FID – Chapter 485

  Chapter 485: Sing a Duet?

  Wei Hong nodded. “I’ll examine her when we get back later. I heard that affluent families have punishments for disobedient clansmen. They always like to use the family law. Perhaps when we examine her, we can have an unexpected discovery.”

  Matriarch Li’s eyes darkened once more.

  The yamen officials nearby reported again, “Your Excellency, there are tears in the grass here, as well as crush traces in the grass below. We can assume that someone fell from above. According to the depth of the force between the indentation of the grass and the ground, it can be presumed that someone has been lying here overnight.”

  An Cai, who had been following behind him silently, lifted his eyelids and looked at Liu Jinfu, “I’m afraid someone was injured and stayed here all night. Her injury was too severe, and she couldn’t hold herself steady, so she just rolled down and lay down overnight. What do you think?”

  Liu Jinfu nodded, “That’s highly likely. I heard from the villagers on the way to work in the morning that they did see Miss Li crawling out of the grass with their own eyes. This evidence proves what the witnesses claimed.”

  ”She’s such a nice young lady. What was she doing here instead of going home? What is it that made her prefer to come to the middle of nowhere rather than go home?” An Cai asked again.

  Liu Jinfu blurted out, “You don’t need to ask. She must have been wronged at home! When the children in our village receive a beating at home, the angry ones usually run away from home!”

  ”Then why would she rather come to the wilderness than stay in the Liu family compound overnight?”

  ”Are you out of your mind? Zhiqiu in the Liu family’s courtyard is a feisty young man. If a young lady without any relatives stays there for no reason, isn’t it tantamount to inviting people to gossip? She must have been trying to avoid any sort of suspicion, ah, otherwise she wouldn’t be deemed innocent, right?”

  An Cai lowered his eyelids and said nothing.

  Only now did Liu Jinfu realize that An Cai, this bastard, schemed him into singing a duet with him!

  However, this duet was sung flawlessly!

  Hahaha!

  After their duet, Matriarch Li’s complexion changed several times.

  Zhiqiu could also prove his innocence.

  He has absolutely no secret relationship with Fifth Miss Li. Otherwise, why did he  not keep her? Otherwise, why didn’t he let her stay?

  Matriarch Li’s eyes sank and turned gloomy again and again. These country bumpkins turned out to be scheming. She underestimated them!

  They inspected the Xinghua Ridge area, and finally determined that the people snuck in from the other side of the Qing River by diving. The group returned to the Liu family courtyard again via Xinghua Ridge.

  Someone died, and four assassins were also killed. If this was filed in the government office, it would be a case relating to human life. The investigation was extremely complicated and certainly involved a lot of people, so it was impossible to close the case in a short time.

  Therefore, the source of the identity of the four assassins would be put aside for a while, and the matter of the deceased, Li Junyue, would be solved first.

  ”Matriarch Li, Li Junyue is a member of your family. What are your plans? If you want to sue, I’m afraid you can’t. This matter has basically nothing to do with the Liu family. The only thing you can do now is to wait until the yamen finds out who is behind the scenes before you can come to and file a lawsuit.” After taking a seat, Kang Shiming took the matter in a different direction with a few words, deliberately extricating the Liu family.

  Liu Erlin and Du Juan glanced at each other, taking not of his favor for the time being.

  Outsiders might not know, but how could they be ignorant deep inside? Those assassins specifically targeted the Liu family.

  From the stranger prying into their ancestral background last year, to the current assassination, they were afraid an extentensive number of people were involved, definitely including people of the capital.

  Liu Zhiqiu sat on the other side and said in a low voice, “Our family is also a victim of this incident. In order to save Li Junyue, I almost died there. If Aunt Hong hadn’t come quickly, I would be one of those lying lifeless now. Your Excellency, please investigate thoroughly. Who snuck up on the mountain? What are they trying to do, and what is their purpose?”

  ”Young Master Liu, rest assured. Investigating a case is a matter within the yamen. As a parental official, it is also my responsibility to let the people live and work in peace and contentment. If there is a murder case under my management, I will definitely not turn a deaf ear to it.”

  Matriarch Li sat on the other end, listening to the harmonious chorus of several people. Her face was so heavy that water almost dripped.

  How could she not know that the magistrate favored the Liu family?

  But she had watched when the case was being investigated, and it was indeed Li Junyue who ran away to Xinghua Ridge on her own. All the physical evidence was out in the open, so there was no way to overturn it.

  And if she must seize the Liu family and persist in suing them, they would certainly bring up performing an autopsy to the deceased again. By then, there would be no way to cover up the scars on Li Junyue.

  She knew how hard she was beaten with 30 heavy sticks right from the start, and she never asked a doctor to come to treat her after that.

  Once those scars were exposed, another scandal would be added on top of the Li family. Everyone in the city would surely gossip how the Li family personally forced a younger generation to death.

  It would make matters worse for the Li family, who has become a laughingstock now.

  Matriarch Li closed her eyes forcefully, and suppressed her unwillingness. No matter how unwilling she was, she could only let the Liu family go this time.

  How could she have foreseen Li Junyue’s death, and dying in this manner?

  Killed by an assassin with a single stab.

  As for the source of the assassins, who knew how many years it would take to find out?

  They had to accept this dumb loss no matter how unwilling they were!

  An unfulfilled marriage not only failed to bring support to the Li family, but also lost the bait along with the fish.

  ”Lord Kang, this old lady has nothing to say. If someone must be blamed, I can only blame Yue’er’s poor luck. Since childhood, she never learned how to distinguish people clearly. The one or two so-called friends she met only pushed her into the abyss!”

  This made Kang Shiming’s face a little ugly.

  Li Junyue ran away because she wanted to resist her marriage, and this marriage was arranged by his good daughter.

  Taking what Matriarch Li said in consideration, didn’t she mean that his daughter had harmed Li Junyue?

  As for the word “friends”, except for his daughter, Kang Ziyu, it probably referred to Liu Zhiqiu.

  Liu Zhiqiu glanced at Matriarch Li, curled his lips and scoffed, “What you have just said is really funny. Why? Don’t you have any idea why your granddaughter fled? Since ancient times, women’s marriages have been based on matchmakers’ suggestions and parents’ arrangements. If not for your nod, could her marriage have come to fruition? If we must talk about who killed your granddaughter, the real culprit is you!” 

  ”You! Young Master Liu, I respect your Liu family as a family of abounding kindness, and have been tolerant in my speech, but that doesn’t mean you can be unrestrained in front of me!” Matriarch Li’s eyebrows furrowed. “Even if I am to blame, if you had not given my Yue’er any hope, how could she have come all the way here to see you before she boards the palanquin? It was a pity that this one look cost her life!”

  Hearing Matriarch Li scolding her son, Du Juan couldn’t bear listening any longer.

  For his naughty son, she could scold and beat him as much as she wanted, but it wasn’t Matriarch Li’s turn to use her elder status while standing in the Liu family courtyard to point fingers, right?

  ”I beg to disagree with you, Matriarch Li. After all was said and done, the root cause is Miss Li’s affairs. She has a marriage arrangement she wanted to escape from. If it wasn’t for her elders’ arrangements about her marriage, would she have escaped? She wouldn’t have escaped, wouldn’t have run to Xinghua Ridge, and had an assassin stab her in the heart. I respect you for your age, but I can’t just stand by and let you talk blindly, shifting the blame on others one after another. Do you know that you’ve only been focusing on others’ mistakes, but always ignoring your own?”