Chapter 75: Nanhuashan Taoist Temple
Chapter 75 Nanhuashan Taoist Temple
Backing back to the main hall of the backyard, Hu Maoxi saw that Chu Nanzhi looked a little lonely, and roughly guessed that her interrogation was fruitless.
The two sat silently in the main hall for a long time. Hu Maoxi kept drinking tea with a sullen face, feeling a little anxious.
Since he let go, he can no longer break his promise; but if she continues to entangle, this case will not be able to be handed over to the higher authorities, so it is not good to just hang it like this.
At this moment, Sun Xiancheng led Erbao Lin Ruixi and Wei Nianyi slowly walked in.
Seeing Chu Nanzhi frowning, Er Bao hurriedly ran over to comfort him:
"Aniang, is it possible that the bad guys can't be caught?"
Looking at such a well-behaved Erbao, Chu Nanzhi couldn't help reaching out and brushing her delicate cheeks, pretending to have nothing to do with a smile and saying, "The villain is hiding."
Er Bao said solemnly unwillingly: "Then why don't we go to the villain's house to look for it? The villain must have hidden in the house after doing something bad."
"Home?"
Children love to run home when they get into trouble, which also made Chu Nanzhi suddenly have some new associations in his heart.
She asked Hu Maoxi: "Master County Magistrate, how did the Shen family's mistress react after the incident?"
"If you want to say that Mrs. Han is indeed a kind-hearted person."
When mentioning the Shen family's mistress, Hu Maoxi sighed and shook his head again and again:
"This Mrs. Han is saddened by the death of her husband, and at the same time complains about the grievances and injustices of the concubine in her family. She doesn't believe that it is Shen Yang who murdered Shen Jianghe, and even sent someone to send dozens of taels of silver to ask me to take care of her. Thoroughly investigate this case, and give Shen Yang justice."
"It's sisters who love each other deeply."
Chu Nanzhi hugged Erbao and sighed in a low voice, but what the Shen family's mistress did made her feel a little weird.
Since you sincerely ask someone to do something, and it is a matter of human life, such a big family business only donates a few dozen taels of silver to the magistrate of a majestic county.
But Hu Maoxi obviously didn't realize this, and replied with some regret: "Who says it's not, the evidence in this case is solid, and the official didn't dare to take half of the white money."
Chu Nanzhi didn't dare to answer.
He had already prepared to close the case, so naturally he would not accept the money.
After thinking for a while, she looked at Hu Maoxi again, and asked tentatively, "Have you inquired about the Shen family's affairs in detail, sir?"
Hu Maoxi raised his eyebrows and took a deep breath:
"The first two Japanese officials in Shen's family also asked Sun County Cheng to send someone to find out in detail. There are only two rooms in this Shen family. The second room is prosperous, but there is some quarrel with the eldest room. In the early years, the Han lady suffered from having no children under her knees. Originally wanted to adopt a young son from the second house, but Shen Jianghe refused to agree. Later, Shen Yang gave birth to an heir and adopted the concubine son under the Han family's name. Since then, the eldest house has never mentioned the matter of adoption. "
"Well, just now I heard from Shen Yang that the Dafang couple love this concubine very much, and Shen Yunqing is also upright. Not only respects the mistress, but is also very filial to the young lady. The family is really harmonious."
Chu Nanzhi replied obediently.
But judging from her many years of experience as a police officer, this matter always has a weird taste.
Thinking of the key evidence mentioned by the Master Registrar just now, she whispered to Hu Maoxi again: "I heard that the remaining scented tea that the Patriarch of the Shen family drank that day has been brought back to the county government."
Hu Maoxi immediately heard her subtext, and waved at Sun Xiancheng carelessly: "Sun Wucai, go and fetch that half bag of tea and show it to Mrs. Chu."
After finishing speaking, he wandered in the hall with loose eyes, nodded and said with a smile:
"If you say that this honeysuckle is rare in our Luyan Port, it is not a rare thing, but it only flourishes in the Nanhua Mountain area of Tong'an Village. Even if there are other areas, it is rare. Nanhua Mountain has been enclosed in the Royal Taoist temple many years ago. If It is difficult for ordinary people to go up if it is not an important festival.”
Hearing about Nanhua Mountain, some scattered memories immediately appeared in Chu Nanzhi's mind.
The kings of recent generations of Dahe Empire advocated the art of immortality, so Taoism was very prosperous.
The Taoist temple on the top of Nanhua Mountain was originally just an inconspicuous small temple, but because Emperor Daxing and the three eldest princesses practiced here, they became so famous that the whole mountain was included in the Taoist temple more than ten years ago. Among them, it became a royal palace.
It is said that the ashes of the emperor Daxing who became immortal are still preserved in the Taoist temple.
As for why the first emperor and the three eldest princesses came here to practice, as the original owner, the low-level people do not know.
Hu Maoxi looked at Chu Nanzhi who was lost in thought, and then said:
"Miss Chu, there is no need to have doubts about this scented tea. I have already asked about the origin of this tea. Those teas were picked by Shen Yang and Han on Nanhua Mountain together last month, and brought back from Shen Yang's courtyard. The tea leaves are tested by the official and are not poisonous, and the Han’s courtyard also has this tea, and the whole family has drunk it many times, and there has never been any poisoning incident.”
Chu Nanzhi was full of doubts when he heard this: "Since that's the case, where did the poison that the Patriarch of the Shen family was poisoned come from?"
"This"
One sentence directly asked Hu Maoxi: "It's really strange."
The two fell into silence one after another.
Er Baolin Ruixi and Wei Nianyi watched from the sidelines as they were helpless, their heads were getting bigger.
Er Bao's small round eyes turned back and forth on several people, and when he was bored, he suddenly looked at Chu Nanzhi firmly, pouted and said suspiciously:
"Aniang, do you think it's because the tea leaves are not clean, so the Patriarch of the Shen family will get sick and die after drinking it?"
Chu Nanzhi didn't have time to pay attention to the little guy in the future, when Sun Xiancheng took the half bag of honeysuckle over.
She hurriedly opened the bag, looked intently, and golden dried petals immediately appeared in front of her eyes.
Chu Nanzhi took some out and spread them out on her hands, looked carefully, but didn't notice anything unusual.
Just as she was about to put the petals in her hand back into her pocket, she suddenly remembered what Er Bao said just now.
Ignoring the questioning gazes cast by Hu Maoxi and Sun Xiancheng, she directly poured half a bag of tea onto the desk.
Searching intently among the scattered dried petals, I saw long and narrow flower grains full and shiny.
Suddenly, her icy eyes flashed, and she found a few flower grains among the dried petals that were different from other petals.
Those flower grains look the same at first glance, but if you look carefully, you can find some clues.
The petals found are slightly shorter, shaped like a funnel, and the bracts are slightly wider than the petals of honeysuckle seen. If you don't check carefully, you can't find the difference.
Pinching the petals tightly, Chu Nan Zhi Meifeng looked at Hu Maoxi lightly: "Would your lord be willing to find two mice for the women?"
Hu Maoxi stared blankly at the tea leaves in her hand, not knowing what she wanted to do, and quietly waved to Sun Xiancheng: "Go to prison and catch a few, the fatter the better."
Sun Xiancheng responded and left.
Chu Nanzhi chose a large handful of normal honeysuckle flowers and a few funnel-shaped petals on the table and handed them to Hu Maoxi, and asked him to send someone to brew two cups of tea separately.
After that, the silver needle was taken to test the poison.
The two silver needles were still silver-white after being soaked in tea water, and no toxicity was detected.
Not long after, Sun Xiancheng led two jailers in, each holding a mouse weighing one catty in their hands.
The yamen servants forcibly poured two cold cups of tea into the mouths of the two mice, and a group of people began to open their eyes and watch quietly, waiting for the final result.
Not long after, the mouse that drank the tea made from three or five funnel-shaped petals convulsed, foamed at the mouth, and gradually died of breathlessness.
The other mouse that took normal honeysuckle tea remained unharmed.
"This"
Everyone in the hall was dumbfounded, Sun Xiancheng trembled and almost fell to the ground.
(end of this chapter)