Qian Baogui truly was in trouble—serious trouble.
He had not returned all night. In the morning, he was found sleeping in Piaoxiang Pavilion, with a young girl lying on the ground beside him—body bare, covered in whip marks, her lower half torn apart. She was long dead.
Piaoxiang Pavilion was a brothel in Yuzhou. But the dead girl, Little Yao, was not a courtesan. She was the illegitimate daughter of the prostitute Qingcui, raised in the brothel since childhood, doing odd jobs. She was only thirteen. Qingcui’s only hope in life was that child.
The night before, Qingcui had accompanied a client. Before dawn, she returned to her room but did not see her daughter. She panicked. Quietly, she searched the brothel, but did not find her. She begged the madam to help. Little Yao was a sensible girl, much liked by the madam, who feared that some drunken patron might have abducted her. So she ordered people to go room to room with tea trays, pretending to serve, to check each room. After a long search, one room remained unanswered no matter how they knocked.
In desperation, Qingcui poked a hole in the paper window lattice and saw, inside, a naked girl lying on the floor. She forced the door open and rushed in, scooping her daughter into her arms—only to find her already lifeless. Qingcui collapsed, howling in madness.
The noise woke Qian Baogui, who had been sleeping heavily on the bed. Seeing the scene, he was dumbstruck.
Qingcui cried for someone to report to the authorities. The madam dared not hide a murder. Soon Captain Li arrived with men to investigate.
The case was plain to see: the bloodstained whip lay on the bed; blood was on Qian Baogui’s body; his palms were red and torn—clearly the marks of a pampered scholar unused to exertion, but who had still swung the whip. The room held only the two of them, its doors and windows tightly shut, reeking of alcohol. Questioned, Qian Baogui’s eyes flickered with fear and guilt. Constable Li was no great detective, but with years of experience, he knew at once the killer was before him.
Qian Baogui knew he had caused a huge disaster. Last night he drank too much with Sun Bai and the others. He vaguely remembered that when they were about to leave, he urgently needed to relieve himself, so he told them to go on ahead while he went to the back courtyard. There he ran into a little girl without eyes in her head. She scolded him for pissing everywhere. Qian Baogui instantly became furious—he was the Marquis’s brother-in-law, and yet someone dared to scold him! So he forcibly dragged her back to his room to make her serve him. She refused, and he took up a whip to lash her… Qian Baogui himself didn’t know how it came to that. He only knew the more he lashed, the more excited he became, and the more miserable her cries, the more it thrilled him. Later…
One glance at the girl lying dead with eyes unclosed made Qian Baogui’s heart quiver with fear. But he still had enough sense to know what was serious. Whatever Constable Li asked him, he didn’t answer, only saying he was the Dingxi Marquis’s brother-in-law, insisting they call the Marquis or summon his third sister. If it were some other official’s kin, perhaps, it might be overlooked—but Dingxi Marquis Residence was the lord’s residence of Yuzhou. Constable Li hesitated and dared not act rashly. He had the corpse and the man taken back to the yamen together, and at the same time sent word to Xie Zhang. Roused from sleep and hearing what had happened, Xie Zhang’s face changed at once, and he ordered Constable Li himself to go to the Marquis’s residence.
Qian Jiaoniang and Qian Dafu rushed to the yamen and saw Qian Baogui. He was shut in a side cell, shackles on his wrists. That was already Xie Zhang’s special leniency; otherwise Qian Baogui would have long been thrown into the main prison.
“Baogui, ah—what on earth happened? The official says you’re caught up in a murder case!” Qian Dafu stepped forward, trembling as he looked over his spiritless son. All the way he had been so worried he could barely breathe, afraid something terrible had happened.
“Third Sister, you’re here! Hurry and tell them to take these shackles off me, what bad luck!” Qian Baogui, however, turned toward Qian Jiaoniang.
Before coming, Qian Jiaoniang had carefully asked Constable Li and already understood the rough situation. Her face stern, she asked Qian Baogui: “That little girl—was it truly your doing?”
Qian Baogui’s eyes flickered, but his words were vehement. “It wasn’t me! Sister, you don’t believe me?”
Qian Dafu also said: “Baogui has had a kind heart since he was young, wouldn’t even kill a chicken—how could he kill a person?”
Seeing the guilty look in Qian Baogui’s eyes, Qian Jiaoniang’s heart sank by more than half. She pressed her lips together, said not a word, and walked out.
“Third Sister, Third Sister, where are you going!” Qian Baogui shouted after her.
Qian Dafu quickly tried to soothe his son: “Baogui, don’t panic. Your third sister and the Marquis have both come. The Marquis has already gone to see the prefect himself. You’ll be released soon!”
“Brother-in-law came too?” Qian Baogui was startled and overjoyed. “Wasn’t he away in another place?”
“I heard he only returned yesterday. This morning, as soon as he heard you were in trouble, he came with us together. Ai, how could you get mixed up in this! Just who did you offend…”
Qian Baogui paid no attention to Qian Dafu’s muttering. The anxious pounding in his heart finally settled. His brother-in-law—what kind of person was he? Since even he had come, how could the yamen not release him? Impossible! It seemed this brother-in-law of the Marquis’s really was crucial—enough to stir even him into coming personally.
Qian Jiaoniang left the side cell. XIng Muzheng and Xie Zhang were in the office behind the main hall. She entered directly and asked to see the dead girl. Xie Zhang, fearing the murderous aura would clash with a weak woman, tried to dissuade her, but Qian Jiaoniang was determined. Xing Muzheng and Xie Zhang both nodded, and Xing Muzheng accompanied her into the autopsy room.
The little girl lay naked on the stone bed in the center, her body crisscrossed with savage bloody marks, a sight unbearable to look at. As Qian Jiaoniang listened to Constable Li and the coroner explain, she kept her face dark, staring fixedly at that little extinguished life. She had been only thirteen, her body not yet fully grown, and now she was a drifting ghost, tortured to death. The woman crying her heart out on the yamen steps was her mother… Qian Jiaoniang’s hand clenched into a fist.
When Constable Li learned that Qian Baogui was truly the marquis’s wife’s own younger brother, his expression became extremely ugly. If the marchioness was the empress of Yuzhou City, then her brother was like the emperor’s uncle! If she wanted to protect him, it would be just a matter of a word. Even if Marquis Xing himself felt little regard for his wife’s brother, his affection for his wife was real. This was, after all, a great scandal. For his wife and the honor of the marquisate, he would surely suppress the matter, or find a scapegoat. As for the courtesan, even if she sought redress, there would be no door open to her. That little girl would have died in vain.
“Constable Li, this girl—was it truly Qian Baogui who killed her?” Qian Jiaoniang asked faintly.
It sounded like a question with deeper meaning. The coroner sneaked a glance at Constable Li, thinking the marchioness likely wanted him to find a pretext to excuse her brother.
Constable Li thought the same. He kept silent for a long while. Though incompetent, he had righteousness in his heart. A little girl had died so wretchedly—if he didn’t speak for her, who would? Constable Li knew that if he told the truth, he might lose his position, yet still… After a fierce inner struggle, he spoke firmly: “To tell no lies to Madam, Qian Baogui is under grave suspicion.” He went on in one breath, detailing the investigation he and his men had made. The case was not complicated; he had also found several witnesses who saw Qian Baogui return, cursing, dragging someone upstairs into the room, after which no one else went in.
“Subordinate has not yet formally interrogated Qian Baogui, but nine chances in ten, it was his doing,” Constable Li concluded. The coroner was sweating all over, and secretly jabbed the constable in the waist.
By the latter part, Qian Jiaoniang’s face had gone bloodless. Xing Muzheng supported her and gave Constable Li a single glance. That glance was mild, yet it made Constable Li quake inside. He lowered his head.
Qian Jiaoniang’s scalp tingled. Her own younger brother had actually so inhumanly tormented and killed a thirteen-year-old girl—was he a beast? “Constable Li, if convicted, what does the law prescribe?”
“…By law, execution.”
Qian Jiaoniang’s body stiffened all over. Xing Muzheng pulled her close, his eyes flashing with sternness.
When Qian Jiaoniang returned to the side cell, Qian Baogui and Qian Dafu were anxiously waiting for her news. As soon as they saw her, both stood up. Qian Baogui impatiently asked: “Well, Third Sister? Can I go now?”
Qian Jiaoniang raised her head and coldly looked at this brother of her own blood. Suddenly she seized his collar. “Qian Baogui, I want the truth from you. That little girl—was it you who killed her?”
“It wasn’t me, Third Sister!”
Qian Jiaoniang slapped him across the face. “Still not telling the truth! If you won’t be honest, I’ll leave right now!”
“Jiaoniang! How can you hit your younger brother!” Qian Dafu slapped his own thigh in anxiety, but for some reason was cowed by Qian Jiaoniang’s anger and didn’t dare step forward.
Qian Baogui was completely stunned by the slap. Though born poor, his parents doted on him to the heavens—when had he ever been beaten? His face burned with pain, and he said, aggrieved, “I really don’t know! I only remember lashing her a few times with the whip, then taking her—how could I know she would die! I was drunk too, and just… just fell asleep!”
Qian Jiaoniang’s breathing trembled.
Seeing her expression turn wrong, Qian Baogui hurriedly added, “That wench was a prostitute, the whip belonged to the brothel, it has nothing to do with me! She just had a cheap life!”
