The officials and slaves are all the families of criminal officials, and there are a total of eight families living in the two large courtyards in the back alley of the Yamen of Shuntian Mansion, and the first thing Shi Jia took Hua Jingyao to see was the one who saw a person standing under the big locust tree.

"The sinner didn't see the man's face, but the man was quite tall, and if he wasn't tall, the sinner might be able to see his face." The street sweeper is a middle-aged woman, with silver threads on her temples and a slight hunched back, but her eyebrows are graceful, faintly bookish, and she used to be a pampered wife.

"What about the man who left with him, do you remember what he was wearing?" Hua Jingyao asked.

The corners of the middle-aged woman's mouth moved, but she still shook her head: "The sinner just saw a person walking over and standing behind the big locust tree, and then the people under the locust tree walked with him, but ......"

Hua Jingyao looked around at this small room, which was cut out of another room, and there was not even a window.

She asked Shi Jia, "Do all the street sweepers live in these two courtyards?" ”

Shi Jia comprehended and said, "There is another place in the precursor alley, which is much better than the conditions here. ”

Hua Jingyao nodded and looked at the middle-aged woman: "Heard?" ”

The middle-aged woman bit her lip, thought for a moment, and said, "That man is a cripple who walks with a limp. The last time the master came to ask the sinner and the other two old sisters, after the master left, the three of us chatted together, Sister Sun said, this should be looking for the guard of the big family, if she came to find the cripple she saw yesterday, she didn't dare to say that she had seen it, but she heard Sister Sun talk about the cripple, and the sinner woman remembered that the person who came later, the walking posture seemed to be a cripple. ”

Hua Jingyao told Shi Jia to go back and find someone to change the middle-aged woman's residence, and then went to see the sister Sun again.

Sister Sun is nearly half a hundred years old, thin and thin, but her body is straight, Shi Jia said in a low voice: "This is the wife of Xue Shilang of the former Criminal Department, Sun." ”

This Xue Shilang of the Criminal Department was exiled ten years ago, Hua Jingyao had never seen this Xue Shilang, but she didn't expect to see his wife here.

It is said that Xue Shilang accepted bribes to replace the felons who had been sentenced to beheading the marquis, and this felons did not hide after they came out, and killed all eight members of the magistrate's family who had sentenced him to prison, and the magistrate's pregnant daughter happened to return to her parents' house and died together. The son-in-law finished the funeral, sold the family's property, took the eight-year-old eldest son, came to the capital, and hit the drum in front of the Dali Temple.

Hua Jingyao knew about this case, and she had heard about it more than once when she was in the yamen in her previous life.

Knowing that the Sun family was Xue Shilang's wife, Hua Jingyao's eyes were a little more disdainful, the magistrate's family of eight were all dead, and Xue Shilang was only sentenced to exile, although his wife and children could not be clothed and fed, but at least they were still alive.

Before the Sun family met, the little girl with a big pie had sharp eyes and didn't care, since the Xue Mansion was raided, she had long been used to seeing this kind of look.

Hua Jingyao got straight to the point and asked, "Have you ever seen a cripple?" ”

Sun raised his eyelids and said, "No." ”

Hua Jingyao snorted coldly and said to Shi Jia, "Pry her mouth open." ”

Sun was stunned, is this trying to buy her?

Before she could think about what kind of sugar-coated cannonball the little girl was going to use to buy her, Shi Jia walked up to her, pinched her chin with one hand, and somehow added a dagger in the other, and then the dagger pressed against her clenched teeth.

Sun understood, it turned out that the little girl said that she was going to pry her mouth open, and it was really prying, not what she thought.

Sun gritted her teeth hard, but the cold dagger still pried her mouth open......

A moment later, Hua Jingyao got Sun's confession.

Just yesterday, when the sky was just dawning, when Sun was sweeping the floor on Evergreen Street, because he kept his head down, he accidentally bumped into a person, that person was a cripple, Sun felt that the person was a little familiar, thinking that he had been sweeping around the street for many years, maybe he had seen it, so she didn't care at that time.

But when she came back in the evening, she passed by the yamen, and accidentally glanced at the sign in front of the yamen, and was stunned. Posted on the notice board are administrative notices from the government and official documents for sea fishing.

There are five official documents on the billboard, and the face on one of them is seven or eight points similar to the cripple that Sun met.

The man's name was Zhu Lu, and he was a water bandit who was wanted for robbing an official ship.

Shi Jia carried a lantern and illuminated the official document on the billboard.

Hua Jingyao carefully read the words on the notice twice, and when she saw that Yin Zhutou hadn't left yet, she asked; "Yin Zhutou, where is Zhu Lu on this sea fishing official document from, he is robbing an official ship, what kind of official ship is that?"

Official ship is a broad word, in the Great Zhou Dynasty, but all those who are recorded in the official government are official ships, and the official relatives and provincial relatives sit on official ships, and those who transport rice are also called official ships.

Yin Zhutou shook his head and said: "This Zhu Lu committed the crime on the canal, not our Shuntianfu case, the official document was issued by the Criminal Department, not only in our Yamen, but also in all parts of the Great Zhou, I don't know about this case, but Qin Fucheng should be able to find the case file from the Criminal Department." ”

Back at Wutong Hutong, it was already the second watch, and Hua Jingyao saw Mama You at the second gate.

"The girl is back, Your Highness is not at ease, let the old slave wait for the girl here."

Hua Jingyao hugged Mama You's arm and said with a smile: "Actually, Mama You doesn't worry about me either, so she volunteered to wait at the second gate." ”

Mama You patted Hua Jingyao's hand, the girl has really grown up and become more and more sensible. She is old, and the eldest princess will not send her to wait at Ermen, it is true that she is not at ease and takes the initiative to come.

Mama You looked behind her, A, B, C and Ding were like four plague gods, Mama You sighed silently and asked, "The little raccoon still hasn't found it?" ”

Hua Jingyao nodded, diverted the topic, and said: "It's not early, I won't go to Jinyuan to disturb my mother, and I will tell my mother, I will go over tomorrow morning, let my mother go to bed early." ”

"Okay, the girl is hungry, the old slave asked the small kitchen in your yard to prepare supper, the girl should go back quickly."

Mama You nagged a few more words before letting Hua Jingyao go back, Hua Jingyao walked a long way, and she could still hear Mama You counting, but it was not her, but A, B, C, and D.

When she returned to the embroidery garden where she lived, she hadn't gone to bathe yet, and the eldest girl Ziwei told her: "Girl, the sixth young master of the Gong family has sent a lot of fragrant dew. ”

"A whole lot of perfume? How much is a whole bunch? Hua Jingyao raised her eyebrows.

Ziwei smiled bitterly: "The slave maid counted, more than seventy bottles." ”

"What? More than seventy bottles? Which shop is this, which made Gong Liupit like this? "Hua Jingyao has grown so big, and she has never seen more than seventy bottles of perfume stacked together.