Hearing it was the Military Police Division calling, Shi Ting immediately set down the tools in his hands. “Go prepare the car.”

Yan Qing quickly went inside and retrieved his cloak. “Do you want me to come with you?”

Shi Ting had not intended to drag her along everywhere, but thinking that in just two more days they would be parting for a time, and remembering what she had said about wanting to shrink herself small enough to fit in his pocket, he could not help but draw her into his arms. “No need to change your clothes — come on.”

Yan Qing had assumed he would not bring her along, so she was surprised by how readily he offered. She immediately smiled. “Not afraid of tiring me out this time?”

Shi Ting said nothing, only bent down and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

After Jin Shan prepared the car, the two of them quickly arrived at the Military Police Division. Before they had even stepped out of the vehicle, Bai Jin came running out from inside.

He went straight to the passenger side and sat down, rubbing his hands together as he spoke. “Seventh Brother, Sister-in-law, there is a lead on that Xue Tao.”

Shi Ting asked, “Did she really buy a house in Shun Cheng?”

Bai Jin handed Shi Ting the document in his hand. “These past few days I took a few men and went through the records at the Housing Registry Bureau, practically turning over every property in Shun Cheng. There was no registered property under Xue Tao’s real name. So I thought — perhaps the house wasn’t bought under her name — and I called the people in Hai Cheng and asked them to help look into this Liu Xue Tao.”

Jin Shan drove the car steadily along the road. Bai Jin paused briefly before continuing. “It turned out this Liu Xue Tao was quite a character — she had a criminal record back home.”

“Liu Xue Tao has a criminal record?” Yan Qing was quite surprised. “For what?”

“She and a brothel madam trafficked girls with good looks from remote mountain villages and sold them to wealthy families in Hai Cheng.”

In this era, although there were laws, selling people was sometimes not considered illegal. Some families in desperate straits had no choice but to sell their sons and daughters, and the authorities could not interfere. Many maids in wealthy households signed contracts of indenture — once a contract was signed, their very lives belonged to the household. They could be beaten and scolded at will, and even if strangled to death, as long as the owner produced the indenture contract, the Military Police Division could do nothing about it. Yet deaths still had to be reported; that much was required by law.

“Ordinarily no one would have arrested her for this, but some of the girls discovered the deception and resisted to the death, resulting in a loss of life. She had not personally participated in the killing, but since she was part of the group, she was arrested and spent a year in prison.” Bai Jin said with excitement. “While Liu Xue Tao was sitting in jail, not a single one of her family members came to visit. When she got out, her family would not let her back in the door either. With nowhere to go, she had no choice but to become a maid for someone. The household she served was the Yin Family — the Yin Family was quite well-off in the Hai Cheng area. Liu Xue Tao worked there for several years and managed to save up some money, and then her family came looking for her again.”

“What a shameless lot,” Yan Qing said with a frown. “Only thinking of her now.”

“Yet Liu Xue Tao was a dutiful daughter — when her family showed up, she did not turn them away, and she devoted herself wholeheartedly to supporting them. After she came to Shun Cheng with Yin Minghui, she continued to send money and goods home regularly. Two years ago, after saving up enough, she bought a house in Shun Cheng and brought her entire family to live there.” Bai Jin said. “Though she was cautious — the house was purchased under her father’s name. When I checked over in Hai Cheng, her father’s name turned out to be Liu Fugui. Cross-referencing that against the property registries in Shun Cheng, I traced it to the current address: 64 Tong Tai Street.”

Jin Shan drove the car all the way to 64 Tong Tai Street. It was an ordinary neighborhood, with small gated courtyards lining both sides of the road.

The people living in these small courtyards were mostly petty merchants, along with some members of the middle class — and only those with some means could afford to buy such a small courtyard.

After the car stopped in front of number 64, Bai Jin went forward and knocked on the door.

Before long, an old man’s voice came from inside — low and carrying twelve parts of wariness. “Who are you looking for?”

Shi Ting gave Bai Jin a look. Bai Jin immediately said, “Is this where one of your chickens got out? It is wandering all up and down the street.”

“A chicken?” Upon hearing that a chicken had gotten loose, the old man inside did not stop to think and directly unlatched the door, asking with some anxiety, “Where did you see it?”

Bai Jin seized the chance to wedge his foot in the door. “Sorry to disturb you, old sir — Military Police Division.”

As he spoke, he produced his credentials while forcibly pushing the door open. Upon seeing this, Liu Fugui turned and bolted toward the house, shouting as he ran, “Xue Tao, Xue Tao — the Military Police Division is here!”

But how could Liu Fugui’s movements compare to Bai Jin’s? In a flash Bai Jin was inside the courtyard, and Xue Tao, who had tried to flee through the back door after hearing the commotion, was caught squarely by him.

“What do you think you are doing?” An older woman rushed out from the house, and upon seeing Bai Jin restraining Xue Tao, immediately lunged toward them. “Why are you arresting my daughter? I will fight you to the death!”

Shi Ting grabbed her arm, and in a calm, firm voice said, “Military Police Division routine investigation. All those who dare resist law enforcement will be charged with assaulting an officer.”

He looked at the woman. “The minimum sentence for assaulting an officer is three years in prison. Are you all planning to go to jail?”

Upon hearing these words, the woman and Liu Fugui did indeed become considerably more cooperative.

Shi Ting noticed two heads briefly flashing past inside the house — they were likely Liu Xue Tao’s brothers.

“Have all the members of your household come out to the courtyard. We are conducting a search.” Bai Jin handcuffed Xue Tao to one side. Liu Xue Tao was clearly badly frightened and could not manage a single word.

The members of the Liu Family quickly gathered in the courtyard. Bai Jin and Shi Ting conducted a careful search of the house and found items belonging to Yin Minghui.

This trunk contained all of Yin Minghui’s belongings — some valuable gold and silver jewelry, some bank notes, and a few miscellaneous items.

“Bring the suspect in.” With both physical evidence and witnesses in place, Yin Minghui’s death was undeniably connected to Xue Tao. Even if she was not the killer, she was a major suspect.

The Liu Family watched helplessly as Bai Jin took Xue Tao away, powerless to act given Shi Ting’s warning.

After being brought back to the Military Police Division, Xue Tao was clearly badly shaken. She kept her head down, trembling, and no matter how Bai Jin questioned her, she refused to open her mouth.

“Go wait outside.” Shi Ting and Yan Qing entered, giving Bai Jin a nod.

After Bai Jin pulled the door shut, Shi Ting sat across from Xue Tao, and Yan Qing sat down as well.

“Xue Tao.” Yan Qing’s voice was soft and gentle, naturally drawing forth a sense of closeness. “Did you kill Yin Minghui?”

Hearing a familiar voice, Xue Tao finally raised her head. Her reddened eyes were filled with boundless fear.

“We found this at the bottom of the lake where Yin Minghui died.” Shi Ting placed the evidence bag containing the ring in front of Xue Tao. “This ring belongs to you, yet it appeared at the scene of Yin Minghui’s death. How do you explain that?”

At the sight of the ring, Xue Tao’s expression became even more frantic.

“And there is the property belonging to Yin Minghui that we found at your home — all of this evidence points to you as the killer of Yin Minghui.”

Shi Ting placed a safe deposit slip found in Xue Tao’s room in front of her. “This deposit slip shows that the safe contains ten gold bars. I believe your financial means could not have allowed you to open such a safe at a bank.”

The deposit slip was anonymous — an agreement between the bank and the renter. The renter left no name, and similarly, whoever came to retrieve the contents in the future would only need the agreement and would not need to present any identification.

“Where did all these things come from?” Seeing that deposit slip, Xue Tao’s face immediately crumbled.

“I — I did not want to do it.” Xue Tao suddenly cried out in a shrill voice. “I did not want to kill the young mistress.”

“So you are admitting it — that you were the one who killed Yin Minghui?”

Xue Tao said through her tears, “I was blinded by money for a moment. I did not want to kill her.”

With that, she covered her face and began to weep loudly.

Yan Qing poured a glass of water and handed over a clean handkerchief. “Xue Tao, tell us — how did you kill Yin Minghui?”

Xue Tao cried for a moment before tremblingly accepting the handkerchief Yan Qing offered. She wiped her tears as she spoke. “That evening, when I returned to my room, I happened to find a stone on the table with this safe deposit agreement pressed beneath it. When I looked, I saw that it held ten gold bars inside. I knew there was no such thing as free riches falling from the sky — and sure enough, beside this agreement was a small vial. I recognized it as a type of poison.”

Xue Tao paused. “On this small vial, two words were written: ‘Kill Yin.’ I was startled. The person who had given me ten gold bars wanted me to use this vial of poison to kill the young mistress.”

“Do you know who this person was?”

Xue Tao raised her head, her gaze falling on Yan Qing. “My…my first instinct was that it was the Seventh Young Mistress.”

Yan Qing showed no surprise. “And then?”

“Then I thought again — it didn’t seem like her. The young mistress had already stopped pestering the Seventh Young Master by that point, and the matter between the young mistress and the Seventh Young Master had ended up becoming entangled with the Second Young Master. If the young mistress were to marry, she would be marrying the Second Young Master, not the Seventh Young Master. So I thought the Seventh Young Mistress had no reason to harm the young mistress.”

Yan Qing thought to herself that this Xue Tao was quite clever — only in the end she had been bought by money all the same.

“You believed this person was not me. Did you have any suspects in mind?”

Xue Tao shook her head. “I don’t know. I could not think of anyone who would want to harm the young mistress. Her existence posed no obstacle to anyone, did it?”

“Then tell me — how did you kill Yin Minghui?”

Xue Tao lowered her head, twisting the handkerchief in her hands, as though deeply reluctant to recall the events of that day.

“When I saw the agreement, I immediately hid it along with that vial of poison. To be honest, the young mistress and I had no grievances between us — I had no desire to kill her. But when I closed my eyes, all I could see were those ten gold bars. In the end, I could not resist the temptation.”

“After I hid the agreement, I began to plan how to kill the young mistress without anyone knowing. I thought of the artificial lake where the young mistress had once fallen in the water, and so I came up with the idea of poisoning her and then throwing her into the lake — that way, others would assume she had jumped in and drowned herself.”

Xue Tao swallowed hard. “That evening, I poured the poison into the young mistress’s milk. To keep her from tasting anything unusual, I added honey to it. The young mistress liked honey — she added it to everything she drank. I added an especially generous amount, but when she drank it she still noticed something off. She asked me why the milk tasted so strange. I told her the honey was a new variety her family had just sent over. She had no suspicions.”

“While you watched her drink that cup of milk, knowing that once she drank it she would die — did you not even for an instant think of stopping her?” Yan Qing had seen all manner of criminals, including those who killed for money. Even so, she could never understand them — how, when facing a person with whom they had no enmity whatsoever, they could bring themselves to strike such a merciless blow.

Xue Tao hesitated, and her face could not help but flush red. “At that moment I was only thinking of those ten gold bars. I thought: once the young mistress is dead, I could take her money and the ten gold bars and live out the rest of my life in comfort. I did not think of anything else.”

Perhaps sensing the cool, distant look in Yan Qing’s eyes, Xue Tao lowered her head a few degrees further. “After the young mistress drank the milk, she soon began to have stomach pains, and then she started writhing on the floor. She told me to go find a doctor. I pretended to go out, but instead locked the door from the outside. Only the two of us lived in that courtyard — so no matter how loudly the young mistress called out, no one could hear. I waited outside the door for a long, long time, until the young mistress went silent before I finally opened it.”

Recalling the scene from that time, Xue Tao felt a chill of dread herself, and her voice carried an involuntary tremor. “When I went back inside the room and checked her breathing, I discovered she still had breath in her. I was terrified — afraid she would not die. So I carried her on my back to the lakeside and dragged her into the water from the bank. After throwing the young mistress in, I hid to one side. At first she was still making faint struggles in the water, but before long she stopped moving. I waited for a very long time until I was certain she was truly dead before returning to the courtyard. I packed the young mistress’s money box and my own belongings, and then under cover of darkness, with no one around, I quietly slipped away from the Shi Mansion. On the way home, I discovered that the ring on my hand was gone. Although that ring wasn’t especially valuable, I still felt pained about it. It never occurred to me that the ring would fall into the lake together with the young mistress.”

Shi Ting said, “When Yin Minghui was thrown into the lake by you, she was still half-conscious. She knew it was you trying to kill her, and in a final effort to expose you, she used her last strength to pull this ring from your hand.”

“The young mistress — the young mistress was half-conscious at the time? She knew I had killed her?” Xue Tao was immediately horror-stricken. “Will she come looking for me?”

“Do you still know how to feel afraid?” Shi Ting looked at her with an expression of absolute gravity. “When you were killing someone, how was it that you felt not even the slightest trace of fear? Yin Minghui was a living person, yet you took her life for ten gold bars. You were capable of such ruthlessness for money — how is it that you can still feel fear now?”

“I… I…” Xue Tao shook her head repeatedly, as though wanting to deny something, yet not knowing what to deny.

Shi Ting said, “Liu Xue Tao, think carefully now — on the day Yin Minghui died, was there anything unusual about her behavior?”

“Unusual behavior?” Xue Tao seemed to be trying hard to recall. “After that incident, the young mistress would sometimes be in a low mood, but only for a little while — once there was food and fun, she would forget all about it.”

Yin Minghui was a somewhat tiresome person, but she was straightforward by nature. She was the type whose emotions were extremely easy to read — someone whose happiness came quickly and whose unhappiness left just as fast.

“Think more carefully — for instance, did she suddenly seem agitated and restless, or feel anxious and nervous?”

Xue Tao thought for a moment, then her eyes suddenly brightened. “That’s right — the young mistress told me that in two more days she would be going back to the Qian Family’s house. She had originally planned to keep staying at the Shi Mansion. She… she had also been thinking of marrying the Second Young Master.”

Yan Qing thought: …so Yin Minghui had hit a wall with Shi Ting and then turned her sights on Shi Guang. Though she was clever about it — Shi Guang was single, and her chances of marrying him were greatest. But Shi Guang and Qian Lan were on the same boat; Shi Guang would absolutely never marry someone who was of no use to his current situation. So even if Yin Minghui was setting her sights on Shi Guang, Qian Lan would never help arrange it, and in the end it would only be empty joy.

“Yin Minghui suddenly wanted to return to the Qian Mansion?” Shi Ting’s brow furrowed. “Did she say why?”

Xue Tao shook her head. “She didn’t say why. She was just a bit anxious… Actually, I heard her muttering to herself. She seemed to have — to have seen something she should not have seen.”

Shi Ting’s instinct told him that Yin Minghui must have discovered someone’s secret, and that this person was somewhere within the Shi Mansion. She had wanted to avoid that person, which was why she had wanted to leave.

“I didn’t pay much attention at the time — the young mistress often said strange things that made no sense, and I took it as nothing more than a bad dream on her part.” Xue Tao said. “She was just rather scatterbrained that way.”

“On the day before Yin Minghui died, was there anything unusual about her?”

Xue Tao said, “Nothing unusual, exactly — except that morning she slept straight through to noon and did not eat breakfast. That evening, when the Madam sent someone to call her for dinner, she hesitated for quite a while. In the normal course of things, she would not have waited for the Madam to call — she would have made her way over long before.”

Shi Ting asked a few more questions about Yin Minghui, but the clues Xue Tao was able to offer were of little use.

“Seventh Young Master — will I die?” Xue Tao asked with tense, fearful anxiety. “I killed the young mistress. Will I die for it?”

“A life for a life — that is Bei Di’s law.” Shi Ting’s face was cold. “Ten gold bars, two lives — do you think it was worth it?”

After Shi Ting and Yan Qing left, the sound of Xue Tao’s crying and screaming could still be heard from inside the room. But no matter how loudly she cried, it was already too late for regret — nothing could be undone.

“Can this agreement be used to trace whoever opened that safe?” Yan Qing asked.

Shi Ting shook his head. “The agreement is anonymous. Even if the bank staff can still recall what he looked like, it would not be the person behind all this who showed up in person. Finding an ordinary person in a sea of people — how would that be easy? That person calculated that this lead could not be exploited, which is precisely why they dared to go open the safe.”

“If what Xue Tao said is true, this person must be hiding somewhere within the Shi Mansion.” Yan Qing reasoned. “Yin Minghui must have stumbled onto some secret, and this person wanted to silence her.”

“If we are speaking of secrets within this Shi Mansion, there is only Qian Lan.” Shi Ting said, then immediately denied his own conjecture. “But if it were Qian Lan, she would not need to go to such lengths with a safe deposit box — she could simply have her own people approach Xue Tao directly. And from her reaction, it is clear she genuinely did not know about Yin Minghui’s death; that kind of expression is not something one can fake. My guess is that this person, though within the Shi Mansion, found it inconvenient to meet with Xue Tao in person and did not want Xue Tao to know their identity — which is why they secretly placed the agreement and poison in Xue Tao’s room.”

“Were they not afraid Xue Tao might tell Yin Minghui about this?”

“Even if she had told Yin Minghui, Yin Minghui would not have been able to find out who was trying to harm her. Moreover, this person must have looked into Xue Tao’s background and known what those ten gold bars meant to her — they counted on Xue Tao being willing to poison Yin Minghui for those ten bars.”

Shi Ting continued. “I have a bold conjecture: Yin Minghui must have witnessed a secret meeting between Qian Lan and Shi Guang.”

Yan Qing found this conjecture quite startling as well, yet the more she thought about it, the more it seemed plausible.

“If Qian Lan and Shi Guang were meeting privately in secret, they would naturally exercise the utmost caution and would absolutely never choose to do so within the Shi Mansion.” Shi Ting said. “They very likely had a secret meeting place outside. When Qian Lan was leaving the mansion, she happened to be spotted by Yin Minghui. Yin Minghui, driven by curiosity about Qian Lan’s whereabouts, followed her right out of the mansion — and then was discovered by Shi Guang. Fearing she might ruin his plans, Shi Guang killed her to silence her.”

Shi Ting finished and let out a sigh. “This is only my conjecture — without evidence, conjecture is just conjecture. It cannot serve as grounds for making an arrest.”

“But I think your conjecture comes very close to the truth of the matter.” Yan Qing said. “If the person behind all this really is Shi Guang, he would certainly not act personally. Once he does act, he would never leave a single trace. Yin Minghui’s death can only be laid at Xue Tao’s feet — the mastermind has completely distanced himself from the whole affair.”

As they were speaking, Zheng Yun walked in from outside. “Seventh Brother, Sister-in-law.”

Seeing Zheng Yun, Yan Qing could not help but smile. “I used to always wonder what kind of person could melt a block of ice like Zheng Yun. He was even colder than your Director, and I even thought it would be very hard to find such a person in this world.”

Zheng Yun laughed softly. “Sister-in-law is teasing me.”

Shi Ting, standing to the side, said, “Let me know when the wedding is so Yan Qing can have the gift money ready.”

Zheng Yun, in a rare moment of embarrassment, said, “That depends on what Ling’ai wishes. As for me, the person and the house are both ready and waiting.”

The person and the house were ready — only a mistress of the house was needed.

“Seventh Brother, do you think Hui Cun’s father…”

“From what I know of Hui Cun, he is a father who puts his daughter above all else. So Ling’ai’s wishes — he will not go against them. You may proceed boldly and with confidence. The test Hui Cun puts you through will only concern your character and the sincerity of your feelings for his Ling’ai.”

Zheng Yun seemed greatly encouraged by this and nodded with firm resolution. “Good.”

He then patted his own forehead. “I got so caught up talking about my own affairs. I came to ask Seventh Brother — which day’s train ticket should I get for Qian Guan Cheng?”

Hearing the words “Qian Guan Cheng,” Yan Qing could not help but look toward Shi Ting with a trace of despondency.