Four Harmonies and Good Fortune

Chapter 758 Evidence
When Xu Huaiyi walked out of the yamen, it was already dawn. He squinted and looked up, belatedly realizing that he had been busy all night.

As he walked home, the old family servant guarding the gate immediately came forward: "Young master, you've finally returned."

Before Xu Huaiyi could speak, he smelled the aroma of food wafting from the kitchen.

The old folks smiled and said, "We guessed that the young master would be back soon, so we had the cook prepare the meal in advance. The young master can eat as soon as he changes out of his official robes."

The family members back home were thinking that after eating, their son would be able to rest for another half an hour.

Thinking this, the old family members hurriedly ran to the kitchen, wanting to tell the cook to hurry up. Just then, the Xu family's door was pushed open again.

The old man turned to look, and a peddler walked in. He frowned, about to scold him. The world was going to the dogs; a peddler was barging in without knocking.

"you……"

"Is this the home of Xu Huaiyi, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review?"

The man spoke first, and the villagers' expressions froze instantly.

The peddler's tense expression was all too familiar to the villagers. After their son entered officialdom, he had encountered many people like him, and without exception, they all asked their son to stand up for them.

The cook had just brought out the steaming hot food when she saw the scene in the yard, and silently took the food back to the kitchen.

It seems that her husband won't have an easy time today.

Xu Huaiyi had only taken off half of his official robe when he heard the noise outside. As always, he quickly changed his clothes and stepped out.

The peddler put down the wooden box he was carrying, his face still showing trepidation. Upon seeing Xu Huaiyi, he immediately knelt down and said, "Lord Xu, I have come to report to the authorities. Not long ago, my brother Li Da and his family were murdered. Please do justice for Li Da."

Xu Huaiyi frowned, immediately recalling where he had seen the name Li Da before. As he carefully recalled the name, he instructed his family members, "Bring some tea."

After saying that, he led the peddler into the main room to talk.

The moment the two sat down again, Xu Huaiyi finally remembered Li Da. He recalled that when he was reading the documents, there was a military officer named Li Da under Ma Yue.

Ma Yue was a garrison commander who claimed to be ordered by Xie Yisong to suppress the demonic sect. Two years after Xie Yisong and his wife passed away, Ma Yue died in battle at sea.

Ma Yue left behind a memorial stating that the campaign to suppress the cult was carried out under false pretenses, with the emperor mistakenly believing that Xie Yisong was colluding with the cult leader and deceiving the court. He claimed that the offer of amnesty was a pretext to retain his ships and continue smuggling goods by sea.

It was through this that Madam Xie exposed Xie Yizhi's lies, thus securing the cooperation of Xu Shu, the leader of the demon cult, to deal with Xie Yizhi. This was confirmed during the interrogation of Xu Shu and Ding Fang, Xie Yizhi's informant.

They also tried to find out if there were any people around Ma Yue who knew the inside story, and even posted notices to search for them, but to no avail.

I didn't expect there to be a Li Da as well.

"Who is this Li Da you're talking about?" Xu Huaiyi asked.

Sure enough, the peddler said, "I once served as a military officer under Ma Yue." As he spoke, he took out a notice from his box and pointed to Ma Yue's name.

Xu Huaiyi looked at the peddler: "Did Li Da give this to you?"

The peddler nodded: "Li Da said... if he is ever murdered, he wants me to bring these things to Bianjing to find the presiding official in this case."

At this point, the peddler's face turned somber: "I thought he was just worrying unnecessarily. After hiding for so many years, and with Xie Yizhi being arrested, how could anyone possibly come looking for him? Maybe after Xie Yizhi is executed, he can regain his identity and return to his hometown to pay respects to his ancestors."

"But I never expected that something would happen to him after he left my place and went home." "When I heard the news, I immediately rushed to Yingtian Prefecture. I didn't dare to openly go to the government office to ask about the situation, so I pretended to be a peddler and inquired about the cause of his death. Later, I heard from a government official that bandits had broken into their house and that Li Da, his wife, and their two children had all been killed."

Upon hearing this, Xu Huaiyi asked, "How do we determine if they are bandits?"

The peddler had obviously thought of this, so he responded without hesitation: "The constable said that Li Da's house had been ransacked, and all the valuables were gone."

"And what about the body?" Xu Huaiyi continued to ask.

The peddler was taken aback: "I... don't know." He hadn't thought about these things, so he hadn't asked, but since Xu Huaiyi brought it up, he understood after thinking about it carefully.

"You mean... real bandits would also take a person's valuables?"

Before Xu Huaiyi could respond, the peddler said, "Yes, how come I didn't think of that? If I had asked this earlier... I wouldn't have had to go through all that trouble to find out there was something wrong with this case."

Xu Huaiyi asked, "What did you find out?"

The peddler said, "I bribed the clerk in the yamen to look at the detailed case file and found that in addition to valuables, books were also taken from Li Da's house."

"Including all the letters in Li Da's house, in short, all the paper with writing on it is gone."

"Your Honor is wise. How could bandits possibly possess such a thing? Li Da's entire family must have been murdered."

Xu Huaiyi nodded subconsciously, agreeing with the peddler's statement. The loss of gold, silver and valuables would easily lead people to suspect thieves, so it was also necessary to investigate other stolen items.

The loss of books and papers in this case is clearly not typical of thieves, so it's not hard to deduce that perhaps those people took the valuables simply to cover it up.

The peddler noticed something amiss, and following Li Da's instructions, he went to Bianjing.

Xu Huaiyi looked at the peddler: "What else did Li Da leave behind?"

Since Li Da had made some arrangements, it couldn't have been as simple as just delivering a message.

The peddler took out a cloth bag from his pocket. After opening the bag, a stack of papers was revealed in front of Xu Huaiyi. The papers were stained with dark red stains. Based on his years of experience in investigating cases, Xu Huaiyi could tell that they were bloodstains.

After calming himself down, Xu Huaiyi picked up the top stack of papers and unfolded them to examine them.

That wasn't a letter, but... an account book torn from somewhere, recording the person in charge, the itinerary, and the amount of money earned from the goods.

Xu Huaiyi realized that these were accounts given to Xie Yizhi from Fujian, because the goods brought back for sale were all imported.

In addition to the accounts, there were also some letters and testimonies.

Xu Huaiyi became increasingly alarmed as he looked at the evidence. If these things had been handed over to the imperial court earlier, Xie Yizhi's case wouldn't have been delayed until now. Although the evidence was weaker than what they had now, they could surely find out the truth by investigating carefully.

Xu Huaiyi opened the last piece of paper and found the petition. He focused his gaze on the line of text written by the petitioner, who was the mother of the disgraced official Xie Yizhi.

Xu Huaiyi's heart clenched. He had guessed when he saw it, but seeing the words with his own eyes still shocked him. Madam Xie had actually found these things on her own.

She was just one step away from sending Xie Yizhi to the yamen.

(End of this chapter)