Chapter 486 Xu Da's Reciprocation

Xu Da was enjoying his cakes one after another, while Lin Yuesha watched helplessly as the cakes in the food box dwindled, her heart bleeding.

Hazelnut shortbread and almond shortbread are Dr. Yan's favorite foods. She had been thinking about them for a while, but because her father was seriously ill and she had no way of making them, Lin Yuesha had no heart to make them.

Now that Xu Da had eaten the fruits of his labor all afternoon, Lin Yuesha was speechless.

When you're under someone's roof, you have to bow your head; even Dr. Yan had to rely on Xu Da's help.

"Little girl, did you make all of this yourself?"

Xu Da was skeptical, not believing that Lin Yuesha had such good skills. Women who make pastries often like to make fancy and elaborate ones that look delicious, but are actually cloyingly sweet and tasteless.

However, the snacks in the food box were different; they were not only beautiful but also delicious.

"yes."

Lin Yuesha thought for a moment and hinted, "Lord Xu has already sensed my deep affection."

Xu Da was quite satisfied, but then he had a change of heart and left the last layer of the five-layered pastry. He felt it wasn't quite right to eat it all alone in front of the Prince of Luo.

In response, Xu Da specially explained, "Your Highness, you are of noble birth, and the desserts are all made by the imperial chefs. You cannot eat such ordinary and lowly things."

Just as Luo Wang was raising his hand to reach for the food box, Xu Da stopped him with a single sentence. He lowered his eyes and silently withdrew his hand.

Xiao Chengyu gave Xu Da a complicated look. How could someone like that have become the deputy commander of the Five Cities Garrison? He didn't even know how to flatter or read the room. He was even worse than the little girl in front of him.

The prison of the Five Cities Military Command is a heavily guarded place, and ordinary people are not allowed to enter. Lin Yuesha followed Prince Luo and Xu Da and entered smoothly.

The prison was dimly lit, and a strong smell of blood filled the air as soon as Lin Yuesha entered, making her gag.

"Little girl, this is not a place for you."

Xu Da led the way, kindly saying, "You might as well close your eyes to avoid being frightened."

This place is nothing like the Jingzhao Yin's yamen. Once a serious criminal is imprisoned here, almost none of them leave alive. They suffer endless torture before they die.

The Five Cities Military Command had a variety of cruel punishments, including a water dungeon in the cellar specifically for imprisoning officials who had made mistakes.

"Was Sister Yan also severely tortured?"

From the moment she entered the cell, she saw that almost no one was intact. Their clothes were covered in blood, and some were missing limbs, making it unbearable for Lin Yuesha to look at.

Yan Yan is a woman and cannot bear this. Besides, the matter has not yet been fully investigated, and the missing pregnant woman has not yet been found.

Xu Da shrugged without answering. He walked to the door of a cell and stopped, ordering his men to open the cell door.

Before Lin Yuesha could react, Xu Da quickly locked her inside.

"Little girl, Dr. Yan is the prime suspect right now. To be on the safe side, we'll lock you up first. You two can talk in the cell."

Xu Da held up a water clock and gave Lin Yuesha a quarter of an hour.

"Lord Xu, why did you lock me up here?"

Lin Yuesha was confused. She could stand at the cell door and talk to Yan Yan, and there was nothing shameful about it.

"You have shown me the heartfelt sincerity behind making these pastries, but I have nothing to give you in return. So I will send you to experience what it's like to be in prison."

It should be noted that ordinary people and commoners absolutely cannot enter the prison of the Five Cities Military Command. For murder and arson, the Jingzhao Yin's office is sufficient.

Lin Yuesha: ...

Ignoring Xu Da, Lin Yuesha looked at the person in the corner.

Yan Yan sat in the corner in a daze. When she saw Lin Yuesha being pushed into the jail, it took her a long time to regain her composure. She asked, "Sister Yuesha, did you commit a crime too?"

Lin Yuesha was embarrassed and said with a wry smile, "Sister Yan, I came to see you."

She opened the food box, and only the last layer of pastries remained, including her own soft-centered cookies. Compared to what Xu Da had eaten, these were the real gems.

"I brought you some food, but I had to give gifts along the way, so this is all I have left."

Lin Yuesha pushed the peach juice over and said bluntly, "Sister Yan, I don't believe you killed anyone. What exactly happened?"

Xu Da said that there were both witnesses and physical evidence, and the deceased was the cousin of the Prince of Luo, which is why the case was taken seriously.

Currently, there is widespread panic in the capital. Pregnant women stay indoors until dark, fearing they might encounter kidnappers.

Yan Yan sighed; she didn't know how to explain it.

"Lord Xu said that you appeared next to the body with a medical kit. What exactly happened?"

Lin Yuesha was baffled. Luo Wang's cousin and Yan Yan had no grudges against each other and shouldn't have much interaction.

"If I said it was a coincidence, would you believe me?"

Yan Yan smiled bitterly. After returning from the north, she stayed at her father's estate and devoted herself to studying medicine.

The body of Luo Wang's cousin was found not far from the manor.

“There was a tenant farmer’s wife in the village who had a swollen and painful chest and suddenly stopped producing milk. I went there to pick dandelions to apply medicine to her, but I hadn’t gone far when I saw a woman’s corpse.”

In the past, Yan Yan would have reported it to the authorities immediately, as she did not recognize the Prince of Luo's cousin.

"At that time, the woman was already dead, her upper body was naked, and..."

Yan Yan sighed. The woman was clearly pregnant, but her belly had been cut open and the baby inside had been taken out. She was left dead in the wilderness.

“Sister Yue Sha, as you know, I’ve been working on this with Doctor Liao lately, practicing on female rabbits.”

The female physician Yan had only a superficial understanding of the structure of a woman's body, so when she had the opportunity, she mustered up her courage to look. In the end, she couldn't bear to leave the corpse's abdomen with a large opening, so she used silk thread to sew it up.

When the soldiers from the Five Cities Garrison arrived, Yan Yan still had a few stitches left. Ignoring everyone, she patiently stitched up the wound.

Because of this, those people were terrified and immediately arrested her and threw her into jail.

Lin Yuesha covered her face. Those men were naive and inexperienced, so one can imagine how terrifying the scene must have been. That's why they thought Yan Yan was the murderer.

"I was planning to report it to the authorities, but I didn't expect those people to beat me to it."

Yan Yan was very distressed, but the fact that she stitched up the corpse was completely inexplicable, and everyone looked at her with a chill.

"It was my oversight."

Yan Yan has recently done a lot of crazy things. In order to conduct research, she went to a mass grave with Doctor Liao in an attempt to find a female corpse.

However, there is a custom of ghost marriages around the capital, and the female corpses thrown into mass graves are basically all transferred away and sold at high prices.

"Did their people give you any trouble?"

The situation was somewhat complicated. The key issue was that Dr. Yan was caught in the act of stitching up the female corpse by the officers of the Five Cities Garrison, so it was only natural that they arrested her as the murderer.

No, not at all.

Yan Yan shrugged. The food was still delivered, but people avoided her from a distance, gossiping behind her back that she was a ruthless killer who disemboweled people, comparable to the murderer in the case of the woman in red who ripped out a heart.