Heart-wrenching

  The temple in the west of the city is broken.

  Yan Sanbai squatted down, lifted the white cloth, and a strong bloody smell suddenly hit his face. Ling Ding behind him took a look and hurriedly covered his mouth. He had seen dead people before, but this whole chest was cut open, with blood and flesh turned outwards, and internal organs cut off. At first glance, it was really hard to look straight at it.

  Li Yan also held a fan to cover half of his face, didn't retreat, but slightly frowned and asked: "How is it?"

  Yan Sanbai examined it carefully, his gaze lingering on the knife marks, his expression serious. "The killer's strength is not great, and they are not skilled at cutting, so the wounds here are not deep. They were unable to finish the job with one cut, so they repeatedly stabbed, resulting in this bloody mess. The murder weapon should be a dagger or something similar. What's strange is that there are no signs of struggle here. And Li Qian's strength shouldn't be any less than the killer's, and there are no signs of him being bound. Why didn't he resist?"

  Jia Qing stood a little further away, not wanting to look too much. "That's right, the forensic doctor also said so. And Li Jian wasn't killed with one knife stab to the heart. The murderer seemed to have deliberately avoided his heart and stabbed him to death with multiple knives."

  "That should be for keeping the heart intact." said Yan Sanbai.

  Ling Ding and a group of officials couldn't help but click their tongues in surprise, this sounded strange.

  Yan Sanbai stood up and looked around the dilapidated temple. It was a small temple with only one hall, which had been neglected for years. The interior was in disarray, with a thick layer of dust accumulated on the Buddha statue. In various corners of the room, there were piles of tattered cloth, and on the ground, there were faint black marks.

  "Where's the vagrant?" Yan Sanbai suddenly turned back and asked.

  "Vagabond?" Jia Qing was taken aback and replied: "When the body was discovered, there were no vagabonds here."

  Yan Sanbai pointed to the piles of tattered cloth and the dark grey marks, "How can these be explained? There is no dust on the cloth piles, it's clear that someone has disturbed them. The dark grey marks are also new, it should be that someone had a fire for warmth."

  "This..." Jia Qing said: "The night watchman who reported the case was passing by to relieve himself, and only discovered something was amiss when he smelled blood. By the time the constables arrived, there was no one here."

  "No," Yansanbai said firmly, "After the rain, footprints on the ground will be very clear. On the road from outside, there are several shoe prints, among which one person's shoes are broken and their toes are exposed, which is different from other people's footprints. But I only saw him enter the broken temple, without any signs of leaving. The person should still be here."

  Jia Qing was still somewhat unbelievable, but Li Yan had already coldly given the order, "Search for me."

  A moment later.

  "Your Highness! There's someone hiding behind the Buddha statue!" The two bailiffs exerted themselves to drag out a person from behind the Buddha statue. The location was very secluded, and ordinary people would hardly think that such a narrow gap could hide a person, so they had overlooked it at first.

  The one being dragged out was a middle-aged vagrant in tattered clothes, motionless, as if dead, but with a happy smile on his face, which was quite eerie.

  Yan Sanbai quickly walked over and checked his breath, "He's still alive, must have been poisoned."

  "It's Extreme Bliss Powder, once taken, one will become deeply immersed in their own fantasies of extreme bliss and ordinary people can't escape." Li Yan however recognized the drug at a glance, "I've seen it before in Shu."

  "Is there an antidote?" Yan Sanbai asked. The vagrant was dragged out like this and still hadn't woken up, showing that the medicine was very potent.

  Li Yan shook his head, "It's necessary for the person who was deceived to be on the verge of life and death, receive a huge shock, in order to wake up."

  "We can't just chop him down with a knife, can we?" Ling Ding wondered, and then saw Yan Sanbai hesitate for a moment before stretching out his hand. "I'll do it."

  Ling Ding thought Yan Sanbai was really going to listen to him and kill the vagrant with one slash, so he hastily waved his hand to indicate that he was just joking, "Yan hero, don't take it seriously..."

  Yan Sanbai seemed to have not heard his words, and the long white hand had already reached the vagrant's neck, five fingers open and pinched his nape, with a slight effort, in the blink of an eye, the vagrant suddenly showed a painful and frightened expression. In less than three seconds, he was panting heavily and woke up abruptly.

  Ling Ding's eyes widened in surprise, what kind of kung fu is this?

  "Cough, cough...". The vagrant was still in a daze, just now he was having a beautiful dream of returning home with glory, but suddenly, the shadow of death loomed over him, and for that instant, it really felt like he was going to die. But the pain was short-lived, so brief it was as if it had never existed at all.

  He suddenly opened his eyes and saw a gentle face looking at him.

  "Are you all right?" he asked.

  The man's voice was gentle, and the vagrant unconsciously relaxed his guard, nodding, "It's okay, I'm fine..."

  "You live in this temple, don't you?"

  Yes...

  "Do you still remember what you saw before you fell asleep?"

  "No, I don't think so. I remember it was very cold and I curled up in a pile of blankets to sleep. Then I started dreaming about a beautiful woman who asked me if I wanted to marry her. She was really gorgeous, with skin as white as..."

  "Cough." Yan Sanbai hastily interrupted him, this was obviously a spring dream and wasn't suitable to be spoken of in public.

  The vagrant also realized this, his old face turned red, although the face was full of dirt and couldn't be seen clearly. "Later... later is now, who are you? Why are you here?"

  The vagrant looked around and saw Jia Qing and the official uniform of the yamen runners behind him, his face suddenly changed, and he involuntarily shrank back, "Are you here to drive me away?! I finally found a place to stay, and now you're going to take it away from me! Officials are indeed all bad stuff!"

  "Shut up with your nonsense!" Jia Qing's face turned iron-gray. He stole a glance at Li Yan, careful not to provoke him.

  "It doesn't matter." Li Yan naturally wouldn't take these words to heart, and instead asked: "There is a special shelter in the city, why didn't you go there?"

  "What a fine man I am! Why should I accept your charity?!" The vagrant was very agitated.

  "But a murder has occurred here, you'd better go to the shelter and avoid it for now." Yan Sanbai advised.

  The vagrant still had a good impression of Yan Sanbai, and after hearing this, he was skeptical. He just slept for a while, how could there be a murder case? He suggested taking a look at the body, but Lingding said he didn't know what was good for him. The king asked him with kindness, but he still had such an attitude, so he walked over and lifted the white cloth, "Take a look."

  Ling just wanted to scare him, but unexpectedly the vagrant took one look and fainted on the spot. Everyone was stunned and speechless. In the end, Li Yan waved his hand and had the bailiffs take him away to a shelter.

  In the ruined temple, there were no more clues to explore. Yan Sanbai and Li Ye walked shoulder to shoulder back and forth, while Ling Ding took a step ahead and returned to the Wang Mansion.

  Li Yan originally wanted to take Yan Sanbai back to the Wang Fu to rest, after all, he had just recovered from his illness. However, Yan Sanbai glanced at the sky and calculated the time, realizing that dawn was approaching, so she didn't want to go back to sleep. At this moment, her mind was active, and it was a good opportunity to sort out those clues.

  The two of them walked towards the Shallow Red Building.

  "Your Highness, may I have a word with you about Qin Sang's daughter?" Yan Sanbai's words were laced with cautious probing, after all, his bosom friend had recently lost his beloved, and he was touching on a sore spot.

  Li Yan looked up and glanced at the bright scarlet building in the distance, saying: "There's nothing that can't be said. When Qin Sang first came to Luoyang three years ago, I had just arrived in Luoyang too. I heard that a new courtesan had emerged from the Scarlet Building, one who could dance and captivate the hearts of people from all nine provinces. So, I went to take a look. Qin Sang's beauty was indeed unparalleled in Luoyang City, but what delighted me most was that she was also a master of the qin. Therefore, I often went to find her to discuss and learn about the art of playing the qin, and we became familiar with each other over time. It can be said that we are kindred spirits, at least when it comes to the qin."

  Listening to Wang's straightforwardness, Yan Sanbai smiled slightly and said: "Then... have you ever heard her mention the person she likes? Besides Dong Lang."

  "No, in these few years I've never heard her mention anyone else besides Dong Lang. Sometimes I even laughed at her for being infatuated, how could the characters in a book be real? But she really got angry. I wanted to buy her freedom, but she refused, saying that one day Dong Lang would come find her. Now thinking about it, it's indeed quite suspicious."

  It seems that Qin Sang was waiting for Dong Lang, but when Dong Lang arrived, Qin Sang had already died and left a curse behind. Did Dong Lang betray her? Is Li Qian actually Dong Lang?

  "Prince Wang, did you know what happened to Qin Sang before she came to Luoyang?" asked Yan Sanbai.

  "She was very secretive about her past, I was afraid of touching on her painful memories, so I didn't ask much." Li Yan thought carefully for a moment, then suddenly remembered something else, "Right, she had a jade pendant that she always wore around her neck, it was a mandarin duck pendant, which seemed like a token of love."

  Could it be that the Donglang who walked out of the book gave it to him? Thinking of this, Yan Sanbai asked Li Ye to bring over the jade pendant for him to take a look, perhaps there would be some clues on it.

  Two people walked slowly, and before long they arrived at the entrance of the Shallow Red Building. At this time, the sky was gradually lit up with a fish belly white, and the golden wind chimes hanging on the eaves of the Shallow Red Building were blown by the wind, gently swaying, and the clear and crisp sound of the wind chimes accompanied the birdsong, opening up a brand new day.

  Luoyang City is also called the Flower Capital, and in spring it's the time when hundreds of flowers are in full bloom. Yan Sanbai couldn't help but take a deep breath of the fresh air, which carried the faint scent of flowers, refreshing his mind.

  However, he seemed to have smelled something unusual from that fragrance.

  Li Yan saw that Yansanbai was staring at something unusual, so he followed his gaze - it was the place where Qin Sang fell from the building, where the blood characters appeared.

  However, due to the rain, the bloodstains had been washed away almost completely, and only a few flower petals were left on the ground, which no longer showed their previous terrifying appearance.

  Yan Sanbai seemed to have seen something and squatted down to feel the ground with his hand, which was quite rough and had a slight delay.

  He rubbed his fingertips under his nose and finally smelled the scent. "It's fish glue, I think I know how this blood character was formed."

  Li Yan's eyes also showed a sudden realization, and he obviously thought of it too. He immediately called over the guards at the Shallow Red Building, "Go and investigate right away, which shops in the city are selling fish glue, and who has bought some. Report back as soon as you find out. Also, have Lingding bring Qin Sang's jade pendant here."

  The yamen runner hurried off, and Li Yan and Yan Sanbai turned around and entered the Shallow Red Building.

  The girls in the building got up one after another, and most of them looked a bit haggard. With such a big thing happening in the building, it was clear that none of them had slept well.

  But the arrival of King Luoyang was apparently a good medicine, and the girls' faces immediately burst into smiles, surrounding him and shouting "Wang Ye".

  Yan Sanbai took a step back as soon as he heard the first "Wang Ye", using the shadow cast by the curtain to cover half of his face. Li Yan turned around, and the person was gone.

  Hey, you're running too fast.

  The little servant in the building was busy serving tea and water to the adults, when he walked past the curtain, he was suddenly caught by a hand in the dark.

  Just as Xiao Er was about to speak up, a gentle voice sounded in his ear, "Young man, I have something to ask you."

  When he turned around, he found that it was a very handsome young guest. The shopkeeper immediately put on a smile and said, "May I ask what the young master wants to know? Anything about the girls in the building, I'm familiar with them. Which one of the girls has caught your eye?"

  Yan Sanbai rubbed his nose, "The one below is here to investigate the case. As for which girl looks better, you should ask that Wang Ye over there."

  The little servant turned his head and looked back, well, the girls were listless yesterday as if they had lost their mother, but today they are all spirited and lively.

  "Little brother, do you know who usually comes to find Miss Qin Sang on ordinary days?"

  Upon hearing this, Xiao Er's expression turned somewhat strange, then he pointed at Li Yan again. "Young Master, you're not joking, are you? Who in Luoyang doesn't know that Qin Sang is the one the Prince has his eyes on? And who would dare to make a move on her? Ninth Lady even specially arranged for Qin Sang to be placed in the highest pavilion, where except for the Prince, no man has gone up for a long time."

  "Huh?" Yan Sanbai was taken aback.

  "Cough, Qin Sang's life was also bitter. She was still cursing that heartless man when she died. Who is this heartless man?" The waiter seemed to be hinting at something, "It's been many years, and the king didn't even let her buy back her freedom. I don't know why."

  "Isn't there also a Dong Lang?"

  Xiao Er waved his hand, "The characters in the book can't be counted on, could he still run out of the book? Poor Qin Sang girl's infatuation..."

  Xiao Er looked quite indignant on behalf of Qin Sang, but he also knew that talking too much would lead to trouble, so after saying a few words, he stopped and just begged Yan Sanbai to make sure to catch the murderer.

  At this time, a slightly sarcastic voice came from the second floor, "Hey, sisters are in good spirits today, and Qin sister is still watching from underground."

  Yan Sanbai looked up and saw Qiuchan leaning on the railing, smiling at the people below.

  The following people are not weak either.

  "Who doesn't know that you, Autumn Cicada, waited all night yesterday, anxiously wishing for Qin sister to die sooner?"

  "It's just that you're the most suspicious one in our building."

  "Who doesn't know you don't get along with Qin sister?"

  The cicada narrowed its eyes, a cold smile spreading from the corner of its mouth. "Yeah, I'm not fond of many people," it drawled. "But if I wanted to kill someone, you little rascals would be the first to go."

  "You!" The girls downstairs were so angry that their pearl pendants were shaking wildly.

  Yan Sanbai and Li Yan exchanged a glance - there's something going on between them.

  "Am I wrong?" Qiu Cui raised an eyebrow, "Seeing a handsome man and having green eyes, isn't that being a little wanton? I said why don't you turn your head to take a look at the man hiding behind the curtain, if anyone's heart doesn't flutter with spring feelings, I'll give this golden hairpin on my head to her."

  Hiss! Yan San's eyes widened in an instant - he had already hidden so far away, why was he still being dragged into this?

  Insert Bookmark