It only takes thirty minutes from Wangliu Street to Dali Temple.
After arriving at the entrance of Dali Temple facing the main street, Lu Zhizhang, who was galloping all the way, immediately got off his horse.
However, just when Lu Zhizhang was about to step into the gate of Dali Temple, unexpectedly, at this moment, a dusty official in blue clothes suddenly came to Lu Zhizhang.
"Master Lu."
Hearing the other party's call, Lu Zhizhang just turned around and saw a tall and thin young man. He naturally recognized the other party.
This person is his subordinate official named Xiao Baiyu.
This person is also his admirer, but in recent days, he seems to have disappeared for a long time.
"Bai Yu? Where have you been recently? How are you handling the case in the deserted temple now?" When Lu Zhizhang saw the other party greeting him, he couldn't help but ask about the case he discovered in the deserted temple a month ago. .
Facing Lu Zhizhang's inquiry, Xiao Baiyu only whispered, "Sir, I went to Cangzhou, and now we have found some clues about this case."
Then, before Lu Zhizhang could speak, Xiao Baiyu seemed to remember an important thing: "By the way, Mr. Lu, we have found out the identity of the unknown body. Speaking of which, the unknown body may be acquainted with you, sir. I miss you." I’ll never guess who he is!”
Lu Zhizhang didn't have much curiosity in his heart, but in order not to dampen the young man's enthusiasm, he still followed Xiao Baiyu's words and said, "Oh? It's so mysterious. I wonder who the corpse is?"
When Lu Zhizhang asked, Xiao Baiyu immediately said mysteriously, "It's Xu Tianyi."
Upon hearing this name, Lu Zhizhang, who was not at all curious about the case, was immediately attracted to his full attention.
He looked at the other party in surprise, "Are you sure that the nameless corpse is really Xu Tianyi?"
"Of course! We were on site and later found some manuscripts that were being copied. We estimated that this person must be a poor scholar. He usually makes a living by copying manuscripts for others, so we took the manuscripts and asked someone to copy them. We went to various major bookstores to identify the handwriting. Unexpectedly, we actually found a bookstore owner who knew the handwriting. The bookstore owner said that the copyist was named Xu Tianyi. He said that Xu Tianyi had done this copying in the first place. When working on the manuscript, he only pledged his academic status in his own hands. Therefore, his name was definitely not a forgery. Later, when the boss saw that he had not come to submit the manuscript, he originally planned to go find him, but because he did not know Xu Tianyi Specifically where he lived, so the boss had no choice but to give up the search, and he was busy with work at that time. He soon forgot about it. If we hadn't found him, he probably wouldn't have remembered such a small thing before. .”
"Of course, even so, we can't be sure that the body is Xu Tianyi, so we started looking around for Xu Tianyi's classmates, relatives and friends, but unfortunately, all the Cangzhou students who knew Xu Tianyi in that class failed. After they failed, We returned to our hometown, so we didn’t find any useful information. I saw that Xu Tianyi was from Cangzhou on his student record, so we took Xu Tianyi’s body to Cangzhou.”
"It was also in Cangzhou that we finally confirmed that the body was that of Xu Tianyi. At that time, his parents personally identified the body. I think there should be no dispute."
"It's just that I also remember that you once said that Xu Tianyi married Miss Zhou, whom he married on his own fingertips."
"But now that Xu Tianyi is dead, who is it that married Miss Zhou? The more we think about it, the more we feel that this case may be related to Xu Tianyi, so I just came back from Cangzhou and wanted to ask The decree ordered that Xu Tianyi be arrested."
Upon hearing Xiao Baiyu's words, Lu Zhizhang couldn't help but sigh, "If only you had told me this earlier, it would be useless for you to ask for an order now."
Hearing Lu Zhizhang's words, Xiao Baiyu was also surprised, "Why did you say this, sir?"
When Lu Zhizhang heard this, he just looked calm and said, "That Xu Tianyi has run away, and we are now hunting him everywhere."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Baiyu was also annoyed and said, "How could this happen? If I had known this earlier, I might as well have told you earlier, so that this matter would not have been delayed."
However, Lu Zhizhang was more open-minded than Xiao Baiyu at this moment. "Actually, what you are telling me now is not without merit. In fact, I am also investigating him now. I only know that he is full of evil, but I don't know that he is not even Xu Tianyi, if this is the case, our direction may be clearer. Why don't you and I handle this case together? After all, this series of cases is likely to be committed by the same person."
Faced with Lu Zhizhang's proposal, Xiao Baiyu, who was Lu Zhizhang's little fan, naturally would not refuse Lu Zhizhang's proposal.
…
On the other hand, after Jiang Nianjiao sent the invitation to the Minister of Dali Temple, she also chose a good day to go to the Minister of Dali Temple's home in person.
In order to make it easier for him to go to court, the old man only rented a house with a small courtyard and two or three tiled roofs on the main street near Wangliufang.
Apart from him, his wife and children were crowded together in this room.
Such a configuration looks shabby no matter how you look at it.
However, being able to rent such a small courtyard in such a place where land is so valuable is actually the best that a non-native and relatively honest official from a poor family can do.
Basically, two-thirds of the old man's monthly salary became the landlord's income.
That's why the old man always spends a few days at the end of the month to visit his father's house to enjoy the autumn breeze, and even eats and drinks without any courtesy.
Naturally, my father wouldn't say anything. After all, they were brothers from the same sect.
When people from the same family were in poverty, he naturally helped as many as he could.
However, her father also understood that this man had some strange self-esteem in some aspects, so he never offered to help him. So in the end, the most natural person to get along with this old man was his father.
So even if Jiang Nianjiao came to the door with something, she wouldn't be surprised at the moment. On the contrary, because of her father, their family only showed the greatest courtesy to her arrival.
Naturally, Jiang Nianjiao didn't come empty-handed. She prepared some things for the journey, as well as some small things such as clothes and cakes.
Then she went to the door. She came early and the Dali Temple Minister had not returned yet, so the person who opened the door for Jiang Nianjiao was his eight-year-old daughter.
The younger daughter was also very happy when she saw Jiang Nianjiao coming to her door.
She is the youngest child of the couple, and because of their love, the little girl often comes to Jiang Mansion with her father to eat and drink. After going back and forth, Jiang Nianjiao also gets to know this little girl.
"Sister Jiang!" The little girl called Jiang Nianjiao sweetly.
When Jiang Nianjiao heard this, she just smiled and agreed. She touched the child's hand, and then whispered, "Are your parents at home?"
The little girl just said, "My mother is at home, and my father hasn't come back yet."
Then she even took the initiative and obediently took the snack from Jiang Nianjiao, and then led Jiang Nianjiao into the main room. There was no one in the main room at the moment, but there were many pastries placed in front of the Eight Immortals table.
In the kitchen, the old lady was cooking with her daughter-in-law.
Seeing the busy family, Jiang Nianjiao couldn't help but smile and said, "Auntie, you are too polite. Every time I come, you always prepare such a large table of dishes."
Hearing Jiang Nianjiao's words, the old lady stood up immediately.
She wiped the hem of her skirt with her hand, and then whispered, "What did the princess say? It's our blessing that you can come to see us. Besides, haven't my old man come to your house to play in the autumn wind for a long time?"
After saying this, the old lady seemed to feel that she was somewhat clumsy when she said this, so she immediately changed her words and said, "Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. The smell of oil smoke in the room is strong. Don't move the fetus." Angry, let’s go out and talk.”
After saying this, the old lady was about to send Jiang Nianjiao out. Jiang Nianjiao could only nod and smile to each other's daughter-in-law.
After going out, the old lady only said to her daughter-in-law, "Nianjuan, take the princess to sit in the main room outside. If you young people have something to say, my old lady will cook."
After saying this, she didn't care what her daughter-in-law said, she immediately kicked him out.
Unable to defeat her mother-in-law, Nianjuan could only uneasily accompany Jiang Nianjiao out to talk.
Although the two of them are similar in age, they are both a little embarrassed because they don't see each other often.
However, Jiang Nianjiao's personality was quite easy-going. After the brief embarrassment, the young people talked happily.
At this time, while Jiang Nianjiao and Na Nianjuan were chatting, the Dali Temple minister finally returned home.
As soon as he stepped through the door of his house, his little daughter happily pulled her father into the main room.
"Dad, Sister Jiang is here."
The girl's tender and sweet voice rang in the room. Not only Nianjuan, but also Jiang Nianjiao stood up subconsciously at the same time.
The Minister of Dali Temple just smiled kindly and said, "Isn't this the princess?"
Jiang Nianjiao just smiled and said, "Uncle Zheng."
The Minister of Dali Temple only said, "What is the purpose of the princess coming to my courtyard?"
When asked by the Minister of Dali Temple, Jiang Nianjiao did not hesitate. She went straight to the point and explained her purpose, "Sure enough, nothing can be hidden from our Uncle Zheng. I really came here to ask Uncle Zheng to do me a small favor. This matter is very important to me." It is indeed very important, so please help me, Uncle Zheng."
Seeing Jiang Nianjiao speaking so seriously, although the Dali Temple Minister still didn't know what kind of help Jiang Nianjiao wanted him to do, he still agreed, "That's natural. As long as uncle can help, uncle can help."
Seeing what the Dali Temple Minister said, Jiang Nianjiao directly explained his purpose.
"Uncle Zheng, that's it. I just want to ask if there was any robbery incident in the Weishui River official road area on October 21st?"
