Chapter 99: This Is No Netherworld of the Dead

In the Zhen’an Department, Xia Jiujiang was stalling for time when suddenly Lin Baixue burst into the main hall, dropped to her knees, and blurted out that she herself had killed the matriarch. She confessed that she had framed Xia Jiujiang. Her eyes were unfocused, and a cold tremor ran through her body, revealing her terror and fear.

Xia Jiujiang looked at Lin Baixue, who was kneeling and confessing everything. She feigned ignorance and said, “Though I, the princess consort, know I am innocent, the innocent are always clear in the end. That is why I believed the evidence would eventually surface. But I never imagined the person who would come forward to prove my innocence would be the matriarch herself. Truly unexpected.”

Xia Yue’er, Xia Mingxuan, and Xia Wentao were all bewildered by Lin Baixue’s sudden outburst, but her words stirred a storm among the gathered.

“The culprit is Lin Baixue?”

“Lin Baixue voluntarily admitted it!”

“This is so surprising, but there are still many doubts. When exactly did Lin Baixue kill the matriarch?”

“Yes, and when Xia Jiujiang entered the Tanyazhai chamber, the matriarch’s voice was clearly heard. Later, when the matriarch appeared with others, she was already dead. Something doesn’t add up.”

“Is Lin Baixue covering for Xia Jiujiang?”

“That can’t be. Xia Jiujiang isn’t Lin Baixue’s daughter. If anyone were to be framed, it would be Xia Yue’er. It would make sense for Lin Baixue to defend her.”

Though chaos erupted in the Zhen’an Department, Lin Baixue heard nothing in her own world.

What she saw was the matriarch sneering coldly: “An accident? If it was an accident, why did you frame Xia Jiujiang? You clearly planned to kill me and then pin it on Xia Jiujiang.”

Lin Baixue knelt beside the matriarch, lowering her head to avoid her gaze. But no one knew that the matriarch’s eyes had fallen to the floor, her eyeballs staring fixedly at Lin Baixue.

Terrified, Lin Baixue was on the verge of fainting, but the matriarch’s eyes remained fixed on her. Lin Baixue screamed, “Ah… ah… please… don’t torment me…”

“Don’t torment you? Then tell me, was it a planned murder or an accident? Did you plan to frame Xia Jiujiang?” the matriarch demanded.

Lin Baixue hurriedly denied it, trembling as she spoke: “No, I just wanted a scapegoat. Killing the matriarch was unintentional, but framing Xia Jiujiang was deliberate. I only wanted someone to take the blame. I didn’t expect to deceive the underworld. I only wanted Xia Jiujiang to bear the murder charge…”

The judge scolded fiercely, “You wanted Xia Jiujiang to bear the murder charge to carry your karmic burden, and yet you still dare to deny it!”

With a fierce shout from the judge, Lin Baixue felt as if she were being struck relentlessly. Though no one was near her, she heard the sounds of shoves and blows, as if her very body were being beaten. Not only was her spirit terrified, but her flesh seemed to be under assault.

From her ear came the eerie laughter of the matriarch: “Carrying the burden of murder—how lightly you speak of it. You say it wasn’t planned, yet why was my time of death changed to daytime? Why was my voice heard before Aunt Xiu opened the door? Do you dare say none of this was arranged by you?”

Lin Baixue stammered, “Those… those were arranged after I killed you. I was so panicked at the time. Later, to shift the blame onto Xia Jiujiang, I… I sought out a master who applied the ‘Jade Complexion’ powder on me to deceive the coroner’s judgment of the time of death. What was clearly the night before last was made to appear as the morning before yesterday. As for the voice…”

“Go on! You even dared to deceive the coroner. What else are you hiding?” the matriarch roared.

Lin Baixue trembled violently. “That voice… I hired a master of vocal mimicry from the opera troupe, Madam Fan. She was placed in the next room. The sound was faint, barely audible. I had her repeat the voice several times; from afar, it was indistinguishable…”

Lin Baixue was utterly disoriented. She felt a warm liquid trickle down—she had wet herself out of fear!

Xia Jiujiang stood nearby, casting a contemptuous glance as the poison’s effect from the insect began to fade.

Lin Baixue shivered all over as the surrounding scene suddenly dissolved, like mist dispersing from an obscured landscape.

She heard the bustling voices around her.

“What’s that smell? Do you smell it?”

“Look, Lin Baixue’s skirt is wet.”

“Could Lady Xia have wet herself out of fear?”

“First time seeing the culprit confess voluntarily, and even wet herself from fright.”

“That’s what they say: a clear conscience fears no ghost.”

“She killed the matriarch and has committed many wrongs. Naturally, she’s scared and ended up confessing everything.”

“She seems a bit unhinged. Can her words be trusted?”

“Yeah, one moment she’s the matriarch, the next she’s begging for mercy. She must have been traumatized.”

“But to see the prime minister’s wife wet herself out of fear—that’s a rare spectacle.”

Lin Baixue stared blankly at her surroundings. In the main hall of the Zhen’an Department, Pei Xingzhi wore a cold expression as he watched her; Jun Buwen admired Xia Jiujiang’s tactics; Gao Shanshui looked stunned; and Jun Qianye’s face was a kaleidoscope of emotions.

This was the Zhen’an Department—not the underworld!

Everything Lin Baixue saw was a hallucination born of her own fear.

Indeed, as the saying goes, a clear conscience fears no ghost. The insect’s ‘Dreamlike Powder’ toxin, once triggered, is a form of torture that causes its victim to unknowingly confess the truth through hallucination.

Lin Baixue was truly the murderer of the matriarch. Her constant scheming to frame Xia Jiujiang, her fears and anxieties, all culminated in this confession. The insect’s toxin amplified her terror, causing her to mistake Xia Jiujiang standing beside her for the matriarch, and Pei Xingzhi’s piercing gaze for a demonic spirit.

The voices and interrogation she heard at first were hallucinations fueled by her own fear. The voices she heard later were those of Pei Xingzhi and Xia Jiujiang, but Lin Baixue naturally projected them as the judge and the matriarch.

The physical pain she felt was from Xia Yue’er, Xia Mingxuan, and Xia Wentao repeatedly pushing and shaking her, trying to bring her out of this state and silence her. But terrified and believing she was dead, Lin Baixue spoke freely without restraint.

When the poison’s effect finally wore off, Lin Baixue regained her senses. Seeing the shock on everyone’s faces and recalling her own vivid confession, cold sweat broke out on her forehead. She… she had unwittingly revealed the entire truth herself!