Lin Fei raised his eyelids and said: “Have a look!”

Liu Yuan held the storybook and said: “I have read it!”

Lin Fei glanced at him and said: “Then have a second look!”

Liu Yuan: “…”

Just as he was in a daze, Lin Fei stopped what he was doing, raised his head, and looked at him. He said, “The book ‘Resurrection Pavilion’ on Li Ruizhi’s desk is clearly half-worn, and I even saw a bookmark inserted in the later part, which he claimed he hadn’t finished. Why do you think he would lie?”

Liu Yuan: “…” He really didn’t notice this detail.

“There is a circle of obvious white marks on the wrist of his right hand, which seems to have been made because he wore something on the wrist. Because the area was covered by this thing, it didn’t get sunburnt, and these marks were left. Now, the thing has been taken off. But the white mark has not recovered yet, so it means he recently removed that thing from his wrist. Most probably, it may have been removed in the past two days or even before meeting us,” Lin Fei said.

Liu Yuan: “…Lin Shaoqing, your observation is meticulous, and I am not as capable.”

Lin Fei glanced at him and said: “The mark seems to be a braided hand rope, and what seems to be a small concentric lock on the hand rope.”

Liu Yuan: “…” Well, it seems Shangfeng was quite knowledgeable about these matters!

However, although he did not notice the concentric lock on Li Ruizhi’s wrist, from the name, he knew that it was an object between lovers. After thinking about this, he remembered that Shangfeng had asked Li Ruizhi one after another question about whether he could get married, engaged, and if he had a sweetheart, and now he understood it.

“Then Li Ruizhi has a sweetheart,” Liu Yuan thought for a while and said, “But we have never heard of the existence of that sweetheart from the people Marquis of Huai’an’s mansion.”

Lin Fei glanced at the book “Resurrection Pavilion” and said, “A fallen scholar, once a successful scholar, basking in the spring breeze of success.”

Of course, Li Ruizhi can be considered a down-and-out talented man. Although he did not go for the imperial examination, he was adopted by the Duke of Huai’an, and he was very proud of himself.

“When I met the young lady who had married years ago, she wasn’t living a good life,” Lin Fei said.

As for the bad idea…

“The husband the rich lady’s family chose for her is a polite scum who plays tricks on others and beats her on the inside.” Lin Fei reminded Liu Yuan.

When Liu Yuan heard this, he couldn’t help but frown: he always felt that the situation described was inexplicably familiar, but for a moment he couldn’t remember where he had heard it before.¹

Lin Fei looked at Liu Yuan, shook his head, and took back the notebook from his hand. He said, “Wait a moment, we will close this case soon!”

How soon was ‘soon’?

Just after Youshi² arrived, a carriage appeared in front of the Dali Temple.

When he received the news, Liu Yuan was sitting in the public kitchen, eating the public kitchen’s dusk food one bite after another. After occasionally looking up at the table, he felt that Master Wang’s old face was becoming more and more undesirable to look at.

After finally finishing the food in the bowl, Liu Yuan stood up and left the kitchen.

Before he had taken two steps, he met Bai Zhu, who was walking towards him. When he saw him, he hurriedly called to him and said, “Lin Shaoqing, asked you to come quickly!”

Liu Yuan said “Oh”, stepped faster, and caught up with Bai Zhu.

When he walked into the hall and saw the woman standing there, Liu Yuan was stunned: “This… is this not…”

The woman who turned around upon hearing the voice inclined her body slightly towards him and spoke, her voice hoarse like a worn-out drum, “Liu Sicheng.”

Bai Zhu behind him had never seen the woman in front of him, but he just looked at the pale face in front of him. She was still wrapped in a thick cloak in the hot weather, covering her whole body The tightly wrapped woman felt a little strange.

Was it because of bad health? Or…

Just as he was thinking about this, he heard Liu Yuan in front exclaim and call the woman’s identity: “Madam Yan, why are you here? Didn’t you have a cold?”

Liu Yuan had not spoken since they came in. Lin Fei put down the medical book in his hand and said: “The symptoms of wind-cold are not like this.”

Hearing this, the woman smiled bitterly and admitted: “I did not contract any wind-cold.”

Since she hadn’t caught a cold, why was she wrapped up so tightly in a cloak? Bai Zhu couldn’t understand.

Moreover, looking at the shaky appearance of the woman, she didn’t look like a healthy person.

The woman coughed twice, paused for a moment, and then spoke again, “I’m here to surrender.”

Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu turned pale with shock.

Lin Fei, who was in the other room, looked at her and asked, “To surrender for the murder of Yan San and others?”

The woman nodded and said, “Yes, I am the mastermind behind the death of Yan San and those others.”

Lin Fei said “Hmm” and nodded. Before Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu could react, he said, “Follow me!”

After that, he strode out the door.

Realizing a bit late, Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu hurriedly followed suit.

The group of people followed Lin Fei into the Dali Temple prison and then walked directly to the door of the cell where Li Ruizhi was imprisoned.

When the jailer opened the cell door and Li Ruizhi, who was imprisoned inside, looked up and saw Madam Yan, his face suddenly changed and he blurted out in shock: “Qingqing, what are you doing here?”

Madam Yan smiled at him, her face still pale, but the way she looked at Li Ruizhi was very gentle.

She did not answer Li Ruizhi’s words. Instead, she followed Lin Fei and walked in. She walked up to Li Ruizhi, looked at him, and said, “I begged him to do these things for me.”

Li Ruizhi listened to this sentence. Frowning, he opened his mouth and was about to speak when he heard Madam Yan speak again: “Ruizhi, you and I are already like this, why bother implicating others?”

“The reason why the man named Lu Qing knew about He Xiaoniang’s murder was because of me. When I revealed the cause of his fiance’s death to him, I wanted him to be the scapegoat.” Madam Yan said, covering her eyes and smiling bitterly, “I’m not a good person either.”

When she put down her hand covering her eyes, Yan Madam’s eyes were already red.

Li Ruizhi looked at Madam Yan with red eyes and murmured: “Qingqing…”

“That maid of Zhang Zeduan has endured Zhang Zeduan for a long time, and under the pressure of both me and Li Ruizhi, she lied. I hope my lord can be lenient and show mercy,” Madame Yan said, nodding slightly towards Lin Fei.

Lin Fei looked at her and asked, “Why do you want to kill Yan San and others?”

“Why?” Upon hearing this, Madam Yan murmured softly, looked at everyone, took a step back, subconsciously stayed away from everyone, and then raised her hand and untied the cloak that wrapped her body airtightly.

When the cloak was untied and the summer shirt underneath was revealed, Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu immediately gasped.

Madam Yan’s exposed neck and arms were covered with red rashes, some of which had even festered and turned pus.

“What…what’s going on?” The two of them murmured.

Lin Fei, who had studied medicine by himself, looked at it for a moment, frowned, and said: “It seems to be a flower fistula.”³

After hearing this sentence, the two of them were even more shocked. They looked at the pale Madam Yan in disbelief: “She… …How could she have the syndrome of flower fistula?”

Aren’t only brothel girls and their clients the most likely to suffer from this symptom?

---

Footnote

1. Li u Yuan you are dense.
2. Between 5 PM to 7 PM
3. I am guessing it is Syphilis or any such STD