There is a god in the sky

Chapter 54 The Murder of a Wealthy Family in Jianzhou (Part 17)

"How did she die?" Lu Yaxuan asked, her eyes red.

Shen Lan didn't want to talk, so she waved her hand and turned to leave.

"Tell me quickly! How did she die?" Lu Yaxuan rushed forward, but was stopped by the yamen runners.

They dragged themselves all the way to the outside of the yamen (government office), where Shen Lan turned around and said, "You can't even protect yourself, what right do you have to care about her?"

Xiao Ji had already received the news and was waiting in the courtroom. As soon as the suspect arrived, the trial would begin immediately.

"Kneel down!" The bailiffs forced the man surnamed Lu to kneel in the hall.

"Lu Yaxuan, thirty-eight, is a well-known perfumer in this city, and runs a spice shop, is that correct?"

Seeing that he didn't react, Xiao Ji asked again, "Where were you on the night of the fifth day of this month?... If you insist on not speaking, I will have to resort to torture."

The other person looked up, their eyes devoid of any spirit.

He grinned, but the smile was bleak.

"My lord, there's no need to ask. I did it. I killed everyone in the Wu family!"

Xiao Ji frowned. "Do you know what it means to confess your guilt?"

Dozens of lives lost, a heinous crime, it should be beheaded and displayed to the public.

"I admit it, I did it."

Lei Dajiang gripped the scabbard and slapped him across the face. "You beast! How could you do that?"

For some reason, Xiao Ji felt that his confession was too easy, and he didn't initially believe that he was the murderer.

"Heh... Why can't I do it? It's because that bastard Wu Zhongjin has gone too far, he deserves to die!"

“He deserves to die, but do the others in his household also deserve to die? What does a one-year-old child know?” Lei Dajiang kicked him again.

Xiao Ji tapped the table lightly, and Lei Dajiang angrily stepped aside.

Lu Yaxuan got up from the ground and knelt down. Before Xiao Ji could question him, he began to talk about his grudges with the Wu family.

Back then, he was an apprentice in a perfume shop. One day, while delivering incense to the Wu family, he met Wu Jiaojiao and fell in love at first sight.

Later, he would always take the opportunity of delivering incense to secretly visit Wu, and each time he would give her a sachet that he had made himself.

In his youth, he was handsome, witty, and knew how to please women, which quickly won over Ms. Wu.

He worked hard to learn skills, saved money, and went to propose marriage with utmost sincerity, only to be driven away by Wu Zhongjin.

"He called me a toad lusting after a swan. I know my family is poor, but I won't be poor forever. I can guarantee that Jiaojiao will live a good life, but he wouldn't listen. He turned around and gave Jiaojiao to a county magistrate as a concubine!"

He was so angry he wanted to grind his teeth.

Shen Lan was moved when she heard this.

Young people's admiration is the most ardent, but someone just douses their enthusiasm with a bucket of water.

It's possible that he turned his love into hatred.

But she still didn't believe it. If he didn't have a meltdown back then, why would he have one more than ten years later?

Xiao Ji asked him, "You killed the entire Wu family because of these old grudges?"

"No, that's not it." Lu Yaxuan sat down cross-legged, held a sachet in his hand, and smelled it.

He exhaled a breath of stale air with his eyes closed, and when he opened them again, his eyes were filled with a fierce light.

"I thought what happened back then was over. I haven't been able to forget her all these years. I haven't married, but I haven't contacted her again either."

I met her again when I went to offer incense at Fayin Temple after that county magistrate became the prefect of Jianzhou.

She is not doing well.

The mistress oppressed her, and after a miscarriage, her health deteriorated, rendering her unable to conceive again. Coupled with the constant influx of new women into the household, she gradually fell out of favor…

"Heh, isn't this my chance?"

He glanced around and saw Shen Lan standing at the door. Pointing at her, he asked, "You, if you were her, would you choose to leave the Liu family and come with me?"

Shen Lan shook her head, "I am not her, I don't know her choice."

"So what's your choice?"

"If it were me, I wouldn't have entered the Liu residence in the first place."

Everyone in the courtroom was stunned, and all eyes turned to her.

Shen Lan faced it calmly.

She would never become someone's concubine, even if it meant remaining single for her entire life.

"Haha...hahaha...you little lady, you have quite the nerve!" Lu Yaxuan laughed and then cried.

Tears streamed down his face. "It's a pity she can't see through it all; she refuses to leave the Liu family."

What good end could a concubine who had fallen out of favor possibly have? Yet she insisted on staying in that cage.

There's nothing I can do except occasionally try to see her.

But unexpectedly, in just a few years, the man surnamed Liu was promoted again; he was going to the capital.

Shen Lan's gaze turned cold as she listened quietly to him say, "Madam Liu discovered our past and even slandered me for having an affair with Jiao Jiao. Liu was just promoted and was unwilling to bring such a concubine to the capital, so he abandoned her on the estate."

I went to the Wu family to beg Wu Zhongjin to bring Jiaojiao back, promising to take responsibility for her future.

Who knew Wu Zhongjin would still beat me up, scolding me for being delusional and saying that even if his sister died, she would be buried in the Liu family's ancestral tomb!

"Pah! He's a complete scoundrel!" Lu Yaxuan gripped his knees tightly and shouted like a madman, "He doesn't even care about his own sister's life or death, he's not worthy of being called a human being!"

"So you killed his entire family for that?"

"Yes! He doesn't know that Jiaojiao went to that manor and was bullied. She's lost her mind and I can't even recognize her anymore..." He covered his face in anguish and buried it in his knees.

"She was such a good person, so cheerful, yet she became a madwoman in everyone's eyes!"

Shen Lan never expected that he knew about those things.

"Didn't you try to get her out?" A normal person's thinking would be to save the person first.

Lu Yaxuan retorted, "How could I not have tried? But the estate manager was asking for an exorbitant amount, demanding a thousand taels of silver from me. Although I have some savings, I don't have that much money."

So I went to Wu Zhongjin again. I went there on the night of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. I knelt down and begged him to lend me money, promising to repay him double, but he still refused.

I...I was so angry that I decided to kill him without hesitation!

I might have gone mad. After killing him, I felt it wasn't enough, so I killed the entire Wu family, haha... They're all dead! Good riddance!

Xiao Ji waited until he calmed down a bit before asking calmly, "You said you killed the entire Wu family. What weapon did you use?"

"The stick, it's the stick I got from the yard."

"How did you get the sleeping incense into the Wu family's room?"

Lu Yaxuan said proudly, "I am a perfumer. My products are highly sought after in the city. I'm sure you use my perfumes in your residence, sir."

Xiao Ji did not refute this point.

"I gave the incense to the steward of the Wu family and also slipped him some money, which is why he was willing to open the door for me in the middle of the night."

Everyone suddenly realized, "So that's how it is," which explained why the butler's body was found in the front yard.

After saying this, he turned to stare at Shen Lan and said, "Tell me quickly, how did Jiao Jiao die? How do you know she's dead?"

Xiao Ji also looked at her.