Chapter Fifty-Three: The Logic of the God of Public Judgment (Part Two)

Chen Tianyu continued, “Since this isn’t just a wild guess on my part, let me finish the story.”

“The proprietress was a kind-hearted woman, with little prejudice against those from the countryside. Seeing how pitiful this girl was, she secretly helped Fourth Aunt sell her jewelry, not taking a single coin in return. But as you all know, such gold and silver pieces are costly when bought, but seldom fetch much when sold. Eventually, Fourth Aunt’s jewelry was nearly all gone and there was still no hope for the family.”

“Fourth Uncle, trying to hold his temper, went to Eldest Uncle Li Qisi for help. Unexpectedly, he was turned away at the door. Eldest Uncle was truly cold-hearted, insisting that real gold fears no fire, and that only when one is truly desperate should help be given, otherwise how could one test Fourth Aunt’s sincerity? This time, Fourth Uncle Li Qiuyuan was truly angered.”

“The two had a fierce quarrel and completely fell out.”

“Since Eldest Uncle refused to help, Fourth Uncle, who was resourceful, first went to Fifth Uncle Li Qiumao, asking to join in the illegal logging of yew trees. But Fifth Uncle only followed the eldest brother’s orders, steadfastly refusing to let Fourth Uncle in on the scheme. Furious, Fourth Uncle turned to Xun Yuanchun, secretly selling the yew to this trickster. Fourth Uncle was still in his prime, and the timber he felled was of excellent quality and size. Driven by greed, Xun Yuanchun gladly agreed. Thus, the deal was struck in secret—Fifth Uncle was still in the dark at that time.”

“Though Xun Yuanchun made a tidy profit as the middleman, he did at least solve Fourth Uncle’s urgent needs. Fourth Uncle was grateful to him. Then, Xun Yuanchun told him that yew was not fetching a high price at the moment, nor was there much demand. Instead, he said that household items—jars, pots, bowls, and plates—were easier to sell. Sometimes, a single piece could fetch enough for a year or more. Naturally, Fourth Uncle was tempted.”

“Unfortunately, Fourth Uncle’s family had been nearly driven out of their home, with nothing of value left. Those household wares were daily necessities and of little use to collectors. Each item sold was one less for daily survival. Fourth Uncle hesitated, and after secretly selling a few antiques, he confided his troubles to Xun Yuanchun. Of course, Xun Yuanchun understood, and he quietly revealed a secret to Fourth Uncle…”

Everyone held their breath, drawn in by this strange tale from long ago. Only Ninth Granduncle sat frowning throughout.

Unable to hold back, Ninth Granduncle finally spoke. “Young man, how did you learn all this? You tell it with so much detail—I've lived to this age and never heard such things.”

Before Chen Tianyu could reply, Li Yiting’s mother, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke calmly, “Uncle Ninth, I told them these things.”

Li Yiting was taken aback. “Mother, why have I never heard you mention this?”

Her eyes reddened. “Your Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt were pitiful people. How could I go about spreading their story everywhere? If not for Miss Zichen coming to chat with me every day, and my sorrow stirring up old memories, I would have long forgotten it all.”

Li Yiting suddenly understood; it seemed Liu Zichen and Shen Mingyue were not idlers after all.

“What secret did Li Qiuyuan learn?” Ninth Granduncle was the first to question.

Chen Tianyu replied coolly, “It was, of course, the secret hidden in the ancestral shrine.”

Li Qihuai asked, “But how could Xun Yuanchun have known this? Even the few brothers among us aren't privy to such matters.”

Chen Tianyu sighed. “There are no walls that the wind cannot penetrate in this world. Though you brothers and the villagers present may not know exactly what is kept in the ancestral shrine, everyone can guess that something of great importance must be hidden there. Especially someone like Xun Yuanchun—a trickster who has deceived countless people with his antics. It's no surprise he guessed it. But I imagine he had no inkling of the true value, that the treasure was the priceless Fish Intestines Sword. That’s why he dared encourage Fourth Uncle to steal it.”

An uproar broke out in the crowd. There were exclamations of shock and doubt, but also many nods of agreement—perhaps believing that Fourth Uncle indeed had such audacity.

At that moment, the gaunt, disheveled Xun Yuanchun, now brought to the scene by Kuang Suo, spoke up on his own. “At this point, I’ll just tell the truth. I wasn’t the only one who coveted the shrine’s treasure back then. Ask around—Li Qisi has deceived us for years, spreading rumors that anyone who offends the ancestral shrine will be cursed! You call me a trickster, but wasn’t Li Qisi himself just as much a charlatan?”

“Absurd! Utterly absurd!” Spittle flew from Ninth Granduncle’s mouth as he jabbed his cane at Xun Yuanchun, at a loss for words. “Li Qisi did it to protect the sacred relics of Li Village, but you, you dog, only cared about your own wealth. And you dare speak in front of our ancestors? See if I don’t beat you to death, you beast!”

He really did raise his cane, intent on chasing after Xun Yuanchun, but the crowd held him back.

Xun Yuanchun was unafraid. “You old fraud, don’t be so sanctimonious. Has Li Village ever truly accepted me as one of its own? My mother died young—she bore the Li name, but did she have any standing here? As for my father, who married into the family, wasn’t he mocked by every neighbor? Now, suddenly you remember we share the same ancestors? Bah!”

He continued, “So what if I told Li Qiuyuan the shrine’s secret? What of it? Why shouldn’t I? Was the Fish Intestines Sword reserved only for Li Qisi? Why not for me? What if he one day sold it in secret—would any of us see a penny?”

“All of us are descendants of the Li family—why was our ancestor so partial?”

Finally having a chance to speak, Xun Yuanchun vented his years of resentment. Li Qihuai could stand no more; he strode over and slapped Xun Yuanchun several times, only then did the man fall silent.

Blood stained his lips, and he glared at the villagers, stubbornly unyielding.

“Scoundrel!” Li Qihuai could only curse.

Li Yiting quickly pulled his father aside, fearing Xun Yuanchun might lash out in desperation.

Chen Tianyu raised his voice, trying to regain control of the scene.

“Now we all understand, don’t we? Xun Yuanchun learned the shrine’s secret by various means, but not daring to risk himself, he manipulated the desperate Fourth Uncle into making the attempt. Poor Fourth Uncle, muddled and lost, only wanted to take something of little consequence from the shrine to feed his family, not realizing he was walking into death, staking his life for it!”

“Young man, as far as I know, Qiuyuan didn’t die here… he died in a fire,” Ninth Granduncle said, now more composed, raising another question.

“That’s right. Fourth Uncle took the risk alone, acting recklessly and without proper planning, and was easily discovered by the meticulous Eldest Uncle. On the spot, he and his wife were captured and imprisoned, which led to the later disaster.”

“It was only then that Eldest Uncle Li Qisi learned Fourth Uncle already had a child. Perhaps he felt some regret, so while he kept the couple confined, he sent their baby to Second Aunt for care, quietly providing food to keep them from starving.”

“But the family rules were strict: any offense against the shrine meant divine punishment. Eldest Uncle dared not go further. He tried to suppress the matter, ensuring no one knew Fourth Uncle had ever tried to steal from the shrine. Who could have predicted that a few days later, a fire would break out, taking the lives of Fourth Uncle and his wife in a baffling tragedy?”

“After that, even Eldest Uncle believed in the so-called Five Elements Curse. From our outsider’s view, he was only numbing himself, unable to face that he’d killed his own brother.”

“That is the whole story—more or less, I believe.” With that, Chen Tianyu fell silent.

The crowd was more quiet than ever, stunned or perhaps unable to believe what they’d just heard.

Li Yiting’s mother suddenly sighed softly.

“When Fuqi was brought over, he was only a little over a year old—his hair was thin, his face sallow, clearly starved.” Tears fell from her eyes. “It was a sin. Heaven showed no mercy to Fourth Brother’s family, driving them to the brink. Fortunately, Li Yi had just been born, so I still had milk to feed. Otherwise, Fuqi might not have survived at all.”

Li Fuqi sat on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. Clearly, he had never known his parents’ story; only now did he understand the truth.

Suddenly, Ninth Granduncle brought his cane down hard on the ground.

“Fuqi, though your Eldest Uncle may have wronged you, look at Second Aunt and the other villagers—we haven’t treated you poorly, have we? When you got into university, we all scraped together what we could to support you. For all you have today, even if you don’t feel grateful, you shouldn’t lose your humanity like this—murdering and stealing the sword! This is an upending of all moral order, against the laws of heaven!”

Li Qihuai was also livid. “Ninth Uncle is right. We brothers, for all our faults, are still your elders, and yet you could do such a thing? And your father was not without blame—no matter how poor, he shouldn’t have lost his resolve and sunk so low. Didn’t your Second Aunt and I often help them out? We had two children of our own, but we would not have let your father starve. Hard times pass. Did Big Brother really intend to keep them imprisoned for life?”

“All these years away, what have you learned?” Li Qihuai squatted in pain, covering his face, tears streaming down.

Li Fuqi remained silent, his eyes shifting, lost in thought.

Li Yiting hurried to comfort his father.

He shot a glare at Li Fuqi, at a loss for words.

Chen Tianyu’s eyes reddened. He quietly approached the father and son, gently saying, “Second Uncle, Yiting, please don’t be so sad. There’s still one thing we haven’t cleared up.”

The calmest of all was Li Yiting’s mother. She looked at Chen Tianyu and said, “Child, the grudges in Li Village go back a long way. As a woman, I have little say. But I watched Fuqi grow up from a boy, and all these years he’s treated me as his own mother. Don’t make a mistake and wrong him.”

“Second Aunt, don’t worry, things are more complicated than they seem.”

Li Yiting’s family looked at Chen Tianyu in surprise, not understanding his meaning.

Chen Tianyu stood, raising his voice. “Today, nearly everyone in the village is here. Now that everything is out in the open, I have one more thing to verify—it concerns the truth of the case. I hope everyone will speak freely and hide nothing…”

He took a small statue from his pocket. “This was carved by the mute man from Yuan Village. If you look closely, you’ll see the figure is Fourth Aunt Zheng Wanqiu. That’s not all—there’s an inscription. I’ll read it…”

“On the statue it says: ‘The time for vengeance is near, but I have been discovered. Act quickly. Better shattered jade than whole tiles.’ Rest assured, the mute man has already met justice in the mountains. But who was he in contact with? Over twenty years ago, did anyone see the mute man around? You may not know, but in the city, the mute man was once Fourth Aunt’s fiancé—the one she didn’t want to marry. Was their bond truly severed, or was it an unbroken thread?”

The words landed like a bombshell. Though Chen Tianyu spoke tactfully, the implication was a grave scandal—no one dared utter a word.

After a tense silence, a villager finally stepped forward. “At this point, there’s no use pretending. I’ll say this: I saw the mute man several times in the mountains—indeed, near our village. As for whether he was meeting Zheng Wanqiu, I can’t say for sure. But for years, the mute man would be seen roaming near our village. That much is true.”

With that, the crowd erupted; everyone spoke at once, most recounting encounters with the mute man in the mountains. Some had seen him once or twice; others, many times. Some even said that at the spot where Fourth Aunt once lived—now burned to ashes—the mute man would often sit and drink, lost and forlorn, as if longing for his beloved.

So many mouths cannot all be wrong; it seemed undeniable now that the mute man and Zheng Wanqiu had been lovers.

Suddenly—

A sharp voice rang out: “All of you, shut up! Shut up!”

The chatter died down, all eyes turning to the person who had just stepped forward.

“You selfish, petty people! Stop spouting slander and harming others!” It was the proprietress of the small shop. “Wanqiu was drowned by your gossip. Search your hearts—how many cruel things have you said about her over the years?”

“Wanqiu was a young woman with the courage to leave her city life behind, giving up wealth and status to marry Li Lao Si, a simple country man. It should have been a happy union, but you lot did nothing but fling mud at her. Do you have any conscience at all? Do you know how unhappy you made her? You can’t hold your tongues, whispering and gossiping behind her back. Did she owe you anything? Did she eat your food?”

“You are the true murderers!” The proprietress wrenched free from her husband’s grip, shouting through her tears.

“You are the murderers! Heartless murderers!”