Early the next morning, Jin Shu hurried in through the side gate, looking for Ning Yan.
“Commander Pei has gone to the Chamber of Commerce! Big Sister, hurry up, or you’ll lose!” Jin Shu stomped about anxiously in the courtyard, wiping sweat from his forehead.
Ning Yan was brushing her teeth and looked at him helplessly. “Don’t worry. There’s still time.”
After tidying up, she took Jin Shu to the Chamber of Commerce.
Today was the election for the chairman of the Qiantan Chamber of Commerce. Every prominent shop owner and merchant in Qiantan Prefecture had gathered there.
Zhang Xingben had already served three consecutive terms over nine years and had deep roots within the organization. But this year was different. Not only had his son been frequenting brothels, but he was also accused of strangling a courtesan to death while indulging himself too excessively. The scandal had dealt a severe blow to Zhang Xingben’s reputation. That’s why, a few days earlier, he had been so desperate to find a scapegoat and planned to have Liu Zhan take the blame.
When Ning Yan entered, she did not see Pei Yan. She couldn’t help but ask Zhang Xingben about it.
Zhang Xingben also looked puzzled. “I haven’t seen Commander Pei.”
Ning Yan sat down to one side and listened as the roomful of merchants began discussing this year’s vote.
A young man who looked like a scholar, though he carried a saber at his waist, sat down beside her and greeted her. “Miss Ning, I am Yu Daolin of Xinglong Escort Agency.”
“A pleasure to meet you.” Ning Yan glanced at him.
His clothes were relatively clean, but the cuffs were badly worn, and his trouser hems were patched. He looked like a down-on-his-luck scholar.
“Your deeds have spread throughout our circles,” Yu Daolin whispered in her ear. “At Xilin Pagoda, when you publicly humiliated Qin San, that slap to his pride was incredibly satisfying.”
Ning Yan found this a little strange. She was just about to ask what he meant by “our circles” when a commotion broke out among the crowd. Turning toward the noise, she saw Xu Yao following behind an elderly man with a neatly trimmed beard.
As soon as the elder entered, everyone in the room rose to greet him.
So this was Xu Zhicheng, Xu Yao’s father.
As soon as Xu Zhicheng entered, he struck up a conversation with Zhang Xingben, who responded with only a few perfunctory remarks.
“Is he the murderer?” Yu Daolin nudged Ning Yan with his elbow, his face full of excitement.
Ning Yan lowered her voice. “We’ll know soon enough.” With that, she got up and approached Xu Yao.
Xu Yao eyed her warily. “You again.”
Raising an eyebrow, Ning Yan asked, “I heard that you also promised Miss Mudan that you’d buy her freedom and take her home?”
“As if.” Xu Yao scoffed. “She wasn’t even a qingguan courtesan. I’d have to be out of my mind to bring her home.”
Ning Yan neither agreed nor disagreed. “If you never intended to do that, then why lie to her?”
“What do you know?” Xu Yao said dismissively. “Things said in the heat of flirtation and romance are just for show. Who takes that sort of talk seriously? Besides, I didn’t kill her.”
“Didn’t you?” Ning Yan asked with a faint smile.
“Ridiculous!” Xu Yao found the woman downright unsettling. He picked up his seat cushion, moved to the back of the hall, and sat farther away from her.
The voting then began.
More than a hundred members cast their ballots in an orderly fashion. Yu Daolin also voted. When the results were announced, everyone was stunned.
Xu Zhicheng defeated Zhang Xingben by an overwhelming margin and was elected the new chairman of the Chamber of Commerce.
Zhang Xingben stood in the hall, dumbfounded.
Xu Zhicheng, on the other hand, did not seem surprised at all. Looking thoroughly pleased with himself, he thanked everyone who came to congratulate him.
“You’ve worked hard all these years,” Xu Zhicheng said, raising a cup of tea toward Zhang Xingben. “If I encounter anything I don’t understand in the future, I’ll still need Brother Zhang’s guidance.”
Zhang Xingben forced a few strained laughs, his expression unpleasantly strained.
Just then, someone entered from outside. He wore a crimson robe and strode forward with long, confident steps. His bearing was arrogant, noble, and imposing.
With a sweep of his robes, Pei Yan took a seat at the very end of the row, right beside Ning Yan.
“C-Commander Pei!”
The crowd was stunned. No one expected Pei Yan to show up. One after another, they hurried forward to pay their respects.
From the corner of his eye, Pei Yan glanced at Ning Yan. He waved casually to everyone, then shifted his gaze to Xu Zhicheng. “Congratulations, Chairman Xu.”
Xu Zhicheng was overjoyed. He had never imagined Pei Yan would personally come to congratulate him on his election as chairman. Such an honor was beyond anything he had hoped for.
“Thank you, Commander. This humble man is hardly worthy. It is only through everyone’s support that—”
Before he could finish, Pei Yan had already lost interest. Tapping the armrest of the chair in front of Ning Yan, he asked, “Have you figured it out yet?”
Xu Zhicheng’s face immediately turned pale. Awkwardly, he stopped speaking and remained standing where he was.
Ning Yan studied Pei Yan. Truthfully, she was astonished. Had he really solved the case in only half a day?
The victim’s social circle wasn’t particularly complicated, but unraveling the case was far from easy. Pei Yan had genuinely surprised her. After all, she had spent a full two and a half days on the investigation.
“Commander, after you,” Ning Yan replied.
Pei Yan did not stand on ceremony. He gestured to the men beside him. “Present the evidence, explain the reasoning, then arrest the culprit.”
His sole objective was to beat Ning Yan. As for what happened to the case afterward, he could not care less. He was not a constable and had no interest in spending extra time on criminal investigations.
Shiwen and Jiuwen stepped forward, dragging along a servant whose face had been beaten into something resembling a pig’s head. Behind them came a tall, powerfully built man.
As people greeted the newcomer, Ning Yan finally realized this was Ma Si, the man she had been trying to meet all along.
Pei Yan had claimed that Ma Si was injured. Yet from what she could see, Ma Si was not only uninjured, but looked remarkably energetic.
“They extort money and still make it sound perfectly justified,” Ning Yan thought.
Inside the Chamber of Commerce hall, the room buzzed with conversation. A sea of heads filled the room as people whispered, speculating about the purpose of Pei Yan’s visit.
Pei Yan raised his voice. “Yesterday, five servants grew bold enough to ambush Ma Si. Four of them died. The one who survived confessed that Zhang Xingben sent them.”
Ma Si nodded in agreement. “It really gave me quite a scare. If my brothers hadn’t helped me, you wouldn’t be seeing me here today.”
The crowd didn’t quite know how to react. After all, no one could believe a burly, broad-shouldered giant like Ma Si could be frightened to death by a few scrawny servants.
When he finished, Pei Yan shifted his gaze to Xu Yao.
Xu Yao shot to his feet. “G-General, surely you haven’t found evidence against me? I… I didn’t do anything!”
“If you arranged for Zhang family servants to attack Ma Si, wasn’t it simply to trick me into getting involved and helping you bring down Zhang Xingben?” Pei Yan leaned back in his chair, one leg crossed over the other, looking carefree and unruly. “You dare do it, but don’t dare admit it?”
Xu Zhicheng immediately dropped to his knees with his son. “Commander, there must be some misunderstanding,” he pleaded.
“We’ll deal with that later.” Pei Yan pointed at Xu Yao. “Let me ask you this. On the night Mudan from Chunhua House was killed, you claimed you were at home. But I’ve already questioned your household. Although you returned home, you left again half an hour later.”
“You climbed up to the second floor, had Mudan open the window for you, and then killed her. Isn’t that right?”
Sweat poured down Xu Yao’s face.
“You murdered a courtesan, solved the problem of her pestering you, and at the same time ruined Zhang Heyu’s reputation, damaging Zhang Xingben’s standing as well. A neat little plan, killing two birds with one stone.”
“Commander, I’m innocent!” Xu Yao cried out. “It’s true that I went out again, but I never returned to Chunhua House and never saw Mudan!”
Pei Yan said nothing. He merely pointed toward the half-dead servant who had been interrogated so severely that he was barely conscious, using him as a warning.
“You’re lying to me?” Pei Yan said coolly. “I have plenty of ways to make you talk.”
Xu Yao nearly fainted from fright. In a trembling voice, he finally admitted: “Y-yes… I did go back to see Mudan.”
The room erupted in discussion.
Everyone now looked at Xu Yao the way they would look at a murderer.
“Good. As long as you’ve admitted it, we can avoid any more physical suffering.” Pei Yan concluded the interrogation with effortless ease. Then he turned to Ning Yan and raised an eyebrow. “I win.”
Ning Yan stared at him, astonished. Wasn’t Pei Yan’s method of solving cases a little hasty?
“Commander, aren’t you going to ask a few more questions?”
Pei Yan waved a hand dismissively. “I trust my judgment.”