The subordinates now used in the palace of the prince of Shu are either die-hard loyalists who followed him from Shu to Beijing, or slaves who were temporarily hired or bought after the ban was lifted, and some of them were sent by the Internal Affairs Bureau.

This part of the people is more or less responsible for surveillance, and they are also deeply feared by the prince of Shu. I don't know if he was intentional or unintentional, the people who came out of the Internal Affairs Office, in his house, at most, just did some rough work in the outer courtyard, and the work was relatively heavy, and no one could be idle, let alone wander around in the mansion at will. In the past, when the prince of Shu wanted to go out for fun, he would occasionally call these people as charioteers or long-term attendants, but not every time. Although after the emperor punished the prince of Shu for "studying" at home, the freedom of these people in the prince's mansion has increased, but basically they can only move in the outer courtyard, and rarely have the opportunity to enter the second door, let alone go to the backyard. Because on the surface, the prince of Shu was not imprisoned, so even if they really had responsibilities, they didn't dare to make it too obvious.

Therefore, when Qin Hanzhen heard Ah Shou say that there was a subordinate in the Prince of Shu's Mansion who was missing, and it was likely that he was dead, her first thought was to ask Ah Shou: "What is the origin of this subordinate? His family is in the Prince's Mansion, and what kind of errand do you usually do?"

Ah Shou had already asked the person in charge of surveillance about this: "This person is said to have entered the mansion more than a year ago, and he was bought by his family, but he is quite reused on weekdays." The man who ran away was originally the guardian of the prince's mansion, and followed the car when the prince of Shu went out, while his wife was sprinkled and cleaned in the courtyard of the princess, two children, the son listened to errands in the gatehouse, and the daughter was a rough little girl waiting for the little grandson. But now, his wife has become a housekeeper on the pulp washing, the son has gone to the tea room, and the daughter has been promoted from a rough little girl to a third-class girl and has entered the house. ”

In other words, this family was originally a very decent subordinate in the palace of the prince of Shu, and now his status has risen.

It stands to reason that if it weren't for the servants who knew the roots, the average rich and noble family would not easily let such a junior wait for the master nearby. This family has obviously only been in the palace of the prince of Shu for more than a year, but it has already occupied a very important position. Even when the family members were lost on charges of dishonor, they did not cause their wives and children to lose the trust of the main family.

Qin Hanzhen was a little skeptical, could they have been the people of the prince of Shu in the first place, but they just escaped in the robbery of the palace, and when the prince of Shu regained his personal freedom, they rushed to him? If so, the missing subordinate is estimated to be really dead, not a traitor who escaped, and he died in a very troublesome way, the prince of Shu must not let the officers and soldiers know how he died, nor can he let his body appear in front of the officers and soldiers, so he can only let him "escape".

Qin Hanzhen looked at Ah Shou: "The subordinate who escaped, what did he steal?"

Ah Shou thought about it for a while: "It seems to be a box of jewelry, which is said to be the dowry of the princess of the King of Shu." ”

Qin Hanzhen sneered: "This excuse is too stupid for people." Since that subordinate is a messenger who cares for the courtyard and follows the car, he will definitely not enter the inner courtyard on weekdays, how can he have the opportunity to steal the dowry jewelry of the housewife? Even if he has the ability to sneak into the inner courtyard, he must know where the dowry jewelry is placed, right? This is not a common thing in the family, the princess of the king of Shu is now spending her days in the house all day long, there is no need to go out to socialize, if there is any dowry, it must also be put away. If you want to steal these things, then the next person must have Neiying! His wife is an errand boy in the courtyard of the princess, and his daughter is the girl next to Xiao Shisun, so this Neiying can only be their mother and daughter. As a result, the man ran away, and his wife and children were promoted instead? What did this mean by hunting down the house thief? It was clearly rewarding and compensating the meritorious person, right? I'm curious, if that man died, why did he die? Where did he die? Why did he give him such an indishonorable reputation?"

Ah Shou said: "The wall in the backyard of the palace of the prince of Shu has collapsed, and it is said that there are many bricks and stones and mud blocks piled up at the scene, which is very messy. The people below have consulted, and there are some suspicions......" he paused, "the missing man may have been buried under these bricks. ”

Qin Hanzhen frowned: "Is that wall very high? Even if it collapses...... The mound isn't too high, is it? If there is such a doubt, let people dig it up. Now that the rain has stopped, there shouldn't be much trouble digging up. ”

Ah Shou said: "The officers and soldiers have already called people to clean up, and for fear of any omissions, they also cordoned off the scene, and even the garden near the half wall of the Gu family has been sealed up, and no one is allowed to approach." Our men have been keeping an eye out for news from the officers and soldiers, and have stayed nearby to watch the movement, and it is said that the masonry of the wall has been almost cleared, and there are no corpses in sight. Although there were still a lot of broken mud bricks underneath, the ground could already be seen, and the officers and soldiers did not continue to clean it up for the time being. ”

Qin Han was really puzzled: "Is there anything wrong with this? I can already see the ground, how can I clean it up?"

Ah Shou smiled dryly: "This ...... Didn't the girl mention it before...... There may be an authentic ...... or something."

Qin Hanzhen suddenly remembered: "Oh, you suspect that there will be a secret passage or something underground, so when you see that the officers and soldiers have only cleaned up the mud bricks on the surface, you feel that it is not enough, and you need to dig a little more underneath." If it's really authentic, it's definitely going to show its feet!"

Ah Shou sighed: "The prince of Shu has been staring at the study, suspecting that the officers and soldiers are digging soil to disturb his reading, and he feels that there is a hole between the prince's mansion and the Gu family's house, which is very inconvenient, and wants the people in the palace to clean up the collapsed wall as soon as possible, and before it rains again, take the bricks to get a stronger wall again." The words of the prince of Shu are not entirely unreasonable. The officers and men could not find anything wrong, and it was not easy to offend people so badly. After all, although the prince of Shu has been ordered to study behind closed doors, on the bright side, the emperor did not say that he would be imprisoned after all, nor did he remove his title and officially convict him. He is still a nobleman in the clan now, and he needs to be given a decent job. ”

The officers and soldiers did not find anything unusual, so they could only withdraw the people and find people to come and penetrate the wall. However, because of the collapse of the wall, in order to ensure the "safety" of the prince of Shu, the officers and soldiers have been sent to stay at the scene to guard, and there is no need to worry that there will be idle people entering the prince's mansion through the gap in the wall, disturbing the study of the prince of Shu. The person in charge of the guard felt that he had thought it out so well that there could be nothing missing.

But the people sent by the Suning County Mansion to monitor had a hunch that there was a problem here, but there was no evidence, so they could persuade the leader of the guard to continue to investigate the cause of the collapse of the wall and the mystery of the disappearance of the next person, so he had to report to Ah Shou and ask Ah Shou to show him. What exactly should they do?

After listening to Ah Shou's explanation, Qin Hanzhen already understood what was going on. She frowned and asked, "Why does the prince of Shu have to study in that study? The prince's mansion is so big, where can he go to study? Why do you have to say that the people who clean up the scene will disturb him? Can't he stay away by himself?"

Ah Shou also said: "The people below also think this is the most suspicious. Especially now that the weather is hot, after the rain, the sun is out again, and the collapsed wall is located in the backyard, surrounded by many flowers and trees, and naturally there are dead branches and leaves. After being soaked in the rain and half-dried by the sun, there was a foul smell around the wall, which made people unguardable. The officers and men were a little unbearable, and they really couldn't figure out how the prince of Shu survived? He had to say that he was used to studying there. But it is not a big deal to let him avoid it for a day or two. He specially ran there to watch the officers and soldiers clean up the bricks and soil, which also made people suspicious. ”

Qin Han really thought for a while: "The smell is terrible? Under normal circumstances, some dead branches and leaves, combined with rain and soil, will it really cause such a bad smell? We also have these things in our garden, but the smell is not bad." ”

Ah Shou hesitated: "The girl reminded me." So...... Something is wrong. The people below had mentioned that the smell of the collapsed wall was unpleasant, probably because the smell came from the Gu family's house. In front of the back wall of the Gu family is the Buddha Hall, there was originally a pool in front of the Buddha Hall, and some fish and lotus flowers were raised in the past, and it is said that it was excavated after inviting people to see the feng shui, and it has been good for many years. In the spring of this year, Old Man Gu suddenly ordered someone to fill up the pool, saying that it was not good for feng shui, which would make things difficult for the Gu family. But not long after filling the pool, Mr. Gu and his wife moved to Tongzhou and rented the house to merchants from other places. When the rainy season came, the residents realized that they might have been negligent when filling the pond, and they had inadvertently blocked the drain, so that every time it rained, the garden would be flooded. The tenant had no intention of taking care of it at first, but as time went by, the garden became more and more littered and rotten, and gradually a peculiar smell grew. Later, the smell became louder, and the neighbors talked about it, so the merchants cleaned up the garden and removed the smell. It's just that now the smell is diffusing again, and it looks like the Gu family's garden...... Drowned again. ”

Qin Hanzhen tried to open his mind: "Do you think it's possible...... There was indeed a tunnel or something under the collapsed wall, and then the missing man died inside. It may have been raining for days, and the rain softened the soil around the tunnel, causing the tunnel to collapse and crush people to death. But this matter cannot be seen by the officers and soldiers, so the prince of Shu's mansion can only report that the missing subordinate has escaped with the money? There will be a peculiar smell at the scene, because there is a corpse underneath, which has been flooded, so the smell is emitted? As for the Gu family, if someone digs a tunnel, most of his family is not innocent. If the pool is filled, will it be because of the soil that was dug in the tunnel and need to find a place to relocate?"

Ah Shou looked at Qin Hanzhen in admiration: "The girl's guess is very possible! Maybe it's really what the girl said!"

Qin Hanzhen smiled: "I just guessed casually, it may not be true." If you want to find out if this is the case, then try to send someone to participate in the rebuilding of the fence, and take the opportunity to see if there are any traces of tunnels in that area, and if the ground is empty, and it would be even better if you could observe the situation in the Gu family's garden. I think that if the prince of Shu wants to dig tunnels in his own house, he must hide it from others, because he may have royal eyes and ears in his house. However, the Gu family's side is a private house, and if there is a problem with the identity of the tenants who are renting there, then their means of covering up the tunnel entrance are definitely not as secretive as those of the prince of Shu. Taking advantage of the opportunity now, if you can win the cooperation of the officers and men, it should not be too difficult to find out if there are tunnels. ”

And once the existence of the tunnel is found, the prince of Shu will be speechless.