Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

Ever since the Zhang Qiaoniang case happened in Jinsefang, the embroiderers were so scared that they all returned home.

Jinsefang closed its doors a month ago amidst the gossip and groundless speculation from people around it.

When Chen Shao came over, Jin Zhiyuan arranged for someone to notify the shopkeeper Ma of Jinsefang.

Shopkeeper Ma opened two doors and waited outside with all his strength. A clerk from the shop next door came out to see off a customer and saw him. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, "Are the government officials coming again?"

Shopkeeper Ma replied, "Yes."

The consoling words have been repeated many times, and there is no point in saying them again. But if he doesn't say anything, it will be a bit cold. The waiter scratched his head and thought for a long time before saying, "I heard that the Sun family invited the powerful Mr. Chen from Hongyuan County. With her here, I believe the murderer will be caught in a few days."

Shopkeeper Ma sighed and said, "I hope so."

The guy was surprised: "You think that even the powerful Mr. Chen can't catch the murderer?"

Shopkeeper Ma shook his head and said nothing.

The waiter waited for a while and then went back to the store to continue serving customers.

Shopkeeper Ma looked at the bustling streets and sighed again. He really didn't think Chen Shao could catch the murderer. Although the farthest place he had been to was Jingchuan County, whether it was Jingchuan County or Xitang County, how many children of officials had become successful? Although the capital was under the feet of the emperor, it was a glimpse of the situation. If the petty officials were like this, how much better could the high-ranking officials be?

Who knows how many think tanks created all the great achievements of Hongyuan County?

While his thoughts were in a mess, he saw that the convoy had turned onto the street. Shopkeeper Ma quickly patted his cheeks, took a few quick steps to the middle of the road, and greeted everyone with a smile.

Chen Shao nodded slightly, then looked around Jinsefang.

Jinsefang has three floors facing the street, occupying three shop floors.

The plaque is lacquered in gold, the pillars are carved, and there are twelve doors, the majesty of the place is visible to the naked eye.

"What are the second and third floors used for?" Chen Shao asked.

The second floor is nearly two meters above the street, which is nothing for a martial artist. If the second floor is an embroidery building, then whether the murderer flies up or flies away, it will be difficult to be discovered in the middle of the night.

"The building in front is where businesses are done." Seeing that she didn't even know this, Shopkeeper Ma became even less optimistic about her ability to solve the case.

Chen Shao nodded and asked, "Where is the embroidery building?"

"The embroidery building is in the backyard," Shopkeeper Ma said respectfully, "Please come in, sir."

After Chen Shao followed him through the half-open door into the lobby, he walked towards the backyard and asked Jin Zhiyuan, "What is the layout of Jinsefang? Are you familiar with it?"

Jin Zhiyuan nodded. "Since Zhang Qiaoniang's accident, I have been here at least ten times. Although I can't say I know the layout inside very well, I think I have a general understanding of the arrangement."

"Then let's follow the old rules," Chen Shao instructed, "When we get to the site, draw the layout of Jinsefang for me."

Jin Zhiyuan said yes.

The Embroidery Building is just behind the building, and it is also a three-story building.

The place where Zhang Qiaoniang was murdered was in a room of less than 20 square meters on the west side of the second floor.

Although the room is small, it is very spacious, with windows on three sides.

The window paper is also clean and bright.

Jin Zhiyuan entered the house, found a clean and flat place, spread out paper and pen, and began to draw. Shopkeeper Ma had been questioned no less than ten times, and had already had experience in dealing with it. Seeing that he was too busy, he took the initiative to take on the role of Chen Shao's guide. Seeing her looking around the house, he took the initiative to introduce: "Embroidering patterns is a delicate job, and you need an open and bright place to see clearly without hurting your eyes. Because our embroidery workshop is a place where customers choose patterns, and then the embroiderers work, the embroidery room is divided into such a separate small room to avoid being disturbed."

"Are the embroidery rooms fixed or mobile?" After Chen Shao looked around the entire layout, he looked at the pool of dried blood in the middle of the room.

"It's all mobile." Shopkeeper Ma answered, and then changed the subject, "But Zhang Qiaoniang's embroidery skills are excellent, and many customers specifically ask her to take work, so this embroidery room is basically used by her."

Chen Shao left the embroidery workshop and looked towards a row of two-story buildings about ten steps away: "Is that where the embroiderers usually live?"

Shopkeeper Ma pointed to the door of the house on the first floor opposite where two pots of crabapple flowers were placed and said, "Zhang Qiaoniang lives there."

"How many embroiderers are there in the embroidery workshop?" Chen Shao asked, looking at Xiaolou.

"There are thirty-six." Shopkeeper Ma answered truthfully.

Chen Shao looked at him. "Since Zhang Qiaoniang's embroidery skills are excellent and many customers specifically ask her to take the work, then among the remaining thirty-five embroiderers, are there any who are jealous of her or have an enemy with her?"

Shopkeeper Ma said impartially, "Of course there are some quarrels from time to time, but it's not worth it to become jealous or hostile because of it."

Chen Shao said: "It's not worth it, but is there one?"

Shopkeeper Ma shook his head and said, "I have never heard of it."

After looking at him twice, Chen Shao went back into the embroidery room.

Although half-embroidered handkerchiefs, fans, needles and threads were scattered all over the floor, the tables, chairs, stools, etc. that could make noises were still neatly placed in their original places.

Given the distance between the embroidery building and the dormitory, just overturning a few tables, chairs or stools and making a little noise would attract the rest of the embroiderers.

Judging from the handkerchiefs, fans and needles and thread scattered all over the floor, Zhang Qiaoniang did not want to live.

Then why didn't she make any noise?

Chen Shao looked towards the west window where the bloody footprints extended.

After killing the person, the murderer left through the west window.

Chen Shao hadn’t yet looked at what was outside the west window.

After asking the shopkeeper Ma not to follow him and not to block the light, Chen Shao squatted down and picked up the half-embroidered fan on the ground. The fan was embroidered with a picture of a child catching a butterfly. The crabapple flowers and butterflies were already embroidered, but the child was only half embroidered. Even so, it was not difficult to see the exquisiteness of Zhang Qiaoniang's embroidery.

"Whose fan is this for?" Chen Shao asked.

Shopkeeper Ma said it immediately.

Chen Shao put the fan aside and picked up a handkerchief that was almost finished.

Not far from the handkerchief, there are nine other handkerchiefs with the same pattern but already completed.

Putting the handkerchief aside, Chen Shao continued to pick up the needles and thread on the ground.

It took almost half an hour to clean the ground.

No clue.

After searching again, there were still no clues.

Chen Shao was not in a hurry.

Taking the table where Zhang Qiaoniang was killed as the center, he picked up all the finished and semi-finished products around, and then slowly walked to the table where Zhang Qiaoniang was killed.

Zhang Qiaoniang was stabbed in the heart and died. After her death, the murderer was still not satisfied and not only stabbed her twelve more times, but also nailed her hands to the table with a dagger and tattooed the word "Quan" on the back of her left hand.

Chen Shao looked at the dried blood on the ground, and the scene of Zhang Qiaoniang begging for mercy in pain but still being ruthlessly killed seemed to flash through his mind.

After killing someone, he would stab them again and torture them... The murderer was venting his anger.

The murderer hated Zhang Qiaoniang.

It should be said that except for Ah Fu in the first case, the murderer vented his anger on the other five people.

His eyes retracted from the dried blood on the ground to the two marks on the table pierced by the dagger. After a careful look, Chen Shao followed the bloody footprints to the west window, opened the window, and looked out. Outside the window was a small garden, and next to the garden was a small pond with a rockery. Outside the garden was a small alley, and on the other side of the alley was the backyard of another shop.

Since the murderer escaped from here after killing someone, he most likely entered the embroidery room from here.

If I entered the embroidery room from here...

Chen Shao called the shopkeeper Ma to his side and asked, "Has Zhang Qiaoniang found someone?"

Although Shopkeeper Ma was puzzled, he still said, "It seems that it has been decided. The one they have decided on is a family in the neighboring village."

"Has the family she's engaged to ever come to the embroidery workshop to visit her?" Chen Shao asked again.

Shopkeeper Ma nodded: "I have been here before, but... but, I said I came to visit her, but in fact I came to ask her for money."

Chen Shao gestured for her to speak more carefully.

Shopkeeper Ma said, "I don't know much, but I heard a few words from other embroiderers. They said that this marriage was arranged when she was thirteen years old. Her father was seriously ill and had no money to buy medicine, so she got engaged to this family in the neighboring village and took a gift of two strings of money. The money was spent, but her father still didn't survive. In order to support the family, she entered our embroidery workshop. The engaged family came to her because she was reluctant to get married. They felt that it was not worthwhile for her to earn money to support her family, so they came to her to ask for the original gift money back."

Chen Shao asked: "Did she give it to me?"

Shopkeeper Ma nodded and said, "I gave it to you. I asked several embroiderers to collect the two strings of cash."

"Cou?" Chen Shao grasped the key word and asked sharply, "Where is the money she earned?"

Shopkeeper Ma knew that she had misunderstood, and immediately said, "Our boss is a kind-hearted person, and he never deducts the embroiderer's wages. In addition, her embroidery skills are excellent. In the lowest month, she received more than 670 coins, and in the highest month, she received nearly 3 taels of silver. As for why she had to find other embroiderers to collect the two strings of money, I heard from the embroiderers that she was supporting her two younger brothers to study."

Chen Shao frowned and continued to ask, "Where are her two younger brothers studying?"

Shopkeeper Ma said uncertainly, "It seems to be in Lantai Academy."

Chen Shao: "How big is the academy?"

Jin Zhiyuan came over with the finished drawing. "Lantai Academy is in Shuangfeng Mountain. It's not big, but it's not small either. All the students are from farming families."

Chen Shao took the floor plan of Jinsefang and said as he looked at it, "All the students are from farming families, so the tuition should not be expensive."

Jin Zhiyuan nodded and said, "It's indeed not expensive. After all the miscellaneous calculations, it might only cost two taels of silver per person per year."

Two taels of silver is not expensive, Shopkeeper Ma complained silently in his heart, but did not show it on his face: "Zhang Qiaoniang made nearly nine taels of silver this year, and even more last year, nearly eleven taels of silver."

"That is to say, even after paying for her two younger brothers' education, she still has a lot of money left." Chen Shao was looking at the picture and didn't say anything. Jin Zhiyuan interrupted and said, "Since she has money left, why does she need to collect money?"

Seeing that Chen Shao still didn't respond, he asked Shopkeeper Ma again: "Why didn't you mention this the last few times you came here?"

Since you didn't ask, Shopkeeper Ma naturally didn't dare to say this, and could only apologize: "It was my negligence, I hope you will forgive me."

"Never mind. We didn't think of that either." Jin Zhiyuan said as he took two steps forward and stood in front of the window. "After Zhang Qiaoniang got into trouble, we came here to investigate. We followed the bloody footprints here and checked the garden downstairs. There were two fallen peonies in the garden. There were bloodstains on the peonies, but other than the peonies, the bloodstains disappeared."

The layout of Jinsefang is a simple shop layout, and the murderer's escape route can be inferred based on the blood footprints, so there is no need to study it. Putting away the drawings, Chen Shao followed Jin Zhiyuan's words and glanced at the small garden downstairs, then said, "Let's go downstairs and take a look."

The two peonies that fell over were dead.

Although the branches and leaves have withered, the bloodstains on them are still obvious.

As Jin Zhiyuan said, apart from these two peonies, there was no bloodstain anywhere else.

Not even on the wall where the garden faces the alley.

but……

The Sun family was rich, so the interior and exterior walls were made of brick and wood. If you didn't get your hands and feet stained with blood, it would be hard to leave marks on them. Jinsefang was different. Although the business was good, the exterior walls were still made of rammed earth. Because it took a long time to build, the rammed earth was bumpy and even had weeds growing in some places. Therefore, no matter how careful you were, it was easy to leave marks.

Chen Shao found many traces of footsteps on the wall, and many scratches on the top of the wall.

But there was no blood on all the traces of being trampled or scratched.

After having Jin Zhiyuan flip over to the other side and finding a lot of footprints on the other side, Chen Shao asked Shopkeeper Ma, "Who usually comes in and out from here?"

Shopkeeper Ma was also a smart man. After seeing the traces left by Jin Zhiyuan climbing over the wall, he realized that Jinsefang was regarded as a "back garden" where people could come and go as they pleased, and his face turned ugly. Hearing Chen Shao's question, he shuddered and said, "Besides me and two shop assistants, there are only the thirty-six embroiderers and a housemaid who sweeps the floor in the embroidery building. The two shop assistants can only come to the embroidery building to deliver orders or pick up goods during the day. After closing the shop, they return to the servants' room at the back and cannot come here without permission. The embroiderers and the housemaids who sweep the floor cannot climb over such a high earthen wall to get in and out."

Chen Shao did not continue to ask, but turned back to ask: "Who are the embroiderers who are in love with Zhang Qiaoniang?"

Shopkeeper Ma mentioned three names in a row.

Chen Shao turned to Fu Jiu and said, "Take two people with you and follow Shopkeeper Ma to invite these three embroiderers, the two assistants, and the housekeeper to the county government office. Remember to be polite."

Shopkeeper Ma had already put aside his contempt for Chen Shao. He also knew that the matter was of great importance, so he bowed to Fu Jiu and hurried away with him.

Chen Shao's gaze fell on the earth wall again.

After a moment, she turned back to the two withered peonies, carefully observed the bloodstains on the peonies for a moment, and then her gaze slowly fell on the small pond with a rockery next to it.

After adjusting his direction following the bloodstains on the peony, Chen Shao slowly walked towards the small pond.

After walking around the small pond, Chen Shao slowly stopped in front of the rockery. He looked up and down, left and right, and was about to ask Jin Zhiyuan to lift the stone on the left that served as a low hill, but Gu Feiyan had already ordered the guards who followed him: "Take away the black stone!"

The guard lifted the stone, revealing dried blood inside.