Sister Dies, Sister Remarries (Part Six)
"Don't move!" Wu Lei shouted, grabbing Agul Tso's left arm and turning to call to Aunt Xu, "Sister Xu, bring the firewood!"
Xu Sao understood and quickly brought over some liquor and a white cloth. She dipped the white cloth in the liquor and vigorously rubbed it on Aguercuo's wound.
Agul Tso screamed and struggled repeatedly, but Wu Lei held him down and he couldn't move an inch.
After cleaning the wound, Aunt Xu said in a deep voice, "It's undoubtedly a bite. The teeth marks are clear, and there is a loss of skin and flesh. The size of the loss is very close to the size of the foreign object left between the deceased's teeth."
Wei Ji beckoned to Shi Yu: "Go and fetch the physical evidence—the rope used to hang myself."
Upon hearing this, Zhebierjia hurriedly ordered Agu's family to accompany Tong Yu.
Before long, Shiyu brought back a piece of hemp rope. Weiji took it, examined it for a moment, looked at Agur Tso, and asked, "Agur Tso, who was the first to discover that your wife had hanged herself?"
Wu Lei repeated Wei Ji's question in the local dialect.
Agur Tso knelt on the ground, replying in a trembling voice, "Yes, it was me..."
Wei Ji then said, "Tell me the details of what happened at that time."
Agul Tso replied, "It was around midnight when I got up to relieve myself. When I looked up, I saw someone hanging from the roof beam. I stood on a stool, lifted her down, and checked her breathing. I found that she... she had already stopped breathing."
Wei Ji pressed further: "Was the body warm or cold at the time? Was it stiff?"
Agul Tso stammered, "Warm, warm, no... it's cold! It feels stiff, stiff..."
Wei Ji stared at him, raised his voice, and repeated the question he had just asked.
Agur Tso suddenly looked up and met Wei Ji's gaze. Startled, he lowered his eyelids and replied, "The body... is cold and has already stiffened."
Wei Ji then called Shi Yu over and whispered a few words to her. Shi Yu nodded, walked to the wizard's side, and bowed, saying, "Elder Awu, please come with me."
Agur Tso turned his face slightly, his gaze following the two figures as they disappeared into the distance, his eyes filled with terror.
Weiji then asked, "Agul Tso, did your wife have an argument with you before she hanged herself? What was the content of the argument? Where did the injury on the little finger of her right hand come from? And where did the bite wound on your left forearm come from?"
Agul Tso suddenly burst into tears. After a while, she stopped crying and replied in a hoarse voice, "She went to work in the weaving workshop and secretly kept a lot of her wages from me and the family. When I found out, I wanted her to hand over the money, but she refused and even bit me!"
"I... I was so angry that I hit her back a few times... Later that evening, she said her stomach hurt, and I thought she was faking it, so I ignored her and went to sleep. I never... I never thought she would do something like this—"
"No, sir!" Zimo knelt down with a thud, crawled a few steps on his knees and cried out, "Yesterday at noon, I saw my sister, and she was perfectly fine! She just had some back pain and couldn't do needlework, so she asked me to finish the stitches on the little clothes she was making for the baby."
She told me with a smile that she had already made an agreement with Madam Wang from Yanziping to return to work at the weaving workshop after her confinement period, so that she could earn more money and live a life with her head held high, without having to constantly be at the mercy of her in-laws. She also said that when her child grew up, she would send him to Mr. Liu's school to study, so that he could become a knowledgeable and polite person.
"Sir, my sister is strong-willed and loves her family dearly. She would never take her own life! Someone must have killed her! It must be!"
With several heavy thuds of kneeling, Nii's family members outside knelt down in front of Nii's body inside the house, weeping uncontrollably.
After hearing Wu Lei's account, everyone in Yanziping had tears in their eyes and sighed deeply.
Wei Ji remained silent for a moment, then waved for Xu Sao to help Zhi Mo aside. He turned to look outside and asked, "Where is Madam Wang of Yanziping?"
Wang Yunhui slowly approached, curtsied, and said, "Exiled Wang Yunhui greets Your Excellency, Prefect."
Wei Ji raised his hand, making a gesture of support: "May I ask, Madam Wang, did the deceased have any agreement with you regarding resuming work before his death?"
Wang Yunhui nodded: "Yes!"
Wei Ji then asked, "How did you agree to this?"
Wang Yunhui said regretfully, "Niyi said that after she finishes her postpartum confinement, she will bring the baby back to work and bring her younger sister along as well. Firstly, so that the younger sister can learn to weave; secondly, so that there will be someone to take care of the baby when she cries."
"She is so thoughtful in planning for herself and her family. Putting myself in her shoes, everyone has a family and everyone wants to live a good life. I have no reason not to grant her such a request."
Nii’s parents and two younger brothers turned to Weji, knelt down and pleaded, “Please, Your Excellency, do justice for our daughter!”
"Please, Your Excellency, grant justice for my sister!"
Agur Tso's family panicked and knelt down to beg, "Your Honor, please investigate! It's common for young couples to bicker and argue; at most, they might just get into a fight! This daughter-in-law is someone we paid a high price to get, and she's pregnant. Who would want to harm her?"
"Sir, my brother has been spoiled since he was a child. He wouldn't even dare to kill a chicken. How could he have the guts to kill someone!"
"Sir, my brother-in-law is a complete coward; he can't beat his wife at all!"
Nii's younger brother cried out, "Big sister must have been framed by your family!"
Another younger brother shouted, "You killed my eldest sister, and now you want my second sister to become a concubine and marry the murderer!"
"You brat, don't talk nonsense!"
"If your family hadn't sold your sister and given her no dowry, the young couple wouldn't be arguing about money all the time. Heaven knows where your sister's secret stash of money is hidden. Did she use it all to support her family? If you ask me, it's your family's insatiable greed that's driving your own sister to the brink of despair!"
Former in-laws turned against each other, their disputes escalating until even Zhe Bierjia's intervention couldn't stop them.
Wei Ji watched with his hands behind his back, making no attempt to stop him.
The verbal battle continued for a while, but it finally came to an end with the return of Shigure and the wizard.
Shi Yu handed two pieces of hemp rope, identical to the material used in the evidence, to Wei Ji.
Wei Ji looked at the broken rope and said to the wizard, "Elder Awu, you were here just now, so please explain the reason to everyone."
The shaman glanced at Agur Tso, his expression somewhat complicated: "The prefect ordered people to suspend a hundred catties of grain with the same rope. I saw it with my own eyes, and in less than half an hour, the rope broke."
Ercuo's father said in a trembling voice, "Then...so what?"
The wizard's gaze fell on Nii, whose face was covered by a white sheet, and he sighed, "When the prefect asked about the condition of the body when it was found, Ercuo replied that it was cold and stiff. It is currently mid-autumn, and the deceased was a pregnant woman with a slightly elevated body temperature. Logically speaking, it must have taken at least two hours from when she stopped breathing until her body became stiff."
Ercuo's mother collapsed to the ground, covering her face and wailing, "Our Ercuo was born timid. He got up in the middle of the night and found his wife hanging in front of him. He was so scared that he couldn't tell the difference between cold and warm."
"He dared not refuse to answer your questions, officials. Does that mean he becomes a murderer just because he answered incorrectly in a moment of panic? Is there no justice in this world?!"
Wei Ji and Wu Lei exchanged a glance. The former nodded slightly, while the latter loudly announced to everyone: "As you all saw and heard during the examination of the body, the deceased's face was cyanotic, her eyes were bloodshot, and her tongue was pressed against her teeth. These three things are sufficient to prove that this pregnant woman was suffocated to death by having her mouth and nose covered."
"As for the strangulation marks on the neck, they are merely a trick used by the murderer to cover up the truth. If the person had truly died by hanging, the body would have been pale, with the tongue protruding and the hyoid bone broken. Anyone with eyes can see the difference."
“You’re lying! You Han people are all liars!” Ercuo’s father’s face was contorted as he hissed, “More than forty years ago, my mother hanged herself. Her face was purple and her mouth was tightly shut. I remember it clearly!”
As he spoke, he rushed into the main room like a gust of wind, grabbed the shaman with both hands, and pulled him forward with great force. "Elder Awu! Your father—Old Awu—said that our family was cursed by the mountain god, which is why people who hang themselves turn purple!"
"This is the mountain god's curse! Agu's son didn't kill anyone! Tell them quickly! Hurry, hurry!"
Wu Lei snorted coldly: "Your mother also committed suicide? I'm afraid not."
"Say that again! I'll kill you!" Ercuo's father shook off the shaman and was about to attack when the shaman grabbed him again.
"The dead cannot be brought back to life!" the wizard said solemnly. "The mountain god's curse is not only for the peace of the dead, but also to warn future generations."
Ercuo's father turned to look at the shaman, his face full of disbelief. He suddenly shouted "Mother" three times, then his knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
"Ercuo's father!" Ercuo's mother rushed forward and shoved him hard, saying, "Wake up, Ercuo's father!"
Ercuo's father suddenly opened his eyes, and as if drunk, he swayed and got up from the ground. His empty eyes swept over everyone, and then his shoulders trembled. He cried and laughed at the same time: "I'm going to go up the mountain to ask my mother how she died?"
Ercuo's mother exclaimed in panic, "Ercuo's father! What, what's wrong with you?!"
Ercuo's father didn't answer. He reached out and pushed his wife aside, then stood in front of the shaman, asking blankly, "Tell me—how did my mother die?"
The wizard stammered, "I...I don't really know..."
Ercuo's father leaned forward, staring intently at the other person, and asked again, "If you don't know, who does?"
The wizard raised his hand to wipe his forehead, took two steps back, and pointed outside, saying, "You, go over there and ask. Maybe someone knows."
"Good!" Ercuo's father let out a strange laugh and walked towards the house with a limp.
The crowd inside the courtyard scattered, and Agu's family members retreated while calling out, "Father! Father!"
"Oh no! Father is possessed!"
"Chief Zhebi, you must think of a solution!"
"The chieftain? Heh!" Ercuo's father grinned, quickened his pace, and walked towards Zhebierjia. "The chieftain must know!"
Zhebierjia, looking disheveled, shouted sternly, "Coffin bearers! What are you all standing there for? Tie him up and take him inside!"
Several pallbearers stepped forward, found some hemp rope and cloth strips, and quickly tied Ercuo's father up tightly before carrying him into the inner room.
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