After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

He Niannian's death was due to the Liu family's scheming. She was drowned in the river before her death, and her body did not float after death. She turned into a vengeful ghost and sought revenge against the Liu family.

The remains that sank to the bottom of the river would most likely be buried in the river mud, which is similar to pond mud—both are black and foul-smelling. The Crown Prince may not have seen river mud, but he must have seen the pond mud in the back garden of the Eastern Palace.

It's not hard to guess what the Liu family was thinking. They felt guilty and feared He Niannian, who had become a wronged spirit. Building the temple and offering sacrifices was a pretense; their real purpose was to suppress and imprison her soul. The image of the goddess in the temple was likely at the behest of the Liu family, deliberately depicting her as disheveled and a horrifying corpse at the bottom of the water.

Liu Ying handed her hand to Lu Yun, who gently lifted her and placed her steadily on the offering table. Liu Ying crouched down and walked to the statue, asking Lu Yun to borrow his sword to cut off a lock of hair from the statue.

The hair is real, but the degree of dryness varies; the most recently added section is still soft, and there are bloodstains on the hair. The bloodstains are the same color as the pool of blood outside the temple gate, so they should belong to the same person.

Like the strands of hair, the mud on the statue was layered, with a newly added patch on the left side of the waist. When Lu Yun flicked his burning outer robe onto it, the newly applied mud fell off.

Following the direction the firefly was pointing, there was indeed a clump of loose mud. Unlike the mud on the surface of the altar and the statue, this clump of mud was wet, as if it had just been dug up from the riverbed.

Zuo Yi crushed the blood in his fingers and exclaimed, "There's blood inside! Could it be that little girl's?"

Lu Zhiyuan's face darkened. She pulled out her hairpin, poked it in the mud, and shook her head. "The blood in the mud isn't human blood, it's fish blood, and it still smells like fish. The pool of blood outside the temple gate is human blood, but the amount of bleeding isn't large; it must have been left from an external injury. The rat hair is flat; the injured person accidentally stepped on it, and the rat escaped, leaving behind a few tufts of hair."

When I entered the temple, I noticed a hole gnawed by a rat on the door. There were bloodstains on the hole and bloody rat footprints at the bottom, which must have been left by the rat when it fled.

Lu Zhiyuan was curious about how Liu Ying could tell that the hair on the statue was real.

"I saw it when the fire started." Liu Ying tilted her head. "Liu Ying and Madam have been to many temples. The statues in the temples are either made of clay, bronze, iron, or some, like the goddess in this temple, are carved from wood. No matter which one, the hair is fake, it comes out with the body. When the fire started, I saw the goddess's hair floating."

With the wind?

The clothes were burned to ashes, leaving only faint embers. By the light of the lamps held by each person, one could see that the hair of the goddess statue was indeed floating.

The way the hair was flowing was a bit strange, and that's how Firefly determined which parts were old and which were new.

Liu Ying said mysteriously, "This servant believes that they are not worshipping the goddess, but rather suppressing and imprisoning her. This temple is a cage, keeping the goddess locked up here. The hair is the hair of the person being worshipped. The lady said that the hair of infants, toddlers, children, teenagers, and young adults is different, and the hair of boys and girls is also different."

"Fireflies are amazing!"

"It's all thanks to Madam's excellent teaching." Liu Ying chuckled. "This servant also discovered some other things, right there in that corner."

It was a rectangular cellar, just big enough to fit a little girl of about four or five years old. The cellar was in a very secluded location, and there were traces of rats crawling around it.

Not to mention that the townspeople wouldn't come here, even if they did, they wouldn't notice this place in this environment.

Lu Zhiyuan had them gather their lanterns here to observe the details inside the cellar.

The head was facing east and the feet were facing west. There were scratch marks in the cellar, which were distributed in a circle and concentrated in one place.

“There’s something fishy about this temple! Those children weren’t sacrificed, but rather moved elsewhere.”

"It's a pity we have to leave. If we could stay and take another look, we might find more clues," Liu Ying muttered to herself as she looked at the cellar.

Her outer garment was burned, and the sleeves of her inner garment were also torn and tattered. She was a young lady and couldn't be dressed in such a disheveled state; if someone saw her like that, she would lose all her dignity. She didn't care about those things, as she had no intention of getting married anyway, but she was afraid of implicating her mistress.

The young lady is not only from the Marquis's and General's mansions, but also the Crown Princess. If the Crown Princess's maid loses her "innocence," who knows what kind of rumors will spread. She didn't take a carriage or bring a change of clothes. Liu Ying told the Crown Prince and Lu Zhiyuan to go first, while she stayed at the temple, planning to secretly return to the inn when the streets were deserted.

Before he could finish speaking, Lu Zhiyuan tapped him.

The matter at the Niangniang Temple hasn't been fully investigated yet, and who knows what might happen in the middle of the night? Leaving Liuying here, what if something unexpected happens? Lu Yun initially wanted to take off his outer garment and put it on her, but after looking at their heights, he gave up. He had grown extremely fast in the past two years, not only much taller than Liuying but also much stronger. His clothes looked even more like they had a story behind them on Liuying.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zuo Yi, reached out, and pulled Zuo Yi over.

He was a former bodyguard, half a head taller than Liu Ying, with a slender build. His clothes fit him better than Lu Yun's. Without hesitation, Zuo Yi turned his back, took off his outer garment, and handed it to Liu Ying.

Liu Ying blushed and curtsied, saying, "Thank you for lending me your clothes, Young Master Zuo. I will wash them for you when we return to the inn."

After thinking for a moment, she added, "Not only will I wash it clean, but I'll also make you a new one. Don't worry, I learned my craft in the palace, and it's no worse than what you can buy outside."

"You're too kind, young lady. It's just a piece of clothing; Zuo Yi can wash it herself." Zuo Yi returned the greeting and handed over the lantern in her hand: "Your lantern is broken, so please use mine."

Liu Ying took the lantern and joked, "What are you going to do now that you've given me the lantern?"

Zuo Yi smiled sheepishly: "I am His Highness's personal guard, and I am used to walking in the dark. Whether I have this lantern or not makes no difference to me. I am going to another place, so please take the lantern back to the inn."

“The guard went to find the young girl, and you went to find the clan leader? If you’re going to investigate, you should know your enemy and yourself. You go ahead, I’ll take the lantern back for you.” Liu Ying retreated to Lu Zhiyuan’s side.

Zuo Yi opened the temple door, and the wind made everything inside rattle. Once the wind subsided, the Crown Prince, carrying a lantern in one hand and holding Lu Zhiyuan's arm in the other, quietly reminded her and led her out of the temple. Lu Yun and Liu Ying followed closely behind. Liu Ying nudged him with her elbow: "Your Highness is so good to Miss!"

Lu Yun thought it was just so-so, and raised the lantern in his hand to illuminate Liu Ying's face: "We both serve in front of Miss, why don't you make me a dress?"

"Would I make it for you to wear?" Liu Ying rolled her eyes at him. "You can only make clothes by taking measurements. You won't even let me take your measurements, so where am I supposed to cut it for you? Lu Yun, don't forget, when I first learned to cut clothes, you were laughing at me so fiercely. I'm petty and hold grudges."

Lu Zhiyuan smiled with her lips pursed, and the Crown Prince said in a low voice, "It's rare to see the two of them bickering. This is how they are in private."

Lu Zhiyuan looked up, her forehead brushing against the Crown Prince's lips. Their eyes met briefly, then looked away.