Wealth moved the heart

The little girl shivered so badly from the cold that she could barely get her words out.

Fu Shaoping had her follow him home, then asked Zhou Pan'er to take her into the kitchen to warm up and draw some more information out of her along the way.

After a bowl of ginger tea went down her throat.

Fu Shaoping readied the carriage.

Zhou Pan'er came out of the kitchen bristling with anger. She beckoned Fu Shaoping aside and said quietly:

"I thought she was just a little child, but when I asked, it turned out she was already fourteen. She's as skinny as a bean sprout, not even as tall as a ten-year-old girl. She has plenty of scars on her, too, both old and new. I asked who beat her, but she wouldn't say."

"But."

"She said her mother, Cai Shi, was already five months pregnant. There's no way she would have despaired and thrown herself down a well."

Fu Shaoping nodded slightly.

According to the case file.

Since marrying into the Qiu Household, Cai Shi had borne only one daughter, Qiu Ya'er. Her father had been a Tongsheng, but had died young. Her mother had also been plagued by illness and passed away less than two years later. Cai Shi had lived with her aunt since childhood, toiling like an ox or a horse until she became an old maid. In the end, a bride price of three taels of silver had married her off to Third Master Qiu as his second wife.

Third Master Qiu's previous wife had reportedly died of consumption.

After Cai Shi married into the Qiu Household.

She rose earlier than the chickens, slept later than the dogs, and ate worse than the dogs.

The day after giving birth to Qiu Ya'er, she had gone straight back to working in the fields. Without proper recovery, she had been unable to conceive for years afterward. With no son to lean on and no birth family to support her, she had never been able to hold her head up in the Qiu Household and had been worked like livestock.

Cai Shi had always meekly accepted whatever came her way.

Usually, she would not dare make a sound even when her mother-in-law beat her head bloody. Why would she suddenly have quarreled with the people in the main house?

"Pan'er, did Qiu Ya'er mention any major events in the Qiu Household recently?"

Zhou Pan'er shook her head.

Like her mother, Qiu Ya'er worked day and night. She could not even finish all the household chores, much less find time to notice what was happening in the Qiu Household. Had it not concerned her own mother, she would never have gone looking for anyone in the woodshed in the middle of the night.

"Pan'er, change your clothes and come with me to the Qiu Household."

Fu Shaoping did not bring Qiu Ya'er along.

Judging by what the case file said.

If the Qiu Household learned that Qiu Ya'er had reported the crime, there would be even less room for her in that home.

Snow had fallen.

The carriage traveled more slowly as a result.

They only reached Qiuchang Village two hours later.

Every household in the village had hung up red lanterns, filling the place with festive cheer.

Fu Shaoping asked a passerby for directions. After several turns, the carriage stopped outside a large courtyard. It had three main rooms built of gray brick and roofed with red tiles, with mud-brick rooms on either side, and covered a considerable area.

When they pushed open the courtyard gate and entered.

They found a group of people slaughtering a pig for the New Year!

The neighbors were all bewildered to see a Martial Suppression Guard arrive. The Qiu Household's eldest son was a Tongsheng. Why would a Martial Suppression Guard come to their door?

"The Martial Suppression Guards are conducting official business. Anyone who is not a member of Qiu Changgui's family must leave immediately!"

The Qiu Household really had committed a crime.

The neighbors who had come to help were both excited and frightened.

They promptly dropped their tools and ran into the outer courtyard.

Zhou Pan'er slammed the door shut with a bang!

The Qiu family were frightened by this display as well. They pushed and shoved one another, huddling together, until a man in a long gown stepped forward and cupped his hands toward Fu Shaoping:

"Sir, may I ask what brings you all this way?"

"To investigate a case!"

Fu Shaoping said flatly.

He ordered every member of the Qiu Household to gather in the courtyard.

When he went around to the well in the rear courtyard.

There was no corpse floating inside.

Snow covered the surrounding ground, leaving no visible traces of a crime.

Someone had died in the Qiu Household, yet they acted as though nothing had happened, merrily slaughtering pigs and cooking sheep. Fu Shaoping returned to the front courtyard and swept his gaze over the crowd:

"Is everyone here?"

"Sir, my third younger brother's wife talked back to our mother last night. In a fit of temper, she took my niece Qiu Ya'er back to her birth family overnight. My third younger brother was worried and went looking for them. Aside from those three, everyone is here. Everyone is right here."

As expected of someone who had passed the examination to become a Tongsheng.

His account was reasonably coherent.

Had Qiu Ya'er not fled overnight and reported the crime at the Hundred Households Office, this murder would likely have been left unresolved:

"Come into the room with me."

Tongsheng Qiu was taken into a separate room.

A little while later.

Fu Shaoping came out and took the Second Son of the Qiu Household into another room.

He repeated this several times.

Apart from the minors.

The members of the Qiu Household were taken into different rooms one by one.

Fu Shaoping went straight into the room holding the Second Son of the Qiu Household's Wife. None of them were martial artists, nor had they ever witnessed anything like this. Fu Shaoping merely sat there, and her teeth were already chattering.

Among everyone in the Qiu Household.

Her reaction was the strongest.

A little while later.

Zhou Pan'er pushed open the door and entered:

"Sir, someone has identified Cai Shi's killer!"

As soon as she said this.

The Second Son of the Qiu Household's Wife turned deathly pale.

She collapsed onto the floor.

Fu Shaoping narrowed his eyes slightly.

Sure enough, the Second Son of the Qiu Household's Wife had killed Cai Shi.

Fu Shaoping said coldly:

"Now that things have come to this, what do you have to say?"

She had pushed her, yes.

But I never meant to kill Third Younger Brother's Wife!

Yes, yes, that's right.

I didn't kill her!

As Kuihua, the Second Son of the Qiu Household's Wife, thought of this.

It was as though she had grasped a lifeline.

She hurried to defend herself:

"Sir, sir, I-I'm innocent! It was that bitch Zhou Shi, my eldest sister-in-law, who told me to do it. She said we would only frighten Third Younger Brother's Wife. When I wanted to pull her out, that bitch Zhou Shi flatly refused and did everything she could to stop me. That's why Third Younger Brother's Wife drowned in the well. Zhou Shi is the murderer! That bitch Zhou Shi!"

"Zhou Shi is a Tongsheng's wife. Why would she ruin her husband's bright future by inciting you to murder?"

"Because of silver, of course!"

"Sir, Eldest Brother is about to leave for the examinations, but the family simply couldn't scrape together the money. That bitch Zhou Shi wouldn't accept it, so she came up with a wicked scheme. She actually wanted to sell Ya'er to the dead son of Landowner Li's Household for fifty taels of silver, to be buried alive with him in a ghost marriage!"

"When Third Younger Brother's Wife found out, naturally she refused. She had a huge argument with her and said that unless she died, no one was going to lay their filthy schemes on Ya'er."

"At the time, I thought it was far too vicious. How could anyone bury a girl in the prime of her life with a dead man, especially her own niece? If-if that bitch Zhou Shi hadn't promised me half the silver, I would never have agreed to help her frighten Third Younger Brother's Wife!"

"Sir, heaven and earth bear witness to my conscience. I really only meant to push her down, then pull her out once she'd learned to be afraid. It was that bitch Zhou Shi who wouldn't let me pull her out!"

"Zhou Shi killed her, not me! Sir, I didn't kill anyone! Sir!"

She had confessed without even being pressed.

Fu Shaoping asked a few more questions.

After Zhou Shi and the second son's wife drowned her, they thought no one had noticed. That night, they dragged her to the mass burial ground to feed the wild dogs. When they got up the next day, the two echoed each other's story, claiming that Cai Shi had taken Qiu Ya'er back to her birth family.