Jian Zhaoxing

Chapter 285 Accomplices
The maid, caught red-handed, instinctively tried to cover her face, but Lin Yangyang held her shoulders tightly, preventing her from moving.

After all that commotion, Lin Yangyang finally got a clear look at the person in front of her, and she frowned deeply.

"Yun Jian, it's you! Why are you here instead of taking good care of your fourth aunt?"

The maid, known as "Yun Jian," rolled her eyes and quickly came up with an explanation:
“Miss Yangyang, Miss Zhiqing, I…I heard there are pearls here, and I’ve become greedy, so I came to take a look.”

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Lin Yangyang sneered, not wanting to say anything more, and grabbed Yun Jian.

Lin Zhiqing stared intently into Yun Jian's eyes, then suddenly smiled:

Is this what you're looking for?

An ordinary-looking bead lay quietly in Lin Zhiqing's palm.

Yun Jian's eyes narrowed, unsure how to respond.

Lin Zhiqing put the beads away: "Take them with you, we'll talk about it when we get back."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yangyang delivered a chop to the back of Yun Jian's neck.

Yun Jian immediately fainted.

Lin Zhiqing and Lin Yangyang returned to Shuqing Pavilion with Yun Jian. After putting her down, Lin Yangyang was quite angry:

"I never expected that it was Yun Jian who was behind this. Was this Fourth Aunt's doing or Lin Jingya's doing?"

"I don't know," Lin Zhiqing shook her head.

Yun Jian is Fourth Aunt's maid, but before Lin Jingya's accident, she was Lin Jingya's personal maid.

Before Lin Jingya was sent to Bianliang, Lin Congli ordered all the maids and servants around Lin Jingya who had participated in the murder of her cousin to be beaten to death, and forbade anyone to go to Bianliang to serve Lin Jingya.

This letter, which contained no evidence of any wrongdoing against her cousin, was kept by her fourth aunt as a keepsake.

This is what Lin Zhiqing heard from his fourth aunt when he was investigating Lin Congyan's case, and she was carrying Yunjian.

At that time, Lin Zhiqing had not yet fully taken power and was unaware of these changes.

But after finding out, she remained wary of Yun Jian.

It wasn't until they went to Bianliang and discovered that Lin Jingya and Jiang Liuyun had been having an affair that no one else in the Lin family knew about it except for Lin Jingya.

Since Yun Jian showed no unusual behavior, she slowly removed her from the list of people under close observation.

Furthermore, Yun Jian's name was not on the list of those three key time periods mentioned earlier.

That's why Yun Jian never came into their view.

Lin Yangyang also considered this point:
"Could that list be fake?"

Yun Jian was someone from Lin Congyan's courtyard, so it would be very easy for Lin Congyan to tamper with the list.

But Lin Zhiqing shook his head: "You can find out by asking the people on duty at the time. It's easy to expose falsifying the list."

The moment Yun Jian appeared, Lin Zhiqing knew that this matter was inextricably linked to her.

While in the garden, Aunt Mu clearly had something to say, and Yun Jian likely caught that moment.

After receiving the news, Yun Jian kept an eye on Aunt Mu. She didn't want Aunt Mu to talk and may have been secretly spying on her all along.

Once Aunt Mu's whereabouts were confirmed, the murder to cover it up became a natural next step.

After piecing these things together in her mind, Lin Zhiqing's face tightened, and she looked at Yun Jian as if she were looking at a dead person. She knew that Yun Jian was most likely the culprit behind Aunt Mu's death, but there were still many doubts.

Although the retrial of Lin Congrong caused a great uproar, how could Yun Jian, a mere maid, be so perceptive about important court affairs and go to great lengths to silence Aunt Mu?
Is she really just a maid?

Thinking of this, Lin Zhiqing spoke to Lin Yangyang:

"Cousin, do you think she knows martial arts?"

"Practice martial arts?" Lin Yangyang shook her head without even thinking.
"She was like a little chick, not only was she skinny, but her breathing was also very disordered."

"His movements while searching for things were very clumsy and not nimble enough; he definitely doesn't look like someone who knows martial arts."

"Can she kill someone with a single blow?" Lin Zhiqing then asked.

Lin Yangyang shook her head again: "Impossible, that requires skill."

Having confirmed that Yun Jian was not skilled in martial arts, Lin Zhiqing's expression turned somewhat grave.
"Cousin, I suspect Yun Jian has accomplices."

"The Lin family?" Lin Yangyang asked.

"I'm not sure." Lin Zhiqing couldn't make that judgment yet: "Go and search Yun Jian's room first, and see if there's anything strange."

“Okay.” Lin Yangyang immediately turned around and disappeared into the darkness.

Half an hour later, Lin Yangyang returned.

She said with some helplessness, "I searched her room thoroughly, but I didn't find any clues."

Upon hearing this, Lin Zhiqing frowned: "After dawn, we'll take Yun Jian to find Fourth Aunt and investigate her whereabouts these past few days."

Lin Yangyang nodded, then another question arose in her mind: "Qing-meimei, can't you hypnotize Yun Jian and make her confess the real culprit?"

"Hypnosis isn't something you can just use whenever you want." Lin Zhiqing helped Lin Yangyang tie up Yun Jian, then sat down to the side.
"It's easy to hypnotize someone, but it's very difficult to extract what you want from a hypnotized person."

"First, I need to be familiar with this person's background and weaknesses. Second, the difficulty of hypnosis varies from person to person, and the conditions required also differ."

"For example, the reason I was able to hypnotize Liu Mang was because I was familiar with his work style and personality, and with the help of a lot of images, I was able to achieve that effect."

"To me, Yun Jian is just a stranger. I don't know anything about her, so I don't know what can hypnotize her."

"Even if we find the thing that can hypnotize her, it will take time to open her heart, because what we need to probe is the secret hidden deep in her heart, which is a long process."

Hearing this, Lin Yangyang nodded thoughtfully: "I used to think that I could hypnotize whoever I wanted."

"If that were really the case, wouldn't things be chaotic?" Lin Zhiqing shook his head slightly.

"Hypnosis is not a panacea. Otherwise, why would Liu Mang have only managed to train one flute player after so many years of effort?"

"My previous success in hypnotizing Liu Mang was most likely due to his emotions, but even so, I could only try to get him to confess his crimes himself."

"As for his other secrets, such as whether he is Jiang Liuyun's man or why he framed Uncle Si, I cannot find out through hypnosis."

"I understand, taking shortcuts is still not the way to go," Lin Yangyang sighed.

"There aren't that many shortcuts in the world." Lin Zhiqing has never believed in that.

“I’m looking at her. You take a rest. There’s another tough battle to fight tomorrow.”

"It's almost dawn. We won't have much time to rest. Let's go straight to Aunt Si." Lin Yangyang yawned.
"I refuse to believe it. The evidence is right in front of us. Could it be that Uncle and Aunt really knew nothing about it?"