Black Lotus Concubine's Case-solving Notes

Miss Gong looked at Feng Jia again: "Miss Xie Jiu, I see you don't look well either. Did you have the same experience as us last night?"

Feng Jia nodded, looking worried: "Like my sisters, I am also having nightmares!"

Upon hearing this, the women immediately showed expressions of fear, muttering "There really is a ghost", and left in a group. Feng Jia looked at their backs, the sadness on her face disappeared, but her brows were tightly furrowed.

One or two would be fine, but why are all these people having nightmares?

Feng Jia didn't believe in punishment at all, let alone sleep paralysis. In her eyes, these were just the murderer's methods, but how did the murderer do it? What was his purpose?

This situation is very similar to a case of bewitching that was handled in the Dali Temple in the previous life. In that case, the husband put a psychotropic drug in his wife's food, causing her to suffer from nightmares every night. For several months in a row, his wife became mentally disturbed and one rainy night she suffered a mental breakdown and rushed out of the house and drowned herself in the river.

Therefore, Feng Jia concluded that in this case, the murderer also used similar hallucinogenic drugs on them without anyone noticing, and ruled out the bowl of vegetarian noodles last night, because she poured out that bowl of noodles for the sake of caution, but she still got poisoned, which means it was not in the food.

So where is it? Where can we ensure that everyone is infected?

"Ninth sister!" There was a sound of footsteps behind me.

Feng Jia turned around and saw Xie Shubai standing behind her: "What's wrong, Fourth Sister?"

"Ninth sister, I want to ask you, you were staying next door last night, did you hear anything unusual?"

Feng Jia's eyes stayed on her for a while, and then changed to a worried look, shook his head, and deliberately revealed: "No, I was very tired last night, so I went to bed very early. I fell asleep in a short time after lying on the bed, but I slept very unsteadily. I was sweating coldly and had nightmares one after another, just like being possessed by a ghost. So, I didn't notice the movement in Miss Zhao's room next door."

Xie Shubai nodded gloomily, and then suddenly seemed to grasp something, and widened her eyes: "You said you had a nightmare last night too?"

"What you mean, Fourth Sister, is that you also had a nightmare?" Feng Jia pretended to be surprised.

Xie Shubai's mind was in turmoil, and she did not answer. Instead, she ran straight to the other girls' room with a hint of anxiety in her eyes. Feng Jia also turned around and entered the room. The incense burner in the room was still on, and wisps of green smoke were coming out.

Feng Jia looked at it for a while, walked over, opened the lid of the incense burner, put out the half-burned agarwood, and then put a little ashes under his nose and smelled it.

Nothing unusual.

It does not enter the body through the fragrance emitted by agarwood.

Feng Jia's brows furrowed slightly, puzzled. She walked around the room again and again, and suddenly her eyes were attracted by something and she walked over.

The color of the low wall was newer than that in Zhao Qing's room just now, and there were signs of repainting. She reached out and scraped the wall, and some blue-gray powder fell under her fingernails. She put it to her nose and sniffed it, her face slightly gloomy.

After dinner, Song Huai returned home under the stars. There was no light in the room, and it was so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of you.

"Where have you been? I haven't seen you for a whole day."

Song Huai didn't answer, but there was a sound of a tea bowl on the table being knocked over. Feng Jia was startled and immediately walked forward. When she got closer, she could smell the strong scent of gardenia on the other person, and under the cover of the gardenia was a faint, almost imperceptible smell of blood.

Feng Jia lit the oil lamp and saw Song Huai covering one of his arms with a look of pain on his face.

"Who hurt you?" Feng Jia asked. Song Huai's martial arts skills were very good. Could it be that there were other masters in this temple whose martial arts skills were better than hers?

"Xie Lanzhao, hurry up..."

"What?" Feng Jia moved closer to her.

Song Huai's lips were bloodless. He raised his head weakly, his eyes filled with fear. "Leave this place, Xie Lanzhao. This temple... there are ghosts!"

"Is there a ghost?" Feng Jia frowned deeply. She took out the golden wound medicine from her sleeve and applied it to Song Huai. She found that she had a new scar on her left arm, as if she was cut by a sharp weapon.

"Tell me everything you know."

Song Huai said, "This morning, I saw someone sneaking over the roof of the house next door. I was surprised and wanted to wake you up, but you seemed to be unconscious and I couldn't wake you up! I was afraid of losing you, so I chased after you first..."

"Who is that person?"

Song Huai took a breath and said, "I don't know. The man was wearing night clothes, so I couldn't see his face or figure clearly."

Feng Jia's frown did not relax: "Then what?"

"Then, I saw him enter a secret room in the back mountain!" Song Huai's face was covered with cold sweat, probably because the wound was too painful. "I originally wanted to chase him in, but I was afraid of alerting the enemy, so I hid outside the secret room and observed. After a while, I saw the abbot of this temple walk in!"

"Sounds of fighting soon rang out from inside, followed by dead silence. A moment later, the abbot in a monk's robe came out, dragging the body of the man in black!"

Feng Jia was shocked: "The abbot killed that man?"

Song Huai nodded: "I saw it clearly! It was indeed the abbot! I won't make a mistake!"

"Then what about the ghost in the temple you mentioned?"

"Because I followed the abbot, I saw him hang the man in black on the red elm tree in front of the white pagoda. After he left, I sneaked into his meditation room and saw..."

"What did you see?" Feng Jia asked.

"I saw strange Buddha statues! There were three in total! The face of each Buddha statue was covered with red paint, and they looked like evil spirits from hell!"

Sure enough it was him.

The person who pretended to be a ghost to scare Zhao Qing was the abbot, but why did he do this? How did he enter the secret room? What was his relationship with the man in black? Why did he kill him?

Song Huai calmed down and said, "When I came here, I saw many noble ladies packing their luggage and walking down the mountain. Are you not leaving?"

Feng Jia shook her head. She had a mission to accomplish and leaving would mean death.

"What's wrong with your injuries?"

Song Huai frowned and said, "He found me when I came out of the old monk's house. I fought with him for a few moves. He was very skilled in martial arts and his movements were strange. I was no match for him and was stabbed by his sword. I fled in panic."

After a pause, she said, "But I was disguising myself at the time, so he didn't see my face clearly."

Feng Jia nodded, but her brows were still furrowed: "The abbot must be looking for you everywhere with his men."

Song Huai bit his lower lip and said, "Sorry for involving you."

Feng Jia shook his head: "I said, we are allies. You are responsible for being my secret guard, and I will provide you with shelter. Since that old bald donkey has already found out, let him come. If an enemy comes, we will fight him; if a flood comes, we will block it with earth. It's not certain who is afraid of whom."

As he was speaking, there was a loud noise outside and several torches came closer and closer, leaping onto the door.

Feng Jia said to Song Huai: "Go clean your wound first and change your clothes. I will take care of the rest."

Through the paper window, Song Huai had already seen the abbot in the eight-treasure Zen robe leading the monks into the front yard, so he did not hesitate.

Feng Jia opened the door and went out, and saw Xie Haoxuan was in a stalemate with the abbot.

"Abbot, what are you trying to do by bringing so many people in here in the middle of the night?" Xie Haoxuan looked at the huge group of people. The colors of their clothes were different, but the dull expressions on their faces were surprisingly consistent, like puppets that were bewitched.

It seemed that as long as Abbot Jingwu gave the order, they would counterattack without hesitation.