After everyone had fully regrouped, an hour had passed.

An Xuan and Zuo Jing were the last two to return, and… Qin Jian stared at the two figures approaching, a strange glint in his eyes.

The others were the same, just concealing it to varying degrees.

"Why were you so late?" You Qi asked gruffly, first looking at Zuo Jing, then turning his gaze to An Xuan, suspiciously. "Did you find anything?"

"Not yet," An Xuan replied calmly, seemingly accustomed to this demeanor. "There are too many small paths here; we got lost and it took up some time."

"Lost?" Shi Liaozhi turned his head to look at Zuo Jing, as if trying to verify An Xuan's words through her.

But he failed.

Because… he noticed that Zuo Jing was deliberately avoiding his gaze. Although she appeared relatively calm, she wasn't like this before she left.

Not needing An Xuan to remind her after noticing someone staring, she raised her head and said in a formal tone, "We did get lost, and by the time we found where Young Master Huang lived, it was already too late."

"So… you didn't go in?" Shi Liaozhi asked, frowning.

"No." Zuo Jing had one arm hanging down, seemingly normal, but her fingers were constantly and subtly clenching and releasing.

"Alright," An Xuan said with a smile. "We didn't find anything on our end. How was your area?"

He turned his head to look at Qin Jian, who felt a slight chill in his heart.

"Old Mr. Qin," An Xuan asked, "Didn't you say you had some clues? Did you find them?"

"Found… found them." Being targeted by someone like An Xuan was like being targeted by a viper. Although Qin Jian wasn't genuinely cooperating with him, he didn't want to offend such a person.

"We found some very strange marks in the abandoned house," Qin Jian said, his expression darkening as if recalling the scene. "Sharp in the front, wider in the back, extending from the position of the sedan chair that was carried back last night… last night, and disappearing at the edge of the lake."

"It's the kind of embroidered shoes worn by women with bound feet," Shi Liaozhi added. "You Qi… You Qi said… the paper figure of a woman carried back last night was wearing those kinds of shoes."

"Embroidered shoes?"

"Yes, that's right." Shi Liaozhi continued, "I measured it with my hand, about…" He held out his palm, making a simple gesture, "About this big."

"And the footprints were especially deep." You Qi said with a dark face, continuing, "I tried stepping on a few footprints with all my might, and I couldn't even make a dent half as deep."

"Are you saying… that after we left, the paper figure of a woman walked out of the sedan chair on her own and went straight into the lake?" The fatty swallowed, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

His imagination was strong, and the image was already forming in his mind.

This was too bizarre. Young Master Huang used a paper figure to exchange for Tang Shirou, and now this paper figure… was actually alive?!

Everyone fell silent, but that also meant that they all felt this guess was likely true, because no one refuted it.

"Did anyone else see those embroidered shoes?" Jiang Cheng asked weakly.

"No."

"I didn't notice."

"No…"

"Brother You," An Xuan took over, "What did the embroidered shoes you saw… look like?"

"Red." You Qi immediately said, "They were a pair of red embroidered shoes." He paused, as if suddenly remembering something, and added, "They had… they seemed to have two birds embroidered on them!"

"You're probably talking about mandarin ducks…" Propping one hand up and resting the other on his chin, Chen Qiang, who had been silent the whole time, finally looked up and said.

"It seems Young Master Huang's illness is related to this woman he married," Qin Jian said, clearing his thoughts. "She's likely Young Master Huang's wife."

Based on the current information, this speculation was relatively realistic.

"And this woman is probably already dead, which is why Young Master Huang is so fixated and comes to the lake to sing every night." Shi Liaozhi added, stroking his chin.

"The cause of this woman's death is the problem." Qin Jian nodded, then glanced at the lake. The lake in the daytime was very beautiful under the sunlight, completely different from its eerie and unpredictable feel at night. "She was likely murdered first, and then…" Qin Jian speculated boldly, "Her body was dumped in this lake."

"But there's one thing that doesn't make sense." Xia Meng said, "Since Young Master Huang loves her so much and knows she was murdered, why doesn't he take revenge for his beloved himself?"

Through Young Master Huang's previous actions, everyone had tacitly agreed that Young Master Huang was a ghost.

And according to the opera previously sung, the infatuated couple both died in the end, which should correspond to the infatuated Young Master Huang and his beloved.

"Could it be…" Jiang Cheng blinked his weak, pitiful eyes and asked softly, "That Young Master Huang isn't a ghost, he's a person, just not very normal."

An Xuan turned his head to look at him, and several other pairs of eyes with unknown intentions also shot over. Everyone now knew that Jiang Cheng was pretending; he wasn't a newbie at all.

"Mr. Hao, have you discovered something?" An Xuan asked in a low voice.

"No, no." Jiang Cheng waved his hands quickly. "I was just guessing, just guessing."

He licked his lips and gave everyone a very frightened and innocent look, then said softly, "After all, you all know, I'm just a newbie who doesn't understand anything."

Hearing this, everyone's expressions became subtle.

Something about that… felt strange.

This subtle feeling lasted until after lunch. This time, the middle-aged woman didn't come, and everyone consciously went to the pavilion, sat down, and began to eat lunch.

After lunch, they all returned to their rooms to rest.

Someone didn't withdraw their gaze until Jiang Cheng's figure disappeared.

This person's thinking seemed to be different from the others. If Shi Liaozhi or Qin Jian said something like that, everyone might discuss it for a few sentences and then move on, but this person gave off a very different feeling.

This could no longer be explained by a lack of skill in disguising; it was as if he was doing it on purpose.

And what he said… did pique the interest of many people.

…

"What exactly do you want to do?"

As soon as she closed the door, Xia Meng pressed forward with an accusatory expression, staring at Jiang Cheng as if he were a lunatic. "Do you have to attract everyone's attention to be satisfied?"

"Of course not." Jiang Cheng replied calmly, "I have my own purpose, and I don't need to explain it to you."

Xia Meng's expression faltered slightly. She had thought that Jiang Cheng would use some strange reason to搪塞 (tángsè - prevaricate, stonewall) her, but she didn't expect him to be so calm.

She suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Holy crap!" The fatty roared, "What the hell is going on?"