There is a faint smell of fresh earth in the room, and there is unswept earth in the gaps between the floor tiles.

Snowball came to the bedside and then stopped moving.

Dongming Ziyu asked Mo: "Check it."

Mo Wen stepped forward and fumbled around on the bed, but couldn't find the mechanism.

But Snowball sat there motionless, walking up and down the bed.

Mo Wen lifted up the mattress on the bed and found that there was a gap at the edge of the bed board that could accommodate fingers. It was relatively smooth, and it looked like it had been touched frequently.

Ling Yao stepped forward and checked, "It's not poisonous."

Mo Wen reached out and lifted the bed board, and the side of the bed was lifted up. However, there was no secret passage under the bed as expected, but ordinary floor tiles.

Ling Yao took out a small solar flashlight from her sleeve, turned it on and shined a light on it.

Dongming Ziyu and Mo Wen were slightly surprised, but they all knew that she got it from Bai Qingqing, so they didn't ask any more questions.

The flashlight is much brighter than the Night Pearl, illuminating the inside clearly.

Mo asked: "The floor tiles are obviously new."

Ling Yao said: "It turns out there should be a secret passage here, but it was blocked in a hurry."

As he said that, he used a dagger to pry open a brick. The soil inside was indeed new.

Turning around, he asked Dongming Ziyu: "Father, what should we do now?"

Mo Wen asked: "Do you want to dig it up?"

Dongming Ziyu said calmly: "The digging is too loud, and I'm afraid we have to cross the open road. Even though I am the Supreme Emperor, it is not easy to search the residences of local officials without evidence."

As the saying goes, cannibals are short-tongued and soft-handed. Chu Yanqing prepared a big yard for them to stay, and prepared everything for food and food. It didn't seem good to dig up other people's homes for no reason.

Dongming Ziyu now regrets that he has wronged his wife and daughter by living in the courtyard arranged by Chu Yanqing, but by staying in an inn or setting up a tent.

Both Shangguan Ruoli and Ling Yao can suffer, but Ling Yu is young, so he is reluctant to let Ling Yu suffer at all.

Ling Yao didn't know the twists and turns, and pouted: "Then let's forget it?"

Dongming Ziyu said: "Of course not. Not many officials are clean. Even if Chu Yanqing does not take bribes, since this matter is related to Chu Yanqing, he must have done a lot to deal with the aftermath."

Ling Yao said unwillingly: "Wouldn't that take a long time?"

She wanted to solve the case herself, but she didn't want to stay here too long.

Dongming Ziyu touched her hair with his big hand and said, "Go back to your mother and ask her to contact the Plum Blossom Pavilion in Jinling to get some evidence. Isn't it easy?"

Although the real power of Meihua Pavilion is now in the hands of Xiao Fei and Jing Xi, Shangguan Ruoli is also the former young master of Meihua Pavilion, so there is no problem in contacting Meihua Pavilion and asking them to do something.

Ling Yao's eyes lit up, "That's great."

When you go back, you don't have to go through the door. This small courtyard is remote, so you can just climb over the wall.

Several black shadows quietly flashed out from Chu Yanqing's mansion, rising and falling, and landed on a private house across an alleyway.

This is a courtyard with two entrances, but the courtyard is quite large, and the people who live there are not ordinary people. There are some lanterns hanging under the eaves, swaying in the spring breeze.

Just as he was about to use his strength to leave here, Snowball heard a warning cry and threw himself towards the lantern under the eaves of the corridor.

Dongming Ziyu's body rose into the air, then pulled Ling Yao and sank down.

Without Dongming Ziyu's instructions, Mo Wen went and brought back a lantern.

Ling Yao turned on the flashlight and took a look, her face turned pale.

Snowball continued to cry "meow, meow" at the lanterns. Apparently, there were still human skins in those lanterns.

Snowball's cry alarmed the people in the house. A servant opened the door and came out to see. When he saw it was a cat, he picked up a broom and chased it away.

The door of the main room opened, and an elegant young man came out with his clothes on. He yawned and said impatiently: "Spring is really here, the wild cats are calling spring."

The boy next to him said angrily: "Whatever you are chasing, just shoot it down with an arrow."

The young master said lazily: "Shoot in the eyes."

The dim light of the human skin lantern shone on his face, making his handsome face look a little ferocious.

Ling Yao saw his face clearly when he turned around to return to the house. She covered her mouth in surprise and whispered: "It's Gan Yu from the Qionghua Forest!"

Mo Wenye said: "Isn't it too coincidental?"

Ling Yao frowned and pondered for a moment, then said: "At that time, I felt that there was something wrong with being willing to be annoying. At that time, he said: 'The corpses in the past were thrown into the water or buried in the soil, but this time the corpses were hung in the ground like this.

This was the first time in such a beautiful environment. At that time, was it the time to consider the beautiful environment?"

Dongming Ziyu said: "No matter what, there are these human skin lanterns here, let's search them."

After saying that, several people fell into the yard.

Snowball also ran over, complaining with a resentful "meow, meow" cry.

The servant chasing the cat was startled by the sudden appearance of several people from the sky. He used a broom as a weapon and shouted: "Who are they and what are they doing?"

One of the servants' legs trembled with fear, but he still shouted with a fierce expression: "Bold, the magistrate's residence is next door to us. As soon as we call, people from the Yamen will come, so hurry up and leave!"

Dongming Ziyu didn't even look at them and ordered: "Put these lanterns away and search them!"

"What's going on? Who are you?" Gan Yu heard the voice and came out of the house again, his face full of impatience.

When he saw Dongming Ziyu and Ling Yao, Gan Yu was shocked for a moment, then knelt on the ground and kowtowed: "The common people pay homage to the Supreme Emperor, the eldest princess. I don't know that this is so late at night..."

When the other servants heard that the other party was the Supreme Emperor and the eldest princess, they were so frightened that they all knelt on the ground one by one.

Naturally, Dongming Ziyu would not talk nonsense with Gan Yu, so he glanced at Mo Wen.

Mo Wen said in a deep voice: "You are involved in the dangerous trade of human skin lanterns and are suspected of murder and skinning. Please cooperate with the investigation."

Upon hearing this, Gan Yu turned pale in horror and said in disbelief: "You, you mean this lantern is made of human skin?"

He looked frightened, gasping for air, and his eyes were frightened.

His servant was also trembling with fear, but he still looked eager to protect his master and said loudly: "We bought these lanterns at the lantern shop on the bank of the Qinhuai River. Because they are made of cowhide, they are beautiful and durable, and they are not afraid of the wind."

It was raining, so we bought some more. We really didn’t know they were made from human skin!”

The street and the name of the shop matched, it was the lantern shop where they bought the lanterns.

Dongming Ziyu's eyes darkened slightly and he said: "Call all the people in this courtyard here. You are not allowed to move around at will until you find out everything."

"Yes!" Someone responded in the dark, but no one was in sight.

Soon, everyone in the yard was taken away.

It seems that except for being a master, everyone is a servant.
Chapter completed!