CH 40

The two of them, each with their own ulterior motives and both fired up, quickly started the investigation.

Ye Zhao asked the Emperor for leave, and the Emperor transferred the duty of watching over the Eastern Xia bastard to Sir Niu, the fat and serious secretary-general who was almost sixty years old, leaving him to support his huge body with his two short legs and go sightseeing with the energetic Prince Yinuo everyday. One day they would go to the East Sea, the next riding and shooting, and the one after that up the West Mountain. Tired and dripping with sweat after a few steps on the road, he still had to show a smile on his face and be careful not to offend their distinguished guests.

Sir Niu endured and endured, until he couldn’t bear it anymore and quickly ordered his son, the city’s assistant prefect, to actively help Ye Zhao in her investigation, in order to ease his father’s torment as soon as possible.

Assistant Prefect Niu was a dutiful son. Immediately leaving aside other unimportant work, he reported to the city magistrate, together with his most experienced subordinates, to personally go and help Xia Yujin solve the case.

Because Master Li had no relatives, the scene of the crime was still intact in the house. The house had been cleaned, in stark contrast with the bloodstains from the murder. Xia Yujin excitedly ransacked the room, searching for Master Li’s hidden treasures.

“Hehe. This calligraphy from Taoist Zhang Liu must be an original, cheated out for a fake. And there’s also Mo Yunqing’s Running Cow, huh? And in this hidden case — a colored glass eight-sided pagoda made from a foreign gold-casting master. Genuine or fake? How did this dead old man get hold of this? Anyway, he has no heir, so everything will be confiscated. I’ll just sneak those two away. Sir Niu, can you look the other way?”

Assistant Prefect Niu was a serious and somewhat rigid man. While asking people to collect and transfer the items away, he completely ignored those words, then got down to business with Ye Zhao. “The murderer left the house immediately after killing, without rummaging through the house. He didn’t kill him to rob him, so it must be revenge or some other cause.”

“Did you hear that?” Ye Zhao called out to Xia Yujin.

Xia Yujin was lovingly cradling and appraising a Yue kiln brush-washed antique, so he hummed his answer.

“The neighbors have all been interrogated,” Assistant Prefect Niu kept telling Ye Zhao. “They didn’t hear any weird sounds in the middle of the night.”

“Did you hear?” Ye Zhao asked Xia Yujin again.

Xia Yujin stuffed the brush-wash in his sleeve, patting the officer in charge of collecting the items on the shoulder. “I’ll take it back and enjoy it for a few days, have it authenticated, find out whether it’s related to the case, then send it straight to the Emperor. Say a word of it to whatshisname, the one in charge.” Turning around, he saw Ye Zhao and Assistant Prefect Niu staring at him with wide eyes. Startled, he hurriedly covered his sleeve, swearing, “I really will give it back!”

“Your Highness…” Assistant Prefect Niu said earnestly.

Xia Yujin impatiently rubbed his ears. “I heard. The neighbors didn’t hear any weird sounds. So they must have heard the usual sounds, right? Ask them what those are, maybe it’ll give us a clue.”

What’s the use of usual sounds?

Assistant Prefect Niu didn’t speak, but he coldly looked at him run amok.

A crowd from all corners of the neighborhood had gathered outside the house, exchanging whispers about the events and the beauty. When they heard that question, they all laughed. A few bold fellows shouted, “Mrs. Du’s baby cried all night!”, “A cat in heat!”, “The night watch!”, “A crow calling!” or “Also the sound of Stingy Luo scolding his wife! That guy really sucks.”

“She’s a ruinous, money-scattering idiot,” Stingy Luo cursed. “Am I not allowed to curse her out?”

Seeing him looking so displeased, the women sneered at him.

“Did your ruinous wife eat half a bowl of rice too much again?”

“It must have been a few extra stitches while sewing his pants, what a waste of thread.”

“I’ve never seen such an outrageous man.”

Stingy Luo grew anxious. “At dinner that day, a cereal steamed bun the size of half my fist fell on the floor and got licked by the dog. I told her to take it outside to the well and wash it, keep it for tomorrow. But she actually found it dirty and sneaked it to the little beggar outside when I wasn’t looking! How’s that not wasteful?”

They were all bent in half in stitches.

Xia Yujin laughed with them for a moment, then an idea popped into his head. “Where’s that little beggar?” he asked.

“That little bastard,” Stingy Luo said respectfully, “he slipped away after he got the bun. It I hadn’t found out in the middle of the night once he’d most likely eaten the bun, I wouldn’t have let him go.”

“Does he often wander around here?”

“Yes, there are a lot of wasteful women around here. But I don’t know where he hides, he usually disappears without a trace. He starts knocking from door to door when he smells rice cooking.”

“You really don’t know where he hides?” Xia Yujin asked pensively.

“I’m… not too sure.”

Xia Yujin took out a piece of silver, raised it in front of his face, then took it back. “If you don’t know, then forget it.”

“My wife must know! Your Highness, sir, wait—” Stingy Luo jumped up, pushed through the crowd faster than a rabbit, and warned everyone after a few steps, “The reward’s mine! I’ll kill you if any of you takes it!”

He took advantage of everyone’s lack of reaction and quickly rushed home. He ran back after a while, slumped on the ground, panting. “My wife says, the kid’s from a poor family,” he said emotionally while staring at Xia Yujin’s lily-white hand holding the silver. “He became homeless after his mother died and he’s scared of dogs, so he’s put up a few planks in the big banyan tree over there. That’s where he sleeps.”

Xia Yujin threw the piece of silver to him. “Get your wife some buns,” he said with a smile.

Stingy Luo ran away delightedly amidst the laughter.

Ye Zhao thoughtfully raised her head to look at the nearby big banyan tree. Suddenly, she sprung in the air, stepped on the eaves, and leapt up to the top of the tree with a few steps. There were a few rough hemp ropes, woven into a net and hung in the tree like a bed, with a torn mat of felt inside it, and wooden planks, tied up with cloth strips, spread over it to block out the rain. A chicken bone, for the most part gnawed on clean, had been thrown aside.

“No one.” She poked her head through the branches and leaves.

“Did he run away?” Assistant Prefect Niu muttered. “We didn’t see him when we went knocking door-to-door for the investigation.”

“It’s fine,” Xia Yujin comforted him, “no need to be too disappointed. You’re still a good official, just a bit too bound by the rules, but you can’t say living in a tree is a normal situation. You can learn from me for now on and hone in your perspicacity.”

“Yes,” Assistant Prefect Niu said without batting an eye, “living in trees is unheard of. We were negligent, but you’re very lucky, Your Highness. Such a random break through in the case! You really are an expert blessed by the gods and Buddhas.”

“Don’t be jealous, luck is also a kind of strength,” Xia Yujin shamelessly boasted.

“A pity that I am not blessed with this good fortune,” Assistant Prefect Niu said darkly.

As if unable to hear the sarcasm in his words, Xia Yujin grinned. “You have to burn incense and worship more. You can’t tell at once when you’re blessed and protected by the gods.”

Assistant Prefect Niu thought about it. “You never burn incense and worship, do you?” he asked Ye Zhao, who had just jumped down from the tree.

“Mhm,” Ye Zhao answered instantly.

Xia Yujin immediately stopped his disturbance, crouching in a corner to sulk and watching Assistant Prefect Niu send out people to find out the little beggar’s whereabouts.

About half a shichen later, Ye Zhao finally figured it out. “I don’t have bad luck,” she said.

Xia Yujin had mixed feelings about the speed of her reaction. Then, looking at Assistant Prefect Niu, trying to show off and prove to everyone that his wife was protecting him, he asked, “What do you think?”

Assistant Prefect Niu, who had been dispatching men and gathering information, was so busy that he’d forgotten about that incident. He stared blankly for a while when he heard this, thinking that the other man was speaking about his own experience, and quickly sighed. “General Ye may have been unbridled in her youth, but she achieved constant victories on the battlefield, protected our Great Qin, took her revenge and achieved success and recognition. She certainly doesn’t have bad luck.”

Ye Zhao helplessly spread her hands.

Xia Yujin didn’t acknowledge anyone nor do anything. He kept squatting in the corner, thinking of which terrible and ruthless way he would later use in bed to curb his bastard wife down.

[1 ↑] Lit. 明察秋毫 míngcháqiūháo, idiom from Mencius, which means being discerning and seeing through a problem.