“Jun Mohan, let’s take off the iron mesh on his back first,” Leng Ruoli said with a frown.
“Alright!”
Jun Mohan nodded slightly.
He was also shocked by the scene before him, wondering who could be so cruel as to do this to someone.
However, the captive man could not speak, and they could not find out the truth.
“Jun Mohan, you and he help me hold the iron mesh behind this person, and I will use tools to break the chains binding him,” Leng Ruoli instructed Jun Mohan and the guards.
Then, the two walked over and held the iron mesh on the man’s back steady. Leng Ruoli took a steel saw from her system space and carefully sawed off the four iron chains binding the mesh, removed the mesh, and then sawed off the large iron chains binding the man’s hands and feet. The man’s hands and feet were finally free, and he gratefully gestured his thanks to the three of them.
However, the iron mask on the man’s head troubled Leng Ruoli.
The mask’s opening was sealed with molten iron. The entire mask was shaped somewhat like a modern fencing helmet, completely covering the head except for the mouth, nose, and eyes. Alas, the person who did this to him was truly vicious.
Jun Mohan glanced at the frowning Leng Ruoli and asked, “Li’er, can you not pry open this iron mask for him?”
“Alas, it’s a bit difficult,” Leng Ruoli replied truthfully.
Leng Ruoli pondered for a moment and directly accessed her system space with her mind, searching for usable tools. After searching for a long time, she couldn’t find anything suitable, so she could only use the steel saw to slowly cut open the iron mask.
Subsequently, Leng Ruoli had Jun Mohan and the guards help the man lie flat on the ground. She slowly used the steel saw to cut open the iron mask from his ear, while also protecting the man’s head. It took half an hour to saw open the man’s iron mask.
The moment the man’s iron mask was opened, Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan were stunned.
“This person’s appearance is exactly the same as Zeng Yihong outside. What is going on? Who is the real one?” Leng Ruoli exclaimed in shock.
After being completely freed, the masked man immediately knelt before Jun Mohan and Leng Ruoli, repeatedly kowtowing in thanks, making “Ah ah…” sounds, and gesturing with his hands, as if trying to express something.
Understanding the man’s intention, Leng Ruoli took out a charcoal pen and a piece of paper from her sleeve pocket and demonstrated how to use the pen. After learning, the man immediately wrote a line: “Your Highness Prince Leng, I am the real Zeng Yihong. The person outside is fake.”
Upon seeing this sentence, the three people in the cell were stunned again and could hardly believe it.
After a long pause, they finally came back to their senses.
“Did your master have any strange habits usually?” Jun Mohan asked the personal guard standing beside him.
The guard scratched his head and thought hard for a moment, then said, “Oh, I remember something. Our Master Zeng used to write with his left hand, but I once discovered that the Zeng outside used his right hand to write. I curiously asked him about it at the time, and he told me that writing with his left hand looked awkward, so he changed to writing with his right hand. I thought he made sense at the time, so I didn’t think about anything else.”
“Look, this Zeng Yihong writes with his left hand. This means that this man is the real Zeng Yihong, and the man outside is a killer from the Dark Night Pavilion impersonating him,” Leng Ruoli pointed at Zeng Yihong and said to Jun Mohan and the guards.
At these words, the guard immediately knelt before Zeng Yihong and apologized.
“Master, it is all my fault for being useless and failing to recognize the identity of the culprit, allowing you to be tortured by villains under my nose for three years,” the guard said with great remorse.
Upon hearing this, Zeng Yihong patted his shoulder and shook his head, indicating that he did not blame him. It was the enemy who was too cunning, and they could not guard against them.
Afterward, the guard helped Zeng Yihong closely follow Jun Mohan and Leng Ruoli out of the cell.
Outside the cell, the body of the fake Zeng Yihong had already been removed, and even the couple Li Kexin and Qiao Jianhua had left.
Immediately, Jun Mohan and the four of them arrived at the hall of the Zeng Mansion. They saw the servants busy hanging white cloth at the entrance and along the corridors. A corpse covered with white cloth was placed in the main seat of the hall, with rows of white candles lit on the ground around it. Beside the corpse’s feet was a perpetual lamp. Rows of men and women knelt on both sides of the hall entrance, heads bowed and weeping sadly.
Seeing this scene, Zeng Yihong was so angry that he almost spat out a mouthful of blood, his chest aching.
“Don’t hang any more white cloth, our master is still alive.” Zeng Yihong’s personal guard was also quite annoyed by this sight. These people were always sluggish in their work, but they were quite enthusiastic about preparing for a funeral. In just an hour, they had prepared the mourning hall.
Even Jun Mohan and Leng Ruoli were speechless. It was as if they couldn’t wait for Zeng Yihong to die sooner and then divide his property.
After Zeng Yihong regained his composure, he pushed away the guard’s hand and rushed to the mourning hall, and with a single tug, he lifted the white cloth from the corpse of the “Zeng Yihong.” However, he could only utter “Ah ah…” sounds, unable to speak.
Seeing someone disrupt the mourning hall, the mourners in the Zeng Mansion were instantly enraged. A group of people rushed forward to pull him away.
But when they clearly saw Zeng Yihong’s face, everyone was dumbfounded.
“Who are you?” Madam Zeng, the main wife, was the first to speak.
However, Zeng Yihong could not speak and only made a few “Ah ah…” sounds.
Suddenly, Zeng Yihong’s eyes flashed, as if he had thought of something. He lowered his gaze and stared intently at the corpse of “Zeng Yihong,” touched his face, and carefully examined if there was any human skin mask on his face.
Later, he was disappointed, as he did not see any human skin mask on the face.
At this moment, Jun Mohan, Leng Ruoli, and the guard also entered the mourning hall.
The guard pointed at the corpse of the fake “Zeng Yihong” and said loudly, “Everyone has been deceived. The deceased in this mourning hall is the killer who harmed Master Zeng, and the person standing before you now is our true Master Zeng.”
“Then how can you prove that this man is our master?” Madam Zeng asked Zeng Yihong and the guard. If no one came forward to confirm, they would acknowledge the deceased as the real Zeng Yihong.
“I have a way,” Leng Ruoli, who was standing nearby, replied.
She walked closer to the corpse and stared at it for a while, but found no human skin mask on its face. Then, her eyes flashed, and she took out a bottle from her sleeve pocket. It was the special lotion she used to wash off her disguise makeup. She then took a small piece of cloth, dipped it in the lotion, and wiped off the makeup on the fake Zeng Yihong’s face, immediately revealing his true appearance.