Placid Chang'an

Su Cen brought the book back to Su's house that night, without even bothering to eat dinner, she buried herself in the study in a dusty shirt.

During the day, Zhang Jun’s eagerness to get rid of it is also reasonable. Now this book is like a hot potato, where the book is, disaster will follow. finish watching.

The cover had been burned long ago, and half of the title page had been burned, but the words mentioned by Chen Guanglu were still there: hold the heart as balanced, and take reason as peace.

Su Cen couldn't help being emotional, these simple words are enough to be the criterion for sentencing judges all over the world, but how many people can really do it?Sophisticated in the officialdom, sophisticated in the world, both ways, to achieve peace of mind and a clear conscience, is it easier said than done?

Thinking that she was dressed in dusty clothes, and had to face this unique school in this prosperous age with such a face, Su Cen rubbed her hands guiltily, said that she was offended, and then opened the book.

A candle lamp, half a scroll of paper, accompanied by insects chirping in the summer night, it has been till dawn.

When Su Cen closed the book, the sky had just dawned, she stretched her stiff neck, and just as she stood up, she quietly poked her head in through the crack of the door.

"Brother Su, are you finished?" Qu Ling'er came in with a cup of ginseng soup, put the soup on the table, and said to Su Cen, "You're starving, let's have a cup of soup first."

Only then did Su Cen feel hungry, and after a bowl of ginseng soup revived his body, he glanced at Qu Ling'er, then at the sky, and said in surprise, "You guys haven't slept all night?"

"No way," Qu Ling'er giggled, and finally said: "It's Ah Fu, I was worried that you would be hungry in the middle of the night and have nothing to eat, so you guarded the soup all night. I just replaced him and drove him away. Go back to bed and go to sleep."

Su Cen looked at the still warm bowl, and after a while, he could only say, "Thank you."

"Did you find anything?" Qu Ling'er approached.

"Well," Su Cen picked up a book, turned to a certain page and handed it up, ""Chen's Criminal Law" is different from a file, because it is often used as a reference case, so when it is compiled, it is arranged according to events, not time. So it took a lot of effort to find it. I rearranged all the cases in the book according to the files of Dali Temple, and only then did I find the case that was hidden back then."

Qu Ling'er stared at the book for a long time, "Brother Su, I don't understand," then stared at Su Cen, "I don't understand either."

Su Cen sighed softly, "Have you heard of Lujiazhuang?"

"Lujiazhuang?" Qu Ling'er thought for a while, then shook her head, "I haven't heard of it."

"The case happened in the summer of Yonglong's 22nd year, and a death row prisoner died."

"What's so strange about a condemned prisoner dying?"

"But at that time, the new emperor ascended the throne and pardoned the world. The death row prisoner was named Lu Xiaoliu, a servant of the Marquis of Ding'an. In the winter of Yonglong's 21st year, he pushed the little Marquis of the Marquis of the Marquis into the lotus pond and drowned it. Died, one leg was broken and sent to Dali Temple by the people in the waiting mansion. He was sentenced to death. He was originally scheduled to be beheaded in the fall of the next year. He never thought that the new emperor would succeed to the throne, so he lost his life. Afterwards, he was repatriated to his original place , that is, Lujiazhuang."

"This man is really lucky," Qu Ling'er clicked her tongue twice, and then asked, "Then why did he die again?"

"He died on the night when he was repatriated to his hometown. At that time, it was said that Lu Xiaoliu did not change his mind. He drank alcohol in the middle of the night and molested Orion's daughter, and was beaten to death."

"Huh?" Qu Ling'er twitched the corners of her mouth, "What kind of alcohol addiction must this be? The last time I drank almost killed me, and I still dare to drink it."

After a while, I heard the question, "What's so strange about this case?"

"You've discovered it too," Su Cen smiled slightly, "it's because this case is not strange that it is so strange. The cases handled by Dali Temple are either related to the royal family or nobles, or are important cases in Beijing. , Why did such a small case in a small place attract the attention of Dali Shaoqing, Mr. Chen?"

"Ah, yes!" Qu Ling'er nodded and said yes, "I thought it was weird before, but I couldn't tell what was wrong. It seems that there is something wrong with what you said. This case is too small, and the case is clear, so there is nothing wrong with it." Easy to say."

"There's something even weirder," Su Cen continued, "after Mr. Chen took over the case, the Orion who killed the man turned himself in to the Yamen and confessed to the crime. Many villagers in Lujiazhuang also confirmed that it was Lu Xiao Liu molested Orion's daughter first. Later Master Chen personally opened the coffin for an autopsy, guess what?"

"how?"

"The coffin is empty."

"Empty?" Qu Ling'er raised her head, "What about Lu Xiaoliu's body?"

Su Cen shook his head, "Some people said that he was taken away by hunting dogs, others said that Lu Xiaoliu was not dead at that time, but crawled out of the coffin after waking up, and what's more, that Lu Xiaoliu was recruited by the mountain god Gone, and became a ghost."

Qu Linger blinked her eyes, "What is a ghost?"

"Have you heard of being a tiger's minion?"

Qu Ling'er stared wide-eyed and shook her head.

Su Cen used all his life skills to resist the urge to drive people out, and patiently explained to the bowl of ginseng soup: "It is rumored that people who are killed by tigers will become ghosts, and we have to find the next victim for the tiger. Only the soul can be liberated. There is a legend in the village that there is a mountain god on the back mountain, who specially finds people who died suddenly to be his slaves. The hunting hunters say that sometimes unclaimed corpses can be seen in the back mountain, and they are all mountain gods. The ghosts that the empress recruited, and some people said that they saw a hundred ghosts walking in the night on a rainy night, and finally disappeared into the mountains and never came out again."

Qu Ling'er shuddered in the blue sky, and rubbed the goosebumps on her arms, "Su, brother Su, let's talk about the case, don't talk about these ghosts."

Su Cen spread his hands, "There are witnesses, material evidence, and confessions. What else is there to go to trial? This Lu Xiaoliu is a death row prisoner. It seems that Lord Hades won't let anyone go, and no one will be able to keep him."

"Oh." Qu Ling'er lowered her eyebrows and lay down on the table, "What does this have to do with Tian Pingzhi's case and the secret door?"

Su Cen closed the book and stood up, "I can't say now, but Mr. Chen must have his reasons for keeping this case in such a tortuous way."

Moreover, at this time, only a few months had passed since the case of Lin Ping. During this period, what did Chen Guanglu find out, so that he was transferred from central Beijing to a remote mountain village?

What is so strange about this case that it cannot be seen in the official file and can only be preserved through such anecdotes?

Seeing Su Cen's mind wandering again, Qu Ling'er packed up the dishes and quietly retreated out. Before leaving, she said softly, "There is still a few hours before dawn, you should rest for a while."

I don't know if people heard it or not.

In the next few days, Su Cen looked for some clues about Lujiazhuang and Lu Xiaoliu respectively, but found nothing.Especially in Lujiazhuang, since the incident with Lu Xiaoliu, not to mention the murder case, even petty theft and neighbor disputes have never happened again. recorded.

But it was not all lost. A few days after the study flooded, Zhang Jun came over holding a jade pendant with a good water quality and asked Su Cen if he lost it. When cleaning the study, he found it from the embers, and it was not the Zhang mansion. Only then did Su Cen guess that it was accidentally left behind when he went in to save the books.

Su Cen didn't say yes or no, he just said: "The color of the ice flower and hibiscus changes, and the clouds are light and the jade is natural", and took the pendant in his hand.

Su Cen held it in his hand and looked at it for a long time. This jade was called Ice Flower Hibiscus Jade, and it was a rare pink jade species. It had transparent ice patterns inside, and its color would gradually deepen with wearing time.

It is precisely because of this that this jade is mostly worn by women.

He had always thought that someone had followed him to Zhang's mansion, but now it seems that is not the case.No one would come out to murder and set fire with a pendant. This person most likely came from the inner courtyard of the Zhang Mansion. Hearing that he wanted to borrow books, he burned the study room down. It took a long time to burn a set of "Chen's Criminal Law" and it was not finished.

So is it inevitable or a coincidence that this person appeared in Zhang's mansion?If it is inevitable, eyes and ears are all over the court official's house, what exactly does this person want to do?