Liu Zhang brought Xu Wanrong back to the Dali Temple. Instead of placing her in the room full of torture instruments where A Rao was interrogated before, he took her into a reception room.

He also asked someone to drink two cups of tea and waited for Miss Xu to calm down before sitting down to talk with her.

"Then, Sister Xu, can you tell me the reason for the murder?"

Xu Wanrong sat on the chair with an innocent look on her face. Seeing Liu Zhang's soft voice, she simply denied it: "Brother Zhang, what are you talking about? I didn't kill anyone."

Liu Zhang sighed and frowned as he reminded her, "There are four of us now, sister."

Xu Wanrong pursed her lips and said nothing. She knew that Liu Zhang would find out something sooner or later, and she also knew that Liu Zhang had helped her conceal the previous case. She thought that this time he would cover up for her and indulge her as before, but she didn't expect that he would directly invite her to the Dali Temple for questioning.

Her mind was racing, and she couldn't help but think about Liu Zhang's intentions.

"Brother Zhang, I didn't kill anyone..."

Liu Zhang snorted lightly and said in great disappointment, "Sister Xu, do you think that the people we employ in the Dali Temple are all good-for-nothings and can't find anything?"

"No." She hurried forward to pull his sleeve, but he coldly pulled his hand away and avoided her. She could only lower her head and sob, "I'm sorry, Brother Zhang, I shouldn't have hidden it from you."

Liu Zhang regretted again, "Sister, I'm afraid you haven't considered my feelings at all. Otherwise, you wouldn't have ignored my reminder."

Xu Wanrong suddenly remembered the dagger with a curled blade, and wondered if Liu Zhang was frightened by the brutality of her methods.

So she raised her watery eyes and choked up, "Brother Zhang, listen to me, I was forced to do this!"

Liu Zhang looked calm, thinking to himself how helpless you must be to stab someone so many times.

He looked like he was waiting to see how you would explain it, but he said gently, "Then first tell me why you wanted to kill Miss Ye. Aren't you two the best of friends?"

Xu Wanrong's eyes dodged, and she cried for a long time before she explained with deep sorrow, "I didn't mean to kill her!"

"So you let someone defile her? You're a girl, too. How could you come up with such a vicious method?"

Liu Zhang looked indifferent and couldn't help but regret that he had burned all the confessions in the case file in order to cover up the truth for her.

Xu Wanrong heard him say that she was vicious and shook her head desperately to deny it. "No, no! I really didn't think that group of people would defile her. I just, I just wanted to..."

She tried hard to find an excuse, but she had originally intended to kill Ye Wanqing and could not find any reason to shirk responsibility.

"Just thinking about what?" Liu Zhang pressed on, "She's your best friend. In terms of appearance, family background, temperament, and talent, she doesn't seem to have anything that would be worthy of Miss Xu's jealousy."

"I just wanted to play a trick on Sister Qingqing, but I didn't expect..." Xu Wanrong was evasive, but she quickly thought of an excuse. She quickly grasped the key point and explained, "They, that gang, forced Sister Qingqing to death, and then came to threaten and blackmail me! I had no choice. They were greedy, so I thought of using pigment to extract mercury and arsenic, poisoning them to avenge Qingqing."

Xu Wanrong spoke tearfully as she confessed the method and events of how she poisoned the idler, but she avoided the important points and described some details that he might have already found out, making herself look like a victim.

She put on a face of deep regret and sobbed, "I was terrified at the time. I never imagined a little prank would kill my dearest sister, Qingqing. To get revenge, I borrowed Qianqian's token and summoned the Liu Mansion's carriage to the outer city. They asked me to hand over the silver, so I poisoned them with arsenic. Brother Zhang, can you understand me? Can you forgive me?"

Liu Zhang frowned and shook his head slightly, secretly laughing at himself in his heart. Ye's sister is already dead, what's the point of me forgiving you?

Seeing his conflicted expression, Xu Wanrong held her face and began to cry, confessing as she cried, "When I think about how close Qianqian and Qingqing are, and how I did something like this, I feel so deeply regretful. If Qianqian knew about this, she would definitely be very sad."

Liu Zhang didn't ask any more questions and went straight to the next topic: "What about the prostitute in the brothel? Why did you kill him?"

"I know nothing. I didn't kill anyone!" Xu Wanrong denied again, "Brother Zhang, how can you convict me based on a lost dagger?"

"Heh~" Liu Zhang snorted contemptuously, "But I never said that the dagger I returned to my sister was the murder weapon."

Xu Wanrong raised her red eyes and looked at him in horror. She stammered, "I, I've heard about this case. I saw that the blade of the dagger was bent badly, so I guessed that the murderer used the dagger I lost to kill someone."

"That's right," Liu Zhang replied coldly. "Since Sister Xu doesn't know the whole story of this case, let me tell you. The murderer first used incense made from datura seeds to knock the prostitute unconscious, and then brutally stabbed him twenty-one times."

"After stabbing the man to death, she changed out of her bloody clothes and put on the white cloak mentioned by the witnesses in the brothel. She then climbed out of the window of her room, followed the eaves of the brothel, and climbed down the ladder that was placed on the courtyard wall in the back alley, leaving the crime scene."

"The murderer walked through the back alley, and she met someone at the fork in the road. It was me."

Xu Wanrong's face became gloomy, her teeth bit her lower lip tightly, and her breathing became heavy.

"It was already late. If I hadn't stopped by the used bookstall at the West City Gate during my next shift, I might not have run into Sister Xu. You were wearing a white cloak, and you were in a hurry. You had the iron dagger General Ye had given you hanging around your waist, and you carried the alluring aroma of burning datura seeds."

Liu Zhang paused, looking at the gloomy Xu Wanrong, waiting for her to make a subtle rebuttal. Seeing her pursed lips, he continued, "I was in a very good mood that day. I found the second volume of 'Treasure Hunt' that I had been longing for. So, I happily gave it to you, wanting to discuss the story with you. But you said it was late and riding in a carriage with me would be frowned upon. I offered to take you home, but you refused."

"Sister Xu." Liu Zhang smiled bitterly, as if mocking himself: "How much do you really hate me? You won't even say a few perfunctory words?"

Seeing his sad expression, Xu Wanrong quickly pretended to be affectionate and said, "No, Brother Zhang, you misunderstood. I was really anxious to go home that day, and I didn't mean to be perfunctory to you. In my mind, you have always been a very important person. I have long regarded you as a very important family member, so I believed that you would help me..."

Liu Zhang interrupted her and said, "Sister, you took my book. Have you read it? Can you tell me what the second volume of "Treasure Hunt" is about?"