Ning Yan was very curious about the method Pei Yan had used. He didn’t seem like the kind of person who would randomly pick a suspect and then come here to bluff Xu Yao into confessing. So how had he investigated it? His efficiency was astonishing, and his target selection had been incredibly precise.
After a moment’s thought, Ning Yan nodded and quietly said to Pei Yan, “Commander, if you turn out to be wrong, does our agreement still stand?”
“Of course,” Pei Yan replied, staring at her. “But I won’t be wrong.”
Ning Yan coughed lightly into her fist.
Pei Yan frowned, a trace of hesitation flashing across his face. He gave Xu Yao another long look, then turned back to Ning Yan. By then, his confidence had returned.
Seeing his reaction, Ning Yan studied Xu Yao as well. But she saw nothing special about him. Nor were the words I am the murderer written across his face. What exactly was Pei Yan looking at? Did he have some strange ability to see into people’s hearts?
Pei Yan gestured for Ning Yan to speak.
Everyone in the hall turned their attention to her. They already knew about the case and had heard that Zhang Xingben had entrusted a maid from his household with the reinvestigation.
“Miss Ning, what did you find? Come on, tell us!” Yu Daolin said excitedly.
Several other men carrying sabers stood nearby. They looked like fellow escorts from the escort trade. They were all intensely curious about the case.
Pei Yan was curious too. Ning Yan’s conclusion differed from his own, which intrigued him. Which naturally meant she had to be wrong.
Ning Yan nodded, stood up, and explained the case.
“This case looks simple, but in reality it’s anything but.”
“Because both the door and the windows were closed, everyone naturally assumed that the murderer had to be Zhang Heyu, the man who was in the room with the victim.”
“The two of them had argued, and it wouldn’t be hard to believe that in a moment of anger he lost control and killed her.”
Xu Zhicheng nodded. “Zhang Heyu is notorious for his debauchery. Nothing he does would surprise me.”
“Exactly, exactly. He likes tying courtesans up and even hanging them…” someone added.
The moment he heard that, Zhang Xingben flew into a rage. “Nonsense! He may be a bit of a playboy, but he’s not someone who lacks all restraint.”
“I saw it with my own eyes,” Xu Yao said.
“And who was the one leading him astray? You were!” Zhang Xingben roared back.
The other merchants listening nearby exchanged strange looks. So neither father nor son seemed particularly respectable.
“Enough.” Pei Yan’s expression darkened. “Are we listening to you people, or are we listening to her?”
The room instantly fell silent.
Ning Yan continued. “First, let me explain why I ruled Zhang Heyu out as the murderer.”
“At the crime scene, everything was remarkably clean and orderly. Yet according to the witnesses, Zhang Heyu argued with the victim that night. He was heavily intoxicated and vomited several times. The victim also opened the door once to ask for hot tea.”
“After so much activity, it makes no sense for the room to remain so neat and orderly.”
The crowd nodded as they listened.
Yu Daolin stroked his chin and agreed. “That’s right. A drunk person wouldn’t be capable of behaving so neatly and methodically.”
“But—” A voice came from the doorway as someone entered.
Qin San and Qiao Lu pushed through the crowd and stopped in front of Pei Yan and Ning Yan. After greeting them, Qin San picked up the discussion where Ning Yan had left off. “The doors and windows were locked from the inside. How do you explain that?”
When Qin San finished, Qiao Lu added, “I tested it myself. Neither the door nor the window can be opened from the outside.”
“Exactly.”
“That’s the strangest part of the whole case.”
“Which is why the yamen concluded that Zhang family’s second son was the killer. Maybe it wasn’t even intentional. He could have gotten carried away during his games and accidentally killed her.”
The crowd murmured among themselves.
“That’s true. The doors and windows couldn’t be opened from outside. But if…” Ning Yan walked over to a nearby window, unlatched it, and pushed it open. Then she looked at Qin San, silently indicating her point.
Qin San and Qiao Lu both froze.
Yu Daolin blurted out, “You mean Mudan opened the window herself?”
Qiao Lu frowned. “How is that possible? Why would she open it?”
With a patron already in the room, letting another man in would hardly have been appropriate.
“That,” Ning Yan said, taking several steps forward before stopping in front of Xu Yao, “is something Fourth Master Xu should answer.”
Xu Yao lowered his head. “I did go back. Mudan opened the window for me.”
Zhang Xingben exploded in anger. “So it really was you! You killed Mudan and framed my son?”
“I didn’t. I didn’t kill her,” Xu Yao hurriedly protested.
“If you didn’t kill her, then what were you doing there? Speak!” Qin San and Qiao Lu stared at him so intensely it seemed they wanted to bore holes through him.
“I… I just thought it would be exciting. I… I wanted to join in. It wasn’t the first time anything like that had happened.” Xu Yao raised his voice in desperate defense.
The expressions of the crowd varied.
Pei Yan supported his cheek with one hand and inexplicably glanced at Ning Yan. He didn’t even know what expression he wanted to see on Ning Yan’s face, but he found Ning Yan showed no reaction. There was entirely no blushing, shyness, or embarrassment of a young maiden upon hearing something shameful. She was quite unique.
“So,” Ning Yan continued asking, “the victim had sexual intercourse with someone before her death—was it with you?”
Xu Yao nodded.
Murmurs rippled through the crowd, and an elderly man in his seventies spat in disgust: “Scum!”
Xu Yao’s face turned beet red.
“Give me the details. Were you doing it on the bed, at a table, or on the arhat bed? What techniques and positions did you use, and did you…” Ning Yan pulled off Xu Yao’s belt and hung it around his neck, “play around with tricks like this?”
Xu Yao buried his head almost down to his knees, nodded again, and replied in a muffled voice. “I-Using Zhang Heyu’s belt to tie around her neck and hands, while-while playing horse-riding.” He suddenly looked up and swore, “But when I left, she wasn’t dead. She was alive and well, and she even closed the window.”
The seventy- or eighty-year-old elder from earlier slammed his hand on the table, his tone bitter with disdain: “Despicable, a disgrace!”
Pei Yan lowered his crossed legs, leaned slightly forward, and narrowed his eyes: “You’re saying that Mudan closed the doors and windows herself?”
Xu Yao nodded, holding up three fingers to swear on his father’s life: “If this humble person has spoken a single lie, my father will drop dead right now.”
Xu Zhicheng slapped him across the back of the head, but realizing it was unseemly, he held back his fury and refrained from acting out further.
Pei Yan clicked his tongue, glanced at Ning Yan, and waited for her to continue.
“Commander, what he said is correct.” Ning Yan took out the autopsy record he had made during the examination: “There are two ligature marks on the victim’s neck.”
“One of the shallower ligature marks should be the one left behind by Xu Yao.”
“The shallow one wasn’t enough to cause death, but the deep one is the true cause of her demise,” Qin San said in a deep voice. “So you’ve gone in a complete circle, and the problem has come right back to the starting point.”
After Xu Yao left, the only people remaining in the room were the intoxicated Zhang Heyu and the exhausted victim. Who the murderer was became crystal clear.