Datang: Hiding private money, exposed by Xiao Sizi

"Shut up!"

The ring shouted.

The incense seller was so frightened that he swallowed his words.

Then Jie Zhi immediately nodded and bowed to Shen Lian, saying: "Sir Shen, it's a misunderstanding, this is a misunderstanding!"

Shen Lian laughed, still looking casual, and said, "Master Jie Zhi, don't be so nervous. I am Shen, just asking, I have no other intentions."

"I dare not call you Master, Lord Shen, you can just call me Jiezhi."

Jie Zhi dared to pretend in front of others, but he didn't dare to act rashly in front of Shen Lian.

After all, this is a great man with great achievements! If he makes trouble, His Majesty will be the first one in the court to find trouble with him!
Seeing this, Shen Lian just smiled and stopped answering Jie Zhi and the incense seller. He walked towards Huasheng Temple.

Seeing that Shen Lian was not causing trouble for him, Jie Zhi couldn't help but raise his hand and wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.

"Be straight."

But at this moment, he suddenly heard Deyuan say: "You have violated the precepts. Remember, go to the Punishment Hall to confess your sins."

Hearing this, Jie Zhi's eyes widened.

"Uncle Master." He looked pale and shook his head quickly.

Xingfa Hall is the place where the Huasheng Temple handles the monks who have committed mistakes.

If you go there, you will suffer no good consequences.

Deyuan said coldly: "Lord Shen, he is our honored guest. We must not let Lord Shaoqing be dissatisfied. Although Lord Shen did not say anything, we can't do nothing."

"You must accept the punishment as soon as possible, so that Lord Shen will not think that we are protecting you. Also...you are not allowed to collude with people outside the temple again. Otherwise, if you are discovered again, you will no longer be a member of Huasheng Temple."

Jie Zhi’s face was pale and his expression was filled with fear.

Deyuan was giving him an ultimatum.

If you do it again, you will be expelled from the sect.

This this……

His face turned pale and he looked at the incense seller with hatred, wondering what sin he had committed.
Then, he went to the punishment hall in a daze to receive punishment.

Inside the temple.

Deyuan kept apologizing to Shen Lian, saying that the temple was negligent in discipline and had offended Shen Lian.

Shen Lian just smiled and shook his head.

Then he turned around and lowered his voice to Di Renjie and said, "Renjie, go investigate Jiezhi."

"As a treasure of Huasheng Temple, the relic must be heavily guarded. In this case, there are only two possibilities for it to have been stolen."

"Either he is a thief with very sophisticated means, or he is a traitor, someone from Huasheng Temple."

"No matter what the situation is, people who are greedy for money are most likely to be exploited, so go investigate Jiezhi. If someone in the temple has been bribed, the probability of this happening is the highest."

When Di Renjie heard Shen Lian's words, he was somewhat shocked.

This time when he came to Chang'an City, his father told him that the main purpose was to find Master Shen Lian to learn knowledge.

Just now, he was just watching the fun and felt very happy that Jie Zhi and the incense seller were punished.

But he really didn't expect that his mentor didn't do those things casually, but had a purpose.

The case hasn't even started to be investigated yet, but there are already suspects.

No matter whether it is straight or not, at least there is a direction.

This made Di Renjie shocked and ashamed at the same time. The gap between himself and his mentor was really too big.

He took a deep breath and nodded directly: "Teacher, rest assured, I will do it right away."

Having said that, Di Renjie found a reason and left the group.

Seeing Di Renjie leaving alone, Xu Gou couldn't help but whisper, "Master, can Master Di do it alone?"

Shen Lian laughed and said, "Do you know what task I left for Renjie when I first met him?"

Of course the Dog doesn’t know.

Shen Lian said, "The task I gave Renjie at that time was to get all the information about any person he met within half an hour, even his birth date and who his friends were!"

"When will it be 500? That means we can get information from 500 people, then Renjie will complete his mission."

"Getting intelligence is a test of many aspects of your abilities, including social skills, emotional intelligence, IQ, keen insight, and the ability to be outspoken and thick-skinned."

"And Renjie completed it in just over two months, so... these experiences are enough to train him to be extremely powerful. So don't worry, even if you are sold out, he won't be sold out."

When Xu Gou heard the task that Shen Lian gave to Di Renjie, he felt that his young master was really unconventional in teaching students.

The sound of this mission made his scalp tingle.

He knew that he could never accomplish it.

And Di Renjie was able to complete it in such a short time. It seems that this kid Di Renjie is much more sinister than he appears!
This master and disciple pair is almost ruthlessly terrifying!

Thinking of this, he no longer mentioned worrying about Di Renjie.

Nothing else, I just don't deserve it.

Seeing Xu Gou looking depressed, Shen Lian smiled lightly and didn't care.

After all, Di Renjie will be the prime minister in the future, so he doesn't think this little thing matters.

After all, if it were him, he would be able to know the information without any further ado.

Therefore, in his eyes, Di Renjie is still far from being good enough.

"Lord Shen, this is it."

At this time, Deyuan brought Shen Lian and others to a hall.

There was a monk in his fifties or sixties beating a wooden fish in the hall.

When he heard the sound, he opened his eyes and stood up.

He walked up to Shen Lian, clasped his hands together, and said, "I am Dezhi, the abbot of Huasheng Temple. I am honored to meet Master Qin Jue."

Dezhi is a little fatter than Deyuan, and looks kind and more approachable than Deyuan.

Shen Lian nodded slightly, and said, "Master Dezhi, time is urgent, so let's not exchange pleasantries. I will get straight to the point."

"The relics of your temple were stolen. What happened?"

Dezhi did not delay. He sighed, held the Buddhist beads in his hand, and said, "What a sin, what a sin!"

He looked at Shen Lian and said, "The most precious relic of our Huasheng Temple is enshrined in this main hall."

He pointed to the table under the Buddha statue and said, "Before, the relics were placed there."

Shen Lian looked over and saw that there was only an empty box covered with a gold cloth on the table.

Dezhi said, "Five nights ago, one of our woodsheds suddenly caught fire, and many monks were alarmed and rushed to put out the fire."

"Just when we put out the fire, there was a scream from the hall. We were startled and rushed over."

"They found that two monks guarding the relic were rushing out of the hall in panic. They said they heard a noise coming from inside the hall, but there should be no one inside, so they rushed in." "But who knew that after rushing into the hall, they found that there was still no one inside, and the relic... disappeared."

When Shen Lian heard this, the scene of that day immediately emerged in his mind.

He frowned and said, "There were shouts coming from the store, but when they entered the hall, they found no one there? Right?"

Dezhi nodded: "That's right."

"Then you all came here?" Shen Lian asked again.

Dezhi nodded again, "We were all fighting the fire before. When we heard the shouting, we came here together. Then we found that the relic was missing. I immediately ordered people to seal off the temple and search every place, but... we found nothing. No intruders were found, and no relic was found."

Shen Lian pursed his lips, he suddenly looked at Xu Gou, whispered something in his ear, then Xu Gou turned over and jumped onto the beam without saying a word.

He observed carefully, then jumped down, met Shen Lian's gaze, nodded slightly, and said: "Everything is just as the young master expected."

Shen Lian looked at Dezhi and the others and said calmly, "I already know how the thief escaped."

"What?!" Dezhi and others widened their eyes instantly and couldn't help but exclaimed.

Everyone looked at Shen Lian in shock.

"At the same time, I also know why you couldn't find the relics after searching the entire temple." Shen Lian continued.

Dezhi and the others all looked at Shen Lian with wide eyes and nervous expressions.

“Because… because of what!?”

Huasheng Temple, inside the main hall.

At this moment, everyone looked at Shen Lian nervously.

No matter it was the abbot Dezhi, the head of the Dharma Academy Deyuan, or the other monks, they were all shocked and had some doubts at this moment.

Although Shen Lian's name is well-known throughout Chang'an.

But after all, Shen Lian had just arrived at Huasheng Temple and had just entered the hall. As a result, he did nothing but listened to their description and then told them that he knew how the thieves escaped and why they couldn't find the relic.

This is... a bit too much!

Some of them are really hard to believe.

If the case was solved so easily, wouldn't it make them seem stupid?

After all, they had been investigating for five days and still found no clues.

Deyuan couldn't help but said, "Lord Shen, are you...are you serious? Did you really solve the case?"

Xu Gou looked at everyone with a look of surprise on their faces and curled his lips.

He felt that these people were really too restless.

And they actually dared to doubt their young master's words...

This seemed extremely stupid to him!

There is nothing shameful in being stupid, but doubting the wisdom of one's own master is truly shameful.

However, Deyuan and others did not know how awesome Shen Lian was, so they did not know how ridiculous their expressions and words seemed to Xugou and others.

Shen Lian didn't keep the secret.

He said, "Before that, I have one more thing to confirm."

"Are the two monks who watched over the main hall that day here?"

Soon, two monks came out and bowed to Shen Lian together: "Greetings, Lord Shen, I was guarding here at the time."

Shen Lian asked, "You are sure you heard the shouting from inside the hall, right?"

A monk nodded directly: "Yes, because of the fire in the temple that day, both of us were very worried, but we had an important mission and could not leave, so we could only wait here anxiously, waiting for news of the fire. "

"And not long after the fire was put out, we heard a male voice suddenly say 'ah' coming from inside the hall."

At this time, another monk said, "Because everyone in the temple went to put out the fire, only a few people stayed where they were because of their respective tasks, so we are sure that there is absolutely no one in the temple."

“So after hearing that sudden sound, we both realized something was wrong and quickly pushed the door open and went in.”

"But who would have thought that after we entered the temple, we didn't see a single person, only that the relic had disappeared."

The first monk continued, "We were terrified and wanted to report it to the abbot, but as soon as we left the palace gate, the abbot and his men came over. Then, the Shaoqing also knew what happened next."

Shen Lian filled his mind with the details of what happened that day.

He thought for a moment, then nodded. He looked at the abbot, Dezhi, and said, "The abbot then ordered people to seal off the temple and search it, right?"

Dezhi nodded: "That's right."

"What about these two monks?"

Shen Lian said, "I don't mean anything else. It's just a normal inference. Has the abbot ever searched them? After all, they are the guardians, the people who are most likely to come into contact with the relics. In other words... they are also the people who are most likely to steal from the relics."

When the two monks heard Shen Lian's words, their faces changed. They hurriedly shook their heads, but before they could say anything, they heard Dezhi say, "The relic is the treasure of the Huasheng Temple, and it is of great importance. So in order to ensure that there are no blind spots, we not only searched the two of them, but also searched the rest of them, but no trace of the relic was found."

Shen Lian nodded to show that he understood.

There was a gleam in his eyes, and after a moment, Shen Lian smiled.

He said: "Although I am still unable to determine who committed the theft, I already know the circumstances of the day and the general area where the thieves were located."

Everyone looked at Shen Lian.

Dezhi also said: "Please explain it to Lord Shen."

Shen Lian said calmly: "First, the thief..."

He swept his eyes across the bald heads and said slowly, "He is hiding inside the temple. He is either a monk inside the temple, or a pilgrim who stayed inside the temple that night."

"What!?"

"This……"

When the monks heard Shen Lian's words, their faces changed.

Deyuan was the first to say, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible! There were no pilgrims staying in the temple that night, only monks from our temple. But monks from our temple would never do such a thing!"

The others also nodded, all refuting Shen Lian's words.

Seeing this, Shen Lian just chuckled and said, "Masters, I know you don't want to believe it. In fact, I don't want to believe it either."

"But handling a case is all about evidence, not anyone's subjective opinion! People's thoughts can be deceiving! But evidence cannot!"

When everyone heard Shen Lian's words, their voices gradually became quieter.

But there was still disbelief and shame at being suspected and insulted on his face.

When everyone heard Shen Lian's words, their voices gradually became quieter.

But there was still disbelief and shame at being suspected and insulted on his face.

………………

(End of this chapter)