Hearing Qian Lan’s words, Shi Guang’s brow furrowed deeply. “What are you planning to do?”

“What, having second thoughts?” Qian Lan curved her red lips. “As long as you seize the greater cause, women in this world are yours for the taking — as many as you want. Why must it be someone else’s wife? Besides, even if you obtained her, what then? Her heart is not yours. What’s the point of having an empty shell?”

“You know nothing about it. Don’t speak without understanding.” Shi Guang’s irritation flared.

“Shi Weizhi, since ancient times, those who accomplish great deeds have never been troubled by affairs of the heart. You should know clearly what your purpose is. What you want is the realm — not a beauty.”

“What if I want both the realm and the beauty?”

Qian Lan looked at him. “That is not impossible.”

“You may move against Yan Qin, but you cannot take her life.”

Qian Lan raised an eyebrow. “To move against her, we would need to draw Shi Ting away.”

Shi Guang thought for a moment. “I actually have a good method. But it requires you to work your influence on the Commander — the Commander is now almost entirely under your sway.”

“As long as you have the method, leave the rest to me.” Qian Lan was supremely confident.

The wick of the kerosene lamp flickered several times, casting an unusual light in both their eyes.

Only when the faint flame on the wick finally died did Qian Lan rise and leave the shop. On the silent, desolate street, her slender silhouette quickly vanished into the darkness of the night.

After Qian Lan left, Shi Guang sat alone facing the darkness, his mind tracing the shape of Yan Qin’s figure. In the dark, her every expression and smile was so radiant.

He wanted to reach out and grasp it, but that smile suddenly transformed into countless snowflakes, shattering and scattering before him. The freezing sensation made him shudder violently.

An expression of disappointed desolation spread across his face. Qian Lan had been right about one thing — once he had the realm, what was there to fear? Would Yan Qin not be his?

Just as Shi Guang was sinking into deep thought, there suddenly came a faint sound from outside. He immediately stepped forward and opened the door in alert.

In the direction Qian Lan had left, a dark shadow was hurrying away. The faint sound from before must have been the shadow stepping on something.

Shi Guang narrowed his eyes, a dangerous glint flashing across them. Qian Lan had said no one had noticed her arrival — clearly that was not the case. Not only had someone discovered Qian Lan, they had followed her. That figure…

~~~

It had been a very long time since Yan Qin had dreamed of things from before.

But this night, she again dreamed of her old apartment — the fish tank full of fish. She was crouching before it, watching the fish swim back and forth, when suddenly the water inside turned blood red. In the glass she saw a reflection behind her — the grotesque face of Shen Liang.

When she jerked awake from the nightmare, she was drenched in sweat without realizing it.

“Miss.” Jing Zhi pushed open the door and asked with concern, “Miss, what’s wrong?”

Yan Qin’s face was pale, cold sweat still on her brow. Hearing Jing Zhi’s inquiry, she took a long moment to come back to herself.

“Nothing. I had a nightmare.”

“I heard Miss calling out from outside.” Jing Zhi took a towel. “I thought it must be a bad dream.”

Yan Qin took the towel and wiped away the sweat. “When did Shi Ting leave?”

“He left before dawn, and asked us not to wake you.”

Yan Qin knew he had been busy these past couple of days — leaving early and returning late was to be expected. But no matter how busy he was, he always came home, even if only to keep her company for a short while.

“Miss, are you getting up now, or sleeping a little longer?”

“No more sleeping. I can’t get back to sleep.” Yan Qin got out of bed. “Since I’m up early today, I’ll wash up and go have breakfast with Mother.”

“Then I’ll prepare some light congee and side dishes. Er Yitai doesn’t like anything too oily.”

“Go ahead.” Yan Qin smiled and took her towel to wash up.

Once breakfast was ready, mistress and maid left Shaolan Courtyard and headed south toward Er Yitai’s quarters.

In winter, the Shi Mansion’s breakfast hour was half an hour later than usual.

A young maidservant was carrying a food box on her way to deliver breakfast to Yin Minghui. The cold made the hands she left exposed red and raw.

Yin Minghui’s quarters were the farthest from the main kitchen. So every day, the task of delivering her meals was passed around — nobody was willing to go.

Today it was the turn of the little maid called Acui. She was usually quite meek, and whenever there were tasks nobody wanted to do, the kitchen staff would direct her to run the errand.

Getting from the main kitchen to Yin Minghui’s courtyard required passing by an artificial lake — the same place where Yin Minghui had once fallen into the water. At this point in the season, they hadn’t yet entered deep winter, and the lake’s surface hadn’t frozen. Withered lotus leaves drifted on the water, giving it a somewhat desolate appearance.

Acui instinctively glanced out over the lake surface and saw what appeared to be something colorful floating there — something that looked like clothing on the water.

Acui, carrying her food basket, walked over out of curiosity. She thought someone had discarded clothing in the lake, and figured she might pick it up while no one was looking and bring it home for her brothers and sisters.

When she drew closer, she realized it was indeed clothing — but the clothing was being worn by someone. What was floating on the lake wasn’t clothing but a person.

The figure lay face-down, a head of dark black hair floating on the surface, the brightly colored clothing gently drifting on the water as though it might spring up from it at any moment.

“Aah!”

Yan Qin heard a scream from far away. She instinctively furrowed her brow. “Jing Zhi, did that sound come from over there?”

“It should be.” Jing Zhi said, “Sounds like someone encountered a ghost, screaming that loudly. By the sound of it, it seems to be near the artificial lake.”

“Let’s go take a look.”

Yan Qin and Jing Zhi quickened their steps toward the artificial lake. From a distance they could already see a young maidservant sitting on the lakeside, a food box scattered beside her, its contents spilled across the ground.

At the same time, Yan Qin also saw the body floating face-down on the water. The figure lay face-down, the face invisible, but judging by the length of the hair and the clothing, it appeared to be a woman.

“Do you recognize these clothes?” Yan Qin asked Jing Zhi.

The clothing was quite ornate — not something a servant could afford. So the body was likely that of one of the mansion’s mistresses.

“I remember now.” Jing Zhi’s eyes lit up. “I saw Miss Yin wearing something like this before.”

As soon as she said it, she couldn’t help covering her mouth. “Heavens, surely it’s not Miss Yin? How could this be?”

With Jing Zhi’s reminder, Yan Qin also recalled — Yin Minghui did seem to have worn such a garment before. But since Yin Minghui had so many clothes and changed several times a day, and Yan Qin was not particularly interested in matters of dress, she hadn’t paid it much attention.

“Jing Zhi, go immediately and find Captain Liu. Also, notify the Madam.”

If the deceased was truly Yin Minghui, then Qian Lan would have to be present.

Jing Zhi picked up the food box and turned to go find Liu Yin.

Yan Qin walked to the lakeside. The ground here was covered with dried, slightly damp withered grass lying in tangled disarray.

Finding any footprints in such material would be impossible. Whether the deceased had walked in herself or been thrown in was still unknown.

“Seventh Young Madam.” Acui had by now finally steadied herself. When she stood up from the ground, her legs were still somewhat shaky.

“Where were you headed?” Yan Qin looked at the food box on the ground.

“I was going to deliver breakfast to Miss Yin. I saw something on the lake from a distance and was curious enough to come take a look.” Acui’s face was pale as she said, “If I had known it was a dead body, nothing could have made me take that extra look.”

“When you saw the body, was it in this state?”

“Yes. Floating just like that, barely moving.”

Yan Qin stepped a few paces further forward — her shoe almost dipping into the water at the bank.

“Seventh Young Madam, be careful. The area there is all silt, very slippery.” Acui urgently warned.

Yan Qin leaned forward to look. The body was not far from the bank, and since this lake’s water did not flow, the body had barely moved since it began floating.

At this moment, something on the lake surface caught Yan Qin’s attention — flies, swarming in the air.

Flies have a keen sense of smell for corpses; they can detect the scent of a body from great distances and travel to lay their eggs on it.

Clusters of these flies were landing on the body, circling in the air. But what surprised Yan Qin was that every so often, some of the flies circling in midair would drop and fall to the lake’s surface. Looking more closely at the area around the body, she could see a layer of black fly carcasses floating on the water.

“Seventh Young Madam, please do come back up. What if you slip in?” Acui called out anxiously.

She couldn’t swim. If the Seventh Young Madam really did fall in, what would she do — rescue her or not?

“The soil here has frozen hard. One wouldn’t slip unless being extremely careless.” Yan Qin said quietly. “Besides, the water near the bank is very shallow — even if one slipped in, one could climb back out.”

The body had entered the water at this spot. The likelihood of it being an accidental fall was small.

Either the person had walked in of their own accord, or they had been thrown in.

But who the body actually was, whether it was a drowning death or a homicide — all of that would have to wait until the body was retrieved.

Before long, Liu Yin arrived with several guards. He first had the area sealed off, then directed men to enter the water and retrieve the body.

When the body was laid out on the ground, Yan Qin walked over and reached out to brush the hair from the dead woman’s face.

“Ah — Miss Yin!” Acui, who was standing nearby, let out another shriek. “How can it be Miss Yin?”

Although Yan Qin had anticipated this, seeing that the deceased was truly Yin Minghui still left her momentarily stunned.

In truth, there had been no particular enmity between herself and Yin Minghui. After that last incident, Yin Minghui had never come looking for Shi Ting again.

Now seeing her lying dead before her, Yan Qin still felt some discomfort — even though she had seen far too many corpses and had long since grown numb.

“Everyone stand back.” Liu Yin shouted at the Shi Mansion servants who had come running at the news to watch. “Go do whatever you need to do. What’s worth watching about a dead person?”

But human curiosity was what it was. Liu Yin’s words clearly had little effect. Though the servants had been kept several meters back by the guards, they were still craning their necks to peer inside.