On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Zheng Ping hosted a banquet in Wuzhanglou. Several tea shops who had been imprisoned for tribute tea a few days ago gathered together.
Zheng Ping came earlier than others. After all, he was the owner of the house. He chatted with the shopkeeper of Wuzhanglou for a while and then went to the private room to sit and wait for someone. As soon as he entered, he saw An Ying already there.
He walked over with a smile: "Miss An, are you here for the banquet today? How is your father? You are all well."
An Ying saluted and returned: "Father is fine, but he has not recovered from his walk in prison. It's not like Zheng Daguan, who has hands and eyes all over the sky, and came out with his beard and tail intact."
Zheng Ping sat down with a smile and said: "Today we tea farmers in Huzhou have a good gathering, and I will make amends to everyone then. I heard that the case is about to be closed now, hasn't Miss An been helping in the Ministry of Punishment, you know what news."
"I really have news." An Ying saw Zheng Ping's face burst into laughter and continued: "I heard that in the eighth year of Yongkang, Mr. Zheng broke his leg in Shuanglin Village?"
The smile on Zheng Ping's face suddenly stopped halfway, and turned into a weird expression of wanting to laugh but not wanting to laugh. He twitched the corner of his mouth and said, "What's the matter? Aren't they just those tea trees in Shuanglin Mountain? I go to see them every year. That year I accidentally broke my foot."
"I have been to Shuanglin Mountain. The tea trees of your Zheng family are all on the south side of the mountainside. It is not steep at all and is very flat. Tea farmers like us run in the mountains all year round. How can we break our legs on this kind of mountain? .”
After hearing this, Zheng Ping put down his face and said, "You girl, if you talk nonsense, you will fall down no matter how smooth the road is. Falling on the mountain is just an accident. What do you want to say?"
An Ying stood up and walked around and said, "That day when I saw your account book for buying medicinal materials at the Shen family, I felt strange. Unfortunately, there were too many things going on later and I ignored it. Recently, I asked the shopkeeper of the Shen family medicine shop. At that time, the entire Shuanglin Village is the only one with a doctor in their pharmacy, and they still remember that you were Yao Chengli from Shuanglin Village who sent you here."
Zheng Ping impatiently called the waiter to come over. The waiter responded from downstairs, but did not come in either.
An Ying ignored Zheng Ping's restlessness and continued: "I also asked you about the Zheng family's guards and servants. When you went up the mountain that year, the Zheng family's guards did not see you, causing you to fall and break your foot. He was fined money for this. I looked at the topography of Shuanglin Mountain and the village. If you go to see your twelve tea trees, your guards will definitely notice you."
Zheng Ping sneered, "It's just the guard's excuse. Why do you believe him or not me? This is a bit biased."
An Ying nodded and said: "That's true. It's also possible that the guard lied. But I've seen the location of the Yao family, at the foot of the mountain to the north of Shuanglin Mountain. Do you know why Luo Youde arranged the tea making venue at the Yao family? It's because the location is remote. , the other villagers won’t go there, and it’s close to the tea garden in Beishan, so it’s easy to transport it down.”
"What tea garden in Beishan? I don't even know what you are talking about?" Zheng Ping's face darkened, he stood up suddenly and shouted: "Man, man, why don't you come up?"
"Master Zheng, don't worry. I'll finish my words soon. I think you climbed up Beishan that day and saw tracts of tea trees. The mountains there are steep and difficult for ordinary people to climb, so you fell and broke your leg. And the place where Yao Chengli found you was behind his house, so you must have discovered the secret of the Yao family at that time."
"Nonsense, I don't know what you are talking about!" Zheng Ping looked at An Ying, the only one in the room, and then leaned back and crossed his legs.
"Yao Chengli has already recruited you. He found you dying in his backyard that day and didn't want to take care of you. But you promised to give him a hundred taels of silver and begged him to save your life, so he took the risk of being discovered secretly making tea. You were rescued and brought home. He later sent you to Shuanglin Town for medical treatment, and you stayed there for three months."
"Isn't it normal to have a 100-day injury and three months of recuperation?"
"I asked the doctor at the time. You all suffered from skin trauma. In fact, you will basically recover after a month of treatment. Besides, most of the Zheng Family Tea Mountain is in Gu Zhu Mountain. If you don't go there to see it, you will spend three months here. Actually, you’ve been hanging around Shuanglin Village, right?”
"What's the evidence for this? Besides, what's wrong with me wandering around? Can't I just take a rest?" Zheng Ping crossed his legs and said disdainfully.
"Then let's talk about another matter. Do you know Cheng Lu, the secretary of the Huzhou government?"
"We know each other. I'm familiar with all the officials in the Huzhou government. We've also had dinner together with the governor and Shaoyin. What's going on?"
"Luo Qiaoniang mentioned that Cheng Lv often went to the tea shop to drink tea. She accidentally saw Cheng Lv taking Da Qilu back to make copies. She also heard from him about Wang Shi's private tea case in Qiantang Prefecture, and then she realized that the penalty for private tea was not for her. It was so heavy in her imagination that she was prompted to expose He Qing.”
"I don't understand what you are talking about. Why did you expose He Qing? Why did Qiao Niang expose He Zhizhou?"
An Ying ignored Zheng Ping's pretending to be deaf and dumb, and continued: "But I know that Cheng Lu's family is poor and he even pays for food carefully. How can he go to the tea shop from time to time unless someone pays for him to go. In addition, Cheng Lu He only did 3/3 in the yamen, and would never take official work home to do it. He was afraid of wasting the candles at home. So the so-called going home to copy the Daqi Law that day was just his deliberate arrangement. As for Wang Shi's case is indeed a case of illicit tea with a light sentence, but there is another hidden story in it. Cheng Lu deliberately told Luo Qiaoniang half-heartedly, and deliberately misled Luo Qiaoniang into thinking that the penalty for illicit tea was not severe."
"What does this have to do with me?" Zheng Ping looked disapproving.
"All of this comes from your instructions." An Ying saw Zheng Ping clenching his fists, fearing that he would suddenly make a move and deliberately walk to the other side.
"It's nonsense. Why should I mislead Qiao Niang? Didn't she hurt me badly enough?" Zheng Ping smiled bitterly, looked at An Ying and said, "You girl, are you crazy? Do you think you are out of your mind?" Do you do some miscellaneous work in the government office and you can push the case?"
An Ying ignored Zheng Ping's sarcasm and continued: "Actually, when you went to Shuanglin Village in the eighth year of Yongkang, you already discovered the Luo family's tea trees on the north side of Shuanglin Mountain. You stayed in Shuanglin Village for three months to touch the Luo family. That's why you married Luo Qiaoniang. Luo Youcai mentioned in the interrogation before that he had seen you wandering around his house. He thought you were peeking at Luo Qiaoniang, but in fact you were observing the situation near Luo's house. .”
"Hmph, I almost lost my life at the hands of Qiao Niang."
"After you found out about the situation of the Luo family, you took the initiative to marry Luo Qiaoniang and let her take over your tea shop. This was originally the expectation of the Luo family and He Qing. Luo Qiaoniang not only manages the Zheng family's tea shop, but also serves as the head of the Luo family's tea shop. The account books. Those account books are all in the Zheng family’s tea warehouse. You have actually seen them secretly. Every year, the Luo family’s private tea flow comes from your Zheng family tea shop. You have carefully planned and arranged everything, just to brainwash Luo Qiaoniang and make her think that the Luo family’s private tea is privately owned. Cha's crime is not serious. If she comes forward to report He Qing, once the incident happens, you can take advantage of the chaos and swallow the Luo family's shady money."
"Miss An, it's a pity that you don't have the brains to write drama excerpts." Zheng Ping ignored her.
An Ying glanced at him and continued: "It's just that you never thought that Luo Qiaoniang would poison Gongcha. Fortunately, she still misses the relationship with you as husband and wife, and deliberately framed you to get you out of trouble." Sin. You said that I have a very open mind. In fact, when I first started thinking about it, I also felt that I was thinking too much. Until I heard that Cheng Lu’s sister’s family makes tea and lives in the north of the city, I thought of your elder sister. Daughter Zheng Ying. Your eldest daughter is married to a tea-making family in the north of the city. There are not many tea-making families in the north of the city. After a trip, it is clear that her mother-in-law is Cheng Lu's sister, and you and Cheng Lu are related by marriage. "
"At the beginning, I heard that you treated your eldest daughter Zheng Ying harshly for Luo Qiao's mother. You even married from your uncle's family. You felt that if you have a stepmother, you will have a stepfather. Although you have a bad character, this kind of person I didn’t think much about it. But when Luo Qiaoniang was interrogating, she said that you took good care of Zheng Ying’s mother and even her natal family, so she thought you would be a good husband. This is very contradictory. How can you be affectionate for your ex-wife at the same time? Even if his wife died, he still took good care of her natal family, while at the same time he treated his only daughter left by his ex-wife harshly."
An Ying glanced at Zheng Ping and saw that he had a sullen expression and lowered his head in silence, then continued: "Until I confirmed that you and Cheng Lu were related by marriage, I inquired about Zheng Ying's husband, Ding Zhanqi. Although the Ding family is not a wealthy family, But after generations of studying, Ding Zhanqi was famous at a young age and his future was limitless. Although the Ding family’s tea shop sells coarse tea, I looked at it and found that it was all high-quality tea from Guzhu Mountain in Huzhou. It was just that the picking time was a little later. Is it from your Zheng family’s tea mountain?”
Zheng Ping sneered, "I made a mistake in finding a good son-in-law for my daughter. Besides, Luo Qiaoniang targets Ying'er everywhere, so it's not normal for me to secretly subsidize my daughter."
An Ying returned: "Of course it's normal. But what's abnormal is the running water in the Ding family's tea shop."
Zheng Ping's expression changed, and he suddenly rushed forward and reached out to grab An Ying. An Ying was on guard and dodged sideways, but Zheng Ping stretched out his leg and knocked An Ying down. An Ying fell heavily to the ground. Zheng Ping grabbed An Ying's neck and said with a ferocious expression: "You girl, what do you think is the use of finding out these things? Which one of them is evidence? Are you bluffing me?"
At this moment, several people rushed from behind the screen in the elegant room. They were Su Huangzhe, Xiao Yi, Lao Guo and others. Xiao Yi kicked Zheng Ping away. Su Huangzhe helped An Ying up and asked hurriedly: "Are you okay?" Right?" An Ying shook his head.
When Zheng Ping saw this, he sneered, "What are you doing? Are you making a confession?"
Lao Guo: "Zheng Ping, you attempted murder, and so many people witnessed it. You can't escape the crime of attempted murder. The other crimes will be decided after the Ministry of Punishments investigates."
An Ying touched his neck and thought that this was fishing law enforcement, and Mr. Guo was too good at it.
After Zheng Ping was taken away, Su Huangzhe asked: "What's the situation with the water flow in Ding's tea shop? I haven't heard you mention it before?"
An Ying drank the soup to moisten his throat and said: "I lied to him. I haven't checked the sales of Ding's tea shop. I just felt that the shop there couldn't make money, but it has been open for a long time, so I thought this shop It was probably not to make money from selling tea, but a pretense. Then I thought that if Zheng Ping wanted to quietly steal money from the Luo family's accounts, the best way to balance the accounts would be to use another set of clean sales. Tea account book, in this case, the Ding family tea shop is the best choice. I guess Zheng Ping also had this idea when marrying his eldest daughter to the Ding family."
Xiao Yi on the side said with emotion: "Zheng Ping is such a sophisticated person. At first I thought he was just a heartless stepfather. Then I thought he was deliberately paving the way for his daughter. Now I think he is just doing it for himself."
An Ying said to Su Huangzhe: "I want to meet Luo Qiaoniang."
Su Huangzhe sighed: "I understand."
