I fulfilled the female supporting role's wish and I succeeded

"That's right." Li Xiangyi nodded. "I just tried it. I couldn't walk with this wedding dress on, let alone climb out of the lotus pond. These three brides must have accidentally slipped into the lotus pond while looking in the mirror and drowned."

"But what about their injuries?" Di Feisheng asked, "I just checked, and they all have varying degrees of scrapes and bruises. This doesn't look like simple drowning."

"This..." Li Xiangyi was also stunned. He was so focused on feeling the weight of the wedding dress that he ignored this point.

"Come and see!" Qiao Wanwan suddenly pointed at a few stones beside the lotus pond and said, "These stones... seem a little strange."

When the three of them got closer, they found that the stones were all Shoushan stones with smooth surfaces and various shapes.

"What's so strange about these Shoushan stones?" Fang Duobing asked.

"Look, the placement of these Shoushan stones seems to align with some kind of formation," Li Xiangyi said. "Also, there are tiny scratches on these stones, as if they've been struck by something."

"Could it be..." Fang Duobing suddenly thought of something, "Before these brides fell into the lotus pond, they hit these rocks?"

"It's very likely." Li Xiangyi nodded. "This wedding dress is so heavy. Before the brides fall into the lotus pond, they may lose their balance and fall, then hit the rocks and cause scars on their bodies."

"But what does this mean?" Fang Duobing was still a little confused. "Even if they hit the rocks, they wouldn't die."

"No, this is crucial," Li Xiangyi said. "Think about it, if someone wearing a heavy wedding dress accidentally fell into the lotus pond, what would she do?"

"Of course we have to find a way to climb up." Fang Duobing said.

"That's right," Li Xiangyi said, "but the wedding dress was so heavy, and they were injured, so they had no way of climbing out on their own. So, they could only struggle in the water until they died of exhaustion."

"So that's how it is." Fang Duobing suddenly realized, "This wedding dress, this mirror stone, this lotus pond, and these Shoushan stones, all of these are traps carefully laid by the murderer!"

"That's right," Li Xiangyi said. "The murderer used this heavy wedding dress to lure the brides to the mirror stone to look in the mirror, and then made them accidentally slip into the lotus pond. Due to the weight of the wedding dress and their injuries, the brides were unable to climb out on their own and ultimately drowned."

"But why did the murderer do this?" Qiao Wanwan asked puzzledly, "Why did he kill these brides?"

"This..." Li Xiangyi also fell into deep thought, "I'm afraid we can only know this after we find the murderer."

Li Xiangyi nodded, his expression solemn: "When I fell into the water just now, I saw a lot of corpses at the bottom of the water, and those lotus flowers were growing from the corpses."

"What? There are corpses underwater?" Fang Duobing exclaimed, his eyes widening with disbelief written all over his face. "This... How is this possible?"

Qiao Wanwan's face was pale. She clutched Li Xiangyi's arm tightly, her voice trembling slightly: "This...this is too terrible..."

Di Feisheng frowned, thinking: "It seems that there are many secrets hidden under this lotus pond."

"This Guo Qian is absolutely insane!" Fang Duobing said, gritting his teeth. "Using human corpses to grow flowers is truly cruel! The deaths of these three brides must have something to do with him!"

He became more and more excited as he spoke, and turned to walk out: "No, I have to contact Baichuan Academy immediately and have them investigate!"

"Wait!" Qiao Wanwan suddenly stopped him, "I think the last bride was not killed by Guo Qian."

"Why do you say that?" Li Xiangyi looked at Qiao Wanwan in confusion, not understanding why she had such an idea.

Qiao Wanwan recalled and said, "Do you still remember the inn's proprietress? The four of us dined at the same table with Guo Huo, and none of us disliked cilantro. So the one who disliked cilantro was Guo Huo. What kind of relationship do you think he had with you that he could remember your taste so clearly?"

"You mean..." Fang Duobing's eyes lit up, as if he understood something, "The boss lady and Guo Huo have a close relationship?"

"That's right." Qiao Wanwan nodded. "If the boss lady was Guo Huo's sweetheart, then he didn't want to marry his current bride, but he couldn't disobey his father's orders, so he tried to kill her."

"That makes sense!" Fang Duobing slapped his thigh. "That explains why Guo Huo acted so indifferent to the bride's death."

Li Xiangyi looked at the sky. It was late at night and the moonlight was pouring into the yard like water, casting a hazy silver gauze over everything around.

"It's too late. Let's go back first," Li Xiangyi said. "Tomorrow we'll confront Guo Qian and Guo Huo. I don't believe they won't reveal their true colors." As the night deepened, the four of them returned to their room. Fang Duobing tossed and turned, unable to sleep. As soon as he closed his eyes, his mind flashed back to the pile of bones beneath the lotus pond and the heavy, eerie wedding dress.

"No, I need to think about it again." Fang Duobing said to himself. He put on his clothes and quietly walked out of the room.

The courtyard of the inn was quiet, with only a few lanterns emitting dim light. Fang Duobing walked to the center of the courtyard, gazing at the bright moon in the sky, his mind filled with thoughts.

"If Guo Huo really had an affair with the proprietress, then he certainly had a motive for murder," Fang Duobing muttered to himself. "But how did he do it? That wedding dress is so heavy, there's no way the bride could have put it on by herself, let alone walked to the lotus pond in it."

The more Fang Duobing thought about it, the more he felt something was amiss. He decided to go to the lotus pond again. Using his Qinggong skills, he arrived at the lotus pond in a few leaps and bounds.

The lotus pond under the moonlight looked particularly eerie. The blooming lotus flowers swayed gently in the night breeze, as if ghostly hands were waving to him.

Fang Duobing took a deep breath, suppressed his fear, and carefully observed his surroundings. He found that there were some tiny scratches on the Shoushan stone beside the lotus pond, as if they were left by someone who walked around here frequently.

"Could it be that the murderer often comes here?" Fang Duobing's mind moved, "But what is he doing here?"

At this moment, Fang Duobing suddenly heard a faint sound of footsteps coming from not far away. He quickly hid behind a piece of Shoushan stone, holding his breath, and secretly observed.

A dark figure quietly came to the edge of the lotus pond. He looked around, then took out a small bottle from his pocket and poured the liquid inside into the lotus pond.

"What is he doing?" Fang Duobing was full of doubts. "Is he fertilizing the lotus?"