Chapter 36: Cloudy Layers of Suspicion

The runners carried Wan Lu inside, inspected the surroundings, then stood guard outside the courtyard. The lead bailiffs were exactly those two that helped in the rescue today.

Ran Yan ordered Miss Xing and Ms Liu to help settle Wan Lu to prevent any accidents from happening, then she turned around to enter the house.

Sang Chen stood in the courtyard bewildered. He hugged the cloth bag to his bosom, at a loss of what to do.

“Come in!” Ran Yan stood at the doorway of the hall, with an ill expression. She originally thought that Sang Chen would follow her in, who knew that this person actually did not have any awareness at all.

In an instant, Sang Chen seemed to find his backbone, and ran over happily.

Ran Yan snorted coldly, her face still remaining cold. However, looking at his bright smiling face, the dark haze in her heart lessened by a lot.

This person Sang Chen was very weird, sometimes he would seem to understand the ways of the world very well, and was not a person that had never witnessed the sinister affairs of the world. But every time they met, he would have the naive appearance of a tame and harmless person. That pair of eyes was always pure and genuine, without a trace of impurity.

Looking at Sang Chen’s eyes, another pair of eyes suddenly floated up in the sea of her thoughts, dark and cold, as if never seeing the daylight.

“Mi- Miss.” Sang Chen face and ears flushed red from Ran Yan’s unblinking gaze watching him intently, as if blood could drip from his ears, “This is a little, a little of my kind regards[1].”

Sang Chen nervously swallowed, in a flurry, he placed the cloth bundle on the small table in front of Ran Yan.

Two patches of sweat stains were left behind on surface of deep blue bundle where his hands clutched at it. The corners of Ran Yan’s lips rose up faintly. She extended her hands to open up the bundle. When she saw the things in the bundle, her mood that had just been alleviated abruptly darkened, “Next time you can’t send this type of things again!”

Ran Yan’s stared at the orchid dengni ink-stone before her with an ice cold expression, and momentarily felt like smashing it on Sang Chen’s head[2]. Three times he came to visit, three times he gifted orchid dengni. The previous two ink-stones had been smashed by Ran Yan. Since she had chosen to stay in the Tang Dynasty, she needed to whole-heartedly strive to live her life, and not leave a single trace of distant, unrealistic hope for herself, but it was like Sang Chen was deliberately opposing her, every time he would send the same ink stone. Ran Yan truly could not stop herself from getting angry.

Sang Chen’s complexion turned pale slightly, “Other people rather liked it, I thought Miss would like it too…”

Ran Yan coldly slashed a glare at him. Her gaze was then attracted by the ceramic syringe barrel in the cloth bundle.

The syringe barrel’s surface was white, with ice cracks, the quality of the glaze exquisite like a bright mirror, the walls of the barrel was very thin, comparable to normal glass syringe barrel. The plunger was also made from the same material and it’s surface had a clear graduated scale. This way, even though the syringe barrel was not transparent, they could determine the volume of the medicine from the scale on the syringe.

The pretty, glossy syringe barrel quietly lay on the rough, deep blue cloth, and looked increasingly similar to an art piece, exquisite and beautiful.

Ran Yan casually picked up a pair, and placed the plunger into the syringe barrel, it actually fit perfectly! She fitted the others one by one, they fitted together accurately to perfection. At once her expression cleared up, her gaze when looking at Sang Chen was somewhat milder, “Excellent, many thanks.”

I feel like the design would look similar to this antique pewter syringe, except that it is made from white ceramic and looks prettier of course.

“Miss flatters me, you’ve also helped me. Yesterday, I handed over the plaint to County Deputy Han. He said that it was reasonable and backed with evidence, and would definitely cause the provincial governor to investigate the case thoroughly.” Sang Chen saw that Ran Yan’s mood seemed to improve a little, and also breathed a sigh of relief as well.

After saying that, the room returned to silence. Sang Chen secretly stole a glance at Ran Yan, but did not expect to meet her dark and deep eyes directly. His heart jumped like a rabbit, not under his control, and his face flushed completely red.

“There’s been progress in Master Han’s case?” Ran Yan knew that County Deputy Han had looked for evidence privately. These two cases both concerned Fourth Master Qin, it was possible that there might be some connection.

Sang Chen did not dare to look at her, said with his head bowed, “According to the results of Miss’s autopsy, County Deputy Han felt that the murderer most likely was in Cai Xiu House and the Han residence, recently Cai Xiu House closed for rest, moreover this isn’t Jinling[3] County, he could not discover any information. Right now, County Deputy Han suspects a personal maidservant of Master Han, but he has not found any evidence yet.”

“Why does he suspect that maidservant?” Ran Yan asked.

Sang Chen said, “That maidservant was purchased from a rural village, she was an ordinary citizen that had been forced to enter the slave registry, according to rumour she has a childhood sweetheart in the village, they had been betrothed since childhood… County Deputy Han suspects that she harbours hatred in her heart, and so used poison.”

Ran Yan nodded her head, it seemed like the Han family was not anything good either, oppressing the people. Due to his own selfish desires, Han Shan destroyed someone’s engagement. Even though Ran had great interest in solving cases, she knew that this was the Tang Dynasty, there were things that was not for her to meddle in, it would be best if she did not interfere. The only thing was, was it really as County Deputy Han suspected? Ran Yan felt that it was not necessarily so.

“Miss.” Sang Chen called cautiously.

Ran Yan lifted her brows slightly as a sign for him to continueshe had some understanding of Sang Chen now, once he used this kind of voice, it definitely would not be something good.

“Today, Ms Wang from the neighbouring village invited me to write a plaint, saying that her husband was framed by someone, I was thinking of inviting Miss…” Sang Chen felt embarrassed to continue speaking, after all Ran Yan was of noble birth, and was a lady, to continuously ask her to look at corpses, he felt apologetic.

Sang Chen’s shy demeanour, did not make one feel repelled. In Ran Yan’s opinion, it was at least a lot better than when he does stupid things.

“The last time it was an exchange, what about this time? What are you planning on taking out to repay me.” Without knowing why, looking at this demeanour of his, Ran Yan felt like teasing him.

Sang Chen was momentarily struck dumb, he was a destitute private school teacher, what could he take out to repay her, after racking his brains, he could only say embarrassedly, “I was being too rude, I am impoverished and have nothing that can repay you…”

The period of recovery for Ran Yan’s body was not long. After the stress of today, she felt a little tired, and sat slightly askew in the chair, her eyes drooping in deep thought. Sang Chen was not a bookworm, his outer appearance seemed very silly and dumb, but right now she could see that, his efficiency and quality in handling affairs was first-rate. Moreover, he made her feel like he was a person she could trust, in future she could definitely use him, helping him a few times was also not a big issue, she was only afraid that he would come back again and again…

“Miss, since the syringe barrels are suitable to use, I will send the rest over later.” Sang Chen got up, seeming anxious to leave, he said, “Then I will take my leave now.”

Sang Chen saw that Ran Yan did not reply for a long time, thought that he had requested something excessive, and made her unhappy, thus got up to leave. Just as he walked to the doorway of the hall, he heard that clear and cold voice saying from behind him, “I will consider it.”

Sang Chen startled slightly, shortly after he happily clasped his hands towards Ran Yan, “Many thanks, Miss!”

“Don’t rush to thank me, I have not promised you anything yet.” Ran Yan said plainly.

This sentence could not affect Sang Chen’s mood. He himself did not know why he would inexplicably[4] ask Ran Yan for help. Actually he could write the plaint on his own, after all he had written many before. Aside from Han Shan’s case, there was not one occasion where autopsy was needed, this time was not an exception either.

It was not until after Sang Chen left, that Miss Xing exited from Wan Lu’s house, and saw Ran Yan rubbing her head. She went over to give her a massage.

“Thank you.” Ran Yan said habitually.

Miss Xing smiled and said, “Miss is still being courteous to this old servant?”

After a long, quiet massage, Miss Xing finally could not bear it anymore and said, “Miss, Mr Sang is so diligent in coming over, most likely he’s interested in you, but you are a person who is engaged, you should not be too close to him, if by chance your future mother-in-law comes to know of it, your future days would not be peaceful.”

After this reminder, only did Ran Yan recall that she still needed to go to the Ran residence, and look for a’ye and probe him regarding her marriage. However, misfortune just befell Fourth Master Qin, the Qin family should be busy worrying about him, the Ran family would probably also consider this cautiously, thus there was no need to immediately go there.

“Ms Liu came?” Ran Yan asked.

Mentioning Ms Liu, Miss Xing’s appearance revealed a bit of praise and appreciation, “That’s right, Ms Liu is extremely well mannered, moreover her Suzhou embroidery[5] is really pretty. Does Miss want to see her?”

“There’s no need at the moment. First, go and invite teacher[6] over to look at Wan Lu’s injuries.” Ran Yan said.

Miss Xing made a sound of agreement, and withdrew from the hall.

Ran Yan dragged her tired body towards the place where she kept the Penicillium mould, and took out those fruit skins and food[7] that were completely covered in the Penicillium mould. She used a thin bamboo strip to scrape it into the static liquid culture[8] for incubation. After seven days, she could official extract penicillin.

Ran Yan had told Miss Yan previously, if their illness worsened, she could send someone to the village to look for her. After so many days, no one actually came here, it can be seen that the effect of the medicine she prescribed must be good, it should buy her some more time.

After completing her task, Ran Yan lay on the couch. In a state of half-sleep, half-consciousness, all the illogical things that happened today constantly surfaced in her mind.

Han Shan’s death and Yin Miao-miao’s servant’s death, was as if someone was purposely targeting Fourth Master Qin. It was extremely likely that it was done by one person. The culprit that wanted to kill Wan Lu might also be related to this case.

First, it was that Miss Yan. After hearing that someone had died in the brothel, her indifference and calmness did not seem like the reaction most female brothel keepers would have, and she had been more concerned with the prostitute’s state of dress than a human life.

Cui Mei from Cai Xiu House had clearly emphasised that she was a qingguan[9], yet she was also infected with syphilis. The sores from her syphilis were at the corners of her mouth, looking at this, it was obvious that there was a difference of not more than five days from when Han Shan became sick, the probability of her being infected by Han Shan was far lower than that of her being infected by Zi Xu. Could it be a homosexual relationship? Or was it spread through sharing cups and such things? If it was the latter, then why would she try to cover it up?

After that it was the Yin residence. The servant at Magnolia House had been dead for over 10 hours. If her murderer was not from the Yin residence, then they would have be someone with a close relationship with the Yin residence, someone that could move more freely in and out of the Yin residence, and would be very familiar with the Yin residence. Livor mortis[10] had yet to appear on the exposed areas of the servant’s corpse, and because Ran Yan did not dare to rashly do a thorough examination, she could not determine the precise time of death.

And there was also Yin Miao-miao. Her servant had gone missing for at least 10-12 hours, was it possible that she did not even notice it the slightest? At the tea party too, she had brought up playing hide-and-seek. It can be conjectured, that if Yin Miao-miao was not the murderer, at the very least she was an accomplice.

Moreover, Ran Meiyu was also nearby at the time, Ran Yan remembered that she had red nail polish on…

With these chaotic thoughts in her mind, Ran Yan gradually fell asleep, and was completely unaware that her brave behaviour today had spread amongst Suzhou’s influential officials, especially the matter of her “reviving the dead”.

Naturally Ran Wen heard the news quickly. It was just as Ran Yan expected, he started to hesitate in his heart. It seemed like this daughter of his could be matched with even higher powers, marrying her to Qin Shangzuo’s son, was a little wasteful…

**

A/N: Tomorrow I am traveling far to go to a friend’s wedding, updates could be a little late, as a veteran spinster, going to this kind of event, is extremely depressing. On account of this, please forgive me this once (for the late update).

**

T/N: I changed Ms Wan Lu in the previous chapter to Wan Lu guniang instead because there are too many Miss/Ms that all are subtly different and I have no idea how to differentiate them now.
姑娘 guniang can refer to: unmarried young ladies, daughter, [archaic]prostitute, married aunt on father’s side, younger sister-in-law
Thank you to everyone who commented, even though I havent been replying please know that i read every single comment and appeciate all of them! <3

[1] 心意: regard / kindly feelings / intention. The phrase “this is a little of my regards” is commonly used when giving gifts.

[2]頓時想將它砸在桑辰那個不知道裝著什么的腦袋上: I had no idea how to fit this in the sentence, but there was a part that basically said that who knew what was in that head of Sang Chen.

[3] 晉陵縣: It might refer to Nanjing, which is also known as Jinling, but is written differently as 金陵 – not sure if it is a typo or not.

[4] 鬼使神差: demons and gods at work (idiom); unexplained event crying out for a supernatural explanation / curious coincidence

[5] 苏绣: Suzhou embroidery – general term for embroidery products made in Suzhou

[6] 師父: shifu – meaning teacher/master, let me know if you would rather I use the pinyin instead of teacher

[7] 面食: food made from wheat flour eg noodles, dumplings, buns..

[8] Static liquid culture: bacteria suspended in liquid culture medium in an upright flask, these cultures are not shaken and they provide the microbes with an oxygen gradient.

[9] 清倌: courtesans who only sell their skills and not their bodies.

[10]Livor mortis: discoloration of the skin due to the pooling of blood in the dependent parts of the body following death