Four Harmonies and Good Fortune

Chapter 240 Damn it
Xie Chongjun and Xie Chonghai were startled and looked in the direction of the voice. They saw a figure slowly emerging from the darkness.

The light gradually illuminated the person's face.

"you……"

"How could it be you..."

That face was all too familiar.

That was Xie Chongjun's illegitimate son, Xie Zishao, the seventh son of the Xie family.

Xie Chonghai's eyes narrowed sharply, and he instinctively took a step back: "Weren't you dead?"

"Why did you say I was dead, Second Uncle?" came a voice devoid of any emotion.

Xie Chonghai clenched his fist: "They all say you fell into the river."

“No,” Xie Zishao interrupted Xie Chonghai, “it’s because…you conspired with the Zhao family to hire someone to assassinate me.”

As soon as Xie Zishao finished speaking, a gust of wind blew, causing the oil lamp in the prison to sway wildly.

Before Xie Chongjun and Xie Chonghai could react, they heard the sound of teeth chattering coming from the cell next door, followed by someone whispering rapidly, "Don't come looking for me, don't come looking for me, they made me do it... they made me do it."

"It's all them, it's all them..."

These days, the Xie brothers keep hearing this noise, with someone constantly repeating this phrase.

In the prison, with so many people imprisoned, screams could be heard from the torture chambers every day, as no one knew who would give in and confess first. So this situation was quite common, and the two brothers didn't take it to heart.

But today... is different.

As Xie Zishao stood there, the words the man spoke seemed to have a hidden meaning.

Xie Chonghai suddenly had a guess: could the person speaking be an idle man hired by the Zhao family to kill Xie Zishao?
But that idler was clearly dead!
No, it wasn't that idler; he was a ruthless man who would never turn out like this.

"Thump, thump, thump," came the sound of hitting the wall from the side, mixed with the man's pleas for mercy: "The people who hurt you are them, it was Third Sister who asked me to find them, it was her."

"Back then, your mother was also asked by them to find the medicine."

"It's all her."

"She didn't say who she was going to kill, she didn't say... I have no idea."

"Every wrong has its perpetrator, every debt its debtor. Go find her, don't come looking for me."

Then the person started crying.

Hearing these words, Xie Chonghai was stunned. He knew about what happened back then. Zhao had asked her second brother to buy blood-activating medicine and give it to Miao. Miao started bleeding after giving birth... but because the dosage was not enough, she could not die immediately. Her condition kept recurring, and she was tormented by it.

When Miao died, her lips were pale and colorless, her hands were as cold as a dead person's, her skin was sunken, and her eyes were white with a bluish tinge, as if all the blood in her body had been drained away.

Originally, Miao was an exceptionally beautiful woman, but in the end she became almost like a ghost. Even so, she refused to die, staring intently at Xie Zishao.

Seeing that Xie Chongjun was frightened, he personally promised to take good care of their child, and only then did Miao close her eyes.

This is also why Xie Chongjun has never made a move against Xie Zishao; it's not that he's reluctant, but rather that he's somewhat afraid.

"It's... a member of the Zhao family." The man's voice was somewhat hoarse, unlike his usual tone, which is why Xie Chongjun hadn't recognized him before, but his words already clearly pointed to someone else.

The one speaking was Zhao's second brother.

"I told you, I told you everything..."

"I'll tell you everything."

After saying this, the man repeated, "They made me do it, it was them."

Xie Chonghai suddenly understood why the county magistrate was no longer in a hurry to interrogate him: firstly, Prefect Liu was dead, and secondly, the Zhao family had confessed.

Xie Chonghai took several steps back. Before, he had felt scared, wondering if Xie Zishao in front of him was a human or a ghost, but now it seemed that none of that mattered. Xie Zishao seemed to be smiling, but tears were streaming down his face. However, his expression was more resolute than ever before. He said coldly, "Now I'll answer your question. The money I received was indeed given to me by Xie Chongjun."

Xie Chongjun frowned and looked at Xie Zishao. Perhaps Xie Chonghai was frightened, but in his opinion, it was nothing more than a charade.

Xie Chongjun asked, "When will I give you the money?"

Xie Zishao did not answer, but continued, "You say you dote on your illegitimate son, but it's just for show. You wish I would suddenly die one day."

Xie Chongjun frowned.

Xie Zishao said, "If the Xie family succeeds in this market transaction, the Xie family's porcelain kiln will become famous, and there will be no need for those merchants who are on good terms with the Miao family to buy your porcelain. At that time, you will try every means to get rid of me."

“I already knew all this.”

“I stayed in the Xie family, pretending to know nothing, in order to find evidence so that one day I can tear off your mask, expose your deeds to the world, and seek justice for my mother.”

Xie Zishao took another step forward, and this time Xie Chongjun could see him even more clearly. Xie Zishao's face was full of hatred: "I saved up little by little the money that I should have used for 'lavish living' and later seized the opportunity to buy a few plots of land."

Hearing this, Xie Chongjun frowned even more deeply. So Xie Zishao's money came from buying and selling land? He was furious that he hadn't seen through this beast's true colors and had kept him by his side all these years.

Xie Zishao spoke again: "There are coal mines under those plots of land."

Xie Chongjun's gaze suddenly sharpened.

Xie Zishao curled his lips into a mocking smile: "Then I did a deal worth seven thousand strings of cash with my tenth sister."

Xie Chongjun gasped, those scenes flashing through his mind. Xie Zizhang's sudden arrest and the troubles that had ensued in the Xie family were all Xie Zishao's doing.

After Xie Zizhang got into trouble, he was afraid of causing more trouble, so he dared not forcibly buy land again and had to spend seven thousand strings of cash to buy the coal mine in the north of the city.

It was Xie Zishao, it was him.

From the very beginning, Xie Zishao and Xie Yuyan were plotting against him.

Enraged, Xie Chongjun's eyes turned bloodshot, and he wished he could pounce on Xie Zishao and kill him immediately.

Xie Chongjun gritted his teeth: "If I had known you would be like this, I should have killed you and your birth mother together."

“You and your birth mother are the same. I trusted her and let her manage the porcelain kiln, but she stood with the craftsmen and criticized me for mistreating them.”

"They even secretly checked my accounts, trying to expose my private sale of porcelain to the Qi people."

"I was so good to her."

“I even carried Zhao into the house despite her commotion, and that’s how she treated me.”

"Shouldn't she have died?"

Xie Chongjun's face was contorted. He had been in prison for so long, seemingly calm, but in reality, he had been tortured to the point of collapse. He still didn't understand where he went wrong, or rather, where he took the wrong step.

Now he finally understood that the resentment and anger that had been building up inside him burst forth all at once, and he himself could not control it.

Xie Chonghai opened his eyes wide. He wanted to stop his older brother, but it was too late.

Zhao Er, who was in the cell next to Xie Chongjun, seemed to understand what Xie Chongjun was saying and shouted, "Yes, there's him too, Xie Chongjun, he's the one who killed Miao Shi, he's the one."

Xie Zishao walked all the way to Xie Chongjun's prison. His tears had dried, leaving clear tear stains, but his expression returned to calm.

“Have you ever thought,” Xie Zishao said calmly, “that you are the one who deserves to die.”

"The reason you're still alive is because..." Xie Zishao pointed at Xie Chonghai, "...that you want to drag the entire Xie clan down with you to die."

"Now you've done it."

Miao tried to persuade him not to smuggle porcelain to the Qi people, but he harbored murderous intent and watched as Zhao poisoned Miao.

From that moment on, no one stopped Xie Chongjun, and Xie Chongjun dragged the entire Xie family down a dead end.