In the center of the room stood a plaque inscribed with "Tomb of My Late Wife, Xu Ying." The incense sticks in the burner before it had not even burned out, showing that they had been placed there not long ago. Every part of the room seemed to proclaim its master's care and affection for the deceased.
Pei Qing whispered in Lou Yun's ear, "Judging by this room alone, you would never think Lin Bian was the mastermind behind the human trafficking."
Indeed, his first wife had been dead for so long, yet he still preserved her belongings so well. It was hard to see him as someone who harmed women. But so what? Was the world short of beasts in fine clothes like Lin Bian?
Lou Yun and Pei Qing split up to search the room. There were very few traces of anyone living there, and not even any mechanisms worth mentioning.
The bed, the wardrobe-they searched everywhere they could, even checking for hidden chambers and secret passages, but found not so much as a trace.
"Could Lin Bian simply have cherished Lady Xu so deeply that he took such care of this room?" Pei Qing asked doubtfully.
Lou Yun shook her head. She kept feeling that could not be right. "Is Lin Shuo normally allowed into this room?"
"No."
Even if he cherished his late wife, was it not going a little too far to bar even her child, Lin Shuo, from entering?
Lou Yun scanned the entire room again, finally resting her gaze on the plaque in its center.
Following her gaze, Pei Qing asked, "You think..."
Lou Yun made a couple of measuring gestures over the tabletop holding the plaque. Pei Qing watched her movements closely.
Suddenly, they spoke in unison:
Pei Qing: "Why is this plaque raised so high?"
Lou Yun: "This plaque sits a good deal higher than an ordinary one."
"It looks like the problem lies with this plaque." As Lou Yun spoke, she reached out to examine it, only for another hand to stop hers.
"Let me." Pei Qing stepped in front of Lou Yun, leaving no room for refusal.
Seeing the young man's serious expression, Lou Yun felt warmth in her heart. She did not insist, obediently stepping back a little, though she remained poised to protect him.
She would not stop Pei Qing from protecting her, but she did not want him to fall into danger either.
"Forgive the offense," the young man said, then reached out to move it. He shifted it up and down, but nothing around it reacted.
Even after he took the plaque down, nothing unusual happened. Had they been wrong again?
As Pei Qing thought this, he caught sight of the agate on the latticework beneath the plaque.
He touched the green agate and pressed it gently inward. The lattice, which he had thought was merely a pattern on the surface, instantly began moving.
Lou Yun said, "Mechanical arts?"
"It looks a little more troublesome than that secret passage in Li An's residence." Pei Qing studied the shifting patterns, tapping up and down with his fingertips as he worked it out.
After his hands stopped, he inexplicably added, "Still, even so, I'm not certain I can open it successfully."
He then pressed several of the patterns. The outermost layer slid aside, revealing two wooden rods, one red and one blue.
Lou Yun had been watching the young man undo the mechanism with admiration. Before she could marvel at how Pei Qing really was proficient in everything, he turned a helpless gaze toward her.
"Hmm?"
Pei Qing said helplessly, "Choose one of the two."
"There's no trick to it?" Lou Yun asked uncertainly. With such a complicated outer mechanism, was the inside really so plain and unadorned?
"It's entirely down to luck." Pei Qing extinguished the last sliver of hope in Lou Yun's heart.
Pei Qing: "Blue?"
Lou Yun: "Red?"
Again, they spoke in unison. "Why don't you choose?"
In the end, Lou Yun delivered the final verdict. "Blue."
The instant the blue rod fell, three arrows shot out. In a flash, Lou Yun wrapped an arm around the young man's waist and retreated, dodging the hidden weapons.
When they looked back, the cabinet had returned to its original state.
Pei Qing opened the first layer again using the same method, but the red and blue rods did not pop out this time.
"Why is that?" Lou Yun asked.
"This kind of mechanism has three layers in total. Each layer gives you a choice. Choose correctly, and it opens straightaway. If you choose wrong all three times, the mechanism box locks completely, and only someone with a specially made key can open it," Pei Qing explained.
He quickly opened the second layer.
This time, there was one green rod and one yellow.
"You choose. My luck is bad," Pei Qing said. Lou Yun had chosen the color he had originally wanted, and the result spoke for itself.
...Suddenly feeling a heavy burden settle onto her shoulders, Lou Yun grew a little nervous. In truth, she was not particularly lucky either. With something like this, which had nothing to do with ability and depended solely on luck, even she could muster little confidence.
She pushed down the yellow rod. Sure enough, a cloud of white smoke sprayed out.
This time, Pei Qing was the one who moved quickly. Without a thought, he grabbed Lou Yun and performed an entire acupuncture sequence on her.
Lou Yun, who had suddenly become a sparsely spined hedgehog, said, "What?"
"To keep the poisonous gas from attacking
your lungs and organs, I'm blocking it off first," Pei Qing said righteously.
That was all very well, but she felt as though she had lost all sensation below her neck. What would they do if something unexpected happened on the third attempt?
And so the two of them arrived at the "eagerly anticipated" third attempt.
When two wooden rods, one black and one white, appeared before them again, they truly felt rather hopeless.
"Rock, paper, scissors. You're white, I'm black. We push whichever belongs to the winner." Lou Yun quickly settled on a plan.
"All right." The young man agreed readily, but waited and waited without Lou Yun making a move.
He looked up in confusion and discovered that only the head and neck of the person before him could move. Silently, he removed the needles.
Pei Qing: rock.
Lou Yun: scissors.
Holding his breath, Pei Qing pushed over the white rod. The compartment slowly opened, revealing a blue booklet inside.
Both of them breathed a sigh of relief. If that had failed too, they really would have had to hold a sword to Lin Bian's neck and demand the key.
Chapter 31
Meanwhile, over on A Zi's side.
A Zi had the same idea as Lou Yun and Pei Qing. While leaving Lin Bian and his son waiting in vain, he slipped into the Pleasant Breeze Courtyard to look for Cui Hao's little box.
Lin Bian and Lin Shuo waited in the Pleasant Breeze Courtyard for a long time without anyone coming. Finally, they could not help summoning Cui Hao.
Lin Shuo said, "Cui Hao, didn't you say Boss A Zi came here today? Huh?! Where is he? We've waited so long. Where is he?!"
Cui Hao dropped to her knees with a thud and wailed, "I don't know either, young master! At noon, Cui Niang really did see Boss A Zi come in! I even brought Boss A Zi some food then. Later, Boss A Zi said he was going out to relieve himself, but who knew he would never come back after that! Boo-hoo-"
Cui Hao lay prostrate on the floor, pretending to wipe her tears with her sleeve while secretly peering through the gap to watch Lin Bian's expression as he sat in the seat of honor.
Lin Bian sipped his tea, his expression betraying neither pleasure nor anger, and glanced at Lin Shuo. Lin Shuo instantly understood his meaning. He raised a foot and kicked Cui Hao away, cursing, "Then hurry up and look! Can a grown man just disappear from the Pleasant Breeze Courtyard?"
"Yes, yes." Cui Hao hastily crawled backward on her knees. The moment she was outside, she shouted at the hired thugs by the door, "What are you staring at? Didn't you hear? Hurry up and find him!"
What Cui Hao had not expected was that this search would turn up trouble. When they truly could not find him, she stood at the door, bracing herself to report it. Just then, the attendant who always followed her came stumbling over and whispered a few words in her ear. Cui Hao's body instantly went limp.
"It's over. It's all over." Cui Hao slid down the wall, the attendant beside her repeatedly trying to help her up.
"No, no." Trembling, Cui Hao stood up and waved her hands, about to flee, when the door behind her flew open like the gates of the underworld.
Lin Bian stood behind the door, looking down at Cui Hao from above. "What's no good?" he asked coldly.
"Master, I was wrong! Master, please spare my life!" Cui Hao still did not dare say what had happened. She banged her head against the floor, hoping the rakshasa before her would let her go.
Lin Bian gave Lin Shuo a look. Lin Shuo immediately stepped forward, grabbed Cui Hao by the hair, and slapped her face back and forth. "You dog of a servant! I'm asking you what happened!"
Beaten black and blue, Cui Hao lay limply on the floor and said timidly, "The register holding the girls' contracts of sale is gone."
"What?!" Furious, Lin Shuo kicked Cui Hao in the face again, sending her sprawling with all four limbs in the air. Still unsatisfied, he went up and kicked her several more times.
"You bitch! Do you know how important that thing is? How dare you say it's gone? Gone! What does our Lin family keep you for?"
Unlike the furious Lin Shuo, Lin Bian realized almost immediately that something was wrong. He roared at his son, who knew only how to vent his anger on others, "Idiot! We've fallen into a trap! Hurry back to the residence!"
"Yes." After being scolded by his father, Lin Shuo did not dare talk back. He meekly followed on Lin Bian's heels as they rushed all the way home.
Meanwhile, having already obtained what he wanted, A Zi climbed into the Lin residence with the ease of someone who had done it before and found Pei Qing's quarters. As it happened, Lou Yun and Pei Qing had just returned through the window as well.
The three came face-to-face at the little window, which could admit only one person at a time.
A Zi said, "What a coincidence. After you."
With the bearing of a true gentlewoman, Lou Yun protectively ushered Pei Qing in first. Watching silently from behind, A Zi kept feeling that something about the scene before him was a little off, though he could not quite put it into words. He shook his head. Forget it, he was probably overthinking things. Shaking the strange thoughts out of his head, he followed the other two inside.
Pei Qing, who had entered first, moved extremely quickly. In moments, he had laid out brush, ink, paper, and inkstone on the table and explained, "I need to write to His Majesty."
As he spoke, he took a bone flute from inside his robes. A pendant hanging from its end glittered brilliantly in the light.
Pei Qing tossed it to A Zi and instructed him, "I saw Xiao Jin nearby a few days ago. Help me call Xiao Jin over."
"All right."