Beside the dough-kneading woman, her face lined with wrinkles and her hair streaked with gray, was presumably her mother-in-law.
Two children, a boy and a girl, sat nearby eating flatbreads.
Yan Tongshu smiled. "Alright, Aunt Yang, these flatbreads are delicious. Could you have Lady Qing make us two more each?"
Aunt Yang agreed at once. "Certainly, I'll have Lady Qing bring them over."
Yan Tongshu said, "Good."
Soon after, Lady Qing’s daughter came over carrying six flatbreads.
The little girl looked about nine years old, with two braids tied with cloth strips, chubby pink cheeks, and bright, dark eyes.
Yan Tongshu asked, "How much?"
The girl spoke up openly, "Three copper coins each, six flatbreads in total, that’s..."
She began counting on her fingers, struggling for a while before giving up.
Yan Tongshu stopped teasing her and had Pearl hand her eighteen coppers. "That’s eighteen coins in total. Go on back."
The girl replied with an "mm-hmm," bowed to Yan Tongshu, and said, "Thank you, Young Master. Please come again."
Yan Tongshu nodded politely. "I will."
The girl took the money and skipped happily back to the flatbread stall.
Pearl couldn’t help but sigh. "That little girl is just so full of joy."
Not far away, inside a horse-drawn carriage, Qin Yi was discussing matters with Meng Yi.
He lifted the carriage curtain a crack and looked toward the flatbread stall.
It had only been open half a day, yet business was already bustling.
This Lady Qing was truly a capable woman.
Just as Qin Yi was about to pull his gaze away, he caught sight of Yan Tongshu sitting at the noodle stall, eating noodles and flatbread together.
The noodles were covered in a thick topping of fish paste—bright red, spicy, and fragrant.
The flatbread was crispy, crumbling at every bite.
Yan Tongshu squinted, his cheeks puffed out with food, looking utterly blissful—a man completely different from the grim-faced ghost who fretted during the morning court sessions.
Qin Yi’s eye twitched sharply.
Indeed, a glutton.
A dopey, plump goose.
Qin Yi was about to drop the curtain when two burly men, each carrying a club, walked up to Lady Qing’s flatbread stall.
One of them, whose face was covered in scars, slammed his club against the stall’s stand, sending ash showering down from the oven. "Who said you could set up stall here?"
Lady Qing calmly covered the oven and wiped her hands on her apron. "What’s the problem, brother? I asked around before setting up shop—this spot isn’t claimed."
The stout man glared, showing his menacing side. "Bullshit! This spot belongs to me!"
Lady Qing gave a faint smile, stealthily grabbing a red-hot iron rod from under the table, used for stoking the fire. "Brother, before I set up, I asked around. This is a spot the government designated for stalls—anyone can set up here. Plus, this spot’s been empty for half a month without a soul in sight."
"Don’t give me that," the stout man spat, spittle flying. "I’d set my claim half a month ago. I was just sick for two weeks, and now you’ve taken my spot. If you know what’s good for you, get lost!"
Yan Tongshu set down his bowl.
Bold daylight, an open sky—bullying a widow and her orphans?
He had Jinbao run quickly to find the constables patrolling nearby.
But no sooner had Jinbao taken two steps than Lady Qing dropped her friendly smile, grabbed the hot iron rod, and slammed it "bang" onto the table. "You son of a bitch! I’ll set up where I damn well please! I gave you a polite smile, and you think you’re something? Back off, now!"
Yan Tongshu was stunned.
Pearl’s jaw dropped.
Aunt Yang, who had been ready to mediate for fear that Lady Qing might be bullied, was also taken aback. How had Lady Qing transformed so instantly? She was downright fierce!
Lady Qing’s mother-in-law hugged the two children and retreated to the side.
The fat and thin men exchanged a glance. Why wasn’t this little woman afraid?
The fat man stepped forward and raised his stick. “Are you leaving or not? If you don’t scram now, I’ll wreck your stall.”
As the fat man threatened her, Lady Qing used her iron tongs to grab a burning piece of wood. “Come on, try wrecking it. Do you really think I’m someone you can scare?”
She let out a cold laugh. “I can see just from your face that you’re a cowardly good-for-nothing. With all that extra lard on you, you pass for a pig but couldn’t sell for one. If I were you, I’d have jumped into the river long ago.”
The fat man had never endured such humiliation. The flabby flesh on his face twitched with rage.
“You damned woman!” he bellowed, lunging at her with his stick. Lady Qing was not to be outdone; she thrust the burning wood toward his face, and he flinched back in fear.
The thin one tried to join the fray, but Lady Qing swung the iron tongs and smacked him across the face, making him yelp in pain.
The pair regrouped and charged at her together. Lady Qing whirled the red-hot iron tongs with such ferocity that they couldn’t get near her, and both ended up scorched several times.
Cursing through clenched teeth, the fat man made a desperate dash for her stove, scooping up the blazing kindling and hurling it at her.
A shower of sparks flew.
Lady Qing dodged, but the burning wood landed on the main road behind her.
As luck would have it, a funeral procession was passing by just then. The hot embers startled the pallbearers, who stumbled and lost their footing. Two processions collided in the chaos, coffin banging against coffin, and before anyone knew it, a brawl had broken out.
The scene descended into utter pandemonium.
The only saving grace was that the two sides were too busy fighting each other to bother with anyone else.
Just as things were spiraling out of control, the sound of rapid footsteps drew near—
“Stop!”
It happened that Xu Qiu was patrolling the area today. At his sharp command, the three fighters immediately froze, looking docile as lambs.
Xu Qiu swept his gaze across the scene and first approached Yan Tongshu. “Lord Yan.”
Yan Tongshu pointed at the fat and thin men. “These two stirred up trouble for no reason, bullying a widow and her children. Arrest them. Have the Recorder for the Imperial Guard interrogate them, and then handle them according to the law.”
“Yes, sir.” Xu Qiu clasped his fist in acknowledgment and signaled for the yamen runners to take them into custody. Only then did the pair realize they had not only tangled with the formidable Lady Qing but also run afoul of the Prefect of Kaifeng. Trembling, their faces ashen, their legs shook like sieves.
Seeing the two men arrested, Lady Qing finally breathed a sigh of relief. She tossed the iron tongs back into the stove, her right hand trembling uncontrollably.
Truth be told, she was scared too.
But she couldn’t afford to show it.
A woman trying to eke out a living with her aging mother-in-law and two children—if she revealed the slightest hint of weakness or vulnerability, the wolves and tigers would descend without mercy, tearing them all apart.
After dealing with the trio, Yan Tongshu ordered Xu Qiu to break up the brawl between the two funeral parties.
Xu Qiu led his men to intervene.
But the two grieving families, lost in their sorrow, would not listen to reason. As Xu Qiu tried to calm them, he caught a punch from someone before he knew it, and then got his face scratched by another.
Yan Tongshu covered his face.
Jinbao asked, “Young Master, should we lend a hand?”
Yan Tongshu thought for a moment, picked up the remaining half of the crispy sesame cake, and ate it bite by bite. “We three don’t even have the strength to truss a chicken—let’s not cause more trouble.”
Jinbao let out an “Oh,” exchanged a glance with Pearl, and continued eating his cake.
Bang!
A thunderous crash.
The coffin bearers, now blind with rage, started ramming the coffins into each other. Sure enough, the two coffins struck violently and toppled over together.
At once, the fighting stopped.
Both groups rushed to their respective children, wailing in grief.
“My son! (My daughter!) That murderous wretch ruined your life!”
Wait!
Yan Tongshu stood up, pushed through the crowd of onlookers, and stepped into the inner area.
He crouched beside the nearest coffin. Inside lay a male corpse dressed in a brocade green silk robe, a silver cloud-patterned sash at the waist, and black boots paired with a jade-green ornament.
The body had entered the green-stage corruption, exhibiting a bloated, giant-like appearance. It had likely been dead for three to four days. Though the body had been dressed and made up, the face was dark, the fingernails black, and the lips a bruised purple—clearly death by poisoning.
Yan Tongshu abruptly turned his head, fixing a sharp gaze on the man who had called the deceased his son. “Was your son poisoned to death?”
The man wept, his hand resting on the shoulder of his wife, who sat on the ground leaning against the coffin. “Yes, my son... he took poison and killed himself.”
Suicide?
Yan Tongshu frowned. Taking poison to end one’s life was also poisoning—that could be plausible.
He then moved to the side of the female corpse. She was dressed in a lake-blue long skirt, with scratch marks on her face. The body had entered the black-stage decay, soft and dissolving—roughly estimated to have been dead for seven days or more. The girl appeared to be about sixteen or seventeen, close in age to the young man.
It was her body that had first struck him as wrong.
Around her neck was a ligature mark that circled completely, along with signs of scratching.
This indicated she had been killed.
Yan Tongshu approached the mother of the deceased girl. “How did your daughter die?”
