The clerk followed him through an alley and saw him suddenly stop in front of a mansion, so he hid behind the wall and turned only half of his body.
The clerk looked around carefully and thought there was no one there, so he walked backwards to the vermilion door and bumped the door three times with his elbow. But after a while, there was still no movement inside, so he had to turn around and walk away, heading for the back door. The clerk was afraid of losing him, so he hurriedly started to follow him, and followed him closely, but he still stayed aside to watch him. Fortunately, the moonlight was shining brightly, so I could still see vaguely.
I saw the clerk carefully approaching the courtyard wall, touching the wall with his hand a few times, and seemed to have touched the exact location, and easily pulled out a brick; then he slowly squatted down and took the wooden box wrapped in his arms. After stuffing it into the gap, he placed the green bricks in place. When they were pressed firmly, he dusted his hands and left.
The clerk witnessed the whole process with his own eyes. He immediately walked out of the darkness and hurriedly searched for the location of the brick. It took him a long time to fumble and remove it. He took out the box and opened it to look at it. Unexpectedly, it was Zhu Yangrui's head. He was so frightened that his whole body went weak and he immediately sat down on the ground.
The clerk took several big breaths and finally calmed down a little, so he thought: 'This place is not his residence at all. It is obvious that he has been colluding with this family for a long time, so he is so familiar with the road. He sent this head intentionally. If he takes it back to the government, he will be suspected... It is better not to do anything and report it to Master Wan. '
After thinking about it, he put the wooden box back to its original place and slipped back to the Yamen at night.
"Did you bump into him by chance?" Wan Yuzhi asked while nodding after listening to the clerk's report.
The clerk knelt on the ground and said, "No. I've seen him acting strangely lately, so I've been paying attention everywhere, and today I finally caught an opportunity."
"If he came from the prefect..." Wan Yuzhi pondered for a long time, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he seemed to have an idea, but soon died out again, "No, what can I do with a head... Forget it. , stay put for now and just send someone to monitor the secretary's office."
The clerk nodded slightly, but he still felt uneasy in his heart, and said: "No matter what, the prefect must have had a different intention. It is better to follow the previous method and say that he is a blue party and arrest him tonight."
Wan Yuzhi immediately retorted: "No! Zhu Yangrui is a civilian after all. If we want to catch or kill him, of course it is up to us; the prefect is an important local official, appointed by the imperial court. How dare he do this without asking for the imperial decree!"
“What if we had hard evidence at hand?”
After hearing this, a meaningful smile gradually appeared on Wan Yuzhi's face: "That still has something to say..."
The next morning, when the prefect of Runing heard the rooster crow, he sat up in Tengshi, called his servants to change their official uniforms, and hurried to report to Yuzhi.
"Come on!" The prefect stumbled into the house and shouted loudly, "It's a big deal. The wooden box you gave me has been stolen!"
Wan Yuzhi exchanged glances with the clerk, stood up and said comfortingly: "Why do you need to be like this, Lord Magistrate? You may be too anxious."
The prefect pretended to be distressed and said: "Sir, there is the head of a red thief in the box. How can you and I explain to the court if we lose it? We should find out the situation quickly and send troops to arrest it!"
Wan Yuzhi said with a smile: "Zhu Yangrui is dead. How much is his head worth? If it's gone, it's gone. The court won't care about it."
"Then..."
The magistrate was about to borrow the donkey from the slope, but when he heard a 'plop', the clerk next to him knelt down: "Wait a minute! Master Wan, this yamen is an important place in the country, and thieves can come in and out so easily, isn't it trampling on the authority of the government! It should be When this case is tried, the culprit must be captured and tortured to prevent the common people from causing trouble. If that person is still an accomplice of Lan Yuan, your sin will be huge!"
Wan Yuzhi pondered for a while, then turned to look at the prefect: "What he said seems to make sense. To be on the safe side, let's issue an order and send troops to investigate the case."
The prefect didn't notice anything. He just sighed to himself that the clerk was too troublesome and resigned.
As soon as the magistrate left, Yu Zhi's expression suddenly changed, becoming extremely solemn and murderous: "Deploy our soldiers immediately and secure the yamen from the inside out. No one is allowed to step out!"
"Yes!" the clerk responded impassionedly, said nothing more, and walked straight down the hall; but not long after, he came back nervously, as if he had changed, and Yuzhi was stunned. Living.
"What's wrong?" Yuzhi opened his mouth wide.
The clerk wiped his sweat and said, "According to reports, the clerk did not monitor him and disappeared somewhere."
"It's nothing," Yu Zhi smiled and waved his hand, "As long as the wooden box is still there, everything is under control."
"But, the wooden box can't be found either..."
Wan Yuzhi slapped his thigh, screamed, fell backwards, and almost fainted. The clerk rushed to help him, and when he saw his eyes were dull, his heart became cold, and he asked in a low voice: "Is it over?"
"Nonsense!" Yuzhi came back to his senses and sat up suddenly, "The master was thinking of a way just now! What's over, what's over, can you speak?"
"Sorry, I was abrupt..."
Wan Yuzhi was angry, and then said: "The previous plan will not work. Now we can only take one step at a time. I hope God will bless... Let's go to the bookstore to check the name list and put that family in the book. I found his name, maybe I can get some clues from it."
The clerk clasped his fists and obeyed the order, turned around and left.
Yu Zhi was pacing in the room, calculating at the same time. After waiting for about an hour, he saw the clerk coming and asked how it was going.
The clerk reported: "After investigation, the owner of that family is called Qian Junfu. He is a squire with a high status in Runing Mansion. He has two houses, one is this one in the city, and the other is in the countryside. Most of the time he We all live in the countryside and only come here occasionally."
"What is he going to do with the head..." Wan Yuzhi frowned, feeling like there were thousands of threads entangled in his mind, and he couldn't get rid of them for a while.
"The wooden box must have been taken away just now. Maybe the two parties haven't contacted him yet... Now if we send someone to search his village, we might be able to catch him." The clerk analyzed for him.
"No," Yuzhi shook his head, "We didn't even understand the situation. We sent our men there, but they just caught us blindly."
The clerk advised: "No matter what, someone must go and understand the situation!"
Wan Yuzhi thought deeply for a long time, walked to the window, looked at the dazzling sunlight sternly, tightened his clothes and said: "I'll go there myself...others can't be trusted."
Seeing his decisive tone, the clerk did not stop him, bowed and asked, "Are you going alone? Or should you bring a team of people?"
"I'll just ask two men in plain clothes to accompany me. You stay here and keep an eye on the prefect. I trust you."
