Tracing the Clues

Chu Ming watched the stall owner's retreating figure, his brows drawing together slightly.

He felt that something was off.

Before long, the Teahouse Owner brought over freshly brewed tea. "Please enjoy, honored guest."

Chu Ming answered casually, his gaze falling on the tea.

Under [Sword Gourd Spiritual Sense], he could see everything clearly: the grime in the water, the veins in the tea leaves, even the worn marks at the bottom of the cup.

"Um..." The Teahouse Owner didn't leave. He stood before the little wooden table, watching him with a beaming smile.

"Is something else the matter?"

The Teahouse Owner bent even lower. The wrinkles on his face piled up in layers as he smiled, making him look rather unnerving. "The cost of the tea."

"How much?"

"Three coins for old tea, five for new tea."

Chu Ming reached into his robes, then deliberately froze.

He slowly pulled his hand out, a flicker of embarrassment crossing his face.

"I'll pay you when I'm done."

"Young master..." The Teahouse Owner seemed to have noticed something. His smile faded considerably. "This is a small business..."

"I said I'll pay you when I'm done." Chu Ming raised his eyes, revealing a clear, guileless gaze.

The Teahouse Owner hesitated, but in the end he sighed and left.

Chu Ming stared at the tea on the table and activated [Sword Gourd Spiritual Sense] again.

"Tea stains, tea leaves, broken leaves... Could I have been mistaken?"

There was no sign of anything poisonous in the tea, and the leaves were fresh. Nothing seemed amiss.

He gently swirled the cup, stirring the tea, but still detected no abnormal microscopic substances.

After a pause, Chu Ming set the cup down and glanced, seemingly without intent, toward Wheat Valley Alley.

He needed to watch what was happening inside Wheat Valley Alley before deciding what to do next.

At dusk, Chief Constable Hou would go home for dinner. That would be his chance.

After waiting for over half an hour, more and more passersby took seats at the tea stall to buy tea and quench their thirst.

As the sun sank toward the horizon, Chu Ming still hadn't seen Chief Constable Hou or Steward Fang. Instead, three men dressed in Flying Fish Robes arrived at the tea stall.

The Criminal Defense Division of Baiyuan County!

He recognized the three men at a glance. Considering what Hou Wuchun had told him, they were very likely the ones threatening Chief Constable Hou and Steward Fang.

"Ah, sirs, you're early today." The Teahouse Owner hurriedly brought over three cups of tea.

"Did anyone tell you to serve new tea?" one of them demanded, knocking over the little wooden table.

"My lord doesn't drink new tea. You didn't know that?" Another man kicked the rolling cups aside and spoke coldly.

The Teahouse Owner hunched his back and apologized repeatedly. "Yes, yes. This old man's getting on in years; my memory's failing. I got it wrong, got it wrong. Please, sirs, sit over here. I'll brew some more tea."

The commotion wasn't especially loud, but nearly every stall nearby could hear it.

All eyes turned toward them, and pedestrians on the road stopped to watch as well.

Chu Ming's expression remained unchanged, but a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

Those three were doing it on purpose.

"Chief Constable Hou and Steward Fang are hiding near Wheat Valley Alley, lying in wait for the culprit. Yet these men from the Criminal Defense Division are wearing Flying Fish Robes and brazenly sitting down for tea near the alley. They're even picking a fight and bullying the Teahouse Owner, making a scene."

"If the culprit is nearby, he definitely won't come back now."

"In other words, Chief Constable Hou and Steward Fang are wasting their time."

Though he saw what the three men from the Criminal Defense Division were up to, he didn't act rashly. He simply stayed where he was.

Fewer and fewer pedestrians passed by. The mottled shadows of the houses stretched longer and longer, until they covered the entire street.

"Let's go." Shao Pengshu flicked out his Flying Fish Robe and rose, one hand resting on his saber.

"My lord, the ladies at Fragrant Pavilion have already been arranged for," Zhang Yi said, bowing.

The three men swept the area with cold gazes, and the Teahouse Owner immediately shrank back in fright.

Only after they had left did the Teahouse Owner emerge, still shaken, and start cleaning up the mess.

"Grandpa, let me help."

At that moment, a little girl in hemp clothes, her face smeared with dirt, crawled out from beneath the table where the Teahouse Owner had been brewing tea.

"No need. Grandpa can manage." The Teahouse Owner moved briskly, and before long he had put away all the tables, stools, and cups the men from the Criminal Defense Division had kicked over.

The little girl blinked and walked toward Chu Ming. "Big brother, it's dark. Aren't you going home?"

The Teahouse Owner came over. Seeing the untouched tea on the table, now completely cold, he drew the girl behind him. "Young master, I'm closing up. You see..."

Chu Ming looked into the girl's bright eyes, and that embarrassed expression flickered across his face again. "Old man..."

But before he could finish, the Teahouse Owner said, "The tea wasn't good, so I won't charge you, young master. We live quite far away, so we need to pack up now."

Chu Ming paused, smiled at the girl, then left on his own.

If the Teahouse Owner was up to something, then by deliberately not drinking the tea, refusing to pay, and pretending that he himself was up to no good, Chu Ming should have aroused the man's suspicion.

Once suspicious, the other party would act—and might let something slip.

"What a strange big brother." The little girl picked up Chu Ming's teacup and leaned her rosy face close to it to sniff. Then she looked at the Teahouse Owner. "Grandpa, that big brother's a scholar."

A faint glimmer shifted in the Teahouse Owner's eyes as he bent to gather the tables and stools.

Chu Ming left the tea stall and crossed to the other side of the street by the alley entrance, his expression grave.

"Wheat Valley Alley, murder cases, the Catching Yamen, the Criminal Defense Division..."

He reached the end of the street and used the night to conceal himself in the shadows.

"Alley entrance, tea stall, the Criminal Defense Division, an old Teahouse Owner, a little girl..."

His brows gradually furrowed.

"What am I missing?"

"There was nothing wrong with the tea." He recalled everything he had seen from the moment he sat down at the tea stall until he left.

As he pondered, the Teahouse Owner finished packing up and walked down the street with the little girl, apparently heading home.

Hidden in the shadows, Chu Ming's gaze suddenly sharpened.

Just now, he had caught the Teahouse Owner sneaking a glance toward Wheat Valley Alley.

"So there is something wrong."

After a string of murders in Wheat Valley Alley, an ordinary person walking past the entrance would keep to the side of the street farthest from it. Yet the Teahouse Owner was walking down the middle of the street with a little girl, as if he weren't afraid at all.

"Grandpa, I'm scared." The little girl clutched the Teahouse Owner's trouser leg, her childish voice ringing out in the nearly deserted street.

Several figures burst out of Wheat Valley Alley at high speed.

"Damn it, another day wasted," one of them grumbled.

"Let's hurry. I'm starving. If Chief Constable Hou sees us coming out of the alley, we'll get chewed out again."

"Old Yuan, you're on night patrol tonight too?"

"Yeah. No one's keeping tabs on me, and I can earn a little extra money by patrolling at night."

"Heh."

The three constables had barely emerged from the alley when they spotted the Teahouse Owner and the little girl standing frozen in the middle of the street.

"What time is it, and there are still people out here?" one constable muttered.

They were lying in wait in Wheat Valley Alley, and no outsiders were allowed to know about it. They weren't supposed to enter or leave through the alley entrance.

"Old man, you didn't see or hear anything. Understand?" another constable threatened, stepping forward.

The Teahouse Owner nodded. "Don't worry, constable. Don't worry."

As he spoke, he pulled the little girl along and hurried away, his steps a little unsteady.

"Heh, that's more like it. An old geezer and a little brat. If they dare run their mouths, we'll make sure they can't stay in Willow Town."

They might only be low-ranking constables from the Catching Yamen, but to ordinary people, they were still men of authority you didn't want to cross.

"All right, I'm really hungry. My wife's waiting for me at home."

"I'm hungry too. There's plenty of good food on South Street. I'll head off first."

"You're really hungry, all right." The constable named Old Yuan chuckled. "Let's make it quick. Don't be late—we still have to keep watch tonight."

South Street, also known as Old Flower Street... A place to seek out old flowers and ask after withered willows.

"Relax. You know what I can do."