CH 71

Translator's Note:

Xuanqing sect/faction (玄青派) → Shadow Faction (the literal translation is deep black sect but that sounds wordy and awkward).

Changfu (常府) → Chang prefecture.

Yamen (衙门) refers to a traditional Chinese administrative building.

***

It hasn't been easy thus far for Ran Feize and Su Xiaopei to leave behind Chief Constable Qin and the others to go to the Shadow Faction. So, they led everyone back to Ran Feize's house and settled in the foyer.

"Young lady, could you tell me what really happened?" The chief constable could not help but ask her, given the strange circumstances. There was a bed of blood but no one witnessed any kidnapping nor any investigative leads, and even Luo Linger's suicide note wrote that she had snuck into the back alley cabin within the Yamen to kill Su Xiaopei. So how is it that this young miss stands in front of him with not even a strand of hair out of place?

Everyone's eyes were fixed on Su Xiaopei.

Feeling extremely awkward, Su Xiaopei had no choice but to whip out a story: "I also don't know what happened, and I've never met Luo Ling'er. Upon waking from sleep that night, I saw only pitch black all around me, so I had no idea if anything was amiss. I just remember my head feeling heavy, and then I fainted again. Who knows how much time had passed when I opened my eyes again. The last thing I remember was being stuck in a tall tree, helplessly screaming for someone to get me down from there. Then I saw the heroic gentleman, who found and saved me."

"This...when did this happen?" Chief Constable Qin was truly surprised. Who on earth was responsible for this? And why? And why did Luo Ling'er claim that she had killed Su Xiaopei?

After Su Xiaopei eyed Ran Feize, Ran Feize answered for her: "About half a month ago, a group of us went to the Linglong Array and found a girl there. The girl was severely wounded in the array, and it took nearly half a month for her to fully recover. "

"Linglong array?" Everyone exclaimed.

It was common knowledge what kind of place the Linglong Array was. To think that Su Xiaopei was kidnapped and thrown into such an Array for no reason confounded everyone.

Du Chengming couldn't hide his curiosity: "Given the time of events, this young woman has been kidnapped for over two months. So where have you been all this time, young miss?"

Shaking her head, Su Xiaopei continued to press that she no longer remembered. She could only recall waking up in pitch darkness, fainting, and then waking up again stuck on a tall tree.

"Then, what could be the purpose behind someone throwing you on the tall branches of a tree?"

Su Xiaopei continued to shake her head: "I don't know either."

Ran Feize said: "We didn't find anyone suspicious while in the Linglong array."

"Who could have done this?" Qin Dezheng frowned, quite confused. "And how did he do it?"

Bai Yulang suddenly patted his head: "Ah! Perhaps due to our girl's famed legendary detective skills, she attracted others' envy. Someone must have wanted to coerce her into helping him with misdeeds, so he drugged her up to screw up her memory of what happened, and then he threw her atop a tree in Linglong Array, leaving her stranded and doomed to eventual death. It was beyond the culprit's evil calculations that our girl would happen upon Mr. Ran and manage to keep her life. As for why he chose the Linglong Array, it must be to prevent Su Xiaopei from escaping once awake, since that place is riddled with danger. Whoever schemed this has a venomous mind!"

"How can that be reasonable?" Chief Constable Qin barked back: "If that were the case, wouldn't it be simpler to kill her directly? Why would the perp flounder with such a complicated plot when it's so difficult to get into the Linglong array, not to mention the efforts needed to lug a living adult onto a tall tree. Are you tired out of your mind or something? Wouldn't it be most inconspicuous if he just buried the corpse somewhere?"

That's true, Bai Yulang scratched his head. How can this be explained? It was beyond comprehension.

"Maybe he didn't want to kill me." Bai Yulang and the chief constable gave Su Xiaopei an idea. She knew it would arouse suspicion if she didn't have any points of discussion regarding the case as the living victim. She needed to act normal in front of the constables. The circumstances surrounding this case made it easy to create doubt in people's hearts. "The culprit must have been struggling so hard. Could it be that he had to leave the scene temporarily but was afraid of me escaping, so he stuck me on a tall tree? Even if I woke up, I wouldn't be able to escape. And maybe he planned to come grab me once he returned. Lord Bai said it well. Yes, my faulty memory must be due to whatever drug the culprit slipped me. Maybe he really wanted me to do something, but he was afraid that I would spread rumors of it. He didn't want to resort to murder, so he opted to drug me instead."

Everyone pondered this gravely. Ran Feize's brows were furrowed into a deadlock, and he quietly reached out under the table to hold Su Xiaopei's hand. His hands were so warm, and only then did Su Xiaopei realize that, like everyone else, her hands too get cold when she is lying under pressure.

"How about that Luo Ling'er's suicide note? She said out-right that she killed Miss Su, and it was due to her act of murder that she committed suicide." Du Chengming asked again. As Luo Ling'er died in the city under his jurisdiction, he is naturally more concerned about tying up loose ends regarding her death.

Shaking her head, Su Xiaopei replied: "I don't know. After the Luo family's case, I never saw Luo Ling'er after she left the city."

"That's even stranger." Du Chengming and his subordinate Zhao Kuai Hao Wei looked at each other: "If she did not attempt to kill you, why would she express false guilt? She wrote it in plain words, too."

"Her suicide note . . . can I see it?"

Du Chengming fished the dossier from the bag, took out the two pages in the middle and handed it over. The page was stained with a little blood, and some of the ink was smudged by bits of water droplets, perhaps Luo Ling'er shed tears while writing it. Su Xiaopei read the letter carefully, but it was hard to make out some of the phrases, so she leaned over to Ran Feize to read it with him. Ran Feize knew instinctively what she needed, so he read aloud in a low murmur while scanning the texts, as if talking to himself. With this, he clarified the letter's intentions fully for Su Xiaopei.

On the sideline, Bai Yulang wanted to knock Su Xiaopei from the limelight. He said with a smile, "Big sister here still hasn't made much progress, huh?." [tl note: dajie or 大姐 aka "big sister" is a casual, cheeky way of addressing a woman older than yourself]

Su Xiaopei rolled her eyes, then turned her attention back to Ran Feize's quiet narration. This Luo Ling'er seriously claimed that she snuck into the back alley of the Ning'an City mansion at night, jumped into the small courtyard, entered the house, saw Su Xiaopei sleeping soundly, and killed her with a knife. The letter wrote it all so clearly. Upon reading the last bit, Ran Feize turned his head to look at Su Xiaopei, face filled with lingering fear. Su Xiaopei the hairs standing on the back of her neck, but she could only smile and comfort him: "The letter is talking nonsense. If she really stabbed me so many times how could I sit here safe and sound?"

Du Chengming's brows furrowed deeper expressing his confusion: "Why did Luo Ling'er make up this elaborate nonsense?"

Su Xiaopei shook her head expressing ignorance; it was true that she had not seen Luo Ling'er for a long time.

Bai Yulang slapped his forehead and said again: "Ah! Perhaps she did actually sneak into big sister's house, but big sis was no longer there. All she saw was a room full of blood. That girl went crazy delusional from her intense thirst for revenge and genuinely believed that she had personally killed the big sister out of vengeance, lying to herself. Think about it, guys. If she was going to commit suicide, then her sanity was already questionable."

The whole room looked at him with those blank eyes again, and Liu Xiang glared at him quite unhappily: "What nonsense."

Bai Yulang scratched his head and argued, "My inference isn't that out of the question."

"That's true." Only Su Xiaopei paid him attention. "There are definitely cases where someone believes they did or saw something when neither actually happened."

Vindicated, Bai Yulang said proudly: "Look, our girl here also thinks my theory merits attention; I wasn't just blowing air"

"What sorts of situations would lead to such delusions?" Du Chengming asked.

"As Lord Bai claimed, when in a severe state of confusion, someone is bound to exhibit some spectrum of such behaviors." Su Xiaopei gave Du Chengming a look-over. She didn't know this man, so she did not want to say more — not to mention she was already feeling guilty about the whole situation. It would be good if she didn't have to overcomplicate things.

Qin Zhaotou said at this time: "It seems there isn't anything else we can pursue further with Luo Ling'er's case. Lord Du also confirmed her suicide. We will go back to close the case and notify the Chang prefecture."

Su Xiaopei nodded, exclaiming in her mind, just quickly close the case already, don't chase down any more leads! When she turned around she noticed Du Chengming's perplexed frown. He pondered there for a while before finally turning to Qin Dezheng: "Master Qin, this matter is also related to Miss Su's capture in Ning'an City that day, and Miss Su was abandoned in Linglong Mountain, which is also along the boundary of my Pingzhou City. And nowadays the young miss lives in Wuzhen, which is again under my jurisdiction. Let's cooperate in investigating this case. It would be good to have more help."

Su Xiaopei cursed in her heart, but Qin Dezheng agreed without hesitation: "There are indeed many things that I will have to trouble Master Du with. Since you have said so yourself, my heart is much more at ease. This is a very good turn of events! Many thanks!"

Seeing Du Chengming and Qin Dezheng clasp their fists and saluted each other so politely, Su Xiaopei couldn't cry if she wanted to. But no matter, in any case she was kidnapped while unconscious, so she doesn't know anything. Heck, she was on a tree when she opened her eyes. If they wanted to investigate, let them.

So they began to discuss their next course of action. First, it was unclear who the murderer behind the kidnapping was, nor where he was hiding. The culprit must now know that Su Xiaopei has been rescued, so will he attack Su Xiaopei again in the future? So now everyone was discussing how to protect the Su miss; but, Ran Feize did not care what anyone had to say, he simply stated, "Miss Su will stay with me."

No one could be more concerned about Su Xiaopei's safety than him. Su Xiaopei had previously gotten lost at the government office, so Qin Dezheng felt a little ashamed in front of Ran Feize and had no objections to his statement. It didn't even occur to Qin Dezheng at that moment how it would be against etiquette for a man and a woman with no relations to share a room. Anyhow, if the woman herself had no complaints, then he knew he certainly had no grounds to stand on.

And if Qin Dezheng had no objections, then it was even less likely for the others to raise a fuss. Only that Du Chengming glanced at Ran Feize a couple of times, but Ran Feize just met his stares calmly.

The result of this negotiation was that Chief Constable Qin and Du Chengming would first return to Pingzhou City and Ning'an City respectively to handle the official proceedings, then come back when they were finished. The three constables Liu Xiang, Bai Yulang and Hao Wei were to settle in one of the houses in the town's Yamen so they could easily stand guard nearby, which was also convenient for the investigation and handling of this case.

After a heated discussion, everyone was in high spirits. The constables thought they were coming to report the funeral, only to be then greeted with the living person herself, turning a tragedy into a cause for celebration. Furthermore, there was another major crime case worthy of investigation. As Bai Yulang said before, it had been a long time since anyone had encountered such a difficult case, which put everyone in high spirits. Su Xiaopei really wanted to roll her eyes, little brother, it's too weird for you to be happy about something so morbid. [TL note: 小兄弟 aka little brother is a humorous way to refer to a man in casual conversation and patronize him.]

In short, the situation was sorted, and everyone will go do their respective tasks. Qin Dezheng and Du Chengming also did not plan to stay long, as Pingzhou City was not far away, so they left first to rest. The three young constables also packed up their luggage to find a house to stay in nearby. Ran Feize said that he and Su Xiaopei had business with the Shadow Faction, so they would gather with them tomorrow to figure it out.

Bai Yulang asked curiously what business they had. His eyes suddenly lit up: "I've been on the job for so long, but I haven't handled a major martial arts case yet."

Ran Feize dumped a bucket of ice cold truth: "yeah, ol' master, why don't you try entering the Shadow Faction." It'd be a win if anyone even glanced your way. [TL note: this screams "f*ck around and find out"]

Bai Yulang waved his hand excitedly: "If the other poor masters can't do it, I will." He patted a bundle of cloth around his neck: "I still have clothes from the Bai village."

Everyone was amused by him, and Su Xiaopei found it even funnier, did he still flirt with the habit of cross-dressing? Bai Yulang felt wronged hearing all the laughter: "We can't let these Jianghu folks get too arrogant. If there is crime, then we constables must handle it officially. How can it just be privately sorted? The martial arts town skirts the boundary of Pingzhou City, and Lord Du has jurisdiction! Our Lord Qin is the golden chief constable and can make a cross-city arrest, so it is within his rights to manage the area too. Oh, this trip is really gearing up to be something special, it's good I came along."

Unfortunately for him, none of the others held his excitement. As soon as the constables begin their journey, case management and delegation depend on recommendations. Under all the heavens, there is likely only Bai Yulang who gave up his ties to Jianghu and pushed himself through the Yamen gates to become a government official, only to circle back to daydreaming of managing disputes as a government official in the traditionally autonomous Jianghu. He is truly the only one in the world. The crowd didn't entertain his daydreams further and changed the subject. Everyone eventually packed up and got ready to go.

Liu Xiang packed up his bags and walked out of the house. He saw Du Chengming standing by the roadside petting his horse, waiting for Qin Dezheng, who was still talking to Su Xiaopei and Ran Feize inside. Liu Xiang greeted him with a salute, and Du Chengming smiled and said to him, "Brother Liu has worked hard."

"Please, it's you lords who have been persevering."

Du Chengming smiled, stroking the horse again, said, "This has been quite interesting, isn't it?"

Liu Xiang didn't know how to answer, so he bowed his head and gave another salute.