Edition note: An independent English rewriting of the Chinese argument, shaped for English-language readers.
Qi Fang believes Di Yun committed rape and theft because every available piece of evidence says so. Witnesses caught him, stolen goods were found, a confession bears his print, and a magistrate sentenced him. To trust him would require distrusting the whole visible world at once. Her error is not stupidity; it is the success of a constructed reality.
Years later Qi Fang is herself watched and doubted inside the Wan household. She recognizes her father's belongings in a wall and Di Yun's handwriting in a poetry book. The pieces finally reverse. When she understands, understanding does not restore the time lived under the lie.
Di Yun spares Wan Gui at her request. After the Wan family tries to kill her, Qi Fang returns to save the same men and is murdered by her husband. Knowing who they are does not automatically rewrite the part of her that still refuses to leave them to die.
The treasure is discovered inside a temple statue. Everyone arrives: the three disciples who killed their master, Ling Tuisi, Hua Tiegan, and others whose lives have bent toward the secret. Gold and jewels spill out. The treasure is not imaginary, symbolic, or disappointing. It is exactly what they believed.
It is also coated with an ancient poison. The claimants clutch the jewels while dying, unwilling to open their hands even after possession has lost every possible future use. Their calculation has become bodily habit.
Qi Changfa sacrifices teacher, brothers, daughter, and disciple; Wan Zhenshan kills and walls up a brother; Ling Tuisi turns his daughter into a weapon; Hua Tiegan spends the last of his integrity. Each pays with living people and receives stones that cannot be carried away.
Di Yun does not exact revenge. The treasure settles those accounts through the greed that created them. He fulfills Ding Dian's burial request, takes responsibility for Qi Fang's daughter, and returns west to Snow Valley. Shui Sheng is waiting there, outside the society that made both of them prove themselves through corrupted evidence.
Jin Yong's afterword recalls a longtime servant falsely accused and wronged for life. The novel offers no fantasy in which truth automatically repairs reputation. It offers a smaller ending: two disbelieved people recognize one another and leave the poisoned system behind.
Primary text: Jin Yong, A Deadly Secret (Lian Cheng Jue), Sanlian edition. The author's afterword is used in the final essay.
版本说明：中文原作；简体与繁体同页切换。
戚芳嫁给万圭那年，认定狄云是个强奸犯。
这一点要说清楚，因为它决定了后面所有的事。她不是变了心，也不是嫌他落难。她看到的是一整套办齐了的东西：捉到人的是万家的下人，屋里的女人是万震山的小妾，赃物在他身上，公堂上他画了押，知府判了。她父亲不见了，说是被狄云的师门丑事牵连；万家上上下下都在替她难过。
她要相信狄云，就得同时不相信官府、不相信人证物证、不相信她能看到的每一样东西。她没有做到。
万圭要的从来是她这个人。诬告狄云那一整套局，起因里有一条就是他看中了戚芳。他后来待她也不算差，只是那份好里始终有一件事不能问。
她生了个女儿，取名空心菜。那是狄云小时候的绰号，也是他们两个小时候在乡下一起种过的东西。
狄云出狱之后回过一次万家。他夜里潜进后花园，看见戚芳带着女儿在那里对天祷告，一样一样地求：求丈夫万圭平安，求父亲戚长发平安，也求狄云平安。
她求的这三个人，一个害了她父亲，一个已经死在墙里，一个正站在几步之外看着她。
他站在那里没有出声，转身走了。他手上那时已经有了神照功，杀万圭是一件很容易的事。
真相是她自己撞出来的。她在万家被人怀疑与外人有私，被丈夫和公公防着、审着、冷着——她这才尝到被冤枉是什么滋味。后来她在墙缝里认出了父亲的遗物，才知道那具尸首砌在哪里。再后来她看见狄云落下的那本《唐诗选辑》，认出了字迹。
事情到这一步，她全明白了。
她明白得太晚，不是因为她笨，是因为在她明白之前，所有的凭据都指着另一边。
狄云后来把万圭父子制住，本要报仇。戚芳求他，他把解药给了她，自己走了。
万圭父子发觉戚芳知道了太多，动手要杀她。狄云赶回来救下了她，两个人一起出门。走到半路，戚芳心里过不去，找了个借口回去救那两个人。
万圭一刀把她杀了。
她回去救的是害死她父亲、诬陷她师兄、刚刚还要杀她的两个人。这件事狄云拦过，没有拦住。她做这件事的时候，不是不知道那两个人是什么样的人；她已经全都知道了。
她死之前把空心菜托给了狄云。
狄云把连城剑谱的秘密刻在了江陵的城墙上。
他刻这个，是想把万氏父子引出来。引出来的人比他想的多。万震山来了，言达平来了，被砌进墙里、其实一直没死的戚长发也来了。三个师兄弟在天宁寺里碰上，当年一起杀师父的三个人，为了同一样东西彼此下手。
狄云在乱中救了自己的师父。师父站起来，第一件事是要杀他。
再往后是那尊佛像。凌退思带着人来了，花铁干带着人来了，汪啸风也来了。佛像被推倒，里面的金珠宝贝滚了一地。
那批珠宝上有毒。梁元帝当年藏它的时候在上面涂了东西，一千年过去，还在。
这件事没有一个人事先知道，也没有一个人事后来得及说给别人听。
抢到手的人一个接一个发作。他们不肯撒手，抓着珠宝在地上打滚，互相撕咬，一直到死。凌退思被倒下的佛像砸死。花铁干死在这里，汪啸风也死在这里。
这一段书里写得很短。所有人半辈子的谋算，最后兑现成的东西，是他们抓在手里不肯放的那一把。
把这本书里的账并排列一下：
戚长发为这笔东西杀了师父、栽了师兄、教坏了自己的女儿和徒弟、躲了十几年。万震山为它杀了师弟，把尸首砌进自家墙里，此后夜夜梦游砌墙。凌退思为它谋了一个知府的位子赖着不走，用女儿做饵，最后活埋了女儿。花铁干为它跟这些人走到了一处。
这些人各自付出去的是活人，换回来的是一堆没法带走的石头。
狄云看完这一场，走了。
他没有杀任何人。他要报的仇，那些人自己办完了。
他先把丁典和凌霜华合葬在一处，这是他答应过的事。然后他抱起空心菜，一个人一匹马往西走，要找一个没有机心也没有凶险的地方，把这个孩子养大。
他回到了川边那座大雪山，回到当年那个山洞前面。
水笙在那里。
她被花铁干那几句话毁掉之后，从人前退了出来，回到了这个地方。这里没有一个人认识她，也没有一个人需要她自证。
她说她知道他一定会来。
金庸在这本书的后记里写过一件事：小时候他家里有个老长工，被人诬告，冤了一辈子。这本书是为那个人写的。
注：本文所据为金庸《连城诀》三联书店版。人物、情节与引述均出自该版本；后记一节亦见于该版。