Chapter 35: Ring
Amidst the inhalations of the crowd, she looked at Su Yunzhong and asked sternly, "Su Yunzhong, do you have anything else to say?"
Su Yunzhong's voice changed slightly, but he tried his best to remain calm. "Princess Lingling, I admire your rich imagination and bold hypothesis. But can you identify someone as the murderer just by your words? You have no evidence, and everything you said is pure conjecture. You said I was an exceptional archer, that I killed someone in the dark and escaped with a mat, that I used fireflies as markings, but that's all just your talk, slinging dirt without any actual evidence!"
"Who said there wasn't any?" Qian Deng looked at him coldly, his eyes sharper than ever. "I told you, as long as you've done something bad, it's inevitable that there will be evidence left behind!"
As Qiandeng spoke, she ordered someone to roll up the large bamboo mat. She squatted down in the sunlight and searched carefully on it.
After a long while, she found what she was looking for somewhere outside the mat. She raised her hand and pulled out the tiny object, showing it in front of Su Yunzhong and everyone else: "This is the evidence of the crime you committed that night."
Her hands were slender and white, and between her long fingers was pinched an extremely thin indigo silk thread.
Everyone's eyes fell on Su Yunzhong, who was wearing indigo clothes.
"A piece of indigo Shu brocade thread hooked onto a bamboo mat. Su Yunzhong, as far as I know, among my ten fiancé candidates, including everyone in the manor, you are the only one wearing indigo Shu brocade!"
Su Yunzhong's calm expression finally changed drastically at this moment. He subconsciously glanced at the clothes on his shoulders, his face pale, and he slowly stood up.
Qian Deng held up the strand of silk thread and took a step closer to him, asking, "Su Yunzhong, answer me, if you hadn't used the method I just demonstrated, then how could a strand of silk thread from an outsider like you end up on a bamboo mat hidden deep in the warehouse?"
Su Yunzhong opened his mouth but could not make any excuses. He could only stare at the line that was thinner than a hair, his face full of disbelief.
Ji Linyou reacted the fastest. He jumped out, twisted Su Yunzhong's hands behind his back, and pressed them down on the table.
"Tell me, explain it to me clearly!" Qian Deng handed the indigo thread to him and demanded sternly, "You wanted to avenge your sister, so why didn't you kill Nan Yu? Why did you kill my mother? Why did you kill Uncle Fu? Do your parents know what you're planning?"
Hearing the words "father and mother", Su Yunzhong finally couldn't hold it in any longer. His suppressed body struggled hard and blurted out: "They have nothing to do with this! I...I killed someone accidentally. I didn't want to kill my wife!"
These words of confession finally came out of his mouth.
As if the dust had settled, Qiandeng's hands dropped weakly, his fingers loosened, and the silk thread twisted between his fingers was blown away by the wind, disappearing without a trace.
But she seemed unaware of anything. She just stared at Su Yunzhong and squeezed out a few words fiercely from between her teeth: "Because, the person you originally wanted to kill was Aunt Tian!"
"This old beast, knowing that my sister and Nan Yu were already engaged, still persuaded him to run for the election and even leaked the exam questions privately. She... deserved to die!" Su Yunzhong stopped his hopeless struggle, but his face began to twitch slightly.
"That night, I was determined to kill Nanny Tian and frame Nanyu for the crime. So, after luring Nanyu away, I followed the veranda into the attic... I'd never killed anyone before, and in the darkness, I was nervous and panicked. Then, a figure carrying a lantern emerged from the room. In the dim light, I saw the dark blue clothes she wore, almost identical to the ones Madam had given her that Nanny Tian had flaunted during the day. So, I immediately aimed for her chest and shot her—but as she screamed and fell to the ground, I knew it was over. I hadn't killed Nanny Tian, but Madam... But it was too late. You, having heard the noise, had already chased me down the veranda. I could only follow my original plan and escape using bamboo mats and pine logs. The attic was in chaos, so naturally, no one noticed the dark grass below. I rolled up the mat and quickly rolled it under the bushes with the logs. Then, I ran out to rejoin the others... When the county lady left the village to seek medical treatment, I took advantage of the quiet and unattended situation to return the mats to the warehouse."
He closed his eyes tightly, hiding all his emotions, only the moisture seeping from the corners of his eyes, he didn't know whether it was despair or regret.
"Originally, everything seemed perfect... Every clue pointed to Nanyu. In this chaotic time, if I just left the manor and disappeared, everything would be done without anyone noticing. Nanyu would be sentenced to death, and my sister's vengeance would be avenged... But who knew that despite all my calculations, I'd overlooked you, the county lady..."
Yes, everyone present looked at Qian Deng standing on the lawn, thinking that she had single-handedly unraveled all the complicated illusions and intricate evidence and quickly found the real culprit. They all felt a mixture of admiration and shock in their hearts, which could not calm down for a long time.
Qian Deng stared at Su Yunzhong and continued to ask, "Are you sure that you only killed someone that night and didn't take anything from the pavilion?"
Su Yunzhong looked confused and asked, "What is it?"
"A letter and a carving knife."
Now that Su Yunzhong had revealed the truth about the murder, the tension in his heart relaxed, and he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. He shook his head bleakly and said, "Where did I find the time to steal anything? After the murder, Madam fell to the ground, Nanny Tian called out, and you immediately chased after us... My hands were shaking so much that I could barely hold the bow. I didn't even have time to kill Nanny Tian, so how could I have gone to steal things from the pavilion?"
Qian Deng stared at him and asked word by word, "You don't have it?"
"No! I just want Nan Yu to die!" Su Yunzhong gritted his teeth and squeezed out a few words, "My sister... has been well-behaved and sensible since she was a child. Every time I visit her, she will hold my hand affectionately and call me brother... She likes sweets, so when I bring her some candied fruits, she eats them with a smile on her face..."
Nan Yu curled up on the ground, listening to his words and looking at his knife-like eyes cast at him, not daring to make a sound.
"After I got a job in the government, my family became better off, and I wanted to take her home, but she refused, saying her adoptive parents had been so kind to her for so many years and she would take good care of them. She also said she already had someone she liked, and when everything was settled, she would tell us... She was willing to save money even if it meant eating and drinking, and asked me to choose a ring for her man, saying he'd been learning archery recently and needed to take good care of his finger... But I didn't expect that day on Leyouyuan, I turned around and saw you next to me, Nanyu! The ring on your hand was the same one I bought for my sister!"
Everyone's eyes fell on Nan Yu's hands.
On his hand, which was still covered in blood and was tied behind his back, he was indeed wearing a green jade ring.
The texture of the ring was not of the highest quality, and it even had two black spots on it, but because the shape of the black spots resembled two duckweeds coming together, it looked particularly unique.
"That was the moment I realized that the man who killed my sister was you!"
When they first met, Su Yunzhong almost got into a fight in public at the selection site because of Jin Tang's harsh ridicule.
Because Jintang dug out the deepest scar in his heart.
At that moment on Leyouyuan, the ring he bought for his sister suddenly appeared in front of him. After Su Yunzhong's mind was in chaos, he immediately understood everything.
He had been practicing archery and horse riding since he was young. Although he had never shown his skills in public due to his busy schedule after becoming the Left Guard, he had a solid foundation since childhood, so it was not difficult for him to win the favor of the county lord by defeating everyone else.
However, the sunlight in Leyouyuan that day was too glaring, just like the memory of his sister eating candy, smiling sweetly at him and calling him "Brother", which made his eyes burn and he couldn't hold back his tears.
She was his sensible and considerate sister, to whom the whole family was forever indebted.
He used the excuse of hand tremors to conceal the fact that he had been secretly practicing archery for many years, gave up the selection, and also gave up his possible bright future.
Just to wait for the opportunity to deal with Nan Yu - preferably, after he is chosen, let him fall from the clouds into hell.
However, due to the sudden outbreak of war, they were trapped together on the farm.
While others were in a panic, he paid special attention to Nan Yu, and even met with Nanny Tian in private. He heard Nanny Tian say that she would help him speak in front of the county lord and his wife, and help him arrange close guards to create better opportunities.
He also heard Nanny Tian say proudly, "It's a good thing that woman died before. Otherwise, how could you have such a chance of wealth and glory?"
Almost without thinking, the plan of shooting Nanny Tian and then putting the blame on Nanyu came to his mind, and he immediately began to prepare.
He and others had looked at the layout of the manor and knew that Nanny Tian accompanied the lady in a high pavilion, surrounded by water on three sides, and the only entrance and exit was the corridor guarded by Nanyu.
He found the farm's warehouse, which contained everything a farmhouse should have: wood of sufficient thickness, and large bamboo mats for drying grain.
He made sufficient preparations, even using the method he used to catch fireflies for his sister when he was a child - originally, everything should have been smooth and seamless.
The only thing he had not planned for was that under the dim lights, the warm light deepened the color of the lady's clothes, turning the green clothes into a dark blue.
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