Cao Xuanyuan asks He Chuner to gather information about the sunset painter. It turns out the Western-style painter is no longer around, and there is also no trace of Sun Yi anywhere. The news is that he left Yancheng. Seeing how urgent the matter was, He Chuner immediately rode back to report to Cao Xuanyuan. In fact, Cao Xuanyuan had already guessed that the sunset painter Sun Yi and Zhang Daxian were linked to the person behind everything, but there was no trace of them and no leads at all. Why not cause trouble for Guo Zijie? Cao Xuanyuan also decided to keep this matter under wraps for the time being and bring it up again after Guo Zijie finishes his tasks.
Sun Weiyan arranges to meet He Chuner. He secretly buys some food and wants to give it to her, but at first he is embarrassed and pretends to talk about other things as an excuse. Eventually, he takes out the food. At Xiaolian’s grave, a man kneels, crying while burning paper offerings. It turns out he was in love with Xiaolian. He had planned to run away with her, but they never succeeded because of his father. He also witnessed Xiaolian’s murder. Ever since then, he has been secretly avenging her.
Early in the morning, Guo Zijie and the others arrive at the county office. Suddenly, the house steward of the Zhai residence comes to file a report. Right then, Zhou Shaoliang also shows up. Hoping to measure up against the leading man, Zhou Shaoliang actually grabs the center seat and volunteers to ask about the case, wanting to investigate it. However, Guo Zijie is famous for cracking cases, so the steward from the Zhai family still trusts Guo Zijie and wants him to handle it. Seeing an opening, Zheng Yuan pushes Guo Zijie forward to take the lead.
A few days earlier, Master Zhai disappeared. He had instructed that no one should get alarmed or file any official reports if they ran into odd occurrences while he was cultivating. Although the steward found this baffling, he was loyal to Master Zhai and followed orders. But after hearing about the dismemberment case, the steward feared that the victim might be his master and came to the authorities. He mentioned that Master Zhai has a distinctive mark on his left arm. However, the arm previously discovered was a right arm, not the left, so it is still uncertain if it was Master Zhai’s. Moreover, several of Master Zhai’s attendants had been drugged unconscious. After waking, none of them could remember anything. Cao Xuanyuan suspects that if the arm really is Master Zhai’s, then whoever did this must harbor a profound hatred—otherwise, they would not resort to such a cruel method. He Chuner examines the arm again and, based on the bones, determines it largely matches Master Zhai’s characteristics.
Following the clues, Zhou Shaoliang surmises that it could very well be someone from the Zhai household. But Sun Weiyan feels there’s something suspicious going on. Cao Xuanyuan thinks that if the one behind all this is Zhou Qin, then nothing from the Zhai family’s testimony can be fully trusted. Guo Zijie, however, is puzzled: if Zhou Qin gave the orders, why would he send Zhou Shaoliang to investigate? Cao Xuanyuan can see that Zhou Shaoliang truly wants to solve the case, but she doesn’t know who he really is. Guo Zijie then gives Cao Xuanyuan a file indicating that Zhou Shaoliang’s motive in solving the case is to secure a promotion.
Su Wang did not follow Zhou Qin’s instructions; instead, he looked into the case himself, noticed something was off, and heard about the Zhai family situation. To confirm whether the killer is really someone in the household, Cao Xuanyuan again visits the Zhai family steward, asking if everyone was indeed home the day Master Zhai went missing. He gives an affirmative answer. While they are all at a loss, yet another arm is found. After examination, the steward identifies it as Master Zhai’s arm.
Sun Weiyan suddenly notices that the place where the arm was left is the “White Tiger position,” meaning it was positioned according to the bagua trigrams. He and He Chuner go off together to find someone who knows Zhou Yi (the Book of Changes). When they’re alone, Sun Weiyan wants to give He Chuner flowers but is too shy. Just as He Chuner turns around, he hastily tosses the flowers away. Noticing Sun Weiyan’s intention, He Chuner takes the flowers herself. Then, when Sun Weiyan grows too tired to walk, she even offers to carry him on her back.
