Shen Zhenyu turned to Linyue, his brow drawn tight. "You were with Shu Mingye at that time. I remember asking her how she found it. She told us she came across an old scroll in an abandoned temple in Hanyue six years ago. She said she developed her method from that."
Song Meiyu gasped. "Yes! That's right! I remember her saying that too! It was an old scroll. Like super moldy. The kind you'd sneeze on just by looking at it."
Linyue narrowed her eyes. "And who wrote that scroll?"
Shen Zhenyu shook his head slowly. "She said she didn't know."
Linyue's voice sharpened. "And where is the scroll now?"
Shen Zhenyu cleared his throat, a little awkward. "Prince Lu burned it."
Song Meiyu nodded proudly. "Yup! We told him to! We told him to burn all the creepy research scrolls except for the few we needed as evidence. The rest went up in smoke."
Linyue remembered that moment clearly. Burning the scroll had felt like the safest choice. Better to turn it all to ash than risk someone else finding those dark techniques and turning them into a weekend hobby.
He Yuying raised an eyebrow. "What if someone else found another scroll in another temple and made an even creepier version?"
The words sank in. Linyue's eyes narrowed slightly as a thought clicked. "Wait… what about the Dream Star Leaf? That cave where Queen Shen found it. How did she even know about it? And who wrote that scroll Master Yin Xue bought about Dream Star Leaf?"
Song Meiyu gasped again, her lungs doing overtime. "You're right! That scroll was old too! Moldy and suspicious. Even though it seems like a joke, we still found it. It worked!"
Shen Zhenyu frowned. He leaned back slightly, the pieces clearly clicking together in his mind. "Then that means… the one who discovered Dream Star Leaf, the one who wrote the scroll Princess Han found, the one who created poison from Crimson Bloodroot, and the one who poisoned the whole imperial family… are all unknown."
Song Meiyu suddenly slapped the table hard. "Could it be?! It was actually the same person all along?! Like one creepy mastermind who's been hiding behind the screen this whole time? Watching us? Planning everything?"
Everyone stared at her.
He Yuying calmly popped another dried plum into his mouth. "That's dramatic. I like it."
Linyue didn't like it. Not even a little. Her brows drew together as her thoughts began to knot themselves tighter and tighter. If that theory was even half-true, then there was one person she knew who could have pulled it off. And the chance that it was him was not small.
Crimson Bloodroot. The time Soup Man's father was poisoned. That strange scroll Princess Han had found in some abandoned temple. All of it, circling back to six years ago. Six years ago, she had been there too. So had her master.
Her stomach gave a small, suspicious flip.
Then she remembered the Dream Star Leaf. She hadn't thought about it much after burning it in that cave. Back then, she just assumed it was a stubborn magical weed. But now… now it felt wrong. The way it reacted when she tried to burn it. Like it resisted. She had needed more spiritual energy than usual. A lot more. At the time, she thought it was just another bizarre plant with a bad attitude. But after learning about arrays these days, that memory took on a whole new shape.
That wasn't a plant.
Her eyes narrowed. It hadn't felt like she destroyed a plant at all. It felt like she shattered something woven. Something crafted.
An illusion.
An illusion array. Something meant to trick the senses. But why? What was the purpose of planting a fake magical leaf inside a cave and sacrificing a lot of lives? The more she thought, the more the threads tangled. Her mind spun in circles, leaping from one connection to the next until she almost gave herself a headache.
Shen Zhenyu, who had been watching her quietly with his usual unreadable calm, finally raised an eyebrow. "Care to share before your brain explodes?"
Linyue blinked. Right. She had been staring into space for quite some time. "…No," she muttered.
Song Meiyu immediately gasped again, already halfway to her usual dramatics. "You know something!"
"I'm just thinking," Linyue said quietly, refusing to be dragged into Song Meiyu's drama.
He Yuying gave a slow nod of approval, his cheeks puffed slightly from the dried plum he was still chewing. "Quiet outside, chaos inside."
It was alarmingly accurate. Linyue didn't bother denying it. At this point, she wasn't sure if she was a person or just a tangled scroll pretending to think. Her voice came softer, more to herself than the others. "If it's really one mastermind, what's the connection between all of these?"
Song Meiyu leaned forward so far she nearly fell off her chair. "That's true. Crimson Bloodroot, controlled puppets, magical plant, and now angry cabbage? It's like we're trapped in a bad fantasy novel."
Shen Zhenyu crossed his arms, his expression thoughtful. "The pattern and motive seem too random if it's all the same person." He paused, his gaze turning sharp. "Unless that person simply enjoys chaos."
Linyue tried to reason with herself. Tried to stay calm. But her thoughts kept circling back to the one person she didn't want to suspect.
Why had he saved her thirteen years ago? Why raise her, teach her everything, only to later try to kill her? What was his plan? Was she truly important, or had she been nothing more than a pawn waiting to be moved across his board?
Her frown deepened. Why had her master even come to the south in the first place? He had always stayed in the northeast, the place she used to call home. But then, as soon as they went looking for Crimson Bloodroot, he just happened to show up. Standing in the one place where Crimson Bloodroot grew. And that trip… the more she thought about it, the more wrong it felt. The journey had been too easy. Other than the Bloodfire King, they hadn't met any serious trouble. She had expected at least three or five high level demons along the way, a couple of deadly ambushes, maybe even a poisonous swamp for variety. Had he cleared the path for them? Did he already know exactly where the Crimson Bloodroot was?
And then there was his later attack. He had cornered them, deadly serious, and then suddenly let them go like, "Oops, never mind." It didn't make sense. Unless, he never intended to kill them. Unless everything had been part of something bigger.
Her thoughts snagged on the memory of the scroll Shu Mingye had taken from him. She still didn't know what had been written on it. Shu Mingye had never told her. Did he hide it from her on purpose?
She was so lost in her thoughts she didn't realize she was tapping her fingers hard enough to make a soft sound on the chair.
Shen Zhenyu's calm voice broke through. "Linyue, you can share it with us. Don't carry it all by yourself."
She looked at him. He wasn't demanding or prying. Just patient, steady. "I need to sort my thoughts first," she said quietly.
The Chaos Family sat in silence, though He Yuying crunched another dried plum loudly. Song Meiyu was clearly bursting to say something dramatic, but heroically held it in. For now.
Then Linyue stood up decisively.
Song Meiyu blinked. "Where are you going so suddenly, Sister Linyue?"
Linyue didn't hesitate. "His study."
Song Meiyu squinted, scandal in her tone. "His study? You mean… the Demon King's study?"
Linyue gave a very firm nod. Then she left the chamber. Her footsteps were quiet, determined, and slightly dramatic as if the hallway itself should know she was about to interrogate a future husband.
Back in the room, Song Meiyu leaned toward Shen Zhenyu and whispered, "What happened? Did she suddenly miss him or something?"
He Yuying, without looking up, mumbled around his dried plum, "She's not walking like someone who misses someone. She's walking like someone about to flip furniture."
Song Meiyu gasped. "Oh no. Interrogation time?"
Shen Zhenyu gave a long sigh. "Let's hope she doesn't set the study on fire."
Chaos family: still confused, but somehow didn't set anything on fire all morning.