Lin Zhao stammered, "No... can't be, right? I think Yue Ling is very simple and filial!"

I flicked Lin Zhao's forehead. "Lust makes you stupid! When faced with beauty, your IQ drops by half! What did your master teach you? Didn't he tell you not to trust people based on their faces?"

"Besides, is Jie Yueling pretty? Ye Yang is prettier in a dress. How could someone like her bewitch you so much that you can't tell north from south? It's embarrassing!"

"Don't tell anyone I'm your Tangzhu when you go out, or they'll think everyone in Liangjie Tang has a brain freeze when they see a woman!"

"This time, I'll teach you a lesson. Next time, I'll just ask Butcher Wang to castrate you."

After scolding Lin Zhao, I said, "First, I can tell you this. No matter how capable a person is, they can't outsmart their opponents without intelligence, resources, or a certain number of people to cooperate with them."

As I said this, I subconsciously said, "Maybe Ling can do it, but the Coffin Gate definitely can't."

"The entire provincial capital is covered by Liangjie Tang's intelligence network, and Lao Liu uprooted the Coffin Gate's outer forces overnight. Local wandering souls don't dare to cooperate with the Coffin Gate either."

"The most they could do was make some small moves in the Jie family and set us up. It's impossible for them to anticipate everything."

Lin Zhao was speechless. After a while, he said, "What you're saying makes sense."

"I'll teach you another lesson!" I raised my hand and flicked Lin Zhao's forehead again, creating a bump. Lin Zhao couldn't resist because his acupoints were sealed, and he could only roll his eyes in anger.

I waved my fingers and said, "You've been by Jie Yueling's side for so long. Haven't you noticed how many suspicious points there are about her?"

"Suspicious points?" Lin Zhao only said two words before screaming, "Don't flick me!"

I retracted my fingers. "It's like what we thought at the beginning!"

"Why did the Nine-Leaf Jade Tree choose Jie Yueling?"

"And why did Jie Yueling attract the Snake-Patterned Secret Box?"

"Why do the evil spirits haunting the Jie family only kill outsiders and not Jie Yueling or Jie Sanbao?"

"Do you have answers to these questions?"

Lin Zhao shook his head. "No!"

I waved my hand and said, "It's not that you don't have them! It's that you didn't think of them! In fact, Jie Yueling already let it slip, but you didn't hear it."

"First, I ask you, how old is Jie Sanbao, and how old is Jie Yueling? How many years are between them?"

Lin Zhao thought for a moment and said, "About thirty years? What does that mean?"

I said in a deep voice, "It means Jie Sanbao got married, had children, and had Jie Yueling after he came out of the forest farm."

Lin Zhao was shocked. "You can't be saying that Jie Yueling is actually a ghost that Jie Sanbao brought out of some secret realm, right?"

"Isn't she?" I asked back, "Jie Sanbao's brothers are all dead, but he's alive. Doesn't that mean anyone can kill Jie Yueling except her own father?"

It's not unprecedented in the world of术士 (Shu Shi, occultists) for people to bring treasures out of secret realms, as well as ghosts and deities, especially among tomb robbers.

When tomb robbers disturb artifacts with attached ghosts, those ghosts can't do anything to the tomb robbers, but that doesn't mean they won't go after others, especially the tomb robbers' families.

It's too easy for ghosts and deities to possess an unborn baby, and it's not uncommon for tomb robbers to be killed by their own children.

Therefore, the reason why tomb robbers rarely marry and have children before retiring is that they are afraid their children will be possessed by ghosts.

What happened to Jie Sanbao is probably the same!

I continued, "That makes it easier to explain why the Nine-Leaf Jade and the Nine-Snake Secret Box would gather around Jie Yueling."

"Second, the biggest loophole in Jie Yueling's story is that she can't explain why the woman in the black dress didn't kill her and let her go. Of course, Jie Yueling can use her ignorance to gloss over things."

"But acting is only convincing if you believe it. If you don't, you can't be fooled."

I paused again and said, "You said Jie Yueling is very filial and can do anything to save Jie Sanbao. She doesn't even trust her own father's arrangements. Why would she trust a ghost who almost killed her?"

Lin Zhao said, "That's true, but... but... Jie Sanbao hired someone to suppress the woman in black, and Shen Ping has survived by substituting his life. What's going on?"

I smiled. "That's even easier to explain."

"How do you know it was Jie Sanbao who hired Jia Zhen? Couldn't it have been Jie Yueling? The news Zhao Ci found was that Jie Sanbao's account would transfer a sum of money to Jia Zhen every so often."

"As the Jie family's eldest daughter, is it difficult for Jie Yueling to move Jie Sanbao's account? Moreover, that huge sum of money in the eyes of ordinary people might just be Jie Yueling's pocket money to Jie Sanbao. Even if he knew Jie Yueling was spending money, he wouldn't care where the money was going."