Although the accommodation provided by Dali Temple was very good, and each person had his own courtyard, probably because of her nature, Wen Mingtang still wanted to buy a house of her own.

It was just the price of houses in Chang’an City… Wen Mingtang couldn’t help but shake her head when she thought about it. After all, even a great poet from the past time and space once said with emotion: Living in Chang’an is not easy!¹

If nothing happened to the Wen family, she wouldn’t have to think about these things! The Wen family’s house was very large, with more than enough room for her. But now that the Wen family was gone, she had to do this by herself.

After throwing the dime of silver she got from Lin Fei into the box, locking the box, and placing it under the pillow, Wen Mingtang rested her head on his little treasury, turned over, and fell into a deep sleep.

It was important to have a good night’s sleep!

…

Wen Mingtang had a good night’s sleep here. In the residence of Jingyun Marquis, although it had been a long time since Madame Hou, Zheng Shi, had tasted such “authentic” Sichuan cuisine, she couldn’t help but feel deeply moved. Even though she had already eaten dinner, she couldn’t resist picking up her chopsticks.

Compared with Jing Guogong’s anger, Jingyun Hou and his wife were not as reactionary to Wen Xuance’s incident. Hearing this, they only said: “Wen Xuance was a smart man. His daughter is naturally not stupid and down-to-earth. She should stay in Dali Temple to work, be careful, and no one will make things difficult for her.”

Regarding the daughter of a notorious criminal official, the views of Jingyun Hou and his wife were quite correct.

…

…

The reasoning behind the “Painted Skin” case had progressed to this point, and it had been directly pushed to this nunnery.

Liu Yuan stood in front of the nunnery, looked back at Shang Feng who was following him, and upon his instruction, he stepped forward and knocked on the door of the nunnery.

Soon, there was a sound of the latch behind the door. As the temple door was pulled open, a plain-looking nun in a plain robe appeared before everyone.

It was the elegant nun he had met the other day.

She looked at the Dali Temple guards and officials outside the nunnery as if she had guessed what would happen today. She looked calm, lowered her eyes, and said “Amitabha” in a low voice. She smiled bitterly, raised her finger, and pointed to the nunnery, saying “Sir, please!”

She invited people in without even asking the reason.

It seems they have guessed the reason for their visit to the temple today! In that case, they must have come to the right place, right?

Liu Yuan thought in his heart, and subconsciously looked back at Lin Fei who was following him, trying to see the expression on Shang Feng’s face, but then… he saw nothing.

Shangfeng’s expressionless face showed no emotion at all.

Liu Yuan shook his head and walked in first.

The female nun Jing’an brought people into the main hall. The rickety female nun Jinghui was kneeling in front of the futon, silently chanting sutras to the Guanyin statue in front of her.

After everyone walked into the main hall, Jinghui, who was kneeling and chanting sutras, stopped chanting sutras, lowered her head, said “Amitabha” to the Guanyin statue, and then turned to look at every one.

“I knew this day would come,” Jinghui said.

She was dressed in grey robes, but she did not call herself “poor nun” but “I”.

After saying this, Jinghui took off the nun’s hat on her head under the gaze of everyone, and her long gray hair fell without the restraint of the hat.

“Jing’an!” Jinghui took off the monk’s hat on her head and called again.

Jing’an on the side looked sorrowful. Hearing this, she raised her hand for a moment and took off the nun’s hat on her head.

Compared with Jinghui’s long gray hair, Jing’an has black hair. At first glance, it seems indescribably inconsistent with the dull, old face.

As if she had expected this scene, a basin of water was placed next to the futon. Jing’an stepped forward to take a handkerchief and began to wash her face. When she wiped the makeup off her face and raised her head again, everyone in the hall was shocked.

Looking at Jing’an who had become much “younger” just by washing her face, Liu Yuan was startled for a moment and blurted out: “She really has ‘painted skin’!”

After washing her face, Jing’an’s true face was still dull, but she was more beautiful than before. She looked much younger as if she was only in her twenties.

Of course, this age was far from old and stooped.

However, at present, not only one of the two old nuns in the nunnery had changed in age, but both of them were not nuns at all.

Why were these two people staying in this nunnery with their appearance and age changed as nuns?

“My name is Ayou, which is the name that Madam Zhuang gave me after she bought me.” Jinghui said, “Madam Zhuang treated me very well back then when she bought me. Not only did she never treat me harshly, she even taught me the craftsmanship.”

What this meant… Liu Yuan was shocked when he heard it, and he immediately reacted: “You can also make lipstick?”

Jinghui nodded and said, “Not bad.” Then she looked up at the Guanyin statue in front of her, which had a particularly bright cinnabar mole on her forehead and red lips, and said, “Lin Shaoqing must have noticed it that day!”

The cinnabar mole and red lips on the Guanyin statue were not what Jinghui and Jing’an claimed at all. It was not painted with cinnabar but with specially prepared lip balm.

Although most men had difficulty distinguishing these colors, Lin Fei was obviously an exception.

“In the files from that year, besides having a younger sister, Madam Rouge indeed had a maid accompanying her and a…” Lin Fei paused, his gaze falling on Jing’an, who was silently shedding tears beside him, “a daughter she bore with that scholar.”

The girl Zhuang Meiniang was still in prison. One of the two people in front of her called herself Ayou, and it was obvious who the other one was.

The Jing’an in front of her should be regarded as the daughter born to Madam Rouge and the unfaithful scholar.

“After my lady’s accident, everyone avoided us like savage beasts. It was obviously not our fault. Even the fault of my lady for doing such things was the fault of that man and those women! But the world didn’t understand. They only stared at us and guarded against us, saying anyone who came close to us would be poisoned to death. The feeling of being talked about behind such rumors is really uncomfortable. Later, the Second Lady couldn’t stand it any longer. Her beautiful appearance was noticed by others, so she chose to get married in a hurry. The man refused to let the Second Lady walk around more with us, so we cut off contact with the Second Lady.” Jinghui said quietly, “The world can’t tolerate us, so we came to the mountain. Fortunately, the nuns can tolerate us. This nunnery the old nun, the original abbess of the temple, didn’t have much time left at that time, so she took us in.”

It turned out that they didn’t want to become a nun, they just wanted to find a place to stay. No wonder the two of them kept growing their hair and were not really nuns.

“The two of us have been here all this time, and through our status as nuns, we have lived a somewhat poor life, but still managed well.” Jinghui said, “until the second lady suddenly looked for someone and found us.”

“Those two young scholars were entrusted by the Second Lady to find this place.” Jinghui said, looking up at Jing’an who was crying secretly, and said, “They saw Miss.”

Although Jinghui hadn’t finished her words, Liu Yuan had a vague premonition regarding what Jing Hui wanted to say next. When he thought about this, Liu Yuan couldn’t help but twitch his lips: This would probably be the third version of the story of this case!

(End of chapter)

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Footnote

1. Had to really search the net to find this reference, but here it is.