It meant that at least Wanyan Lie was keenly aware of Baisu’s real identity.

Moreover, Lin Mengya had noticed the difference between Baisu and the other personal guards.

It seemed that there were quite a few secrets behind Baisu.

“That’s strange. Never mind, it’s good for you to forget those insignificant memories. Oh, yes, I’ve never told you one thing: the Divine Witch looks like…” Lin Mengya said.

“Miss, Madame summons you for some urgent business.” She was interrupted accidentally.

After she and Baisu exchanged glances, Baisu immediately went to open the door and let the visitor in.

The visitor was an elderly palace maid working for Madame Jingrou.

“What happened so that you come personally in a hurry?” Lin Mengya asked.

Madame Jingrou had not only loyal young palace maids like Ningqiu but also lots of elderly palace maids who were shrewd and tactical with high statuses.

Nevertheless, the elderly palace maids, placed in various parts of the imperial palace by Madame Jingrou in recent years, took charge of most of the significant parts and everything in the imperial palace silently.

Therefore, even Yao Lu’s sudden death and those imperial concubines’ falling apart did not cause chaos in the imperial palace. It was enough to show that Madame Jingrou was not as peaceful as she seemed.

Sometimes, even Lin Mengya had mixed feeling about Madame Jingrou who had spent such a long time with the Emperor.

“Alright, we’ll be right there,” Lin Mengya said.

Then she and Baisu followed the elderly palace maid out of the Fengyu Court.

However, they were not heading to the Emperor’s resting palace, which aroused Lin Mengya’s doubt, but given Baisu’s company, she did not feel very uneasy.

The three of them hurried to the Linqiu Pavilion, the Empress’s former residence.

Before they got in, they saw plenty of guards standing around the Linqiu Pavilion.

The blazing torches lit up the palace, making it as bright as in the daytime.

That was abnormal. Since Yao Lu left, the empty palace had been guarded by only a few palace maids.

Lin Mengya could not imagine what happened here.

“Ms., why do you come here in person?” The moment the three of them arrived at the door of the Linqiu Pavilion, someone came forward to greet them.

That person was dressed in dark red leather armor with no makeup and her hair done in a bun on the top of her head, exuding an air of a heroine.

She, who was sedate and reserved with her slanted eyes as sharp as lightning, did not look as fragile as the other women in the imperial palace.

It was only then that Lin Mengya realized all those guards turned out to be tall and delicate women.

That explained why the surrounding palace maids and imperial concubines stood not far away and pointed at the Linqiu Pavilion while discussing.

“Commander Zhou, this is Miss Helan and Miss Baisu Madame Jingrou mentioned before. They are here to help you solve the case,” the elderly palace maid said.

“Help her?” Zhou Ling frowned slightly as she looked at the two delicately pretty young ladies.

Could it be that Madame Jingrou was so desperate that she sent the two fragile young ladies to make things even harder?

Zhou Ling immediately saluted with hands folded and raised in front of her face and said, “I appreciate Madame Jingrou’s kindness. But given this case is bloody and weird, ordinary women would better not participate in the investigation, lest they disrupt our schedule.”

Did she openly disdain Lin Mengya and Baisu?

Lin Mengya, who had gotten used to being recognized as a capable woman, was stunned and glanced at the female commander with a playful look in her eyes.

The elderly palace maid wanted to say something else, but Lin Mengya reached out to stop her.

“Commander, you are right. The two of us should not participate in the investigation, but we have to obey Madame Jingrou’s order. Please let us in and take a look so that we can give an explanation when Madame Jingrou asks about the case,” Lin Mengya said with a gentle smile, putting on an amicable and understanding look.

Baisu glanced coldly at the commander in displeasure, but she kept calm for the sake of Lin Mengya.

In terms of martial arts, the commander wasn’t her match.

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Ling considered Miss Helan’s words made sense.

So she moved aside and let the two of them in.

“Ms., please go back first. We’ll report the situation here to Madame later,” Lin Mengya nodded to the elderly palace maid leading them here and said.

Then she and Baisu walked into the yard of the Linqiu Pavilion.

If she learned Madame Jingrou actually instructed the two of them to take charge of the investigation with Zhou Ling’s assistance, Zhou Ling would probably insist on testing her capabilities.

Fortunately, the elderly palace maid considered Zhou Ling more reliable than Lin Mengya, a palace maid from outside.

Otherwise, it would take Lin Mengya a lot of effort to convince Zhou Ling.

Lin Mengya stepped into this familiar courtyard. Before she entered the inner courtyard, she smelled the strong smell of blood in the air.

She sniffed hard in the courtyard, and her nose, which was more sensitive than a dog’s, enabled her to smell a mixture of smells in the air. There was a trace of confusion in her eyes.

“Miss Helan, is there anything wrong?” Zhou Ling, who was leading the way ahead of them, asked.

Discovering Helan stopped with a perplexed expression, she thought Helan was scared.

Unexpectedly, Helan just shook her head slightly, and then whispered something to Miss Baisu beside her.

Baisu immediately walked out of the courtyard and disappeared.

“What are you…” Zhou Ling said.

She believed that she was in charge of the whole situation here.

None of those people sent by Madame Jingrou or the Emperor was as capable and familiar with the situation as she was.

However, Miss Helan had left an unfavorable impression on her from the very beginning.

She could not put the reason into words. Perhaps it was because she had an aversion to that kind of women who were delicate but had their own ways of doing things.

As a woman, she considered self-respect and self-improvement as the foundation for women to settle down and get on with their pursuits.

Her Quill Guard was the best proof of this.

“I left something behind in the Fengyu Court, and I’m going to deliver it to Madame Jingrou later. I’m afraid she will blame me if I deliver it late,” Lin Mengya, who returned to herself, said with a respectful and modest look.

In fact, she was rather curious about this female commander.

She, who had entered the imperial palace for a long time, certainly knew there was a capable Quill Guard in the imperial palace.

Moreover, it was composed of female members specially in charge of dealing with emergencies in the imperial palace.

However, because the Empress didn’t like them, they had been suppressed in all respects.

After Yao Lu left, the Quill Guard could finally enter the imperial palace to perform its duty that it was supposed to perform when it was established.

The Quill Guard seemed to be intentional to steal the spotlight. Nevertheless, it was a special organization, and the leader, Commander Zhou Ling, was a woman from an aristocratic family.

Zhou Ling, who could pursue her career among men and develop the Quill Guard under the pressure of the Empress, was definitely not a worthless person.

“Well, we should leave everything here as it is. Otherwise, I won’t be able to find the murderer and give an explanation of this.” As Zhou Ling said, she looked haughtily at Lin Mengya.

Then she turned around and continued walking into the inner courtyard.

Lin Mengya followed her unhurriedly to the inner courtyard.

As soon as Lin Mengya got in, she saw four corpses lying on the ground covered with white cloth.

Her heart skipped a beat. “Could it be…”

Lin Mengya quickened her steps and lifted the white cloth before Zhou Ling and her subordinates could stop her.

As she expected, the corpses lying on the ground were drenched and belonged to four women with horrifying looks on their pale faces.

“What are you doing?” Zhou Ling asked with a frown and tried to grab hold of Lin Mengya.

Lin Mengya suddenly turned around and revealed a sharp and dignified look in her watery eyes.

“When were the corpses discovered? Who was the first to discover them?” She asked in a serious tone, as if she were the one in charge of the case.

Zhou Ling was stunned for a moment, and then suppressed her anger and said coldly, “They were discovered by the palace maid who came to take her turn on duty this evening.”

“Where is she now?” Lin Mengya continued asking.

Zhou Ling was a little displeased.

But considering Helan was Madame Jingrou’s trusted palace maid, she had to answer, “She was freaked out and has been sent back for a rest. Miss Helan, I think you’d better…”

Lin Mengya furrowed her brows as she gazed at the surrounding torches with a severe look in her eyes.

She said, “Commander, please ask your subordinates to retreat from the courtyard with these torches. There’s an unusual smell here, but these torches have a strong smell of pine oil that will completely destroy the original smell here in a short time.”

Hearing Lin Mengya issue an order with no doubt, Zhou Ling got angry.

She said, “Miss, considering you are sent by Madame Jingrou, I’m respectful and polite to you. Do you think that you can be bossy to me? Humph, can you detect any smell in the air other than the smell of soil after the rain and the smell of blood?”

With no time to explain, Lin Mengya stood up from the ground and walked up to Zhou Ling with a serious and earnest look in her eyes.

She said, “The first guard on the left near the door like to comb her hair with osmanthus oil. The guard on the left of her carries a sachet containing a mixture of six kinds of faint fragrances. The clothes of the first guard on the right near the inner hall gave out the fragrance of mugwort. Am I right?”

The Shen Nung system could identify smells with an unusual degree of accuracy. It could not only identify all kinds of smells, but also directly show the molecular formulas of the aromatic hydrocarbons.

Moreover, everything Lin Mengya had smelled could be formed into a sample graph in her mind if she wanted.

As soon as she smelled the same smell again, the sample graph would pop up.

Hearing themselves mentioned by her, the guards opened their eyes wide in unison and looked at the woman in front of them.

“How… how does she know that?”

“Commander, you can personally ask them if I’m right. Now please ask them to retreat. Any delay will cause us to miss out on important clues,” Lin Mengya said.

Although Zhou Ling felt a little embarrassed, she was much calmer than ordinary women.

She looked sullen. Even if she did not seek confirmation, the reaction of her subordinates was enough to show Lin Mengya was right.

She waved her hand, and her subordinates went out with their torches.

All of a sudden, the entire Linqiu Pavilion darkened. The moon shone on the courtyard, covering it with a layer of pure light.

Gazing coldly at the woman standing beside the corpses, she saw the woman closing her eyes and breathing the air deeply with the tip of her nose twitching slightly.

The familiar smell of blood first came into Lin Mengya’s nose. She gradually detected some other faint smells covered by the strong smell of blood.