County jail.
Yangqu is the administrative center of Bingzhou. Compared with ordinary county towns, the conditions here are naturally better. When Di Jin was led by the jailer to the cell where Guo Chengshou was, he found that the place had been tidied up. Compared with those in ordinary counties, Yangqu The conditions for prisoners are much better.
But this young man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth probably never imagined that he would come to such a place, sitting there dreamily, as if he had lost his soul.
Thinking of Pan Chengju catching this man and throwing him in prison, Di Jin silently admired him.
Not for this reckless behavior, but for the courage and confidence behind it.
Like nothing else in the Song Dynasty, this kind of literary integrity for pursuing justice and morality is still worthy of recognition.
If Guo Chengshou is really the murderer in this case, then the next development will basically be that the road-level sentencing officer will support the behavior of the county captain, and the imperial censor in Beijing will praise this kind of behavior that is not afraid of the powerful, instead of Shangguan suppressed directly and couldn't wait to release the son of the powerful.
In the rotten feudal era, this was already pretty good. As for the sons of powerful men being severely punished for this, and killing people to pay for their lives, that was a fairy tale told to the common people...
"If I encounter a similar case in the future, is there any way to make the murderer pay for his life with one life?"
This question suddenly appeared in Di Jin's mind, and he called out: "Guo Langjun? Guo Wuxie?"
Guo Chengshou raised his head in confusion and looked for a long time before he recognized the person: "Di Shilin... it's you... why are you in the prison?"
"Clean your grievances!"
Di Jin gathered his thoughts and briefly described the current situation: "Now your suspicion has been cleared, but in the eyes of the outside world, you are still the murderer, because we can't tell everyone the truth. , only by catching the real culprit and revealing the full truth of the case can you be truly innocent."
Guo Chengshou listened blankly, then woke up as if from a dream, and suddenly reached out and grabbed it: "I did not plagiarize or kill anyone. As long as I am innocent, I will agree to any conditions!"
Di Jin put his hands away and waited until he initially calmed down before asking, "Answer my first question first. Did you go to Hao Qingyu's room the night before yesterday?"
Guo Chengshou sighed: "I'm going."
Di Jin asked: "When?"
Guo Chengshou said: "At midnight, Hao Qingyu has to patrol the house every night. I am weak and don't want to go out late at night in winter. I originally wanted to wait for him to patrol the house, but I didn't expect him to come out that night. We have no choice but to go there..."
"I am deliberately waiting for you to come to the door. Obviously, it is easier to exert pressure in the other party's environment!" After Di Jin analyzed it, he asked: "You? How many people did you go?"
Guo Chengshou said: "I went with Mr. Ge. I didn't want to bring anyone else with me, but Mr. Ge was worried about my health. Alas... Mr. Ge also knew about my affairs. I really didn't copy Liu Changyan's poems. On the contrary, he used my name to show off, so I broke up with him in anger, and I also deleted all the chapters he made peace with me in the first place!"
Obviously, what bothers Guo Chengshou more than killing is the reputation of plagiarism.
Di Jin was also a little surprised about this. Judging from Liu Changyan's previous reaction, it didn't seem like he was being hypocritical. Could it be that both of them thought they were justified?
Not to mention the truth about plagiarism, the Mr. Ge mentioned by Guo Chengshou was the emotional old servant.
Di Jin said: "Unfortunately, as a close person, it is difficult for the servant to provide a convincing confession. What happened after you two went to Hao Qingyu's house?"
Guo Chengshou showed a sullen look: "That old man Hao Qingyu is threatening me. If I don't give him five thousand guan, I will leak this matter. In less than ten days, the whole Bingzhou will be full of rumors!"
Di Jin's eyes moved: "Can you come up with five thousand coins?"
Guo Chengshou said matter-of-factly: "Of course I can take it out. I have property in the clan. As long as I sell some of it, I can give him five thousand guan. But this person's greedy face may make him ask for it in the future. Besides, I'm not plagiarizing. I'm giving him like this." If he gets money, doesn't he admit his bad reputation? I angrily scolded him and left unhappy..."
Di Jin asked again: "When did Hao Qingyu make tea soup during this period and for what reason?"
Guo Chengshou showed a look of recollection: "The tea soup was indeed boiled. He invited me to sit down and drink tea to relieve his anger. After I scolded him, I was indeed thirsty, but I have not been used to drinking from other people's tea bowls since I was a child, so I didn't drink from other people's tea bowls. Touch that bowl of tea..."
Di Jin said: "When did you leave Hao Qingyu's house?"
Guo Chengshou said: "The fourth watch is approaching, it's almost the ugly time. Before I went out, I was already drowsy. It was Elder Ge who helped me back..."
It's one o'clock in the morning on the fourth watch day. For the ancients who didn't stay up late, it was really hard to be awake at this hour, not to mention they were still sick.
After figuring out the process that night, Di Jin began to ask about the situation on the next day: "In that case, after you learned that Hao Qingyu had been poisoned and died the next day, you concealed a lot. Are you worried that you can't explain clearly?"
Guo Chengshou frowned and said: "I didn't know at that time that Hao Qingyu was poisoned by Gelsemium. He just didn't want Liu Changyan's story to spread. He would have run away when he heard about the death. I didn't expect Liu Changyan to come to the academy." , slandered me in public! He shouldn’t have the guts..."
Di Jin said: "That's because someone promised Liu Changyan that you would be captured and brought to justice!"
Guo Chengshou's eyes brightened: "Is he the murderer?"
"If it was the real culprit, he might kill someone and silence him, and then be captured directly..."
Di Jin said: "I have asked my sister to protect Liu Changyan secretly, but I am afraid that the real murderer is very cautious and has been hiding behind Hao Qingyu. It was Hao Qingyu who recruited Liu Changyan, so this line is broken!"
Guo Chengshou's expression dimmed again.
Di Jin asked: "How many people know that Gelsemium elegans is among the medicines you take on daily basis?"
Guo Chengshou thought for a while: "Only the servants around me know that they cook the medicine in the courtyard. I like peace and quiet, and few outsiders visit..."
Di Jin asked again: "Liu Changyan doesn't know?"
Guo Chengshou said flatly: "He doesn't know that I only started taking this new prescription this year. There was no Gelsemium as a medicine before!"
Di Jin's eyes moved slightly: "Do you often hit, scold and punish the people around you?"
"No!" Guo Chengshou shook his head first, and then his face changed slightly: "Your Excellency, do you mean that someone around me disclosed the prescription to outsiders?"
Di Jin said: "Since the prescription is secret, we can only make such speculations. Maybe it is intentional or unintentional..."
Guo Chengshou began to think about the people around him: "The only people serving in my courtyard are Mr. Ge, Chu San, Aunt Wei... these twelve people!"
Di Jin's face turned dull. Do you all lead such a luxurious life? When you were in school, there were more than ten servants around you? Just pay it back?
Fortunately, I can still screen: "Who is the servant who can come into contact with Gelsemium and even secretly hide some of it every time?"
Guo Chengshou said in a trembling voice: "Then there is only Mr. Ge. Every time he cooks the medicine, he personally takes care of it, but...it's impossible!"
The old servant came to Di Jin's mind. When Pan Chengju first asked questions, he appeared on behalf of the noble son of the Guo family. He argued for his son several times: "Is he a slave of your Guo family?"
"No...but I have been in my Guo family for more than ten years, and he almost watched me grow up!" Guo Chengshou said, his tone firmer: "He treats me like a son and will never harm me! "
Di Jin asked: "Doesn't he have any biological children?"
Guo Chengshou said slowly: "More than ten years ago, there was a famine in Hedong. Mr. Ge's family fled and sold his children and daughters. In the end, he even sold himself. I, the Guo family, chose many servants with nimble hands and feet for disaster relief, and Mr. Ge was one of them. …”
Many servants from wealthy families came here in this way, and there was nothing suspicious about it. However, Di Jin thought about it for a moment and settled on this person: "That night when you met Hao Qingyu, Mr. Ge went with you; you Among the twelve servants in the academy, Elder Ge has the best opportunity to secretly hide Gelsemium; and Liu Changyan is at odds with you, and Elder Ge is fully aware of the matter of plagiarizing anthologies..."
"And if it is Mr. Ge, it can also explain why Hao Qingyu dared to blackmail you, a relative of the emperor, because it was someone close to you who revealed the information. Mr. Ge must have assured Hao Qingyu that you would never disclose the plagiarism to the outside world. If I have property, I will pay for it obediently.”
"Hao Qingyu was greedy, but was afraid of the power of the Guo family. He was probably half-doubtful, so he left a letter to his foreign residence. It said that once the matter was exposed, he asked her to take her children to other states quickly to prevent the money extorted from the past from being extorted. He recovered it, but he didn't expect that he would be directly poisoned by the conspirators..."
"Unfortunately, according to all the current clues, no matter how unlikely this person is to commit the crime, the suspicion is still the highest!"
Di Jin still had some unfinished words.
For example, when Lei Jun analyzed the characteristics of the murderer before, he first understood the slandered Guo Chengshou extremely well, and secondly, he made the victim Hao Qingyu feel at ease. This old servant also satisfied these two points very reasonably.
Guo Chengshou listened like a clay sculpture and was completely stunned. After a long time, he murmured: "That night, when Hao Qingyu was extorting money, Mr. Ge did persuade him several times to let me lose money and avoid disaster... Could it be that... For five thousand guan? Just for this money? Are you going to destroy me?"
At the end of the sentence, tears rolled down from my eyes.
"The real culprit has not yet been determined, but he is currently the most suspected..."
Di Jin pulled him up: "Instead of guessing here, why not ask Mr. Ge face to face to see if he did this and what his motives were!"
