Standing on the river, Duan Tianming looked at the huge or weird-shaped stones below, and he couldn't figure it out.
The two families fought over a stone. Could it be that the stone was just an introduction and the long-standing grudge was the root cause of the murder.
At a glance, these stones are just ordinary granite, materials for building houses. There is nothing valuable or worth touching.
In other words, Ma Yunshan's younger brother Malianshan is already a local tyrant. Do you need his permission even to pick up some rocks in the river?
It's not right if you think about it carefully.
If this were the case, the shopkeeper of the bun stall would definitely say that Malianshan was bullying the people. He would not specifically mention it and say that they had a dispute over a stone.
Obviously, all problems are caused by that stone.
However, as something implicated in the case, the stone must have been collected by the county government. Since he could not identify himself, it was unlikely that he would see the stone.
"Lantian produces jade, and Malianshan runs a jade workshop. His mother-in-law should also know something about jade. Could it be a good piece of jade that caused the two families to fight?" Staring at the river below
, said a captain.
"Probably not." Duan Tianming shook his head, "When I came here, I also made a detailed inquiry about the origin of Lantian jade. As the shopkeeper of the bun shop said, Lantian's jade is concentrated in the county.
In the Qinling ravine in the south called Yuchuan. To the east of this county, jade has never been produced."
"What kind of stone could that cause a massacre?"
"Let's go and have a look in the river below."
As he said that, several people squatted down and slipped down from the two-foot-high river embankment.
"Yeah, it's not very clear from above. There are a lot of freshwater bass in this river." A captain screamed and caught a palm-length freshwater bass that was very close at hand.
The water pool is the main battlefield for river fish, where it is so easy to succeed.
With a flick of its tail, it slipped into the crevices at the bottom of the river and disappeared without a trace.
"Do you think there is nothing I can do about getting into the cracks in the rocks? When I was a child, I was a master at catching fish in the river in my hometown." The school captain smiled, simply took off his shoes and socks, and was about to walk into the knee-deep pool.
Go in.
The breeze is blowing and the birds are chirping. This April weather with green willows and red flowers, coupled with the crystal clear gurgling water, it is difficult not to evoke the long-lost childlike innocence of ordinary people.
Even the cold-faced Captain Dongchang has a noisy heart like ordinary people.
"You're a fishing expert, you saw this pool and wanted to go down there and have some fun, right?" Duan Tianming chuckled and started to take off his shoes.
"As for me, you are not the same." The captain retorted, having already stepped into the puddle with one foot.
"Oh, why is this river so cold and biting?" With a painful scream, the captain was about to pull his feet out of the pool.
But the water in this stream is really too cold.
The biting cold eroded the calves, causing them to cramp. The body suddenly lost balance and fell into the pool.
After a flurry of fussing, and with the help of Duan Tianming and another captain on the side, the captain who was covered in river sand was pulled up.
His face was blue and purple, and his mouth was trembling involuntarily: "Cold, this river water is too cold."
"Take off your clothes and wring them dry." Duan Tianming hurriedly ordered.
"Yes." The captain responded, hurriedly taking off his coat and shaking off the mud on it.
It was April, the weather was pleasant, and the sun was a little bit hot. The cold and biting stream was so surprising.
I couldn't catch fish, so I took a cold bath. It was really a big joke to tell it.
With a "clang" sound, a walnut-sized stone fell out from the folds of the gown, rolled on the ground a few times, and stopped when it hit the boulder next to it.
"You are not an honest person. Everyone is working together, but you steal the eggs." Looking at the captain holding a wet gown in his hand, Duan Tianming squatted on a huge rock, gloating and laughing.
"No way. I would like to eat eggs secretly, so I have to have a chance."
"You didn't eat it secretly? Then you put an egg in your arms?"
"You're fooling me again. You don't even have an egg skin, and you're talking about eggs." Knowing that Duan Tianming was deliberately teasing him, the captain shook the gown in his hand disapprovingly and placed it on the boulder filled with sunshine at his feet.
"If it's not an egg, what is it?" Duan Tianming pointed to the pebbles that had just rolled down in front of him.
Following the direction pointed by Duan Tianming, another captain walked over, bent down to pick up the stone, observed it carefully, then lifted it up and looked at the sun.
"This stone seems to be transparent, with a faint layer of green light inside." The captain shouted.
"Is there a green light? Show it to me." Duan Tianming jumped off the boulder with bare feet.
He hurriedly took the stone from the other person's hand, looked at the sun in the sky, and looked at it carefully.
The dazzling sunlight penetrated through the outer skin of the stone, and there was really a faint emerald green light floating inside.
Regardless of what the stone in his hand was, whether it was valuable or not, Duan Tianming directly placed it on the boulder behind him, then bent down to pick up a bowl-sized stone, and smashed it hard.
With a "crash", the stone as big as the mouth of a bowl fell apart and turned into debris and scattered.
The walnut-sized stone split into two from the middle with a "click" and lay quietly on top of the boulder.
Under the sun, the broken stone surface is emerald green, just like the wheat fields on the shore, full of life.
Duan Tianming was shocked. He picked up the two halves of the stone and looked at them carefully.
If I read it correctly, this is no ordinary stone, this is a top-quality jadeite rough stone.
Duan Tianming didn't know how precious the best jadeite was.
But after the stone was broken open, the color inside was exactly the same as the dark green jade ring on Mr. Factory's finger.
I remember that at a dinner table in the East Factory, Xiao Chen specifically asked the factory owner about this matter, asking him whether it was very precious for the factory owner to wear a jade ring on his finger all day long.
The factory owner smiled casually and replied lightly: "I don't know whether it is precious or not, but it is a gift from the emperor, so you must wear it on your hand."
Throughout the entire Ming Dynasty, the emperor did not give many things, especially jade articles like this, which were even rarer on the fingers.
Its preciousness is self-evident.
Duan Tianming, who is well-informed, never expected that such a precious stone would be found in an inconspicuous river in Magou Town.
"If the stone involved in this murder case is of similar quality to this small stone, I can be sure that this is a vicious case of stealing money and killing people." Raising his right hand, Duan Tianming put the gravel in his hand in the air.
It shook deliberately a few times under the sun.
"Is this green stone very valuable?"
Duan Tianming nodded: "This is the original jade stone, which is very valuable. If you add exquisite craftsmanship, the finished product will not be worth much, but it will be almost the same."
"So expensive?" The two captains looked at each other and opened their mouths at the same time.
"This raw jade stone not only disproves the theory that Magou Town does not produce jade, but also makes me conclude that this case will never be settled easily." Duan Tianming rolled up his trouser legs and said with a heavy face.
"Why does Captain Duan assert so?"
"Ma Lianshan makes a living by running a jade workshop. His wife is willing to kill herself for a stone. How could he not know the value of that stone? Magou Town has never produced jade, and this river will definitely be used in the future.
They circled it and didn't allow others to get close." Duan Tianming said.
"So, if they are worried that the news will leak out, they will definitely try their best to suppress the case in Lantian County Government? Then, if that down-to-earth scholar insists on suing, won't he be in danger?"
"In danger?" Duan Tianming was startled, "Yes, he is very likely to be killed and silenced. No, this group of people who went to the county government to file a complaint are all likely to be in danger."
"What should we do? Let's reveal our identity and go rescue them immediately?" The captain who fell into the water pulled up the half-dried gown on the stone and began to put it on.
"Dongchang's identity cannot be exposed. Let's go to the county government and see the situation first."
Several people hurriedly climbed up the river embankment, got on their horses, and galloped away in the direction of Lantian County.
