The newly widowed The Cooper Family, who claimed her surname was Tang, met Edward Cooper three months ago on his way to the capital for the imperial exam, and married him. After the wedding, they rented a place to live here—Emily Foster thought to himself, “The victim isn’t a local of the capital, that makes things easier to handle.”

So Emily Foster turned to Olivia Miller, still lightly weighing something in his hand, a look of anticipation in his eyes—This young master, come on. People call me ‘Samuel Foster’, I’ll make sure this case is watertight for you.

But Olivia Miller didn’t say a word.

“This is the third young master of the Wang family,” Grace Taylor introduced.

Which Wang family?

Emily Foster was stunned for a moment, then suddenly had a flash of insight, and said, “Could it be the Wang family from Qingshui Lane?”

“Exactly.”

A strange sense of melancholy welled up in Emily Foster’s heart—he’d heard the third son of the Wang family was an imbecile. Whether he could kill and steal a wife was questionable, but he definitely wouldn’t pay him to settle the matter.

Sure enough, Olivia Miller said foolishly, “What a big bird, it just flew over there.”

Olivia Miller had considered asking the constable for help, saying he’d been taken hostage by this woman who looked delicate but was actually very strong, and might even be a martial arts expert.

But seeing Emily Foster’s bleary eyes, with sleep in the corners, he really didn’t have the courage to entrust his life to this so-called good constable of the people.

Emily Foster exclaimed, “A bird?”

Grace Taylor nodded, her solemn face tinged with sadness, and slowly said, “This afternoon, my husband returned from an outing and saw Young Master Miller playing outside the door, so he invited him in to sit for a while. I was brewing tea when I suddenly heard a scream. I turned around and… sob… sob sob…”

She wiped the tears from her face and cried, “I saw my husband… he was already lying on the ground. Then, I saw a masked man in black flip over the courtyard wall and disappear.”

Olivia Miller clapped his hands and laughed, “He flew! Flew right over.”

Emily Foster was taken aback, thinking this was just too fake.

“This testimony is a bit…” Not wanting to offend anyone, he patiently asked, “So how exactly did this man in black kill your husband?”

“He… sob sob…” Grace Taylor dabbed her face with her sleeve, choking with tears, “My husband was kicked in the chest by that man, hit his head on that stone, and… and he was gone…”

Emily Foster was truly helpless. In his eyes, Edward Cooper was definitely killed by one of these two in the courtyard.

But he didn’t want to mess with the Wang family’s third son, and who knew who was backing this woman—he didn’t want to get involved with her either.

But in the capital, there are rules for how things are done. Either you pay a little money and I, Samuel Foster, will smooth things over; or you handle things properly yourselves.

He’d never seen anyone try to muddle through like this!

“One’s an imbecile, the other an ignorant woman. Neither knows the rules—aren’t they just making things hard for me?”

Thinking this, Emily Foster ordered someone to carry Edward Cooper’s body, planning to take it back to the yamen for the coroner to examine.

Two yamen runners lifted Edward Cooper, one in front and one behind. As Emily Foster’s gaze fell on the ground beneath the corpse, his body suddenly trembled and he froze in place.

There, written neatly on the ground, were eight regular script characters—

“Heaven’s way is impartial, always with the good.”

Emily Foster moved his lips, muttering, “Unbelievable…”

“It’s really true!”

He stepped forward to examine the eight characters closely, murmuring, “Exactly the same, exactly the same.”

After a while, he asked in disbelief, “Did you see the face of the man in black? Was your husband really killed by ‘Muzi’? He… he’s killing in broad daylight now?”

Grace Taylor blinked, looking confused, and asked, “Muzi?”

“That’s the masked killer,” Emily Foster said. “There have been eight deaths this month—no, counting this one, nine. Every body had these eight characters left beneath it. Did you see what the killer looked like?”

“He was masked, and quite tall,” Grace Taylor said hesitantly.

She seemed to try hard to remember, but couldn’t recall anything else, and wailed, “Officer, you must get justice for my husband, he died so unjustly.”

Emily Foster questioned Olivia Miller again, but all Olivia Miller could say was things like ‘he can fly’ and ‘flew really high’.

“Masked in black, quite tall, that should be right. The key is the handwriting matches.”

Now that the case was linked to that serial killer, Emily Foster actually felt relieved. He didn’t want to stay in this courtyard any longer, so he hurriedly ordered the body to be carried back to the yamen. He was about to take the people in the courtyard with him, but saw that ugly maid flash a token from her sleeve in front of him!

At a glance at that token, Emily Foster was greatly startled and dared not say another word. He could only instruct Grace Taylor to leave the eight bloody characters on the ground, saying someone would come to examine them later…

Olivia Miller watched as the constables and yamen runners left the courtyard, wondering if he could leave too, but Huazhi had already closed the gate.

Grace Taylor turned to look at Olivia Miller, a triumphant smile on her face. Tears still clung to her cheeks; a moment ago she was dignified and sorrowful, but now, breaking into a smile through her tears, she was full of charm.

Olivia Miller thought to himself, Sis, with acting skills like yours, did you graduate from the Beijing Film Academy?

“Young Master Miller, you see, as long as we work together, no one else will know our secret.” Grace Taylor said, moving closer again.