"On the last day, he had to deliver food, but for the days in between, he wouldn't appear unless absolutely necessary. How could he possibly know the progress so well?"
Ye Tiancheng spoke with a sense of helplessness, and Nie Chongyang listened with equal frustration.
Nie Chongyang then said, "Since that's the case, the innkeeper is unreliable. We can only wait. As time passes, more and more clues will emerge, and there will be new developments. Even without relying on their leads, it shouldn't be too difficult for us to figure things out."
Ye Tiancheng agreed.
He said, "That's precisely why, since I couldn't get any answers, I didn't bother to press further."
"It's good if we can find out these things, but if not, there's no need to force it. Even if we knew in advance, it would only save us a little trouble."
After their discussion, the group had lunch together.
In the afternoon, the four of them visited Lin Yanqin again, but there were no new discoveries. The clues they could find during the day were all from the previous night. At best, they could check for any oversights; significant new findings were unlikely.
Nie Chongyang was professional, and the little fox was meticulous, so they wouldn't be careless and miss anything important.
As they were about to leave, an idea suddenly flashed through Ye Tiancheng's mind.
Ye Tiancheng had already reached the door of the room. Lin Yanqin was following behind to see them off. Ye Tiancheng suddenly turned back and said to Lin Yanqin, "The situation is still not entirely clear. Miss Lin, you are staying here with an unknown threat. Have you considered moving to a different room?"
Lin Yanqin looked quite frightened, clearly shaken by someone having entered her room.
However, when faced with Ye Tiancheng's suggestion, Lin Yanqin shook her head.
Ye Tiancheng raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why? Don't you feel in danger, Miss Lin? Aren't you scared?"
Lin Yanqin hesitated.
After a long silence, Lin Yanqin finally spoke to Ye Tiancheng, "I am still scared, but considering that the other party did not harm me, and the ruby pendant is extremely important to me, so..."
She paused suddenly and then shook her head vigorously.
Lin Yanqin changed her tune, "Actually, it's nothing much. I have my own considerations and I know what I'm doing. I'll be careful. Please don't worry, and thank you, Mr. Ye, for your reminder. I know you mean well."
Ye Tiancheng's gaze remained fixed on Lin Yanqin.
Lin Yanqin did not avoid his gaze.
Ye Tiancheng finally said, "It was just a suggestion. It's fine as long as Miss Lin has made up her mind. However, if you need help, you can always come to us. We will definitely do our best to assist you and will not stand by and watch you get into trouble."
Lin Yanqin thanked him again, "Thank you, Mr. Ye."
Afterward, Ye Tiancheng and the other three were finally escorted out of the room by Lin Yanqin. As they left, Lin Yanqin bowed one last time to bid them farewell and retreated back into her room, closing the door behind her.
On their way back to their own room, the little fox asked Ye Tiancheng, "Brother, are we really not going to get involved in this?"
Ye Tiancheng replied to the little fox, "What can we do?"
Nie Chongyang patted the little fox's shoulder and said, "Lin Yanqin definitely has her own reasons, and there's nothing we can do anyway. This happened a hundred years ago. No matter what we do now, we can't change the course of events."
The little fox sighed and lowered his head slightly.
Seeing the little fox like this, Ye Tiancheng felt an urge to pet him and reached out to stroke his hair.
He told the little fox, "Before we left, I already told her that if Lin Yanqin feels she needs help, she will come to us."
The little fox remembered this and was surprised that Ye Tiancheng was actually willing to help Lin Yanqin if she came to him.
The little fox blinked and asked, "What if she comes to us in the middle of the night? What should we do? Brother, will you open the door for her?"
Ye Tiancheng said, "People have to take risks sometimes. With our abilities, opening the door once at night might not be insurmountable. Besides, you know Lin Yanqin's status, right? If Lin Yanqin really comes seeking help, those non-humans who knock on doors every night might be afraid of her!"
The little fox thought about it and found Ye Tiancheng's words to be quite reasonable.
He reacted and said, "That's right! Lin Yanqin's status is definitely higher than those who knock at night. If she really comes, who knows who should be scared."
Ye Tiancheng said, "Besides, Lin Yanqin might not come at night."
The little fox scratched his head and said, "True. It's useless to think about it so much now. We'll only know what happens when it happens."
On their way back, they had no idea what would happen that night.
That night, something indeed happened.
However, it wasn't Lin Yanqin who was involved, nor did Lin Yanqin come to find Ye Tiancheng and the others in the night.
When they went to rest that night, they took turns on watch as usual. However, during the shift change, everyone noticed that there were no non-human knocking sounds that night.
Had those non-humans given up?
How could it be so easy?
Ye Tiancheng and the others knew that things couldn't be that simple, but they didn't know what had changed. For everyone's safety, Ye Tiancheng still didn't plan to open the door to check the situation at night unless it was an emergency.
After all, the risk was too great, and Ye Tiancheng wouldn't do it lightly.
But when morning came, Ye Tiancheng suddenly had a premonition. He opened his room door and walked towards the door opposite his.
In fact, before Ye Tiancheng even walked over, as soon as he opened his own door, he realized something was wrong. The door to the room opposite theirs, the room where they had detained the innkeeper, was ajar.
Furthermore, from inside the room to the outside, there were bloodstains.
Ye Tiancheng was slightly stunned and then quickened his pace to the door of the opposite room, where he witnessed the tragic scene inside.
The other three, seeing Ye Tiancheng suddenly run out and then remain silent for a long time, became worried and also came out of their rooms. Upon seeing the state of the opposite room, even just from the scene outside the door, they knew that the innkeeper had likely met his end.
Nie Chongyang, leading Liang Ping, quickly walked towards the opposite room, restraining the eager little fox beforehand.
It was better not to frighten the child with a scene that was likely to be gruesome.
Seeing Nie Chongyang and the others approach, Ye Tiancheng, who had been crouching to examine the scene, stood up. He looked at the grim-faced Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping and said, "This innkeeper is dead. There's no saving him."
This much was clear from the scene.
Anyone with eyes could see that, in such a state, the chances of survival were infinitesimally close to zero.
Liang Ping looked puzzled and said, "I remember the last time we opened the door to check last night, the door to the opposite room should have been closed."
And the innkeeper, who was handcuffed in the room, was incapable of opening it himself. He couldn't have gone that far, as the chain on the "silver bracelets" used to restrain him wasn't long.
Ye Tiancheng sneered, "What does it matter if the door was closed when we checked? Others can open it after we close it."
Nie Chongyang surveyed the scene and came to the same conclusion.
It was too obvious.
Their own people mostly acted together, and even if they split up, it was in pairs. But later, they had stayed together the entire time and had never separated. It was impossible for someone to have gone and opened the door.
Their own people weren't that idle. Even if they thought the innkeeper was extremely wicked, they wouldn't have taken his life without reason.
However, if they didn't do it, there were likely plenty of others who would.
It wasn't just them in this inn.
The innkeeper's employee was also trapped in this inn.
Moreover, the employee had a strong motive to harm the innkeeper.
First, there were Ye Tiancheng and his companions. Even if they knew the employee was the culprit, after the incident, Ye Tiancheng and his group knew they couldn't avenge the innkeeper, as they were not related and had their own grievances.
It was already a matter of principle that Ye Tiancheng and his group didn't harm the innkeeper themselves.
Secondly, as long as the innkeeper was dead, no one would be above the employee, and the employee could take over the innkeeper's illicit business.
Those who were accustomed to "black-on-black" dealings were perfectly capable of such ruthlessness.
Where was there any loyalty?
Moreover, the superior-subordinate relationship between the innkeeper and his employee was unlikely to be harmonious. The employee had witnessed the innkeeper harming so many people and had even assisted him. It was unlikely that the innkeeper treated his employee particularly well.
After all, when the innkeeper was captured by them, he had even spoken of offering his employee as "bait" to Ye Tiancheng and his group.
With all these factors combined, the innkeeper, brought down by circumstances and captured by them, could only rely on his employee for food and water to sustain his life. This provided the perfect opportunity for the employee to harm him.
However, conclusions needed evidence.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping jointly examined the scene and found that the employee had indeed been ruthless and had made no attempt to conceal his actions.
After all, it was evident to everyone that the innkeeper's unfinished meals were still in the room. Those non-humans had no interest in such things, and even if the food was spilled, it remained in the room.
Seeing this, and the fact that the meal was not even finished, it was difficult not to suspect the employee.
After all, he was the one who delivered food to the innkeeper.
Furthermore, Nie Chongyang and the others discovered that before the non-humans broke into the room – no, it wasn't a break-in; the door to the opposite room had been wide open all night – by the time they entered, the innkeeper was either already dead or very close to death.
This could be determined through a simple autopsy.
Having reached their conclusion, Ye Tiancheng and his group had little interest in the matter, finding it merely troublesome. With the opposite room in such a state, their stay there would undoubtedly be disrupted. It was imperative that the mess be cleaned up, but the process was bound to be annoying.
Ye Tiancheng sighed and said, "I never expected that this fellow would meet such an end. I didn't anticipate that the employee would have such malicious intentions just by delivering food."
Nie Chongyang interjected, "Although it's unexpected, it doesn't seem entirely surprising."