“Of course, the reason you liked buttons with three holes was because you loved to gamble. A true addict like you not only believes in luck, but also in Fengshui1. True gambling addicts believe in wearing three holes on the waist, which will bring wealth from three sides.”
Her words pounded Li Zhao’s spirit, and the latter was already trembling.
‘The rumor that he was a coward isn’t just an apocryphal tale,’ thought Yi Junshu.
Ji Yunshu struck while the iron was hot; she pointed at a section of the waistband he concealed with his hand. “If you still won’t admit the button is yours, then remove your hand! Let everyone take a look and judge for themselves if what I’ve said is true.”
How would he dare to move his hand away now? Li Zhao seemed that he would swallow his belt whole, if given the chance.
Seeing that Li Zhao still kept his hand where it was, the magistrate got impatient and shot a look at the yamen runners. Two of the sharper ones understood the meaning of his glance, went up to Li Zhao, and forced both his arms to his sides.
“You- Let go of me!” Li Zhao shouted. However, the button on his waist had already been exposed; as expected, it was a three-holed button. It looked identical to the one in Ji Yunshu’s hand!
The magistrate’s eyes widened. He lifted his gavel in rage and slammed it down. The smack resounded within the courtroom.
“Li Zhao, first you’ve committed perjury, and now, when this button is presented as irrefutable proof, you’re still not going to admit that you killed Master Jiang? Don’t make me torture you.”
Ji Yunshu rolled her eyes at him. ‘Is violence the only language you speak? A confession is best when not coerced.’
Li Zhao was held in place by the two yamen runners. His face was pallid and his mind was in a mess from the panic. A sudden streak of inspiration ran through his mind, and he immediately used it to formulate a rebuttal to Ji Yunshu’s accusation, “You are accusing me of being the murderer based solely on a button. This is just a fabrication, a convenient accusation you’ve concocted! I didn’t- didn’t kill anyone, I didn’t!”
To Ji Yunshu, he was merely delaying the inevitable.
She looked at him with seriousness and overbearing cold eyes, and she questioned, “Another sophistry, even at this point? Fine, then I will reconstruct the events which occurred on that night for you. You owed a large amount of debt due to gambling and you were pursued by your creditors to your doorstep. You were very afraid and didn’t know what to do, but you didn’t dare to ask your sister for money. So, during these few days, you were hiding from your creditors while drinking your troubles away…”
“No, no that’s not…”
“Then, one night, you saw Master Jiang. Though you knew that Master Jiang had no authority in the Jiang family, he was still the ostensible head of the household. So, you planned on asking him to lend you money to solve your troubles.”
1.Fengshui: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_shui