“So yesterday at the zi hour, did anything unusual happen at the inn?”

The waiter thought for a moment and shook his head.

“No!”

“After the deceased checked in, did she come out? Or did anyone come looking for her?”

“I don’t think so! This humble one remembers that after she ate dinner downstairs at the time, she entered her room and never came out after that.”

“What time was that?”

“Probably a quarter past the you hour. However, at three quarters past the xu hour, this humble one went in to deliver a pot of tea. She was still there at that time. After that, I never saw her come out either. This humble one was always guarding downstairs. Because her room was right next to the stairway entrance, it was very conspicuous. This humble one is very certain—no one went in again.”

The waiter said firmly.

Ji Yunshu believed him!

She glanced at the corpse, her gaze falling on the deceased’s unattractive hands with protruding finger joints, then turned to ask Jiao Shiniang’s two assistants.

“What about you two? After the xu hour, did you see the deceased?”

The two assistants shook their heads!

“Did she have any enemies? Before entering the capital or after entering the capital, did anyone have any disputes with her?”

“This…” The slightly sturdier assistant thought and thought again. “Shiniang was famously a good person. In business, she never had disputes with anyone. Moreover, she had many friends in the jianghu and never made enemies with anyone! This year is also our first time coming to the capital to participate in the triennial merchant association. We don’t know who the murderer is, to be so cruel. Shiniang was such a good person, yet…”

A sigh!

The two assistants’ eyes even reddened, lifting their sleeves to wipe away tears!

Although Ji Yunshu felt some sympathy, she still continued asking, “Did she meet anyone you didn’t recognize? Or after you checked into the inn, which is to say before the you hour, did anyone come looking for Shiniang?”

“No, we came to the inn as soon as we entered the capital. No one came looking for her. Moreover, Shiniang said that recently there were too many people in the capital and told us to stay well in the inn. She didn’t go out either. That evening after eating, she entered her room. Indeed, as the waiter said, Shiniang never came out.”

After speaking, the assistant hurriedly added, “Oh right, although I didn’t see Shiniang after the xu hour, I remember at a quarter past the hai hour, I wanted to use the toilet. I happened to pass by Shiniang’s room preparing to go downstairs. At that time, I seemed to see two shadows in Shiniang’s room. In a flash they were gone. I thought I had seen wrong and didn’t pay attention.”

“Shadows?” Everyone’s nerves tensed up.

Could the other one be the murderer?

The assistant said, “It should be, or maybe I saw wrong.”

Ji Yunshu pressed further, “Describe carefully—what were the shadows you saw like? Tall? Short? Fat? Or thin? Or were there any other characteristics?”

The assistant swallowed, lowered his eyes, opened his mouth, and after a long while finally uttered a shocking sentence: “They were… exactly the same, exactly the same shadows!”

Eh?

Everyone present was extremely shocked!

They felt an even greater chill down their backs.

Everyone knows a person only has one shadow—where would two come from?

After the assistant finished speaking, even he was frightened. His face turned pale in an instant, his lips trembling as he said, “So that’s why I said I might have seen wrong. How could there be two identical shadows in the room? I was also in a hurry to use the toilet at the time, so I didn’t pay much attention. But after returning to my room, I felt a bit afraid.”

He hugged his trembling arms!

He truly hoped he had really seen wrong!

Although this matter was strange, after all only that one assistant had seen it—perhaps he really had seen wrong.

Ji Yunshu pondered: If what the waiter and those two assistants said was true, that no one went in after the hai hour and no one came out, then how did the murderer take the deceased out of the room? And why strike and kill in another place? Kill without destroying the corpse, then move it back—why? Even perverted enough to create so many strange and bizarre things!

Her heart was beating like a drum. She walked to that window again, looking at those sand particles on it, lost in thought.

Jingrong walked over, stood beside her, and said, “Are you thinking that the murderer must be a skilled expert, which is why they could carry someone out from such a high place and carry them back silently?”

“Yes, but not entirely. Actually, I’m also thinking about something else.” She said, “If the murderer truly wanted to kill, judging by their ability to silently leap over such a high wall, killing one person should be very simple. Why would they need to take the deceased out to kill them? Then carry them back? Even change the deceased’s clothes and put on a mask? Even use candle wax to glue the deceased’s hands together? What are they creating all these things for?”

She couldn’t understand it for now!

Jingrong looked outside, then turned to look at that corpse, speculating, “Perhaps… the murderer is a psychologically perverted and twisted killer who deliberately arranged the corpse this way. To them, it’s actually a kind of satisfaction!”

Such perverted killers did indeed exist, and there were many. They killed to satisfy their inner desires and pleasure, then presented the corpse as they imagined it in their minds—not one bit different would do!

Ji Yunshu nodded. “What you say is not without reason.”

After speaking, her gaze swept through the room again, finally falling on those several large boxes piled up.

Her nose wrinkled slightly.

The air was filled with a faint fragrance emanating from the boxes, like a scent of jasmine mixed with cream.

Refreshing to the heart!

The spices from the Lingnan area were famously pleasant-smelling. Many wealthy household wives and young ladies loved Lingnan spices the most, because not only did they smell good, but if made into perfume and sprinkled on the body, the fragrance could last a month without dissipating.

So they were not only expensive but also very rare.

She reached out to touch one of the boxes, then slowly slid to another box.

Eh?

At that moment, her eyes widened with shock.

She touched several other boxes a few more times.

Murmuring, “Why does the large box at the very bottom have a different temperature from the other boxes?”

The several boxes above were all ordinary room temperature, while the large box pressed at the very bottom was slightly colder.

“Are these all filled with spices?” she asked the two assistants.

One of the assistants said, “Yes, all these boxes contain our Lingnan spices. Before entering the capital, we sealed them all up. Because our spices are not resistant to moisture, Shiniang instructed that we must not open the boxes before the merchant association, lest they get damp and spoiled.”

“The box at the very bottom also contains spices?”

“Yes!”

Ji Yunshu had her doubts and wanted to open it to look, but people had already said that if opened, they might get damp. What if it was just her being overly suspicious—wouldn’t that ruin someone’s business?

That won’t do!

That won’t do!

Probably… it’s because the box below is close to the ground, so it’s relatively cooler.