Shen Wei felt his legs weakening. He nearly fell to the ground. “I haven’t done anything harmful of that sort.”
Su Yunkai said, “This is just my guess, as the two victims both knew you for many years. Moreover, they both came to the villa at your invitation. Therefore, for the sake of safety, Mr. Shen should not be alone for the time being.”
“Okay, okay.”
Shen Wei was uneasy. After careful consideration, the color of his face grew ugly. He opened his mouth and then closed it. Eventually, he decided against saying anything. Su Yunkai had just been talking to Yu Fenglin about arranging the day’s affairs and wasn’t paying attention to him. By the time Su Yunkai turned around, Shen Wei had already returned to normal. Su Yunkai asked, “How long have you known Yu Xianghong and Jin Fugui?”
Shen Wei replied, “It’s been sixteen or seventeen years.”
“You eat and drink and travel with them often?”
Shen Wei shook his head. “Yu Xianghong is just a lowly performer. Aside from bringing him along when I want to watch a play, I normally leave him to teach the children. I don’t really ask after him.”
Su Yunkai asked him more about Yu Xianghong and Jin Fugui but didn’t hear any more relevant information. Su Yunkai suspected that even if Shen Wei thought of something, he was likely to keep it to himself. Something that might incite a murder was not a matter that most people would be willing to reveal to outsiders.
Su Yunkai suddenly remembered that one of the people Shen Wei had known for a long time was Liang Fangdong. Su Yunkai pretended to continue talking to Yu Fenglin, but he noticed through peripheral vision that Shen Wei and Liang Fangdong made eye contact with each other and conversed without exchanging words. When Su Yunkai turned around, the two had returned to normal again.
Su Yunkai thought for a moment and then said, “Marquis, could you bring Mr. Shen and Mr. Liang back to their rooms? Oh, right, Mr. Liang can go later. I have something to say to him.”
Shen Wei paused. Liang Fangdong also looked a little flustered. Since Yu Fenglin had been given such a task, Shen Wei had no choice but to go, leaving Liang Fangdong with Su Yunkai and Ming Yue in the pavilion.
After they left, Su Yunkai’s indifferent look suddenly disappeared and his eyes turned cold. He said, “I know you’re on good terms with Jin Fugui and Shen Wei. Because of your business dealings, you also have good personal relations. You three must have done something that others do not know about.”
Liang Fangdong stuttered and then said, “This type of thing, we would have already forgotten. I don’t know what the lord is talking about.”
Su Yunkai smiled coldly. “You did something. Something that incited murderous revenge.”
Liang Fangdong persisted, “I really don’t remember if I ever did anything that crossed the line. If there was truly something that the three of us did, why did the irrelevant Troupe Leader Yu die? He died even more miserably than my good friend. If you look at it that way, it was Troupe Leader Yu who did everything and implicated us, is it not?”
This was not unreasonable. However, reading between the lines, Su Yunkai detected concealment. The more secretive Liang Fangdong was, the more Su Yunkai became sure that the matter was not simple. Exactly what could it be that would force these two to refuse to say anything in the face of their lives being threatened? Were they willing to keep silent at the cost of the murderer finding the way to their door?
Liang Fangdong’s mouth was tight; Su Yunkai was unable to get anything else out of him, so he released him.
After Liang Fangdong left, Ming Yue said, “Could it be that the murderer isn’t even a guest of the villa? Maybe the murderer hid here early on? Otherwise, how come even you couldn’t get anything out of anyone through interrogation? To think that not a single person left in the middle of the night alone! Not even to go to the restroom.”
Su Yunkai could not understand it either. The murderer seemed to have slipped around like a ghost. “Could it be that the murderer is not just a single person…” Su Yunkai suddenly thought of a key question. “According to the bloodstains, how much time passed between the troupe leader’s death and the time when the puppet doll was placed on the bridge?”
“Perhaps a quarter of an hour. The doll was placed in a windy location, so it’s hard to tell.”
“Which came first?”
“Troupe Leader Yu’s death.”
Su Yunkai seemed to have straightened out a clue. Moreover, he had confirmed an idea. “The murderer is not a single person.”
Ming Yue asked, “How do you know?”
“According to what you said, the murderer needed to have first killed the troupe leader. Then, the murderer ran to the bridge to place the doll before returning. It definitely takes longer than a quarter of an hour to do all this running back and forth.”
Ming Yue nodded. “I see. That’s right. It takes at least three quarters of an hour to get to the bridge. If the doll had been dyed in the villa, the timing wouldn’t add up. If the doll had been dyed on the bridge, the times also wouldn’t match. Therefore, the two events very likely happened at the same time. While one person was killing Troupe Leader Yu, the other was placing the puppet.”
“What’s more, the person who placed the doll very likely stayed by the bridge since nightfall and never came back. After breaking the bridge at the appointed time when the big group of people attempted to escape, they witnessed the bridge breaking without any outside interference, intensifying everyone’s fear and creating more chaos.”
“By that time, everyone was extremely distressed. When you started suggesting we get into groups of five, it wouldn’t have been difficult for the murderer to simply slip back into the crowd.”
Su Yunkai recollected his thoughts and said, “Let’s go to the suspension bridge again. There must be clues that we didn’t find the first time.”
The morning sun rose. As the forest was foggy, it looked like a spider had crawled onto the sun, causing it to be blurry and obscured. Soon, the smoldering sun came back. The fog scattered, brightening up the whole mountain.
Bai Shui and Qin Fang were both guarding Jin Fugui’s body from afar. Sitting on a large boulder, they had a wide view and could see to the other side of the bridge.
Qin Fang hugged Bai Shui’s arm and slept for a while. At present, he was snoring lightly and looked like he was in deep sleep. Bai Shui envied him and his ability to sleep so well in any location. She lifted the cape she had placed on him. Then, she sniffed. After getting blown by the wind all night, she feared she had gotten a cold.
On the other side of the cliff, there seemed to be ants crawling. Bai Shui squinted and saw the “ants” walking around the broken bridge were people. More and more people came. Bai Shui noted that it was probably the yamen bringing people to fix the bridge. The cliff was quite wide and it would take at least three to four days to repair.
Fortunately, the villa was originally designed for people to avoid the summer heat, so the stored foods were enough to sustain the people there until the bridge was repaired.
But was there going to be another victim?
Bai Shui was a little lost in her thoughts. She looked at the passageway again. As she was far away, the exit appeared to be the size of a soybean.
When she moved her gaze back, she saw people walking towards the bridge. The two figures were very familiar. After a careful look, she couldn’t help but stand up. Qin Fang, hanging on her shoulder, woke up suddenly and almost fell off the boulder. Bai Shui reached out and grabbed his collar while her eyes continued to remain glued to the bridge in the distance.
Once Qin Fang sat down, she ran over to them. After taking a few steps, she hesitated. She didn’t feel at ease leaving Qin Fang behind. Waking him, Bai Shui pulled him up with her.
The moment Qin Fang opened his eyes, he found that he was running wildly with Bai Shui. He couldn’t catch his breath. “Shui Shui, run slower.”
“It’s Lord Su and Ming Yue.”
Hearing the sound of footsteps, Su Yunkai looked over. Seeing that it was Bai Shui, he waited for her to approach and asked, “Aside from us, has anyone else come here?”
“No. By the way, my lord, there are people on the other side of the cliff. “
Ming Yue looked over first. Sure enough, she saw people there. Meanwhile, they also seemed to have noticed them. They waved from afar and Ming Yue waved back.
Su Yunkai’s expression changed. Once this news was heard at the villa, the murderer would likely pick up his pace.
Now that they were competing for speed, Su Yunkai had no time to think. He tied the rope that he had gotten from the villa especially for this purpose around a thick tree nearby and tied the other end around his waist. He walked towards the bridge. Ming Yue was worried. “Be careful.”
“It’s all right.” Seeing her unconsciously move forward to him, Su Yunkai said, “You go with Qin Fang and Bai Shui to pull on the rope over there.”
Ming Yue immediately ran to pull the rope, for fear that the other two would not be enough.
Seeing that she had gone to a safer place, Su Yunkai was relieved. He continued to move towards the broken bridge.
At night, the collapse of the suspension bridge had not been witnessed clearly. Moreover, Su Yunkai had been in a hurry at that time. In order to pacify the trembling hearts of the people, Su Yunkai went back to the village directly after grouping everyone. Now, when he looked again at the bridge during the day, Su Yunkai could see that there was something strange about the fracture.
The rope cut of the suspension bridge was still the same as when he had just found it, but now he saw a little silver.
The silver looked exactly the same as what he had seen on Jin Fugui’s bedpost.
What exactly was it?
Su Yunkai put the silvery object into his hand. It was like silver and aluminum, but the amount was too small for him to be able to identify it accurately.
Aside from this, he found nothing else. The clues were still scarce. Carefully, he took a step back and untied the rope. “Don’t tell the people in the villa the news that someone has come to repair the bridge. I’m afraid that the murderer will speed up his pace to finish what he started.”
Bai Shui was surprised. “Just how many people does he want to kill?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure the killer has his own aims.”
“How hateful and inhumane!”
Su Yunkai shook his head. “The murderer is very rational. He knows exactly what he needs to do. If he really intended to kill everyone, he could potentially use poison, given his experience with drugs. He only needed to poison the only water source in the villa, but he didn’t do that. Instead, he took the risk of being discovered in order to kill certain people.”
Qin Fang said, “So the murderer still has a little conscience. Still, killing is the worst thing you could do. Could it be that Yu Xianghong and Jin Fugui did some cruel thing to the murderer, which is why he is so bent on revenge?”
“I asked Shen Wei and Liang Fangdong, but both of them hid the truth. They wouldn’t tell me anything. Right…” Su Yunkai faced Bai Shui and said, “When you were in the yamen, did you ever come into contact with a girl named Xiu Xiu?”
Bai Shui paused. “What is the lord asking this for?”
“Someone heard the murderer say these two words when he killed Jin Fugui. Moreover, when the troupe leader and Jin Fugui died, there were horrifyingly shredded puppet dolls. They wore clothes common to young girls. “
Bai Shui was startled. She looked at him and said, “Indeed, the ministry consulted my superior with an appalling case that still hasn’t been solved as of today.”
There seemed to be a string of firecrackers exploding in Su Yunkai’s ear. The large villa, the concealed identity of the previous owners, Xiu Xiu, young women, fragmented dolls, the secretive demeanor of Shen Wei and Liang Fangdong, homicide…
Su Yunkai suddenly collected his wits. “That case . . . was it the one with a woman who was tortured to death? The one who was dug up in an old house the day before Qixi?”
Bai Shui was surprised. She was unsure how Su Yunkai knew of such a secretive matter, since he was now in the Ministry of Rites. She nodded and replied, “Yes.”
.
A Hint of Spring 
Thank you for the update. Stay safe and healthy.
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