Suozhi Lane is located inside the West City Gate. To its east is Yanzi Square where the Liang Family resides, and to its west is the moat.
From the Liang Family going towards the moat, the way is lined with aristocrats and wealthy families. The alleys are wide and straight, one of the roads Liang Ning walked the most during her lifetime.
At the end of the alley, by the moat, there’s a structure called Canglang Pavilion. It’s referred to as a pavilion, but it’s actually a garden often visited by young men. It has pavilions and towers, as well as an archery range equipped with eighteen types of weapons, making it a popular place for children of both civil servants and generals.
Liang Ning played here since childhood. While Liang Chen and others were chatting in the garden, she would dive into the moat with Liang Zhi, Cheng Chili, and others.
This was her childhood paradise. The first time she had a confrontation with Pei Zhan happened here.
"Look down from this tree, there should be a few stone pits on the wall by the river bank you can land on."
By the river, she counted the willow trees along the shore, stopping under one with a crooked branch, signaling Yang Tong to look down.
The moat was wide and deep. Even though the moonlight was bright, the broad canopy of the willow tree effectively made someone standing underneath invisible to the guards below the opposite palace wall.
Yang Tong bent over, took a look, and nodded, saying, "There are pits indeed. If there’s a rope, I can stand on them."
Fu Zhen took out a small bundle of rope from her sleeve, pulled out one end and tossed it to him: "Tie it around your waist, get in the river. About the ninth pit down, can you see a large enough stone pit where a one-foot-long box could fit?"
Yang Tong did as told, and shortly after diving under, he silently resurfaced: "There is indeed a pit! It’s a remnant from the stone masonry!"
Fu Zhen nodded immediately, then tied the other end of the rope to the tree, disregarded Yang Tong’s anxious dissuasion, and entered the water herself.
For the Liang Family, practicing swimming skills from a young age was essential. Swimming skills, unlike martial arts, could be retained even in another body as long as one remembered the essentials.
Fu Zhen submerged, took out a box containing a dagger from her sleeve, and tucked it deeply into the stone pit.
She had been playing in this area since she was old enough to remember, started swimming at five, and practiced until she was eight.
Pei Zhan’s elder brother Pei Dan was the same age as Liang Chen. Having grown up together, Liang Ning was more familiar with Pei Dan.
Every time Pei Dan saw Liang Ning, he would smile and call her Auntie, then chat with her for a while.
Pei Zhan sometimes tagged along with Pei Dan, but back then he was too young to catch anyone’s attention.
Liang Ning only started to notice his presence when he was about seven, and Pei Zhan was five.
It was an early spring afternoon, still cold; but with white clouds in the sky and new buds on the willow trees, she sat on the stone steps under the pavilion waiting for her friends, as Pei Zhan came over with a string of sugar-coated haws in his hand, taking short steps.
The stone steps were a bit high for him. He stumbled, and the sugar haws almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, Liang Ning swiftly caught them before they dropped.
Though he wasn’t as chubby as his son is now, he was plump and soft, quite adorable.
Liang Ning realized he never called her ’Auntie’, so she, having nothing better to do, raised the sugar haws and said to him, "Call me Auntie, and I’ll give this to you."
The little guy refused, face flushed red, saying, "You’re not surnamed Pei, so I won’t call you Auntie."
Liang Ning said, "Your brother calls me Auntie, why don’t you? If you don’t, I’ll eat your sugar haws!"
That little boy was stubborn from an early age.
He watched her bring the sugar haws to her mouth, tears welling up, but his lips remained stiff: "I won’t call you, absolutely not!"
Liang Ning was a woman of her word.
She really ate the string of sugar haws.
Crunching and licking even the sugary bits on the stick in front of him.
As expected, Pei Zhan sat on the stone steps wailing, and from that point on, he never showed a good face to Liang Ning. No matter how she teased or coaxed him, or assumed a senior’s attitude, he never once called her Auntie.
Many years later, the fact that this stubborn lump still remembered Liang Ning, and kept pressing on a case casually mentioned by Fu Zhen, meant he must have vivid memories of this incident.
Fu Zhen returned to the shore soaked and, under the cover of night, crept back into the mansion from a small door in the northwest corner.
Under the large phoenix tree outside the South Gate of the Fu Family, a large carriage was currently parked.
After Mrs. Fu and Fu Jia had fallen into a deep sleep, Li Jiang and Li Huai, who had stealthily come out, were meeting Pei Zhan in the carriage.
"...Fu Yun appears virtuous yet indulges concubine Mrs. Liu excessively, with Old Mrs. Fu spoiling her only son beyond measure. Miss Fu’s strength seems reluctantly achieved from being forced, yet fortunately so; she has managed to safeguard what’s left for Mrs. Fu and her younger brother. Such is the situation in the Fu Family, awaiting the General’s decision."
Pei Zhan sat on the brocade couch frowning, remaining silent for a long while.
It wasn’t until the night watchman sounded his clapper that he finally took a deep breath and said, "Continue to investigate carefully. Additionally, keep a close watch on her these days and see if she mentions a dagger. If she does, report to me immediately!"
Pei Zhan lifted his chin, indicating for them to leave.
In an instant, both inside and outside the carriage turned silent.
He turned to look at the shadow of the carriage in the moonlight outside the window and suddenly felt somewhat obsessed.
He had told himself countless times that girl was a liar, yet he shouldn’t keep tangled over the truth of this matter, let alone repeatedly concede... Official source is NovєlFіre.net
He simply couldn’t understand why in the morning at the temple, when he was clearly about to have her under control, he ended up giving in and agreeing to give her three more days.
The dagger Liang Ning took, how could it return to her hands in just three days?
How was she so confident that she could really find such a dagger in three days?
He shouldn’t let her lead him by the nose.
But no matter how fake her actions were, there was a one-in-ten-thousand chance it was real.
If the truth turned out to be one of those ten-thousandths, wouldn’t Liang Ning’s death seem too coincidental?
Why did she die merely three days after the murder case occurred?
He knew the Ministry of Justice was capable in handling the case, and he knew the emperor would not allow them to play tricks in such matters, but was it not still too coincidental?
"Sir, shall we return to the mansion?"
The guard asked from the carriage’s front.
Pei Zhan gazed at the night sky, and after a while, he said, "What use is the place Vice Minister Xu once lived in before he rose to prominence now?"
The guard pondered, "That house was bought by Miss Liang. After Vice Minister Xu moved out, it was returned to Liang Mansion."
Pei Zhan let down the carriage curtain, "Let’s take a walk in the alley between Liang Mansion and that house."