Wei Zongyong wanted to say something, but Liu interjected: "Madame is thoughtful, the master is now avoiding suspicion at home, and he is also anxious, since the fourth lady has some clues, let's take care of that side first!" ”

Wei Chang'an had an accident, and according to the law, Wei Zongyong had to avoid suspicion, so he didn't go to the yamen these days.

Wei Zongyong reluctantly got up, and a sedan chair had already been prepared at the door.

Except for Wei Yiwan, only Chunlan had seen Aunt Mei's cousin-in-law and the Taoist priest, so she had to go and identify the corpse.

Because of Wei Zongyong, Chunlan could only follow behind the sedan chair on foot.

The place where the body was found was the Land Shrine on the outskirts of Beijing, which people used to call "New Land Shrine".

Zhaoyi has a history of nearly 600 years as the national capital, and there was originally a land temple on the outskirts of the city, but more than 20 years ago, the Yonghe River washed away the land temple.

So they chose another vacant lot and built a new land shrine. Who knew that after the construction was completed, there were fires one after another, and people said that this was the land god was unhappy, and it was necessary to build it on the original site, so the temple was rebuilt in the original place, and the new land temple was abandoned in a few years.

The person who found the body was a guy from the Sang family's raw butcher shop in the city, and he went out of the city every three or five days to collect pigs, and he rushed back to the city together after collecting seven or eight heads.

Early that morning, he rushed to the city at the gate of the city, and he used to bring two dogs with him when he was driving the pigs, so that he could help him drive the pigs, and second, he could strengthen his courage.

Every time he entered the city, the route remained the same, and when he passed by the abandoned land shrine, he used to smoke a bag of cigarettes to rest, but he only stood on the side of the road and smoked, and did not enter the temple, for fear that the pigs would run away.

This time, the two dogs who followed him were a little abnormal, first barking at the temple gate, he drank twice and didn't listen, and one of them simply ran in.

The temple gate here is long gone, and the gate is black and open.

At that time, it was not very bright, and I couldn't see anything clearly from the outside into the temple.

He barked twice, and the dog came out of it, with something in his mouth, and when he got closer, he saw that it was a woman's embroidered shoe, and there was blood on it.

There are often beggars living in the abandoned temple, but the shoes are very clean and exquisite, at first glance they are sold by the ready-to-wear shops in the city, although they are not as good as the embroidery work of the high-ranking families, but they are not worn by the beggars.

The man felt strange, so he took two dogs to check on it, and when he saw two dead men lying on the ground, covered in blood, he was half frightened, and crawled to the ground to report to the official.

It happened that the Criminal Department took over the case of the Wei family, and according to the description of Chunlan and others, Aunt Mei's cousin and the Taoist priest were all drawn and posted everywhere for arrest.

The official who went to dispose of the corpse looked a little similar, so he informed Shangguan and notified the Wei family to recognize it.

Chunlan was so frightened that her legs were weak when she arrived here, these two people died very miserably, the man was stabbed twice in the back, and the woman's neck was cut.

Chunlan looked at it boldly and said, "That's right, this woman is Aunt Mei's cousin-in-law." This man is the Taoist priest. ”

After she finished admitting it, another person came over and looked at it and said, "Isn't this Mei Sangui's two sons!" ”

Chunlan glanced at the man suspiciously, she didn't know it.

It turned out that Bao had already explained to the yamen that Aunt Mei's maiden home was in Yongquan Town, which was 300 miles away from the capital.

The Criminal Department sent someone to investigate, and the people in the town said that Aunt Mei's cousin was named Mei Sangui, who was a lazy and greedy master. Three months ago, he moved out of town with his wife and two daughters, boasting that they were going to Beijing to make a fortune.

I haven't been back since.

The officials of the Criminal Department considered it thoroughly, so they brought the land security there and asked him to stay in the capital for the time being so that he could be a witness during the trial.

Now that the bodies of these two people were found, not only did the Wei family come to identify the bodies, but they also called the local security.

In charge of trying Aunt Mei's case, Yang Chenyang, the left attendant of the Criminal Department, was promoted to the court to inquire about the case in view of the fact that the bodies of Mei Sangui and his wife had now been found.

According to the custom of the Great Zhou Dynasty, you can hire a lawyer to go to court to fight a lawsuit, and the Wei family hires Mr. Feng Xiongfang.

Aunt Mei did not hire a lawyer, not because she was the defendant, the criminal department had asked her opinion before whether she needed to hire a lawyer on her behalf, but Aunt Mei refused.

This time, there were Wei Yiwan's maid Chunlan, as well as a few girls who served Aunt Mei, in addition to the land security of Yongquan Town and the servants who participated in the autopsy.

Lord Yang ascended to the court, and the first thing he asked was Aunt Mei: "Mei, Duchess Zhiyong sued you for conspiring with others to murder Fourth Miss Wei Yiwan, can you plead guilty?" ”

Aunt Mei was wearing a prison uniform and her hair was neatly combed. These days, she is locked up in prison, except for three prison meals a day, she will be given a bowl of water for each meal, Aunt Mei only drinks half of it, and the remaining half is used to freshen up.

Therefore, although she is a lot haggard, she looks quite clean and tidy.

After listening to Lord Yang's words, Aunt Mei said calmly, "I don't admit my guilt. ”

After Lord Yang finished asking this sentence, the rest was handed over to the lawyer, because if Aunt Mei confessed, then there was no need to go down the trial.

Feng Xiong asked her: "The two bodies found in the Land Temple are your cousins and sisters-in-law?" ”

Aunt Mei said unhurriedly: "It's the two of them, but first, I didn't design to harm people with them, and secondly, I didn't kill them." ”

Mei Sangui and his wife were killed for no more than three days, indicating that when they were killed, Aunt Mei was already in prison.

Feng Xiongwei asked the land protector of Yongquan Town again: "Do you know why the Mei family and his wife left Yongquan Town?" ”

Di Bao replied: "This Mei Sangui is an idle man in our town, and about three months ago, he shouted all over the town that he wanted to go to the capital to make a fortune. If there is something good, ask him, what is the great fortune to make? He said that his cousin was the aunt of the Duke's Palace, and he had sent a letter to ask him to go.

This Mei Sangui has always lied to ten, and we all know that he did have a cousin who was sold to the capital to be a maid, but it has been nearly twenty years. Usually when he got drunk, he would say that his cousin was ungrateful, and he would not care about him when he climbed the high branches.

Then I would ask someone to write to my cousin to ask for money, and it was estimated that I could get one money out of ten, but it was only a few taels of silver. Everyone said that his cousin must not be married to any rich man, otherwise he would have given him 180 taels of silver and would have blocked his mouth. ”

"Who is in Mei Sangui's family?" Feng asked eloquently.

"There are four people in his family, in addition to the husband and wife, there are two daughters, who are twins." Dibao replied without hesitation.

"How old are these two children?" Feng asked eloquently.

"It's just about ten years old, Mei Sangui's wife has given birth to several children one after another since she got married, but she can't raise them much. It was almost forty years old before the daughters were born. Dibao said: "These two children look the same, but unfortunately they are both congenitally deficient, they are small and thin, especially the eldest one, whose hair is thin and yellow." ”

Feng asked Chunlan again and asked her to explain her past experiences in detail.