Fortunately, the street patrol soldiers arrived quickly and, after seeing Li Shubai, immediately bound the killer securely.

When the midwife arrived, she was greatly surprised and said, “The shock made the mother push suddenly, and the baby came out right away. Thankfully, the mother is healthy, so both mother and child are safe—I’ll quickly wash the baby.”

The child’s father held his wife’s hand and said tenderly, “My dear, you’ve worked hard. I’ve decided, how about we name this child ‘Jingsheng’ (Born of Surprise)?”

The weakened mother lay helplessly in bed: “‘Jingsheng’? Why not call him ‘Xiasheng’ (Born of Fright)?”

“Good idea, it’s decided then, Wei Xiasheng, perfect, perfect…”

Huang Zixia noticed that even someone like Li Shubai couldn’t help but twitch his lips slightly at this.

When Cui Chunzhan and Wang Lin rushed anxiously to the Prince of Kui’s mansion, it was nearly dawn.

Seeing their bloodshot eyes, Li Shubai said nothing more and ordered tea to be served to calm their nerves, saying, “The Si Fang case criminal has been caught. We’ll conduct the formal interrogation tomorrow.”

Wang Lin quickly nodded in agreement, while Cui Chunzhan hesitated slightly and asked, “Your Highness, this Si Fang case still lacks a motive and physical evidence. Are you certain the person caught tonight is the Si Fang case killer?”

“Whether he is or isn’t, won’t we know after tomorrow’s interrogation?” Li Shubai served tea and showed them out, saying, “During the capital’s curfew, ward gates are closed and no one can travel between them. He must have stayed at an inn in Puning Ward beforehand. You can investigate which inn he stayed at.”

The next day, the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review conducted a joint investigation. They examined the weapon and confirmed it was undoubtedly the same one used to kill the previous victims. They also found religious texts written by the killer in his inn room, and when compared with the handwriting left at the crime scenes, the writing habits matched perfectly.

The killer, knowing he couldn’t deny it, had no choice but to confess, revealing the details and motives of the previous murders. Thus, the Si Fang case that had troubled the capital for over three months was finally solved.

In the Zichen Hall of Daming Palace, Emperor Li Yan, who had been unwell recently, immediately became energized upon hearing this news. He ordered the princes, Cui Chunzhan, the Deputy Chief Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, and Wang Lin, the Vice Minister of Justice, and others to have an audience.

“Change your clothes and come to the palace with me.”

Huang Zixia had just finished catching up on sleep and had run to the Yubing Hall to see Li Shubai when he gestured to her.

Huang Zixia was somewhat surprised and asked, “To the palace?”

“I told you that if you could solve this case within ten days, you would qualify to work for me. So, starting today, I have a task for you, and for this task, you need a definite identity.” He stood up, his manner casual yet elegant, not at all like someone negotiating a deal. “In any case, today is an important day for you as a junior eunuch of the prince’s mansion. If I didn’t bring you along, wouldn’t we miss out on all the excitement?”

She lowered her head and responded with a “Yes.”

Li Shubai walked to the door and instructed those standing there: “Call Jingyi here.”

Soon Jingyi arrived, with an extremely clean and clever appearance. He looked Huang Zixia over a few times before asking, “What are Your Highness’s orders?”

Li Shubai asked leisurely, “You manage the household personnel. Tell me, how many registered eunuchs are there in the mansion currently?”

“A total of three hundred and sixty-seven.”

“What if three hundred and sixty-seven suddenly became three hundred and sixty-eight?”

Jingyi understood and glanced at Huang Zixia again. After a moment’s thought, he said, “This servant recalls that during last year’s storm disaster at Jiucheng Palace, many young eunuchs were lost. Most of those eunuchs were orphans sent to the palace, and some bodies were never found, their fates still unknown.”

Li Shubai nodded: “So you’re saying she could be a young eunuch scattered from Jiucheng Palace?”

Jingyi said very sincerely: “That’s what this lowly one suspects, but I can’t quite remember exactly who. Please allow me to check the records.”

Li Shubai waved him away. Shortly after, he returned with a thick register, saying, “This servant has found it. There was a young eunuch at Jiucheng Palace named Yang Chonggu, responsible for sweeping the ‘Chang Yu Yan Lan’ pavilion. About sixteen or seventeen years old, five feet five inches tall, slim and frail. He was an orphan who entered the palace and was solitary with no friends in Jiucheng Palace, staying alone in the Yanlan Pavilion. Everyone assumed he died in last year’s disaster, and the palace has already canceled his registration.”

“Hmm, who would have thought that this Yang Chonggu survived the disaster and entered my prince’s mansion.” Li Shubai looked at Huang Zixia and asked, “What do you think of this identity that Jingyi described?”

Huang Zixia stood there, overwhelmed with emotion. She had been on the run for months, desperately concealing her identity across thousands of mountains and rivers, yet with just these few short sentences, she could possess another identity, become another person, and appear openly before others without any need for concealment.

After all, who could question, or who would dare to question, the words of the current Prince of Kui, Li Shubai?

So she bowed to Li Shubai and said: “This servant Yang Chonggu thanks Your Highness.”

Entering through the Jianfu Gate of Daming Palace, after passing through layer upon layer of vermillion gates and high walls, they saw the towering Hanyang Hall, with its elevated platforms and connected halls, like a phoenix spreading its wings to embrace all who entered the palace gates.

Behind Hanyang Hall stood the majestic and beautiful Zichen Hall, its rear adorned with resplendent golden eaves and bracket sets stretching endlessly to the horizon.

Zichen Hall was an inner hall. In recent years, the Emperor rarely held audiences with inner court officials in Hanyang Hall, especially with princes and close ministers, preferring Zichen Hall instead. Huang Zixia hadn’t waited long in the hall before the Emperor, dressed in dark casual clothes, entered surrounded by eunuchs. His figure was slightly full but not fat, with a round chin and fine eyes and brows, naturally presenting an approachable appearance.

Emperor Li Yan was only thirty-five this year, but since being elevated to the throne by the eunuchs over ten years ago, he had indulged in pleasure and neglected state affairs for a decade. Though calling him a peaceful sovereign might be a stretch, he hadn’t done anything to disturb the common people, and the populace remained relatively stable.

Huang Zixia thought that although they were brothers, the Emperor looked much more gentle than Li Shubai. Looking at Prince Zhao Li Rui and the others, she thought to herself that everyone seemed easier to deal with than this Li Shubai—why was it that the only one who could help her had to be someone like him?

The Emperor took his seat and said to Li Shubai with a beaming face: “Fourth Brother, truly nothing ever seems to stump you. This Si Fang case, I was just thinking the other day about entrusting it to you, but before I could even speak up, you solved it last night. Truly remarkable speed.”

Li Shubai said: “This is not your humble brother’s achievement. Someone else solved the case.”

The Emperor’s gaze fell on Cui Chunzhan, who hurriedly bowed anxiously and said: “The solving of this case relied entirely on the Prince of Kui. We are at fault. We only patrolled the eastern city, not heeding the Prince’s instructions. It was the Prince who went alone, captured the true criminal at the scene, and solved this case.”

The Emperor’s eyes then fell on Huang Zixia standing behind Li Shubai, and he asked, “Fourth Brother, that young eunuch behind you—I don’t believe I’ve seen him before?”

“Your Majesty, this is the one who solved the case. That’s why your humble brother dares not take credit and has brought her to have an audience with Your Majesty.”

Everyone immediately looked at Huang Zixia with surprise, seeing this young eunuch with exceptionally delicate features, though constantly keeping eyes downcast, face calm, not even a hair stirring.

The Emperor smiled and said, “This is the inner palace, and I’m usually quite casual with my brothers. Look, today we’re all brothers here. Chunzhan is Consort Cui’s nephew, Minister Wang is the Empress’s uncle—you need not be so formal, young eunuch. What is your name?”

“This servant is Yang Chonggu, paying respects to Your Majesty,” she came forward and knelt in greeting.

Prince Kang Li Wen, being young and seeing someone about his age, eagerly jumped in to ask: “You’re the one who solved the case? I’ve been puzzling over this—quickly tell me, wasn’t this the Si Fang (Four Directions) case? Why were there murders in the south, west, and north, but the last one wasn’t in the east?”

Huang Zixia looked up at the Emperor, and seeing him nod, explained: “This was merely people’s habitual thinking. Combined with the Buddhist concept of ‘Chang Le Wo Jing’ (the four aspects of permanence, joy, self, and purity) and seeing the cases occur in the north, south, and west of the capital, people assumed the killer’s pattern followed the four directions. But the killer was merely borrowing this name, not following this pattern. The third victim was killed in Chang’an Ward in the southwest, not directly west. So I thought basing the case on the four directions was a mistake from the start.”

Prince Zhao Li Rui quickly followed up: “Then, I heard afterward that you first predicted the killer’s target would be in the southeast, then the next day in Puning Ward in the northwest. What was the reason for that?”

“This case has many threads, but it starts with the scripture Master Zhuang True misread,” Huang Zixia explained carefully. “That day in Jianbi Palace, when Your Highnesses discussed the case details, Master Zhuang True must have recited thousands of words at the Yulanpen Festival, yet the killer immediately noticed one misread character in the scripture. If not a Buddhist monk, they must be a devotee well-versed in Buddhist classics. With the capital’s curfew, to kill in various locations one would need to stay there beforehand. The previous crime scenes had no temples and a monk staying would draw attention, so a devotee was more likely the culprit. This person’s brutal murders showed they weren’t truly Buddhist, but rather misled by heterodox teachings. The superstitious always have their beliefs. Following earlier deductions that this wasn’t about the four directions, I realized superstitious people often have another habit—they consult almanacs for everything.”

So after examining the almanac, she discovered the killer’s murder locations perfectly matched the lucky directions for those days. On the day of the third murder, the almanac indicated the southwest was most auspicious, and checking the previous two murder dates, one showed north was lucky, the other south—matching the killer’s chosen locations. Therefore, she deduced the killer must follow the almanac rather than targeting one victim in each direction as everyone assumed.

And after she checked the almanac, Li Shubai immediately noticed this point as well, which was why on the day northwest was most auspicious, they lay in wait together outside the pregnant woman’s house in Puning Ward, waiting to catch their prey.

“So that’s it!” Li Wen eagerly asked again, “Then how did you know the killer would target that household? How did you know this time’s target would certainly be a pregnant woman?”

“Of the three previous victims, one was an elderly night watchman, one a middle-aged blacksmith—setting these two aside, the child at the charity hall was weak and dying, wouldn’t have lived much longer even without being killed, so why did the killer target him?” Huang Zixia paused briefly before continuing, “Then I noticed something—the middle-aged blacksmith was killed at a medicine hall—in other words, he was killed while seeking treatment.”

While Li Wen was still pondering this, Li Run held his wine cup and sighed softly: “The four sufferings of life: birth, aging, sickness, and death.”

“Exactly. One aging, one sick, one dying. All that remained was birth—and that pregnant woman was the only one in northwest Chang’an about to give birth. If the killer were to strike that day, she could only be the target. When he went to kill that day and happened to find the woman in labor, he was overjoyed, thinking heaven was helping him complete this ‘birth.'” Cui Chunzhan sighed, “Under joint interrogation by the Court of Judicial Review and Ministry of Justice, the killer confessed everything. His family had met with disaster, all dying within a month leaving only him. In his fear and grief, he believed in a sect from the Western Regions, one universally condemned there, yet it had spread to the Central Plains. It had an evil teaching claiming calamities could be transferred to others. In his deranged state, he believed this, thinking if he killed these four people, he could transcend the four sufferings and live carefree without illness or disaster. Even now in prison, he remains deluded, causing chaos, claiming he used Buddhist scriptures to save others and himself—truly unrepentant!”

The hall fell silent. The Emperor waved his hand and said, “I see no need to wait until autumn. Since he has confessed and all evidence is complete, why keep such an evil creature alive? Sort out the case details these few days, before he causes more disturbance with his shouting.”

“This is certainly a capital offense, but what is Your Majesty’s specific instruction?”

“Waist-cutting execution.”

Thus concluded the bloody case that had troubled the capital for months. As everyone thought of those tragic murders, they looked at the sixteen or seventeen-year-old frail eunuch standing there like an early spring willow branch. Yet this delicate youth had gently pulled the first thread from what everyone else saw as an impossible tangle, sorting out all the threads of logic, and they couldn’t help but feel a strange emotion well up in their hearts.

Li Rui smiled and said, “This young eunuch is truly clever and perceptive. No wonder Fourth Brother wouldn’t agree when I asked for him last time.”

Li Shubai smiled and replied, “Ninth Brother speaks nonsense, I never said no at the time.”

“Yes, I can vouch for Fourth Brother,” Li Wen chimed in.

The Emperor, being good-natured, smiled as he watched them banter until a female official came to whisper in his ear. Then he smiled and said, “Fourth Brother, you have double happiness coming soon. I’ll first host a family feast for you. When your great day of joy arrives, the Empress and I will personally visit your mansion to congratulate you.”

Everyone immediately showed expressions of delighted surprise, with Prince Kang Li Wen being the first to ask, “Fourth Brother has chosen a princess consort? Which family’s daughter?”

The Emperor smiled and said, “The golden books and jade scrolls will be issued soon anyway, so what harm is there in containing your curiosity a while longer? Rest assured that Fourth Brother’s princess consort will be one of the finest young ladies from the most prestigious families in the realm, a perfect match for Fourth Brother, each enhancing the other’s radiance.”