“Oh, really? Am I blind or illiterate? Can you tell me what’s written on it?”
‘There’s something written on it?’ Magistrate Liu was curious enough to leave his seat. He picked up the pendant and pointed at Ji Yuanzhi. “Hey, this is yours. Look, your name is sewn on it.”
“I…” Ji Yuanzhi stuttered; the focused air in his eyes was gone.
Ji Shuhan could not hold it in anymore. He grunted at Ji Yunshu, “Yunshu, what exactly are you trying to do? First, you say that Yuanzhi is at fault for Luan’er’s death, and now you are expecting us to believe that Yuanzhi is somehow related to the case at the Wei Mansion with a pendant and a few nonsensical remarks? He’s your third brother! Won’t you stop at nothing until he’s dead?”
‘Third brother? I’d love to know a time when he thought of me as a sister.’ Ji Yunshu maintained her composure, but resentment flashed through her eyes. “I’m not the one wishing his death, quite the opposite actually.”
“What nonsense?” shouted Ji Shuhan.
Ji Yunshu quirked her lips and turned her head toward Ji Yuanzhi, who was collapsed on the ground. “Listen, and I will throw light upon your confusion.”
She took a deep breath and fought against the tears in her eyes. “That day, before you came to the Wei Mansion, you prepared a pair of chopsticks identical to the ones used by the hosts at the Wei Mansion and soaked them in Pitohui poison for a few hours. When you arrived, you found an excuse to the kitchen and waited there until you saw a maid carry utensils. You knew that what she had was meant for me, so you offered a hairpin and used it as a distraction to swap the chopsticks with the poisoned ones you were hiding.”
At this point, the main hall had sunk into a complete silence. A silence due perhaps to surprise or shock. Despite the implausibility of the tale, even Ji Yuanzhi did not speak out against it. Ji Yunshu continued, “What you didn’t think of, however, is that when you were about to leave, Wei Yi bumped into you. In doing so, he caused his parents chopsticks, carried by another maid, to fall into the same container as mine; yes, the chopsticks were identical, so the two maids simply picked them up randomly.”
“The pair which was meant for me was split up. One was given to Uncle Wei, and the other one, to Aunt Wei.”
“No… stop it! STOP IT!” Ji Yuanzhi’s suddenly exploded into a frenzy. He raised his hands and was about to leap toward Ji Yunshu. However, before he could do so, Jing Rong arrived, quick as a gust of wind. He pulled Ji Yunshu behind him, raised his leg, and dealt a mighty kick to Ji Yuanzhi’s chest. The latter flew for nearly a meter and fell to the ground with blood on the corner of his lips.
Ji Shuhan hurried to help Ji Yuanzhu, but Lang Po and another bodyguard stopped him. “If you lay even a finger to help, I’ll end you right here, right now,” growled Jing Rong.
Ji Yuanzhi laid prostrate, looking at Ji Yunshu with hatred. He protested in a last-ditch effort, “You are lying. I haven’t, I haven’t!”
“You may not know, but you gave me the evidence I needed.”
“……” Ji Yunshu took out the handkerchief wrapped around the poisoned chopsticks out of her sleeves and cast it to the ground. “Look at your own thumb.”