Cheng Qingwan pursed her lips, thinking in her heart why this person couldn't answer so much.

Yuan Qi also realized that his words were a little inappropriate, so he changed the topic and said, "My wheat looks a little wrong, and I have to ask you to take a look at it later." ”

"Okay."

Cheng Qingwan answered, and when she turned her eyes, she saw that the person next to her was snickering.

She gently pulled Song Qiaoqiao's sleeve and looked at her suspiciously.

Half ringing, no response.

The group walked to the place where Yuan Qi lived and looked at Wang and Widow Chen standing in the courtyard with their heads down, looking innocent.

Cheng Qingwan followed the young man in, and before she could stand firmly, she heard the village chief walking in from outside.

"Lord Yuan, my daughter-in-law is crazy, sometimes good and sometimes bad, this matter is really not intentional by her, or we will solve it privately."

"If you lose your mind, you can let it out and bite people indiscriminately?" Cheng Qingwan looked at the woman who dared to be angry and didn't dare to speak, and chuckled: "When the Wang family saw the Yuan Master from a famous family, he knew how to exonerate himself. I see, I'm very sober. ”

"You little, you ......"

"Shut up!" The village chief hurriedly covered Wang's mouth and glared at the girl standing by viciously.

Yuan Qi glanced at the slap marks on Wang's face, and said lightly: "I'm not good at trying cases, I will send the Chen family and the Wang family to the pavilion chief later, and how to convict the pavilion chief will decide." Tomorrow morning, I will definitely give you an explanation. ”

When Cheng Qingwan heard this, she frowned fiercely and asked the pavilion chief to deal with it, isn't this just to let these two people go.

Everyone present thought of this, she looked at the smiles on the faces of Wang and Widow Chen, her face sank, and she was just about to speak, a thought flashed through her mind.

She glanced at Yuanqi, who was as pale as usual, thought about it, and swallowed the words into her stomach.

Cheng Qingwan walked over, grabbed A-Niang and Widow Liu, who were looking for reason, and took them home.

Cheng Hua'er returned home and slapped the table: "That dog official is partial to the village chief's family, why did you stop me just now?" ”

"A-Niang, Master Yuan has his reasons for doing things." Cheng Qingwan good-naturedly poured a cup of tea for the two women and said softly.

"But, this is clearly partiality, and he is really not a good official!"

"You said yesterday that Lord Yuan was a good official, and today he will become a dog official?" Cheng Qingwan glanced at the woman and said with a smile.

Cheng Hua'er opened her mouth, didn't answer, and sat at the table sulking.

Cheng Qingwan didn't say anything, took Song Qiaoqiao to the field, and picked all the grain that was not picked in the morning.

The two looked at the dozen bags of corn and soybeans, frowning and worried.

In the evening, he carried the food home.

When the two got home, they put down their food and went to dinner.

After dinner, Widow Liu took Song Qiaoqiao home.

Cheng Qingwan sat at the table, looked at the woman who was still angry, chuckled, and handed over the poured tea.

"A-Niang is still angry?"

"Shouldn't I be angry? The Wang family almost scratched your and Qiaoqiao's faces, but he didn't punish them severely, and sent these two women to the pavilion chief. Who in the village doesn't know that the village chief and the pavilion chief collude together and stuff some money to settle this matter! ”

"In order to settle this matter, will the village chief stuff money into the pavilion chief?"

"This is natural, the pavilion chief's greedy temperament, if he doesn't stuff some money, how can he settle this matter."

"Then A-Niang thinks that what everyone in the village knows, will Lord Yuan know?"

Cheng Hua'er was stunned for a moment when she heard this, and thought carefully for a while: "You mean to say that Yuanqi did it on purpose?" ”

"Taking bribes from officials is a big crime anywhere." Cheng Qingwan took a sip of tea and said lightly: "Since Lord Yuan has said that tomorrow morning at the latest, let's wait, I believe that he will give us an explanation." ”

Cheng Qingwan's guess was not bad at all, at this moment, Yuanqi was sitting in the teahouse closest to the pavilion chief's mansion with the county order.

"I heard that Huaxian's Ziyang tea is very delicious, and when I tasted it today, it really lived up to its reputation."

"Yes, yes."

The county order was sweating profusely, although he was a seventh-grade official, one level older than the person in front of him, but he couldn't stand the person This is in front of the Son of Heaven, and a sentence is much more useful than his book.

What's more, this person is still the only son of the Yuan family, even if he angers His Majesty and is demoted to this, as long as the crown prince ascends the throne in more than ten years, he will definitely be recalled to Beijing for reuse.

"Wei Xianling doesn't need to be nervous, today, I just invite you to tea." Yuanqi smiled and made a gesture of please.

"Thank you, Lord Moto."

Yuan Qi nodded slightly and looked out the window.

For a while, he watched the village chief and Song Da alone sneakily wandering into the door holding a box.

"Isn't this the village chief of Songjia Village, it's so late, and he came to find the pavilion chief, it's really extraordinary."

Hearing this, Wei Xianling hurriedly looked over, and saw that the two of them were holding the box, and had an ominous premonition in his heart.

Sure enough, in the next second, Ah Zhu walked in to say goodbye.

"My lord, I just saw that the box held by Village Chief Song and Song Da was full of gold and silver treasures. I also heard that these two were bribing the pavilion chief to let him release both the Wang and Chen families tomorrow. ”

Yuan Qi turned the teacup, his face was as usual: "Can you be sure?" ”

"Yes."

"I don't know what Wei County Ling thinks?"

Wei Xianling looked at the person in front of him who didn't raise his eyes, and hurriedly said tremblingly: "It's all up to Lord Yuan." ”

"Then catch it." Yuan Qi stood up and said lightly.

Ah Zhu received the order and immediately went out.

Yuan Qi stood up and walked out slowly, and Wei Xianling followed behind him in fear.

For a while, I don't know who is the superior and who is the subordinate.

Ah Zhu led the people, kicked open the door with one foot, swaggered in, and stood next to two boxes of gold and silver treasures.

The pavilion chief was startled when he heard the voice, and walked over scolding.

"Who are you, dare to break into my mansion, come here, arrest him for me!"

As soon as the words fell, more than a dozen government soldiers rushed out.

"It seems that the pavilion chief's Yulu is so tall that he can still afford to raise government soldiers."

Yuan Qi glanced at Village Chief Song and Song Da, and looked at the people in front of him with a smile.

The pavilion chief looked at his face to the side, and when he saw Wei Xianling behind him, he almost knelt down directly with weak legs.

He hurriedly gave the people behind him a look and closed the two boxes of things, but he didn't expect Yuanqi's sharp eyes to walk directly to the side.

"What is this doing, does it cost so many chips to play leaf cards?"

"Yes, yes, we are all playing bigger." The pavilion chief thought it was a given step, and hurriedly responded down.

Hearing this, Wei Xianling wiped his face and silently took a few steps back.

"yes, what about the leaf cards?" Yuan Qi picked up the peace lock in a box, looked at the lock inlaid with fine jade, and said playfully.

"This is just ...... for the next person"

"Don't tell the truth, do you want to try the ten tortures of the Criminal Department one by one?"

Yuan Qi turned his head violently, with a fierce face and a cold look in his eyes.

The pavilion chief shuddered violently, and didn't dare to say a word.

"Come on, put these three people in the county jail, and interrogate them overnight!" Yuan Qi turned his head and looked at the person standing not far away: "Wei County Order, there is Lao with me." ”

"Yes, yes." Wei Xianling's head nodded like a rattle, and he couldn't say anything to refute it.

Yuan Qi smiled faintly, and was about to put this peace lock back in the box.

lowered his eyes, but saw the three words Cheng Qingwan engraved on the lock.

He bent down and frowned at the box of gold and silver treasures from which he had taken out the peace lock.

After half a ring, he stood up and hid the peace lock in his sleeve.

"Move these two boxes to the county jail."

After saying that, he got into the carriage and went to the county jail.

When Yuanqi arrived, Wei County's order was already under trial.

He took the notebook recorded by his master and read it carefully.

"Whose box does this belong to?" Yuan Qi pointed to the box that was locked in peace and asked in a cold voice.

"It's mine." Song said loudly.

"Most of the boxes are women's jewelry, but your own?"

"It's my own, it's my daughter-in-law's dowry, it's not stolen!"

When Yuan Qi heard this, he frowned, Widow Chen's mother's family lived in the next village, and it was not like she could give such a rich dowry, not to mention the peace lock engraved with the word Cheng Qingwan in it.

Hearing this, Ah Zhu suddenly thought of the gossip he had heard, and hurriedly stepped forward and leaned into his ear and said, "My lord, some people in the village say that Mrs. Cheng was married to this Song Da before, but she was divorced later. ”

Yuan Qi nodded slightly, looked at the person in front of him and asked, "But Cheng Hua'er's dowry?" ”

"Yes, yes, it's hers."

"Why haven't you returned the dowry even after you have separated?" Yuan Qi sat on the chair and played with the brush on the table: "According to the law of the Ling Kingdom, whether the husband and wife are separated or divorced, they must return the dowry to the woman. Violators shall be fined twenty taels of silver and five rods of rods. ”

"She Cheng Hua'er didn't come to me to get it, why do you care about these things." Song Da was anxious and asked angrily.

"Ah Zhu, go to Cheng's house tomorrow and ask, do you really don't want it, or if you have another hidden secret."

Yuanqi looked at Ah Zhu Yingxia and began to interrogate the pavilion chief about how much he had taken bribes over the years.

It doesn't matter if you don't check it, even Wei County's order is shocked when you check it.

During his reign of ten years, he took bribes for more than a dozen boxes of gold and silver treasures, and hundreds of taels of silver, all of which were found in the pavilion chief's mansion.

The village chief has been in power for seven years, bullying the villagers, and in the name of paying taxes, he has several layers of villagers, and they are all divided in half with the pavilion chief.

Yuan Qi immediately wrote an excerpt and ordered someone to send it to the capital as soon as possible.

When I walked out of the county jail, the sky was slightly brighter.

He rubbed his swollen and aching temples and said softly, "Bring that box of dowry and Song Da back to Songjia Village, and ask Mrs. Cheng what is going on." ”

"Yes."

Ah Zhu should get down, immediately moved to the carriage, and hurried back to Songjia Village.

As soon as Cheng Qingwan woke up, she saw a dark carriage parked in front of her house.

She was stunned for a moment, and then the more she looked at it, the more familiar she became, wasn't this the one she had sitin.

Before she could step forward, the occupants of the car got down.

"Miss Cheng, is Mrs. Cheng here?" Yuanqi was still wearing yesterday's clothes, and the dark circles under his eyes couldn't be covered.

Cheng Qingwan nodded and called the person out.

Yuan Qi pointed to the dowry box and asked, "Is this Mrs. Cheng's dowry?" ”

When Cheng Hua'er heard this, she hurriedly stepped forward to check: "Yes, yes, this is mine, but there are a lot of things." ”

Cheng Qingwan looked at Song Da who was being pressed, and her mind turned: "Did he take this box of things to bribe the pavilion chief last night?" ”

Yuan Qi nodded slightly, took out the peace lock from his sleeve, and put it in her hand: "Thanks to your peace lock, otherwise I really don't know that this box of jewelry is your aunt's dowry." ”