Chapter 10

"Come to the house yourself?" Jian Xinyi's originally clear thoughts suddenly became even more confused. She looked at Bai Yuanyuan's resentful eyes and became even more silent for a moment.

what is going on?

Seeing the bitter and resentful expressions on their faces, Old Lin couldn't help but feel a little amused. "Oh, that's enough, don't worry too much. The Jingzhao Yin is in charge of solving the case. It's getting late, so hurry up and send her back."

Bai Yuanyuan also agreed and stood up, "Indeed, it's too late. Let's go see Shi Kui tomorrow morning."

Jian Xinyi took the opportunity to send her back and watched her helplessly as she bought things along the way. Finally, they stopped in front of a shop selling rice dumplings made with fermented glutinous rice.

The sweet aroma of fermented rice wafted through her, trying to break the bitter winter chill. She suddenly remembered the fermented rice shop they'd talked about that day in Huichun Hall. Just as she was about to ask the owner if he'd ever set up a stall on East Street, Bai Yuanyuan patted her on the shoulder and said, "That boy! He's the one who stole my rouge."

"Are you sure? Follow me and see." Jian Xinyi didn't expect to encounter a turning point here. She immediately grabbed Bai Yuanyuan and followed. This time it was unusually smooth. She probably didn't get discovered by the servant.

The two followed him all the way to Cheng Mansion, only to see the servant slip inside. Jian Xinyi had never heard of this Cheng Mansion before, so she asked Bai Yuanyuan, "Do you know what this place is?"

"I don't know, why not just ask?" Bai Yuanyuan calmly went to the gate of Cheng Mansion and asked the servant at the gate, "Sir, I'm from the rouge shop on North Street. Our master's rouge has arrived. Please let me take it in."

The servant at the door was very confused. "My master hasn't married yet, and he hasn't mentioned buying rouge yet."

Seeing that something was going on, Jian Xinyi quickly added, "Isn't your master the Minister Cheng?"

When the servant heard this, his face darkened and he retorted, "What Cheng Shangshu? My master is the current third place in the imperial examination and is now a member of the Imperial Academy. He is not a Cheng Shangshu. You have come to the wrong place."

Jian Xinyi and the others nodded repeatedly: "Oh, so that's how it is. Then we really got the wrong place."

After saying that, he turned and left.

But Jian Xinyi was shocked. The one who stole the rouge was actually a servant from the Tanhua Mansion. If this incident was related to Qianrou's case, then...

"Yuanyuan, what do men need rouge for?" She turned to ask Bai Yuanyuan, but saw that Bai Yuanyuan was also lost in thought. After a long while, she replied, "Either to give it to someone, or..."

"Pretending to be a woman."

The two answered together, but they didn't look very excited.

If this female ghost who is taking lives is disguised as someone from Tanhua's mansion, what is her intention?

It's impossible that Tanhua Mansion sponsored other brothels to reduce the customer flow of Xianxian Tower.

Although real business wars often adopt the simplest form of competition, it is too weird.

What if someone asked him to pretend to be a female ghost, for example, Qian Rou, or Liu Qin, but why? Or maybe the person pretending to be a female ghost was not a female ghost at all, but someone else, and Jian Xinyi only thought of the female ghost.

No, she had to go find Qian Yuan and ask him what was going on. Otherwise, she would be worried about all these questions.

After Jian Xinyi sent Bai Yuanyuan home, she went straight to Wuhou Mansion, showed her token, and told the Jinwu Guards outside the door her purpose, "I want to see Qian Yuan."

The two Jinwu Guards looked at each other and let her in.

This was Jian Xinyi's first time at the Wuhou Mansion. Not many people came and went in the mansion. The Jinwu Guards were mostly on patrol, so there weren't many people working there. But after walking around, she didn't see Qian Yuan. Just as she was getting anxious, she saw Qian Yuan and his group coming in. Upon seeing her, Qian Yuan's face didn't show any strange expression. He asked, "What did you find out?"

"My friend's rouge shop has been robbed for several days in a row, and yesterday the thief actually admitted to it himself. We followed him all the way and found that he entered the Tanhua Mansion. Don't you think this is too much of a coincidence?"

Jian Xinyi explained, then stole a glance at Qian Yuan. She found him still looking down in deep thought. After a long moment, she spoke, "We just came back from Xianxian Tower. I heard from Liu Qin that the girl who died last year was Qian Rou's best friend. There's no chance Qian Rou harmed her. Furthermore, Qian Rou and Liu Qin went together to the Tanhua Mansion. She occasionally saw Tanhua and Qian Rou discussing something, and their tone wasn't very good."

"This is just Liu Qin's one-sided statement. Maybe she wants to harm Tanhua."

Jian Xinyi did not believe Liu Qin's testimony. After all, Liu Qin and Qian Rou still had a certain competitive relationship, and her testimony was not credible.

"I understand. We also asked this scholar who was the third place in the imperial examination, and he only said that Qian Rou was from the same hometown as him and that he was just out of pity for her, nothing more." Qian Yuan paused and brought up the incident at the time of the crime. "As for the time of the crime, although he had been to Xianxian Tower, he was just having fun with his colleagues."

"Fellow countrymen? Have you tried to get any information? What if these two people knew each other before?" Although Jian Xinyi didn't know much about tricks and schemes, she understood love very well. "For example, two people fell in love when they were young, but were separated by reality. The man was filled with righteous indignation and became the third place in the imperial examination, while the woman fell into prostitution due to fate."

Qian Yuan's brows inadvertently knitted together, interrupting Jian Xinyi's mental drama. "Wait, this is too outrageous. We sent people to Tongzhou to inquire, but the news will not arrive until tomorrow morning at least."

"Alright, if we can find out anything, we won't be afraid of him denying it." Jian Xinyi said, and placed the token on his desk. "Shi Kui has also been released. I don't have any use for this thing, so I'll give it to you."

Qian Yuan looked at the token on the table. His eyes suddenly turned cold, then fell into a deep darkness. He nodded and said, "It's getting late. I'll take you back."

"No, I can do it myself." Jian Xinyi declined politely, but her mind was still recalling Qian Yuan's eye fluctuations just now. This was a perfect example of eye fluctuations.

Jian Xinyi generally calls this kind of look the male protagonist's look.

In other words, it is the eyes in the fan-shaped diagram. You need to find the main emotion and the secondary emotion, which are three parts coldness, three parts ridicule and four parts indifference. The main emotion should appear in the facial expression, and the important secondary emotion should appear in the eyes. The painter must have the infectiousness of this emotion to paint the scene better.

"It's okay, let's go." Qian Yuan saw that Jian Xinyi did not move after refusing, thinking that she must be very shy, so he took her back directly.

Just as Jian Xinyi was about to continue recalling the example, Qian Yuan pulled her away. Fortunately, he pulled her sleeve, otherwise it would have been too scary.

As they were about to reach the door of the bookstore, Jian Xinyi quickly poked Qian Yuan, "Why don't you go back first? It would be bad if my dad saw us."

Qian Yuan was very confused when he heard this, "Why? Shouldn't he be happy that someone sent you back?"

Jian Xinyi felt like she was being severely beaten by the straight man. She couldn't help but sigh, "Forget it, let's stop here. I'll go in by myself."

"Lin Zhuiyu, you still remember to come back." Old Lin heard her voice in the bookstore. He came out and was about to scold her, but found Qian Yuan was also there. He quickly put on a smile and said, "Oh, why is the Lord of the Jinwu Guard here too? Did Zhuiyu do something wrong again?"

"No, she came to talk to me about a case and was delayed for a while, so I sent her back. Since everything is fine, I'm leaving." Qian Yuan didn't stay for long and turned to leave after he finished speaking.

Only Lao Lin and Jian Xinyi were left looking at each other.

"What's going on?" asked Lao Lin.

"Just, just like what he said, haha, let's eat quickly." Jian Xinyi ran into the bookstore and ate wontons in big mouthfuls.

I thought I would be scolded, but unexpectedly, Lao Lin suddenly talked about the game. "By the way, I just found out today that you actually sold a few copies of that book."

"real?"

Seeing her wolfing down her food, Lao Lin said nothing and gave her a few more wontons. "I originally printed about twenty copies, and someone bought them not long after. So I think there were four copies, right?"

"That looks good." Jian Xinyi nodded, her mouth full of wontons. It was much better than the soup without oil or water.

"Well, I just don't know if the rest can be sold. But these four books, not too many, not too few either." Old Lin's face didn't show much joy, which made Jian Xinyi frown. In fact, she also doubted whether Old Lin had realized that she was no longer Lin Zhuiyu, but she didn't dare to ask. She could only comfort herself that it was just wishful thinking. Just as she was thinking for a while, she heard Old Lin continue to ask, "Have you drawn the subsequent plot?"

"No, let me think about it." Jian Xinyi continued to eat a few more wontons. "By the way, who are the people who bought this book?"

Lao Lin thought about it carefully for a long time before replying, "Well, they all look like ordinary scholars. I guess they saw that your book is novel and went back to think about the format."

This surprised her greatly. "Is there no woman among ordinary scholars?"

"I've already told you that young ladies from wealthy families don't go out. They have someone in charge of buying books for them. As for ordinary girls, few can read, and even fewer are willing to spend money on books."

Lao Lin's explanation was almost identical to what he had said before. She also understood this reality and could only sigh, "Okay, then how much do you want to price this book?"

"Two cents."

"Two cents?" Jian Xinyi was a little shocked. "They don't even dare to sell a bowl of wontons for two cents, and you're going to charge two cents for a book. Isn't that a bit expensive?"

Lao Lin's face immediately turned red with anger. He asked, "How can this be expensive? This is a special edition. How can it be expensive?"

She shook her head. "No, two cents is still too expensive. Let's reduce it to one cent."

"One cent, then can I still open this bookstore?"

Lao Lin's tone gradually became familiar, like those awkward salespeople in short videos who said, "Boss, the price can't be lowered any further."

And Jian Xinyi is the anchor whose acting is so awkward and clumsy, "No, today, whatever I say must be for the benefit of the ancient people, one penny at a time."

She finally understood the benefits of being a host, and that felt great to say.

Lao Lin finally compromised: "Alright, I'll sell your book as you like. Since you said one cent, then it's one cent. But I have to tell you, if these 20 copies don't sell, I won't print any more."

"Don't worry, it's already sold for a penny. It's sure to be a bestseller, and they'll even print more."

"Hurry up and eat your wontons first," Lao Lin urged impatiently. "Oh, by the way, you've been too close to Qian Yuan lately. Men and women shouldn't be intimate with each other. If word gets out, people will think I, Lao Lin, am a bad parent."

Jian Xinyi heard him mention Qian Yuan again and knew that he loved his daughter deeply, so she explained, "I was just doing business with him. Now that the case is over, we won't have any more interactions. After all, I was the first discoverer at the time, so I'm definitely more concerned about the case."

Old Lin curled his lips, not believing her words: "Are you more concerned about the case, or are you more concerned about the person?"

"Dad, what are you talking about? Oh, I'm full, I'm going back to draw the plot."

Jian Xinyi was so annoyed by this cheap old man that she lost her temper at all. She turned around and went back to the bedroom. Seeing the scattered drawings on the table, she couldn't help feeling a little upset for a moment.