The fourth day of the fifth lunar month, the day before the Dragon Boat Festival.
Just after dawn, there was a knock on the door of Songquan Hall. The old maid pushed the door open and saw that it was Yuan Ye who brought a newly made robe to Old Madam Yuan, asking her to wear it for the next day’s event.
He should have let it go and left, but Yuan Ye walked into the Buddhist hall, sat down on the cushion, and looked at Old Madam Yuan chanting. He couldn’t help but say the words he had been holding back for a long time.
“There was a bloody incident at home, yet the wedding went on as planned. Grandma, there are some things… I still want to ask you.”
The sandalwood scent in the Buddhist hall is so strong that it seems to block out the smell of the secular world.
Old Madam Yuan didn’t even raise her eyelids: “I am an old person who is about to die, what can I answer you?”
“Grandma, you actually know why Housekeeper Yang died, right?”
The sound of the wooden fish suddenly lost its rhythm.
The old maid’s expression changed drastically, and she hurried forward to stop him, saying, “Aiya, Young Master, you can’t say nonsense…”
“Momo[mfn]Momo was referring to the maid[/mfn], get out!” Yuan Ye rarely looked unfriendly and acted dignified to the old maid. “This is what I want to talk about with my grandmother.”
Old Madam Yuan slowly opened her eyes, raised her hands, waved them, and told the frightened old momo to go out.
When the door was closed, Old Madam Yuan let out a long sigh: “It’s the police station’s job to investigate the case. It has nothing to do with us.”
“Since it has nothing to do with us, what’s wrong with telling me?”
“Xiao Ye, the affairs of the previous generation should not affect your generation.”
Yuan Ye’s face was full of seriousness: “Grandma, the bloody incident happened right in front of me, how can I stay out of it?”
Blood is a wonderful thing, it connected people of the same bloodline. Old Madam Yuan’s stubborn temper can also be seen in Yuan Ye.
Old Madam Yuan bowed to the Buddha statue again and asked, “What do you want to know?”
“Who killed Housekeeper Yang? Whose golden hairpin is it? Why don’t you want to meet Father? What does karma mean?”
Yuan Ye’s rapid-fire questions betrayed the emotions he had long kept buried. He fixed his gaze on his grandmother, as if by staring at her hard enough, he could force the truth to surface.
Old Madam Yuan seemed reluctant to speak and avoided the topic: “Tomorrow is your lucky day. According to the rules, you are not allowed to say these unlucky words to avoid taboos. Go back.”
“I have to ask today because I don’t want to have a funeral before a happy event! I also don’t want you, the old, to really ‘send off the young’!”
He deliberately revealed what he had overheard so that Old Madam Yuan would know that he knew everything about her conversation with Yuan Sen that day.
Sure enough, Old Madam Yuan’s mouth twitched, and her thick wrinkles tightened for a moment. The restless fingers under her sleeves and her disordered breathing betrayed her nervousness.
Or rather, it was her fear.
Yuan Ye suddenly felt that he was very unfilial. He still had to force his grandmother to answer at such an old age.
“Xiao Ye…” Old Madam Yuan set down the wooden fish, turned around, and suddenly looked at Yuan Ye with a tender gaze. She even reached out to gently touch his cheek—her hands rough with calluses, yet incredibly warm, their touch filled with deep affection that sank into his skin.
When she opened her mouth, it was not to answer the question, “You have grown up and are going to get married. Seeing that you have grown up with blessings, Grandma feels that all these years of praying in the temple are worth it.”
Yuan Ye grasped her hand and asked, “So, what kind of matter could possibly make you, Grandma, pray in front of the Buddha for so many years?”
Unexpectedly, the more Old Madam Yuan listened, the more dull her eyes became. After a long silence, she spoke again: “…I don’t know.”
“Grandma!”
“I’m old and forgetful now.” Old Madam Yuan said, then deliberately put on the serene expression of a Bodhisattva, eyes lowered to her nose. Her lips pressed tightly together, like a clam unwilling to open.
Yuan Ye understood that he couldn’t ask any questions out of her.
The person in front of him should be the one he is most familiar with, but at this moment, he felt as if he was meeting her for the first time and she was unfamiliar and unknown to him.
The Yuan family—he had been born and raised within its walls, yet he couldn’t even grasp its true nature.
He stood up and walked out, stopping at the door with his back to Old Madam Yuan, and his voice was hoarse.
“Grandma, don’t always take concealment for granted as a form of protection. Even if you don’t tell me now, the truth will surely come out one day in the future.”
After a moment of turbid breathing, the sound of wooden fishes without any distractions rang out again.
Disappointed, like a mortal who has no chance to meet the Buddha, he shook his head and left the hall.
————
After breakfast, Xiao Jing slipped into Yuan Ye’s room, and the two of them whispered.
“Young Master, I have asked all the gold shops in the city. Not many people have bought gold in recent months, let alone such a large amount. Basically no one is buying gold. By the way, I even went to the old antique street and checked the black market, but there is really no news.”
The more Yuan Ye listened, the more his heart sank: “Why, there is no one suspicious at all?”
“Unless this person runs a gold shop, there really is no other…” Xiao Jing took out a list from his bosom and opened it for Yuan Ye to see. “In the entire Hezhou City, there are only about ten gold shops in total, and five of them get their goods from the other five. Among the five that ship goods, three get their goods from other cities, and two are panning for gold in the Hezhou gold mine. I memorized them all for you. Anyway, no one has seen the style of the golden hairpin you gave me. Either they deceived me, or we checked the wrong direction.”
Yuan Ye took a look at the list. He knew almost all the names on it. They were wealthy businessmen in Hezhou City. Yuan Ye had dealt with many of them. They were all businessmen who were greedy for small profits and did not seem like brave men who would kill people.
Did he not know the people well, or did he really use the wrong method?
“Where are the master and the clerk in the gold shop?”
Xiao Jing seemed to have anticipated that he would ask this question. He began counting on his fingers as if reciting a family tree, listing the identities of the employees in these stores.
“Kong Er from West Street, who grew up with me, always wearing the same pants. He faints at the sight of blood. It can’t be him.”
“Master Wang at the entrance of Lantern Alley is over 80 years old and has only two teeth left. He can no longer do any heavy work and can only give instructions with his mouth.”
“Then there are Jia Xiaobei and Gua Liu from Wufu Lu… they may be a bit rough around the edges, but they’re all driven by money. If you told me they kill for gold, I’d believe it. But if they use gold to kill, I wouldn’t buy it.”
Xiao Jing checked every person and every detail very carefully, and because of this, Yuan Ye felt more depressed the more he listened.
“It seems… all of them were not the one.”
Xiao Jing looked at Yuan Ye’s face, hesitated for a while, and then asked carefully, “Young Master, you are so anxious about this murder case this time, is it related to our mansion?”
Yuan Ye raised his eyes, and his eyes were full of worries that could not be hidden at all.
Tomorrow, he would be the groom-to-be and the center of attention at the banquet, but this matter weighed heavily on his mind, leaving him unable to sleep or eat, his face looking much worse. He gently stroked Xiao Jing’s hair and murmured, “…Even you can see it.”
Xiao Jing comforted him, “Young Master, don’t worry. Let’s take our time, and we will find it eventually.”
Yuan Ye bit his finger and said, “There is no clue at all. Could it be that the golden hairpin appeared out of thin air?”
“You never know, maybe it was the murderer himself who conjured it.”
Having found nothing, Xiao Jing was very distressed and followed Yuan Ye’s words and made some comments.
This murderer has been using amazing methods since the Governor’s case. He is very well hidden, like a hidden arrow, and is really hard to guard against.
But he is not a ghost after all. As long as he is a human, there will be flaws.
Flaw… flaw…
Yuan Ye rested his chin on the table, thinking deeply for a moment. Suddenly, he lifted his eyelids as if a thought had struck him. He shook Xiao Jing violently.
“Yeah, maybe the murderer conjured it himself!”
“Ah?” Xiao Jing felt that his young master might be going insane, so he quickly waved his hands. “Young Master, are you crazy… I was just talking nonsense… if it was really a conjuring, then it must be a ghost…”
“It’s not a conjurer!” Yuan Ye was too lazy to explain further and quickly gave an order. “Go check who’s in charge of the gold mines in Hezhou City right now. Who has been in charge recently?”
Xiao Jing, pushed out the door in a daze, muttered to himself, Are all the detectives in Hezhou City just freeloaders? Instead of investigating serious cases, his young master is out here running around.
Despite his nagging, he still listened to Yuan Ye’s words and went out in the morning dew.
This time he was out for a whole day and a whole night.
Only when the Yuan Mansion was adorned in red and green, with lanterns and colorful decorations, and the door was marked with the character “happiness,” and when the news had spread throughout Hezhou City, did the wedding that everyone had been talking about finally arrive.
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month marks the Dragon Boat Festival. It is an auspicious day for receiving wealth, celebrating coming-of-age, holding weddings, and granting pardons. However, it is considered inauspicious for killing, burials, or placing someone in a coffin.
