Chapter 41 Conjecture

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Ye Minwei made no comment on A Yan’s vow of revenge. She merely seized him by the wrist and hoisted him from the ground as easily as if he were a chick.

“I went to get the money so you wouldn’t have to kneel and kowtow. If you do this, won’t all my effort have been for nothing?” she said gravely.

A Yan was utterly baffled. “Huh?”

“Money isn’t precious to me. But A Xi and your dignity are both precious to you. I can use money to buy back what you hold dear. Ideally, you should lose neither one nor the other. That is when the exchange is truly worthwhile.”

Ye Minwei spoke as though stating the obvious, as if she were merely saying: if one copper coin can buy two sesame cakes, then taking only one would be unforgivable.

“So don’t kneel to me.”

A Yan stared blankly at Ye Minwei.

Ye Minwei had no idea why the child suddenly looked as though he were about to cry.

The two faced each other, eyes wide, in the utter silence of the room. Cang Shu looked from one to the other and thought that after spending her fortune these past days, Ye Minwei had indeed learned a great deal about the ways of the world.

Unfortunately, she had learned those principles both upright and crooked.

He slowly leaned forward and said solemnly, “Money isn’t precious? I think money is very precious. Why don’t you exchange some money precious to your elder brother for it?”

Ye Minwei turned to him and said with perfect sincerity, “But you never had any money in the first place. You have nothing to lose. So how could you exchange it back?”

“...My little sister truly has a heart of stone!”

Their exchange forced the tears hanging in A Yan’s eyes back into his sockets.

While A Yan remained at the clinic to accompany A Xi, Ye Minwei and Cang Shu took seats in the restaurant across the street. Ever since he had spent all his money and been living from one scant meal to the next, Cang Shu finally had the chance to enjoy a proper feast. With a grand wave of his hand, he ordered an entire tableful of dishes.

Ye Minwei, who did not eat meals, went to the dried-goods shop next door as she had intended, bought persimmon cakes, and sat before Cang Shu eating them slowly, one bite at a time.

There was no denying it: money was a wonderful thing.

After somewhat appeasing his five internal organs, Cang Shu raised his chopsticks and turned to the serious matter at hand.

“According to the refugees, Qizhou remained peaceful for quite some time before and after Chongdan Mountain erupted. It seems highly likely that the disappearances in Qizhou and Jiazhou were the work of one person. He must have gone to Jiazhou at that time, which is why he committed no crimes in Qizhou.”

Ye Minwei bit into a persimmon cake and said indistinctly, “Yes. And he should be in Yujun City—in Canglang Manor, the Governor’s Residence, or the Laiyang Prince’s Residence.”

Cang Shu’s raised chopsticks froze in midair. He looked at Ye Minwei.

Ye Minwei looked back at him in confusion. “What is it?”

“Did you obtain that person’s birth data and calculate his fate, or find his portrait and read his face?” Cang Shu asked earnestly.

“Neither.”

“Canglang Manor and the authorities searched for him for more than a year without finding him. How did you know where he was?”

Afraid that Ye Minwei might answer with something self-evident, Cang Shu hurriedly added, “Please tell me everything in detail, from beginning to end.”

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Ye Minwei set down her persimmon cake, picked out several melon seeds from the fruit plate beside her, and arranged them one by one on the table.

“Excluding the period surrounding Chongdan Mountain’s eruption, the shortest interval between the spirit bandit’s crimes was ten days, and the longest was one month. He committed twenty-four crimes in Qizhou altogether. The locations were distributed like these melon seeds.”

As she spoke, Ye Minwei laid out twenty-four melon seeds on the table. North was above and south below; she placed a pair of chopsticks along one side to represent the sea. Cang Shu examined the arrangement and found that its proportions matched reality perfectly.

Ye Minwei continued, “Since the spirit bandit committed crimes so frequently, he must have had a steady demand, and each crime must have brought him roughly the same profit. His gain came from people, while his expense came from spirit crystals. He needed to expend spirit crystals to travel from his hideout to each crime scene, and more to transport the people back from those places.”

“When I was at Chongdan Mountain, I studied the spirit-crystal consumption of teleportation techniques. The crucial factors are the number of people being moved and the distance. But the two factors do not affect the cost in equal proportion. For distances under ten miles, one spirit crystal can transport approximately ten thousand people. For distances between ten and one hundred miles, every additional five miles reduces the number of people that one crystal can transport by one hundred. Beyond one hundred miles, the number a single crystal can carry drops rapidly as the distance increases. And merely activating a crystal consumes a great deal, so dividing the transfer into multiple stages is not worthwhile either. If he wanted to maximize his profits, then...”

As she spoke, Ye Minwei used her finger as a pen, writing numbers and drawing equations beside each melon seed. Her finger flew across the table with astonishing ease. She explained the number of people who had disappeared from each place, the distances between those places, how many spirit crystals the transfers would consume, and how all of it related to the distance from the spirit bandit’s lair. As she spoke, she drew lines between the seeds.

She spoke quickly and fluidly, as though certain that the person before her would follow every word. After connecting and marking the seeds in every direction, Ye Minwei placed one melon seed among them and said, “From this, we can calculate the location of his hideout. It should be somewhere near Yujun City. In Yujun City, only Canglang Manor, the Governor’s Residence, and the Laiyang Prince’s Residence could conceal such a large number of people.”

Cang Shu stared at the melon seed in silence for a long while before saying, “You truly are a gifted bookkeeper.”

Ye Minwei picked up her persimmon cake again and took an unhurried bite. “Mathematics is the foundation of all things.”

Ever since leaving Jiazhou, Ye Minwei had never once asked Cang Shu to divine anything. She had relied entirely on the strange workings of her strange mind and the information she had heard along the way to reach this place.

Cang Shu was delighted to have his leisure. As the saying went, a minor divination delighted the spirit, while a major one harmed the body; to pry into Heaven’s secrets was to damage one’s own life. This matter was clearly no small affair. If it could go uncalculated, he would gladly leave it so. He was, after all, the person in the world most devoted to preserving his own life.

Thus Cang Shu now clicked his tongue in admiration, set down his chopsticks, and applauded Ye Minwei.

“Then can you calculate what he is really trying to do? Could it be that he is merely trying to profit from human traffickers? And where have all those people been taken?”

Ye Minwei’s chewing slowed. She stared at the melon seeds scattered across the table without speaking.

“You have already thought of something?” Cang Shu asked.

Ye Minwei nodded. “But I don’t want to say.”

Cang Shu was puzzled. “Why not?”

Ye Minwei answered sincerely, “I heard that the most basic courtesy in dealing with others is not to press them when they do not wish to speak.”

“...That doesn’t sound like something you would say.”

“Wen Ci said it.”

“I thought as much. And what did you say to him?”

Ye Minwei answered honestly, “I told him I was an ill-mannered person.”

Cang Shu could not help laughing. As he helped himself to another dish, he exclaimed, “It is truly remarkable that the Master of Dream Ruins has not yet been angered to death by you.”

Clearly, Cang Shu was a polite man. Since Ye Minwei did not wish to speak, he did not press her further. The two continued eating their own meals while the sound of gongs, drums, and stringed instruments drifted in from outside the restaurant.

Ye Minwei glanced out and said, “I’m going outside to take a look.”

“All right. I’ll come find you when I’m finished eating,” Cang Shu replied readily.

Not far from the restaurant stood a tall wooden stage. Many long benches had been arranged beneath it, already filled with common folk of every age. They craned their necks in anticipation. Those who had arrived late could only stand at the back, straining onto their toes, while the more restless among them tried to push forward, occasionally provoking a few muttered curses and heated arguments. From a distance, the crowd looked like a dark, heaving sea.

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Holding her persimmon cakes, Ye Minwei stood outside the crowd and asked someone beside her, “What are they performing here in a little while?”

“You must be from out of town. Don’t you know about Fengyi Hall in Yujun City? It is the most famous musical troupe in all of Qizhou. Their Ten-Part Gongs and Drums and Thirty-Six Dance Dramas are unparalleled. The high officials and wealthy nobles here consider it an honor to invite Fengyi Hall to their banquets. I hear one performance costs this much!”

The old man with his hands tucked into his sleeves held up five fingers and pointed toward the stage.

“Fengyi Hall gives a free performance at Ming’an Stage once every three months for the people of the entire city. Some folks travel a hundred miles from other prefectures just to see them. Look at those people in the first few rows—they have been waiting here since yesterday morning!”

The music began, and the curtain behind the stage was drawn open. The performers filed out one after another, dressed in gold and white gauze and wearing silver masks, as though heavenly immortals had descended to earth. The crowd erupted in enthusiastic applause and cheers.

Ye Minwei slowly bit into a persimmon cake. Through her hazy vision, gold and white merged into a graceful, whirling dance.

When Cang Shu emerged from the restaurant after his satisfying meal, he discovered that a light snow had begun to fall. Flurries of white covered the entire street. The performance on the nearby stage was in full swing, the music lilting and melodious, while the performers’ extraordinary skills drew wave after wave of cheers and the crowd steamed with warmth.

He looked left and right, and finally spotted Ye Minwei beyond the dark mass of people. She stood outside the crowd, her long hair and shoulders already dusted with a thin layer of snow. Her head was slightly raised, and she watched the stage without blinking, her eyes at once dreamy and intent.

Three months earlier, she had dyed her silver hair black. Now, beneath the wind and snow, it seemed to have returned to its original silver-white, streaming in the breeze like a snowy willow growing amid the crowd.

Cang Shu stood with his hands tucked into his sleeves, smiling as he watched her. Then he saw a young boy from Fengyi Hall weaving through the crowd, passing in front of Ye Minwei with an iron plate for collecting tips. Perhaps because Ye Minwei’s clothes looked somewhat shabby, the boy had not even considered asking her for money. Yet Ye Minwei called him over, took a silver ingot from her sleeve, and placed it in his plate.

That was an entire silver treasure ingot!

What an accursed spendthrift!

Cang Shu’s eyes flew wide. He dashed over and snatched the silver ingot back with lightning speed.

“Little sister! That isn’t how you spend money!”

Ye Minwei looked at him. Cang Shu clutched the ingot tightly and said earnestly, “Little sister, you gave far too much!”

“They performed beautifully,” Ye Minwei said.

The boy looked up at Ye Minwei, then at Cang Shu. He straightened his back and declared in a clear voice, “That is right! Fengyi Hall is the foremost troupe in Qizhou. When the nobles come to see us perform, they give even more than this! We follow our founding master’s instruction and hold a free performance every three months. The money we receive is donated to the refugee camp in the city.”

Cang Shu pointed at the boy and said to Ye Minwei, “Did you hear that? The money is being donated to people like us!”

“Are you refugees?” the boy asked in astonishment. “How could you possibly have so much money?”

Ye Minwei took another silver ingot from her clothing and placed it in the boy’s plate.

“That is wonderful. Then we can still spend a little in the end.”

The boy hurriedly said, “There is no need to give so much, honored guest. It is only a tip. Your goodwill is enough.”

Ye Minwei insisted, “My goodwill is worth this much silver.”

Seeing that the spendthrift was determined to scatter her wealth, Cang Shu could only sigh helplessly.

“Little sister, no matter how well they perform, could they really be better than Wen Ci? How about this? I’ll calculate where Wen Ci is right now, and we’ll go find him. You can watch him perform instead!”