Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

The twenty-eight people in Happy Forest were all strangled to death.

The eight people in the Plum Garden were three men and five women, all of whom were petite and pretty; the twelve people in the Mingyue Courtyard were five men and seven women, all of whom were slender and pretty; the nineteen people in the Qujing Garden were nine men and ten women, all of whom were elegant and pretty; the thirteen people in the Bitao Garden were six men and seven women, all of whom were tender and fair; the twenty-one people in the Luoyan Residence were nine men and twelve women, all of whom were beautiful and charming. They all died after being tortured in various ways.

All of them died within three hours.

While she was asking about the Luo and Wang families' cases, they were massacred.

What happened that led to their collective massacre?

Before she dealt with the Luo and Wang cases, she had only done one major thing: sealing up Fenglong Trading Company.

Standing in the courtyard of Luoyan Residence, looking at the twenty-one corpses lined up in a row, Chen Shao said in a cold and deep voice: "Li Tianliu, take your Yulin Guards and immediately arrest all the nobles and gentry in Hongyuan County!"

Li Tianliu didn't move.

Chen Shao looked at him, "You want to disobey?"

Li Tianliu looked into her scarlet eyes and asked calmly, "Do you know how many noble families there are in Hongyuan County?"

Chen Shao sneered: "So what?"

Li Tianliu reminded: "The Yulin Guards only have 100 people."

Chen Shao's gaze slowly moved away from him and looked at the dozen or so Yulin guards around him.

The eyes of more than a dozen Yulin Guards were also burning with anger. When they saw her gaze, they all knelt on one knee and said, "General, no matter how many nobles there are, we will capture them all!"

Chen Shao's gaze shifted from them to Li Tianliu.

Li Tianliu changed his usual indifference, looked into her eyes seriously, and said calmly: "If you insist on taking them down, I can naturally take them all down, but you have to think clearly whether you can bear the consequences of taking them down!"

Chen Shao asked coldly: "What are the consequences?"

Looking at the row of corpses, Li Tianliu said bluntly: "They all died because of you!"

Chen Shao clenched her hands into fists instantly, then looked at the row of corpses. She said, "Threatening me?"

Li Tianliu said perfunctorily: "I guess so."

A strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake. These noble families and gentry have been lingering here for dozens or even hundreds of years. Even in times of peace and prosperity, it would take a long time to uproot them. What's more, there are constant wars on the border, the people in the court are unstable, and the national strength is gradually declining.

They killed these people as a threat, but also as a reminder.

Remind her to know when to stop.

If she was not the sixth son of the Duke of Chen's mansion, just because of her status as the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple, I'm afraid they would not bother to remind her in this way.

This is also one of the reasons why he persuaded her to return to Beijing.

"I agree." Chen Shao retracted his gaze and said in a calm voice.

Li Tianliu raised his eyebrows: "What did you agree to?"

Chen Shao did not answer. Facing the row of corpses, he calmly ordered, "Send someone to call Ding Lisheng over."

Ding Lisheng came very quickly.

When he came over and saw the row of corpses, he immediately became weak, "Sir, this..."

Chen Shao interrupted him coldly: "Arrange people or a carriage to carry them all back!"

Ding Lisheng didn't dare to ask more questions. He stammered and said yes, and then he went to make arrangements immediately. Chen Shao stopped him, "Arrange more people or carriages. In addition to here, there are several bodies in the garden."

"Several, several gardens..." Ding Lisheng widened his eyes in shock.

Chen Shao glanced at him and said, "Go quickly!"

"Yes, yes, I will go right away."

Watching his stumbling back, Chen Shao also slowly walked out. Although she couldn't eliminate them immediately, it didn't stop her from collecting evidence of their crimes!

"The flowers here are blooming so beautifully." Fu Jiu, who had returned earlier, said rather heartlessly as they passed two clumps of oleander. "They are in clusters, as if they were free."

Chen Shao stopped and turned his head to look at the oleander beside him.

Clusters of flowers, adorned on the branches, are bright and beautiful, as if unaware of the sorrows of the world.

"Really? I've never seen flowers that are so well-growthed anywhere else." Fu Jiu casually picked off a branch, counted the flowers on it, and said, "I don't know how they grow it."

Chen Shao glanced at the roots of the flowers, which were so lush and full of branches and leaves that he could not see anything else. He glanced at other places and saw that both the trees and the flowers were indeed growing more vigorously than those in the prefectural governor's mansion.

Thinking of a case he had handled before, Chen Shao ordered: "Go find a hoe."

Fu Jiu asked what he was looking for hoes for, but he had already gone to look for them. After searching for a while, he found three hoes in a utility room near the kitchen at the back door.

Chen Shao gestured to him: "Dig out these two clusters of flowers."

Fu Jiu thought she had taken a fancy to the two flowers, so he refused the help of the yamen runners and went into the flowers alone, digging along the roots of the flowers with a hoe. After a few diggings, a piece of hand bone flew out with the mud he dug out, hit his forehead, and rolled to the ground.

"What is that?" Fu Jiu picked it up and examined it for a moment before asking curiously, "Where did the bone come from?"

"Give it to me." Chen Shao ordered.

Fu Jiu handed it over casually.

It's the ulna.

Chen Shao immediately ordered: "Keep digging and see if there are any other bones."

Fu Jiu dug with the hoe and revealed another long bone and several small bones.

After Chen Shao stopped him, he went forward and picked up the bones one by one. They were the radius, carpal bones, metacarpal bones and phalanges. After arranging the bones one by one on the side of the road, there were still two metacarpal bones and three phalanges missing. He took the hoe from Fu Jiu's hand, carefully turned over the soil he had dug, and quickly found the missing bones.

"There's someone buried under this tree!" Fu Jiu said, and then covered her forehead with her hands, "I was hit on the head by a dead person's bones just now!"

Chen Shao ignored him and continued digging along the spot he had dug. Li Tianliu took the hoe from the yamen runner, went into the bushes, and started digging too.

Soon, as the oleander was uprooted, bones were dug out one after another.

"There are so many bones, there must be more than one person." Fu Jiu was surprised when she saw the bones piled up like a small mountain.

Chen Shao handed him the hoe and motioned for him to go dig in other flowers.

After Fu Jiu left, Chen Shao squatted down and began to piece together the bones in the fading light. Just when he had finished half of the skeleton, Ding Lisheng came back with his men.

After casually placing the bones in his hand in the correct position, Chen Shao stood up and looked at the yamen runners who followed him and the straw mats in their hands, and ordered: "Go, bring the bodies back to me openly!"

Ding Lisheng looked at the bones beside her with trepidation, then walked towards the corpse with hesitation.

Chen Shao looked at the corpse, then looked at Fu Jiu who was still digging flowers, and also went towards the corpse.

As soon as they arrived in front of the corpse and were about to ask the yamen runners to be more careful, Fu Jiu shouted, "There are bones here too!"