Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My name is Yu Chaolan, and I am a fortune-teller from Jinling.

Though I am a woman, I have a ready tongue and a knack for reading people, so business has always been rather good.

Whenever the young ladies and married women of the city run into troubles they cannot resolve, they like to come to me for a divination. I can always give them an answer that satisfies them.

After I helped solve the murder of Yuanyang, a courtesan from Jinlan Courtyard (see Part One),

I was recruited by Yuan Nanshan, Vice Minister of Dali Temple, to serve as his adviser.

Not long after I arrived in the capital and settled in, a difficult case landed on our doorstep.

Dressed in his vermilion official robes, Yuan Nanshan seemed steadier than usual, with a little less of his usual unruly air.

Even so, he remained as handsome and graceful as ever.

He handed me the case file and said gravely,

“This case took place two days ago. Lady Xu, the favored concubine of the Marquis of Ningyuan, was found dead in her room. A pair of scissors had been driven into her abdomen, and she died from excessive blood loss.”

“The body was discovered by her son, Xia Teng, the Heir of the Marquis of Ningyuan.”

I carefully flipped through the file.

The details of the case took clearer shape in my mind.

Chapter 2

The incident occurred around the Shen hour on the eighth day of the eleventh lunar month, sometime between three and five in the afternoon.

The coroner’s later examination confirmed this time frame.

That day was the birthday of the elderly matriarch of the marquis’s mansion, and the household had invited many relatives, friends, and high-ranking guests to a banquet.

The Marquis of Ningyuan was a filial son. He had even specially invited a famous opera troupe from the capital to perform “Silang Visits His Mother.”

So at the time of the murder, most of the women in the residence were gathered around the stage, watching the opera.

The victim, Lady Xu, had been unable to attend the birthday feast because she had caught a chill and was bedridden.

There were five maidservants in her courtyard, all quite young and at the age when they loved to play.

Before the incident, Lady Xu sent them off to watch the opera, leaving only the honest and dutiful Cuiqiao behind to keep watch in the courtyard.

According to Cuiqiao’s statement,

Lady Xu had been resting in her room all afternoon, and Cuiqiao did not dare disturb her.

At one point, Cuiqiao went to the rear courtyard to decoct medicine. Afraid that if one of the young maids returned, she would not hear the knock, she left the courtyard gate half-open.

That, too, had been Lady Xu’s instruction.

In other words, during that interval, there was no way to know who had come by.

It was not until the turn between the Shen and You hours, around five o’clock, that the heir apparent Xia Teng came to Lady Xu’s courtyard to visit her sickbed.

When Cuiqiao and Xia Teng entered the room, they were confronted with the shocking sight of Lady Xu’s corpse.

The murder weapon was still at the scene: a sharp pair of scissors.

There was also bloody water left in the washbasin in Lady Xu’s room.

The killer must have washed the blood from their hands after committing the murder, then walked away without a care.