By the time the villagers of Banyan Village were awakened by the sound of gongs, it was already daybreak. The loud noise in the silent village was startling, causing the chickens to squawk and the dogs to bark. The cattle and the sheep became uneasy and every household was woken up. Each person gradually got dressed and looked outside, where a yamen officer wearing a uniform was holding up a gong. The officer walked around and told people to go to the banyan tree so they could hear about the recent updates regarding the case.
As soon as they heard that there were updates related to the banyan tree, the villagers washed up more quickly. Some people simply went straight over, still bleary-eyed as they made sure to occupy a good spot while waiting.
The latecomers could only stand in the back. Meanwhile, a few bold people squeezed forward to sit near the banyan tree. When they saw Mr. Su standing under the banyan tree again, with no trace of fear, they sighed, thinking about the kind of retribution he would suffer. Perhaps that would give him some qualms so that he would not be so reckless in the future.
The officers were very relaxed this time. They didn’t have to stop the villagers. Instead, they used the banyan tree as a “wall” so that the villagers wouldn’t come forth. Therefore, the officers wouldn’t have to be worried about squeezing into Su Yunkai’s space.
Qin Fang sat with the villagers, watching the commotion. He didn’t dare sit under the tree. His too white, handsome face was very conspicuous. Bai Shui noticed. Accidentally, their gazes met. They immediately looked away from each other, as though they hadn’t seen each other at all.
Ming Yue stood beside Bai Shui, waiting for Su Yunkai to start the hearing. She also saw the three sworn brothers standing at the very front. Their faces were calm. Even An Dexing didn’t have his usual chatter.
The people from the escort agency were also on the side. All of them held their breath and looked at Su Yunkai, unsure how things would progress.
Lord Xu took a rough estimate of the people and reported, “Lord Su, everyone who should be here is here.”
Su Yunkai nodded slightly and swept his gaze around to confirm. He said, “Today, I’ve had everyone come so that I can try two cases. One is the case of the treasure in the banyan tree and the other is the case of the murderous nursery rhyme. “
The villagers had difficulty understanding. Someone asked in a loud voice, “Ghost sister and the banyan tree are going to be divided into two cases?”
“Right. There is no ghost sister. It’s all been man-made.”
“…… There are murderers in our village?”
“There is no murderer from the Banyan Village, but the culprit is in the village.”
The villagers were surprised and looked around. It seemed that only the yamen and the escort agency were outsiders. Both organizations were at a loss, asking, “My lord, who is the murderer?”
Now, everyone was listening carefully. Suddenly, the people saw Su Yunkai turn his head to look in a certain direction. The shift in his gaze was eye-catching. They followed it and saw that he was looking at Yang An, the son of the chief escort.
Seeing all his eyes on him, Yang An was stunned. After finally squeezing out an awkward smile, he said, “What are you all looking at me for? I’m not a murderer.”
“You are the murderer. The very one who killed Chang De.”
Su Yunkai’s voice was firm. Even the people in the escort agency forgot to defend Yang An for a moment. It was Yang Jing, his father, who reacted first. His incredulity was infused with an anger that could not be repressed. “My lord, what are you saying? How could my son possibly be a murderer? He and your coachman barely know each other. My lord, you can’t just pick a person to take the blame in order to solve a case! My son didn’t even have any motive to do so at all.”
“He did. He wanted to take advantage of rumors about a ghost sister and use the villagers’ fear to drive us away.”
Yang An was silent, but Yang Jing couldn’t help it. He exclaimed, “My lord talks only with your mouth. You have no evidence. If you want me to make up a story about you killing someone, I can make one up smoothly as well.”
Lord Xu felt the official cap on his head tremble. He said, “You obstinate peasant, don’t talk nonsense.” He glared angrily and shouted until Yang Jing stopped. Then, Lord Xu bowed to Su Yunkai and said politely, “My lord must’ve said the words just now with much consideration…but I think that if you don’t have evidence, it may not be appropriate to say so.”
Su Yunkai understood this, of course. But because the cases overlapped, they had to be tried individually. “Indeed. If there was no evidence, it would be inappropriate.”
Lord Xu began to perk up. “Do you mean you have evidence? The murderer can hide Chang De without anyone knowing. He avoided so many eyes and ears in the village and left the village smoothly. He even calculated his times correctly. No matter how I see it, it’s someone who has been in the village more than once.”
“Indeed, this is not the first time Yang An has come to the village. He is familiar with every road here. That is why he could still quickly find the place where the yamen set up camp with the many forked roads and could walk safely past the road indentations that were easy to fall into, even in the dark.
Zhu Changrong frowned. “But we haven’t seen Mr. Yang before.”
“He doesn’t come in the day. He comes at night.”
Yang Jing was confused. “Why would my son want to come to this Banyan Village? He has no relation to this place.”
“Because he had connections to the village. He also wanted to know whether the ghost sister rhyme would bring him out.”
Everyone was full of doubt. They didn’t understand the connection between Yang An and the ghost sister. Even Lord Xu, who prided himself on having some case-handling abilities, was also puzzled. “The top priority is to prove why he is the murderer, not why he came to the village.”
Su Yunkai said, “Chang De is not short. Because he drives the carriage all year round, his arms are very strong. Still, the culprit was able to quickly subdue him and give him no chance to call for help. Judging by the footprints of the murder, there was only one. Thus, the perpetrator knows martial arts.”
Yang An said, “Every bodyguard knows martial arts. Why would you think it’s me?”
Su Yunkai looked at him coldly. “Because only you had time to kill Chang De. Changde died around eight. At that time, the agents were already sleeping in pairs. You were the only one absent from your room. However, because you’ve been taking care of your newborn child recently, you were often away from your room in the middle of night, so no one doubted it.”
“I was walking around the yard, not outside,” Yang An said helplessly, “Of course, the lord will not believe this because you don’t intend on believing me.”
Su Yunkai was not surprised by his sophistry. It was not easy to get a murderer to admit his crimes. “Did you notice that the place where you killed Chang De was a place where other people used to burn porcelain, and that there had been many pieces of porcelain on the ground?”
Yang An paused for a moment. “I’ve never been there. I don’t know what the lord is talking about.”
Su Yunkai gave a cold smile. “The edges of the broken porcelain pieces were sharp, but because most were small, people with thick soles wouldn’t notice. People with thin soles, however, would find it easy to prick their feet. Chang De was a coachman. He would normally remain in the carriage all day long. He didn’t need to walk around on the ground. Therefore, the soles of his shoes didn’t need to be too thick. Thus, his feet have small bloody punctures due to ceramic debris. However, for people like you, who travel to distant places constantly, the soles of your shoes are bound to be very thick. Perhaps you didn’t even notice when the debris stabbed in.”
Yang An subconsciously shifted his feet. He didn’t notice this, but the people watching him saw it clearly, Yang Jing included. Suddenly, Yang Jing had a bad premonition. For innocence and truth, he said in a low voice, “Take off your shoes.”
Yang An looked at his father in surprise. “Dad.”
“I had you take off your shoes!”
Yang An didn’t move. Yang Jing stepped forward to take off his shoes and see if there was any debris on them. Seeing this, other escorts also came forward to help. Even though Yang An struggled, his shoes were eventually taken off. Yang Jing trembled as he turned the shoes over. On the one-inch-thick white sole, there was some debris. Yang Jing almost fainted. Not caring about the sharp edges, he kneaded the debris in his hand until his fingers started to bleed. Seeing that the debris was ceramic, he choked.
Yang An was startled. He knelt down and said, “Dad, I didn’t kill anyone. I don’t know when it got on, I…”
“Yang An.” Su Yunkai interrupted in a cold voice, “In addition to this, you have another piece of important evidence, which was left by Chang De before his death.”
Yang An raged, “What else is there?!”
“As I said, Chang De was a coachman. In order to wave the whips all the year round, his arm strength was strong. When you subdued him, you couldn’t let him cry for help, so you had to cover his mouth. With his remaining hand, Chang De could resist. The fingernail of his right thumb flipped out, but there was no dirt in it, which means that he had exerted the last of his strength upon the murderer’s body. For his fingernail to almost break free . . . that indicates how much strength he used. Yang An, you must have a similar injury on your body. “
“I could have gotten these injuries elsewhere.”
Seeing that he still wasn’t confessing, Su Yunkai’s tone got even colder. “Although Chang De’s body was injured by the struggle, we found that the only wound that bled profusely was the one on his neck. During Ming Yue’s autopsy, she found blood on his pants in the knee area. If the blood from his neck splashed to other places, it shouldn’t have only been to his knee. The only possibility is that the murderer was also injured. When the culprit was carrying the body, he held onto the leg of the body in order to avoid touching the blood of the dead. As the culprit moved, the murderer’s blood was stained on the victim’s pants. I think…the wound on your arm reopened with the fight.”
Ming Yue interposed, “Your injury was caused from half a month ago. Although it was deep at the time, it should’ve been mended in half a month. If there was no strong external force, it would not be torn again. Your father once said that your wound split open again and that he wanted the doctor to come look. The blood on Uncle Chang’s knee is your blood! Yang An… you are the one who killed Uncle Chang.”
Yang An’s face was ashen grey. He covered his arm and refused to show it to Yang Jing. His refusal to show his wounds and his tight hold on his clothes caused Yang Jing’s face to turn pale. This behavior…his son really was the murderer.
He asked in a trembling voice, “Why did you kill a horseman you never met? What are you trying to cover up using the ghost sister song?”
Su Yunkai sighed. “In order to cover up the fact that he failed ah’Wan while also ensuring that his wife and children would not leave him, he tried to cover up his mistakes through cruel means. He hoped Uncle Chang’s death would drive us away so that we wouldn’t pry into the matter of the stolen goods and discover his secret.”
Yang Jing appeared to have grown white hair at that moment. He didn’t want to care about some ah’Wan, but he had to ask, “Who is ah’Wan?”
“Ah’Wan is the ghost sister in the nursery rhyme. She liked Yang An, but Yang An concealed the fact that he had a family, which eventually led to ah’Wan’s suicide under this banyan tree.”
Hearing ah’Wan’s name repeatedly, Yang An finally collected his wits. He asked in a daze, “How do you know this? Nobody should have known that we were together.”
Su Yunkai said, “Because the tune of ‘Ghost Sister’ has the same tune as ‘Forgetting the Cloudy Sky’ and the ballad comes from Yuanzhou, your hometown.”
Yang An was shocked.
“Ah’Wan had a good voice. You taught her how to sing this song. Although the rhyme was primarily to chase people away from the tree, the people who rewrote the lyrics clearly knew that you had taught this to ah’Wan, so they only changed the lyrics and not the tune because they wanted you to remember your crimes.”
Yang An looked up at him. “They?”
Su Yunkai turned to the three people who had been silent for a long time. “Them.”
The villagers all turned to look at Zhu Ankang and the other two. They saw that all three of them were eerily calm and quiet. Then, the villagers realized that what Lord Su said was true. They were surprised and Zhu Changrong couldn’t believe it. “The three of you made up the nursery rhyme?”
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A Hint of Spring 
Thanks for the chapter!
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