Exclusive golden branch

Chapter 466

The people in these merchants reacted strangely, but they were only the victim in the case of their daughter's murder, and they could not extract confessions by torture. Of course, they might not be willing to tell confessions by torture.

In short, the matter so far is that they knew that something was weird, but they refused to say it.

Every family's feelings towards their daughter are different, but like Luoyang Wang's family who love their beloved daughter so much, they would not speak up afterwards, which shows that there must be a huge obstacle preventing them from speaking about it.

Under such circumstances, how could Chongyan find someone and pry open that person's mouth?Lin Yan's heart moved, his expression was surprised, but he asked instinctively: "Which company is it from? Are they willing to cooperate?"

Ji Chongyan glanced at him and said, "It's from the Liu family."

Oh, the Liu family... Lin Yan nodded subconsciously, but froze suddenly after nodding halfway: What?Liu family?Lin Yan looked at Ji Chongyan in astonishment.

Ji Chongyan reached out, picked up the letter on Lin Yan's left side, slowly opened the letter for him, spread out the letter paper, and spread it in front of him.

"There are so many clan merchants involved, most of them regard their daughter as an abandoned child and choose to endure it. The only exception is the Liu family. Although we don't know whether the Liu family treated their daughter as an abandoned child, the entire Liu family died in the fire. When Ji Chongyan said this, he paused and said, "The Liu family must be different from those families!"

It wasn't that the Liu family died only because they were willing to speak, or that the Liu family had something else on them to arouse the family's hatred for extermination.

"Those merchants refused to open their mouths because they didn't want their ancestral business to be frustrated, but they wanted the whole family to survive. As far as the Liu family is concerned, the family has been wiped out, so there is no such concern." Ji Chongyan said, "So no matter whether the Liu family was willing to speak or not at that time, , now that the entire family has been burned down, the Liu family has no reason not to speak."

Only when there is something on the body will there be scruples, and the Liu family has nothing now... There is an old saying: barefoot is not afraid of wearing shoes, and the Liu family will speak without any scruples.

It's just... Lin Yan frowned and said, "I remember that the entire Liu family died tragically in the fire, and none survived."

According to Chongyan, of course the Liu family would speak, but the premise was that the members of the Liu family were still alive.

Now that the Liu family has been burned to charcoal, how can I speak?
Is it possible to use Wu Zuo's method of "the corpse will speak"?But the "corpse will speak" that I wrote was to find out the cause of death. Right now, there is no problem with the cause of death of the Liu family. What is problematic is the secrets hidden in the Liu family.

"The Dali Temple was involved in this matter before. I searched for the genealogy of the Liu family with Mr. Ji, and there are no relatives living in the Liu family. There are no married women in this generation. There were married women in the previous two generations, but they have long since passed away. Several generations of distant relatives don't even know about it." Lin Yan said.

What's more, if the murderer came here for the purpose of silence, anyone who knew about it, even a married woman would not be able to escape the end of silence.

"It is true that no one in the Liu family is alive." Ji Chongyan nodded immediately when he heard the words, admitted Lin Yan's words, but paused, and then said, "However, the matter of Xiuzhu made me realize that people from the Liu family may not necessarily be needed to know about this."

The close confidants next to the master sometimes know more secrets than distant relatives who have been separated for two or three generations.

"I found a servant girl who was married in Mrs. Liu's courtyard two years before the incident." Ji Chongyan said, "The maid named Qiuyue has been with Mrs. Liu for many years, and has always been highly regarded by Mrs. Liu. Until two years ago, Mrs. Liu got old and didn't want to delay Qiuyue, so she married Qiuyue to a wealthy businessman from the south of the Yangtze River who had done business with Liu's family. Make a sequel. I found someone to inquire about Qiuyue's marriage, and I heard that Mrs. Liu gave a large dowry, so I think Qiuyue must be very favored in front of Mrs. Liu."

Such a favored Qiuyue married far away in Jiangnan Road, married a wealthy businessman and soon became pregnant, and before she could go back to Chang'an to see Mrs. Liu, something happened to Mrs. Liu.

"Madam Liu is the owner of the back house of the Liu family. Although she is kind, she is definitely not an ordinary woman who may be submissive to all the daughters-in-law and grand-daughters-in-law in the back house." Ji Chongyan paused for a moment before speaking. He said, "This kind of woman must know the family affairs."

There are dignitaries everywhere in Chang'an, and there are many kinds of wives around the dignitaries.There are rich and powerful wives who are so beautiful but only need to focus on eating, drinking and dressing up. Most of these wives are "vases" placed at home, and they don't know much.Of course, the rich and powerful would not dare to let such wives know too much, maybe it would be bad if they leaked the word to their close friends.

And Mrs. Liu, who can arrange for more than a dozen daughter-in-laws and grand-daughter-in-laws in the back house to get along "harmoniously", is definitely not a vase.

"Lao Madam Liu knows many things, and she herself is not an ordinary woman."

In this case, Qiuyue who can be valued by Mrs. Liu, who is not an ordinary woman, will not be an ordinary maid.

Although Liu's family used to be an imperial merchant and had a reputation among the merchants, it might make a wealthy merchant willing to marry a maid as a follow-up, but this maid must have something special.

Among the servants and maids, there are also unusual people, such as Xiuzhu before, and Qiuyue now.

"I just asked people to ask and tested that Qiuyue, and that Qiuyue immediately replied and wanted to meet me." Ji Chongyan said, knocking on the letter with his hand, and said, "Qiuyue should Know something."

……

It was after noon the next day that I saw Qiuyue who was willing to speak.

After she got married, she had a friendly relationship with the wealthy businessman, and soon after she got married, she gave birth to a son, and she couldn't go on a long journey when she was pregnant, so she didn't go back to Chang'an to visit Mrs. Liu in those two years, and only exchanged letters. .Not long after giving birth to the confinement, Qiuyue and the wealthy businessman were planning to return to Beijing again. Unexpectedly, not long after, Qiuyue became pregnant again. It's a blessing.But something happened to the Liu family when she was pregnant with their daughter.

"When something happened to the Liu family, I was pregnant. My husband was afraid that something would happen to me, so he kept it from me until I was confinement. Therefore, it was the middle of last year when I found out what happened to the Liu family."

This woman named Qiuyue has a delicate appearance. In terms of appearance, she is very inconspicuous among the beauties married by rich businessmen, but the firmness in her eyebrows and eyes is very rare. It can be seen that she has her own ideas in her heart And a well-proportioned smart woman.

In the middle of the year, the case of the Liu family had faded away and was listed as an unsolved case by Dali Temple without any progress.

After Qiuyue briefly explained how she knew about the Liu family, she looked at Ji Chongyan and Lin Yan and said, "To be honest, after I found out about the Liu family, Mr. Xianggong originally planned to accompany me to Chang'an City. To pay homage to..."

As a favored maidservant when she was not married, who has received the grace of her master, she should do so.

But Lin Yan didn't miss the word "original" in Qiuyue's mouth.

"At that time, I was ready to leave, but I thought twice before I left and still didn't go." Qiuyue said.

It was precisely because the maid who was sent out did not return to Liu's house to visit the old master for more than two years, and there was no one who paid homage to Liu's family after that, so the investigators of Dali Temple did not notice Qiuyue before.

The murderer... shouldn't have noticed either.

"Not long after the accident in the Liu family, some old people who were favored by the master came back to visit one after another. I also asked those people in Dali Temple, but they couldn't ask anything." Lin Yan, the young minister of Dali Temple, naturally said to Dali The case that the temple took over is very familiar.

"I don't think I should go back." Qiuyue explained her reason for doing so, "The one who can wipe out the entire Liu family must not be an ordinary person, he must have a plan to do this, so... that person is the same The Liu family must have had old grievances."

People cannot be resurrected after death, and the sacrifice is to remember the old master, which is what it should be.But Qiuyue felt that it was more important to find the murderer and prevent the entire Liu family from dying in vain than offering sacrifices.

"Usually, if you have old grievances or business quarrels with the Liu family, your Dali Temple investigators must have investigated it," Qiuyue didn't think that she, an ordinary woman who was born as a maid, could be better than these Dali Temple officials who were good at investigating cases. In order to be proficient in this way, "So the old grievance that I want the Liu family to be destroyed must be something that ordinary people can't think of or know."

"Earlier, Ji Shizi wrote to me and told me that the miss died recently." Speaking of this, Qiuyue was also a little depressed, "I thought that the miss was caused by the members of the Liu family first, but I didn't realize it... ..."

It's just that although it is sad about this matter, it is because of Miss Liu's matter that Qiuyue once again recalled the process of Miss Liu's disappearance.

"Although I was in Jiangnan Road at that time, I still had correspondence with a few young sisters who were close to me. After Miss's accident, Ayun who was beside the old lady at that time was brought up by me, and told me what happened before and after Miss's disappearance. matter."

Miss Liu's disappearance can be summed up in a simple way. Deng Hui went out with others and was scattered by the crowd. In the blink of an eye, Miss Liu disappeared.

To be able to make a wealthy businessman disappear so quickly must have been planned in advance, and it would not be an ordinary kidnapper.

There is nothing unusual about the process, what is unusual is the few strange things that happened before and after Miss Liu's disappearance.

"Ayun told me that the concierge received a letter before Miss' accident," Qiuyue said, "The letter was very strange. It was stuck in the crack of the door a few days before Miss' accident. There was no word on the letter." , what was inside was a piece of paper with no words on it.”

This is an empty letter that can no longer be empty, like a childish joke.

"The letter was delivered to the old lady. The old lady didn't say anything at the time, she said it was a joke, but afterwards, Ah Yun saw the old lady staring at the blank letter paper for a long time." Qiuyue frowned when she said this, "She thought that either the old lady had committed an evil or she had committed an evil. She took the opportunity to pack up and read the letter several times, but there was not a single word in the letter."

Qiuyue is a beautiful woman, and so is the Ayunzi she brought up.

At first, Ayun thought that the letter might have been manipulated by someone using vinegar to write and other magic tricks, so that the words could appear after being roasted, but there was no, there was nothing on the letter.

"There are no words on the letter, but the material of the letter paper is very good. The texture is very good, and it smells very fragrant. It seems to be the scented paper used by very particular nobles..." Speaking of this, Qiuyue paused suddenly, and looked at Ji Chongyan.

Lin Yan was fascinated by what he was listening to, and when he saw Qiuyue's actions, he instinctively followed Qiuyue's gaze to look at Ji Chongyan.

Ji Chongyan, who was watched by the two, silently untied the sachet from his waist and put it aside.

Lin Yan: "..."

It really is the incense paper used by the nobles who pay attention to everything!He remembered that Chongyan's letter to Miss Jiang Si was so particular, from the paper materials to the incense, they were very particular.

In this case, if it is a childish joke, it will only use ordinary paper, and it will not be so elegant, so it is not a joke.

So... would that letter be sent by someone like Chongyan?I can't believe there's not a single word...

Ignoring the two people in front of him looking at him, Ji Chongyan got up and walked out without saying a word. Just when Lin Yan wondered if Ji Chongyan could not stand the joke, Ji Chongyan had already returned.

But this time, he didn't come back empty-handed, but with a piece of paper in his hand.

This piece of paper was about the size of an ordinary letter, and its texture was stiff. He put the piece of paper in front of the two of them, and said to Qiuyue, "Let's see if this piece of paper matches the one that Ah Yun described."

From Qiuyue's description, Ayun obviously cared about the content on the paper, not the letter itself, so he didn't pay much attention to the letter itself.But even if there is not much ink, there are only a few words to describe this letter.

Qiuyue took the piece of paper and rubbed it, and looked at it seriously: "Ah Yun didn't say much about the content of the letter paper, only that the texture is very good, extremely stiff and wide, the size is indeed the size of a letter, without creases... ..." At this point, Qiuyue paused, nodded and said, "This piece of paper... is consistent with the content of the stationery that Ah Yun said."

It's just that it's hard to say whether it is this piece of paper, and she has never seen it with her own eyes.

Ji Chongyan said "Yes", without explaining anything right away, he just paused, and then asked Qiuyue: "Is the master of the Liu family particular about using incense?"

Ordinary incense, even ordinary people would prepare some, let alone a rich family like the Liu family.Naturally, this is not what Ji Chongyan asked.

Qiuyue glanced at the exquisite sachet that Ji Chongyan unwrapped, pondered for a moment, and said, "The Liu family is not short of money, so they will buy good incense. But if it comes to being particular... er, like the prince is so particular about it." There shouldn't be any."

Ji Chongyan nodded, pointed to the paper in Qiuyue's hand, and said, "No wonder you haven't known what kind of paper it is after being with Mrs. Liu for many years."

What kind of paper is this?Lin Yan, who was also not fastidious enough, looked at Ji Chongyan.

Ji Chongyan explained: "Store incense paper, such as Songyanzhai and other big incense houses are used to test and store incense."

As soon as these words came out, Lin Yan and Qiuyue changed their expressions.

Perhaps the two of them may not know the specific materials of the incense storage paper, but judging from the purpose, the paper used to store and test incense must be able to preserve the fragrance.

So... Mrs. Liu may not care about the words on the letter paper at all, but the "very fragrant" fragrance that A Yun didn't notice at all.

(End of this chapter)