Cui Chunzhan said: “Eunuch Yang, your knowledge of calligraphy and painting is quite good, with such discerning taste.”

“Also forced by my father, studied for a couple of years,” Huang Zixia said, maintaining the only professional attitude among the three, and asked, “May I ask if the Prince Consort was familiar with Wei Ximin?”

“Oh, you mean the one struck by heaven’s punishment?” Wei Baoheng said casually, “I knew him, following the Princess every day, already short in stature, and always bowing and scraping like a dog. Though he had one advantage—whoever the master wanted him to bite, he’d bite, extremely obedient.”

Hearing his contemptuous tone, Huang Zixia asked: “It sounds like he was capable, an efficient person?”

“Capable indeed, capable beyond words,” Wei Baoheng said with a cold smile. “Just last month there was an incident, I figure you’ll find out if you ask around, so I might as well tell you now. If I hadn’t run to various offices to suppress it, the Princess and the Princess’s mansion’s reputation would have been completely ruined!”

Huang Zixia and Cui Chunzhan exchanged glances, and Cui Chunzhan quickly asked: “What incident?”

“This matter… seems unrelated to the current case, yet somehow might be related—if unnecessary, please don’t spread this outside, as it affects the Princess’s mansion’s reputation.” Wei Baoheng said, frowning in thought before continuing, “The mansion’s candles have always been supplied by Lu’s Candle Shop. Last month, old Lu had something to do, so he sent his daughter to deliver the candles. The girl from such a humble background didn’t know proper etiquette and failed to yield to the Princess in time, even dirtying her shawl.”

Cui Chunzhan remarked casually: “Such a small matter, why should the Prince Consort worry about it?”

“It was small initially, but because of Wei Ximin, it became a big issue. The Princess ordered Wei Ximin to teach that girl a lesson, but Wei Ximin, to please the Princess, beat the girl until she fainted, then carelessly dumped her on a street corner. Then there was this good-for-nothing in the back street, what was his name…” Wei Baoheng said uncertainly, “I think everyone called him Mangy Sun, a forty-something bachelor, covered in sores, everyone despised him. When he saw the unconscious girl, he… well…”

Wei Baoheng looked sympathetic, Cui Chunzhan was dumbfounded, and only Huang Zixia calmly frowned and asked: “Lu’s Candle Shop?”

“Yes, they say old Lu always looked down on his daughter, and when this incident caused a citywide scandal, he felt it brought shame to the family and drove her out. I heard the girl has already died in the wilderness, sigh…”

Huang Zixia frowned slightly, asking: “What about old Lu?”

“Speaking of that, fortunately, he’s such a timid fellow. I ran to various offices to suppress the matter, sent the Lu family a hundred taels of silver, and had someone beat up that Mangy Sun. Old Lu was deeply grateful, and everything quieted down, never mentioning it again.”

Cui Chunzhan sighed: “This old man… truly timid, won’t seek revenge? As far as I know, wasn’t Wei Ximin burned to death by candles he made?”

Wei Baoheng spread his hands, saying: “That’s why they call it heaven’s punishment, karma comes full circle. In the end, it was old Lu’s candles that burned Wei Ximin—isn’t that a fitting end?”

Cui Chunzhan wore a bitter expression, saying: “If only the Princess thought the same way.”

Walking out of the Princess’s mansion, Cui Chunzhan asked Huang Zixia: “Where does Eunuch Yang plan to go next?”

“I think we must visit Lu’s Candle Shop.”

“Yes, let’s go together,” he said.

Huang Zixia shook her head: “Magistrate Cui, in your official robes, people will recognize you immediately. Better let me scout first, and if he truly seems suspicious, we can summon him to the Court of Judicial Review for questioning.”

“Excellent, excellent.” Cui Chunzhan checked the time and hurriedly said, “When I left home today, my wife said she would cook personally, I must hurry back to eat her cooking, looking at the time…”

“Safe journey, Magistrate Cui.” Huang Zixia watched his carriage disappear into the distance, then quickly hired a cart—heaven have mercy, fortunately, she still had investigation funds from the last time that she hadn’t “gotten around to” returning to Li Shubai, otherwise, how could she afford to hire a cart?

She headed straight to Zhou Ziqin’s home, where he was indeed staying, studying his bones. Since he was at home, his clothes were relatively subdued today, lotus purple with gosling yellow, not quite as eye-searing as usual.

“Chonggu, come quick, come quick!” Zhou Ziqin pointed at the skull on his shelf, saying gleefully, “Come witness my greatest achievement to date!”

Huang Zixia sighed, saying: “I came to discuss that…”

“Quick, come here, come here!” He grabbed her sleeve, pulling her inside. She stumbled along after him and immediately spotted a human head mounted on the shelf, giving her a shock.

“Looks quite real, doesn’t it? Haha, just like the hand I reconstructed last time, but there are so many facial muscles and veins, I’ve only managed to finish the first one—hey, doesn’t it look… somewhat familiar?”

How could it not be familiar? It resembled Empress Wang somewhat, Huang Zixia thought.

“When I got this skull, I knew it was a beauty, but didn’t expect it to be this beautiful,” Zhou Ziqin said, stroking the skull.

Huang Zixia thought for a moment, then suddenly asked: “Where did you get this skull?”

“I bought it, I’ve always asked the Ministry of Revenue’s people handling unclaimed corpses to keep an eye out for me—shh, this isn’t legally allowed, you absolutely can’t tell anyone—then one day, just the day before we fished out that headless corpse from the canal, he secretly brought me this, said someone found it in the bushes. Oh my, when I first got it it was a bloody mess, quite ugly, but after I cleaned off all the flesh, I discovered this head was excellent, extremely beautiful, isn’t it?”

Huang Zixia grabbed a bag from nearby, quickly covered the skull with it, and held it saying: “Zhou Ziqin, I need to take this.”

“Huh? Why?” he hurriedly asked.

“Don’t ask.” She also stuffed the nearly reconstructed head into the bag, saying, “I’m taking it, you can find someone else’s later.”

“Hey hey, Chonggu, don’t be so heartless… this is truly the most beautiful skull I’ve ever seen in my life… my heart belongs only to it, don’t take it away…” Zhou Ziqin grabbed the bag, crying, “Chonggu, you can’t do this to me! Think back to the Wang Ruo case when I ran around for you, fishing out corpses and digging holes, even if I didn’t contribute much, I still worked hard, right? But what about you? You still won’t tell me the truth about that case! I know the body in the Wang family coffin wasn’t Wang Ruo, but why did the Wang family later quietly send it back to Langya for burial? Also, who was really behind that case? How did the culprit do it? I’m completely in the dark! Chonggu, you’re so heartless~ Anyway, I don’t mind about anything else, just leave me this skull that I love most! Please, I’ll trade you my head if you want…”

Hearing his tearful accusations, Huang Zixia finally sighed and said softly: “Ziqin, this skull might belong to… an acquaintance’s daughter. She was separated from her daughter when she was very young and has never seen what her daughter looked like grown up. Please understand a mother’s heart, let her take it back for proper burial.”

“All… alright.” Zhou Ziqin hesitated for a long while, finally reluctantly letting go of the bag, then looked at her pitifully, “Then, Chonggu, I heard you’re now investigating the Princess’s mansion case, you must take me along this time! I want to investigate this case with you from start to finish, and this time I’ll definitely use my superior skills and amazing talent to solve this mystery before you!”

“Good, actually I came to find you about this,” she gestured to him, “First, tell me, that fish you took back last time, did you examine it? What were the results?”

Zhou Ziqin immediately became serious: “Of course I examined it! I’m the most responsible coroner in the dynasty! Those fish were indeed poisoned!”

“What kind of poison? What’s the source?”

“Can’t be certain yet, but it seems like mercury poisoning.” He scratched his head uncertainly, frowning, “Strange, who would put mercury in a fish pond? It’s not easy to carry, and what’s the point of putting it in a fish pond?”

Huang Zixia frowned in thought, then said: “Note that down for now. First, find me some clothes, then we’ll go to Lu’s Candle Shop.”

“Alright, A-Bi is about your size, I’ll get you something right away.”

Huang Zixia transformed into Zhou Ziqin’s attendant.

The two found Lu’s Candle Shop in the West Market. From far away, they could see the bright signboard with a large ‘Lu’ character.

Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin sat down in a nearby teahouse. Being wealthy, Zhou Ziqin naturally ordered the finest purple-bud tea, plus four kinds of preserved fruits and eight pastries, and gave the attending tea master a generous tip, immediately making him so happy he ignored other customers to focus on brewing tea in their private room.

“These crab-eye bubbles are truly beautiful, look, look.” Zhou Ziqin pulled Huang Zixia to observe the bubbles in the pot, “Hey… the bubbles are getting dense! Come, Chonggu, look, I once saw someone’s blood foam just like this, the same! Guess which internal organ was injured?”

Huang Zixia’s elbow struck his waist, successfully stopping his next words.

The tea master finished brewing and served them, smiling: “Young master truly has good eyes, spotting me at a glance. I’ve been a tea master for over ten years, no one in this teahouse can match my skill.”

Huang Zixia smiled: “Your ten-plus years is nothing, see that candle shop across the street? I heard their family has been making candles for four generations, that’s what you call inherited craftsmanship.”

“That’s incomparable indeed, their family has been making candles for four generations over a hundred years, otherwise, how could they have been chosen to make the giant candles for Jiefu Temple this time?”

Zhou Ziqin blinked, still not understanding the situation, and obediently chose to lift his cup and drink tea.

“But I heard their family ends with this fourth generation, old Lu has no son!”

“Indeed, only one daughter, their family line ends here—especially after that incident.” Once the tea master started on street gossip, he became animated, “Have you two heard? That old man drove his daughter out! Ah, even if she’s just a daughter, you can’t mistreat her like this, who’ll support him when he’s old!”

Huang Zixia feigned great interest, asking: “You mean about what Mangy Sun did to his daughter?”

“Yes, that Mangy Sun is truly worthless, ugly, and diseased, couldn’t find a wife at forty-something, saw the girl by the roadside, and defiled her—after doing such a shameful thing, he even went around bragging about it! Made it known throughout the capital’s streets and alleys, forcing that girl to her death!”

Zhou Ziqin hadn’t expected such shocking news, nearly dropping his cup, pointing at the candle shop across the street, and asking: “That… that old Lu?”

Huang Zixia calmly asked: “Why didn’t old Lu report to the authorities and demand severe punishment for Mangy Sun?”

“Don’t mention it, isn’t that why everyone curses this old Lu? Took a hundred taels of silver and kept quiet, even called his daughter filthy and threw her out directly!” He looked around and whispered, “We all saw it ourselves, that old man kicked his daughter out the door, threw a knife and a hemp rope in front of her, told her to choose how to die, not to shame him, and not to die in the house!”