Duan Yelin was supposed to go back to Xiaotong Guan, but when he reached the street corner, he turned his car and went to Heming Medicine Hall.
Looking at the time, it was already early in the morning, and the breakfast stalls were all set up.
The medical hall had not actually opened yet. He went in through the back door. There were only one or two medicine boys cooking medicine inside. When they saw Duan Yelin, they stood up and said, “Commander.”
“Where is he?”
The medicine boy said, “He’s inside looking after the patient. The Head of the Household tended to him the entire night—his eyes even turned red from staying up.”
Duan Yelin looked at the steaming medicine jars and asked, “He was here the whole night. Didn’t he go anywhere?”
“Of course he’s here, where else could he go?” The medicine boy asked this question without knowing why.
“You’ve been with him all this time?”
“I’ve been in the back preparing the medicine—it can’t be done without me. I go in every hour to bring it over. The Head of the Household handles the acupuncture and applies the ointment. He hasn’t taken a single break.”
An hour?
The Military Control Commissioner’s mansion and Heming Medical Hall sit on opposite ends of Hezhou City—east and west—and are the farthest apart. Walking there, even with a shortcut, takes half an hour one way. By drive, one has to take a roundabout route along the outer avenue, which still takes a quarter of an hour each way.
Unless he flew from the sky with wings, it is impossible that it was done by someone in the medical hall.
Duan Yelin was talking to the medicine boy like a confidant, while Xu Hang had already walked out of the inner hall holding gauze. Upon hearing this conversation, he calmly said, “It’s quite interesting today. Everyone seems to be very concerned about where I am, even you want to ask.”
Duan Yelin knew that he had heard him, and fearing that he might be annoyed, he followed up his words and asked, “Why, is there anyone else asking?”
Xu Hang burned all the used gauze: “What a coincidence, the servant of the Yuan family also came to the medical hall just now. I thought he wanted to get medicine, but he just came to see if I was here. From his expression, it seemed that I shouldn’t be here.”
Duan Yelin found a stool and sat down. He was a little tired after being busy all night. “His father was seriously injured, so…”
Xu Hang waved his hand, asked the medicine boy to leave, and then went to check the medicine jars himself: “So he suspected me because I had some conflicts with Yuan Sen before.”
Duan Yelin parted his lips, but ultimately held back the words Yuan Ye had said about suspecting Xu Hang.
He just said, “I know you are not.”
After Xu Hang added a few more herbs, he raised his eyes and said, “What if I say I am?”
Duan Yelin stood up from his chair, looked at Xu Hang in shock, and said in a calm voice, “Don’t joke!”
“You came to ask whether I was there today—doesn’t that mean you have doubts too?” Xu Hang chuckled, calm and unafraid. “Then let me tell you this: whether it was in the past, now, or in the future, if you ask me, my answer will always be yes. If you trust me, I’m innocent. If you don’t, then I’m guilty in your eyes, and you’re free to handle me however you see fit.”
His eyes were clear and transparent, as if there were no distracting thoughts at all, but it made Duan Yelin’s heart full of emotions.
The meaning was very clear. Xu Hang gave the choice between life and death to Duan Yelin. He had always been disdainful of making excuses, but with just a few words he made Duan Yelin feel somewhat guilty, as if Xu Hang had been greatly wronged.
He’s such a clever guy—it’s as if he’s turned into a spirit.
Duan Yelin sighed, “I’m just asking you to make it clearer so that others won’t have to gossip about it. Don’t worry about it.”
He wanted to shake Xu Hang’s hand, but Xu Hang looked at him coldly, turned back, and went back to the room, giving Duan Yelin a rejection look.
Duan Yelin was at a loss of whether to laugh or cry. It was really hard to appease him when he got angry.
But when a person is alone, his mind will be clearer. Yuan Ye suspected that it was someone close to him. This might not be groundless. He was such a perceptive person, so he must have some clues.
If nothing else, consider this—if it were an ordinary killer, even if he intended to strike today, he would’ve waited until late at night, after the guests had left. But he chose to do it before Duan Yelin arrived, and the timing was just right. He was using this noise to hide his tracks.
If it’s not a coincidence, then it must be the people around him.
He held his temple and felt a headache.
In any case, the scope of the murderer has been reduced a lot.
————
Yuan Sen was lying in the hospital. After waking up, he could do nothing except blink his eyes.
Each day when his bandages were changed, he would let out a couple of “ah, ah” sounds—though clearly in pain, he couldn’t say anything more. Whenever someone came to visit, they’d simply sigh, shake their heads, and walk away.
Although his body was crippled, his mind was still there, as if his soul was nailed to the coffin, the pain was beyond words.
Xu Hang, Xu Hang… when Yuan Sen thought of that guy, he could only stare with anger and tremble.
Duan Zhanzhou sorted out the stolen goods found in the Yuan’s mansion, wrote them in a report, and submitted it to the cabinet. Soon, the cabinet’s approval came down.
He was removed from his position, his property raided, his assets seized, and all his accomplices were thrown into prison.
Originally, Yuan Sen would likely have faced the death penalty, but seeing the state he had fallen into, the cabinet deemed it punishment enough and decided to let it be, leaving his family to fend for themselves.
With Duan Yelin’s help, the rest of the Yuan family was not implicated and escaped safely.
But in the end, wealth and prosperity were just a dream, and they will spend their lives in poverty.
Madam Yuan’s hair turned a lot whiter overnight, and she cried so much that her eyes were almost blind. Old Madam Yuan recited the sutras even more diligently, but her health was very poor, and she fainted several times.
While taking care of Yuan Sen and looking after the female family members, Yuan Ye also had to worry about solving the case. He was also entangled in trivial matters at home and lost a lot of weight.
That day, after he fed Yuan Sen his medicine and put him to sleep, he went to Old Madam Yuan’s ward, locked the door, and knelt down in front of Old Madam Yuan directly.
Old Madam Yuan hurriedly asked him to get up, but Yuan Ye refused and said with great pain, “Grandma, you still won’t talk?”
Old Madam Yuan’s hands froze in place, gradually began to tremble, and she fell back on the bed.
There is no escape from karma. She didn’t want Yuan Ye to suffer in this life, but she didn’t expect that the fire at the city gate would affect everyone in the pond. How could they escape?
She sighed and said, “My child, these things are too dirty and horrible, that’s why Grandma doesn’t want to talk about them!”
Yuan Ye’s jaw tightened: “If you don’t tell me and force me to bring the murderer to justice, I will kill him with my own hands!”
“Absolutely not! You will get karma for doing this… revenge…” Old Madam Yuan was so afraid that he would do something tragic that she almost knelt down to Yuan Ye.
“My father has already been like this. As a son, shouldn’t I know the truth? You always say karma. If this is the karma that the Yuan family deserves, then you should also tell me why! So that I can die with a clear conscience!”
Yuan Ye took out the golden hairpin with a swallow flying through peonies from his bosom. He hadn’t had time to give it to Gu Fangfei yet. At this moment, he placed it in Old Madam Yuan’s palm: “Grandma, if you don’t want to see the next golden hairpin stuck in my corpse, please speak!”
Truth can never be hidden. Old Madam Yuan’s eyes became hot, and two tears fell. For her, bringing up the past was also a scar.
Whatever, the family is already broken up like this, there’s nothing that can’t be said.
But she was confused about where to start, so she might as well start with the golden hairpin.
She stroked the golden hairpin, and her voice seemed to have penetrating power, transcending time and reversing back to many years ago: “In fact… This golden hairpin of mine is just a crude product that I imitated the shape of others because I saw theirs. The real golden hairpin with a swallow flying through peonies was so brilliant and precious that I still remember it to this day. Even the feathers on the golden swallow’s body are clearly visible, and the golden thread of the peony flower is thinner than a hair…”
The old madam has aged over the years, and her memory is not very good, but when she talked about the golden hairpin, her eyes seemed to light up, as if it was right in front of her.
“That was a master from a wealthy family who loved his wife dearly. To celebrate her birthday, because that madam’s name was ‘Jin Yanchai[mfn]Jin means gold, Yan is swallow and Chai is hairpin[/mfn]‘ and she loved peonies the most, that’s why there was that—’swallow flying through peonies’.”
Jin Yanchai, the golden hairpin, is hiding in Jinyang Tang.
He had only been fifty percent skeptical before, but after hearing this, Yuan Ye was already half paralyzed and sat completely on the ground.
