Deadly injustice

TWENTY-EIGHT

I killed Old Geng by poisoning him with aconite. I knew Geng Wenbo was infatuated with me, and I convinced him that I had to get rid of Madam Gao because she had treated me cruelly. He thought he was buying the poison from Doctor Sun for that purpose. But while he was distracted, I took the broth with the aconite in it to Old Geng instead. The boy was distraught and wanted to confess, but I couldn’t let him or he would implicate me too. I promised him the comforts of my body if he kept our secret. He was too distracted by the thought of what I promised to do anything other than what I told him to do. When the red-hair arrived, I thought I would be freed, as my yun cycle had changed. And I believed that I had convinced the barbarian of my innocence. When his interfering ways seemed to be getting close to the truth, I seduced Wenbo into doing what he originally intended; to confessing to the murder of Old Geng. He actually believed that, if I were freed, I would save him as he appeared to have saved me.

I confess to the murder of Geng Wenbo. It was too much of a risk to let him live. I came to the prison in the night, and convinced him that he must seem to have tried to kill himself. When he took his belt cord and put it round his neck, I reached through the bars and strangled him. I had the idea of stealing the prison keys and unlocking the doctor’s cell that night. If I had done so, then Sun would have been seen as the murderer of Wenbo. But the gaoler must have heard Wenbo’s death throes and woken up. I had to leave quickly. However, I came back the next night and unlocked the door of Sun’s cell. His disappearance would then have been linked with the murder of Madam Gao that I planned to carry out the same night. But the fool was too scared to leave his cell, muttering about the Devil being abroad. So I had to take a stick and beat him to death in his cell, and drag the body down the unlucky road to where I could bury it. You will find it close to the bare tree. He deserved to die, as he had also helped me kill my husband Cangbi with cinnabar under the pretext of curing him and conferring immortality upon him.