Chapter 14 – Murder

Qin Weiyu didn’t get the chance to respond. A woman’s shrill scream cut into the air, dissolving the carefree and relaxed atmosphere of the departing guests. Everybody’s attention was immediately drawn towards an even larger disturbance.

The two met each others’ eyes, then quickly hurried over.

“What happened?” Qin Weiyu hastily arrived by the front door and pretended to confusedly grab the nearest person.

“Someone was killed!” The person’s face was white as a sheet, with a hand on their mouth.

“It must have been the Amber Scorpions, only they would be this unscrupulous…”

The Amber Scorpions assassins were hired personally by the Amber Emperor. They secretly dealt with any existence that displeased the emperor. More often than not, an official might be heavily favored by Emperor Abale one day, only to become another nameless corpse the next. Hearing this, Qin Weiyu was secretly afraid. He turned to speak.

“Tinglan, you’d better hurry and leave. I fear that … Tinglan?”

There was nobody beside him.

Fang Tinglan had long disappeared into the crowd, blending in with the others crowding forward for a closer look. He heard the panicked whispers of the people around him and very quickly grasped the situation.

The victim was a man named Herak, and was one of the guests at the banquet. He didn’t want to sit around staring at the fireworks and spouting perfunctory words of praise like an idiot, and had left early on in search of “real” entertainment.

Herak had found a prostitute to his taste. After settling on a price, the two had left for a narrow alley to do business. While he had been indulging himself, his coachman had pulled up. Drunk on pleasure, Herak hadn’t been able to notice his carriage’s arrival, much less the fact that his coachman seemed a size smaller than usual.

Herak pressed against the woman’s waist from behind, while the coachman pressed against Herak’s cheek from behind.

Fluid sprayed from his throat and lower half at nearly the same time.

The unfortunate actual coachman was found in the back of the carriage. He’d been stripped down to his underwear. The only other witness was curled up into herself, quietly sobbing in the middle of the crowd. Her hair was knotted with blood clots and the beautiful dress she’d chosen for this banquet’s night of “opportunity” had been reduced to rags.

“Ai… Even a prostitute doesn’t deserve to experience a nightmare like this.” An older lady by Fang Tinglan’s side murmured.

Soon after, the night guards arrived under the leadership of the sheriff. A majority of them headed to inspect the corpse while a couple others secured the area. One remaining guard went to interrogate the poor girl.

“I don’t know anything, didn’t see anything… I only felt something land in my hair, like rain, but thicker than water. I thought it was spit. He was drunk after all… And then, then he fell on me, like a rag doll. My God, I… by a dead person, I … ” She sat trembling, her eyes unfocused and words broken. Unable to continue, she started sobbing again.

Fang Tinglan frowned.

Something was off.

The girl’s description was far too vivid. The burning tones of her words mixed with her pitiful gasps for breath for everyone to hear. Some of the closer onlookers made noises of shock, which then spread through the crowd like some secret excitement. Everyone believed the girl and this strangely romantic yet ghastly murder case would be the talk of Jiumeng City for at least the next month.

“You didn’t see the attacker at all?” The officer asked.

“No, it was too dark… ”

“Really? But now you’re the only —”

“I said I didn’t see anything!” The girl screamed, on the verge of a breakdown.

“I fainted on the spot! What makes you think a girl like me would be brave enough to turn and take a look at a knife wielding attacker?!” She hysterically pushed the officer, but her arms held no strength and she herself fell to the ground.

This scene drew sympathy from many of the people present.

“Can’t you give the poor girl a break?” Someone yelled.

“Isn’t the coachman still here?”

“She said she’d fainted… ”

“Is the coachman awake yet?”

“We should be looking for the perpetrator right now, not bullying defenseless girls!”

Under the crowd’s shouts, the young officer was at a loss. He had probably been recently recruited — even his attempt to justify himself was stuttering.

“I, I’m not bullying her. I didn’t even say anything yet… ” He sent his superior a look asking for help. The sheriff clicked his tongue. He stood up from where he was crouching by the wall to examine a bloodstain and walked over. With one hand, he roughly yanked the girl to her feet and with the other hand he pinched her chin. In this position, he stared coldly down at her.

The girl immediately stopped crying.

“Make note of this girl’s name and address, then let her go,” The sheriff ordered.

His voice stood out even more than his face, with the sharpness of metal and the hardness of stone. Fang Tinglan couldn’t help but glance at him a couple more times.

The girl refused the young officer’s hand and struggled to her feet on her own. She quietly stated her name and address, then covered her face and left in the opposite direction, stumbling through the crowd.

Under the sheriff’s orders, the young officer started to disperse the crowd and restore order to Bainiao District.

“This works too, at least, she won’t dare to do this sort of work in the future. Dirty people will encounter dirty matters. Like the shoe soles of someone who’s been to the Mud District, they can’t trick anyone.” The old lady sighed, then continued, still speaking in the direction the girl disappeared.

“Go find a proper job, proper workers won’t meet situations like these.”

The girl walked slowly along the stone streets of Bainiao District. Far away from the center of the commotion, the rest of the district was as quiet and soft as it should be at night. When she was about to reach the Daoying River that separated Bainiao District from Anwanna District, she suddenly turned around. Her blood-stained dress made a beautiful arc in the night.

“Hey, Dongzhou fellow.” The panic and helplessness from before was nowhere to be found. Her face was now devoid of tears, a sly smile hanging off her red lips.

“You’ve been tailing me,” she said.

“I learned to tail people when I was younger. You wouldn’t have been able to find me if I didn’t want you to.” Fang Tinglan smiled.

“The act you and your partner put on was far too exaggerated. I only wanted to see what you guys had next in store.”

“But my client said that if I was any prettier, I could be an actress for the big theatres.” The girl pouted.

“You following me couldn’t be because you got excited after seeing that dead man, right? Otherwise, you Dongzhou people sure have odd tastes.”

“I am a little excited, but not because of you,” Fang Tinglan said.

“Because of who then?”

“Hai Lian,” Fang Tinglan said slowly.

“This is his handiwork, no? Of course we can’t forget that sheriff, he’s in on it too.”

The shocked expression she made confirmed Fang Tinglan’s guess. He had wanted to continue asking, but suddenly realized that something was off. After all, for a girl who willingly participated in an assassination and wanted to be an actor, this expression stayed on her face for a little too long.

Fang Tinglan felt a cool summer breeze behind his ears.

Rather, he felt the biting coldness of a blade.