Pei Gonggui

As soon as these words came out, the heat in the room was instantly extinguished like cold water, causing Pei Jun to stop his movements suddenly. Looking at Jiang Yue, his thin lips trembled:

"Old Cui is gone..."

Seeing that the person in front of him swayed almost invisibly, Jiang Yue quickly stabilized his arm, and said in surprise, "How could Cui Yu hang himself suddenly?"

After Pei Jun asked this question, his mind suddenly woke up. When he calmed down, he had to let go of Jiang Yue and fasten his clothes: "I have to go to Dali Temple."

Jiang Yue also fastened his clothes at this time, and subconsciously wanted to keep up with him, but remembered that he was "dead" and could not appear in front of others right now, so he stopped walking immediately, and could only raise his eyebrows and tell him: "Then be careful .”

When Pei Jun walked to the door and heard this, he stopped, as if thinking of something.The next moment he turned back again, pulled Jiang Yue's skirt, tilted his head and touched Jiang Yue's lips lightly, his eyes seemed to contain a thousand words, but in the end he only condensed into one sentence: "You too, I will be back soon."

After finishing speaking, he lowered his head and pecked Jiang Yue lightly, Jiang Yue nodded in response, then hurriedly grabbed the men's coat and pulled the door out.

Outside Jinwang Mansion, Qian Haiqing was already waiting in the alley, but when he saw Pei Jun coming out, he waved to him, "Master! Here!"

"Go to Dali Temple." Pei Jun got into the car while taking off his pine green robe, put on a patched ocher coat and straightened the cuffs, "Tell me what's going on first."

Qian Haiqing greeted the coachman, sat beside him and hurriedly said: "It's just news from the mansion. Master told the people in Dali Temple that there was no movement in Master Cui's account after dinner today, and they didn't." No matter, but when I went to clean up the dishes later, I saw Master Cui had hung himself on the wooden railing of the skylight, and I saw that I had died for a while..."

When Pei Jun heard the words, he immediately closed his eyes, his brows were deeply furrowed, and it was difficult for him to say a word.

Seeing his expression like this, Qian Haiqing frowned, sighed and said with relief: "Master, I'm sorry, people can't be resurrected after death. The important thing right now is, why did Master Cui commit suicide at this time? If he committed a scandal, I can't keep my face off anymore, and it's been a few days since that happened, how could I just think about—"

"He must have died for something."

Pei Jun slowly opened his eyes, and interrupted him without repeating, he really sighed, "Old Cui's biological father committed suicide in debt, leaving his mother to suffer from the debt, beat and scold him, and abandon him. Therefore, what he despises the most in this life is firstly a gambler, and secondly a weak and suicidal person. So, if it wasn't for doing something, he would rather be questioned and beheaded than commit suicide..."

The carriage drove quickly under the moonlight, and soon arrived outside Dali Temple.Pei Jun got out of the car and saw another familiar carriage driving beside him, so he quickened his pace and walked into the Dali Temple. As expected, it was Yan Yuliang who arrived first after hearing the news.

The two looked at each other silently, and they both sighed, and when they walked into the prison in Dali Temple together, before entering the door, they smelled a faint smell.

They picked up their sleeves and covered their mouths and noses into the hall, and saw two square tables put together, and Cui Yu's body was lying flat on the table, his face was purple, his eyes were closed, his lips were black, and the neck was clearly There was a bruise, and he was still wearing a gray prison uniform, and there was a muddy stain on his trouser legs, as if he had been splashed by something.

It was night now, and there were not many people on duty in Dali Temple, and there were even more guards and guards in the internal shift cell, and there was no one who didn't know Pei Jun and Yan Yuliang.As soon as they saw the two people coming, they also knew what they were doing, so they collected some money and stood aside to answer something.

Yan Yuliang asked: "What happened to him in prison?"

The guards and jailers all shook their heads and said, "No, Mr. Cui is usually very quiet. He gives food, and if there is a trial, he will be interrogated. Come and see people."

"Who was the last person he saw?" Pei Jun continued to ask.

"His wife." A jailer rushed to talk, "After noon today, his wife came to see him, and the two talked for a long time."

Pei Jun raised his eyebrows, and immediately took a look with Yan Yu.Yan Yuliang immediately asked, "What did they say?"

The guard faltered: "We haven't heard this, most of it... just ordinary words—"

"Did he not listen, or did his wife give you money and tell you not to listen?" Pei Jun asked coldly, "Tell the truth."

The guard who was speaking was frightened by his aura, looked up and looked around, and hurriedly pouted to let the cell boss at the side answer for him: "My lord, we... have collected the money. His wife always treats us like this when she comes back, let's see Seeing that women and Taoists are pitiful, I will follow."

Hearing this, Pei Jun frowned, and after thinking about it, he didn't ask any more questions for a while.

At this time, the smell in the room hadn't dissipated yet, Yan Yuliang looked down at Cui Yu, raised his sleeves and fanned it, and asked with a frown, "You guys just built new classrooms at the beginning of the year, why can't the smell go away?"

The jailer raised his hand with some embarrassment, and pointed to Cui Yu's trousers on the table: "My lord, this smell is not from our class... It's from Mr. Cui. Look, there is no other smell in Mr. Cui's room. Mr. Cui, if he wants to commit suicide, it should be... It should be that he untied his trouser waist and stepped on the Gong barrel, so that he could hang himself on the wooden window rail. After hanging it, he would naturally have to kick the Gong barrel... ...No, the contents of Gong's bucket... just splashed on his legs."

When Pei Jun heard the words, he looked at the stains on Cui Yu's trousers, and then he understood where the smell came from, and his intuition was twisted hard: I want Cui Yu to be an official in the court, and the official is the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment!He was such a handsome and elegant person before his death, but he had to choose such a useless method when he died...

Before I could think about it, a voice came from outside: "Where is the person? He's gone already?"

Turning his head, he saw that the yamen servant led Fang Mingjue in hastily.

As soon as Fang Mingjue stepped into the classroom, he saw Cui Yu face to face on the table. His figure flickered immediately, his face paled, and he immediately raised his hand to cover his mouth, and choked out:

"Master... senior brother..."

Fang Mingjue and Cui Yu are brothers who were both under Shen Shangshu of the Ministry of War.Although the two were apprentices one after the other, they had never really studied under the same roof, but Fang Mingjue had also received a lot of care and advice from Cui Yu, and they would return to filial piety to the master together on weekdays. His affection was stronger than that of Yan Yuliang and Pei Jun, and now that Cui Yu died, the grief was even greater.

Pei Jun knew that Cui Yu's death was a foregone conclusion, and staying at this time would only increase his heartache, so he exchanged glances with Yan Yuliang, helped Fang Mingjue up one by one, and left the classroom.

Fang Mingjue was carried out of Dali Temple all the way by them, walked straight to the side of the carriage, and finally cried out covering his face.

At night, when there was no one in the road, Yan Yuliang patted him on the back and sighed heavily, letting him cry first, and standing in silence with Pei Jun for a while, then handed Fang Mingjue a silk handkerchief to wipe his face.

When Fang Mingjue calmed down, Yan Yuliang asked him in a low voice: "Old Cui and his daughter-in-law...have they never dealt with each other very much?"

Fang Mingjue wiped his tears, sniffed his nose and replied, "It's hard to say that you can't deal with it. Did you forget? At the beginning, it was his sister-in-law who fell in love with him first, and she had two children. After so many years... If you don't deal with it, you can deal with it." .”

As he spoke, he breathed a sigh of relief, picked up a silk and wiped his nose, and then said: "It's just that if you are a son-in-law who has no family and no family, and your wife is the only daughter of Mr. Shang Shu, you will not pay attention to your official position and marriage. It's done, then you big man at home... probably won't be able to say a few words. Old Cui used to say that he was tired, and I guess that's what he said..."

"The last thing he saw before his death was his wife. It was probably because Mrs. Shen said something to him that forced him to die." Pei Jun looked at Yan Yuliang, "When old Cui had an accident, Mrs. Shen came to my house I cried once. Looking back now, most of what Shen said at the time was about what happened to Lao Cui, what should she and her son do."

Fang Mingjue looked at him red-eyed: "You mean... someone used Lao Cui's son to force him to die?"

"It's not like." Pei Jun shook his head thoughtfully, "If you want to force him to die, he should have been forced to do so as soon as he entered the classroom. Why wait until now? Except for Mrs. Chen, no outsiders have seen Lao Cui during this period. Shen Shi is the only one who cares about Lao Cui. If you want to know that this is trying to force Lao Cui to death, how can she agree so easily? So I think the person behind the scenes might want Lao Cui. Cui stayed to help him in this case, so he chose Mrs. Chen to persuade Lao Cui to obey orders. But Lao Cui was afraid that he would not submit, so he had to settle it himself."

"So... this is the work of the Cai family again?" Yan Yuliang followed his words, "I want to keep Lao Cui in the case, but I want him to confess something about us through interrogation. Now, the Zhang family is not involved in seizing power, and only the Cai family will benefit the most from confessing these things."

"It's useless for us to guess here, why don't we just ask my sister-in-law." Fang Mingjue wiped his face and stood up, "Come on, let's go to Old Cui's residence."

As he spoke, he pulled Yan Yuliang into the car and asked Pei Jun to follow.

Pei Jun let them go first, then turned back to the class room of Dali Temple to take a look at Pei Yan.

When he arrived, Pei Yan had already fallen asleep in the cell, with a thin quilt covering her body and a pillow of hay under her body. The pain was a bit bitter, but she still looked the same.

So he didn't wake her up, and only rewarded all the guards and guards along the way, and then left Dali Temple again, got in the car and rushed to Cui's mansion.

However, when they arrived at Cui's mansion, they found that Cui's mansion was empty at the moment.

Shen shi was one step ahead of them, and took the two children out of Beijing before nightfall.

And seeing that he was leaving in a hurry, there were still many unpacked clothes of the master scattered in the yard, which were being picked by the remaining servants and prepared to take them away.

Fang Mingjue hurriedly went to inquire about the whereabouts of Mrs. Chen and her child, and only after asking did she find out: After Cui Yu's incident was revealed, people from Mrs. Shen's natal family kept coming over, asking Mrs. Chen to persuade Cui Yu to confess more, saying It may not be able to make Cui Yu survive, but it may still give her father Shen Shangshu a chance - after all, according to them, Shen Shangshu is only regarded as being implicated in this matter.

The "confession" in these words was to ask Cui Yu to recruit something, and everyone knew it.And these family members not only gave Shen a lot of money, but even promised that as long as Cui Yu agreed to confess, they would send her out of Beijing, so that her children would not be affected by this scandal, and they could grow up well in the future.

Naturally, Shen knew that Cui Yu went into prison this time for the fault of murder, and he might not be able to get out in this life, so she thought about the child, and also wanted to keep the "involved" father from being exiled. With little hope, the woman gritted her teeth and agreed without much hesitation.

But what Shen didn't know was that according to the regulations of the current dynasty, once a courtier is imprisoned, his family is strictly prohibited from leaving Beijing to urinate.If they really need to leave Beijing for business, the Jingzhao Division must strictly review their request and give them a new Beijing exit permit and customs clearance document before the city defense will let them go.

However, the Jingzhao Division where Pei Jun works has never handled the Shen family's documents, and the Shen's documents, no matter whether they are true or not, can only be issued by higher-level officials, or forged. .

The documents and permits issued by Jingzhong have been reviewed and reviewed by the Ministry of Accounts and the Cabinet at most after being reviewed by Jingzhao—however, Fang Mingjue’s Ministry of Accounts has never seen this document. fell into the hands of the cabinet.

Facts can prove that Pei Jun and Yan Yuliang's speculation is correct.Cui Yu really wasn't forced to die, but was forced by the Shen family to confess the cases that Pei Jun and the others had participated in and what they were working on.If he recruited, the members of the Shen family would be able to get help from the people behind the scenes, thus sending the Shen family and their children out of Beijing, keeping the incense of the Shen family line, and using this as a bargaining chip in exchange for Shen Shangshu's reduction of crimes.

Apart from Cai Yan, Pei Jun can't think of another person who can use such scheming, arrange such expenses, and do these two things at the same time.Judging from this matter, the connection between the Shen family and the Cai family can be so fast and close, and their collusion is definitely not just overnight.Then, as the Shen family who is related to the Cai family, I don't know how many of the six matters that Cui Yu heard about have passed to the Cai family.

If the Shen family has always been more or less conspiring with the Cai family, and it was an extremely important move for the Cai family to insert in the Pei party, then it is not difficult for Pei Jun to imagine: in his previous life, the Shen family must be alone. credit.