“Does anyone have a dagger or a pocket knife? I want to borrow it for a while,” Lin Mengya asked.
Seeing that she seemed to have discovered something, Zhou Ling immediately drew the knife from her waist and handed it to her.
It was only then that Lin Mengya noticed that Commander Zhou carried a knife and a sword on her slender waist.
It seemed that Commander Zhou was a rare master in martial arts.
Taking the knife from Zhou Ling, Lin Mengya handed the torch over to the female guard beside her.
Then she beckoned for a few guards to provide illumination for her and examined the arms of the female corpses carefully with her sharp eyes.
As she expected, she found extremely small black dots from their wrists to elbows.
If she guessed correctly, these black dots should be small holes.
They were just too small to be discovered by ordinary people.
Then Lin Mengya took out the knife and skillfully cut open the arm of a corpse.
As she expected, the bone of the arm was clean and smooth.
It meant that although the bone was still wrapped with muscles, the flesh and the bone had actually been separated.
Those small holes were supposed to be caused by the thing used to control the four corpses.
What a vicious means of turning people into mere tools!
“What’s going on?” Zhou Ling asked.
She had witnessed the killing, but she had seen very few of the Candle Dragon Cult’s various means.
Now that Lin Mengya had figured out what had happened to the corpses, the corpses became useless.
She said, “Commander, please come with me to give a report on this case. Regarding the corpses, carry them outside and instruct some trustworthy guards to watch over them.”
She was not sure if the wire puller had any other tricks up his sleeve. Up to now, she was one hundred percent sure that what had happened here had something to do with the Candle Dragon Cult.
Thinking of the Immortal Powder, which had almost ruined Long Tianyu’s life, and the copper slaves she had seen on the Qijue Peak later, she involuntarily considered the members of the Candle Dragon Cult were presumably a group of crazy scientific researchers.
Such a perverted thing could only be done by them.
She sighed and felt sorry for these innocent people who got killed for no reason.
Lin Mengya suddenly realized something when she stood up and was about to leave.
She turned around and took a closer look at the four corpses’ faces.
Despite their rigid and ferocious expressions, she could still make out their facial features that had been delicate.
Although the Candle Dragon Cult did things in a weird way, they presumably had left some clues.
Could it be that the four women were chosen at random? Or did they have anything in common?
Seeing Lin Mengya’s puzzled look, Zhou Ling thought it inappropriate to come up to disturb her.
In the beginning, she had been a little rude to Lin Mengya, but later, Lin Mengya proved herself to her with facts.
No wonder Madame Jingrou thought of Miss Helan as soon as she heard of this case.
Everyone had his specialty. Although Helan was far inferior to her in terms of martial arts, Helan was observant with quite a few extraordinary skills.
Zhou Ling thought she had apparently lost in this round.
She said, “These palace maids have nothing in common except that they all guarded this place. Do you have any clues?”
This did not make sense. Their bloody and terrifying move that day was still engraved in the depths of Lin Mengya’s mind.
Could it be that they were really chosen at random?
Lin Mengya furrowed her brows, preoccupied by quite a few doubts.
Nevertheless, she believed she would find out the truth one day.
Along the way, Lin Mengya was gloomy with worry and kept thinking about the clues she got.
Zhou Ling, who walked behind her, unusually managed to suppress the urge to disturb her.
When they were about to reach the resting palace of the Emperor, Lin Mengya stopped, looked at Zhou Ling apologetically and said, “Commander, I’m sorry for ignoring you. If you have any doubt, just spit it out.”
Lin Mengya certainly knew that Zhou Ling had a lot of questions to ask.
Seeing Lin Mengya smile gently, Zhou Ling was at a loss where to start.
After a while, she politely asked, “Miss, may I ask how you discovered the unusual condition of the corpses?”
The holes on the arms of the corpses were very small. Although they had examined the corpses carefully, they didn’t find anything in the dim light.
Unexpectedly, Miss Helan discovered the holes in a short time, which was really puzzling.
“In fact, it’s because of the mechanism we discovered. I suppose that someone must have done something to either the corpses or their clothes. Given that your subordinates must have checked their clothes, there must be something wrong with the corpses. In this case, why did I fail to discover it at the beginning?” Lin Mengya said.
She always had no interest in taking all the credit, so she had figured out how to explain it on the way.
She decided to tell Zhou Ling about her deduction slowly when Zhou Ling asked her.
“Miss, do you mean someone did something to the corpses while we were seeking clues? But all my subordinates are trustworthy. It’s absolutely impossible for any of them to be a spy,” Zhou Ling said.
There was something Lin Mengya should definitely hide from Zhou Ling, so she asked on purpose.
Unexpectedly, Command Zhou was so straightforward and lovely that she succeeded in changing the topic effortlessly.
Lin Mengya motioned for her to calm down and said in a low voice, “Of course, your subordinates are reliable. But there’s a saying in my hometown: neither hatred nor love comes for no reason. The four people were definitely not chosen by chance. Don’t you think there’s something fishy about it?”
Zhou Ling was by no means an ordinary boorish person, but just had rarely been exposed to this kind of scheme.
Therefore, Lin Mengya didn’t need to put it bluntly, and she understood what Lin Mengya meant.
She said, “Exactly. I sent someone to make an investigation, and learned that they came from different places with different identities but just guarded the Linqiu Pavilion at the same time. Why did they get killed for no reason? It seems that the imperial palace is not peaceful.”
As smart people, they understood what the other party meant without further explanation.
Lin Mengya glanced at Zhou Ling, revealing a gentle smile.
Then she raised her eyebrows with a cold look in her eyes.
Such a sordid thing was exposed after a downpour. It seemed that a storm was coming into the imperial palace.
The two of them arrived at the Emperor’s resting palace, not expecting the Emperor to be there as well.
Zhou Ling seemed to have met the Emperor frequently, hence, she was not very stiff.
Meanwhile, Lin Mengya discovered the Emperor seemed to be looking at her in a slightly different way today.
She couldn’t tell the exact difference, but just felt that the Emperor seemed to be looking her up and down.
It was strange. She was not a stranger. Could it be that the Emperor did this because he forgot her appearance?
Fortunately, Lin Mengya was not a busybody. After bowing respectfully, she stood with her hands down and did not dare to say anything.
“In response to Your Majesty and Madame, Miss Helan made an investigation and discovered quite a few suspicious things in the Linqiu Pavilion. This matter is serious, so I don’t dare to make wild guesses. Please make a judgment, Your Majesty,” Zhou Ling said and saluted with joined hands without taking Lin Mengya’s credit.
Hearing this, the Emperor fixed his eyes on Lin Mengya, but didn’t ask her immediately.
Instead, he picked up the cup at hand and took a sip before asking, “What did you find?”
He was obviously asking Lin Mengya.
Lin Mengya immediately answered softly, “Your Majesty, Commander Zhou and I worked together to destroy the mechanism the wire puller attempted to use to control the corpses. However, there is indeed something strange about the four ladies’ deaths. I can’t make sure now. The whole thing won’t come to light until tomorrow morning.”
Restricted by the condition at night, there were still some problems Lin Mengya had not figured out yet.
Since the four ladies had different backgrounds, she could only seek the thing they had in common in themselves.
Although she was aware that a lot of traces would disappear overnight, she had no other choice at the moment.
“That’s all you found?” However, the Emperor asked.
It seemed that he did not intend to accept the result of their investigation. Lin Mengya smelled a rat.
Nevertheless, the Emperor had always been an unpredictable person. He probably behaved like that because her conclusion was too hasty?
Lin Mengya said, “That’s not the case. It’s just that Commander Zhou and I haven’t made sure of many things, and we are afraid of misleading you. Your Majesty, please don’t blame me for failing to do my job properly.”
The Emperor wanted to say something else, but was interrupted by Madame Jingrou, “Your Majesty, Ling’er and Helan have worked hard all night. Let’s call it a day. You two may go back now and come to report tomorrow morning.”
“Okay,” Lin Mengya answered.
She raised her head to glance at Madame Jingrou in puzzlement, but found nothing special about Madame Jingrou who acted as usual.
Why did the Emperor seem to be intentional to target her today?
Lin Mengya bowed and got out of the resting palace of the Emperor with Zhou Ling. When she was about to say goodbye to Zhou Ling, she found that Zhou Ling was staring at her seriously.
Zhou Ling said, “Miss Helan, I want to tell you something.”
Lin Mengya had long lost the desire to sleep after working overnight.
With a nod, she followed Zhou Ling to move aside.
Although the lotus flowers were scattered after being battered by the rain, they were bright and fresh.
It was graceful to admire lotus flowers in the moonlight.
However, the female general next to Lin Mengya looked a little tense.
Lin Mengya said, “Commander, if you want to tell me something, just spit it out. But if it’s about the case, we have to talk about it tomorrow.”
Zhou Ling stared at Lin Mengya and suddenly smiled at her.
Her slightly shy smile puzzled Lin Mengya.
Zhou Ling said, “I used to think that Wanyan Yu was a worthless person who only cared about people’s appearances. Unexpectedly, he is quite discerning. Rest assured. After I go home, I’ll tell my father not to bother His Majesty every other day. In fact, I don’t like Wanyan Yu. As a man, he looks even more delicate than many girls and not masculine at all.”
Huh? Obviously, Lin Mengya did not realize what she meant.
In the next second, Zhou Ling looked at her with incomparable sincerity, no longer showing any intention to stand in sharp opposition to her.
Zhou Ling added, “In fact, I just want to give you a test. After all, it concerns the future of our Lieyun Empire, so we have to be cautious. But your performance is greatly beyond my expectation. I will definitely ask my father to help you be the Empress in the future.”
