There were four houses where Yu Fenglin kept his money, but barely any of it came from embezzlement.
Could the Marquis of Pingxi have found some gold veins? But his subordinates were spread all over the Song Dynasty. It was unlikely that he had found gold all around.
Could he have built a private silver factory somewhere? Still, in the same way, his subordinates couldn’t have been so dispersed.
If it wasn’t either of those two methods, Su Yunkai had no idea how the Marquis of Pingxi could have gotten his subordinates to send him so much money.
Although Su Yunkai still had many doubts, the things that Li Kang had told him were very useful.
While they were speaking, there was a knock at the door. “Young master, Chancellor Zhao from the Ministry of Justice is here to look for Lord Li.”
Li Kang was surprised. He asked the servant to bring him over. Li Kang said to Su Yunkai, “I came here openly, so the people in the department know that I’m here to visit my old colleague.”
“Yes. Covering up this visit would’ve been suspicious. Who does Chancellor Zhao serve?”
This question was very to-the-point. Li Kang said with a smile, “Political disputes are not only between the two camps of the Duke of An and the Marquis of Pingxi. As for who Chancellor Zhao serves, I will not say, but I will say that he will not harm either of us. I wonder why he has come. The matter must be urgent.”
Sure enough, when Chancellor Zhao appeared, he looked like he was in a hurry. He even forgot to greet them formally and immediately said, “Something happened at the yamen again.”
“What’s the matter?” asked Li Kang.
Chancellor Zhao looked at Su Yunkai and said, “The constable called Bai Shui. Didn’t Lord Su recommend him from Damingfu?”
Su Yunkai’s heart began to sink. “Yes.”
“This morning… Someone found a burned body at the foot of the ravine on Mount Gu. Although it was burned beyond recognition, the man was small and thin. He was dressed in the official uniform of the yamen. The waist badge belongs to Constable Bai!”
Su Yunkai was shocked. The bottom of the ravine? He held his breath for a moment and tried to calm down. Bai Shui’s martial arts skills were excellent. Even though she had been impulsive when she went to the villa, she wouldn’t have died easily. At critical moments, Bai Shui instead became more cautious. “How else can we confirm his identity? Besides the waist badge?”
“Nothing else. Although, from the body, it seems like him.”
When he said this, Su Yunkai felt a little more relieved. “How much of the clothing was burned?”
Chancellor Zhao felt that this question was strange. The person had burned to death, yet Su Yunkai was here asking about clothes. Were his priorities messed up? He really seemed to be ill. “The majority. Seventy to eighty percent.”
Su Yunkai sighed. He was speechless for a long time. His coloring had gotten worse in the last few moments. The lengthy silence made him seem fatigued.
Just as Li Kang and Chancellor Zhao were about to leave, the servants outside entered to make another report. “Young master, the Marquis of Pingxi has come to visit you. Would you like to meet him in the front hall or invite him into the room?”
Su Yunkai and Li Kang looked at each other. They conversed almost instantly in that short but silent moment. Su Yunkai said, “Meeting in the front hall would not be convenient for me. I can’t make it there. Invite him here.”
“Yes, sir.”
Su Yunkai and the Marquis of Pingxi did not have a close relationship. Su Yunkai’s illness did not warrant a visit from the marquis. Now that something had happened with Bai Shui, Su Yunkai couldn’t help but suspect the true purpose behind the visit.
Yu Fenglin soon arrived at the door. As soon as he entered the room, he saw Li Kang and Chancellor Zhao. They greeted him and Li Kang said, “I heard that Lord Su was ill, so I came over to see him with Chancellor Zhao. There are still things to do at the ministry, so we’ll be leaving first.”
Chancellor Zhao looked at Li Kang. The two of them had come together? The chancellor was a man of experience, so did not expose Li Kang. Instead, he stayed silent.
Yu Fenglin did not keep them. He waved his hand to indicate that they could leave.
When the two men left, Yu Fenglin looked at Su Yunkai’s face. Su Yunkai did not look very well, but he also didn’t look like he was seriously ill. “When we left Mount Gu, Lord Su looked very spirited. How come you have become so haggard in just a few days?”
Su Yunkai coughed a few times, making his voice low and weak. “Probably from overworking myself. Ming Yue was right. I shouldn’t keep conducting official business. I should take time to rest.”
Yu Fenglin said with a smile, “Speaking of Miss Ming Yue, I hear she’s living in Li Kang’s residence?”
“Yes. Her house in Kaifeng was burned down. I didn’t have time to find a place for her, let alone take her back home, so I left her in the care of my good friend.”
This explanation was reasonable, so Yu Fenglin did not ask further.
Su Yunkai’s expression remained placid. He knew that Yu Fenglin wasn’t suspicious about Ming Yue.
If Su Yunkai hadn’t taken initiative in mentioning Ming Yue first, Yu Fenglin would have felt like Su Yunkai was covering something up. That would arouse suspicion.
Su Yunkai was familiar with the temperament of the marquis. If matters were set clearly in front of him, the marquis would harbor less doubts. However, if matters were covered up, the marquis would try to get to the bottom of it.
Yu Fenglin inquired about Su Yunkai’s condition, told him to take a good rest, and left the Su residence.
After he left, Su Yunkai began to think about how he could send a letter to the Qin residence. Otherwise, the news would spread too fast and Qin Fang would truly think that Bai Shui was dead.
The official clothes and the waist badge belonged to Bai Shui, but the dead body was most definitely not hers.
Su Yunkai didn’t even have to look at the corpse to know that the corpse was not Bai Shui. If it was, Chancellor Zhao would have been shocked about something else. He would’ve been shocked that a woman had sneaked into the yamen, which was a crime because it was deceiving the emperor.
However, Chancellor Zhao was neither shocked nor surprised. He didn’t even mention anything about it, so Su Yunkai knew that the victim was not Bai Shui.
So where had Bai Shui gone?
Su Yunkai guessed that the person who had set the fire and blocked the secret road had never left. Instead, that person had stayed on Mount Gu to prevent anyone from coming. Bai Shui had met the man and they had fought. Eventually, she had gotten the better of him. She had exchanged their clothes, burned the body, and thrown it into the ravine to cover it up.
He had not been mistaken in his judgment of Bai Shui. The more dangerous it had become, the more rationally she had acted.
No matter how long it took for the mastermind to find out that the dead body did not belong to Bai Shui, her actions had been wise. Perhaps even Bai Shui herself hadn’t realized what she had done. She had essentially cleared herself of the crime of cross-dressing to enter the yamen. The identity had supposedly died, so no one would ever know that she had deceived the emperor. Bai Shui’s identity was fake anyway. Afterwards, she could return to using her original name, come to the capital, and meet Qin Fang.
At least something good had happened out of the slew of unfortunate events in the past few days. Su Yunkai let out a light breath.
Right. He had to quickly send a message to Qin Fang. Otherwise, Qin Fang might go crazy.
*
The news came from the Ministry of Justice. The case of the death of a constable spread all over the capital. Eventually, it reached Qin Fang’s ears.
Qin Fang had been locked in his study after he was brought back by the servants. Although he was worried, he forced himself to calm down. He had spent his days reading books and missing Bai Shui.
“I didn’t hear wrong. Young master, the person you had me pay attention to is rea-really dead.”
Qin Fang stared at the servant, whose head was lowered in fear. Qin Fang’s fist clenched and the book in his hand was almost crushed to pieces. “Nonsense. How could Bai Shui have just died?!”
The man was about to cry, but he forced himself to say, “It’s true. Constable Bai followed Lord Su to Mount Gu, which was the summer resort that the young master went to a while ago. Isn’t that place very creepy? Several people died, and there was a homicide…”
Qin Fang nearly shredded the book. “Who asked you to talk about ghosts?!”
The servant shivered and then said, “The two of them went together, but only Lord Su came back. Afterwards, Lord Su became ill. Not long after, there was news that Constable Bai was burned to death. Also, young master, the villa was burned as well. Is it not the work of the supernatural?”
After that, he realized that he had talked about the paranormal again, so he hurriedly slapped himself. Then, he found that the young master was completely silent. The servant trembled and looked up. Qin Fang’s whole face was as white as rice paper. His lips had gone pale.
Qin Fang was paralyzed on the chair as though someone had pulled out all his bones. He stared at the space before him listlessly.
Qin Fang began to mutter to himself: “No way… She is so good at martial arts. She is so strong, courageous, and skillful…” Then, Qin Fang asked, “Was there a body?”
“The body is at the Ministry of Justice. It’s already been identified.”
Qin Fang suddenly stood up and said, “I’m going to go take a look. I don’t believe it. It’s impossible.”
The servant knelt on the ground, hugged Qin Fang’s leg, and cried, “Young master, you can’t go, you can’t leave. If you leave, I will be hung and beaten by the master.”
“I’m just going to the ministry to take a look. Just one look! I’ll be back when I’m done.”
“The person is definitely Constable Bai. They already found the waist badge and the person was short. How many short constables are there?”
“Shut up!” Qin Fang’s eyes were red. He slapped the hands wrapped around his leg and opened the door to leave. Suddenly, there was a mountain in front of him, standing at the door.
The Duke of Yan saw that his son looked shaken and that his eyes were bloodshot. As he stared his son down, he noticed that Qin Fang’s eyes carried no fear. The duke was slightly surprised. Perhaps because he was too strict as a father, he had never been close to his son. His son had always looked at him with reverence. But now, due to a girl’s death, his son suddenly had some backbone. For a moment, the Duke of Yan wasn’t sure if this was good or bad. “Go back.”
Qin Fang shook his head. “Father…”
The Duke of Yan knew what Qin Fang was going to say. He motioned for his servants to step forward and roared, “Is it decent for a future marquis to go see a small constable in the Ministry of Justice?!”
“I won’t be a marquis anymore.” Qin Fang suddenly felt that he had always been too selfish. How could he have just realized? How could he repent when it was already too late? “If I could’ve given up my identity and accompanied her to Mount Gu, she might still be alive. I kept thinking that my status could help her. Now, I understand that all my power comes from Father. If you want to stop me, I have nothing. I won’t be able to do anything at all.”
The Duke of Yan frowned. “What are you trying to say?”
Qin Fang said calmly, “I won’t accept the title. Even if I’m just going to be a peddler, I will be an independent peddler. I won’t be a worthless, reliant aristocratic son.”
The Duke of Yan smiled coldly, “If this constable is really dead, are you still going to give up your title?”
“Yes.” Qin Fang had figured it out. All of the power he possessed right now and all the power he would possess in the future was all just a construct. If only he could’ve figured this out earlier…
It was too late.
Qin Fang wobbled, almost falling down, but he was caught and stabilized by someone.
The Duke of Yan’s cold, sharp eyes carried a silent sigh. Then, he spoke almost comfortingly. “That deceased is not Bai Shui.”
Qin Fang was stunned. “Really?”
The Duke of Yan smiled softly. “How can you be so asinine? If that person really was Bai Shui, the body would belong to a woman. Then, the ministry would be in uproar. They would’ve run to the Su residence to question Su Yunkai, who recommended her to the yamen, so that they could clear their own suspicion of colluding in deceiving the emperor. Currently, both places remain quiet and no one is giving Su Yunkai trouble. He is also still recuperating properly at home. Tell me, could it really be Bai Shui who died?”
After his father’s analysis, Qin Fang was relieved. He suddenly wondered if his father was also paying attention to Bai Shui. How else would he understand the situation so well?
A kind of hope rose in Qin Fang’s heart, like a seedling deep underground about to break through the earth.
At the same time, he also understood that his father had never actively tried to prevent their relationship. Instead, his father had doubted that Qin Fang could not stand on his own.
If he couldn’t even stand on his own, how could he make such grand claims?
Now, Qin Fang finally felt like the man before him was his father, not the Duke of Yan.
Only… where did Bai Shui go? And what was she doing?
His high-strung heart was still unable to settle down.
.
A Hint of Spring 