Fairy Road Return [comprehensive]

Wu Zuo, the doctor, and the officials of the Ministry of Justice all wrote down the results of their own investigations and inquiries on the files, and nothing suspicious was found in the courtyard where Pang Hui lived.

I asked Xue Fan's personal maids, that is, the maids who packed his luggage for him in the morning and evening, Xue Fan, as the son-in-law of Yong'an County, why is there only Mengshan tea in the house?

The Yongan County Mansion purchases twice a month, one at the beginning of the month and one at the middle of the month. It is only two days after the middle of the month, and the mansion has only purchased tea. In addition, they were all taken away by Tang Ji, the concubine of Duke Yong'an, so the procurement department had to plead with other courtyards for a delay of three or two days before sending them to each courtyard. It's just a day, so I didn't pursue it.

"Your Highness, this Tang Ji has been brought back and can be interrogated later."

Li Xie nodded, and then asked: "Is this Tang Ji very much loved by Xue Wanjun?" Only a concubine who is favored dares to be so arrogant. Of course, she may not be arrogant, but only when she is favored can she have the confidence to act like this .

Uh, after this incident, Xue Wanjun became famous because the house was not repaired.

Pei Shangshu didn't know about it, opened the file and there was no record, so he called the officials and servants who went to the Yong'an County Government House, and asked them how they felt about the people in the Yong'an County Government House, especially Tang Ji.

"Your Highness, all the servants in Yong'an County's mansion say that Tang Ji is a gentle and responsible woman. She has done things like this tea tea a few times, but she handled it very well. I won't argue with her. As for why she took so much tea? In fact, everyone in the house knows that she gave all of it to her natal brother. Her brother opened a teahouse, and often he couldn't buy it from tea merchants. When it comes to high-quality tea, it's all up to Tang Ji to help."

"Mrs. Yong'an County sees that she is so peaceful and she is the biological mother of the second son, so she turns a blind eye and closes her eyes, pretending not to know. We asked briefly, and Tang Ji did indeed give the tea to her brother. She said that her brother went to buy tea from the tea merchant that he had agreed upon, but the tea merchant sold all the tea to other people, so he had no choice but to ask his sister to help."

"As for whether the Duke of Yong'an loves Tang Ji the most, there is no such statement. Anyway, the Duke of Yong'an will enter Tang Ji's courtyard at least three times a month. When the second son has a good performance in school or other aspects, the Yong'an County Guild will Enter Tang Ji's courtyard a few times."

……

The guards outside went back and forth, saying that he had brought Brother Tang Ji and knew who the tea merchant was from him, and another guard went to find the tea merchant.

Afterwards, everyone went to the room where Brother Tang Ji was detained. Brother Tang Ji was a middle-aged man who was close to 40 years old.

Seeing Li Xie and Li Shimin, he immediately knelt down and saluted: "Caomin greets His Highness the Crown Prince and King Qin, and the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment." He recognized Li Xie and Li Shimin, but he didn't recognize Li Xuanba and Li Zhiyun, but they didn't care .

After everyone sat down, Li Xie said, "Get up and answer."

Then Li Xie asked, and Brother Tang Ji answered.

"Reporting to His Royal Highness, Caomin is a person with little ability. He relies on his sister to open a tea house. The business is so-so, and there is a little surplus every month. On the [-]th, Caomin went to the tea merchant Lu Youming to buy tea. The last time Caomin was there He bought it from there, as agreed last time. On the [-]th of this month, he would pick up the tea and pay for it and deliver the tea. But after he went there, he was told that the tea was sold out, but the grass people did not see Lu Youming. It was his subordinates who told me."

He paused, thought for a while, and then said: "I have a good relationship with Lu Youming. I guess he is guilty of not seeing me, and if he sold the tea to someone else, that person must have paid more. Cao Min In desperation, I wandered around other tea merchants and only bought some low-grade teas. There are medium and high-grade teas in stock, but the price is very expensive, and grass people can’t afford them. I have no choice but to ask my sister for help the next day. So I sent someone to bring me a batch of tea."

After a pause, he said in an annoyed tone, "If I had known that something like this would happen, I shouldn't have bothered my sister and let her suffer an unwarranted disaster."

After interrogating Tang Ji's brother, although the harvest is not great, but it can be regarded as a little gain, just wait for Lu Youming.

While waiting for Lu Youming, everyone went to interrogate Tang Ji again. Tang Ji kept her head down. She was a little panicked. When she asked her, she said that she was sorry for the son, and that she didn't know that such a thing would happen. She did take the tea, she just wanted to help her brother.

This is a cowardly concubine's room. She said that she never thought of harming the prince, and she didn't know that such a thing would happen.

Li Xie looked at her and found that she seemed to think of something, but shook his head again, and he asked in a deep voice, "What did you think of?"

Tang Ji shook her head immediately: "No, it's nothing." But under the eyes of everyone, she lowered her eyes and said in a low voice: "The maidservant of the son is a bit arrogant. She scolded Xiao Tao and Chun'er several times, and how many times Xiao Tao and Chun'er complained to me Again, I'm just a concubine's room, and I can't manage the Shizi's room, so I can only tell Xiaotao and Chun'er to avoid her."

Continuing to ask like this, I didn't get any real situation. Instead, I analyzed Xue Wanjun's backyard. Xue Wanjun has five concubines in total, among which Tang Ji is the eldest, and the other four are the youngest. The youngest is 20 years old. , all five concubines had children. Tang Ji and Mi Ji, who ranked third, had the second and fourth sons of Xue Wanjun, who were 13 and ten years old respectively. The other three concubines were all daughters. The eldest son and the third son are both legitimate sons, born to his wife. Although Xue Wanjun's backyard looks calm, there are still undercurrents under this tranquility, but they will not be too turbulent. Xue Wanjun and his wife are sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai anyway. Let the concubines compete for favor, Xue Wanjun enjoys the favor of the beauty, the wife only needs to control this kind of competition within a certain range, and will not care about the concubine's competition, anyway, she is old, and her mind is probably not on the man. On the body, let the concubine serve the Lord.

Tea merchant Lu Youming was brought back, and after questioning Tang Ji, he went to the next room to ask Lu Youming.

Lu Youming is a tea merchant in Chang'an City, but the scale is not large. He can only grab a small amount of tea from tea farmers every month. The bulk of tea is monopolized by big tea merchants. Under the monopoly, it is difficult to make a living.

There are foreign guests who come to buy tea, and the price is ten times what he sells to Tang Ji's brother, how can he not be tempted?After the guest picked up the tea, he calmed down. Although he had made money, he suddenly felt guilty. He didn't know how to face Brother Tang Ji, so he didn't see Brother Tang Ji, and let his subordinates dismiss him.

Who would have thought that today he would be admitted to the Ministry of Criminal Justice because of this business, which was never expected by Lu Youming.

"What does that guest look like?"

Lu Youming quickly replied: "The customer said his surname is Hu, a businessman from the southeast coast, with a round face, a head taller than me, and an eager look on his face. I didn't want to sell him at first because I had agreed with Tang Youde. When doing business, you must pay attention to credibility.”

Pei Shangshu sneered and said, "Reputation? How did you sell it to him?"

Lu Youming smiled awkwardly, and said embarrassedly: "He paid ten times the price and bought all the tea leaves. The total value of the tea leaves I gave Lu Youming was only 100 taels, and he bought them for 1000 taels, not to mention he bought all my tea leaves. The tea leaves gave me a total of 1000 taels of silver, and I really couldn't hold back."

According to his usual selling method, these goods will only be sold for a thousand taels of silver, which is already considered very good, if they offer 1000 taels, a fool would not sell them!

"Where's the buyer?" Li Xie kept sorting out the clues in his mind, it seemed that not only Xue Fan brought Mengshan tea, but other young masters also brought Mengshan tea bags, so the focus was not on Xue Fan, but on Pang Hui. Who exactly planted the Mengshan tea-related object on Pang Hui?

Lu Youming said: "I left at noon on the [-]th. He said that he had bought all the tea and had been delayed in Chang'an for half a month. If he didn't go back, his family might be worried. I personally sent him to the south gate. He did leave that day."

Well, it seems that there is nothing to ask.

In view of the fact that the witnesses stayed in the Ministry of Punishment for one night, it would be impossible not to let them go, so after questioning Lu Youming, they went to question the witnesses again.

The focus of Li Xie's attention was on the people serving Pang Hui and Xue Fan. The servants beside the two told the exact whereabouts of them several times yesterday, but still found nothing.

Everyone in the Ministry of Criminal Justice performed their duties for the whole day. In the evening, the guards and officials who went out to take samples and inquired returned. Chunfenglou, then ask the shopkeeper and the waiter, what suspicious guests can you see that day?

The process is very cumbersome, and it will not be smooth for a while.

At night, the princes did not rest in the Ministry of Justice, but went back to their own mansions. After Li Xie washed up, they came to the Yang Mansion quietly.

"Yaoyao?" Li Xie lay on the bed, patted the beauty's cheek in front of her lightly, Yang Ruoxi woke up in a daze, but when she saw it was him, she regained her senses.

She was used to him always calling her Yaoyao at night like this, although she would inevitably complain in her heart, but she didn't seem to object, she also felt a little strange, but after she couldn't figure it out, she stopped thinking about it.

"Has the case been solved?"

Lying on his neck with his head tilted for a moment, the first question he asked was to solve the case.

Li Xie shook his head: "No, I can't find out when the murderer gave Pang Hui something that can counteract Mengshan tea, and I don't know what kind of thing is counteracting Mengshan tea."

"Mengshan tea can counteract things?" Yang Ruoxi blinked, which means that the murderer first gave Pang Hui something that could counteract it, and after he took Mengshan tea, the two things met and became highly poisonous, Pang Hui is like this Poisoned?

She thought hard, and murmured: "I seem to have seen it in some kind of classic, it seems to be a bamboo slip that introduces poison."

Li Xie looked down at her. She was mobilizing her memory. After about half an hour, a smile appeared on her face, and she said, "I remembered that there was an evil doctor about 100 years ago. He liked to study all kinds of weird things. He said that he stayed here in a small mountain village called Yinchuan in Huaiyuan County, northwest of Huaiyuan County, because he was researching new drugs, and inadvertently brought Mongolian The camellia mixed with the juice of a local plant formed a highly poisonous one. He was drinking the tea at the time and left half of it in the teacup. He went to research new medicines and the plants he picked were all from the local area. , didn't notice one of the red plants, the leaves and fruit were all red, and after the fruit was crushed, there was a lot of juice, he probably didn't notice, the juice dripped into the teacup, of course he didn't drink it, His mischievous mastiff drank it. He didn't realize that the mastiff drank his tea. The mastiff died of poison. He couldn't find the reason at first. After many experiments, he finally found out where the poison was. Come."

"I saw this in a very remote corner of the Luoyang Palace Library. This doctor and evil doctor was named by himself, and he is not well-known. He said in detail that the poison is very strong. There is no difference between the two things. In terms of sequence, as long as you eat one of them and eat the other within an hour, it will form a highly poisonous poison in your body and die on the spot. But the evil doctor said that as long as an hour passes, the other No matter how much you eat, there will be no toxins."

"Also, if these two things are extracted and mixed together, the toxicity is not as strong as the synthesis in the body. As long as the antidote is found within a quarter of an hour, the antidote can be detoxified. As for the antidote, it is the rhizome of the red plant. Only the roots of that red plant are green, but unfortunately, the evil doctor did not say what that red plant is."

Li Xie squinted his eyes, thought for a moment, and said, "Then, most people don't know about this plant, only people in the Northwest region know about it, and since the evil doctor said he made it unintentionally, then those who know Not many, only the villagers of Yinchuan at that time."

This is not easy to check, but knowing where it came from, Li Xie has a guess in his heart.

"The battle report just came from the front line. The Tang army has captured everyone in the Murong family of Tuyuhun alive, but the eldest prince and the second prince have a son and a daughter who have escaped. Then I have reason to suspect that they are in Chang'an now. They are the ones who did this poisonous murder case." from."

Li Xie bowed his head and kissed Ruoxi's forehead, and said with a smile, "It's really worth it to come tonight, otherwise I don't know how long it will take to detour."

The two talked in detail for a long time, until Yang Ruoxi was so sleepy that she couldn't open her eyes, and Li Xie saw that she had fallen asleep, so she left. He didn't go back to the Prince's Mansion, but went straight to Qingyun Pavilion, found Meng Liang, and asked him to join him. Send people to search for the Murong brothers and sisters in Chang'an City and its suburbs.

After leaving Qingyun Pavilion, Li Xie went directly to the Criminal Department. All the officials of the Criminal Department were there, and they all lay on the table and fell asleep. Li Xie did not wake them up, but opened the file and read it again. Wake up, he only read what Pang Hui's servant said this time, because only he knew who Pang Hui had met an hour before he died of poisoning, so he ruled out the betrayal of other servants around Pang Hui.

It was less than half an hour between Pang Hui and Dufa, that is to say, there was still more than half an hour that he had experienced before coming to Chunfeng Tower, so it was this half an hour that he met someone, or this In less than half an hour, one of the people who discussed knowledge with him and Xue Fan first poured plant juice into his teacup, and he was fine until he drank Xue Fan's Mengshan tea.

The boy recalled that during the half hour when he arrived at Chunfeng Building, Pang Hui was in a study building. The study building was very quiet, and Pang Hui quietly read a book in a room. He also drank Pang Hui's, and it didn't have any unusual taste, but there was a quarter of an hour in the middle, when he went to the toilet, and this was the only time he left Pang Hui.

After returning, the boy looked in at the door, and found that Pang Hui was still reading seriously, so he didn't go in, but stood guard outside, and when the time came, he reminded Pang Hui that it was time to go to the Spring Breeze Building. The students have an appointment.

After dawn, Li Xie asked the Minister of the Ministry of Justice to act separately, and then went to the library to inquire about the steward and the second, then went to the Chunfeng Building, asked the shopkeeper and the second, and then asked the group of young students.

In the middle of the afternoon, Meng Liang came to report that he had found traces of the Murong brothers and sisters, but the two were very cunning, and the subordinates were always one step behind.

"Your Highness, I suspect that someone is helping them. Otherwise, such a large-scale search would not fail to track their whereabouts. They are probably hiding somewhere we didn't expect."

Li Xie nodded, and then ordered the Ministry of Punishment and the city defense battalion to strengthen the guards, and asked them one by one on the streets, and asked the painter to draw portraits of the Murong brothers and sisters, saying they were the suspects who poisoned Pang Hui.

After Meng Liang left, Xue Wanjun came to the Ministry of Criminal Justice to inquire about the situation, and he did not believe that his son would poison Pang Hui.

"Mr. Xue, you can basically rule out the crime of poisoning and killing Pang Hui, but there are still doubts. After the case is solved, if your son is innocent, he will naturally return to Zhao."

Naturally, Xue Wanjun would not be informed of the progress of the investigation of the case, but when Xue Wanjun heard the news, half of the stone in his heart had already fallen. He asked for leave today, and deliberately cleaned up the backyard at home, and indeed found many problems.

As soon as Xue Wanjun walked to the entrance of the criminal department, Pang Qingyun came on horseback. He immediately bowed his head deeply and bowed deeply without saying a word.

Pang Qingyun was expressionless, and after getting off the horse, he went straight into the Criminal Department without even looking at him. Xue Wanjun looked back, with a sigh in his eyes.

In any case, General Pang's son died of poisoning because he drank his son's tea.

Xue Wanjun left the Ministry of Criminal Justice with a heavy heart, and his steps became heavier step by step. He went back to the mansion anyway. His wife was eager to know what was going on, so she had been guarding the hall since he went out.