In the morning, Su Yunkai, who had read through all the files from the past two years, ran through half a month’s worth of cases completely in his head. He was especially detailed about going over the days preceding the first appearance of the nursery rhyme. After thinking back and forth, he still couldn’t find a match, much to his own surprise. Su Yunkai stood up to ask Lord Xu, “Half a month ago, did any theft occur in this county or anywhere nearby?”
Lord Xu, who had been waiting for Su Yunkai, replied, “There were no big thefts. There were only several small cases, but the thieves and the owners have been found and the cases have been closed.” It hadn’t been that long ago, so Lord Xu still remembered.
“What about robbery?”
“None.” He said, but then he hesitated for a moment. His assistant, who was sitting beside him, had to remind him in a low voice before he remembered. “There has been one. However, the owner did not report the case, so it was not recorded on the files.”
Su Yunkai immediately asked, “The owner didn’t report the crime? Why?”
Lord Xu replied, “Half a month ago, a group of escorts passing by White Jade Mountain was robbed by mountain bandits. We happened to be handling a case nearby, so when we heard about it, we hurried over and found the bodyguards beaten up and scattered here and there. We were going to take them back to the yamen, but they didn’t want to report the case. So they hurried away. We found it strange at the time, but it may be that the goods they carried were not valuable, so they didn’t trace them. After all, no one was killed and no one was hurt badly. Only the items were lost.”
But if there were bodyguards, the things being shipped must have some sort of value. Su Yunkai was suspicious, so he continued to ask, “They didn’t say what they’d lost?”
“They only mentioned five ordinary vases that weren’t worth much money.”
Even Ming Yue found it strange. “How many people were there?”
“Ten.”
“Ten people to escort five vases? What agency has such a large presence? Those five vases probably couldn’t even pay for one trip of such grandeur.”
Lord Xu produced a forced smile. Now that he thought about it, he had been careless. As he had been busy dealing with the case nearby, he didn’t bother to investigate a robbery that hadn’t been reported. “I really don’t know. I do believe the vases weren’t worth enough money for the escorts.”
Su Yunkai asked, “Which escort agency was it?”
“The Bafang[1] Escort Agency in Yunxia[2] Town.”
“Call the chief escort and the ten escorts at that time. Be fast so that they don’t have time to discuss a cover-up.”
Many things occurred in succession. Suddenly, there was no longer a ghost sister or a treasure. Instead, an escort agency was involved. The villagers were confused and began to find the proceedings uninteresting. Ultimately, food is heaven for the people. After noon, the people were so hungry that they decided to simply go home to eat.
The space around the banyan tree was vacated. Without the fence and stone bricks, the banyan tree seemed livelier.
Zhu Changrong was right. There are no evil spirits at work in the world; there is only suspicion in the hearts of the people.
Su Yunkai and Ming Yue bowed out of the interlaced tree roots, leaving four yamen officers to guard it. Then, they went to the village head’s house. The village was quite far from the county yamen, so they decided to continue staying in the village, which was more conducive to handling cases. If there was the slightest change in the way wind blew or the direction the grass swayed, it would be easier to go out and take a look.
With officers living in the village, the village seemed even more mysterious and quieter than usual, with fewer people talking loudly and much more whispering.
The people from Bafang Escort Agency did not arrive until eleven. The silence of the village was broken and the villagers exited their homes, gathering at the village head’s house to watch the commotion.
The chief escort was a stocky forty-year-old man of an imposing build; he had the back of a bear and the waist of a tiger. The strength of his arms could be seen faintly through his clothes as he saluted. He had a broad face and a loud voice. “Yang Jing greets the lord.”
Lord Xu waved at him, having him turn to salute Su Yunkai first. Yang Jing was seasoned, so he naturally understood Lord Xu’s meaning. Yang Jing smoothly turned towards Su Yunkai first, then bowed to Lord Xu second.
His smooth movements were all noticed by Su Yunkai, who had sharp eyes. The chief escort was a smart man. Therefore, since he was so clever, his decision to not report the robbery of the cart was most definitely intentional. “Yang Jing, let me ask you—why did you not report the failure of the escort mission half a month ago?”
Yang Jing replied, “I did not go on this trip myself. Please wait a moment for my son to answer.” He turned a little and looked at a young man beside him, indicating that he should speak. “An’er[3].”
In his early twenties, the man was handsome and tall. It was clear that he was a martial artist. Stepping forward, he said, “I am Yang An, a bodyguard of the Bafang Escort Agency. I was the leader of the convoy that day. The reason why we didn’t report the case was because the things were not valuable, so it wasn’t worth it.”
Su Yunkai asked, “Who robbed you?”
“Their faces were covered and they held weapons. They were probably ordinary mountain bandits.”
Su Yunkai was about to ask further, but noticed that Yang An’s right hand sagged when he was saluting and trembled slightly when he raised it. He frowned and asked, “Your hand is hurt?”
Yang An said with a smile, “Yes. That day, upon seeing the mountain bandits, I raised my sword to deflect, but I received a slash from one of the robbers. Fortunately, with the help of my companions, we got them to retreat. “
“Since you were injured, why didn’t you insist on reporting it to the officials?”
Yang An hesitated a little and looked at his father. When he saw his father nodding his head, he said truthfully, “The employer told me that the things we were transporting were for an old madam to celebrate her birthday. As she was in her nineties, the old madam couldn’t stand being startled. If something got lost, we shouldn’t make a fuss out of it. Otherwise, the old madam would hear about the news. Therefore, even though we lost something, we pretended nothing ever happened. We weren’t even required to pay for it. So after being robbed by bandits, we turned back.”
“The employer never showed up?”
“No.”
“No one is bothering you all?”
“No.”
Su Yunkai thought that he could find the suspect of nursery rhyme by following the clues[4] to find the lost objects, but he hadn’t expected that there would be another deadlock. The employer was obviously worried about the goods, otherwise they would not have asked ten people to escort them. However, he also didn’t seem to care when the goods got lost. Instead, he made it seem as though the employer didn’t value those goods very much. He thought for a moment and asked, “What did the vases look like?”
The escort agency required everyone who wanted to have their goods escorted allow them to confirm the goods and seal the chests with their own eyes so that the goods weren’t switched with other things in the middle of the road. Su Yunkai would’ve thought that they would’ve known this and taken care of it.
Yang An replied, “Actually…we also didn’t know what was inside.”
Su Yunkai frowned. “But when Lord Xu asked you, all of you said that it was simply five vases.”
“Yes, they were vases. What I meant was that I didn’t know what was inside the vases. When the chest was first sealed, it was clear that it was a white ceramic vase with a wide mouth and a wide bottom. The chest was also completely inspected and there was nothing else. The next day, we found that the box was very heavy, but it had already been sealed. According to the rules, we weren’t supposed to open it and look. At the time, we were also curious as to why ten escorts were employed to escort the vases. In this profession, we don’t ask questions. We just protect the goods in exchange for our pay.”
“Where were you sending the goods?”
“It was said that once we brought it to the pagoda tree in front of Zhuangjia before the first of May, someone would come and retrieve it.”
May First? There were still twelve days until the deadline. It would take eight days to get there. However, they had started the journey half a month ago. There was likely someone observing the pagoda tree at all times.
—— No exact date had been set. Why?
—— The vases mattered but it didn’t matter if they got lost. Why?
—— Who was the patron and who was the receiver?
Su Yunkai had just stepped out of the fog of mystery surrounding the banyan tree, but because of this new matter, he was back in the fog and likely wouldn’t be able to find his way out until much later.
Were the nursery rhyme and the escort agency two different matters or were they fundamentally related?
If they wanted to investigate thoroughly, they would have to stay here. Therefore, Lord Xu didn’t go back to the county yamen. Naturally, neither did Ming Yue. She felt more comfortable staying here. She always felt uneasy when she was separated from Su Yunkai. All of a sudden, three different groups of people were residing in the village. The petite village had many topics for discussion. However, when night came and the noise of the day gradually faded away, ironically, there were more slivers of silence.
Ming Yue still lived in the village head’s house. When Su Yunkai didn’t come out for dinner, the youngest grandson of the Zhu family went to call for him, but the child was stopped by her. Seeing that Su Yunkai still hadn’t come out of his room, even after supper, Ming Yue brought a meal to the front of his room. From the half-open window, she saw that his desk was piled with files and he was deep in thought.
She had been standing there for just a moment when Su Yunkai noticed her through the window. He looked to the side and saw the figure reflected in the window paper, and asked tentatively, “Ming Yue?”
Outside, someone responded. The figure passed by the window, opening the door. Ming Yue came in with food in both hands. She turned and hooked the door with her toes. With a slight push, the door closed, leaving only a small gap.
“You just recovered. I’m afraid you’re hungry. I’m also afraid that you were thinking seriously and I would interrupt your thought process. “
“I am indeed really hungry.” Su Yunkai replied, but he didn’t cut off his thought process just now. He asked with a smile, “Do you think the things hidden under the banyan tree are related to the things lost by the escort agency?”
Ming Yue put the food in front of him and conveniently tidied up the files on the table. She thought about it and said, “I think they are. Think about it. The perpetrators hid the objects in the banyan tree, but they didn’t sell them, instead creating a nursery rhyme and poisoning people. Considering how much effort they put into it, they must’ve not sold anything because it wasn’t convenient, and because the objects were stolen goods. Since the time the stolen goods appeared is not far from the time when the escort agency lost theirs, I think they should be the same.”
“Stolen goods… I think those five vases themselves are stolen goods.” Su Yunkai took a sip of soup, using it like tea to moisten his mouth. “If they were cheap goods, the patron wouldn’t need ten escorts at all.”
“But what if the vase, though cheap, was precious to the receiver?”
“Then they wouldn’t designate such a vague time period. If you think about it, even if the escort cart was not robbed and the mountain road ahead not blocked, the day when the escort cart arrived at location would be about twenty days earlier than the morning of the first day of May. If the goods were precious, then why not designate a specific day instead of a general time period? It can only be said that the goods are not precious to the receiver but may be of high value.”
Ming Yue nodded gently and said thoughtfully, “What you said makes sense. If it’s not something meaningful to a certain person, it’s bound to be a treasure. But since it’s a treasure and the bodyguards weren’t allowed to report it, this shady behavior suggests that they were likely stolen goods.”
After talking to Ming Yue, Su Yunkai found his thoughts were more open. Talking with Ming Yue was much better than thinking deeply on his own; he would often fixate on one point without realizing he was doing so. “According to the escort, there were indeed only vases when the goods were entrusted to them. The vases had a wide mouth and a wide bottom.”
“Could it be that the vases are hiding something?”
“Mhm. If it were jewelry, it wouldn’t be too heavy. So it’s heavy, valuable, and it doesn’t jingle…”
“All that’s left is gold and silver.”
“Mhm.” Su Yunkai was already not hungry anymore. “If so, it’s very important to find out where the money came from.”
Ming Yue sighed. “Interlocked rings. From the nursery rhyme to the banyan tree, the banyan tree to the escort agency, the escort agency to the stolen goods. Who knows how many rings are left?”
“Even if there are nine rings, as long as we investigate and solve one ring after another, there will be a day when they will be completely untied.”
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[1] Bafang references the eight directions on a compass. ↩
[2] This is a very pretty name, best translated as rosy clouds (yun xia 云霞). ↩
[3] Another nickname. The “er” at the end on its own means son/daughter. ↩
[4] Author uses 顺藤摸瓜 (shun teng mo gua), directly translated as following the vines to get to the melon. ↩
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A Hint of Spring 