Chapter 168 - 168: 168. He originally wanted to harm me.
Translator: 549690339
The news that Su Liang, a suspect caught by the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Gou Yu, was replaced by Ning Jing’s self-surrender and taken to the ministry quickly spread throughout the capital city.
The truth about Xiao Muyun’s death became mysterious and confusing.
Initially, the most common rumor was “The Martial Arts Champion shifted his affection and killed to silence”, but due to Ning Jing’s “strong intervention”, it turned into “The Top Scholar killed for love”.
Su Liang changed from a ruthless person to a seductive temptress.
The reputation of the dual champions quickly plummeted today.
Su Liang did not try to find help or attempt to see the emperor to clear his name. Instead, he was cooking for Ning Jing at home.
After preparing two of Ning Jing’s favorite dishes, the person Su Liang was waiting for arrived.
It was Duanmu Chen’s trusted follower, Chang’an.
“This is what my master asked me to give to Miss Su.” Chang’an handed a few papers to Su Liang.
It was exactly what Su Liang needed right now. She took it and asked, “Thank you, Fourth Prince. Is this really Xiao Muyun’s handwriting?”
Chang’an nodded, “My master said it was written by Xiao Muyun himself, and judging by the ink, it wasn’t written all at once.”
Su Liang’s expression was indescribable. Could they tell it was written at different times? This reduced the possibility of forgery even more.
“Where is the follower who was always with Xiao Muyun?” Su Liang thought of the young servant she had met at the restaurant.
Chang’an sighed, “He drowned in the lake in the back garden of the Xiao
Mansion last night.”
Su Liang frowned, “What kind of fatal wound did Xiao Muyun suffer from?”
“A stab wound that went straight through the chest,” Chang’an said. “My master initially asked me to tell Miss Su to never get caught and sent to the Ministry of Justice. It would be troublesome. On my way here, I learned that
Young Master Ning had turned himself in.”
Su Liang nodded, “Please tell your master that I am grateful for his kindness.”
Chang’an said seriously, “Miss Su, please be extra careful these days. My master said that the emperor might suspect you have secrets and try to test your reaction during this incident.”
Su Liang hesitated for a moment.
Did Duanmu Yi suspect her? It wasn’t surprising. After being away from the capital for over a year, a weak girl suddenly became so strong. It would be normal if Duanmu Yi suspected her of being a spy for an enemy country.
Duanmu Chen told Su Liang about this through Chang’an, informing her that the Royal Family would not protect her because of her achievements or her service to the country. She would have to solve all her problems herself.
In short, if Su Liang couldn’t prove her innocence, she would have to pay for the murder with her own life.
Su Liang thought it was reasonable. She never expected any special privileges from the Royal Family anyway.
After Chang’an left, Su Liang opened the papers. They were written by Duanmu Chen, who had copied down what he saw written by Xiao Muyun at the Xiao Family’s Memorial Hall and then rewrote it for Su Liang.
Although it was Duanmu Chen’s writing, the content was in Xiao Muyun’s tone.
The first paper described Xiao Muyun’s experiences from meeting to falling in love with the original master.
Between the lines, there were deep memories filled with affection.
However, the original master had died, and the authenticity could no longer be verified. Su Liang frowned as she read about Xiao Muyun’s private meetings, hand-holding, and hugging with the original master.
From Su Liang’s perspective, when Xiao Muyun met the original master, she was still an unmarried girl, while Xiao Muyun was already a widower.
The original master was raised in seclusion and had a simple heart, but she had a gentle disposition and possessed extreme beauty.
It was hard for Su Liang not to suspect that Xiao Muyun was moved by lust. If she were to judge the matter with her own values, it was like an old man seducing an underage girl.
It was true that the original master liked Xiao Muyun and gave him tokens like a fan pendant, but hand-holding and hugging still made Su Liang doubt.
Could it be that bold?
Even if the original master was of low birth and didn’t understand the rules, didn’t Xiao Muyun, as a scholarly son from the Prime Minister Mansion, know that such behavior was inappropriate? Didn’t he know that if found out, he would be fine, but the original master would be ruined for life?
Reading between the lines, Su Liang saw no sense of basic morality or responsibility.
After only reading the first page, she started to feel uncomfortable.
On the second page, Xiao Muyun wrote that after believing the original master had died, he had been living like a walking corpse until he met Su Liang. He suffered whenever he was awake and missed her in his dreams. He could not accept any marriage arranged by his family and tried every way to decline them.
Su Liang frowned. On the day of their “first meeting” at the restaurant, the encounter was accidental. Xiao Muyun went out for a drink alone when he was free. He was dressed very elegantly and looked quite well.
Did he misunderstand the term “living dead”?
Up until now, Su Liang thought that Xiao Muyun still couldn’t let go of the original master and was resentful when he saw her, so his writing was exaggerated with self-indulgence.
However, in the second half of the second page, Xiao Muyun wrote about how he poured his heart out that day, how Su Liang coldly rejected him, and even lied about losing her memory to avoid and deny everything that had happened between them.
If an outsider who didn’t know the truth read these words, they would think that Xiao Muyun was the most infatuated person in the world and Su Liang was a top-notch scummy woman…
Su Liang looked at the third page.
Xiao Muyun wrote about his pain, how he and the original master were already intimate, and how he had decided that she was his woman, but now he had to watch Su Liang marry someone else.
He wanted to tell the world about their relationship, but he didn’t want to ruin Su Liang’s current marriage and bright future.
“You’ve changed, you’ve gone far, far away, but I’ve been waiting for you foolishly in the same place, waiting for you to come back, but I can’t wait for you to turn back.”
“I really want to go find you right now and tell you everything I want to say.
Even if you kill me, I won’t have any regrets.”
“When I wake up from my dreams in the middle of the night, I have an impulse to let go and not care about anything or anyone.” “Without you, what’s the point of living?
As Su Liang read to the end, a chill spread in her eyes.
However, the deep emotions and pain expressed in the words of these papers did not match the Xiao Muyun she knew!
Xiao Muyun did indeed try to rekindle their relationship several times after seeing Su Liang return to the capital, but all Su Liang felt was a man’s possessiveness towards a beautiful woman.
Su Liang didn’t see any of the “infatuated waiting” Xiao Muyun wrote on the paper.
He grew up in a large family and was a shrewd and worldly man as a bastard.
If he was truly so infatuated and unrepentant, why didn’t he investigate the cause of Su Family’s death? He didn’t even dare to look at the original master’s body!
If he was as miserable as he wrote, shouldn’t he have been pining away?
During the time he thought the original master was dead, Xiao Muyun seemed to be living very well. Because of his noble background, he could still live a carefree life even without much talent, ambition, or aspiration.
Discovering that Su Liang was alive, but not wanting to be with him, he suddenly couldn’t bear living?
How did he live for the year and more when he previously thought the original master was dead?
Was his so-called infatuation just, “It doesn’t matter if you’re dead, but if you’re alive and not with me, I might as well die?”
To this, Su Liang only felt a deep sense of contradiction and inconsistency, incredibly bizarre.
If Xiao Muyun appeared in front of Su Liang right now, she would definitely ask him, “Are you mentally ill?!”
However, people who don’t know Su Liang, don’t know Xiao Muyun, and don’t know what really happened between them are more likely to believe what Xiao Muyun wrote before his death than what Su Liang says.
Therefore, although these few pages cannot prove that Su Liang killed Xiao Muyun, they are filled with Su Liang’s “motive” for killing Xiao Muyun— removing the disgraceful past from her life.
With Xiao Muyun’s death, it’s hard to disprove what he wrote.
Su Liang re-read the four pages of paper and felt that the whole thing was strange from beginning to end.
If Xiao Muyun really wrote this while he was sober, what did he want to do? Did he really want to jump out and slander Su Liang for having an affair with him? Or did he want to end his life?
Su Liang believed the latter was impossible.
If it was the former, then how did he die?
Did someone discover in secret that Xiao Muyun wanted to harm Su Liang and got rid of the obstacle for her?
Even more impossible. If so, why use a weapon similar to hers?
If they used a different weapon, no one would dare associate this murder case with Su Liang!
It’s because of Su Liang’s weapon, combined with Xiao Muyun’s handwritten words, that Su Liang has become the prime suspect.
There is no doubt that the true culprit wanted to frame Su Liang.
Those pieces of paper could not possibly be something Xiao Muyun wrote to touch himself when he was in a bad mood. It’s not strange for someone to exaggerate their emotions and imagine things in matters of feelings, but what he wrote was too fake, and the bias between the lines was too obvious.
“I must find you, even if you want to kill me. I want the world to know you are my woman.” This kind of words are equivalent to saying, “If I die, it’s Su Liang who killed me.”
At this moment, Su Liang even felt as if the real culprit and Xiao Muyun had teamed up to frame her!
But Xiao Muyun would not sacrifice his life to harm her.
Their relationship was far from the point of deep hatred and life-and-death struggles. Su Liang’s impression of Xiao Muyun was that he was greedy for comfort and afraid of trouble.
A mass of contradictions.
The more bizarre it was, the more Su Liang felt that the truth could not be inferred by common sense.
Assuming her idea was true, Xiao Muyun was angered by her rejection and set her up. He first wrote the blatantly accusatory words “Su Liang might kill him” by hand, and when something happened to him, Su Liang would be the prime suspect. In this case, he would only be seriously injured.
But he died.
Was it an accident, a heavy hand? Or were the people who conspired with Xiao Muyun deceiving him? They were supposed to injure him, but instead killed him with a single blow, achieving their goal as well as silencing him.
In any case, though the truth was elusive, but because of the false accusation written by Xiao Muyun “accidentally,” Su Liang couldn’t help but suspect that his death was not innocent, and he might even be involved.
Su Liang shoved those pieces of paper into the stove, and they were quickly reduced to ashes.
The dishes she had prepared for Ning Jing on the side no longer had any warmth.
Su Liang handed them to Nian Jincheng, “It’s getting cold. You eat it. I’ll make him another batch.”
Nian Jincheng felt it was good enough for him to eat and didn’t pick at it. Instead, he asked Su Liang if she had any ideas on how to save Ning Jing. Su Liang shook her head, “Don’t worry, let’s see if any little ghosts jump out.” “Will he be tortured?” Nian Jincheng frowned.
“He’s already confessed to killing someone. Why would they torture him? They should execute him directly,” Su Liang said.
Nian Jincheng: … Why did he detect Su Liang’s anticipation? It must be his illusion.
The next moment, Su Liang said, “It’s quite interesting to hijack the execution ground. I’ll hijack him and we’ll disappear together, hiding in the dark. It’s actually more convenient to act.”
Nian Jincheng: … It turns out it wasn’t an illusion. Su Liang is really looking forward to Ning Jing being beheaded, drunk …
“Just kidding. Who wouldn’t want to live a normal life, not hiding and avoiding the light? You must know the feeling,” Su Liang said.
Nian Jincheng was once again stabbed in the heart.
“All right, eat quickly. I’m going out later. If someone comes, hide under the bed and don’t be discovered,” Su Liang said, and left.
Seeing that Su Liang was not panicking, Nian Jincheng stopped worrying too much. In the worst-case scenario, they would just hijack the execution ground. It’s not like they couldn’t do it.
Su Liang made two more dishes for Ning Jing, packed them in a lunchbox, and rode out the door.
People on the road pointed at her, and she didn’t need to pay attention to hear what they were saying.
And these same people, up until yesterday, were praising her for her extraordinary talents and beauty.
Su Liang’s mood was very calm. Fame and honor were illusions, not what she sought, and she didn’t care.
When Su Liang saw Ning Jing, he had already been locked in the Ministry of Justice’s prison cell.
A single room, still relatively clean. He didn’t change into prison clothes and was sitting cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed, like an immortal going through trials.
Su Liang suspected that the reason she was allowed in so easily was that someone wanted to hear what she would say to Ning Jing.
The prison door opened, and Ning Jing opened his eyes, seeing Su Liang entering with a lunchbox.
“Thank you,” Su Liang smiled at the prison officer. “Can we talk for a while?
Call me when I want to leave.”
The prison officer nodded, locked the door from the outside, and left.
Su Liang sat down next to Ning Jing, took out the food from the lunchbox and placed it on the floor, “It should still be warm.”
Ning Jing picked up a chopstick and felt it was a bit too difficult, so he ordered
Su Liang, “You hold it, I’ll eat this first.”
Su Liang silently picked up the plate Ning Jing pointed to and placed it in the most convenient spot for her to eat. After all, Ning Jing had ended up in prison because of her, so doing this much was a small thing.
With this movement, Su Liang hid her other hand behind her back, writing a few sentences on Ning Jing’s back about the papers that Duanmu Chen sent, her guess, and the plan for the next steps.
After Ning Jing finished eating the food Su Liang brought, Su Liang put the bowl and chopsticks back into the lunch box, and the two began to talk.
“Do you know Xiao Muyun?” Ning Jing asked Su Liang.
Understanding Ning Jing’s hint, Su Liang shook her head and replied, “I don’t know him. Once, at a restaurant, his servant told me he had something to discuss with me. I had lost my memories from an injury at the time, and thinking he was someone I knew, I went to meet him. He claimed that after seeing me once at Huguo Temple, he fell in love and couldn’t stop thinking about me. He originally planned to propose when I came of age, but then my family encountered trouble. He was heartbroken for a long time, so when he saw that I was alive, he was overjoyed and hoped I could marry him as his second wife. He even took out a fan pendant, saying it was the ‘relic’ of mine that he obtained after the Su Family incident as a keepsake. Other than the pendant, there were also things I had made by hand.”
“How come you never mentioned it?” Ning Jing frowned.
Su Liang sighed, “At the time, I only thought he was delusional and that his words were ridiculous. He said he had people watching me near my house, and as soon as I left, he would quickly be informed and follow me, secretly watching my every movement. He claimed it was all because he liked me so much and wanted to see more of me. He also talked about many things he imagined doing with me. Honestly, I found him to be quite scary and disgusting. I was afraid you would misunderstand, so I didn’t bring it up after returning.”
“Did you only meet that one time?” Ning Jing asked.
Su Liang shook her head, “After that, he started stalking me again. There was a time when I went to give acupuncture to the Old Master of the Duke Qin Mansion daily. He would hide in the alley next to the mansion, and when I left the Qin Family residence, he would appear, pretending to run into me by chance.”
Ning Jing’s face darkened, “If that’s the case, the person I encountered was Xiao
Muyun. ”
“He also approached you?” Su Liang looked surprised.
“Once, he suddenly appeared and asked me about my relationship with you. I didn’t know who he was, so I just thought he was a lunatic and ignored him and left,” said Ning Jing.
Su Liang sighed deeply, “Later, he never showed up again, and I thought he had finally given up. I hadn’t expected him to suddenly die, and all the evidence pointed to me. But it’s all too strange. Could it be that someone knew about his delusions about me, took them seriously, killed him, and framed me?”
After a moment of silence, Ning Jing said coldly, “Or maybe after you participated in the Military Exam and became the Top Scholar, he knew he could never have you. So, he went insane, forged your weapon to kill himself, making people think you two really had something going on, and framed you for silencing him. That way, you would have to pay with your life, and in the minds of the people, you two would be a couple, eventually reuniting in the Underworld. ”
“That’s… ” Su Liang looked strangely, “too twisted, isn’t it?”
“If he had already imagined you to be his, then saying anything or doing anything is possible. Never underestimate a person who cannot have you, nor the extent to which their hearts can go crazy,” Ning Jing said coldly.
Frowning, Su Liang said, “He’s dead now. What should we do? He had my pendant and a few other things in his hand. There were also a few papers that the Xiao Family presented as evidence, and I don’t know what they were. Could it be his dying words, claiming that if he died, it would be my doing? This is just too bizarre!”
Ning Jing snorted coldly, “This whole affair is quite bizarre.”
Su Liang sighed, “You didn’t want me to get in trouble, so you turned yourself in voluntarily. However, we can’t even be considered to know Xiao Muyun, and we have no idea what has happened. It’s my fault. I should have taken those things back from him when I initially thought he was sick. At that time, all I wanted was to stay away from him and not be entangled.”
“Someone you offended recently is trying to take advantage of this situation to harm you,” Ning Jing said. “Don’t worry. There are many doubtful points in this case. Your weapon is the biggest doubt. Regardless of you or me, none of us would likely use that knife to kill.”
Su Liang sighed again, “Yeah, the Ning Family has endless wealth. If you wanted to kill an enemy, how could you possibly leave such a huge flaw? It’s truly an undeserved disaster. I saved Old Master Qin, so I had no choice but to ask Duke Qin for a lifesaving golden plaque for you. The capital city is too dangerous. Once we get through this, let’s go back to Xunyang City and sell tea leaves.”
Ning Jing nodded, “Alright. Wherever you want to go, I’ll accompany you. Go back first, and don’t act impulsively.”
Su Liang called the prison officer to open the door. Looking back in three steps, she left the prison cell.
Not long after Su Liang left, someone left the Ministry of Justice and headed towards the Imperial Palace.
When Su Liang returned home, she went to the storage room and found a knife that resembled her twin blades but was different. It was one of the auxiliary weapons of an assassin from Yanyun Building that she had once confiscated in the Su Family village.
With the weapon in hand, Su Liang entered Ning Jing’s room. Nian Jincheng hurriedly asked if she saw Ning Jing in the Ministry of Justice.
“I saw him, your brother is fine; there’s no need to worry,” Su Liang said as she wiped the knife clean.
“What are you going to do?” Nian Jincheng asked.
With a soft expression, Su Liang replied, “This is the murder weapon. When it gets dark, I will throw it into the lake in the Prime Minister’s Mansion. Tomorrow, it will be fished out.” Nian Jincheng paused, “Then, the murderer is…” “Xiao Muyun himself,” Su Liang said.
Nian Jincheng was dumbstruck, “How is that possible?”
With an icy gaze, Su Liang said, “I originally thought Xiao Muyun died because of my involvement, but the things he wrote proved that he wanted to harm me from the beginning. He has already been silenced, so it’s difficult to find evidence of who he was secretly working with. As long as I admit that any word written in those things he left behind is true, I can never wash off the filthy water. In that case, might as well deny everything, claim no past relationship, and say it’s all his romantic delusions. Ning Jing and I are innocent and know nothing. ”
Nian Jincheng furrowed his brows, “Will anyone believe that?”
“Is it because I’m not pretty enough? Or am I not outstanding enough?” Su Liang shot back.
Nian Jincheng’s mouth twitched, “You’re a beauty who can topple nations and unparalleled in talent.”
Visit freewe𝑏nove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺 for the 𝑏est n𝘰vel reading experience