Chapter 305 My Face Hurts

After breakfast, Ruyi came to deliver a message to Lin Yuesha: her stepbrother's idea had worked, and the culprit who poisoned the green bean-eyed girl had been found.

"I knew it, my stepbrother is a smart man."

Lin Yuesha smiled smugly and poured herself some tea. Now, Xiao Qi had really gained face with Prefect Bai. Although they were not related by blood, their intelligence made them seem like family.

"Ruyi, the idea to find the murderer this time was my stepbrother's. Does Lord Bai have any reward for it?"

Lin Yuesha asked Ruyi to sit down and then asked shamelessly.

Previously, when she worked at the county government, she received silver rewards for helping solve cases, and she always got some. This time, it was her stepbrother who performed meritorious service, and Lin Yuesha brought it up herself. Nobody complains about getting free silver.

"This...it was indeed Xiao Shusheng's idea, but..."

Ruyi twitched her lips, glanced hesitantly at Lin Yuesha, unsure whether she should tell the truth.

"But what?"

Lin Yuesha, puzzled, asked directly, "Could there be some kind of discrepancy?"

Yes.

Since the other party had asked, Ruyi stopped hiding it. The method worked; the murderer learned that Green Bean Eyes had a booklet recording his enemies, and indeed went to Green Bean Eyes' study at night to search for it.

"I knew it, my older brother is a smart man."

Lin Yuesha repeated herself, her face full of pride.

If Xiao Qi hadn't come up with this idea, the case at Changqing Academy would have been difficult to handle. The students there were all scholars with official titles, and wrongly accusing one of them would surely ruin their career. Therefore, even Prefect Bai was very cautious in his actions.

Ruyi felt awkward and didn't want to listen to Lin Yuesha's self-praise anymore, so she blurted out, "The murderer went to find the book, but there were seven people who went to find the book last night."

In other words, all seven of them had major conflicts with the person with the beady eyes, and were afraid that their names would be recorded in their notebooks, so they felt guilty.

Lin Yuesha: ...

She took back what she had just said, her face stinging.

"So how was the killer finally found? Was it one of these seven people?"

Taking a deep breath, Lin Yuesha composed herself and continued to ask.

It's not my stepbrother's fault; it's just that Green-Eyed is a bad person with too many enemies.

"The officials did indeed find a small booklet of records in Qin Shusheng's study."

Indeed, there were seven people in total, the seven who wanted to steal the booklet in the middle of the night.

"There really is one..."

Lin Yuesha was surprised and gestured to Ruyi to stop keeping her in suspense and continue.

“Miss Lin, the register records the names of seven people, including Sun You. I didn’t expect that Sun You owes Qin Shusheng twenty taels of silver.”

However, of the seven names on the notebook, the reasons for their feud with Green Bean Eyes were recorded for six of them, while only one name was left blank.

"It's not so much that I have a grudge against him, but rather that he likes to pry into people's privacy and find fault with them."

Two of the scholars bribed the teacher and were recorded, one stole, and the rest secretly went to gambling dens and brothels, where the teacher caught them.

Writing it down in the notebook is to make it easier to threaten and exploit these people later.

"Could it be that the one who only wrote their name is the murderer?"

Lin Yuesha looked at Ruyi and guessed.

Since they didn't write down the other party's weaknesses, it must be very secretive.

"right."

Ruyi gave Lin Yuesha an approving look, thinking to herself that Miss Lin was the truly intelligent one.

"That scholar is named Sun Zhang. He is related to Sun You, and he and Scholar Qin are good friends."

The two had always had a good relationship, occasionally eating and drinking together. No one in the academy expected that the murderer was Sun Zhang.

"Then why?"

If it weren't for a deep-seated hatred, Sun Zhang wouldn't have needed to kill Green Bean Eyes by poisoning him with arsenic, which would have been a risky move to put Green Bean Eyes to death.

“At first, Sun Zhang refused to say the reason no matter what. It was only after our master gave him fifty lashes that Sun Zhang couldn’t bear it and finally confessed.”

Sun Zhang had a cousin in the countryside who was quite pretty. He and his friend with beady eyes went to the countryside to relax and happened to run into his cousin.

"If you ask me, Qin Shu's death was not unjust. He took a fancy to Sun Zhang's cousin and used words to deceive the woman, saying that he would come to propose marriage."

Thus, Sun Zhang's cousin believed Green Eyes' sweet talk and became pregnant after sleeping with him.

Not only did the man with the beady eyes deny it, he also accused the woman of being promiscuous. As a result, Sun Zhang's cousin couldn't bear the blow, and since her pregnancy couldn't be hidden from anyone, she committed suicide by drowning in the river in despair.

After learning about this, Sun Zhang pretended not to know, but secretly planned his revenge.

"So, when I was delivering food, it just so happened that Sun Zhang had his eye on me."

Lin Yuesha nodded, her beady eyes reflecting the consequences of her own actions. It was a pity that her sins had cost her two lives: Sun Zhang and his cousin, both of whom were originally innocent.

The laws of the Great Qi Dynasty had significant loopholes; murderers were to pay with their lives, and even though Sun Zhang sought revenge for his cousin, he could not escape being beheaded.

After Ruyi left, Lin Yuesha sat in a chair, lost in thought.

"Miss, what's wrong?"

Sensing that something was amiss, Qingxing gestured for Qi'er to be quiet and asked cautiously.

"Qingxing, I just feel it's unfair."

Sun Zhang was wrong to kill someone, there's nothing to say about that, but does Green Eyes bear no responsibility at all for indirectly causing someone's death?

A man with beady eyes like that would be a total scumbag, whether in the Great Qi Dynasty or in modern times.

In modern times, women can still make a graceful turn around and strive for their own lives after encountering a scumbag. But in the Great Qi Dynasty, women's fate was so tragic that they could only choose to die when faced with foul language.

The culprits who cause tragedies often live carefree lives, because not many people like Sun Zhang would choose revenge.

"Little sister."

Xiao Qi entered the room and saw Lin Yuesha still looking down in a daze. He waved to Qingxing and Qi'er, who nodded and went out together, gently closing the door behind them.

"Big brother?"

Hearing the noise, Lin Yuesha looked up abruptly, "Big brother, why are you back?"

Even if Prefect Bai intended to cover up the murder at Changqing Academy, he couldn't hide it from the people. In just one night, even the servants in his household knew about it.

"Rest day off".

In the morning, the scholars were all summoned to the yamen for trial, and they had no interest in studying. Seeing this, the teacher simply gave everyone a day off.

"Little sister, you don't look well."

Before entering, Xiao Qi overheard Lin Yuesha and Qingxing's conversation. He noticed Lin Yuesha's thoughts and considered how to comfort her.

"Yes, I'm feeling a little unwell."

Lin Yuesha wasn't specifically standing up for anyone, but rather felt that this era was tragic. After all, she had a modern mindset and didn't agree with the male chauvinism of the Great Qi Dynasty.

Despite not agreeing with it, in this particular environment, the only thing to do is change yourself and fit in, so as not to appear out of place.

"Brother, do you also think that Cousin Sun Zhang was at fault? If she hadn't belittled herself, the bad consequences wouldn't have happened?"

Lin Yuesha stood up, walked up to Xiao Qi, and asked earnestly, wanting to know her older brother's opinion.