But when he opened the door of the house, he saw a rope tied to the middle of the beam, and there was only a square stool underneath, but there was no trace of the body.

The thin servant hurriedly explained: "Because the windows were not closed all night, there was a lot of rain in this house, so the big guy knotted the corpse from the rope and carried it directly to the inner room. ”

As he spoke, he was going to take Sun Shaozong inside to see the corpse.

"Don't rush yet."

Sun Shaozong waved his hand, Shi Shiran walked to the square stool, squatted down and carefully surveyed, and asked, "Has this stool ever been moved?" ”

"That's not true, when the big guy untied the body, he stepped on the Taishi chair."

As he spoke, the thin official pointed to a Taishi chair on the left that was full of mud footprints.

Sun Shaozong squatted on the square stool, groped carefully for a while, and then helped the stool up, compared the height with the Taishi chair not far away, and then got up and walked towards the inner room.

However, he walked halfway, but a food box in front of the window attracted him, and he stepped forward to look at it: "Where did this food box come from, you once sent food to Lord Xu?" ”

"No, no, no!"

The thin official hurriedly said: "This is what Lord Xu brought from home last night!" ”

"Oh."

Sun Shaozong nodded noncommittally, and then finally left into the inner room.

The corpse of Xu Mingtang was lying on the soft collapse of the east wall, wearing a brand-new official robe, his legs were tight, the neck strangulation was ring-shaped, his eyes were wide open, the tip of his tongue was stiff, the skin on his face was bruised, and there were obvious symptoms of subcutaneous hemorrhage.

After a simple examination of the corpse, Sun Shaozong had already made a conclusion in his heart, but he patiently asked the thin official: "I don't know if Lord Xu has ever repaired the river embankment on a large scale?" ”

"Naturally, it has been repaired, Lord Xu has always been diligent, and when he repaired the embankment, it can be said that he did everything himself, and he was commended by the ministry for this."

"That's right."

Sun Shaozong nodded noncommittally, and then asked some details about Mingtang's family, and the officials all reported truthfully one by one, which can be called a fluent answer, without the slightest restraint when ordinary officials faced Shangguan.

Later, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but praise: "Mr. wants to come to be Lord Xu's right-hand man, but I don't know what Mr. has a big name and what position he holds on weekdays?" ”

The clerk hurriedly bowed down and said: "I don't dare to be the word 'sir' of adults, and in the next Ye Xingmao, I will be added to the position of the scrivener of the account room." ”

"Mr. Ye is too modest."

Sun Shaozong said, pulled him aside alone, and said: "I have already seen some eyebrows in this case, but it is just a matter of secret news about Lord Xu's family, but it is not easy to announce it in public, so Mr. Lao Ye can only go on again and invite Wang Shangshu and Lord Chengjia of the Mansion to come here to speak." ”

Hearing that this case involved the secrets of Xu Mingtang's family, Ye Xingmao suddenly became stunned, no wonder he asked a lot of trivial things about the 'Xu family'.

So he hurriedly said: "This is a matter within the villain's business, how can we talk about the word 'work'?" The villain is going to invite the two adults to come! ”

This Ye Xingmao hurriedly returned to the back hall and quietly reported Sun Shaozong's intentions, Wang Yan and Jia Yucun naturally did not dare to slack off, and hurried to the courtyard of Xu Mingtang.

When I entered the courtyard, I saw Sun Shaozong waiting at the door of the house.

Wang Yan was anxious in his heart, and before he got close, he had already opened his mouth to ask: "I heard that Sun Tongju has already solved this case?" Do you know who harmed this Xu Mingtang?! ”

Sun Shaozong waited for them to arrive at the door, and then he arched his hand and said: "Lord Qi Qi Ministry, according to the official investigation, there is no trace of external force on Lord Xu's corpse, and he actually committed suicide. ”

"Self-...... Suicide and death? ”

Wang Yan was stunned in his heart, glanced at Ye Xingmao suspiciously, and frowned: "But didn't those scribes just now say that the stool that Xu Mingtang used to kill himself was still more than a foot high from his toes?" ”

"Well, please come with me, two adults."

Sun Shaozong pushed open the door of the hall house, pointed to the square stool on the ground and said: "One of the suspicious points on this desk is this square stool - my lord, please see, the Taishi chairs on both sides are not far from the place where Lord Xu hanged himself, but this square stool was moved from a distance, so it is unreasonable to be so reluctant to seek far." ”

As he spoke, he led the two of them to the vicinity of the square bench, and pointed to a wet green brick next to the square bench and said, "Two adults, please look again, there are obvious traces of being smashed by heavy objects on this green brick - but the fallen square bench is still some distance away from here." ”

He pointed to the food box in front of the window again, and said, "In addition, Lord Xu specially brought the food box from home, but there were no tableware. ”

"Therefore, the following officials deduced that Lord Xu should have brought a piece of ice from his home with a food box, and then placed the ice cube on top of the square bench, and after committing suicide, the ice cube melted away, creating the illusion of being assassinated."

"And the reason why he didn't use the Taishi chair was probably because he was worried that others would think that he had committed suicide by stepping on the back of the chair."

"So......" Wang Yan frowned, "Is he really committing suicide?" But since he committed suicide, why did he go to such great lengths to pretend to be killed? ”

"Well...... this"

Sun Shaozong suddenly raised his hand and pointed at Ye Xingmao, and said conclusively: "I'm afraid I have to ask our Mr. Ye!" ”

Ye Xingmao was stunned for a moment, and then hurriedly waved his hand and said: "Don't joke, how can the villain know why Lord Xu is acting like this?" ”

"You don't know?"

Sun Shaozong shook his head and said with a smile: "Just now I asked you about Lord Xu's family, but you answered like a stream, but why did you put it off again at this time?" ”

When Ye Xingmao heard this, he even shouted out to hit the sky: "My lord, I know a little about Lord Xu's family, but why did he seek death, and why did he pretend to be killed by others, how can I know?" ”

As he spoke, he knelt on the ground and begged Wang Yan: "Lord Ministry, the villain is really wronged, and please ask the Lord of the Ministry to be the villain's master!" ”

When Wang Yan and Jia Yucun heard this, they were also confused by the second monk, and glanced at each other, and Jia Yucun urged: "Brother, what does this scribe have to do with this case, just say it directly, don't go around in circles again!" ”

"I'm not going around in circles."

Sun Shaozong spread his hands helplessly and said, "Dare to ask the two adults, can you often invite the scribe in charge of the accounts in the yamen to be a guest at home?" Even when I'm not at home, I let him come and go often? ”

"Naturally not!"

Wang Yan and Jia Yucun replied in unison, and when they looked at Ye Xingmao again, they were a little more suspicious.

They didn't pay attention when Sun Shaozong didn't ask, but under this question, the two of them suddenly remembered that it was taboo in officialdom to have too close contacts with the scribe in charge of accounts!

Don't say that they are ordinary officials, even those corrupt officials who are bold and corrupt will never act like this!

Seeing that things were not good, Ye Xingmao hurriedly shouted again: "Wronged, villains rarely go to Lord Xu's mansion......"

Before he finished speaking, Sun Shaozong smiled and said again, "That's right, you really haven't been to Lord Xu's mansion much, and I have already found someone to confirm this just now - but because of this, I am even more curious, how do you know about so many trivial matters in Lord Xu's mansion?" ”

"Yes...... It's Lord Xu who ...... me."

"You want to say that Lord Xu told you, right?" Sun Shaozong said again: "But I have already asked, Lord Xu has only returned home once last night in the past five or six days, and after he came back, he hurriedly closed the door to thank guests."

"And you just said casually that the door of the Xu Mansion had a cold wind two days ago, and it has been replaced by others."

"Mr. Ye, do you want to say that you can pinch it?" Speaking of this, Sun Shaozong's eyes were sharp, and he sneered: "I still plan to explain honestly, why did you put eyeliner on Lord Xu's mansion?!" What is the reason why he can only pretend to be killed to drag you into the water?! ”