The incision was clean and even, its edges smooth, with a small amount of dark-red blood covering the cut surface.
The head had been severed after death. With the heart no longer beating, there was no pressure from the heart to pump the blood; only a small amount of dark-red blood pooled inside the severed vessels had seeped out, forming a bloodstain.
Yan Tongshu examined the head. There was slight fracturing in the cervical vertebrae, and the incision was stained with blood.
The skin around the wound had contracted slightly—a supravital reaction.
The muscles looked moist, without any sign of swelling.
Most of the evidence was consistent with the head having been severed within half an hour after death.
Yan Tongshu lifted Princess Xing'an’s eyelids. Her eyes were cloudy. She examined the inside of the mouth and nose and found bloody foam. There were no injuries around the mouth or nose. Combining this with the lividity, the color of the fingernails, and the purplish-blue hue of the ears, she could determine that Princess Xing'an had most likely died of suffocation, after which her head had been cut off.
But if she had died of suffocation, that didn’t make sense.
If the followers of the Celestial God Cult were capable of cutting off someone’s head, why would they choose such an elaborate method of killing?
Had they covered the princess’s nose and mouth with their hands until she died?
Yan Tongshu suddenly had a terrible premonition.
She set down Princess Xing'an’s head and walked toward the bed.
The bed was perfectly neat. The quilt had been folded into an immaculate square, and the soft pillow had been placed properly at the head of the bed.
There wasn’t even a crease in the bedsheet.
It was almost too tidy.
Yan Tongshu did not touch the bed. Instead, she had Zhang Jiu call A-Lian and A-Fu into the room. Keeping a step’s distance from the bed, she asked them, “Did you arrange this bed?”
A-Fu looked it over and shook her head.
A-Lian, however, studied it carefully before suddenly exclaiming, “No.”
Yan Tongshu asked, “How can you tell?”
A-Lian said, “I remember arranging the princess’s bed after her afternoon nap. I have a habit of folding each of the four corners inward again, so they can’t be seen from the outside. But this quilt was folded in the ordinary way—the four corners are all visible. The pillow is wrong too.”
A-Lian took a step forward and pointed at the pillow. “It’s upside down.”
Upside down?
Zhang Jiu immediately flipped the pillow over.
There were traces of face powder and smeared lip rouge on it.
Yan Tongshu’s brows drew together, her expression grave.
Death by suffocation. Face powder and lip rouge on the pillow.
Could Princess Xing'an have been smothered with it?
Had those followers of the Celestial God Cult used the pillow to suffocate Princess Xing'an in bed, then dragged her body to the altar to carry out the rest of their actions and left behind that threatening note?
No.
If the followers of the Celestial God Cult had committed the murder themselves, there would have been no reason to hide the pillow or conceal the actual method of killing.
Unless someone had used the Celestial God Cult to divert suspicion...
Then the most likely culprit was—
Yan Tongshu shuddered from head to toe.
Qin Yunduan.
The ominous feeling she had sensed ever since entering the room now reached its peak.
It was the sixth quarter of the chen hour, or half past eight in the morning.
Qin Yunduan had left at nine the previous evening—eleven and a half hours ago.
He was the last person to see Princess Xing'an alive. He had not left the princess’s room until the hai hour, around nine at night. If the princess had died slightly earlier—if she had not died after he left...
Was there any other way to narrow down her time of death within those ten to twelve hours?
Yan Tongshu looked around the room, then once again turned her eyes toward the altar.
She opened the lid of the incense burner. The incense was still burning, with only a tiny bit left.
It was coiled incense. As it burned around the coil, a ring of ash accumulated in the burner.
The ash was intact.
She called A-Lian and A-Fu over and pointed at the incense that had already burned to ash on the altar. “When was this lit?”
A-Lian looked at it and said, “This is incense offered to the Celestial God, somewhat like the sandalwood incense used in the Central Plains. Every day, before the princess goes to sleep, the incense is lit. After she wakes in the morning, we servants empty the burner and replace it with fresh incense. I personally changed yesterday’s incense.”
Yan Tongshu asked sharply, “Look at this ash. Is the coil intact?”
A-Lian examined it carefully but wasn’t certain. She brought over an unused coil for comparison and confirmed that the ash was intact.
In other words, the coiled incense had not been tampered with.
Yan Tongshu asked A-Lian, “How long does one coil burn?”
“Usually six shichen.”
Twelve hours.
By the incense, someone would have lit it before eight-thirty the previous evening.
Yan Tongshu asked, “Are you certain no one touched this incense yesterday?”
A-Lian nodded. “No one would touch the princess’s incense. Besides, why would anyone tamper with offering incense? It would be disrespectful to the Celestial God.”
That was true. Even if the murderer had tampered with it, what reason would they have had to touch the incense?
And at eight-thirty, Qin Yunduan had not yet left. He had still been alone with Princess Xing'an.
Even an extreme follower of the Celestial God Cult would not have had an opportunity to kill her then.
The ominous feeling in Yan Tongshu’s heart grew heavier.
Could Qin Yunduan truly have committed the murder, staged the scene, and framed the Celestial God Cult?
No. That couldn’t be right.
Qin Yunduan knew no martial arts. A person who had never killed before would have panicked. The cervical vertebrae were extremely hard; he could not have severed the head cleanly with a single stroke.
Besides, where would Qin Yunduan have gotten a blade?
Yan Tongshu turned and began examining the other objects in the room.
Penglai had said that after Qin Yunduan left, he had seen the princess moving about. Afterward, the candlelight had gone out.
The candles used at the post station were of the finest quality. Each candle had a small iron ring fitted around it, with clip-like pieces on either side. As the candle gradually burned down, the wax supporting the two small metal plates would be consumed. The plates would snap shut with a click, clamping down on the wick and putting out the candle naturally.
It was a common little mechanism for extinguishing candles automatically.
So the candle did not need to be put out by hand.
Yan Tongshu inspected the candlestick. There were a few fine scratches on it—so faint they were almost impossible to notice without close examination. They were strikingly similar to the scratches on the windowsill.
The candlestick and the windowsill...
Were they part of another mechanism?
Yan Tongshu could not yet determine their purpose.
She pulled apart the plates clamping the wick and removed them along with the iron ring, then examined the candle.
The melted wax inside had solidified again after the candle went out.
The wick was black at the bottom and white at the top.
Yan Tongshu picked up the needle used for trimming wicks and pried a tiny white object out of the thin layer of wax that had solidified on the surface.
It was a short length of cotton thread that had not burned completely.
At that moment, Zhang Jiu came over. In his hand was a scrap of paper no larger than the tip of his little finger.
He said softly, “Lord Yan, I found this in the narrow gap beside the altar’s window.”
His gaze shifted toward the writing desk beyond the screen. “I asked about it. It came from the xuan paper in Princess Xing'an’s room. Miss A-Lian also confirmed that several sheets of the princess’s paper are missing.”
Yan Tongshu took the scrap from Zhang Jiu and examined it closely. The paper was badly crumpled, with ragged edges, as though it had been forced through a narrow gap and had torn on the way out.
Yan Tongshu narrowed her eyes.
Cotton thread. Scrap paper. Candle.
They seemed to be pointing toward something everyone knew about.
Yan Tongshu said cautiously, “Look into the other areas as well.”
“Yes,” Zhang Jiu replied.
Following the trail, Yan Tongshu moved toward the wardrobe area.
A clothes rack stood in the wardrobe area, meant for hanging garments. Two matching wardrobes stood side by side. Yan Tongshu opened one and found that it was divided into an upper and lower section. The lower section held personal undergarments that were not often taken out, while the upper section contained neatly folded outer garments, bags, and the like. Scent sachets hung inside as well.
The second wardrobe had the same arrangement.
Beside the wardrobes stood two large chests.
Yan Tongshu opened the first chest on top.
She examined it carefully and found nothing unusual. The only thing of note was a sachet placed on top of the clothes. It had not yet been filled with incense, and the embroidered horse on it was only half finished. It must have been embroidered by Princess Xing’an, though she had not completed it.
Yan Tongshu took out the contents. The chest was divided into two layers, with a slatted partition at the bottom. Beneath it were several plain silk pouches filled with incense powder.
The incense powder had left the clothes smelling wonderfully fragrant.
Yan Tongshu opened the second large chest.
She glanced at her hand. The rim of this chest was very smooth—not the polished kind of smoothness, but as though it had been coated with a thin layer of wax. The wax itself was uneven.
She compared it with the other chest. The other chest had no such coating.
Moreover, the second chest appeared to have been searched. Its contents were in a disorderly heap, whereas all the clothes in the first chest had been folded with painstaking neatness.
Both chests were arranged in the same manner. Yan Tongshu opened the partition. Like the first chest, the space beneath it held silk pouches filled with incense powder. Beside the pouches lay some unidentified white powder.
But…
There seemed to be a strange smell mixed in with the floral fragrance.
Yan Tongshu leaned into the chest and took a deep breath.
There was a faint smell of something scorched.
She brushed aside the incense powder. At the bottom of the chest were several tiny scorch marks, so slight they were almost impossible to notice.
Why would the chest containing Princess Xing’an’s undergarments and jewelry bear signs of scorching?
She scraped at one of the marks with her fingernail. It seemed to have been made recently; not much time had passed since it was burned.
Yan Tongshu and Wu Suowei lifted the large chest out together.
Yan Tongshu gathered up the silk pouches of incense powder and set them aside before carefully examining the chest.
There was more than one scorched spot—there were several.
The top and sides of the chest were covered with numerous scrape marks, especially in the upper-right corner, where they were particularly dense. It seemed someone had been trying to conceal something.
Some strange white powder remained at the bottom.
Yan Tongshu touched a little with her finger and rubbed it between her fingertips. It was somewhat dry, but she could not tell what it was.
She summoned A-Lian and A-Fu and asked whether the chest had always been like this or if it had suddenly become this way.
A-Lian shook her head. “Lord Yan, I tidied this chest just yesterday morning and refolded the clothes. There were no such strange marks then.”
Then there was a good chance the killer had left them behind.
Yan Tongshu said, “The two of you, come over and take a careful look. Is there anything unusual about this incense powder?”
The two women craned their necks to examine it. The silk pouches of incense powder were spotless and appeared perfectly normal.
A-Fu said, “The incense powder in the princess’s chests is usually replaced every five days. The powder in these two chests was replaced all at once by this servant four days ago.”
As usual, Yan Tongshu had the discoveries recorded first and ordered the strange white powder to be collected and taken back for testing.
Afterward, Yan Tongshu inspected the entire room carefully, from end to end and from top to bottom. Only then did she leave Princess Xing’an’s bedchamber.
Chang Zhengzhang and the Minister Councillor hurried forward to ask what she had found.
Yan Tongshu shook her head without answering and went straight to the room where Qin Yunduan was temporarily staying at the Duting Post Station.
Qin Yunduan had only moved in two or three days earlier, so there were not many things in the room.
Paper-cut shadow puppets he liked were arranged as decorations on the cabinet, along with a spent incense stick.
A wine jar and a cup sat on the table.
Yan Tongshu picked up the wine jar and shook it. It was already empty.
The bed, wardrobe, and bedside table held nothing unusual.
Apart from one or two changes of clothes and a few accessories, there was nothing else.
Having found nothing, Yan Tongshu could only leave.
Chang Zhengzhang and the Minister Councillor came forward again, both urgently seeking answers with their eyes.
Before she could speak, Chancellor Yelu asked, “Was the princess not killed by a follower of the Celestial God Religion?”
He had followed Yan Tongshu as she examined the entire room. How could he have failed to notice all those suspicious points?
Yan Tongshu did not answer his question. Instead, she looked at Chang Zhengzhang. “I would like to see Qin Yunduan first.”
Knowing how upright Yan Tongshu was, Chang Zhengzhang and the Minister Councillor exchanged a glance. Neither dared agree without authorization.
Chancellor Yelu once again demanded, his face livid, “How exactly did the princess die?”
Yan Tongshu replied calmly, “The investigation is still under way.”
Chancellor Yelu pressed her coldly. “Was it that Qin Yunduan?”
“Chancellor Yelu.” Yan Tongshu’s voice turned heavy. “When the princess did not want to marry, you were the Chancellor of Liao and her own uncle. You did not care whether she was happy, and forced her to marry a man far from home. Now that she is dead, you put on this display of grief. Who are you trying to fool?”
“You…” Chancellor Yelu clenched his fists, anger surging through him, but he forcibly suppressed it. “Lord Yan, the princess was my own niece. A political marriage was her duty. Though I sent her far away and allowed her to remain in the capital, this uncle’s heart was filled with anguish. That does not mean I did not care for her. I watched Princess Xing’an grow up. I will not let her death go unanswered.”
His sharp gaze swept over Chang Zhengzhang and the Minister Councillor.
“No matter who the murderer is, I will demand justice. If this was the work of an extremist follower of the Celestial God Religion, then upon my return I will petition the King of Liao to purge the clergy, root out the wicked, and eradicate them completely. If someone else is responsible, I will make him pay in blood—and repay him many times over!”
Every word Chancellor Yelu spoke struck the ground with force. This was no longer a matter of personal grievance, but a declaration on behalf of the state of Liao.
Chang Zhengzhang’s expression grew solemn, but his tone remained neither servile nor overbearing. “The Chancellor is entirely right. On behalf of His Majesty and the imperial court, I too express our profound outrage at Princess Xing’an’s death. Our dynasty is willing to join hands with Liao and do everything in our power to uncover the truth, apprehend the culprit, and give the princess justice. With Lord Yan’s near-supernatural talent for solving cases, and with our two nations working together, I believe the truth will surely come to light.”
Chancellor Yelu regarded Chang Zhengzhang gravely. “It had better.”
Once both sides had finished speaking, Yan Tongshu said again, “I want to see Qin Yunduan first.”
Chancellor Yelu applied pressure to Chang Zhengzhang once more. “If Lord Chang has nothing to hide, surely he will not refuse Lord Yan’s request.”
Chang Zhengzhang’s expression did not change, but his tone softened. “The Qin heir was the last person to see Princess Xing’an last night. I was concerned that someone might use this case to stir up trouble, so I temporarily ordered that he be placed under protection. Lord Yan is impartial and incorruptible. If seeing him is necessary for the investigation, then I naturally give my consent.”
Chancellor Yelu looked toward Yan Tongshu. “Lord Yan is renowned for his integrity and fearlessness in the face of power. I trust no one—but I am willing to trust Lord Yan. I believe that no matter who the culprit is, Lord Yan will never let him escape.”
Yan Tongshu gave Chancellor Yelu a deep look but did not answer. Instead, she said, “Chancellor Yelu, if Princess Xing’an was truly killed by an extremist follower of the Celestial God religion, then their purpose would be to sabotage the peace talks, launch a holy war, and intimidate King of Liao. In that case, they could not possibly have targeted Princess Xing’an alone.”
Chancellor Yelu’s gaze turned solemn. “Thank you, Lord Yan. In the coming days, I will bring more men with me and ensure the safety of myself and the accompanying officials.”
Yan Tongshu nodded, turned around, and followed one of Chang Zhengzhang’s men to meet Qin Yunduan.
After the incident that day, Qin Yunduan had quickly been taken away by Chang Zhengzhang and the Chief Councillor. No one knew where he had been taken.
Only after Yan Tongshu arrived did she learn that Qin Yunduan had been taken by the Divine Guard Army and was being held in a carriage nearby.
The carriage was surrounded by layers upon layers of guards.
Meng Zheng stood watch outside.
The man who had brought Yan Tongshu there was one of Chang Zhengzhang’s trusted aides.
Meng Zheng waved for the Divine Guard soldiers to move aside, dismounted, and lifted the carriage curtain.
Yan Tongshu climbed into the carriage.
Qin Yunduan was sitting inside. At the sound of movement, he slowly raised his face. The carefree young man had become utterly disheveled and haggard.
Yan Tongshu sat down across from him. “You already know what happened, don’t you?”
Qin Yunduan’s eyes were red and filled with tears. He nodded frantically.
He opened his mouth, but his throat was dry and sore, and no words came out.
He had drunk heavily the night before, and it was not only his throat that hurt—his head was throbbing as well.
Yan Tongshu continued questioning him. “What time did you go to see the princess last night?”
Qin Yunduan swallowed several times before finally easing the discomfort in his throat. In a hoarse voice, he said, “I’m not sure of the exact time, but it should have been after the Hour of the Rooster.”
Yan Tongshu asked, “What did you and the princess talk about? Did you have an argument?”
At that question, Qin Yunduan suddenly fell silent.
After a moment, he looked at Yan Tongshu with reddened eyes. “Lord Yan, am I going to die? Do you suspect that I killed the princess? Is that it?”
Yan Tongshu said nothing. She merely looked at him with utter calm.
She had handled countless cases, and the culprit in every one of them had been skilled at acting and hiding the truth.
To escape punishment, they acted more convincingly than anyone and appeared more innocent than anyone else.
Until the facts of the case were clear, she could not easily trust anyone.
At the same time, she had deliberately adopted that expression to put pressure on Qin Yunduan.
Under tremendous pressure, people were most likely to reveal a flaw.
“It really wasn’t me!” Qin Yunduan was on the verge of breaking down. He frantically clawed at his hair. “I didn’t kill Princess Xing’an! I didn’t!”
Yan Tongshu asked calmly, “Don’t speak only about last night. Start from the beginning. What happened between you and the princess? Why did you move into Duting Station?”
Qin Yunduan was frantic with anxiety. His thoughts were a mess, and he could not calm down.
He pounded his head again and again. “I…I—”
Suddenly, he let out a roar like a madman and began venting his emotions wildly. Yan Tongshu did not urge him on, merely waiting in silence.
As expected, after releasing his emotions, he felt much better.
He closed his eyes dejectedly. “Lord Yan, I told you last time, when we were drinking and eating roast meat, that Princess Xing’an and I never had feelings for each other. Princess Xing’an was lively, cheerful, pure, and beautiful. A girl like that was bound to be well liked. I liked her too, but only as an ordinary friend. She didn’t like me. She told me that she already had someone in her heart. But my father kept urging me to cultivate a relationship with Princess Xing’an. Every day, he asked me about it. Every day, he urged me. Three times a day, he forced me to invite the princess out.
“It was the same on Princess Xing’an’s side. She told me that Chancellor Yelu refused to cancel the marriage alliance and insisted that she remain in the capital. They hoped she would give birth to a child who carried the blood of both nations. Because of this, Princess Xing’an even had an argument with Chancellor Yelu. In the end, the two of us grew tired of resisting and of pretending. After my father and Chancellor Yelu discussed it, they had me move into Duting Station, where I would live next door to Princess Xing’an.
“They said that Princess Xing’an and I were both young people who loved to have fun. If we could let go of the idea that the marriage alliance was something forced upon us, something we had to bear as a duty, then we would surely develop feelings for each other. My father sent someone to deliver a letter three times a day, instructing me to greet Princess Xing’an in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. So I went to pay my respects to Princess Xing’an every morning, noon, and evening. I did that before I moved into Duting Station, and I continued doing it afterward.”
Qin Yunduan’s lips had turned blue. As he reached this point, his voice began to choke with emotion.
Clearly, Prince Wuyang’s behavior—claiming with his words that he was not forcing Qin Yunduan, while repeatedly urging him and questioning him—had wounded his son deeply.
After a pause, Qin Yunduan continued, “Last night, as usual, I went to ask to see Princess Xing’an sometime after the Hour of the Rooster. The princess was inside speaking with Guard Jieli, so I went back first. Later, the princess sent A-Fu to call for me, and only then did I go over. Once inside, I talked with the princess about how things had been lately. Actually, it had always been like that. Although we both liked to have fun, we liked different things. Princess Xing’an resisted the marriage alliance, and she had never been interested in me or in the topics I brought up.
“We chatted awkwardly for a while. Then Princess Xing’an said that she would be leaving the capital soon, and gave me a bow from Liao as a farewell gift. She said she had a willful personality and that, because she had resisted the marriage alliance, she had treated me coldly many times. That had been very wrong of her. Looking back, she realized that she really had gone too far, so she gave me the bow in the hope that I would forget those unpleasant moments. The Liao delegation had originally been scheduled to leave at dawn the next day. I thought that the delegation would be busy packing today, and that Princess Xing’an probably would not have time to say goodbye to me, which was why she said so much then. After that, the princess and I parted ways.”
“What time did you go in? How long did you stay, and when did you leave?” Yan Tongshu asked, checking the timeline.
Qin Yunduan said, “I’m not sure exactly when I went in. It should have been after the Hour of the Rooster. I stayed for quite a while. When I left, Guard Jieli and Guard Penglai had just arrived to take over the shift. The two of them chatted briefly with the guards whose shift was ending.”
Yan Tongshu asked, “What happened afterward? Where did you go, and what did you do?”
At the mention of this, Qin Yunduan’s expression grew even more bitter. “Afterward, I returned to my room and saw a letter from my father on the table. In it, he reminded me to remember to pay my respects to Princess Xing’an that evening and instructed me to record the details of the exchange and give them to the person who delivered the letter so they could take them back to him.”
As Qin Yunduan spoke, his eyes grew hot. He turned away and wiped his tears with his sleeve. “My father has always been stern and terse, and he never showed me any kindness. Only when it came to Princess Xing’an did he send three letters a day, asking about every detail and patiently lecturing me. He asked too much—far too much. He asked every day, and every time he asked the same things. I felt terrible at the time and didn’t want to write back to him, so for the first time, I ignored him. I took some wine and started drinking.
“As we drank, snow began to fall outside the window. I felt wretched and rushed out, running a lap through the snow. When I came back, the alcohol had gone to my head, and I was feeling terribly ill, so I lay down on the bed and fell asleep. It wasn’t until early this morning that I heard Penglai and Miss A-Lian shouting that something had happened. Something had gone wrong at Duting Post Station, and Lord Chang and the others all came over. After questioning me, Lord Chang immediately ordered the Divine Guard Army to lock me up here. And I’ve been here ever since.”
Yan Tongshu pressed him further. “Is that everything? When Princess Xing’an spoke with you, did she light any incense?”
