Chapter 161: Playing a Game of Swapped Identities
Five Lotus Manor had five female ghosts, each with a different identity.
A widowed young mistress, the manor master's younger sister, a young lady from a scholarly household, a celebrated river entertainer, and a female knight-errant.
From the moment Li Qiuchen realized that Qingqing had never actually identified herself, but instead disguised herself as a maidservant, and that Zisu, clearly a martial woman, was performing as a woman of easy virtue, he knew he had his hands on the substance of this question.
Setting aside for the moment why five people would be wearing each other's masks, his first task was to strip those masks away.
Only by properly matching each of the five female ghosts to her actual identity would he have any chance of finding the true secret hidden beneath the question's surface.
The mistress's expression shifted slightly at his words, though she quickly raised her handkerchief to conceal the lapse.
"What does scholar mean by that?"
"Nothing more than what it sounds like. We are all playing a game together. Mistress may speak either truthfully or falsely. Speaking falsely is simply equivalent to withdrawing from the game. Of course, with Qingqing not here by my side, I would have no way of telling the difference even if you did deceive me."
The mistress was quiet for a moment, then nodded. "Indeed. I didn't expect scholar to see through me so quickly. But I find myself wanting to ask a question in return. How did you determine I was not the young mistress?"