At the beginning of the second month after Shen Hanzhou lost his memory, two constables from the Qingzhou yamen arrived at the villa.
Li Yan initially thought word had leaked about her keeping a captive, but to her surprise, the two constables bowed as soon as they entered. “Villa Master, we beg you to come down the mountain. Our Magistrate is truly at his wits’ end. This case is too significant; if it isn’t solved soon and the higher-ups come to demand accountability, we’ll all lose our official caps.”
Inside the villa, Li Yan sat in the seat of honor, her eyes blank with confusion. “What case?”
The constables exchanged a look, spreading their hands and sighing repeatedly. “Sigh… Ten days ago at the Qingzhou night market, someone threw a headless female corpse off a roof. We’ve been investigating for ten days and haven’t found a single lead. We truly had no other choice but to come up the mountain to seek your help.”
They spoke with such sincerity that they failed to notice the momentary daze that flickered in Li Yan’s eyes.
She truly hadn’t expected that, in this day and age, the government would turn to bandits to solve crimes.
It was her own fault.
Previously, while passing by a small courtyard outside the city, she had happened upon a “heavy reward for a son” scam. She couldn’t bear to see a family ruined, so with a few words, she exposed the scammers, saving the household nearly a hundred taels of silver.
That scene had been witnessed by the Qingzhou yamen. Ever since, whenever a difficult case arose, constables would inevitably climb the mountain to request her assistance.
At this moment, Li Yan tapped her fingers lightly on the square table, feeling genuinely conflicted.
She was a bandit. Constantly dealing with the authorities was like dancing on a knife’s edge; something would go wrong sooner or later.
“Messrs. Constables, this matter…”
Before she could finish, a constable cut in. “Our Magistrate said that once the matter is settled, he has two jugs of Taohua Niang, a famous wine brought from the capital, to gift to the villa.”
Taohua Niang?
Li Yan’s eyes immediately lit up, and her spirit revived. Any thoughts of danger were thrown to the back of her mind.
She pointed at the two men. “It’s a deal. Let’s go.”
“I will go with you.” Suddenly, Shen Hanzhou, who had remained silent for a long time, knit his sword-like brows in clear displeasure. “The Taohua Niang is for the villa. You cannot drink it; it is public property.”
Li Yan froze. She remained confused for a good while, unable to understand how it had become public property.
She glanced at the expectant constables, then at the solemn-faced Shen Hanzhou, and tried to haggle. “I’ll only drink half a bottle.”
Shen Hanzhou raised his eyes to look at her before looking back down. He continued writing, stroke by stroke, and after a long silence, uttered two words: “No.”
Tsk!
This man was like a stone in a latrine—both foul and stubborn. He even wanted to control her drinking.
No wonder her father, who had lived incognito as an official in the capital for over a decade, was still cursing him on his deathbed.
This was Feilong Shanzhuang, the estate of Li Yan, the wealthiest merchant in Dajin.
But decades ago, this place had been the largest bandit stronghold in Qingzhou: Feilongzhai.
It was an interesting story. The previous chief had been a man of immense learning who, out of boredom, made a bet with someone to take the imperial examinations. Unexpectedly, he passed at the top of the list, placing in the top three of the palace examination. Starting as a prefect, he worked his way up to the position of Prime Minister.
To cover up her father’s bandit origins, Li Yan had been forced to lead the six hundred-odd people of the stronghold to “wash their hands in a golden basin” and publicly go into business.
Since there was a public side, there was naturally a hidden side.
For over a decade, Li Yan had robbed the rich to give to the poor, becoming known in the martial world as the “Eldest Miss.”
However, her luck had turned sour a month ago. While attempting to rob the rich, she had misjudged the target and accidentally overturned Shen Hanzhou’s carriage while he was traveling incognito. In the chaos, she had knocked him out, causing the non-martial official to lose his memory.
A dignified official of the Senior Third Rank, robbed by bandits in Qingzhou…
If she let him go back, there was no telling how the imperial court would target Feilong Shanzhuang.
Coupled with the memory of her father cursing him until his dying breath, Li Yan decided to go all the way. She kept him at the villa, making him earn money to pay off his “debts.”
At this moment, Shen Hanzhou was dressed in white, leaning against the wall of the carriage with his eyes closed to rest.
The carriage passed through woods and over hills, traveling along a winding road like a ribbon beside a stream. Accompanied by the gurgling of the water, it moved slowly toward Qingzhou.
The early spring light was fragmented by newly grown leaves, spilling onto the ground like crushed gold as they moved forward.
The journey of over an hour felt like a lifetime away.
The Qingzhou yamen was located in the north of the city. Once they entered the gates, the surroundings of the carriage became lively.
Li Yan lifted a corner of the curtain. Looking at the bustling crowds, she asked in surprise, “Is it this street? After such a huge case occurred, it doesn’t seem to have had much of an impact.”
She leaned out to look. The carriage squeezed through the crowd and turned left at the next corner, where the world-renowned Qingzhou Qulou and the villa-operated Haixi Lou were located.
The constable driving the carriage pulled the reins and turned. “It’s not this street; it’s the one opposite.” He pointed his right hand toward the Qulou. “It fell from over there.”
Li Yan stiffened.
Wasn’t that right in front of her own doorstep?
“The night market had just started, and it wasn’t even fully dark yet when it hit the ground with a loud thud.” Recalling the scene, the constable’s voice was full of helplessness. “It just so happened that the two of us were on duty that day. It made a huge sound when it fell. The commoners had never seen such a thing before, and there was immediate chaos. By the time we squeezed through to the spot, we couldn’t find any useful clues.”
She nodded in understanding, lowered the curtain, and muttered to herself, “That’s certainly bold.”
Dumping a body in a crowded market carries a very high risk of being discovered. Furthermore, with constables on duty at the Qingzhou night market, the risk of being caught was also extremely high. One had to wonder how much mental fortitude it took to pull off such a thing.
This point was corroborated by the corpse itself.
In the morgue of the Qingzhou yamen, three wooden beds were placed side-by-side. Two shelves stood against the wall, holding several trays. Alongside the crowbars, saws, and axes leaning nearby, these were all tools used only by coroners.
The moment the linen cloth was lifted, the state of the corpse was revealed.
The two constables couldn’t handle it; they turned around and vomited.
“Look at you two, so useless.” Li Yan put on gloves and a veil. While mocking them, she pointed outside. “Go out and get some air. I’ll come out once I’m done looking.”
The constables bowed repeatedly and fled outside.
The morgue instantly fell silent.
She chuckled and shook her head, picking up a pair of bamboo tweezers. Just as she turned around, she was startled by an unexpected figure.
Before her, Shen Hanzhou stood with his head lowered, his back to her.
“Time of death was approximately ten days ago,” he said. “The killer was an amateur with unprofessional technique. the surfaces of the dismembered sections are very messy, as if a great deal of force was used with a very small knife to achieve the goal.”
Li Yan was somewhat surprised and moved in front of him. “…You even understand the language of the dead?”
That handsome and elegant face stiffened slightly.
Shen Hanzhou shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Li Yan didn’t press him; it wasn’t her place to.
Since his memory loss, although he didn’t remember his name or where he lived, he remembered many strange skills. This was likely one of them.
“What else?”
“The deceased was female, roughly fifteen to eighteen years old, and had never given birth. Although she landed face-down when she fell, causing significant blood loss that affected the distribution of livor mortis, it still cannot hide the traces of the physical abuse she suffered before death.”
Wearing gloves, he naturally took the bamboo tweezers from Li Yan and picked up a small knife from the tray. Before Li Yan’s eyes, he plunged it in without warning.
This time, even Li Yan found it a bit hard to take. She stepped back twice, raising a hand to partially cover her eyes.
“The stomach contents are minimal, and there is little internal bleeding. Combined with the fact that the body was dumped at the night market…” Shen Hanzhou paused. “The time of death should be in the afternoon, but the time she was taken under control should be earlier, around midday.”
Li Yan pinched her nose and asked, “Why?”
“Because of the knife,” he explained. “Using a blunt knife to cut flesh and sever a neck—that process requires at least an hour and a half. The night market usually opens at the hour of the Rooster (5-7 PM) and ends at the hour of the Dog (7-9 PM). This timing fits.”
It was a well-reasoned argument.
Looking at Shen Hanzhou’s calm, unruffled demeanor, countless doubts surfaced in Li Yan’s mind.
Was this man really a capital official? Her father’s political rival?
Dajin valued the literary over the martial, and being a coroner was a lowly profession. How could a dignified capital official understand such things?