By the time they returned to Prince Kui’s mansion, it was completely dark.

As soon as Li Shubai got out of the carriage, Jing You hurried to meet him.

While walking inside, Li Shubai said to him, “Get me two large iron locks, the bigger and more intimidating the better.”

Jing You didn’t ask what they were for, just acknowledged them and went to prepare them.

Huang Zixia thought for a moment, suddenly understanding his method, and couldn’t help but click her tongue: “Your Highness, isn’t this a bit too harsh…”

“Did they think about being too harsh when they were being lazy?” Li Shubai glanced at her, unmoved, “When the blocked waterways drowned people, they should have realized this was a matter of life and death, not something to be glossed over with money.”

Huang Zixia nodded, thinking that now that this formidable master had his eye on them, starting tomorrow, managing Chang’an’s waterways would probably change from a cushy job to a bitter one.

She was thinking about taking her leave when Li Shubai looked back at her, and she obediently followed—though this master was difficult to serve, she was still happy to dine with him, especially since her stomach was truly hungry now.

However, this meal wasn’t peaceful. They had barely eaten a few bites when Jing You came in. He was indeed carrying two fearsome-looking iron locks, black and very heavy.

He showed the locks to Li Shubai for inspection, then said to Huang Zixia: “Chonggu, Vice Minister Zhou’s young master has come to see you, he’s waiting at the gatehouse.”

“Zhou Ziqin?” Huang Zixia and Li Shubai exchanged glances, both seeing the knowing look in each other’s eyes—he had indeed come.

He waved his hand and said: “Let Ziqin come here directly, let’s see what’s happened.”

“Of course, it’s big news!”

Zhou Ziqin was wearing a rouge-red long robe with an emerald green belt and a golden gauze cap on his head, his entire outfit full of eye-catching colors.

He was already naturally prone to dramatics, but this time was even more exaggerated. His animated manner perfectly embodied the saying “delighting in the world’s chaos.”

“Your Highness, Chonggu! This afternoon, I was at the Court of Judicial Review looking at the personnel records related to Prince Consort Wei Baoheng’s case—have you seen them?”

Huang Zixia nodded: “The Court made a copy for me.”

“Oh, I was reading it at the Court. At dusk, you know how the people at the Court are all strange and the buildings are gloomy, so after reading it twice and finding nothing useful, I was about to leave. But just then, guess what happened—there was a commotion outside, saying someone had died!”

“Who died?” Huang Zixia asked, fishing out the only useful content from his flood of words.

“It’s unexpected, absolutely earth-shattering, absolutely left me dumbfounded, I couldn’t believe it!”

Li Shubai finally couldn’t stand it anymore and frowned, saying: “Get to the point!”

“Sun Laizi is dead!” Zhou Ziqin immediately changed his style.

Sun Laizi, that beast who had committed an inhuman act while Di Cui was unconscious, was indeed dead.

Huang Zixia pondered the Prince Consort’s words and asked: “Who’s the killer?”

“Unknown! Currently, the clues and leads… can be said to be completely nonexistent!” At this point, Zhou Ziqin finally felt how parched his throat was from running all the way here, and grabbed the tea from the table to pour himself a drink.

Huang Zixia and Li Shubai exchanged helpless glances, each suppressing their impatience as they sat on opposite sides of the table waiting for him to continue.

After downing a pot of water, Zhou Ziqin wiped his mouth and said: “No, I can’t make this brief, I must start from the beginning.”

“Speak,” Huang Zixia was almost speechless.

“The whole story goes like this—don’t blame me for rambling, I really must explain this properly, otherwise you won’t know who’s who. There’s this Qian’s Carriage and Horse Shop in the capital that does very good business, the owner is called Qian Guansuo, I guess you probably don’t know about it…”

Huang Zixia and Li Shubai exchanged another silent glance, and Huang Zixia said in a complex and strange tone: “We know, we’ve heard of it.”

Zhou Ziqin continued, completely unaware: “That’s great that you know. Qian Guansuo is Chang’an’s most famous horse and carriage merchant, many official horses come through him too. I’ve seen him, a short fat man, always cheerful, truly looking the part of someone who prospers through harmony. Since two years ago, his business hasn’t just been in horses and carriages, he’s also gathered a group of masons, carpenters, and even some of the capital’s Ministry of Works’ sewer workers on his payroll. Now people go to him for house repairs and building ponds too—hey, he even has a saying, that of the four necessities of life—clothing, food, shelter, and transport—his wife handles the first two, and he handles the latter two, that’s called…”

Huang Zixia was truly helpless listening to this: “Ziqin, can you start with the murder case?”

“Alright.” Zhou Ziqin seemed somewhat deflated. “This evening, near dusk, Qian Guansuo was drinking with one of his managers at a tavern in the West Market, and when drunk started cursing at the manager. As for the reason, everyone around heard it—this Sun Laizi was already despised in the neighborhood, and after hearing Wei Ximin was struck dead by heavenly lightning, he stayed locked up inside every day. But with his broken doors and dilapidated house, he was afraid someone would break in and harm him, so he went to this manager to get credit for house repairs. The manager, for whatever reason, called some people and spent an afternoon fixing his doors and windows. When Qian Guansuo heard this while drinking, he became furious, saying how could the manager be so muddle-headed as to agree to help such a universally despised wretch who was too poor to even pay for repairs. After cursing for a while, in his drunken rage, he took the manager straight to Sun Laizi’s house, saying he’d tear down the house if he had to get this money back today.”

Huang Zixia was very satisfied with his narration this time, so she nodded and asked: “Did he find Sun Laizi and get into a conflict?”

“No! When the people in the tavern saw there was excitement to be had, a huge crowd followed him to Sun Laizi’s door. They say the doors and windows were indeed fixed well, reinforced doors, reinforced windows, with window boards half an inch thick of solid wood. His doors and windows were tightly shut, like an iron barrel. Qian Guansuo was kicking the door and cursing Sun Laizi, with no sound from inside. Someone handed him an ax, and Qian Guansuo, in his drunken state, chopped the door open. The crowd, afraid he’d go in and chop Sun Laizi with the ax, quickly took it away and returned it to its owner—guess who handed over the ax?”

Huang Zixia shook her head, and Zhou Ziqin turned to see even Li Shubai couldn’t guess, feeling quite proud: “This person’s appearance here was both strange and not strange—it was old man Lu Zhiyuan!”

Huang Zixia asked in surprise: “Why was he there?”

“When people in the capital repair their houses, don’t they often put those lamp holders on the walls? Lu Zhiyuan often works with that manager, installing lamp holders. This time the tavern in the West Market was right next to his candle shop, and when he heard they were going to collect money from Sun Laizi, Lu Zhiyuan shouted that Sun Laizi had promised to compensate him but hadn’t paid the full amount yet, and now Sun Laizi had money to fix his house but no money to pay him. So in his anger, he grabbed a small ax he used for splitting wax and joined them to collect the debt.”

Huang Zixia had nothing to say about this old man, so she just asked: “Then did the group of them chop Sun Laizi?”

“No! Sun Laizi was already dead!” Zhou Ziqin exclaimed excitedly, slamming his fist on the table so hard that even the teapot jumped twice. “When the group kicked open the door, they found Sun Laizi lying on the broken bed inside, already stiff with death. In such hot weather, with the room sealed tight, the whole place had started to smell!”

Huang Zixia frowned and pursued: “What was the scene like?”

“When others smelled the stench, they already knew something was wrong, but only the drunk Qian Guansuo rushed forward, still grabbing Sun Laizi’s clothes wanting to lift him for a beating. Lu Zhiyuan, who was right behind him, quickly stepped forward to pull him back, but Sun Laizi’s corpse had already been pulled to the edge of the bed, and when Qian Guansuo was pulled back and let go, it fell to the ground with a thud, already stiff with death! Lu Zhiyuan crouched down to turn over the body on the ground, was scared out of his wits, and pulled him to run back quickly. When Qian Guansuo saw the corpse’s twisted face, he also stumbled backward in fear. Both fell to the ground, unable to get up for a while. The onlookers rushed to help people up, report to officials, and call the ward head. By the time it was reported to the Court of Judicial Review, it was almost dark. When I heard Sun Laizi was dead, I quickly went to check the situation, then ran to find you.”

“How did Sun Laizi die?” Huang Zixia asked.

“Stabbed to death! The wound was thin and small, probably from a sharp small dagger about an inch and a half wide, and the killer had very little strength—the wound wasn’t deep. The killer knew this fact, so they poisoned the weapon, stabbed him twice, and ran. No weapon was left at the scene, the killer must have taken it with them.”

“Were there signs of struggle?”

“No, the killer must have struck while the victim was asleep.”

“Where were the wounds?”

“Sun Laizi was sleeping on his side on a narrow bed, facing the door with his back to the wall, the body was in a natural sleeping position. Though his body was covered in sores, which nearly made me sick during the examination.” Zhou Ziqin demonstrated on his own body as he spoke, “One wound was below the left shoulder blade, one on the right side of the waist near the navel, both wounds angled downward, clearly made by the killer crouching beside the bed while Sun Laizi slept on the low bed.”

“Signs of struggle?”

“No signs of struggle.”

“That’s not logical,” Li Shubai said calmly.

Huang Zixia nodded: “It’s not logical, the wounds weren’t in vital spots and weren’t deep, the victim should have at least struggled and resisted.”

Zhou Ziqin looked at them with a pitiful expression: “I don’t know either! When I went to examine the body, it was already lying on the floor. But according to what everyone said when they first opened the door, Sun Laizi was indeed lying motionless on the bed in a sleeping position.”

Huang Zixia frowned slightly, setting aside this puzzle for now, and asked: “What was the exact time of Sun Laizi’s death?”

“This I can determine without doubt—no later than noon today. He died at or before noon.”

“So you’re saying he was already dead for at least three hours before Lu Zhiyuan and Qian Guansuo broke in?”

“Yes, in the newly repaired house, in that iron barrel of a house with reinforced doors and windows. The door was tightly shut, barred from the inside, even Qian Guansuo’s heavy kicks couldn’t break it open. The only window was a solid piece of thick wood, without any patterns, latched from inside. And the walls were packed yellow earth, without even a rat hole.” Zhou Ziqin looked frantic, “So how did the killer enter to kill, then exit and lock all doors and windows from inside without leaving any trace?”

Huang Zixia frowned slightly and asked: “It seems there’s no physical evidence at all?”

“Yes, none. But… there are witnesses.” At this point, Zhou Ziqin’s face showed an expression like toothache, “But, but…”

Huang Zixia gestured for him to continue.

Zhou Ziqin frowned, lowered his voice, and said: “According to several neighborhood aunties’ testimony, around noon, while they were sewing shoe soles in the shade by the old well, they saw two people, not from their ward, a man and a woman, come one after another near Sun Laizi’s house, seeming to linger and observe something, but didn’t do anything before leaving.”

“A man and woman?” Huang Zixia frowned and asked.

“Yes, one man and one woman.” Zhou Ziqin held his head worriedly, muttering, “They say the man came first, very tall and upright, looking righteous, with a straight back, clearly a good young man. Though these aunties were old and sitting in a secluded spot, they couldn’t help but look a few extra times. But from where they were sitting, they couldn’t see Sun Laizi’s house, so they don’t know exactly what he did there.”

“What about the woman?”

“That woman kept her head down and was all covered up, they couldn’t see her face clearly, but she was slender and probably young. She came after the man left, following the path he had taken, and also lingered around Sun Laizi’s house for a long while.”

“No other characteristics?”

“There is…” Zhou Ziqin said with difficulty, “She wore soft-soled blue cloth shoes with two opposing hibiscus flowers embroidered on the left and right shoes.”

Huang Zixia remembered the soft-soled blue cloth shoes with hibiscus flowers that Di Cui had been wearing when she saw her at Zhang Xingying’s house that afternoon, and her expression changed slightly: “Have you told the Court of Judicial Review?”

“No. But I think once the Court inquires in each ward, these two will probably be found out soon, and then they’ll be called in for questioning.”

Huang Zixia silently looked at Li Shubai, who walked to the desk, pulled out a piece of paper, and wrote down a few words, saying: “You should hurry and investigate the situation there tonight before evidence disappears.”

Zhou Ziqin pulled at Huang Zixia’s sleeve, hurrying: “Let’s go, let’s go, I’ve already investigated, Sun Laizi’s room absolutely has no way in or out, quickly help me confirm if there’s any way someone could kill in such a room.”

“Yang Chonggu.” As they reached the door, they heard Li Shubai call her name softly from behind.

Huang Zixia quickly turned back: “Your Highness.”

Li Shubai’s gaze fell on her sleeve that Zhou Ziqin was holding, and he said slowly: “Tomorrow we have other important matters, remember to return to the mansion early, don’t stay out all night.”

Huang Zixia quickly pulled her sleeve from Zhou Ziqin’s hand, bowing her head in respect: “Yes.”