“Ha!” The man sneered, then bent down and slapped Li Kaixiang’s face. “Stubborn fool. You still don’t understand the situation, Li Kaixiang. Now, you’re the fish on the chopping block, and I’m holding the cleaver. If you don’t wise up, you’ll only have death waiting for you.”
Li Xiulian watched in confusion, too worried to be afraid. She demanded, “What are you talking about? And what have you done to Xiaocui?”
“What have we done?” The scarred-faced man turned to her. “If your big brother doesn’t cooperate, you’ll soon find out what we did to that presumptuous maid.”
“What… what are you going to do?” Li Xiulian swallowed nervously, stumbling over her words.
Li Kaixiang became agitated. “Ba, I’m warning you, don’t touch my sister.”
Despite his bad temper, he truly loved his sister Li Xiulian.
But the man surnamed Ba didn’t back down. Instead, he stroked Li Xiulian’s face lecherously, saying, “Truly a beautiful woman.”
“Ba!” Li Kaixiang’s eyes bulged with rage, wishing he could jump up and cut off the man’s hand.
Li Xiulian tried to dodge backward, coldly saying, “Don’t touch me.” Though she didn’t understand the situation, she now realized this man was likely her brother’s enemy and had captured her to threaten her brother.
Ba wasn’t angered. Instead, he smiled. “Fiery temper too. Interesting.”
Li Kaixiang panicked. “Ba, I’ll do whatever you want. Just let my sister go.”
He didn’t dare gamble anymore. If they followed through and violated Xiulian in front of him, he’d never be able to face his brother-in-law and Kairui again.
But Ba suddenly changed his tune: “Time waits for no one, and opportunities don’t come twice. Li Kaixiang, you’ve missed your chance. Now, I’m only interested in your sister. I don’t care about your meager wealth anymore.”
Originally, he had planned to crush Li Kaixiang’s pride, leaving him with nothing and living worse than a dog. But now he had changed his mind. The best revenge would be to destroy the person Li Kaixiang cared about most, right in front of him.
So, before Li Kaixiang’s eyes, Ba violated Li Xiulian, ignoring his mad howling. He even “rewarded” his subordinates with her, torturing her until she died.
Only in death did Li Xiulian understand Xiaocui’s fate.
Meanwhile, Ji Dafu finished inspecting the goods, watched his servants unload the cargo and transport it back to the warehouse, then returned home.
When he arrived, Li Xiulian had not yet returned. Immediately, Ji Dafu had a bad feeling. He sent someone to report to the authorities while he led a group to search for her at Qingshan Temple.
Halfway there, they found a silk handkerchief in the mud. This handkerchief was one he had personally embroidered for Li Xiulian, which she treasured and always carried with her.
Now it was trampled in the mud, suggesting she must have encountered danger.
Even with the efficient investigation by the authorities, by the time they found the abandoned temple, it was too late.
Li Xiulian was dead, her body covered in bruises, like a shattered porcelain doll.
Li Kaixiang’s eyes were bloodshot, his entire being deflated as if his tendons and bones had been extracted. He slumped in the broken chair, not even reacting when Ji Dafu and the others entered.
Ji Dafu held Li Xiulian and wailed, filled with remorse and regret. Catching sight of Li Kaixiang, anger surged within him. He grabbed a sword from one of the officers, intending to kill Li Kaixiang.
If not for this troublemaker causing problems, how could his wife have been harmed?
Seeing his emotional state, the officers had no choice but to knock him unconscious. They took him, along with the bodies of Li Xiulian and Xiaocui, to the county office. Xiaocui’s body had been found in a dry well outside the abandoned temple.
When Li Kairui received the news and rushed to the county office, the courtyard outside was already full of onlookers.
Entering the hall, he didn’t even greet the county magistrate. Seeing Li Kaixiang kneeling on the ground in a daze, he strode forward, grabbed his collar, and demanded, “Li Kaixiang, are you satisfied now? Xiulian… what were you doing when Xiulian was in danger? Huh? I warned you earlier to be more careful to avoid trouble. And now? Why couldn’t it have been you who died?”
If not for the fact that he was his elder brother, he might have already struck him.
On the way here, he had gotten a general understanding of the situation. Thinking about how his sister had been humiliated before her death, his heart ached uncontrollably.
In their childhood, though the family wasn’t well-off, Li Xiulian was their only sister, cherished and protected by the whole family as she grew up.
At her coming of age, she married Ji Dafu, who treated her like the apple of his eye, not allowing her to suffer even the slightest grievance.
And now…
Li Kaixiang, held up by Li Kairui, was as limp as a noodle.
Faced with Li Kairui’s accusations, he couldn’t argue back and could only remain silent.
Such behavior was not permitted in the courtroom. With just a glance from the county magistrate, bailiffs immediately came forward to pull Li Kairui away.
“Behave yourself. The county magistrate will surely investigate thoroughly and bring justice for your sister.”
The situation was already clear. It was simply a case of enemies seeking revenge, raping and killing Li Xiulian to get back at Li Kaixiang.
Before this, Li Kaixiang had already identified the scarred-face man, and now the bailiffs were on their way to capture the culprit.
If they hadn’t been a step too late, they could have caught Ba and his men at the abandoned temple.
But Ba was cunning. He had posted lookouts, and upon learning of the approaching officers, he fled before he could even silence Li Kaixiang.
Li Kairui had no choice but to restrain himself.
As the courtroom quieted down, the county magistrate struck his gavel. After the bailiffs finished shouting “Mighty and Powerful,” he spoke: “Li Kaixiang, tell the truth. How did you come to be enemies with this scarred-face man? Do you have evidence that he abused and killed your sister?”
Cases need to be based on concrete evidence. Even though the entanglement was clear, in front of the public, the county magistrate still had to follow proper procedures.
Li Kaixiang naturally confessed everything, handing over a button he had been clutching: “Your Honor, I tore this from his clothes when we were arguing. If you capture him, you can check his garments for proof.”
Having witnessed his sister’s tragic death, his heart felt as if it had been plunged into boiling oil. But he had to pull himself together.
If he couldn’t make Ba pay blood for blood, his sister wouldn’t rest easy in the underworld.
As for their grudge, it was simply a matter of business. His bad temper and aggressive attitude had caused the other party to suffer losses, and not just once, costing a significant amount of money.
Ba wasn’t someone to be trifled with either. Stingy and vindictive, this led to the current tragedy.
After Li Kaixiang finished explaining the cause and effect, the officers had already brought back the scarred-face man, along with the other kidnappers.
The kidnappers were just local ruffians who had never faced such a situation. Without the need for torture, they were frightened into confession just by the magistrate striking his gavel.
So they confessed everything.
With the button as physical evidence and the kidnappers as witnesses, Ba’s guilt was irrefutable.
Bearing the responsibility for the deaths of Li Xiulian and Xiaocui, he was ultimately imprisoned for hiring assassins and sentenced to be beheaded after autumn.
The kidnappers were exiled to the southwest, never to return to their hometown.
As for Li Kaixiang, since the tragedy originated from him, he was publicly beaten with twenty strokes of the cane.
With this, the case was considered closed.