Original subtitles

=To Kill a Songbird=

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

=Episode 19= (How to Foresee A Bird Killer?)

So,

that is how you intend to do this.

Very well.

The young are truly formidable.

But...

A weight has been lifted off my chest.

You knew we would act today,

so you deliberately...

You want us to reveal our cards.

What a clever lady.

So you're striking now

to...

Exactly.

As long as everyone here dies,

no one will gossip again.

Official Liang.

You can't...

Murder.

He's dead.

There's no hurry.

One by one.

Take it slow.

But I must thank you, Miss Li.

Your thrush illusion

is famous in Huachang County.

So these people dying

under your uncontrolled illusion

isn't exactly strange.

Don't you agree?

I'm here.

You...

(I knew you wouldn't involve me.)

(How could I not be alert?)

(Bound as husband and wife,)

(we share life and death.)

(At a time like this,)

(don't think of abandoning the husband you just wed.)

Do you think

I'm a villain?

I was born a commoner

with no ancestral protection,

nor noble patronage.

If I followed the rules,

serving as a minor county magistrate,

how long until I get promoted?

How long to help more people?

After leaving and taking office elsewhere,

how many achievements did I gain?

How many people

truly thanked me as their magistrate?

How many

capable officials without backing did I promote?

How much did I do for this overstaffed court?

Did you ever know?

Yet now you condemn my past mistakes.

Aren't you shortsighted?

A fine couple.

What a pity.

A bright moon over a gutter.

You're like Li Ji.

You lack that fortune.

Kill them.

The evidence is here.

(Master Jiang.)

(Liang Andao knows I learned the truth.)

(Leave the city as per your plan and lure out the hidden scouts.)

(Then help me find one person)

(as my final gamble.)

Tell them

who you are.

My surname is Huang.

I'm Inspecting Envoy Zhai Lu's wife.

Liang Andao.

You captured me and my children.

You forced my husband to die for you

and planned to kill us all.

How vicious.

I have household records.

My identity can be verified.

Liang traitor, what can you say now?

This is your so called evidence?

The evidence is here.

(Mr. Cui San.)

(You know the truth best.)

(This chance is rare.)

(I ask you to feign death)

(to help expose this darkness.)

This letter

was taken from a hidden compartment in Fan Jili's home.

It's the anonymous letter you used

to have him slander Li Ji and fabricate evidence.

You guard gentlemen but not against villains.

You invited Fan Jili to the wedding

to silence him as well.

And if I went to his house,

his family would naturally hand his lifesaving trump card over to me .

Though this happened over ten years ago,

the incident was sudden back then.

There was no time to find someone to write this letter.

This handwriting

is yours.

The proof is right here.

(Mrs. Shen.)

(Yexin and Huiyi are with me.)

(Their lives may be in danger.)

(I've verified Liang Andao's men.)

(They're all mountain bandits.)

(They only want payment.)

(Now,)

(you may reunite with your two sons.)

This is my husband Shen Xiu's real head

and Zhao Chengxi's confession letter.

It details how you once ordered him

and the Huang brothers to kill Li Ji through Shen Xiu.

It was written back then for self protection

and hidden in the tree hollow with the body.

Official Liang.

This evidence cannot be called unreliable, right?

We must thank Zhai Lu for this.

If he hadn't deliberately reminded us,

we would never have thought

of that thrush.

Unexpectedly,

the little thrush

we released back then

turned out to be

the key to breaking the case.

That Mofeibai was my husband Xiu's bird

for many years.

It knew the way home,

so it flew back on its own after the murder.

Since it knew the way home,

it wasn't hard to find the crime scene.

Though the head had turned to bone,

unexpectedly,

the letter was intact.

It's a miracle, or perhaps fate.

Even so,

I could kill you all.

Let's see who could convict me.

Liang Andao.

Official Liang.

You're the imperial censor, patrolling on behalf of heaven.

Local officials cannot judge you.

But I, Vice Censor-in-Chief,

should still be able to question you

and take charge of this matter.

You fell off a cliff days ago

and alarmed Master Lu.

He insisted I urge Official Liang to come.

Official Liang, you worked with Official Cen for years.

You must have recognized him long ago

and thus had misgivings.

Otherwise, Master Lu and I would be dead.

Because you feared Official Cen

and knew this couldn't be ended lightly,

you coerced Zhai Lu

to take the blame and close the case.

I've reviewed all evidence Jiang Chun sent.

I have also detained your men.

So be it.

Didn't you...

Didn't I already leave?

That's because someone

stopped me halfway

and told me the whole truth.

Sorry.

I couldn't tell you the truth this morning.

Why do you smell so strongly of dew?

I slept poorly last night

and went out for a walk.

I was the one who invited Official Cen back.

I lost.

- But I don't... - You don't understand how?

Please enlighten me.

Official Liang once asked Zhai Lu

where the minor official

who spoke for the people went.

Official Liang.

Were you not also speaking of yourself?

Now that you have become this,

how will you face your wife and children?

Sir.

You shouldn't ask me how.

The official world is unstable.

Pure and tainted are one.

The career path is perilous.

It's not yet time for you to understand.

Official Liang.

We could have avoided pursuit

by hiding our tracks

and avoided this disaster.

But we all came back anyway

and took part in this.

Do you know why?

If you don't remember,

I'll tell you a case.

In the first year of Chongning, a wealthy household was robbed.

An old man was named as the culprit.

He was flogged 40 times

and died in the courtroom.

There was no solid physical evidence.

Neighbors only claimed he got rich suddenly

and bought several jars of fine wine.

They declared him guilty of theft.

His son was originally a coroner.

Due to this case, he could no longer serve at the magistrate's office.

With no other methods to make a living,

he buried his father and jumped into the river that night.

Sir.

That young coroner was my predecessor.

This case was doubtful, was it not?

Official Liang.

I also have a case.

There was a scholar surnamed Shen

who argued with someone and pushed him by accident.

Unexpectedly, that person

mysteriously died that evening.

The scholar was thus convicted

and thrown into prison,

where he soon died of illness.

This scholar surnamed Shen

was my father-in-law.

Because of his crime,

my husband Shen Xiu lost the qualification for the provincial exam

and made a living by raising birds from then on.

This case is questionable,

was it not?

Sir.

These two cases

were all recorded by Li Ji in the petition.

48 case files.

48 sentences stating "this case is doubtful."

When you read them back then,

did you feel any awe

or a hint of guilt?

You have probably forgotten by now

what Li Ji wished to tell you

behind these case files.

Today, I wish to

say it to you once again.

There are three essentials in legal matters.

First, evidence must be solid.

Solid means

there must be verification by two or more people.

(Second, verify carefully at the appointed time.)

(With multiple people present,)

(examine the terrain)

(and record it properly.)

(Use written, oral, and case records.)

(These form the three records.)

Yet the essence of judgment lies in the people, in the common folk,

and depends on justice and fairness,

not on merit or fame.

I heard that you

were once a good official who petitioned for the people.

May you never forget your original intent.

(Petition to Official Liang Andao) Reflect on old ambitions.

Hence this petition today.

I hope you review old cases,

redress the wrongs, and separate the pure from the corrupt.

Serve the people for the people, and uphold the name of Justice.

You may not wish to be this clear wind,

but there will always be someone who does.

And someone will always remember

what he has done

and the paths he has taken.

(Pure And Righteous Mind)

(Pure And Righteous Mind) (Official Liang.)

(Each word of this petition)

(Pure And Righteous Mind) (expresses my concern.)

(I earnestly request you take time to read it.)

(If you accept a suggestion or two,)

(Petition to Official Liang Andao) (it will be a blessing to all.)

(And I will have no regrets.)

Don't blame the clear wind for dispelling my filth.

Li Ji.

Li Ji.

♪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♪