“Then…”

Jingrong: “Pass down this prince’s order—dispatch the shadow guards to search throughout the capital. Have Commander Xiao’s men increase their patrols as well. If there are any suitable suspects, bring them back immediately for interrogation. Not only that, we must hurry and find those three people wearing masks. Hopefully, those three can help us uncover the truth.”

“Yes.”

Just then—

A guard came running hurriedly into the inn from outside, quickly ascending the stairs.

He shouted: “Your Highness, this is bad—something’s happened!”

He was running so fast he could barely catch his breath!

He reached the doorway.

“What is it?”

“Wen… Wenlai Pavilion… someone’s dead.”

Huh?

Everyone froze.

They hurriedly asked: “Who died?”

“Xing Xiyang, the president of the Lingnan Commerce Association.” This sentence the guard spoke quite fluently.

Ji Yinshu’s eyes widened slightly.

She was shocked.

Xing Xiyang? Wasn’t he ordered to be confined to Wenlai Pavilion? How did he suddenly die?

Without time to think further, Ji Yinshu finished handling the remaining matters of Jiao Shiniang’s case, then immediately left the Longfu Inn, hurrying along with everyone to Wenlai Pavilion.

Wenlai Pavilion.

At this moment, the courtyard where Xing Xiyang regularly stayed was already surrounded by people.

The maids and servants in the pavilion craned their necks to look inside!

Everyone was very curious.

“Make way, make way…”

The guards cleared a path. Lang Bo took the lead, escorting Jingrong and Ji Yinshu and the others inside.

Inside, several commerce association presidents were present.

Upon seeing the prince arrive, they immediately came forward, bowing in greeting: “Greetings to Your Highness.”

Jingrong’s eyes tightened, quickly sweeping over the three presidents before him, saying: “No need for formalities.”

His tone was neither cold nor warm.

The three men looked slightly embarrassed.

After people dispersed, the scene that met Jingrong and Ji Yinshu’s eyes immediately shocked them both, their entire bodies trembling.

“Good heavens!” Someone cried out in alarm.

Jing Zhaoyin was so frightened he kept stepping backward. If not for the people behind him supporting him, he would have already fallen to the ground.

The scene before them could be described as chillingly terrifying.

They saw that Xing Xiyang’s lower body was buried in the earth, his upper body like a sword standing upright, but his head hung down powerlessly, his hair disheveled and blowing in the wind. On his face was a lifelike horse-ghost mask, and both hands were bound behind him.

He looked like a criminal kneeling on the execution ground about to be beheaded!

Besides the bloodstains on his body, the surrounding soil was also covered in blood!

It made one’s hair stand on end.

“How could this happen?” Ji Yinshu looked toward the steward.

The steward said: “We don’t know what happened either. When we went in, this is what we saw.”

Suddenly, a cold, mocking voice came: “If you ask me, this is retribution—he deserved it.”

Then came a spitting sound!

Looking toward the voice, they saw one of the three presidents from earlier—a man in brocade robes curling his lips, his eyes full of schadenfreude as he stared at Xing Xiyang.

This person was Zhao Zhiwen, president of the Qiyang Commerce Association.

His name sounded refined and scholarly, but his face looked like that of a petty man.

Just as he spoke those words, the man beside him nudged him, reminding: “President Zhao, it would be better to be cautious with your words, lest trouble come from your mouth.”

The speaker was Luo Mingyang, president of the Anzhou Commerce Association!

This person was ten years older than Zhao Zhiwen and appeared very steady and composed.

Zhao Zhiwen glanced at him, his face full of disdain: “The man’s already dead—can’t I say a few words? You also know how arrogant he usually was. This time, for the position of general president, he even secretly bribed officials. They say heaven is watching what people do—he deserved to die.”

What great enmity, what great hatred this must be!

Zhao Zhiwen seemed unable to contain his anger and was about to continue speaking, until Liu Zhinan, president of the Zhongdu Commerce Association beside him, forcefully tugged at his sleeve and used his eyes to remind him that Prince Rong and the others were present.

Only then did Zhao Zhiwen close his mouth!

But whether it was their conversation or the small gestures of secret reminders, everything was heard by Jingrong and Ji Yinshu and seen by their eyes.

The two exchanged glances, each understanding what the other meant.

Jingrong ordered: “Master Ji needs to examine the body—go prepare gloves.”

“Yes.”

In just a short while, they were brought.

She put on the gloves and walked toward the corpse.

Grasping the horse-ghost mask, she slowly lifted it.

Ugh!

Just like Jiao Shiniang, Xing Xiyang’s face had been skinned, bloody and mangled, even still dripping blood.

Some people in the crowd vomited.

More than one person. Ji Yinshu remained very calm. After setting down the mask, she looked at the direction the blood was flowing, then reached out to lift Xing Xiyang’s jaw. Sure enough, the fatal wound was on his neck—similarly caused by a single strike from a very sharp, thin curved dagger. Besides this, there were no other wounds on his body, and there were no traces left by the killer in the surrounding area either.

However, she noticed Xing Xiyang’s hands bound behind him.

The way the rope was knotted was something she had never seen before—wound around the wrists, twisted into a mass, with neither head nor tail visible, no way to tell where to begin untying it.

What kind of knot was this?

Puzzled in her heart, she simply took a knife and cut the rope open!

But unlike Jiao Shiniang, Xing Xiyang’s hands bore no traces of candle wax drippings.

“Master Ji, what do you find?” the Minister of Justice asked.

She let out a deep breath, stood up, her expression grave, and said: “The deceased died at the second quarter of the mao hour today. Like Jiao Shiniang, his face was skinned, the fatal wound is on the neck, and the murder weapon is a sharp, thin curved dagger.”

“The killer is the same person!”

“Judging from the killer’s method of murder, it should be the same person.”

Jing Zhaoyin: “This killer is too brazen—not only transporting the corpse into the capital, but also killing right under our noses. If we don’t catch him or her, who knows how many more people will die in the capital.”

He was both angry and worried!

During this interval, Jingrong had already walked around the entire courtyard, and had Lang Bo leap onto the roof beams to carefully examine everything around.

He looked at the soil around the deceased—not a single footprint.

Wasn’t this very strange?

Ji Yinshu walked over to him and asked: “Have you noticed something?” He frowned slightly: “For the killer to bury the body in the earth, they would have to dig and fill a pit. This process would not only take time but also require physical strength. Moreover, Xing Xiyang was being held here, so there were definitely guards outside. Yet someone died in the courtyard, the killer dug and filled a pit, and there’s no reason there would be no sound at all. Furthermore, the traces left by the killer are almost nonexistent. I also had Lang Bo check the roof and walls—nothing there either.”

“Then how did they do it?” Ji Yinshu pondered.

“The killer can murder without anyone knowing, without alarming anyone—this seems very troublesome indeed!” Ji Yinshu nodded: “This killer is truly formidable, and also the most troublesome one I’ve encountered. Or more accurately, the cleverest one. I solved the mystery she or he set up with Jiao Shiniang’s body, and now she or he has presented us with a buried corpse case—like a teacher constantly posing difficult problems. I really don’t know what kind of case will come next?”

A mystery was coiled in her heart! Step by step the killer was laying down a maze of confusion—but what was the purpose?