Chapter 178

Chapter 178: Opening a coffin this late at night?

Yu Zhi Yi was pleased with that answer. Although this young miss was a bit lovestruck, she was not hopeless.

She looked toward the doorway and said to Constable Song: “Take a few men and open the coffins.”

Constable Song glanced up at the pitch-black sky, then hesitated: “My lord, this is not a good hour to open a coffin. Could we wait until noon tomorrow?”

Yu Zhi Yi finally remembered that ordinary people could not handle yin things; late at night, even if no apparition showed itself, just being where such things lingered would stain people with yin energy. [Right, I almost forgot how fragile ordinary people are around yin.]

She drew several talismans from her sleeve and handed them over: “Carry these. No evil yin can harm you.”

Constable Song was still afraid, but Yu Zhi Yi was his superior. On this mission he had to obey her orders. He gathered a few equally trembling constables and headed toward the graves of Miss Wei’s parents.

Yu Zhi Yi smiled faintly at Li Qing Miao: “If we confirm Miss Wei’s parents were poisoned and identify the toxin, then we can prove the aconite you bought at the pharmacy that day was used to murder the couple.”

Aconite was a specialty poison from the Sheng Kingdom. Its toxicity was not explosive. If paired correctly, it could even protect the liver. But if used alone over a long time, it turned into a deadly poison. Once the toxin built up enough, it would kill.

Li Qing Miao’s face sank.

At that moment, the courtyard gate not far away opened, and a thin figure limped out. Her goal was clear: the Wei home. The gate stood ajar; Madam Zhang pushed and it swung inward. She froze, then as if remembering something, lifted her head and feet at once, wanting to rush into the house. But the moment she looked up, she was stunned: “Who… who are you?”

A dozen constables stood in the small yard.

Li Qing Miao stared, shocked: “You… can move?!”

Madam Zhang opened her mouth but could not find words. Everything before her was beyond what she had expected; she felt lost and could not make sense of the situation.

Yu Zhi Yi said calmly: “She could move two years ago. She kept pretending to be helpless to lull you, waiting for a chance to expose your true face and your crimes.” Then she turned to Madam Zhang: “I am a fifth-rank official of the Ministry of Justice, appointed by His Majesty. I am here to investigate Li Qing Miao’s murders. If you have any grievances, speak freely.”

Madam Zhang stared, measuring this young miss who seemed even younger than herself, unable to believe she was a fifth-rank official. But with so many constables guarding her, Madam Zhang had no choice but to believe.

At last she dropped to her knees with a thud: “This common woman greets my lord. I accuse this man of being the murderer in the Li Family Village massacre of seven thirty years ago. He hid his name and came here to escape capture. I also accuse him of killing my parents and of breaking my legs, nearly leaving me paralyzed for life!”

She glared at Li Qing Miao, eyes full of hatred, then added: “And tonight he came here to kill the young lady of the Wei Clan!”

Miss Wei had already learned that Li Qing Miao planned to kill her tonight, but seeing that everyone else knew while she alone had been kept in the dark-and that she had even been looking forward to a lovely night with him-she felt like the only fool in the world. Face full of shock, she suddenly remembered a question she had been ignoring and blurted out, a bit off-point: “He also killed your parents?”

Hearing “also,” Madam Zhang paused, then gave a bitter smile: “Miss Wei actually knows? Since you knew he killed your parents, why did you cling to him all these years?”

Miss Wei flushed with embarrassment and said softly: “I only found out tonight, at the same time I found out he meant to kill me.”

Relieved a little by that, Madam Zhang began to speak.

Three years ago, she had learned the truth about Li Qing Miao. That day he went out drinking. When he came home and still wasn’t satisfied, he drank some more. He was unusually happy. Normally so proper, that day he acted wild, and after he drank too much he even danced in the room. When he finished, he pulled Madam Zhang close and babbled a great many things.

The more she listened, the more wrong it sounded. He wasn’t talking about ordinary matters. He was talking about being a murderer. Proud of himself, he said he had killed seven people who wanted to leech off him, and he sneered that while they usually bossed him around, the moment he waved a knife at them, each one was scared out of their wits. He said that scene was fascinating.

Madam Zhang was stunned and could not accept it. She even thought he was pretending to be drunk to joke with her. She shook her head hard, telling him to stop joking like that.

But Li Qing Miao insisted, as if to prove himself, that he was not joking. To prove it, he said he had killed her parents too, and he explained clearly how he did it.

Madam Zhang was shocked and furious. Seeing she still seemed not to believe, he actually tried to perform a killing in front of her right then. Luckily, he was too drunk. Before he could move, he passed out cold.

Escaping that disaster did not bring her peace. She felt his last look before sleep was terrifying. She wanted to report him, but she had no evidence.

The Great Sheng Empire no longer oppressed women as badly as the Sheng Kingdom had a hundred years ago, but society was still ruled by husbands. If a wife wanted to accuse her husband or ask for a divorce, unless the husband had truly committed a grave crime-say, suspected of murdering his wife-with solid evidence, the husband could counter-sue her for being an unvirtuous wife. In that case, not only would she fail to divorce, she would be punished. A wife accusing her husband was even more outrageous; the moment she entered the yamen, she would be flogged twenty times.

With no choice, Madam Zhang forced herself to calm down and slowly gather evidence. She planned to report him once she had enough.

Fortunately for her, that night Li Qing Miao had been so smug that he confessed seven or eight parts of what he had done, even telling where to find key evidence. And as if Heaven were helping her, after that night he forgot what he had said while drunk. That made things easier.

Sadly, her luck ran out. When she finally gathered the proof and was ready to reveal him to the authorities, he suddenly burst in, stared at her with a chilling look, and asked why she had betrayed him. Then he broke both her legs, and from then on she was bedridden.

In the end Heaven pitied her. Two years ago she regained feeling. But she did not dare reveal it. She could not gamble that he would spare her again. Today, when she heard her daughter say that yesterday Li Qing Miao met with Miss Wei, she remembered that yesterday was the last day of thirty years. Fearing Miss Wei would be harmed, she risked everything and came to warn her.