chapter 12

Xia Zeqin turned up something in everyone’s room.

In the accountant Zheng Jueming’s room, there was a dagger tucked under his pillow.

Zheng Jueming hemmed and hawed for a long while before finally forcing out, “I’m scared of dying. It’s just for self-defense. It’s nothing.”

In Lu Jing’s room-the one playing the role of the Fourth Young Master-there was a letter on his bookshelf exchanged with the mountain bandits. What Xia Zeqin found was the bandits’ reply. The letter said that Lu Jing had joined forces with the bandits and intended to kill someone.

To that, Lu Jing answered, “I do hate him. But if I’d already allied with the bandits and put a whole series of plans in motion, why would I make a rash move at a time like this? I’m not that impatient. I’ve waited all these years-what’s a few more days? I want him dead, but I didn’t get the chance.”

After hearing their explanations, Xia Zeqin didn’t press them any further.

Next was Mu Xin.

“I found something in your room too, but…” Xia Zeqin shook his head and went on. “So far, I haven’t found anything that directly links you to Dad’s death. Still, I want to ask-are you pregnant, and you don’t want this child?” As he spoke, Xia Zeqin took out what he’d found in Mu Xin’s room.

It was a prescription for an abortion medicine, and a packet of herbs.

The game didn’t make things difficult on this point. Aside from a long list of ingredients, the top of the prescription clearly stated three characters: abortion medicine. The packet had a label as well, indicating it was abortion medicine.

Mu Xin’s identity in the Script was the Third Young Madam. In an ancient setting, a woman’s status rose with her child-and the fact that the prescription had been found in Mu Xin’s room implied it was something done in secret, a private attempt to end the pregnancy. There was no way a detail like that existed for no reason.

Mu Xin stared blankly for a moment, then grew visibly flustered. In a small, timid voice, she said, “My relationship with my husband is bad. I don’t want his child, so… this should count as a personal matter, right? It doesn’t have anything to do with the murder case, does it?”

“It doesn’t,” Xia Zeqin replied.

In the end, his gaze settled on Jian Fan.

Jian Fan lifted his head. Their eyes met in midair.

Qin Nan sat off to the side, his gaze sweeping over the two of them in turn. The real show, it seemed, was only just beginning.

“The household physician?” Xia Zeqin asked with a smile.

Jian Fan gave a brief “Mm.”

“I didn’t find anything strange in your room,” Xia Zeqin said. Then he leaned back, his whole posture relaxing. “I don’t have any questions for you. Let’s see if my teammates have anything to add.”

Qin Nan was a little surprised.

He’d thought the person Xia Zeqin would come down on hardest would be Jian Fan. He never expected him to let it go so lightly.

Xia Zeqin had nothing more to say, and his female companion naturally followed his lead, shaking her head and staying silent throughout. Xu Tian, however, had been listening carefully to everyone since Xia Zeqin started speaking. Now, the moment he finished, she suddenly spoke up.

“Jian Fan, I have something I want to ask you,” Xu Tian said.

Jian Fan looked at her, signaling for her to go ahead.

“In what kind of situation would you want to kill someone?” Xu Tian asked-something that seemed completely unrelated to this Script.

Her question caught everyone off guard, Jian Fan included.

He looked at Xu Tian and straightened slightly, a seriousness in him that hadn’t been there before. “If he doesn’t die, I will.”

“So that means when your life isn’t in danger, you won’t kill anyone-even if you have a grudge against them,” Xu Tian continued.
Jian Fan nodded, not denying it.

“I don’t have any other questions.” Xu Tian said. She withdrew her gaze and returned to her earlier quiet, attentive manner-listening to others speak without saying a word herself. It was a little different from the personality she’d shown when she first appeared.

“Let me share what we found on our side,” Qin Weiyi picked up.

No one objected.

Qin Weiyi, Mu Xin, and Zheng Jueming had been responsible for searching the remaining six rooms-Xia Zeqin’s four-person team, plus Lin Junruo and Xu Tian.

“We also covered six rooms. In the Eldest Young Master’s room, we didn’t find a single suspicious clue. In my personal opinion, that’s exactly what makes it the most suspicious. Borrowing a line of reasoning Xia Zeqin used earlier: the Eldest Young Master is an illegitimate son. In an ancient setting, you can imagine what he and his mother would’ve been put through. He was only brought back after his biological mother died. So it’s perfectly reasonable that the Eldest Young Master would hate his father-and he has motive to kill as well. With an identity like that, having no suspicious clues at all is what’s most suspicious.”

Qin Weiyi looked at Xia Zeqin. “You asked Qin Nan a question just now-the same question I want to ask you. Xia Zeqin, you hid a clue.”

Xia Zeqin neither admitted nor denied it. Instead, he asked, “Are you and Qin Nan teammates?”

“If he’s not the killer, then he’s my teammate,” Qin Weiyi replied. He didn’t bother waiting for Xia Zeqin’s answer and quickly changed the subject. “Aside from Xia Zeqin, we found clues in the other five rooms. Before we have enough information, I don’t have anything I want to ask you. I’ll just briefly go over what we found.”

As he spoke, Qin Weiyi laid everything he’d found on the table.

“The Eldest Young Madam: a love letter that looks like an ambiguous exchange with an actor, and a gold hairpin stained with blood.

“The Eldest Miss: a medical book personally written by the household physician. Besides some basic prescriptions, it also lists several poisons. We also found a bunch of scattered medicinal ingredients in the room.

“Second Miss: in your room, we found a bloodstained… um-by modern terms, underwear. In an ancient setting it would be called xieku.

“Third Young Master: something like a diary in your own handwriting. In it, you repeatedly wrote about wanting to put your own biological father to sleep.

“The deceased’s younger brother-uh… Uncle: in your room, we found a key. There are tiny characters engraved on it. If nothing unexpected comes up, it’s the key to the family’s vault.”

“That’s all I have,” Qin Weiyi concluded. “Do what you want with it.”

Qin Nan hadn’t expected Qin Weiyi to handle it this way. He simply stated what he’d found. Other than a bit of subjective speculation aimed at Xia Zeqin, he stayed objectively rational with everyone else. Even with Xia Zeqin, he didn’t do anything impulsive. Xia Zeqin had called him out, so he called him back-calmly. He maintained a level of composure that didn’t fit his age, even surpassing most of the people present.

And after his closing line, he really did fall silent.

Zheng Jueming raised his hand. “I have something to say.”

“Xia Zeqin mentioned earlier that the deceased-the Master-was castrated. And in Second Miss’s room, there were bloodstained xieku. I want to know what the body looked like at the time. Are these two things connected?” Zheng Jueming asked, directing his suspicions straight at Xia Zeqin’s female companion.