Di Yuanxin compared Xiao Luo’s shoes with the footprints under the bed and found they didn’t match—the bed’s prints were slightly smaller than Xiao Luo’s size.
This was perplexing; the clue they had worked so hard to get had hit a dead end.
Shen Yu’s gaze darkened. Only now did he truly focus on the matter.
He had spent years fighting on the frontier, often head-on, straightforward battles; schemes and conspiracies like this were rare for him.
He nodded slightly:
“I shall go ahead first.”
There were still many questions he needed Qi Jue to answer.
Su Yihan bent slightly at the knees:
“General, walk carefully—don’t trip on the way.”
Perhaps it was her sharp tongue that had effect—Shen Yu almost stumbled on the road.
After Shen Yu left, Di Yuanxin finally released his pent-up words, chattering nonstop:
“Miss, this case is utterly baffling. If we drag this out, the scapegoat Kong Wenlang will be confirmed as the murderer…”
Since this involved the daughter of a court official, they couldn’t let it drag too long. If they truly couldn’t find the culprit, the scapegoat would naturally be punished, letting the real criminal go free.
Su Yihan was genuinely stimulated by the challenge. Cases with layers upon layers of truth and deception made her blood boil with excitement.
She said coldly:
“Have Di Yuanxiu follow me.”
“Yes!” Di Yuanxin grinned immediately.
The last case the lady had been so interested in had been the Chenglou dismemberment case:
Five women, from different regions and ages, seemingly unrelated, had their livers surgically removed, coated in bright red blood, placed in a finely crafted box, perfumed from the outside, but the stench hit when opened.
Their heads had been shaved and decapitated, the skulls hollowed out and filled with entwined black hair and blood.
Their limbs were twisted and tangled together into headless doll-like forms—grotesque and horrifying.
After seeing the bodies, Di Yuanxin lost his appetite for a whole week. Even closing his eyes, he could picture the eyeballs scooped out and floating in the blood, staring lifelessly.
And the lady’s reaction?
Nothing—she calmly covered her mouth with a handkerchief while examining each mutilated corpse.
Then, with astonishing logic, she caught the murderer, quietly retiring after, leaving all the credit to the Jinyiwei.
Back at the residence, Su Yihan recorded all the fragmented clues onto bamboo slips:
A sexually capable man, a snake handler, tiny footprints under the bed, eating at midnight.
The footprint clue led nowhere, so they would start with “eating at midnight.”
Possibilities: the Han residence’s cook or Han Ruichu’s personal maid.
However, when Di Yuanxiu went to check, Han Ruichu’s maid Lianqiao was missing—an obvious sign of guilt.
Perhaps she had been silenced, or had fled in fear. Either way, disappearing at such a moment was highly suspicious.
“Lianqiao has no parents,” Di Yuanxiu added.
No parents meant they couldn’t check through relatives.
Su Yihan asked:
“Did Han Ruichu treat her well?”
Di Yuanxiu replied truthfully:
“I’ve learned that Han Ruichu privately had a fiery temper. Even minor dissatisfaction would provoke her, and Lianqiao, as her personal maid, must have been badly bullied.”
This made conspiring with an outsider to poison Han Ruichu plausible.
Tao Chun, still miffed at Shen Yu replacing her in caring for Miss Su, piped up:
“Then Miss should treat me well, without thoughts of replacement. Otherwise, I might bear a grudge and collude with outsiders against you.”
Su Yihan smiled faintly:
“I trust you.”
Tao Chun, touched, covered her mouth:
“Miss… so I mean that much to you… I will never betray you…”
Su Yihan shook her head, smiling faintly:
“No. I trust you neither have the brains nor the courage for it.”
Someone who writes all their thoughts on their face would likely shake if they tried to poison someone—who could she really manipulate?
Tao Chun: “…”
“Miss!” Tao Chun stomped in mock anger.
Su Yihan felt a bit faint, her head spinning, and pressed her hand to her forehead:
“Alright, everyone step back.”
Di Yuanxiu withdrew respectfully, Tao Chun ceased fussing, supporting Su Yihan to the bed before leaving, though staying outside to guard her.
The heavens gave Miss Su a stunning face and brilliant mind—but not a strong body.
Night fell in dense ink, a full moon illuminating the bluestone street. A few feral cats rested on the rooftops.
Su Yihan’s frail body blended into the night; Di Yuanxiu followed at a careful distance.
Her body couldn’t support light kung fu over walls, so she pried open the back door’s lock while Di Yuanxiu subdued the guard, clearing a path.
Han Ruichu’s courtyard was empty, desolate, with only the chilling wind.
They pushed open the door to her boudoir, carrying a faintly lit lamp.
Perhaps psychologically, the air carried an unpleasant odor—not metallic or blood-like, but sticky, like some animal secretion.
“Search.”
Di Yuanxiu carefully combed the room but found nothing unusual.
Su Yihan walked to the cabinet, opening it. No stiff corpse—just neatly arranged women’s clothing.
Recent rainy weather had left the garments damp. Amid the folded layers, a small, almost imperceptible piece of snake skin was found.
The culprit had brought a snake into Han Ruichu’s room.
Shedding a snake’s skin takes time, and anyone hiding in the room would be noticed.
The only hiding places were the cabinet and under the bed.
A full-grown man couldn’t fit in the cabinet, so that left under the bed…
“Check for footprints,” Su Yihan ordered.
Di Yuanxiu crouched, reporting a sequence of numbers matching the prints under Kong Wenlang’s bed.
The feet were too small…
Compared to the suspected man, the culprit was more likely a small-footed woman.
Su Yihan donned gloves and bagged the snake skin in a transparent pouch to take with her.
Just as they stepped out of the inner room, they ran into Shen Yu.
His eyes carried a smile as he greeted her:
“Meeting again, Miss Su.”
Su Yihan, wearing a straw hat, was unsurprised by his appearance.
He wore a dark silk robe with silver-threaded hibiscus embroidery, a tall, commanding frame, holding two small stones in his hands. His smile was that of a charming, carefree gentleman:
“Miss Su, with such beauty, it’s a shame to hide it.”
With that, he reached to lift her straw hat.