Important: My son’s school leaving exam is going on. This is why I am posting so irregularly. I will try to post when I am free. I will be regular from near the end of this month

The sword shop was bustling with people in the afternoon.

The clerks in the sword shop and the sword-making master looked at the servants coming and going, and couldn’t help but sigh: It’s such a rare bustle today!

The sword shop had been searched inside and out, and everyone in the shop was very cooperative and narrated what had just happened.

“One of the young ladies came to order a dagger half a month ago, and the name she gave was Lin Shaoqing,” the sword shop owner said to Lin Fei who came over to ask questions, “She came here with her friend to pick up the sword!”

“Her friend likes to look at swords, so I asked the waiter to serve them tea and let them look at them slowly, and I went to the back to watch the master.” The owner of the sword shop said, “I don’t know what happened to them in the front, but when I heard the noise and came out, the two girls had already left.”

“Those two bearded men are new customers. They come here for the first time. I was about to ask them what they wanted, but they said they suddenly remembered something else and left first. They will come again next time!” said the sword shop owner.

Hearing this, the several officers following Lin Fei were immediately disappointed: It seemed that Master Wen’s feeling was not wrong, the bearded man recognized her!

But with this, the clue was likely to be lost again!

Lin Fei didn’t show any disappointment on his face. After all, he was a regular customer of the sword shop and was very familiar with the rules of the sword shop: “If a new customer is coming, the regular customers should have informed you in advance. Has anyone told you that they will introduce new customers in the next few days?”

He introduced Master Wen and greeted him in advance.

The sword shop owner was not surprised by Lin Fei’s question. He nodded and said, “I was just about to talk about this.” He flipped through the booklet in his hand and handed it to Lin Fei, saying, “Indeed, several regular customers said they wanted to introduce new customers in the next few days. They are all here.”

The owner of the sword shop circled the names of those regular customers who wanted to introduce new customers.

After taking a quick look at the circled names, a few sharp-eyed officers spotted a familiar surname among them: “Is this person’s surname Yuan?”

The surname “Yuan” was not common. In just a few days, so many people with the surname Yuan were involved in one case. Could this be a coincidence?

The sword shop owner glanced at the name they pointed out and said, “This is the owner of the Yuan family who runs a tombstone business in the west of the city. Because they deal with such taboos on a daily basis, many people in this businesscarry knives, swords, and other weapons with them for self-defense and courage!”In ancient China, the practice of carrying an iron sword or placing iron objects in tombs was often tied to superstitions and beliefs surrounding protection from evil spirits. Iron was thought to have protective properties and was believed to ward off malevolent entities. This practice was particularly prevalent among those involved in funerary practices, as iron objects, including swords, were used to ensure the safety of the deceased in the afterlife and to prevent any harm from supernatural forces.

The swords in his sword shop were of the highest quality, both in appearance and in craftsmanship. Whether they could slay ghosts or demons was not their concern; they only focused on forging the swords.

Similarly, in the tombstone business, and with the same surname Yuan…

Lin Fei raised his eyes: “The Yuan family whose ancestral home is Jiangling?”

The sword shop owner nodded and said, “It’s that Yuan family!”

Lin Fei said “Hmm”, pointed to the other two names he circled, and said, “Tell me about these two too!”

Upon hearing this, the sword shop owner was not vague. He pointed at the names of these regular customers and talked about them: “This Mao Gōngzi has opened several painting studios at home. I heard that he is good at painting beauties. He has an elegant and romantic appearance. Most of the swords he orders are inlaid with jade. As for whether they are sharp or not, he doesn’t mind. He is even afraid of cutting his hands. Some of the swords don’t even have the blades sharpened. He just likes the appearance.”

“This Su Gōngzi is from a family of doctors. Look, Jimin Hall in the north of the city belongs to his family. However, he has no talent in medicine. When he was young, he quarreled with his family and went out to make a living. When he came back, his parents had passed away. The old doctor Su who is in charge of Jimin Hall is his elder brother.” Since they were all familiar customers, they chatted a lot while choosing swords. The owner of the sword shop knew a lot about it. “Since his elder brother was in charge, he was not as polite to him as his parents were. Everyone laughed at him for losing his ancestral foundation in a moment of anger when he was young. He was about to regret it. But they didn’t expect that Mr. Su had made a considerable fortune after all his adventures. It was not smaller than Jimin Hall. It was the onlookers who suffered a loss!”

“I heard from Su Gōngzi that when he was young and out on the road, he once saved an elderly wealthy businessman. The businessman had no children, so Su Gōngzi made him his adoptive father and took care of him until his death. After the businessman passed away, he left a large sum of money, and Su Gōngzi became a wealthy businessman.” The sword shop owner said, “He sold his property, exchanged the money for silver and returned to the capital, and then bought a lot of shops, and lived by collecting rent every day. Although he is old and it is quite comfortable to be a rich and idle person, the heart of a knight-errant when he was young is still there, so he likes to come to me to customize beautiful swords!”

Lin Fei nodded, pointed to the last circled name, and said, “What about this one? What’s his background?”

“This one!” The sword shop owner took one look and said, “This one’s background is more famous than the previous two. The lanterns at the government lantern festival are from his family!”

Hearing this, the officer beside him suddenly realized: “Are they from the Jiang family in Qiandengpu?”

The sword shop owner nodded: “This is the eldest son of the Jiang family who will inherit the family business in the future!”

The officer glanced at the name and said, “You can guess it just by looking at the name!”

Jiang Chengzu, the word “Chengzu” is enough to explain the status of this eldest son of the Jiang family in the Jiang family.

Lin Fei nodded and asked the sword shop owner: “Mao Gōngzi who runs the painting studio ordered beautiful swords for the sake of appearance. Su Gōngzi ordered for the heart of a knight-errant. What about Jiang Gōngzi?”

The sword shop owner said, “Jiang Gōngzi believes that a gentleman should wear a sword to show his virtue. It’s similar to Mao Gōngzi, except that he’s not as fancy!”

At this point, the sword shop owner had told almost everything he knew.

Lin Fei led his men out of the sword shop but did not immediately send people to bring the three men to the Dali Temple for questioning as he usually did when handling cases. Instead, he went straight back to the Dali Temple and went straight to the warehouse.

…

…

As expected, he came up empty-handed at the sword shop yesterday. Although it was a bit regrettable, Wen Mingtang was a little frightened when she thought of the bloody smell she smelled on those two people yesterday.

When picking crab meat with Tangyuan, Ah Bing, and others, Wen Mingtang couldn’t help but bring up this matter.

“If it was blood from killing chickens and ducks, why would they need to carry a sachet to cover it up?” Wen Mingtang said, “I haven’t seen butchers who kill pigs, cattle, and sheep carry a sachet to cover it up either.”

“The more you try to hide, the more obvious it becomes!” Ji Caimai, who was calculating on an abacus not far away, looked up and said.

Wen Mingtang nodded and said, “I thought so too, but I didn’t hear anyone come to the government office to report any incident all day yesterday!”

This was a serious problem. Either they were overthinking it, or something has happened to someone and it has been covered up quietly.

Thinking of this, Wen Mingtang slowed down her movements of picking crab meat.

“Don’t think too much!” Ji Caimai coughed and said, “It’s not a wasted trip. I heard that Lin Shaoqing and his team got a lot of clues.”

Didn’t you notice that it was Zhao Youlai who served the meal at dinner yesterday?

“Also,” Ji Caima said to the somewhat absent-minded Wen Mingtang, “Did you not say that General Liang would come to the public kitchen today to have the longevity noodles for yesterday’s birthday? Yesterday was busy, and General Liang left in a hurry, so she didn’t have time to ask much. You can take advantage of today’s meal to inquire about those two bearded men. Even she wasn’t sure about them and managed to avoid them!”

(End of this chapter)

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