Zhong Li and Hua Yao exchanged glances.
Hua Yao put down the soup spoon in her hand and lifted the tablecloth, looking at the madam proprietress. "Mama, what kind of act are you putting on now?"
The madam proprietress cautiously looked around. Once her emotions had stabilized, she slowly crawled out from under the table. "Lord Zhong, please don't frighten this old servant. I still want to live a few more days."
Seeing the madam proprietress's reaction, Zhong Li knew she had hit upon the truth. "Mama, am I frightening you, or have you been concealing things about Hua Man Lou all along?"
The madam proprietress smiled awkwardly at the words.
Hua Yao's spoiled young lady temper flared up. She realized she had been toyed with for the past few days and angrily slammed the table. "Mama, do you believe me if I tell my father to flatten your Hua Man Lou?"
The madam proprietress trembled and knelt on the ground. "Lord Zhong, Miss Hua, it's not that I don't want to speak, it's that this old servant is afraid that if I speak, Hua Man Lou will have no business."
Zhong Li looked at her and said, "It has no business now."
The madam proprietress sighed and replied, "Jia Yue was once a courtesan at Hua Man Lou. Three years ago, she jumped from Hua Man Lou and died. Her death was identical to that of Jin Yi and Qiong'er now."
"So, this isn't the first time you've seen such a suicide note?" Zhong Li threw the three suicide notes onto the table.
The madam proprietress nodded. "Yes."
"Good, then tell me about Jia Yue." Zhong Li said.
"Actually, Jia Yue was no different from the other girls at first. But as time went on, this old servant noticed something was amiss with Jia Yue." The madam proprietress said, pointing to her head.
"For example," Zhong Li asked.
The madam proprietress thought for a moment and said, "At that time, Hua Man Lou didn't have many girls. Everyone chose the rooms they liked. Jia Yue chose the room in the middle."
She pointed to the third floor as she spoke.
Zhong Li and Hua Yao glanced at each other. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about it. Someone else should be living there now.
"Continue," Zhong Li said.
"At first, Jia Yue was normal. But after living there for a while, her problem surfaced. She always complained that she couldn't sleep at night because the girl in the next room was too loud when receiving clients.
But at that time, there were no girls living around Jia Yue's room. For this reason, this old servant even asked the girls living on the third floor. None of them heard any noise. Even if guests stayed overnight in their rooms, they tried to keep their voices down, and the noise was minimal," the madam proprietress said, fear beginning to show on her face.
"What happened after that?" Zhong Li asked again.
"After that, this old servant had no choice but to move her to a different room, to the quietest one at the very end of the third floor."
Zhong Li looked up. It was precisely the room where Qiong'er had died. "Did the problems Jia Yue mentioned recur?"
"Don't mention it!" The madam proprietress slapped her thigh in exasperation. "This old servant thought it would be better after changing rooms, but who knew Jia Yue would become even worse, claiming she was going mad from the noise. This old servant felt this was not a solution and had her see a doctor."
"And did she get better?" Zhong Li asked.
The madam proprietress first nodded, then shook her head. "She was better for a few days, but within half a month, she met the same fate as Jin Yi and Qiong'er. Leaving behind a cryptic suicide note, she jumped from the third floor and died."
"Better? And then died again?" Zhong Li murmured, seizing on the key point in the madam proprietress's words.
"Yes," the madam proprietress replied with a nod. Then, feeling it was not quite right, she added, "Who knows if she was truly better? She let Gu Ling give her acupuncture to save money."
"What did you say?" Zhong Li froze, thinking she had misheard.
The madam proprietress blinked her eyes. "This old servant... this old servant... did not say..."
"Gu Ling knows medicine?" Zhong Li stood up and grabbed the madam proprietress's wrist. "Why have you never mentioned it?"
The madam proprietress said with a wronged expression, "You didn't ask, and this old servant didn't think to mention it.
At that time, this old servant said Gu Ling wanted to earn a living by receiving clients, but her appearance was a real deterrent. So, she went to a medical clinic to learn some skills in treating illnesses.
My Lord, you know what kind of illnesses the women in these brothels get. Naturally, they wouldn't go to a clinic unless absolutely necessary. Gu Ling earned quite a lot of money because of this!"
"Then what about Qiong'er? Did she have Gu Ling see her?" Zhong Li asked.
The madam proprietress waved her hand. "Not just Qiong'er, but who in this establishment hasn't had Gu Ling see them? My Lord, do you suspect Gu Ling? Impossible. If it were truly her, wouldn't everyone she treated have met with misfortune?
Alas... alas... alas... My Lord, where are you going?"
Before the madam proprietress had finished speaking, Zhong Li had already stood up and walked outside.
Seeing this, the madam proprietress grabbed Hua Yao's arm, who was following behind. "Miss Hua, can this old servant continue her business?"
Hua Yao pulled her hand away. "Li'er, judging by your expression, this case has likely been solved. If I'm not mistaken, your business at Hua Man Lou might be at an end."
"What?" The madam proprietress was so startled by Hua Yao's words that she collapsed onto the ground, looking as if she was about to cry without tears.
"Yao'er," Zhong Li instructed as she walked, "take a group of people and investigate this person, Gu Ling."
"Does Li'er suspect her?" Hua Yao asked.
Zhong Li pondered for a moment and replied, "I haven't ruled her out before, but with A Wu's guarantee, I dismissed the thought.
Now that the madam proprietress has said this, the killer must be her. However, I need a motive for the murder."
"Okay, I'll go do it right away!" Hua Yao nodded and ran off with a few people towards the distance. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
Zhong Li stood on Wenchang Street, watching the bustling citizens. She took out a pearl hairpin the size of a fingernail from her pocket.
She had found it in Qiong'er's room. If she wasn't mistaken, it should have fallen off some piece of jewelry. Since it wasn't found among Qiong'er's belongings, this jewelry must have gone somewhere else – a pawnshop.
"This pearl hairpin," the pawnshop clerk said, holding the hairpin and stroking his chin as he thought for a moment. "These are pearls produced in the Jinzhou region. The luster and roundness are good. But it's just this one, and it looks like it fell off somewhere. It's not worth much."
Zhong Li looked at the pawnshop clerk holding the hairpin opposite her and pulled out her Dali Temple token from her pocket.
The clerk was about to say something else, to cheaply accept the hairpin, but upon seeing the token in Zhong Li's hand, he quickly suppressed his cunning expression and said, "So it's you, my Lord."
Zhong Li, having no desire to waste words with him, directly asked, "I ask you, what kind of jewelry is usually paired with such a pearl hairpin?"
The clerk, hearing this, dared not be negligent and examined it closely again. "My Lord, to tell you the truth, this pearl hairpin doesn't seem special at first glance, but upon closer inspection, the carved petals surrounding the pearl are very particular. This should be the work of Master Zhou Da from Jincheng."
"So it's valuable?" Zhong Li asked.
The clerk nodded. "That's for sure. At least..."
He held up five fingers as he spoke.
"A pearl hairpin with a pearl inlay, five taels of silver. That's quite a lot," Zhong Li nodded and asked again, "What if this pearl hairpin was complete?"
"That would still be fifty taels!" the clerk replied without thinking.
"Good. Have you recently received any jewelry with a missing pearl hairpin of this style?" Zhong Li asked.
The pawnshop clerk froze, his eyes darting back and forth.
Zhong Li said, "To be honest, this is considered stolen goods. No matter who bought it cheaply, it will be confiscated. Understand?"
Upon hearing this, the pawnshop clerk repeatedly nodded and pointed to a pawnshop across the street. "That one, they received a hairpin of this style. If I remember correctly, it was missing a pearl hairpin."