Chapter 27

Chapter 27

The Wife’s Whereabouts

Li Nan Ke’s words shocked everyone present.

Initially, they all believed that Old Qin was the Demonic Creature who attacked Lin Jiao Yue and her friends. But now, as the fog of the case cleared, it turned out to be He Qing Yu.

This was simply unbelievable!

Li Nan Ke stared at the animal hide in his hand and said calmly, “From the beginning to the end, Lin Jiao Yue and the others never encountered a real Demonic Creature! The so-called Demonic Creature was just He Qing Yu in disguise!”

“Disguise?” Meng Xiao Tu’s eyes widened in surprise.

Li Nan Ke continued, “Why did Lin Jiao Yue deliberately conceal the Demonic Creature’s appearance during the first interrogation? Because she had never seen it, so she couldn’t answer.”

“Demonic Creatures are transformed from humans, either mutating into two-headed monsters or taking on bestial forms. But no matter what they transform into, they all have one thing in common: incredible strength!”

“Wen Jin Er’s body was violently torn apart, so she could easily claim that a Demonic Creature killed her. But she couldn’t describe what the Demonic Creature looked like.”

Listening to Li Nan Ke’s analysis, everyone was shaken.

From the beginning, they had believed that Wen Jin Er was killed by a Demonic Creature, so they didn’t pay much attention to the detail that Lin Jiao Yue couldn’t describe its appearance.

They just assumed that the girl was frightened and couldn’t describe it at the moment.

They never thought that Lin Jiao Yue was lying to them.

Especially since she was beautiful and always had a pitiful appearance. Her deceptive exterior made it difficult to question her.

Iron Ox frowned. “But I still don’t understand. Judging from the investigation at the scene, Wan Ying Ying also fled to the cliff in panic. Was she also frightened by He Qing Yu disguised as a Demonic Creature?”

“Exactly!”

Li Nan Ke took out a small object resembling a pen holder from the animal hide.

When he blew into it, it made a bird-like chirping sound.

“This is how they communicated with each other,” Li Nan Ke explained. “Lin Jiao Yue must have one too. After Wen Jin Er died, she used this to notify He Qing Yu, who was far away, and then he staged the Demonic Creature attack.”

“In that situation, Wan Ying Ying couldn’t think clearly or understand what was happening. She could only blindly follow Lin Jiao Yue and flee.”

Iron Ox still looked confused. “But the question is, why would Lin Jiao Yue do that?”

Leng Xinnan, who was deep in thought, gave him a look of disdain.

How could she have such a stupid subordinate?

It was embarrassing!

Li Nan Ke smiled. “Want to know the truth? Let’s go to the Lin residence and tell Miss Lin how she directed this wonderful play in front of her!”

However, when Li Nan Ke walked out of the courtyard, he was surprised to find Caiyun and Xiang Er waiting outside.

“Why are you here?” Leng Xinnan asked, her heart sinking as she saw Caiyun, who was supposed to be protecting Lin Jiao Yue.

“Aren’t you supposed to be with Miss Lin?”

Caiyun quickly explained, “Sister Leng, Miss Lin was worried about her mother and feeling down, so she wanted to go out for a walk. My sister and I tried to persuade her, but she insisted on going out, so we asked Miss Xiang Er to go with her.”

“Then where is she now?” Leng Xinnan asked urgently.

Xiang Er, realizing that something might have happened, timidly pointed to an old, unoccupied courtyard nearby. “We saw you earlier and were going to come over, but Miss said she needed to use the restroom urgently, so she asked Miss Caiyue to accompany her there…”

Before Xiang Er could finish, Li Nan Ke rushed towards the abandoned courtyard overgrown with weeds.

As soon as he entered, he saw Caiyue standing guard there.

“Mr. Li.”

Caiyue was startled to see Li Nan Ke suddenly appear.

“Where is Lin Jiao Yue?”

“Well… Miss Lin needed to relieve herself, so she’s over there— Hey, Mr. Li!”

Seeing Li Nan Ke rush towards where Lin Jiao Yue was, Caiyue instinctively tried to stop him, but Leng Xinnan shouted, “Don’t stop him!”

Caiyue froze, not knowing what to do.

Li Nan Ke pushed through the low, thorny bushes and climbed over the moss-covered wall. But when he looked around, there was no sign of Lin Jiao Yue. Not even a hair!

Caiyue, who had followed him, was also dumbfounded. “But Miss Lin came this way.”

Li Nan Ke circled around and realized that this place was right behind He Qing Yu’s house. When he leaned closer to the wall, he could clearly hear the conversation inside.

“Damn it!”

Li Nan Ke slammed his fist against the wall and turned to Leng Xinnan. “Lord Leng, mobilize all the officers and the Night Patrol to search for Lin Jiao Yue!”

***

The weather in the eighth month was unpredictable.

One moment the sun was shining brightly, and the next, the sky was overcast. Dark clouds gathered quickly, like galloping horses, becoming thicker and thicker.

The county was completely locked down.

Officers and Night Patrol personnel were constantly searching door to door on the streets.

The atmosphere was tense.

Silence fell over the Lin residence.

All the servants felt as if a giant rock was pressing down on them, making it difficult to breathe. They walked cautiously.

Squire Lin, still in the dark, stood alone. He wanted to ask what was happening several times, but seeing Leng Xinnan’s icy expression, he swallowed his words.

It wasn’t that Leng Xinnan didn’t want to tell him, but she didn’t know how to say it.

After all, for a man, especially a successful one, being cheated on was a huge blow.

Not to mention, unknowingly raising someone else’s child.

Li Nan Ke stood in Lin Jiao Yue’s room, staring at the calligraphy scrolls on the table, lost in thought.

The young woman’s handwriting was beautiful.

Delicate and graceful, yet firm and strong.

But after looking through several stacks, he noticed that Lin Jiao Yue’s handwriting wasn’t originally like this. It gradually became beautiful after she learned from Wen Jin Er.

“After the conflict between Scholar Wen and your Miss on the fifth of eighth, did your Miss stop eating?” Li Nan Ke asked calmly.

Xiang Er’s eyes widened in surprise. “How did you know?”

Li Nan Ke just sneered and didn’t answer.

Xiang Er tilted her head and said, “It’s true. Ever since Scholar Wen left, Miss has been immersed in sadness and self-blame, refusing to eat or drink. No amount of persuasion worked.”

“It wasn’t until the ninth of eighth that Miss finally ate something, but then she fell unconscious and kept having nightmares.”

Li Nan Ke sighed. “Impressive, truly impressive.”

The ninth of eighth.

It was the day after Wan Ying Ying died.

It was the day Scholar Wen gave Lin Jiao Yue the ‘Red Rain.’ In other words, this girl had already guessed that Scholar Wen was going to harm her.

And she even cooperated… and let him succeed.

Recalling Lin Jiao Yue’s performance in the Red Rain dream, he couldn’t help but marvel at her natural acting skills.

Even he was fooled.

“Big Brain, what’s going on? Can you explain clearly?” Meng Xiao Tu asked with dissatisfaction.

Big Brain?

Li Nan Ke’s face twitched.

That wasn’t a good nickname.

It was even worse than “Fledgling Phoenix.”

Leng Xinnan glared at the young woman. “Don’t disturb him.”

“Fine, keep your secrets. Who cares?” Meng Xiao Tu puffed out her cheeks and sat on a high stool, sulking. Her slender legs swung back and forth, looking quite cute.

“Let’s go to Madam’s room,” Li Nan Ke said suddenly, as if remembering something, and quickly walked out.

Because he had asked the Night Patrol to guard this room and protect the scene, Squire Lin had moved to another room. The room remained as messy as before.

Li Nan Ke looked at the bloodstains on the ground and squatted down to examine them.

“Logically, the blood of a Demonic Creature isn’t like this, so these drops of blood are most likely Madam’s,” Leng Xinnan squatted beside him and analyzed.

“But why are there only these few drops of blood? Could it be that before the Demonic Creature Old Qin came, another Demonic Creature took Mei Xing Er away?”

“No, if there was another Demonic Creature, there would have been a commotion.”

Li Nan Ke gently shook his head.

After observing for a while, he glanced at the pile of broken chairs, moved them aside, and found a few porcelain shards. It seemed that a teacup had been broken.

When Madam Lin disappeared, he had also noticed some shards.

But at that time, he assumed that the Demonic Creature had made the mess and didn’t examine them carefully.

Li Nan Ke picked up the shards one by one and observed them closely.

He even asked Leng Xinnan to bring a lamp.

His efforts paid off. After careful observation, he finally found a tiny piece of human skin tissue on a small porcelain shard.

“Mei Xing Er was cut by this shard, and there are traces of Drunken Immortal Peach on the teacup fragments…”

Li Nan Ke followed the bloodstains, trying to reconstruct the scene. “It seems she was drugged with Drunken Immortal Peach, which is why she was feeling unwell and unsteady on her feet. She was probably even unable to call for help due to the effects of the drug.”

“Look at the direction the stool by the bed fell. It’s clearly different from how the Demonic Creature made the mess. And judging from the position of the bloodstains and the teacup fragments, she was originally going to leave the room to seek help, but then she turned back.”

Leng Xinnan looked puzzled. “She saw the Demonic Creature?”

“She must have seen the Demonic Creature, but the question is, why did she turn back?”

Li Nan Ke tapped his fingers on the leg of the stool.

This wasn’t normal behavior. Even if she was scared, she shouldn’t have gone back towards the bed.

Leng Xinnan looked at the state of the room, equally confused. “Yes, under normal circumstances, turning back would be like walking into a death trap. But the Demonic Creature Old Qin didn’t take her away. Did she just vanish into thin air?”

Vanish into thin air!

Li Nan Ke abruptly stood up, slapped his thigh, and cursed inwardly, “Damn it, I’m so stupid! I should have thought of this earlier!”

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