"Then was there any mention of Bai BaoShi before Bai Yaling's death?"
Fan Xue shook his head, "There wasn't. Her appearance was quite unexpected."
Jie Fu Lian gulped as he heard this and suddenly had a crazy thought as he asked, "What about Bai Guanyu? When he married Bai BaoShi, was there anything odd about him?"
Since it was suspected that Bai BaoShi was a demon, Jie Fu Lian couldn't help but wonder if the woman had tricked Bai Guanyu into marrying her or not. After all, the sweet words of a demon were hard to ignore and Bai Guanyu was just a normal man, how could he not fall prey?
Fan Xue thought about it for a moment before he shook his head with a sigh, "Except for his impulsive decision, there wasn't anything else out of the place. His behavior was quite normal."
Jie Fu Lian frowned as he heard this and was about to ask another question, but before he could say anything, Fan Xue clicked his tongue as he suddenly added.
"There was one thing that I found odd!"
"What was it?"
"He wasn't sad."
"Huh?"
"Madam Bai Yaling had just died and yet he didn't even shed a single tear over her death," Fan Xue spoke, feeling a bit unhappy as he continued, "I had always thought he was an admirable man for the love he had for his wife, but when I saw him not even shedding a single tear over her death bed, it made me feel as if the person I had known had suddenly changed into a treacherous scumbag."
Jie Fu Lian opened his mouth and closed it just as fast. He tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together but couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something missing.
"Did you talk to him about it?"
Fan Xue shook his head with a scoff as he questioned back, "How could I? I was nothing more than a financial minister. It wasn't my business to meddle into his personal affairs."
"Then let me ask you this," Jie Fu Lian gulped as he slightly leaned in and carefully questioned, "Is it possible that somebody else was pretending to be Bai Guanyu or did it look like Bai Guanyu was under somebody else's control?"
Fan Xue looked to be a bit taken back as he heard this question and he hesitated for a long time before answering, "It doesn't sound possible but if it were the case then a lot of things could be explained."
Jie Fu Lian took a deep breath in and picked up the porcelain tea cup before bringing it near to his mouth and taking a sip.
His eyebrows that were creased together hadn't loosened up just yet. He was deep in thought and felt like he shouldn't have locked Hua Tianshu away in the dungeon. Two heads were better than one. If he had Hua Tianshu, the two could work together and come up with more ideas.
"What about when Bai LiuXian died?" Suddenly, Duan Luoyang decided to break his silence as he questioned, "What was the reaction of Bai BaoShi and Bai Guanyu?"
"Bai Guanyu was just a bit shocked and Bai BaoShi was deeply shaken," Fan Xue sighed as he revealed, "Around that time, Bai BaoShi kept making trouble and eventually, Bai Guanyu also got tired of it and let her go."
Both Jie Fu Lian and Duan Luoyang caught a word and immediately felt as if they had gained a hint.
"What type of trouble?" Jie Fu Lian was the first to ask.
"The investigation pointed at Jie Fu Lian. There was both evidence and witness testimonies proving that he was the culprit, but Bai BaoShi didn't believe it."
"Huh?" Jie Fu Lian's eyes widened with surprise and he suddenly felt that this Bai BaoShi had quite an accurate intuition. While everyone else was blinded by evidence, she could think for herself and accurately guessed Jie Fu Lian's innocence in the case.
"She kept blabbering nonsense."
"What nonsense?" Jie Fu Lian asked with great interest that could hardly be hidden.
Since there was another person who believed in his innocence, he naturally wanted to know more about that person and her thoughts on the case.
"She kept repeating the same thing everyday," Fan Xue sighed with annoyance as he recalled, "She kept claiming that it was a ghost."
"A ghost?!" Both Jie Fu Lian and Duan Luoyang reacted together, looking like two dumbfounded fishes.
"She kept repeating it everyday. At night, she would often scream, saying that the ghost was coming after her next," Fan Xue rubbed his forehead as he spoke.
Jie Fu Lian gulped as he looked at Duan Luoyang who looked back at him with the same incomprehensible expression, they nodded at each other with an understanding.
"Whose ghost was it?" Jie Fu Lian and Duan Luoyang turned to look at Fan Xue at the same time as they asked in unison.
"Madam Bai Yaling."
"!!!"
Fan Xue sighed as he continued, "She had never even met the woman before nor had she ever mentioned that name before it. Suddenly, her son died and she kept claiming that madam Bai Yaling had come back as a ghost and was trying to kill her."
"Is there any reason why she might have believed something like that?" Jie Fu Lian asked with a small frown, "Perhaps she had seen something that made her believed that Madam Bai Yaling had come back as a ghost?"
"It was all because of a nightmare," Fan Xue answered with a sigh, "After her son's death, she claimed to have seen Madam Bai Yaling in her nightmare. Madam Bai Yaling was laughing and cursing at her in the nightmare. Even going as far as to threaten her by saying she was next. After that, Bai BaoShi didn't even dare sleep."
Jie Fu Lian no longer knew if this piece of information was even relevant or not.
There was clearly no way the murderer was a ghost.
In the memory, they had come face to face with the murderer and not only was the murderer not Madam Bai Yaling's ghost, but it was a man that was most probably a half demon.
The nightmare was probably just induced from the guilt and anxiety buried in Bai BaoShi's heart after her son died.
He would be a fool if he were to take nightmares as proof.
"If she truly feared for her life, shouldn't she have stayed?" Duan Luoyang slightly frowned as he questioned, "It would be safer for her to stay here. Why did she decide to leave?"
"Like I said, she had already gone insane and could no longer think straight. She started blaming everything on Bai Guanyu and in the end, she left."
"Uncle Fan Xue, This Bai Guanyu..." Jie Fu Lian gulped as he suddenly spoke up, feeling as if he was seeing something but at the same time, being unable to grasp the core of it, "Why did he collapse?"
"Aiya, isn't it because of loneliness?" Fan Xue clicked his tongue as he shook his head in disappointment and spoke, "His first wife died, his second son died and then his second wife also went insane and left him. Bai YiJun was the only one left in his family but he was a cripple and a lunatic so how could Bai Guanyu look at him for comfort. In the end, it was as if there was no one left by his side and he eventually suffered from the loneliness."
Jie Fu Lian slightly raised his eyebrows as he heard this and asked, "Bai YiJun is a cripple and a lunatic...? Uncle Fan Xue, why is he still pretending? If Bai BaoShi is gone, shouldn't he also be able to leave that roll behind?"
It was a question that Jie Fu Lian had wanted to ask for quite some time but the one he wanted to ask this question to was originally Bai YiJun, however, he had missed his queue and ended up facing Fan Xue with this question.
Fan Xue looked to be a bit shocked as he heard the words of Jie Fu Lian and immediately clenched his jaw as he glared at the man and unhappily asked, "You know?"
Jie Fu Lian was a bit tongue-tied when he suddenly heard this question. He couldn't just blurt out that he had always known it since he was Jie Fu Lian. Bai YiJun was a careful person so it was also unlikely for him to come out and reveal his true nature to someone he hardly knew.
In the end, Jie Fu Lian could only remember that Hua Tianshu also seemed to have already known about Bai YiJun and although he didn't know what the relationship was between Hua Tianshu and Bai YiJun, he still decided to use the man as an excuse.
"Brother Hua seemed to be acquainted with Bai YiJun so I also got to meet him. Although he looked like he couldn't use his legs anymore, there were no issues with his head. It felt unlikely for him to be a lunatic."
Surprisingly enough, Fan Xue believed his words without any hesitation.