But after he arrived at Shuntian Mansion, he happened to see it when he used his free time to look through the cases over the years, and he also just passed by this case.
Because compared with the cases that happened that year, this fire was inconspicuous.
That year happened to be after the King of Wei rebelled, and the people of King Wei were arrested everywhere in the capital. Houses were ransacked and people died. Cases were reported to Shuntian Prefecture, the Ministry of Punishment, and Dali Temple almost every day. A large number of heavy cases were backlogged.
It is not easy to sort out the documents clearly, and the testimonies contained in them are just perfunctory. Anyway, everything is related to rebellion, and there will be no victims to complain...
Now that this woman is mentioning it, maybe there is something hidden in it.
Huang Qinghe said: "Old lady, do you know about this?"
"Of course," the old woman said, "I watched the fire burn with my own eyes."
The old woman's eyes seemed to be on fire.
"It was such a big fire," the old woman stretched out her hand. "The sky turned red. The fire started from the Taoist temple and burned down all the surrounding houses."
Huang Qinghe thought of the wall stacks outside the Taoist temple: "But I saw burn marks on the wall stacks. The fire shouldn't be big."
The old woman laughed: "It can burn more than a dozen people to death. Do you think it's a big fire?"
Huang Qinghe said: "I have read the files, and it seems that the person living next to the Taoist temple is a doctor, and none of the doctor's family has escaped."
The old woman smiled and said: "Yes, that doctor was very famous in the past. He was very charitable and often went to the almshouse to treat wounded soldiers and refugees. He had a wife, a pair of children, an apprentice, and three servants.
He was burned to death. I went to see the corpse when it was brought out from the doctor's house. It was so miserable... I even gave money to burn paper... Each person burned one pile, and we burned more than a dozen piles."
Huang Qinghe calculated: "These are only eight people. Are there others in the doctor's family?"
The old woman was stunned for a moment when she heard this, and patted her head for a while: "As people get old, they can't remember anything. Sir, please don't blame me..." She hunched over and walked forward.
Huang Qinghe caught up with the old woman: "Old woman, since you have already said it, why not make it clearer? People were also burned to death in the Taoist temple. Didn't you remember wrongly? Some corpses were carried out from the Taoist temple.
.”
The old woman finally stopped, but this time she gestured with her fingers: "Shh, we can't talk about this. Those who died in the Taoist temple were rebels. They had no way out and hid in the Taoist temple, but they were killed by the Taoist nun."
I found that those people kept doing nothing and killed all the Taoist nuns. When I heard that people from the yamen came to search, I lit a fire and burned myself inside. Alas... what an injustice, it was all those rebels.
's fault."
The two people walked to the Taoist temple. The old woman turned back and said, "Sir, come in and sit down!"
Huang Qinghe looked at the burn marks on the wall of the Taoist temple and was lost in thought for a moment. The old woman did not rush him, as if she wanted to give him time to think carefully.
"I won't go in, there are still things waiting for me to deal with in the Yamen," Huang Qinghe looked at the old woman, "Please take care of yourself!"
Huang Qinghe turned and left. The old woman slowly closed the two doors of the Taoist temple, and her chaotic eyes disappeared behind the door.
After bolting the door, the old woman cleaned her hands, lit a stick of incense and put it in the incense burner. She slowly knelt on the futon and said, "Why don't you protect us? Those bad people are getting better and better these years.
We finally found an opportunity, but maybe... we won't be able to do it again."
Speaking of this, the old woman thought of Mr. Huang who helped her up.
"Master Huang seems to be a good man, but he...well, where in the world did Master Qingtian come from," the old woman said, covering her stomach, feeling a faint pain where she was kicked by the steward of the Zhang family, "No matter what, as long as
If I have the chance, I will give it a try, hoping that through him I can save Zhiyi's child. She is a good child. She has suffered a lot in pretending to be a Taoist nun in these years."
The old woman looked at the curling green smoke, her eyes becoming more determined.
…
After everyone left, Meng Lingyun walked out of the darkness. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and let out a long breath.
The eldest lady ordered him to watch every move of the old woman in the Taoist temple. Just now he heard the noisy noise in the Taoist temple and knew that the Zhang family was doing evil inside. The Zhang family closed the door of the Taoist temple and did whatever they wanted inside, only to cause trouble.
Only with some movement can we help the people in the Taoist temple get out of trouble.
He thought of a way to pretend to be a thief and fall into the nearby yard, and then be discovered on purpose. This way he could lure people out to "catch the thief". As long as there was chaos around him, the Zhang family would be disturbed.
But he had just covered his face, and a cold snort came from nowhere, as if he was disgusted and disdainful of his actions.
He turned his head in panic and saw a familiar figure flashing in front of him, followed by the Zhang family's servants climbing up the wall.
who is it.
The man ran back and took off the cloth covering his face, revealing Xu Qingan's face.
Xu Qingan blinked.
"Your Majesty is so awesome." Meng Lingyun immediately praised.
Xu Qingan then nodded with satisfaction. Who can cause trouble better than him?
Xu Qingan and Meng Lingyun carefully hid where they wanted to see the situation. Finally, everyone left and they breathed a sigh of relief.
"Let's go," Xu Qing'an said, "I think nothing will happen tonight."
The two of them walked forward together.
Xu Qingan smacked his lips: "My sister has good taste. Huang Qinghe looks like a bean sprout. I didn't expect to have such courage. It's really good."
Meng Lingyun returned to Anyihou Mansion and found that the lights in Xu Qinghuan's house had not been turned off.
Xu Qingan entered the door and told the story about the Zhang family: "As you expected, the Zhang family went to the Taoist temple. The Zhang family should have intervened in this case to solve the case quickly!"
Xu Qinghuan nodded: "I think so, but... they seem to have guessed that the two Taoist nuns were the murderers, otherwise why would they spend so much effort on this Taoist temple."
Meng Lingyun said: "The old woman talked to Mr. Huang for a long time. Mr. Huang stood outside the Taoist temple and looked at the outer wall of the Taoist temple for a while before leaving."
When Xu Qinghuan heard this, he closed the book in his hand and raised his head to look at Xu Qingan: "Brother, please rest early."
Xu Qingan was a little surprised: "Aren't we going to do something?"
Xu Qinghuan said: "Brother will go find out early tomorrow morning when the Taoist temple caught fire, whether there were any dead people, and where the dead people are buried. The more detailed the better."
She remembered that the outer wall of the Taoist temple still had traces of being smoked by fire. What the old woman mentioned to Huang Qinghe might be related to the fire.
Maybe we can find some clues here.
When Xu Qingan left with Meng Lingyun, Xu Qinghuan looked at the yard and wondered how Mrs. Tan slept tonight and when she was going to take action.
…
Zhang family.
The manager of the Zhang family stood in the room, cold sweat dripping from his forehead.
He didn't ask anything, and Huang Qinghe almost got the handle. He failed in this errand.
"What's wrong with you?" Zhang Yucong raised his head and looked at the steward. The steward's clothes were soaked.
"Falled... fell into the water..." Manager Zhang said, "I... I accidentally fell into the water when I came back from the Taoist temple."
waste.
Zhang Yucong looked over coldly: "Did someone harm you?"
"No, no, I don't know why. As soon as my legs become weak..."
When I thought about this, the manager still felt strange that he fell into the water so easily.
"Sir," the steward knelt down, "it's all because of the poor performance...you...you spared me this time, next time, next time, I will do it well."
