History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 420 Confession
At the hour of Xu (7-9 PM), in the dungeon of the Sizhou government office.

Wei Yao, Kou Meng, Gou Zhubu, Yuan Yu, Gu Kai, Lu Gongzhi, and Guan Xian all came to Xue Laizi's prison, this time without any prison officials accompanying them.

Xue Laizi huddled in a corner against the wall and said sarcastically, "As expected, the common people can't fight against the officials. I must be a fool to actually wait for them to let me go home."

Kou Meng approached with a lantern, and Xue Laizi did not resist, but closed his eyes.

Gou Zhubu observed the man's face. He had met Xue Zhixiao several times a few years ago, and the man's appearance was already blurred in his memory. The portrait helped him recall the old memories. However... after staring at him for a few breaths, he slowly shook his head at Wei Yao and whispered, "Thinner than him."

This statement refers to the fact that the suspect is thinner than Xue Zhixiao.

Wei Yao showed no disappointment and asked Guan Xian, "Can you replicate this kind of scar exactly on a normal person's face...?"

"Ah—" Xue Laizi roared, launching a sudden attack!
Kou Meng's ferocity was well-deserved. He grabbed the other man's hair and pulled him back violently, causing Xue Laizi to fall. He immediately pressed Xue Laizi's hands above his head, tightly bound his wrists with Xue Laizi's own hair, and then pressed one knee against Xue Laizi's chest.

Kou Meng was a fierce warrior, incredibly strong! Even after being thrown like that, Xue Laizi could still shout, "You corrupt officials! A bunch of corrupt officials! They're all corrupt officials, corrupt officials!"

"Reporting to Shaoqing, as long as we find someone with the same build as him, I am confident I can create another Xue Laizi!"

Guan Xian's reply drove Xue Laizi completely insane.

"You corrupt official, you corrupt official, let me go, let me go—ah, ah! ah, ah—"

Wei Yao stepped forward and asked sternly, "Do you think you've been wronged? You buried seven urns in your house. Who were the victims? That's your house. Do you dare say that the mutilated corpses in the urns weren't caused by you? You said your relatives and brothers died of plague, so why are the three skeletons in the coffins all dead with broken necks?"

She continued, asking one question after another: "The Xue family has four members. If you are Xue Laizi, who is the person buried in the urn? If the person in the urn is Xue Laizi, then who are you?"

Xue Laizi's eyes were bloodshot as he glared fiercely at Wei Yao. He grinned, revealing blood-stained teeth, and said, "I... I won't tell you."

Wei Yao laughed as well: "Does it matter who you are?"

The eyes of the one confronting her were even more bloodshot!
She further mocked him: "Who wants to suffer the pain of disfigurement? So you're just a bad, stupid coward, an arrow that can only fly wherever others point it..."

Wei Yao pronounced "arrow" with a sneer, continuing to attack the other party's mind: "Where would the real thugs who want to kill me wait for you after you get out of prison? They certainly wouldn't go to your house, the government's raid on your house would be too big a commotion, why would they wait for you near the fishing boat?"

She stared at "Xue Laizi's" hideous face and shook her head, giving her answer: "Do you think your accomplice wouldn't be stupid enough to knowingly let you out of prison without contacting you? No, I won't give him a chance to hesitate. I'll have another Xue Laizi take your place in prison and have soldiers escort him to... the palace."

Xue Laizi's eyes changed after hearing the words "Imperial Palace"!

He roared, spitting as he spoke: "Wei Yao, you deserve to die! You deserve to die!"

Immediately afterward, he realized he had been tricked, staring at her in disbelief and murmuring, "Why? Why did you say... you would take me to the palace?"

Wei Yao clapped her hands and said to the registrar and others in a way that was infuriating, "We finally guessed right." Gu Kai and Guan Xian had worked together for many years, and with just a few words, they assigned tasks to each other: one was to find people, and the other was to prepare wheat flour, dyes, and other supplies.

Wei Yao already had a plan in mind, and instructed the chief clerk: "Go to the clerk in the household registration office and find the household registers of people who have been disfigured for various reasons since the capital was moved. Only look for people from Luoyang County."

Xue Laizi's absent-minded mutterings stopped abruptly.

Wei Yao signaled to Kou Meng that he didn't need to pin the other person to the ground anymore.

Kou Meng snorted and, as Xue Laizi sat up, he forcefully pressed the arms that Xue Laizi had raised above his head down to his lower back. With two sharp cracks, Xue Laizi's arms broke.

This person is truly resilient; despite the excruciating pain, only his cheek twitched slightly.

He asked Wei Yao, "Why did you seek out the disfigured man from Luoyang? What's the meaning behind it? What's the meaning behind it?!"

This man had a violent temper and his emotions fluctuated wildly. He started roaring again. Just as Kou Meng was about to make a move, Wei Yao made a gesture and said, "Let him shout."

She looked directly into the bloodshot eyes opposite her with a relaxed demeanor and said first, "Why should I tell you?"

Then she asked, "During these past few years of impersonating someone else, have you had nightmares? Have you thought about retribution? Have you thought about what will happen to you when someone else impersonates you? Maybe you're tough and not afraid of death, but what about your family? Will your family be targeted by your accomplices and killed like the Xue family? You're not saying anything, so it seems you at least admit that you're not Xue Laizi."

"Then you're no longer important in this case. Once I catch your accomplice, I'm curious how tough he is. If he confesses everything he knows, including who you were before you were disfigured, tell me... isn't your current stubbornness ridiculous?"

"But in the eyes of your accomplices, you are a cowardly and stupid traitor, because I will have the soldiers impersonating you falsely accuse him of crimes in front of him."

"You, you failed to assassinate me because your martial arts skills were lacking. You thought you were clever enough to stay on the banks of the canal to gather information, but you ended up walking right into a trap. You're not smart enough. Look at you, you were used to survive by disfiguring yourself. You kept your mouth shut when your accomplices weren't looking, but when they saw 'you,' you lied to clear your name..."

"Stop talking!" The man finally couldn't bear Wei Yao's sarcastic remarks any longer and cried out in pain, "Stop talking! I, I confess, I'll tell you everything, I'll tell you everything. My surname is also Xue, and my name is Xue Zhixiao. I'm a lieutenant. Actually, I knew about you when you were in Pingcheng."

Kou Meng, Yuan Yu, and Lu Gongzhi, who were still in prison, were all utterly horrified!

What? This guy really is Xue Zhixiao!
What followed was their admiration for Wei Yao!

Xue Zhixiao knew he could not escape death, and since he had already revealed his original identity, there was no need to hide anything else.

He said, "Believe it or not, I only killed Xue Laizi. I don't know who killed his family. When I took his identity, his family was already dead. The person who instructed me to do this was extremely skilled in martial arts, no less than Kou Meng."

"Two years ago, His Majesty sent me to supervise the canal transport. I was careless and was drinking with someone on the banks of the Luo River. At night, I was attacked and held underwater. I almost choked to death. That was the only time I was attacked. When the man spoke, he told me how many people were in my family and where they lived. He threatened that if I didn't obey him, none of my relatives would survive."

“That night, people thought Xue Zhixiao was dead. He locked me in the cellar, and I was left helpless. I was only given one meal a day. He sent a man named Liu Shun to bring me food and made me smear pus on my face every day. My face and my hands were repeatedly ulcerated and scabbed over…”

“One day, Liu Shun threw a man into the cellar. The man had a leprosy face and was holding a knife. When he saw me, he screamed and tried to slash at me. I snatched the knife and easily killed him. I put the body into seven urns, then went out of the cellar and pushed the urns in a wheelbarrow to a small courtyard. That was Xue Laizi’s house. From then on, I became Xue Laizi.”