I didn't even have to glance behind me to realize who that sultry voice belonged to. In fact I barely even had to move in the first place. After a few more of her footsteps rang out in the underground chamber, I felt an arm reach out and curl up around my chest as a soft body then leaned against me from the side.
Of course I had to return the gesture, I reached my hand out until I grabbed ahold of her waist and pulled her in a little.
"Mmm~"
Ying'er rested her head against my shoulder and with a little peek in her direction I could even see that there was a seemingly innocent gentle smirk as she looked ahead.
I felt like I already knew a bit about what would happen if I simply sat back and watched all the events unfold. I wasn't going to simply let it happen though, especially since I was right here.
I saw that look in her expression and recognized that deceptive smile. It was obvious that after we found out the real Jinzi she would want to do something probably pretty horrible to Li Daji.
I looked down at the woman currently in my arms and my hand that held onto her waist changed to my entire arm wrapping around it.
"Darling? What's wrong?"
"Ying'er, it's just a safety precaution for Li Daji, okay? I know you two left off on a pretty bad note. It's not that I don't believe your side of the story, okay? But I can't singlehandedly believe in you without at least hearing the other side."
Well to be honest there was a little doubt in it, but I wasn't about to say that.
"...Alright, it's fine darling, I understand."
I gave her a small peek on her cheek. Although her answer was a little delayed, I didn't doubt it too much. There was always the chance that hesitation was from her fear of me finding out, but I chose to think on the brightside.
There was bound to be truth within both stories and already knew they would both be radically different from one another. I just had to pick out reality from both stories, but that's a task for later.
For now we still had to deal with the double Jinzi issue. From the corner of my eye I saw that Yi Feng woman fidgeting around. It was already a little different compared to how she acted before.
Currently she looked a little nervous, already noncomparative to when she seemed completely unbothered by the situation she was in.
It was odd, was there something about Ying'er that was particularly scary, per say? It was almost like she knew about Ying'er or was there something else that Ying'er presented that I simply didn't know about?
It was an action that attracted my attention, but those thoughts simply went to the back of my mind.
Yi Feng was clearly and unmistakably involved in whatever had happened here. From her nonchalant pose when I arrived to how she was indifferent watching the two fight.
This made her both the only and best witness possible, if she complied that is.
I glanced at the two Jinzies who were just standing there and staring at me. It was like they were patiently waiting for my decision on which of the two would live and which would die.
I was the judge who would decide their fate, but I didn't really feel too much pressure. It wasn't like it was a life or death situation for either of them, at least on my watch.
I could feel tension in the air, a frantic anxiety from the two Jinzis, the slight fear from Yi Feng, and even a bit of murderous intent from Ying'er.
Intent on not letting her do anything out of line I gripped onto her waist even tighter. Ying'er was the most dangerous person here, besides me of course. If I wasn't here to restrain her then I felt that Li Daji would have died quite a while ago.
The only difference between the two was the fact that one had clothes and the other was completely stripped naked.
If I simply acted on first impressions then I would have thought of that clothed one to be Jinzi, but without any information about how long they've been here I had no real reason to trust either over the other because of some mere clothing.
Currently the tracking ring was also on the clothed one, but there was a good chance that they may have already switched clothes.
After noticing me looking back over at them they both made little gestures. The naked one pointed to the other with furrowed brows and the other actually pointed towards themself enthusiastically. Realizing that their plan went awry the other looked a little flabbergasted as they then frantically started to point towards themself too.
'Hmm, I think that's a pretty big give away, no? Might as well see if the others agree with me though. Their mannerisms still aren't the same as one another.'
After assessing their current situation I looked over to Yi Feng who seemed to be trembling just a little, but stiffened up the momentI made direct eye contact with her.
"Ms. Yi? Do you mind telling us what happened here and who happens to be the real Jinzi?"
Suddenly with all the focus on her she now had to decide what she would do. Would she spin up some kind of story, perhaps tell the truth, or just something mixed in the middle of it all.
I think I could already rule out the entire truth from her mouth since she was most likely involved with this incident in the first place. Why else would she be in the room with them and unbothered by it as well?
It was likely she would make a coverup story, but I don't think there's anything she could say right now to erase that image of her just watching the two when I came in.
"A-ah S-senior Brother! It's quite unexpected to see you here. U-um about these two…"
She trailed off and started to just fidget while looking down.
'What's wrong with her? What, does she have anxiety when there's more than one person or something?'
"What about these two?"
"They, um… I live here and noticed a commotion, that's why I came down here. By the time I did get down here these two identical people were simply chatting with one another. I didn't even know their names until you said it just now. Only a little while later they began to start fighting. Only several moments had passed by when you eventually arrived."
'Huh, dissociation is it? That's how you're going to try and get out of this? Hmm, let's poke at this little lie of yours.'
"Is that so? Then how come whenever I arrived it seemed like you were simply enjoying a show?"
"That… it's because… I was just going to wait for them to settle it out themselves. I didn't want to interfere with it."
"Do you live here Ms. Yi?"
"Um, yes?"
"Then how come you would just let some quarrel occur within your own premises? Within a little secretive place like this too? In fact, Ms. Yi, I'd like to know why you have such an addition to your residence in the first place."
"Well, that's because I… simply wanted to have some more room."
I chuckled a little internally at the answers that this woman provided me. Every time she paused for a few moments I could practically hear the cogs in her mind grinding as they tried to come up with some sort of acceptable answer.
If I had to guess where she came up with such an ability to lie I would have to wholeheartedly say that Li Daji had taught this woman. The only thing was this woman's ability was even worse it seems.
The similarities were starting to become quite apparent that this woman was involved with Li Daji in one way or another. Whether they had some kind of deal or Li Daji just happened to kidnap some random hapless helper is irrelevant at the moment.
Though if what this woman had said about everything was true for even a second it would have been incredible how such an ignorant disciple could have been within the Inner Court for so long.
"Don't you know that Inner disciples aren't permitted to modify their accommodations without prior approval?"
"... I have approval, don't worry about it."
"Don't worry about it? Do you think it's just that simple? All I ask is that you show the document that you should've been given as a permit."
"Uh, uh, um…"
"Alright, I'll let you go free for now. Let's deal with this another time, for now those two are our problems. Why don't you tell me how those two really got in this place?"
I pointed towards the two Jinzies that were still staring blankly at us until they were mentioned again and they flinched a little.
Seeing that I didn't pursue the charge of unpermitted Disciple housing modification Yi Feng let out a sigh of relief. She closed her eyes as her shoulders rose and fell in a soft manner.
After she got her bearings she finally turned towards the two Jinzies. It was like she had finally realized he had nothing else to fall back on and instead had to finally speak a little more in depth about the situation.
Though of course it seems she didn't let up on her artificial story quite as of yet.
"I don't know how they got in, as I said earlier I had only come back here to check out a commotion that I happened to hear. By the time I had come into the cellar they were both here already."
Ying'er who had been silent all this time suddenly decided to get a word in.
"Miss, why don't you tell us the truth about this matter? I don't think you quite understand the trouble you could be in. This kind of trouble will bring a rather hefty consequence to someone involved and… uncooperative."
Hearing the sound of the underlying threat from Ying'er slightly chilly tone caused Yi Feng to uncontrollably shake for a moment before she managed to regain control.
"N-no I uh… okay, actually I k-know that they were going to come here "
I glanced at Ying'er who happened to notice my gaze and returned it with a slightly cheery smile.
I was also focusing on the two Jinzies and I noticed one of the corners of their mouths twitched and the other had an eyebrow twitch in response.
For a moment I thought I had caught Li Daji in the act of being irritated, but why would they both act out?
'Are we doing good cop, bad cop? Well, so far it seems to have worked a bit, maybe we can just keep doing this until the entire truth emerges. There's no way that the two over there would simply sit still during the whole explanation from Yi Feng though.'
"Ms. Yi, tell me for what reason did those two come here?"
"They were simply coming to visit and we hoped she would stay."
While everyone was focused on what Yi Feng just said I still kept my eye on the other two. This time they reacted in a similar fashion, both of which had different, yet still obviously, incredulous looks.
It was time for Ying'er to interject again.
"Oh? Miss, did you just say WE? So it seems you have some associates around here or some housemates, is that right? So you were a co-conspirator in this case? It also seems that she, our Jinzi, must have been your target, isn't that right? Your associate also seems quite skilled in taking another person's appearance."
"...Ah, what about it?"