He Also Transmigrated on the Wedding Night - Chapter 8
Chapter 8
When the bailiffs surrounded the bridal chamber, dawn had yet to break.
Wind poured in from the courtyard, making the red candles flicker between light and shadow.
Madam Pei had regained her composure.
She even straightened my wedding robes for me.
“Shen Lingyi,” she said in a low voice.
“If you kneel and confess now, I can still leave the Shen family a breath of life.”
I looked at her hands.
There was still red wax on her fingertips.
She thought she had wiped it clean.
But a little remained along the edges of her nails.
I suddenly asked, “Madam, do you hate Shen Lingyi?”
She looked at me.
“Why would I hate someone who is about to die?”
“Because she refused to become the person written on the Red Deed.”
Her expression shifted slightly.
I went on. “Because Pei Du refused as well.”
“You raised him, but not so he could investigate you.”
“You had him marry Shen Lingyi so you could bring the Shen family’s fields and dowry into the Pei family.”
“But he turned around and joined hands with Shen Lingyi instead.”
Madam Pei let out a laugh.
“A fine story.”
“Where is your evidence?”
I said, “The evidence is in your hands.”
She looked down at her hands instinctively.
Lu Wenzhou said, “And not only there.”
He looked toward the bailiffs.
“Steward Qin touched the knife, switched the cups, and went in and out of the side room.”
“People saw all of it.”
Steward Qin immediately dropped to his knees.
“Young Master, I’ve been wronged! This servant was merely following Madam’s orders to clean up the scene!”
The moment the words left his mouth, he froze.
The room went so quiet that the dripping of candle wax could be heard.
Madam Pei closed her eyes.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Steward Qin.”
“Explain that clearly.”
“What scene were you cleaning up?”
Steward Qin’s face went ashen.
Madam Pei raised her hand and slapped him across the face.
“Idiot.”
That slap confirmed far too much.
The bailiffs’ expressions changed.
Lu Wenzhou braced himself against the edge of the bed and slowly sat up straight.
The wound on his chest began seeping blood again.
I wanted to go support him.
But he looked at me and gave a slight shake of his head.
I couldn’t help him now.
Right now, he had to look like a living witness.
“I did not die today,” he said.
“So this is not a case of a wife murdering her husband.”
“Before she died, Ah Lu touched the wedding candles.”
“So she was not an accomplice being silenced. She was the one delivering evidence.”
“Steward Qin touched the knife, avoided the poisoned wine, and cleaned up the scene on command.”
“So he knew about the murder weapon and the poison.”
“There is wax from a palm-seal contract on the knife hilt.”
“There is also wax from a palm-seal contract on the base of the wedding candle.”
“Her ring can open that base.”
“The final line of the Red Deed bears Shen Lingyi’s name and mine.”
“So this was never a private grudge between husband and wife.”
“Someone wanted to use a husband-murder case to swallow the Shen family’s land deeds and eliminate me, the one investigating the accounts.”
He paused.
His gaze fell on Madam Pei’s hands.
“Madam Pei personally touched the lamp where the Red Deed was hidden.”
“That means she knew what was beneath it.”
He spoke very slowly.
Every sentence was like a nail.
Hammered into this bridal chamber.
And into the color draining from Madam Pei’s face.
A bailiff asked, “What is the Red Deed?”
Madam Pei suddenly laughed.
She looked at me.
“You think you’ve won?”
“The Red Deed involves more than just the Pei family.”
“If you expose it today, the Shen family will die all the same.”
I said, “Then that is still something they should face.”
Her eyes darkened.
“You are not Shen Lingyi.”
My heart lurched.
Lu Wenzhou looked at her too.
Madam Pei lowered her voice to a whisper.
“The real Shen Lingyi was never as stupid as you.”
“She knew how to make the dead speak for her.”
I suddenly understood.
The real Shen Lingyi and Pei Du had not dragged us here to live in their place.
They had staked their final breath on this trap.
They no longer had the chance to speak while alive.
That was why they had made those who came after finish presenting the evidence for them.
Madam Pei suddenly reached up, pulled the gold hairpin from her hair, and stabbed it toward Lu Wenzhou.
I threw myself at him.
This time, it wasn’t because I would be convicted if he died.
It was because I didn’t want him to die.
The gold hairpin sliced across my arm.
Lu Wenzhou caught me.
The bailiffs pinned Madam Pei down.
She was still laughing.
Her gaze fell on my wrist.
Half of the Heart-Linked Lock had slipped into view.
Of the three acacia patterns, two and a half had already cracked.
“The Heart-Linked Lock won’t hold for much longer.”
“And you won’t be able to go back, either.”
The Heart-Linked Lock burned hot against my wrist.
The third crack was slowly spreading wider.
