“I bribed some servants from the second branch of Sheng Family. Nonetheless, the second branch was where Madam Bai has managed for years.” Miss Wu said calmly, “Madam Bai was a jealous and suspicious lady. She was strict in discipline. Although her servants acted cautiously around her, it was hard not to be caught by Madam Bai!”

Hearing her words, everyone nodded slightly. Madam Bai was the second wife, but she served as the Second Madam in Sheng Family longer than Mrs. Ao, the first wife of Sheng Lansi. Besides, Madam Bai gave birth to a girl and a boy. Before her death, rumors had it that her status in the family was weakened, but she was still the absolute female master in the second branch.

In contrast, it was already very impressive that Miss Wu, a 16-year old girl whose father was a scholar, had found several informants in the second branch without stepping into the gate of Sheng Family. If Madam Bai had not known anything about her scheme, it would have raised suspicions!

Miss Wu continued, “Just two days ago, I received a letter from Madam Bai. She asked me to dress up as a maid and enter Sheng Family from the side door to meet her!”

She sneered, “As you can imagine, if I did what I've been told, I'm afraid that I would be the one who drowned in the pond that day!”

County Chief frowned, “Since you knew it was not a proper thing to do, you could have stayed at home. Why did you murder Madam Bai?!”

“Of course, I didn't want to meet her!” Miss Wu cried loudly, “However, Madam Bai only wrote to me because she knew how to coerce me to show up!”

Miss Wu's acting was rather impressive. She gritted her teeth and demonstrated the feeling of oppression incisively and vividly. She said sorrowfully, “Madam Bai… she kidnapped my only younger brother, the only male heir of Wu Family!!!”

“I am not a woman of chast.i.ty, but I care for my siblings!”

“If anything were to happen to my little brother, the bloodline of my father would be severed. When I go to the netherworld after my death, what am I supposed to say to my parents and to the ancestors of Wu Family?!”

“Madam Bai crossed the line!” Most of the people watching the trial had no ties with Sheng Family or Bai Family. As a matter of fact, they were there to look on and see what happened.

The crowd had no judgment and could be swayed over easily. Earlier, they suspected Miss Wu of pa.s.sing off as the scapegoat for Sheng Lansi's crime. Everyone was p.i.s.sed off and claimed that Sheng Family put on an act because Sheng Family seemingly put righteousness above family loyalty and found a scapegoat instead.

Seeing Miss Wu's demure look and miserable expression, they claimed, “Rumors had it that Second Madam in Sheng Family was unscrupulous and not virtuous. If not for Senior Master and Old Madam's sound judgment, Eldest Childe of the original Second Madam might not get to live at all!”

“You're right! Even though she hated Miss Wu for falling into disgrace, she could have just hurt Miss Wu. Instead, she took her anger out on the only male heir of Wu Family. What was in it for her? Miss Wu seems young, and her little brother must be even younger. The child is innocent!”

“In my view, Madam Bai is not even ent.i.tled to hate Miss Wu! Wasn't she the one who drove the original Second Madam away and kept the t.i.tle to herself for years? This is a simple matter of t.i.t for tat. She was fine with seducing other's husband, and she should allow others to seduce hers!”

“People always say girls from wealthy and decent families are cultured. The original Second Madam did not smear Madam Bai or Second Master Sheng throughout the whole affair, let alone kidnap family members of Madam Bai to threaten her!”

The more they complained Madam Bai, the more compa.s.sionate they became toward Miss Wu, “She is not a decent girl, but she cares deeply about her younger brother!”

… The crowd changed their minds, and the reason for that did not entirely lie in Miss Wu's performance. Another critical factor was that Madam Bai changed her life by fawning on the wealthy family. People were envious and jealous of this kind of thing. In particular, Madam Bai seized another person's status in the family, a fact that made the crowd even less sympathetic toward her.

Hearing the tragedy, the envious crowd took pleasure in Madam Bai's misfortune and added insults.

Murder cases had happened before at Nanfeng County. There were even similar cases like this one.

However, the past murder cases did not draw so many irrelevant people to look on!

The reason why there were so many people was that this tragedy happened to Sheng Family, one of the three most influential families in the county!

Ordinary citizens enjoyed watching high-ranking families humiliating and embarra.s.sing themselves. What was similar to this was to watch someone who once held a prestigious status to be utterly discredited.

In their eyes, Madam Bai was that someone.

Thus, their verbal attack on Madam Bai could be construed as “Aha, that b*tch, who used her beauty trick to get into the wealthy family, finally ran out of her luck. Back then, she was better off than any of us, and I knew something bad would happen to her”.

However, County Chief ignored the change of att.i.tude of the crowd and asked, “You said your younger brother was kidnapped by Madam Bai. Do you have evidence?”

Miss Wu said, “My younger brother went missing just three days before Madam Bai's death. At that time, I asked my neighbors about it. Everyone in my neighborhood knew this!”

County Chief immediately called on Miss Wu's neighbors for testimony, and they all proved Miss Wu's words, “When Scholar Wu was alive, his daughter was a graceful and virtuous girl and never left the house. After Scholar pa.s.sed away, she was fine at first, but later she met Second Master Sheng. She fell into disrepute, and I forbade my wife and daughter to visit her. After all, we are still neighbors. A few days ago, she called on us, saying her younger brother went missing. My neighbors and I looked for several streets, but no sign of that boy was found anywhere. Later, we heard that someone covered the boy's mouth and took him away by a carriage!”

“We thought at the time that he was taken by a trafficker. When we were about to report the case, someone ran over and gave a letter to Miss Wu. When she opened the letter, her expression changed completely!”

“She told us her brother was taken by her relatives. It was all a misunderstanding.”

“Some of us were puzzled by this and asked her to show us the letter, but she refused to do so. She knelt down and kowtowed to us, saying she was grateful to us. Anyways, we were not close to her. So, we did not insist on reading the letter and went home.”

Neighbors' words cleared the whole thing that Madam Bai kidnapped Miss Wu's younger brother and threatened Miss Wu with a letter!

When County Chief asked Miss Wu about the letter, she said evasively, “I've destroyed it! At the time, I knew Madam Bai would not let me off the hook! She would kill me first and then my brother! Since that was the inevitable ending for us, I thought why I didn't gain the upper hand instead? Why not kill her so that I could save my brother and have our revenge? Back then, I thought I could get away with my crime, and that's why I didn't keep the letter!”

Even without the letter, people still thought her younger brother must have been kidnapped by Madam Bai and perhaps had been killed already.

Miss Wu continued to describe the murder of Madam Bai, “I knew that Madam Bai must have designed an elaborate trap for me. So, on that day, I did not follow her instruction to send away Second Master Sheng outside the county. Instead, I managed to get Second Master Sheng back to the second branch!”

“I thought, in this way, Madam Bai would a.s.sume I had no intention of meeting her and even ratted out on her to Second Master Sheng. According to what I heard from the servants, whenever Madam Bai got unsettled, she would burn incense. My accomplice put a special spice into her incense burner. When the incense was burned, it would release a scent, whoever smelled it would faint temporarily.”

“Then, after she fainted, my accomplice and I met as we planned, and dragged her out of the room to the small pond in the courtyard!”

“As for the cloth in Madam Bai's hand, she had a guilty conscience and wanted to know what I said to Second Master Sheng. She ended up having a dispute with him and tore the cloth from his garment accidentally.”

“After that, Second Master Sheng left Sheng Family angrily. He was seen by a servant who was unaware of the whole situation. The servant found Second Master Sheng suspicious.”

Miss Wu said all this without a break. Then, she continued with a scornful voice, “So, my accomplice, the servant in the second branch of Sheng Family, and I planned and executed the scheme. When it really comes down to it, how would I have resorted to this ruse if Madam Bai had not been a heartless and merciless woman?!”

“Now that I was exposed, I won't deny any of it. However, I would like to stress that Madam Bai deserved to die!!!”

She forcefully articulated every word, and she meant it!

Onlookers, harboring evil intentions, applauded for her words!

Even County Chief was lost in his thoughts for a moment. Then, pounding the gavel, he shouted, “Even though Madam Bai committed the crime first, how could you defy the law and authority?! Besides, you are the one who had affairs with a married man and committed adultery! If you had not done it, Madam Bai would not have hurt you and your brother even though she was not a virtuous woman!”

Miss Wu went silent for a moment and smiled self-deprecatingly, “You're right. I am greedy and vain. I have ruined my entire family!”

Hearing this, County Chief stopped scolding and announced his ruling in public. Miss Wu was sentenced to death. Sheng Lansi, who was held in prison, was released immediately. All relevant servants were punished. The onlookers were not satisfied with such a ruling. Most of them came here because they thought Sheng Lansi killed his wife. However, he was acquitted. So, they were, more or less, disappointed.

Madam Bai's children were also dissatisfied with the ruling, “Although Sheng Lianlian was instructed by Miss Wu, she was the murderer who was directly linked to the death of our mother! Why didn't Miss Wu mention her name in the court?!”

Facing such a no-brainer question, the elders gave a light comment, “Miss Wu colluded with the servants in the second branch to murder your mother. We can say it was a backyard dispute caused by a vicious mistress and heartless servants! If Sheng Lianlian's involvement were to be known, she would be accused of committing matricide. At least we are a prestigious family in Nanfeng County. Who would have thought this kind of thing could happen to us? Keeping this a secret is important to your future and the future of your siblings and the entire Sheng Family!”

Even though Sheng Family concealed Sheng Lianlian's involvement in the murder of her legitimate mother, it did not mean that Sheng Family would let her get away with it.

After all, they could care less about the feelings of Sheng Weirao and her younger brother, but they could not afford to have a girl at a young age but with a cruel heart staying in the Sheng Family. Who knew what kind of evil things she could be capable of doing in the backyard?

Additionally, Sheng Lanci learned that she sought help from Sheng Weiqiao and then turned against her after being rejected. He decided solemnly on the spot, “Matricide is the worst crime. Although we didn't report her for the sake of Sheng Family's reputation, we can still punish her in our own way!”

He arranged Gongsun Yingjiang for his daughter to guard against Sheng Weirao, who had not even once shown any malice to Sheng Weiqiao! Not to mention Sheng Lianlian, who blatantly threw stones to Sheng Weiqiao!

After the Xuanyu E incident, Sheng Lanci would take every possible precaution to ensure his daughter's safety!

He toiled day after day to support this big family, and he would not let anything endanger his daughter's safety. He would certainly not make that monster anywhere near his daughter!

Given Sheng Lianlian's age, at first, Senior Master Sheng and Old Madam Ming could not make up their minds. Seeing the resolute att.i.tude of Sheng Lanci and hearing the cry of Sheng Weirao and her brother, they did not oppose it. It was settled like that.

The next day, the news of the death of Eighth Miss spread from the backyard of Sheng Family.

It was said that she died because she witnessed the death of her legitimate mother. She was shocked so severely that she fell ill.

“My daughter-in-law was short-tempered, but she had a kind heart. Otherwise, Sheng Lianlian, who was here only for a few days, would not have been this deeply grieved.” Old Madam Ming said to people who came to express condolences, “Miss Wu and those servants colluded with her were exceedingly greedy!”

She said so not to protect Madam Bai's reputation but to safeguard Sheng Family's reputation. As the second wife of Sheng Family, Madam Bai was one of the legitimate masters in Sheng Family. Thus, she could not be seen as someone who mistreated servants and kidnapped an innocent child to threaten others.

That was not conducive to Sheng Family's reputation in the county. Nor was it helpful to the career trajectory of Sheng Shuihe and other children.

Although Old Madam Ming did not like Madam Bai, she followed Sheng Lanci's instructions to seize every opportunity to defend her.

However, everyone in the county knew what kind of person Madam Bai was!

Nonetheless, people showed respect for the deceased. Besides, they had no contact with Madam Bai before. So, everyone tacitly agreed, “Indeed, Second Madam was wronged! Fortunately, County Chief saw through the ruse and did justice to Second Madam!”

This sensational event was coming to an end. It would pa.s.s given enough time. Both Sheng Family and Yamen were relieved!

Meanwhile, Sheng Weiqiao, who lived in the ancestral hall for half a month, finally got a visit from her father!