Resumen del episodio 2 de An Oriental Odyssey
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Ye Yuanan pleaded with Zhao Lanzhi for time to thoroughly investigate the case involving Duan Xiaoyu, a former maid of the courtesan Ru Yue. Duan Xiaoyu, seeing Zhao Lanzhi as a man of integrity, agreed to reveal all she knew, expressing gratitude that someone was finally listening to her after being silenced in court by the colluding brothel-keeper and others at Qianduan Brothel.
She recounted that before her death, Ru Yue's life at Qianduan Brothel had become difficult; she was no longer a prominent courtesan, suffering from a strange illness that left her paranoid and in low spirits. The brothel-keeper confined Ru Yue to her room, forcing her to accept clients. One night, Ru Yue, with disheveled hair, frantically rushed into the kitchen, telling Duan Xiaoyu there was something strange in her room.
Duan Xiaoyu witnessed a dark shadow and called the brothel-keeper, but upon their return, only Ru Yue was seen lying quietly. The brothel-keeper, angry at the commotion, dismissed Duan Xiaoyu's claims as madness and threatened to force her to accept clients if she came upstairs again.
Ye Yuanan, asserting that she would help anyone suffering injustice, even a stranger, convinced Zhao Lanzhi to grant her three days to find evidence to prove Duan Xiaoyu's innocence, adding that if she failed, he could execute all three of them. She then introduced herself as Ye Yuanan from the Mansion of Assistant Minister of Finance and asked Zhao Lanzhi to take her to a specific location to begin their investigation.
Ye Yuanan and Zhao Lanzhi went to the mortuary, where Ye Yuanan, unfamiliar with official terms, referred to a corpse as a "dried fish." She insisted on examining Ru Yue's body, despite being told the case was closed and the body already buried. The coroner described Ru Yue's body as curled up with singed hair and blistered skin, indicating exposure to high temperatures.
However, her body showed no scorching, no actual burn marks, and no ashes in her nasal cavity, leading the coroner to conclude that she looked burned to death but hadn't actually touched fire, suggesting a supernatural cause. Ye Yuanan deduced that the county administrator had hastily closed the case and sentenced a suspect with flimsy evidence because his performance review was imminent. Both Ye Yuanan and Zhao Lanzhi dismissed the idea of supernatural involvement.
The coroner then presented a strange silver snake sculpture that Ru Yue had been clutching tightly when her body was brought in. Zhao Lanzhi recognized that such a unique item might be found at the Ghost Market, known for its rare foreign goods. That night, Ye Yuanan and Zhao Lanzhi ventured to the Ghost Market. Ye Yuanan found the market, filled with bizarre and disturbing sights, quite overwhelming.
They witnessed a slave auction where people were betting on the gender of an unborn child, with the seller threatening to cut open the pregnant woman's belly to prove the child's gender if a buyer doubted him. Ye Yuanan, horrified, intervened. Soon after, an amnesiac youth was brought out, beaten, and displayed for sale. Ye Yuanan recognized him as the person who had saved her on the street previously.
Moved by compassion, she purchased him, despite Zhao Lanzhi's skepticism about her ability to control him. When the youth's chains were removed, he immediately escaped, running away from his new master. During their time at the market, Zhao Lanzhi confronted a masked man, whose multiple identities he suspected were hidden by his mask. A brief fight ensued, but the masked man managed to escape after Zhao Lanzhi tore off his sleeve, revealing no tattoo.
Zhao Lanzhi and Ye Yuanan fended off the masked man's henchmen and fled the scene. Afterward, Ye Yuanan expressed disappointment that they hadn't learned more about the silver snake, to which Zhao Lanzhi reminded her of their three-day deadline. Meanwhile, Princess Ming Hui visited Ci'en Temple, where she met with Pei Xianya, her betrothed. She recalled being smitten by his archery skills the first time she saw him at Duke Zheng's Mansion.
She acknowledged that their families' previous political strife had prevented them from interacting earlier, but with misunderstandings now resolved and their engagement settled, she felt comfortable meeting him privately. Ming Hui confessed her deep love and admiration for his talents, assuring him that even if her royal brother and sister-in-law disapproved, she was determined to marry only him. She expressed a subtle concern, hinting at her sister-in-law's unhappiness after discovering her royal brother loved another woman after their marriage.
Pei Xianya solemnly swore his fidelity, with the immortals as his witnesses, asserting he would never betray her. Ming Hui, trusting his devotion to Buddha and believing he possessed the legendary Nine Divine Beads, accepted his words without question. Pei Xianya, however, appeared surprised and denied having the legendary Nine Divine Beads, questioning who could have told her such a thing, stating he was merely an ordinary man.
Back at the mansion, Ye Yuanning, Ye Yuanan's younger brother, secretly snuck into Ye Yuanan's cellar, hoping to find evidence of her misdeeds to expose to their father. Instead, he found only spiders and rats, causing him to panic. He accidentally knocked over a candle, nearly setting himself ablaze, and ran out screaming for help, with his eyebrows singed.
Ye Yuanan, upon discovering his unauthorized entry, playfully chastised him by stepping on his face while pretending to put out the fire. Later, Zhao Lanzhi faced the county magistrate, who was furious that Zhao Lanzhi had released the criminals. Zhao Lanzhi calmly explained that the suspects' whereabouts were under his control and he could re-arrest them at any time.
He reasoned that the case was complex and suggested that a public outcry before the Ministry of Personnel's upcoming assessment of officials' work performance would be detrimental to the magistrate. Zhao Lanzhi promised to intensify his investigation to quickly find the mastermind behind the opium case. During interrogation, the boatman Shen Da, who had been arrested for smuggling, confessed that his transactions were with an iron-masked man on a ship, whose true identity he did not know.
He further revealed that they would conclude their deals by drinking at Qianduan Brothel, where the masked man seemed to be a frequent patron familiar with the girls. Ye Yuanan later sought out her mentor in her cellar, recounting the details of Ru Yue's death: how Ye Yuanning's eyebrows had been burned off, yet Ru Yue, supposedly burned, showed no actual burn marks.
She explained the coroner's observation that Ru Yue's body was curled and blistered from high heat, but without direct fire contact, leading him to attribute it to supernatural forces. Her mentor, dismissing the supernatural explanation, suggested that a person could die from illusion, citing an old case of a sword maker whose apprentice died from the psychological torment of simulated bleeding. Her mentor concluded that there are two ways to kill someone: physical torture or spiritual torment.
He posited that inducing terrifying hallucinations, causing extreme mental stimulation, could lead to death if the body could no longer cope. Ye Yuanan quickly surmised that drugs could be used to create such illusions. Following this lead, Ye Yuanan disguised herself and ventured to Qianduan Brothel, intending to investigate Ru Yue's room. Coincidentally, Zhao Lanzhi also arrived, pursuing the masked man from Shen Da's boat.
As Ye Yuanan searched Ru Yue's sealed room, a brothel worker reported suspicious activity to the madam, who, fearing rumors of ghosts, ordered incense to be lit in the room to ward off mosquitoes. Ye Yuanan narrowly avoided exposure when Zhao Lanzhi, also secretly investigating the room, pulled her into an embrace to hide them from the madam and her worker.
Inside, Ye Yuanan discovered a silver snake incense burner, the base of which matched the sculpture found with Ru Yue's body. She speculated that the incense burned in the room might be the cause of Ru Yue's death, reasoning that if only Ru Yue died while everyone else ate and drank the same, then the air she breathed must have been problematic.
As they continued their investigation, the amnesiac youth suddenly entered Ru Yue's room, engaged in a brief skirmish with Zhao Lanzhi, then escaped through the window, with both Ye Yuanan and Zhao Lanzhi pursuing him. Shortly after, the iron-masked man appeared and instructed the brothel madam to clean up the room, implying that Ye Yuanan and Zhao Lanzhi had seen something important. Ye Yuanan and Zhao Lanzhi followed the amnesiac youth's trail, which led them to an incense shop.
A painting at the shop's entrance prominently displayed a silver snake identical to the object found with Ru Yue. Inside, after some initial reluctance from the staff, the owner allowed them in upon seeing the silver snake. He tried to deceive them, claiming the item was out of stock, but Zhao Lanzhi, grabbing him, demanded answers.
The owner confessed that the silver snake was a specially designed incense burner for "opium," a wild herb sourced from the Tangmo Barbaric Tribe outside Annan City. He explained that wild opium itself could cause hallucinations, but a refined powder derived from it was much more potent, capable of paralyzing nerves and inducing illusions, from euphoric frenzy to death, when inhaled. Ye Yuanan recognized this as confirmation of her mentor's theory.
As Zhao Lanzhi demanded the account book, the shop owner, identified as Master Li, attempted to flee when he heard his name called from outside. He had already ordered his men to surround Ye Yuanan and Zhao Lanzhi, and as the situation grew dire for them, the amnesiac youth descended from above, swiftly grabbing Ye Yuanan and carrying her away, leaving Zhao Lanzhi to face Master Li's henchmen alone.
Zhao Lanzhi pursued Master Li, who was eventually captured with the assistance of Constable Jiang Ren. The boatman Shen Da, present at the scene, identified Li as his contact in the opium trade. Noticing an injury on Li's hand, Zhao Lanzhi ordered a doctor to treat him. In prison, Zhao Lanzhi orchestrated a ruse: he had a masked guard pretend to poison Li's medicine. Frightened, Li immediately broke, offering to confess everything.
He revealed that over five hundred opium transactions occurred daily in Luoyang, many of which were seemingly approved by authorities. They used the pretext of procuring foreign drugs for military supplies, with at least two hundred secret deals happening daily under this guise. All transactions, goods checks, and contacts were handled at Qianduan Brothel by Li and Madam Zhang, with new customers paying a ten-gold-ingot "entrance fee."
Li explained Qianduan Brothel's advantages: it facilitated money laundering by blending opium smuggling revenues with legitimate accounts and its girls helped attract clients. Furthermore, the brothel operated from a boat that cruised the river nightly, providing an ideal cover for secretly transporting opium. Zhao Lanzhi deduced there was a chief plotter behind Li, questioning if it was the iron-masked man he had fought on Shen Da's boat.
Li confirmed Zhao Lanzhi's suspicion, stating the masked man was his superior, the same person who had tried to poison him earlier. However, he admitted he had never seen the man's real face. Li recounted that he was supposed to deliver goods to Shen Da but suffered a stomachache, leading the chief plotter to handle the delivery himself, which resulted in Shen Da's arrest.
Li was then sent to Annan to hide, where his subordinate brought the amnesiac youth to him. The youth, by taming a startled horse, inadvertently exposed his identity and drew Zhao Lanzhi's attention. The chief plotter, deeming the youth a liability, ordered Li to kill him. However, Li, recognizing the youth's extraordinary qualities, decided to sell him at the Ghost Market for money, but Zhao Lanzhi appeared there too.
Li explained that he returned to the fragrance shop due to his opium addiction, unable to go back to Qianduan Brothel because his superior was looking for him.
Li then questioned how a mere head constable like Zhao Lanzhi could be managing such a large-scale operation, prompting Zhao Lanzhi to realize that such an extensive, seemingly authorized opium smuggling operation, disguised as military medical supply procurement, could only be orchestrated by a high-ranking official or a member of the Imperial court.
