Yingniang's brother committed the crime of embezzlement, and even if he was sentenced to beheading, he would usually be detained until the autumn of the following year. In addition to the re-verification by the Criminal Department, these officials will also be given a process of confession and repentance.

The process of confession and repentance is usually divided into two types, one is through re-interrogation, which involves more people. After all, greed cannot implicate only one person. The other one, the core is similar to the first, but the ending is completely different, but the criminal department will give these offending officials a time to move. Even if you can't get out of the way, you can get a reduced sentence by delaying time. The worst can get a whole corpse.

In this way, it not only protects the people behind the criminals, but also leaves some leeway for his own family, so as not to involve his family.

Yingniang's elder brother is not a high official position, and he is not fat, to put it bluntly, he does the kind of errand that is both hard and not good. Generally speaking, officials in such positions, even if they make any mistakes, will not attract the attention of the superiors. In addition to the fact that it is not easy to find a replacement official, it is also because the official position is small, and there is not enough ginseng for others. To put it mildly, it's just not worth wasting paper and pen and ink.

But things are strange here, such a hard-working petty official as Yingniang's brother was not only participated, but also secretly beheaded on the day of the conviction, when Yingniang and her parents heard the news and rushed to the state capital where her brother worked, they couldn't even bring back all the bones.

Before the matter of my brother could be figured out, the Yan family was raided immediately after. Yingniang's parents were thrown into prison, and everyone in the Yan family was either imprisoned or sold into slavery by the government. The only one left was Yingniang.

Afterwards, Yingniang also begged Zhang Sheng, hoping that he could take a break and let her visit her parents in prison, but the news she got was that her parents had already died in prison. This series of blows and grief quickly broke her, and she didn't even have time to think about the problems in this whole thing. It wasn't until Yingniang returned to the Yan family again and saw that the former Yan family had become the Su house that she faintly felt that this whole thing was a little abnormal.

In order to avoid the pursuit of the ghost and investigate the truth of the matter, she hid directly in the main house of the Yan family, which is also the bedroom of the current owner of the house, Su Bing and his aunt.

This Su Bing is none other than the housekeeper of the official surnamed Su who was in charge of raiding the Yan family. On the day Yan's house was raided, she had seen him twice. This person is quite kind-hearted, and when the officers and soldiers pushed his father and mother, he even helped to say two good words. For this reason, Yingniang has a good impression of him.

"I think this Su Bing is very problematic. He is a small housekeeper, and it is just that he has become the owner of the Yan Mansion in the past, and what is more coincidental is that this house was still raided by his former master, and the time for this identity change is too short. ”

Xing Ruyi frowned, she knew that Yingniang's story was not finished, judging from the emotions hidden between her eyebrows, the Yan family was copied, and the death of Yingniang's brother was not just framed.

"Madame is right, that Su Bing does have a secret on him. At first, I just thought it was strange that Su Bing was not a timid person, but he was afraid of the night. Every evening, when it was not completely dark, he asked his servant to fill his room with candles, even when he was sleeping, he had to light it.

Also, Su Bing seems to be afraid of sleeping. On several occasions, he was already very sleepy, but he asked his aunt to prick him awake with a needle. His aunt persuaded him to find a doctor, but he told his aunt that his illness could not be cured by ordinary doctors.

I felt strange, so I stood in front of Su Bing's bed and watched him a few times, and found that once he fell asleep, he would fall into an extremely terrible nightmare. That kind of fear can be seen clearly. Later, his illness seemed to get worse and worse, and even every time he fell asleep, he would murmur to himself, and I heard my brother's name several times. ”

"It seems that Su Bing's problem is related to your brother."

Yingniang nodded, "I felt this way at the time, but I didn't know what I could do. I am a ghost, there is a soul and there is no form, I can neither touch Su Bing, nor can I ask him the truth. Just when I was in a hurry, I realized that although I could not touch the physical object, I could control the intangible things, such as the wind. ”

"You scared Su Bing."

"Well, I scared him." Yingniang looked at Xing Ruyi and smiled shallowly: "It's so funny, it turns out that when a person is scared by a ghost, he will react like that." I barely did anything before he fell to his knees in fright, and spat out everything with one mouth.

As I have just said, he is a good man, or at least a man with a clear conscience. The reason why he has such a strange disease is because he still has a conscience, a sense of guilt, and knows what guilt and self-blame are. ”

Yingniang raised her head, looked at the night sky, and muttered: "I returned to the Yan Mansion, originally to find my father and mother and find the truth about the Yan family's copying. The truth was found, but it came from Su Bing's mouth. ”

"What is the truth?"

"My brother is not corrupt at all, he is a good official, a good official who is incorruptible. His sin lies in his fearlessness of power and in his integrity. It all started with my brother being framed. At that time, the official surnamed Su was in charge of accompanying a young lady with a family background back to his hometown, passing through my brother's territory, and settled in the government office.

One day, the official surnamed Su drank alcohol, and he wanted to insult the young lady by getting drunk. At that time, my brother happened to be in the house, so he rushed over and rescued the young lady. After the official surnamed Su woke up, he was worried that the matter would be exposed, so he thought of a poisonous plan. He first invited my brother and the young lady to the banquet under the pretext of making amends, but he instructed the butler to drug my brother and the young lady's drink.

After taking the opportunity to insult the young lady, he ordered the housekeeper to carry my brother into the guest room with the young lady, creating the false impression that my brother and the young lady were having an ambiguous relationship. Then he ordered a fire to be lit and burned to death along with my brother and the young lady. ”

"I'll go, what kind of operation is this. Just take advantage of it, and set up blame. It's just a matter of framing the blame, but also murder, and it is still two lives at a time. Xing Ruyi shook his head again and again: "But I don't understand, since the other party has chosen to kill, why did he come up with a charge of corruption." Isn't this a superfluous move to find trouble for yourself? ”

"It's a bit unbelievable, but when you think about it, it doesn't seem strange. That young lady has an extraordinary background, and her father is an important member of the court, if it weren't for this, she wouldn't have asked this official surnamed Su to personally escort her back to her hometown, and there was a reason why the young lady returned to her hometown. ”

"What is the reason?"

"Marry!"

"Since you are married, why do you choose such a way of traveling, is it possible that this big official is more diligent and thrifty on weekdays?"

Yingniang shook her head: "It's not that the big official is diligent and thrifty on weekdays, but this marriage is a little different from that of an ordinary daughter." The husband chosen by the great official for his daughter is naturally not an ordinary family, but a lord with a knighthood. This lord has a bit of a temper, and he will never spit out easily until he has seen his fiancée. ”

"I see, it's a blind date! The high official in the court wanted to marry his daughter to him, but he knew the temper of this lord. If you send your daughter over with great fanfare, in case the lord doesn't take a fancy to it, he will lose his face at that time. Therefore, he chose a person who thought he was quite reliable, that is, the bastard surnamed Su, and asked him to secretly send his daughter to the lord's mansion in the name of sending his daughter back to his hometown, so that the lord could meet first. If you fall in love, everyone will be happy, and if you don't match, you will secretly bring your daughter back. In this way, the gods don't know, the ghosts don't know, and their old faces are saved. ”

"Yes, things are as you guessed, ma'am." Yingniang nodded: "Since the official surnamed Su is a close confidant of that big official, he naturally knows his temper and his weaknesses. He wants to save face, but his daughter died so ugly, he will definitely not let outsiders know easily, but the court officials are not ordinary people, and if they die in a good manner, they will definitely be ordered to investigate. In order to cover up the truth, the official had to order someone to cover up the truth about the death of his daughter and my brother, and then fabricated a crime to justify my brother's death.

That's why my brother was arrested so strangely, sentenced so strangely, and even beheaded so timely. When my father and I rushed to the place where my brother was serving his sentence, there was not even a complete body.

My brother is a small official, and he doesn't know the way of officialdom, so even if someone thinks his case is strange, they don't dare to say anything for him. As for the copying of our whole family, on the one hand, the official surnamed Su was worried that we would be suspicious and secretly investigated my brother's affairs, and on the other hand, it was also to calm the official's grief and anger at the loss of his beloved daughter, and took our whole family as a sacrifice.

As for my parents, they were not killed by fear of sin at all, but were poisoned by them. Pity our Yan family, we didn't do anything bad, but we ended up with a miserable ending of ruined family. ”

"What about Zhang Sheng? I mean, what happened to the old man of the Zhang family after changing his name and surname? Does he have anything to do with your family's affairs? ”

"Yes!" There was a hint of hatred in Yingniang's eyes: "Innocent frame, if there is no witness, how can it be done perfectly." Zhang Sheng is the witness found by the Su family, and the Su family also completed the final framing of my brother through his hands. After the deed was completed, he became the son-in-law of the Su family, and even got a share of part of the property of my Yan family, and became the master of the Zhang family. ”

Yingniang said, clenching her fists: "It's me, it's me who has eyes and no beads, and lures the wolf into the room." If it weren't for me, my brother wouldn't have been charged with such a crime after his unjust death. I hate, so I have to make them pay for what they've done. ”