Rebirth: From being expelled from the imperial court to becoming a high-ranking official

"...I heard Yan Guixiang talking nonsense in prison about the Magistrate of Buyeo colluding with Jin Biao. I was worried that something might happen, so I brought her out as soon as possible without waiting for her to recover..."

Qin Yunhe was not surprised that Wei Chengji and Jin Biao were colluding, and he also understood what Wu Bantou was worried about.

"Captain Wu is very smart. Thank you for your hard work."

"Your Excellency is very kind. But in this case, we are in a hurry to return to the yamen, and I am afraid that there will be omissions in the news."

"No problem. Go on."

"On the way back, I asked Yan Guixiang if she had any witness evidence to prove her innocence. She mentioned a few, but I felt that they were not very convincing."

Wu Bantou reported to Qin Yunhe the results of his questioning of Yan Guixiang on the way.

Qin Yunhe originally had a guess that Jin Biao's previous wives might have been killed by him.

However, this speculation is difficult to confirm, and the families of those people did not report to the police, so Qin Yunhe originally did not plan to start from here.

Now that he heard that Yan Guixiang's symptoms of illness were very similar to those of the previous two Mrs. Jins, he suddenly realized: No wonder, Yan Guixiang was in good health in her previous life, but in this life she was said to be bedridden for a long time.

Maybe we can try starting from this aspect.

"Since Doctor Chen treated Yan Guixiang all her illnesses, he must have Yan Guixiang's medical records from that time?"

"Your Excellency. Doctor Chen was in court as a witness for Jin Biao, so he only showed the medical records of his treatment for Jin Biao. We returned in a hurry and did not bring back Yan Guixiang's medical records."

"That's fine. You can arrange for your capable men to go back and get the medical records later. Bring a few more people with you to visit the families of the first two Mrs. Jins and the surrounding neighbors to see if you can find any clues. Also, go to Doctor Chen's clinic to get Yan Guixiang's medical records."

Wu Bantou didn't expect that Qin Yunhe would really start from the direction of Jin Biao killing his wife, and hesitated.

"Sir, wouldn't this involve too many people? In any case, Jin Biao is also an influential local gentry, and he has many connections with the Magistrate of Buyeo..."

Qin Yunhe understood Wu Bantou's worries.

The Jin family has good relations with all the previous county magistrates. If the investigation of him really reveals that the county magistrates have abused their power for personal gain and bent the law, there will probably be a lot of trouble.

But this involves several lives, how can we turn a blind eye to it?

"Although Jin Biao is a local squire, he is also under the rule of law. If he is innocent, he will not be affected. But if he really broke the law, how can he be let off just because he has some influence in the local area?"

Wu Bantou could only say, "Yes, sir, you are wise."

"In addition," Qin Yunhe pondered for a while and said:

"Although proving that Yan and her cousin are siblings cannot completely eliminate the suspicion of adultery, it can at least reduce some of the suspicion. We still need to send someone to the village to inquire."

"Yes."

Although Yan Guixiang was despised by many people, she did not deserve to be smeared, humiliated and then hanged.

"As for that little maidservant. Although I can no longer speak to prove Yan Guixiang's innocence, if she was really poisoned, she must be given justice.

Find a capable person under your command and bring the coroner from the yamen to verify the cause of death. If the cause of death is really poisoning, she had an accident in the Jin Mansion, and the Jin Mansion must be involved. "

"Yes."

Qin Yunhe then took the medical records of Jin Biao's treatment provided by Doctor Chen.

The symptoms are described as numbness, body pain, and difficulty breathing.

Doctor Chen diagnosed the patient as arsenic poisoning based on his past experience, so he mixed one ounce of azurite with cold water and asked Jin Biao to take it. At night, the symptoms were alleviated.

The next day, he was examined again and was given half a liang of Shiqing mixed with cold water and taken, and he recovered.

Qin Yunhe didn't understand medical principles, so naturally he couldn't see any problems from this medical record.

"September 20th..."

Qin Yunhe looked at the time on the medical record, then took the case file and looked at the time on it: "Yan Guixiang eloped on the night of September 20th..."

"The Jin family discovered that Jin Biao was poisoned, and the source of the poison was the tea brewed by Yan Guixiang..." Qin Yunhe raised his head and said, "Since they suspected Yan Guixiang of poisoning, why didn't the Jin family send someone to keep her under guard? How could they let her escape?"

Zhang San said, "I have the same doubt, so I asked the servants of the Jin family indirectly. They said that they were too busy to take care of it, and even if it was Yan Guixiang who made the tea, they didn't dare to say that the lady had poisoned it. Who knew that they found out the next day that Yan Guixiang had run away with the money."

"Then why didn't you report it to the police? And why wasn't it mentioned in the first case file?"

"It was said that his wife eloped with someone, and Mr. Jin was too embarrassed to report it to the police, so he just wanted to get the woman and the money back himself. As for the fact that it was not mentioned in the first case file, I didn't dare to ask too much, for fear that they would find out the flaws and collude with each other."

Qin Yunhe nodded.

"September 20th..."

Qin Yunhe roughly remembered that period, which was about the time when Qin Si passed the imperial examination. He also remembered hearing two officials talking about this matter in Qingyun Tower. At that time, he did not hear that Jin Biao had any health problems.

"On September 20th, send someone to find out if anyone saw Jin Biao around that time and if he was feeling unwell."

"Yes."

Zhang San said again: "Sir, there is actually one more thing that I find suspicious, but it seems unrelated to the case."

"You said, don't worry about it for now."

"It's just... I find it strange. Jin Biao has married four wives. The longest one lasted for six or seven years, and the shortest was more than two years, but he didn't have any children..."

It really has nothing to do with the case.

Wu Bantou said, "What's so strange about this? Besides, didn't the third wife get pregnant but miscarried?"

"It would be strange if she miscarried. Of the four wives, only this one got pregnant. The whole family must have taken extra care of her. How could she still miscarry?"

"Perhaps the third wife is as weak as the others and cannot get pregnant?"

"Even if a wealthy family doesn't have concubines, they must have several maids, right? Why haven't I heard of any of them getting pregnant? Moreover, I heard that before Jin Biao married Yan Guixiang, he said that he would find someone who had given birth before. I'm afraid he thought that pregnant women would be more likely to get pregnant..."

Seeing that Zhang San was going off topic, Li Chang said quickly, "Don't worry about whether it's strange or not. Zhang San, just tell me what you think."

"Yes. I was wondering if the third wife didn't commit suicide either. Maybe..." Zhang San looked at everyone and said, "The third wife got pregnant with someone else's child, and the Jin family found out..."

After he said this, everyone fell silent.

Originally, everyone was only concerned about whether Yan Guixiang had committed adultery and murdered Jin Biao, and whether Jin Biao had murdered Yan Guixiang and his first two wives.

But I didn't expect Zhang San to have such a guess.

But after he said this, everyone present actually felt that there was some truth in what he said.

Wu Bantou asked carefully, "Sir, this...wouldn't it be too far away from the case and too extensive?"

Qin Yunhe was also thinking.

Finally, he said, "Well, Zhang San, you should also take people to visit the third wife Jin's family to see if there are any clues."