Chapter 154

Chapter 154

As the people from the Kaiming County yamen arrived, the guards and servants of Yuelai Villa quietly withdrew another ten feet.

Shen Li knelt alone in the courtyard, utterly isolated.

Ge Chuan and the others had been summoned from the yamen by Axia, who had brought Ren Fengjue’s personal jade token with him.

They had been ordered to wait outside the gates for instructions, and had spent the whole time on tenterhooks.

As for what exactly had happened inside Yuelai Villa, they knew nothing at all.

But everyone had seen Shen Li take Ren Fengjue hostage with their own eyes. That much was beyond dispute.

Now, even if he had a hundred mouths, he could no longer talk his way out of it.

Ge Chuan carefully looked Ren Fengjue up and down. Only when he saw that Ren Fengjue was unharmed did he finally feel a little relieved.

He was still considering how to begin his questions when Ling Yue suddenly rushed over, dropped straight to her knees, and cried, “I beg the county magistrate to uphold justice for my Ling Family!”

Though Ge Chuan had never met her before, with the slightest bit of thought, he could guess who she was.

“You are… Miss Shen?”

Ling Yue’s expression was resolute. “My lord, I have taken my mother’s surname. My name is Ling Yue.”

“Oh…”

Ge Chuan did not know the full story behind it, and his face was filled with confusion. “But I recall that your mother… passed away more than ten years ago, did she not? Why wait until today to…”

“Because it was only today that I finally had the chance to expose, before everyone, the bitter fruit my birth father-Shen Li-has sown all these years.”

With that, Ling Yue recounted, one by one, all the vile deeds Shen Li had committed since becoming the Ling Family’s son-in-law.

Her words were clear, her reasoning even clearer. There was not the slightest hint of panic or timidity in her. It was as though, all at once, she had awakened and been reborn.

Hidden in the shadows, not daring to approach at will, Ling Ling’s ghost listened silently to her daughter’s voice, her heart filled with emotion.

County Magistrate Ge Chuan listened with his brows tightly furrowed.

Who would have thought that Old Master Shen, who seemed so respected and who was said to love his wife and daughter more than life itself, was in fact such a treacherous, unscrupulous man?

A chill rose in his heart as well. After weighing his words, he said to Ling Yue, “This official has taken note of everything you have said.”

“However, Shen Li’s marriage to Ling Ling was real back then, and there is a marriage contract as proof. Moreover, the Ling Family’s property was personally handed over to Shen Li by the former head of the household. Therefore, it does not constitute the crime of embezzlement.”

“As for the charge of ‘murdering his wife and killing his daughter,’ the letters provided by Qin Shu alone are still insufficient evidence. They can only prove that Shen Li intended to do harm, but there is no concrete proof. Besides, the midwife from back then is no longer alive. I fear this case will be difficult to pursue.”

As Ge Chuan forced himself to speak, afraid of making a mistake, cold sweat inevitably broke out over him.

Then he quietly glanced at Ren Fengjue. His tone immediately shifted, and he added, “However, he dared to harm an official of the imperial court. That alone is enough to convict him.”

“Once he becomes a prisoner, whether the properties under his name are to be confiscated by the state or ‘returned to their rightful owner’ will have to be decided again after this official returns to the yamen.”

At those words, Ling Yue finally smiled.

Yu Lang and Yan Zhengchu, standing to the side, also realized what had happened.

So that scene Lord Ren had put on just now had been deliberate from the start.

His goal had been to lure Shen Li into taking the bait, then pin him with an undeniable crime.

Only now did Shen Li realize he had fallen into a trap, and his entire body went cold and stiff.

He had lived for decades as if walking on thin ice, scheming at every turn. Yet in the end, he had been outmaneuvered by a young man using such a simple ploy.

He fell backward onto the ground and laughed wildly, allowing two bailiffs to drag him out of the villa.

Clear moonlight spilled over the earth. He watched the four characters of “Yuelai Villa” grow farther and farther away, blurrier and blurrier, until they shrank into a distant silhouette.

Just like the decades of his life.

That night they first met by the lakeshore, the flower lanterns had glowed in a haze, and laughter and voices had filled the air.

Perhaps there had been moonlight as bright as this then, too.
If, back then, he had not lingered by the cabin, and had not noticed the brilliantly dressed Young Mistress Ling on the shore…

How would it all have ended?

Two days later, the plaque of Yuelai Villa was taken down and replaced with its former name: “Ling Family Village.”

The servants Shen Li had once dismissed were summoned back one after another as well.

After all affairs in the villa had been properly settled, Ling Yue wrote a divorce letter in her mother’s name and had it delivered to the county jail. In doing so, she fulfilled Ling Ling’s final wish.

That night, Yu Lang and Yan Zhengchu, who had spent the past two days recuperating in Ling Family Village, were seated in the Moon-Gazing Courtyard, leisurely drinking together.

Only after asking the old servants of Ling Family Village did they learn that the Ling Family had first made its fortune through the winery business. Their brewing craft was considered second to none across the entire Northern Border.

Just as the wine was warming their blood and loosening their tongues, Yan Zhengchu suddenly looked surprised. “Young Master Yu, have you noticed something?”

Yu Lang was pleasantly tipsy. “What?”

“Your shadow… seems to have come back on its own.”

At that, Vice Minister Yu hurriedly lowered his head. In an instant, he sobered up. “When did it come back? How am I only noticing now?”

“Her resentment has faded. She must have found somewhere to go as well, so naturally, she returned your shadow to you.”

Yu Lang could not help asking, “Didn’t you say wronged ghosts steal shadows to find a substitute? Was she really trying to catch me as her substitute back then?”

Yan Zhengchu only smiled. “If she really had that ability, wouldn’t she have gone straight for Shen Li?”

“My guess is that after our group entered the village, she realized who we were and wanted to ask for help.”

“But among us, you were the only one who looked a little easier to approach, so she kept your shadow…”

“…”

Yu Lang understood. So he was simply the easiest one to bully.

Meanwhile, by the lantern-lit shores of Kaiming Lake, the moonlight was soft and hazy.

Ling Yue was finally able to come out for a walk without restraint. She went to the lakeshore and, for the first time, released a lake lantern with her own hands.

“Mother, if there is another life, whether or not we are still family, I hope the bond between us can last a little longer.”

The lake lantern carried her wish toward the center of the lake, and her gaze followed it.

Not far behind her, a gradually blurring shadow watched the figure on the shore with tears in its eyes, every look filled with reluctance to part.

“Humans and ghosts walk different roads. Your obsession has been resolved, and your resentment has faded. In a little while, your soul will scatter too.”

Xia Ximo leaned beneath a tree, looking at the wisp of soul on the lakeshore that was about to dissipate, and coldly reminded her, “It’s time to go.”

Hearing her voice, the shadow finally drew back her gaze and slowly asked, “Will I… ever see Yue’er again?”

Hearing such a question once more, Xia Ximo’s indifferent brows showed no unusual emotion. After a moment of thought, she replied with measured words, “If you live, there will naturally be a day when you meet again.”

Wuyou nearly fell off her shoulder when he heard that.

Now that was rare.

She could actually say something like that.

“If you live, there will naturally be a day when you meet again…”

The shadow murmured the words several times, and at last, she smiled in relief.

Xia Ximo took out the Soul-Ferrying Lantern and held it in her palm. The shadow immediately turned into a speck of light, circling the Lotus Lamp before fading into the wick.

After ferrying the departed soul, she put away the lantern and turned to leave, only to see a figure standing by the roadside. It was Ren Fengjue.

Who knew when he had arrived? He was quite self-aware, keeping a certain distance from her and merely watching from afar.

Xia Ximo glanced at him, then walked up to him. Looking around, she could not help asking, “You’re alone?”

Yu Lang and Yan Zhengchu had stayed behind at the village, too caught up in their drinking to come.

Yet Axia and the carriage were nowhere to be seen either.

Ren Fengjue smiled and explained, “This stretch of road is too narrow. It isn’t easy for a carriage to pass through, so I had Axia go back first.”