Episode 158

The murderer had admitted to his crimes and the plan was successful. Wen Yuansi could stop grossing himself out with his own pretense, so the ingratiating smile on his face slowly faded.

“Liu Zhenghao, you’re really… shameless.”

Liu Zhenghao immediately narrowed his eyes. “What did you just say?”

“I’m saying that your eyes are blind, your heart is blind, and you’re downright stupid. Even a courtesan could trick you into doing what you shouldn’t have, so you’ve already thoroughly embarrassed yourself. How are you still proudly boasting about what you’ve done?”

Wen Yuansi’s gaze was icy. “Get it now?”

“You…”

Liu Zhenghao’s arrogant demeanor had already pissed Wen Yuansi off right from the start, so much so that Wen Yuansi wished he could slap and bash the other guy up despite being such a gentleman. He could barely contain himself by this point. “How did you think the authorities decided you were the killer? It was all thanks to the hints that Yuetao left behind.”

“This timid, frail and useless courtesan, according to you, had done her best to distract you and left behind enough evidence for us.”

Liu Zhenghao narrowed his eyes. “Impossible!”

“Those things, those pearls, shells, turquoises, gold and silver beads,” Wen Yuansi’s lips curled into a sarcastic smile, “you were only concerned with making Yuetao as afraid of you as possible. But have you ever thought about why she only wanted those things out of all the things in your room?”

Liu Zhenghao had not thought about that at all. He had been feeding his ego at that point and it did not cross his mind that these items might be incriminating in the future. But now, after thinking about it properly along with Wen Yuansi’s hints, he quickly realized what he’d done.

His pupils constricted. “Pigments!”

Those were the pigments he used in his paints!

Liu Zhenghao flung his teacup onto the floor in anger. That slut!

The truth was right in front of him and he had worked it all out, yet he refused to admit his oversight. “I won’t believe it! She was just a slutty, brainless woman! How could she have been so clever? How could she have thought so far ahead? So what if they’re pigments? Those things are also precious stones, valuable metals! Women love expensive things! That has nothing to do with me! Using that to conclude it was me is too far a stretch!”

Liu Zhenghao stood up as he shouted at Wen Yuansi, like a trapped wild beast. “You lied to me!” he pointed a finger at Wen Yuansi, “You’re with them too! Everything you said just now were lies! You were just trying to trick me into confessing!”

“I was right to say that you’re downright stupid. You’ve finally realized what’s going on.”

Wen Yuansi smiled. “How does it feel? Is it fun to get caught by the authorities?”

“HAHAHA!” Liu Zhenghao threw his head back and laughed loudly. “You won’t be able to catch me! So what if I’ve admitted to everything? So what? I’ve got my father!”

“I was just telling a story, a story I heard during my travels, a person I don’t even know! So what!”

He remained as arrogant as ever.

“Is that really what you want? You sincerely don’t want to get caught?”

A voice as clear as spring water resounded. It was Song Caitang.

She had asked Qi Yan for every single detail regarding Liu Zhenghao’s younger sister, dressed herself up to look like that and sat in the courtyard.

Their plans were a little dangerous and this was a major case, so it wouldn’t be right of them to find a girl of the same age as his younger sister. Song Caitang was a little older, but that could be easily dealt with. If she seemed too tall, she could always just sit down. Her face wasn’t quite small enough, but makeup could solve that problem. She was naturally very skinny and not curvaceous at all, so once she put on a dress that only girls that age would wear, and pretend to be a little less elegant, Song Caitang was confident that she could impersonate his younger sister well and remind him of her.

And it did work out very well.

She stood at the window and looked at Liu Zhenghao, her gaze calm. “Actually, you’re very tired already…”

Liu Zhenghao knew that this whole thing was a set up and his first reaction was to sneer at the authorities for even trying, but Song Caitang’s question really hit him deep inside.

“Liu Zhenghao, what are you living for?”

“To do your ancestors proud? To become the best painter in the world? To get married and have children?”

Time seemed to have stopped. Their surroundings became ridiculously silent. This moment seemed to last an entity.

Song Caitang’s gaze flickered as she straightened her sleeves. “I suppose it’s none of the above.”

“The Lius don’t seem to have anything they can be proud of. You and your father probably wouldn’t dare to tell your ancestors about the sort of things you two have done.”

And so, he couldn’t be trying to do his ancestors proud.

“Your paintings are good, but the one who appreciated it the most, the one who looked forward to your paintings the most, is no longer around. Even if you became the best painter in the world, the best painter of all time, you wouldn’t be able to revive her. She will not be able to stand in the brilliant afternoon sunshine of a spring day and watch you paint a colorful butterfly for her in the gentle breeze.”

His dreams of becoming a painter like that were impossible to achieve.

Getting married and having children was an even bigger joke.

“Other men your age have gotten engaged or married already. But why haven’t you? Is it because you really don’t want to? Or are you scared? Or perhaps you know deep down that every son born to your family will turn into a monster, while every daughter is destined to become merely sacrifices?”

These were all goals that motivated most men, but none of them existed for Liu Zhenghao.

Song Caitang’s voice was distant and so was her expression, so she wasn’t trying to put any stress on him at all. But Liu Zhenghao was staring at her as though he had seen the most terrifying thing in the world.

“You… you…”

He took two steps back and widened his eyes.

The fear and confusion that made him wake up in horror in the middle of the night – how did this woman know about it?

Song Caitang ignored his reaction and continued staring straight into his eyes, her intelligent gleam was like a knife that stabbed right through his heart. “Is it really true that in your family, anybody else can die, but you can’t? If you didn’t have an organ sticking out of your lower body, would your father dote on you like that? Did you really earn everything you have now through your own capabilities? If you die, do you think your father would just try for another son?”

These terrifying truth bombs hit Liu Zhenghao again and again. He swallowed his saliva with much effort. “No… my father loves only me, protects only me…”

“What kind of person do you think your father is? Do you really think he’s a good man? Do you really want to become like him?”

Song Caitang’s questions seemed to strike the deepest part of Liu Zhenghao’s heart. His mind was thrown into confusion. He knew he should not feel like this, but he couldn’t control himself and he didn’t know what to do…

He didn’t know what to say.

He wanted to know the answers to these questions too!

“Let me tell you then.”

Song Caitang’s gaze was intelligent, but not friendly. Her voice was both gentle yet resolute, like the green grass growing in spring, standing tall and basking in the sunshine, as though she could comprehend his heart.

“You do not agree with what your father has done and you want to break free of the shackles he has put around you, but you lack the courage and ability to fight him. You live miserably within the little world that your father has created for you, and inherit, as well as amplify everything that even you think is disgusting.”

“You tried to find a reason, and you tried to find young, shameless girls, but you failed to. The closest you could find were the courtesans. You felt that they had chosen to throw away morals, that they were a blight on society. You were trying to bring their judgment forward so that they could be reincarnated, but the person you really want to judge and save the most is yourself.”

“You wanted to break free of your father but failed to, so you became him. But today, if you just do one thing…”

“…you will become different from him!”

Liu Zhenghao seemed to understand what she was getting at. His gaze became shifty as he shrank back.

But Song Caitang’s gaze continued to shine brightly as she spoke a little more gently, “Do you often think about your childhood after you wake up from your nightmares? When you’re bored, do you ever think about how you’re going to face Liu Ye and your sister after you die? Would you dare to say to your father in a loud voice, no, we are not the same?”

“Admit your guilt, Liu Zhenghao. You and your father are different.”

The last sentence seemed to have completely shattered the last bit of confidence Liu Zhenghao had.

Song Caitang kept her eyes on him. “You have done wrong, but he has done even more.”

“Also, he’s about to collapse soon, so he can’t be your reliable backer anymore.”

It was as though Song Caitang was using her words to dig Liu Zhenghao’s heart out of his body, exposing this bloody thing for all to see.

“Why… how…”

How could it be that a woman would understand him so well?

The one who understood him best had turned out to be a woman!

Liu Zhenghao’s eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Song Caitang. He was having a breakdown and he couldn’t find it in himself to bounce back up and yell at them anymore.

At the same time, a loud tearing sound filled the room. The wall the room shared with the next room, or rather, the screen that looked like a wall, was torn open to reveal a whole room of people. The expressions on their faces were all different.

Zhao Zhi, of course, was very satisfied, and he stared at Song Caitang a little too intensely.

This woman was always able to surprise him.

She could read minds now? Gosh, what else could this woman do?

Governor Li didn’t know what to say.

The murderer had admitted to the killings himself, and couldn’t even defend himself against everything that Song Caitang asked him. How could he overturn this case?

He couldn’t!

But he was more curious about what in the world Liu Qinian had done.

Liu Qinian had brought up a psycho for a son, and his son was desperately trying to become different from him. Why?

Liu Qinian was finally allowed to move. He spat out what was in his mouth and shouted angrily, “Do not admit to anything! Do not spout nonsense and admit to what someone else has done! These have all been committed by someone else! Not you! My son didn’t kill anyone!”

Song Caitang smiled. “It’s a bit too late for that now. Everyone has heard what he said.”

Zhao Zhi was even more direct. He kicked Liu Qinian and said, “How dare you still say such things? I’m sure there are more poor, unwilling souls who died in your room than the number of girls your son killed!”

His glare was frosty and his voice murderous.

Liu Qinian trembled in fear for a while, but clenched his teeth and stood up. “You kidnapped a court official and you’ve forced someone to confess! That confession cannot be counted!”

The entire room was silent as nobody said anything and just stared at Liu Qinian with despise, disgust and murderous looks.

Liu Qinian realized that these people knew what had been going on in his household.

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva and refused to back down. “I didn’t do anything wrong! All of them were indentured servants! That’s not against the law!”

He spoke loudly, but he was clearly feeling guilty and did not speak as arrogantly as before.

“The law does say that masters have absolute rights over their servants, and they can decide if their servants live or die. But it does not say that servants cannot protest if their masters are purposely abusing them.”

Song Caitang stared at him calmly. “Servants can sue their masters in court too. But of course, even if the masters are found guilty, they won’t really be punished and at most, they’d have to pay a small fine. But things are very different for you, Liu Qinian.”

“You have so many victims hailing from so many families. If they come together to sue you and win their case, what do you think would happen to you? Would you still come out unscathed? Would you be able to continue being an official?”

“Where would you like to be transferred to? Hainan? Ili? The Changshan Islands?” (TL note: In ancient China, these were all pretty terrible places for a variety of reasons, but they are not like that anymore today, except Ili, but for a different reason.)

Liu Qinian’s pupils constricted.

The people transferred to these three areas never made it back alive!

This woman was just trying to scare him! He wasn’t afraid of her!

“Besides, that’s not the only thing you’re guilty of,” Song Caitang looked at Zhao Zhi, “isn’t that so, Surveillance Commissioner Zhao?”

Zhao Zhi smiled faintly and nodded. “That’s right.”

Liu Qinian was someone who made sure he was on the side of power at all times, so in order to get into the good books of powerful people or to form alliances with such people, he would definitely have dabbled in a lot of corruption and other under the table deals. They just had to find a big one, charge him for it and he was definitely losing his position.

Liu Qinian knew why Zhao Zhi was smiling. “No, you can’t…”

“Oh no, no, I CAN.”

Zhao Zhi slowly straightened his sleeves. “And your son’s the one who taught me this. I now have sufficient authority and resources, as well as the ability to do this on my own, plus I don’t like your face. So, why not?”

But Liu Qinian remained indignant and tried to convince his son to stand his ground. As long as they did not admit to any crimes and insisted on their innocence, they could still win!

Unfortunately, Governor Zhang and Qi Yan returned at this point.

“We found it! Brother Zhi, we found it!”

The plan this time was a big one. Wen Yuansi and Song Caitang were in charge of Liu Zhenghao, where Wen Yuansi was in charge of tricking Liu Zhenghao into confessing, while Song Caitang would help to break his defenses. Zhao Zhi kidnapped everybody connected to the case and locked them up in the room next door so that they could hear everything happening in the next room.

Governor Zhang and Qi Yan seized this chance to head to the Liu family residence to search the entire house.

They found the special item that Song Caitang had asked for – they found Liu Zhenghao’s underwear and confirmed that they were made from the same gold silk thread that was found in Yuetao’s stomach.

Qi Yan threw the underwear at Liu Zhenghao and put his hands on his hip. “Your servant can take the rap for every crime you’ve committed and can touch everything that you own. But would you let him wear your underwear? WOULD YOU?”

Governor Zhang threw the painting of Yuetao at Liu Zhenghao too. Zhao Zhi had told him to find the painting.

“Why does your paper smell of the same special fragrance that Wenxiang made? Did your servant paint this too? You continued using the paper he already used? Yuetao was able to detect the fragrance made by Wenxiang, and so are other people who are familiar with her usual fragrances!”

There was concrete evidence now. Liu Zhenghao could no longer deny his wrongdoing.