Upon seeing that wound, Master Yu was extremely shocked.

“This…”

Lin Shu said, “It was that group of people who made me like this.”

At this moment, Master Yu was still in a confused state.

What was all this about?

Never mind Master Yu—even Muruo and Tang Si, who had been cast as the “defendants,” were utterly baffled.

When had they ever tried to kill him?

Slander!

Absolute, blatant slander!

Master Yu said, “Lin Shu, don’t speak nonsense.”

“Student is absolutely not lying. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Yuan Sheng.”

Fu Yuan Sheng nodded vigorously. “Teacher, everything Lin Shu said is true. It was their people who, just now, ran into Lin Shu’s room for no reason, pressed him against the table, cut his arm with a blade, and took away a bottle of blood. They clearly wanted to take his life.”

They sang in harmony!

However, a bottle of blood?

Interesting!

After listening, Muruo seemed to understand in his heart what had happened.

He secretly smiled to himself.

Seeing the wound on Lin Shu’s arm, Master Yu indeed felt somewhat distressed.

But—

He couldn’t simply condemn Jingrong’s people because of this.

As the saying goes, flies don’t bite seamless eggs—there must be a reason.

So he looked at Muruo, wanting to ask if he knew what had happened.

But Muruo shook his head, indicating he didn’t know.

He merely said to Lin Shu, “Young Master Lin, regarding your whip injuries from yesterday, Miss Tang has already been punished for it. She knelt in the Confucian Hall for an entire night. As for your claim about being bitten by a snake, I imagine you know better than anyone what really happened. As for your statement that someone broke into your room just now, cut your arm, and took a bottle of blood, and thus concluding they wanted to take your life and kill you—where does this come from? I see your wound is very shallow, not like something meant to claim a life. Moreover, this wound of yours doesn’t even need medicine; it will heal in a day or two.”

He spoke very lightly, sounding quite casual.

Lin Shu was furious. “You make it sound so simple. Do I have to lose my arm for it to count as claiming a life? Ever since your group arrived, the academy has had one incident after another. You’ve harmed me like this, yet you still speak so eloquently, shirking responsibility. The sage Confucius said, ‘The rash person distorts black and white without clarity.'”

The last sentence was practically shouted.

However, just as he finished speaking—

Smack!

The back of his head received a harsh slap.

Ah!

He cried out in pain. Clutching his aching head, he turned to look and saw Tang Si standing behind him, looking down at him, one hand on her hip.

Then—

She pointed at him and unleashed a tirade: “You really have no shame, daring to say that we caused you to be bitten by a snake. It was clearly you who wanted revenge on me but ended up getting bitten by a snake yourself. Also, yesterday those two lashes I gave you should have been even harder, hard enough to cripple both your legs. You say someone cut your hand to draw blood—I don’t know who was so righteous, but they should have chopped off your hand and let the blood slowly drain out until not a single drop remained.”

As she spoke, Tang Si had already completed that image in her mind.

Just thinking about it felt extremely satisfying!

Lin Shu sprang up from the ground and shouted at her, “Don’t think you’re so great just because you know martial arts.”

“I am great, so what? If you dare to speak nonsense again, I’ll cut out your tongue and throw it in a vat of boiling oil so you can never speak again for the rest of your life.”

“Heaven watches what people do. Sooner or later, you’ll all face retribution.”

“You’re the one who…”

Before Tang Si could finish her words, a voice came from the doorway.

“I think the person who will face retribution first is you.”

The source of the voice was Jingrong.

Hearing this, everyone in the room looked toward the door.

They saw Ji Yunshu and Jingrong entering from outside, their expressions cold and solemn.

Both cupped their hands and bowed to Master Yu!

At least they observed propriety!

Master Yu was puzzled and asked, “Young Master Jing, what is this about?”

Jingrong’s gaze fell on Lin Shu, his thin, cold lips curving slightly. “This Mingshan Academy, though it’s a treasured feng shui location that has produced two of the top three scholars in three consecutive imperial examinations, I never expected it would stage one drama after another. I have the fortune to have encountered just such an affair.”

Realizing that Jingrong was speaking these words to him, Lin Shu’s heart instantly cowered. He vaguely sensed the meaning behind those words, and his feet stumbled slightly backward a small step.

He pursed his lips and said nothing.

Jingrong: “Lin Shu, weren’t you just insisting that heaven watches what people do? Those words are not wrong.”

“You… what do you mean?”

His tone trembled!

“I’m praising Master Yu for having taught such a fine student as you.”

Those words were too bizarre!

Master Yu considered his comprehension abilities to be decent, yet he couldn’t understand what Jingrong was saying.

He took up the conversation: “Young Master Jing’s words are…”

He was interrupted!

Jingrong said, “Master, what I want to discuss concerns the murder of Guo He.”

Master Yu’s eyes widened, slightly agitated. “Have you found the killer? Who is it?”

He deliberately didn’t say, keeping the suspense.

Ji Yunshu, standing nearby, took a small step forward. Her gaze likewise fell on Lin Shu, whose cheeks were trembling, and then, from her crimson lips, she slowly uttered four words:

“The killer is you!”

Uh!

Four light words, neither heavy nor light, neither salty nor bland.

Yet for a few seconds, they made the entire room fall silent.

Lin Shu’s pupils dilated suddenly. Disregarding the wound on his body, he swept his wide sleeve and loudly denied, “Don’t wrongly accuse me. I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Whether it was you or not, there is evidence.”

“Fine, then produce the evidence. I’d like to see it.”

Ji Yunshu, neither hurried nor slow, held up the eastern chestnut bead in her hand and extended it toward him. “This is yours, isn’t it?”

The moment he saw that bead, Lin Shu instinctively hid his hands behind his back, his mouth pressed thin.

This small action was completely seen through by Ji Yunshu.

“You don’t need to hide it. This eastern chestnut bead is precisely one of those on the string worn on your wrist.”

“It’s not.”

“Then extend your hand and let me see.”

Lin Shu’s eyes flickered several times before he righteously replied, “Just because it’s an eastern chestnut bead, does it necessarily have to be mine? Anyone in the world could have one. Why must it be mine?”

Still quibbling!

Such people, she had seen plenty of.

Who would be so eager to jump out and declare themselves the killer?

Ji Yunshu smiled lightly. “That’s right, there are many people in the world who possess eastern chestnut beads, but in this entire academy, you are the only one who has them. A string of eastern chestnut beads has twenty-two beads. I imagine the string on your hand only has twenty-one, correct? And the missing bead is precisely this one in my hand, which I discovered in the wine bottle at the bottom of the well. Of course, whose wine bottle was that? And how did your eastern chestnut bead end up in the wine bottle? These things seemingly have no connection to Guo He’s death, but I found two types of bloodstains on that wine bottle—yours and Guo He’s. That means when Guo He died, you were present. Or to put it this way: on the day Guo He left, you two had a conflict on the back mountain. During this process, the string of eastern chestnut beads on your wrist was caught by the wine bottle in Guo He’s hand. The beads scattered on the ground, your hand was cut and bled onto the bottle, and Guo He, beaten by you until his body bled, also had his blood flow onto the bottle. Afterward, you threw both his corpse and that bottle into the well.”

Each word clear and round!

Resounding and forceful!