By the time Gu Jinzhao returned to the flower hall, the second opera had already begun.
Sun Hui was quietly discussing the leading actress’s elaborate headdress with Lin Wan, while Gu Lan sat peeling lotus seeds with complete concentration, not even bothering to look up.
When Lady Gao saw her return, she beckoned her over to sit nearby and personally replaced her tea with a freshly brewed cup of Junshan Silver Needle.
“This performance of The Palace of Eternal Life tells the story of Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei,” Lady Gao remarked casually, her gaze resting on the stage. Her tone sounded indifferent, yet carried a deeper meaning. “Affection within the imperial family rarely lasts. Ordinary households are often far steadier. Don’t you think so?”
The hand holding Gu Jinzhao’s teacup paused slightly.
She raised her eyes and met Lady Gao’s smiling gaze. In that instant, she understood.
This gathering had been arranged deliberately by Lady Gao.
The invitation had not been extended to the women of the Gu family.
It had been extended to her alone.
“My Lady speaks wisely,” she replied softly, lowering her head to drink her tea.
On the other side of the flower hall, a circular armchair stood empty, yet the teacup resting on the rosewood table beside it still gave off wisps of steam.
A maid had only just refilled it.
By the time the performance reached its third act, a hurried set of footsteps suddenly sounded outside the hall. A Marquis Residence guard dressed in black quickly approached the corridor and whispered several words into Ye Xian’s ear.
After listening, Ye Xian did not move immediately.
His fingers tapped lightly against the armrest of the chair twice.
Then he rose and followed the guard toward the study.
The percussion instruments on the opera stage were reaching their most intense rhythm, drowning out the sound of his departing footsteps.
Yet Gu Jinzhao still noticed his retreating figure.
Her gaze followed the corner of his dark robe as it disappeared around the bend of the covered walkway. Even after she sat back down, she continued looking in that direction for two more breaths before withdrawing her eyes.
When she finally looked away, she discovered Lady Gao watching her.
Their gazes met briefly.
Lady Gao shook her head ever so slightly, silently conveying:
No need to worry. Just watch the opera.
Yet Gu Jinzhao clearly noticed that the fingers resting upon Lady Gao’s lap had tightened slightly as well.
About the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Ye Xian returned.
He did not reenter the flower hall. Instead, he stood outside the side entrance and beckoned to Gu Jinzhao.
The gesture appeared casual.
His gaze swept over the women seated within the hall, while behind his back, his hand squeezed so tightly that the joints at the base of his thumb had turned white.
His voice remained as detached as ever.
“Miss Gu, may I trouble you to come with me? There is something I wish to ask.”
Several women in the hall turned toward Gu Jinzhao.
Sun Hui and Lin Wan exchanged a glance but said nothing.
Lady Gao remained motionless, her teacup still in hand.
Gu Jinzhao rose to her feet, smoothed the folds of her skirt, and followed Ye Xian toward the study.
Neither of them spoke while crossing the covered walkway.
Only after they entered the study and closed the door behind them did Ye Xian finally turn around.
His expression was far more serious than it had been outside.
A faint crease appeared between his brows.
The study was quiet except for the occasional cry of a cicada from the pomegranate tree beyond the window.
“The private residence beside the purple bamboo grove behind Qingfeng Academy has been burned.”
His speech was unhurried, yet every word carried considerable weight.
“The City Patrol Division discovered open flames before dawn. By the time the fire was extinguished, half of the main hall had already collapsed.”
“There were no casualties. But the old records and chests stored inside the main hall were burned completely. The arsonist was skilled. Oil was poured along the southern wall, avoiding neighboring properties entirely. It was clearly the work of an experienced hand.”
A chill ran through Gu Jinzhao’s heart.
Yet she did not immediately ask questions.
Instead, she carefully considered every word he had spoken before replying.
“What burned were the items Ji Minzhong stored inside the residence, not the residence itself.”
“He wasn’t destroying evidence. He moved the evidence elsewhere first, then burned the house afterward so everyone would believe the evidence had been destroyed along with it.”
“In that case, even if we obtain the City Patrol Division’s investigation records, we’ll only know that he set the fire. We still won’t know what he removed beforehand.”
“Exactly.”
Ye Xian walked behind his desk and opened the black lacquered wooden box.
From inside, he removed the small blue-cloth-bound notebook and opened it to a particular page.
A dried purple bamboo leaf was pressed between the pages.
Beside it were the watermark symbols he had sketched and several newly added lines recording every date Wu An had appeared near Qingfeng Academy over the past six months.
“Wu An’s last appearance near the academy was on the ninth day of the sixth month—the same day the sedan chair made its third reconnaissance trip.”
“That means the fire was set only after everything had been moved.”
Gu Jinzhao withdrew the Tongzhou dock warehouse inventory from her sleeve and spread it across the desk.
The ink had blurred slightly from the warmth of her body.
Yet the tiny markings Ye Xian had drawn to indicate warehouse locations remained perfectly clear.
“Where are the items now? Tongzhou Dock?”
“Most of them are in Tongzhou.”
“But the most important batch—the land deeds and the old grain transport case records—should still be inside the capital.”
Ye Xian pushed the inventory slightly closer toward her.
His slender finger pointed to two warehouse locations.
One was in Tongzhou, near the Imperial Stud’s grazing station.
The other was near Qingfeng Academy in the northern part of the city.
No name was marked there.
Only a small character indicating a shop.
His calm gaze swept across the markings.
A faint curve slowly appeared at the corner of his mouth.
It contained no amusement.
“Three days ago, his nephew from his hometown appeared at Tongzhou Dock.”
“Another person was with him—Zhao Jin.”
“So the items Wu An received at the dock were merely bait for outsiders to see.”
“The truly vital evidence remains inside that lacquered box at Northern Pacifying Marquis Mansion.”
“The lacquered box is still with the Zhao family,” Gu Jinzhao said.
Ye Xian nodded.
“Yes.”
Leaning back against the chair, he lightly tapped his fingers against his knee.
“But we can’t touch it yet.”
“Ji Minzhong burned the private residence for our benefit.”
“And for Zhao Heng’s.”
“He was sending Zhao Heng a message.”
“The evidence has already been moved. If you dare talk, your own hands aren’t clean either.”
“So now Zhao Heng neither dares surrender the lacquered box nor destroy it.”
“He can only continue safeguarding it for Ji Minzhong.”
Outside the window, a cicada suddenly shrieked.
The sound stretched long and sharp before abruptly falling silent.
Gu Jinzhao recalled the flower-viewing banquet at Northern Pacifying Marquis Mansion half a month earlier.
Zhou Yun had deliberately steered her toward the study.
At that same time, Zhao Jin had slipped out through a side door and run into Ye Xian.
Ye Xian had warned him:
“If someone searches your father’s study today, the Censorate will turn Northern Pacifying Marquis Mansion upside down tomorrow.”
Zhao Jin had gone pale.
Yet in the end, he still chose Ji Minzhong’s side.
It was not because he feared Ye Xian less.
It was because he feared Ji Minzhong more.
Ji Minzhong held leverage over him.
Ye Xian held only a warning.
If they wanted the Zhao family to loosen their grip, they would need to offer Zhao Jin an escape route safer than the one Ji Minzhong provided.
“Does Zhao Jin have a younger half-brother?” she suddenly asked.
Ye Xian looked at her.
A trace of surprise flickered through his eyes.
He had not expected her to think of that angle so quickly, nor to know the Zhao family’s internal affairs so well.
“Zhao Yu.”
“Zhao Heng’s illegitimate son.”
“Three years younger than Zhao Jin.”
“His mother was originally a maid who came as part of Zhao Heng’s first wife’s dowry. After the first wife’s death, she was elevated to concubine status.”
“When Zhao Yu was six, his mother died of illness.”
“Before Zhao Jin’s mother passed away, she raised him in a side courtyard of the main residence.”
“But he was never entered into the main branch of the family genealogy.”
He paused briefly.
“Zhao Jin doesn’t treat him badly, but they aren’t particularly close.”
“As for Zhao Heng, he never invested much effort in him.”
“He merely allowed him some education and assigned him to oversee several shops.”
“Most of the Zhao family’s businesses are small operations—stationery stores, silk shops, and the like.”
“But there is also a pawnshop in the northern district.”
“It’s only two streets away from Qingfeng Academy.”
“That pawnshop…”
Gu Jinzhao stared at the small shop marking on the Tongzhou inventory.
Several disconnected events suddenly linked together in her mind.
The day Jinrong had quarreled with someone, a carriage had been parked outside the academy.
The curtain of that carriage bore the insignia of a Zhao family stationery shop.
The reason Zhou Yun had been able to discover that Gu Jinzhao recently visited shops in the northern district was because the managers of those Zhao-owned businesses gossiped freely, turning customer traffic into conversation topics.
Zhao Yu managed shops in the northern district.
The pawnshop stood only two streets away from the Qingfeng Academy residence.
Moving the lacquered box from the residence to the pawnshop would have been far more discreet than transporting it all the way to Tongzhou Dock.
“Heir Apparent.”
“Ji Minzhong didn’t rely solely on Wu An to move the evidence.”
“On the surface, the burning of the Qingfeng Academy residence appears to be the destruction of clues.”
“But in reality, he had already distributed the important items from the residence into Zhao family properties throughout the northern district.”
“The pawnshop has storage rooms.”
“It regularly houses pawned goods.”
“A few additional lacquered boxes would attract no attention at all.”
Ye Xian’s fingers stopped tapping his knee.
He stood and crossed to the bookshelf.
From the highest shelf, he retrieved a blue-covered archival volume and opened it.
It contained the registry of Zhao family businesses recorded by the City Patrol Division over the past three years.
Six shops were listed.
Among them, one entry stood out clearly.
Deyuan Pawnshop.
Location: Willow Branch Alley, Northern District.
Distance from the rear hills of Qingfeng Academy: two streets.
Ye Xian inserted the marked page he had been examining into the registry and pushed both documents toward Gu Jinzhao.
“You were right.”
“Wu An was merely the visible route displayed for outsiders.”
His voice remained calm, yet a faint blade-like chill edged through it.
“The real transportation route ran through the Zhao family’s commercial network.”
“No registration at Tongzhou Dock.”
“No inspections from the City Patrol Division.”
“No prolonged exposure to anyone’s attention.”
“All the critical evidence was divided and scattered.”
“The officials couldn’t find it.”
“Zhao Heng dared not confess.”
“And I couldn’t simply storm in and search.”
“From beginning to end, the obstacle he was guarding against was Changxing Marquis Residence.”
He set down his brush and walked to the window.
For a while, he said nothing.
Outside, the new leaves of the pomegranate tree had fully grown.
Dense clusters of foliage concealed most of the courtyard wall, their surfaces gleaming with a rich luster beneath the midday sun.
The cicadas fell silent.
Then began singing again.
“I’ll have the City Patrol Division surround every one of those shops in the northern district.”
“We’ll say we’re tracking the suspect responsible for the Qingfeng Academy arson.”
A cold smile touched his lips.
“Doesn’t Ji Minzhong enjoy using human lives to fill the gaps in his ledgers?”
“This time, we’ll use his own fire against him.”
“We’ll seal his shops.”
“We’ll let him know we’ve traced the trail to the Zhao family businesses, but that we still don’t know which one.”
“And then…”
Ye Xian’s gaze settled on the bright sunlight beyond the window.
“We’ll wait for him to panic first.”