The Beauty and the Swordsman

The two sisters, Lanxiang and Lianzhen, were already famous in Baishuang Town, Qingwu County.

It's not because they're pitiful.

The court was oppressive, the emperor was incompetent, and there were countless pitiful people, especially in the entire Yong Kingdom.

They became famous because of a man who recently became famous, which made them famous as well.

Lianzhen married Wang Bin, a scholar from an ordinary family with two acres of meager land.

Although they weren't wealthy, they were still pitiful people who lost their parents at a young age.

He fell in love with Lianzhen at first sight while drinking soy milk on the street and asked a matchmaker to propose marriage.

After marrying Lianzhen, the young couple treated each other with respect and lived a peaceful life.

Unfortunately, less than a year later, Lianzhen committed suicide by drowning herself in the river for unknown reasons.

On the day Lianzhen's body was recovered, Wang Bin cried by the river until he fainted several times.

Later, he spent his days weeping, unable to eat or drink, and stayed in his room writing love poems to mourn his deceased wife.

The neighbors often heard him sitting at his door calling out Lianzhen's name, lamenting the cruel twist of fate that separated the two lovers forever.

Everyone admired Wang Bin's deep affection, saying that he was a man of noble character and could be entrusted with important matters.

Even before the mourning period has ended, matchmakers have come to propose marriage again, but Wang Bin has politely declined them all.

When Pei Lingyou and Kuang Ye arrived at Wang Bin's house, just as rumored, Wang Bin was in his study, crying and writing poetry.

The courtyard was piled high with comfort food donated by kind-hearted people, and it looked like it hadn't been opened yet.

Wang Bin looked genuinely affectionate, but Pei Lingyou felt a strange, tingling sensation all over her body.

She couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong.

Kuang Ye watched for a long time, and when he thought of asking Wang Bin what was on Lian Zhen's mind before she passed away, Wang Bin started to cry.

He said that after his wife got married, she missed her younger sister and was always in a bad mood, and he couldn't get any important information out of her for a long time.

The visit seemed like a waste of time, but as she left, Pei Lingyou noticed that the neighbor's reaction was somewhat subtle.

She and Kuang Ye exchanged a glance. Without saying a word, they knew they meant the same thing. After leaving Wang Bin's house, they wandered around for a while before knocking on their neighbor's door.

Wang Bin's neighbors are an elderly couple nearing sixty, with gray hair, no children, and who make a living by weaving bamboo baskets at home.

Because I spend a lot of time working at home, I inevitably hear the noise from Wang Bin's house next door.

The elderly woman in the couple, in particular, had poor eyesight and couldn't see anything, but her hearing was exceptionally sharp. She said she heard Lianzhen crying in the middle of the night and vomiting in the morning.

Pei Lingyou didn't understand what it meant, what sad thing could make someone cry so much they vomit.

The old lady smiled and said:

"It means the woman is pregnant. You two must be newlyweds, you don't know these things yet!"

These words made Kuang Ye blush slightly, but he did not refute them.

Pei Lingyou laughed heartily, deliberately teasing him:

"Grandma, do you also think we're a good match? It's a pity he doesn't like me."

The old woman reached out her calloused, rough hands, cupped Pei Lingyou's face, and gently touched her eyebrows, eyes, and nose, exclaiming in surprise:

"Goodness, he wouldn't want such a beautiful girl? Is he stupid? Does he prefer a celestial fairy?"

The room erupted in laughter. The old man glanced at Kuang Ye, who was smiling gently with his head bowed, and gave him a knowing, experienced smile. He patted his wife on the shoulder.

"Stop thinking nonsense! Your eyesight isn't good; you're looking down the wrong way!"

"But my hearing is perfectly fine!" the old lady insisted, and the topic returned to Lianzhen.

The old woman hesitated for a moment, then said:

"Actually, I felt something was off about Wang Bin, but everyone felt sorry for him and said good things about him, so I kept quiet. He...he..."

Although the old man had been joking just now, he didn't refute the old woman at this moment. Instead, he replied:

My wife said his crying wasn't genuine.

Pei Lingyou suddenly realized why she had felt so uncomfortable when Wang Bin had mourned Lianzhen so deeply in his home.

She and the old lady shared the same feeling:

Wang Bin was so heartbroken that he cried for a very long time.

It's like he's deliberately putting on a show for everyone, wanting the whole world to know he's a deeply affectionate man.

"When a wife passes away, most people would lie in bed and weep. How could they have the strength to get up and write? Look at that courtyard, the Xuan paper is piled up all over the ground. It would be better if everyone in the entire Qingwu County received a sheet." Kuang Ye said this with a rare coldness in his tone.

Pei Lingyou nodded in agreement:

"And sitting at the door in the middle of the night crying and chanting Lianzhen's name, doesn't that get creepy?"

At this point, the case finally had a breakthrough.

Pei Lingyou and Kuang Ye brought the new clues they had obtained back to Lanxiang's courtyard.

Lanxiang was astonished when she heard that Lianzhen sometimes vomited in the morning:

"My sister doesn't have a stomach ailment, but she's never mentioned being pregnant. If it were true, why would she jump into the river on something so joyful?"

Ke Lianzhen definitely jumped into the river herself; her shoes were neatly placed on the bank, and several people witnessed it.

Things are getting stranger and stranger.

Kuang Ye said:

"When I checked the autopsy records in the civil affairs department, there was no mention that Lianzhen was pregnant."

Before the others could figure it out, Pei Lingyou had already reacted immediately:

"The clerk's office is falsifying documents!"

Pei Lingyou felt that her chance to show herself had finally arrived. She couldn't even wait until dawn and immediately went with Kuang Ye to the coroner's house that very night.

After being beaten, the coroner finally admitted that he and Wang Bin were old friends who took the provincial examinations at the same time.

It was Wang Bin who bribed him to keep quiet about Lianzhen's pregnancy.

"That's all?" Pei Lingyou sneered, kicked the coroner to the ground, and slapped him repeatedly.

Only then did the coroner admit that when Lianzhen died, she had many new and old wounds on her body, a fractured ankle, and two broken ribs.

Because the injuries were concentrated under his clothes and could not be seen, and he was the only coroner in Qingwu County, it was easy to fake and cover them up.

Upon hearing this, Kuang Ye had already formed a simple outline of the case in his mind: Wang Bin had been beating his wife for a long time, which led to his wife's depression and suicide by drowning.

Pei Lingyou had no time to think about anything else. She took off the coroner's shoes, stuffed them into his mouth, and lightly stomped on them, breaking three of the coroner's ribs.

The pain was excruciating but didn't damage the lungs; the force was just right, enough to make the coroner suffer for at least six months.

As he was leaving, the coroner lay on the ground groaning, and Pei Lingyou spat at him:

"Pah! You think you can bully the dead because they can't speak?"

After leaving the coroner's office, Pei Lingyou asked Kuang Ye:

"Why didn't you stop me just now? I've gotten into trouble again."

After asking, she realized that in all this time, Kuang Ye had never stopped her from getting into trouble.

He always told the disciples of Tongchen Sect to think things through carefully, saying that in this world, one should seek a way to have the best of both worlds.

But he never made such a request of her; he simply followed behind, cleaning up her messes.

Sure enough, he said:

"Cause trouble? I don't think you've ever done that. Like that character 'Wu,' you might just mistake it occasionally."

These words made Pei Lingyou feel really comfortable!

Few people would say she's not arrogant, but simply that she's strong.

Regardless of her mischievousness and trouble-making, she is wise, insightful, and genuine—a truly kind person.

Seeing the crescent moon hanging in the night sky, its silvery light illuminating Kuang Ye's gentle features, her playful thoughts suddenly resurfaced. She nudged him with her shoulder and smiled:

"Hey, the old lady just said, 'You don't want such a good girl like me? Are you stupid? Do you prefer a fairy from heaven?'"

He chuckled softly, not answering immediately, but only after Pei Lingyou had walked quite a distance away humming a song did he whisper a reply:

"I don't like celestial fairies."

I only like you.