Chapter 121: Someone Wants to Kill Me

"Oh? A sacred relic?" Dongsheng gave Ji Changge a long, scrutinizing look, his expression quite intrigued.

Changge smiled faintly. "That is indeed the case, but it does not prove that Wen Qiniang is the culprit. She was merely reenacting the crime scene earlier, and furthermore, she has a solid alibi for the time of the crime; I can vouch for her."

Although Mingxia looked clearly unwilling, she kept her mouth shut.

Ding Wu glanced at Wen Jing’s slightly unnatural expression and immediately let his imagination run wild, though he dared not show it on his face.

"Let’s go get something to eat first," Ji Changge said, observing the sky. Without realizing it, it was already afternoon. A dozen guards were still searching the Taoist temple; searching a temple with hundreds of people was not a quick task.

Dongsheng nodded, though he had little appetite.

Qingliu walked out covering her face, her features stained black with ink, making her expression unreadable.

Wen Jing felt a twinge of guilt. She followed Qingliu out and went to the well to draw a basin of water. "Wash up quickly, Qingliu... I’m sorry."

"My lady, you’re being too formal. It’s just a small matter, and I haven’t lost any skin over it. Besides, your servant was born with a dark complexion anyway; it’s no trouble," Qingliu said while washing her face.

Wen Jing smiled. Once Qingliu finished, the two returned inside. The aroma of food wafted over, and Wen Jing, who had been famished, felt her hunger sharpen.

Dongsheng had already begun to eat. Seeing Wen Jing arrive, Ji Changge finally picked up his bowl and chopsticks. "Qiniang, come and eat."

Wen Jing nodded. Although the meal consisted only of vegetarian dishes without a drop of oil, she had skipped two consecutive meals and found herself ravenous.

Qingliu sat at the table with Ding Wu and the others. In these extraordinary circumstances, there was no regard for separating by gender; everyone was starving.

Dongsheng looked at the coarse tea and simple rice before him, his brows knitting slightly. He glanced at Wen Jing, who was buried in her meal, and wondered how she could possibly eat after having handled a corpse earlier.

Wen Jing sensed Dongsheng’s gaze but continued to eat. She recalled times in the past when she was so busy she would munch on bread right in front of a corpse. Being able to eat a meal in peace was already a blessing. When she ate, she didn't think about the dead; she simply focused on filling her stomach. She had learned to balance the two quite well.

"Try the tomatoes grown in our temple. And this is tofu we ground ourselves," a Taoist nun said, placing two plates of stewed tomatoes and tofu on the table.

Dongsheng’s eyes widened as he stared at the dish. Red... white...

"Ugh!"

Watching Dongsheng cover his mouth and bolt outside, a smile bloomed on Wen Jing’s lips. She knew exactly what he was associating the dish with. It was a normal reaction, however; even Ji Changge swallowed a mouthful of rice with difficulty before setting down his bowl and chopsticks.

Seeing Wen Jing’s brilliant smile, Ji Changge felt his breath hitch. It had been a long time since he had seen her smile so brightly—perhaps not since the Qixi Festival, when she watched the fireworks. Back then, he hadn't paid much attention, but now he wished he could freeze this moment in time forever. He didn't know when he had lost his heart, but ever since the Wang Erlang case, he felt as if he were constantly worried, fearing that one day her smile might belong solely to someone else.

Dongsheng returned from outside, his face pale. Upon seeing Wen Jing pick up a piece of tomato and put it into her mouth, his face drained of color again, and he ran back out. He thought with resentment, *What kind of monster is this woman? How can she still eat after staring at a corpse and blood for so long?*

"My lord, we have a discovery," a guard rushed over, followed by a short, plump Taoist nun.

Ji Changge snapped out of his contemplation and asked, "What have you found?"

"My lord, we found several bloodied clothes and trousers in this nun’s room, and there are traces of wet blood on her shoes," the guard said, holding the items out before Ji Changge.

Ji Changge looked at the brown-stained robes and measured the nun. She was about five feet tall and stout—fitting the height and build of the culprit Wen Jing had deduced.

The plump nun looked flustered, her eyes darting around. She held her hands to her chest and suddenly stepped toward Ji Changge, whispering mysteriously, "Young master, can you save me? Someone is trying to kill me."

Everyone was startled; the terror in the nun’s eyes did not seem like a lie.

"What is your name? Who is trying to kill you?" Ji Changge tried to ask.

"I am Li Yangshi. The one who wants to kill me is the mistress of the house, Li Mashi. She is jealous because I am pregnant, so she hired someone to kill me." After speaking, the nun pulled up her sleeve, revealing arms covered in knife wounds.

Wen Jing examined the scars on the nun’s arms and asked, "How long have you been at this temple?"

The plump nun counted on her fingers for a long time. "It seems like a month, or maybe half a year. The master sent me here himself the year before last."

"Stop playing the fool! Do you think you can escape punishment this way?" the guard, seeing the reward he had hoped for slipping away, said angrily.

The plump nun began to sob, "It’s true, it’s really true, someone wants to kill me."

Wen Jing shook her head and said to Ji Changge, "She is mentally ill. The wounds on her arms were self-inflicted, and they are all fresh. These bloodied clothes must be stained with her own blood; they have nothing to do with the case."

"How do you know she did it to herself? Maybe someone really is trying to kill her," Dongsheng asked.

Wen Jing sighed inwardly; Dongsheng was truly troublesome. She explained, "Look at the wounds—they are deep on the outside and shallow on the inside. If inflicted by an outsider, the wounds would be the opposite. Because they are self-inflicted, the instinctual reaction to pain causes her to exert less force. It is the same on the other arm. Furthermore, looking at the wounds, there are both old and new ones. She likely suffers from persecutory delusions. She believes someone is out to kill her, and to prove her belief, she inflicts wounds upon herself to validate it."

Though he didn't quite understand what "persecutory delusions" meant, Dongsheng understood the gist. He felt irritated, being rendered speechless by a woman time and again, which he felt was a great blow to his pride.

"No one is trying to hurt you. This is a Taoist temple, and it is very safe. Do not cut yourself with a knife again," Wen Jing said to the plump nun.

"Really? They won’t come after me?" the nun asked with wide eyes.

"No, these officers will protect you," Wen Jing said, gesturing toward Ji Changge and the others.

The plump nun’s expression softened slightly.

Ji Changge waved his hand, signaling the guards to take her away. It was clear that this nun had nothing to do with the case.