Xie Yu stepped out of the archives warehouse with a few strands of cobweb clinging to his hair, his eyes clearly betraying anxiety.
If nothing had happened, the free medical clinic shouldn’t have ended so early.
Ma Bing suppressed a smile and gently brushed Xie Yu’s head. “I’m fine. It’s just that a woman claimed her friend committed murder, but her story didn’t add up, so I brought her in for questioning.”
The young marquis had always been composed, even maintaining neat attire during outdoor stays, so it was rare to see him in such a disheveled state.
Looking at the cobwebs she had removed, Xie Yu was momentarily stunned, then inwardly cursed, “That good-for-nothing Ah De…”
Can’t even deliver a message properly.
Xie Yu covered his mouth with his fist and coughed awkwardly. “Let’s go.”
The woman wasn’t particularly dangerous—she had already been terrified out of her wits when Xiao Huang and others escorted her to the courthouse. Now thrown before the court, she collapsed completely, unable to utter a sound even after removing the cloth gagging her.
After only a brief moment of Xie Yu’s silent scrutiny, the woman spilled everything.
She introduced herself as Wang Xiu Xiang, claiming her friend who committed murder was Liu Chun Lan. They had grown up in the same village. Initially, their relationship had been ordinary, but later, both married separately into families in Kaifeng and became unfamiliar with their surroundings. Sharing the same hometown background, the two women grew suddenly close.
Over several years, their friendship deepened, becoming completely open and honest.
According to Wang Xiu Xiang, last December she noticed Liu Chun Lan appeared gloomy for several consecutive days, clearly burdened by something. When asked, Liu remained tight-lipped, which worried Wang.
Coinciding with New Year’s period, when both their husbands were away working, Wang Xiu Xiang used the excuse of shopping for festival supplies to invite Liu Chun Lan out for a stroll.
Kaifeng was a large city, and their homes were located in remote areas. Before completing their shopping, the sun had already reached its zenith, so they found a small stall outside to have lunch.
Drinking was quite popular during this dynasty, and even women enjoyed having a few cups during meals.
Although the husbands of Wang and Liu weren’t particularly wealthy, they lived comfortably enough, and as wives, both had considerable spending money. They ordered a pot of sweet plum wine to accompany their meal.
The wine was sweet with a low alcohol content but had a slight after-effect. After several cups, Liu’s eyes became hazy, her thoughts drifting, and her melancholy resurfaced. She sighed repeatedly while picking at her food with chopsticks.
Alcohol might not be the best thing, but it could relieve worries. Wanting Liu to vent her troubles while under the influence, Wang gently prompted her.
Liu had been holding back severely, and with Wang’s inquiry, finally confessed the truth.
But when she spoke, she frightened Wang Xiu Xiang out of her wits.
“Oh Xiu Xiang, I—I killed someone!”
Wang Xiu Xiang was instantly terrified. After regaining her senses, she hurriedly covered Liu’s mouth and anxiously glanced around.
Fortunately, they had arrived late, past the lunch rush, and were squeezed into a corner. By then, all the other diners had left, leaving only cold leftovers—no one had overheard.
“You only heard that one sentence and then claimed your friend committed murder?” Xie Yu furrowed his brow, interrupting her disjointed account.
Whether from fear or her natural disposition, Wang’s speech was disorganized and incoherent, jumping all over the place, making listeners feel as if they were struggling to swallow shelled eggs—frustratingly difficult.
Wang Xiu Xiang shook her head violently. “Your Honor, I’m not lying. I’m not lying, my lady! She really said she killed someone!”
Ma Bing could no longer hold back. “What we mean is, do you have any evidence proving she actually committed murder? We can’t just arrest someone based on your word alone—that would cause chaos.
Also, if you knew about this earlier, why are you reporting it only now?”
As Wang Xiu Xiang opened her mouth to reply, Ma Bing quickly reminded her, “There’s no need to repeat the part about shopping.”
Never before had Ma Bing and Xie Yu appreciated the importance of clear and organized speech as they did now.
Wang Xiu Xiang had been talking for quite a while, yet most of it revolved around her shopping—sock liners, pickled eggs, various fashionable embroidery patterns, and other trivialities. Useful information was minimal.
Distracted by this, Wang Xiu Xiang paused for a while before resuming, yet still frequently strayed from the main points.
Each time she veered off-topic, Ma Bing would tap the table, prompting her to return to the subject…
This back-and-forth continued for nearly half an hour before Xie Yu finally grasped the full story.
Under the influence of alcohol, Liu Chun Lan had revealed many details.
According to Wang Xiu Xiang’s retelling, at the end of November and beginning of December last year, a familiar peddler came to sell goods. Liu, knowing him well and seeing how difficult it was for him in the snowstorm, invited him into the courtyard for hot tea.
Unexpectedly, seeing Liu alone at home and responding gently to him, the peddler, finding her much more amiable than his own shrewish wife, grew bolder after warming up and harbored ill intentions.
If outsiders discovered a lone man and woman entangled in the courtyard, it would be impossible to explain even with a thousand mouths. Confident Liu wouldn’t dare scream, the peddler grew increasingly brazen.
Liu was initially startled and resisted fiercely. However, upon hearing the peddler’s threats, she became fearful, gradually igniting anger, and eventually yielded to his advances.
Unexpectedly, a noise from the neighboring house startled her. In a mix of shame and urgency, Liu pushed the peddler hard. After the snow, the ground was slippery. During the struggle, the peddler accidentally stepped on a patch of snow-covered ice. He slipped, fell backward, and lay motionless.
Covering her torn clothes, Liu froze in place, her mind blank. Only after a thin layer of snow covered the corpse did she shakily reach out to check for breath.
No breath!
A ringing filled Liu’s ears, her vision darkened, and she collapsed to the ground.
She never imagined that her moment of compassion would bring such calamity.
As a woman, suddenly facing such a situation, Liu had no idea what to do.
Later, when her husband returned home, he was immediately horrified to see a corpse lying on the floor.
In desperation, Liu claimed the peddler had attempted to force himself on her when no one else was home, and she had fought back in self-defense, accidentally killing him.
Her husband was an honest man, unaccustomed to such a situation, and was at a loss about whether to turn himself in or dispose of the body.
But they never expected that before the two of them, like headless flies, could reach a decision, the “corpse’s” fingers suddenly moved—he woke up!
[At this point, Ma Bing had a guess: the peddler must have hit his head, possibly still alive or merely fainted, and was mistakenly thought dead.
However, after a while, he regained consciousness.
If Liu and her husband had buried him immediately, it would have amounted to burying him alive.
Yet as Wang Xiu Xiang continued her account, Ma Bing’s confusion only grew.
Putting other matters aside, if all these details were based solely on Liu’s own telling, how could Wang Xiu Xiang know so many specifics?
It was as if she had witnessed everything firsthand.]
After regaining consciousness, the peddler, seeing the husband return, was too frightened and ashamed to make any false claims and fled immediately.
Liu and her husband, still shaken, also feared further trouble and did not try to stop him.
Both parties thought the matter had ended there, but three days later, a stranger knocked on their door, specifically asking for Liu Chun Lan.
The stranger introduced himself as an innkeeper from outside the city, explaining that two nights prior, the peddler had stayed at his inn, appearing injured. The next morning, he couldn’t rise from bed.
Fearing a death, the innkeeper had dutifully taken care of him, but the peddler had only worsened, bleeding from the nose and claiming he had been harmed by someone, likely dying soon.
The innkeeper produced a satchel. “He said a woman named Liu Xiang Lan living here hit his head. If he dies, he will come back for revenge!”
Seeing the satchel, which belonged to the peddler, and hearing the details match, Liu was at a loss for words as a woman, unable to publicly explain the peddler’s misconduct. She was instantly drenched in cold sweat.
Seeing her panic, the innkeeper realized the peddler hadn’t lied and immediately grabbed Liu’s arm, demanding she go with him to the authorities.
If Liu had initially considered turning herself in, those thoughts had long vanished after a few days of family reunion, and she now only wanted to cover everything up.
She immediately knelt before the innkeeper, pleading desperately, explaining she had elderly parents and young children to care for, and that the killing had been a momentary accident, begging him to help conceal the incident.
It happened that the inn was located in a remote area, catering mainly to passing merchants and travelers. By the end of the year, most had already returned home, leaving the inn nearly empty and business extremely poor.
The innkeeper, worried about lacking funds, had a sudden idea.
“Alright, seeing you are a decent woman, I don’t believe you had the guts to commit such a murder. I’ll risk my life to cover this up for you.”
The innkeeper spoke with exaggerated sincerity.
Overjoyed, Liu thanked him profusely, only to hear him suddenly change tone—he demanded twenty taels of silver as hush money.
Kaifeng, the capital, was already one of the most prosperous cities in the Great Lu Kingdom. Even so, an average small merchant would barely save five to seven taels a year, and that was if they worked diligently.
The innkeeper’s demand of twenty taels was like asking for blood.
Liu couldn’t immediately come up with such a large sum and was at a loss, having to consult her husband.
Though also fearful, her husband possessed some sense and attempted to negotiate.
“Brother, just look at my humble home—you can see how hard we struggle. My purse is emptier than my face most days! Where would I find so much silver?”
The innkeeper had initially asked for an exorbitant amount, but fearing they might decide to turn themselves in, he seized the opportunity to compromise.
“Well then, tell me how much you can offer? I’m taking a tremendous risk, after all…”
After some back-and-forth negotiation, they finally settled on fifteen taels.
However, Liu’s husband insisted on personally verifying the corpse’s condition before agreeing to pay. Otherwise, if the innkeeper had merely heard some complaints and stolen the satchel to extort them, they would be tricked.
Thus, Liu’s husband accompanied the innkeeper to view the corpse and returned pale-faced, handing over the fifteen taels he had scraped together.
After this, having paid to silence the innkeeper, Liu’s family managed to cover up the crime, bringing the matter to a temporary conclusion.
However, Liu and her husband were ultimately ordinary people. Suddenly involved in a murder case and having spent a large sum of money, they felt both anger and sorrow, unable to resolve these emotions, which eventually led Wang Xiu Xiang to discover the truth, hence the drunken confession.
After hearing the story, Xie Yu and Ma Bing summoned someone to confirm whether there was indeed such an inn outside Kaifeng.
The officer, after careful recollection, nodded. “Yes, there is such an inn. The innkeeper’s surname is Sun. His reputation isn’t great—he was even caught forging accounts a few years ago.”
Wang Xiu Xiang was a typical housewife who had never left Kaifeng in her life and had no knowledge of such an inn. Yet she could describe it so vividly, making her account highly credible.
Still, one detail continued to bother Ma Bing.
“If you already knew this earlier, you should either have reported it immediately or, out of loyalty, kept quiet forever. Why suddenly decide to speak up halfway?”
Wang Xiu Xiang’s eyes darted, sweat pouring from her forehead, as she stammered, “Your Honor, I naturally follow the law, but I—I grew increasingly frightened…”
“Cut the act,” Ma Bing mercilessly exposed her lie. “Your pulse clearly indicates anger, not fear! Confess honestly—what really happened?”
If the facts were indeed as Wang Xiu Xiang described, Liu Chun Lan might not be innocent, but she likely had withheld some information.
Moreover, the account Wang had given of the case seemed suspiciously embellished or altered.
Wang stiffened, sweat pouring down like a waterfall, her lips trembling, yet she couldn’t utter a word.
Xie Yu slammed the table, shouting, “Bold and cunning woman! How dare you fabricate stories in the courthouse! I ask you, if Liu Chun Lan was truly as you described—an unfaithful woman conspiring with outsiders—she would have concealed the details after the incident. Why would she share them with you?
Why did you withhold the information at the time, why suddenly report it now, and why lie so brazenly!”
He slammed the table again. “Speak!”
Wang Xiu Xiang’s body went limp, collapsing to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. “Your Honor, I—I lied, but she really did kill someone!”
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