Chapter 139 The Unknown Side
Li Jin's anger, along with the tense expressions of everyone around him, pushed the atmosphere in the courtroom to a suffocating level for Xiao Luo.
Jin Shu stood aside, looking at Xiao Luo's face, which still held a glimmer of hope, and then glanced down at the contours of Li Jin's face.
In fact, the huge commotion caused by this incident not only exposed the killer's psychological anchor, but it has even begun to collapse.
Without Li Jin saying anything more, he himself would be unable to bear the immense pressure and would choose to tell everyone what had happened.
It's easier to say it out loud.
Xiao Luo pursed her lips, clenched her hands tightly, and the knuckles of her fingers turned white from the force.
He didn't kill on a whim; he had wanted to kill this old woman for a long time, who only talked behind people's backs and was a master of gossip.
That day, walking in Niu Dai's courtyard, he lowered his body, pressed his face against the courtyard wall, and gazed at the quiet house.
They tiptoed and slowly pushed open the door.
“At first, I really just wanted to find some money.” He pursed his lips, his voice carrying a hint of humility and arrogance. “But I’m not afraid of running into anyone. I’ve already thought it through. If I run into their little girl, I’ll just tell her I got lost, apologize, and do nothing else.”
He remained silent and hesitant as he knelt beneath the plaque inscribed with "A Clear Mirror Hangs High" at the Jingzhao Prefecture government office.
Kneeling before Li Jin, kneeling before the fairness in his heart, he raised his head and took a deep breath: "But if it were anyone else from their family, I have no intention of being polite either."
Xiao Luo smiled faintly: "Birds of a feather flock together. In my eyes, those two old guys in the family are both the same kind of scoundrels."
Li Jin was still furious. When he heard him use the word "rat," he took a deep breath and bluntly attacked Li Jin's spine.
"A rat? How different are you from the rat you speak of now?" He stood up and took a step forward, shielding Jin Shu behind him.
Xiao Luo showed no fear, meeting his gaze with upright posture: "At least, I'm not a petty person who talks behind people's backs. At least, I'll say what I want to say to someone's face!"
"I will not fabricate, I will not exaggerate, I will not harm the innocent, I will not spread rumors." He took a deep breath. "I will be truthful and speak the truth!"
In the courtroom, Li Jin crossed his arms and looked down at the fierce man's face, his eyes slightly narrowed.
If he weren't a murder suspect, Li Jin would quite admire someone who bound his soul to his principles, a person as upright as a mountain.
Hearing this, Li Jin understood.
In interpersonal relationships, uprightness and integrity are actually a double-edged sword.
Being appropriately tactful and worldly-wise allows you to forgive others while also forgiving your own conscience.
Xiao Luo didn't understand this principle.
"Ten years ago, my family suffered a misfortune." He softened slightly and laughed self-deprecatingly. "At that time, my father was a well-known stonemason in the capital, with his own team of craftsmen."
"Later, when I was working for a wealthy family, there was an accident and someone died." He took a deep breath. "My father lent money to that family to pay off their debts, and from then on, he incurred a huge amount of usurious debt."
At this point, Xiao Luo fell silent.
What happened ten years ago is like a thorn stuck in his heart.
Li Jin remained motionless, staring intently at his face, not missing even the slightest change in his expression.
But Xiao Luo seemed to be deliberately avoiding something. When he spoke again, he skipped over what happened ten years ago after his family fell into decline and started talking about everything he saw at the scene on the day of the incident.
"Her family wasn't actually wealthy. But she always acted superior, so I thought she was very rich."
He laughed: "My house is bare."
That day, after he entered the house, he held a dagger in his hand, which he had brought with him just in case.
While quietly rummaging through two drawers, Niu Dai's voice suddenly came from the inner room.
“She thought it was her granddaughter coming back, so she asked her to bring two cornbread buns to eat.” Xiao Luo paused. “At that time, I saw her standing by the table in the inner room, pouring water with her back to me.”
He stopped there.
After pondering for a long time, his fists clenched, his lips pressed into a thin line, and after a while, his voice rose a few decibels: "When I saw her with her back to me, I suddenly got angry!"
The nonsense Niu Dai had once spouted, and the way she had looked at Xiao Luo like a rat in the street, now sprouted seeds of hatred in Xiao Luo's heart.
“I felt that if I didn’t kill him, I would be letting down my parents in heaven.” He took a deep breath. “Even if she’s dead now, it won’t be enough to ease the hatred in my heart.”
His hatred transformed into the force that propelled his sword hilt, driving his soul to unleash a frenzied rage, slash after slash, towards a frail, elderly man in his sixties.
Even now, kneeling in the main hall of the Jingzhao Prefecture, he still holds his head high, facing the plaque that reads "A Bright Mirror Hangs High".
It was as if he was telling everyone present, to the bright and clear sky, and to the righteous spirit, that he had a clear conscience.
“I only continued searching for money after I killed her,” he chuckled. “I found nothing, not a single coin.”
“Later, her granddaughter came back,” Xiao Luo said. “So I climbed out of the back window, used my flat-bottomed cart as a ladder, and climbed over the wall to get away.”
He looked at Li Jin and laughed, “I took off my blood-stained clothes and threw them into the ditch behind the path to wash them away. I rolled up my pants so you can’t see much blood. If anyone asks me, I’ll just say I took a job, slaughtered a pig, and got covered in pig’s blood.”
"They left the main road shirtless, carrying a shoulder pole."
He paused for a moment, then said, "Oh, I was still at the entrance of the neighborhood. I exchanged a few words with the soldiers on duty. They should remember me."
Inside the main hall of the Jingzhao Prefecture, Feng Chao listened attentively while quickly instructing the yamen runners waiting outside to search the nearby ditch according to his instructions.
He hurriedly asked his advisor to write a short letter to the Imperial Guard to inquire whether he had indeed exchanged pleasantries with the soldiers guarding the gate at that time.
If they match, then a case summary can be written.
But in the main hall, Li Jin remained motionless, staring at the man before him.
In the courtyard, cicadas chirped incessantly. The sun had moved much further ahead, its scorching rays slowly creeping into the courtroom.
The white walls and black tiles of the Jingzhao Mansion contrasted sharply with the dazzling light.
Li Jin, who had been standing beneath the plaque for a long time, stared intently at Xiao Luo. After a long while, he asked a question that Xiao Luo had never expected:
Where is your sister now?
The girl Niu Dai mentioned, who had become the most beautiful courtesan in Anshanfang, was sold by her own father to pay off debts.
Seeing Xiao Luo's piercing gaze fixed on him, Li Jin knew that he had touched a raw nerve deep within him, a wound that he would never allow anyone else to touch.
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