The guards outside were momentarily stunned when they saw Yan Liang and Wang Lianhua come out. They stared at the girl beside the scholar and began to wonder how many people the Chief Supervisor had brought in.
Yan Liang smiled kindly at the coachman: "Chief Yu wants us to go back, so please give us a ride, brother."
The coachman stared at Wang Lianhua, somewhat hesitant. Just as they were at an impasse, Yu Huatian strode out of the door and ordered, "Take the two of them back."
Yan Liangchao smiled and helped the timid, head bowed, flower girl into the carriage.
Yu Huatian watched the two of them, then suddenly remembered something and said after Yan Liang climbed onto the carriage, "Give me that hairpin."
Yan Liang froze, thinking to himself that he hadn't wanted to get up earlier or later, but he had to think of it just when they were about to leave. With great sorrow and reluctance, he handed over the hairpin he had been holding.
Wang Lianhua peeked through the crack and saw that Yan Liang was holding an object wrapped in a tablecloth. Unsurprisingly, it was the hairpin Yu Huatian had mentioned.
Wang Lianhua: ...Why use a tablecloth?
Yu Huatian scrutinized Yan Liang's expression: "You don't necessarily want to give me this hairpin, do you?"
Yan Liang laughed it off: "No, I just forgot for a moment."
Yu Huatian took the black jade hairpin wrapped in the tablecloth and warned, "This case has nothing to do with you. You'd better not get involved."
Yan Liang: ...Isn't it you who brought him here?
Despite his inner grumbling, Yan Liang agreed with a smile.
"I understand, I understand, don't worry, Chief Supervisor."
Yu Huatian felt that this person's answer was very perfunctory, but his smile seemed very sincere.
Whether it was perfunctory or sincere, Yu Huatian was too lazy to investigate.
He glanced into the carriage, but the curtain blocked his view. Yu Huatian thought for a moment and abandoned his plan. He had intended to ask "Miss Flower" if she knew where the man in scarlet robes was, but that man was elusive and would likely not give him an answer.
As the carriage started moving, Yan Liang waved to Yu Huatian in a friendly manner. Even without receiving a response, he still smiled. After the carriage passed in front of Yu Huatian, Yan Liang lowered the curtain.
Because the coachman was from the Western Depot, Yan Liang and Wang Lianhua remained silent in the carriage, exchanging glances and staring at each other for a long time before realizing their own foolishness and looking away. The two quietly waited until the carriage stopped in front of the Li residence.
Yan Liang was occasionally a bit of a puzzle, but in front of most people he was still a humble and polite young man. This was evident in his smiling farewell to the coachman and his asking the coachman to give him his regards to the Rain Supervisor.
Although he is usually lazy and undisciplined, when he gets serious, it doesn't surprise anyone; it seems as if it's only natural.
The driver calmly nodded and drove away.
Yan Liang watched the carriage drive away until it disappeared from sight before turning his gaze away. He glanced to the side and saw that Wang Lianhua had already gone into the courtyard to tell Li Xunle the good news.
Li Xunle had waited a long time, and now that he saw the two return safely, he was relieved and asked about Yan Liang's experiences. Yan Liang only said that he had been taken to Liu Changmin's residence, so Li Xunle did not press further, only saying that he hoped Yu Huatian could capture the person who killed Minister Cheng and Liu Changmin as soon as possible.
Not wanting to worry him, Yan Liang chimed in, praising Yu Huatian and saying that they had found some clues, and perhaps the case would be solved soon.
Wang Lianhua remained silent, thinking to himself that the Western Depot probably wouldn't be able to catch the mastermind behind the scenes.
The mastermind behind this killed many people on the way to Beijing, but only killed two people upon arrival, clearly indicating a plan... and presumably their identity was well concealed.
The Thousand-Faced Prince thought so.
After finishing their late dinner, Yan Liang took advantage of Li Xunle's early sleep to chat with Wang Lianhua in the room, and also discussed the case.
As soon as Yan Liang uttered his words, Wang Lianhua pretended not to have heard them.
"The person who came in second place in the exam was not Liu Changmin, but the person who died."
Yan Liang said this.
Wang Lianhua: "…………"
“…Don’t tell me you calculated it.” He said with difficulty.
"Ah, as expected, we are telepathic; we understand each other without being told."
Yan Liang agreed with his idea.
"Go on," Wang Lianhua said, too lazy to reply, and simply asked Yan Liang to tell him what he had calculated.
The Thousand-Faced Prince's feelings at this moment were very complicated. He didn't know how to describe them, but to sum it up in one sentence, it was like swallowing a fly after being spoiled.
Yan Liang pulled a piece of paper from his sleeve; it was folded many times and was crumpled. On the paper was written someone's birth date and time, though it was unclear who it was.
Although the Western Depot searched Liu Changmin's room, the piece of paper was too ordinary for the searchers to notice. Yan Liang saw it and secretly stuffed it into his sleeve.
"I hid this paper while the rain supervisor was deep in thought."
Yan Liang said these words with a straight face.
“Although I don’t know whose birth date and time it is, I can tell from my calculations that the owner of this birth date and time is already dead,” Yan Liang continued. “He died before the palace examination.”
Wang Lianhua's expression shifted slightly: "...How can you be sure that this birth date and time belongs to Liu Changmin?"
"I'm not entirely sure either," Yan Liang said lazily. "But think about it, if the owner of this birth date and time is Liu Changmin, and he died before the palace examination, then who would have participated in the palace examination and become the second-place candidate?"
"If you're not entirely sure, why are you so certain?" Wang Lianhua didn't let go of the word "what if" in Yan Liang's words. "What if is what if, don't make wild guesses."
Yan Liang looked at him with great surprise and said, "You say the same thing as Chief Supervisor Yu."
"...You didn't tell Yu Huatian your guess too, did you?"
Wang Lianhua recalled the conversation he overheard while eavesdropping and seemed to understand why Yu Huatian's voice sounded so cold.
Yan Liang nodded: "Mm."
Wang Lianhua: "..."
Completely unaware of Wang Lianhua's complex thoughts, Yan Liang then recounted how he found the ink jade hairpin under the bed and smelled the strange odor on the bed.
When talking about the jade hairpin, Yan Liang seemed very regretful. He had originally planned to ask at a jade shop in the capital if he could find any clues based on the hairpin, but unexpectedly, Yu Huatian remembered it at the last step.
Yu Huatian didn't seem like the type to tell him the results of his investigation.
"I'm so worried."
Yan Liang sighed at having given away a clue for nothing.
Wang Lianhua, thinking about the strange smell on the bed that Yan Liang had mentioned, said absentmindedly, "You gave that dubious information to Yu Huatian; he's the one who should be worried."
Yan Liang curled his lip: "But didn't you also give them false information? The Scarlet-Clad Young Master was clearly you. You lied to Chief Supervisor Yu without batting an eye. At least mine might be true."
“You said it yourself, it’s possible,” Wang Lianhua retorted. “Be careful that they don’t investigate for nothing and then come back to cause trouble for you, and might even suspect you of being an accomplice of the murderer.”
Yan Liang said frankly, "I am not an accomplice, and they will not investigate for nothing. At the very least, I was the one who found that hairpin."
Wang Lianhua snorted softly, utterly baffled by Yan Liang's inexplicable confidence.
He and Yan Liang engaged in a heated exchange, but he couldn't stop thinking about the strange taste Yan Liang had mentioned.
People in the martial arts world all say that Wang Lianhua rarely travels around these days, simply because there are few stories about the Thousand-Faced Prince. But in fact, Wang Lianhua is just too lazy to make a big fuss; he still travels around the martial arts world.
He had been pursuing this man, who had been relentlessly eliminating evil and treacherous officials, all the way to the capital. Along the way, he learned that the man was very likely from Miao territory and used Gu poison to kill people. Wang Lianhua had also had dealings with people from Miao territory in the past, and some of the people he knew had mentioned that the people of Chiri Valley fed Gu poison to themselves, and their bodies smelled of various insects and Gu poison.
Liu Changmin was from Nanchang, which is thousands of miles away from Miao territory. He could not possibly be a disciple of Chiri Valley. If the murderer was indeed a member of Chiri Valley, then after killing Liu Changmin, he slept in Liu Changmin's bed, staining it with the stench of his body…
...Could it be that Yan Liang's conjecture is actually possible?
Thinking of this, Wang Lianhua glanced at Yan Liang, who was deep in thought, his brows furrowed.
"What do you think gave Liu Changmin that fishy smell?"
Yan Liang suddenly asked a question.
Wang Lianhua remained unfazed: "How would I know?"
He didn't intend to reveal what he knew about Red Sun Valley, for reasons similar to: "I'm not saying anything, I'm not saying anything, let's see what you do about it."
Yan Liang seemed to sense something and asked, "The person you're investigating is related to Miao territory. Do you know anything in Miao territory that can leave a strange smell on a person?"
Wang Lianhua remained extremely calm: "Never heard of it."
Yan Liang sighed.
Liu Changmin's body was rotting and stinking. He didn't smell any fishy smell at the time—or rather, he didn't dare to smell it at all—Liu Changmin in the Hanlin Academy had a similar fishy smell to the bed... The only thing he could be sure of was that Liu Changmin had indeed slept on that bed.
...But what good is it for him to know that Liu Changmin slept in that bed!
Wang Lianhua looked at Yan Liang, who was deep in thought, wondering what he was thinking. Just as she was about to speak, she saw Yan Liang suddenly look up and say to her, "There's something I forgot to tell you."
Wang Lianhua raised an eyebrow: "What is it?"
“The Chief Supervisor asked about your relationship with me,” Yan Liang recalled. “He took me to Liu Changmin’s residence to wait for you.”
Wang Lianhua was not surprised. From the fact that Yu Huatian only took Yan Liang away and seemed to have expected it, he called out to him over the wall—even though Yu Huatian did not realize that the person who came was the one he was waiting for—Wang Lianhua guessed that Yu Huatian was very likely trying to lure him out.
That's why the "flower girl" said that a young man in scarlet clothes led her around the guards to the backyard.
"What did you say?" Wang Lianhua asked.
Yan Liang's expression was subtle: "I said that young master is a senior figure in the martial arts world... and knows Miss Yuze."
Wang Lianhua considered it for a moment and realized that this statement, combined with the scene Yu Huatian had witnessed that day and the news that "the scarlet-clad young master led the flower girl around the guards," would seem quite subtle.
To put it bluntly, it can really spark people's imaginations.
Wang Lianhua: "That's a clever way of putting it."
Yan Liang: "Likewise."
His implication was that Wang Lianhua's words to Yu Huatian were also quite clever and matched his own words.
The two exchanged a knowing smile, both of them grinning mischievously.
Author's Note: Did everyone see the new cover? Hiahiahia
This was personally created by me, a self-proclaimed "soulful" artist, hahaha! Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants between 2020-02-23 20:17:19 and 2020-02-24 18:28:45!
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine: Poetry and Wine in Youth (1);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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