Chapter 1517: He Refuses to Confess No Matter What—There Must Be a Hidden Secret

Qiu Gui was brought to court for trial.

Regarding the other murders, he confessed everything clearly. Even those few servants who had vanished—he confessed to that too. He killed them all!

Throughout, he took all the blame upon himself, leaving his wife Lady Chu completely in the clear.

Only when it came to the motive for killing Dou Anzhi, his account was muddled and unclear. He stubbornly insisted he was a base, petty sort, consumed by greed, and that was why the killing intent arose.

The officials on the bench had, at minimum, over a dozen years of experience in criminal cases, and at maximum, several decades.

They saw through him at a glance—he was holding something back, mixing truth with falsehood, not telling the truth. At the very least, he hadn't revealed the whole truth. The more perceptive among them suspected there was likely a case within a case.

He was given chances time and again, yet didn't know to cherish them.

Bang!

They went straight to torture!

A round of the heavy board took half his life on the spot.

Yet Qiu Gui bit his tongue and refused to speak.

They simply brought Lady Chu in for interrogation!

Lady Chu couldn't endure the torture. The moment the finger-squeezing press touched her hands, she confessed.

She said she had only heard this from Qiu Gui in private, and couldn't guarantee its truth.

"Confess honestly. Stop dragging things off topic."

Lady Chu slowly began her account.

Based on what Qiu Gui had said in private, combined with some of her own deductions, she pieced together a complete story.

On the road home for his mourning leave, Dou Anzhi caught a chill, so he rented a courtyard to recuperate. Qiu Gui and the others, idle and bored, went to a gambling den outside the city, visiting it for over ten days in a row.

The last time, they got drunk on gambling fever, wicked thoughts arose, and they decided to rob a wealthy young master who had just won money. The young master looked like a greenhorn fresh out of the nest, ignorant of the world, a typical naive fool.

They thought it would be a cinch, but unexpectedly their strike was too heavy and uncontrolled—one blow of the staff beat him to death.

The page boy guarding the young master shouted on the spot, saying they were done for, that they had beaten an official's young master to death, and would sooner or later be executed along with nine degrees of kin.

The few men instantly lost their heads. Better to finish the job than leave it half-done—they killed the page boy too.

Afterwards, they hid the bodies in the luggage and pretended nothing had happened.

The next day, Dou Anzhi had just recovered from his illness and decided to set out, wanting to hurry home as soon as possible.

Qiu Gui and the others decided to look for a chance along the road to dump the bodies.

The matter leaked, and Dou Anzhi caught wind of it.

Dou Anzhi sternly rebuked them, saying he would report them to the authorities.

Qiu Gui and the others begged piteously, saying that once reported, it would also affect the other's official career.

Dou Anzhi thought it over and agreed not to report them to the authorities, but once they returned, he would certainly drive them out of the Dou household and sever the relationship.

Qiu Gui suspected this was Dou Anzhi's stalling tactic, meant only to lull them. Sooner or later, he would report to the authorities.

They were all doomed!

The one they had killed was an official's young master.

Dead either way—might as well...

So, during a rest stop, taking him off guard, they brought a rock down on his head and took Dou Anzhi's life on the spot.

The servant Fuquan fought them, trying to save him, but ended up being killed instead.

Truly a case within a case.

Based on Lady Chu's confession, the Ministry of Justice immediately dug out the old unsolved case from that year, and indeed there was a disappearance case—no one had ever been found. Neither the living nor the dead had ever been seen!

"Where are the bodies?"

Qiu Gui refused to reveal the whereabouts of the bodies.

"Death is at your door and still you harden your mouth! You've already confessed to slaughtering the entire Dou household, and to killing an official—why won't you own up to killing an official's young master? Does confessing or not really make a difference?"

Lady Chu also couldn't understand—at this point, having already been beaten with the board, why Qiu Gui still wouldn't reveal the whereabouts of the bodies.

Qiu Gui clenched his teeth and refused to open his mouth, life or death.

Sun Sun Daoning frowned, thinking that continuing to beat him like this was no solution. If the man died under torture without the case being perfectly closed—unable to find the whereabouts of the murdered official's young master's body—it would remain a regret in the end. Before the Emperor, that would count as a poor performance. Failing to handle even this small matter well would lead the Emperor to further doubt his abilities.

He was growing ever more aged. Once the Emperor deemed him unfit for important duties, retirement would not be far off.

He did not wish to retire—he could still shine and contribute in the Ministry of Justice.

So he decisively adjourned the session, had Qiu Gui escorted back to the heavenly prison, and ordered the medical officer to attend to him carefully, not to let him die.

Privately, he beckoned Chen Chen Guanlou to speak. "Qiu Gui refuses to give up the burial site no matter what. I'm afraid there's a big secret behind the bodies. Slaughtering the entire Dou household—execution of nine degrees of kin is a certainty. Yet he won't reveal the whereabouts of the bodies. What do you think the situation is?"

"I'm afraid the bodies are not merely those of an official's young master," Chen Chen Guanlou ventured boldly.

"What is more terrifying than execution of nine degrees of kin is death by a thousand cuts!"

He added another line.

Sun Sun Daoning understood the implication, and his heart jolted. "But over a dozen years ago, I never heard of any noble young master's disappearance."

"If you haven't heard of it, that proves there's an even bigger entanglement involved. Dig deeper, and a mere Qiu Gui is no longer important."

"What do you mean? Chen Chen Guanlou, don't try to frighten me." Sun Sun Daoning was clearly shaken, his voice turning a touch shrill.

Chen Chen Guanlou chuckled lightly and consoled him: "Old Sun, don't be so quick to be afraid. Lady Chu's account is probably mostly her own imagination, not the real truth. Just look at Qiu Gui's attitude and you'll know things aren't that simple.

Killing Dou Anzhi might really be as Lady Chu said—dead either way, might as well kill him. But killing an official's young master—there may be inside circumstances.

People who gamble often—even if they lose their heads to gambling fever—will steal, will rob, will cheat, but they usually don't kill. How many gamblers have you heard of who kill? Gamblers know perfectly well: a person alive means endless money. A person dead means nothing. They'd rather drive someone to death, or anger someone to death, than kill with their own hands.

These old gamblers of theirs are all slippery veterans—they know how to keep their strikes measured. So-called 'striking without knowing how heavy or light'—such a thing simply doesn't exist!"

"You're saying they killed with premeditation?" Sun Sun Daoning's heart secretly stirred awake. He truly had only a superficial understanding of gamblers.

It was Chen Chen Guanlou, who had long been steeped among gamblers, who understood them more thoroughly.

"If he had readily revealed the whereabouts of the bodies, the official's young master's death might really have been an accident. But he stubbornly refuses to disclose the whereabouts of the official's young master's body—that raises a big question. I boldly suspect there's likely some hidden secret involved here."

Sun Sun Daoning was furious. "Then you think of a way to trick his secret out of him. No matter what, the truth must come to light."

"The truth has already come to light! The Dou family's injustice has already been redressed. Old Sun, are you sure you want to dig out the secret buried in his heart? This matter… if there's a big landmine buried inside and we go digging—boom, it blows up—what do you say we do then?"

"Even if it blows up, this old man will accept it. This old man absolutely will not allow him to die carrying a homicide case on his back! This much principle, this old man still has."

For a moment, Sun Sun Daoning seemed like the very embodiment of an envoy of justice on earth.

Chen Chen Guanlou was deeply impressed!

"You deserve to be Minister of Justice!"

Sun Sun Daoning bristled at once. "Do you even know how to talk? What do you mean, 'deserve'! You young people these days, not a single one of you knows the rules. Find a learned teacher and study properly. At the very least, hire a juren—don't hire a xiucai. A xiucai is a shallow vessel that clatters loudly, ruining the students!"

The reputation of xiucai everywhere takes collateral damage!