A Fierce Flurry of Moves

Head Constable Wang sat in the seat of honor, his face dark as he said nothing.

These past few days, the first thing County Magistrate Zhu did upon getting up was ask about the progress of the case. When Head Constable Wang had nothing useful to report, the magistrate showered him with fragrant words.

He, the head constable, had borne all the pressure. His subordinates sheltered beneath him like an umbrella against the wind and rain, yet instead of helping him shoulder his troubles, they even argued with him!

Head Constable Wang had reason to be angry. He believed he was under more pressure than someone his age should have to bear.

Xu Qi'an sat at the table with the case file, studying it intently. His colleagues stood in a circle around him, silently exchanging glances.

Xu Qi'an had given the matter considerable thought. The best way to placate Old Wang was to solve the case.

If that really didn't work, he could take Old Wang to the Peach Blossom Spring Grotto for some fun. They had known each other for so many years; their little boat of friendship was still steady.

Besides, Xu Qi'an opposed slacking off not just because his values wouldn't permit it. He also wanted to help Old Wang shoulder his troubles.

[The deceased, Zhang Yourui, was fifty-one years old. He was a filthy rich bastard who lived on Kangping Street, owned over a dozen qing of fertile farmland on the outskirts of Changle County, and had three shops in the capital selling silk, rouge, and general goods, respectively.

His first wife had died young, and he had remarried a woman from a respectable family who was twenty years his junior. Zhang Yourui had one son, born to his late wife, and no other children.]

Twenty years apart. Xu Qi'an couldn't help remarking on it inwardly.

Was this what they meant when they said that as long as you worked hard to make money, your future wife was still in kindergarten?

[Four days ago, Zhang Yourui went to the countryside to collect rent and returned home around the hour of the tiger. His wife, who was fast asleep in their room, suddenly heard a scream. She went out to investigate and found Zhang Yourui already dead in the courtyard. She saw a dark figure vault over the wall and leave.]

That was how it had happened.

When Xu Qi'an read the coroner's report, he noticed another suspicious point.

He patiently continued reading. After going through the statements of the deceased's family and servants, he closed his eyes and sorted through his thoughts.

Head Constable Wang snorted and said mockingly, "Might I ask, Constable Xu, who is the killer, and where are they?"

"Don't rush, boss." Xu Qi'an opened his eyes. "The file says there was a footprint on the outside wall of the Zhang residence, right? You used that to conclude that the intruder fled over the wall, so what the young wife said was true."

Head Constable Wang grunted in assent.

"The footprint pointed outward, so it was left when the intruder escaped," Xu Qi'an said.

"What's the problem?" Head Constable Wang frowned.

"Why was there a footprint?"

"Because there was mud on the sole of the intruder's boot."

"Why was there mud?"

"Because there's a flower bed beside the wall."

Xu Qi'an nodded. "Then why doesn't the file mention any footprints from when the intruder entered the courtyard?"

Head Constable Wang froze.

In the silence, the other constables felt he had lost face and offered an explanation for him. "Perhaps the intruder noticed the flower bed on the way in and didn't leave any traces."

Another said, "But after the murder, the intruder was in a hurry to escape and left a footprint in the rush."

Xu Qi'an glanced at them. "That's possible. But since there's a flower bed beneath the wall, were there any footprints in it from when the intruder snuck in? Logically, if the intruder could leap from outside the wall and clear the flower bed without leaving footprints, with that level of qinggong, there would have been no need to plant a foot on the wall for leverage when escaping."

They looked at one another, unable to answer.

Xu Qi'an didn't need them to answer. He already knew it wasn't "yes" or "no," but that they didn't know.

The constables hadn't checked.

"Ningyan, what's there to argue about?" someone said, unconvinced.

Xu Qi'an didn't answer. He looked at Head Constable Wang, who was frowning in thought, and continued, "The deceased died from a heavy blow to the back of the head with a blunt object, right?"

Head Constable Wang nodded. "He died on the spot."

"I have a question," Xu Qi'an said. "Why a blunt object? Someone doing that sort of thing would naturally have a weapon on them. Wouldn't a saber or sword have been a quicker, cleaner way to kill him?"

The side hall fell silent for a moment. Everyone had clearly realized the problem. Little Li ventured, "Perhaps the intruder didn't intend to kill anyone at first?"

"That's not right!"

This time it wasn't Xu Qi'an who objected, but Head Constable Wang. He stood up, his eyes widening slightly. "A single blow to the back of the head with a blunt object killed him. The killer meant to kill."

He sat back down and murmured, "That's right. Why use a blunt object? Why not a blade?"

"Unless the killer didn't have a weapon handy at the time," Xu Qi'an said.

Head Constable Wang's eyes suddenly lit up, as though he had grasped something, though he hadn't quite worked it out.

"There's one last point, and it's the one that concerns me most." Xu Qi'an glanced at the file. "When the deceased's family was brought back to the county office for questioning, Lady Yang of the Zhang Household suddenly fainted after kneeling for a long time. A physician examined her and found she was pregnant."

"It's a posthumous child."

"How pitiful. The child lost its father before it was even born."

The melon-eating crowd was annoying, each person butting in with a comment.

"Lady Yang of the Zhang Household had been married to the deceased for nearly ten years, hadn't she? Why did she happen to get pregnant now of all times?" Xu Qi'an only got a chance to speak after they finished.

"Maybe the child wasn't the deceased's at all?"

If a man and woman were both healthy and normal, they couldn't go ten years without having a child unless they deliberately avoided it.

One of them was bound to have a physical problem, which made it difficult to conceive. And given ancient techniques for treating infertility, although success wasn't entirely impossible, the chances were certainly low.

Head Constable Wang's breathing suddenly grew heavy. "Ningyan, explain yourself. Explain yourself!"

Xu Qi'an took a sip of tea to moisten his throat. "Maybe this wasn't a burglary, but a murder over an affair. Lady Yang of the Zhang Household was seeing a man behind her husband's back. Her lover was either a man from outside the household or the deceased's son. While the deceased was away collecting rent, the two met in secret. Who would have thought the deceased would return early and catch them in the act? A conflict broke out, and in a fit of anger, the lover grabbed a vase or some other blunt object and beat the deceased to death."

"Lady Yang of the Zhang Household and her lover hastily dealt with the scene, then dragged the deceased into the courtyard to make it look like a burglar had broken in."

"Since the lover was coming for a tryst, he scouted the place beforehand and learned the night patrol's routine. That's how he avoided running into the Imperial Saber Guard soldiers. If the intruder really had been after money, they would never have chosen that night to strike. They would have waited until the deceased exchanged the rent silver for banknotes, which could be slipped into a pocket and carried away."

"Lady Yang of the Zhang Household used the rent collection to her advantage in her account, steering your thoughts toward the idea that the intruder was after money."

The constables filling the room were dumbstruck.

"Y-you could tell who the killer was just from reading the file?"

"Ningyan, this is no joking matter. Don't talk nonsense."

"But doesn't it make a lot of sense?"

Xu Qi'an's performance left them with one impression: they didn't understand it, but it seemed amazing.

"I'm only making a bold guess based on the details of the case. It might not be the truth; we need to verify it," Xu Qi'an said to his astonished colleagues.

Solving a case meant gathering clues, reasoning and analyzing them, then verifying the conclusions and gathering evidence.

The timing of an intruder slipping past the night patrol to commit a burglary was wrong. A blunt object had been used to kill instead of a blade. Lady Yang of the Zhang Household was pregnant. After Xu Qi'an considered them, these seemingly insignificant details came together into a logical chain of clues.

Head Constable Wang felt that a whole new door had opened in his career. He took a deep breath and calmed his surging emotions. After mulling it over, he found one thing in Xu Qi'an's words that puzzled him. "Why do you think the lover was the deceased's son?"

"I have two reasons to suspect him." Xu Qi'an leisurely took a sip of tea, then, under Head Constable Wang's and his colleagues' eager gazes, slowly said:

"The deceased's son, Zhang Xian, said in his statement that he was looking over the accounts in his study that night and wasn't sleeping with his wife. Since he was awake, how could he not have heard the commotion in the courtyard?"

"Lady Yang of the Zhang Household was awakened by the scream, which shows how loud the commotion was. Yet he was awake and didn't hear a thing. Does that make sense?"

"Second, if we can't find any traces in the flower bed from when the intruder snuck in, then this supposed intruder very likely never existed. On that basis, the deceased's son is highly suspect."

It was like having enlightenment poured over their heads.

Head Constable Wang asked, "So the footprint on the wall was very likely left there deliberately to mislead us?"

"Yes," Xu Qi'an ventured. "Oh, right, just compare it with the deceased's son's boots."

"Surely he wouldn't have left his own footprint," Head Constable Wang said.

Xu Qi'an put on a face full of admiration and sent a rainbow fart his way. "Boss, you truly are wise and mighty, grasping it as soon as it's pointed out. A divine constable of Great Feng indeed."

Xu Qi'an had just delivered a lengthy speech full of startling insights and established his image, only to turn around and bootlick from every angle through three hundred and fifty degrees. It felt wonderful. A smile bloomed on Head Constable Wang's swarthy, old-farmer-like face.

He felt his own image had risen considerably too.

"I'll go see Lord Zhu at once. You lot, get ready and come with me to the Zhang residence again." An expression of barely contained excitement appeared on Head Constable Wang's swarthy, old-farmer-like face.

He pointed a finger at Xu Qi'an, let out two chuckles like a tractor, and rushed out of the break room to find the county magistrate in the rear hall.

P.S. Thanks to the four big shots "Little Dolphin's Ling Xiaochen," "Big Brother, Carry Me," "Xipi Right," and "Li Peiyun" for the tips.

I'll keep a note of them for now, including all the alliance leader rewards. Once the book goes premium, I'll pay them all back together.