Maomao was very brave yes and strangely enough she somehow managed to connect all of this all just in the nick of time to save Jinishi so bravo girl! Especially for enduring all of that hard-core abuse, was honestly not expecting any of that. ¬_¬ And, yes the guard is definitely dead for all those reason listed, but moving on!
Now is no one going to actually talk about the possible reason on why someone went through all of this trouble of background killing officials, arson setting, ceremony tool stealing, and having them being remade? That maybe said culprit was intentionally aiming for Jinshi's life all along and this was the easiest way to kill him and make it look like an accident? I mean, isn't it possible that someone knows of his "implied" real identity and wants him dead because of the threat he represents? :3