Chapter 39

Old man Zhang Yan Gong raised his cup alone, drained it, and refilled it with his own hands. He then got straight to the point.

"Well, I could tell from your eyes that you weren't just going to give up and leave. You've had a sick daughter for a long time, your husband does hard labor, and you yourself are quite a beauty with a mole on your left cheek... Is that right?"

"Yes, yes, that's right! How did you know?"

Before Zhang Jian could answer, Jin Yuanshang stepped forward. Zhang Jian, who had intended to calm him down a bit, remained silent, considering his feelings. It turned out that Jin Yuanshang was the one who had come all the way from the distant Central Plains to find his old lover.

"Hmm... That's quite a story. I do know a woman who fits your description. Of course, there are many families where the daughter is sick and the husband does hard labor. Life is tough for everyone here."

Zhang Yan Gong brought the cup to his lips and continued.

"But... I have a feeling it's that woman you're looking for."

Jin Yuanshang moved closer to the old man.

"Sir, Xiao Xiao has been my friend since my earliest memories. Although I haven't heard from her in the past ten years except through letters, she is still my most precious friend. Please, please tell me where she is."

Zhang Yan Gong, who had been sipping his drink, frowned at Jin Yuanshang's plea.

"Who said I wouldn't tell you? I was just... wondering if you could handle it."

"Handle it? What do you mean?"

The old man's face, as he set down his cup, was filled with profound weariness. Zhang Jian, seeing this, felt a sense of foreboding.

Zhang Yan Gong, still seated, looked up at Jin Yuanshang and then averted his gaze.

"Xiao Xiao. Yes, I heard that was her name before she got married. Here, she was known as Ye Songyan."

"Ye, Ye Songyan? Ye Songyan... Yes, Songyan. I'll have to remember that."

"···There's no need to remember."

"Excuse me?"

Ye Songyan. Zhang Jian raised his right hand to cover his eyes without realizing it. He had heard this name only once recently, but it was etched in his memory. The old man, unable to look Jin Yuanshang in the eye, continued.

"Ye Songyan is dead. She was hanged for poisoning her husband."

Jin Yuanshang's expression turned blank. No, it was more accurate to say that his face was devoid of any expression. It was as if all emotion had drained from his face, leaving it like a bronze statue.

"···Wait, wait. What makes you so sure the woman we're looking for is this Ye Songyan? Could you be mistaken? Just because a woman died a few days ago, it doesn't mean she's the one we're looking for."

Zhang Jian, who had been listening with his eyes covered, interjected. Indeed, they had been searching for Yang Xiaoxiao based on limited clues. It was too simple to confirm her identity based solely on her family background and vague appearance. Jin Yuanshang, hearing Zhang Jian's words, seemed to think along the same lines and his expression brightened.

Zhang Yan Gong, seeing their expressions, looked even more bitter. He refilled his empty cup and said,

"I'm sixty this year. At this age, you can see the general shape of people's lives. Life is cruel. But if you need more concrete evidence... her husband's name was Jin Guyang, right?"

Zhang Jian turned to Jin Yuanshang. He had only mentioned that Yang Xiaoxiao's husband did hard labor, not his name. Zhang Jian thought he didn't know the man's name.

But Jin Yuanshang's face was turning pale again, as if to show that this was a mistaken assumption.

"I don't know his name, but... he was a man with the surname Jin..."

"There's more. The hanging was last week. She had no relatives or close friends... and with her husband dead by her own hand, there was no one to give her a proper funeral. She's still at the undertaker's. If you want to see her, go and check. If it's not her, come back and curse me for being a fool. Then I'll mobilize all my workers to help you find her."

Jin Yuanshang, trembling at the old man's words, turned to Zhang Jian.

"Zhang Wuren, do you know where the undertaker is in this town?"

Zhang Jian looked at Jin Yuanshang for a moment, then led the way out of the teahouse, turning his head to the old man and saying briefly,

"I'll be back."

Zhang Yan Gong nodded and raised his cup again. As Zhang Jian and Jin Yuanshang hurried out of the teahouse, he slowly sipped his drink, feeling the heat from the furnace. Swallowing the drink, he muttered,

"Life is cruel, cruel..."

* * *

Yang Gouzi, who made a living as an undertaker in Yanhuo City, was about to go to bed early that night.

Although he lived alone, he didn't feel lonely at night. He had always preferred solitude and found the silence comforting. Thanks to this, he found the presence of lifeless bodies, who never spoke or moved, more comforting than living people.

Therefore, he hated it when people came to his place unexpectedly in the evening or at night. He had few close friends, so there were rarely late visitors, and if a merchant came to sell something, he would chase them away with a club.

However, he wasn't heartless enough to scold someone who was kneeling and sobbing over a dead body.

"···I knew she had no relatives or friends to give her a proper funeral. No one to make a tombstone for her. I was planning to bury her tomorrow."

He said this to the man leaning against the door, not the one sobbing on the floor. At least the man leaning against the door looked bitter but not overwhelmingly sad.

However, the man, Zhang Jian, didn't speak. Seeing Jin Yuanshang start to cry after confirming the body, his mouth felt dry. He couldn't speak.

Yang Xiaoxiao, also known as Ye Songyan, lay lifeless with a deep bruise around her neck. Despite the cold floor and the chill in the air, her body, which had been lying there for nearly a week, still retained a semblance of her living appearance.

She had been a beautiful woman, as Jin Yuanshang had described, with a mole near her left cheek. And this body was indeed the woman Zhang Jian had seen struggling to breathe and sobbing in front of the gallows when he first entered the city.

Zhang Jian took out a piece of paper and a cigarette from his pocket. He slowly put it in his mouth, lit it, and inhaled deeply. After half a day of searching, they had found only this body and a man sobbing as if he couldn't breathe.

The smoke from his cigarette slowly dispersed.

* * *

After a long while, the undertaker went back to bed, and a few cigarette butts rolled around Zhang Jian's feet. Zhang Jian put out the last cigarette with his foot and looked at Jin Yuanshang. The man, who had been crying as if he would die, was now either calmed down or completely broken, kneeling in front of Yang Xiaoxiao's body with his head bowed.

After a moment of hesitation, Zhang Jian spoke.

"···Get up. The undertaker only knows that she was hanged and doesn't know the details. Let's go back to Zhang Yan Gong and find out more."

Jin Yuanshang didn't respond.

"I'm not telling you not to be sad. You said she had a sick daughter. With her father dead and her mother hanged, who knows where the girl is or what she's doing. We should find her, shouldn't we? The undertaker said we could come back tomorrow afternoon, so let's go to Zhang Yan Gong and find out what happened."

After a long pause, Jin Yuanshang finally answered in a hoarse voice.

"···The girl... Yes, she had a sick daughter..."

He got up as if something was broken, but his eyes remained fixed on Yang Xiaoxiao's dead face, and his complexion was deathly pale. Zhang Jian, seeing this, said,

"Or you can wait at the inn. I'll go and find out what happened."

"No... No, I'll go with you."

Jin Yuanshang, who had gotten up, clasped his hands and muttered something before slowly turning around. His eyes, looking at Zhang Jian, were dark and sunken. Zhang Jian, meeting his gaze, hesitated to offer any words of comfort and simply said,

"I don't know if Zhang Yan Gong will still be waiting. Let's go quickly."

The two left the place and headed straight back to Zhang Yan Gong's teahouse. Jin Yuanshang, who occasionally stumbled, eventually straightened his back as they approached the teahouse.

Zhang Yan Gong was sitting in front of the teahouse, not much different from when they first met, except for a couple of empty bottles on the table.

Seeing them enter, the old man, who had been wondering if they would come back, shook his head sadly at their expressions.

"···It seems you found the right person. I'm sorry."

Jin Yuanshang closed his eyes without a word, and Zhang Jian sighed, rubbing his rough chin.

"If you're really sorry, explain what happened. Did she really poison her husband?"

"Yes. And she had good reason to do so."

Zhang Jian frowned.

"Reason? What do you mean?"

"Her husband was a scumbag. He deserved to die."

At this, Jin Yuanshang's closed eyes snapped open. He stared at Zhang Yan Gong and said,

"···Please explain further."

Zhang Yan Gong met his gaze and answered.

"Her husband, Jin Guyang, wasn't just a laborer; he owned a furnace like me. He didn't have any skills, just money to hire people. But he was notorious for mistreating his wife. He spent his nights drinking and carousing with prostitutes, and when he came home, he often beat her. Once, he even tore her clothes and threw her out into the street in the middle of the night."

The old man, unable to meet Jin Yuanshang's eyes any longer, lowered his head and refilled his cup.

"···Everyone knew she was being abused. But he was rich and had connections with the leaders of the Black Dragon Sect, so he got away with it. If I were in her situation, I would have killed myself, but Ye Songyan couldn't. She had a sick daughter to take care of. She must have thought, 'If I'm gone, who will take care of my daughter, who is barely conscious most of the day?'"

The old man took a deep sip from his cup. Zhang Jian asked,

"What was her illness?"

"The girl's illness? I don't know. It was a condition where her body gradually stiffened and she spent less and less time awake. Even the doctors from Tianhou City couldn't cure her. As a child, she could walk, but recently, she was almost like a living corpse."

The old man shook his head and refilled his cup.

"···If that was all, Ye Songyan might not have killed her husband. She might have run away. But... there were problems. One, her daughter, despite being bedridden, was unusually beautiful for a twelve-year-old. Two, Jin Guyang was even more of a scumbag than we thought."

Seeing the expressions on Zhang Jian and Jin Yuanshang's faces twist, he continued.

"One night, drunk, Jin Guyang tried to enter his daughter's bed. Ye Songyan risked her life to stop him. I think that's when she decided to kill Jin Guyang. Her daughter was getting more beautiful even as she was dying, and Jin Guyang was still young enough to not be old or sick."

The old man sighed deeply, a sigh filled with sorrow.

"Jin Guyang was good at flattering and bribing, but he wasn't very smart. Poisoning him wouldn't have been difficult. He died... and after the owner of the salt furnace, who usually paid him well, was killed, the Black Dragon Sect started a thorough investigation. How could a woman who usually stayed at home have planned a murder so meticulously? She was caught, and the Black Dragon Sect, more concerned with maintaining their authority than her tragic circumstances, hanged her immediately."

He let out a bitter laugh.

"That's the whole story. It's a... rotten world we live in."

The teahouse fell silent. The only sound was the crackling of the furnace, and all three men were silent.

After a long while, Jin Yuanshang spoke, his voice like the scraping of rusty metal.

"How do you know so much about the situation, sir?"

"If you had asked about Ye Songyan instead of Yang Xiaoxiao, you would have found out quickly. Everyone in Yanhuo City knows."

Jin Yuanshang closed his eyes again. Zhang Jian, watching him for a moment, sighed and spoke up.

"Then where is the girl now? At Jin Guyang's house?"

"···The Black Dragon Sect confiscated Jin Guyang's furnace and house. The girl couldn't protest. She has no relatives to help her, and she spends most of her time sleeping. She's at a temple in the eastern part of the city."

"A temple? There's a temple?"

The old man nodded.

"It's a place that takes in the poor and orphans. But if you want to find her, you should go quickly. The conditions there aren't good, and she might not be well cared for."

Zhang Jian nodded and thanked him.

"Thank you for telling us."

"Don't mention it. I just... It's over. This isn't a matter of revenge or anything. The Black Dragon Sect caught the murderer and made her pay. There's no clear cause and effect in this world... So, take care of Ye Songyan's daughter. She's lost both her parents and must be in shock. I'm sorry I couldn't help the girl."

Zhang Jian nodded again and turned to leave, heading for the temple in the eastern part of the city.

At that moment, Jin Yuanshang, who had been closing his eyes, opened them and said,

"There are still people who need to pay."

"What? What do you mean...?"

The old man and Zhang Jian, seeing Jin Yuanshang's dark, gleaming eyes, stiffened. Zhang Jian, instinctively gripping his sword, said quietly,

"···Whatever you're thinking, shouldn't we find her daughter first?"

"Yes, we should."

Jin Yuanshang answered as if it were nothing and walked away. Zhang Jian, watching his back with a heavy gaze, followed. Zhang Yan Gong, left alone in the teahouse, sighed and took another drink.

The night was deepening.