Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

"Are you sure it's Juxian Building?" Chen Shao asked.

Yu Chengchun had lost all hope. Facing her questioning, he dared not hide anything anymore. He nodded and replied, "Yes."

Chen Shao sat back down and said, "Then tell me how you followed him into Juxian Building."

Yu Chengchun murmured, "He had a carriage, and I followed him in the carriage to Juxian Tower."

Chen Shao said sternly, "Did you enter the Juxian Building from the main gate, the side door, or the back door?"

Yu Chengchun shook his head: "It's not the main entrance."

That must be the side door or the back door. Chen Shao then asked, "Who received you after you arrived at Juxian Building?"

Yu Chengchun: "It's a shop assistant."

Chen Shao: "How did he receive you?"

Yu Chengchun: "After Mr. Ren gave us his name, the clerk checked the list in his hand and took us to Songyuan."

"What you mean," Chen Shao said seriously, "is that he had already booked a private room at Juxian Building and came to Huimin Pharmacy to pick you up?"

Yu Chengchun didn't notice the subtle difference in her words and nodded, "That's what he said."

Chen Shao asked patiently, "What name or identity did the old man Ren give to the waiter at Juxianlou?"

Yu Chengchun: "Ren Pei."

Chen Shao glanced at Zhu Yonggen and Hu Changcun, who were already stiff as if they were about to turn into stone, and asked slowly and deliberately, "Besides you, who else is there?"

Yu Chengchun subconsciously looked at Che Yonggen and Hu Changcun.

The moment he looked over, one of them immediately begged for mercy, while the other pointed at Deng Tianze and blurted out, "And him!"

Deng Tianze supported himself on the ground with his hands and kept his head down. When he noticed Hu Changcun pointing at him, he didn't look up and pretended to know nothing.

Chen Shao looked at Deng Tianze in the direction of Hu Changcun's finger. It was the same yesterday and today. Every time he went to the second court for trial, he kept the same posture. During the interrogation, she could clearly see the changes in the expressions of the other people, but not his. Just like now, when Hu Changcun pointed at him, his finger poked him, but he pretended not to know.

Doesn't he know that sometimes being too calm is also abnormal?

"Tell me about it," Chen Shao said, calling out the name, "Deng Tianze."

Deng Tianze tilted his head slightly, as if he just realized that Hu Changcun was referring to him. He stared in astonishment and denied it repeatedly: "Your Excellency is wise, I am innocent."

Hu Changcun seemed to have not expected that he would deny it, and said with a red face, "We can all testify!"

Deng Tianze looked at him, then at Che Yonggen and Yu Chengchun, and finally felt irrefutable with frustration.

After they had finished their fight and almost all admitted their guilt, Chen Shao asked, "Just the four of you?"

"And him!" Deng Tianze pointed at Zhu Chongliang.

Zhu Chongliang was so frightened that he shivered and quickly protested, "My Lord, I didn't do that. I didn't go to Juxian Building with them, and I don't know any Ren Pei."

Deng Tianze imitated Hu Changcun's words and said, "We can all testify!"

Hu Changcun glared at him unhappily, and said angrily, "Sir, don't listen to his nonsense. Doctor Zhu is not with us."

Deng Tianze didn't expect him to bite back, and said hatefully: "You..."

"What do you mean by you?" Deng Tianze said unhappily, "He was not with us in the first place, and you were not with us in the first place either."

Deng Tianze was so angry that he stopped talking.

Chen Shao glanced at him and said sternly, "Then tell me one by one how Ren Pei found you."

Hu Changcun pointed at Yu Chengchun before Deng Tianze could speak: "He was the one who found us."

Chen Shao glanced at Yu Chengchun, "How did he find you?"

Hu Changcun was quite annoyed and said, "He said there is a wealthy businessman who admires people who work at Huimin Pharmacy. He wants to invite us to dinner at Juxianlou in the evening and asked if we would like to make friends with such a noble person. He also said that he made friends with the noble person two days ago and the noble person gave him fifty taels of silver. Although I didn't see the silver, I thought it would be good to have a big meal at Juxianlou, so I followed him."

Deng Tianze quickly said, "It's the same for me."

Hu Changcun took two steps to the side in dissatisfaction, moving a little further away from him.

Che Yonggen saw his actions and paused before saying, "That's what he told me too."

Chen Shao looked back at Yu Chengchun.

Yu Chengchun said in despair: "It was Old Ren, it was Ren Pei who asked me to call a few more people together, so I called them."

Chen Shao asked, "When you arrived at Juxian Building, what did Ren Pei tell you to use kudzu to frame Huimin Pharmacy?"

"After he treated us to a meal, he gave each of us five taels of silver, and then asked us to find a way to replace the ox-dalily in the prescription with wild kudzu. We disagreed, so he threatened us with the dinner and the silver, saying that he would have Master Qi drive us away." It was Hu Changcun who spoke again, and it was unclear whether he was desperate or really angry. "We argued with him for a few words, and he said if we didn't believe him, we could give it a try."

Chen Shao asked: "So you gave in?"

Hu Changcun stopped talking.

Chen Shao continued: "After dinner, did he send you back to Huimin Pharmacy, or did you walk back there by yourselves?"

Hu Changcun said: "He sent us back."

Chen Shao: "During the meal, did Manager Zhou from Juxianlou come to Songyuan to talk to you?"

Hu Changcun shook his head: "No."

Chen Shao did not ask any more questions. He asked Zhu Chongliang to go back to Huimin Pharmacy and asked the Yulin Army to put the remaining four people in prison, organize the records of their confessions, and then went out to Juxian Tower.

The students who were recuperating in Juxian Building and Liu Zizhuang's brothers have returned to deal with the affairs of the village.

When Shopkeeper Zhou learned that she was coming, he came out of the shop early to greet her as usual.

Get off the carriage.

Chen Shao looked at Manager Zhou wantonly.

Shopkeeper Zhou held out his hand with a flattering smile, "Sir, please come in."

Chen Shao followed him and said as he walked: "Manager Zhou should know the purpose of my coming here, right?"

Shopkeeper Zhou bowed and nodded repeatedly, saying, "I know, the old rules, a fish feast."

Fish feast...fish? Fish!

Chen Shao's mind seemed to flash with lightning: the fish scales in Shopkeeper Qi's kitchen, the fish that Juxianlou had recently transported from other places...

Chen Shao suppressed the excitement that kept rising in his heart and pretended to be calm and said, "Shopkeeper Zhou should still remember the guests at Songyuan on the night of the 8th, right?"

"On the night of the 8th, this..." Shopkeeper Zhou quickly asked the waiter to bring the registration book over, and said as he flipped through it, "I have to take a look to find out."

"Alright, stop pretending," Chen Shao deliberately frowned, "You should know better than me who they are and what they have done. There is no point in pretending any longer."

"This... I am innocent," Shopkeeper Zhou complained. Seeing that she was not buying it, he said with a sad face, "Your Excellency, I am truly innocent. I don't even know what the guests at that table on the night of the 8th looked like. No matter what they did, it has nothing to do with me."

"Did I say they committed a crime?" Chen Shao sneered and ordered, "Lead the way, go to your kitchen and see what kind of fish you have."

Shopkeeper Zhou slapped his mouth twice in a pretentious manner, and then said in a cute and flattering way, "I told you not to talk nonsense!"

"Sir, please come this way." Seeing Chen Shao looking at him coldly, Manager Zhou put away his hand awkwardly and said as he led the people to the back kitchen, "Sir, please come this way."