Minister Ji had returned to the capital?

Which meant Prince Rong had also returned?

Minister Yu’s entire body involuntarily trembled. He slowly raised his head and met Ji Yunshu’s sympathetic gaze.

“Minister… Minister Ji?” His surprise was undisguised.

Ji Yunshu furrowed her brows slightly and crouched down to level her gaze with Minister Yu’s!

Then she swept aside the messy straw beside her and steadily placed the candlestick she had brought on the ground, also setting the food box to one side.

The candle flame flickered slightly, its light illuminating Minister Yu’s pale face marked with bloodstains.

He squinted.

It was somewhat difficult to adjust.

After all, spending entire days in this dim cell, he rarely had light shine in at such close proximity.

“Minister Yu.” She called out softly.

Minister Yu opened his bloodshot pupils to look at her, parted his dry, blood-stained lips, and asked weakly.

“Why did you return to the capital?”

“I had no choice but to return.”

“Given the current situation, you shouldn’t have come back, you shouldn’t have.” As he spoke, his back struggled to separate from the cold wall. His body lurched slightly forward, his scarred hands excitedly grasping at the few scattered straws on the ground.

Ji Yunshu’s expression remained calm, unaffected by his emotions. She simply withdrew a vial of wound medicine from her sleeve, placed it beside his hand, and firmly informed him: “Since I chose to come see you in prison, it already demonstrates the Prince’s and my attitude. As for the current court matters, the Prince will resolve them himself. What I need to do is resolve this case that Minister Yu is burdened with.”

“It’s useless, useless.” Minister Yu was very agitated. “Can’t Minister Ji see the suspicious circumstances in all this? I’ve never confessed to this case from beginning to end, and that evidence isn’t sufficient to prove I killed anyone. Yet Minister Li is eager to close the case, determined to convict and execute me, so he’s forcing me to confess. The bloodstains all over my body say it all.” He sighed deeply. “When the emperor is determined, court officials must die!”

She knew that, of course!

It was precisely because she knew that her heart ached so!

Ji Yunshu forcefully “swallowed” back the tears in her eyes.

She said: “Minister Li has already agreed to give me five days. So I only have five days to uncover the truth. But before the case comes to light, Minister Yu absolutely cannot let anything happen to himself. I’ve also instructed the people at the Ministry of Justice—they won’t torture you anymore.”

“Minister Ji…” Why bother!

Ji Yunshu interrupted him: “I’ve brought some food. Fill your stomach first.”

She opened the food box!

Inside were two small dishes, three steamed buns, and a pot of wine.

She poured wine for him.

Minister Yu suddenly thought of something.

He trembled as he asked: “How is Minister Qin?”

This question caused Ji Yunshu’s hand pouring the wine to shake, spilling a few drops.

Minister Yu understood.

His entire body leaned back against the cold wall once more. Looking up and staring at the stone slab above his head, he sighed: “So in the end there was no escape!”

Ji Yunshu then set down the wine pot and said seriously: “Minister Yu, let’s not discuss other matters. What’s urgent now is your case. I only need five days to uncover the truth.”

But—

Minister Yu smiled bitterly, holding no hope: “This case happened three years ago. There are extremely few clues. The Ministry of Justice investigated for nearly half a month with no leads. Just five days—it’s too difficult.”

“Difficult! But not impossible.”

“Minister Ji…”

“I need you to tell me everything you know without any concealment. Only evidence proving the killer is someone else can clear you of the charges against you.”

Because of these words, a glimmer of hope gradually kindled in Minister Yu’s eyes.

After a long silence.

“Alright. What you want to know—as long as I know it, I’ll tell you everything.”

Ji Yunshu said: “Yesterday upon returning to the capital, I went to the Ministry of Justice and reviewed the case files. According to the autopsy results, Hua Ling did indeed die three years ago. And as written in the case records, she disappeared the day after leaving your room. Moreover, on the day she disappeared, the scaffolding in the main courtyard was completely removed by people from the Ministry of Works, and you also moved back to the main courtyard to live that same day. This means that if the killer wanted to wall Hua Ling’s corpse inside the wall of your main room, then the time of the murder should have been between the hai hour when Hua Ling left your room and the si hour the next day when the main courtyard scaffolding was removed. During this time period, you were the only person who had a conflict with her. Plus the blood on the table corner—so the Ministry of Justice suspects that after you killed Hua Ling, you secretly carried her to the main courtyard and walled her body inside.”

“I didn’t kill anyone!”

His face was full of grievance.

Ji Yunshu: “I need you to tell me again everything that happened that night, one by one. Don’t overlook any details.”

Minister Yu nodded and carefully recalled: “That day I returned to the residence from the department office. It was already dark, and I was preparing to rest when Hua Ling came in carrying a bowl of lotus seed sweet soup. I told her to just set it down, but she was reluctant to leave. She seemed to have something to say. I asked her several times, but she stammered unclearly and even seemed somewhat panicked. Then she suddenly closed the door, pulled open her own clothes, and threw herself at me. While tugging at my clothes, she kept begging me to fulfill her wish. I was furious at the time and pushed her away. She fell backward, and the back of her head struck the table corner. But at the time she wasn’t seriously hurt—instead she sat on the floor crying. After my inquiries yielded nothing, she got up and ran out. I remember it was around the hai hour.

The next day, people in the residence said she had disappeared. I thought that perhaps because of what happened the previous night she felt ashamed and worried I would punish her, so she secretly fled during the night. I didn’t want to ruin her reputation and virtue. If she fled, so be it—she was just a maid after all. So I lied and said I had agreed to let her leave the residence. From then on, I never mentioned anything about Hua Ling again, until recently when the plaster in my room peeled off, revealing Hua Ling’s skeleton.”

After listening, Ji Yunshu quickly digested this and then asked: “What kind of person was Hua Ling normally?”

“She came to the residence when she was young and had always been very proper.”

“What was her character like?”

“Very obedient, just somewhat timid and didn’t interact much with people.”

“Did she usually always stay in the residence?”

“Occasionally she would go out to purchase items needed for the residence.”

Question and answer!

Ji Yunshu pondered for a while, then raised her eyes and asked with a furrowed brow: “Minister Yu, are you truly… not concealing anything from me?”

Hm?

Minister Yu detected the meaning in her words: “What I know is all this. Does Minister Ji know something else?”

Her expression grew grave: “According to Hua Ling’s skeletal remains, her fatal injury was indeed to the back of her head, caused by striking a sharp object. However, my examination results revealed one additional thing compared to what the coroner hired by the Ministry of Justice found.”