Detective in the Red Chamber

"Don't look at it."

After seeing Yu Qian enter the door, he carefully looked at the layout of the room, especially the placement of tables, chairs and benches.

Sun Shaozong waved his hand, sat down at the table, and said helplessly, "Lu Mingsi died of poisoning on the street when he went out for nearly a mile in the evening. It's ten o'clock in the middle of the night, and two groups of guests have been entertained in this room, so the traces have long been out of the question."

"I was curious for a while, but Uncle Thirteen laughed."

Yu Qian smiled sarcasticly and sat down opposite Sun Shaozong.

Because it was at the scene of the poisoning case, Sun Shaozong naturally didn't order any tea, and asked straight to the point: "There is no one else here, so Yi Tingyi might as well express his own opinion. In your opinion, who is responsible for this case?"

This case is now causing everyone in the household department to feel insecure, and they wish they could get out of the matter and watch from the sidelines.

The fault is not that the two parties are related by marriage, and they have many contacts on weekdays, so Sun Shaozong would not ask so bluntly.

"Since Uncle Thirteen asked, I'll make a random guess." Yu Qian said, subconsciously scratching the table, but accidentally got his hands dirty, so he hurriedly took out a handkerchief to wipe it again.

When he finished his busy work, he said concisely: "Since it is a major murder case, the motive is nothing more than public anger and personal enmity. Now there is a lot of rumors outside, and it is said that Lu Mingsi found out about the major corruption case in the household department, so he was killed and silenced." , but I think the latter is more likely."

Sure enough, you are asking the right person!

Sun Shaozong was shocked, and asked him why he came to such a conclusion.

Yu Qian said solemnly: "Originally, the dead are the most important, so I shouldn't discuss the merits of Lu Gejian, but since I want to find out the real culprit who poisoned him, I don't care much about it."

"To tell you the truth, this Lu Ge was an official in the Ministry of Household Affairs for three years. He impeached five people in total, and all of them were petty officials of the lower rank. The seven recommendations are all negligible omissions."

"Based on what he usually does, he is no more than a mediocre official, and it is even very possible."

Although the following words are not complete, he is obviously suspecting that Lu Mingsi has joined forces with corrupt officials from the household department, and has even become their umbrella.

While Sun Shaozong was pondering, Yu Qian on the opposite side suddenly smiled and said: "Of course, this personal enmity may also be caused by the uneven distribution of spoils, so the direction of the previous investigation at Dali Temple may not be wrong."

Sun Shaozong pondered for a while, and then he laughed dumbly and said: "In this way, he was hit on the wrong side."

Afterwards, Sun Shaozong asked some more details, some of which Yu Qian was able to answer, but some of which he had no clue about. After all, the relationship between him and Lu Mingsi was just a superior-subordinate relationship.

Speaking of which, Chen Jingde also suspected Yu Qian, but now Yu Qian, as the Ministry of Household Affairs, has the authority of the Imperial Counselor.

Although he can't compare with the secretaries of later generations, he can be regarded as a close minister of the emperor. How can Chen Jingde dare to offend?

So doubts are doubts, but he didn't even dare to ask a few words.

Half an hour later, watching Yu Qian leave the chariots and horses instead of doing anything, and just pick up the snow-covered place for overhaul, Sun Shaozong didn't feel a little bit of a smile.

This Zhu'er, who is famous in history, still has a bit of childishness.

"grown ups."

Chen Jingde approached cautiously and asked, "Let's go next"

"Lead the way, go to Wang Erhu's house!"

Long before Yu Qian rushed over, Sun Shaozong roughly walked around the restaurant, and asked the shopkeeper, Xiaoer and others, but basically got nothing.

It is useless to stay here any longer, so naturally we have to move our position.

Wang Erhu's house is no more crowded than a restaurant, and he was hanged in the living room, so there must be more clues left at the scene.

The book does not go into details.

But he said that a group of people hurried to Wang Erhu's house, but they never wanted to rush to nothing. Wang Erhu's wife, Liu Shi, and a pair of children never stayed at home.

Sun Shaozong immediately ordered Chen Jingde to go to Liu's natal family to find someone.

As for him staying outside Wang Erhu's house with a group of yamen servants, he was not idle, but ordered people to requisition tables and chairs from the neighbors, carefully wipe off the snow on the wall, and check whether there was anything left on the wall. trace.

According to Chen Jingde's original investigation, because Mrs. Liu was cooking in the kitchen, she didn't hear any movement in the back room. When Wang Erhu went to have dinner, Wang Erhu had already hanged to death on the beam.

The door and window of the kitchen were opened not far from the gate. If Wang Erhu was hanged on the beam as Sun Shaozong deduced before, then the possibility of the murderer sneaking in through the gate should not be great.

The corners of the two wings of the courtyard wall may be more suitable.

On the morning of the second day after Wang Erhu was killed, there was snowflakes in the sky, so the top of the wall has been covered by snow since that day.

If someone had crossed the wall once, the traces should have been preserved by the snow, so that they would not be covered by new dust.

"grown ups."

However, after a while, Huang Bin hurriedly replied: "I've seen all the courtyard walls, and there is no trace of climbing."

Didn't it come over the wall?

Sun Shaozong's eyes moved up slightly, and fell on the tiles of the roof again.

Huang Bin immediately clapped his hands knowingly: "Young one, I'll take someone to the room to find out."

Sun Shaozong nodded at first, but then called Huang Bin who was about to leave, and warned: "It must be very slippery up there, you should be fully prepared before going up, don't try to be brave."

"Thank you for your care!"

Huang Bin thanked him with tears of gratitude, and then went excitedly again.

When Chen Jingde brought Wang Erhu's wife Liu back home, there were already several yamen servants squatting on the roof.

Seeing this, Mrs. Liu was at a loss, and was reprimanded by Chen Jingde a few times before she remembered to take the key to open the door.

After entering the door, he even huddled in the corner, watching with trepidation the officials sent people to turn against the guests.

Sun Shaozong had seen the layout of the inside several times through the courtyard wall as early as before, so there was no delay after entering the door, and he directly entered the living room where Wang Erhu's corpse was hanging.

As soon as he entered the door, he saw the yellow hemp rope rippling and swaying on the beam.

Sun Shaozong stopped immediately, carefully observing the magnitude and direction of the hemp rope shaking.

Chen Jingde followed closely, and seeing Sun Shaozong staring at the hemp rope without moving for a while, he explained cleverly: "My lord, it's probably because of the wind blowing in from outside."

Before he could finish speaking, Sun Shaozong suddenly went straight to the inner room with the door open.

Chen Jingde was taken aback for a moment, and then hurriedly followed in, but saw Sun Shaozong facing the window south, observing something carefully with his head down.

He hurried to catch up, only to find that the window was open with a gap three fingers wide.

"Sir, you"

Chen Jingde didn't understand, so he was about to ask what happened, but he didn't expect Sun Shaozong to push open the window and look around the outside of the window frame, then he squatted down and groped the ground for a while.

Chen Jingde looked more and more puzzled, but he couldn't ask any more questions, so he could only pretend to be investigating the scene, staring at the paper-cut paper on the window.

After a while, Sun Shaozong finally straightened up and asked, "Who has inspected the scene that day? Call them in."

It finally comes into play!

Chen Jingde breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly went out and called a few servants to come in.

"My lord, except for Huaisan who died under the poisonous arrow that day, the rest are here."

When Sun Shaozong heard that everyone had arrived, he immediately pointed to the window and asked everyone if anyone had moved it.

Those yamen servants look at me and I look at you, like a rattle shaking their heads in the last issue.

That day, their attention was mainly focused on the dead body in the living room and the suicide note, and they checked it symbolically.

Sun Shaozong immediately ordered again: "Go and call Mrs. Liu in!"

This time, Chen Jingde didn't need to come forward, the yamen servant went outside and brought Mrs. Liu in.

That Mrs. Liu was already terrified, but seeing so many ferocious officials crowded into her small bedroom, her legs were so weak that she couldn't stand up.

So after entering the door, he half-lyed and half-knelt and cried, "Master Qingtian, the little lady really doesn't know why Erhu committed suicide!"

Sun Shaozong waited for her to cry a few times, and then she calmed down a bit, and then asked: "You said that when Wang Erhu hanged himself, you were cooking in the kitchen, but you don't know what you did?"

The woman was taken aback for a moment, she obviously didn't expect Sun Shaozong to ask this question, so she hesitated for a while, and said: "I just fried some cabbage and cooked a pot of noodles. He works as a cook in a restaurant. The oil is very heavy. Usually I like to eat some vegetarian food at home."

While talking, he accidentally met Sun Shaozong's eyes, hurriedly lowered his head, and added embarrassingly: "He never cares about the stove at home, and I handle it all by myself."

Sun Shaozong was silent for a while, then pointed to the window and asked: "After Wang Erhu died, did you ever move this window?"

Mrs. Liu was taken aback again, turned her head to look at the window, shook her head hesitantly and said, "It hasn't been moved."

"That's amazing!"

Sun Shaozong suddenly sneered and said, "Neither you nor the officer in charge of this case has ever touched this window, and Wang Erhu was wearing thin clothes on the day he hanged himself, and there was no sweat stain on his body, so how could he open this window first in the cold winter evening?" Open a gap in the window and then hang yourself?"

"This"

Mrs. Liu shrank her neck, turned her head to look at the window again, and then cried: "Master Mingjian, the little lady really doesn't know why Erhu opened the window."

"The windows were recently repainted?"

Before she finished crying, Sun Shaozong asked again: "But right now, a piece of paint has fallen off the window frame facing the wall outside. Do you still have to tell this officer that you still don't know?"

But it turned out that as soon as Sun Shaozong entered the door, he found that the rippling angle of the thick hemp rope was not right. It seemed that it was not only caused by the wind blowing in after opening the door, but also by the draft from the living room and bedroom.

That's why he went into the room to check, and it turned out that the windows had not been closed tightly.

It would be fine if it was in other seasons, but the weather has been very cold recently, and the most common thing for leisure people is to open the windows to breathe in when the sun is shining at noon.

Judging from the traces of snow water and paint peeling left at the scene, it is very likely that Wang Erhu pushed it away before his death.

That's why he asked everyone to come over and question him.

And under this question, Liu's suspicion increased sharply.

"This this"

That Mrs. Liu became more and more flustered, but she still cried: "The woman really doesn't know why! My wife is so fat, maybe it's because of the heat."

"I have already said that there is no sweat stain left on his body, and his clothes are relatively thin!"

"This this"

Mrs. Liu said for a while, her eyes rolled around, but she couldn't think of a suitable reason to prevaricate, so she could only prostrate on the ground and weep.

"Chen Jingde."

Sun Shaozong didn't ask any more questions, but ordered: "Take someone to the neighbor's house and ask about the relationship between his wife and his wife."

Chen Jingde was taken aback when he heard the words, and then couldn't help but blurted out: "Could it be that my lord suspects that this tricky woman murdered my husband?!"

"My lord is wronged, my lord is wronged!"

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Liu couldn't care less about weeping, she straightened her back and shouted: "Even if the little woman is so courageous, she wouldn't dare to murder her husband!"

Sun Shaozong ignored her yelling, instead he glared at Chen Jingde, and scolded: "What are you talking about, hurry up and ask!"

Chen Jingde knew that he had slipped his words, so he hurriedly took orders.

Looking at his back, Sun Shaozong sighed involuntarily. It seems that the reason why the Dali Temple has declined like this may not be due to Wei Yi's inaction. They are full of such wine bags and rice bags, even if they want to make a difference. ah.

At this time, Wang Erhu's wife was obviously panicked, she repeatedly kowtowed and cried, expressing that she never murdered her husband.

But Sun Shaozong ignored it.

About two quarters of an hour later, Chen Jingde shouted excitedly outside: "Your Excellency is really clever, this woman is really at odds with Wang Erhu!"

After yelling and rushing into the house, he first gave the woman a fierce look, and then continued to report: "It is said that it is because she gave birth to a son for her ex-husband, but after marrying Wang Erhu, she only gave birth to a daughter. It made Wang Erhu feel resentful, and beat her or scolded her."

"At first, the naughty woman tried her best to endure it, but later that Wang Erhu became addicted to gambling, and the family often couldn't make ends meet, so the naughty woman gradually rebelled, and later on, the two often fought each other!"

Speaking of this, he widened his eyes, gritted his teeth and cursed: "What a vicious woman! If it weren't for Mr. Sun's insight, you would almost ruin the court's important affairs!"

As he said that, he ordered the left and right to take down Mrs. Liu first.

But before he finished speaking, he heard Sun Shaozong shaking his head and said: "She is not a murderer."

Then he stared straight at Mrs. Liu and asked, "Where is your son now?"

Liu's expression changed immediately.

Chapter 740 Clues

When Mrs. Liu heard Sun Shaozong's question about her son, her complexion changed suddenly, and she tried to hide it hastily, but even Chen Jingde saw the flaw.

Immediately, he was blowing his beard and staring at the side, trying to intimidate and lure.

Needless to say, a woman like Liu who has no knowledge, still eats this trick, and immediately confessed the truth with snot and tears.

But it turned out that on the day of the incident, seeing the gloomy sky, Mrs. Liu planned to call back the children who were running wild outside, and then cleaned up the stove to prepare dinner.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived at the door, he bumped into two men who kept saying that there was a new restaurant called Miaoxiang Pavilion, and they wanted to invite Wang Erhu to take over.

Because of Lu Mingsi's case, Qinghong Building failed to open for seven or eight days, and it is estimated that it may not be able to continue to operate in the future.

Wang Erhu didn't worry much, but Mrs. Liu seemed anxious for something. Hearing that a new restaurant wanted to hire her husband, she smiled happily and led the two of them in without thinking too much.