eurekapd Chapter 100 100 Exposure
Chapter 100 100 Exposure
Chapter 100, 100 Exposures
In the Plum Blossom Courtyard of Aunt Song in the West Courtyard, the atmosphere seemed to freeze, the air thick with the stench of blood, making it hard to breathe.
"Aunt Song actually knows how to create something as terrifying as cat poison. Is she trying to kill everyone in the Marquis's mansion?"
"No wonder that Taoist priest Wu Yanzi said that the Marquis's mansion was shrouded in foul air. It turns out that the whole reason is because of this cat-shaped Gu!"
"The old lady had a nightmare last night. Could it be that this cat-shaped curse is causing the trouble?"
"Oh my god, what should I do? My name is on the list! Am I going to die?"
"..."
Whispers filled the air, and in Old Madam Song's cloudy eyes, a complex mix of anger, astonishment, and malice flickered. For the first time, she felt an urge to strangle her own niece.
When Aunt Song met Old Madam Song's gaze, her body trembled violently, and she screamed as she crawled toward Old Madam Song:
"Aunt, it wasn't me, it wasn't me! I stayed with the Marquis all night, I didn't have time to bury that dead cat at all!"
Her desperate struggle was utterly disgusting and terrifying to An Shihou. Just as she was about to grab Old Madam Song's sleeve, An Shihou kicked her away, his voice filled with hatred:
"Song Yun, you are incredibly audacious! It's one thing to poison my mother, but you even dared to create such an extremely insidious thing as the Cat Gu! Now that the evidence is irrefutable, you still want to deny it! Guards, arrest this vicious woman for me!" Marquis Anshi roared.
The guards, upon receiving the order, stepped forward and restrained Consort Song, while simultaneously pulling out the doll with the name Gongsun Yuan written on it that she was clutching tightly in her hand.
Watching helplessly as her belongings were snatched away again, the intense resentment burned away Song Yiniang's reason like a wildfire. She struggled desperately to break free from the guards' grip, her hair falling loosely from somewhere, her face contorted in a grotesque grimace, looking like a vengeful ghost.
"Give it back! Give it back to me!"
"Mother!" Upon seeing this, Ye Wenjin cried out and rushed forward, trying to push away the guards holding Consort Song, but was instead pushed to the ground by the struggling Consort Song. She gritted her teeth, turned around, knelt before Marquis Anshi, and sobbed:
"Father! Mother is innocent! This cat poison could never have been made by Mother! You must believe Mother!" Glancing at Ye Pianran and Gongsun Yuan standing behind An Shihou, she pointed at Ye Pianran and said fiercely:
"It was Ye Pianran! It was that little bitch who buried the dead cat in Plum Blossom Courtyard! It must have been her!"
With a loud "slap," Ye Wenjin's face was slapped hard by An Shihou. An Shihou angrily said:
"You insolent brat! That's your elder sister! How dare you speak to her like that!"
Ye Wenjin was slapped so hard she fell to the ground, five clear finger marks imprinted on her fair face. Clutching her throbbing face, she stared wide-eyed in disbelief: "Father, you actually hit me!"
"I'm not only going to beat you today, I'm going to beat you to death! How could your mother raise such a disrespectful and unruly daughter? You've utterly disgraced the Marquis's mansion!" Marquis Anshi was furious. He grabbed a bamboo stick from the ground and raised his hand to strike Ye Wenjin, but Ye Pianran quickly pulled him back, saying:
"Father, please calm down! Now is not the time to dwell on this; there are still many things to be resolved!"
"Ye Pianran, you don't need to pretend to be a good person. My daughter and I don't need it!" Aunt Song saw that half of Ye Wenjin's face was swollen from being beaten by An Shihou, her chest heaving violently, and her eyes were bloodshot with anger. "I admit you won this round. If it weren't for you, how could my daughter and I have fallen into such a state! Are you satisfied to see us in such a sorry state?"
"Why can't Ran'er understand what Aunt Song is saying? You were the one who sent the poisoned prayer beads to Grandmother, and you were the one who said there were ghosts causing trouble in the Marquis's mansion and invited a fake Taoist priest to come back and perform a ritual. How come you're blaming it all on me in the end?" Ye Pianran said calmly.
"What? A fake Taoist priest?" Old Madam Song was shocked. She turned to look at Wu Yanzi, who was covered in cold sweat and trembling, and asked in surprise and doubt, "Ran'er, how did you know he was a fake Taoist priest?"
“It’s very simple. First, he claims to be a Taoist priest from Taiqing Temple, but the Tai Chi symbol drawn behind him is reversed.” Ye Pianran looked at “Wu Yanzi”, whose eyes were gleaming, and said slowly, “This Tai Chi symbol is also called ‘Reversing Heaven and Earth,’ which is the symbol of a sect called ‘Zixu Temple’ in the martial arts world. They are not real Taoist priests, but they use the banner of Taoism to swindle and deceive people, and use various means to amass ill-gotten gains. Taoist priest, am I right?”
Before Wu Yanzi could react, Ye Pianran continued:
"Secondly, the soul-summoning banner is the most important ritual implement in Taoism. It is an essential item for both opening an altar for sacrifices and guiding the souls of the dead. Therefore, it is extremely particular in its production and use. However, this Taoist priest claims that he does not remember what kind of wood was used to hang the soul-summoning banner. Doesn't that raise suspicion?"
Upon hearing this, Madam Song nodded in agreement. She had indeed been somewhat doubtful when Wu Yanzi vaguely claimed he couldn't remember.
"As for the third point... I wonder if Daoist Wu Yanzi has noticed a strange smell on him?" Ye Pianran tilted her head slightly, smiling as she looked at Wu Yanzi, appearing every bit the innocent and charming young girl.
Wu Yanzi was feeling nervous after hearing her analysis, and when she heard what she said, she quickly lowered her head to smell her sleeves.
“If I’m not mistaken, the smell should be coming from the yellow talisman that the Taoist priest has hidden in his sleeve,” Ye Pianran said. “That yellow talisman is probably coated with phosphorus powder that ignites when exposed to wind. No matter where the Taoist priest takes out the yellow talisman, it will burn on its own, creating the illusion that there are evil spirits here.”
Marquis Anshi gave a signal to his guards and said in a cold voice, "Search!"
With so many people watching, Wu Yanzi dared not resist at all, and thus allowed the guards of the Marquis's mansion to search him and take away the wooden box containing the yellow talisman that he had hidden in his sleeve. The guards took the box out of Plum Blossom Courtyard, tried it out in other places, and soon returned to Plum Blossom Courtyard.
"My lord, just as the young lady said, those yellow talismans can burn on their own no matter where they are! They have nothing to do with evil spirits at all!"
"How dare you! You dare to play tricks on me!" Marquis Anshi was furious. He drew a sword from a guard's hand, pointed it at the fake Taoist priest, and said, "Arrest him and take him to the Shuntian Prefecture to see the officials!"
The fake Taoist priest's legs went weak, and he knelt on the ground with a thud, kowtowing repeatedly to Marquis Anshi:
"My lord, spare me! My lord, spare me! I am indeed not a Taoist priest from Taiqing Temple. It was Aunt Song who gave me a hundred taels of silver and asked me to impersonate Taoist Master Wu Yanzi from Taiqing Temple and lie that the Marquis's mansion was shrouded in filth. She instructed me to do all of this. Please, for the sake of my honesty and confession, do not send me to the authorities!"
"You're talking nonsense! Don't slander my mother!" Ye Wenjin shouted urgently when she saw that the fake Taoist priest had actually implicated Aunt Song. She kept glancing at Marquis Anshi's face.
“I’m not lying! I still have the silver note she gave me on me, and it has the mark of the Song Family Money Shop of Huaiyang on it!” the fake Taoist priest argued, taking out a silver note from his pocket and placing it in front of Marquis Anshi and Madam Song.
Both Madam Song and Concubine Song came from the Song family of Huaiyang, Quzhou. Concubine Song's father, who was also Madam Song's elder brother, managed the Song family's money exchange. Seeing that the banknote indeed bore the Song family's money exchange's mark, Madam Song's face became even more unpleasant.
"You, Song Yun! All these years since you married into Xingguan, I have treated you like my own daughter. Yet you have no regard for our blood ties or the kindness I have shown you. Not only did you poison me, but you also hired a fake Taoist priest to trick us. You have truly disappointed me!"
If this incident hadn't happened, Old Madam Song might have continued to turn a blind eye to Aunt Song's actions as usual. But Aunt Song shouldn't have targeted her, reminding her of that old incident and that person from many years ago! That was her inviolable sore spot, and even if the person touched was her own niece, she would never tolerate it!
Seeing that Old Madam Song no longer sided with her, Aunt Song steeled her heart, looked at Ye Yanxun who was trying to distance himself, and said in a pitiful voice, "Young Master! I've sacrificed myself so much, are you just going to sit idly by and do nothing! Those poisoned prayer beads—"
Ye Yanxun's gaze darkened, a flash of murderous intent crossing his eyes. He interrupted her sharply, "Aunt Song, you are truly vicious! If Ran'er hadn't discovered that the prayer beads were poisoned, would you have tried to kill Grandmother like this? It wasn't enough that you poisoned Grandmother; you even secretly made a cat gu, such an extremely sinister thing, attempting to kill Father and Mother, and everyone in the Marquis's mansion. I'm already showing mercy by not asking Father to take your life; I have nothing more to say to you!"
"Ye Yanxun, you—"
Aunt Song stared in disbelief at Ye Yanxun, who had turned on her so suddenly. She wanted to say something more, but Old Madam Song interrupted her loudly.
"Enough! There's no need to say any more! Xingguan, you decide what to do with this woman!"
Looking at the disheveled Aunt Song kneeling beside the cat-gu, and her second daughter Ye Wenjin whom he had slapped, Marquis Anshi felt as if a bucket of water had been poured over his head, and he suddenly hesitated.
Although Aunt Song's actions today were truly infuriating, she was, after all, from the same lineage as Old Madam Song, and their relationship was extremely close. Moreover, some of the Marquis's business required the assistance and management of the Song family's money shop. If the punishment was too lenient, the Old Madam might not be satisfied; if the punishment was too severe, the Song family's money shop might refuse to help anymore. This matter was indeed quite difficult to handle...
After much deliberation, Marquis Anshi spoke up: "Guards, Concubine Song is vicious and immoral; lock her up—"
Suddenly, a servant boy barged into Plum Blossom Courtyard, interrupting Marquis Anshi before he could finish speaking:
"My lord, my lord!"
Marquis Anshi was very displeased: "Why are you in such a hurry? Can't you see I'm busy?"
The servant knelt before Jin Shi, first apologizing, then hurriedly said, "My lord, Prime Minister Gongsun and Lord Feng from Shuntian Prefecture have come to our manor!"