Even though Shen Wei had been caught, Cui Xiu and Zhao Kang’s faces did not display excessive joy. They simply smiled faintly at the “good news.”
Their revenge had succeeded, but they suddenly felt empty. Their sister would never come back. The hatred that had filled their hearts and breathed life into their grief-stricken minds for over a decade was gone.
“The past is the past. You have suffered for twelve years. Let go of this matter. You still have a long future ahead.” Su Yunkai sighed. “But…”
“I understand. Lord Su is a good official.” Cui Xiu spoke calmly. “We have three lives in our hands. If we were to get away with murder, would we not be the same as three? When we made the choice to take revenge, we never planned to escape punishment. When we were exiled, we saw people die every day on the frontier. At that time, we thought that even if we survived and avenged Xiu Xiu, we would go down and accompany her so that she wouldn’t be scared. Xiu Xiu, she…is timid.”
Hearing this, Ming Yue felt tears pour down her face. The things that people like Shen Wei were capable of doing were inconceivable. The wreck that he had left in his wake had destroyed lives, filling them with sorrow.
Zhao Kang said, “In fact, if you had hindered us too much at the time, we would have gotten rid of you as well, since you were an official and we never liked them. We thought you would be just like the rest. However, after you saw Jin Fugui’s body and said those words, we changed our minds.”
Cui Xiu continued, “Shen Wei deserves to die, but we don’t want him to die easily. That would be too kind to him. We wanted him to suffer the bone-breaking pain that Xiu Xiu suffered. Later, we felt that we weren’t giving him his due. We should let more people know of this matter. Otherwise, another Xiu Xiu might appear. More than ten years later, people like us will appear again. You didn’t let us down. Thank you, Lord Su.”
When Su Yunkai had received the things thrown from the roof, he had been surprised. He hadn’t expected for the Su brothers to be willing to entrust the evidence to him. “Before you confessed and gave the evidence, I knew you were the murderers.”
Cui Xiu asked, “How? We had clearly been very careful, leaving no flaws.”
“Cui Xiu, you are a good storyteller. Your oral skills were revealed from the first day. That night, we were about to head down the mountain together. You walked in front when we reached the broken bridge. Because of the issue of time, the bridge was not yet disconnected, so you used your oral skills to imitate the sound of a rope getting cut, which made us step back. We didn’t dare get close to it. Am I right?”
“Indeed.”
“The bloody puppet dolls and the dead appeared in the same strange positions. I assumed that there was a symbolic meaning. After Troupe Leader Chen told me that the perpetrators had mentioned the name ‘Xiu Xiu’ when Jin Fugui was killed, I asked Constable Bai and learned that the victim in the pond corpse case from twelve years ago was called Su Xiu.” Su Yunkai sighed.
Cui Xiu and Zhao Kang were silent.
“There were silver scratches on Jin Fugui’s bed pillars and on the broken bridge. I’ve been thinking about what it was. After I saw you, I realized that it must’ve been one of your picks.”
Zhao Kang raised his hand slightly. The instrument strings were sharp and hard, so musicians played with picks, which were made of the copper and aluminum, which Su Yunkai had thought was silver. Remnants of the picks had likely been caught in Zhao Kang’s nails, which had then scraped onto the other objects.
“When Jin Fugui died, we were already in groups of five. Because Jin Fugui was too arrogant to live with his servants, he slept in the room alone. You and Cui Xiu stayed with three girls that night, but they said that there was a curtain in the middle. Furthermore, as there was no light in the room, they might have not actually seen either of you. However, because the two of you were whispering for half the night, they knew you were present. However, only Cui Xiu was present then, imitating your voice and deceiving them. Meanwhile, you snuck into Jin Fugui’s room, dragged him away, and killed him near the downhill passage.”
Zhao Kang nodded.
Su Yunkai said frankly, “When I was caught in the fishing net, I was indeed planning to expose you two, but Shen Wei went crazy and locked me up before I got the chance. I was already planning on having Constable Bai make a fake assassination attempt in order to force Shen Wei to come to me, but later, you two gave me evidence confirming Shen Wei’s involvement. As your identities were confirmed, my purpose changed to implicating Shen Wei for his crimes.”
*
After Cui Xiu and Zhao Kang left the yard, Su Yunkai was silent for a long time. His heart felt heavy. It wasn’t until Ming Yue took his hand that he returned to his senses. He suddenly felt that everyone should cherish the people before them. Living life ordinarily and plainly was not a bad thing. As long as the person he liked was by his side and he could hear her voice and hold her hand, he wouldn’t mind.
He tugged Ming Yue into an embrace. “Ming Yue, after we go down the mountain, let’s get married.”
His voice was slightly hoarse. It carried endless feelings. Ming Yue paused and then reached out to return the hug, saying quietly, “All right.”
*
People on the other side of the ravine took turns in order to finish the work faster. Three days later, they finally connected both of the cliffs with a suspension bridge.
The people who had been trapped for several days headed down the mountain in panic. Cui Xiu, Zhao Kang, and Su Yunkai were at the back. When the people in front of them left in a hurry, Cui Xiu said, “We will go to the yamen with Constable Bai. We have already prepared evidence of Shen Wei’s crimes. When we enter the gate, we will submit it to the yamen. At the same time, we will surrender ourselves.”
Su Yunkai nodded.
Ming Yue’s injury was half-cured, but she still couldn’t walk fast. Su Yunkai wanted to carry her, but she gently pushed his hand away. “The road is too steep. Just walk with me slowly.”
Su Yunkai took her hand and led her slowly down the mountain. Seeing this, Qin Fang ran over to forbid Bai Shui from walking so fast. “I know you are in a hurry to take that wretched Shen Wei to the yamen, but don’t forget that you are also injured.”
Bai Shui shushed him, indicating that Yu Fenglin was up ahead and that they couldn’t let him hear.
Qin Fang smiled and ignored her warning. He reached for her hand, but she dodged and slapped him. He harrumphed and was about to retaliate when the people in front burst into chaos. Bai Shui warily looked over and distinguished a sentence from the noise—Shen Wei had escaped!
She immediately ran down. The mountain road was steep and her feet skidded across the gravel. After running for a while, the soles of her feet started hurting. She rushed into the crowd and exclaimed, “Where is Shen Wei?”
Someone pointed to the side woods. “There! His hands are still tied. He should not have run far.”
Bai Shui hurried over. By the time Cui Xiu and Zhao Kang ran over, she was gone. Without a word, they followed suit, entering the thick woods.
Shen Wei ran like a frightened beast chased by a hunter. Because his life was at stake, he ran very fast, almost madly, not caring about the thorns and the broken stones. His clothes had been torn and he was bleeding. In the end, he still had the body of a man who had lived too long in luxury. No matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t surpass his growing fatigue. He began to feel hopeless. He felt so desperate that he began to cry. He yelled as he ran. He thought that he was being chased by a ghost instead of a human!
It was the girl he had killed.
The people he had tortured.
He had money, but no matter how rich he was, he had no way to buy back his life from the king of hell.
Shen Wei’s shrill cry reverberated deep in the mountains. It was full of despair, but it still lacked remorse.
When Bai Shui found him, Shen Wei was so tired that he lay on the ground, gasping and crying with tears on his face. If it had been someone else, Bai Shui would’ve sympathized, but this was Shen Wei. Bai Shui frowned. “Are you dead? If you aren’t, get up.”
She covered her shoulders. The current pain made her back get soaked with cold sweat. Shen Wei didn’t move. He had no plans to get up or go back by himself. He laughed and cried, fueling Bai Shui’s annoyance.
“Constable Bai.”
Bai Shui looked over at the voice and immediately dropped the hand at her shoulder. Cui Xiu and Zhao Kang were also panting for breath, their clothes scratched. It seemed that they had also been in hot pursuit. They glanced at Shen Wei on the ground, their eyes filled with unspeakable hatred and disgust.
Bai Shui wiped the sweat off her forehead and said, “He isn’t moving.”
Cui Xiu said, “Let’s carry him back. Even if we have to drag him, we’ll bring him to the yamen. There, he will have to plead guilty to the law!”
Bai Shui felt relieved that she had help. Her injured arm couldn’t take much more physical exertion.
Cui Xiu and Zhao Kang came forward, tore his clothes, and stuffed his mouth to prevent him from committing suicide by biting off his tongue. He was dragged out of the woods, his shoes even getting caught and pulled off by the protruding roots of the trees.
Bai Shui crouched to pick up the shoes. She didn’t want Shen Wei to have any chance to defend himself, arguing that the yamen had used pressure and harm to get him to confess. Now that the escaped prisoner had been caught, she breathed a sigh of relief. She patted the shoes and was about to stand up when she noticed two bright lights wavering to the side. Looking over, she saw branches and vines intertwined like a spider’s web. The pair of lights still shone brightly. Bai Shui guessed that it a bat, so she didn’t go poke it, but when she stood up, her arm hurt and she breathed in a cold breath of air. The animal got scared and flew inside.
Bai Shui paused. Was there a cave? Otherwise, why had the bat flown inside?
She used her sword to cut through the vines and branches. Suddenly, she found that there were signs that they had already been cut. Had someone cut through them before? She took a torch and headed inside but stopped after four or five steps.
The cave was high enough for one person to stand, but the trees outside were so thick that it had seemed like a small cave.
The reason why Bai Shui had stopped was because she had discovered a corpse that had already turned into a skeleton. The clothes on the body were exactly like those worn by Bai Shui.
She was stunned. She reached over to cast the light over the corpse and immediately saw the slightly ugly money bag hanging at the waist.
“You are going to Kaifeng soon. I’ll sew a money bag for you! If it’s not good, you aren’t allowed to make fun of me. Remember to make more money so you can fill it up.”
“When it’s full, I’ll give it to you for your dowry, okay?
“When it’s full, bring home a sister-in-law for me!”
“Okay, okay. I’ll use it for my marriage and also to give to you as a dowry. How about that?”
“All right.”
The torch fell to the ground, burning a handful of yellow sand to black. The firelight puttered and gradually disappeared in the cold cave.
Bai Shui knelt down on the ground. She felt that the world was dark and spinning. The pain nearly tore apart her heart and her lungs. “Brother!”
.
A Hint of Spring 
What cliffhanger. Thank you for the update.
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