“She said that her husband went to the mountains last month for a private meeting with the wife of a mountain man. Because he was discovered by the mountain man, he panicked and chose to escape. Without paying attention, he stepped on the air and fell to his death.” Wei Fu said.

Liu Yuan: “…Then these two people are really a perfect match, a match made in heaven!”

Wei Fu said “Hmm”, and only then did he get to the point. He looked at Lin Fei and said, “Lin Shaoqing, then I casually asked her about which mountain her husband went to for a private meeting and fell to death. Guess what did she say?”

Lin Fei looked at the solemn expression on Wei Fu’s face, frowned, and said: “That mountain behind Yishan Academy?”

“That’s it!” Wei Fu said.

At this point, both Han Jun who died and the owner of the death who fell to death were related to Yishan Academy.

Lin Fei looked at the names of the mountain people on the file handed over by Wei Fu, and they matched the name of one of the mountain people Liu Yuan brought over: “Zhou Dagui?”

“That’s him.” When Wei Fu said this, he saw Liu Yuan look to the side and asked, “Do you have any impressions of this mountain man named Zhou Dagui?”

In the end, it was only once in broad daylight that he saw him. However, the officials at the Dali Temple would not have a bad memory. Liu Yuan closed his eyes, briefly recalled, and remembered, “Some impressions. This person named Zhou Dagui is not tall, but he is quite robust in life. He was chopping wood, and he looked a bit awkward when I asked him questions. But he answered every question, and I took a stroll in his house. Seeing nothing unusual, I came out.”

“Where was his wife who had an affair with the owner of the bookstore?” Wei Fu asked.

Liu Yuan glanced at him and said, “I was just about to mention that! After asking around the neighborhood, it was said that the thief was spotted by Zhou Dagui and several other mountain folks. The woman and her lover, seeing so many people, instinctively jumped out of the window and fled. Zhou Dagui and the mountain folks chased after them. During the escape, as the woman and her lover passed under a tree, one of the woodcutters conveniently placed an axe on the tree trunk. When the two passed under the tree, the axe loosened and fell from the trunk, hitting the woman squarely on the head, and causing it to burst open. The lover, seeing this, was so frightened that he stumbled and directly fell to his death off the mountainside.”

That was it. Seeing the cause of Xuanqi’s death, Zhou Dagui and several other mountain people were dumbfounded. They said, “God opened his eyes”, but they never imagined…

“The adulterer who fell to death and the owner of the bookstore who died were actually the same person.” Liu Yuan couldn’t help but frown and say, “This is too coincidental!”

Wei Fu nodded, thinking that this matter was too coincidental. He couldn’t shake the feeling that it was somehow related, whether, with Zhou Dagui or the elegant woman from the study, there was a connection that couldn’t be ignored.

“That Zhou Dagui was originally a woodcutter, and his wife whom he betrayed was killed by an axe. This is really a coincidence!” Liu Yuan said, “But it was the wife’s lover who ran away in a panic. It happened in public. Even if the axe stuck in the tree belongs to Zhou Dagui, it cannot be said that Zhou Dagui killed the person.”

After all, if the two of them didn’t run away, they would be beaten honestly. He wouldn’t be killed by an axe.

When Lin Fei heard this, he said “Hmm”, raised his head, met the eyes of Liu Yuan and Wei Fu looking at him, handed the folded files in their hands to them for circulation, and said: “I’m looking for the boss of the rouge shop in the city. The craftsman looked at this grease, and the old craftsman said, the materials and proportions of this grease are very fine, it must be top quality, and it is expensive.”

When Liu Yuan heard this, he said “Oh” and couldn’t help but mutter: “Expensive lipstick doesn’t necessarily look good when applied!”

Han Jun’s lipstick-smeared mouth was frighteningly tight.

Lin Fei ignored Liu Yuan’s muttering and continued: “The lipstick did not come from any rouge shop in the city. It was made by someone who knew how to make rouge.”

“Then the murderer made the rouge himself?” Liu Yuan was surprised when he heard this. He asked, “Is that a rouge craftsman?”

Lin Fei glanced at him and said, “However, the technique for blending rouge doesn’t follow the current trend; it seems to be a method from about twenty years ago.”

“Is that a rouge craftsman from 20 years ago?” Liu Yuan thought for a while and said, “Later, he changed his profession and stopped making rouge?”

Lin Fei was noncommittal, just paused, and then said: “I checked it out. In the warehouse of Dali Temple, we found a case related to the rouge craftsman twenty years ago.”

As he said that, he handed over the case file in his hand.

“Twenty years ago, there was a renowned rouge lady in Chang’an City who was known for making excellent rouge. She had quite a reputation among rouge artisans,” Lin Fei said indifferently. “Later, this rouge lady married a shū shēng¹. She made rouge to support the shū shēng’s studies, and the scholar promised to study diligently, vowing to find a way to excel in the future.”

This routine… Liu Yuan rubbed his hands and felt very familiar: “I understand, Lin Shaoqing. After the shū shēng excelled, he likely looked down on the rouge lady as a craftsman unfit for the upper class, betrayed her, divorced, and married someone else. Subsequently, the rouge lady’s temperament changed drastically, leading her to commit murder…….”

Before he could finish speaking, Wei Fu, who was examining the case files on the side, interrupted him bluntly, “No. This shū shēng couldn’t even excel. He started betraying the rouge lady as soon as he entered the academy.”

The shū shēng in the case twenty years ago didn’t have much ability to study. But the person was a romantic. As soon as he entered the academy, he squandered the money provided by his wife while having fun with various women.

“Later, the rouge lady found out about the matter, so she put poison into the rouge. All the ladies who were related to the shū shēng were poisoned by her rouge.”

Liu Yuan asked Wei Fu: “What about the shū shēng?”

Wei Fu glanced at He glanced at him and said: “The scholar died together with her in the end. The rouge lady’s mouth was covered with lipstick. When the scholar was having a romantic relationship with her, she was stained with her lipstick, and the two of them died together.”

When Liu Yuan heard this, he couldn’t help but say: “…That’s really not cost-effective. It’s better to ask that bastard shū shēng to die on his own. She should live.”

“She couldn’t survive either.” Wei Fu said, “She poisoned so many women. Although most of them were romantic prostitutes, some good girls were also deceived by the shū shēng. According to the law, she could not escape death.”

Lin Fei specially mentioned this case. Of course, the file was brought out not only because of the rouge or lipstick issue in the case.

There was a portrait of the scholar in the file. After opening the paper with the portrait of the scholar, the expressions of Liu Yuan and Wei Fu changed.

“This man…” After seeing the portrait of the scholar, Liu Yuan immediately took a breath, “He, Han Jun and Ruan Zhan…” were equally elegant and handsome, and had the same figure as recorded by his widow. It can be seen that he was tall and thin.

The most important thing was…

Wu Zuo painted the person’s appearance when he died: he was wearing a wide robe with long sleeves inherited from the Wei and Jin Dynasties, his face was covered with a layer of powder, and his mouth was stained with the lipstick of the rouge lady.

The romantic shū shēng in the drawing was so similar to the Han Jun he saw that day.

(End of chapter)

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Footnote

1. Scholar