I persuaded Tony to believe in science at Marvel

Chapter 204 Please Remember This Story

At this moment, a chat interface popped up on Qi Heng's phone.

The title is: Remember this story
During the Tianqi period of Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor was weak, and the great eunuch Wei Zhongxian took the opportunity to control the government, claiming to be "nine thousand years old", and covering the sky with one hand.

In order to curry favor with Wei Zhongxian, Tang Binyin of the Guozijian sacrificed wine and actually built a shrine for Wei Zhongxian in the Guozijian.Wei Zhongxian was overjoyed and wanted to recommend Tang Binyin as Minister of Rites.

Unexpectedly, on the morning of the second day of the Shangyuan Festival, Wei Zhongxian was about to ask Xizong to issue an imperial edict, but the servant on duty replied that Tang Binyin died of a sudden illness last night according to the report from Wucheng Bingmasi!
Wei Zhongxian was shocked: this incident happened at this juncture, could it be that someone murdered Tang Binyin? He immediately ordered his confidant, the commander of Jin Yiwei, Xu Xianchun, to investigate the matter.

Xu Xianchun didn't dare to be negligent, and quickly brought Jin Yiwei Tiqi Wu Chang and other relevant detectives to the Tang Mansion.

The scene of the crime was in Tang Mansion's study.As soon as he entered the study, he saw Tang Binyin curled up like a shrimp, lying on the couch next to the desk, his belly bulging so high, the whole study was filled with a disgusting smell of alcohol hiccups.

Wu Chang stepped forward and uncovered the yellow mounting paper covering Tang Binyin's face, only to see Tang Binyin's face was full of pain, and his hands were tightly clutching his chest.There is an opened bookcase on the desk, and inside is a copy of "Duke Zhou Interpreting Dreams"!
Seeing Xu Xianchun, Tang Binyin's wife, Mrs. Mei, wept and said, "Yesterday early in the morning, Tang Binyin went out to the Guozijian, and did not return to the mansion until evening when the lights were on. After returning, he went straight to the study.She and her maid Ying'er were waiting for her husband to have dinner in the dining room, when she suddenly heard a scream from the study, knowing something was wrong, she rushed into the study, only to see her husband lying on the ground with a chair, his face pale, and he was yelling loudly Panting heavily, he scratched his chest with both hands.

Mei was shocked, and urgently ordered Ying'er to call the housekeeper.When the butler arrived, he hurriedly carried Tang Binyin to the couch together with Mrs. Mei, and then quickly walked to the opposite Ganoderma lucidum hall, and invited Mr. Hua for treatment.

After Mr. Hua arrived, he only took Tang Binyin's pulse, and shook his head again and again: "Master Tang has suffered a heart attack. His pulse stopped and his pupils dilated. His primordial spirit has gone, and the old man is powerless to return to heaven!" One day, Tang Binyin died.

Hua Langzhong stepped forward and carefully added: "My lords, a year ago Master Tang passed on the little old man to the house, saying that he was restless at night and sweating profusely. The little old man immediately asked Mr. Tang about it." , concluded that Mr. Tang had a heart disease, grabbed a few packs for him and let him take it with pain. Before leaving, he told him to follow the "five prohibitions", that is, no fatigue, no overdrinking, no overeating, no great joy, and no great compassion. ..."

After inspecting the corpse, the government official walked up to Xu Xianchun and Wu Chang and said, "My lords, Mr. Tang's body has no wounds or signs of poisoning. He died of a heart attack." Presented a bag of broken silver and a note, "This is found in Mr. Tang's pocket. This note seems to be a receipt."

Xu Xianchun and Wu Chang took a look at the note, and saw that it said: "I received 20 taels of silver from Zhushizhai today." Tang Binyin's seal was impressively stamped on the bottom - it is really aggressive to write a receipt for yourself. Strange thing!
"Snake!" A Jin Yiwei who was searching the room suddenly screamed.Everyone was stunned, and followed the Jin Yiwei's finger to look, and sure enough, they saw a long snake with red flowers curled up in the corner of the room.After the Jin Yiwei picked up the snake with a bamboo stalk and took a closer look, everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. It turned out to be a toy snake made of wool and rags!
The maid Ying'er came up and said: "Oh, my wife sewed this for the young master the day before yesterday. I think the young master went to play in the study and lost this woolen snake. Last evening, the young master cried and wanted to play with it. The snake was slapped twice by the madam..."

"Stop talking too much!" Xu Xianchun scolded Ying'er, frowned at Mei who had woken up, and asked, "I remember that yesterday was the Shangyuan Festival. The lamp. The Guozijian doesn’t have a student supervisor, why should Tang Jijiu go to the Guozijian?”

"This matter is for the little old man." The old housekeeper stepped forward, sighed, and burst into tears, "My lords, the little old man Tang Binjun is the elder brother of Tang Binyin's direct relative. Since my younger brother became an official, I have been running around with him, family affairs. Yesterday my younger brother called the little old man to secretly sell the essay papers accumulated by the supervising students of the Imperial College in the past two years. After these papers were reviewed by more than a dozen doctoral officers of the Imperial College, all They are piled up in the wing room in charge of my brother. My brother has been saying that these paper scrolls are all high-quality rice paper, which can be exchanged for a lot of money, so he ordered me to contact Zhushizhai, where the paper is purchased in Liulichang, to see the opportunity to sell these paper scrolls. go out……"

"What? Tang Binyin's dignified fourth-grade Guozijian sacrificial wine, actually likes these papers?" Xu Xianchun was stunned.

Wu Chang, who was at the side, whispered in his ear: "My lord, this soup sacrificial wine is a well-known old money fan in the officialdom. He will get every penny, and every time he gets a fortune, he will write a receipt for himself, and enjoy himself."

"Oh, no wonder the receipt said that I received 20 taels of silver from Zhushizhai. I think this old money fan got it by selling paper." Xu Xianchun suddenly realized.

Tang Binjun continued: "Yesterday early in the morning, I hired a carriage, met the boy from Zhushizhai, and came to the Imperial College with my younger brother. Because neither the boy nor I have any fame, and our status is limited, we cannot enter the Imperial College. Stayed at the back corner gate of the Imperial College and waited. After my brother entered the Imperial College alone, he carried the papers in sacks one by one. After carrying them all day, he was so tired that he was sweating profusely, and he was afraid of being known by others, so he didn’t even have lunch I had time to eat, so I didn’t finish moving the scrolls in the wing room until half an hour later. After paying the bill, I gave all the money I sold to my brother..."

"Wait a minute!" Xu Xianchun waved his hand, interrupting Tang Binjun's words, "You said that Tang Jijiu didn't even eat lunch, and Mrs. Tang just said that Tang Jijiu went to the study after returning last night, but I clearly smelled it. Tang Jijiu reeks of alcohol, I wonder where he drank it?"

"Master Xu, it's like this." Tang Binjun quickly explained, "After we left the Imperial College, we two brothers walked home. As soon as we walked to the corner building restaurant at the corner of Qingshi Street, we saw my brother's two colleagues--Minister of Rites Zhao Lord Chunfang and Lord Xing Ming waved at the door of the restaurant, and my brother walked into the private seat inside the restaurant, and had a drink with the two adults. I am a person who can't eat dog meat, so I sat at a street stall I ate two pancakes and a bowl of gruel. It wasn’t until the sun was setting that my younger brother staggered out, and we hired a carriage to go home..."

"Oh, that's how it is." Xu Xianchun nodded, then waved his hand, ordering Tang Binjun, Mrs. Mei, and Mr. Hua to retreat. When he turned around, he saw Wu Chang standing in front of the desk, staring at the book case and the woolen snake in a daze, Can't help asking strangely: "Wu Chang, what do you think of this matter?"

Wu Chang answered the question in a non-essential way: "My lord, this matter is a bit strange."

"Where is the strangeness?" Xu Xianchun asked.

Wu Chang came back to his senses, stuttering and said: "My lord, the meaning of being humble, it means that the sudden onset of soup and wine's heart disease is a little... a little strange, and..."

Xu Xianchun smiled disapprovingly "hehe": "Heart disease is the most common, and it is normal. Now the inspector Tang Jijiu died of heart disease, and Hua Langzhong, Mrs. Tang, and Tang Jijiu's brother are all witnesses. There is nothing suspicious anymore. Let’s report it to Eunuch Wei.”

Wu Chang opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't say anything.

In a few days, Tang Binjun, Mei's family and the Tang family carried the coffin back to their hometown, and drove a carriage to Zhengyangmen.The guards at the gate had checked the number of Tang family members and their certificates, and were about to let them go, when they saw Wu Chang striding towards the gate of the city, raising his hand and arching: "Butler Tang, I invite you to have a drink at the Haitian Restaurant opposite. How about a farewell party?"

Tang Binjun couldn't help being surprised, and reluctantly entered the restaurant with him.Wu Chang asked for a few dishes and a pot of wine, and said straight to the point: "Steward Tang, to tell the truth, Wu has not been idle these two days, and has privately sought out people related to the case to inquire one by one. Masters Zhao and Master Xing from the Corner Tower and Tang Jijiu, the young fellows from Zhushizhai, especially that talkative little girl Yinger of yours——I just used two pearl flowers to get her out of her mouth. There are a lot of secrets out there!"

Tang Binjun couldn't help turning pale.Wu Chang glanced at him, bent his fingers and said, "One, the guy from Zhushizhai told me that he only spent ten taels of silver on paper for the Guozijian, and what he handed over to you was not the twenty taels on the receipt for soup and wine. , and according to Yinger, on the night before the Shangyuan Festival, you told Tang Jijiu in the study that the price of writing paper purchased by Zhushizhai had soared, which made Tang Jijiu decide to sell the scroll paper of the supervisors the next day ;Second, the two adults, Zhao and Xing, said that the soup offering wine is extremely stingy, and they never pay for people to eat wine. But two days before the Shangyuan Festival, you came to find the two adults and said that the soup offering wine will be hosted in the corner building The two of them, it’s just that they are a little embarrassed, and the two adults are invited to eat and drink when they go to the banquet, needless to say who is the host. As for the money for the wine, you have already paid the restaurant in advance—that is to say, Tang Jijiu didn’t know about it. I thought it was Mrs. Zhao and Xing who invited him to a banquet, and I didn't eat lunch, and I was hungry, so I ate it right now, and I was full after eating."

With a sound of "dang", Tang Binjun's wine glass fell to the ground! Wu Chang continued: "What's more important is that Ying'er said that after returning home from Tang Jijiu on the Shangyuan Festival, she didn't go straight to the study, but went into the inner room. Ying'er Seeing that the owner was drunk, she brought over a bowl of hangover soup, and overheard the owner and his wife talking, so they dared not go in for a while, so they stood outside the door and eavesdropped. Mrs. Tang said that she had a dream when she was taking a nap. Seeing that he had changed his attire, wearing a Sihe Yunfeng brocade skirt with cross collar and wide sleeves, and a purple gold green luan crown on his head. It's a good omen to wear Gaoming's clothes, maybe it means that Eunuch Wei will be promoted to my official position again, so I'll go to the study to check..."

At this point, Wu Chang changed his tone and said: "Tang Jijiu entered the study excitedly, and couldn't wait to take out the bookcase containing "Dong Zhou's Interpretation of Dreams" from the bookcase to confirm the auspicious dream Madam had. But When Tang Jijiu unsnapped the hook of the bookcase, what he took out was not a book, but a living velvet snake! Immediately, Tang Jijiu screamed in fright, and flung the velvet snake to the corner of the room with a flick of his hand It’s just that the hook of the bookcase caught a few strands of red wool from the velvet snake, which can be said to have left a clue! And it was this velvet snake that finally caused Tang Jijiu’s heart attack and killed him! Thinking about it again, who put the woolen snake in the bookcase? It was definitely not your young master, but Mrs. Tang. I remember that during the inspection site, Yinger once said that the young master was crying about the woolen snake, but was caught Madame slapped me twice!"

Tang Binjun was drenched in sweat.

Wu Chang put the wine glass heavily: "Hua Langzhong once told Tang Jijiu to comply with the 'five prohibitions', but on the day of Shangyuan Festival, Tang Jijiu combined these five prohibitions into one body, which is tantamount to seeking death. But all, could it be the ingenious arrangement of you and Mrs. Tang—in other words, it was you who killed Tang Jijiu!"

Hearing this, Tang Binjun calmed down instead, cupped his hands to Wu Chang and said, "Wu Tiqi, it is indeed as you said, it was Mei and I who led my brother to the underworld step by step!"

After a pause, Tang Binjun's eyes became blood red, and he lowered his voice and choked up, "My younger brother was able to be honest and self-confident when he was an official, and he was able to do things for the people, but since he became a Beijing official, especially after being a sacrificial wine , he seemed to have changed, becoming extraordinarily greedy and obsessed with currying favor with Eunuch Wei. Mrs. Mei and I urged my brother not to help the tyrant, otherwise he would be beheaded in the execution ground and be implicated in the crime of the nine clans! But my brother has been killed by lard Confused, he reprimanded us for sitting in a well and looking at the sky, not knowing how to seek unrivaled glory and wealth. In order to avoid the fate of a dozen members of the Tang family going to the execution ground and waiting to be killed, I had no choice but to join hands with the Mei family to make such a trick But who knows, on the day of Shangyuan Festival, our hearts are actually bleeding..." Tang Binjun burst into tears at this point, sobbing hard.

After hearing Tang Binjun's heartfelt words, although Wu Chang had expected it, he was still so shocked that his hands trembled!
Wiping the tears off his face, Tang Binjun stretched out his hands and said, "Wu Tiqi, I am the one who will be hacked into pieces. I hope you will spare Mrs. Mei and let her lead the children back to her hometown." , plowing the fields to live..."

Wu Chang stood up slowly, saluted Tang Binjun and said, "Steward Tang, you are too caring. In fact, the case of Tang Jijiu has been closed, and there is no murderer in this case. I just want to find out about Tang Jijiu today. The cause of the drunken heart attack was just his greed—greed for money, greed for food, greed for wine, greed for glory and wealth, which caused his heart disease! Now Wu knows that besides poisoning and killing, there is another kind of evil in this world. , is greedy to kill!"

Tang Binjun's eyes showed surprise, and he let out a sigh of relief: "Could it be that Wu Tiqi wants to let us live?"

Wu Chang let out a long sigh and said, "The one who let you live is actually you yourself—three days ago, you donated all the 2 taels of silver you made in the past few years to the Royal Guangji Temple, so that the abbot will give it to you in the next day." When the moon was green and yellow, I took it out to buy rice for disaster relief, which really touched me, so I make an exception today to see you farewell!" After saying that, he waved his hands and said goodbye, and strode out of the restaurant...

(End of this chapter)