Two days later, in the Ministry of Justice prison.
Zhong Li, her black hair tied high, sat before the desk in a man's blue robe. To her left were Zeng Fan of the Ministry of Justice and Xu Qing, the Young Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. To her right…
She glanced at Lu Wuxie, who was propping his head up and dozing, then at the thick stack of secret documents in her hand. He had been working tirelessly for the past two days to gather evidence; it had truly been difficult for him.
"Crack!" The striking gavel in her hand echoed in the interrogation room.
A secret trial was about to begin here.
"Miao Jie, do you confess?" Zhong Li sneered at the man kneeling opposite her.
Miao Jie, as confident as when Zhong Li had visited him last time, spat on the ground and said, "Hasn't the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review been competent? Now it's the turn of the Judicial Inspection Bureau?"
As he spoke, his eyes flickered towards Lu Wuxie, and he chuckled mockingly, "Then I suppose you'll have to let me go. After all, everyone knows that the Judicial Inspection Commissioner of the Judicial Inspection Bureau only…"
"Miao Jie, you are in dire straits, yet you still speak ill of others," Zhong Li coldly interrupted Miao Jie's unfinished words.
Miao Jie finally shifted his gaze to the petite 'man' opposite him.
He narrowed his eyes and scrutinized her thoroughly, then said dismissively, "If you have evidence, kill me. With so many people surrounding me, I thought a feast was about to be served."
"No feast," Zhong Li picked up Miao Jie's words, "We are here to tell a story today."
"Tell a story?"
Zhong Li nodded, her crimson lips parting.
"Ten years ago, a murderer appeared in Jincheng. He often wandered the pleasure districts, not for any particular reason other than that the women there were the most charming and the cheapest, just like his deceased mother. Seeing them, he could always recall something…"
"What are you trying to say?"
As Zhong Li's story began, Miao Jie's expression stiffened, and his body instinctively tensed.
Zhong Li ignored him and continued, "Perhaps his mother didn't leave a profound impression, but he would never forget the red coral lotus hairpin that adorned her head.
He thought that no amount of searching could satisfy his inner craving until he saw a young girl named Zhi Qiu wearing a similar hairpin.
Instantly, the evil suppressed in his heart erupted. He followed the young girl, coveting her body, desiring her blood and flesh.
Like a beast breaking free from its cage, he dragged the young girl into Cat Alley and committed his most inhumane atrocities…"
"Enough!" Miao Jie's eyes, bloodshot, glared at Zhong Li as he roared, "Say what you want, what evidence do you have? I tell you, you've fabricated all of this! I am wrongly accused…"
"Wrongly accused? Then look at this!" Zhong Li's last shred of patience with Miao Jie completely collapsed. She coldly threw something at his face.
Miao Jie startled, then looked down at the papers that floated down his body and onto the ground.
'Miao Ping, entered the palace as a medical woman in the tenth year of Ningping, was expelled from Jinyang Palace in the twentieth year of Ningping, forbidden to practice medicine for life. In the twenty-second year of Ningping, she gave birth to a baby boy, and died in the thirteenth year of Anhe.'
"Miao Ping was your mother, wasn't she?" Zhong Li asked.
Miao Jie lowered his head, remaining silent.
After an unknown length of time, when he looked up again, his face still held the same stubbornness. "Whatever you say, I don't understand."
"Don't understand?" Zhong Li looked at Miao Jie. She had thought that at this point, he might show some remorse, but she was mistaken.
Since he wouldn't give up until he was cornered, she was happy to oblige.
She then casually picked up a scroll from the table and threw it in front of him. "Don't tell me you don't recognize the woman in this painting. This was found in your house."
Miao Jie didn't even look at the portrait, merely staring at Zhong Li with fierce eyes. Just as he was about to speak, another item was thrown before him.
It was a knife, specifically a surgical knife, stained with rust, appearing quite old at first glance.
"How... how could this be..." Finally, Miao Jie panicked.
"This official found this in your house in the northern suburbs," this time, it was the Young Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, Xu Qing, sitting to Zhong Li's left, who spoke. "Indeed, you buried this thing deep within the earth beneath a pile of broken pottery jars. It took half the people from the Court of Judicial Review digging three feet deep to find it. Truly, you are quite troublesome."
Miao Jie swallowed with difficulty several times.
Zhong Li took in all his reactions and said, "The physical evidence is all here. Miao Jie, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Miao Jie swept his gaze over all the items on the ground, his panicked expression looking at the people surrounding him.
Apart from Lu Wuxie, who had completely fallen asleep, the remaining three were like Asuras, their fierce eyes fixed on him, waiting to claim his life.
"I... I..."
"Crack!"
"Still not confessing?!" Zhong Li slammed the gavel by her hand and reprimanded him.
At this moment, Miao Jie had lost all his former arrogance. His body trembled, and he stammered, "This humble... this humble one confesses. That's right, the cases from ten years ago and the case from a few days ago concerning Mingxia, were all... all done by this humble one."
"Speak, why did you kill, what was your motive?" Zhong Li asked.
When the motive was mentioned, Miao Jie's gaze flickered towards the portrait of the woman on the ground. The timid look in his eyes, which had been brought on by the revelation of the murder, instantly became sharp.
"It's all her fault, it's all this bitch's fault. Without her, I would never have ended up like this!"
Zhong Li remained silent, waiting for Miao Jie to vent his emotions and reveal the complete truth.
"Indeed," Miao Jie slowly calmed down, but his eyes remained fixed on the portrait of the lady on the ground.
He gave a mournful smile and said, "The world says mothers love their children the most, but I, in my life, have never felt her love."
"Miao Ping was expelled from the palace in the twentieth year of Ningping, and afterwards, she went to the pleasure districts to sell herself. She gave birth to me in the twenty-second year of Ningping. Can you imagine? I don't even know who my father is," Miao Jie said, looking up at Zhong Li opposite him, a self-deprecating smile on his face.
Zhong Li lowered her eyes, remaining silent.
Having lived in this era for over a decade, she understood clearly that a woman without the strength to even tie a chicken could only earn a meager living by treating illnesses her whole life. However, the imperial court strictly prohibited them from this profession. Coupled with their expulsion from the palace twenty-two years prior, this undoubtedly left them with no way out.
What could they do to survive? At such an age, if they were fortunate, they might become concubines and have a child or two. If not, their fate would be like Miao Ping's. Thinking of Xiao Yuanhua, his mother likely married a poor scholar and lived a life of hardship.
"And then? Did you merely kill because your mother was unbearable? Do you know that filial piety is paramount, you…" Xu Qing, sitting beside her, could not bear to hear it and threw out a contemptuous remark.
"What do you know?" Miao Jie, provoked by such a remark, suddenly became agitated again.
He glared fiercely at Xu Qing and said, "Would your mother do unspeakable things with others in front of you? Would your mother make you wash the feet of those hideous customers? When your mother was in a bad mood, would she beat you?"
Xu Qing was stunned by Miao Jie's words. He apparently hadn't expected this man to have such a tragic childhood.
Miao Jie chuckled self-mockingly, his gaze falling back on Miao Ping's portrait. "From the time I had memory, I lived in fear of her. Even now, I still remember the ferocious expression on her face and the lotus hairpin she held, ready to discipline me.
When the hairpin's tip pierced into my body like a sharp blade, and blood gushed out of me, I was thrown into a dark woodshed like a dog. Meanwhile, she, wearing her favorite red coral lotus hairpin, would give the most lewd smiles to men who passed by the woodshed and entered the side rooms."
After he finished speaking, his body seemed to truly feel fear, and he began to tremble uncontrollably.
After a while, when his emotions had slightly stabilized, he looked up at Xu Qing again and said,
"You are all high and mighty officials. You have never experienced these things, so what right do you have to preach to me here?
Filial piety? Do you think she deserves it?"