“Teach the disciple, starve the master.”

This saying was actually not wrong at all.

Facing Wen Shisan’s expression, Ji Yunshu didn’t want to pay attention and glanced at the piece of cloth in his hand.

She said, “This cloth is useless even if you take it, because this piece of cloth belongs neither to the murderer nor to the deceased.”

Wen Shisan didn’t believe it. “Then how do you explain why there’s a piece of cloth here?”

“Haven’t I taught you that when this kind of hemp cloth encounters water or any water-soluble substance, both its softness and hardness, as well as its color, will change? The piece of cloth in your hand—the looseness of the fine threads at the cut edge seems to have been left behind a few days ago, but hemp cloth shrinks when it gets wet, and the fine threads at the cut edge of the cloth will also contract, naturally shortening the time since it was torn off. This shows that this piece of cloth actually fell here ten days ago. But if you think this piece of cloth is evidence, then by all means keep it.”

After finishing, she walked around him to the other side.

Wen Shisan was left speechless, clutching the piece of cloth in his hand, crumpling it into a ball.

In the end, he still put that piece of cloth away.

At this moment—

“My lord, the village chief has arrived.”

The people from the Jing Zhaoyin’s office announced.

They saw a man wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat, his feet splashing through water as he hurried in. Because the bamboo hat was pressed very low, his appearance couldn’t be seen clearly.

That person seemed to have run over, panting heavily.

He raised his hand and bowed to everyone.

“Greetings to the two princes and Lord Jing Zhaoyin.”

His voice was weathered.

Jingrong frowned and asked, “What’s going on?”

Jing Zhaoyin explained, “Your Highness, before you arrived, this official already notified the village chief of Zhang Family Village. After all, this temple belongs to Zhang Family Village, so if there’s anything we don’t understand and need to inquire about, having the village chief here would be more convenient.”

Oh my, this fellow was quite meticulous in handling affairs!

Village Chief Zhang raised his head, revealing his wrinkled face, looking to be about fifty or sixty years old.

He began to complain, “I never expected that one heavy rain would cause this temple to collapse and even topple the great Buddha. This was already unlucky enough, but who knew there was also a well under the great Buddha, and in the well… there were so many skeletal remains. Now the entire village is afraid to go out at night.”

Sighing and lamenting!

As the leader of a village, encountering such matters, there was nothing he could do!

He could only hope this case would be solved quickly.

Jingrong asked him, “Village Chief, this prince wants to know, how did this dry well under the great Buddha come to be?”

“This…” Village Chief Zhang shook his head. “I don’t know either. This temple was built nearly a hundred years ago, and our ancestors never mentioned there was a well under the great Buddha.”

“Does anyone in the village know?”

“I’ve already asked around once, and everyone says they don’t know.” The village chief looked worried and distressed.

Jing Yi walked over and continued asking, “I heard it was you who discovered the corpses at the bottom of the well.”

“Yes, I discovered them, so I immediately reported it to the authorities.”

“At that time it was raining heavily, the entire village was flooded, so why were you at this place? And in the dead of night no less.”

As if interrogating a criminal!

Village Chief Zhang trembled and stammered, “That day… it was raining heavily, the village was flooded, everyone was busy seeking shelter. I was… worried the temple would leak, so I came to take a look, and as a result…”

Before he could finish speaking—

He was interrupted. Jingrong said sternly, “You’re lying!”

Village Chief Zhang froze!

“I… I’m not.”

“The water was rising at that time, you couldn’t even save yourself in time, so how would you run to this ruined temple? If that’s not lying, what is it?”

“I…”

“Still won’t tell the truth? Must this prince resort to torture?”

Upon hearing this, Village Chief Zhang became anxious and quickly said, “I’ll talk, I’ll talk.” He glanced at the shattered Buddha statue on the ground, his eyes showing fear, before explaining, “To be honest, ever since this temple was completed, our Zhang Family Village had always been doing well. But over ten years ago, also because of heavy rain and strong winds, the great Buddha’s body suddenly cracked with many small fissures. Not long after, people in the village began falling ill one after another. Every year one or two people would die, and they were all young, strong men. The doctors we called all said it was evil cold entering the body causing death. We thought it was caused by the Buddha’s cracking, so every day we offered incense, praying that no more people would die. That night, just like the heavy rain over ten years ago, I was worried something would happen to the Buddha statue again, so I came over. I never expected the Buddha statue would actually fall, and with this fall, so many dead people appeared. I don’t know if our village will suffer calamity.”

Extremely frightened!

Oh?

There was such a strange occurrence?

Jingrong said, “There’s no such thing as supernatural forces in this world.”

But Jing Yi interjected, “Prince Rong must not speak this way. Talk of gods and ghosts cannot be blasphemed.”

“If you believe, they exist; if you don’t believe, they don’t exist.”

“The world is vast, with all manner of strange things.”

“Even if they exist, they are ghosts in the human heart.”

“…”

Jing Yi couldn’t continue.

At this moment, the rain grew heavier!

Dark clouds filled the sky. Though it was broad daylight, it was so dark one could barely see their hand in front of their face.

Jing Zhaoyin worried, “Prince Rong, Prince Yi, the rain is getting heavier. If we return the same way, I’m afraid there might be an accident.”

So Village Chief Zhang quickly interjected, “That’s right. The roads are difficult now, even horse carriages won’t work. If the two princes don’t mind, why not first go to our Zhang Family ancestral hall? It’s spacious there and can provide shelter from the rain. Once the rain stops and the sky brightens a bit, it won’t be too late to leave.”

Jingrong and Jing Yi exchanged glances.

Then with perfect synchronization, they separately looked toward Ji Yunshu and Wen Shisan.

Inquiring.

Ji Yunshu nodded.

Wen Shisan nodded.

Afterward—

Taking advantage of the sky not yet having darkened to a certain degree, everyone left the ruined temple.

In less than the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, they arrived at the Zhang Family ancestral hall.

Before entering, Jingrong picked up several very small pebbles from the ground.

Ji Yunshu happened to see this.

“Why are you picking up stones?”

“They’re useful.”

Hmm?

Acting mysterious.

After everyone entered the ancestral hall, it was indeed as Village Chief Zhang had said—inside it was very large and spacious, with nearly eleven or twelve tables arranged for people to rest.

Many villagers were sitting inside.

Those villagers probably hadn’t seen so many people come to their village before, especially upper-class people dressed in luxurious clothing. They looked at each other, stunned, no one speaking.

Village Chief Zhang quickly explained, “Because of that heavy rain, many dwellings couldn’t be lived in anymore, so some villagers moved here.”

Everyone then rustled as they knelt and kowtowed.

“Greetings to Prince Rong and Prince Yi.”

Looking at the common people covering the ground, Jingrong’s expression grew somber, his heart aching.

“Everyone rise. It is we who are disturbing you all. We’re borrowing this place to rest briefly, there’s no need for such grand ceremony.”

Everyone stood up!

Jing Yi sneered coldly, “How hypocritical.”

Then he sat down at a table.

With an attitude of “I’m the boss around here”!

Wen Shisan sat down along with him.