Jingrong probably had a guess in his heart, but he didn’t dare confirm it!

Ji Yunshu gripped A’Yu’s small hands, her expression grave.

Due to her sensitivity toward cases, that feeling told her it wasn’t simple—it definitely wasn’t simple!

Combined with what Madam Jiang had said before, vaguely, she always felt something was wrong.

After putting A’Yu’s hands down, Ji Yunshu turned to instruct the jailer: “Go to the yamen immediately right now, notify Magistrate Liu to come here, and bring the small knife Sister Yu used to commit the crime wrapped in cloth. Also, bring a bottle of ink and a dish of flour.”

The jailer was confused: “What does Master want to do?”

“Just go quickly.”

“But… what about the corpse? It still needs to be sent to the charity morgue!”

Ji Yunshu glared at him severely: “I told you to go handle it quickly—why all this nonsense?”

Oh my! The jailer was frightened into a shudder and quickly bowed in compliance before rushing off.

Ji Yunshu sighed, glanced at the deceased A’Yu, her heart extremely heavy.

Her expression fell completely into Jingrong’s eyes.

He asked: “You think A’Yu is the murderer?”

Ji Yunshu shook her head: “I don’t dare confirm it. I truly hope I’ve guessed wrong.”

Jingrong analyzed: “Two years ago, she was only six years old. How could a six-year-old girl possibly kill a man in his forties?”

This concern wasn’t unreasonable.

However…

Ji Yunshu narrowed her eyes: “Has Your Highness forgotten? At that time, Master Jiang was pushed by Li Zhao, injured his ankle, and couldn’t get up at all. Even a six-year-old A’Yu could have killed Master Jiang when he was completely defenseless.”

But after saying this, she immediately added: “Everything is just speculation—who knows.”

Jingrong nodded and didn’t ask further.

Not long after, the county magistrate arrived, lifting his official robes looking travel-worn. Seeing Jingrong, he trembled and bowed as always.

“Your Highness, this place is a prison. Your Highness’s precious body, I’m afraid…”

Jingrong raised his hand to interrupt: “The case is important—no need to worry about other matters.”

“Yes, yes, yes…”

The magistrate straightened up and walked to Ji Yunshu’s side. He waved his hand, and the bailiff behind him took out the items she had requested one by one.

“Could it be there’s a new development in the case? Hasn’t this knife already been examined?” The magistrate was puzzled.

Ji Yunshu didn’t bother with him!

Putting on a pair of gloves, she took the small knife and held the wooden handle over the flame of an oil lamp, burning it repeatedly.

She instructed the bailiff: “Mix the flour into the ink and stir it evenly.”

“Yes.”

The bailiff complied. After finishing, he handed the mixture to her.

Ji Yunshu inserted the heated knife handle into the ink mixed with flour, waiting about half the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before taking it out.

The wooden handle had turned black, covered with sticky flour paste.

She placed it over the oil lamp flame again to bake it.

Everyone watched in bewilderment!

What was Master Ji doing now?

Seven or eight pairs of eyes all stared at the knife in her hands.

And under everyone’s watchful gaze, the originally black viscous flour, after being scorched, peeled and fell away. Finally, only a few not-very-clear marks remained on the knife handle.

Others couldn’t understand what they were seeing, but Ji Yunshu understood!

As those marks became increasingly obvious, emotions difficult to fathom overflowed from her eyes.

The magistrate stepped forward and asked: “How is it? Is there something unusual about this knife?”

“Yes.” She nodded.

“What’s wrong?”

“Everything is wrong.”

This statement stumped the magistrate!

Ji Yunshu moved the knife handle away from the flame, then placed A’Yu’s left palm on the knife handle. She then pinched the back of her hand, making her grip the handle, then removed it.

“A perfect match!” Ji Yunshu’s tone was certain: “The person who killed Master Jiang was A’Yu!”

Gasp…

Everyone was stunned speechless!

Only Jingrong remained very calm, asking her: “How did you determine this?”

Ji Yunshu held up the knife handle in her hand and explained: “The marks on this knife handle are actually several fingerprints.”

“Fingerprints?” The magistrate shuffled forward, widened his eyes to look closely, and asked: “But how could there be several fingerprints on this?”

“Because when A’Yu gripped the knife handle to kill, each stab struck the person’s bones. This knife was originally short, which fully demonstrates that the entire blade must have been thrust into Master Jiang’s body. That means blood must have flowed onto her hands and the knife handle. But where the fingers gripped the handle, there would be very little blood.”

Everyone looked at each other—they seemed to understand, yet also seemed not to understand!

Ji Yunshu continued explaining: “I applied flour and ink to coat the knife handle, then used fire to bake it. So on this wooden knife handle, wherever blood had touched, the flour and ink would fall off, while where there was no blood, the flour and ink would remain. The marks that remain are fingerprints.”

“So that’s how it is!” The magistrate nodded, but after thinking it over, felt it was very strange: “But these fingerprints could also be Sister Yu’s.”

“Impossible.” Ji Yunshu’s voice was firm.

“Yunshu, even Madam Jiang said she saw with her own eyes that it was Sister Yu who killed him. She’s already confessed—there can’t be a mistake.”

“But Sister Yu hasn’t admitted it.”

“Sister Yu is so crazed—how could she admit it!” The magistrate spread his hands.

Jingrong really couldn’t stand it anymore. His cold eyes carried a chilling light as they stabbed toward the magistrate.

He rebuked: “Magistrate Liu, you’d better be quiet.”

“…” The magistrate’s face stiffened. He smiled awkwardly, nodded repeatedly, and closed his mouth.

It must be said, the magistrate was very susceptible to this tactic from Jingrong!

Ji Yunshu also slowly began explaining: “All my reasoning is based on evidence. These several fingerprints on the knife handle match A’Yu’s finger size and length exactly. Not only that, this handprint is from a left hand. Because when a person grips a knife handle with their left hand in a normal grip, the little finger is at the top of the handle, and the direction of the four fingers extends from right to left. In a reverse grip, the little finger is at the bottom, and the direction of the four fingers goes from left to right. But if the right hand grips the knife handle, then in these two situations, the direction the four fingers extend is opposite.”

“And on this knife handle is precisely a left-handed reverse grip fingerprint.” Ji Yunshu lifted A’Yu’s left hand and continued: “A’Yu’s left palm has a thick layer of calluses, and the lines are rough and prominent. But her right hand is soft and supple, which means A’Yu was left-handed. It was she who used her left hand in a reverse grip on this knife handle and killed Master Jiang.”

This was indeed somewhat unbelievable—two years ago, A’Yu was only six years old!

What kind of desperate situation would drive a child of only six to murderous intent?

Everyone sighed deeply!

If it was truly as Ji Yunshu said, then what was the real truth of the matter?

In Ji Yunshu’s heart at this moment, a bold speculation suddenly arose.

And this speculation shocked her into an involuntary tremor!

Jingrong observed her expression and asked: “Have you thought of something?”

“I want to see Sister Yu again.”

“But…”

Ji Yunshu interrupted him.

“I won’t go in—just outside.”

As if she had seen through Jingrong’s concern for her.

Jingrong nodded: “Alright, then I’ll accompany you.”

Ji Yunshu refused: “No need. You all stay to the side—it’s best if you don’t appear. Let me talk with her alone.”

Before Jingrong could say anything more, Ji Yunshu had already taken the knife and headed toward Sister Yu’s cell.

Everyone followed behind but hid at the corner to the side without approaching.

Ji Yunshu stood outside the cell, holding the knife in her hand and tapping it against the wooden stakes of the cell bars repeatedly.

The tapping sound was very dull but seemed to strike into people’s very souls.

It also seemed deliberate!

After a while, Sister Yu, who had originally had her back turned, slowly turned around. Those eyes were full of sinister energy, bloodshot, extremely terrifying!

Yet Ji Yunshu smiled eerily and said: “Silently liking someone—that feeling is actually very thrilling. For him, doing anything feels worthwhile. But people you don’t like should just die, right?”

She was speaking to Sister Yu.

However…

Sister Yu answered her: “Right.”

Very good!

Ji Yunshu continued: “But when the person you like is taken by someone else, that feeling must be even more unbearable, right?”

“Right.”

“Then Sister Yu, do you truly hate A’Yu?” she suddenly asked.

Huh?

Hate? Where would that come from?

Unexpectedly, Sister Yu laughed—appearing crazed, yet laughing quite genuinely. Grabbing at her disheveled hair with both hands, she said: “She’s my A’Yu—why would I hate her?”

“Because she took your man away.”

Ugh!

Accompanying Ji Yunshu’s words, Sister Yu suddenly stood up fiercely from the ground, put away that crazed smile, and looked at her with a ferocious, resentful face.

She roared: “No one can take him away—no one!”

Ji Yunshu continued to provoke: “But he doesn’t love you at all. He loves A’Yu. He held A’Yu and violated her again and again because he loved her and wanted to possess her. But he doesn’t love you—doesn’t want to possess you.”

“Shut up! Shut your mouth!”

Sister Yu suddenly rushed forward, slamming hard into the wooden stakes. Her hands reached out forcefully, trying to grab Ji Yunshu’s neck.

But Ji Yunshu had already retreated several steps back when she rushed forward!

Her hands grasped at empty air, which made Sister Yu furious with rage!

She roared frantically: “Don’t say it! Don’t say it anymore! He loves me—he loves me!”

The faces of those hidden to the side all changed.

That “he”?

It was Master Jiang!

The person Sister Yu loved was Master Jiang!

The answer Ji Yunshu wanted to know had already been forced out of Sister Yu’s mouth.

Her heart ached painfully. Her eyes gradually moistened as she looked at this woman without humanity before her and slowly shook her head.

With a tone full of grief, she said: “She was your daughter! Because you liked Master Jiang, you endured him tormenting A’Yu again and again. You even… resented her because she killed Master Jiang. You locked her up with iron chains, threw her in that room filled with foul stench, fed her human excrement, tortured her until she was neither human nor ghost, until you tortured her to death! This is your revenge—you wanted to avenge Master Jiang by taking revenge on your own biological daughter!”