Chapter 739: Wind Through the Hall
Qinghong Building.
This is a mid-range restaurant located in the west of the city. The two floors in the front are divided into private rooms and a main hall. There are also two separate guest rooms in the backyard, next to a bamboo forest and flower garden, giving it a sense of tranquility in the midst of bustling city.
It was here that Lu Mingsi, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, had his last dinner.
According to the investigation, Lv Mingsi was a frequent customer here. He especially liked the pig intestines cooked by Wang Erhu, and ordered it almost at every meal - this dish was also mentioned in the forged suicide note.
From this, it can be seen that the murderer should be quite familiar with Lu Mingsi's eating habits.
As to whether they were already familiar with each other or the result of investigation after having the murderous intention, it is impossible to determine for the time being.
But on this morning, the cottage, which had been closed for a long time, finally welcomed two guests.
“No need to look at it.”
After seeing Yu Qian enter the room, he carefully looked at the layout of the room, especially the placement of the tables, chairs and benches.
Sun Shaozong waved his hand and sat down at the table. He said helplessly, "Lü Mingsi walked nearly a mile away in the evening and died of poison on the street. By the time the Shuntianfu yamen runners found out here, it was already nearly three o'clock in the morning. This room had hosted two groups of guests, so there is no trace left."
"I was just curious for a moment. I'm sorry to make you laugh, Uncle Thirteen."
Yu Qian smiled and sat down opposite Sun Shaozong.
Since they were at the scene of the poisoning, Sun Shaozong naturally did not order any tea. He asked directly, "There is no one else here. Yi Tingyi may as well express his opinion. In your opinion, who could have committed this crime?"
This case has now made everyone in the Ministry of Revenue feel insecure, and they are trying their best to stay out of it and stand by and watch.
If the two parties were not related by marriage and had frequent interactions on a daily basis, Sun Shaozong would not have asked so directly.
"Since Uncle Thirteen asked, I'll just make a random guess." Yu Qian said as he subconsciously scribbled on the table, accidentally getting his hands covered in oil and mud, so he quickly took a handkerchief to wipe it off.
After finishing his work, he said succinctly, "Since it is a major murder case, the motive is nothing more than public anger or personal hatred. Now the rumors are all over the place, saying that Lu Mingsi found out about a major corruption case in the Ministry of Revenue, so he was killed to silence him. But I think the latter possibility is more likely."
It turned out that I asked the right person!
Sun Shaozong was cheered up and asked him why he came to this conclusion.
Yu Qian said solemnly: "Originally, the dead are the most important, and I shouldn't discuss the merits and demerits of Lü Jijian. But since we are here to find out who poisoned him, I can't care about so much."
"To be honest, this Lu Jieshizhong has been in the Ministry of Revenue for three years and has impeached five people, all of whom were minor officials below the eighth rank. He also submitted seven reports, all of which were trivial omissions."
"Based on what he does on a daily basis, he is at most a mediocre official. It is even very likely that..."
Although he didn't say the whole thing, it was obvious that he suspected that Lu Mingsi had colluded with the corrupt officials in the Ministry of Revenue and even became their protector.
Sun Shaozong was just pondering when Yu Qian, who was sitting opposite him, suddenly smiled and said, "Of course, this personal grudge could also be caused by the uneven distribution of spoils, so the direction of the Dali Temple's previous investigation may not be wrong."
Sun Shaozong pondered for a moment, then laughed and said, "In that case, he got what he wanted by accident."
After that, Sun Shaozong asked some more details. Yu Qian was able to answer some of them, but had no idea about some of them - after all, he and Lu Mingsi were only in a superior-subordinate relationship, and if they really wanted to talk about it, they still didn't get along well.
Speaking of which, Chen Jingde once suspected Yu Qian, but Yu Qian was now the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue and had the authority to be the Imperial Counselor.
Although he was not as good as the secretaries of later generations, he was still a close minister to the emperor. How could Chen Jingde dare to offend him?
So even though he had doubts, he didn't even dare to ask a few questions.
…
After half an hour, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but smile as he watched Yu Qian leave his carriage and just pick the snow-covered area to repair his way forward.
This man who has left his name in history still retains some of his childishness.
"grown ups."
Chen Jingde approached cautiously and asked, "What should we do next..."
"Lead the way, let's go to Wang Erhu's house!"
Long before Yu Qian arrived, Sun Shaozong had already walked around the restaurant and asked the owner, waiter and others, but to little avail.
There is no point staying here any longer, so we naturally have to move.
Wang Erhu's house is not as busy as the restaurant, and he was hanged in the living room, so there must be more clues left at the scene.
The book does not elaborate.
However, the group hurried to Wang Erhu's home, but they found it empty-handed - Wang Erhu's wife Liu and their two children were not at home. It was said that she was afraid of scaring the children, so she went back to her parents' home to stay temporarily.
Sun Shaozong immediately ordered Chen Jingde to go to Liu 's parents' home to look for her.
As for him and a group of yamen runners who stayed outside Wang Erhu's house, he was not idle. Instead, he ordered people to requisition tables and chairs from the neighbors, carefully wiped the snow off the top of the wall, and checked whether there were any traces left on the wall.
According to Chen Jingde's original investigation, Liu was cooking in the kitchen and did not hear any noise from the inner room. When she went to have dinner with Wang Erhu, Wang Erhu had already hanged himself on the beam.
The kitchen's doors and windows are not far from the main door. If Wang Erhu was hanged on the beam as Sun Shaozong had previously deduced, then the possibility of the murderer sneaking in through the main door should be low.
The corners on both sides of the courtyard wall might be more suitable.
On the morning of the second day after Wang Erhu was killed, snowflakes began to fall from the sky, so the wall has been covered with snow since that day.
If someone had ever climbed over the wall, the traces would have been preserved by the snow and would not have been covered by new dust.
"grown ups."
However, not long after, Huang Bin hurriedly reported back: "I checked the walls of the courtyard, and there is no sign of climbing."
Didn't he get in by jumping over the wall?
Sun Shaozong's gaze moved slightly upwards and fell on the tiles on the roof again.
Huang Bin immediately understood and said, "I will take people to the roof to check what's going on."
Sun Shaozong nodded first, then stopped Huang Bin who was about to leave and warned him: "It must be very slippery up there, make sure you are fully prepared before going up, and don't try to be brave."
"Thank you for your care, sir!"
Huang Bin thanked him with tears of gratitude and then left happily again.
By the time Chen Jingde brought Wang Erhu's wife Liu back home, several yamen runners were already squatting on the roof.
Seeing this, Liu was quite at a loss. After being scolded by Chen Jingde several times, she finally remembered to take the key to open the door.
After entering the door, he huddled in a corner, watching with trepidation as the officials sent people to take over the host's position.
Sun Shaozong had already looked at the layout of the house several times through the courtyard wall just now, so after entering the house, he did not delay and went straight into the living room where Wang Erhu's body was hanging.
As soon as I entered the door, I saw the yellow hemp rope swaying on the beam.
Sun Shaozong immediately stopped and carefully looked at the amplitude and direction of the shaking of the hemp rope.
Chen Jingde followed in and saw Sun Shaozong staring at the hemp rope without moving for a long time, so he explained smartly: "Sir, it's probably because of the wind blowing in from outside, so..."
Without waiting for him to finish, Sun Shaozong suddenly ran straight to the inner room with the door open.
Chen Jingde was stunned, then hurriedly followed in, only to see Sun Shaozong in front of the south window, looking down and observing something carefully.
He hurried over and found that the window was open with a gap three fingers wide.
“Sir, you…”
Chen Jingde was confused and was about to ask what was going on, but Sun Shaozong pushed open the window and looked outside the window frame. He then squatted down and fumbled on the ground for a while.
Chen Jingde became more and more puzzled, but he didn't know how to ask any more questions. He just pretended to be investigating the scene and stared at the paper-cut on the window.
After a while, Sun Shaozong finally straightened up and asked, "Who inspected the scene that day? Call them in."
Finally, it’s useful!
Chen Jingde secretly breathed a sigh of relief and hurried out to call a few officers in.
"Sir, except for Huai San who died from the poison arrow that day, the rest are all here."
When Sun Shaozong heard that everyone was present, he immediately pointed to the window and asked if anyone had moved it.
Those yamen runners looked at each other, and in the last episode, they shook their heads like rattles.
That day, their attention was mainly focused on the body in the living room and the suicide note, and they just gave it a symbolic inspection.
Sun Shaozong immediately gave another order: "Go and call Liu in as well!"
This time, Chen Jingde didn't need to show up. The yamen runners went outside and brought Liu in.
Mrs. Liu was already very frightened, and when she saw so many ferocious officials crowded into her small bedroom, her legs became so weak that she could not stand.
So after entering the room, she half-knelt and half-crowned, crying, "My Lord, I really don't know why Erhu wanted to commit suicide! "
Sun Shaozong waited for her to cry for a few times and then calmed down a little before asking, "You said that when Wang Erhu hanged himself, you were cooking in the kitchen, but I don't know what you did?"
The woman was stunned. She obviously didn't expect Sun Shaozong to ask this question. So she hesitated for a moment before saying, "I just fried some cabbage and cooked some noodles. He works as a cook in a restaurant, and his diet is very oily. He usually likes to eat vegetarian food at home."
As he spoke, he accidentally made eye contact with Sun Shaozong, and hurriedly lowered his head, adding awkwardly: "He never takes care of the kitchen at home, I take care of everything myself."
Sun Shaozong was silent for a moment, then pointed at the window and asked, "After Wang Erhu died, have you ever touched this window?"
Liu was stunned again, tilted her head to look at the window, and shook her head hesitantly, "No...never moved."
“That’s strange!”
Sun Shaozong suddenly sneered, "You and the officers handling this case have never touched this window. Wang Erhu was wearing thin clothes on the day he hanged himself, and there were no sweat stains on his body. How could he open the window a crack in the cold winter evening and then hang himself?"
"this……"
Liu shrank her neck and tilted her head to look at the window again, then she cried again: "Master, please understand, I really don't know why Erhu opened the window..."
"The windows have been repainted lately, have they?"
Before she could finish her cry, Sun Shaozong asked again: "But now, a piece of paint has fallen off the window frame facing the wall outside. Are you still going to tell me that you still don't know anything?"
It turned out that as soon as Sun Shaozong entered the room, he found that the angle of the thick hemp rope was a little bit wrong. It seemed that it was not only because of the wind blowing in after the door was opened, but also affected by the through wind between the living room and the bedroom.
So he went into the inner room to check, and found that the window was not closed tightly.
This would be fine in other seasons, but the weather has been very cold recently, and most people would open the windows to let in some fresh air at noon when the sun is shining brightly.
Judging from the traces of snow water and paint peeling left at the scene, it is very likely that Wang Erhu pushed it open with force before his death.
That's why he called everyone over for questioning.
After this question, Liu's suspicion increased sharply.
“This…this…”
Mrs. Liu became more and more panicked, but she still cried out: "I really don't know why! My wife is fat, maybe she is hot..."
"I have already said that there are no sweat stains on his body, and his clothes are also relatively thin!"
“This…this…”
Liu said this for a long while, her eyes rolling around, but she couldn't think of a suitable excuse, so she could only crawl on the ground and sob.
"Chen Jingde."
Sun Shaozong did not ask any more questions, but instead instructed: "Take your people to ask the neighbors about the relationship between him and his wife."
Chen Jingde was stunned when he heard this, and then couldn't help but blurt out: "Sir, do you suspect that this wicked woman murdered her husband?!"
"Your Excellency, it is unjust, it is unjust, Your Excellency!"
Upon hearing this, Liu no longer had time to sob, but straightened her back and shouted, "Even if I have the courage of heaven, I dare not murder my husband!"
Sun Shaozong ignored her shouting, instead he glared at Chen Jingde and scolded him, "What are you talking about? Go and ask for clarification!"
Chen Jingde knew that he had said something wrong, so he hurriedly accepted the order.
Looking at his back, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but sigh. It seemed that the reason why the Dali Temple had declined was not necessarily due to Wei Yi's inaction - his subordinates were all good-for-nothings like this, and it would be difficult to do anything even if he wanted to.
At this time, Wang Erhu's wife was obviously panicked. She kowtowed and cried repeatedly, saying that she had never murdered her husband.
But Sun Shaozong ignored it all.
About two quarters of an hour later, Chen Jingde outside shouted excitedly, "Your Excellency is really smart. This woman is really at odds with Wang Erhu!"
After rushing into the house, he glared at the woman fiercely before continuing to report: "I heard that it was because she gave birth to a son for her ex-husband, but after marrying Wang Erhu, she only gave birth to a daughter. Wang Erhu was resentful and beat and scolded her."
"At first, the woman tried her best to endure it, but later Wang Erhu became addicted to gambling and the family often had more expenses than income. The woman gradually rebelled, and later the two of them often fought!"
At this point, he widened his eyes, gnashed his teeth and cursed: "What a vicious woman! If it weren't for Lord Sun's keen observation, you would have almost ruined the court's affairs!"
Having said that, he ordered his men to arrest Liu first.
But before he finished speaking, he heard Sun Shaozong shaking his head and saying, "She is not the murderer."
Then he stared at Liu and asked, "Where is your son now?"
Liu's face changed immediately.
