Chapter 228

Chapter 228: Wife Kills Husband

The next day, Su Yuan Lin went to the Quehan Institute.

He used to be a top student. He could paint, and he also knew a lot.

At the Quehan Institute, he gave a talk that was simple and easy to follow.

The people at the institute had a safe place to live, but they had little hope for the future. [We are just a group of disabled people. What future do we have?]

Back at home, they had been on the edge of their families. No one counted on them to work, and no one wanted to play with them.

They felt cut off from the world.

Even when they had food, it was just enough to keep them from starving.

Now at the Quehan Institute, they were fed three meals a day, and someone even cleaned for them, so many people became lazy.

Since food was brought right to their lips, why push themselves to work?

They ate their fill every day, and it even seemed like the institute might keep supporting them until they died of old age.

With days this easy, why bother to struggle?

At first, many people felt happy just to be full.

But after only a few days, that joy turned into emptiness.

They were stuck inside a small courtyard like prisoners.

All around them were people with the same kinds of injuries or illnesses.

It felt like they had been born unworthy to live with healthy people or make friends with them.

That feeling was terrible.

After hearing Su Yuan Lin’s speech and watching him hold a brush in his mouth to paint a lifelike portrait, many numb hearts finally warmed up.

He had been a real prodigy.

He might have become the top scholar in the imperial exams.

Someone like that should have been even more crushed after becoming disabled. The others had been born in the mud and had never seen the light, so they did not long for it. But he had been the golden boy. Falling from so high should have hurt even more.

Yet he did not complain or give up. He learned to paint with his mouth.

People everywhere told his story now, not only because his art was great but also because he refused to bow to fate.

Countless people saw him as a role model.

And this role model whom so many students admired had come to cheer them on and even promised to teach them.

He was like light, shining into the dark corners of their hearts.

Looking at all those bright, eager eyes, Su Yuan Lin raised his voice and said: “We have a good patron. Even if the whole world gives up on us, our patron will not.”

He said: “She not only wants us to live well, she is also looking for famous doctors so we can live better. Maybe one day, all of us can return to a normal life.”

What? The patron was finding doctors to heal their bodies?

A moment ago they had felt a tiny spark of hope. Now that spark grew into a thick climbing vine.

He said: “Since the patron has not given up on you, do not give up on yourselves.”

He added: “When I finish my preparations, I will come teach you to read and write. If you do not want to study words but want to learn other skills, you can go tell the steward. The patron will arrange things based on what you hope for and what is practical.”

After Su Yuan Lin left, the institute burst into excited talk.

Except for the people born deaf who could not hear him, everyone who heard him felt a powerful rise of hope. As for the deaf, they felt the joy of those around them and guessed that something good was coming.

There were eighteen people in the Quehan Institute. Three had ear problems, eight had disabled hands or legs, four had eye diseases, and the last three were bedridden elders.

If Yu Zhi Yi treated them, she could use acupuncture together with spiritual energy.

Most sicknesses came from cold, wind, dampness, or other harmful influences getting into the body, or from outside injuries that left a person crippled.

For those with missing or ruined body parts, Yu Zhi Yi did not have enough Xianlin wood yet, so they would have to wait.

But for illnesses caused by inner problems, unless the meridians were completely dead, she could guide spiritual energy with acupuncture to help them heal.

In her past life she had cured many people this way. It worked.

Now she needed to find a physician and pass this method on. That physician also had to be an expert of the martial world.

Her method used two steps: impact and healing. The inner force of a trained martial artist could provide the impact, while medicine could supply the healing.

[Time to bring back a martial world expert.]

Yu Zhi Yi rubbed her chin.

After a moment, she tossed three copper coins into the air.

They landed on the table with a dull clink.

She looked and murmured: “Southeast…”

That day’s cold case had already been settled. It was a case of a wife killing her husband.

The wife had suffered beatings for years. At the end of her patience, she picked up a butcher knife and killed him.

After the killing, she fled into the wild mountains. She ran into a group digging for ginseng and followed them to another city.

The case caused a terrible stir locally. Many people demanded that the yamen catch that wicked woman.

But nearly thirty years had passed, and she had never been caught.

Once Yu Zhi Yi pointed out the direction, the Court of Judicial Review would handle the follow-up. She did not need to worry about the rest.

On the way back, Li Rou looked a bit gloomy.

Yu Zhi Yi asked, surprised: “Why are you unhappy? Did something happen?”

Li Rou hesitated for a long time, then asked her question: “Miss, do we have to catch this killer?”

Before she was sold to Yu Manor, she had lived in a home where her father beat her mother and her mother endured it.

Her father beat her too.

She could feel the wife’s pain.

Yu Zhi Yi understood what she meant and said: “Wrong is wrong. If she does not face judgment in the living world, then after death she will face it in the underworld.”

She added softly: “Besides…”

That wife was now very sick in bed. By the time the officers arrived, they would most likely find only a body.

All these years, the wife had lived under the shadow of being caught at any time. She had not lived a happy life.

Yu Zhi Yi did not say the rest. Until the arresters arrived, anything could still change. When they returned, Li Rou would know.

Talking, the two women walked out of the Ministry of Justice and headed southeast.

As soon as they stepped onto the busiest street, a figure rushed toward them, crying: “Yi’er, please, save your father!”