Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Because a murder occurred at Jinlan Courtyard, business has been bleak lately, with only seven or eight customers in the house.
Even the usually gaudy girls seemed to have lost their color.
After I said this in front of everyone, they all were taken aback.
The madam Jin Lan got so angry she rolled her eyes and was the first to shout at me with hands on hips: “Little miss, what nonsense are you spouting! Go tell fortunes! You come here every day to stir up trouble, do you have nothing better to do? Yuanyang is dead, isn’t it bad enough that I’m ruined? Look at this business, it’s so dead I can’t even operate!”
At its peak, Jinlan Courtyard had twenty-six girls; before Yuanyang died there were still twenty-two or twenty-three, but now they’ve left or run away, leaving only fourteen or fifteen.
A middle-aged patron sitting in the hall, slightly tipsy, teased: “Master Yu is not without charm; could it be you want to join Jinlan Courtyard? Come, come, let this lord have your company tonight!”
The others roared with laughter.
Linglong tightly clutched my hand, seemingly a bit scared and nervous.
I had her sit on a bench far away, then turned back with a light laugh: “This gentleman jests. I am here today at Linglong’s request to find the true culprit who killed Miss Yuanyang. Fortunately, I have not disappointed her.”
Seeing I was impervious to reason and blocking the entrance, the madam had no choice but to signal the procurer Song Qi with a glance.
“Throw her out!”
I nimbly stepped back: “What’s the hurry? Not everyone has arrived yet!”
Just then, a tall man lifted the door curtain and came in from outside.
This man was tall and imposing, with a face that was upright yet fierce. He wore the black uniform of a constable; it was none other than the county’s captain Liu Zhengyi.
As soon as Captain Liu entered, he fixed his eyes on me like a hawk. “You’re the one who left me a letter, saying that if I came here I would find the real murderer of Yuanyang?”
I gave Captain Liu a respectful salute and said, “That is me, a humble commoner.”
Captain Liu frowned: “Aren’t you that fortune-teller Miss Yu from the main street? Could it be… the murderer is you?”
“……”
If all the county constables were of this caliber, indeed it would be hard to expect them to solve cases.
After a moment of speechlessness, I said, “Captain Liu, please be patient. I was entrusted by Linglong to find the murderer who killed her mother. Today I finally have some progress, so I asked you to come as a witness. When the truth comes to light, you can conveniently arrest the culprit and earn a great merit.”
Captain Liu sneered: “A fortune-teller like you can solve a case? Do you think we constables are useless? You’re just making trouble! Get out!”
The dozen or so people in the hall also spoke up: “Right, a fortune-teller solving cases? How strange!” “Deceiving people and fooling ghosts, nothing but a charlatan!” “Get out! Get out!”
Faced with everyone’s doubts, I remained unruffled.
Having traveled the jianghu for years, I knew better than anyone how to talk to people and how to talk to ghosts-adapting my words to the audience.
“Everyone, quiet down. Although I am a fortune-teller, I am not a nobody. I am the eighteenth-generation direct disciple of the Linen-Clad Divine Physiognomy. There is nothing under heaven that the innate hexagrams cannot calculate! What’s so strange about me being able to figure out the true culprit? Even nobles in the palace consult the Astronomical Bureau to observe stars and feng shui!”
Hearing me speak like this, the crowd found it reasonable and gradually quieted down.
Then I clasped my hands to everyone: “Today, if I am wrong, Captain Liu is here and can haul me off to prison. It will only take an hour of your time. After one hour, the true culprit will be revealed beyond doubt. Everyone can just consider it entertainment!”
And so, the scene finally quieted down.