Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Shi Xing fell silent again. When Chen Shao pressed him again, he mumbled incoherently, "That's different. I spent ten taels of silver to marry her. It was a formal marriage. She gave Gao Han a son, so naturally she should give me one, too. Otherwise, wouldn't my money have been wasted?"

Hu Lilan's face turned pale.

Shi Hui's face also looked a little unhappy.

But neither of them said anything.

Chen Shao turned to Hu Lilan and asked, "Do you know that he killed someone?"

Shi Xing rushed to answer: "She doesn't know, I killed them all by myself, it has nothing to do with them!"

"Shut up!" Chen Shao scolded coldly, "I'm asking her, not you!"

Shi Xing closed his mouth and looked at Hu Lilan anxiously, signaling her not to talk nonsense.

Hu Lilan also looked at him, and saw him shaking his head at her. After forcing a smile, she replied, "I know."

Shi Xing was angry: "You..."

"I already knew it." Hu Lilan stopped looking at him. "Every time you come back from killing someone, I will clean your carriage again. It's not because I think your carriage is too dirty, but..."

"You're talking nonsense!" Shi Xing shouted angrily, "I went to Dafeng River to clean up the carriage after I killed the people. Don't take credit for it!"

Afraid that Chen Shao would not believe him, he kowtowed several times and spoke quickly, "I told you earlier that I would go to Dafeng River to relax in Quyangpo and Dongshuigu, and I also told you that the foot of Wuan Mountain and Dingjiubi were the places where I cleaned the carriage every time. There are many trees in Quyangpo, and there is a curved slope with many short trees to block the view. I hide there and don't make any noise. Even if someone passes by, they can't find me. Although there are not many trees in Dongshuigu, there are many rocks and the land is not good. Few people go there. Wuan Mountain and Anjiubi are similar. I not only wash the carriage in these places, but also find the stones I stuffed in their stomachs in these places. If you don't believe me, you can send someone to check. Apart from me, few people go to these places."

Seeing that he was willing to reveal such a secret to protect them, Hu Lilan's resentment towards him for saying "I spent ten taels of silver to marry her in a formal ceremony" instantly dissipated. After bowing her head, she slowly replied, "Every time you kill someone, you do clean the carriage before returning, but you forget that the Dafeng River is full of silt, and the clothes you brought back are also stained with blood. If you leave them all the way, it is inevitable that they will get on the carriage again. If someone who is careful rides your carriage, it will be fine once or twice, but if it happens too many times, they will definitely be suspicious of you. This is why I advise you to clean up your house more when you have nothing to do."

Shi Xing said angrily: "Don't say anything more!"

Hu Lilan said gently, "Since the master has caught you and found me, I can't hide it even if I don't tell you. Since I have to confess sooner or later, I might as well tell the truth now. Besides, the master has been tolerant enough to us, and we can't cause her any more trouble."

Shi Xing said angrily: "You only care about yourself. What about Ah Hui and An Er? Have you ever thought about them?"

"I want to tell the truth because I am thinking about them." Hu Lilan said sadly, "The master asked us to leave just now because he was thinking about us and them. If we don't know what's good for us, we will really hurt them."

Shi Hui had already burst into tears, "Don't worry, mother. No matter what happens, I will definitely take good care of An'er."

"I know you're a good kid. I'll come back to make amends for you in my next life." Hu Lilan shed tears and looked at them reluctantly again and again before turning back and saying firmly, "I didn't go with him to kill people, but the anesthetics he used to kill people were all given to him by me."

Shi Hui looked at her in shock, "Mom, you..."

Hu Lilan lowered her eyes, tears falling one by one: "They killed your grandpa and grandma, and also killed your father and eldest brother. Mother hates them too. Mother wants to peel off their skin and pull out their tendons. But mother is useless. Mother cannot get revenge. The only thing mother can do is to take good care of your second uncle and leave another descendant for the Shi family. Your second uncle feels aggrieved and can only vent by killing people. Mother knows that this is wrong, but mother cannot bear to see him suffer. Mother can't help him with anything else. She can only give him the anesthetic I learned from your father before, and then clean the carriage after he comes back from killing people."

Shi Anxin said bluntly: "No wonder you didn't let my elder sister and I enter that room. Is that the place where you killed people?"

"Sir," Hu Lilan did not answer him. He kowtowed to Chen Shao devoutly and begged, "I followed his second uncle to kill him. We have no complaints about how you deal with us. It's just that the siblings didn't know about it. Please forgive them."

"You..." Shi Xing's anger gradually subsided under her determination. It seemed that he had not expected that someone would treat him like this after he reached this point. His throat choked and he finally kowtowed and said, "I plead guilty."

Shi An pulled Shi Hui's sleeve and said at a loss: "Sister..."

Shi Hui held his hand tightly, tears streaming down her face, and no matter how hard she tried she could not wipe them away.

Chen Shao gestured to Chan Yi: "Take them to the side hall first."

After the two men left, Chen Shao asked Shi Xing again: "Where did you kill them after you took them away?"

Shi Xing: "One is a thatched house on the hillside of Qingyu Mountain in Pinggao Township, one is a thatched house behind Tangwu Mountain in Xiaochang Village, and the other is a haunted house on Shishu Mountain in Wenhai Mountain."

Chen Shao: "How did you find these thatched houses?"

Shi Xing: "After hearing some old people in the village talking about it, I followed them and went to look for them. After making sure that no one would go to those places, I took the people I wanted to kill there."

Chen Shao: "After killing someone, why do you cut their face or cut open their stomach?"

Shi Xing: "I want everyone to know that if they are unyielding and unvirtuous, this is what they will end up like."

"Why do you kill people and then risk throwing them back to their village?" Chen Shao asked.

Shi Xing replied: "I want them to find out sooner."

Chen Shao looked at him: "Why do you want them to be discovered earlier?"

Shi Xing curled his fingertips slightly: "I just want to see them scared."

Chen Shao: "Why do you only target the villages and towns in the northwest?"

Shi Xing seemed to have not thought about this question. He paused for a moment before answering, "There are no horse farms outside other city gates. It is inconvenient to rent horses. Besides, the road is too far. We can't rush into the city in the morning when there are many people."

"Tell me the whole process of your killing from beginning to end," Chen Shao changed a piece of paper and wrote down as he spoke, "how you picked the target, how you tricked them into getting on the carriage, how you brought them to the thatched cottage where you were going to kill them, how you killed them, how you threw them back to the village, how you cleaned the carriage, how you got back to the city, where you went first after returning to the city... Let's take Tao A-mei as an example, and tell me in detail."