Snow falls and the wind blows

Chapter 14

Is it boring? Do you have any suggestions? That way I can improve it.

The case is now more than halfway through. Many clues have emerged.

Sigh... These past few days have been giving me a headache. I'm just staring longingly at that ranking list; I really want to be on it.

I'll probably write about delicious food tomorrow, hehe~

16

Chapter Eleven: Creating a Mystery and Reminiscing...

Watching Li Weier's figure disappear into the distance, Zhan Yun's crescent-shaped eyes gradually darkened with gloom, and his usually clear and melodious voice became somewhat hoarse: "I originally thought that only the martial world was chaotic and the officialdom was corrupt, ha... Did I underestimate these girls?"

"Human hearts are complex, and the world is a battlefield everywhere," Xiao Duan said calmly. Zhan Yun raised his eyes and looked directly into Xiao Duan's eyes, and was slightly taken aback. Those clear and cold phoenix eyes were without anger or resentment, without joy or anger, like a cold spring in the mountains, clear and bright, flowing quietly.

None of the three spoke again. Looking up, they saw a woman in a lake-green dress carefully stepping over the threshold, her figure light and graceful as she walked towards them. After bowing to the three, Wang Sulei straightened up, her hands tightly gripping the hem of her dress, her delicate brows furrowed: "Are you really going to take Lanlan away? That hairpin, Lanlan really did find it. She couldn't have killed anyone! She's very timid..."

Zhan Yun shook his folded fan, indicating that she didn't need to say more: "We will find out who the murderer is. I called Miss Wang here because I have a few questions to ask."

Wang Sulei pursed her lips, her face somber, her eyes half-closed: "Ask away."

“Miss Wang, the appearance of the jade hairpin that Miss Qian wore before her death in the Elegant Abode is enough to prove that the one who murdered the three young ladies was someone from the Elegant Abode.” Xiao Duan paused slightly, carefully studying the woman’s expression: “Since Miss Wang insists that Miss Lan is not the murderer, then, in Miss Wang’s opinion, who is more likely to be the murderer?”

Wang Sulei frowned even more, a hint of annoyance showing on her wheat-colored face: "Young Master, are you testing me with those words?"

Xiao Duan smiled slightly: "This is not a test, but an inquiry. Miss Wang, if you know the answer, please answer; if you don't know, you don't have to."

Wang Sulei lowered her eyes, her expression shifting between light and shadow. After a long while, she finally parted her lips slightly and asked, "If the clues I gave you are useful, will you stop arresting Lanlan?" Upon hearing this, Zhao Ting's dark eyes flashed with a glint of light. This woman was quite loyal! Her constant mention of Lanlan was quite rare in a place like "Zhuxiang Elegant Abode."

“If we find out that the real culprit is someone else, then Miss Lanlan naturally won’t need to come with us,” Xiao Duan said slowly, a slight smile playing on his lips.

“If we can’t find the real culprit today, then…” Wang Sulei’s face turned pale with anxiety, and she looked at Xiao Duan with panicked eyes.

"Then we'll have to trouble Miss Lan to spend the night in jail," Zhan Yun said gently.

Wang Sulei gritted her teeth, tears welling in her eyes: "You! How could you do this! You couldn't catch the real culprit, so you made Lanlan take the blame! You..."

“Miss Wang,” Duan said coldly, “According to what Miss Zhu just said, Miss Lan is indeed highly suspicious. Before there are any new developments in the case, in order to ensure the personal safety of all the ladies, we have reason to detain her.”

Wang Sulei opened her mouth, about to argue, when Xiao Duan continued, "If Miss Lan isn't the murderer, locking her up in the government jail would be a guarantee of her safety, wouldn't it?"

Wang Sulei was taken aback, clearly not expecting this, and nodded blankly. After hesitating for a moment, Wang Sulei timidly said, "Actually, I don't know much either, I'm just guessing."

Seeing that all three were looking at her, seemingly encouraging her to continue, Wang Sulei gritted her teeth and said softly, "All I know is that several young ladies in the abode harbor special feelings for the layman, and they've secretly been vying for his attention and sabotaging each other quite a bit..." Wang Sulei's hands twisted the pleats of her lake-green skirt, "I'm just guessing that their deaths might be related to this..."

Zhan Yun nodded, a faint smile playing on her lips: "Thank you for your reminder, Miss. Miss Wang need not worry. If it really wasn't Miss Lan who did it, she will be released soon."

Wang Sulei nodded, her eyes reddening as she spoke: "Lanlan's health isn't good. The prison is cold and damp; I'm really afraid she won't be able to endure it..."

Zhan Yun offered a few more words of comfort, then told Wang Sulei to go back to the pavilion and wait, and to call out the next young lady. One by one, the young ladies came out, asked their questions, and then went back into the pavilion to sit.

As dusk approached and the sun began to set, the three whispered a few words. Zhan Yun went into the attic alone, instructing the young ladies not to come to the abode for the next few days, and preferably not to leave the house. Everything would return to normal once the case was solved. Lan Lan was taken back to the yamen by two constables and temporarily detained in the government jail. The other constables were responsible for escorting the young ladies home safely.

After everyone had left, Zhan Yun turned and walked down the steps, smiling slightly as she approached the two of them. She didn't notice a soft object under her foot. Zhan Yun bent down, picked up the book, and couldn't help but smile; it was a copy of "The Collection of Flowers Among the Flowers."

Zhan Yun, a book lover, smiled slightly as she brushed the dust off the upper left corner of the book. Casually turning the page, a pale yellow note slid down the spine. Zhan Yun caught it with her fingers, and upon closer inspection, her smile faded. She quickly flipped through the first and last pages of the poetry collection, where she saw the three neatly written characters "Zhou Wanxiao" in regular script on the lower right corner of the title page.

The two men noticed Zhan Yun's unusual expression and quickly approached. Zhan Yun handed them the poetry collection and stationery. After reading them, Xiao Duan and Zhao Ting exclaimed simultaneously, "Song Qiao?"

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"Xiao Duan, please sit down. I've already cooked the fish, and I only need two stir-fried dishes left, they'll be ready soon!" As soon as he entered, Jiang Cheng invited Xiao Duan to sit down at the table and rest, then turned around and went to the back to cook the dishes.

Duan sat down as instructed, picked up the teapot on the table, and poured some hot tea into a cup. While drinking, he carefully considered the clues he had gathered over the past two days. Just now, the three of them, carrying the copy of *The Collection of Flowers* and the pale yellow note, had rushed to Song Qiao's house, two streets away, but no one answered the door after knocking for a long time. According to the aunt next door, Song Qiao had left early that morning, and no one knew where he went, but he hadn't been seen returning.

After waiting for another half hour, still no sign of them. The three of them hadn't even had a sip of water all afternoon. Seeing that it was getting late, they decided to return. Anyway, they had already given notice at the city gate, so the person couldn't have run away. They could just come back early tomorrow morning.

As Xiao Duan was lost in thought while holding his teacup, a figure flashed before his eyes. Jiang Cheng had already brought a plate of fish and two bowls of white rice to the table, put down his chopsticks and bowls, and grinned, saying, "Stop thinking about it and eat it while it's hot! Try my vinegar fish and see if it's gotten any worse than before."

Xiao Duan's lips curled slightly. He picked up a chopstick, dipped it in the broth, and put it in his mouth. With a lick of his tongue, the rich, sweet, sour, and slightly salty flavor spread throughout his mouth. Putting down the chopsticks, Xiao Duan smiled slightly: "Brother Jiang's cooking skills are getting better and better."

"Xiao Duan, you're getting sweeter and sweeter." Jiang Cheng smiled, his eyes crinkling into crescents, and then turned to go back to his work.

A moment later, Jiang Cheng came out carrying two plates of vegetarian dishes. He put the plates on the table, turned around, walked to the bedside, bent down, and pulled out a tightly sealed clay wine jar from under the bed. Jiang Cheng sat down opposite Xiao Duan, holding the jar, and said with a smile as he opened it, "This is the 'Jade Chain Hammer' wine that I finally managed to get my hands on a few days ago. Mr. Tao has been chasing me for almost half a month, but I haven't given it to him. These days, his eyes light up every time he sees me, constantly asking if I've had any, and he even sucks his teeth to ask me what it tastes like. It's hilarious. He's such a grown man, yet he acts like a child all the time..."

Xiao Duan's lips curled slightly as she picked up a mouthful of rice and chewed it slowly, listening quietly to Jiang Cheng's laughter. Jiang Cheng took two empty cups from the table, and the clear, jade-green wine gurgled into them, instantly filling the air with a rich and mellow aroma. Jiang Cheng raised his cup to offer a toast, but his hand paused mid-air, his brow furrowing in annoyance: "Oh no! I forgot about your shoulder injury! Let's not drink yet—"

"It's alright." Xiao Duan picked up his wine cup, gently touched it to Jiang Cheng's cup, and drank half of it in one gulp. He then exhaled slowly, "'Jade Chain Hammer' truly lives up to its name. Such fine wine, even if I were to suffer internal injuries and vomit blood, I would still drink three large bowls first!" With that, he finished the remaining half cup in one go.

Jiang Cheng shook his head as he watched: "Xiao Duan, with your temperament..."

Xiao Duan raised his hand to wipe the corner of his lips and smiled faintly: "Brother Jiang, thank you."

"What nonsense are you talking about!" Jiang Cheng took a sip of wine, picked up his chopsticks, took a bite of food, and sighed as he chewed: "You, a young woman, have been handling corpses and chasing criminals all these years. It's been so tough for you..."

Just as Xiao Duan was about to reach for the wine jar, Jiang Cheng had already raised it and filled it for him: "Drink slowly, drinking too fast is bad for your health."

Xiao Duan nodded, picked up his cup, and took another big gulp. Jiang Cheng looked up and sighed, "Xiao Duan, you'll be twenty next year. Putting everything else aside, you need to think about yourself. You're neither a government official nor a member of any gang. This kind of work—solving cases and chasing criminals—is dangerous, not to mention it makes you enemies everywhere. If you run into a big troublemaker in the future, you'll be caught between two sides, and no one will stand up for you then."

Xiao Duan remained calm, took another sip of wine, and said softly, "I know. But I have to support myself. If I don't solve cases, I really don't know what I'm good at."

Jiang Cheng picked up a mouthful of rice, then put a piece of bamboo shoot in his mouth, chewing as he said, "Have you never thought about getting married?"

This time, Xiao Duan genuinely laughed out loud, raising his hand to his forehead, his clear, cold voice gradually becoming hoarse: "Get married? I won't even think about it in this lifetime."

The wide sleeves slid down her forearms, revealing a string of beads on her left wrist. This wasn't the first time Jiang Cheng had seen this bracelet, nor the first time he'd been moved to sigh. The beads were half lustrous white jade, half sandalwood exuding a faint, exotic fragrance. Just like Xiao Duan himself—half elegant and refined like a wealthy young master, half unconventional and free-spirited like a wandering swordsman. Even more unexpected was that such a person was actually a woman.

Jiang Cheng hesitated, finally swallowing the words that were about to slip out. Everyone has a story, a past. Just as Xiao Duan never asked why he was still unmarried in his thirties, he didn't ask Xiao Duan why she disguised herself as a man and traveled between prefectures to earn a living by solving cases. His own past thirty years hadn't been anything earth-shattering, but some memories were still painful. Xiao Duan's past must have been filled with extraordinary hardships and setbacks; otherwise, how could a perfectly good young woman have fallen to the point of disguising herself as a man and catching criminals for a living? Therefore, since Xiao Duan didn't bring it up, he shouldn't ask.