Jing Rong, of course, had received the news of Ji Yunshu’s imprisonment. The day had barely dawned when he arrived at the prison. The two guards at the gate, unaware of his identity, halted him. Lang Po drew out his token and said, “Prince Rong is here, do you dare offend him?”
The two guards dropped down to their knees upon seeing the token. They trembled in fear. “This humble one… greets Prince Rong. This humble one was not aware that it was… Please forgive this humble one.”
Jing Rong’s piercing eyes made them shiver again. “Bring me to Ji Yunshu.”
“Yes, your Highness.” The two hurriedly stood and led the way with their heads lowered and their backs bent.
Jing Rong’s heart sank, and his hands clenched into fists as the putrid odor from the humid and unlit cells reached his nostrils. He grew increasingly irritated until he saw the fairly cleaned up interior of Ji Yunshu’s cell. He ordered, “Open the door.”
The jailkeeper obeyed and retreated to the side. Jing Rong strode into the cell. He found Ji Yunshu’s little frame crouched on the ground, holding in a shiver as she curled up into a ball. The heater beside her had run out of coal, only a pale fume emerged out of it.
“Yunshu…” he called out quietly.
Ji Yunshu shrunk her legs further and only raised her head after a long while. What entered her eyes was a pair of silver threaded boots with golden ornaments and the corners of a long silk robe. A little further up were Jing Rong’s eyes, looking back at her with a pity-mixed affection. It had been just one day, but the ruddiness in her cheeks was already replaced by a pallor which could rival a clean sheet of paper.
Jing Rong knelt down and brushed her forehead that was as cold as a block of stone with his long fingers. He carefully swept a lock of hair behind her ears, and slid his hands down until he met another pair, a smaller pair of hands, which was devoid of any warmth. Ji Yunshu did not resist his hold. She stared back at him with sunken eyes and asked in a tired voice, “What about Wei Yi, how is he doing?”
Jing Rong shook his head. “He’ll be fine, I promise you that.”
“He doesn’t deserve any of this.” Ji Yunshu’s soft voice reverberated within her tiny cell.
Jing Rong added, “Rest assured. I won’t let anything happen to you. Even if all the evidence points to your guilt. My trust in you will stay by your side even if the whole world abandons you.” His countenance was serious, and he kneaded her hands firmly.
Ji Yunshu remained unmoved; thoughts swirling within her mind distracted her.
Two runners arrived at that moment. Upon noticing Jing Rong, they approached with utmost care, for fear of offending him with a single misspoken word. “Your Highness, we are here on behalf of Magistrate Liu’s orders. We’d like to bring Miss Ji to the great hall.
Jing Rong flashed a menacing glance at the two, which caused them to retreat in fear. He turned his head around and said to Ji Yunshu, “I’ll go with you.”
Ji Yunshu ignored him and followed the two runners to the great hall. Jing Rong followed on after her. When they arrived, they found Magistrate Liu on his chair, and a few people knelt down on the ground in front of him. The one closest was Wei Fu, the housekeeper of the Wei Mansion. Behind him were two other servants and the doctor from the day before.
When Magistrate Liu saw Jing Rong behind Ji Yunshu, he stood up to salute Jing Rong properly, but was cut short by a hand gesture. “Start the trial,” said Jing Rong coolly.
Magistrate Liu scrambled for an answer. “Yes, yes sir.” He bowed down and pointed to a chair right beside him, “Please, Prince, have a seat.”
Jing Rong threw a worried glance at Ji Yunshu and accepted the invitation.
The runners constrained Ji Yunshu to kneel down beside Wei Fu. Magistrate Liu smashed his gavel and opened up with formalities. “The murder case at the Wei Mansion. To the person below who is accusing Ji Yunshu, do you have any proof to support your claim?”
Wei Fu’s eyes immediately turned red. He looked at Ji Yunshu and bowed at the Magistrate once again. “Milord, she poisoned our masters,” said Wei Fu as he pointed his finger.
Ji Yunshu did not answer him. She knelt silently with her back straightened.
Magistrate Liu gulped down some saliva and asked, “Well, where is your proof?”
“A banquet was hosted at our mansion yesterday. When it finished, Miss Ji, instead of going home, asked our master and our mistress to go with her to a side room. She poured two cups of tea and the poison was within it.”
“Where did the poison come from?”
The doctor behind Wei Fu answered, “Milord, this humble one has found traces of Pitohui poison within the tea. Since the tea within the teapot did not contain any poison, we deduced that the poison must have been added in by whoever poured the tea.”
Magistrate Liu frowned. “But… these are circumstantial at best.”
The housekeeper Wei Fu immediately added, “This humble one has found Pitohui bird plumes inside the Miss Ji’s living quarters.” The two maids behind him immediately presented a few feathers wrapped in white cloth to the Magistrate. It was commonly known that these feathers are extremely toxic, and even animals are known to avoid water which has been touched by them.
Wei Fu emphasized his accusation. “Milord, Miss Ji must have added the poisonous water made with the feathers when she poured the tea. Please, milord, we beg for a just and fair judgment. You must render justice to our masters.”
Magistrate slapped her own forehead in frustration. He squinted at Ji Yunshu and noticed her unbroken composure. “Ji Yunshu… Care… to explain yourself?” he attempted.
‘Please say something. I don’t want to say that you are guilty, and I definitely don’t want to have to sentence you to death.’
Ji Yunshu had her head lowered, she seemed to be pondering about something. Jing Rong worried quite a bit for her; despite being a prince, he could not hold the law in contempt. He stood up and walked a brisk paced in Ji Yunshu’s direction, his countenance cold as a block of ice. He lowered his head and threw a glance at her before shifting his attention to the Magistrate. “Milord Liu, I’ve heard the details about this case. It is far too far-fetched to affirm that Miss Yi is the culprit based on the poison being in the tea.”
“Yes, it is indeed far-fetched, yes.” Magistrate Liu wholeheartedly agreed with the remark.
The fact that the statement came out of Jing Rong intimidated Wei Fu to a fair extent, but he burst into sobs as he recalled the gruesome deaths of his masters. “Your Highness, milord, are these Pitohui feathers not irrefutable proof? We did indeed find them in Miss Ji’s room. Furthermore, she was alone with our masters and she was the one who poured the tea. Please, I beg you to shed light on this case and to avenge the Wei family.”
Jing Rong spoke his thoughts, “The Pitohui feathers cannot prove her guilt. If she is being framed, then these feathers’ presence would only be natural. Moreover, no one saw her add the poison, wouldn’t it be too hasty to come to conclusions then?” He swept his sleeves and created a gust of wind as he concluded his deduction.
Magistrate Liu agreed and added, “Wei Fu, Prince Rong is absolutely right.”
Wei Fu raised his head to look at Jing Rong and started to cry. “Prince Rong, I speak the truth. Miss Ji killed someone, we wouldn’t wrong her.”
“Well then, I ask you: why would she murder them?”
The question caught Wei Fu off guard, and he himself thought about an answer. He lowered his head and stuttered, “This… old master and madame were very kind to Miss Yi when they were alive. Why she should want to see them dead… I… don’t know.”
Jing Rong pounced on the weakness. “If no one has seen her add the poison, and the feathers were only found after she was thrown into jail, then is it not senseless to condemn her? This is not even counting the fact that the motive remains absent, and that she herself might have been entrapped.”
Wei Fu could not retort to Jing Rong’s speech. Magistrate Liu hurriedly added, “There are still important points of consideration about this case. I will not mistreat an innocent person, but, Wei Fu, I can guarantee you that I will not let the culprit escape. What you wanted to say has been heard, and we will work on resolving the case as quickly as possible and give justice to Lord Wei and Madame Wei.”
Wei Fu had no choice but to accept the outcome. He kowtowed. “Thank you, milord.”
Magistrate Liu added, “Lock up the suspect, Ji Yunshu, until the case is solved.”
The runners carefully approached Ji Yunshu and made her stand up once again. She remained silent the whole time. Before the runners could bring her out of the hall, Jing Rong pulled her over and whispered into her ears with a worried countenance. “I know that you are still grieving right now, but you need to save yourself right now. I will do my best to find proof of your innocence, but I also need you to galvanize yourself into action. Only you know what happened in that room.”
Ji Yunshu’s brows moved; she seemed to have heard what he said. In fact, she had been focused on the case since last night, but she was quite unable to figure out how the poison had made its way into the tea.
The discovery of the Pitohui feathers was simply ridiculous, and, if anything, only made her suspect that someone was indeed intending on making her shoulder the blame. ‘But how… how did the culprit know that I was going to pour the tea?’ This question preoccupied her mind for the entirety of the night, and the truth had just begun to unearth itself.
She raised her eyes and whispered back to Jing Rong, “Prince, I need to perform an autopsy.”
‘An autopsy? The people from the Wei Mansion think that she murdered their masters. They will never agree to let her perform an autopsy.’ Jing Rong frowned and nodded with determination. “I will make it possible for you.”
Ji Yunshu threw a thankful glance and exited the hall with the runners. Jing Rong headed towards the Wei Mansion as soon as the trial was over. White cloth strips of mourning decorated the mansion from its entrance all the way to the inner courtyard. Even the lanterns, which were otherwise colored by a red silk, were now white. Jing Rong entered the mourning hall with Lan Po behind him. He saw the coffins aligned with the top still open, and two memorial tablets with candles still lit. Wei Yi, wearing a white robe, knelt right before the two tablets and fixated his gaze upon them. The trace of tears in his eyes and the red eyes revealed the obvious: he had been crying the loss of the two people dearest to him in the world.