After the sound gradually disappeared—

Seeing this, Ji Yinshu immediately chased out through that side door, with Jingrong following close behind.

The young servant’s legs trembled so badly he couldn’t walk properly. He could only remain where he was, panicking and shivering.

The side doors on both sides of the ancestral hall led to the garden in the back courtyard. As soon as they rushed out, the laughter was already gone. Standing starkly before their eyes were those artificial mountain rocks still lying on the ground, not yet cleaned up.

Some of the rocks had fallen into the lake behind, while others had fallen directly onto the path, shattered into pieces.

Jingrong looked around but didn’t discover any trace of anyone!

“There are no children at all in the marquis estate,” Ji Yinshu told him.

“Then what do you think…”

“In any case, it’s definitely not a ghost—it’s a person playing tricks.”

“This prince naturally doesn’t believe in ghosts either, but if it truly was a child pretending to be supernatural, when we just chased out, this prince couldn’t possibly have failed to catch up, or even failed to see a single shadow.”

With Jingrong’s martial arts skills, it was indeed impossible that he couldn’t even track down a small child.

Could that child’s martial arts be even better than his?

That would truly be too bizarre!

Ji Yinshu was also deeply puzzled. Then, her attention shifted to those artificial mountain rocks.

She moved her steps to go around to the side of the rocks to examine them, shining the lantern forward. The chaotically collapsed rocks had practically been “uprooted” from the ground.

What tremendous strength that must have required!

One person couldn’t possibly have done it.

But if many people had pushed the rocks over together, why hadn’t it attracted any attention? Or rather, if many people pushed over the rocks, how could they have left no clues whatsoever in the surrounding area?

Suddenly, her eyes narrowed. She crouched down to examine, her gaze falling on the large holes left after those rocks had been pulled out, as well as several small holes left nearby.

“Is this that artificial mountain?” Jingrong asked.

“Yes, I passed through here last night, but I didn’t pay much attention. Marquis Kang said this was the work of ghosts, but look…” She pointed at those large holes and the small holes beside them.

Jingrong didn’t understand!

Look at what?

Several large holes with pits and hollows.

Actually, it was understandable that he didn’t comprehend.

Ji Yinshu slowly explained to him, “I know how that ghostly culprit toppled the artificial mountain. He must have found a long, sturdy iron bar and also found a medium-sized rock to place beside the artificial mountain. One end of the iron bar was inserted into the ground, while the middle rested on the rock he had found. Using leverage, he pressed down hard on the raised end, and the end of the iron bar inserted in the ground received the force, thereby ‘uprooting’ the artificial mountain. That’s why there are small holes around these large holes—because these small holes were left by the rocks the ghostly culprit moved over to use as leverage. If it truly were a ghost, it could obviously topple the artificial mountain effortlessly, so why would it waste so much energy? Therefore, this was entirely someone’s deliberate doing.”

Hmm?

What kind of operation was that!

To put it plainly, this was the principle of lever equilibrium.

It was normal for Jingrong not to understand.

What shocked Ji Yinshu was that the ghostly culprit was actually clever, having thought to use external force to push over the rocks.

“Then who could that person be?”

Ji Yinshu analyzed, “If we’re talking about toppling the artificial mountain late at night without anyone knowing, that’s possible. But to leave a child’s handprint on the marquis estate’s signboard and to tangle those tree branches together on the road leading into the estate—such things couldn’t possibly not attract attention. Moreover, with guards outside the marquis’s residence, wouldn’t it be a bit too difficult to cause mischief right under people’s noses?”

“What did you think of?”

“I thought of what Muruo said.”

Hmm?

“He said those dozen or so people who were supposedly possessed weren’t actually sick at all. If an ordinary doctor said such things, I wouldn’t believe it, but since Muruo said it, I believe it. Since they’re not sick, why are they all pretending to be ill?”

How strange!

Jingrong thought for a moment. “Why don’t this prince make a hypothesis? Perhaps the people in this marquis estate all colluded together for a common goal. First, there’s the matter of the shoes—someone deliberately stole the shoes and took advantage of this incident to achieve some unspeakable purpose. Let’s hypothesize further that the person who stole the shoes at the time might have been Cai Da, and it was also Cai Da who joined forces with many people in the estate to stage a play of ghostly hauntings. This included the guards at the gate, so leaving handprints on the signboard was an easy matter. To make people believe even more in ghost hauntings, those who also participated in this affair all pretended to be sick, making the matter even more mysterious. But Old Woman Lin seemed to want to dissuade Cai Da, so when Cai Da returned during the hour of the Rat planning to continue causing mischief, she stopped him. A conflict arose between them, and Cai Da accidentally killed her.”

Ji Yinshu listened very seriously to his hypothesis. When he finished, she nodded as well.

“Your analysis isn’t without merit. If this is truly the case, it would make sense. But why would Cai Da do this? And what about that child’s voice just now—how was that accomplished?”

“Well, we’ll have to ask him about that!”

Once they questioned Cai Da, the whole truth would come to light.

“Caw!”

A crow suddenly flew out from the darkness and landed on a fallen piece of the artificial mountain.

“Caw!”

Its pitch-black body stood proudly erect on top, pecking at the rock a few times with its head lowered. Then, flapping its wings, it flew away again.

“Caw!”

Disappearing into the pitch-black night sky.

…

On the other side, Jingrong’s guard went to the place where Cai Da was imprisoned. Two people stood guard outside, squatting together talking about something.

Seeing someone approach, they quickly stood up.

Since this was someone from Prince Rong’s side, they were a bit more polite, saying, “Brother, what’s the matter?”

“The prince has ordered Cai Da to be brought over.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now. Hurry up, don’t make the prince wait long.”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

The two quickly complied. One of them fumbled out a key and hastily opened the door. Because there was no light inside and they couldn’t see clearly, he took out a fire striker and lit a candlestick inside. The light gradually illuminated the medium-sized woodshed.

That person held the candlestick forward and called out, “Cai Da.”

Just as he finished calling—

“Ah!”

A scream.

At the same time, accompanied by the “clang” of the candlestick falling to the ground, the room that had just been illuminated went dark again. The two people who had entered came tumbling and crawling out from inside, eyes wide open, faces full of terror.

Both fell to the ground, fingers pointing inside. “Cai Da, he… he…”

Unable to speak a complete sentence!

The guard vaguely sensed something, so he stepped into the room, picked up the candlestick from the ground, and lit it again.

The light gradually spread to illuminate Cai Da, who was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall. His head was tilted to one side, his eyes rolled back white, his mouth full of blood. A severed section of tongue hung down to the ground, dripping with fresh blood. The death scene couldn’t be called tragic, but it was extremely nauseating.

Seeing this scene, the guard couldn’t help but feel his stomach turn sour, almost vomiting.