Chapter 20 Yao Er 20 The Truth 2
As Magistrate Zhao finished speaking, there was a rustling sound at the gate of the courtyard. Su Mei was escorted into the courtyard and found herself waiting at the gate, waiting to be summoned by someone inside.
Seeing her mother approaching step by step, all kinds of emotions surged in Wang Fuwan's heart, including guilt, remorse, doubts... and hatred.
If she had told her everything earlier, would some mistakes have been avoided from the beginning?
The rain intensified, leaving Sumei and the guards soaked and in a state of disarray. Magistrate Zhao, feeling sorry for the situation, ordered everyone to move from the verandas inside to avoid the rain. A large group of people crowded the study and the veranda outside. Before they could even find their feet, thunder roared with the force of the earth's cleavage. In an instant, the rain poured down in torrents, obscuring the color of the sky and earth.
The room was dim and gloomy. The attendants lit oil lamps and placed them in every corner, illuminating the room. County Magistrate Zhao sat on a chair, staring at Su Mei, who stood at the doorway with her head bowed. His eyes were sinister. "Li, do you have anything else to say?"
Su Mei lowered her head and whispered, "I don't know what you are talking about. The real and fake eldest young master is just speculation. How could I possibly switch the eldest young master? The eldest young master today is the child of you and your wife!"
No one expected that at this moment, Su Mei was still denying resistance. Ni Daqiang on the side even shouted angrily: "Li! Even at this point, you still refuse to tell the truth!"
"Since you have no evidence, how do you know I'm not telling the truth?" Su Mei looked up at Zhao Yuanming, meeting his shocked gaze. She remained neither humble nor arrogant, as if she were describing a commonplace matter. "After Madam died, I remembered that she had once argued with me about a fortune-teller's suspicion that the young master wasn't her biological child. I thought that if I could convince the young master that I was his biological mother, he would certainly treat me well when he became a high-ranking official and would also help my child. That's why I deceived the young master and caused so many misunderstandings."
Fang Yan looked hesitant: "If that's the case, why are you talking about this now?"
Su Mei stared at the raindrops on the bluestone slabs in the courtyard and murmured, "I suddenly remembered that my wife treated me very well. I can't do such a heartless thing after her death. What's more, now I have to pay for my wife's life and go to the underworld to accompany her. There is no point in doing this anymore..." Her eyes were red, and her voice was hoarse and choked with sobs. "I killed my wife. You can arrest me. I am willing to pay for her life."
Su Mei's sudden confession made everyone present look at each other in bewilderment. Wang Fuwan suddenly looked up, her eyes full of disbelief.
Although Fang Yan was young, he was a county lieutenant who had apprehended many cunning criminals. He was not flustered by Yu Mei's words. He said calmly, "Since you said you killed her, then why did you kill her?"
Sumei couldn't answer.
If, as she said, Wang Fuwan and Zhao Yuanming were not siblings, she wouldn't have had to kill Madam Zhao to keep the secret. Was she supposed to overturn everything in the past, fabricate unfounded lies, and throw dirty water on the deceased? How could she do that? Besides, he had treated her so well in his lifetime...
Fang Yan noticed her hesitation and understood. "Ms. Li, you're trying to protect too many people, and you think the government is foolish." He leaned over and bowed slightly to County Magistrate Zhao. "Sir, this morning, I sent people to Ganhuai Temple on the outskirts of the city. They found a pagoda in the hills behind the temple, where a deceased baby was buried. The baby had no name, but the pagoda bore the names of its parents: Mr. and Mrs. Wang Heshun. Yamen runners razed the pagoda, removed the remains, and brought them back to the city. They're now in the front yard."
"What are you doing?!" Su Mei opened her eyes wide, her hair swaying violently, and she was panicked and terrified. "I once had a child who died young. I placed him in Ganhuai Temple, hoping that he would be reborn into a good family and have a healthy body in the next life. Why are you disturbing his peace?!"
Magistrate Zhao ignored Sumei, his voice filled with indescribable fatigue: "Bring the corpse up here."
With Magistrate Zhao's permission, the yamen runner standing by the door turned and left. A moment later, he returned with a wooden box about an arm's length long. He placed the box on the table beside Magistrate Zhao, then opened the lid and everyone gathered around.
There was a small skeleton in the wooden box. Its arms were not much thicker than an adult's fingers, and its bones were curled up together, looking very pitiful.
Fang Yan used his sleeve to pad his hand and fiddled with the box. He found his clenched fist and separated it. He took out the bones of the fingers and placed them on his palm. He pointed them out to County Magistrate Zhao and said, "Sir, look, this little finger has four joints."
Su Mei had no idea what they were talking about. She just kept crying and wailing, "My son, you have such a miserable life. You were clearly already buried in the ground, yet you were dug out by these damn people..."
The wailing was so sharp and shrill that it hurt Xun Shu's ears. She tilted her head and looked at Su Mei, who was crying without tears, and said in a muffled voice, "A liar will be bitten by a dog. Are you sure that the skeleton is your child?"
Su Mei was stunned for a moment, then frowned and angrily shouted: "What do you mean by bitten by a dog... If it's not my child, whose else could it be?"
Xun Shu rubbed her ears and said slowly, "Do you know what Lord Fang took? It's the little finger of this baby skeleton. This skeleton's little finger has four knuckles, while ordinary people's little fingers only have three." She pointed to County Magistrate Zhao, who was not far away, and said, "Yesterday, we learned from County Magistrate Zhao that all the children in his family have four knuckles on their little fingers. This is true for County Magistrate Zhao, and also for the second young lady of the Zhao family. Therefore, the skeleton buried in the back mountain of Ganhuai Temple is not your child, but County Magistrate Zhao's child."
Su Mei didn't know that the Zhao family had such a characteristic. Her lips trembled, sweat oozed from her forehead, and she stood still, not moving for a long time.
Seeing her calm down, Xun Shu was very satisfied and soothed her softly: "Don't be sad. Although your lies have been exposed, Zhao Yuanming's identity has been confirmed and he can return to his ancestral home. You picked up a child for free. Isn't that good?"
What kind of talk is this! He Xuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He took a half step forward and stood beside Xun Shu, saying earnestly: "Su Mei, you grew up with Madam Zhao since childhood, just like sisters. How could you be so cruel as to kill her? I guess the exchange of children back then was also partly for Madam Zhao, right? Madam Zhao cried so much because of the child that her eyes were damaged. She was confused and had hysterics. Seeing that the child would not live long, you were afraid that Madam Zhao would not survive. It happened that your child was about the same age as the eldest son of the Zhao family, so you came up with the idea of exchanging the two children."
Ni Daqiang looked puzzled: "This is her own flesh and blood, how could she bear to send it to the Zhao residence like this?"
"Perhaps she thought that the Zhao family was well-off, and Magistrate Zhao was a learned man. If the child became Magistrate Zhao and his wife's son, Madam Zhao would dote on him with all her heart, and the Zhao family would certainly plan a good future for him, better than leaving him in the cloth shop. When the child grew up, she could find an opportunity to recognize him as her own, and perhaps even get some help. It would be like killing two birds with one stone, wouldn't it?"
Su Mei gritted her teeth, stiffened her neck, and shook her head: "No, you are wrong, I was the one who killed the Madam. I killed her, and then I recognized Yuan Ming... Without the Madam, we can truly become mother and son..."
Su Mei's thoughts were in disarray, her words incoherent, yet she still insisted that she was the murderer. Fang Yan and the others knew in their hearts that she was not the murderer, but due to the lack of evidence, they could not do anything for the time being.
The atmosphere was deadlocked, as if it was frozen. No one spoke, and there was only the sound of rain in the yard, which was incessant and annoying.
Zhao Yuanming hung his head, trembling all over, as if he would collapse at any moment, no longer the domineering man he once was. Su Mei's eyes were dazed, and she pursed her lips tightly, as if she was trying to hold on. Wang Fuwan glanced at the two of them, chuckled softly, and said with a resigned expression, "Don't say anything more, I was the one who killed him—"
"Shut up!" Su Mei came back to her senses and interrupted her. She turned to look at County Magistrate Zhao, hunched over, and pleaded, "Sir, she's just a child, she doesn't understand anything. Please don't believe her. I killed her. You can lock me up. I'm willing to die for your wife!"
"Mother, do you know where Madam Zhao was pushed into the pond? Do you know where I picked up the stone that knocked her unconscious? And do you know where the stone ended up?" Wang Fuwan looked at her, her lips curled up, a faint smile, "You know nothing, how could you be the murderer of Madam Zhao?" Her gaze gradually became empty, without a fixed point, drifting across the people in the room, and finally landing on the face of County Magistrate Zhao. She took a few steps forward and knelt in front of him, "Sir, I plead guilty. What this girl just said is all right. Let me fill you in on what happened next.
"I followed Madam Zhao to the pond and watched her staring blankly at it, her back trembling slightly, as if she were crying. At the time, I didn't know why she was crying. I just felt that she was trying to separate Brother Yuanming and me, and that she was so vicious. I should be the one crying. I don't know what happened at the time, but a thought suddenly came to my mind: if she was no longer in this world, would no one oppose Brother Yuanming and me, and we could be together... By the time I reacted, I had already knocked her unconscious and pushed her into the pond.
"After that, I was very panicked and didn't know what to do. I picked up the stone that hit Madam Zhao and wanted to hide it, the farther away the better. I carefully avoided the patrol and went to Brother Yuanming's yard under the cover of night, but saw A Niang walk out of the main house and enter the empty wing room. After closing the door, she didn't leave again and actually stayed in that yard. I wanted to ask Brother Yuanming for help, but I was afraid of being discovered by A Niang, so I had to leave the yard, climb over the wall into the empty courtyard on the west side, and bury the stone under the tree in the corner of the wall. I thought that the place had been abandoned for many years and was covered with weeds, so it would not be easy to be discovered. After that, I rested for a while there, and when it was Mao time, I left Zhao's house before dawn and returned to the cloth shop.
"Sir, please send someone to find the stone. Then you will know that what I said is true. I am the real murderer of Madam Zhao."
Before Wang Fuwan finished speaking, a yamen runner left with an umbrella and headed towards the west courtyard.
The situation changed instantly. Su Mei rushed to Wang Fuwan's side, her eyes red and tears bursting out. She grabbed her arm and cried, "Wan'er, why are you doing this? I'm your mother, I should protect you..."
Mother……
Those two words were like a switch, instantly swallowing Wang Fuwan of exhaustion. She removed Sumei's hand from her arm. She was smiling, but tears streamed down her cheeks. "Mom, you thought sending my brother to the Zhao family was for his own good. You thought not telling us anything and forcibly separating us was for our own good. But have you ever considered what we want? I just wanted none of this to happen. I just wanted to live a good life with Brother Yuanming. Now it's all ruined..."
"You say you want to protect me now, but I tell you, I don't want that! The greatest calamity of my life was caused by you!
"Mother, I hate it so much...
"You've ruined my life..."
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