Chapter 176

Chapter 176: You Came Late

Li Qing Miao studied the woman before him; a flicker crossed his refined face as he said: “You are Yu Zhi Yi, the Fifth-Rank Director at the Ministry of Justice, appointed by His Majesty the Emperor out of the usual rules?!”

Yu Zhi Yi lifted an eyebrow and said: “You do seem as quick-witted as the files say,” then she shook her head and said: “Sadly, you use that wit the wrong way.”

Li Qing Miao gave a short laugh and said: “A little woman like you, what right do you have to judge me?”

He glanced at the constables in the courtyard with a half-smile, let his eyes return to Yu Zhi Yi’s face, and said: “Too bad, you came late.”

Yu Zhi Yi made a small sound, a bit puzzled, and said: “Late?”

A brilliant smile spread over Li Qing Miao’s cultured face. The orphan girl on the bed stared blankly; when she saw that smile, she suddenly felt he looked better when he was not smiling: [He really does look better when he keeps a straight face.] She stammered, her voice trembling with confusion, and said: “What… what is going on?”

Yu Zhi Yi stepped forward, lowered the bed curtain, and said: “Get dressed first.”

The orphan girl felt grateful for her care.

Rustling came from the bed, but neither of the two inside the room paid it any mind. Yu Zhi Yi looked back at Li Qing Miao and said: “It isn’t late.”

Li Qing Miao’s eyes filled with scorn as he looked at her and said: “Little miss, the fact that you found this place proves you have some skill. Pity you are still too green. In the Sheng Kingdom, the statute of limitations for all major criminal cases is thirty years. Just a quarter of an hour ago, the very last day of that thirtieth year ended, and now we have stepped into the thirty-first year.”

He smiled with smug satisfaction and said: “You have no reason to arrest me anymore.”

Yu Zhi Yi watched the pride on his face. It was the smile of a clever man who thinks he has toyed with the rules and with all the fools who follow them. That smile showed how pleased and excited he was inside, and how much contempt he felt for the rules and for the people he believed were in the palm of his hand, as if he were the center of the world and could play everyone if he wished.

By now, the orphan girl had finished dressing and came out. She had heard some of their talk from behind the curtain, but it left her in a fog. Still, she sensed danger and stepped to Yu Zhi Yi’s side and said: “What… what is going on?”

Li Qing Miao did not answer; he only kept smiling at Yu Zhi Yi.

Yu Zhi Yi regarded him coolly and said: “Li Qing Miao, from Meng County in Liusha Prefecture. Your father was from Li Family Village in Meng County, and your mother fled there from the south.”

She went on, calm and exact, and said: “You grew up in a big household. It was a farming family, but for generations your ancestors were hard-working. Your brothers and sisters worked hard too, so life was decent. When others in the village still lived in thatch huts and mud houses, your family had a brick house with a tiled roof. The family also had enough assets to send you to study.”

“Because you were the only one in the family with a head for books, everyone placed great hopes on you. They told you they would do all they could to earn money for your tuition; you didn’t need to worry about anything except studying hard and making a name for yourself.”

“Your mother had once been a well-bred young lady with plenty of money and many servants. After she was forced to marry your father, she longed every day to restore her former glory. But your grandparents and father were only ordinary farmers, and your brothers were not scholar material. Only you were different… your teacher praised you as a child prodigy.”

“So your mother put all her hopes on you.”

“From a young age she demanded much of you. If your handwriting slipped even a little, she smacked your palms. If your year-end exam scores were not up to the mark, she would cry about her disappointment while punishing you harshly.”

“In that household atmosphere, your mind twisted bit by bit. You came to hate everyone at home, and the one you hated most was your mother.”

“In that extreme state, you formed a thought: you would take revenge on her and make her regret it.”

“You thought it over. The best way to hurt your mother would be to fail your exams. But if your grades dropped or you failed, your mother would pour all her anger and disappointment on you, and the house would be thrown into turmoil. Others would blame you too, for not pleasing her.”

“So your thinking swung to the other extreme.”

Yu Zhi Yi’s gaze stayed cold on Li Qing Miao. As she spoke as if she had seen it with her own eyes, the smile on his face thinned, but his eyes burned hotter. It seemed that to him, Yu Zhi Yi’s ability to see through everything was more interesting than his own likely arrest and beheading.

Yu Zhi Yi did not understand such a mind, but she knew what he relied on: his brain and his schemes. To make a whole squad of constables come in force to seize him, only for the statute of limitations to expire so they would have to let him go, to make them watch a murderer stand before them and still be unable to bring him to justice, would thrill him. To this, Yu Zhi Yi could only say it was small, petty cleverness.

The orphan girl listened, already drawn in. When Yu Zhi Yi paused, she asked with curiosity and said: “What other extreme?”

Yu Zhi Yi gave her a glance and said lightly: “He thinks his mother pushed him to study and pinned all hopes on him, as if once he made it, they would all rise with him. So what if, after he made it, he cut off their hope of rising with him?”

“There is nothing more crushing than losing everything at the moment you think your wish is about to come true.”

“So he did exactly that.”

“When the county exam results came out, he passed, just as the family hoped, and became a licentiate.”

“At that point, if he kept going, even if he couldn’t place in the top three of the Imperial Examinations that year, becoming a provincial graduate was very possible.”

“While the whole family brimmed with hope, thinking their son was about to become a provincial graduate and they would share in his glory, their ‘hope’ raised a butcher’s knife against them.”

“That day, Li Qing Miao brought home good wine and fine dishes. His family assumed he was celebrating his good results.”

“They never guessed that the ‘hope’ of the entire family had mixed a drug into the food and drink, the kind that robs strength.”

“Eating those dosed dishes would not kill, and it would not knock them out, but it would make their bodies go limp.”

“And so, those who saw him as their hope could only watch, helpless, as that hope turned into a demon and swung the blade at them.”