25 The Emergence of the White Handkerchief (1/2)
Chapter 25: The Emergence of the White Handkerchief
Translator: TransnEditor: Transn
They soon discovered the real cause of Han Shiqi's death. However, for many people, dealing with the individuals involved in it was a difficult problem.
The Eighth Young Master, Shangguan Nu, had bad luck this year. Bad things kept happening one after another. The deceased Han Shiqi was his underling and the two murderers were discovered to be servants brought by his new wife.
Gu Shenwei could speculate about what had happened over the past three stifling days by piecing together the information that he had heard through the grapevine.
After Slave Qi was caught, the other six teenagers were immediately sent back to Firewood Yard. They were imprisoned again and were completely isolated; the only exception was that someone brought them only one meal every day. No one had taken care of the two corpses, which had started to decay. The smell gradually wafted through the whole yard and into the room where the teenagers lived.
They had been in great distress during the past three days. After scabs formed, they helped each other peel them off and waited for the final verdict. This was the last time that the sworn brothers would trust and support each other.
Gu Shenwei felt very nervous because he did not know what Slave Qi would confess.
Gu Shenwei already had an awful fright when Slave Qi glanced at him at the underground torture chamber in Heart Cleansing Yard. Most people who were older and more strong-willed than Slave Qi would have made a full confession under various cruel tortures.
At noon on the fourth day, the western door was eventually opened and a new overseer arrived.
The first thing he did was open the eastern door and dispose of the two corpses.
The corpses were rotten and infested with maggots. Although the corpses looked disgusting, the teenagers were cheerful when they carried them away. They resumed their jobs and it seemed as though they had been forgiven.
After the teenagers cleaned up the room with the corpses, the new overseer announced that nothing would change. Firewood Yard had reopened and the teenagers should continue to carry out their duties.
But actually, everything had changed.
The new overseer did not live in Firewood Yard. He came at dawn and left at night. He would lock the yard door while he was away. As a result, the teenagers led a more restricted lifestyle. They no longer paid their respects to the Miss. More guards were arranged around the water-carrying place in the fort. All the empty barrels that were not used at the moment were moved away.
They accepted the first patients after Firewood Yard reopened and one of them was the ex-overseer, Slave Ji. He had suffered crueler torture than the others but he managed to survive. While the other patients were thrown off Ghost Cliff one after another, unexpectedly, only he had recovered.
However, Slave Ji became quiet and often remained silent all day long. After losing his backer and his position, he had an uncertain future. One night, when he just managed to walk by himself, he committed suicide by using his own belt. The corpse was found the next morning, dangling on the doorframe of the western door.
No one was surprised at his death and no one cared about it. The teenagers threw his corpse off the cliff. Someone even complained about how inconsiderate the ex-overseer was. ”Since you wanted to commit suicide, why didn't you directly jump off the cliff?”
One day, the teenagers saw Slave Qi's corpse, which was beheaded, being carried directly to Ghost Cliff by two men in black.
Although he was accustomed to seeing corpses, Gu Shenwei could not bear it and began to vomit. The other teenagers averted their eyes with a pale look. They lost their appetite for the rest of the day.
Slave Xie was caught less than two days later. He resisted so fiercely that the attackers had to directly kill him. His body was thrown into the wild because they no longer needed to have his confession.
Slave Qi had borne through everything in Heart Cleansing Yard. He did not mention anyone except for his younger brother.
He confessed that he made the plan to murder Han Shiqi. He had nailed the sharp knife under the bed. Then he crawled under the bed and killed the enemy who was enjoying himself while Slave Xie held down Han Shiqi.
Everything matched his confession. Han Shiqi's belongings were found in Slave Qi's luggage.
It turned out that Slave Qi and Slave Xie were orphans of the Great Snowmountain. They were sold as slaves because their parents had died in a fight between several mountains. The pair of brothers and Long Feidu, who had slaughtered the Eagle Gang at the T-junction, belonged to the same tribe, but they were from different mountains.
The Great Snowmountain and Golden Roc Fort were bitter enemies.
Gu Shenwei did not understand people from the Great Snowmountain, who fought among themselves even when faced with a strong enemy.
The origin of the pair of brothers provided an element of conspiracy to Han Shiqi's death. The six teenagers of Firewood Yard were interrogated again and were asked about their personal history.
This time they were not sent to Heart Cleansing Yard, but all the teenagers were greatly intimidated. Once they were questioned, they revealed all their life experiences starting from the day they were born.
Gu Shenwei did not tell the truth, but it was too hard for him to make up his origin. Therefore, he stole Slave Yao's origin as a servant of a businessman from the Western Region. He said he was grabbed and made into a slave by bandits while he was accompanying his master on a trip.
What Slave Yao said before his death was incoherent. Therefore, Gu Shenwei had to polish what he had said once again. It turned out to be so convincing that even he himself almost believed that he had experienced these events.
The only problem was that his words could not withstand scrutiny because he looked quite different from the pointy-faced Slave Yao.
However, no one would put in the effort to find the merchant of the Western Region, who was so far away from here, only for the purpose of verifying Gu Shenwei's statement. Gu Shenwei was secretly worried about it before he confirmed that he had successfully deceived them.
The case gradually faded into the background. No one suspected that there was another accomplice. There were some people who wanted to end the case as soon as possible in order to minimize the impact of the case.
Gu Shenwei was aware of the contradiction between the two sides in the torture chamber. The thin and tall Blademaster Shen, named Shen Liang, was the chief in Heart Cleansing Yard, and he was also the Eighth Young Master Shangguan Nu's uncle. He represented his nephew's interests and used his power to minimize the effect of the case.
The thin and short Mister Guo came from Whiterobe Academy in East Castle. Although he was not any Young Master's relative, it was known that he was close to the Fifth Young Master. Mister Guo was eager to maximize the effect of the case so he could damage the Eighth Young Master's power.