Shan Ji wiped the wine from his lips and sighed, "It was me, I was useless. Those scoundrels swallowed the silver, but I couldn't even bring back my elder brother's remains!"
As he spoke, he grew angrier with every thought and slammed his fist on the table.
After offering a few words of comfort, Zhong Li asked, "If that's the case, did you see the perpetrator?"
Shan Ji thought for a moment and said, "How should I answer that?"
Was it difficult?
Zhong Li looked puzzled.
Shan Ji chuckled foolishly twice and said, "Lord Zhong, you don't know, but if I say I saw them, I didn't even see a shadow. If I say I didn't see them, it doesn't feel right."
"How so?" Zhong Li pressed.
"It's like this: when I was delivering the second batch of silver, the cart was carrying four thousand taels of silver. It was so heavy that the horse was walking slowly. The agreed time was three quarters past the hour of Wei, and I didn't set off too late, but when I arrived, it was already a quarter past the hour of Shen.
At first, I thought I had arrived late and that my brother's men might have already left. I wanted to try my luck, so I waited in the cart. I was exhausted from my brother's affairs those few days and unknowingly fell asleep. When I woke up, I found that the silver in the cart was gone. In my panic, I quickly jumped out of the cart.
I saw a carriage run past me. There was a man inside the carriage speaking, his voice hoarse and rough.
I thought the person in the carriage must be the perpetrator. Remembering my brother's corpse, I wanted to chase after them. Perhaps because I had just woken up, I was still groggy, and after a few steps, I fell. By the time I recovered, the carriage had already driven far away."
"What did he say? Did you hear it?" Zhong Li asked.
Shan Ji nodded and said, "I faintly heard him say, 'The silver is fine.' His accent was quite strange."
"Oh?" Zhong Li raised an eyebrow and asked, "Can you imitate it now?"
Shan Ji shook his head and said, "I can't imitate it. It sounded like an accent from the Southern Yue Kingdom, but not exactly. It's not as clumsy as mine."
Hearing this, Zhong Li's eyebrows rose and fell, her expression unreadable.
After a moment of thought, she changed the subject and asked, "Why are you so sure the person in the carriage was the perpetrator?"
"The carriage tracks!" Shan Ji replied. "Didn't I fall? I looked at the tracks left by the carriage wheels on the ground, and they were the same depth as my cart's. They must have taken the goods from my cart. Coupled with the man's words, I concluded that he was the perpetrator."
Zhong Li nodded. Shan Ji's words were coherent and his reasoning was sound. It seemed the memory had left quite an impression on him. It was understandable, as even a man as tall as Shan Ji would be shaken by such an incident.
"I have another question for Brother Shan," she said after some deliberation.
"I have heard of Lord Zhong's formidable reputation for solving cases. It is my honor to provide you with clues. Please, ask away," Shan Ji replied, taking a bite of the meat on the table.
As expected of a businessman, his flattery was smooth.
Zhong Li's delicate eyebrows flickered. She smiled and glanced at Tian You, who was standing opposite them.
Tian You nodded and quickly ordered a bailiff to retrieve a geographical map of Linzhou from the office.
As Zhong Li unfolded the map, she asked, "I recall Lord Tian saying that the time of the Shan family patriarch's death was around the same season as now?"
"Yes," Shan Ji replied.
Zhong Li looked up at the sky outside and then asked, "Brother Shan, what time did you set out then?"
"Hmm..." Shan Ji scratched his head and said, "Before the hour of Wei."
"From where?"
"After preparing the silver, at the Wu Family Silver House on Luohua Street!"
Upon hearing this, Zhong Li found the relevant shop on the map and then asked, "How many horses pulled the carriage?"
"One!"
"Do you remember the location where the silver was to be delivered?" Zhong Li asked.
Shan Ji thought for a moment and said, "That place is quite hard to pronounce. It's at the intersection of Hongcao Street and Qin Guan North Street, there's a small alley..."
Hearing this, Tian You stepped forward and pointed out the location to Zhong Li.
Zhong Li nodded and marked a spot on the map. Then, based on the location of the Wu Family Silver House and the weight of the silver the carriage was carrying, she calculated that the carriage ride should have arrived by three quarters past the hour of Wei. However, if there were any delays on the road, as Shan Ji had said, it would have been a few cups of tea later.
"Then you fell asleep in the carriage, is that right?" she looked at Shan Ji.
Shan Ji nodded, preempting her question this time. "I didn't know the time then, my lord, so don't ask me."
Zhong Li smiled, finding Shan Ji to be quite outspoken. "I wasn't going to ask you the time, I just wanted to know what the sky was like then?"
"This..." Shan Ji looked troubled.
Zhong Li changed her approach and asked, "Did the place where you stopped the carriage have any distinctive buildings? Did you notice?"
"There was a scholar tree at the mouth of the alley..."
"And the shadow?" Zhong Li pressed.
Shan Ji looked at the gazes of the people around him, his face filled with distress. He truly couldn't remember. Suddenly, his gaze fell upon a maple tree in the courtyard, and he exclaimed, "It's similar to that shadow! It felt like there was almost no shadow!"
Zhong Li followed his gaze and looked outside.
Tian You reacted and said, "It is now three quarters past the hour of Shen."
Hearing this, Zhong Li quickly calculated in her mind and said, "If Shan Ji fell asleep at three quarters past Wei, and the perpetrator arrived at the side of Shan Ji's carriage at three quarters past Shen, and also transported the silver, there must have been more than one person. Then there is only one possibility..."
She picked up the wooden chopsticks from the table, broke them in half, and drew a circle centered on the alley with the scholar tree. "A single horse-drawn carriage, with two or more people inside, arriving at Shan Ji's carriage within an hour, the perpetrators could only have been ambushing in this vicinity.
Moreover, the carriage left and quickly disappeared from the eyes of the yamen runners who were ambushing nearby. This at least confirms that the perpetrators' hideout was nearby a year ago."
As Zhong Li finished speaking, the surroundings fell silent.
Lu Wuxie glanced at the map on the table and smiled without saying a word.
Shan Ji slammed the table again and exclaimed, "My heavens, as expected of the female detective of the Southern Yue Kingdom! If you had been there then, perhaps this case would have been solved, and my brother's remaining remains would not have..."
The man, having drunk too much, was prone to emotional outbursts.
Shan Ji's words were few before tears streamed down his cheeks.
This simpleton, so sentimental, was actually quite good at adjusting the atmosphere.
Tian You walked to Zhong Li's side, looked at the map, and said, "As expected of young Secretary Zhong. The areas you've circled are Black Lane, Bole Casino, Drunken Red Pavilion, and Eight Miles Fragrant Restaurant, Linzhou Inn, with a few scattered residences around."
Zhong Li nodded, her gaze following Tian You's introduction. "You've drawn the range, but it's difficult to find so many places, and it happened a year ago. Who knows if these perpetrators have moved elsewhere."
"Lord Zhong, may I speak with you privately?" Tian You heard her doubts and, after thinking for a moment, whispered into her ear.
As Zhong Li looked up, Shan Ji seemed to be crying even harder. She gave Lu Wuxie a look conveying "it's your turn to comfort him" and followed Tian You out of the inner hall.