“You're not from the Dali Temple, are you? You're new?” Zhong Li asked the young constable driving the carriage, parting the curtain to look at him.
The young constable urged the horses forward with his whip, replying, “Answering Madam Zhong, I only joined the Dali Temple a little over a month ago.”
“Oh, so you’ve recruited again.” Zhong Li calculated that this young constable had joined the Dali Temple around the time of the Gu Ling case. She had been too busy with Shen Tu Jue’s matters to notice. “Who do you follow?”
The young constable smiled and said, “Lord A Wu has been busy recently, short of capable hands. I’ve been following him.”
“Is that so? What’s your name?” Zhong Li asked.
“My name is Wang Zhu,” the young constable replied.
“Wang Zhu, a fine name, noble and upright!” Zhong Li exclaimed sincerely.
Wang Zhu smiled and said, “Lord A Wu also said that. I was quite embarrassed then. My greatest wish is to become someone with the keen insight like Lord A Wu.”
Hearing this, Zhong Li raised an eyebrow slightly. It seemed, as Ru Hua Yao had said, that A Wu already had a large following of admirers due to his speed in solving cases.
“Yes, A Wu is very accomplished. You will be too if you work hard,” she replied.
Wang Zhu’s cheeks flushed, and he chuckled sheepishly.
After a while, Zhong Li asked again, “Wang Zhu, since you’re under Lord A Wu, why come to me when something happened at Hua Man Lou?”
Wang Zhu sighed, “Madam, you’ve been busy with the Chat Grass case all day, and Lord Lan is busy with the Emperor’s side matters. The only one without pressing duties is Madam Zhong, who is only responsible for escorting the Ying Zhou special envoy. So, I came to you.”
Hearing this, Zhong Li narrowed her eyes slightly and said, “So that’s how it is.”
When the carriage arrived at Hua Man Lou, the businesses in Mao’er Alley were booming. The alley was packed with patrons and gamblers. Only Hua Man Lou, devoid of its usual liveliness, was empty and deserted, seeming out of place.
“Oh dear, Madam Zhong, you’re finally here.” The madam of the brothel stood inside, looking around anxiously, pacing back and forth like a cat on hot coals. When she saw Zhong Li slowly appearing in the alley, the worry on her face vanished, replaced by her usual fawning expression.
Zhong Li was accustomed to her demeanor and merely cast a casual glance before heading directly into Hua Man Lou.
As the young constable had said, someone had died here. The guests had all either dispersed or left. Only a few beautiful courtesans remained in the ground-floor lobby, staring blankly at each other.
“Where is the deceased?” Zhong Li surveyed the lobby, finding no body, and turned to ask the madam.
The madam, who had been following Zhong Li, hurried forward and timidly pointed towards the second floor. “Madam Zhong, upstairs.”
Zhong Li nodded and walked up to the second floor.
As soon as she reached the second floor, she heard a heated argument coming from the innermost room.
“I didn’t kill him!”
“And it certainly wasn’t me. Young Master Ji is my biggest cash cow. How could I possibly shoot myself in the foot?”
“Then it must be Liu’er? She’s the oldest and has been here the longest. Young Master Ji was her regular client back then. With things as they are now, it must be because Young Master Ji changed his mind.”
“How could it be me? Don’t wrongly accuse good people!”
…
Zhong Li pushed open the door and saw a body lying beside a round table. Three women stood on the other side of the table, hands on their hips, pointing at each other with arrogant, shrewish expressions.
“What is this?” she asked the madam, who had followed her up.
The madam forced an awkward smile and explained, “It’s like this, the deceased, Ji Chen, was a regular patron of Hua Man Lou. He hadn’t left this private chamber from the time he died until now. The only ones who entered the chamber were the three girls under my management, so I kept them locked in with Young Master Ji.”
Zhong Li scanned the three women.
As expected of women of the night, they had seen much of the world. Even with a dead man on the floor, none of them showed any fear. Instead, they were enthusiastically debating who the killer was.
“What are their names?” Zhong Li asked the madam.
The madam replied, “The oldest one is Liu’er. She’s been at Hua Man Lou for almost ten years, and her primary client was always Ji Gongzi. Standing next to Liu’er is Zhu’er. She’s been with me for four years, and in recent years, she's been closest to Ji Gongzi. The last one, who looks the youngest, is Guo’er. She’s been in this business for a year. These past few days, Ji Gongzi seemed to have taken a liking to her.”
“Good!” Zhong Li nodded. After a glance at the three women, her gaze settled on the body on the floor.
She took her medicine box from Wang Zhu, donned her gloves, and knelt beside the body to examine it.
Zhong Li first felt the body’s neck, then observed the breathing and the dilation of the pupils. She turned to ask the madam, “How long has the person been dead?”
The madam thought for a moment and said, “A little over an hour.”
Zhong Li nodded, called Wang Zhu, and together they turned the body over. She then began examining Ji Chen’s mouth and nostrils.
Liu’er, Zhu’er, and Guo’er had never seen an autopsy performed and all craned their necks, watching eagerly.
After a while, Zhong Li finished examining Ji Chen’s upper body and her gaze moved directly to his lower body.
As her hand reached Ji Chen’s waist to remove his trousers, the three courtesans seemed to know what she was about to do and all widened their eyes, watching with curiosity.
Zhong Li withdrew her hand and gave Wang Zhu a look.
Seeing this, Wang Zhu quickly ushered the three women outside.
Although the three were somewhat reluctant, they knew better than to cross the Dali Temple and obediently walked out.
Zhong Li took the opportunity to observe their gait as they walked and then resumed her task.
Ji Chen had not been dead long, and the body had only just begun to lose heat, making the examination quick. After about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, Zhong Li retrieved a small paper strip from Ji Chen’s tightly clenched hand.
She opened the paper strip to read it. It contained a single sentence: Guo’er killed me.
Zhong Li nodded, placed the strip aside, and her gaze shifted to the round table.
On the table were several small dishes of common fare. One dish of meat caught her attention.
Zhong Li picked up the chopsticks from the table and brought them to her nose to sniff.
Dog meat?
A smile touched her lips as she looked at the male corpse on the floor. It seemed this Young Master Ji also understood the importance of health, eating some dog meat in autumn to make the winter more comfortable.
Afterward, she examined a bowl of congee on the table, which contained scattered mung beans.
Next to the congee was a wine cup, with a faint white powder on it.
Zhong Li picked it up and examined it against the candlelight. She gently brushed off the white powder and then, using her hairpin, collected some of the white powder.
After a moment, the hairpin in her hand turned black.
Indeed, the white powder on the wine cup was arsenic.
She moved a chair and sat down at the table, placing all the items she had found onto the table: the note, the wine cup, the dog meat, and the congee.
Zhong Li pondered for a moment, then smiled and said to the people outside the door, “You can all come in now. This case is all but solved!”