Episode 17 recap: The death of Li Tao led to the pursuit of the Dark Flower.
Di Renjie set up a courtroom on the ruins and rang the gong to notify everyone to come and file complaints. Many people gathered around to watch, but they were just there for the spectacle. The county magistrate advised Di Renjie to close the courtroom early, but Di Renjie insisted on waiting until the end of the day. A young boy came forward to file a complaint, claiming that his father's leg had been broken. However, his father did not want to press charges and insisted that he had just fallen and injured his leg. Di Renjie pressed for answers, but all he got from the boy's father was a denial. He grabbed the boy and left.
The people discussed the situation, mentioning that there were people everywhere in Lanfang who had established their own power bases. Di Renjie removed the burnt black flag and declared the authority of the county government to the people. Hong Liang understood Di Renjie's actions and felt worried for him, but Cao An understood Di Renjie very well and even knew what he was thinking. This made Hong Liang happy that Di Renjie had such a confidant.
Through organizing documents, Cao An learned that Di Zhixun's death was related to the Dark Flame. Although the emperor cleared Di Zhixun's name, the dead cannot be brought back to life, which still had a great impact on Di Renjie. The Dark Flame also revealed its true colors when it threatened Di Zhixun to commit suicide and was subsequently eradicated. Di Renjie's courtesy name was Huaiying, and the characters "Huai Ying" were carved on his childhood toy wooden sword, which puzzled Cao An. So he sought advice from Hong Liang, but Hong Liang skipped the topic, saying it was "too long ago."
Hu Wu, the best coroner and physician in Lanfang, performed an autopsy on Li Tao. He didn't pay any attention to the red spot on the neck and simply said that the hand wound was self-inflicted suicide. He gestured to the foot and said it belonged to a man. Di Renjie and others understood this. Seeing that Hu Wu kept talking about irrelevant matters, Di Renjie pointed directly at the red spot on the body's neck and asked if there were any signs of poisoning. Hu Wu once again avoided the topic. At this moment, someone came to find Hu Wu to get medicine. After giving out the medicine, Hu Wu took out a notebook and made a note, which Di Renjie saw and made him uneasy.
Di Renjie had someone count the number of people in the Hongting Pavilion while he found Qiuyue and interrogated her whether she followed Biyu's example and deliberately killed Li Tao. He deduced this because the blood on Li Tao's hands had dried, but the ink on the writing on the table hadn't. From this, he inferred that Qiuyue had tampered with the crime scene. However, Qiuyue refused to admit it and started talking about her childhood.
It turned out that when Qiuyue was a child, she traveled with her father on business. They encountered a sandstorm in the desert, and she was the only one from the entire caravan who survived. Later, five caravans passed by her, seeing her as a dying child, but no one was willing to save her until Biyu came by and rescued her. Since then, she entered the Hongting Pavilion and remained there until today.
Di Renjie believed that Qiuyue's actions to stay alive were not shameful, but she shouldn't have lied. Qiuyue finally admitted that she had indeed rummaged through things that night in search of the letter Li Tao had mentioned, but she couldn't find it. So she used Li Tao's death to elevate her own worth.
Di Renjie learned that Li Tao was the only good person in Lanfang and had even proposed to Qiuyue, but she had rejected him. Since then, he had become cold and indifferent towards Qiuyue, suspecting that her resentment might have driven her to commit the crime. However, Qiuyue, with tears in her eyes, insisted that she was telling the truth. If Di Renjie didn't believe her, he could simply arrest her.
At this moment, Hong Liang discovered that one of the guards at the Hongting Pavilion had gone missing. Biyu immediately pointed out that guards occasionally went missing, considering it a minor matter. Both County Magistrate Li Lu and Deputy Magistrate attested to the fact that the missing guard, Wei Cheng, was a notorious gambler. Ma Rong recalled seeing a man carrying money on behalf of Biyu that day and informed Di Renjie about it. Di Renjie immediately ordered a city-wide search for Wei Cheng, but when they arrived at his house, they found it empty. However, the arrangement of items in the house indicated that Wei Cheng had returned at some point. They heard a groan and discovered that Wei Cheng had been injured by Qian Hao and was barely clinging to life.
Di Renjie asked Wei Cheng why he killed Li Tao, but Wei Cheng denied it. He admitted to being a gambler who had stolen money from Li Tao in the past, but when Li Tao caught him, instead of punishing him, he gave him money to repay his debts. Wei Cheng denied the accusation and revealed that Qian Hao was also searching for the killer of Li Tao. Di Renjie immediately realized that someone had used the Dark Flower to hire a killer and rushed to the residence of Li Tao to persuade him not to take the law into his own hands. However, Li Tao was already terminally ill with tuberculosis and insisted on releasing the Dark Flower for revenge.
Hu Wu's residence was set on fire, and from the conversations among several officials, Di Renjie suspected that there was a mole within the team. He deliberately staged a play with Ma Rong to make it appear as if Hu Wu had awakened and provided crucial information. They then traced a person in the yamen who had gone to inform Qian Hao and immediately apprehended him.
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