Original subtitles

=To Kill a Songbird=

(Adapted from Shen Xiaoguan's Bird Kills Seven People)

=Episode 18= (Red Bridal Garb Becomes Mourning White)

(The Bridal Procession)

(Wedding)

(Shanshui Residence)

- How lively it is. - So wonderful.

Such a joyous occasion.

Please assist the bride from the sedan.

Bride, mind your step.

She is gorgeous.

A match made in heaven.

Proceed.

May you enter the Crimson Hall together, pure, auspicious, and safe.

May your years be long and your days auspicious.

Mount the saddle.

One horse, one saddle.

May the couple pass evenly and in harmony.

Bind the ceremonial cloth.

May wealth and honor endure for a hundred years.

Take your seats beneath the canopy.

May husband and wife remain united in harmony.

Come, come, drink.

Cheers.

Wonderful!

A toast. Another toast.

(A Match Made in Heaven)

This is my wedding gift to the two of you.

Congratulations.

Official Liang,

the wine of union?

Why now?

Cultivation may refine the body,

yet if practiced improperly,

it can harm the flesh,

and trouble the mind.

Miss Li may well have suffered such an imbalance.

Thus, on her wedding night, she lost her senses,

killed her newlywed husband,

and then took her own life.

Such a thing

is not beyond reason.

Official Liang.

What you said just now was quite right.

When it comes to cultivation and arcane arts,

you are indeed no match for me

in terms of immobilizing a target.

You came prepared.

Li Fuyuan.

No. Li Yuan'er.

What are you planning to do?

Everyone present today

is to stay where they are.

No one leaves.

You will all remain to hear this case.

Everyone,

I ask you all to bear witness

to what I am about to do next.

I can finish it

all by myself.

That you would die with me

is your devotion.

But if I let you die,

then I would no longer be Li Fuyuan,

only my brother's shadow,

a puppet of this broken world.

- On the wedding night? - Lady Lu...

You wanted me to be silent.

You wanted me dead.

So be it.

You branded me

a demoness, a bandit, a traitor.

So be it.

I know my own innocence.

I owe none of you absolution.

Lady Lu.

Miss Li.

A commoner accusing an official is already a grave crime.

To set up a court like this

is punishable by death.

That no longer matters.

Over these past days,

you have surely already heard

the truth of the Thrush Case.

Here and now,

we will lay the entire matter out

without concealment.

Thirteen years ago,

the merchant Zhao Chengxi

coveted the wife of the bird keeper Shen Xiu, Shang Jin.

He devised a plan of extreme cruelty,

lured Shen Xiu to the outskirts and murdered him.

Fearing the truth would surface,

he bribed the county magistrate of the time, Zhai Lu,

and forced through a false conviction.

He framed my brother Li Ji as the killer.

That is the truth you have all heard.

But what I have just said

is still not the whole truth.

My brother, Li Ji

did not die because of Shen Xiu.

On the contrary,

the bird keeper Shen Xiu

died because of my brother Li Ji.

- How could that be? - Impossible!

Yes, how could that possibly be?

Miss Li,

have you taken some sort of elixir?

You seem rather unsteady of mind.

First, you confined us here,

and now you speak utter nonsense.

Your brother was nothing more than an ordinary licentiate,

never an official.

If you say he was simply unlucky and framed,

that at least makes sense.

But to claim

that someone murdered another man

solely to bring him down,

this…

This is beyond belief.

Unless the one framing him held great power,

and dared to do anything.

The weather that year was damp, with little sun.

Bookworms infested the archive buildings,

and many records and case files were damaged.

(Because my brother Li Ji had exceptionally fine handwriting,)

(he was hired as a temporary clerk for several months.)

(It was during those months)

(that he began to notice)

(things others overlooked.)

He was a mere scholar.

What could he possibly see?

From the second year of Yuanfu to the second year of Chongning,

(Huachang County recorded sixty-seven major criminal cases.)

(Not one was left unresolved.)

(Of these, forty-two cases)

(were closed within three days.)

(For that reason,)

(the magistrate in office at the time, Official Liang,)

earned the title "Justice Liang".

(Yet among those forty-two cases,)

(every single one contained inconsistencies.)

(Some lacked sufficient evidence, others showed subtle contradictions.)

(My brother did not dare suspect)

(that Justice Liang's reputation)

He had his doubts.

Miss Li, are you suggesting that all those cases

were fabricated by Official Liang?

That is exactly what I am saying.

Impossible. That cannot be right.

After discovering this,

my brother did not try to expose him.

(Instead, he wrote a letter of remonstrance,)

(hoping to warn his superior.)

(And it was precisely that letter)

that cost him his life.

Liang Andao

went to Zhao Chengxi.

That was how Shen Xiu was killed,

and how the Thrush Case began.

Empty words.

This all happened more than ten years ago.

For the moment,

I cannot produce hard evidence.

But My Lord,

I know that by law and procedure,

a mayfly like me cannot shake a towering tree.

But keep in mind that

public opinion is a fearsome thing.

There are guests, gentry, wealthy figures, merchants, and soldiers alike.

All walks of life are present.

I have copied my brother's letter of remonstrance countless times.

There are mouths

and eyes here.

With my crime today of holding a people's court,

Official Liang,

do you truly believe

you can walk away unscathed?

So,

that is how you intend to do this.

Very well.

Very well indeed.

The young are truly formidable.

But...

A weight has been lifted off my chest.

♪A thrush's song pierced the endless night♪

♪Blood splattered on the bamboo cage, reflecting the cool moonlight♪

♪Thirteen years of frost and snow sealed the old study window♪

♪I twisted the needle, prying open the past♪

♪A cold stone marrow presses against my palm♪

♪My older brother lay buried afar♪

♪Flames licked across that place♪

♪A list of righteous hearts♪

♪Who laughed in the dark at the panic?♪

♪I'm the shadow caged within as well as the flying light♪

♪Only when hatred burns out did we know how scorching our obsessions were♪

♪You said you'd die if you hit a stone♪

♪Yet you crashed into my fate's web♪

♪Pear blossoms fell all over the wound on your shoulder♪

♪The wind in the bamboo forest dispersed the hexagrams♪

♪The thrush carried the past away♪

♪I stood at the end of the fireworks and gaze♪

♪You lifted a lantern to illuminate♪

♪That page♪