Suspect in Jinling

Qian Jin looked at the future owner of the Pang Mansion with a complex expression, and felt the urge to give him two slaps.He said that he was young and ignorant, but he was obviously 11 years old at the time. He said that Qin Shi "understood righteousness", but Qin Shi, who had just given birth that year, was only 17 years old, and he killed her child , It is really cruel to cover up the past with a young and ignorant sentence.

Kuang Jian looked at Qin's expression and guessed that she knew about it from the very beginning. Master Pang was overshadowed by his family's ugliness back then, but now the sufferer has not been teased, and it is hard for outsiders to do anything.Kuang Jian opened the next paper with some gloom, and continued: "Pang Yuan, a native of Jianning Prefecture, was born in the second year of Xuande (22 years old), and participated in the autumn examination in the seventh year of Zhengtong. Not the first, orthodox..." Kuang Jian stopped expressionlessly and did not continue reading.

Pang Yuan rubbed his head in embarrassment: "Xiao Kuang is laughing at me. I am not doing well in academics. I have been working hard, but I have not been able to pass the exam. My father is very strict. But the results are always not satisfactory. But... people don't have to go all the way through the imperial examinations, Pangfu still has some family background, so there is no need for me to take the Jinshi exam."

Kuang Jian raised his eyebrows, noncommittal, but seeing the strange expression on Qiu Weng's face in the distance, he asked, "Qiu Weng, what do you want to say?"

That Qiu Weng was suddenly pointed out, panicked for a moment, then quickly lowered his head: "No, this old slave has nothing to say."

Kuang Jian insisted, "But it's okay to say."

Qiu Weng could only smile wryly and scratched his head, wondering why: "This old servant wants to say that after the Palace Master passed away, no one will encourage Brother Yuan to study anymore..." Speaking of this, he seemed to feel that he was a subordinate People are meddling in other people's business, so I hurried back to make amends: "But the young master is right, the Pang family has a great career, even if you are a country gentleman, you will be very comfortable and comfortable for a lifetime, very good..."

Kuang Jian raised his eyes expressionlessly, and thought to himself: Yes, it is very good, but don't let him take the exam, if it is really wrong and he passes the exam, I don't know who he will harm in the future.

Later, Kuang Jian read Qiu Weng's submission, which was the shortest among all submissions: name, place of origin, when he entered the Pang Mansion as a slave, just a few sentences, and there was nothing to delve into.Kuang Jian finished sorting out the postings, and said calmly to everyone: "Well, okay, then I'll finish the question here, thank you for your cooperation."

Pang Yuan was still a little surprised: "Huh? Is this the end of the question?"

As he spoke, he looked at the unopened note in his hand, "That one is..."

Kuang Jian: "It belongs to the craftsman of this building, and I will ask him some things later, but because what you just said is so private, I didn't rush to summon it, Chu Qianhu, let someone call it now This master craftsman, there are some things that need to be confirmed with him." Last night, the Pang Mansion celebrated the building, and its creator must also be at the banquet, Kuang Jian said to everyone: "If you want to hear, you can stay together Listen."

The cold-faced catcher's words finally calmed down. Of course Pang Yuan was very nervous when he was interrogated, but when he heard that he could watch and interrogate others, he suddenly became interested. People served tea and snacks, and everyone took a sip of tea, and couldn't help but relax. Ruan Yuankui leaned back on the armchair, looked at Kuang Jian and asked, "Xiao Kuang, the head catcher, has already figured it out in his heart? Then we can leave." Is Pang Mansion gone?"

Kuang Jian politely replied: "Not yet, my lord, please be patient." He lowered his head and looked at the last post in his hand: "Killing Xiangyue." This surname is rare, Kuang Jian thought After thinking about it, he read it as clearly as before, "Kill Xiangyue, learned from Ruan An, born in the first year of Xuande, a goldsmith, a native of Hushan Yanbei, served as the head of the Ministry of Industry for ten years, and participated in the renovation of the palace of the capital for 12 years , supervised the dredging of Caohe River in Beijing, orthodoxy for 13 years, built Zhihua Temple and..."

"Zhusifu."

A clear and pleasant voice complemented his ending, Kuang Jian raised his eyebrows and looked up——

"Master Xiangyue was invited by the Palace Master from Beijing."

The Qin family smiled slightly, and slowly said beside him, "This man is a construction genius. He rebuilt the Beijing city four years ago. He didn't even need to read the blueprints. He just needs to go on the ground and get all the dimensions and directions. Ministry officials can follow him to take the data and execute it directly, and there is no error."

Birds chirped outside.

Rarely, Ruan Yuankui also chimed in: "Yes, Master Xiangyue's battalion-style construction is a genius among geniuses. The eunuch Wang Daeun in Beijing appreciates him very much. If he hadn't been sick and came to Jinling to recuperate, we wouldn't have this Blessings invited him to build a house."

The visitor stepped forward, Kuang Jian filed the case with one hand and held the post with the other, and suddenly blinked——

Lavender dress, long face, red phoenix eyes, tall figure, narrow nose bridge and delicate, Pang Mansion was exhausted overnight due to the murder case, although this man looked tired, but his demeanor was still unusually calm, after seeing the ceremony, he said slowly: "Your honor, Ruan Your Excellency wants to renovate the timber of the court building, it has been transported to Jinling Xishui Wharf, and it can be unloaded in a few days."

Ruan Yuankui waved his hands and said haha, "No rush, no hurry."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Qin Shi got up from the desk, and said a little tiredly: "Everyone, just ask, the lady will leave first."

Everyone followed her movements and got up one after another. After Qin Shi left, Sha Xiangyue sat down, and Kuang Jian asked calmly as if seeing him for the first time, "Sha Xiangyue, right?"

"Yes." The young craftsman looked at him and nodded cautiously.

"Just some general questions I want to ask you, don't be nervous." As he said, Kuang Jian got up and walked to Sha Xiangyue, lowered his eyes, and handed him the wooden lock sawn off from the study: "This is your sketch Was it built by someone?"

Sha Xiangyue: "Yes."

Kuang Jian: "What kind of wood is this?"

Sha Xiangyue: "Purple sandalwood, also called 'Dangguitou' along the coast."

Kuang Jian: "I think this wood is all used in the study."

Sha Xiangyue: "Yes, this kind of wood is bright in color and dense in texture."

Kuang Jian: "Da Ming doesn't seem to have such wood."

Sha Xiangyue: "Catcher has good eyesight, this was shipped from overseas."

Kuang Jian: "Is there any way to use it?"

Sha Xiangyue: "Good luck. Black wood is most suitable for the study, and the medicine cabinets on both sides are also used to gather wealth and eliminate evil spirits." He looked up at Kuang Jian, his voice was suppressed, but his tone was still calm, He was not in a hurry, and when he said this, he thought of something and lowered his head with a wry smile, and said softly, "The intentions were good when we were preparing for the construction, but I didn't expect that there was something about the Taiping Sect last night."

The wind rolled the bead curtain, and it blew with a "crash".

Kuang Jian helped the case and sat down in the armchair beside Sha Xiangyue. Sha Xiangyue's wrists showed undulating veins, and she reached out to push away the tea set on the small case for him. Looking this way curiously, Kuang Jian was flipping the wooden lock with both hands on the small case, while Chu Ji walked forward a few steps to get a closer look.

"Can this lock be locked from the outside?" Kuang Jian asked suddenly.

Sha Xiangyue: "What?"

Kuang Jian: "Can this lock allow people to lock it inside the house while outside?"

Sha Xiangyue showed an offended expression: "Of course not."

Kuang Jian nodded, "Don't mind it," said Qiu Weng, who turned his gaze to the corner, and asked, "Qiu Weng, is there a record of the blueprints used in this building? Can you take a look?"

For a project as big as the Pang Mansion, there are naturally archives. Without half a cup of tea, Qiu Weng brought a thick stack of volumes and turned to a page in the study. Kuang Jian took over to look at it. There are quite a few, especially the study where Pang Zhengying handles official business. Every window and lock has a lot of background. The wooden lock in his hand is called "Aquarius Lock". In great detail, Kuang Jian unfolded the cross-section of the wooden lock and compared it with the drawing, focusing on comparing the length of the exposed inner core.

Sha Xiangyue lowered her eyes, frowned, and said nothing.

Qiu Weng explained from the side: "Everything in this building has construction records. The workshop, woodwork, construction period, and responsible craftsmen are all there. The master who built this building was only responsible for the initial draft drawing. If Master Catcher has any doubts, he can ask the craftsman who handled it."

Kuang Jian glanced at the label at the bottom: Jinling Chengxi Xingye Workshop, Zhu Shi.But he had doubts in his heart, so he still wanted to ask the designer himself: "I would like to ask the craftsman a question. You can see that the heart of this lock is a hook-and-embedded system, but since the keyhole is so large, why is the lock cylinder not matched with it? ? Doesn’t this kind of lock lock with a little pressure?”

Sha Xiangyue moved her lips lightly, and said with a blank face: "It's because of the wood. 'Danggui head' is heavy and dense. If the lock cylinder is too big, it will be very inconvenient to lock it."

Kuang Jian looked at his expression, "That's a pity, this lock has been broken, and Kuang can't try it with his own hands."

Chu Ji folded his arms and frowned and said nothing, Qiu Wengtuojuan kept silent, Sha Xiangyue turned his gaze away lightly, and remained silent, only Ruan Yuankui got up and walked a few steps, and asked Kuang Jian cautiously: "Little Kuang catcher?" Did you see what's wrong with this lock? Has someone tampered with it?"

Kuang Jian replied: "Master Ruan was joking, but I don't understand this."

Chu Ji couldn’t solve the case before because he was repeatedly entangled in how the murderer entered the study. Although Kuang Jian jumped out of this dead end and followed the normal sequence of murders to collect clues and ask the suspect, but after going around for so long, he still couldn’t avoid this point: How on earth did the murderer manage to drop the lock from the outside.

Ruan Yuankui breathed a sigh of relief: "If you want me to tell you, ordinary people like me would never have committed such a murderous crime. If it wasn't for the Taiping Sect or ghosts and gods."

At the end of the interrogation, Kuang Jian thanked everyone, and then asked everyone to leave. He went straight to Qian Jin, took the interrogation record and read it forward. His expression was calm, which made Pang Yuan, Ruan Yuankui and others panic A little confused, Chu Ji could only play the role of seeing off the guests. When Sha Xiangyue walked to the door, she suddenly looked back at Kuang Jian, then quickly looked away, and walked out, waiting for everyone else to see her off. Looking at Kuang Jian's expression, Ji asked softly, "Do you know who the murderer is?"

"It's a suspect candidate."

Kuang Jian chewed a piece of cloves in his mouth, and said calmly, "But it's not convenient to talk about it now."

Chu Ji immediately became alert and lowered his voice: "What kind of inconvenience is it? Is it because the murderer is valuable?"

"How is it possible?" Kuang Jian slightly opened his eyes wide: "There is no evidence in hand."

As he said that, he glanced at the empty doorway, and pondered: "Qianhu, let's let that craftsman out secretly, he won't be of much use in the house. I'm going to find someone to prove it now. The situation also asks Chu Qianhu to persevere and give you a reply within three hours."