Arriving at Yi Pin Ge, Lin Qingge directly stated her identity and inquired about Sister Zheng.
Sister Zheng, widowed and childless in her early years, possessed excellent embroidery skills and thus became an embroiderer at Yi Pin Ge.
After more than ten years, she had been promoted to the manager of the embroidery workshop.
In addition to supervising the work of the embroiderers, she was also responsible for procurement for the kitchen.
As most embroiderers and apprentices lived in the workshop, three meals a day were essential, requiring substantial quantities.
Therefore, fixed vendors would deliver fresh produce and meats to the workshop's kitchen every morning.
Although Sister Zheng was amiable towards Lu Mingxuan and even took the initiative to gift him accumulated robes from the storeroom, she often maintained a stern demeanor, even bordering on sharp and sarcastic, towards others.
The newly recruited embroiderers and apprentices had even given her the nickname 'Cold-Faced Yama.'
While listening to the waiter's complaints, Lin Qingge walked into the courtyard with him.
The shopkeeper hurried over upon hearing about Lin Qingge's arrival and immediately dispatched someone to fetch Manager Zheng.
However, the errand boy searched Yi Pin Ge thoroughly but could not find Sister Zheng.
"That's impossible. Sister Zheng has always been conscientious in her work. Even when unwell, she persevered through thick and thin, rain or shine.
What happened today?
She vanished without even sending word?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Qingge and Hua Jinrong exchanged glances, their expressions turning grave simultaneously.
"Shopkeeper, do you know where Sister Zheng lives?"
"Sister Zheng has no kin and has lived with the embroiderers in the back courtyard of our Yi Pin Ge for many years."
"Master Hua, you go to Sister Zheng's residence in the back courtyard to investigate. I will go to the kitchen and see if I can find any clues."
"My Lord, it might be unwise for you to go alone. This student will immediately send for Constable Yan and the others."
Lin Qingge raised an eyebrow in dissatisfaction, "What? Is it alright for Master Hua to go alone, but not for me?
Master Hua, you and I are both scholars whose hands cannot lift a shoulder or carry a burden.
Could it be that Master Hua is confident he can face a fierce criminal and retreat unscathed?"
As if caught off guard by Lin Qingge's question, a flicker of an unreadable expression crossed Hua Jinrong's eyes.
However, before Hua Jinrong could answer, Lin Qingge had already strode away.
Watching her retreating elegant figure, Hua Jinrong habitually took out his folding fan, placed it under his chin, and murmured with an inscrutable expression:
"Oh dear, did I reveal myself?"
Meanwhile.
Upon reaching the kitchen, Lin Qingge questioned everyone and learned that Sister Zheng had been in the kitchen not long ago, met someone, and then had not reappeared.
Lin Qingge stood before the back door of the embroidery workshop. According to the cooks, this was where Sister Zheng was last seen.
The alley connected to the back door was quite secluded, with few people passing by even during the day.
Lin Qingge discovered a small amount of white powder near the threshold. Murong Bai had previously mentioned that white powder, suspected to be a soporific, had been found in the nostrils of Cai Yun and Hu Xinrui.
Could it be that Sister Zheng had already met a tragic end?
However, according to the killer's previous modus operandi, after a fatal blow, the body would be dismembered and placed separately.
But with many eyes and ears in the embroidery workshop, taking Sister Zheng back to a room was clearly impractical.
Lin Qingge carefully inspected the surroundings and found a relatively fresh cartwheel track on the disordered ground.
"Is this... a cart?"
Lin Qingge marked the path and followed the cartwheel tracks to a dilapidated house outside the city.
She faintly heard the sound of grinding knives from within the house.
Holding the remaining half-bag of sneezing powder, Lin Qingge tiptoed to the window and peered inside through the broken panes.
A woman in her early forties was lying on the ground, her hands and feet bound.
Not far away, a man with a simple and honest appearance was diligently sharpening a foot-long cleaver with a whetstone.
A moment later, the man, having made the cleaver incredibly sharp, stood up and approached the woman on the ground step by step, muttering obsessively,
"My dear wife, I will do whatever you say, so can you please stop scolding me?
I am a man, and I have my pride.
When you scold me every day, it makes it hard for me to hold my head high!"
The next moment, the man's expression shifted again:
"My dear wife, I didn't mean to talk back, please don't scold me anymore, won't you spare me this once?
My dear wife, I will obey you obediently!
My dear wife, don't go, I can't live without you, my dear wife, please don't leave me, okay?"
The man spoke incoherently, his tone gentle and subservient, yet his expression gradually turned ferocious.
Seeing the man raise the cleaver high, Lin Qingge could no longer hide and smashed through the window, shouting:
"Stop—!"
Upon discovering the intrusion, the man immediately swung the raised cleaver towards Lin Qingge.
As Lin Qingge dodged to the side, she seized the opportunity, held her breath, and scattered the half-bag of sneezing powder in her hand.
"Achoo—Achoo—"
The man immediately started sneezing, but even so, he still thrust the gleaming cleaver at Lin Qingge.
Lin Qingge dodged left and right. While she wasn't being cut, the man was as strong as an ox. With her frail physique, even using the grappling techniques she learned in her previous life, it would be difficult to subdue him.
There was even a chance she could be injured by the cleaver in his hand.
While dodging, Lin Qingge's peripheral vision caught sight of a bundle placed beside the man. Besides the whetstone, the bundle contained a coil of rope and a ceramic jar about the size of a fist.
Instantly having an idea, Lin Qingge feigned a dodge, subtly moving towards the bundle.
Upon reaching it, she snatched the ceramic jar, deftly removed the stopper, and flung the white powder contained within onto the man.
Immediately, the man's body swayed, and with a thud, he collapsed onto the ground.
To ensure there was no trickery, Lin Qingge first kicked the cleaver out of the man's hand, then walked up to the fallen man. After confirming he was indeed unconscious, she bound him securely with the coil of rope.
Having done this, feeling somewhat tired, and before she could untie Sister Zheng, the room door was kicked open from the outside.
"My Lord, are you alright?"
Meeting Yan Tinghao's concerned gaze, Lin Qingge smiled, "What could happen to me?"
Her highly tense nerves finally relaxed, Lin Qingge couldn't help but joke, "Your Lord is heroic and mighty. As for these low-class scoundrels, your Lord can kick several of them away with one kick..."
Upon noticing the familiar pale blue skirt at the doorway, Lin Qingge's smile froze, and her speech faltered:
"Th-that, Madam, why... why are you here?"