Chapter 46: Eighty Ways to Cut Weeds and Eradicate the Roots

This was truly an absurd, out-of-the-blue thunderbolt!

A deep sense of the ridiculous suddenly welled up in Song Shiyu's heart. Sitting limply on the edge of the brick-bed, she spoke, unsure whether she was trying to convince herself or Li Xubai: "She, she must have had her reasons. A woman of the inner chambers, possessing not the slightest means to make a living, reduced to such a plight—for, for her to find a patron was, was also out of sheer helplessness."

Li Xubai let out a gloomy sigh. "How old is Cao Heyong?"

"Fifty," Song Shiyu replied after a brief thought.

"And Yun Xingruo?"

"Thirty," Song Shiyu said without hesitation. "She married into the Gu family at twenty, and when the Gu family fell into disgrace at thirty, it was precisely ten years."

Li Xubai said in a deep voice, "When I was hiding underneath the bed eavesdropping, I gathered that the two of them must have known each other for a long time, many years. Cao Heyong once promised to marry Yun Xingruo, but for some reason, when his first wife died and he remarried, he did not choose her, thus letting her youth slip away. After his second wife passed, he still didn't marry her, instead watching the Yun family marry her off to Grand Tutor Gu's eldest son. Tell me, when Yun Xingruo was young and beautiful, Cao Heyong didn't marry her; now that her looks have faded, can Cao Heyong possibly hold a deep and unswerving affection for her? If it were truly deep affection, what was he doing all this time?"

Pausing slightly, his tone turned even more sharp and sarcastic: "As for Yun Xingruo, to take a scoundrel who abandoned her twice as her patron—just how blind must she be? I reckon the two of them are mostly just exploiting each other now, putting on a show. Who knows, one of these days it'll either be the woman murdering her spouse or the man silencing his partner."

Song Shiyu was utterly stunned by this merciless analysis.

She had never imagined that matters could be interpreted in such a light.

To strip away all pretenses and describe the exploitation and calculation between a man and a woman with such harshness.

Indeed, what was there in this world called love at first sight? It was merely lusting after appearance. And what long-flamed passion? Simply weighing advantages against disadvantages.

Having already had her heart chilled to the bone in her previous life, she thought for a moment and asked, "Then, the crux of the matter still lies in what she and he actually require." Her eyes brightened. "Li Xubai, do you think the group of people who set fire to the estate had the same objective as the two of them?"

Hearing this, Li Xubai also thought of a missed detail and hurriedly fished out the bright yellow pouch, handing it to Song Shiyu. "I found this in the room where Yun Xingruo was resting. At the time, she should have been using a dagger to pry open that screen, trying to retrieve this pouch, but before she could finish prying it open, she was interrupted by Cao Heyong. She never found a suitable opportunity to look for it again. After everyone left, I discovered it. The moment I took it out, someone came into the room—likely also looking for this item. Those two people found the screen empty and gave chase outside. I kept hiding under the bed and didn't dare show myself until it got dark. Then I ran into that gang murdering people and burning down the estate. They silenced everyone in the manor and finally tried to destroy the corpses and erase all traces. The voice of one of them sounded exactly like the person who had earlier broken into the room to search for something."

Song Shiyu experienced a sudden flash of enlightenment.

Embroidered upon the bright yellow pouch were auspicious cloud patterns, and when unfolded, faint dragon patterns could be discerned within.

Both of them knew full well what dragon patterns signified.

Unless they belonged to the imperial family, not even the most privileged and noble houses would be foolish enough to risk losing their heads over a mere embroidery motif.

This trinket was exclusively for the royal family's use.

Song Shiyu took out the half-jade pendant, its texture crystal-clear and its luster rippling, and furrowed her brow slightly. "Does this look like something from the imperial palace as well?"

Li Xubai nodded. "Too bad it's only half."

Song Shiyu examined it closely for a moment. "It's not half, it's a little less than half. This jade pendant should have been divided into three portions, and this piece is merely one of them."

The more Li Xubai looked at the jade pendant, the more familiar it seemed. Suddenly, struck by a thought, he urged anxiously, "Wait, wait a moment."

Song Shiyu: "..."

Li Xubai rummaged frantically through the cabinet on the brick-bed, finally pulling out a piece of yellowed white cloth. Unwrapping it layer by layer, he revealed a missing jade pendant of the identical texture, with the exact same shape and carvings lying right inside.

Song Shiyu froze. She picked up that jade pendant and pieced it together with the one in her own hand.

The fractured edges locked together seamlessly, and just as Song Shiyu had anticipated, the circular jade pendant was still missing its very bottom piece.

"Where did you get this?" Song Shiyu asked.

"Well, my father left it behind, saying it was a family heirloom. Even if we starved to death, we weren't allowed to pawn or sell it," Li Xubai replied.

Tilting her head, Song Shiyu was utterly perplexed. "I've never heard of the Li family having any ties to the imperial court. How could they harbor items meant exclusively for imperial use?"

Li Xubai shook his head.

He searched the original owner's memories inside and out for a long time, only to find this scant clue. As for the origin of this broken jade, Li Heyong had never elaborated, and the original owner knew nothing about it either.

"Hey, look, there seem to be characters down here," Li Xubai said, pointing to the fractured edge where the two broken pieces met.

Song Shiyu took a look and said, "It looks like the character 'Thousand'."

The two of them scrutinized the jade pendant for quite a while without discovering anything else unusual.

At that moment, Li Yunnan returned with food purchased from the Fan Tower.

Li Xubai hurriedly stowed both jade pieces back into the bright yellow pouch and hid it securely against his chest.

Qin Fuyu rode back in a rush to Bianliang Prefecture to report the fire at the Cao family estate to Prefect Cheng Yulin. He emphasized that someone had deliberately set the fire after Cao Heyong's departure, and that the coroner's examination of the charred corpses in the manor revealed that everyone had first been killed with a single slash before the flames were set.

To be reduced to ashes even after death—what kind of deep hatred and bitter enmity was this?

Cheng Yulin felt as though his head were about to explode.

Qi Wenxiong, the Duke of Qi's nephew, had been sentenced to execution after the autumn assizes, and losing his head seemed an absolute certainty. Yet he couldn't stop the Duke of Qi from hauling a small stool to his doorway every day to wail. The weeping left him unable to eat or sleep; if things dragged on like this much longer, he might well go meet King Yama right alongside Qi Wenxiong.

He had been contemplating drafting a memorial to petition the throne for Qi Wenxiong's early execution, rather than waiting for the autumn reckoning.

His ears and his head simply couldn't take it anymore.

Yet with the incident at the Cao family erupting, there was clearly no more time to write such a memorial.

Twelve human lives! If this case wasn't thoroughly investigated, him being transferred to another post would be a minor matter; losing his head even earlier than Qi Wenxiong's was the real catastrophe!

"Was that estate Cao Heyong's?" Cheng Yulin asked.

Qin Fuyu nodded. "It is."

"Did Cao Heyong buy a plot of land there and build it himself, or did he purchase the estate directly from someone else?"

Qin Fuyu had long since investigated the matter to its roots and hastily detailed the estate's origins: "The estate originally belonged to the abbot of a Taoist temple called Qingjing An. Later on, the abbot sold the estate to a Taoist nun with the surname Li from the temple. After the abbot died, the Taoist nun returned to secular life. Twenty-three years ago, the nun with the surname Li also died, and the estate was bought by Cao Heyong."