Ji Yuanzhi?

“Why him?”

“Just now, this prince saw that his right thumb indeed has a scab.” Jingrong affirmed.

The conclusion had just been drawn.

Resolute hatred covered Ji Yinshu’s delicate face. She immediately grabbed the fingerprint she’d drawn and an inkstone, rushing out of the room.

Jingrong behind her also followed in large strides!

The two continuously quickened their steps, heading to the great hall once more.

The roomful of Ji family members seemed to still not have recovered from their earlier shock.

Servants were applying medicine to Ji Yuanzhi’s wrist, while he wore an expression of unwillingness, sulking with pent-up anger.

As for Ji Muqing, she covered her reddened face, still huffing and puffing while wiping tears.

Extremely angry!

Now, seeing Jingrong and Ji Yinshu return again, the Ji family members’ hearts immediately tightened.

Ji Shuhan quickly rose from the pear blossom chair, afraid this Buddha might raise his sword-like brows again and make an example of them.

The drizzle outside continued falling. Ji Yinshu and Jingrong’s hair was once again covered with a layer of white “frost.”

The two entered, one after the other.

Ji Shuhan didn’t understand. Bowing slightly, his eyes rolled.

“Your Highness, this is…?”

Jingrong ignored him, turning his eyes to glance at Ji Yinshu, seeing her gaze stabbing toward Ji Yuanzhi like an ice blade.

He understood tacitly!

So in the next moment, he took the drawing paper and inkstone from Ji Yinshu’s hands and walked toward Ji Yuanzhi.

Seeing Jingrong walking toward him, Ji Yuanzhi’s face filled with fear, and that hand deformed from being gripped trembled even more violently.

Before he could dodge, Jingrong heavily placed the inkstone on the table beside his hand. His slender knuckles gripped both Ji Yuanzhi’s thumbs at once, then forcefully pressed them into the inkstone’s ink.

After dipping in ink, he lifted his entire arm.

Ah—

Accompanied by Ji Yuanzhi’s miserable cry!

“Your… Your Highness, my hand…”

“Your hand should have been crippled long ago.” Jingrong scolded coldly and harshly.

As his words fell, he forcefully pressed his thumb onto that drawing paper!

A fingerprint was firmly imprinted on it.

Ji Yinshu immediately walked over and took that drawing paper.

Looking at the two fingerprints on it, almost exactly identical, she glanced again at Ji Yuanzhi’s thumb gripped by Jingrong.

Sure enough, in the middle of the fingertip was a scab.

Her eyes immediately reddened with fury as she glared at Ji Yuanzhi through tears.

“It was you—you forced Luan’er to death. You killed her.”

That voice seemed ready to deafen everyone’s ears!

With this conclusion, except for Jingrong, almost everyone was stunned.

Ji Yuanzhi, his face twisted in pain, looked at his hand captured by Jingrong and shook his head in agony.

“It wasn’t me. You… what are you talking about? I didn’t force that lowly servant to death.”

Hearing the two words “lowly servant,” Jingrong gripped his thumb and forcefully bent it backward toward the back of his hand.

“Your Highness… Your Highness, spare my life.”

Ji Yuanzhi fell from his chair, once again kneeling on one knee, in such pain he gritted his teeth!

Jingrong’s harsh gaze glared at him, rebuking, “You even forced to death a woman without the strength to truss a chicken—it seems this prince must slaughter you.”

“It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me…”

At this point, Old Madam Ji’s eyes reddened. She stepped forward, her dignified and noble face showing a trace of tearful distress, and said to Jingrong.

“Your Highness, Yuanzhi would never do such a thing. That girl hanged herself—the confession was written clearly. There absolutely couldn’t be a mistake.”

After speaking, a pair of fierce eyes looked toward Ji Yinshu, burning with anger.

“Your imprisonment has already become known to everyone. Do you think you haven’t lost enough face for my Ji family? Do you know that if that girl Luan’er hadn’t confessed to the crime, you would still be locked in prison right now?”

Oh my, so should I be thanking your entire family?

Ji Yuanzhi, oh Ji Yuanzhi!

Having such a good grandmother is truly a blessing cultivated over three lifetimes.

For your sake, she distorts black and white, stopping at nothing!

If you have the life to live on, you must repay her well!

Ji Yinshu sneered coldly, slightly raising the drawing paper in her hand.

“This fingerprint is exactly the same as the fingerprint on the note Luan’er left behind. The middle of the fingerprint is blank because there’s a scab on the thumb, which is why this fingerprint is incomplete. Moreover, a fingerprint imprinted after dipping in kumquat water will only appear on paper for six hours.”

After speaking, she took out that note Luan’er had left. The fingerprint on it had now disappeared.

So she was even more certain. Turning her eyes, she looked at Ji Yuanzhi kneeling on the ground.

“The six hours have just passed, so the fingerprint on the note is now gone too, but that kumquat scent remains. Based on the timing, when Luan’er died, you were right beside her. Last night at the hour of midnight, you washed your hands in the kumquat-soaked water in my room, then handed the note to Luan’er, making her write down fabricated evidence, forcing her to commit suicide.”

The evidence had been laid out piece by piece.

“I… I didn’t…” Ji Yuanzhi’s eyes flickered evasively as he desperately tried to argue.

At this moment, Jingrong swung his arm and released his grip. Ji Yuanzhi’s hand heavily struck the table corner.

Bang!

It hurt so much tears came to his eyes.

Ji Yinshu continued staring at Ji Yuanzhi, questioning him. “Why did you force Luan’er to death? Why? That was a human life. How could you be so cruel, only satisfied after forcing her to death?”

“I…”

“You watched her hang herself to death before your eyes. Doing this, aren’t you afraid of being haunted by nightmares?”

Ji Yuanzhi’s pupils suddenly dilated, filled with terror.

His trembling lips quivered. “I didn’t want to force her to death. I just… I was confused. It was a moment of confusion. For the sake of my Ji family’s reputation, that’s why I did it. But I really didn’t want to force her to death!”

He admitted it!

Good that he admitted it!

Ji Yinshu forcefully held back tears, the feeling of heartache drilling through her heart!

“This isn’t true.” Old Madam Ji rushed to Ji Yuanzhi’s side, crying out, “Yuanzhi, how could you do such a thing!”

Ji Muqing was also stunned, seemingly forgetting that slap on her face from earlier.

Her face showed shock. “Third Brother, you…”

“I didn’t want to. I was just confused for a moment—that’s why I did it. I really didn’t want to.” Ji Yuanzhi became agitated.

Jingrong watched coldly, unmoved.

“Someone come.”

He called out once.

From the ceiling beams, five or six guards suddenly leaped down, standing outside the great hall, hands clasped together.

“Did you all hear what was just said?”

“Replying to Your Highness, we heard it.”

“Good. Take Ji Yuanzhi to the yamen and let Magistrate Liu conduct a proper interrogation.”

“Yes.”

Several guards entered, lifted Ji Yuanzhi from the ground, and dragged him outside!

“Father, Grandmother, save me.” Ji Yuanzhi shouted loudly, his frightened voice trembling.

“Yuanzhi.” Old Madam Ji reached out to grab him but grasped only air.

Finally, Ji Shuhan snapped out of his shock and immediately knelt down.

He pleaded, “I beg Your Highness to show mercy. Even if my son made a mistake, it was only a moment of confusion. I beg Your Highness to be magnanimous and spare him.”

“A moment of confusion? Spare him?” Jingrong repeated his words, his expression severe. “A human life is at stake, yet you speak of confusion again and again.”

Absurd!