Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Li Tianliu looked at his receding back and asked, "Why don't you send two people to follow him?"

"No need." Chen Shao didn't even turn his head. "He is more eager than me to get evidence of the Wen family's crime."

Li Tianliu raised his eyebrows but didn't ask why.

After watching Xu Guang cleaning up the corpses in the cornfield for a while, Chen Shao turned around and called Wu'er over to him, "Lead the way, go to Dashu Village to see your parents and your eldest and second brothers."

Wu Er was waiting for this sentence. After answering it readily, he immediately led everyone to Dashu Village. Dashu Village was as shabby as Dashi Village. Wu Er had not been back to the village for many years. He was impatient when he came here, but when he got closer to the village, his pace slowed down unconsciously.

"Is it Ah Zhen?" A villager who had just returned from collecting grain passed by and asked Wu'er uncertainly.

Tears welled up in Wu'er's eyes. She had never heard anyone call her by this name since she left the village. She wiped away her tears quickly and replied with a smile, "It's me, Second Aunt."

"Oh, I saw someone who looked like you just now on the farm, but I couldn't recognize you." The woman called Second Aunt said with emotion, "Where have you been all these years? Do you know that your second uncle and his friends have been looking for you everywhere but couldn't find you? They were so worried."

As he said this, he suddenly glanced at Chen Shao, Li Tianliu and the others, then smiled and said, "Look at my mouth. If you don't come back, you must have gone to live a good life."

"No, Second Aunt." When Wu'er heard that the villagers were looking for her, tears rolled down again. After wiping them a few times, she explained, "My father, mother, and my elder and second brothers couldn't be beaten to death in vain. I have been looking for the enemies who beat them up these years. Now the enemies have almost been found. I asked the adults to come over just to let them see my father, mother, and my elder and second brothers to prove that I didn't lie."

Just a few words made the woman called Second Aunt burst into tears. "Well, we didn't see your elder brother and second brother, so it's hard to say, but when your parents were beaten by those thieves, many of us watched."

The woman called Second Aunt said this, but the vigilance in her eyes did not diminish at all. Wu Er did not care, and after a few words of companionship, he said: "Second Aunt, I will take the adults to see my parents and my elder and second brothers first. I will come back to talk to you if there is anything to say."

"Okay, go ahead." The woman called Second Aunt also wiped away her tears and said, "Come to Second Aunt's house for dinner tonight."

Wu'er did not refuse, but as to whether to go or not, that was another matter.

When crossing the village diagonally, they met many villagers. Wu'er did not avoid them, but greeted them one by one. The villagers who greeted her recognized her, and many of them shed tears. They all invited her to come back for dinner in the evening. Chen Shao and Li Tianliu did not rush her. After leaving the village, Wu'er wiped away her tears and said embarrassedly: "When my parents had their legs broken by the Wen family, the villagers helped a lot. Now the revenge of my parents and my elder brothers can finally be avenged, but I have no way to repay them. I can only borrow the adults' favor and say hello to them."

Chen Shao didn't respond.

Wu'er's home is at the west end of the village.

The graves of her parents and her older brothers are at the foot of a low hill not far from her home.

Although there were only a few earthen mounds, they were clean and free of weeds, showing that the villagers had been helping to take care of them over the years. Wu'er couldn't help but shed tears again. She first knelt down facing the village and kowtowed three times in the direction of the village. Then she turned around and knelt in front of each earthen mound and kowtowed several times: "Dad, Mom, Big Brother, Second Brother, your great revenge can finally be avenged!"

Chen Shao glanced around and saw villagers coming out of the village one after another. Hearing her words, he couldn't help but ask, "I need to dig up the grave and examine the injuries. Can you accept that?"

"Yes." Wu'er said decisively, "I'll go borrow a hoe!"

Chen Shao instructed: "Borrow a few more."

Wu Er agreed and went. Soon, she not only brought back a hoe, but also brought several people with her. "Please tell me how to dig, sir."

Chen Shao said: "Just dig out the coffin."

Wu Er turned around and looked at the people he brought back, and said solemnly, "Thank you all, uncles."

After several uncles asked which grave to dig first, they went to the grave and chatted for a few words, then quickly started digging. The grave of Wu'er's father was dug out first, and about two cups of tea later, the coffin was dug out.

The coffin was already somewhat rotten. After Chen Shao walked around it, he ordered, "Open it."

The uncles who helped dig the grave were still a little taboo. They talked to the coffin for a few more words before carefully opening the coffin lid.

The corpse had already turned into bones.

Even so, Wu'er cried so hard that she fell to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.

Chen Shao stood in front of the coffin with no expression, looking down at the bones inside. There were multiple fractures on the bones, including the patella, tibia, and fibula of the left leg, which were almost comminuted fractures. After that, the femur of the left leg, the femur, tibia, and fibula of the right leg also had fractures of varying degrees, and the humerus and radius of the left and right arms also had slight fractures.

Bending down and picking up the radius of the right arm, looking at the distribution of the dents and cracks on the radius, it can be basically inferred that the murder weapon was a stick-shaped wooden stick.

With a rigorous attitude, Chen Shao put the radius back. Under the awe-inspiring gazes of the villagers, she told Wu'er to find a straw mat and stepped into the coffin.

After picking out the patella, tibia, fibula and fragments of the left leg, Chen Shao squatted in front of the straw mat and patiently pieced them together. After spending more than half an hour to restore all the fragments one by one, Chen Shao looked at the hoes in the hands of several villagers who were helping to dig the grave, and signaled to one of them: "Give me the hoe."

The villager subconsciously handed over the hoe.

Chen Shao took the hoe and first glanced at the hoe handle from beginning to end. Then he held the hoe handle at different places with his hands and pointed to one section and said, "Do you have a stick of this thickness? Find me one."

Although Wu Er didn't know what the stick was for, she still ran back to the village quickly. After searching around, she pulled out a stick from the firewood pile under the eaves of a household and brought it back, "Master, take a look at this and see if it will work."

Chen Shao took the stick, held it in front of the assembled bones, placed the stick on several fracture points for comparison, and nodded: "Almost the same, just a little longer."

Standing up, holding the stick in his hand and gesturing for a while, Chen Shao pointed at one section and said to Li Tianliu: "Cut it from here."

After Li Tianliu drew his sword and chopped, Chen Shao gestured again and said with satisfaction: "This time it's almost done."

Turning back, he threw the stick to Wu'er and said, "When the Wen family beat your parents, there should be someone in the village who saw it, right? Take the stick to them and see if the people who beat them used a stick like this."

Wu'er looked at the shin bone she had pieced together, then at the stick in her hand. She opened her mouth in surprise, then immediately turned around and asked one of the villagers who was helping to dig the grave, "Third uncle, back then..."

Before she could finish her question, the villager called Uncle San said admiringly: "It's just such a stick!"

Accepting the respectful gazes of everyone, especially Li Tianliu, Chen Shao said calmly: "That's good, we can dig the next grave now."

The second thing to be dug up was the remains of Wu'er's mother.

Her mother's body was much lighter than her father's, but her right leg was also comminuted. After taking out the right leg and putting it together, Chen Shao ordered: "Dig out the remaining two."

After the baptism of the first two corpses, both the villagers and Wu'er were much braver. But even so, after opening the lid of Wu'er's eldest brother's coffin, everyone was still shocked. Wu'er couldn't help but throw herself on the coffin and screamed sharply: "Big brother!"

Wu'er's eldest brother is Tao Fengchun.

There was almost no intact part of Tao Fengchun's body.

Chen Shao did not fight again, but ordered the lid of her second brother Tao Yuankai's coffin to be opened. Tao Yuankai's body was the same as Tao Fengchun's, with almost no intact bones.

Amid the villagers' discussions and Wu'er's piercing cries, Chen Shao ordered Li Tianliu, "Go and call Ding Lisheng over."

After she arrived at Dashu Village, Ding Lisheng also followed her secretly, but he didn't dare to get close and could only watch from a distance. When he saw the Yulin Guards coming, he secretly hid in the vegetable field. After being told by the Yulin Guards that Chen Shao was looking for him, he ran over with his clothes in his hands.

After quickly glancing at the open coffins, the assembled leg bones, and Wu'er, who was crying and almost fainting, Ding Lisheng said cautiously, "Young Master..."

After asking the Yulin Guards to keep the villagers a little further away, Chen Shao raised his eyes and asked, "How is the investigation going?"

Ding Lisheng apologized, "I am not very familiar with this place, and I haven't found anything yet."

Chen Shao said bluntly: "Did they not check it, or did they not find it?"

Ding Lisheng stuttered after taking a peek at the Yulin Guards who had invited him over: "I haven't found anything yet."

Chen Shao followed his gaze and glanced at the Yulin Guards who invited him over, but did not expose him. "Come and take a good look at these corpses."

After Ding Lisheng bravely looked at the corpses of Wu'er's parents, he was shocked when he saw the corpses of Tao Fengchun and Tao Yuankai, "This, this..."

"Tao Fengchun was a student of the Imperial College," Chen Shao said coldly. "He was favored by the Fourth Master Wen because of his outstanding appearance. He then ordered Lu Yuanfei to abduct him. Because he refused, he was beaten to death. This is his decomposed remains."

He turned slightly and looked at the cornfield where Xu Guang was busy. "After the Wen family bought a farm here, they thought the land was barren, so they wanted to exchange the good land with villagers from several surrounding villages. They were worried that the villagers would not agree, so they deliberately picked the family of the village chief of Dashi Village and buried them alive to make an example of them."

Chen Shao turned around and looked at him.

Ding Lisheng said quickly: "The Wen family is so audacious, they deserve to die!"

"I didn't ask you to come here to say these empty words." Chen Shao scolded coldly, "I just want to ask you one question. The Wen family has committed many evil deeds. Do you really not know anything about it, or are you deliberately turning a deaf ear to it, or are you the same?"

Ding Lisheng was so frightened that he immediately knelt on the ground and swore to the heavens, "My Lord, I will never dare to do such a thing!"

Chen Shao looked at him coldly, "So you don't know anything about it?"

Ding Lisheng avoided her gaze and said awkwardly, "I've heard some rumors, but, but..."

After only half a day, nothing was accomplished.

Chen Shao looked at him quietly.

Ding Lisheng kowtowed with his face turning red and white, saying, "I know I was wrong. I will go and investigate the Wen family's case right now! Yes, yes, I have already searched the warehouses and ships of Yongshun and Changshun, and there is nothing wrong with them. They did not stop the students from searching before, but the first few ships were just small quantities of goods, and they were really afraid that they would look through them randomly and mix up the goods. The few ships that are leaving now are all from big companies, with large quantities of goods, so there will be no problem if they look through them."

Chen Shao still looked at him without saying anything until he began to kowtow, then he scolded him coldly: "I'm asking you about the case in front of you, why are you talking about the cargo company?"

Ding Lisheng said in panic: "I know I was wrong, please forgive me, sir."

Chen Shao sneered: "Your own brother and nephew committed a crime, and you said you didn't know about it. I have spared you once. The Wen family has committed many evil deeds, and you heard some rumors, but what, you just didn't deal with it, or did they give you benefits, huh?"

"I know I was wrong, and I will never do it again," Ding Lisheng kowtowed and cried, "Please give me one more chance, for the last time. I swear that I will never cheat again, otherwise, I will be struck by lightning!"

"Ding Lisheng," Chen Shao walked up to him, kicked him over, stepped on his chest, bent over and looked straight at him, "I don't know about this, no matter what, tell me, as a military officer, what do you do?"

"Master, spare me!" Ding Lisheng wanted to struggle and kowtow for mercy, but he found that her feet were like nails, nailing him to the ground, and he couldn't move at all. Ding Lisheng panicked, facing the murderous intent in her eyes, and cried out, "Master, spare me, I won't dare to do it again, I will go to the Wen family to ask for punishment!"

Chen Shao snorted coldly, loosened his foot, and took two steps back, saying, "This is your last chance. Go and invite the fourth Master Wen and the current head of the Wen family here! Go now, immediately, right away!"

"Yes, yes, I'll go right away!" Ding Lisheng turned around and ran without caring about the pain in his chest.

Chen Shao signaled Li Tianliu: "Send two Yulin Guards to follow him. It's the end of the Shen hour now. If he can't make it back before midnight, immediately chop off his head and bring it back. I think the Tao family shouldn't mind using his head as a burial companion!"

Ding Lisheng's legs went weak and he quickly grabbed the ridge of the field next to him to steady himself, then ran even faster.

Two Yulin guards followed him closely.

Chen Shao snorted coldly and looked away, looking at Wu'er who was still crying: "Stop crying for now, let someone cover the coffin first."

Wu Er knelt down and took a few steps back. After kowtowed three times to the coffins, he stood up, wiped his tears and said to the villagers who had dug the graves earlier, "Thank you uncles for your help."

Several uncles came forward and looked at the straw mat next to the coffin with some embarrassment.

On the straw mat lay the leg bones that Chen Shao had pieced together.

Chen Shao said: "Don't worry about these for now. The same goes for the coffin. Just cover it simply and don't nail it shut for now."

The uncles breathed a sigh of relief, stepped forward to lift the lid of the coffin and closed it, then stepped aside. Chen Shao thought for a moment, first told Wu'er to continue guarding the coffin, and then asked the uncles, "Besides Wu...Azhen's family, is there anyone else in the village who has been bullied by the Wen family or the people in the Wen family farm?"

Several uncles and aunts had already received food and had seen her scolding Ding Lisheng, so they had completely accepted her psychologically. When they heard her question, they immediately rushed to speak.