After careful consideration, she narrowed her eyes and was suddenly startled!

Not knowing if it was feminine intuition, she began searching the bodies of the other men in black.

As she expected, each of them had the same jade pendant.

“What is this?” Lang Bo asked.

“I think this case already has some leads.”

“What?”

Before Lang Bo could probe further, he saw Ji Yunshu take the jade pendant and go inside. He immediately followed.

Returning to the charred corpse, Ji Yunshu positioned the jade pendant over the circular mark above the body’s buttocks.

Sure enough, it matched perfectly!

Even the patterns within the circular shape matched completely!

Then she took out the handkerchief from her waist, which was stained with the black liquid boiled from the throat bone. This light black mark, if the color were a bit darker, would be exactly the same as the color of the blood on Jingrong’s and Fu Bo’s wounds.

She should have thought of this earlier.

Those five people had been poisoned with spotted stone venom!

That also meant the murderer who poisoned those five people was among tonight’s men in black?

Then who were those men in black?

Every sword aimed at Jingrong’s life—were they truly enemies?

Not surprising. With Jingrong’s domineering personality, and being a prince, it would be normal for him to have several enemies in the jianghu.

But she hadn’t expected that Lang Bo, the rough man beside her, was watching with stunned amazement.

“Sir, you… what exactly are you doing? These jade pendants are?”

She removed the jade pendant from the charred corpse and held it in her hand, asking Lang Bo: “Do you recognize this jade pendant?”

He shook his head.

“Those men in black all had one of these jade pendants. If I’m not mistaken, if we can find the source of this jade pendant, then we can probably identify the person who truly wants to kill your prince.”

“Things probably aren’t this simple,” Lang Bo said.

“Why do you say that?” Ji Yunshu asked.

“Sir, you may not understand the ways of the jianghu. If these people truly came to kill the prince, why would they wear jade pendants? Why leave such obvious evidence?”

He spoke earnestly!

She had to admit, this point had truly escaped Ji Yunshu’s notice.

“But right now, the only clue we can find is these jade pendants. Whether they were deliberately left to mislead or not, we should still investigate their source thoroughly.”

After saying this, she stuffed the jade pendants into Lang Bo’s hands and continued.

“You must also remember to tell your prince that spotted stone venom is extremely potent. It’s made from the flowers and leaves of the Northern Clause tree, and the Northern Clause grows in extremely cold regions. It actually became extinct long ago, but unexpectedly someone is still growing this type of tree. So if we can find out who’s still growing Northern Clause, we can trace the source of the poison. Combined with investigating this jade pendant, we should be able to find the culprit.”

After this explanation, Lang Bo was somewhat dumbfounded.

Earlier in the yamen, when the county magistrate praised Ji Yunshu to the heavens, he had harbored some doubts in his heart. But after the Zhou family incident and her deductions just now…

Simply divine!

Before Lang Bo could recover, Ji Yunshu spoke again: “I expect Prince Rong won’t wake until tomorrow. Tonight he’ll just have to make do with staying at the charity mortuary for one night. As for the corpses outside…”

How should these corpses be handled?

After all, this was also a murder case that occurred within Jinjiang’s boundaries, so naturally the county magistrate should manage it.

But she also worried that Jingrong wouldn’t want this matter publicized!

Lang Bo picked up her words: “Sir, this matter is of great importance. I must ask you to keep tonight’s events confidential. As for the corpses outside, I will burn them one by one.”

She nodded.

“Then I’ll leave first. What I just told you, you must relay it all to your prince without omission.”

“Yes.”

What needed investigating had been investigated. She could now consider herself free of entanglements with this prince!

Unknowingly, it had reached the hour of the pig. She cleaned the bloodstains from her hands and patted the long-dried blood marks on her robes.

What a waste of good clothing.

Picking up her lantern hanging in the corner, she left.

Returning to the Ji family residence, she changed out of her blood-stained clothes and threw them into the brazier to burn!

Tonight’s events still left her heart pounding with lingering fear. If there were one or two more such incidents, her heart probably couldn’t take it.

She was also truly exhausted beyond measure. Collapsing on the bed, fighting that anxious and unsettled state of mind, she gradually fell asleep.

Early the next morning, outside, heavy snow began falling, a vast expanse of white.

Ji Yunshu rose early.

At this time, Luan’er entered the room yawning, placed a pot of freshly brewed tea on the table, then weakly asked her mistress: “Miss, what time did you return last night?”

“Very late,” Ji Yunshu answered.

Luan’er asked again: “Are you finished with the yamen’s business? During this time, Miss, you haven’t stopped at all. This servant is worried about your health…”

Ancient maidservants were either fierce and aggressive, or like Luan’er—bitter and pitiful.

Ji Yunshu poured a cup of hot tea, brought it to her lips for a sip, then turned to ask Luan’er: “By the way, yesterday I asked you to soak the mallow seeds in water overnight. Did you do it?”

Luan’er nodded, trotted out, and returned holding the brocade box containing the mallow seeds, placing it before Ji Yunshu.

“Miss, are you really going to give this to the Zhou family’s steward?”

At this moment, Luan’er still felt distressed. Such rare medicinal ingredients—giving them away, naturally she felt it was a pity.

But Ji Yunshu had already picked up the brocade box and stood up. “I’m going to the Zhou residence.”

“It’s snowing outside, Miss. Let me go deliver it for you instead.”

“I’ll go myself. I also left something at the Zhou residence.”

As she spoke, she had already taken an umbrella from beside the door beam, opened it, and left.

Luan’er wrinkled her brow, her small eyes pitiful, filled with both distress and sighs.

Truth be told, Ji Yunshu didn’t want to stay at the Ji residence. Whenever she thought about how the original owner of this body had been abandoned in that courtyard and starved to death, she became increasingly upset.

At thirteen years old, shouldn’t one be in the prime of youth?

Yet to suffer hunger and cold—how pitiful that must have been!

If she hadn’t entered this body at that time, perhaps Luan’er, who was only ten years old then, would have subsequently starved to death as well.

…

From the Ji residence to the Zhou residence, she shook the white snow from her umbrella at the entrance and folded it up.

Miss Zhou had been buried yesterday. The white cloth strips outside the door had all been torn down. The formerly imposing mansion now seemed gloomy and somber.

The young servant outside the door saw her and came forward.

“Master Ji, why have you come at this hour? I’ll go report to the master.”

“No need. I’ve come to see your steward.”

The young servant was puzzled, turned his head, “Then please come inside, sir. I’ll go call Uncle Jing.”

The young servant led Ji Yunshu to a side hall to wait, then hurried off to find the old steward.

After just a moment, the old steward came hunched over, his hands clasped tightly before his abdomen.

To put it bluntly, he truly had the appearance of a servile subordinate!