Nine Nights Owl Song

Su Jiuge did not spend the night at the Marquis's residence.

When she walked out of Chongrenfang, it was already completely dark. The wind had picked up on the streets of Luojing City. The early winter wind was dry and cold, and it felt like a knife cutting her face.

She adjusted her collar and quickened her pace.

When she returned to the small courtyard in the north of the city, Bai Yu was already waiting for her.

He sat under the old locust tree in the courtyard, with a pot of tea and two cups in front of him, and a file in his hand. He looked like he had been waiting for quite some time.

When he saw Su Jiuge come in, he looked up and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

"How was the family dinner?" he asked.

"It's alright." Su Jiuge sat down opposite him without touching the tea.

Bai Yu didn't press further, but pushed the file in his hand in front of her. "I found what you wanted. Aunt Zhou's matter is much more complicated than we thought."

Su Jiuge opened the file and began to read it by the light of the lanterns in the courtyard.

Bai Yu sipped his tea, unhurried and patient, like a teacher patiently waiting for his students to finish reading their textbooks.

The first page of the file made Su Jiuge's expression change.

Aunt Zhou, whose real name was Zhou Yunniang.

In the first year of Yong'an, she bribed the midwife Wang Pozi to switch the stillborn baby with the legitimate daughter born to Shen.

Su Jiuge already knew about this; the dossier didn't contain more information than she did.

But the second page of the file contained a list she had never seen before.

List of personnel placed by the Zhou family in the Marquis of Dingyuan's residence.

The list was very long, filling an entire page with dense writing.

There were Zhou family members in the gatehouse, the kitchen, the sewing room, the storeroom, and even among the maids around Madam Shen, there was a spy planted by the Zhou family.

These people had been lurking in the Marquis's mansion for as little as five or six years, or as long as ten or twenty years. Some had already risen to the position of manager, while others, although not in high positions, had access to the most core secrets of the Marquis's mansion.

Su Jiuge turned the pages one by one.

The third page of the file contains a list of the Zhou family's properties in and around Luoyang.

Three silk shops, two pawnshops, a tea plantation, and five hundred acres of fertile land.

These properties were acquired gradually over the past sixteen years. The source of the silver used for these acquisitions is unknown, but the amount was so large that it could not have been accumulated from the monthly allowance of a concubine in a noble household.

The fourth page of the file contains records of interactions between the Zhou family and the collateral branches of the Su family.

Several members of the Su family's collateral branches—Su Zhentian's distant cousins ​​Su Zhenkun and Su Zhenshan—appeared repeatedly, frequently interacting with the Zhou family in matters involving loans, land sales, and even requests in official circles.

Su Jiuge closed the file and looked at Bai Yu.

"A concubine like Aunt Zhou doesn't have that much power," she said.

Bai Yu put down his teacup and nodded.

"You're right. Zhou Yunniang is just a pawn that the Zhou family has put on the surface. The one who is really manipulating everything behind the scenes is Zhou Yunniang's elder brother, Zhou Wenyuan, and the Zhou family's backer in the imperial court."

Who is Zhou Wenyuan?

"A junior official in the Ministry of Revenue, a fifth-rank official."

Bai Yu took out another file from his sleeve and opened it.

"This man's ability to be an official was mediocre, but his ability to scheme and manipulate was first-rate. He served in the Ministry of Revenue for twelve years, handling tens of millions of taels of silver, and no one found a single dishonest account. It wasn't because he was honest, but because his accounting skills were too superb."

Su Jiuge remained silent, waiting for Bai Yu to continue.

"The Zhou family has been operating in the Marquis of Dingyuan's mansion for so many years, and their purpose was not to kill you—harming you was just a side effect."

Bai Yu's voice wasn't loud, but every word was firm and resonant.

"Their real purpose is to pave the way for the Zhou family through the resources and connections of the Marquis of Dingyuan's mansion. The Marquis of Dingyuan's mansion is descended from founding heroes and has guarded the northern border for generations, possessing deep connections in the military and the court. If the Zhou family can bring the Marquis of Dingyuan's mansion into their own hands, it will be equivalent to gaining a firm foothold in the court. In the future, the Zhou family's descendants will have a powerful backer for entering officialdom, promotion, and accumulating wealth."

"So they let Zhou Yunniang enter the Marquis's mansion as a concubine."

"Yes. A concubine may seem insignificant, but she has access to the most core secrets of the Marquis's mansion—the Marquis's movements, the Madam's connections, the upbringing of the heir apparent, and even the financial transactions of the Marquis's mansion. Zhou Yunniang has been in the Marquis's mansion for twenty years, gradually placing members of the Zhou family into every corner of the mansion. By the time your father discovered it, it was too late."

Su Jiuge's fingers tapped lightly on the table, a slow and rhythmic movement. This was a habitual gesture she made when she was thinking.

"Whose idea was it to switch me out?" she asked.

"Zhou Wenyuan," Bai Yu said with certainty.

"Zhou Yunniang had only recently entered the Marquis's mansion and her position was unstable. She was not capable of planning such a meticulous matter. It was Zhou Wenyuan who devised the plan behind the scenes, mobilized the resources of the Zhou family, found a midwife, prepared a stillborn baby, and arranged for the man in black. Zhou Yunniang was merely the executor."

"What is the purpose?"

"Two points." Bai Yu held up two fingers.

"First, if Shen gives birth to a son, the Zhou family's plan will be completely ruined. The eldest son will inherit the title, and the eldest son from a concubine, Su Chengzhi, will never have a chance. Therefore, Shen's child cannot survive. Second, if Shen gives birth to a daughter, the threat will not be great, but she cannot be kept alive either. Because when the eldest daughter marries, her marriage partner will definitely be the most powerful family in the court. The resources and connections brought by that marriage will be controlled by Shen, and the Zhou family will have no way to interfere. Therefore, whether it is a son or a daughter, Shen's child cannot survive."

Su Jiuge's fingers stopped tapping.

"Switching the body is safer than killing it outright."

Bai Yu continued,

"Just kill her directly. If things get out, Aunt Zhou will be doomed. If we switch the babies, even if people find out the child isn't dead, they won't trace it back to Aunt Zhou—the child was dumped in a mass grave. Who dumped the child? The man in black. Who is the man in black? They can't find out. The Zhou family has pointed all the clues to a non-existent person. As for the stillborn baby, we can just find any child from a poor family who died young and get away with it."

Su Jiuge remained silent for a long time.

The night wind blew in from outside the courtyard wall, making the branches and leaves of the old locust tree rustle.

The lantern's light swayed in the wind, casting her and Bai Yu's shadows on the ground, sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes bright, sometimes dim.

"There's someone behind the Zhou family," Su Jiuge suddenly said.

Bai Yu's eyes narrowed slightly.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"Zhou Wenyuan, a fifth-rank official in the Ministry of Revenue, could not have achieved this level of accomplishment."

Su Jiuge's voice was very calm, as if she were talking about something that had nothing to do with her.

"Switching the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Dingyuan's family is no small matter. If it is exposed, the entire Zhou family will be executed. Zhou Wenyuan doesn't have that kind of guts or power. He must have a powerful backer behind him, a strong enough backer that makes the Zhou family feel that 'even if it is exposed, someone will cover for them.'"

Bai Yu looked at her, remained silent for a moment, and then smiled.

"You're smarter than your father says."

He took out a third file from his sleeve and placed it on the table. This file was thicker than the ones he had taken out before, and the cover was blank, with only a symbol drawn in vermilion ink—an eye.

Only the highest-level classified information from the Thousand Machines Tower is marked with this symbol.

Su Jiuge opened the file.

The first page is a portrait.

The man in the painting is in his forties, with a square face and an air of righteous indignation. He wears the official robes of a second-rank official, with a gold fish-shaped pouch at his waist and a sable crown on his head. In the lower right corner of the portrait are three characters: Zhao Wenchang.

"The current prime minister is Zhao Wenchang."

Bai Yu's voice lowered.

"Zhou Wenyuan's mentor, the Zhou family's biggest backer in the court. Zhao Wenchang may not have known about the switch, but the Zhou family dared to set up this scheme in the Marquis of Dingyuan's residence because they had Zhao Wenchang backing them. Their goal has never been just the Marquis's residence, but to use it to climb to higher positions—such as the Second Prince or the Empress Dowager."

Looking at the righteous face in the portrait, Su Jiuge felt a sense of familiarity.

Disgusting. It was like someone had poured a bucket of swill over her head. A man who spouted benevolence and morality but was full of wickedness and debauchery, dressed in the robes of a second-rank official and wearing a sable crown, sat in the court, pointing fingers and deciding the fate of the people.

And she, the younger sister of his student, bought the life of a newborn child for only fifty taels of silver.

"Has Xiao Yan seen this intelligence report?" Su Jiuge asked.

"I've already seen it, OP," Bai Yu said.

He said, "I'll show you this intelligence first. After you've read it, you can decide how to use it, and Qianji Tower will fully cooperate."

Su Jiuge raised her head and looked at Bai Yu.

"What else did he say?"

Bai Yu hesitated for a moment, then said:

"He also said that Night Owl is a woman who, if you give her a knife, can carve a bloody path for herself. But if you give her the truth, she can destroy an empire. He wants to see which path you will choose."

Su Jiuge remained silent.

She lowered her head and continued flipping through the files.

She reviewed the list of people the Zhou family had placed in the Marquis's residence from beginning to end once again.

Old Liu, the gatekeeper, is from the Zhou family; Aunt Zhao, the kitchen manager, is from the Zhou family; Madam Wu, the seamstress, is from the Zhou family; Accountant Sun, the storeroom manager, is from the Zhou family; and Chunlan, the head maidservant of Madam Shen, is from the Zhou family.

One name after another, like nails, were driven into the great tree of the Marquis of Dingyuan's mansion. Twenty years later, the nails have rusted and grown into the tree, impossible to pull out.

Su Jiuge memorized the list. She didn't need to write it down, copy it, or require any assistance.

A killer's instinct—to never forget something you've seen once.

"I need you to do two things for me." Su Jiuge closed the file and looked at Bai Yu.

"explain."

"First, thoroughly investigate all of the Zhou family's businesses in and around Luoyang. The more detailed the information, the better: address, size, operating status, who is in charge, and accounting records."

"We're already investigating," Bai Yu said.

"I'll give it to you within three days."

"Second, compile all the records of the Zhou family's dealings with the collateral branches of the Su family into a book. Don't omit any of them, whether it's money transactions, land sales, or requests for official positions."

Bai Yu nodded.

Five days.

Su Jiuge stood up, tucked the file under her arm, and walked into the room. After a few steps, she stopped without looking back.

"White Feather."

"Um?"

"Tell Xiao Yan that I don't need to destroy a dynasty." Her voice was soft, but firm.

"All I need to do is make those who owe me pay their debts."

She pushed open the door and went inside.

The door closed behind them, shutting Bai Yu and Ye Se out together.

At midnight, at the Marquis of Dingyuan's residence.

Su Jiuge didn't come in through the main entrance, nor through the corner where she had climbed over the wall last time.

She took a shortcut through a hidden gap in the southwest corner of the mansion—a spot she had discovered on her last visit. A branch of an old locust tree stretched out over the wall. She climbed up the trunk, scaled the wall, and landed silently in a clump of bushes.

She walked through the garden, around the rockery, and across the covered walkway.

The night at the Marquis's mansion was very quiet, with only the occasional passing servants on night patrol, their footsteps echoing on the bluestone slabs, approaching from afar and then receding again.

Su Jiuge moved silently in the shadows like a snake.

Aunt Zhou's courtyard was in the east wing of the Marquis's mansion, with three main rooms and two side rooms. In the courtyard stood a pomegranate tree, and beneath the tree was a large vat containing several koi carp. The courtyard was not large, but it was exquisitely decorated, with every brick and tile reflecting the owner's taste.

Su Jiuge climbed over the courtyard wall and landed in the shade of the pomegranate tree.

The lights were still on in the main room.

Through the paper window, she could see a figure pacing back and forth in the room, the footsteps hurried and restless. Aunt Zhou was still awake.

It wasn't that she didn't want to sleep, it was that she couldn't sleep. The news of Ajiu's visit to the Marquis's residence had already spread throughout the mansion.

Although Su Zhentian tried to suppress the news, the truth would eventually come out. The Marquis's mansion was so large, with so many people, that news would always leak out somewhere.

Aunt Zhou had been running the household for twenty years and had many informants; it was impossible for her not to know.

Su Jiuge pressed herself against the window of the main room, listening intently.

There was more than just Aunt Zhou in the room.

There was also a man's voice, deep and urgent, filled with barely suppressed anger.

"What did you say back then? You said it would be foolproof! You said that child was dead, completely dead, that not even a bone could be found! And now? Standing alive in the Marquis's mansion, in front of the whole family, you've revealed everything that happened sixteen years ago! Do you know what this means? It means that the Zhou family's sixteen years of hard work have been completely destroyed!"

Aunt Zhou's voice was much lower than the man's, and it trembled:

"Brother, I never expected it... that child really died. I watched with my own eyes as the men in black took her away... In that mass grave, in winter, how could a newborn baby possibly...?"

"Whether it's possible or not, it's no longer important!" Zhou Wenyuan's voice was even lower, but his anger remained undiminished.

"The important thing is how to clean up the mess. That child has the midwife's testimony, intelligence from the Thousand Machine Pavilion, and the Marquis's support. If she reports this to the court, we're both doomed!"

"Then... what should we do?"

"What should we do? There are two options."

Zhou Wenyuan's voice suddenly became calm, a calmness that sent chills down one's spine.

"First, shut the midwife up. Permanently. Second, shut the child up."

There was a moment of silence in the room.

When Aunt Zhou's voice rang out again, it was no longer trembling; instead, it carried a resolute tone born of being driven to the brink.

"I'll take care of the midwife. The child is under the protection of Qianji Tower; I can't touch her."

"You don't need to worry about the Thousand Machine Tower," Zhou Wenyuan said.

"She can't hide in the Thousand Machine Tower forever. As long as she's alone, that's our chance."

Su Jiuge squatted outside the window, listening to the conversation without any change in expression.

Zhou Wenyuan wanted to kill her.

This was not an accident, not a surprise, and not something she hadn't expected.

She just didn't expect Zhou Wenyuan to be in such a hurry, so hasty that he didn't even have a proper plan before daring to tell her to "shut up."

No wonder he's an accountant.

He's good at calculating, but when it comes to killing, he's really no good.

Su Jiuge did not make a move.

She didn't come to kill Aunt Zhou—at least not tonight.

She had promised Su Zhentian that Aunt Zhou would be dealt with by her, but "dealing with" did not mean "killing".

Killing someone is too easy, just one stab. What she wants is to keep Aunt Zhou alive and watch everything she owns crumble bit by bit.

Watching her brother go to jail, watching her people in the Marquis's mansion be removed one by one, watching her properties in Luoyang be seized one by one, watching her backers fall one by one, watching herself go from a powerful concubine in the Marquis's mansion to a penniless prisoner.

Living is more painful than dying.

This is the Night Owl's method.

Su Jiuge left silently from under the window, climbed over the courtyard wall, and disappeared into the night of the Marquis's mansion.

As she walked through the garden, she saw a person standing next to the artificial hill.

Su Chengzhi.

He was dressed in a dark blue casual outfit, without a hat, and his hair was simply tied up with a hairpin.

He stood in the shadow of the artificial hill, like a wooden stake forgotten in a corner, motionless, for an unknown amount of time.

Su Jiuge stopped.

The two people looked at each other across the garden.

Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the clouds, illuminating the stone path in the garden, the withered flower branches, and Su Chengzhi's cold, expressionless face.

"Can you hear what's going on over there?" Su Chengzhi asked.

His voice was soft, but in the garden late at night, every word was clear.

Su Jiuge looked at him and nodded.

"Zhou Wenyuan is here," Su Chengzhi said.

"He came in through the back door, accompanied by two attendants. He's been in Aunt Zhou's courtyard for almost an hour."

Su Jiuge remained silent.

"What did you hear?" Su Chengzhi asked.

"They want to kill the midwife, and they want to kill me too."

Su Jiuge's voice was so calm that it didn't sound like she was talking about her own affairs.

Su Chengzhi clenched his fist, and the veins on the back of his hand bulged.

A hint of expression finally appeared on his face—not anger, not worry, but something deeper, more complex, something that resembled both shame and hatred.

"Twenty-four years," he said softly.

"I was the eldest son of a concubine for twenty-four years, and I was suppressed by Aunt Zhou for twenty-four years. She told me that I am where I am today entirely because of the Zhou family's cultivation. She said that without the Zhou family, I am nothing. She said that I should be obedient, grateful, and repay them."

Su Jiuge looked at him without interrupting.

"Do you know?"

Su Chengzhi raised his head and looked at the moon in the sky.

"I hate her. Not because she's from the Zhou family, not because she bullies me, but because she makes me feel like I'm not worthy of being a member of the Su family."

The garden was extremely quiet.

The sound of patrolling servants approached from afar. Su Chengzhi took a step back and hid himself again in the shadow of the artificial hill.

Su Jiuge also took a step back and hid in another shadow.

Footsteps passed by outside the garden, but did not enter, and gradually faded away.

"You're going to deal with the Zhou family." Su Chengzhi's voice came from the shadows, not as a question, but as a statement.

Su Jiuge did not deny it.

"I'm at the Ministry of War," Su Chengzhi said.

"The Zhou family also has connections in the military. If you need..."

He didn't finish speaking.

He didn't know why he was saying those things. He had only met this younger sister for the first time today. She didn't call him "big brother," didn't smile at him, didn't exchange pleasantries with him, and didn't even look at him directly.

He owed her nothing, and she owed him nothing.

But that's what he wanted to say.

Su Jiuge remained silent for a moment.

"Brother Chengzhi," she said.

Su Chengzhi's body stiffened abruptly.

"You don't need to repay anyone." Su Jiuge's voice was very soft, as soft as if it were carried by the wind.

"Your surname is Su. That's enough."

She turned around, walked out of the garden, and disappeared into the night of the Marquis's mansion.

Su Chengzhi stood in the shadow of the artificial hill, motionless for a long time.

He lowered his head, looking at the moonlight on the ground, his lips trembling slightly. He wanted to say thank you, but something seemed to be blocking his throat, and he couldn't utter a single word.

He just stood there, in the cold wind of early winter, like a tree that had finally been seen and had been standing in a corner for a long time.

When Su Jiuge left the Marquis's residence, it was almost dawn.

As dawn broke in the east, a sliver of light spread across the horizon, outlining the distant imperial city.

She stood at the alley entrance outside the Marquis's residence and glanced back. The upturned eaves of the Marquis's residence were faintly visible in the morning light, like a sleeping giant beast lying motionless on the east side of Luojing City.

She touched the jade pendant at her waist. The white jade was warm and smooth.

She touched the knife at her waist again. The hilt was cold.

Warm and cold, both pressed against her skin.

This was the first time in sixteen years that she possessed both things simultaneously—a symbol of home and a murder weapon.

Su Jiuge turned around and walked into the morning light.

Today, she's going to get down to business.

The midwife cannot die. One by one, the people the Zhou family had planted in the Marquis's residence will be removed.

The Zhou family's businesses were investigated one by one.

The Zhou family's powerful backers in the imperial court were gradually exposed.

Debts must be repaid, and murderers must pay with their lives.

This is a principle she has known since she was a child.

The old drunkard taught her that.