Trigger warning

This chapter has disturbing description of Sexual Attack, so read with caution. T/N this was a very tough chapter to edit.

“That’s enough!” Li Ruizhi couldn’t help but cry out when he saw this, choking up and saying, “Don’t… don’t look at it! I killed the person, I…”

A slight sigh sounded, even though it was inaudible, Li Ruizhi heard it all at once. He looked at Madam Yan and murmured: “Qingqing…”

Madam Yan tied the cloak again, and the tight cloak blocked the prying eyes of others.

“When I married Yan San, I thought that no matter what, he would not dare to treat me as long as my father and brother were around. But I didn’t expect that I was wrong.” Madam Yan said, “I still remember the first time after we got married that he exposed his perversions. He knelt down in front of my father and brother, trembling with fear, and promised again and again that he would never do it again.”

“But after we left my home, he changed his face, sneered at me, and walked away.” Mrs. Yan smiled bitterly, “I think it was at that time that he discovered what kind of people my father and brother were. They regarded face as everything and would not allow me to divorce. They had to let Yan San and I pretend to be a harmonious couple before we became adults.”

“Yan San knew that. My father and brother would not allow me to reconcile, so he became more and more aggressive. Once, I met him when he came back from outside. I saw the poor girl he brought back, and I couldn’t help but say a few more words, and he moved on me.”

“My mother comforted me, and my father and brother called Yan San over and scolded me. Suddenly, Yan San knelt down in front of my father and brother and promised again that he would not do it again.” Madam Yan shook her head and laughed at herself, “How could it be possible? After that, it was the same every time. My mother comforted me and applied medicine for me, and my father and brother called him over and scolded him, and Yan San promised that he would not do the same thing as before when he goes back.”

“Gradually, I also understood that what is really important in the eyes of my father and brother is not me, but face. If Yan San, the censor Zhongcheng, did well, it mattered to them. Compared with this, I am not worth mentioning.” Madam Yan said.

“From the very beginning when he attacked the people around me to when he started beating me, he tested the limits of my father and brother again and again. After confirming what kind of person my father and brother were, he… attacked me. “Madam Yan said with a bitter smile, “They don’t like brothel girls. They like to rob poor girls who are born in poverty and have no family to rely on. They just like to see those poor girls resist in anger, or commit suicide by hitting pillars, or try their best to bite them. It was like hunting, the more fiercely the prey resisted, the happier it became.”

“Later, even a poor girl was a little boring for Yan San, so…” Madam Yan shrank, and her whole body was crumbling, “So he focused on me, a woman from an official family. He found it more exciting.”

“I, this condition… it was contracted back then.” Madam Yan lowered her gaze, biting her lip tightly. “After contracting it, Yan San was shocked and immediately cut off contact with those friends who were already sick, and he was grateful that he didn’t contract it.”

Tears welled up in Madam Yan’s eyes, and she said, “He dragged me into the quagmire and even wanted to step on me, pushing me deeper into the mud.”

“Not only that, he was so proud that he told me to go back and tell my father and brother.” Madam Yan reached out and grabbed a corner of the cloak, trembling uncontrollably. He knows better than me what kind of people my father and brother are. If they knew about me… I am afraid that not only would they not make decisions for me, but they would also despise me for bringing shame to them. For fear of leaking the news, they would be worse than Yan San. They will hope that I will commit suicide soon so that they can clear their name!”

As for how a perfectly innocent person like her could have such a terrible experience, anyone can guess. As for the real culprit behind all of this, since they had to rely on Yan San now, how could her father and brothers report him?

“I want to kill Yan San, even in my dreams!” Madam Yan looked up, her tearful eyes filled with hatred, “I tried hiding the golden hairpin to kill him, but… I was so useless, and I hadn’t even gotten close to him yet and I was discovered. Since then, he has been wary of me, making it impossible for me to do anything.”

“I met Ruizhi again at that time.” Madam Yan looked at Li Ruizhi.

When they met again, he was still waiting for her, but she was already in a mess.

After learning what happened to her, he jumped into the quagmire along with her.

“The friend who caused me to get this disease was abandoned by his family. It was easy for the two of us to succeed. I used a dagger to insert more than a dozen holes in that man, but it still couldn’t relieve the hatred in my heart.” Madam Yan gritted her teeth and said, “But… it’s not just him, Yan San, and the others… I hate all of them.”

Therefore, the subsequent water ghost case occurred.

“Our original plan, the two of us, was to kill Yan San and Zhang Zeduan, and then pin all the deaths on Lu Qing’s head. Coincidentally, he had a deep feud with Yan San and others. But later, we thought again, and we felt that Lu Qing was also a pitiable person, so we changed the plan. After killing Yan San, we would shift all the blame onto Zhang Zeduan,” Madam Yan said, “As for the Marquis of Huai’an, he has a special status and is related to Rui, so killing him directly could bring trouble and suspicion. So, we prepared a different way for his death.”

At this point, no one can escape.

But killing someone was killing someone, and the law will not be merciful.

Liu Yuan frowned, after hearing what happened to Madam Yan, and then looking at the tortured maids, and thinking about Zhang Zeduan who was about to be acquitted, he felt a little sour in his heart for some reason.

Was this Zhang Zeduan going to be let go like this?

Just as he was thinking this, the guard hurried in from outside, walked up to Lin Fei, and whispered a few words in his ear. Lin Fei glanced at everyone, turned around, and walked out.

Liu Yuan quickly followed, and when he followed Lin Fei to the innermost cell, he was shocked.

Zhang Zeduan’s fat body was lying on his back on the ground, with a hairpin inserted in his neck. The maid Huang Ying who was the first to accuse Zhang Zeduan of murder was sprayed with blood on her face, and she fell there, looking at Zhang Zeduan’s corpse and laughing “Haha”.

“What’s going on? How did the person get out?” Lin Fei looked at the scene in front of him and asked the jailer on the side.

The jailer said: “This is not Zhang Zeduan’s cell, but Huang Ying’s cell. It is Zhang Zeduan who came out to look for Huang Ying.”

Lin Fei said “Hmm” and looked at Huang Ying. There was a clear sign of strangling visible on her plain white neck.

“Zhang Zeduan is a man who likes martial arts. He knows how to open locks with iron wire. When I was not paying attention, he opened the lock and came to look for Huang Ying. He probably wanted to question and retaliate against her,” the jailer said, pointing to the strangling marks on Huang Ying’s neck. “Who would have thought that this servant girl would stab him in the neck with a pearl hairpin secretly hidden in her sleeve.”

This hairpin stab cannot be saved by gods, so why should we find a doctor?

Lin Fei fell silent, and the prison guard continued, “According to those three maids, Huang Ying had a younger sister named Huang Li, and both of them were sold to Zhang Zeduan. Huang Li was tortured to death several years ago, and hastily buried in a mass grave, and her remains were never found. That’s why Huang Ying harbors an intense hatred for Zhang Zeduan. She resisted the most fiercely on a daily basis and was beaten the hardest.”

“I knew he would come looking for me,” Huang Ying, who was sitting on the ground and had finished laughing, sneered and said, “I led people to accuse him, given his temperament, he would certainly resent me. He would take advantage of the moment when the guard wasn’t paying attention and use his lock-picking skills to come find me and question me. So, I hid a sharpened hairpin in my sleeve and waited for him to come!”

Looking at Zhang Zeduan’s fat body on the ground, Huang Ying said “Bah!” and laughed again, smiling. She couldn’t help but shed tears.

“This beast deserves to die, but my sister will never come back!”

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T/N This chapter was so disturbing. What I found most disturbing was that, change the name and you can still find such victims in our society even today. Especially in Asia where family prestige, or face is supreme. I remembered a case in Dubai where the father stopped lifeguards from saving his daughters who were downing because of his religious beliefs!! The situation of women in today’s world I think has slightly become better as there are law to protect us, but the society and our family fails us.