Jiangshan Fengwuzhi

Chapter 92 Investigation and Killing
"He died at three o'clock last night. The cause of death was a fatal wound to the heart."

Su Changfu muttered, and picked up the severed hands, feet, and fingers on the ground, and examined the wounds carefully. He said, "The murderer acted decisively and knows a lot about human joints. He is an extremely cruel person."

He reported all the collected results to Pei Nian, but saw Pei Nian staring at the table in a daze.

"Investigation?"

"Is there something missing here?" Pei Nian said, "There was a pen and ink. Yuan Bozhen should have been writing something before he died, but the murderer took it away."

Su Changfu nodded and said, "It's clear what happened."

"Since the criminals didn't take away the money in the wall, it's clear that this case is not just a simple robbery. It's impossible for someone to dare to break into the house of a high-ranking official just to rob money..."

Pei Nian muttered to himself and walked out.

She was able to determine that the murderer came for the case that Pei Bozhen was handling, namely the case of Gu Beiming and Lu Yanning's treason and rebellion.

But this case has clear evidence, and almost all the relatives and friends of the Gu and Lu families have been captured. Who would want to stir up trouble?
Thinking of this, Pei Nian thought of the unsigned secret letter he saw yesterday.

Was Gu Beiming really forced to rebel by Yongren spies in the court? Was there a hidden story behind Lu Yanning's rebellion? Who was investigating this matter?
In the yard, Zhao Heng was checking the bodies of the dead guards.

"Investigating the case, I found that they were all terrified before they died. The murderer must have very high martial arts skills." Zhao Heng lowered his voice and asked, "Maybe he was an alien?"

"The postman, Zhao Ming. Bring him to me."

Speaking of this, Zhao Heng looked a little strange, and said: "He didn't go to the post station in Beijing."

"Have you checked every post station?"

"Yes, no post station has ever seen him."

Pei Nian frowned slightly and said, "Tell someone to go to Jingyuan Posthouse and ask about this person."

"Yes, but it would take at least six days to investigate this matter, even if we had a fast horse back and forth."

"Cha, I have a hunch that he is related to this case."

"Yes."

"I asked you to find out where Gu Caiwei is. Did you find out?"

Zhao Heng shook his head and said, "This matter is actually a bit complicated. On the day when Lu Yanning was arrested for treason, Gu Caiwei was not arrested along with the other family members of the Lu family. Instead, she escaped."

"How did she escape when she was pregnant?"

"The Lu family's priest, who is very skilled in martial arts, helped her escape to the Zhenyuan Marquis's mansion."

Pei Nian naturally knew that Zhenyuan Marquis Lu Yanqing was Lu Yanning's elder brother.

Although Lu Yanning was a leader among the younger generation of the Rui army and had a great reputation, the Lu family's official position, power, title, and everything else were actually inherited by Lu Yanqing. Although he was low-key, his influence in the court was far greater than that of his brother.

Zhao Heng continued, "Gu Si Niang fled to the Zhenyuan Marquis's residence. Not long after, the Zhenyuan Marquis submitted a memorial to impeach Gu Beiming. It should be his intention to sacrifice his relatives for the greater good, but the strange thing is that the memorial was suppressed by the Prime Minister's residence, and even the charges were unknown. It seems that the Prime Minister's residence reached some kind of deal with the Zhenyuan Marquis, and the Zhenyuan Marquis's residence has not been held accountable for the time being."

"In other words, Gu Si Niang is still in the Zhenyuan Marquis Mansion?"

"I don't know." Zhao Heng said, "Because the imperial army went to search and confiscate a number of people and things, including the offerings, treasures, and books of the Marquis' Mansion."

"Where?"

"I don't know."

"Go find out more."

As he spoke, Pei Nian left Yuan's house and mounted his horse.

She glanced around and suddenly noticed an old man walking slowly with a cane in the crowd. He seemed to be blind, which reminded her of something. She had indeed never seen this old blind man before.

Pei Nian kicked the horse's belly and was about to leave when he suddenly remembered something.

She had read the intelligence before that Gu Jingnian's mentor was a blind, slovenly old man who was drunk all day long.

"Go, bring the old man to me."

Soon, the blind old man was brought in front of Pei Nian.

"What's your name?" she asked bluntly.

"Grassman..."

Pei Nian tapped his forehead and finally remembered the name he saw in the intelligence. He slowly asked, "Ying Shilun?"

A helpless expression appeared on the face of the blind old man. He sighed and said, "Yes, I am willing to be punished."

After saying this, he lowered his head, as if ready to be dealt with.

"What crime have you committed?"

"I am the teacher of the Gu family. The Gu family has committed treason, and I should be implicated."

Pei Nian asked: "If that's the case, why haven't you been caught? Instead, why are you just hanging around here?"

"I don't know." Ying Shilun sighed, "I was drunk outside those days. When I woke up, the master had been arrested, but I was missed. I, a useless old man, couldn't live alone, so I had to come and turn myself in."

"Looking for Yuan Bozhen to surrender?"

"I heard that this is the Dali Temple."

Pei Nian saw that Ying Shilun was blind but not blind in heart, so he thought for a moment and said, "Follow me."

Taking the old blind man to a deserted place, she said straight to the point: "If you want someone to help you, I can."

"I, an old blind man, don't know what you are talking about."

Pei Nian said slowly: "I know Gu Jingnian, and I have a good relationship with him."

She chose the word "not bad" carefully, so it wasn't a random statement.

Although Ying Shilun's eye sockets were empty, a look of shock still appeared on his face when he heard these words.

Pei Nian knew that his guess was correct, so he asked, "Do you know Gu Jingnian's secret?"

"Miss, are you...really familiar with the young master?" Pei Nian just said that she had a good relationship with Gu Jingnian, but in the blink of an eye, it became "familiar" in Ying Shilun's mouth, but she did not deny it.

"Ah."

Ying Shilun then became excited and said, "Girl, you are..."

"I can help you." Pei Nian said, "On the condition that you tell me the truth. You are a blind man, there is no way you can escape the pursuit alone. How did you get out of Lu's house?"

Ying Shilun rubbed his fingers, and after thinking about it, he quickly made a decision. Now he was at his wit's end, and he could only try his luck.

"I was escorted to the Zhenyuan Marquis's Mansion with Si Niang by the Lu family's servants. In other words, I took Si Niang away."

"you?"

"Yes, before that, the young master had anticipated that the Gu family might change, and left me a letter, asking me to pass it to the head of the Lu family at a critical moment, so that the Lu family and the Gu family could draw a clear line and save the fourth daughter."

Pei Nian was not surprised that Gu Jingnian would do this.

"What did the letter say?"

Ying Shilun smiled bitterly and said, "I am blind, how can I see the young master's letter? But I guess that the young master must have revealed the secret himself, as evidence for the Lu family to report the Gu family's crimes, because at that time, I heard Lu Yanqing say, 'Gu Beiming dared to raise a strange person...', and he stopped talking about the rest, so he thought it was 'strange people'."

"and then?"

"Lu Yanqing submitted a memorial to the emperor, and he did save himself, but he did not fulfill his promise to me and let someone take Si Niang away." Ying Shilun said, "Someone did not want the matter of Yi Ren to be exposed, so they made a deal with him to make him shut up. This case only mentioned the rebellion of the Gu and Lu families, and no one mentioned Lu Yanqing's memorial to the emperor or the matter of Yi Ren."

"What do you want to do with Yuan Bozhen?"

"I want to find out where Si Niang is." Qing Shilun said, "There must be someone in the court covering up the matter of the strange man. Whoever took Si Niang away must be the insider."

Pei Nian probably understood.

The reason behind Gu Beiming and Lu Yanning's rebellion was still related to alchemy. Someone, most likely Prime Minister Zheng Kuangfu, wanted to suppress the alchemy.

But this was just her guess, or even her obsession that caused her to have wild thoughts, and there was no evidence to support it for the time being.

"Zhao Heng, you protect him personally."

Pei Nian handed Ying Shilun over to his subordinates, mounted his horse, and rushed to the Dali Temple.

She decided to investigate further into Yuan Bocheng's death, so she had to look at the files in Yuan Bocheng's official residence first.

The horse galloped through the capital city and stopped in front of the Dali Temple.

Pei Nian quickly climbed the stairs, holding the talisman, showed it to the guard at the door, and rushed in.

"Where is Sizhi Yuan Bozhen's public housing? Take me there!"

"Please investigate..."

Upon seeing this, several guards standing at the yamen whispered to each other.

"Why are there so many officials here today?"

"Don't you know? Yuan Sizhi died last night."

"I, I have something to say." A guard looked unhappy and stammered, "When they interrogated me just now, I didn't have time to tell them and they left."

"what?"

"Didn't the officials in the temple work all night last night? The government office was open all night, and I was guarding outside the door. Before dawn, around four o'clock, a man came in with Yuan Sizhi's token."

"What?! Why didn't you say so earlier?!"

"No one asked me. They all asked me where Yuan Sizhi's residence was. How could I know that Yuan Sizhi was dead?"

"Where's that guy? Did he come out?"

"I don't know, maybe not..."

--------

There was a strong smell of paper and ink in the government office, which showed that Yuan Bocheng had written a lot of files in a short period of time.

Pei Nian opened one of the volumes and the first thing he saw was Gu Jiye's testimony.

She immediately realized something was wrong, because she knew Gu Jiye too well, he was a fool. If Lu Yanning was planning a rebellion, it wouldn't be surprising that Gu Jiye was the last to know about it. How could he have reported it in advance? It was more like someone was instigating the persecution, but why?
While flipping through the files, suddenly, a cry of surprise was heard in the yamen.

"It's dead!"

Pei Nian put down the documents in his hand and rushed towards the direction where the scream came from.

The place was located further inside the government office, which made her worried that the person who might have gotten into trouble might be her father, Pei Wugui, the Shaoqing of the Dali Temple.

So, when Pei Nian saw that the body lying in the temple secretary's room was another person, his first reaction was relief.

"Don't even move!"

She stopped the officials surrounding the corpse, walked forward and took a look. The bloodstains on the floor had been trampled.

The deceased was Chang Jinxian, the deputy minister of the Dali Temple. He was in his fifties, with grey hair and beard and a resolute face. Even until his death, his face still had an air of majesty without even anger.

There was a dagger stuck in his chest.

The murderer apparently stabbed the person several times and left only after making sure the person was dead.

But Chang Jinxian was also holding an inkstone with some blood stains on it, which must have been used to hit the murderer several times.

"Seal off the Dali Temple. Capture the wounded immediately!"

Pei Nian shouted and noticed that the token hanging on Chang Jinxian's waist was missing. He turned around and looked for it on the desk, and found that the official seal was also gone; the family files had been rummaged through, and some of them must have been taken away; a locked drawer had also been pried open, and the letters inside had spilled out.

She immediately confirmed that the murderer was indeed here for treason. She touched the neck of the corpse again and found it was still slightly warm, so she immediately became alert.

The murderer has not gone far and is now in the Dali Temple.

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(End of this chapter)