Search Results: 'Dyer'

The Diary of Self-Denial

Words: 2247 · Source Novel:: The Noose of Virtue

In a closed session, Ximen Ming forces the court to examine the entirety of Ziyu's obsession. Using the recovered diaries, he demonstrates that Ziyu's entire identity was built on an unattainable moral code, and that every act of self-denial was meticulously recorded—with date, hour, and self-inflicted atonement. The prosecution's key piece of evidence, the "blackmail scrap," is shown to be a torn page from a diary entry dated for the morning *after* the estimated time of death. Ximen brings in a master dyer and an astronomer to prove that the ink's consistency and the entry's reference to a specific starlight ritual could not have been written by Ziyu before he died. The revelation that the victim's own pathological discipline was exploited to falsify evidence sends shockwaves through the court. The true killer, Ximen insinuates, knew Ziyu's timetable better than Ziyu knew himself.