Li Yan listened quietly, countless questions swirling in her mind.
She poured a cup of tea and pushed it toward Shen Hanzhou, just as Cao Qie continued, “At first, I thought it was my old eyes playing tricks on me, so I asked a few regulars. They all said the body fell from Qulou. Besides, that night was clear with bright stars and no wind—how much would the body have to sway to have fallen from the rouge shop? In my humble opinion, the prefectural office is doing this on purpose.”
Li Yan’s fingertips traced the rim of the small cup as she rested her chin on her other hand, also finding the matter strange.
“Could there be an issue with the roof tiles?” Shen Hanzhou suddenly spoke up. “The prefectural office wouldn’t make such an obvious and foolish mistake.”
Li Yan agreed. Although the current batch of constables clearly lacked competence, they wouldn’t make such a basic error.
Lost in thought, her gaze drifted to the wine jug on the table. Seizing a moment when Shen Hanzhou wasn’t looking, she reached for it.
But halfway there, a “greedy hand” intercepted hers. Shen Hanzhou preemptively snatched the jug she had just grasped and placed it firmly on the other side of the table.
The lingering warmth of the jug vanished in an instant. Li Yan stared blankly at her empty palm before turning an incredulous gaze toward Shen Hanzhou.
He wore an indifferent expression, as though he hadn’t been the one to act.
“What Accountant Shen says makes sense,” Cao Qie mused, his eyes shifting between the two. “But we haven’t been up there to check, so we can’t be sure.”
“I’ll go up and take a look in a moment,” Li Yan said without thinking, reaching again for the wine jug in front of Cao Qie.
“Then don’t drink,” Cao Qie emphasized sharply, his eyes fixed on her outstretched hand.
Li Yan’s arm froze mid-air. She widened her eyes, tilting her head in disbelief after a moment. “I’m the manor head!”
Had it only been a little over a month? How had everyone started talking like Shen Hanzhou?
Cao Qie sighed earnestly. “Accountant Shen means well. This early spring weather is unpredictable—it was sunny just now, and now there’s fog. Who knows if it might rain later? If it rains, the roof will be slippery. If you go up there drunk and slip, neither of us knows martial arts. We wouldn’t even make it in time to cushion your fall.”
He had even adopted Shen Hanzhou’s reasoned and methodical style to an eighty-percent degree.
Li Yan reluctantly withdrew her hand, tucking it into her sleeve as she sat at the table, casting a resentful look at Shen Hanzhou.
The man merely pinched his teacup with two fingers, took a sip to moisten his throat, and remained expressionless, his silence conveying his stance.
As if this had nothing to do with him.
Li Yan was speechless.
The Cao family had served Li Jia for three generations. In Li Yan’s eyes, Cao Qie was like family.
She could laugh off Shen Hanzhou’s objections, but she wouldn’t dismiss Cao Qie’s.
This was clearly a deliberate, premeditated plan.
“Fine,” she said, her gaze still lingering on the wine jug as she nodded absently. “I’ll listen to you.”
She had no choice but to yield.
No sooner had she spoken than Shen Hanzhou abruptly stood up, leaned forward, and in the blink of an eye, swept all the wine jugs from the table.
Under Li Yan’s astonished gaze, he gathered them into his arms, pushed open the door, and handed them out. “Return these. Don’t charge them to the account.”
Inside the room, incense smoke rose steadily from the burner. Li Yan stared blankly at his retreating figure.
Cao Qie couldn't hold back any longer and burst out laughing. "Accountant Shen is getting more and more dedicated. Truly worthy of being the young master's childhood friend."
On the surface, it sounded like praise, but it was actually a dig at Li Yan.
Back when they were tricking Shen Hanzhou, Cao Qie had been opposed to it.
Having been in business for many years, he could tell from the fabric of Shen Hanzhou's clothes alone that this man was no ordinary person. Keeping him around would inevitably lead to trouble sooner or later.
But he couldn't stop Li Yan, who was rubbing her hands together eagerly to "avenge her father," and who had a whole set of twisted logic about "he wouldn't kill his savior." With those two cards played together, no one could stop her.
Yet looking at the current situation, he suddenly felt this young man was really something. He could actually get a grip on Li Yan, that wine gourd, and solve Feilong Shanzhuang's biggest problem.
Indeed, the young mistress had foresight. Keeping him was the right decision.
"Stop laughing," Li Yan frowned and clicked her tongue. "The corners of your mouth are about to touch the crow's feet at your eyes."
Only then did Cao Qie try hard to swallow his laughter, tucking his hands into his sleeves. "Young Mistress, it's not that this old servant is being meddlesome, but I think you'd better not get involved in this case. I have a feeling the waters run deep."
"Why?" Li Yan grabbed two peanuts.
"Our restaurant is less than ten meters from where the body was dumped, and it's the best restaurant in Qingzhou, packed every night. There must be at least a few witnesses here, if not dozens, right? But the Fuya hasn't brought anyone in for questioning even once. Not only that, with such a major case, you'd think they'd at least try to find out which family lost a girl, to identify the victim, right? They haven't done that either."
"The authorities sent a few constables to stand at the street corner holding up missing person notices. They stood there for two days, shouted a few times, and then took no further action. Clearly, they were just going through the motions." Worried he hadn't made himself clear, he furrowed his brows and looked at Li Yan. "I'm not sure if the young mistress understands what I mean."
Li Yan nodded.
She understood, but she couldn't just leave it alone.
"I know my limits, don't worry," she said while eating. "Besides, I have my own thoughts on the matter."
At this, she raised her eyebrows mysteriously. "Do you know that the Duchayuan's Jingcha is about to arrive in Qingzhou?"
Cao Qie let out an "ah" and froze.
He lowered his head and pondered for a moment, muttering, "Strange, strange."
"How dare Lin Jian'an act so blatantly at such a critical time?" he exclaimed in surprise.
Li Yan put a peanut into her mouth and said solemnly, "I think he's doing it on purpose."
"On purpose?" Cao Qie was stunned.
Li Yan pinched the peanut shell in her hand. Having grown up by her father's side, she had heard many stories about setting traps and had some insights into schemes and strategies.
Gazing at the peanuts stripped of their red skins on the rosewood table, she playfully recalled the fragments of the entire case.
A body dumped in the bustling market of Qingzhou, right in front of a crowd, landing precisely before Feilong Shanzhuang's Haixi Jiulou. The corpse bore the mark of a special three-strand braid and characters branded with Moxing.
Add to that the fact that ten days had passed since the incident, with the Qingzhou Fuya handling the case perfunctorily, dragging it out until the Jingcha was about to arrive. Then, two constables came up to the manor to ask her to solve it.
Li Yan pinched a peanut and gently split it in half.
"If there's nothing fishy about this case, I'll write my surname Li backwards."
She pinched the plump, oily peanut and put it into her mouth.
The sky in Qingzhou was always like this—gray and hazy with a hint of bluish-green.
A light rain began to fall, pattering softly.
The mountain hollow was shrouded in mist, and the pedestrians on the street gradually thinned.
"Here." Shen Hanzhou had somehow procured an oil-paper umbrella, his tone unusually gentle. "It's slippery up there, be careful."
Li Yan opened the umbrella. The jade-white canopy seemed to bloom upon contact with the rain, complemented by the bold, inked poetry, creating quite an artistic scene.
With a flip, she landed gracefully on the opposite rooftop, umbrella in hand, then turned back and gave a thumbs-up to signal everything was going smoothly.
Cao Qie found the umbrella somewhat familiar. "Where did you get that umbrella? The craftsmanship looks top-notch, and there's even poetry inscribed on top."
Shen Hanzhou kept his gaze fixed on the opposite side, replying lightly, "Downstairs in the main hall, two petty thieves stole it from a young lady's bundle."
Cao Qie was taken aback.
"I casually stole…" Shen Hanzhou raised a hand to cover the corner of his mouth. "Ahem, I borrowed it for a moment."
Cao Qie's eyes widened slowly as he drew a sharp breath.
If Shen Hanzhou ever regained his memory someday and recalled that he had stolen something…
With a look of someone who relished watching the drama unfold, Cao Qie gave a thumbs-up and praised, "Accountant Shen is always so thoughtful."