Placid Chang'an

The corner of the housekeeper's mouth twitched, and his smile was uglier than crying, "Your Excellency, you are joking. My master brought the things back from all over the world. How could they be in the tomb?"

Su Cen pointed to the bottles and jars next to him and said, "I have accidentally seen the funeral list of Emperor Kaiyuan of the Southern Dynasty, and this three-legged lamp with string patterns is among them. There is also the blue-glazed lotus-petal vase, which is the former Most of the items from the official kilns of the court were severely worn and the color was dull, but this one is bright in color, obviously it has just been unearthed not long ago."

Su Cen pointed behind him again, "This painting of "Floating Clouds in Wushan Mountain" uses the 'Gaogu Gossamer Drawing' that was lost as early as the Wei and Jin Dynasties. There are not many paintings of this kind of painting method even in the palace. Can you just pick it up from any country store?"

The law of the Great Zhou clearly prohibits private digging and robbery of tombs, especially the tombs of the former royal family. It may be that I am afraid that I will be missed by some little bastards in a hundred years and will be taken to my old nest, so I made a law on this, and those who violated the order will be punished.

Fortunately, Xu Youhuai is dead, otherwise he would have to be pulled out to die again.

"So, this is not a warehouse at all," Su Cen said, "it's a place for you to trade artifacts privately."

The butler was covered in cold sweat when Su Cen said it, and he took two steps back and leaned against the wall and said, "I... I don't know, the master brought everything back... I don't know anything."

"You don't know?" Su Cen raised her lips and smiled, "Then let me ask you, besides you, who else in your house knows about this place?"

The housekeeper stammered back: "Eldest, eldest madam also knows..."

"Your master and wife have a lot of trust in you." Su Cen pondered for a moment, "The last question, where were you on the day of the incident—that is, yesterday?"

"I..." The butler hesitated for a moment, then suddenly realized something, and hastily retorted, "It's not me! I didn't kill the master, I didn't kill him!"

"I wondered from the beginning, the incident of the assassination in front of the imperial court yesterday was known all over the city, and there is such a conspicuous evidence as the jade pendant, according to common sense, the source of the corpse should have been found yesterday, why did you delay reporting it to the authorities until today? "Su Cen raised his eyes and looked at the butler, "So you colluded with your wife to kill your master, and at the same time pressed the servants not to report to the officials, just to steal these artifacts? You keep stopping me. The reason I found this place is because you know that these things are all in the tomb, and if they are discovered, they will be confiscated, otherwise you can take them out in a big way. Xu Youhuai is dead, and his property will naturally fall into the hands of the wives , then they might even give you more severance pay."

Under Su Cen's pressing step by step, the butler clenched his back molars, his face twitched ferociously, and he raised his head suddenly, revealing the fierce look in his eyes.

Pushing the mechanism behind him suddenly, the secret door closed immediately, and a sharp dagger was quietly exposed from under the sleeve. Anyway, there were only the two of them here. As long as they killed this person and closed the door, no one would be able to find this place.

"If it was me, I wouldn't do such a stupid thing." Su Cen smiled indifferently, "Let me remind you, now the house is full of people from Dali Temple, and I was appointed by King Ning to thoroughly investigate this matter." The imperial order, if they don't see me going out for a while, do you think I'm worth letting them dig three feet?"

As if responding to Su Cen's words, there were a few voices from the yard at the right time, probably the scribe had already found him after seeing that he hadn't returned for a long time.

The butler's legs went limp, and he fell to his knees immediately. He couldn't hold himself back for a moment, and burst into tears, and said, "I really... I did know that my master died yesterday... I went to see the ceremony of honor with him, and there were too many people at that time." We got separated, and later I saw him burning up... I didn't set the fire, and I don't know how he started burning up, I just... just thought that the master was dead, so I sold myself The deed is in the hands of the eldest lady, and the second and third wives don't know about the dumping of the tombstones in the house. If I can please the eldest lady, maybe she can return the deed of sale to me and give me back my freedom."

"My lord, my lord should check clearly, I really didn't kill the master," the butler kneeled and hugged Su Cen's thigh, with snot and tears all over Su Cen's white shirt.

Su Cen frowned slightly, the clerk had already found the door, and the voices of "My lord" could be heard clearly through a wall.

Su Cen knocked on the wall, "I'm here."

When the scribe opened the mechanism from the outside, he couldn't help being stunned when he saw the situation in the secret room, "My lord, what's going on, my lord?"

Su Cen briefly explained a few words, and then ordered: "Go and arrest Xu Lin."

The admiration on the scribe's face is indescribable. Although he had shown great respect to Su Cen before, he still felt that this frail young man didn't have much ability except for his good-looking face. That is to say, relying on that caretaker's care, he was promoted a little faster. He never thought that this person had already single-handedly arrested the important criminal in this case in such an hour.

After confirming again and again that there was not a single hair missing on Su Cen's body, the clerk went to the front to call for someone. Those who arrested people in a hurry arrested people, and those who searched for stolen goods. Xu Lin still hugged Su Cen's thigh and cried loudly. But before, it was for Xu Youhuai hypocritically, but now it was for himself.

By the time the processing here is over, the sun has already passed noon.

One morning, the master died, the eldest lady and the butler were arrested, the rest of the Xu family all bowed their heads, half of the mourning hall was laid, but the person who led them to howl was gone, everyone felt sorry for each other, and for a while I don't know what to do.

Su Cen asked the scribe, "Did you find anything?"

The clerk took a stack of interrogation transcripts and handed them to Su Cen, "As your lord said, these people were locked up at home by Xu Lin's family yesterday for preparing for the year-end sacrifice ceremony, and they didn't go to the streets, so they don't know that Xu Youhuai was born. When it happened, they probably never thought that Xu Lin's audacity would collude with the housekeeper to murder Xu Youhuai to seize the Xu family's property."

Su Cen flipped through the transcript page by page, without raising his head, he said, "They didn't kill people."

"Huh?" The scribe was taken aback.

Su Cen continued: "If they really want to kill Xu Youhuai, they can find a secret way to kill him quietly, and then quietly transfer the property in the darkroom out. There is no need to make such a big fuss during the ceremony. This will only lead officers and soldiers to their homes, and will not do them any good."

"Besides," Su Cen handed the transcript back to the clerk, "they didn't know how Xu Youhuai died, so how did they kill him?"

The scribe looked puzzled, "Didn't Xu Youhuai be burned to death?"

Su Cen thought about what Ning Santong said early this morning that Xu Youhuai might be tricky, but judging from the reactions of the housekeeper and Xu Lin, he probably didn't know.Su Cen shook his head lightly, without further explanation.

"My lord," the clerk tugged on Su Cen's sleeve to avoid the crowd, "Take a step to speak."

Su Cen raised his eyes and looked at Bai~Wan Xiao! Said the clerk, and followed him a few steps to the carrying place, only to hear the scribe say in a low voice, "Congratulations, my lord, the case can be closed."

Su Cen frowned, and the clerk immediately said again: "Now they have motives and evidence, as long as you put the charges on them, you can solve such a big case in one day, and you will definitely be famous in the capital by then. If you are worried that they will retract the confession before the emperor, let me tell you, the lower officials have some means and are willing to serve you."

"Oh?" Su Cen raised his eyebrows with interest, "What can you do?"

The clerk immediately smiled flatteringly and said: "Axe, axe, soup, and wok, there are always a few things that can't be seen. Sir, have you ever heard of iron trees blooming? It means putting iron pipes down people's throats, and then pouring hot water into them." The hot water, the hot water burns the esophagus, but it can’t be seen from the outside at all, and it is guaranteed to make him dare not speak again in his life. There is also water torture, which uses the kind of water mixed with ice balls to torture people. Pressed and drowned in it for a while, choked with ice water into the lungs, more uncomfortable than Ling Chi, I drowned him ten or eight times, I don't believe he will dare to retract his confession when the time comes."

Su Cen is not a punishment person, and he doesn't know anything about lynchings in Dali Temple. The one he saw the most was Xue Chengzhen hitting the board. Now hearing this person's happy description here, he just feels his stomach twitching.

After the clerk finished speaking, he fixedly looked at Su Cen, with a flattering expression on his face, but he saw that Su Cen's face was watery, and he didn't appreciate his favor.

"You send your resignation letter to Mr. Zhang early tomorrow morning." Su Cen lowered his eyebrows and didn't bother to look at him again. "Don't let me see you again in Dali Temple. If not, those punishments will test you."

The scribe's face froze, seeing Su Cen turn around and leave mercilessly, then knelt down and kowtowed for a moment, and performed exactly the same action as Xu Lin and the servants - hugged Su Cen's thigh tightly and did not let go.

Su Cen: "..."

Today his thighs are extraordinarily fragrant or what?

In the end, Su Cen still found a few yamen servants outside the door and dragged him away before he freed his thighs. Then he saw that the moon-white gown had been ravaged|ravaged and wrinkled.

The next time you go out to handle a case, you must change into clothes that are more resistant to dirt, such a disheveled appearance, Mr. Su, means that it will damage your image of being clean and bright.

The members of Xu's family sat together as quiet as quails, obviously they didn't understand why they arrested all of them in such a short time.

"Can you think of any abnormalities?" Su Cen walked slowly in front of the crowd, "It doesn't have to be the day when the crime happened, even if there are any strange things on weekdays, you can talk about it."

Everyone in the Xu family was frightened by Su Cen, shaking their heads like rattles, fearing that if they shook their heads too slowly, they would be arrested and brought back to the Yamen.

Su Cen didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said comfortingly: "You don't have to be afraid, as long as you are innocent, I will naturally not embarrass you. Well, the proof is meritorious. Since the head of the Xu family is caught dead, I will make the decision for them , who can provide useful evidence, I will free you from slavery."

This was obviously a huge temptation. When the servants heard it, they immediately had the urge to try it, but no one wanted to be the first to eat the crab, looking at each other, waiting for one to come out to test the water first.

In the end, it was a little maid who couldn't resist the temptation—mainly because she couldn't fight Master Su's face, so she blushed and said cautiously, "Your Excellency, are you serious?"

Su Cen smiled, "Of course it's true."

The little girl's face turned even redder, and she whispered with a veil in her hand, "I don't know if this is the evidence your lord said, but I seem to know how my master died."

Su Cen's eyes moved, and he immediately asked, "How did you die?"

"My lord just said that my master hid the things brought out from the grave of the dead in the bedroom?"

Su Cen nodded.

The little maid said: "My master was killed by those things, a ghost killed him!"

Su Cen: "..."

"Don't you believe it," the little maid looked at Su Cen with disappointment, raised her face hastily, her childish face was still blushing, and bit each word: "I've seen it all, so Last night, although the master didn't come back, there was a green ghost in his room, still glowing faintly!"

Su Cen naturally didn't believe in the theory of ghosts and gods killing people, but he still asked for an example: "What ghost?"

The little maid hadn't opened her mouth yet, when a servant girl weakly raised her hand and said, "I... I saw it too, but it wasn't last night, but three days ago..."