Wei Zhiyin led his people stride for stride toward the lake, where he happened to run into Wei Hangyuan returning from outside. Early this morning, Wei Hangyuan had gone out with friends and still did not know what had happened in Wei Yunchan’s courtyard.
Seeing Wei Zhiyin’s solemn expression, he shifted his gaze and actually caught sight of Yang Er and several other familiar faces being escorted behind by the Wei family guards, his heart dropping like a stone into an abyss as his figure staggered a few steps.
Lifting his head once more, he happened to discover Wei Yunchan looking right at him.
That single glance was filled with undisguised murderous intent, resembling a venomous snake locking onto its prey, making one’s hair stand on end.
Qiuli’s corpse had long been buried deep beneath the lake by years of accumulated silt and mud, which was why Wei Yunchan had previously failed to see Qiuli’s body even after draining the lake to search for Fu Jinshu.
Several guards skilled in swimming leaped into the water, rummaging through the mud and silt until they finally managed to unearth her skeletal remains.
Bare white bones lay exposed under the glaring sunlight. When Qiuli died, she was barely over fifteen, still just a young girl, and the skeleton on the ground was tragically thin and small, leaving anyone who looked at it sighing with deep sorrow.
With anger hard to conceal in his voice, Wei Zhiyin walked up to Madam Shuangniang and sternly demanded, “Why did you commit such vicious acts against these young maids?”
Upon seeing those white bones, Wei Hangyuan knew that the matter was about to be exposed, so he turned and tried to flee, only to be seized by several black-clad guards who suddenly appeared, gagged with a piece of rag, and pinned to the ground unable to move.
He had never seen guards dressed in such black martial attire within the manor before!
Shuangniang knelt on the ground and wept incessantly, yet refused to utter a single word, as Wei Yunchan knew she was trying to protect Wei Hangyuan.
Sure enough, when Wei Zhiyin drew his sword, Madam Shuangniang feigned terror and hurriedly replied, “It, it was this concubine who was momentarily blinded by greed, seeing how young and beautiful they were, jealousy consumed me.”
Wei Zhiyin found it hard to believe, “Just for a reason like this, you actually murdered so many innocent lives? Serpent’s heart and scorpion’s venom! Unforgivable by heaven! Someone come.”
“Wait” Wei Yunchan stepped out from the side, “Women are naturally weak, but mothers become strong, for the sake of her child, Madam Shuangniang is capable of disregarding life and death, truly admirable.”
Saying it was “admirable,” his tone was incomparably mocking.
Madam Shuangniang was truly terrified of him now, never expecting that this sickly invalid Wei Yunchan would be so astute and meticulous in his actions, capable of investigating everything thoroughly in such a short morning without leaking a hint of wind.
Regret flooded her heart, and she only cursed herself for not getting rid of him sooner, instead falling into his hands today.
Turning a blind eye to the venomous glare she cast at him, Wei Yunchan simply turned to Wei Zhiyin and said, “Father, the reason Madam Shuangniang murdered these maids is perhaps something we should ask our second young master of the Wei family.”
As his voice fell, the guards in the back escorted Wei Hangyuan forward before Wei Zhiyin, these guards had been swapped in later, and those black-clad guards who had just captured Wei Hangyuan were nowhere to be found.
Guessing that those men were all Wei Yunchan’s subordinates, Wei Hangyuan felt an even greater sense of shock. This sickly invalid had seemingly spent over a decade bedridden, yet secretly cultivated his own faction all along?
Wei Zhiyin never imagined that these sordid matters were also connected to his own son, but the moment Wei Hangyuan was pushed forward, a subtle premonition of the truth already formed in Wei Zhiyin’s mind.
Young maids, two years ago.
Two years ago, Wei Hangyuan had just turned fifteen, reaching the age where he should understand the ways of the world.
“What did you do?” Wei Zhiyin’s questioning voice revealed a profound sense of disappointment.
In his eyes, Wei Hangyuan had always been mediocre in aptitude and difficult to mold into anything great. Yet even without great potential, as long as his character remained upright and he committed no major transgressions, he would still be the second-in-command of Yunliang in the future. Should Wei Yunchan unfortunately succumb to illness and pass away, Wei Zhiyin had even considered grooming him properly so that he could barely manage to sustain the position of Yunliang’s City Master in the days to come.
Wei Hangyuan still wanted to quibble. In his view, since these people were already dead with no living witnesses left, as long as he stubbornly refused to confess, what could Wei Yunchan possibly do to him?
“Father, I did not do it, I had no knowledge of this whatsoever! Big Brother, do not frame me with malicious slander! What evidence do you have to prove that the deaths of these maids are related to me? Stop trying to splash dirty water on me here!”
Anticipating long ago that he would refuse to confess, Wei Yunchan unhurriedly spoke, “Well said, after all, since the people are already dead, I indeed cannot produce living witnesses, so how about we use physical evidence instead?”
Wei Hangyuan swallowed a mouthful of saliva, “What, what physical evidence?”
Wei Yunchan raised a hand in signal, and a servant walked over presenting an object. Stretching his neck to look, Wei Hangyuan froze at just a single glance, his eyes widening with an uncontrollable panic and helplessness.
That object was precisely the protective talisman he had always worn on his person.
When did he lose it? Where did it drop?
Wei Yunchan lifted the hanging cord of the protective talisman, “The servant who died in the manor two days ago, He Pan, Second Young Master should still remember him, right?”
Wei Hangyuan denied it to the death, “Utter nonsense, do you, do you mean to say I killed him!”
Shaking his head with a calm expression, Wei Yunchan replied, “That much is not true, only that He Pan suffered humiliation and abuse before his death. Does Second Young Master admit to this matter?”
As these words left his lips, everyone present was struck with astonishment.
Even Madam Shuangniang wore an expression of shock, she truly knew nothing about this! After all, Wei Hangyuan had always only targeted girls, so why would he take a fancy to a male servant like He Pan!
“Why should I admit to it!” Wei Hangyuan cursed furiously, “Wei Yunchan, you are the only one in the entire Wei estate who sleeps with men, could you be playing the thief crying ‘stop thief’ right here!”
Seeing him so stubbornly impervious to reason and attempting to drag Fu Jinshu into it once again, Wei Yunchan could not be bothered to waste any more breath on him: “He Pan was assigned to clean the room of the Fourth Young Miss’s puppy that day. You ran into He Pan in the side courtyard, gave rise to evil intentions, and followed him into the room designated for the Fourth Young Miss’s puppy. You tied his hands and gagged his mouth, which is why you managed to escape detection during the clothing inspection of the past two days. However, the best way to keep a secret is never to do it in the first place.”
Jiggling the protective talisman in his hand, he continued, “You dropped your protective talisman inside that room while committing the act. That room is covered everywhere in dog hair, take a good look, is the hair clinging to this talisman fur from the Fourth Young Miss’s puppy? Furthermore, the clothes you wore that day must certainly have it as well.”
Fearing that the matter would be exposed, Wei Hangyuan had not let the servants send that set of clothes to the laundry yard for washing, intending instead to take them out and discard or burn them once this incident blew over. Right now, they were still rolled up into a ball and shoved underneath his bed.
When the servants presented that bundle of clothes, Wei Hangyuan felt his heart turn to ash as he slumped heavily onto the ground.
The garments were shaken open, and under the sunlight, fine fragments of puppy fur floated in the air, clearly visible.
Wei Zhiyin was filled to the brim with utter disappointment, “Scoundrel! Unfilial son! Speak, tell me everything from start to finish! What is the story behind these maids!”
Wei Hangyuan was not stupid; he knew that the matter with He Pan at most saddled him with the crime of raping a male servant, but if he confessed to the affair regarding the maids, the nature of the crime would be entirely different.
He bit down hard and refused to admit it, “Yes, I assaulted He Pan, I was drunk that day and my mind was muddled. Afterward, I wanted to apologize and make compensation to him, but I never expected that he would throw himself into the lake and commit suicide. But the deaths of those maids truly have nothing to do with me! I know nothing about it!”
With no living witnesses left now, a dozen or so maids having already reduced to bare white bones, and Wei Hangyuan stubbornly refusing to confess, the investigation seemed to hit a dead end here.
“What should we do if Wei Hangyuan refuses to confess and submit to the law? I can summon those accomplices from back then, but I certainly lack the ability to make the dead maids speak.”
Fu Jinshu rested his chin on one hand, hooked the corners of his lips, and wrote down with his brush: [You may not have the ability, but I do.]
Wei Yunchan raised an eyebrow, staring intently at his face, marking this as the first time he had ever seen Fu Jinshu smile.
It was not merely as sweet as he had imagined, but also carried a touch of clever and spirited playfulness, resembling a mischievous little fox.
Just as Wei Hangyuan’s voice faded, the sun overhead was abruptly obscured by an inexplicably appearing mass of dark clouds, fierce winds began to howl, and the trees in the courtyard rustled violently.
Such a bizarre phenomenon threw everyone present into complete disarray, and soon, sounds of weeping accompanied by a chilling gust of wind rang out as Qiuli’s grievance-laden ghost materialized from the surface of the lake, her hair disheveled, flesh rotting, and water-bloated hands as pale as paper.
Seeing this sight, the cowardly maids and servants had already fainted from fright.
Wei Zhiyin was also gripped by shock, yet before he could react, Qiuli’s vengeful spirit had already swooped fiercely toward Wei Hangyuan.
Her voice was sharp and sinister: “Wei Hangyuan, return my life!”
Her rotting ghost face suddenly closed in right before Wei Hangyuan’s eyes, two trails of bloody tears streaming from her sockets as her icy hands clamped around his neck—with a piercing shriek, Wei Hangyuan passed out cold from sheer terror.
Madam Shuangniang scrambled frantically in an attempt to escape, but as she crawled, she felt an escalating weight press down upon her back. Looking back over her shoulder, she found Qiuli pressing directly on top of her! Following a single piercing shriek, she fainted dead away from extreme fright.
Qiuli slowly stood up, her spirit drifting suspended in mid-air.
Having witnessed turbulent storms in his lifetime, Wei Zhiyin quickly steadied his composure and hesitantly called out, “Qiuli.?”
Hearing his voice, a wave of deep sorrow welled up inside Qiuli as she slowly reverted to her living appearance, the fifteen-year-old young girl looking seemingly unchanged from before, save for her pale complexion.
She knelt before Wei Zhiyin and kowtowed twice, “May the Lord Master be blessed with peace; I never imagined the Lord Master would still remember Qiuli.”
Sighing deeply, Wei Zhiyin said, “Tell me in detail about the circumstances back then, and I will surely seek justice for you.”
Qiuli bowed low touching her head to the ground, “Thank you, Lord Master.” Then turning toward Wei Yunchan nearby, she kowtowed three more times, “Thank you, Young Master.”
Thinking to himself, Wei Yunchan mused that thanking him was pointless, as any gratitude ought to be directed toward that little demon Fu Jinshu.
Saving mortals and commanding ghosts, his abilities reached all the way to the heavens.