Chapter 142: Chapter 118: I Create Myths in the Mortal World

Yizhong County.

The rain had lightened to a drizzle, a fine mist like a thin veil. If one were to look down from above at this moment, the ancient city would resemble a peerless beauty tempered by the flames of war, draped in an alluring, translucent gauze that hinted at a hazy, dreamlike loveliness.

A few Ravens stood on the eaves, heads bowed as they preened their feathers with their beaks.

The Si Family estate.

The reception hall was brightly lit.

Si Youqing looked at the two newcomers from Ye Weiyang, both of them Constellations, and sighed inwardly at the extent of Zheng Xiu’s connections.

He’d never imagined this. Their Shuzhou Si Family managed a branch of the Zheng Family’s merchant guild and had always been painstakingly diligent in avoiding any association with Ye Weiyang.

Yet now, Zheng Xiu himself was deeply entangled with Ye Weiyang’s Twelfth Moon.

Madam Si graciously served pastries, embodying the image of a virtuous and beautiful wife.

"From Ye Weiyang, Yue Yan,"

"And also from Ye Weiyang, the newest of the Twenty-Eight Constellations and currently Ye Weiyang’s youngest Constellation, Dou Xie."

Yue Yan wished she could sew Dou Xie’s mouth shut; she was utterly mortified. She quickly cut him off, saying, "Steward Si, please forgive the intrusion."

Yue Yan and Dou Xie introduced themselves, bowed with cupped fists, and then took their seats.

Si Youqing looked from one to the other, feeling that the young woman from Ye Weiyang named Yue Yan seemed somewhat familiar.

But with his wife present, it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to ask too many questions.

Following Feng Bei’s instructions, Yue Yan made a show of demurring for a moment to fulfill her duty, then, with a smile, began to recount the intelligence they had gathered during their investigation in Yinping.

Yue Yan slowly recounted her and Dou Xie’s experience of detouring through Yinping.

Upon arriving in Yinping, they went straight to the Ye Weiyang branch office, revealed their identities, and began investigating the case.

To Yue Yan’s surprise, she found that Xu Shu and Jin Niu had left no trace there.

They examined the files. On the day of the incident, a young man claiming to be a descendant of Gongsun Mo had pawned an Ancient Painting that was tightly wrapped in oilcloth.

According to the pawnshop’s rules, there were two types of pawning: a "dead pawn" and a "living pawn."

A "dead pawn" meant that once the item and money were exchanged, the owner would never redeem the item. It would belong completely to the shop, for the shopkeeper to dispose of as they saw fit.

A "living pawn" was the opposite. The pawn ticket would state that the item must be redeemed for a certain amount of money by a specific date. Only after the deadline passed would a "living pawn" become a "dead pawn."

"Are you saying that for Gongsun Mo’s painting, the owner signed it over as a ’dead pawn’ from the very beginning?"

Hearing this, Zheng Xiu frowned and interjected, asking the question. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Yue Yan nodded and answered obediently, "Yes, Zheng... Marquis."

’Yue Yan had known before she arrived that Zheng Shan planned to pose as Zheng Xiu, but she hadn’t expected to fool Si Youqing so easily, and for a moment, she’d almost forgotten to use the correct address. For some reason, however, now that Senior Zheng Shan was acting as Zheng Xiu, the two had become linked in her mind. Every time she looked at Zheng Shan’s face, she felt as though the features of Zheng Xiu and Zheng Shan would occasionally overlap, making it increasingly difficult for her to tell them apart. It was as if the real Master Zheng had consumed all sorts of tonics and transformed overnight into the handsome, Mighty Man sitting there. No wonder Si Youqing had believed Zheng Shan so quickly. The two were just too similar. Once she accepted the premise, even she found herself subconsciously filling in the blanks and seeing the resemblances.’

After a pause, Yue Yan continued, "I went to check the pawn ticket. The painting was pawned for ten taels of silver. For an authentic work by Gongsun Mo, that price is indeed far too low. It was probably because the seller insisted that the scroll not be opened to verify its authenticity. The shopkeeper accepting the scroll was definitely taking a gamble."

"That night, someone heard a blood-curdling scream from inside the pawnshop and reported it to the authorities immediately. According to the report, the Shopkeeper had locked himself and the painting in the treasure room. It wasn’t until nearly dawn that the Government Office found a renowned local locksmith to open the complex puzzle lock. They discovered that the Shopkeeper had vanished, leaving only the painting on the floor."

"Initially, the Government Office treated it as a simple burglary and took the scroll back as evidence."

"Before nightfall, the person in charge of guarding the evidence let out another scream. This time, both the person and the painting disappeared."

"Only then did they realize something was strange about the painting and urgently contacted Ye Weiyang."

Zheng Xiu nodded without saying much.

’In modern terms, this would be a classic locked-room mystery,’ he thought. ’Whether it’s murder is another matter. Since both the person and the painting are gone, it’s hard to say.’

Yue Yan smiled faintly. "We’ll get back to the painting later. Next, the two of us went to investigate and discovered some interesting things."

"First, the ’descendant of Gongsun Mo’ who originally pawned the painting was nowhere to be found, and the case file was vague on the details. So we went door to door asking around. We discovered that in all of Yinping City, there wasn’t a single family with the surname ’Gongsun.’ Unless Gongsun Mo’s descendants abandoned their own family name, it doesn’t make sense. One old man told us that the Gongsun Family line had died out long ago, so there couldn’t possibly be any so-called ’descendants.’"

"We spent several days in Yinping, poring over historical records. Eventually, Young Brother Xie finally did something useful. Using clues from a few fragmented scrolls, he deduced the location of Gongsun Mo’s tomb. The two of us journeyed for two days before we finally found an unmarked tomb."

"There weren’t many burial goods in the tomb, but there was an empty stone sarcophagus. Judging by its shape, the missing painting was supposed to have been inside."

"In the center of the tomb was a double coffin, and an epitaph recorded the identities of its occupants."

Si Youqing asked, "Was it Gongsun Mo?"

Yue Yan shook her head. "Yes, but not entirely. The epitaph read, ’The Tomb of Gongsun Mo and Xie Luohe.’ And the name signed at the end was... Xie Yunliu."

Hearing this, Feng Bei and Zheng Xiu exchanged a look of tacit understanding, their thoughts perfectly in sync.