Chapter 5: The Two Scholars in Chang'an 2
In the case of Princess Jintai, Dali Temple Minister Cheng Jue worked hard, and Emperor Xuanhe praised him highly, calling him the best detective in Dayu. Cheng Jue was of noble birth and did not like gold and silver, so Emperor Xuanhe granted him a request.
"The princess's case was not solved by me alone. I recruited Zhou Zhenzhen from the Dali Temple, Huo Chi, the young master of Xuanji Pavilion, and Meng Fan, the young chancellor of the Dali Temple, who all worked hard for a long time. Zhou Zhenzhen, in particular, helped me solve the case at a critical moment. She really made a great contribution."
Emperor Xuanhe was silent for a while, and then said, "Chengjue, you know, now that this case is closed, the truth must be made known to the world. Although Jintai committed suicide, the three people from Changping were not without fault. Once this matter is spread, it will be a royal scandal. I trust you, but Zhou Zhenzhen's origins are unknown, and Huo Chi was almost executed as the real murderer. I don't trust them."
The hint of murderous intent was revealed in the words.
Cheng Jue lifted his official robe and knelt on the ground. "So I ask your Majesty for permission to allow Zhou Zhenzhen and Huo Chi to officially serve as officials in the Dali Temple. Your Majesty can rest assured that they are in front of me. If they make any mistakes, I am willing to share the blame."
"Success..."
"Your Majesty, they have all made contributions. Zhou Zhenzhen has been with me all day long. If she suddenly disappears, it will arouse suspicion. But it is not safe to keep them somewhere else. It is better to keep them in front of me for peace of mind."
Emperor Xuanhe stared at him for a long time, and a smile appeared on his stern face: "Weiqing is a little different today. This is the first time I see you so nervous around someone. You even talk more than usual."
"Weiqing" was the name given to Princess Fengjue by Emperor Xuanhe when she was born. Hearing His Majesty addressing him like that, Chengjue's tense heartstrings relaxed: "Your Majesty has a keen eye, please grant me your approval."
"Get up first!" Emperor Xuanhe took a sip of tea and asked, "How do you want to arrange them?"
"The Dali Temple has all its officials. After this case, I want to set up a department whose officials will only be responsible for investigating difficult and serious cases. They don't have to follow the Dali Temple's schedule. This way, the Dali Temple will be more efficient in solving cases in the future. For the two of them, it will be the best use of their abilities."
"That's right. I will do as you say. The Dali Temple will have a separate Divine Detective Division, with officials of the same rank of fourth grade, and you will be in charge directly." Emperor Xuanhe walked down from the dragon throne, put his hand on Cheng Jue's shoulder, sighed deeply, and said, "My sister has such a son, I really envy her..."
Having said this, he couldn't help but think of his two dead daughters, tears glistened in his eyes. Even if he was the true dragon emperor, at this moment he was just an old father who had lost the jewel in his palm.
The case of Princess Jintai was concluded and the announcement was made to the world the next day.
The general idea is that Hui'er, the personal maid of the Crown Princess, was seriously ill. She wanted to end her life with poison because she didn't want to suffer any more. The Crown Princess took it by mistake and died suddenly. Hui'er felt that she had killed her master, and she was remorseful and guilty, so she jumped into the river to commit suicide. Princess Ankang had always been good friends with the Crown Princess. She was shocked to hear that her sister had passed away and was very sad. She died of depression.
In the Dali Temple, Zhou Zhenzhen saw this edict and thought it made sense. If she had not been personally involved in the case, she would have believed it.
"Who is the person who drafted this imperial edict? He is truly a talented person."
"It's the Imperial Academy's Attendant Scholar, Mr. Lin Yuxiaolin." Meng Fan said casually as he pushed a stack of files onto the shelf.
The Detective Department had a special room set up right across from Cheng Jue's private office. Meng Fan got up early and received an order to bring people to move the files of major cases over the years to the Detective Department.
"Lin Yuxiao?"
"The third place in the first class of last year's imperial examination, Tanhua."
Zhou Zhenzhen suddenly remembered: "Isn't that Lin Tanhua, the Tanhua scholar who said 'When the Tanhua scholar smiles, all the flowers wither'?"
Legend has it that Lin Yuxiao was well-read and the most handsome man of his time. It was said that when he smiled, all the flowers dared not compete with him and withered in shame. After the imperial examination, the entrance hall was filled with young ladies who wanted to see his style. His fame was comparable to that of the Dali Temple's Chief Justice Cheng Jue.
Meng Fan sneered disdainfully and said, "She is just an average-level figure. How can she be compared with us adults?"
When the top three scholars meet, they are particularly jealous. Zhou Zhenzhen smiled with her eyes curved, "Master Meng, are you jealous that Master Lin has snatched your title of the top three scholar?"
"I'm jealous of him? Forget it! How could I be such a superficial person?" Meng Fan gritted his teeth in hatred, flicked his sleeves, and snorted, "I have something else to do, Lord Zhou will see you later."
"This Meng Fan is quite interesting."
"Interesting, what's interesting about it?" A sinister male voice came from the door. Cheng Jue led Huo Chi in. Zhou Zhenzhen stood up immediately, "Master Cheng."
"There are only two of you in the Detective Department now. Before any difficult cases come up, please read the files of important cases from previous years. I will question you later."
Huo Chi looked at the thick stack of files with an expression as if he had swallowed a fly: "I am a man of the world, and I am really not good at reading books."
"Whether you are good or not is none of my business. I only care about the results."
Huo Chi nodded with difficulty: "Yes."
Zhou Zhenzhen looked like she was watching the fun, Cheng Jue frowned and shouted at her: "Come here."
The door of Cheng Jue's office was closed. He stared at her with a half-smile and asked, "You said Meng Fan is interesting, what's so interesting about him?"
Zhou Zhenzhen didn't expect him to keep harping on this. She thought about it carefully before saying, "Lord Meng is humorous and often tells me jokes. He is also kind. When I went to Liuyeju with him before, he took a wounded rabbit home and raised it. He also learned eight different calls of rabbits in different situations for me. He learned them very well..."
Cheng Jue's face darkened gradually, and he thought: You guys have been doing this behind my back a lot!
He sneered, and Zhou Zhenzhen shut up. Only then did she notice his dark face. She took a step back with a strong desire to survive, and called him softly with a trembling voice: "Master Cheng..."
"There's nothing for you to do now, get out!" Cheng Jue took a breath, walked behind the desk, and raised his eyes again, "Call Meng Fan in, I have something important to discuss with him."
Zhou Zhenzhen nodded hurriedly and ran out.
After a while, Meng Fan came in.
"I heard that you can imitate the eight sounds of a rabbit? I'm bored, so you can imitate them for me."
Meng Fan: …
Why does he look like a singing boy in a brothel? Also, Mr. Cheng’s expression... why does it look like he wants to eat him?
"No? Then tell me a few jokes that you are good at."
This request sounded more normal. Meng Fan was trembling with fear and stammered. Cheng Jue laughed, but it was a laugh out loud. His eyes looked like he was waving a flying knife at him. He couldn't stand this mental torture halfway through his second joke and begged, "What do you want, sir? Just give me a quickie!"
The smile on Cheng Jue's face was completely wiped away. He slammed the table and scolded, "You are the Junior Chancellor of the Dali Temple, but you spend all day imitating the sound of a rabbit and telling jokes to people. Why don't you think of using this time to handle official business? You can't compare to Lin Yuxiao in appearance, and you can't even compare to him in ability? What's the point of keeping you!"
Cheng Jue accurately stabbed Meng Fan's soft heart, almost making him bleed. Meng Fan had a sad face and was almost about to swear to repent before Cheng Jue let him go.
Meng Fan trotted past the Detective Department and heard a string of crisp female laughter coming from inside. Zhou Zhenzhen was talking to Huo Chi, and it was unknown what they were talking about. Meng Fan looked at them a few more times and suddenly reacted.
"Master Cheng, are you jealous?"
If it's true……
He cast a sympathetic look at Huo Chi and thought to himself: Brother, I will wait for you on the road to bad luck.
After leaving the court that day, Zhou Zhenzhen took a file back with her, intending to read it at night.
Two years ago, Cheng Jue solved a murder case in a school that shocked the capital. The murderer had a clever plot and the case was almost unsolved. The case was transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the Dali Temple. After Cheng Jue took over, he unraveled the mystery and finally caught the mastermind.
After the Princess Jintai case, Zhou Zhenzhen clearly realized her own shortcomings. Hypnosis was only an auxiliary to solving the case, and she could not rely on it completely. Now Chengjue gave her the opportunity to learn on her own. She was eager to learn and wanted to hold the file all the time.
When she walked to the front door, she happened to run into Meng Fan. She smiled and walked up to him and said hello, "Master Meng, are you going back with me?"
Meng Fan had just forced a smile, but when he saw the person behind her, his smile immediately collapsed. He swiped his hand across his mouth and almost ran away.
"what happened to him?"
"Maybe he's sick." Cheng Jue brushed his wide sleeves and asked casually, "Do you want to go back to the Full Moon Teahouse?"
"yes."
"I just happened to be going over there to do something, let's go together!"
Zhou Zhenzhen was naturally overjoyed to be able to go the same way as Cheng Jue. It just so happened that there were some doubts in the files she read yesterday that she was not quite clear about, so she could take this opportunity to ask about them.
"The governor of Qingzhou came to the capital to report the drought and asked Your Majesty for money for disaster relief, which led to a case of corruption among officials in Qingzhou. How did Lord Cheng know that he was lying?"
"I am an old acquaintance of Qingzhou Governor Lu Fang. He is a very honest person, and sweat breaks out on his forehead whenever he tells a lie."
Zhou Zhenzhen pondered: "If he is an upright person, how could he be involved in a corruption gang?"
"If he hadn't been involved, he would have been dead. He walked into the tiger's mouth first and then pulled out the tiger's fangs. However, by the end of the incident, he could no longer protect himself. He was even involved in more crimes than the mastermind."
Lu Fang used his life as bait in exchange for Qingzhou seeing the light of day again, but he also committed numerous evil deeds, and it is difficult to distinguish between loyalty and treachery.
Zhou Zhenzhen was thinking seriously, Cheng Jue was afraid that she would get lost halfway, so he held her hand and grabbed the corner of his clothes. She didn't notice anything, and followed him all the way, chattering and asking questions. When he stopped, she realized that this was not the way back to the Manyue Teahouse.
"Liuyeju?"
"I just remembered it wrong. I didn't go to the Manyue Teahouse to do some work, but to Liuyeju." Cheng Jue said frankly, and then said, "You are here too, let's go in and sit together. I will take you back later."
Not only could they get by on the way, but they also had more time to spend alone together. Zhou Zhenzhen was secretly delighted, and the hand that was pinching the corner of his clothes shook unconsciously, smart and charming: "Then I'll bother you, sir."
There is a saying that "the only elegant place in Chang'an is Liuyeju". Although Liuyeju is also a teahouse, it is different from the Manyue Teahouse which accommodates ordinary people. It is a gathering place for literati in Chang'an City. Talented people often become famous with their poems or paintings in Liuyeju. Zhou Zhenzhen was curious before, so she followed Meng Fan there once.
As soon as the two entered the room, a waiter came up to greet them: "Dear guests, do you want to discuss poetry or appreciate paintings?"
Cheng Jue looked at Zhou Zhenzhen, and she smiled and said, "Let's appreciate the painting!"
She was not very knowledgeable about poetry and literature. After the last discussion on poetry, Meng Fan was very excited, but her head was buzzing with pain for a long time. She really didn't want to go through it again.
"Okay! You two guests are invited by Xiaoxiang on the second floor!"
Zhou Zhenzhen saw Cheng Jue as someone who looked very interested, but she really couldn't tell what he was doing here. He strode forward and climbed the stairs, causing Zhou Zhenzhen to stumble, and then she realized that she had grabbed the corner of his clothes without knowing when.
Normally, she would have let go of her hand, but this time...
