Original subtitles

[Shadow Punisher]

[Divine Constable Tally]

[Episode 15]

From the Hound Pit in the west of the county

to Yulu Pavilion in the east,

Xinghua Alley is the only route.

Gong Le knew exactly

when Zhe Shan

came and went every time.

The methods used in the two throat-crushing cases

were remarkably similar.

The Divine Constable Tally is here.

Listen carefully, suspects.

If you tell the truth now,

you can still keep some dignity.

But if you lie,

let's see if your heads are harder

than the execution blade

beside the Shangfang Drum.

Sound the drum.

Start the trial!

[Gong's Ancestral Hall]

Second Master.

Although the deceased, Ji Ada, drowned,

the real cause of death

was a beast's teeth crushing his throat.

He was murdered.

And the murderer is in this courtyard.

Ji Ada

was bitten to death by Black Silk Leopard?

And he wasn't the only one.

There was also Zhe Shan, the guard of Ji Mansion.

Zhe Shan?

Wasn't he

bitten to death by the wolf demon

controlled by Xia Jiuying?

The real killer

who put these two to death

is not Xia Jiuying,

but someone else.

And those are the young master of the Gong family,

Gong Le,

and

Old Madam Gong,

Lady Wang.

I don't understand.

How did these two

make the dog kill?

As far as I know,

Black Silk Leopard usually

only takes orders from Gong Sihai.

Lord Situ, do you believe

that I can also control Black Silk Leopard?

Well...

Bring it over.

Pour it in.

Alright.

Lord Situ, please

step in front of the dog cage.

What...

What on earth is going on?

Reda, the steward of the Gong Mansion,

lives in this side room.

He loves to drink.

This wine was taken from his room.

The deserted courtyard connected to this backyard

was where Gong Sihai

put Old Madam Gong under house arrest.

And the bowl of rice porridge just now

was Old Madam Gong's

three meals a day.

Lady Wang

used wine

and rice porridge,

two easily accessible things,

to make Black Silk Leopard kill.

Mixing the wine and rice porridge?

I... I understand.

Dogs have very sharp noses.

Black Silk Leopard

hates this scent.

Lady Wang used the dog's keen sense of smell

to train Black Silk Leopard

to hate

this unique scent.

With repeated training

and stimulation,

over time,

once Black Silk Leopard

smells this scent on someone,

it will attack on its own.

Old Madam Gong was confined to the mansion all year round.

Naturally, she didn't know

trivial details

like boxers using rice water

to soak their cloth strips.

But Gong Le,

who frequently visited the Hound Pit to see his friend,

noticed it

and kept that in mind.

Every time Zhe Shan won a bout,

he would go to Yulu Hall for some entertainment.

His route took him through Xinghua Alley,

right outside Gong Le's window.

He smelled of rice water,

coupled with the stench of alcohol.

This undoubtedly made him

a perfect target for Black Silk Leopard.

Setting the dog to kill

and hiding the body on the spot.

Mingling is currently in its rainy season.

With just one heavy rain,

Zhe Shan's body

would disappear without a trace

and turn up

in the Yan River 20 li away.

But My Lord,

my brother

wasn't like those boxers

who have rice water on their hands every day.

How could he

be bitten to death by Black Silk Leopard?

Old Madam Gong

should also have a pair of

agate walnuts.

Just as she used scent to train the dog,

she used

the unique sound

of the agate walnuts knocking together.

She covered Black Silk Leopard's eyes,

knocked the walnuts together, then attacked it with her hairpin.

After repeating this over and over,

Black Silk Leopard

would automatically attack

whoever made that sound.

That was

Ji Ada when he was walking down the street.

The best way for the killer to destroy the evidence

was to throw it

into the vast waters

of Cui Lake.

It would be so hard

to recover 2 tiny walnuts

from the water.

Without physical evidence,

it will be difficult to convict him.

Bring up the stone slab!

Isn't this

the stone slab covering the flood channel?

Everyone, look at these marks.

After the murders,

Gong Le used this crowbar

to pry open the stone slab over the flood channel

and hide Zhe Shan's and Ji Ada's bodies

inside.

This crowbar...

Young Master Gong Le,

you left it deliberately in the room, didn't you?

I had a dog

bite his neck off

instead of subjecting him to torture,

flaying him, and eating his flesh.

That was the greatest mercy I could show him!

Gong Le...

Pay for my brother's life!

Second Master!

-Pay for my brother's life! -Second Master, calm down!

Let go!

Let go!

Gong Le, are you pleading guilty?

Those two were both killed by me.

As for the method,

it was exactly the same as what

the Divine Constable just said.

I had to ensure the training was effective

and foolproof.

Zhe Shan

was just a guinea pig.

My real targets

were the ones who had the Gong family massacred back then—

Qiu Sihai and Ji Ada!

So,

if the Divine Constable Bureau hadn't

captured Qiu Sihai,

he would probably have died by your hands too.

I was just gambling.

Gambling?

If Qiu Sihai dies by my hands,

there will be no witnesses left.

Then the masterminds behind him,

the real culprits,

those high officials and nobles,

cannot be uprooted!

And the monstrous injustice suffered by the Gong family

will never see the light of day!

I bet that

the lords of the Divine Constable Bureau

are good officials who exonerate the innocent,

suppress violence, punish evil, and promote good,

and that you can bring true justice

to us innocent people!

Divine Constable, what you just said

is all true!

I have nothing to say in my defense!

But my grandmother

only followed the method I taught her

to train Black Silk Leopard.

She knew absolutely nothing

about the murder plan.

My Lords, please,

considering my grandmother's old age,

show mercy!

Young Master Gong.

To protect your grandmother,

you chose to take all the blame yourself.

To clear Xia Jiuying's name,

you deliberately kept the evidence.

You want to save your grandmother

and Xia Jiuying.

But the only person you never thought of saving

is yourself.

I, Gong Le,

have no regrets in this life.

Young Master Gong.

Old Madam Gong.

This case

is not over yet.

Get up first.

Gong Le,

let me ask you.

You killed Ji Ada

on the second day of this month, right?

Yes, it was that day.

That night, a fire broke out at the Hound Pit.

Ji Ada was rushing back to his mansion

when I intercepted and killed him.

Fire!

Put out the fire!

Hurry!

Oh no.

That's strange.

You killed him on the second day of the month,

but on the third day,

Mr. Ji invited us

to drink at Tingchao Boat.

That's impossible.

Could it be that

on that day,

the one who fell from Tingchao Boat

was Mr. Ji's ghost?

On the third day,

Ji Ada fell into the sea from Tingchao Boat.

The four of us saw it with our own eyes.

We couldn't be wrong.

That's impossible.

I clearly...

Gong Le,

are you sure the person you killed that night

was Ji Ada?

That night,

the alley was very dark.

I...

I...

You did kill someone.

But the one who got killed was not Ji Ada.

It was his double,

and this is the corpse.

His double?

What a switch.

Am I right,

Mr. Ji?

I really don't know

what you are talking about, My Lord.

Mr. Ji?

Well...

My Lord, you mean...

he is Ji Ada?

Ji Ada?

Does that mean the one I killed was...

Ji Er?

There was never any Ji Er.

From the very beginning,

it was all Ji Ada

using a double

to fool the world!

[Gong's Ancestral Hall]

Still pretending?

You colluded with Gong Sihai

to amass a lot of ill-gotten wealth.

You were worried that one day

your crimes would be exposed.

So,

you prepared a double.

With just a little disguise,

he could look exactly like you,

just like

your twin brother.

You claimed that Ji Er was in poor health

and usually

never left the house.

-So, hardly anyone remembers -Let's go back, Second Master.

what he looks like.

The elder brother does all kinds of evil things,

while the younger

-is a good man. -Go back and rest, Second Master.

That's the impression

the Ji brothers

have given everyone.

When the Divine Constable Bureau arrived at the Hound Pit,

you knew you were in big trouble.

So,

late at night on the second day, you disguised yourself as Ji Er

and set the place on fire.

Go, go.

Hurry up and go.

You disguised yourself as Ji Er,

so Ji Er naturally had to disguise himself as you,

Mr. Ji.

I guess

that night,

you were already prepared

to kill your double.

Where did he go?

You, that way!

You two, that way!

Yes!

Let's go!

Stop chasing!

S-Stop chasing.

Let that child go.

Second Master!

You set the fire,

and you let the person go.

Think about how you're going to explain this

to the Master when you get back!

Stop chasing...

Unfortunately,

man proposes, God disposes.

You didn't expect

Gong Le

to become the biggest flaw

in your entire plan.

Idiot.

I couldn't figure it out at first either.

If a crushed throat can kill him,

why use a stone to smash him?

[Gong's Ancestral Hall]

Gong Le.

I'm afraid

you never expected

that the person you went

to such lengths to kill

was actually helping you carry out the killing.

The man who was Ji Er at the time

and is now Mr. Ji

naturally knew about

Gong Le's plan to move the body by water.

[Gong's Ancestral Hall]

He knew

the body would go from the river to the sea.

So,

he went with the flow.

You put on the same clothes

as the double from last night,

threw a big celebration banquet,

and put on a good show

of falling into the sea to resist arrest.

The purpose was

to make the four of us

witnesses to your death.

Second Master.

Second Master.

The medicine is ready, Second Master.

Second Master, it's time for your medicine.

Why are you sweating so much?

Did you have a nightmare?

The medicine...

Second Master!

Second Master!

Second Master!

Bad news! Bad news!

B-Bad news.

Something terrible has happened!

Why are you panicking?

Master...

Master...

Master fell into the sea!

Thus, Ji Ada,

who had done nothing but evil,

finally met his end.

[Gong's Ancestral Hall]

Only Ji Er, the good brother,

remained, innocent and blameless.

Your baseless fantasies

and speculations just now

are truly

absurd.

Even if Gong Le killed the wrong person,

that doesn't prove

that the one lying here

is not my brother.

The body is severely decomposed,

and the two possible times of death

are only half a day apart.

It is indeed impossible to determine

that the deceased is Ji Ada.

As for his double,

that is even more nonsensical.

We twin brothers of the Ji family

are the cousins of Princess Ding.

Everyone in Mingling knows this.

My brother and I

were born from the same womb.

It is well-documented

and verifiable.

How can you say it's a fake?

I did ask the bureau

to investigate

you two brothers.

The Ji family originated

in Dinghai, Yuezhou,

and has made a living by fishing for generations.

In the fifth year of Hongyun,

a great plague struck Yuezhou,

and your clan members were scattered.

You two brothers became beggars

and were never heard from again.

The Mingling County Records states

that in the 20th year of Hongyun,

the Ji brothers settled in Mingling.

Later, you reunited with Princess Ding

and made your fortune.

But I guess

the real Ji Er

must have died long ago

during that wandering journey.

The one who settled in Mingling with you

was this double.

Absurd!

What you just said

is nothing but

your speculation.

Fine.

You want evidence?

Then I will give you evidence.

The real Ji Er

is chronically ill,

so he always stays indoors to recuperate.

It's easy for a person to fake an illness.

But if you want to change your complexion

and truly present

a sickly appearance,

it's very difficult.

If you don't believe me,

you can find a doctor

to check my pulse

and see if my illness

is real

or fake.

It only takes one trick to fake your illness.

It comes and goes

in the snap of a finger.

Ji Er's pulmonary tuberculosis

is caused by cold invading the Shaoyang meridian.

There is an acupoint in the human body

called Dazhui,

which lies along the Governing Vessel

and governs all the body's yang meridians.

If a needle is used

to seal this acupoint,

the flow of qi and blood will be obstructed,

producing

the sickly appearance you see here.

Even his lips have turned red.

So you can fake an illness like this?

Ji Ada!

What else do you have to say?

[Gong's Ancestral Hall]

Whether I am Ji Er

or Ji Ada,

it doesn't matter.

Divine Constable Li!

You insist that I faked my death to escape punishment.

Then you must first

convict me of a crime!

Let me ask you!

You said the Ji family had been reselling government salt.

Besides a few

unfounded confessions,

do you have any solid evidence?

You have to show it to everyone

[Gong's Ancestral Hall]

so that I have no choice but to concede,

right?

After the silver needles were pulled out,

your voice became much louder.

Mr. Ji,

that day,

you set fire to your own Hound Pit

and burned it to the ground.

It shouldn't just be

because you wanted to be a good person.

Ji Ada.

We have already found bricks made of salt

in your Hound Pit!

Let me tell you.

It took me a lot of effort to find them.

I almost choked to death!

I didn't expect

you to actually find it.

Yan,

you look careless, but you are actually

meticulous and observant.

Usually, because

you guys are around,

I am too lazy to use my brain.

But when it comes to things

that you can't solve,

I, Yan,

will step forward

and do my part.

As expected,

you hid the account books

for reselling government salt in the Hound Pit.

You burned down the Hound Pit

just to

destroy the evidence.

How you seized the government salt,

how you sold it, and how you split the proceeds—

they're

all recorded here

in detail.

Ji Ada,

what else do you have to say?

My Lord.

If it weren't for you little brat

causing trouble

and ruining my plan,

the Divine Constable Bureau

would never have traced it back to me!

But so what?

As long as His Highness Prince Ding

is still a prince of the Great Shi,

and my cousin is still Princess Ding,

what can you rats

do to me?

Even if I die,

the First Prince

will never let you off.

So, Mr. Ji, are you saying

that reselling government salt

was the First Prince's idea?

Nonsense!

[Gong's Ancestral Hall]

I never said that.

Ji Ada.

What is it?

-Master. -Grandmother!

Grandmother!

Master! Master!

-Grandmother! Grandmother! -Are you alright?

Grandmother? Grandmother?

Master!

My Lord, please see clearly!

I can testify.

It was Master who found someone

to pretend to be the Second Master.

Every word the Divine Constable said is true.

But I didn't dare to say it.

If I had, I would die.

Oh no.

He's poisoned.

The hairpin must be poisoned.

Master...

He's dead!

Ji Ada is dead!

Ji Ada...

It's karma.

It's karma!

Grandmother.

Grandmother?

My good grandson...

Good boy...

In my whole life,

the one I let down the most

is you.

Grandmother...

Grandmother!

Don't leave me.

Grandmother.

Grandmother!

[Gong's Ancestral Hall]

Move!

Stay here

and wait for our lord's summons.

Jiuying.

I didn't expect we'd meet again.

Xia Jiuying,

you have been acquitted.

Come with me.

Jiuying,

you can go out now.

You can go now.

Let's go.

Go.

Go now.

Come on.

Listen to him.

Hurry up!

Go!

Go!

Bye.

Jiuying!

Remember to think of me.

Jiuying.

If I weren't Gong Le,

would I be like you,

having a Wolfie as a friend?

Hurry up!

Wolfie is my friend.

Gong Le is also my friend.

Wolfie is your friend.

Gong Le is also your friend.

Jiuying.

Are you still wearing the gold pendant

Mr. Ji gave you?

Since we are friends now,

give it to me.