At this point, Mr. Qiao's face was full of anger. He pointed at Mr. Ma and said, "Of course I have evidence. When my daughter ran away, she was kind-hearted and still thought of that Ma Tianci. She left a letter for him, saying she was coming home and urging him to turn back from his wrongful path. Who would have thought that my daughter's kindness would be repaid by being strangled to death by the man she once truly loved!"
Yan Tongshu asked, "Where is the letter?"
Mr. Qiao replied, "The Ma family snatched it away."
Yan Tongshu turned his gaze to Mr. Ma, who had no choice but to obediently hand the letter over to the bailiff. Yan Tongshu unfolded the letter and read it:
Tianci,
I know you are a man of deep loyalty and have treated me with great care and affection, but my illness is hard to cure, and my future is uncertain. Your parents and mine have shown us immense kindness, and I dare not burden you with my frail health while roaming the ends of the earth as an unfilial daughter. Let us call off our plan to elope to the Jiangnan region. I will go home, and you should go home too. I hope you will focus on your studies for the imperial examinations, have a bright future ahead, and meet a worthy match in time.
Qingqing
Yan Tongshu ordered the bailiffs to retrieve samples of Qiao Qingqing's past handwriting from the Qiao residence to compare the script.
Yan Tongshu remarked, "This message doesn't look like a kidnapping."
Mr. Ma let out a snort. "Of course it isn't. My son is so well-behaved. He would never do something like kidnapping."
Yan Tongshu glanced at the indignant Mr. Ma, then turned to Mrs. Qiao. He asked, "Madam Qiao, you said that Qiao Qingqing and Ma Tianci met again at the temple. At that time, only the two of them were present. How did you come to know this?"
Mrs. Qiao choked back tears and said, "Later, when we discovered the affair between Qingqing and that Ma Tianci again, I interrogated Qingqing, and she told me herself."
Yan Tongshu nodded and then looked at the Ma family. "Do you accept the Qiao family's account?"
Mr. and Mrs. Ma immediately shouted, "No, we do not!"
Yan Tongshu said, "In that case, tell the story from your perspective."
While the Qiao family had been speaking, Mr. and Mrs. Ma had been fuming with suppressed anger. Now given the chance, they eagerly rebutted the accusations made by the Qiao family.
First of all, they insisted that their son, Ma Tianci, was a very well-behaved child—upright in character, pure in heart, and so gentle that even his speech was soft.
On that day, the Qiao family had returned all the gifts Ma Tianci had given to Qiao Qingqing.
Mr. and Mrs. Ma immediately questioned Ma Tianci about it.
Ma Tianci, clutching a stack of letters, scrolls of drawings, and pieces of jewelry, wore a look of dejection on his face. His mind kept replaying memories of the lively and endearing Qiao Qingqing.
Ma Tianci explained that they had first met at the Summer Calligraphy and Painting Gathering.
At the time, Ma Tianci had been invited by a few close friends to attend.
At the Summer Calligraphy and Painting Gathering, various paintings were displayed for charitable donations. If someone took a liking to a particular painting, they could ask an attendant for a piece of red paper, write their name on it, and place it on top of the silver they contributed into a box beneath the painting.
The person who donated the most silver would become the buyer of that painting.
After the gathering, all the money in the boxes would be recorded, collected, and used as charitable funds.
Ma Tianci had always been fond of collecting calligraphy, paintings, and poetry. Having already passed the provincial imperial examination, he was preparing for the metropolitan examination in the capital, hoping to raise his family's social standing. Thus, he was highly interested in the gathering.
Not long after Ma Tianci and his friends arrived at the gathering, they split up to browse the paintings and select the ones they wanted to bid on.
After browsing for a while, Ma Tianci took a liking to Qiao Qingqing's painting, "Listening to Rain in the Pine Mountains."
At the time, none of the paintings were signed, so no one knew who had painted the one they admired.
Ma Tianci studied "Listening to Rain in the Pine Mountains" for a long time, feeling more and more that the brushwork was masterful, the technique exquisite, and the artistic conception quite profound. So he placed a bid of twenty taels of silver.
After that, he bid on two more paintings, making three in total.
But only "Listening to Rain in the Pine Mountains" won the bid.
After the bid, a waiter came to find him and invited him upstairs, saying that the creator of "Listening to Rain in the Pine Mountains" wished to meet this kindred spirit.
Ma Tianci, also greatly interested in the painting's owner, followed the waiter upstairs.
When they met, Ma Tianci discovered that the painting's owner was actually Qiao Qingqing, the daughter of the Qiao family—a family with which the Ma family had a feud.
The two faced each other, both somewhat awkward.
They drank tea together for a while, and Ma Tianci asked Qiao Qingqing about the inspiration for her painting. She said that while burning incense at Hongwen Temple, she had seen mist shrouding the pine mountains and that was where the inspiration came from.
After chatting for a while, Ma Tianci picked up the painting to leave. Qiao Qingqing stood up to see him off, but suddenly twisted her ankle and fell toward Ma Tianci.
Ma Tianci caught her in his arms, and a faint fragrance wafted over him, stirring his thoughts.
"I'm sorry, Young Master Ma,"
Qiao Qingqing said as she apologized. She tried to stand up, but let out a soft cry and leaned closer into Ma Tianci's embrace.
Once she was steady, Ma Tianci quickly stepped back two paces. "Forgive me, Miss Qiao. This gentleman was too forward."
Qiao Qingqing lifted her eyelids to look at him and smiled lightly. "It's fine. It was my carelessness. But my foot is injured now—I'm afraid I can't walk..."
She sat down in a chair, lifted her skirt, and revealed a slender, snow-white ankle. "Would Young Master Ma be willing to help me downstairs?"
Ma Tianci, an inexperienced young man, couldn't handle such teasing. He fled in panic.
From then on, just as the Qiao family had said, Ma Tianci kept running into Qiao Qingqing by chance.
And each time they met, Qiao Qingqing would flirt with him—sometimes dropping a scented pouch, other times slipping him an embroidered handkerchief thick with fragrant powder, whispering in his ear, "Young Master Ma, the peonies on this handkerchief are the same pattern as the little undershirt I'm wearing today. Do you think it looks nice?"
Ma Tianci's face flushed red as a beet, and he nodded repeatedly. "Nice... it looks nice."
"You fool,"
Qiao Qingqing laughed, scolded him lightly, and walked away.
With Qiao Qingqing's flirtations, Ma Tianci's heart began to stir. He often held her scented pouch and handkerchief, thinking of her, and even saved his monthly allowance to buy her a gold bracelet.
Soon after, their secret romance was exposed. The Qiao family came to return the gifts, heaping humiliation on the Ma family.
Mr. Ma and Mrs. Ma were business owners themselves. How could they swallow such an insult? With the two families already enemies who couldn't stand each other, Mr. and Mrs. Ma immediately ordered Ma Tianci to break things off with Qiao Qingqing and returned all the items she had given him.
Ma Tianci, by nature gentle and filial, held out for a few days. But when he saw his mother fall ill from anger, he relented and agreed to end the relationship.
One day, Ma Tianci was invited by his friend Wen Zhengshen to burn incense at Hongwen Temple.
There, he once again ran into Qiao Qingqing by chance.
Ma Tianci kept his distance, not daring to speak. After a moment's hesitation, he turned and walked away.
As soon as he left, Qiao Qingqing chased after him. Her steps were too hurried, and she twisted her ankle. Worried, Ma Tianci stopped, turned back, and helped her sit down.
Once seated, Qiao Qingqing grabbed him and began to scold him—calling him a coward, a turtle hiding in its shell, a heartless and faithless man.
Ma Tianci's face flushed pale and red as the insults rained down.
Qiao Qingqing gave a light snort. Seeing that he still didn’t take the hint and instead leaned in to coax her, she rolled her eyes, pulled a newly purchased bellyband from her bosom, and stuffed it into his arms. "I'm telling you, you took my bellyband. If you ever try to avoid me from now on, I'll go straight to the magistrate's office and accuse you of molesting me and then callously abandoning me."
Though Qiao Qingqing was willful and her actions carried a hint of coercion, Ma Tianci was already deeply in love with her and unable to let her go. He accepted the bellyband, and the two embraced, pouring out their feelings for each other. Afterward, they arranged to meet secretly at Brother Wen’s house.
This Brother Wen, whose full name was Wen Zhengshen, was Ma Tianci’s close friend. He had also passed the prefectural examination and was preparing for the imperial exam in the capital. However, his family was poor, and he often made a living by setting up a stall to write letters for others.
For a time afterward, the two got along like honey mixing with oil. But about a month ago, their secret affair was discovered once more. Qiao Qingqing was locked up, barely clinging to life.
Her maid, Tao Hong, unable to reach Ma Tianci, informed Wen Zhengshen, who then passed the news to Ma Tianci. Ma Tianci sighed, thinking that a real man should take responsibility—how could he let a woman suffer in his place?
So Ma Tianci gathered some banknotes and, teaming up with Tao Hong and Wen Zhengshen, snuck through a doghole into the Qiao residence to see Qiao Qingqing.
Ma Tianci had originally planned to meet Qiao Qingqing first and then go to her parents to confess his wrongdoing and beg them to let him marry her. But before he could act, Qiao Qingqing, upon seeing him, forcibly dragged him to flee, insisting that her parents wanted to kill her. If they didn’t escape quickly and were caught, they would surely be sunk in a bamboo cage.
Before Ma Tianci could react, Qiao Qingqing had pulled him into an illicit elopement.
Unexpectedly, Qiao Qingqing, shameless and fickle, suddenly regretted running away after the elopement and tried to bolt. Ma Tianci caught her on the spot. In the struggle between them, Ma Tianci accidentally strangled Qiao Qingqing to death.
Ma Tianci had always been a law-abiding man. After strangling Qiao Qingqing, he knew he couldn’t escape legal punishment and, feeling he had no face to show his parents, fell into deep thought before taking poison to end his own life.
After hearing the story, Yan Tongshu fell silent once more.
In the accounts of both sets of parents, the personalities and temperaments of Qiao Qingqing and Ma Tianzi were entirely different.
Yan Tongshu asked, "Boss Ma, on the night of the elopement, you and Mrs. Ma didn’t witness it yourselves, so how did you know about the threats Qiao Qingqing made?"
Mr. Ma paused for a moment. "I guessed."
So it was only a guess!
Yan Tongshu clenched his fists, wanting to hit someone. "And how did you find out about the details of their first meeting, their reunion, and their daily interactions?"
Mr. Ma thumped his chest in assurance. "Prefect Yan, the elopement night was a guess, but the details of their first meeting, reunion, and daily life—my wife and I learned those when we questioned my son. He told us himself! How could they be false?"
The testimonies from both sides didn’t match, and Yan Tongshu grew even more confused.
Yan Tongshu then asked Qiao Qingqing’s parents, "On the night of the elopement, you didn’t see or hear anything either. How do you know that Ma Tianci drugged Qiao Qingqing and took her away?"
Mrs. Qiao replied, "In response to Prefect Yan, the maid watching over our daughter was drugged unconscious. We deduced it from that."
Another guess!
Yan Tongshu gritted his teeth. Neither the Qiao nor the Ma family was being straightforward.
He reorganized the testimonies of both families in his mind, then asked, "Ma Tianci died of poisoning. Where did he get the poison?"
