"Jun" meant a fine horse. The three characters in Ghost Horse Chart instantly drew everyone's thoughts back to Su Manor, to the painting in that study.
"Madam Su mentioned that late at night, Master Su heard the sound of horse hooves." Ding Zhenzong looked at everyone with a strange expression. His voice sounded muffled, as though wrapped in cotton.
A study full of horse paintings, Master Su's bizarre behavior, the hoofbeats in the dead of night, the disguised Japanese, and this Ghost Horse Chart... All of it was like a massive whirlpool, waiting to swallow them whole.
A moment later, Yuan Shanyuan spoke slowly. "That Master Su isn't surnamed Su. Also, Madam Su is Japanese, too. She's in cahoots with the Japanese in the manor."
At that, the fat man furrowed his brows. He couldn't understand how the old gentleman had figured it out.
Madam Su spoke fluent Chinese with a strong local accent, and he remembered the sign outside the manor bearing the words "Su Manor."
"Mr. Yuan is right." Lin Qianqian dropped her earlier coquettish manner, her expression serious. "There are calluses on the web of Madam Su's right hand and the middle of her index finger. Would a wealthy lady from a family like hers do manual labor?"
He Ping, who had worked as a bodyguard in a war zone, nodded at that. His voice was low and hoarse. "Calluses on the web of the hand and both sides of the index finger are left by years of holding a gun."
After speaking, He Ping held out his hand, palm up, for everyone to see. His palm was extremely rough, with thin, pale-yellow calluses on the web of his hand and both sides of his index finger.
"From what we know so far, the Japanese have been