Miss Truth
Chapter 204 - 130: The Death of Huai Yin

Chapter 204: Chapter 130: The Death of Huai Yin

"Yes," Ran Yan said.

No sooner had she spoken than even Xiao Song fell silent. Sneaking a check on a corpse was one thing, but how to persuade Jing Hui to strip naked for an examination?

In the Great Tang, the status of Buddhist monks and nuns was not particularly high, but they were still considered people beyond the secular world. If not handled properly, it might provoke a backlash from the entire Buddhist community.

Buddhism was the state religion of the Sui Dynasty. Since the establishment of the Li Tang, the government promoted Daoism and suppressed Buddhism. Certainly, there were grievances among the Buddhists, but a starving camel is still larger than a horse. Buddhism had a large following among the common people, including devout believers from the older generations of some prominent families. No one dared to openly trample on Buddhist dignity now.

After thinking for a moment, Ran Yan knew that it would likely not be easy to perform a live examination on Jing Hui.

"I want to see the crime scene," Ran Yan said.

Ran Yan had been involved in the case sporadically, without having inspected the scene directly. Some information had been obtained through Yu Bohao and Liu Pinrang, so some things were quite unclear.

Xiao Song summoned a government official, gave some instructions, and then said to Ran Yan, "Let’s go, I will accompany you."

"Let’s bring Jing Hui along." If she was the killer, Ran Yan did not believe she could keep up the act without any slip. Given that the killer’s psychology was distorted, Ran Yan felt that as long as a certain pressure point was hit, she absolutely couldn’t maintain control. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have repeatedly been unable to restrain herself from killing.

Xiao Song did not object and ordered six government soldiers to proceed while he and Ran Yan led the way to the dilapidated temple.

Liu Qingsong was completely ignored by the two, staring dumbfounded as Xiao Song issued one command after another and then left side by side with Ran Yan.

There were several slopes behind Yuncong Temple; the carriage couldn’t travel there, so they had to walk.

The two of them shared an umbrella, walking at a leisurely pace on the thick layers of fallen leaves in the forest. If it weren’t for the two squads of armored government soldiers following them, it indeed felt just like a stroll.

The mist in the forest gradually dispersed, and sunlight streamed through the treetops in beams. Xiao Song was in a dark purple casual outfit, tall and handsome, while Ran Yan also wore a dark purple satin dress, graceful and elegant. Under the old yellow oil-paper umbrella in the Red Maple Forest, their silhouettes seemed like a painting.

They walked through a maple forest on a half-slope and after about two quarters of an hour finally saw the dilapidated temple.

"Why is there a temple here?" Ran Yan looked around. Apart from the officials in uniform guarding the area, she did not see any villages or farmhouses, and the temple, though dilapidated, did not seem utterly abandoned. Why was it built here?

Xiao Song closed the umbrella and said, "Less than a mile from here used to be a settlement of over twenty households of the Lin family. Then, someone from the Lin direct lineage made a name for themselves, and the entire family moved away twenty years ago."

The temple had only the Main Hall and two side chambers left and right. There were no other buildings, just the forest around. Ran Yan entered the Main Hall and found it surprisingly clean, furnished with incense burners and cushions, and very little dust in the corners. However, the Main Hall was quite narrow, and a statue of Guan Gong stood at the edge of the wall opposite the main entrance, about the same height as Xiao Song.

The colored paint on the statue was mostly flaked off, and its right hand was raised holding a wooden stick, the blade part missing.

"It seems the killer is very clean." The scene gave Ran Yan an impression that the killer was not just clean but might have a level of cleanliness bordering on obsessive-compulsiveness.

Everything here did not appear to be freshly cleaned to eliminate evidence but seemed to be consistently well-kept, and even the presence of people having been active here was felt. It was a subtle sensation but one most people could detect; the difference between a room that has been lived in and one that has been vacant, even if both were cleaned well, lay in the details.

Ran Yan first casually circled the room and finally focused on an eye-catching tripod incense burner on the table.

"Could the incense ashes in the stomach of the third body have come from this burner?" Ran Yan murmured.

Xiao Song stood by the table, hands behind his back, watching her with a hint of amusement, and replied, "It may have once contained incense ashes, but it seems to have been used very little."

Ran Yan opened the lid of the incense burner, took out some of the incense ashes, brought them to her nose, and sniffed. Her expression changed slightly as she said, "There is something unusual about this."

"Liu Qingsong said it’s ’seductive fragrance.’ A kind of aphrodisiac," Xiao Song said.

As they were speaking, the light at the entrance dimmed. Jing Hui had arrived.

"Namo Amitabha Buddha," Jing Hui pressed her hands together, greeted Xiao Song and Ran Yan with a bow, and said, "May I ask why the Inspector has summoned this humble nun?"

Xiao Song nodded slightly and replied, "The revered abbess need not be overly formal. I have some questions regarding Jing Yuan that I would like to consult with you about."

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