Head Constable Liu was a very experienced officer and had developed a set of insights for such matters.
"This person didn't say a word, which shows he is well-informed about Miss Tang and the Marquis's estate. His goal was also very clear: he wanted to ruin Miss Tang's face..." Head Constable Liu glanced at Tang Wei’s face, which prompted a wail of despair from her.
He stood in awkward silence for a moment before saying to the Marchioness, "Marchioness, please try to recall: has your daughter ever inadvertently scarred a woman's face?"
"How could that be!" the Marchioness of Wuning instinctively denied.
For a young lady of a noble house to scar a woman's face—that was hardly a good reputation to have.
Head Constable Liu looked troubled. "If not, then there is no way to begin an investigation into this person's identity. We can only wait until the bailiffs manage to capture him."
"Mother, you cannot let this man get away!" Tang Wei shouted through her tears.
The Marchioness of Wuning looked at her somewhat hysterical daughter, and her expression suddenly shifted.
She remembered—there was such a person!
Back then, Wei'er was only ten or eleven years old. She had wandered into the kitchen to play for some reason and had scalded the face of a kitchen maid.
That kitchen maid was not born into the household, so she had given her ten taels of silver and sent her home.
Could it be that the incident with Wei'er this time was related to that kitchen maid?
Seeing the change in the Marchioness's expression, Head Constable Liu asked, "Marchioness, have you thought of something?"
The Marchioness of Wuning weighed her words. "A few years ago, Wei'er accidentally scalded a kitchen maid. I don't know if it has any connection to what is happening now."
Head Constable Liu immediately asked a series of questions: "Where is that kitchen maid now? Who does she have in her family..."
As Tang Wei listened to the conversation between her mother and the head constable, a face surfaced in her mind.
It was a face that looked somewhat similar to her own.
That year, on a whim, she had walked into the kitchen and suddenly saw someone whose features resembled hers. That person was merely a kitchen maid, her face even smudged with soot.
She had also heard a gossiping old woman say to that maid, "You are so beautiful; perhaps you will have great fortune in the future."
In that moment, she was overcome with rage. She picked up a piece of burning charcoal and pressed it against the maid's face.
She still remembered the maid's screams and the smell of scorched flesh.
After the impulse passed, she ran back to her chambers.
Later, she never saw that kitchen maid again, nor did she ever see that old woman again.
Occasionally, when she thought of that day, she felt no regret.
She had no desire to see a kitchen maid who looked like her have any "great fortune."
Eventually, she pushed the matter to the back of her mind.
"Mother, it must be that kitchen maid seeking revenge on me!"
Head Constable Liu gathered some information from the Marchioness and then asked Tang Wei, "Miss Tang, do you remember the person's height or build? Did he have any distinguishing features?"
"He wasn't tall, but he was quite sturdy. As for features—" Tang Wei shook her head. "His head and face were covered in black cloth; how could I see any features?"
"Not necessarily the face, what about other parts? Anything that left an impression on you will do."
"Other parts—" Tang Wei hesitated. "I think his hands were quite large, and they were bronze-colored."
Head Constable Liu nodded and said to the Marchioness, "Marchioness, you must bring the register recording the details of that kitchen maid as soon as possible, along with a list of people familiar with her. I will arrange for some men to investigate her family situation. That way, if the culprit escapes the search, we won't be left without a lead."
"With so many bailiffs and monks, how could the culprit possibly escape?" the Marchioness asked with a dark face.
Head Constable Liu smiled helplessly. "The mountains and forests are easy places to hide. If the culprit intends to wait it out, it will be very difficult to find him in a day or two."
"If you can't find him in one day, then two. If not two, then three. The Marquis's servants will also participate in the search. We absolutely cannot let that culprit get away."
"We will do our best. I would like to speak with the deacon monk."
The Marchioness instructed her maid to take good care of Tang Wei and went out with Head Constable Liu to meet the deacon monk.
"I heard from the Marchioness that the ransom note was tucked into the door crack. The person who delivered it must be a monk from the temple."
The deacon monk did not quite agree with Head Constable Liu. "This is the guest wing; there are many pilgrims staying here. The person who delivered the note could just as easily be one of the pilgrims."
Head Constable Liu smiled. "I don't think that is very likely."
Facing the puzzled looks of the Marchioness and the deacon monk, Head Constable Liu asked, "When was the Marchioness's visit to Qinglu Temple decided?"
Although the Marchioness did not understand the meaning behind his question, she replied, "It was just a sudden desire to come and offer incense."
Naturally, she couldn't say it was because the Crown Prince had taken a concubine who was difficult to deal with, and she had come to clear her head.
Head Constable Liu looked at the deacon monk. "Master, look here. It is neither a holiday nor a festival. Most pilgrims come to offer incense on a whim. It would be very difficult for the culprit to find someone among the pilgrims to deliver the note in advance. If he tried to find someone on the spot, he would risk being exposed. Therefore, I speculate that the person who delivered the note must be a monk from the temple, most likely an inconspicuous servant monk."
The deacon monk’s expression turned grave. He chanted a Buddhist mantra and said, "This poor monk will investigate the situation of the disciples in the temple immediately."
Half an hour later, the deacon monk identified the disciple who had delivered the note. It was indeed a monk who performed odd jobs.
"That man is a clerk from a cloth shop. He came yesterday to deliver thick fabric for making cotton-padded clothes, and I was responsible for moving the goods. When it got dark, he found me and asked me to deliver a letter to a guest room. I... I was momentarily greedy, so I agreed."
Head Constable Liu did not ask what benefits the cloth shop clerk had given the monk, but instead asked something easier for the monk to answer: "Are you very familiar with that man?"
The monk hesitated and nodded. "He is among those who deliver fabric every time the season changes. I am responsible for moving the goods, so we started talking after a few encounters."
"What is that man's name, and which cloth shop is he from?"
"His name is A-Hu, and he is from the Fulai Cloth Shop."
Head Constable Liu immediately ordered his men to go to the Fulai Cloth Shop to make inquiries.
Time flew by until the afternoon. After searching the mountains and forests inside and out several times without finding a trace of the culprit, the people who had gone to fetch the Marquis's register and those who had gone to the Fulai Cloth Shop returned one after another.
"A-Hu's surname is Ning. He started working at the cloth shop three years ago. The address he gave the shopkeeper at the time was Swallow Lane..." the bailiff who had gone to the shop reported.
The Marquis's steward opened the register containing the kitchen maids' records and presented it to the Marchioness. The kitchen maid's surname was indeed "Ning." Her home address was also recorded, and it was the same as A-Hu's.
By this point, even without sending someone to Swallow Lane to verify, it was certain that the kitchen maid and A-Hu were family.
"So, it was the relative of the kitchen maid disfigured by the Second Miss Tang who came to seek revenge?" Listening to the news her maid had spent a fortune to uncover, Lady Lin finally felt at ease.
There was no helping it; if she couldn't get to the bottom of something that piqued her curiosity, she couldn't sleep well.
Having satisfied her curiosity, Lady Lin said to her sister, Lin Hao, "I had intended to stay for a few more days, but the temple is in such a mess now. Let's just forget it and go home."