Plotting with You: The Forensic Scientist in Ancient Times!-Chapter 348 - 347: The Incense Delivery Team

"Joyful?" Lu Qing noticed that the rune specifically used this word.

The rune solemnly nodded: "Yes, it was joyful.

I’ve never seen so many people in my life, coming out in threes and fives from their houses, all with that joyful expression on their faces without exception.

Not to mention ordinary villagers, even when I followed Master into the palace and saw the palace maid eunuchs, I never saw so many people with expressions carved from the same mold!"

People experience seven emotions and six desires; in daily life, whether sad or happy, even those who share a bed may not truly empathize with each other’s emotions, let alone many people not even from the same household!

Zhu Yu imagined, based on the rune’s description, men and women, young and old, tall and short, fat and thin, all with the same expression when they stepped out from their homes, eyes twinkling, mouths smiling, just like the farmers they encountered in the fields earlier.

That joyful expression on one person could be nice enough.

But if many people have the same look, it becomes indescribably strange.

"Later, as those people kept coming out of their houses, I realized there was something odd about it," the rune continued, "some houses had men and women, young and old coming out, resembling a family.

But some were very strange, with three or four old men coming out of one house, all in their sixties, looking nothing alike, not as if they were siblings.

Some houses abruptly spat out one or two strong men and three or four women; this... this is completely unreasonable, definitely not like a typical farming household, more like..."

He furrowed his brow, uncertain whether his description was accurate enough: "It’s like people randomly entered any courtyard to rest, utterly illogical."

Lu Qing wasn’t surprised; he calmly nodded: "Indeed, this Immortal Castle is itself a strange place; things here being illogical seems perfectly normal."

The rune added: "Then during the day, none of these people returned; in areas I could see, no courtyard had smoke rising, and no household left behind the elderly or children to watch the house.

How could typical farm families not have elders or youngsters left at home while everyone leaves, full of joy, to work?

During the day, I rested my eyes on a tree, and come evening, there was noise again; I opened my eyes quickly and saw that those who left to work in the morning were returning, full of excitement, young and old alike, showing no signs of fatigue, as if they had boundless energy.

Most importantly, I clearly saw in the two courtyards closer to the tree that the old men who left in the morning returned as young men and a few elderly women at night!

From beginning to end, they weren’t the same group of people.

So I concluded even more that those people were not typical farm families but unknown people, unclear of mind, so they could spend the night in any courtyard randomly."

"And then what happened?" Zhu Yu sensed there should be more to the story.

After all, it was already pitch dark for a while; if nothing happened after those people returned, the rune could have come back earlier.

Sure enough, the rune continued: "After those people returned, they were initially calm, and there was no sign of people going in and out of the courtyards, completely unlike a normal person’s behavior after working a day.

Soon, suddenly a loud scream came from one of the courtyards, sounding extremely terrified, loudly questioning others in the room about their identity and asking where this was.

He shouted in the room for a long time without response, then rushed out, mindlessly fleeing outside.

Not long after he ran out, several Protectors came and caught him back.

The runaway looked just in his early twenties, an age supposed to be full of strength, yet he looked particularly frail, unable to resist when caught back.

After they brought him back, they locked him in a room, and shortly after, a team of stewards came; I heard those Protectors say the ’Seductive Fragrance Team’ had arrived, then they hurriedly left as if fearing to stay another moment would bring disaster."

"What is this ’Seductive Fragrance Team’?" Zhu Yu asked curiously.

"The so-called ’Seductive Fragrance Team’ is like the group of stewards delivering hot soup in the morning, each holding a censer, delivering to each household along the way.

After they delivered the scent to that courtyard and left, the person who shouted before also became silent.

I waited until it was pitch dark, the night patrol Protectors left that area, descended from the tree, and went over to check; it was just as Master said the last time, those people were sprawled messily in the house, seemingly knocked out by the aroma."

"Are you okay?" Yan Daoxin quickly came over, pulling the rune’s arm, checking his pulse; seeing it steady, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don’t worry, Divine Doctor, I held my breath before entering that courtyard, quickly assessed the situation, then quickly departed from there and rushed back over the walls." The rune nodded.

"It seems someone is using different seductive fragrances to control these people here." Zhu Yu felt that this observation finally confirmed their previous suspicions with the rune’s findings, "Besides waking them from a stupor, the so-called hot soup delivered each morning is likely the reason they’re so energized, smiling, without any other emotions.

The person the rune saw seemingly regained consciousness from the drug effect for some unknown reason, leading to the cries for help and the escape attempt.

This Immortal Castle is quite sizable, with roughly estimated residents, there must be around two or three hundred, right?"

Lu Qing and Lu Yan exchanged a glance, silently calculating the scale and number of households they surveyed the previous night; assuming each had three to five people sleeping per household, the population here likely exceeded Zhu Yu’s estimate.

Thus, they both nodded, affirming her statement.