Duan Tianya stood up from the Taishi chair and paced slowly in the study.

He looked at Duan Ling'er while pacing, his eyes never left Duan Ling'er's face for a moment, as if he was thinking about something.

After looking at Duan Ling'er for a while, he stopped: "No, it's true that Su Lao Er deceived the lord and harbored evil intentions, and it is not false that you want to be the master of the tenants and slaves, but if you dare to sue the court directly, are you really not afraid of being angry for your father?" If you are angry with your father, you will definitely be angry with your mother. Sister Ling, according to your character. You won't let Shen suffer a little grievance. Say, what else have you not told your father? ”

Duan Ling'er's heart was shocked, and she buried her head deeply, didn't dare to show a little pride, and replied carefully: "Father, in fact, I have inquired and collected a lot of other incriminating evidence you want, such as the antique shop, the silver building and our silk village. I thought that if I couldn't fulfill the 1,200 taels of silver that my father requested, I wanted to exchange this with you. ”

"What a cunning girl!" Duan Tianya sat back on the toise chair: "You plan everywhere, step by step." You know that even if all kinds of true and false are floating in the streets and alleys, but as a person who has come over in the wind and waves, if you want to calm the people's grievances, you will definitely not use the trick of killing 10,000 enemies and losing 8,000 yourself, you are doing this in order to crucify the Su family! As a father, I don't ask why you hate the Su family so much, I just ask you, you were ready before you asked me for business, right? If I don't give it to you, will you take those things and threaten them? ”

Duan Ling'er raised his head and said sincerely: "Ling'er hates the Su family, because their brothers and sisters take care of the people in vain, oppress the weak, deceive the master, and do bad things under the banner of others, but protect themselves well, this kind of person has a bad heart, a bad heart, Ling'er wants to teach them a lesson from the heart." As for asking for business, Ling'er knew that her father would definitely agree, because you need someone to do it, and ......"

"And what?"

"And our nine rooms are indeed pitiful."

After a long silence, Duan Tianya sighed: "Your girl is a bit like her father when she was young, but it's a pity that she is a daughter's family...... Go on. ”

Duan Ling'er's heart was about to jump out of her throat just now, and she slowly continued to reply: "Before you go home, Ling'er has already gained some evidence of the Su family's crimes, and when my father handed over the matter of Zhuangzi to my brother, I knew that my opportunity had come, and all the preparations I had made could be used." ”

Duan Tianya snorted coldly: "I even used the art of war with my father, which trick are you using?" ”

Duan Ling'er became more and more respectful: "It's not a single move, just be prepared and not slack." ”

After Duan Ling'er finished speaking, she shouted a few times, "An Niang, An Niang?" ”

An Niang stood in the distance of the study, guarding to prevent others from passing, and heard the master call to run quickly.

Walking into the study, I secretly saw that Duan Tianya's face was not bad, and Shen and Duan Yu were intact and did not cry at all, and the big stone in An Niang's heart fell.

Duan Ling'er took out a key from her waist and handed it to An Niang: "An Niang, you go and open the elm box in our house, and together with Ruyi, bring the things prepared inside." ”

An Niang glanced at Duan Ling'er and seemed to ask, now? Do you want to bring it now?

Duan Ling'er nodded a little helplessly: "Take it now." ”

.

At the same time, Xie Ci and the other two people of the same yamen, one nicknamed Chen Ba, the other nicknamed Li Dadao, plus the old Zhao Tou, the four of them rode three fast horses to a house on the outskirts of the northern part of the city.

Chen Ba was jolting on the horse, pulling the reins with one hand, and wiping the sweat on his head with the other: "These two days are really lively, the steward of the Duanfu Zhuangzi is greedy for the master's money, and the master does not dispose of it himself, but he can lead a group of tenants and good slaves to sue the yamen, then the Su steward is the person they are looking for in the Duan Mansion, and suing the Su steward is not equivalent to telling the people of the world that they are incapable of controlling their subordinates?" This is the first time this has happened. ”

Li Dadao said: "It's really strange, the Duan family has a big business but has such a manager, presumably it is because the Duan son can't bear it anymore so he directly sues him." This matter spread widely, and many people said that although the Duan Mansion was negligent, it did not tolerate the adulterers, and would rather hit themselves with the board than be the master of the tenants and slaves, which can be regarded as a conscientious act. In the past two days at the gate of Nasu Mansion, many people have thrown a bunch of rotten eggs with vegetable leaves, and the reputation is stinky. ”

Lao Zhao Tou and Xie Ci rode a fast horse together, he hugged Xie Ci's waist with one hand, and covered the utensils box he carried with him with the other. Xie Ci listened to the discussion between the two, and he only looked ahead and did not speak.

Chen Ba said again: "It is said that the prefect did not rest all night last night, and studied the testimony sent by the Duan Mansion with the master, and the two of them saw that their eyes were dark, who knew that there were people beating drums outside the yaya early this morning, and I saw that the prefect was in a hurry in the hall, and even the crown and belt were hurriedly put on." ”

It turned out that early in the morning, there were people beating drums and shouting grievances in front of the yamen of Yangzhou Mansion, and when the Song prefect was promoted to sit in the court, two classes of soap officials gathered below. I saw a woman in her forties and fifties, with tears streaming down her face, crying out in that hall.

The prefect of Song sent someone to bring the woman up, knelt down in front of the case, and asked, "What is the woman's name, and what are your grievances?" Why is the drum beating at this time? ”

The woman said: "The people's woman Wan Liang lives in a five-mile shop outside the north gate of Yangzhou. The shopkeeper in the family has several houses, but because there are fewer people and more houses, he opened an inn, and for decades, he has been safe and sound. Yesterday evening, there were two merchants who were residents, saying that they were from Yueyang, who were passing by here because they were doing goods on the other road, and because it was getting late, they wanted to stay in this store. When the women and men saw that he was passing by the merchants, they stopped him at that time. In the evening, the two drank and laughed, and everyone in the small shop knew it. This morning, when the sky was about to dawn, the two of them got up and left, and when it was time for Chenpai, suddenly a splasher in this town came and grabbed my man by the neck and said: 'There are two corpses at the entrance of the town, and they kill the underground, but they are the guests of your investment shop, and you must kill him for money, and drag the corpses at the entrance of the town to harm others.' So the squire dragged the two corpses to the door of the woman's house, and threatened my man with five hundred taels of silver to cover up the matter. 'Otherwise, these two people went out of your shop, why did a strange case happen in this town?' It's not like you're moving the corpse away! The man in my family was so angry that he fainted on the ground, and the woman was in a hurry, so she came to avenge the eldest lord. ”

After the prefect of Song's mansion, he ordered someone to bring the splash skin, and the splash skin looked evil, but he insisted that it was the innkeeper and his wife who wanted to kill for money, because the sky was about to dawn, and there should have been people walking in the town at that time. I asked the store in the town, but I didn't hear the sound of running for help. It was obviously killed by someone at night, and then dragged to the entrance of the town, where the body was removed and destroyed. The squire admitted that he had committed blackmail, but the murderer was a sure thing, and asked the prefect to interrogate.

After hearing this, the Song prefect felt that it was also very reasonable, and now the confessions of the two sides are inconsistent, and they cannot be decided without mutual examination. Since the facts are not clear, an investigation is needed. Therefore, he ordered the two to be taken to wait, and ordered Xie to wait to investigate and testify.

Xie Ci and a group of four people came straight to Wuli Shop.

All the residents along the way, when they heard about the murder, gathered in groups and followed the arrester to watch.

Xie Ci and the others arrived at the door of the inn first, and saw two corpses, lying below, and at a glance, they were killed by knife wounds.

Then he asked the second child in the store and asked, "Did this corpse fall here?" ”

Xiao Er asked this first when he saw Xie Ci, and hurried back: "Tell the official, there is no corpse at the door of the shop, and it was the scoundrel who blackmailed my shopkeeper in order to blackmail the shopkeeper, so the corpse was moved from the town to the door of the shop, so that the scoundrel could blackmail Lai." Ask the official to be clear. ”

Lao Zhao squatted down for an autopsy, and the three of them walked into the inn and asked Xiao Er, "Which room did the guests live in yesterday?" Xiao Er said: "There are only three rooms in the back, and the shopkeeper and his wife live with their daughter." The two rooms on the east side are kitchens, and these five houses never live in guests, but only move forward and enter, so that guests can live. The villain and others live in the backyard and do not live here. Yesterday the two guests came, and the shopkeeper said that because they were merchants who sold goods, they would inevitably have money, and it was not very appropriate to move forward, so he asked him to live in Zhongjin. Xiao Er said as he led the thanks, and the others went to the middle room, pointing to the house above.

Xie Ci and the others went in to take a closer look, and saw that there were still traces of residual food and wine on the table, which had not been removed.

Chen Badao: "I saw that it was as this little two said." ”

Xie Ci shook his head and pointed to the two night pots placed under the bed, which were clean and clean, without any traces of being used at night or after being used and cleaned.

The three of them glanced at each other, and they all suspected that the confession of the little two was untrue.

Chen Ba asked: "Since your shopkeeper has opened an inn here for decades, and the passers-by must live here, is there only the two of them yesterday, and there are no other guests?" ”

The little two replied: "In addition, there are three guests, one is to sell leather goods in Shanxi; Those two are the master and servant, from Henan to here, and now because of illness, they are still sleeping here! ”

Soon the leather merchant was brought in for questioning, and the guest said that he had seen the two guests of yesterday, and that he had indeed gone out at the dawn of day, and that he had not heard any shouting during the night, and that he had no idea why he had died.

Then he brought the servant, and said the same thing, saying that the master was sick, and had not slept all night, and that if there had been any other reason, how could there be no movement.

Everyone said in unison, saying that it was not the store that killed them for money, and they were even more puzzled in their hearts, so they had to go inside again, and look around carefully, but there was still no trace.

Xie Ci was puzzled: "This case is obviously dead outside the inn, if it dies in this house, it is the three people who deny it, but if it really died in the house, how can there be no trace at all?" ”