Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

He threw the women's underwear on the ground, handed the wooden sign over first, and then each of them picked up a piece of women's clothing, competing to show her, "This is a token of our sworn brotherhood, and our names are engraved on it. These clothes are the women's underwear that we played with, and we collected them together. Look, there's my name on it."

Chen Shao first looked at the two wooden signs.

On the front of the plaque were their rankings and names in the sworn brotherhood, with Luo Jian ranked second and Luo Zhong fourth. On the back were the words "sworn brotherhood", but because the plaque was cut into several pieces, only part of the words were on the two pieces in their hands.

Putting away the wooden sign, Chen Shao looked at the clothes they were holding. Luo Jian was holding a bellyband, on which the owner's name and age were written, and on one corner was his signature. Luo Zhong was holding a pair of underwear, on which the owner's name was also written, and on one corner was his signature. In addition to their signatures, on the underwear piled on the ground were also the signatures of Ren Yujie, Wen Gui, and Zhao Letian.

"Don't be fooled by the fact that there aren't many clothes here, but every piece is carefully selected by us." Seeing Chen Shao flipping through the clothes one by one, Luo Zhong introduced them proudly, "Appearance, height, body shape, voice, etc. If any one of these is not good, you are not qualified to keep these clothes."

Not to be outdone, Luo Jian boasted: "If my father hadn't forbidden us to keep these at home and forced us to throw them away, we would have asked for more."

Luo Zhongshen nodded in agreement and said, "We stole these away."

There were sixty pieces of underwear in total.

After counting, Chen Shao stood up and looked at the two men's smug faces. He couldn't help but kick them. Because they were caught off guard, they were kicked against the wall and then fell to the ground.

Without waiting for the two to cry out in pain, Chen Shao walked over and stepped on Luo Jian's back. After squeezing him hard, he shouted coldly, "Where did those women come from? Tell me!"

Luo Jian cried out in pain: "It hurts, Uncle Wu, save me!"

Five heads have been dug out, far more than the four bodies on the yellow paper. Wu Dong himself was already in danger, and when he heard his cry for help, he knelt on the ground in panic and distanced himself from them. Luo Jian heard it, and while cursing and crying out in pain, he confessed, "I said, I said, it was the students of the academy. They gave my sisters to my father in order to curry favor with him, and he gave them to us!"

Chen Shao loosened his feet, looked at Luo Zhong who was lying on the ground in fear and dared not get up, and ordered in a cold voice: "Those students who sent people, go to the room and get a pen to write it down for me!"

The two of them crawled into the house.

After Chen Shao asked the yamen runner to go into the house and watch over them, he squatted down and folded the clothes one by one, "Put them away carefully and take them back to the prefectural government!"

Chan Yi ran twice to put all the clothes into the carriage, and then came back to see her rubbing the words "sworn brotherhood" on the wooden sign with her fingertips, and asked in a low voice: "Should we send someone to invite them to the prefectural governor's mansion?"

After handing her the wooden sign and picking up several sandalwood boxes, Chen Shao said, "Not for now. Let's finish the cases of Luo Zhengxin and Shi Xing first."

There are too many things to do, and we have to take them one step at a time.

They lost their composure and fell into the trap set by the aristocratic families and wealthy people.

Chan Yi took the sandalwood box and placed it behind the carriage along with the wooden sign. When she came back and saw that Fu Jiu and the others had already dug out six heads, she could not help but said coldly, "These beasts!"

Chen Shao looked at her in surprise; it was the first time she heard her swear such harsh words.

Chan Yi couldn't help but blush, glared at Li Tianliu who was looking at her with a mocking look, and said angrily: "What are you laughing at? Was I wrong to scold you?"

Li Tianliu quickly stopped smiling and said, "That's absolutely right!"

Chan Yi snorted and looked away.

The yard where Luo Jian and Luo Zhong lived was not big, and after digging the whole yard, a total of eight bodies were dug out. Chen Shao no longer trusted Wu Dong, and ordered Fu Jiu and others to dig Luo Zhengxin's yard as well. While they were digging, Luo Jian and Luo Zhong also came out with the written list, pushing each other out.

Chen Shao took the list and looked at the seven names on it. He sneered and said, "Drag him out and beat him with twenty sticks!"

"Please spare us, sir!" The two men held onto the door frame tightly, resisting the yamen runners' dragging and begging for mercy. "We know their names. As for the others, Uncle Wu knows them. Yes, Uncle Wu knows them. Sir, please go and interrogate him. He was in charge of receiving those students who sent people to my father. He knows everything!"

Chen Shao immediately asked someone to invite Wu Dong over.

"Uncle Wu, quickly tell the adults who are those students who sent people to our father!" Without Chen Shao asking any more questions, Luo Zhong, who was afraid of being beaten, urged first.

Wu Dong's face was so ugly that he was too weak to scold them anymore. He knelt on the ground, kowtowed to Chen Shao in despair, and then he recited the names of twelve people. Chen Shao did not stop him. After he finished speaking, he threw the list written by Luo Jian and Luo Zhong in front of him and asked him to fill it in. Wu Dong picked up the list and saw the names that were very different from the twelve people he read out. His eyes went dark and he collapsed to the ground. Then, he quickly got up and kowtowed repeatedly, saying: "Sir, please spare my life, sir, please spare my life..."

Chen Shao said coldly: "How many times have I spared you?"

"For the last time, please forgive me for the last time!" Wu Dong said in panic, "I swear, I will tell the truth and never lie again!"

"There is no way you can spare your life," Chen Shao said sternly, "As for your family, it depends on whether you want loyalty or them."

"I'll write it right away!" Wu Dong climbed up using his hands and feet and rushed into the house.

Chen Shao looked at Luo Jian and Luo Zhong who were still clinging to the door frame with a cold face, and scolded them: "You haven't eaten yet, but you still want to share the twenty sticks for them?"

Several yamen runners immediately pried open their fingers and dragged them out forcibly.

As the two screamed, Fu Jiu and the others came back after digging up Luo Zhengxin's yard and said, "There's nothing here. It seems he's really afraid of ghosts."

Chen Shao stepped back to the courtyards of Luo Jian and Luo Zhong. After observing their courtyards and Luo Zhengxin's courtyards from a distance, he first ordered Xu Guang to pack up the excavated bones and prepare to take them back to the prefectural governor's mansion. He then ordered Fu Jiu, "Take your men to search these two courtyards carefully to see if there are any secret rooms."

When Fu Jiu led his men to search, the yamen runners quickly finished beating the man with twenty sticks. Before they could drag the man back, Chen Shao ordered, "Take him back to the prefectural governor's mansion!"

The bailiffs did not dare to delay any longer and dragged the two men away.

"Sir, write it. It's done." Wu Dong came out with the list, sweating profusely. When he saw Luo Jian and Luo Zhong being dragged away, he staggered slightly and almost dropped the list in his hand.

Chen Shao took it and roughly counted it. He had added nearly fifty people. He couldn't help but look at him.

Wu Dong knelt on the ground in fear and said stumblingly, "My Lord, I have written down everything I remember."

Chen Shao handed the list to Li Tianliu and asked him to arrange people to arrest these people. At the same time, he said calmly: "You can slowly think about the ones you can't remember. It's OK if you can remember them all before I find out the others. It doesn't matter if you can't remember. You always need your family to accompany you on the road to the underworld, so that you won't feel lonely!"

"Sir..." Wu Dong was about to beg for mercy, but Fu Jiu was already in Luo Zhengxin's yard shouting, "Master, come quickly, we found a secret room and there's someone inside!"