History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 442 A Feud from a Past Life

To ascertain the facts of a case, we cannot rely solely on speculation; we must have supporting evidence. Wei Yao said, "Initially, I linked the Wu Bo'an case with the Xue Laizi case because when the carriages were being escorted to the palace, a collision occurred on the way. I don't believe that domesticated horses and cattle would easily go berserk in crowded places; some means must have been used. The person capable of such means must possess a rare skill!"

After saying that, she stomped hard on Liu Huo's two remaining good fingers on his right palm.

"Ugh—I confess, I confess, I did it, I did it both times." Liu Huo cried out in distress, wondering if he had offended this female official in his past life. Why was she acting like he had a deep grudge against him, stepping on him before even asking any questions!
“In the illusion magic I learned, there is a kind of powder that livestock will go mad in a short time after ingesting it. If the powder is applied to a person beforehand, the livestock will attack that person first. When I killed Wu Bo’an, I waited on the pontoon bridge. When Wu Bo’an crossed the bridge, I pretended to bump shoulders with him and applied the powder to his sleeve.”

"I continued to wait on the bridge until He'erhun led the ox over. While he was looking around distractedly, I smeared the powder on the ox's nose. Just as He'erhun reached the fish shop, the ox went mad. Lady, you must believe me, this is all I did in this case. I had no idea why Wu Bo'an went to the fish shop; it had nothing to do with me! I was careful and followed He'erhun. When I saw the ox go mad, it was the fish shop worker Wu Lin who pulled Wu Bo'an down and kicked him in the neck, causing Wu Bo'an to bleed from his mouth!"

This time, without Wei Yao explaining in detail, the jailer understood everything.

"Therefore, He'erhun thought that his ox had trampled Wu Bo'an to death. If He'erhun had not been arrested and imprisoned, and had continued to work in the Guangping Prince's Mansion, Tianbiao would have used this as leverage to coerce him into doing things when he needed to use He'erhun."

Another jailer said angrily, "Tianbiao is truly vicious and cunning! He has committed so many sins without even lifting a finger!"

Gu Kai raised a question to Wei Yao: "Does Shaoqing remember that He Erhun once told him that he went to Hetige to inquire whether Li Songgui had the ability to sell official positions in the Prince's Mansion? He happened to meet another person talking to Li Songgui about buying an official position. I suspect that from that time on, everything He Erhun saw and heard was a trap to lure him into a trap."

"Yes and no. I won't mention this matter, and you and everyone else shouldn't either." Wei Yao, being in the central government, knew which cases could be investigated and which couldn't be touched for the time being.

Li Songgui's suicide was clearly suspicious. Normally, Cui Zhen, the Minister of Justice, should have ordered an investigation of the prison officials. However, Cui Zhen assumed that Li Songgui had committed suicide and did not discuss it with her in any meeting.

Crane Cry Pavilion is the property of Princess Chenliu. Based on Wei Yao's understanding of Yuan Zhenjun, the other party is domineering and intelligent. Li Songgui relies on the music pavilion for everything, so how could he dare to secretly amass wealth and sell official positions without Yuan Zhenjun's knowledge? Therefore, the news that He Erhun heard about Li Songgui selling official positions must have been deliberately spread by Yuan Zhenjun.

Yuan Zhenjun could elevate Li Songgui, but she could also kill him. Cui Zhen guessed that the person who forced Li Songgui to commit suicide was Princess Chenliu, which is why he dared not pretend to be ignorant. To put it bluntly, if Yuan Zhenjun had gone to the emperor and insisted on rescuing Li Songgui, Cui Zhen would have had to release him anyway.

As for Wei Yao's statement "yes and no," her thought was that Tian Shao had investigated the sale of official positions in He Ti Pavilion and seized the opportunity to use it, turning Yuan Zhenjun's methods into his own, and stuffing officials into the princes' mansions.

Liu Huo's pig-like screams rang out again. He was listening carefully to Wei Yao and Gu Kai's conversation when Wei Yao suddenly stomped on him, and his right hand was truly ruined.

“I confess, I'll keep confessing… On the morning Xue Laizi was paraded through the streets, Tianbiao told me to find a way to get close to the prison cart and drive the oxen pulling it mad. I wasn't very skilled in martial arts, and the guards on the prison cart were very strict, so I couldn't get close. Seeing that we were almost at the palace, I had no choice but to shove some kind of magic powder into the nostrils of a strong horse pulling the cart, making the horse go crazy quickly. This kind of illusion powder is undetectable to humans, but livestock will find the smell very strong. I had the powder on my fingers, and as I chased after the prison cart, the horse pulled the cart and chased after me. I figured that this would be half of what Tianbiao had asked me to do. Fortunately, fortunately, the guards shot the horse quickly, preventing me from making any further mistakes.”

Wei Yao walked to the man's left and asked, "That day when you followed the prison cart, did you notice that other people were also following, trying to harm Xue Laizi?"

As she questioned him, Liu Huo's middle finger, like an earthworm, moved backward an inch with his entire left palm, escaping the edge of her boot. He pretended to be trying hard to remember, but in reality, he remembered what he had seen that morning perfectly. However, answering immediately would make him seem too shrewd, and if his shrewdness aroused Wei Yao's suspicion, it would be troublesome to investigate his true identity!

“I remember now. Others can hardly detect this kind of illusion powder, but I can’t. After I was in a mess on the street, I smelled that someone else had hidden illusion powder.”

But the more he worried about something, the more it happened. Wei Yao asked, "Tell me again what you noticed. Was the other person hiding the illusion powder planning to attack Xue Laizi? Or..."

Liu Huo blinked and repeated after her, "Or?"

Wei Yao stepped down!

"Ahhh, I'll tell you, I'll tell you! I think he wasn't heading for the prison van, but rather for you, the female official leading the procession on horseback, and another high-ranking official."

Wei Yao: "What a vicious plan to kill two birds with one stone! They want the prison cart to run over and kill me and Prefect Yuan."

With many people involved, she could think of many ideas. Next, she reviewed the confessions recorded by Lu Gongzhi and had Gu Kai and the prison guards interrogate Liu Huo and Lu Mu.

The prison guard was most anxious to ask, and at the same time wondered why Vice Minister Wei hadn't asked, what the Heavenly Dipper looked like.

Liu Huo: "This person is too cautious. I have never met him. Every time he meets me, he randomly finds a traveler or merchant who does not speak Han language, gives me a note, tells me which day, which time and where to perform the fire-breathing illusion, and then tells me what to do before and after I perform the illusion."

Lu Mu: "I've met him a few times, but each time it's the same person, it's not the same person."

Liu Huo was constantly watching Wei Yao. When Wei Yao glanced at him, he was terrified and immediately confessed, "I was the one who impersonated Tian Biao to meet with Lu Mu."

"I'll kill you! You beast!" Lu Mu was being dragged by the iron chains and couldn't pounce on you, so he kicked with his other foot.

Liu Huo feigned grievance and argued, "I was also coerced. I just made a mistake that every cowardly and weak person would make."

The jailer asked again, "Before you went to break up the prisoner, did you see Xue Laizi? Did you know Liu Caidao, the butcher from the east of the city?"

Liu Huo: "I don't..."

Wei Yao interrupted him: "Think carefully about your answer, or you'll only add to your own troubles."

Liu Huo: "Tianbiao doesn't really trust Liu Shun. Sometimes he makes me pretend to be Liu Shun to deceive Xue Zhixiao and Ke Bomao. I'm worried that Tianbiao will make me kill Liu Shun, so every time I report back, I only say good things about Liu Shun."

Hearing this, Gu Kai was impressed by Liu Huo's talent and felt that his illusion skills were indeed useful. If he hadn't intentionally killed anyone, keeping him in the prison would definitely help him solve cases.

But how could he make this request to Wei Shaoqing? Wei Shaoqing had seen many villains, but he particularly disliked Liu Huo. Breaking Liu Huo's finger before even investigating the case was completely different from Shaoqing's usual behavior, as if he had a grudge against Liu Huo in a past life.