After being reborn, her aloof ex-husband and her crazy deceased husband got into a fight.

That night, Ciyun Temple was in complete chaos. The temple was brightly lit all night, and no one slept.

In just one night, two adulterous cases were caught at the temple, and a murder also occurred!

That night, after dark, Abbot Jidu was in his meditation room, meditating as usual, when he was interrupted by a series of urgent knocks on the door. He got up and opened the door to find Qiaoyan standing outside, looking anxious.

"Abbot, please come with me quickly. Sister Qiaoque and Madam Lan, mistress and servant, have suddenly fallen into a coma for some unknown reason."

Upon hearing this, Jidu quickly summoned several monks from the temple who were knowledgeable in medicine, and they hurriedly followed Qiaoyan to the meditation room in the front courtyard. Before they even reached the courtyard where Mei Wanqing was, they heard a shrill and piercing scream.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!!"

The sound was sharp, thin, and high-pitched, filled with extreme terror, startling all the birds in the surrounding trees into scattering and soaring into the sky.

Ji Du felt a chill run down his spine and ran towards the source of the screams as fast as he could.

The screams came from Mei Wanqing's room, one after another, unstoppable, growing ever more shrill. They only stopped abruptly when Jidu kicked open the door.

As soon as Jidu entered the room, he smelled a strong stench of blood. He knew something was wrong and quickly told everyone to light the lamps. When the lights came on, the scene inside shocked everyone present!

The bed in the meditation room was a mess, with a man and a woman lying on it, their clothes disheveled, clearly having just engaged in illicit relations. The one screaming was the woman. After the lights came on, she cowered in a dark corner of the bed, trembling uncontrollably.

Everyone recognized the man and woman; they were Jueming and Qiaoque.

What shocked everyone was far more than just Mingjue's affair with Qiaoque. There was also the blood all over the bed and Jueming's slightly bulging eyes, showing that he died with his eyes wide open in disbelief.

Jueming is dead.

A gleaming gold filigree peony hairpin was stuck in his neck, and blood flowed incessantly down it. The pervasive stench of blood in the room came from this.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Another scream suddenly rang in everyone's ears.

This time, it was Qiaoyan who made the call.

Qiaoyan's scream seemed to suddenly awaken Qiaoque. She jumped off the bed and pounced on Qiaoque without a care, tearing at her with reckless ferocity.

Upon seeing this, the monks in the temple rushed forward and forcibly separated the two women. Jidu delivered a swift chop to the back of their necks, and the two women immediately collapsed silently to the side.

“Master, Benefactor Mei is not inside,” Puyan said.

"Call everyone out of the temple! Light all the lamps and search every room. You must find them!" Jidu's voice trembled slightly.

Mei is the eldest daughter of the Mei family. If she were to become... the entire Ciyun Temple would probably cease to exist.

So all the monks in the temple sprang into action, and soon they found Mei Wanqing and Meng Yan, who were also disheveled, in the storeroom of the Hall of Heavenly Kings.

Ji Du breathed a sigh of relief; at least no one else had died. Ji Du sent someone down the mountain that very night to report to the authorities.

The sound of horses' hooves from the capital city shattered the night sky over Fengming Mountain.

Such a commotion at Ciyun Temple naturally alerted the nearby "Bamboo Grove Courtyard." Zhu Xiaoxiao, seeing that Gan Cai'er had not returned, knew that something was wrong, so she hurriedly went to Ciyun Temple.

Lantingzhou pondered for a moment, and having a general idea in mind, he let it pass.

"So, you're the one who brought me back?" Gan Cai'er asked, rubbing her still dizzy head.

"Ha, you overestimate me. You're so heavy, how could I possibly move you?" Zhu Xiaoxiao said, pursing her lips.

“It was your son, Lan Tingzhou, who personally carried you back. If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t have made it back last night.”

"Huh? Why is that?" Gan Cai'er was a little confused.

“Young Miss, this is a murder case! Although you were not at the scene of the murder, you are still a person involved in the murder.”

"Zhao, the constable from Jingzhao Prefecture, originally forbade you and Xiaohong from leaving. However, Lan Tingzhou presented him with a whole bunch of laws and questioned him, and he couldn't argue with Lan Tingzhou at all, so he had no choice but to let you come back first."

"However, he said that after you wake up, he will still summon you for questioning."

Then, Zhu Xiaoxiao vividly reenacted the scene from yesterday where Lan Tingzhou had rendered Zhao Qijin speechless. Every detail, from her eyebrows and gestures, was exaggerated.

A few taps on the table sounded, and Zhu Xiaoxiao immediately stopped talking. The two of them looked up and saw Lan Tingzhou sitting upright at the table, his fingers lightly tapping the surface. They didn't know how long he had been there or how much he had heard.

“Miss Zhu, Brother Wei is looking for you,” Lan Tingzhou said calmly.

She tried to imitate someone's words, but was caught red-handed by the person involved. Zhu Xiaoxiao stood up sullenly and ran away in a flash.

“If you want to know anything, you can ask me.” Lan Tingzhou walked over and sat down at the head of Gan Cai’er’s bed.

"Jueming is really dead?" Gan Cai'er still couldn't believe it. He was alive and well when she saw him yesterday.

"Mm." Lan Tingzhou nodded.

"The gold hairpin pierced a major blood vessel in his neck, causing him to bleed to death."

"Then, who killed him?" Gan Cai'er shivered involuntarily, feeling a chill run down her spine. A perfectly healthy person was gone just like that.

"Don't you know who killed him?" Lan Tingzhou chuckled lightly.

Lan Tingzhou's voice was calm, but Gan Cai'er felt a chill creeping up on her. She involuntarily shrank further into the blankets and whispered, "I... I didn't mean to."

"It's just that when I really can't think of a solution, I want to stick close to Miss Mei so I can act according to the situation."

"So, by playing it by ear, you ended up getting yourself into trouble?" Lan Tingzhou glanced at her indifferently.

Oh no, Lan Tingzhou is angry.

Gan Cai'er knew she was in the wrong. So, she stretched her little hand out from under the covers and slowly crawled up to Lan Tingzhou's knees, carefully tickling his palm.

"It was my fault this time, I'll be more careful next time," Gan Cai'er said with a fawning smile.

"There will be a next time?!" Lan Tingzhou's eyes sharpened as he looked at her sternly.

Gan Cai'er's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly shook her head vigorously, saying righteously, "No! There will absolutely be no next time!"

Lan Tingzhou pressed down with his backhand, clamping down on Gan Cai'er's hand that had been causing trouble. He took a deep breath and forcefully suppressed the urge to teach her a lesson.

He said slowly, "The most urgent task right now is to deal with the government's inquiries."

"What's so difficult about that?" Gan Cai'er said dismissively.

"Do you know this is a murder case?!" Lan Tingzhou rarely spoke out indignantly.

He felt the veins on his forehead throbbing, and he really wanted to crack open Gan Cai'er's head to see if it was stuffed full of grass! In this world, only Gan Cai'er could make him so angry that he was practically fuming.

“I didn’t kill anyone! What’s so hard to deal with? Just tell the truth about what I did and said, right?” Gan Cai’er said matter-of-factly.

Suddenly, Lan Tingzhou lost his temper.

Indeed, she didn't kill anyone; the truth is there. Honesty can overcome any cleverness. Perhaps telling the truth directly is more effective than any ingenious response.

Later, Gan Cai'er learned from Lan Tingzhou that all the monks of Ciyun Temple had been detained, especially Qiaoque. Zhao, the head constable, had specially arranged a separate room for her, heavily guarded by soldiers. It was said that Mei Qingru and the Prefect of Jingzhao Prefecture would personally visit Ciyun Temple the next day to question her.

In the entire Ciyun Temple, only two people were not detained.

One was Mei Wanqing, who was currently living in constant fear in a newly built meditation room, and the person accompanying her was Granny Niu, who had come up the mountain overnight.

The other was Meng Yan, who was in the Duke of Wei's mansion at the time, holding a long sword to Meng Yu's neck.

"Ayu, why did you want to harm me?" Meng Yan said in a deep voice.

"Where have I ever harmed you?" Meng Yu glanced at the sword at his neck, smiled lazily, and pushed it away with his finger.

With a "whoosh," Meng Yan's wrist flicked slightly, and a flash of sword light appeared. With a "crack," the jade crown on Meng Yu's head shattered. Meng Yu's long black hair cascaded down like a waterfall, covering his face.

"Meng Yan! You're just talking, why are you actually going to hit me?!" Meng Yu jumped up instantly, shouting.

Before Meng Yu could finish speaking, Meng Yan's long sword was already pressed against his throat. Meng Yan's eyes were dark and fixed on him, his gaze filled with murderous intent.

Meng Yu knew that if he didn't reveal the real reason today, his brother would really stab him in the back.

He said dejectedly, "I did this to save Mei Wanqing."

Mentioning Mei Wanqing made Meng Yan's face even uglier. He remembered being shirtless, embracing Mei Wanqing, and being watched by a group of monks carrying lanterns... He really wanted to chop this bastard in front of him into pieces with a sword!

"If you want to save her, then save her properly. Why resort to such despicable and vile methods!"

"It's a long story."

Meng Yu sat down on the chair again and then told Meng Yan everything he had learned from Gan Cai'er about Mei Wanqing.

“Since you know that Mingjue and her maid are plotting to harm her, you can simply expose them when they are doing it.”

"Ha, you might escape this time, but what about next time? Madam Mei is, after all, her mother. As the saying goes, you can only be a thief for a hundred days, not a thief for a thousand days," Meng Yu said casually, raising an eyebrow.

"If we really want to save Mei Wanqing, the only way is to let her leave the Mei family. For a young lady to leave her own home legitimately, the fastest and best way is to get married. Besides, the Meng and Mei families are well-matched and were originally intended to be a marriage alliance."

"Since you don't want to get married anyway, why don't you marry her and give her a place to settle down? Wouldn't that be perfect?"

“Brother, I’m helping you repay a debt of gratitude. Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘A life-saving grace should be repaid with one’s body?’ After all, Miss Mei saved you once.” Meng Yu looked at Meng Yan with a half-smile, his face full of mockery.

Meng Yan flicked his wrist, and his longsword went back into its sheath. He looked at Meng Yu coldly and said, "Let's go to the training ground."

"No way, bro! What I did was a really thorough plan!!" Meng Yu put his feet on the ground and turned to run away.

Before I could run two steps, I felt a numbness in the back of my knees and I fell to my knees.

"Put him on a pedestal and let's go."

Two Xuan Ying Guards flashed out, grabbed Meng Yu, and left.

That evening, Meng Yu was carried back. He lay limp on the bed, like a human-shaped lump of flesh.

While wiping away her tears, Feng Zhao applied medicine to him, saying, "Young Master, you were too ruthless. You almost broke all of Young Master's bones."

"With such severe injuries, he won't be able to get out of bed for at least two months."

"Hey, stop wailing, I'm not dead yet," Meng Yu hissed, grimacing.

"Today I am simply outmatched, and I cannot blame my brother."

Meng Yu now had a firsthand experience of just how formidable Meng Yan's martial arts skills were. It turned out that his brother had only been toying with him when they sparred before.