Pingzhuang, who chased Chongfeng out of the city, finally found Chongfeng at the gathering place of officials outside the city, and when he was found, Chongfeng was digging the ground with his hooves, leisurely chewing on the weeds on the roadside.

As for the two who rode out of the city with heavy winds, they were gone.

"What about the two men?" He looked around and asked the people around him.

A passing official hurriedly said: "Brother Ping, who are you talking about?" ”

Pingzhuang said: "Who else can there be?" Master Qiao and Master Zhang! ”

"Master Zhang followed Lord Xu to the official road to look for someone, and Lord Qiao returned to the city and went to the Xie family." The official said, then looked at the sky that was gradually darkening, and said, "If Brother Ping is tired, go back to Dali Temple and wait for news!" ”

It's not a business to find Lord Xie, it's really voluntary, they, the old people of Dali Temple, are okay, such as Brother Ping, who has just been here for a few days, maybe they haven't talked to Lord Xie before, so there is really no need to force him to look for them together.

Pingzhuang sighed, turned over and got on his horse, turned his horse's head, and walked towards the city.

What he has to do is to follow Master Qiao, since Master Qiao has gone to the Xie family, he will also go. The man's intuition told him that Zhang Tianshi looked at him a little unpleasantly, so when Zhang Tianshi was not by Master Qiao's side, he could learn the most from following the errand.

As for the Xie family, there are many people in Chang'an City who know about it, and he is no exception, he doesn't need others to show the way, and he knows where the Xie family is.

Turning back from the West City Gate to Xie's house has to pass through Dali Temple, and naturally it will also pass through Nanji Shop, which is not far from Dali Temple. When Pingzhuang rode by the Nanji shop, he saw Tang Zhongyuan with two officials bringing out the two uncles and aunts of the Nanji shop who didn't show up much.

A few passers-by were watching the excitement on the side of the road.

Seeing this, he instinctively "shouted" and pulled the heavy wind, then turned over and dismounted, walked up and shouted "Tang Zhongyuan".

Tang Zhongyuan saw that it was him, so he replied to him, and then raised his hand and said sharply: "Take it away!" ”

Pingzhuang looked at Uncle Xiaohua who was escorted away curiously, and couldn't help but pull Tang Zhongyuan aside, and asked in a low voice, "Didn't you say don't startle the snake?" Do you want to talk to Master Qiao about arresting these two people so suddenly? ”

Tang Zhongyuan said: "This is Lord Qiao's order, she said that the situation has changed, these two people can't let go," Speaking of this, Tang Zhongyuan simply pulled him into the neatly arranged Nanji shop with tables and chairs, and then pointed to the two burdens on the table, and said, "If you come one step later, these two people will run away." ”

Pingzhuang was confused all of a sudden: "Why can't I understand, didn't you say that you caught Xiaohua to test Xiaohua's uncle and aunt?" How could it be that in less than a day, Master Xie disappeared, and suddenly arrested someone or something. ”

Seeing this, Tang Zhongyuan sighed, reached out and patted him on the shoulder, and comforted him: "Brother Ping will get used to it in the future." Lord Qiao has always done things like this, and it is not only the soldiers on the battlefield who are surprised, but also the orders of Lord Qiao are also changing rapidly. ”

Pingzhuang was stunned for a while, and then slowly looked at the two people who were hanging their heads outside, and his eyes were stunned: "When did she give the order?" Aren't you looking for Lord Xie? ”

"Lord Xie wants to find it, and these two people must also be arrested." Tang Zhongyuan said, "Master Qiao said, if the matter of Xiaohua vomiting blood is directly related to Lord Xie, then these two people must have been facilitated by the news in the meantime, and they can't forget these two people because of chaos." ”

In fact, Master Qiao said a lot.

"If Xiaohua Gu Poison is induced by this incident is a sign that the other party is ready to retreat, then the people from all parties involved in this will definitely take advantage of the chaos to go out of the city, and at this time, don't mess up, don't forget the two in Nanji Shop." He still remembers that when he said this, Master Qiao's expression was solemn, "The incident happened suddenly, I caught Xiaohua in the morning, and Xie Chengze appeared at noon, so if the two people in Nanji Xiaopu want to go out of the city quickly, they will definitely not go home to pack up or anything, but go directly from the shop, you go directly to the shop to arrest people, don't talk much when you meet those two people, just take people away." ”

In fact, everyone was in chaos at that time, but Master Qiao was not in chaos from beginning to end.

Tang Zhongyuan said in his heart: Although he has been following Master Qiao's side, at this point, even if he caught Xiaohua's uncle and aunt, he was still confused. But then, Mistress Joe should be able to explain.

Pingzhuang was stunned for a moment, then suddenly turned over and galloped away in the direction of the Xie family's mansion.

Uncle Nine is right, following this Lord Qiao, he has indeed learned a lot. In a trance, I can't understand what she's going to do.

……

The twilight of the approaching evening concealed the girl's calm expression, and in the lights of the Xie family, her eyes shone brightly.

The Xie family was not as flustered as she imagined, and even when she entered the door, the steward was already waiting in the gatehouse, and on the way to Xie Chengze's yard, she met a maid walking around with food, and the steady drop of water did not leak during the walk, as if the old lady Xie sent someone to stop people on the official road was just an illusion.

Even if such a thing suddenly happened, the gate valve clan that had not fallen down from the dynasty still dealt with it calmly, like a beast dormant on the side. Qiao Ran suddenly remembered the small talk with Zhang Xie in his spare time.

She laughed and said, "On the side of the couch, how can you allow others to snore", doesn't His Majesty of the Gate Valve Family have no idea?

Zhang Jie's expression was quite intriguing: "At the beginning of his ascension, he had a failure. "At that time, the foundation of the throne was unstable, and it was indeed impossible to shake these clans. Not to mention taking the effort to deal with the family that has been politicians for generations and has never set foot on the throne of the Son of Heaven, it is indeed a lose-lose thing.

What did she say at the time? Qiao Ran took a deep breath, and she remembered saying to herself, "It is indeed an extremely dangerous thing to maintain all the rights on the Son of Heaven alone. ”

There are virtuous monarchs who are naturally virtuous and unvirtuous, and it is naturally a good thing to have constraints.

When he was thinking nonsense, Xie Chengze's courtyard had already arrived, Qiao Ran walked into the courtyard, the owner of the courtyard was not there, and the two slaves stood aside and waited.

Such a scene was a little surprising to Qiao Ran, such a profound family, there are only two subordinates in Xie Chengze's courtyard?

As if seeing through the doubts on her face, the steward who led the way said: "Master Qiao, my son-in-law doesn't like to be served by others in the morning, and these two are just to take care of the son's daily life." ”

Qiao Ran nodded, didn't ask more, but walked forward, pushed the door and entered the house, the steward did not follow up, only said that he was waiting outside, and the adult had something to say.

This kind of non-interference is definitely a good thing for Qiao Ran to search for Xie Chengze's residence.

The lights in the room were lit, and the inside was as bright as day, probably a little tired from hurrying back and forth, Qiao Ran first sat down on the chair in the room, and then looked up at the room.

The layout is low-key, elegant and exquisite, like Xie Chengze himself, it is an orthodox family child.

Qiao Ran raised his eyebrows slightly: Xie Chengze has been an official in Dali Temple for many years, not to mention that I heard that the original Xie Liuye is quite talented in investigating cases, and Xie Chengze's own ability and means should not be underestimated.

Whether Xie Chengze himself was replaced as she thought, and the ability of this replacement person was not inferior to him in the slightest, at least until recently, everyone discovered the abnormality. If you are ready to retreat, it will not be easy to find clues from it, because the opponent is also a veteran who is good at solving cases.

Thinking about it for a while, and the mouth was in a hurry and dry, Qiao Ran picked up the tea cup on the table and poured a cup of tea for herself. The taste of plum tea in the entrance made her stagnate slightly, and it seemed to be more confirmed that Xie Chengze these days was not the Xie Chengze that Zhang Xie knew.

This is also the most logical inference, after all, in terms of Xie Chengze's background, she really can't think of any reason for him to get involved in this kind of thing. Once it is mixed, even a big family like the Xie family is also in danger of overturning, and the Xie family's signboard is enough to shelter the descendants, so there is really no need to do this.

Qiao Ran put down the plum tea and got up, and observed the room that opened up the bedroom and the study, the room was very clean, there were not many books on the shelves, she flipped through them one by one, and did not see any special books.

If there is, Miss Xu Shi's book is also on the shelf, and there are signs of flipping. Of course, whether it is out of respect and curiosity for his fiancée or out of concern for his friends, there seems to be nothing wrong with turning this book into this book.

Qiao Ran put the notebook back on the shelf, and reached out to pick up the stack of letters next to the notebook.

The thick stack of "Chengze Qinqi" signed "He Yuan" in the lower right corner should be the letter sent by Miss Xu Shi, Qiao Ran was hesitating when he heard a familiar voice sound from outside the door.

"You let go of me, I'm here to find Master Joe."

It is the voice of Pingzhuang.

The voice of the steward outside sounded unhurriedly: "This poor master, since you are looking for Master Qiao, why don't you go to the main gate?" flew in for no reason, and naturally complained that the secret guard would do it. ”

Pingzhuang was still there to explain: "The gatehouse didn't let people go, and I wasn't allowed to come in, so I climbed over the wall." If you have something to say, don't do it, and I'm not easy to mess with. ”

When Qiao Ran heard this, he simply walked to the door, glanced at Pingzhuang, who was suppressed by the two secret guards, and said to the steward: "Thank you, let him in, it's not an outsider." ”

The secret guard retreated, and Pingzhuang, who breathed a sigh of relief, came over and asked, "Master Qiao, how is the investigation?" ”

Qiao Ran looked at the letter in his hand and said, "No, I saw these letters." ”

Pingzhuang poked his head over and looked: "What is written in the letter?" Love letters? ”

Qiao Ran shook her head: "It's a letter written by Miss Xu Shi, Lord Xie's fiancée, and some daily trivial matters are explained in it, almost every month, there are at least two letters." ”

Pingzhuang sighed, obviously not very interested in this.

Qiao Ran pinched the letter in his hand and looked up at him: "Do you see something?" ”

Pingzhuang was stunned, took the letter from her hand and flipped through it seriously, and after a while, returned the letter to her, shook his head and said, "I didn't see anything except that the handwriting was good." ”

Qiao Ran put the letter back in place and said, "At least two letters a month, rain or shine, the latest one is a few days ago, and it is still some daily trivialities." But Miss Xu Shi had already returned to Chang'an at this time, but she already had to send a letter to Lord Xie every month, if she was just respectful and like a guest, there was no need to be so thoughtful. After a pause, Qiao Ran looked at the thick stack of letters and took a deep breath, "Moreover, Miss Xu Shi is still a very meticulous woman. ”

So this Xie Chengze deliberately avoided Miss Xu Shi in case she found out her identity? Qiao Ran said in her heart.

Of course, there is no one to be found at the moment, and it is not easy to make judgments.

After walking around the house, Qiao Ran and Pingzhuang walked out and thanked the steward.

The steward returned the salute with his hand, and then said: "The old lady has instructed that this courtyard will not move until the son is recovered, and Lord Qiao can come over at any time if he wants." ”

Qiao Ran thanked her when she heard this, and took Pingzhuang out of the Xie family's mansion.

When he walked out of the mansion, it was already dark, Pingzhuang took a deep breath, and turned his head to look at Qiao Ran on the side: "Lord Qiao, are you hungry?" ”

I haven't even eaten until now. Pingzhuang touched his stomach and instinctively said, "Do you want to go to Nanji to buy ......?"

Halfway through the conversation, Nan Kee Shop was gone.

"You go buy some food and bring it back to Dali Temple." Qiao Ran didn't seem to see his amazement, took out a silver ingot from his sleeve pocket and handed it to him, saying, "I asked Tang Zhongyuan to catch Xiaohua's uncle and aunt, and I need to be tried for a trial." ”

Today is destined to be a sleepless night.

Tang Zhongyuan rarely made any mistakes, and Qiao Ran went to the prison after returning to Dali Temple.

When she arrived at the prison, Xiaohua was holding a rice bowl and eating Zhengxiang, and when she saw her come in, she greeted her, and then said mysteriously: "I saw my uncle and aunt." ”

"I let you catch it." Qiao Ran paused as she spoke, and said, "That's not your uncle and aunt, don't recognize it in the future." ”

Xiaohua couldn't help nodding, she hadn't figured out anything before, seeing her uncle and aunt being escorted in, she also greeted her warmly, but her uncle's reaction was very panicked, seeing her as if she had seen a ghost, and then heard the official say that the poison on her body that vomited blood was from her aunt.

"If you are good to you for no reason, except for your relatives, you must have a plan." Qiao Ran admonished her and walked to the interrogation prison.

Uncle and Aunt Xiaohua, who had been beaten by the board, had a snow-white face, and her ten fingers were black-blue, thinking that she had already been tortured, and when she came in, the arraignment official hurriedly got up and shouted Master Qiao, and then took the record of torture.

Qiao Ran took the chair next to him and sat down, and only looked at the two trembling men and women from beginning to end before he looked at the two men and women with trembling expressions, and said, "So, as you said, you are just taking people's money and doing things according to orders?" ”

The husband and wife who had already been tortured couldn't help nodding their heads, their expressions trembling, "The man himself said that he was Xiaohua's living elder, and he was disfigured for some reason, and he couldn't see people, for fear of scaring the child, so he asked the two of us to take care of her, take good care of her, and after two years, the shop of this Nanji shop will be handed over to us." ”

"Lie!" Qiao Ran didn't even raise her eyelids, "As you said, why do you run away when you don't know anything?" ”

The couple said: "An adult from Dali Temple came to us at noon and told us that something had happened to Xiaohua, and did he feed Xiaohua anything that should not be fed?" We did feed Xiaohua something, but it was the pill given by the self-proclaimed elder Xiaohua, the pill was fragrant, and it was Xiaohua's elder who said that Xiaohua had a problem in the womb and asked us to feed her medicine to regulate her body. ”

"We were frightened at the time, and the adult said that there was something wrong with the pill, and we should run for our lives quickly, otherwise I am afraid that it will not be clear." The couple wept and trembled, "He said that our words were not enough to make Dali Temple believe, and there was no evidence to prove what we said, so we were afraid that we would not be able to run away from the charge of poisoning people and stealing family property, so we packed up our things and ran away." "As a result, the clinker didn't run away, and not long after the adult left, the official of Dali Temple, who always came to the door in the hind foot, came to the door, but today it was not to eat or to arrest people.

The interrogator on the side heard this, walked up to Qiao Ran's side and whispered, "I have already identified it, and the adult they are talking about is Lord Xie." Counting the time they said they met Master Xie, it is consistent, and some people have seen that Master Xie has indeed been to Nanji Shop, and the witness has been found. ”

After all, Lord Xie's appearance is very good, and he is wearing an official robe, compared with ordinary people, the adult wearing an official robe is naturally more attention-grabbing.

Qiao Ran lowered her eyes and pondered for a long time, then spoke again: "You said that you used to sell chaos, soup, lo-mei, and roast chicken in your hometown, why do you add walnut crisp?" That doesn't seem like a good match! ”

The husband and wife hurriedly explained: "The recipe for this walnut crisp is engraved on the stone slab in the shop!" If you don't believe me, you can go to the shop. We only found out after we took over the shop, and then we tried to make it, and we thought it was good, so we sold it. ”

This adult interrogated and interrogated, why did the good even ask about walnut cakes? This matter should have nothing to do with Xiaohua's poisoning!