Chapter 127: Don't preen

Bai Mi gestures towards Su Xueyi. "Young master can explain his reasoning."

Always fond of the sound of his own voice, Su Xueyi doesn't make them wait. "The woman, Wei Ming, had an affair with the vendor, Mu Qing, ten years ago, which resulted in the birth of the daughter."

There's a chorus of agreement from the gathered guests. 

It's an easy enough judgement to make, from the combined clues of the first and second character sheets, but it ignores some key elements of the third that completely change the course of the story.

Su Xueyi continues, "Even though she left her hometown, she probably thought the truth would come out some day, ruin her reputation and bring shame to her family."

Some more agreement from the crowd. 

Several people seem to believe this is a cut-and-dry case of a person trying to bury their past sins.

Xi Zirui knows better than that.

His eyes land on Bai Mi's stony expression. She's the one who wrote this mystery, and her mind is anything but simple.

From what Xi Zirui knows of her, it's obvious she wouldn't spin a tale where an adulterous woman kills her lover and father of her children -- she's more sophisticated than that.

Su Xueyi thinks he has it all figured it out, of course. "Her husband died due to his own gluttony. His wife made the poisoned preserved vegetables to take to the village, but he went behind her back in order to steal some for himself. This probably caused her initial arrangement to be mixed up, which led to the accidental death of both of them."

He crosses his arms in front of his chest and smirks smugly at Han Yu. "The husband was just collateral damage."

That much he has gotten right. 

But his reasoning is flawed, his eyes are obscured by a single leaf, preventing him from seeing the forest.

Bai Mi nods, and addressing the judges, says, "Please hold off on your evaluation until we hear the second challenger."

Han Yu leans his shoulder against the pillar to his right, his tone casual when he next speaks, "It's the husband who killed the vendor. Li Song said he was really fond of his daughter, he and his wife tried to conceive for years without success. Imagine his devastation when he learned that his child was actually someone else's? Wouldn't he want to take revenge?"

A hush falls over the gathered guests who seconds later begin frantically whispering among themselves.

This kind of deduction is persuasive as well, and assumptions start shifting.

Xi Zirui sits in uncomfortable silence. Again, Han Yu is only seeing part of the picture, and getting lost in the details.

Or maybe not paying enough attention to them.

Bai Mi's face reveals nothing, and Han Yu goes on with his guess, "He knew his wife was going to take the pickled vegetables to their hometown, and tampered with them. Why else wouldn't he go with his wife to visit the village they were both from?" 

Su Xueyi shoots him a derisive smirk. "Then why did he die, too?"

Han Yu turns to Su Xueyi with a nonchalant shrug. "Why do I need to explain myself, when you didn't bother to tell us why the wife died in your own account either?"

Su Xueyi goes very still, his nostrils flaring with barely suppressed anger.

"But I can indulge you," Han Yu says, clearly enjoying himself. "In his rage, he didn't think things through, which resulted in his wife accidentally eating some of the pickled vegetables as well. That's why he dies later than everyone else, because he adds some of the leftover poison himself, unable to keep living without his wife."

Xi Zirui can't help his smile, Han Yu's answer is completely wrong, but it's very him. 

It says a lot about his character that this is the scenario his mind immediately jumped to. A jilted husband trying to get revenge on his wife's former lover, and ending up making a mess of things.

It's almost sweet, much like Han Yu himself.

Xi Zirui is sure that the look in his eyes as he stares at Han Yu's regal profile is absolutely besotted. 

Bai Mi coughs politely into her closed fist. "We can start the voting now before revealing the right answer."

Jin Ranyu goes first. "10 points to young master Su, 0 to his Highness, Prince Han" he says, his expression impassive.

A cry of outrage rises from the crowd before Bai Mi silences it with one sharp glare.

Cao Fei smiles calmly at the stone-faced Jin Ranyu. "10 points to his Highness, Prince Han, 0 points to young master Su."

Great, now it's up to Xi Zirui to be the tiebreaker. Whatever, neither of them is getting the twenty points for the right answer.

Xi Zirui sighs. "10 points to his Highness, Prince Han, 8 points to young master Su."

There. He didn't show obvious favoritism as any self-respecting kunjun should, and Su Xueyi has absolutely no reason the get revenge on him later.

Not that Xi Zirui expects that to mean a whole lot to him.

Bai Mi pulls a sealed letter out of her waist sash and unfolds it so everyone can read the words written on it. 

Xi Zirui gets the shock of his life when Bai Mi turns around in his direction.

"Victim: Mu Qing, Killer: Li Song."

Han Yu's exact guess. 

Han Yu doesn't gloat, but it's a close thing.

Su Xueyi is less discreet in his displeasure but in the end makes no comment on his defeat.

Bai Mi lets out a sigh of relief and gestures forward, "Everyone, please let's move into the next room for the final challenge."

Everyone starts filling out, Han Yu touches his waist softly as he passes by him, but Xi Zirui is too preoccupied with something else.

He rushes forward through the crowd and pulls Bai Mi back by the sleeve of her robes. She gives him a quizzical look and but stays dutifully behind.

"I know that wasn't the right answer," Xi Zirui says, whispering the words to Bai Mi. "How did you know Han Yu would choose that?"

Unlike Han Yu, Bai Mi has no qualms about openly gloating. She pulls her waist sash slightly down and Xi Zirui can see several letters neatly organized under it, just like the one she pulled out to reveal the right answer.

"I didn't know which one he would choose, so I planed ahead, I made one letter for every possible scenario," her smug smirk dwindles for a moment, "it was a lot of work." 

She pats her stomach. "It's a good thing no one noticed my sudden weight gain."

Well, she did assure him she would find a way for Han Yu to win.

"You better give me five little cousins for all the trouble I'm going through," she says, smirking when Xi Zirui gives her a frightened look.

"Fi-five? What am I? A cat," he asks, frankly horrified at the prospect of having five children.

One is frightening enough, and he absolutely doesn't want to think about the mechanics involved.

"You're the one who wants to marry my cousin," Bai Mi says, clearly enjoying Xi Zirui's existential dread.

"You kidnapped me!"

Bai Mi shrugs. "Any kunjun would be fine, but I'm going to great pains to ensure it's you," she pokes his shoulder with her index finger. "Don't forget you owe me."

Xi Zirui can't help his half-smile. There's something really endearing about Bai Mi's blatant attempts at emotional manipulation.

She pokes him again. "And how did you know his answer wasn't the right one?"

He probably won't have the opportunity to share his deduction skills with anyone else. So he might as well preen a little in front of a fellow peacock.

"Because I know who the real murderer is."

The truth is that both Han Yu and Su Xueyi made good points, and were close to the real answer in their own ways -- Han Yu even got the victim right.

Su Xueyi was right that the husband was just collateral damage, and Han Yu was right to focus on the fact that he didn't accompany his wife to visit his hometown too.

And they were both right that the little girl wasn't the husband's biological child.

Except, the man knew that from the start.

The only person who didn't know anything was the vendor. This is made obvious by the fact that the woman introduces the child as her niece. 

She doesn't want to admit the truth in front of her child, so she slips the letter into the basket of pickled vegetables -- so that the man will read it later when he gets home, and remember the face of his child.

The woman probably wrote the letter beforehand, most likely made several drafts before settling on one she considered good enough.

The child must have found one of these drafts -- and hated what she read.

It's clear the little girl was doted on by her parents, and had an extremely happy family life. She couldn't imagine a life without either of her parents -- and that's what she thought was in store for her.

Little did she know, that this wasn't an awful secret that threatened to tear her family apart, but something her mother and father had agreed on.

The couple must have been desperate for a child, and so they thought of a solution. They agreed that the woman would sleep with their close friend, and see if they had any luck this time around.

Their prayers were answered, but this also forced them to flee, to avoid scandal, and prevent their friend from trying to claim his parental rights.

Over the years, guilt gnawed at them, and they finally decided to come clean, now that the child was a little older, and they a little less scared.

But the little girl didn't understand the world of adults, all she saw was a strange man who could potentially take her away -- and she took matters into her own little hands.

Her immature brain, thought of an immature solution for her problem. She used the same method her mother used to handle pests in their house.

She couldn't have foreseen when dumping poison into a large pan, that it would turn into several small pots.

In hindsight, it was lucky that more people didn't die.

So, the killer was the little girl, the intended victim was the vendor, and both her parents were the unfortunate collateral damage.

Xi Zirui tells all this to Bai Mi, who nods in appreciation. "You'll give me clever little cousins," she says, patting him lightly on the stomach.