That’s Right, I Wished So Hard She Was Dead

The focus immediately shifted once Madam Ji uttered those words.

But because she had completely exposed her true feelings toward Gao Zhuo, everyone thought that she was speaking up because she wanted to free Gao Zhuo from suspicion.

Madam Ge frowned slightly and looked disapprovingly at Madam Ji, “Seeking justice for the victim is of utmost priority here. Murder cases are not the place for anyone to pull funny stunts, so you must speak the truth.”

“I am speaking the truth!”

Madam Ji’s gaze flickered slightly, as though she was filled with jealousy and hatred, yet upset at the same time, “At that time, I meant to pay Yun Nianyao a visit and talk to her, but I happened to see Gao Zhuo walk over and go past Yun Nianyao’s residence. The two of them ended up running into each other and it would look bad if she just turned and walked away, so she invited Gao Zhuo to sit at the stone pavilion in her yard for a while. Gao Zhuo placed his flute on the stone table and when Yun Nianyao picked up the teapot to pour tea for him, her sleeve swept past the flute. That’s all.”

Coroner Sun narrowed his eyes, “Madam Ji, you didn’t mention this in your statement.”

Madam Ji retorted, “Like you said, Yun Nianyao died at night. So many different things happened in the daytime before that! Who would think any of that would be related to her death? Of course, I would have forgotten to say anything I didn’t think was important!”

Not only was Coroner Sun very displeased that things had not gone the way he had hoped, but Gao Zhuo’s expression was frosty as well. He stared at Madam Ji very unkindly, “You saw that?”

Madam Ji bit her lip and nodded.

“You were watching me? Eavesdropping on our conversation?”

Gao Zhuo sounded like he was actually angry, which upset Madam Ji, “I testified for you and you’re blaming me?”

“My innocence would have proven itself! I didn’t need you to do that!”

“It’s been such a long time…but you’re still like this…” Tears began to roll down Madam Ji’s cheeks as she suddenly started crying, “You liked Yun Nianyao in the past, but she got married a long time ago and cut ties with you! She had already let go of you and never asked after you or showed you concern. She even made sure to avoid you if she ever happened to see you, so why can’t you let her go?! Why does she even deserve that? Even though you knew very well that if you were willing to just turn around, I…”

“Mrs. Fu!”

Gao Zhuo gnashed his teeth, “You might be willing to embarrass your husband and yourself here, but not everyone is willing to be embarrassed like this! I’m not very close to you at all, so please, please stop saying things that will make others misunderstand our relationship.”

Madam Ji wailed even more loudly, “You…”

Fu Xiuxiu couldn’t stand watching this anymore. She ran over to hold Madam Ji’s arm and pinched her hard, “Sis-in-law! You’re still recovering from last night! You had a fever since last night and you kept saying that your head hurt…”

Fu Xiuxiu really hated this sister-in-law now.

If not for the fact that Madam Ji was rich and had given their family so much dowry that they couldn’t finish spending it even two generations later, or that she came from a very prominent family in the capital that the Fus could rely on and she was usually quite protective of the family, the Fus would have repudiated her a long time ago!

Thankfully, Gao Zhuo didn’t care for Madam Ji, so nothing embarrassing happened other than Madam Ji ruining her own reputation.

Madam Ge looked at the messy situation before her and clasped her palms together as she chanted Amitabh quietly.

The situation was turning out favorably for the suspects, which made Coroner Sun feel indignant. He immediately came up with something else, “But there were faint wine stains on those light yellow tassels. We’ve checked already – the victim never drank wine, and there was no alcohol in the food she ate that day. But Mr. Gao likes to drink two cups if he doesn’t have anything on at night. If you only met her in the morning and never saw her again, why was there wine on the tassel?”

Gao Zhuo frowned, “I have no idea. I only know that I never saw her after the sun had set.”

“Giving a false statement is punishable by paddling!”

Madam Ji wailed loudly several times earlier, but Gao Zhuo ignored her, so she stopped wailing and got angry at him. But when she saw how Coroner Sun was trying to corner Gao Zhuo again, she couldn’t help but say, “What is this? You’re upset that she might have some selfish thoughts and would like to take time to reminisce about her life before marriage? For all you know, Yun Nianyao got her hands on some wine secretly and just used it to remind her of someone but didn’t drink it!”

Fu Xiuxiu tugged at Madam Ji, “Sis-in-law…”

Nobody said anything, and the place fell silent again.

Madam Ge sighed, “You’re accusing Gao Zhuo of being the murderer with just a few clues and conjectures. That’s a little far-fetched, don’t you think? Do the two of you have other more concrete proof?”

Coroner Sun and Judge Guo exchanged glances.

This was a good chance for them to prove themselves. Did they really have to give it up?

But until today, this was the only clue that was of any value.

All these people were just not speaking the truth! Damn it!

Coroner Sun had a nasty look in his eye as he scanned everyone in the group and finally stopped at Madam Ji.

“Mrs. Fu, you even know about what happened to that tassel in great detail, so I’m sure you’ve been watching him in secret for a long time and that morning wasn’t the first time you were doing that.”

Madam Ji had been agitated several times in a row and couldn’t control herself anymore. She didn’t care anymore, “And so what if I did? I’ve been watching him! Following him all day! So what?”

Coroner Sun had a strange lilt in his voice, “You must have been very jealous of the victim. You didn’t like her at all.”

“That’s right! I was jealous of her and I didn’t like her at all! I wished so hard that she was dead! Why didn’t she die a few years earlier?! She had everything and I don’t have anything! She got married earlier and had children! We grew up together! Why did SHE get a smooth sailing life while I had to live such a lousy one?!” Madam Ji guessed that Coroner Sun was trying to trap her with these words, so she snorted, “But does having a wicked thought from time to time make one a murderer?”

“I dare say that if you go to the capital right now, seven out of ten women around her age hate Yun Nianyao, and of those, five of them wished she were dead sometimes. Are you going to arrest a suspect from the capital?”

Coroner Sun flew into a rage, “You’re being ridiculous now!”

Madam Ji ignored him and continued, “And if you really want to talk about it, don’t you think the biggest suspect here is actually Mrs. Lin? The rest of us were only allowed to see Yun Nianyao during the day, but Mrs. Lin here is an expert in acupuncture, a woman whose hands are considered to have divine powers! She had come here to conduct regular checks on Yun Nianyao’s pregnancy and would check her pulse three times a day, morning, afternoon and night! She’s the only one who could see Yun Nianyao at night! She might be the killer!”

Coroner Sun froze, then looked at Madam Ge.

Madam Ge lowered her gaze and sighed, “It’s true that Mrs. Qi had come to Tianhua Temple without a doctor by her side, so I came to help her keep tabs on her pregnancy. I would come to take her pulse every morning, afternoon and night to check her status. But on that day, I had arrived at her room before the sun had set completely. And after I saw that her pregnancy was normal and everything else was fine, I left without worries. I have no idea what happened after that.”

When she saw the nasty glint in Coroner Sun’s eyes, she continued, “And if you’re even suspicious of that, then I’m afraid there’s more to be suspicious about. There are so many people walking around in the temple, including countless worshippers. Could someone have snuck in, done the deed and made a run for it? All of Mrs. Qi’s food and drink were provided by the temple. Are you certain there are no bad guys among the monks?”

Coroner Sun didn’t know how to respond to any of that and began to regret doing this now. Besides the fact that these people were difficult to talk to and that they had left out certain things in their statements, the evidence he had found had turned out to be too weak indeed…

But before he could attempt a retreat, he spotted the look in Judge Guo’s eyes and knew he couldn’t do that. There was no way to end this nicely. Since they had come so far, they were going to make sure they went back with a murderer!

He focused his attention on Gao Zhuo, the biggest suspect so far, and glared at the man nastily, “No matter what, that tassel belongs to Mr. Gao and there was definitely wine on it. If Mr. Gao cannot give us a reasonable explanation, I’m afraid I have to haul you in!”

Gao Zhuo was so angry that his eye kept twitching, “Oh? Let’s see how you manage to do that!”

Just when they looked like they were going to break into a fight, a voice broke the tension suddenly, “Seems very lively here, huh! You’ve failed to crack my wife’s case but it looks like you’re an expert at quarreling!”

The man who had arrived at the scene was tall with round eyes and a squarish face. His clothing was expensive and he exuded the air of a martial artist. His voice was filled with displeasure and he walked like he was going to kill someone. It didn’t take a genius to know who this man was after looking at his demeanor and hearing what he said.

This man was Qi Zhaoyuan. Yun Nianyao’s husband.

Qi Zhaoyuan had travelled a long way. There was stubble on his face and he was accompanied by very few people, so he had clearly arrived in a hurry. Besides his own servants, he was followed by one more person – Governor Li.

Governor Li had a slightly embarrassed look on his face and his breathing was quick. He seemed rather unhappy with the situation as he secretly glared fiercely at Coroner Sun and Judge Guo.

After he was done glaring, he put on a smile and asked after Qi Zhaoyuan politely, making small talk in an extremely ingratiating manner.

This Qi Zhaoyuan must have very high standing.

Perhaps martial artists had better hearing, so he had heard a lot of the conversation earlier even from so far away. Qi Zhaoyuan was displeased with Coroner Sun and Judge Guo, but he didn’t forget to mock Governor Li at the same time, “I see you took very good care of my wife indeed!”

Governor Li could only smile stiffly.

Indeed, they had taken such good care of her that she died. And not only had she died, but they had also failed to find her murderer.

His heart was heavy and filled with regret.

Didn’t the rumors claim that Qi Zhaoyuan and Yun Nianyao were on bad terms and didn’t care if each other lived or died? But the way Qi Zhaoyuan had behaved ran contrary to these claims.

When he heard from his subordinates that Qi Zhaoyuan had arrived, he had scrambled out to welcome the man. But to his surprise, the man had immediately gone to where his wife was laid after setting foot in the temple grounds and cried miserably at her corpse! His bodyguards even stood by the door and refused to let anyone in!

It had taken him quite a long time to come out again, and he marched further into the temple, refusing to listen to anything Governor Li had to say and Governor Li had no idea what he wanted to do. And then…they ran into this scene.

How unlucky! How very unlucky!!

Governor Li started thinking about how he should deal with this case.

While he was thinking, Qi Zhaoyuan spoke again, “Since all of you are so capable, why don’t you crack the case today! I’ll watch the time for you. If this argument can’t confirm who the murderer is by tonight, I’ll take it that all of you are the murderers and execute all of you. How’s that?”

He did not speak quickly and actually sounded quite calm. But his eyes seemed to gleam murderously, as though he was telling them that he would rather kill the wrong person than to risk leaving any of them alive.