After wrapping the jade hairpin in a tablecloth, Yan Liang held it loosely and circled the room a few more times. Yu Huatian watched the whole time, thinking to himself that if this person found any more clues, he would have to punish his men who searched the house when he got back.
Then he saw the young man circle around twice, stop by the bed, lean down and sniff the air, cover his nose and turn back to ask, "Did you notice the smell on this?"
"..." Yu Huatian did not respond. He stepped forward, bent down, and sniffed the spot. A fishy smell hit his nose. He stood up straight with a dark face and remained silent for a long time.
Yan Liang joked, "Are you perhaps reminiscing about it?"
"..."
Yu Huatian glared at him.
The smell is barely perceptible unless you look closely and sniff hard. Once you do smell it, the aroma is incredibly alluring and captivating, even Yu Huatian couldn't resist it.
Yan Liang flicked his sleeves and waved them vigorously, causing the air to circulate. Yu Huatian, unable to bear it any longer, moved away from him and said, "Stop flicking them."
Yan Liang stopped as instructed and said, "I thought you would feel better this way."
Yu Huatian: "If you don't throw your sleeves at my face, I'd be happy to."
Yan Liang belatedly realized that, given his previous position, he might have accidentally hit Yu Huatian in the face if he swung his sleeve, so he smiled at the other man with great embarrassment.
"How does it smell?"
Yu Huatian meant to ask him what the smell had to do with Liu Changmin's death, but Yan Liang was taken aback and replied, "It smells bad."
Yu Huatian: "...I'm asking you what this smell has to do with Liu Changmin."
Yan Liang coughed lightly and readily agreed, "I've smelled this scent on Liu Changmin before, but the one I smelled was fainter and masked by herbal fragrance."
If Liu Changmin had this odor, he would naturally need to cover it up with another scent. Yan Liang smelled the odor one day when he was carrying books to the library in the Hanlin Academy. He couldn't see the road ahead and tripped over a tree branch. Liu Changmin, who was passing by, helped him up.
During their brief encounter, Yan Liang caught a strange odor emanating from Liu Changmin, a mixture of fishy smell and herbal scent. At that moment, Liu Changmin released his grip and gave Yan Liang a friendly smile.
“You could smell it on him yesterday…” Yu Huatian stopped mid-sentence.
The stench of yesterday's corpse was so strong that even if it existed, it would probably be undetectable.
Yan Liang continued, "Aren't you curious about where this smell comes from?"
Yu Huatian gave him a very subtle look: "Is this important?"
“Important,” Yan Liang said decisively. “Red moles and body shapes can be fabricated, even dead people can be, but scent cannot.”
Yu Huatian narrowed his eyes: "What do you mean?"
Yan Liang: "The person who died was indeed Liu Changmin, but he was not the second-ranked scholar in the imperial examination."
"Do you know the truth or are you just making things up? I've said it before, don't speculate about things you don't know."
Yu Huatian frowned. He felt that this third-ranked scholar seemed to know everything, but in reality, he was just talking nonsense.
“Didn’t Chief Supervisor Yu ask me to say what I couldn’t say yesterday?” Yan Liang asked frankly, without the slightest hint of annoyance at being looked down upon. “That is my thought.”
Yu Huatian was starting to wonder if the person he brought over had lost his mind, and if he himself had lost his mind as well.
Why do you say that?
Yu Huatian decided to give Yan Liang another chance. After all, he was the third-ranked scholar in the imperial examination this year, and he couldn't just make a hasty judgment.
Yan Liang hesitated. He had already noticed something on Yu Huatian's face. If he gave the answer, he might be thrown out. But if he didn't, he wouldn't be the famous swindler Yan Liang he once was.
"I told you to calm down."
Yan Liang said.
"……you say."
Yu Huatian thought to himself, what's there to be so upset about?
"I figured it out."
He heard Yan Liang say this.
Yuhuatian: "..."
He began to think about how to politely ask Yan Liang, this unreliable fellow, to leave.
Wang Lianhua was somewhat surprised to see Li Xunle return alone. Li Xunle told him about his encounter with Yu Huatian on the road, and seemed sullen when he mentioned that he had climbed onto the carriage but was stopped by Yu Huatian.
Wang Lianhua found it amusing. When he learned that Yu Huatian had not said where he would take Yan Liang, he thought about the places they might go—nothing more than the residence of Minister Cheng or Liu Changmin's residence—so he was not in a hurry. On the contrary, Li Xunle looked worried.
"That Rain Supervisor isn't going to eat him, so why are you in such a hurry?"
Wang Lianhua propped his head up and looked at his silly nephew.
"Why didn't Chief Supervisor Yu call me?" This was the most puzzling thing for Li Xunle. The Western Depot had previously framed officials and imprisoned them. Although the Western Depot under Chief Supervisor Yu's control was not as reckless as before, the precedent still made people worry.
Wang Lianhua thought for a moment, then decided not to reveal the answer to discourage him.
That person probably thought Li Xunle was useless.
Evening had arrived, but Yan Liang still hadn't returned home, while Li Xunle and Wang Lianhua had already finished their dinner.
Li Xunle pondered what Yu Duzhu wanted to see Yan Liang about—if it was related to Liu Changmin, why didn't he mention it yesterday, and why did he only seek out Yan Liang today?
...Could it be that they suspect Yan Liang is involved in Liu Changmin's death?
Wang Lianhua couldn't bear to see Li Xunle looking so worried. Since he was bored, he suggested that he go out and look for Yan Liang. If Yan Liang was still alive and kicking, he would bring him back.
Li Xunle asked in confusion, "How do you know where they went, senior?"
Wang Lianhua didn't seem to care much: "You don't need to worry, I have my own decision in mind, I'll just go to all of them if necessary."
He left still dressed as a "flower girl," and as Li Xunle watched his senior gracefully depart, he had a bad feeling.
Many people saw the "flower girl" on the street that day, and those who lived near the Li residence also knew about him. When he walked out of the Li residence, people began to look at him.
Wang Lianhua was already used to the gazes of others, and could discern the emotions contained within them without even making eye contact.
The emotions can be summarized as excitement, curiosity... similar to the excitement of seeing one of the main characters in the topic.
Among those many gazes, someone was staring intently at him.
Wang Lianhua grew impatient and looked up to see a young man in a blue robe leaning against the door frame of the inn with his arms crossed, looking at him with a smile in his eyes and a slight upturn at the corners of his lips.
The moment Wang Lianhua saw him, he felt a sense of aversion. Someone he disliked at first sight was someone he could never get along with. Wang Lianhua merely glanced at him before indifferently looking away.
The young man in the blue robe glanced in the direction he had gone and narrowed his eyes slightly.
Wang Lianhua first went to the nearest place, Liu Changmin's residence. He had already found out where Liu Changmin lived and had planned to investigate after the West Depot people left, but Yan Liang had disrupted his plans today.
The West Depot guards were still stationed outside Liu Changmin's rented house, and a carriage was parked at the gate. Wang Lianhua glanced at it from afar, then found an empty spot and went to the backyard to climb over, but heard a familiar voice coming from just a wall away.
"Wait, wait a minute!! I'm telling the truth!"
Yan Liang's voice sounded very sincere.
Wang Lianhua stood down by the wall, listening intently, looking rather like someone who was watching a spectacle.
I don't believe it.
The voice of the Rain Master was icy cold, like the snow that never melts on the Tianshan Mountains, perfectly revealing the emotions of its owner.
"You'd be better off making me believe that a newly appointed third-ranked scholar is a fortune teller with uncanny foresight than believing that pigs can fly."
Wang Lianhua chuckled. This Rain Supervisor's words were truly amusing... It's just that sows can't climb trees, and this newly appointed third-ranked scholar is indeed a fortune teller with uncanny foresight.
There seemed to be a moment of silence in the courtyard, then Wang Lianhua heard Yu Huatian say, "Since you're here, why don't you come in?"
Wang Lianhua said loudly, "I can't get in."
His voice was soft and coquettish; even an ordinary sentence sounded like a child's coquettishness coming from his mouth.
Yes, "Flower Girl" would never reveal her identity to outsiders. This was Wang Lianhua's professional ethics as a master of disguise, and an inviolable dignity.
Yu Huatian was taken aback when he heard the voice. The person who came was not the one he had expected... and the gender was different as well.
Yan Liang remained silent, thinking to himself that Wang Lianhua was here and still had to keep acting... This time, he had no intention of playing along.
Yu Huatian felt strange, but he still opened the back door and let her in, coldly sizing up this "flower girl" he had only met once.
The young woman, gentle yet timid, glanced furtively at Yu Huatian standing by the door. When she saw Yan Liang, her eyes lit up, and she flew into his arms like a graceful apricot-colored butterfly.
Yan Liang steadily supported her and asked gently, "Why have you come here?"
The young woman looked up at him gently and said, "You said yesterday that you were going to Liu Bangyan's house to investigate... I thought you would probably come here, so I came secretly without telling Brother Li."
Yan Liang: Yes, it was Li Xunle who was worried about him, so Wang Lianhua came.
"With so many guards outside, how did you get to that side?" Yan Liang asked, coaxing Yu Huatian into revealing the question he wanted to know.
The young woman hesitated and said, "A young man in scarlet robes led me around the guards... I asked him his name, but he never told me."
Yu Huatian narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, "Where did you meet that young man in crimson robes?"
"I met him at the entrance of an inn, the Laifu Inn."
Wang Lianhua casually mentioned the name of the inn where he had met the young man in the blue robe on the way here. The young man made him feel uncomfortable, so he thought it would be better to have the people from the West Depot cause trouble for him.
Even if the clothes are different colors... if the boy has a secret, the Western Depot will eventually be able to find something amiss; if the boy has no secret, he will not attract the attention of the Western Depot.
Yan Liang was puzzled by Wang Lianhua's serious demeanor. The man in scarlet robes was clearly talking about Wang Lianhua himself... How come he actually had an inn name? Wasn't he afraid of being found out to be making it up?
Yu Huatian seemed lost in thought, paying no attention to the flower girl, but instead giving Yan Liang a deep look, as if pondering something.
Yan Liang and the flower girl supported each other, looking weak, small, and pitiful.
"You may leave."
Yu Huatian seemed to have finished thinking and waved for the two to leave.
Yan Liang and Wang Lianhua exchanged a glance, their movements steady yet swift, and walked out in unison.
Yu Huatian stood in the courtyard, gazing at Liu Changmin's room, lost in thought, pondering what Yan Liang had said before.
Before that young woman arrived, Yan Liang had said to Yu Huatian, "Why don't you let a dog smell the scent on this bed and see if it can find someone who smells like that?"
Yan Liang said this without any prior cause, and a consequence just popped up out of nowhere. How could Yu Huatian possibly believe him?
Yan Liang spoke with great conviction...
Yu Huatian recalled the other young man in scarlet robes he had seen in the courtesan Hongxiu's room that day. He had thought that young man would follow Yan Liang here today, but the person who came was Yan Liang's confidante who had nothing to do with the case.
The numerous clues intertwined are truly frustrating.
The author has something to say: Upon hearing the voice of the "flower girl"—
Yan Liang: I have no interest in acting with you.
When the flower girl appeared—
Yan Liang: It smells so good.
#Addicted to acting hhhh
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