took a few children to the stall that Huo Laohan said about Chang Si's selling ice cheese.

I saw a woman who looked a little philistine come over and asked with a smiling face, "What do you want to eat?" ”

"A bowl of ice cheese per person," Xiao Zheng finished speaking, took a few copper coins and slapped them on the table.

After a while, the woman brought a few bowls of ice cream and put them on the table, and Li Tai only tasted one bite and said, "Master, he is not as good as ......."

"Don't talk!" Xiao Zheng made a silent gesture to him.

The two little ones took two bites and put down the bowl.

"Listen to your accent, it's a noble person from Chang'an", this woman has some knowledge.

"Yes, hostess, we just came from Chang'an to do business. It's too hot here, can you sell us some ice in this store, money is not a problem."

When the woman heard Xiao Zheng say that she wanted to buy ice, she was stunned for a moment and looked at Xiao Zheng and a few people with some vigilance.

"Oh, hostess, we are also here for the first time from Chang'an, and now we live in an inn not far away, children are afraid of heat, and they are ready to buy a hundred and ten catties of ice to put in the room to cool down, money is not a problem."

After Xiao Zheng finished speaking, he took a dozen copper coins and stacked them and put them on the case.

When the woman saw the copper coin given by Xiao Zheng, her eyes lit up a little, and she said with a smile: "This nobleman, the ice in our store is almost used today, but if you are not in a hurry, you can come and get it again tomorrow."

"Okay, let's come over tomorrow to get it, and the money will be put here for you first" After Xiao Zheng finished speaking, he put the copper coin on the case and went back with a few people.

At night, the sound of the second watch came from afar, and there were few pedestrians on the street.

There was a noise in the corner of Zhu Tong's backyard, and he first poked his head out and looked around. Seeing that there was no one around, I saw a few more large lumpy things on the wall after a while.

Then I saw a figure riding on the wall, bending down and pulling out the ladder inside the wall and down into the street. The man went up and down the ladder several times and struggled to move the things down the wall.

When the man was tying these things with ropes, suddenly someone on the side smiled and asked, "This big brother, do you want to help down?"

The man panted and replied, "No thanks! Yes! ”

The guy reacted at once, and was so frightened that he jumped up from the ground and wanted to run.

"Don't move!"

Hula, more than a dozen people surrounded him, lighting torches and borrowing light, Xiao Zheng saw that this guy was of medium stature, with a pointed chin, and his thin face was a little pale, and he was so frightened that he sat on the ground after being surrounded by people.

"Lord Hui, this person is Chang Si," Li Tong said to Xiao Zheng.

"You're really in the trap, take it back! Oh, by the way, I also take a good look at his wife, I thought that the case would not be closed in three days, so it seems that it will not take three days, and the case will be closed tomorrow."

When he got up the next day, Xiao Zheng asked Li Tong to take the prisoners in the prison to the courtyard outside the hall, and Ye and all the people related to the case also arrived.

More than a dozen respected old people nearby invited them to come over and sit by and watch.

Xiao Zheng said to Li Tong: "Let's take Chang Si."

Waiting for the official to bring Chang Siyi over, this guy knelt down and kowtowed when he saw Xiao Zheng and said, "My lord, the villain knows that it is wrong to steal the things of the master's house, please punish the adult."

Xiao Zheng looked at Chang Si, walked in front of him and said with a smile: "Let's not talk about you stealing things, stretch out your hand and let me see."

Chang Si was a little confused, he couldn't understand what Xiao Zheng asked him to reach out for, but he didn't dare not listen, so he had to straighten up and stretch out his two hands and hand them to Xiao Zheng.

Xiao Zheng looked at his fingers and turned to Ye Tianlin and said, "Ye Tianlin, I will return your innocence today."

Ye Tianlin told the situation at the time of the incident again in front of the people in the house and confirmed that it was correct.

After he finished speaking, Xiao Zheng asked, "Ye Tianlin, you said that you were drunk and walked on the mud and slipped you to get the blood of the deceased, right?" ”

"Yes, my lord, the villain is not lying"

Turning his head to Zhou Tong, who reported the case, he asked, "Zhou Tong, you also slipped in the mud when you passed by the deceased who was found out by the mud, right?" ”。

"Yes, the villain is sure," Zhou Tong said with a salute.

"Li Tong, when you brought someone over, you found that Zhou Tong's cloth was stained with mud, right?"

"Yes, my lord," Li Tong said, arching his hand.

"Can you three remember that it didn't rain in those days?" Xiao Zheng asked the three of them.

"It definitely wasn't raining, we remember it very well," the three said in unison.

After listening to this, Xiao Zheng smiled and said, "The three of you mentioned one situation together, that is, there was mud on the ground, and there was no rain for many days, and there was no water poured on the ground. Unless there is mud from a spring on the ground or a river pouring up, these two conditions can be ruled out completely."

"And where did this water come from?" Xiao Zheng asked everyone with a smile.

Turning his head to look at Chang Si who was kneeling on the ground, this guy glanced up at Xiao Zheng, and quickly lowered his head again with a panicked expression.

"Chang Si, look up at this official," Xiao Zheng said to Chang Si.

I saw Chang Si raise his head and didn't dare to look directly at Xiao Zheng's gaze, and cold sweat began to emerge from the corners of his forehead.

Xiao Zheng squatted down and looked at him and whispered, "Chang Si, do you say that ice can turn into water if it melts?" ”。

Chang Si kept his body, beads of sweat the size of beans flowed down his face, and his body trembled a little and he didn't dare to reply.

"Spread the person in charge of the Zhu family to come."

After a while, a woman over forty years old came, this woman was dressed very luxuriously, and after arriving, she glanced at Chang Si, gave Xiao Zheng a salute and said: "The folk woman Zhu has seen the adult, my husband went to Hangzhou to sell goods and did not return, and the folk woman is the housewife of the family."

"Zhu, when will Chang Si fall to your house?"

"Lord Hui, Zhu Si has been coming to my house for four or five years, and his cooking skills are okay, just make a long spoon in my house, and there is no big evil in ordinary times, who would have thought that he would do this kind of thing."

"Do you have a lot of ice at home when it's hot?"

"Back to my lord, the women are weak, except for the guests who come to serve them with some sour plum soup or ice cheese, there are not many ices, most of them are Chang Si who is in charge of the ice cellar."

"Is your ice cellar in the yard next to the river to store debris".

"That's right! There's an ice cellar in the basement of the yard."

"Then thank you, and stand down."

Xiao Zheng walked up to Chang Si and suddenly asked, "Chang Si, have you been addicted to gambling for many years?" ”。

"How do you know?" Chang Si suddenly raised his head and looked at Xiao Zheng in surprise and asked.

"Hehe, how do I know? The nadgets of your right thumb and index finger are covered with calluses, and they look like they've been grinding out dice and dominoes for a long time, and I'm not wrong."

This is an old man next to him who said: "My lord, you are right, Chang Si this guy will go straight to the gambling house as long as he is not busy, and he has quarreled a lot for these two people, how many times have we been persuaded by the villagers."

Chang Si's face changed a few times and then said: "The villain is good at gambling and greedy for the owner's property, and the villain asks the adult to punish him."

"It's a good thing to avoid the important and light, and now you still don't admit it, if you don't say it, I'll say it for you."

Xiao Zheng looked at Chang Si coldly and said, "On the night of the crime, you went to Zhu's house to steal ice again, and you put the ice cubes on the wall. The second son of the shopkeeper Liu drank wine and walked against the wall, just under the wall where you put the ice, and your ice slipped down from the wall and happened to hit him on the head. When you turned over from the courtyard and saw the second son of the Liu family who fell to the ground, you panicked, but you ran home for fear that the theft of the master's house would be exposed, so you didn't report it to the official. And where can the ice you left behind stay in the hot weather, and it didn't take long for it to turn into water, which explains that when passing by the scene of the crime, several people said that there was mud in the ground, and it didn't rain at that time, and only when the ice turned into water did it form mud, am I right? ”

At this time, I saw Xu Jingzong come over and hand Xiao Zheng a few pieces of paper and said: "My lord, Chang Si's wife has already confessed to the painting, this is her confession, please take a look."

didn't even read the confession, Xiao Zheng slapped Chang Si's face with paper and said: "Because you have been addicted to gambling for a long time and have no money to spare, under your greed, you stole the property of the master's family, and you dared not report it if you missed the mistake and injured people, causing Ye Tianlin to be punished but unjustly imprisoned, in the face of my question, you still dare to deny it in every possible way, and you will not admit your guilt, why, don't you say it?" ”。

"Adult, the villain pleaded guilty, I wanted to confess my guilt for a long time, but the villain was worried that the two children and the old mother at home had no one to support, so he also reported a fluke mentality, begging the adults to let the villain go, the villain just wanted to steal something to subsidize the family, and didn't want to do things that hurt the heavens and reason."

After speaking, he ...... his head on the ground.