The daughter of a noble family is reborn, and she is doted on by her godmother.

"Manager Lin?" Yun Yuke thought for a moment and then recited all the memories she had of Manager Lin.

"Manager Lin is the kind of manager who has high standards for himself. It is said that he was originally a carpenter and his family had accumulated a lot of experience. By his generation, he rarely took on carpentry work and focused more on the timber business."

Yun Yuke spoke frankly, sharing her impressions.

"Although I have always been encouraging to these shopkeepers and have not interfered too much in their business, I am quite clear about their character. As for this Shopkeeper Lin, I can only say that it was indeed my fault. I haven't been in contact with them for a long time, and it is very likely that I failed to grasp their character."

Magistrate Sun nodded and then carefully examined the body's hands. He first looked at the left hand, then moved around the body to observe the other hand.

After observing for a while, Magistrate Sun gave his judgment.

"I don't think this person is Manager Lin's; there's something wrong with the body."

"what?"

Yun Yuke and the others in the room were greatly shocked and exclaimed in surprise.

"The face of the body was destroyed, making it impossible to confirm whether it was the person in question. Although the house collapsed after the person died, it is still too much of a coincidence that the falling roof beam happened to land right on the body and destroy the face."

The constables who had been investigating the area nodded repeatedly after hearing the magistrate's analysis. "The magistrate's analysis makes sense. It's too much of a coincidence. At first, we thought it was Manager Lin's murder, mainly because the clothes on the body looked like those worn by the manager. We didn't think much of it and just reported it to our superiors."

"And then there are the man's hands," Magistrate Sun said solemnly, raising the man's left hand. "Both of the man's hands have thick calluses, which is more like what you'd see on someone who works hard all year round. I saw Manager Lin last time when he delivered materials to the county government. He was well-dressed and looked like a scholar at first glance."

When the county government office was being renovated, Magistrate Sun sent people to find many carpenters and bricklayers who could start work immediately. So I had some impression of this Manager Lin.

"It's not a big deal that both hands have calluses, but the calluses on the right hand aren't from holding a pen. This person is very likely a stand-in that Manager Lin found."

Yun Yuke kept nodding. Although she didn't say anything when she entered, she always felt that the death of "Manager Lin" was too coincidental.

Thinking back on their previous actions, they realized they had covered it up very well. Whether it was sneaking into Lin's Timber Shop to look for the account books or going to this warehouse, neither they nor Yun Qingjin had taken anything or left any strange traces. It was unlikely that Manager Lin had discovered their plan to check the accounts.

How could Manager Lin have died like that? Besides, even if it's an audit, there's no need to fake his death. Huanghua Village did suffer serious losses, but no one was killed there, so there's still room for maneuver.

No, there must be something else going on behind this, something that's definitely not something as trivial as just checking accounts.

"Officer, may I ask if there are any ledgers or similar items in this room?" Yun Yuke remembered that Yun Qingjin had mentioned ledgers before, so they must be real ledgers.

"Ledger?"

Yun Yuke looked around and glanced at a cabinet in the room. "It might be there."

"It was locked; we thought there was something important inside."

The constables directed their men to pry open the lock, and inside was indeed a notebook.

"Is it this one?"

"Let me consider."

Yun Yuke took the notebook, opened the top page, and saw that it was blank; there were no words on it.

"Blank? How is that possible?"

"But we don't have anything else here, just this stack of notebooks."

Yun Yuke flipped through it carefully, only to find it was all blank.

"A blank notebook? But this notebook isn't new. The cover shows signs of use, so why is there no writing inside?"

Yun Yuke muttered to herself, unsure of what was going on here.

"Officer, I'd like to take these things out to show my daughter. She saw these account books last time, and I want her to see if these are the same ones she saw that day. Could you send someone to accompany her?"

After all, this is evidence. Even if we want to take it away, we should ask the constables if we can do so first, otherwise it will be bad if other problems arise in the future.

Accompanied by the constables, Yun Yuke returned to the entrance, only to find her young lady sitting upright on the large rock at the main entrance, chatting with the constables guarding the gate. The two of them actually had something to talk about.

"Mother." Upon seeing Yun Yuke arrive, Yun Qingjin jumped down from the rock and walked towards Yun Yuke.

"Qingqing, come and see, are these the account books you saw that day?"

Yun Qingjin had already seen the ledger that Yun Yuke was holding, and took it to examine it carefully.

"It looks like it."

Yun Qingjin flipped through it, "Huh?"

"These books are all blank. Did you see what was inside them back then?"

Yun Qingjin flipped through the notebooks from top to bottom. “Mother, please. I’m quite sure that the notebooks I saw had writing on them. When I looked at them, there was still wet ink on the page. It must have been Manager Lin keeping accounts before we came.”

"These notebooks? When Mother brought them over just now, I thought they were just those account books I'd seen before."

Yun Qingjin placed the account books on the rock where she had been sitting and carefully examined them again, but still couldn't find any traces on them.

"Is this really blank?"

After checking several times, the two still couldn't find any trace on the blank books. They had no choice but to take the account books back inside.

"Please wait for me a little longer."

"Mother, may I go in and see?" Since she hadn't seen the body brought out yet, Yun Qingjin decided to ask directly.

"Ah, Qingqing, you'd better not go in. Your mother has already seen it; the scene inside was truly horrific. Qingqing, you shouldn't go in. Your mother has seen it all."

Yun Qingjin nodded and continued to wait at the door.

Just then, the constables carried the body out on a stretcher. Seeing this, Yun Yuke quickly handed the blank notebook in her hand to the constable beside her, reached out to protect Yun Qingjin, and held the little girl in her arms.

"Don't look."

Judging from the looks of it, the investigation should be almost complete. After the yamen runners left, the county coroner followed them out.

"Mr. Yun, the magistrate said that you should go back and consider it again. You can bring your child along. We have taken care of things at the scene, so you can rest assured."

The mother and daughter turned back together, and as they passed through the courtyard, Yun Qingjin saw the pile of timber in the yard.

Behind the pile of timber, Yun Qingjin discovered something strange.

"Mother, there seems to be a... wooden bowl in that pile of wood?"

Following the direction Yun Qingjin pointed, Yun Yuke and the constable beside her squatted down and saw a wooden bowl in the corner of the courtyard wall.

It is only from this perspective that we can see it.

“When I came here last time, there was nothing but wood here, and a wooden bowl didn’t appear out of nowhere.”

The constables went in and retrieved the wooden bowl. It was quite ordinary, with nothing special about it.

"A bowl... what's so special about it?" The constable looked at the bowl in his hand, completely baffled as to what was so special about it.

After taking the bowl out, there was a little bit of water left inside.

After taking the thing over, Yun Yuke finally smelled that faint grassy scent she seemed to have smelled before.

"Qingqing, when you came last time, besides the musty smell, did you smell anything else? For example, do you remember the smell coming from this bowl?"

Yun Qingjin was slightly suspicious, but she still moved closer and gently swept her hand over the area. A faint scent of grass wafted over, blending with the smell in her memory.

"Mom, I don't remember the last time I came. I just remember a strong musty smell and a faint scent of grass. I can only say that I vaguely remember it."

"What's in here?" The constable had been listening to the mother and daughter's conversation without any clue, so he reached out and tasted some.

"No, please!" Yun Yuke quickly stopped her. "We don't know what's here, so please don't try anything."

After saying that, Yun Yuke took out a handkerchief from her bosom, moistened it with some liquid, and then folded the handkerchief neatly.

"I'll ask someone later, but I feel like it's hard to say what this thing is. Anyway, don't do anything rash."