As the Empress looked sullen, the madams didn’t dare to say anything.
After looking around and making sure that everyone was here, the Empress opened her mouth coldly.
“Today, the Buddha once made his presence felt in the Grand Hall. I asked you to gather here because I have something to ask you.”
“The Buddha has made his presence felt?” Lin Mengya was stunned and then looked into the depths of the Grand Hall.
“If so, why are these monks looking at us like we’re enemies?”
“The Buddha must have made his power felt in a strange way,” she thought.
“Your Majesty, just ask us. It’s reasonable.”
In the crowd, a shrewd madam had begun to flatter the Empress.
.
But the Empress just gave a brief nod before saying seriously, “The Buddha showed up and said that there is a great grievance in this temple, and it concerns the royal family, so I have to be cautious.”
Suddenly, an idea came to Lin Mengya’s mind. She thought of something.
“A great grievance concerns the royal family? Does it have anything to do with Beauty Cheng, who has been missing for a few days?”
Lin Mengya had never thought that the imperial palace was a good place.
Many cruel cases took place in the imperial palace of each dynasty. The weak Beauty Cheng might have become a victim for some reason.
Lin Mengya felt that the matter was too queer. Therefore, no matter how doubtful she was, she remained silent and waited for the Empress to continue.
Something seemed to be bothering the Empress as she rubbed her forehead gently with her slender fingers.
“All of you should have heard about the missing Beauty Cheng.”
The Empress continued in a depressed tone.
The madams looked at each other and nodded silently. They had no idea why the Empress mentioned Beauty Cheng.
“The Buddha showed up. Master Yunshen got messages from Buddha, which said that Beauty Cheng, who had been missing for days, had died. However, she had a pure and kind heart, so the Buddha showed up and voiced grievance for her. The murderer who killed Beauty Cheng was here. I kept everyone here for the sake of Beauty Cheng’s last wish and the safety of everyone.”
“Beauty Cheng is dead?” Lin Mengya was distracted. Although she had guessed it, she still felt a little depressed after learning the truth.
She thought she had seen many matters of life and death over the years.
However, every time she saw an innocent person die, she still felt sad.
Although she had only seen Beauty Cheng once, Lin Mengya could tell that she was a simple girl. She had not expected her death.
However, she did not have the time to grieve for the time being.
With a strong, keen sense of crisis, she knew that what followed would be the main event.
“I didn’t expect that Beauty Cheng would encounter such a disaster at such a young age. But Your Majesty, who is the murderer?” a madam close to the Empress in the crowd asked.
However, the Empress just shook her head. She didn’t seem to know anything about the murderer.
Then Lin Mengya found that Aunt Yan, who was standing beside them just now, had quietly disappeared from the courtyard.
She looked around, and found that in addition to Yunshen, the people who usually followed the Empress all had left this courtyard.
“Could it be—”
Lin Mengya’s heart sank a little. Yinghua was still in the courtyard. Lin Mengya hoped that Hongyu and the other girls could handle this matter.
Time passed bit by bit.
The Empress did not say anything more after announcing that she would find out the murderer.
However, the feminine, pretty Monk Yunshen seemed to have inadvertently laid his eyes on Lin Mengya.
Ever since she knew that her amulet given by Tian Ning could defend her from the extremely strange fragrance, Lin Mengya no longer panicked when she met the monk again.
On the contrary, a few times when the monk saw how calm she was, a look of surprise flashed across his eyes.
He was obviously a little surprised.
Lin Mengya had no clue what the monk was up to, but she did not lower her guard.
With the presence of the Empress, these madams, who had been living high on the hog, could only stay in the square outside the Grand Hall, no matter how unhappy they were.
At this time, dusk was drawing in. Lin Mengya stood in the crowd, but the sense of crisis in her heart was getting stronger and stronger.
After a while, Aunt Yan, who looked a little frightened, trotted to the Empress.
Without greeting the madams, she immediately whispered in the Empress’s ear for a while.
No one knew what she said, but after the Empress heard her words, she looked at Lin Mengya with surprise in her eyes.
“The rest of you may leave. Princess Yu, stay here.”
“Why? Why do I have to stay when everyone else could leave?”
Lin Mengya got butterflies in her stomach, but on the surface, she could only obey the Empress’s instructions respectfully.
But at this point, there was already a lot of speculation about why she was asked to stay.
Apart from other things, once she was found to have something to do with Beauty Cheng’s death, she would have a lot more trouble in the future.
The group of madams had been evacuated. Lin Mengya stood alone in the square, bearing the gaze of the rest.
She didn’t know what had happened, but she was sure that she and the four maids of hers had been on guard against it.
Even if the Empress intended to frame her, it should not go so smoothly.
At least, they had no time to play the trick.
The Empress just glanced at her up and down, and recovered her old dignity and indifference.
“Come in. No one else is allowed to follow.”
Lin Mengya was innocent, and thought perhaps it was just a routine interrogation.
However, when she followed the Empress into the Grand Hall and saw the Buddha statue that should have been kind and amiable, her heart could not help but tremble slightly.
There was a streak of blood tears in the corner of the Buddha’s half-opened eye.
The streak on the serene face of the Buddha was particularly striking.
No wonder the surrounding monks all stood there, keeping their head down, as if something big had happened.
But Lin Mengya was a person who had come here through time travel, so she naturally understood how many tricks could be played to make the Buddha statue shed tears.
If the Empress tried to punish her because of this matter, it would be difficult to make everyone remain silent about the matter.
“Kneel down!”
All of a sudden, the Empress shouted coldly. All the servants beside her were all trembling with fear.
However, Lin Mengya straightened her back. Even if she would kneel, she had to know what she had done wrong.
As the Empress turned around and found that Lin Mengya did not do as she said, a cold look appeared in her eyes.
“Don’t you think you’re wrong even at this moment?”
She was wrong? Lin Mengya found it ridiculous. She had been cautious with her words and deeds, and had stayed in her courtyard to take baths and burn the incense for the past few days.
So, she really didn’t know what she had done wrong.
“Mother, I should follow your order. But I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
The Empress saw her ready to fight to the end, and her eyes were full of coldness.
“I asked you to come in alone in order to let you keep your dignity. Do you really think that I don’t know what you’ve done?”
Lin Mengya increasingly felt that the Empress was really a master of acting.
In order to let her keep her dignity? That was not true. The Empress was just afraid to be caught wrong and fail to slander her.
However, the Empress waved her hand, and immediately, Aunt Yan led some people to bring in something from outside.
When it was placed in front of Lin Mengya, she suddenly felt as if her whole body had been struck by an electric current.
The wet clothes clung tightly to the delicate body.
Blood had drained from her face and there were even ferocious postmortem stains on her cheeks, forming extremely frightening stripes.
Lin Mengya widened her eyes as she looked at the dead body in front of her.
She would never be mistaken—the corpse in front of her was Beauty Cheng!
But what did this have to do with Lin Mengya?
“Your Majesty, in order to investigate the missing of Beauty Cheng, we had your orders to search every yard where there is a well. In the end, we found Beauty Cheng’s body in the dry well of Princess Yu’s courtyard.”
One of Aunt Yan’s underlings reported everything.
Those words were like a bomb, making Lin Mengya’s mind suddenly go blank.
That was impossible! She had checked the courtyard once, and found nothing wrong with it.
Moreover, no one had come to her courtyard in the past few days. If Beauty Cheng’s body had really been in the well for a few days, she, who had a very acute sense of smell, should have smelled the rotten body even if others could not smell it.
But then Lin Mengya thought of a detail that she had ignored.
Lin Mengya stared at the Empress and Aunt Yan beside her.
No matter how well they acted, Lin Mengya could feel their pride in their play.
She could also feel their viciousness after they made sure that she had no chance of turning the tables.
It turned out that since Lin Mengya stepped into the Huguo Temple, the plot against her had been secretly carried out!
“The corpse was found in the well of your courtyard before witnesses. In the past three days, no one has ever entered or exited the meditation room where you live except for the people in your courtyard. You evil woman, are you still pleading not guilty?”
The Empress frowned coldly. Suddenly, the atmosphere in the Grand Hall turned intense.
