"Don't worry, your wife is fine," Meng Tianchu said with relief: "Old man, do you know why that family wants to give your lady so much silver?" ”

The old man shook his head: "I don't know, she only told me that the family was very generous and gave two taels of silver." I really don't know where that bag of silver came from. ”

Looking at his expression, it didn't seem like he was lying.

After a while, the capable Murong Yuxue had already boiled the porridge, and picked some vegetables from the courtyard outside and put them in the porridge, and the porridge immediately became extremely fragrant. Serving the elderly with a bowl and drinking porridge.

Taking care of the sick was already a breeze for Murong Yuxue, and she carefully blew the porridge warm, and then fed it to the old man's mouth.

Meng Tianchu looked at this weak old man, and thought to himself, this old man is very sick, this Wen Po has collected so much silver at once, what the person who bought her wants her to do, I'm afraid it is not as simple as midwifery, Wen Po is facing such a huge bribe for her seriously ill husband, of course, it is impossible to refuse. It seems that my intuition is right, this case is not a simple medical malpractice case, nor is it a dereliction of duty, there should be other hidden secrets in it.

What is the secret of this? Wen Po doesn't say it, the old man doesn't know, how to check it? New clues must be sought.

When Meng Tianchu and the others returned to the yamen, they saw the prison guard on duty running out in a panic, and when they saw Meng Tianchu, they said happily: "Master, I was about to look for you." It's terrible, I'm afraid that the Wen Po Cao clan will not work! ”

Meng Tianchu was taken aback and hurriedly asked, "What's the matter?" ”

Cao Shi seemed to have some kind of illness, his eyes were straight, his whole body was convulsed, and he called Lang Zhong to take a look. Say maybe not. ”

"Take me there!" Meng Tianchu hurriedly rushed to the prison, Wen Po Cao suddenly fell ill at this time, and he was very sick, is it just a coincidence?

When she came to the women's prison, because there were not many female prisoners (in ancient times, female prisoners were generally not imprisoned unless there were particularly serious cases such as rebellion and murder), and Wen Po lived in a single cell.

There were several guards around the cell, and one Lang Zhong was coming out of the cell. Seeing Meng Tianchu, he hurriedly bowed down and saluted. It turned out to be Zeng Jia Ren and Zeng Langzhong of the old man who saw Meng Tianchu last time.

Meng Tianchu hurriedly asked, "How is Cao's condition?" ”

Zeng Langzhong shook his head: "I'm terminally ill and can't be treated." ”

"What disease?"

"I don't know. When the old man came, she couldn't answer. So it's hard to judge. ”

Meng Tianchu knows that traditional Chinese medicine pays attention to "looking, hearing, asking, and cutting." "In many cases, it is necessary to rely on the patient's description of the condition to make a judgment, Cao is unable to speak, and in the absence of modern diagnostic technical support, no matter how good Lang Zhong is, he cannot accurately determine what the disease is for a while.

Meng Tianchu entered the cell, and the guards hurriedly stood up and retreated to both sides.

Meng Tianchu squatted down, carefully observed Cao's symptoms, and found that her teeth were tightly closed. Paroxysmal, tonic spasms are present. The eyes are staring, and the pupils are dilated. Breathing is short and rapid, the lips are cyanotic, and the mouth is foaming at the mouth.

Meng Tianchu said in a low voice: "Cao Clan." Can you hear what I'm saying? ”

Cao Shi was still breathing rapidly, his eyes staring straight ahead, unable to speak.

Slowly, Cao's breathing slowed down, he breathed out more, took in less air, and intermittently, and his body kept twitching. Immediately, suddenly everything stopped, his eyes blinked, and he turned to Meng Tianchu, as if to identify who he was.

Seeing this scene, Meng Tianchu's heart sank suddenly, he knew that the Cao family was likely to return to the light, and he was already dying in an instant, so he hurriedly leaned over her ear and whispered: "Cao, I am Master Meng, I have been to your house, if you die, what will happen to your husband who is seriously ill in bed?" ”

Cao Shi grabbed Meng Tianchu's arm violently, his lips trembled, and he said indistinctly: "Ma... Bucket..."The body straightened, and then slowly softened, and he was motionless.

Toilet? Meng Tianchu couldn't react for a while. After examination, it was determined that Cao had died.

Generally speaking, only sudden death caused by cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases will die so suddenly. Judging from the signs just now, it does not look like sudden death from disease, but rather poisoning.

Meng Tianchu's eyes fell on the bowl in the corner of the prison cell, where there was still some residual food, after extracting, he carried out biological experiments, and poured some of the food to a duck, and after a while, the duck convulsed and died.

The food is really poisonous!

The cell boss was so frightened that he knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly, saying that he was not strict in supervision and deserved to die.

Meng Tianchu asked in a deep voice, "Did anyone come to see the Cao family yesterday?" ”

"There's... Yes, there was a young woman who came when it was getting dark. ”

"Don't you know that unconvicted prisoners can't visit prison?" Meng Tianchu knew very well that the people in these cells, as long as they had money, they didn't care about the convicted criminals.

The cell head kowtowed and said, "Yes, Xiaodi should be damned!" The little ones are confused for a while, and they really damn it..."

"Who is that woman from the Cao family? What did you bring to the Cao family when you came? ”

"The woman said that she was a distant relative of the Cao family, and said that she was sending some food to the Cao family, and she didn't stay long before leaving."

"Distant relatives?" Meng Tianchu thought, shouldn't it, this Cao family has just been locked up, so how did the distant relatives know that she was locked up?

"Yes, she came with a food box, and I checked it, and it was all light food."

"What does that woman look like?"

"No... I didn't see it, she was veiled over the ground. ”

"Bastard! When you come in to visit the prison, you actually let them go without looking at their appearance, what is the reason? ”

The head of the cell kowtowed vigorously like pounding garlic: "This woman said that she was not out of the cabinet, she couldn't show people in person, she was cautious, and she followed her all the time, and the whole process of visiting the prison was small, and the woman just put down the food box and left without speaking." ”

"Did Wen Po speak?"

"No, Wen Po seems to be asleep,—— master, the little ghost is confused, begging the master to spare his life!"

"Honestly, how much good has this woman given you?"

"Given... Gave a small ingot of gold..."

Scold! No wonder, it's not the ghosts that get lost in the mind, it's the role of gold. Meng Tianchu snorted: "What about gold?" ”

"In... In a small dormitory..."

Meng Tianchu instructed Wang Zhutou to take the cell head and get the ingot of gold, and took it in his hand and looked at it for a while.

The cell boss is corrupt and perverts the law. As a result, the important prisoner in custody was poisoned, and Meng Tianchu ordered him to be taken down for punishment and the stolen money confiscated.

Meng Tianchu pondered the "toilet" that Cao said just now, what did Cao mean by the toilet before he died? Cao knew that his life was in an instant, how could the thing he was most concerned about be a toilet? Generally speaking, the most concerned about before dying should of course be their relatives.

Close relatives? Meng Tianchu suddenly remembered the old man who was seriously ill in bed, as well as the dilapidated toilet next to the old man's bed, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he stood up. He took Wang Zhutou, Murong Zhenxue and others to Cao's residence again. On the way, Meng Tianchu deliberately took a detour to the "Grass Fragrance Shop" to call Zeng Langzhong. came to Cao's house together.

It was still the dark room, and the old man was reclining on the bed. Panting, I was a little surprised to see them come in.

Meng Tianchu lifted the toilet next to the bed to the corner and asked Zeng Langzhong to treat the old man. After reading it, Zeng Langzhong said that the old man was very sick and needed to be treated quickly, and immediately prescribed it. It has been open for three days. Tell the boy to go back and grab the fry, fry it, and send it over.

Meng Tianchu called Zeng Langzhong to the courtyard and instructed him to cure the old man's illness. Zeng Langzhong didn't have the words to agree. In the end, he was cheeky and said that the old man's illness was very serious and he should be cured completely. I'm afraid it will cost fifty or sixty taels of silver, if the money is less, for the sake of Master Meng, it will be exempted, but this money is too expensive, I can't treat it for free, and I'm worried that the old man can't afford it.

Meng Tianchu smiled and told Zeng Langzhong in a low voice, this old man looks very poor on the outside, but he is still rich, don't worry about the money, when he sends the money tomorrow, the old man will pay off the money.

Zeng Langzhong was overjoyed and promised to cure the old man's disease. Meng Tianchu also entrusted him to hire a woman who was diligent and knew the roots, and could take care of the old man's life, and the old man would pay the expenses.

Zeng Langzhong agreed, and hurried back to fry and hire someone.

Meng Tianchu returned to the room, and Murong Yuxue had already put the old man's dirty clothes in a wooden basin and brought water to prepare to wash the clothes. Wang Zhutou was also helping to tidy up the room. The old man lay on the bed, his old eyes dizzy and thanked him.

Meng Tianchu told them that they didn't have to be busy, he had already asked someone to hire a servant to take care of the old man. And let the two of them go out first, saying that they have something to ask the old man alone.

Murong Yuxue and Wang Zhutou hurriedly put down the work in their hands and closed the door after going out.

Meng Tianchu was not in a hurry to talk to the old man, carrying the dilapidated toilet in the corner, passing through the back hall to the back toilet, pouring urine into the toilet, and carrying a bucket of water to clean the toilet.

Just now, when he lifted the toilet to the corner of the wall, he already noticed that there was a problem with the weight of the toilet, and now he felt the weight of the empty toilet, but he still found that something was wrong, this toilet was much heavier than other toilets of the same volume.

He overturned the toilet bowl and looked closely, and sure enough, the toilet bottom lid was not of the right thickness, apparently there was a mezzanine?

I found a knife, pried open the bottom cover from the bottom, and saw at a glance that there was a bag of red oiled paper wrapped in it, carefully took it out, put it on the ground, untied the string tied to the oiled paper, unfolded the oiled paper, and inside was one hundred and fifty taels of white silver!

No wonder Cao said the toilet before she died, it turned out that she hid so much silver under the toilet, for fear that she would die and her husband would have no money for treatment.

This silver must have been received recently, otherwise, the Cao family would have taken it out to treat her husband a long time ago. Meng Tianchu had already estimated that the reason why Wen Po refused to fight to death must have a purpose, and he didn't know this purpose at first, but after arriving at Cao's house, he vaguely guessed that it was probably related to this seriously ill old man in bed.

Cao is very smart, she knows that even if she confesses everything, she will not be able to escape death. This Cao family actually took a bribe of two hundred taels of silver, and Wang Zhutou and they only found fifty taels of silver hidden in the rice jar, and the big one hundred and fifty taels hidden in the mezzanine of the toilet were not found by the arrestees, and this one hundred and fifty taels was enough for his husband to see a doctor and live the rest of his life, so she decided to resist death and hide the silver, hoping to have the opportunity to tell her husband about it in the future. Unexpectedly, before he had time to say it, he was poisoned.

Before she died, she had no choice but to tell Meng Tianchu about it, hoping that Meng Tianchu could help her husband.

He found the right person, Meng Tianchu estimated this, so he told Zeng Langzhong not to worry about it. In fact, if he miscalculated and did not find Cao's hidden money, Meng Tianchu also decided to pay for Cao's husband's treatment. Now money is no longer a problem for him.

Meng Tianchu picked up the silver, looked through it carefully, and after thinking about it carefully, a smile appeared on his face.

Back in the room, Meng Tianchu put the bag of silver next to the old man's bed and said, "Old man, these are the silver saved by your wife in the past. I will pass it on to you for your healing and future life. There are one hundred and fifty taels in all. ”

The old man was surprised and delighted: "Where is my wife?" ”

"She... She went south. I won't be able to come back for a while. ”

The old man's expression darkened, and his lips trembled a few times: "I... I know... Thank you. Master..."

"Don't worry, when you're well, your wife will almost be back. I have already arranged for Zeng Langzhong to treat you, and I have hired a woman to take care of you for you, don't worry. ”

Leaving Cao's residence, Meng Tianchu and the three of them returned to Yamen.

As soon as he returned to the Yamen, Meng Tianchu sent a disguised squatting outside Hao's mansion to listen to the news, and the news came with a shocking news - something happened to the Hao family again. Xiaohong, the maid who had been serving Hao Tianbao's original wife Wu Xiaomei, jumped into the well and died.

A maid couldn't stand the pain and jumped into the well and died. This was a very common thing in the feudal dynasty, and the owner was kind-hearted. Give the maid's family some money to burn, or buy a thin coffin and a cemetery to bury the body. If you encounter someone with a bad heart, throw it in a mass grave. There are also wild dogs who eat them, so no one will report this kind of thing to the official.

Fortunately, Meng Tianchu had already asked Wang Yi to send a quick disguise to wait outside Hao Tianbao's mansion to listen to the news.

Meng Tianchu hurriedly rushed to Hao's Mansion with Murong Yuxue, Wang Zhutou and a few catchers.

Cuilian, the second grandmother of Haofu, got the report from the concierge and hurriedly greeted her, looking quite surprised: "It's master, why are you here?" ”

"What? Not welcome? ”

"Where did the master say come from, how dare the slave family not welcome it, the slave family has been looking forward to you coming, master, and it's too late to be happy!"

"That's good, what about your lord and housekeeper?"

"After you left last time, the lord couldn't afford to be sick, he didn't sleep all night last night, and before dawn, the town housekeeper went to ask for a doctor, and he hasn't come back yet."

"Well, I heard that a maid died in your house, right?"

“… Ah~! I thought it was a big deal, the arrival of the master of labor, it turned out to be this thing, alas! Xiaohong, this little girl, is quite clever on weekdays, why did she make such a fool! I don't know how she couldn't figure it out, she jumped into the well and died, and today the servants fetched water to find the ground. After telling the master, the master said that Xiaohong, the child, was pitiful and was about to buy a coffin to bury it. ”

"Hehe, your lord is very good-hearted, take me to see the body of the drowned Yahuan."

Cuilian hesitated slightly, smiled and nodded, and led them to the room where the maid Xiaohong's corpse was parked.

Meng Tianchu lifted the cloth covering the corpse and took a general look, the crab foam-like foam on the mouth and nose, the corpse spots were light, the skin was like goosebump, the signs of drowning death were obvious, and there was a scalp laceration on the back of the head.

Meng Tianchu decided to perform an autopsy.

Of course, Hao Tianbao, who was lying on the hospital bed, had no opinion, but this little concubine Cuilian made a somewhat surprising request - she wanted to watch the autopsy on the side.

When the autopsy of a criminal case is performed, the family of the deceased is generally not allowed to observe, and Meng Tianchu just smiled at this request, and then nodded in agreement.

After dissection, it was found that the lungs were edematous, and the lungs were cut open, and a large amount of light red foamy fluid flowed out, and there was a large amount of drowning fluid in the digestive tract. It was confirmed that he died of suffocation by drowning before his death.

In addition, a three-month-old fetus was found dead in the womb of the corpse.

The autopsy learned that the girl was pregnant, and she had been hit in the back of the head before, but it did not cause a skull fracture or intracranial hemorrhage, and the cause of death was drowning and suffocation.

The autopsy process was recorded in detail by Murong Yuxue.

When Meng Tianchu was dissecting, Cuilian stood at the door from a distance and watched, covering her mouth from time to time as if she was turning her stomach. When he heard that Meng Tianchu asked Murong Yuxue to record the discovery of a deceased three-month-old fetus in the deceased's womb, his expression was very ugly.