The merchant....LOL Like Feiyan he was too obvious for me and me too went looking further and had so much fun doing so!
I even got a "but yes, that is a plausible explanation", from my hubby, who was also convinced it was the merchant.

Anyway, this mystery was so well put together, it was fun, educational, exciting and it definitifenly asks for a follow up!
Thank you Team Orient for this and the marvelous other festivities during this amazing Lunar festival.!

And of course:

Congratulations to all the top Investigators!