Case One: The Double Death in the Flower Bed
The next day, Zhong Li was woken by a hurried knocking at her door.
She casually threw on the clothes from the previous day, put on her embroidered shoes, and got out of bed to open the door.
Ren Wen Shu stood at the doorway, looking at her anxiously, as if he had encountered a thorny problem, his clothes tied incorrectly.
“What is it? So early in the morning.” Zhong Li glanced at him indifferently and turned back into the house.
She had a habit of drinking water after waking up, and she casually poured herself a cup to moisten her throat.
Seeing her nonchalant demeanor, Ren Wen Shu’s anxiety, which had been suppressed on his face, turned into anger. He plopped down opposite Zhong Li and said, “Officer Zhong, something big has happened, and you’re really in the mood to have tea here?”
Zhong Li cast a faint glance at him.
At that glance, Ren Wen Shu was startled. Knowing he had no official rank, he quickly stood up again and said, “Officer Zhong, something big has happened.”
“What big thing has happened? Did Miao Fenghua disappear, or did the person in the portrait die long ago?” Zhong Li asked.
Ren Wen Shu was about to answer, but after hearing the latter half of the woman’s sentence, all his words were choked back.
“Officer Zhong… you knew? When did you know?”
Zhong Li finished drinking the clear tea in her hand. After putting down the cup, she replied, “Yesterday, to be precise, I found out on the way to the Xie Manor yesterday.”
“You!” Ren Wen Shu was about to go mad. “Officer Zhong knew, why didn’t you tell me? Now Miao Fenghua has run away. Tell me, why did she run?”
Zhong Li thought that Ren Wen Shu could figure out the case after learning that Miao Fenghua had run away. Hearing him say this now, she knew she had overestimated the man in front of her. She sighed and said, “Let’s talk about the portrait first. The person in it should be Miao Fenghua’s husband, right?”
“Ah? This… Officer Zhong, how do you know even this?” Ren Wen Shu looked at Zhong Li, his eyes shifting from anxious to astonished.
Zhong Li stood up and walked to the window of the room. She glanced at the three or five constables who had come with Ren Wen Shu to the entrance of Jinzhou Restaurant and said, “We have enough people. Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Ren Wen Shu looked bewildered.
“To the old house in the southern suburbs to find Miao Fenghua.”
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The carriage galloped wildly towards the southern suburbs.
Zhong Li casually took out a jade pendant from her sleeve and played with it in her hand.
Ren Wen Shu, sitting opposite her, saw it and asked curiously, “Where did you get this jade pendant, Miss Zhong?”
Zhong Li looked up at him and said, “Do you find it familiar, young master Ren?”
Ren Wen Shu nodded, “I just can’t remember where I saw it. My memory is so poor.”
“Han Dong, in Han Dong’s room.”
After Zhong Li’s reminder, Ren Wen Shu suddenly slapped his forehead and said, “That’s right. When Miss Zhong opened the wardrobe, this jade pendant was placed in the corner. By the way, why did Miss Zhong take this item?”
Zhong Li handed the jade pendant in her hand to Ren Wen Shu and said, “See if there’s anything wrong with it?”
Ren Wen Shu took it and studied it carefully. The jade pendant was of excellent quality in terms of transparency and luster, but he felt something was strange no matter how he looked at it. “This jade pendant always feels like something is missing.”
“This is a mandarin duck jade pendant,” Zhong Li said, taking the jade pendant from Ren Wen Shu’s hand. “The jade pendant is crescent-shaped with smooth edges. At first glance, it’s just an ordinary accessory, but if you look closely… a peony is carved inside the crescent moon.”
As she spoke, she pointed inside the crescent moon.
Ren Wen Shu looked closely, and indeed! A peony was carved on one side of the crescent moon.
Zhong Li knew he had noticed and continued, “And the root of the peony, have you noticed? It extends into two branches, which should be a twin blossom, but you see, this jade pendant only has one bud.”
“So the other bud should be on another jade pendant?” Ren Wen Shu suddenly realized.
“Yes, you guessed correctly,” Zhong Li nodded. “The reason I call this a mandarin duck jade pendant is, if I’m not mistaken, the meaning of this jade pendant should be ‘may your love be as enduring as a happy union and the moon,’ a gift for a loved one.”
“But what is Miss Zhong doing with this item? This only proves that Han Dong had a lover, it can’t prove anything else…” As Ren Wen Shu said this, he suddenly remembered the purpose of their trip to the southern suburbs and quickly said, “Could it be that Han Dong’s lover is Miao Fenghua?”
Zhong Li glanced indifferently at the astonished Ren Wen Shu and said ambiguously, “Yes and no. She doesn’t have the other jade pendant in her hand.”
“Ah? This… what does this mean?”
Before Ren Wen Shu could ask further, the carriage stopped, and the horses neighed outside.
Zhong Li lifted the carriage curtain and looked at the house in front of them. As she had expected, the seal pasted on the door and the lock hanging there had been casually thrown on the ground at some point.
“Miss Zhong is truly prescient.” Ren Wen Shu poked his head out of the carriage, saw the things on the ground, and then looked at Zhong Li, full of admiration.
Zhong Li had no time to listen to the praise from behind her. She jumped out of the carriage and said to the few constables following her, “Two people, guard the back door of the house. The other two, keep watch around the house to prevent anyone from climbing over the wall. The rest…”
She looked back and found only Ren Wen Shu left. She said, “Follow me.”
With that, Zhong Li strode towards the main entrance.
Perhaps it was because someone had died, or perhaps it was the drop in temperature that day, but as soon as they entered Miao Fenghua’s house, a wave of cold air blew against their faces.
Zhong Li, wearing the windproof cloak previously given by Lu Wu Xie, didn’t feel anything.
Ren Wen Shu had come out in a hurry and hadn’t expected to go out to arrest someone. Wearing only a thin jacket, he couldn’t help but shiver a few times.
Fortunately, Zhong Li had been to the house before and was quite familiar with everything there. She bypassed the front courtyard and began to search room by room.
Ren Wen Shu followed her, looking from room to room, until they reached the door of Miao Fenghua’s bedroom. He finally lost patience and asked, “Officer Zhong, has this person already escaped? We’ve searched so many rooms, and there’s no trace of anyone having stayed here.”
Zhong Li glanced at him indifferently. Just as she was about to answer, she heard a crisp “click” sound from inside the bedroom.
They both froze. Zhong Li reacted first, pushed the door open, and rushed in.
Upon entering, they saw a bronze mirror had fallen from the dressing table and overturned on the floor. The rest of the room, visible at a glance, contained no one, except for a cellar that mysteriously appeared on the floor, emitting the faint fragrance of khat grass.
Zhong Li frowned, feeling something was wrong. As she was about to turn back to check, she heard a pained cry from behind her.
She turned around and saw Ren Wen Shu holding his head, half his face covered in blood. At the same time, a figure quickly ran out of the room.
Damn it!
“Are you alright?” Zhong Li quickly walked to Ren Wen Shu’s side to ask.
Ren Wen Shu clutched his head in pain, shook his head at her, and said, “Quick… it’s Miao Fenghua… hurry… chase her.”
Zhong Li looked up and saw a constable passing by the door and looking inside. She shouted, “Quick, come and look after him! I’m going to chase her.”
As the little constable hurried towards them, Zhong Li had already rushed out of the room and sprinted towards where Miao Fenghua had disappeared.
Miao Fenghua had been doing business back and forth between Jinzhou and Yongcheng. Both her body and stamina were good. In the blink of an eye, she had already run to the backyard.
Zhong Li, having followed Gai Chen on his travels north and south, was also very quick on her feet. She watched Miao Fenghua, who was preparing to escape through the back door, and said, “Miao Fenghua, I advise you to surrender obediently. Otherwise, you might not leave here so easily.”