Chapter 110

Chapter 110: A Villain’s Good Deed

[Yu Zhi Yi felt a bad premonition.]

She walked to the doorway and, sure enough, everything inside the open room was in full view: a burly man was pinned to the floor, and You Bing Yue was holding him down. Not far away lay a knife. It was one or two meters from the man, as if it had fallen there.

Yu Zhi Yi was speechless.

You Bing Yue looked proud as she arched an eyebrow and reported to Du Zi Heng: “I just saw this man climb through the window into this house and pick up a knife. He looked ready to hurt someone, so I took him down.”

Yu Zhi Yi did not speak.

Du Zi Heng was pleased, because You Bing Yue had earned merit. That made him and Chancellor’s Manor look good.

Old Man Zhang stared blankly and asked: “This… this… isn’t that Steward Ma? What on earth is going on?”

You Bing Yue said coolly: “Isn’t it obvious? This guy came to kill you.”

Old Man Zhang gasped.

Steward Ma struggled twice, then snapped: “Let me go, you crazy woman!”

He turned to Old Man Zhang and said: “Old Zhang, don’t listen to her nonsense. I came to the capital on business and stopped by to see you. I took a wrong turn and ended up by the alley. I didn’t want to walk all the way around, so I thought I’d climb in through the window.”

He put on an innocent face and added: “I planned to tell you, but you weren’t in the room. I had no choice but to come in first to give you a surprise.”

You Bing Yue snorted: “Full of holes! What decent person visits by climbing through a window? You were begging to be taken for a thief.”

She pointed at the knife and said: “A long trip is no excuse for climbing windows. Besides, I saw you with my own eyes holding that knife by the door, looking ready to chop someone at any moment.”

Steward Ma shouted: “I didn’t! I only picked it up because it looked sharp. I glanced at it twice, that’s all. Old Zhang, you have to believe me!”

The two sides talked past each other, and Du Zi Heng frowned.

He believed You Bing Yue. But if the man refused to admit anything, then the one accused of breaking in might become her instead. After all, Steward Ma knew Old Man Zhang. If Old Man Zhang agreed the visitor was a guest, or if he got talked into it, then today’s case would end badly.

He suddenly remembered something and asked: “Zhi Yi, did you come here to see Old Man Zhang?”

Yu Zhi Yi gave him a cold look and said: “Thanks to you two, what was simple is now complicated.”

Old Man Zhang’s birth chart showed bloodshed today and a high chance of death. The killer knew him and wanted to silence him.

Here was the reason: years ago, this man and Old Man Zhang’s family worked on the same estate. Steward Ma was greedy and cruel. When he saw the estate’s master was an orphaned girl, he tried to take the estate for himself.

He mixed spoiled seeds into the good ones and lied to the girl that the soil had lost its strength. He made her lower her hopes for any harvest. Once she gave up on the fields, he sowed only good seed. Every year he gave her one-fifth of the real yield and kept the other four-fifths for himself.

After a few years, he saved enough money to buy the estate. Then he noticed the orphan girl had grown up well and set his sights on her too.

The young miss had lost both parents early and lacked love. He was six or seven years older, but he looked passable and knew how to sweet-talk. He really did trick her into trusting him.

Their good days did not last long. The girl learned the truth about the “poor harvests.”

She was weak and alone, but her nature was fierce. In her heart he was a gentle, reliable man. If she saw his true face, she would never let it go.

Steward Ma used every bit of his glib tongue to calm her for a while, but inside he hated whoever told on him. He did not know the informer’s name, yet he soon narrowed it down. Only a few people had handled those seeds. Old Man Zhang was one of them.

So he decided to kill him to keep him quiet.

But when he came, Old Man Zhang was out searching for his missing son. Steward Ma worried Old Man Zhang had told his family. He then murdered Old Man Zhang’s parents and his wife. His methods were practiced, and he made all three deaths look like accidents. People only sighed over the Zhang family’s bad luck. No one thought of murder.

Years passed. Only Old Man Zhang of the Zhang Clan was left.

Two years ago, Steward Ma planned to finish him. But when he saw Old Man Zhang broken by his son’s disappearance, grieving his family’s deaths, and lame in one leg, a cruel hobby took root: let the old man live in misery. Steward Ma would come by now and then to view the wreck of his life. To him, that was a kind of fun.

That is how Old Man Zhang stayed alive.

This time, Steward Ma came to kill because he heard someone meant to help Old Man Zhang find his son. For years, neighbors kept their distance from the lonely old man, and Steward Ma felt safe. But if someone helped search for the son, it was different. Even a small clue could ruin him. So he laid out today’s plan and even mapped his escape route.

Yu Zhi Yi had wanted to make him act today because his past crimes were long ago, and he had erased the evidence. Even though she could read faces and see what he had done, without proof he could still call her a liar. Better to catch the thief with the stolen goods.

And now, her good plan had been wrecked by these two.

Under her cool gaze, Du Zi Heng felt a sudden pang of guilt and said: “I’m… I’m sorry.”

You Bing Yue said: “Why apologize to her? She’s just jealous I saved someone and earned credit.”

She looked at Yu Zhi Yi and said with a crooked smile: “Can’t you see a person’s past and present with a single look? If you’re so amazing, you should see I’m telling the truth.”

Then her smile turned mean as she added: “Or do you just hate to admit how good I am, so you choose to side with this killer and frame me?”

Du Zi Heng frowned and said: “Bing Yue, Zhi Yi isn’t that kind of person.”

You Bing Yue felt a chill in her heart and said: “Du Zi Heng, I misjudged you.” Her eyes, always cold and strong, grew wet as she said: “If she isn’t that kind of person, does that mean I’m someone who loves to lie?”

Du Zi Heng waved his hands and said: “That’s not what I meant…”

Just as the two were about to stage a dramatic lovers’ quarrel, several constables pushed through the crowd and came in.