Chapter 836 See Through Her Ident.i.ty
“So that is how it is...” Lin Mengya said.
She pretended to be enlightened by her words, but didn’t withdraw her hairpin.
She looked at the woman in front of her with regret, seeming to be in a difficult position.
However, she changed the topic, revealing her inherent wickedness once again. “It’s a pity that my awareness of it is useless. His Majesty and Madame Jingrou insist on finding a scapegoat. You, as a humble palace maid, got involved in this matter, which made you the perfect scapegoat.”
Lin Mengya was aware that now she acted like a devil who gave the woman hope time and again and personally pushed her into a deeper abyss of despair.
Instructed by Baisu, the woman lying p.r.o.ne on the ground had suffered specially cruel torment in the past few days.
By the time she was brought to Lin Mengya, her psychological defense had become weak.
This was the place where the palace servants, who made mistakes, were imprisoned. All kinds of punishments were definitely enough to put her in an utterly miserable situation.
At the moment, she was facing a life or death situation.
Lin Mengya stared at her calmly and found the hesitant look in her eyes faded away.
Under the threat of her hairpin, the woman had long been swayed a little.
“You’d better resign yourself to it. It’s better for you to die now. I also heard that the tribe leader was furious and intended to throw the culprit into a cauldron of boiling oil. It will be unfortunate for you, whose skin is tender, to go through that,” Lin Mengya subconsciously said in a very gloomy tone.
The fragrance from the sachet Lin Mengya brought filled the entire room at the right time.
Beauty Jin, who was not strong-willed at all, had long been scared out of her wits by the scene Lin Mengya described as the h.e.l.l.
How could she fight a battle of wits against Lin Mengya?
“No, I don’t want to be thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil! No! Help me. Please help me,” Beauty Jin pleaded.
Her willpower had been completely crushed by Lin Mengya under the influence of the three tricks played on her.
At the moment, she had been brought into a state similar to hypnosis by her fear.
Lin Mengya put away her hairpin and began to ask questions leisurely.
By the time Lin Mengya got all the answers she wanted, Beauty Jin had pa.s.sed out from fright.
The sweet and depressing smell, which was a powerful tranquilizing agent, in the room, coupled with her unique prescription, made the best catalyst for hypnotizing Beauty Jin.
The woman lying on the ground had a pale face and her messy clothes had been wetted by her sweat.
Even if she were to wake up, she would most likely fall into her nightmare and be a crazy woman, who had lost her senses, for the rest of her life.
She deserved this punishment and could not blame anyone else for it.
As soon as Lin Mengya walked out of the dark room, the sensible old maid came up to her and asked, “Farewell, Miss. But how should we deal with the woman?”
Glancing at the old maid, Lin Mengya said, “Find a place at random for her to stay in seclusion. If anyone asks about her, just say that she felt uneasy day and night because of what happened to her cousin, and now she has gone crazy and lost her mind because of the murder of the four people.”
Although the woman had lost her senses, it did not mean that she was useless.
The old maid understood what she meant immediately. They, experienced in handling this kind of thing, certainly knew how to deal with the woman.
After getting out of the small courtyard, Lin Mengya headed for the Fengyu Court. In fact, she accidentally discovered the palace maid turned out to be Beauty Jin.
When she entered the yard that day, the first thought that came to her mind was to guard all the people related to this matter.
Baisu turned back halfway to do this.
Beauty Jin’s cousin was a humble palace maid and lost her only backing after Beauty Jin died.
Given her former ident.i.ty as Beauty Jin’s cousin, she was in charge of cleaning which was not a heavy job.
Since Yao Lu left, the Linqiu Pavilion had become as secluded as the cold palace.
Most people considered it a miserable place and were unwilling to stay here for long.
Therefore, the palace maids took turns to work here, and Beauty Jin, disguised as a palace maid, was appointed to arrange the shifts.
As for why she arranged shifts for the four people, she just said that she got a message.
When Lin Mengya asked who exactly sent her the message, she failed to answer.
She just said that someone sent her a letter where he instructed her to do so. If she disobeyed the person, he would expose her ident.i.ty.
However, even without Beauty Jin’s answer, Lin Mengya could guess who the person was.
Since Beauty Jin was subst.i.tuted with her cousin by Wanyan Jing’s men back then, the person who threatened her to do so could be none other than Wanyan Jing.
In fact, Beauty Jin did a pretty good job in disguising herself so that it was difficult for ordinary people to discover it.
Unfortunately, she confronted Baisu who was very observant.
After detaining those people, Baisu came to report to Lin Mengya that the hands of Beauty Jin’s cousin were not rough at all with no calluses.
Beauty Jin’s cousin had worked in the imperial palace for ten years and didn’t get much preferential treatment as she was on bad terms with Beauty Jin.
Since she was a woman who had worked in the imperial palace for ten years with no strong backer and was not an imperial concubine, how could it be possible for her to have a pair of tender hands and the power to arrange for other palace maids to do the cleaning?
In this case, the truth could only be that she was Beauty Jin whose face was very similar to that of her cousin.
Moreover, Lin Mengya sent someone to follow up this clue and discovered that Beauty Jin had indeed done a lot of things after surviving by taking her cousin’s ident.i.ty.
That explained why Wanyan Jing dealt with Beauty Jin so ruthlessly. In addition to deterring the members of the imperial palace, he presumably also intended to mislead them so that no one would suspect Beauty Jin.
What an excellent scheme! If she had not seen through Beauty Jin’s ident.i.ty and asked Baisu to try every means to hide Beauty Jin, Beauty Jin probably would have been a corpse now.
All of these things, without exception, pointed to the relics of the Guwei State.
Xin Yu had said that Wanyan Jing was also a member of the Candle Dragon Cult.
Then what position did Wanyan Jing hold in the Candle Dragon Cult?
She knew there were always disputes among a group of people.
Mr. Zhu held a high position in the Candle Dragon Cult and was powerful.
In this case, what on earth was the faction of the head, which went against Mr. Zhu, up to?
All this was unknown to Lin Mengya.
It was not because she was stupid, but because there were plenty of people’s secrets behind the Candle Dragon Cult’s plan.
How could she fight against it by herself?
She sighed faintly. It seemed to be more difficult than she thought to win the final victory!
She returned to the Fengyu Court.
Feeling sorry for Baisu who had worked outside in recent days, Lin Mengya specially permitted her to stay outside for another few days.
She was alone in the s.p.a.cious side chamber.
Furthermore, she had always been cautious. It was impossible for ordinary people to approach her.
Although it was safe and secluded here, she inevitably felt lonely.
She could not pay another visit to Xin Luan in a short time.
The Emperor was displeased with her, which made it distressing for her to pay her respects to Madame Jingrou.
She could not handle other things, either because it was not the right time or she could only send someone to make a secret investigation for fear of alerting the enemy.
During this troubled period, Lin Mengya was at leisure.
She, who felt bored, could only spread a piece of paper and began to copy the model of a famous calligrapher.
If there was any disadvantage of the education of the Lin Family, it would be that she was not as proficient as Long Tianyu in brush calligraphy.
In the past year or so, she had made considerable progress.
However, the traditional Chinese characters in ancient times could easily turn her regular script in small characters into smudges of ink.
She enjoyed practicing calligraphy while thinking.
Lots of things had happened recently. She should think them over patiently to keep up with the development.
“Your handwriting is indeed much better than before, but it does not have the strength,” there came a voice.
Her hand was grabbed by a big hand, and her waist was held by a solid arm.
A familiar scent came into her nose. Without turning around, Lin Mengya knew who was holding her.
“You’re really well informed. Aren’t you afraid that Baisu will come back and catch you off guard?” Lin Mengya said.
She realized that Long Tianyu presumably had learned everything about her, so every time he came at the right time.
“So what? Since you’re my wife, it’s right and proper for me to come to meet you. But I heard that she has gone out of the imperial palace for some business. Do you want to go out with me to have some fun?” Long Tianyu said with a smile on his handsome face.
Others might consider her as a gentle, intelligent, demure and n.o.ble lady.
Little did they know that she was even wittier and livelier than men.
In the last few days, his men had sped up the search for Lin Mengya’s father and brother.
Unfortunately, it was a wasted effort. Although he did not mention it, Lin Mengya presumably knew better than anyone else that no news meant no progress.
Without Baisu around, she would inevitably let her imagination run wild.
Therefore, Long Tianyu sneaked in to keep her company.
“We’d better not. You’re not here for fun, right? You should put business before pleasure, lest I be a femme fatale, who brings calamity to the country and the people, again. I can’t die again when the time comes.” Lin Mengya joked as she s.n.a.t.c.hed the writing brush from his hand.
Then she dipped it into the ink again and continued writing on the paper.
Feeling her waist was held more tightly, Lin Mengya felt as if the world was spinning, and then she was carried on his shoulder.
The writing brush of weasel bristle in her hand fell to the ground, leaving a black patch on the brown floor.
“Ah! What are you doing?!” Lin Mengya gently hit Long Tianyu’s broad shoulder and complained prettily.
“Of course I’m taking you away. You’re my wife, so you should come with me. Rest a.s.sured. We’ll be back soon,” Long Tianyu said.
Feeling her body was turned over once again, Lin Mengya was hoisted up by him.
Her eyes were covered by his large cloak. Fortunately, his solid arms gave her a sense of security that no one else could offer.
Nestling in his arms, she found the light seemed to be completely blocked by his dark cloak.
Nevertheless, his unique scent mixed with the subtle fragrance of herbs relaxed Lin Mengya who had been tense all the time.
She did not expect that he still brought it with him.
She picked up a heavy sachet from Long Tianyu’s waist, and a refreshing fragrance of herbs came from the sachet.
This was the prescription she specially made up for him when he tried to discontinue the use of the Immortal Powder.
It was meant to refresh his mind so that he would not feel dizzy and be a mess when his drug addiction acted up.