Su Yan turned around and saw Shen Yao walking slowly towards her.

"Lord Shen, what are you doing here?" Su Yan was quite surprised by Shen Yao's appearance.

"I'd like to ask you what you're doing here?"

Since the day they parted, Su Yan had been preoccupied with the case, so she didn't know what would happen to Shen Yao next.

"I'll perform the autopsy."

"Autopsy?"

Su Yan nodded. "I just came to verify my suspicions, but they won't let me in, and I can't see His Highness the Crown Prince. Sigh..."

Seeing Su Yan's helpless expression, Shen Yao said nothing, walked towards the guard, took out a token from his pocket, and handed it over.

The guard glanced at the token, said nothing, and turned to open the gate.

Everything happened so suddenly that Su Yan hadn't even had time to react and was completely shocked.

"Lord Shen, how did you come to have the token?"

Shen Yao put the token away. "I have been transferred back to the Imperial Guard and ordered by the Crown Prince to guard the remains of the Rouran Prince."

After saying that, Shen Yao led Su Yan into the cold storage.

It was springtime, and the cold storage was so cold that people were shivering. Su Yan had arrived in a hurry and was only wearing thin spring clothes.

"Achoo..."

Su Yan suddenly sneezed, and then slipped on something, causing her to fall forward.

"ah…………"

Just as she was about to make intimate contact with the ground, Su Yan subconsciously closed her eyes tightly and grabbed wildly with her hands.

After a long while, instead of the pain she had expected, her hands touched something warm and soft, and Su Yan slowly opened her eyes.

She saw Shen Yao pinned down by her, and her hand was on Shen Yao's full and perky buttocks. Su Yan was momentarily dizzy and subconsciously squeezed it.

Being suddenly pinned down was bad enough, but then having his butt pinched made Shen Yao's face slightly embarrassed. "Are you done pinching?"

The cold voice reached Su Yan's ears, and only then did she wake up from her dream. When she came to her senses, she found herself pinching Shen Yao's buttocks like a hooligan.

She was pulling hairs off the tiger's rear end.

At that moment, Su Yan had only this thought in her mind. She broke out in a cold sweat and immediately got up.

"Lord Shen, this was an accident. I didn't mean to. I don't know what I stepped on, it was just a slip..."

Looking at Shen Yao's face, Su Yan blushed, feeling embarrassed and unsure how to explain.

Shen Yao got up from the ground without saying a word, brushed the dirt off his body, and remained calm, showing little reaction.

As if he hadn't just embarrassed himself, he calmly replied, "It's alright..."

After saying that, Shen Yao noticed that Su Yan was dressed in thin clothes, so he took off his cloak and draped it over Su Yan's shoulders.

After putting on his clothes, he said nothing and walked toward the place where the body was placed.

Su Yan did not refuse Shen Yao's kindness and quickly chased after him.

But honestly, it feels really good.

Not long after, the two arrived at the place where the body was placed.

Without delay, Su Yan stepped forward and pulled open the deceased's clothes, and just as she had guessed.

The wounds on the corpse were caused in a single incident.

In other words, the person Jingning stabbed with the silver hairpin that day was not the dead person lying on the ice bed.

If that's the case, the deceased was very likely a double for Ulemu.

Seeing Su Yan's furrowed brows, Shen Yao couldn't help but ask curiously, "How is it...?"

"Lord Shen, is it very possible that Ulemu is still alive?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Yao's expression changed drastically. "Really?"

Su Yan nodded. "I asked Princess Jingning, and she did indeed stab Wulemu with a silver hairpin that day, but I only found a one-time injury wound on the corpse."

It's impossible for an ordinary person to pierce the heart with just a silver hairpin, let alone a princess who is a weak woman. So in other words, this corpse was killed by someone with high martial arts skills.

Furthermore, there were no signs of injury before the death. If this corpse is indeed Ulemu himself, then who was the person Princess Jingning saw that day?

This explains why there were traces of other people in the room that day.

Su Yan's words left Shen Yao completely confused. He hadn't been at the scene that day, so he didn't know much about the case.

Having gotten the answer she wanted, Su Yan didn't plan to stay in the icehouse any longer. "Lord Shen, let's go!"

Shen Yao nodded and then led Su Yan away from the cold storage.

As soon as the two stepped out the door, they saw Xie Yu standing at the entrance, seemingly waiting for someone.

Su Yan was surprised by Xie Yu's appearance. She thought Xie Yu wouldn't return from Jing'an Temple soon, but she didn't expect to meet him only two or three hours later.

"Dean Xie, what are you doing here?"

"The princess has something she asked me to give you."

After saying that, Xie Yu handed over a wooden box.

Su Yan took it, opened it, and saw a piece of torn ordinary cloth inside the wooden box. It looked like it was torn from a piece of clothing, and there was nothing special about it.

"What is this?" Su Yan stared blankly at the fabric in the wooden box.

"The princess said it was torn from the body of the person who kidnapped her, which might help you solve the case."

Upon hearing this, Su Yan took out the fabric and examined it several times, but found nothing special about it. It was just ordinary fabric, and most people in Chang'an wore clothes made of this kind of material. The difficulty of finding out was like throwing a stone into the sea.

If it were just ordinary fabric, Su Yan felt that the princess had no need to have Xie Yu send it to her.

After thinking it over, Su Yan held the fabric to her nose and smelled it. She could indeed smell a strange fragrance, but she was not an expert in perfumes and could not guess what kind of incense was used on the fabric.

However, Su Yan felt that the smell was familiar, but she just couldn't remember where she had smelled it before.

Xie Yu saw Su Yan's furrowed brows and felt uneasy, fearing it was something bad. "What's wrong with this fabric?"

"I feel like I've smelled a certain scent somewhere before, but I can't quite place it..."

Shen Yao also took the fabric and smelled it, his brows furrowing into a deep frown as he quickly thought through the scent. He felt like he had smelled this scent before.

He seemed to have smelled it on Zhang Lanzhen.

"Su Yan, don't you think the scent on Zhang Lanzhen's body is very similar to the scent on this fabric?"

As soon as Shen Yao finished speaking, Su Yan felt as if she had been enlightened; no wonder the smell seemed strangely familiar.

Seeing the two of them so in sync, Xie Yu felt instantly annoyed and took the fabric from Su Yan's hand to smell it.

But he sniffed desperately and couldn't detect any scent. He began to doubt what the two were saying. "Why can't I smell anything?"

Shen Yao, who had been silently watching the show from the sidelines, suddenly retorted to Xie Yu, "What could you possibly smell with that nose of yours..."

Xie Yu glared at Shen Yao angrily, "What's it to you..."

After saying that, Xie Yu stuffed the fabric back into Su Yan's hands.

Seemingly not wanting to talk to Shen Yao, she turned her face away, refusing to look at him.