Qi Huan nodded, similar to what he guessed.

Someone found Xiucai one step ahead of them and killed people.

It's just someone who doesn't know who.

Qi Huan stood up, drained the dirt from his hands, and ordered: "Take the corpse back together, and check around again to see if anything is found." ”

"Yes."

The cave was a mess, and it must have been turned over before, and the group carefully rummaged through it again, and finally found a few pieces of paper.

Under the straw mat where Xiucai slept, Qi Huan found that the soil was loose in one place, and dug out a bamboo tube.

There are several pieces of paper rolled in a bamboo tube.

It's Xiucai's self-report, a few pieces of paper with his imitation of handwriting.

Xu Shangshu's handwriting.

Put away the paper, make sure that nothing else can be turned over, and the group will go home.

……

In the evening, Qi Huan watched Xiucai's self-report in the study.

Xiucai is a native of Zhangzhou, who lost his father at a young age and was raised by his mother He.

He hopes that Xiucai can get ahead, and even if his family is poor, he will try to send Xiucai to school and read and write.

It's just that Xiucai is not the material for reading, and he stumbled, and he failed to get into Xiucai after taking the exam three times.

And before He could get ahead in Xiucai, he died in the twenty-fifth year of Xiucai because of his overwork.

It may be that He's death stimulated Xiucai, and finally in the imperial examination after He's death, Xiucai was admitted.

It's just that because of his limited qualifications, Xiucai has never been able to make any progress in the imperial examination.

There are so many talents in the entire Daliang country, Xiucai has not stood out, there is no official and half-position, and he will not work, so he can only make a living by selling everyone's works to copy.

Xiucai's copying is superb, and it can be said that it can be said to be fake.

In addition to copying paintings, Xiucai's best thing is actually copying people's handwriting.

But Xiucai has been hiding and tucking it away, and no one has found out.

Xiucai's mother, He Shi, always hoped that Xiucai would one day go to the capital with Xiucai, so Xiucai took a finger bone of He's and walked in the direction of Beijing while selling paintings to earn travel expenses.

In September last year, Xiucai finally walked to the capital.

The consumption level in the capital is high, and after Xiucai rented a small courtyard, the savings from selling paintings were almost used.

Xiucai, as usual, went to the place where the literati in the capital gathered to sell paintings.

On the first day, he earned a good amount of silver, twice as much silver as he would have earned in painting elsewhere for a month.

After tasting the sweetness, Xiucai continued to go to that place to sell paintings the next day.

Then he met the man.

On that day, Xiucai was preparing to copy the paintings to sell as usual, and a man in black came in front of the stall.

The man in black asked Xiu to not copy other people's handwriting.

Xiucai didn't dare to admit it at first, and denied it without even thinking about it.

After all, copying other people's handwriting caused some kind of mess, and the defendant went to the government, but he would have his five fingers cut off.

When the man in black asked for the second time, he took out a silver ticket of five hundred taels and put it in front of Xiucai.

Although Xiucai is excited, his reason is still there.

The third time, the man in black released two silver tickets worth five hundred taels.

It adds up to fifteen hundred taels.

Xiucai was moved and agreed.

Later, Xiucai was taken away by the man in black.

The man in black blindfolded Xiucai, took him to a room, and gave him a letter to imitate the handwriting of the letter writer.

The last sign of the envelope was Xu Yongtao.

Xiucai didn't know who the owner of the name was at the time.

It's just the usual correspondence, Xiucai didn't find any problems, and began to observe the writing habits of the letter writer and the direction of the characters.

The next day, Xiucai handed over the copied handwriting to the man in black, and the man in black was very satisfied.

handed Xiucai another letter and asked Xiucai to write down the contents of the letter in Xu Yongtao's handwriting.

Xiucai opened the letter, and when he read the contents of the letter, he realized that he had jumped into a large fire pit.

Only then did Xiucai know that Xu Yongtao was the name of the head of the household department.

When Xiucai sensed that something was wrong, it was too late to regret it.

He knew that it was not a good thing for this person to ask him to imitate someone else's handwriting, but he didn't expect it to be so bad.

The content of the letter is the evidence that Xu Shangshu instructed Zuo Shilang of the household department to rob the disaster silver, and Zhang Shilang was arrested in Dali Temple to provide evidence that Xu Shangshu was dragged into the water.

Xiucai trembled and copied the contents of those letters in Xu Shangshu's handwriting.

Xiucai didn't dare not do it.

Because at that time, as long as he said that he regretted quitting, Xiu knew that he would never be able to get out of this room.

Even after this is over, he may be killed.

It's just that to this point, Xiucai can only obey the arrangement of the man in black.

Even if you are killed later, it is better than being killed on the spot.

After copying the contents of the letter and handing it to the man in black, Xiucai did not feel at ease for a moment.

I don't know when I was killed.

Xiucai didn't expect that he would be let go in the end.

Xiucai, who was released, hurried back to the rented small courtyard, packed up some things casually and left.

He had to hide, or when the man regretted it, he would be dead.

Xiucai didn't run too far, and felt that the most dangerous place was the safest place, so he found a cave on the mountain of a small village outside the capital and stayed.

Xiucai didn't dare to go out, even if two or three months had passed.

But there was no food on the mountain, so Xiucai could only go down the mountain to exchange food with the villagers every once in a while.

It's just recently that Xiucai suddenly felt flustered, which made him very uneasy.

Xiucai felt that this might be something that the heavens were portending.

Xiucai thought that maybe the man regretted it, and was looking for him everywhere, and he was going to be found soon.

Xiucai didn't know what to do, and always felt that he was in a catastrophe this time.

In the end, Xiucai took out a pen and paper and decided to write down his experience during this time.

After writing, Xiucai silently wrote down the handwriting of Xu Shangshu that he imitated, and wrote it again in Xu Shangshu's handwriting.

Xiucai always remembered the contents of the letter.

Maybe I was too scared at the time, but my brain remembered what happened during that time very clearly.

In his own statement, it was written that when Xiucai decided to write down this evidence, it was gone.

Qi Huan guessed the next thing on his own.

After writing it, Xiucai sealed the contents with a bamboo tube, dug a deep pit under the straw mat where he slept, and buried the bamboo tube in it.

After Xiucai did this, a few days later, the man really found Xiucai in the cave and killed people.

Before leaving, I climbed the cave where Xiucai lived, and I don't know if they found anything.

But they didn't find the most important thing that Xiucai hid, or they didn't expect Xiucai to have a hunch and made preparations early.

In the end, the evidence was found by Qi Huan and them.

After reading Xiucai's self-report, Qi Huan flipped through the contents of several other sheets of paper.

Except that there is no private seal of Xu Shangshu, the content is exactly the same as the content of the evidence handed over by Zhang Shilang.

Although there are only these, it is not a problem to prove Xu Shangshu's innocence.

Qi Huan breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

At this moment, Xiao Si's voice came from outside the door, saying that the Korean prince asked to see him.

As soon as Xiao Si finished speaking, Han Danqing's voice also came from outside the study.

"My lord, something happened."