The Azure Palace stood at the very center of the Hanging Coffin Grounds, facing south, still a long way from the Undying Hall.
On the stone steps, Little Aunt Tian Wei listened to Ren Ye's almost blunt accusations and suspicions, yet no anger, panic, or fear appeared on her pretty face.
She unconsciously licked her lips. Extremely complicated emotions rose in her eyes, as though she were thinking, as though she were deciding.
Ren Ye faced forward, paying no attention to her reaction, and simply continued, "As the saying goes, walk along the river often enough, and your shoes are bound to get wet. Apart from a person themselves, only their closest family understands their habits best. Going out late at night year after year couldn't possibly leave no trace at all. To keep me from noticing, to keep the neighbors from spotting anything, the best solution was to find a steady night job. And that job had to allow considerable independence. It couldn't involve working in a big group, or people would stick to her like glue, making it hard to slip away alone unnoticed...!"
"Fire Controllers each have their own hall and furnace, with an enormous amount of freedom. And the Pills each Fire Controller refines require different firing times, some long and some short. That means they can't all rest at once. Their breaks are staggered, which also gave her the chance to sneak into the Divine Tomb at night."
"All these years, she operated silently in the darkness like a precision instrument, never making a mistake. Only when the Yin Family fell, and she lost her identity as a Fire Controller entirely, did she have to drug my food to make me sleep more deeply. But she never expected that, on the night Yu Ge and