is admirable, but the cause of this matter has nothing to do with any affairs of state. The only cause was simply a matter of love,” Huang Zixia said flatly.
Upon hearing these words, Fan Yingxi’s face showed immediate shock, but Li Shubai noticed the tension in his gaze had slightly relaxed. After all, if it had nothing to do with the court or the King of Kui, he as the Military Commissioner wouldn’t need to take responsibility, and as for the death of his subordinate administrative assistant, he wasn’t particularly concerned.
“Regarding Administrative Assistant Qi’s death, everyone except Master Mu Shan was here at the time.” Huang Zixia’s gaze swept across everyone’s faces, seeing some nervous, some focused, some shocked, and some confused. Ignoring everyone’s reactions, she slowly pointed at the waterside pavilion and continued, “In this case, there are two things that were key obstacles to solving the mystery and capturing the killer—the first is time.”
Everyone nodded involuntarily, clearly agreeing.
“The killer struck and murdered Administrative Assistant Qi during that brief dance performance. Before the dance, when we were taking our seats, Qi was still carrying a round stool to the gauze chamber to talk with Miss Zhou. Even after the performance began, he was still talking with Miss Zhou, until Young Master Fan was vomiting by the shrubbery, when he stopped talking—and would never speak again.”
Zhou Ziqin nodded: “So, his time of death was either during or after Young Master Fan’s vomiting, which was after the flower petals were scattered and Madam Gongsun entered the gauze curtain to release the butterflies.”
“However, at that time, everyone had an alibi making it impossible for them to commit murder, because almost everyone was under someone else’s gaze—the King of Kui, Commissioner Fan, Governor Zhou… even the mansion’s maids and servants couldn’t have quietly left to kill someone from behind. And the evidence at the scene 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.”
Fan Yuanlong, being vengeful by nature, coldly said: “I previously thought it was Yu Xuan, but now I think Miss Zhou is also possible, after all, they were the only two alone behind the crowd at the time—she was the only one who could have committed the crime without being seen.”
Zhou Xiang’s face immediately turned ashen. He glared at Fan Yuanlong, but couldn’t express his anger in front of the King of Kui and Fan Yingxi, causing his face to turn purple with suppressed rage.
Zhou Ziqin didn’t care about anything else and immediately fired back: “You think we couldn’t come up with such a simple-minded deduction? Unfortunately, this theory has already been disproven by actual evidence! At the time, the killer used one hand to cover Qi’s mouth and nose, and the other to stab his chest with the weapon. During that moment, fingernail marks were left on Qi’s face, and based on those marks, my sister would have had to fall out of the gauze chamber to make such a movement—it would have been impossible to maintain balance!”
“But your sister could have left the gauze chamber and gone behind him to kill him!”
“Yes, she could have done that, but if so, first, Qi wouldn’t have sat still like a mountain when his fiancée walked behind him; second, although her maid had left her side, she would still occasionally glance over in case she needed anything. So, if she had any sense at all, she wouldn’t have left the gauze chamber to circle behind Qi to kill him.”
Fan Yuanlong snorted derisively, earning a roll of the eyes from Zhou Ziqin and a sharp rebuke from Fan Yingxi. Having made a fool of himself, he could only shrink back into his seat without moving.
Li Shubai, seeing everyone either lost in thought or frightened, with no one speaking up, asked: “Then, in your view, at such a time when murder seemed completely impossible, who could have found a way to kill someone under everyone’s noses without anyone noticing?”
Huang Zixia nodded to him and said: “Yes, everyone was in a place where others couldn’t see them, and at the time, everyone should have shared a consensus that among all present, the person with the least suspicion, the one least likely to commit murder, should have been Madam Gongsun, who was dancing in the waterside pavilion, right?”
Everyone nodded. Fan Yuanlong was already impatiently urging: “Skip past her, tell us how the rest of us could have found an opportunity!”
“No, I cannot skip past Madam Gongsun.” Huang Zixia calmly turned her gaze to Gongsun Yuan, who was sitting on the waterside pavilion railing. “I wonder if any of you have heard of a phrase called ‘darkness under the lamp’?”
The crowd burst into low murmurs, each person looking at Huang Zixia with disbelieving eyes, then turning to look at Gongsun Yuan.
Gongsun Yuan didn’t speak, but slowly stood up.
Huang Zixia spoke softly: “In this case, the person least likely to commit murder could create the perfect opportunity—by seizing just one moment, even with all eyes focused here, they could move from the very front to the back to kill someone, then easily slip away.”
Amid the crowd’s commotion, Gongsun Yuan stood under the pavilion lights. Dozens of lanterns around her cast their light upon her, bathing her entire form in a warm orange glow that gave her an ethereal radiance. Her slender figure, like a flower’s shadow beneath the lamps, swayed delicately, appearing almost too graceful to see clearly.
She gazed at the crowd before her, her expression sorrowful yet her eyes clear and pure, facing Huang Zixia with an almost innocent expression. Her voice was very low, yet loud enough for everyone in the now-quiet gathering to hear: “Eunuch Yang, from your words, it seems you’re suggesting I’m a suspect?”
“No, not a suspect. I’m saying that you, Madam Gongsun, killed Qi Teng.” Huang Zixia spoke slowly, her tone grave but clear. “The evidence is conclusive, indisputable.”
Before Gongsun Yuan could lower her eyes to respond, Yin Luyi stood up behind her, saying somewhat anxiously: “Eunuch Yang, you know us well, and you previously promised to help us investigate Aruan’s death, but now… how can you pin everything on us just because you can’t find the real killer of Administrative Assistant Qi?”
“Indeed. I’d like to know, what exactly is this so-called conclusive evidence? How is it supposedly indisputable?” Gongsun Yuan also faced her directly, her gaze firm and bright as she looked at her. Her voice was steady, without the slightest wavering: “Since Eunuch Yang says Administrative Assistant Qi died while I was dancing when I was in the waterside pavilion in plain sight and never left for even a moment, how exactly could I have killed him when he was at the very back of the crowd?”
Zhou Ziqin, always particularly attentive to beautiful women, though usually following Huang Zixia’s words, couldn’t help quietly asking from the side: “No way, Chonggu… I was staring intently at the stage, and I can guarantee that Madam Gongsun and her sister never left for even a moment!”
“Yes, it appeared they never left, but wasn’t there a period when only a vague silhouette remained?” Huang Zixia asked.
The crowd immediately understood, with Fan Yuanlong calling out first: “Is the Eunuch referring to the moment when she entered the gauze curtain to release the butterflies?”
Seeing Huang Zixia nod, and noticing the King of Kui beside him merely sitting and drinking tea without expressing any opinion, Zhou Xiang finally couldn’t hold back and tentatively asked: “Eunuch, didn’t you see her shadow on the gauze curtain at that time? Though the curtain was colorful and embroidered with countless flower branches, its material was light and thin, and we could all see the silhouette through it—it truly never left.”
Zhou Ziqin also nodded in agreement: “Absolutely! At that time, Fourth Lady was entangled with Young Master Fan outside the pavilion, and there was no one inside who could have replaced Madam Gongsun. I can guarantee she remained within the pavilion the entire time!”
“No, this was the first cicada-shell deception in this case. Fourth Lady is skilled in stagecraft, naturally knowing how to make someone disappear in an instant—and the props used were nothing more than a gauze curtain and a brocade robe, that’s all.”
At this point, Huang Zixia turned her gaze to Zhou Ziqin: “Have Madam Gongsun and Fourth Lady Yin brought everything from that day as we requested?”
Yin Luyi secretly glanced at Gongsun Yuan, but she calmly nodded and rose to open the chest she had brought, taking out the pair of swords, gauze curtain, and dance costume, saying: “Please examine them, Eunuch.”
When the murder occurred, all the tables and chairs here had been cleared away for Gongsun Yuan’s dance. Zhou Ziqin quickly had someone bring over a high-legged table, and all the items were placed upon it.
Huang Zixia gestured for Zhou Ziqin to hold up and spread out the gauze curtain. Under the lamplight, the semi-transparent gauze was embroidered with flowering trees with swaying branches. The tree trunk was like a vine, curving upward, with pairs of branches extending outward every half-foot, slightly curved downward and covered in flowers, creating a very elegant effect.
Huang Zixia indicated for Zhou Ziqin to let the curtain fall naturally, then gestured to the position of her shoulders. She was tall, similar in height to Gongsun Yuan, and at that height on the floral embroidery, there were exactly two embroidered branches level with her shoulders.
She carefully searched around the branches and found what she had expected—three needle holes in a straight line, left, center, and right, clearly showing something had been sewn there. Though someone had tried to scrape away the evidence with fingernails, the minute traces remained.
Huang Zixia had Zhou Ziqin show everyone, saying: “According to these marks, there should have been something long attached here, sewn onto the embroidered branches where it could be concealed—I suspect it was something that could hold clothing.”
Zhou Ziqin immediately asked: “You mean that after Madam Gongsun turned behind the gauze curtain, she secretly removed her outer brocade robe and hung it on the curtain to create the impression she was still there, while she… secretly crept along the shrubbery beside the pavilion to sneak behind and kill Administrative Assistant Qi?”
Amid the crowd’s startled murmurs, Gongsun Yuan stood silently, saying nothing.
Huang Zixia pointed at the items on the table, saying: “To use this method, three conditions were needed. First, a thick garment that light couldn’t penetrate.”
Her hand rested on the heavy brocade robe Gongsun Yuan had worn at the beginning, as she slowly said: “We had discussed privately before that this garment was indeed inferior to the light, translucent dance costume worn later, and it would hinder movement, even affecting some subtle movements and obscuring certain delicate details. So why did Madam Gongsun choose to wear this dance costume at the very beginning, only removing it after releasing the butterflies?”
Yin Luyi’s face gradually turned pale, her hand slowly linking through Gongsun Yuan’s arm. Gongsun Yuan felt her icy palm but only lightly placed her hand on top of Yin Luyi’s, standing there watching Huang Zixia without moving.
Huang Zixia’s hand moved to the robe’s collar, saying: “The second condition was a black cloth cut to exactly match Madam Gongsun’s head silhouette, which you must have already removed from the collar, but traces of which we might still find upon careful examination.”
She put down the garment and continued: “As for the third condition, it was the sudden dimming of the lights after Madam Gongsun entered the embroidered curtain. And the person controlling the lights was Fourth Lady Yin. She provided this opportunity, allowing Madam Gongsun the moment to remove and hang the robe, set up the head silhouette, and immediately leave. And to divert attention from Madam Gongsun’s motionless shadow, she immediately scattered the flower petals from the baskets at that moment, drawing everyone’s eyes to the pavilion, making them unable to notice any slight movements from behind the shrubbery—and at this time, Young Master Fan did them a great favor by, emboldened by wine, going forward to flirt with Fourth Lady Yin among the flower petals, further distracting everyone’s attention with this chaos, ensuring Madam Gongsun’s complete safety.”
A slight smile appeared at the corner of Gongsun Yuan’s lips, seemingly mocking: “Eunuch Yang, if as you say I went back and forth along the shrubbery at that time, then let me ask you: after I entered the embroidered curtain, how long did the motionless pose last? It was only the time it took for several baskets of flower petals to fall—was that enough time for me to make the round trip and reach Administrative Assistant Qi’s side to kill him?”