300 — You’re Wrong

“I did NOT do anything wrong!” The more Linglong spoke, the more agitated she got. She slammed the table with her hands, her chest was heaving and her voice got louder. Even the candle flame flickered wildly in tandem with her words. The tension in the room escalated.

Song Caitang looked at the long shadow that Linglong cast on the screen behind her and frowned slightly. But she did not say anything for a long time.

She did not agree with what Linglong said, but this was not the time to express her views. It would likely end in a meaningless argument and nobody would be willing to listen to the other person.

Before this, she had deliberately agitated Linglong to force Linglong to tell the truth. But now that Linglong was willing to talk, she had to get her to calm down. Linglong looked like she needed some time to collect herself.

The room remained silent for a long time. Song Caitang waited until Linglong had gulped down three cups of tea and seemed calmer before saying quietly, “So…you knew what Jing Yan was up to. You also got the list of people to kill from him.”

“No, you’ve guessed it wrong.”

Song Caitang tried to approach the topic from a different angle because it could be really hard to get straight answers from Linglong.

But Linglong still wanted to make sure there was no misunderstanding about Jing Yan.

“He never told me who he was and never taught me anything. I was the one who wanted to get close to him, I wanted to find a way to be entangled with him, so I harbored these feelings and secretly tried to sound him out and learn from him…”

“As the saying goes, anyone can be a bad guy for a thousand days, but nobody can guard themselves from all bad guys for a thousand days. He was really careful and wary, but I put in all my time and effort to find out about him, so it was inevitable that I found out a thing or two.”

“Like the words Eagle Guard, like the fact that someone was in contact with an enemy country and betraying ours…”

Linglong stared at Song Caitang quietly. “But Jing Yan was simply too smart. I only knew he was an Eagle Guard and was probably working for the emperor, but I have no idea who else is in this organization or what sort of organization this is at all. Jing Yan’s opponent is that traitor, but I don’t know who that person is either. I only know that this traitor has hidden themselves very well and has a lot of connections. Jing Yan had been investigating this matter for a long time and had must have gathered a lot of clues. But no matter how hard I tried, I only managed to get three names.”

“But as you know, since they are connected, there must be more within their circle. I only had three names to start with, but I just needed to get close to them carefully, conduct further investigations, and with enough patience, I’d get not just the carrot but the mud beneath it too…”

As she said these words, she narrowed her eyes and dragged her words out like a sly little fox.

Song Caitang sighed inwardly.

She was really impressed by how intelligent Linglong was, but it was wasted just like that…

“I even learned a few moves from him, but he didn’t know at all…”

Linglong had a little smile on her face when she talked about the past, but it didn’t last long.

“He had worked hard to protect me even though I was so rebellious and put myself in danger time and again, so I want to protect him too, even though…he’s already dead.”

After she said those words very quietly, she looked up at Song Caitang again. “I heard about the Count of Peace case. I should thank you.”

Song Caitang was a little puzzled. “Thank me?”

“Jing Yan never told me about what he did out there and I didn’t always have a grasp on where he had gone. I didn’t know where he went or who he met. If he disappeared suddenly, I wouldn’t know if he was dead or alive.”

“But he would never miss any of our appointments, or fail to turn up without a message. So, when he failed to return for a long time, I remained hopeful on the outside, but I figured that he had probably met his demise… But I had no idea where his body was, who killed him, or where his home was. I…couldn’t even offer him a stick of incense.”

“So, I should thank you for what you did.”

Linglong got up, her eyes bloodshot as she fell on her knees and kowtowed to Song Caitang. “Thank you for finding his body. Thank you for identifying him even though he had been reduced to a skeleton in the soil. Thank you for allowing his soul to return home, and to be properly buried!”

Song Caitang reacted too slowly. Linglong’s forehead had already touched the floor.

The room fell silent again. The three men watching from outside had different expressions on their faces, but none of them said anything.

Women…could really be hard to understand.

But this time, the room calmed down after the long silence.

Song Caitang sighed inwardly and continued talking about the case, “You’ve been making use of Jiang Shaoyuan all this time, including his surrender to the authorities.”

“That’s right.” Linglong got up from the floor and sat down on her chair again as she gave a straight answer. “Whenever I commit a murder, I often use him to be my alibi. Those details he gave when he turned himself in? I told him all that.”

Song Caitang asked, “Before this—”

Linglong cut her off, “Before this, he didn’t know anything. He didn’t know that I had killed a lot of people. Or perhaps…he had made some guesses but did not dare to think too much about it.”

Song Caitang placed her fingers on the teacup and looked at Linglong grimly. “According to your plan, if your crimes were never uncovered, you would live your lives as per normal. But if they were uncovered, then he was the scapegoat that you had already chosen beforehand. Correct?”

“Yes,” Linglong nodded. “If necessary, he can be sacrificed.”

Song Caitang frowned slightly. “But he likes you.”

“Tsk, Miss Song is still too young, too naïve,” Linglong snorted. “I don’t take the word ‘like’ lightly. If he truly liked me, then even if I didn’t like him, I wouldn’t hurt him like this. But his idea of liking me is the same as all those other men who love saying sweet nothings to women but don’t mean it.”

“If he really liked me, then why wasn’t he willing to marry me? Why wasn’t he willing to help me to find a way to survive after I retire from this place and make sure I’m taken care of?”

“Us women who work in such places may not be very good at a lot of things, but we’re very good at figuring out if a man is serious about us or not. Jiang Shaoyuan does take a fancy to me, but he doesn’t truly like me. He’s willing to do so much for me mostly because I have a hold over him.”

Linglong exuded the air of one whom others could not afford to offend. “I used this information and acted pitiful to make him listen to me. He used his so called ‘feelings’ for me to coax me into listening to him. Then after some time, things eventually reached this stage. He couldn’t make me completely subservient to him but couldn’t do anything else about it, so he decided to go all out to show his devotion to me regardless of the consequences. He thought that if I even had the slightest bit of conscience, I wouldn’t bear to bring him hard.”

She understood very well how relationships between such men and women like herself worked. How could Jiang Shaoyuan have thought he would be able to outsmart her?

Song Caitang lowered her gaze as she listened to Linglong speak. “So, the night you killed Madam Wang and had to leave in a hurry was because he saw you?”

“That’s right,” Linglong admitted to that quickly. “Before I made my move, Ningyan spotted me, so I put up an act and managed to fool her. But I didn’t expect Jiang Shaoyuan to come looking for Madam Wang as well.”

“I don’t know why he wanted to see her. Maybe it’s because he saw me head toward her room, or perhaps he did want to talk to Madam Wang. He got scolded by Zheng Fangquan in front of others when the gathering started, so maybe he wanted to ask if she could smooth things out for him.”

Linglong scoffed. “He isn’t a good guy at all. When he saw that I had committed murder, he started expressing shock and made so much noise, as if he was trying to attract attention or something! He’s so much bigger and taller than me, and I didn’t have much poison left, so since I couldn’t kill him, I seduced him instead.”

Song Caitang understood why she chose to do that. Sex was the way Linglong controlled men. She was very well versed in the art of seduction and used it to her advantage.

“That’s why there were those marks on your body later that night when Prince Ping and I ran into you.”

The corners of Linglong’s eyes turned upward slightly and she had a slightly flirtatious look in her eyes. “That’s right. And since Jiang Shaoyuan had seen what I’d done, that meant that my plan might fail. So I came up with another idea..”

Song Caitang figured it out. “You decided to frame him.”

“I found a black robe, put it on, and ran down the street,” said Linglong with a smile. “So, even if you and Prince Ping hadn’t appeared that night, I would have found a way to make sure someone out there spotted me in the robe.”

That was why Zhao Zhi simply couldn’t find anyone who might have seen this man in a black robe.

Because that man didn’t exist at all.

Song Caitang raised her brows slightly. “What about Zheng Fangquan? You asked him out?”

“I didn’t need to. Now that Madam Wang was dead, the house he used for his secret meetings with her had to be taken care of. He would definitely head to the house.” Linglong refilled Song Caitang’s tea. “I didn’t have to watch him myself. Jiang Shaoyuan was always keeping an eye on him and he would tell about it.”

Song Caitang got it. “Zheng Fangquan’s relationship with Madam Wang was no secret.”

Linglong replied, “If you were close enough to them, you would know.”

Madam Wang had a hand in Zheng Fangquan’s daily duties at work. Anyone who was sensitive enough or stood to benefit from their relationship would eventually find out.

But nobody said anything because they respected his office.

Jiang Shaoyuan had been oppressed by Zheng Fangquan for a long time, so talking about Zheng Fangquan’s weaknesses was something he enjoyed.

“But Jiang Shaoyuan had no idea that I wanted to kill Zheng Fangquan too.”

Song Caitang nodded, then asked about the butler of Prince Ping’s residence, Zhao Zhong, “How did you kill him then?”

“I did need a good reason to get him to meet me,” Linglong snorted, then leaned forward. She looked at Song Caitang straight in the eye. “But I didn’t use the salt business or other ways to make money, or the secret box pattern in his room to lure him out. It was…the one whom he reports to.”

Song Caitang frowned. “The one he reports to?”

Linglong’s smile widened. “Some people look like honest folks and are seemingly loyal, but nobody knows…exactly who he’s really loyal to, or who he would be willing to sacrifice himself for. Miss Song, you should remind your Prince Ping to pay a little more attention to what’s going on at home.”

Song Caitang paused to think.

Linglong had been very honest with the details of what she had done, just like she promised earlier. But when it came to Zhao Zhong…she seemed to be purposely withholding some information in order to annoy Song Caitang.

If Linglong was willing to talk about it, she wouldn’t behave this way.

It seemed like even though Linglong was generally friendly toward Song Caitang, she was still upset that Song Caitang had laid a trap for her and made her walk into it.

But Song Caitang remained greedy. She wanted to know everything that Linglong knew, regardless of whether she wanted to talk about it or not.

If Linglong wasn’t cooperative, Song Caitang would take her time to wheedle it out of her.

Song Caitang put those thoughts away, then smiled at Linglong. “Those men had committed several crimes and were connected to Jing Yan’s death, so you wanted to take revenge. But what about the two women?”

She hadn’t forgotten about the other two female victims in this serial murder.

“Hongyuan and Xinggu. I’m sure their deaths have something to do with you.”

They were killed in exactly the same way as the other victims. Song Caitang was sure that they were also killed by Linglong.

Linglong’s smile faded. “That’s right. I killed them too.”

“They were also part of the organization that’s betraying our country?”

“No, but they helped those people!” Linglong’s chest heaved. “Those two sluts also tried to seduce Jing Yan before!”

Song Caitang sighed. “Looks like the latter sentence is your main point.”

The room fell silent.

Linglong pursed her lips tightly and turned her face away.

Song Caitang went on, “You said that you killed people who deserved to die, you said that you didn’t do anything wrong—”

“I didn’t do anything wrong! They did deserve to die!” Linglong’s eyes blazed with rage. “They had done so many wicked things but nobody stood up to stop them and the authorities never found out! And even if they did, they would just laugh it off! If I didn’t kill them, who knows how many people would have died because of them!”

Song Caitang continued, “But you see, initially, you felt that these men deserved to die because they had colluded with an enemy state and were bringing harm to innocent citizens. But later, you felt that the women deserved to die not because they had brought harm to anybody, but just because they had tried to seduce Jing Yan… Your standard of judgment has changed. The things that upset you have increased. You’re no longer upholding righteousness.”

“This is why we strongly believe that nobody should try to execute punishment on others on their own, regardless of what happened or who is involved, because human standards will keep changing, while the law does not. All are equal before the law.”

“I can tell you right now, Linglong, that you were wrong. Your line of thinking was wrong, and what you did was wrong too.”

Linglong glared at Song Caitang furiously.

But Song Caitang did not wait for her response and kept going, “Everything you have done has required a lot of courage. Regardless of whether Jing Yan had any romantic feelings or not, he must have admired your cleverness and ability to use situations to your advantage. He certainly would not have wanted you to turn into this.”

“You said he didn’t teach you anything, but I think that he had been teaching you throughout your time together. He used his actions to teach you what it meant to be understanding toward others, how to protect others, what it meant to believe in something strongly, what one must do and what one must never do in life.”

“He was teaching you how to be a good person, Linglong.”