I'm a detective for Dongchang

Chapter 120 The Catastrophe of the Lu Mansion

Lu Xizhi regained her strength and thought about it with Yuan Yanxi, after the theft of 'Drunk Chang'an', when did it end up in Lu Zhonglian's hands?

"Father is definitely not a person who is greedy for money. I suspect that my father must have provoked some big shots by taking so much trouble to frame a fifth-rank doctor."

Yes, Yuan Yanxi bowed his head in thought. The Ministry of Household Affairs has lived in peace and tranquility for the past few years. Li Xuewen, the minister, has done a good job. The papers handed in every year, the records of fiscal revenue and expenditure, land distribution, and official transfers are all normal. From this Look, there is no problem with the Ministry of Finance.

This time the emperor directly ordered the Dali Temple to arrest people, which shows that the person who made this conspiracy has been secretly planning for a long time, and all the chains of evidence must be very complete and sufficient. In the eyes of outsiders, Lu Zhonglian's corruption is already firmly established.

Originally, Dongchang should be responsible for the investigation of officials, but now Cao Jinyue, an old thief, directly bypassed him. If Yuan Yanxi wanted to intervene, he had to find strong doubts.

No matter who made the game, such an opening did catch him by surprise.

A few days ago, he was too busy to investigate the assassination of King Jing, and he was a little negligent about the lines in the capital. This caused a major incident, and...he looked up at Lu Xizhi who was pacing anxiously and anxiously.

"Don't worry, everything is up to me. In addition, I have sent someone to the Lu residence to inform Mrs. Lu that you are here, so take a good rest first." He walked over, took her into his arms, and comforted her.

"Where can I sleep, are you waiting for news, right? I'll be with you." Lu Xizhi raised his head: "By the way, can you let someone visit my father? Dali Temple... That Mr. Cao doesn't look like a good person .”

"Lord Lu hasn't been convicted yet, so he won't go to the prison cell. He should be in the trial hall. Don't worry, if you wrong him for one night, the governor will go to demand someone tomorrow."

Lu Xizhi nodded. She believed in Yuan Yanxi's ability, but as long as she thought of her father being arrested alone...and her family members waiting for news at home, she couldn't calm down.

"If you really don't want to rest, go and help the kitchen get some food. Mrs. Ah Xiang is going home to see her grandson today, and there is only one person left in the kitchen." Yuan Yanxi asked her to distract herself.

Lu Xizhi knew that he was afraid that she would feel uncomfortable, so she nodded and followed Bei Xue to the back kitchen.

After she went out, Yuan Yanxi immediately called Donghai and Nanyang.

"Where is that Jia Dafu now?"

Dong Hai replied: "When Cao Jinyue and the others left that night, Jia Dafu stayed behind closed doors and refused to receive visitors. After a few days, he began to sell the house. At present, Jia's house is empty."

"What's the name of Jia's tea?"

"Thousand camellia."

Yuan Yanxi recited silently: "Qianshan Tea..."

"Returning to the factory supervisor, Qianshan tea has been very popular in the past two or three years. It has become as famous as Dahongpao and Biluochun, and is known as the three national teas of the Dajin Kingdom. Jia Dafu is not a native of Hong County. He was just a tea shop more than ten years ago. How this man got rich has not yet been ascertained, but as far as his subordinates know, Jia Dafu is very lustful, has nine wives and concubines in his family, and often goes to Fireworks and Willow Lane, spending a lot of money every time. Jia Mansion."

"Yu Jinshan? The number one scholar?"

"Yes, he is the champion of Taihe for ten years."

Yuan Yanxi quickly recalled in his mind: "Ten years in Taihe...the chief examiner at that time was Li Xuewen. The governor still remembers that Li Xuewen attached great importance to this candidate, and later personally recommended him to the emperor. This Yu Jinshan is really on the rise."

"Go to Jia Dafu immediately, Nanyang, you go and check Yu Jinshan yourself! I will get a detailed relationship network at the latest the day after tomorrow."

At dawn on the second day, Yuan Yanxi took people to the palace. When Lu Xizhi saw the man galloping on horseback, he finally let go of his worries.

And of course she couldn't stay still, regardless of Bei Xue's obstruction, she asked her to take her to a place. winked.

Three quarters of an hour later, the carriage stopped in a courtyard, and Lu Xizhi jumped out of the carriage, before he had time to tidy himself up, he slammed on the gate.

Beixue looked up: Zhang's house
Zhang Mingchen?
The concierge opened the door, and met Zhang Mingchen who was going to be on duty. This is a man who is almost 40 years old. Lu Xizhi is not familiar with this uncle, but he has only met Lu Zhonglian a few times, and she is not there when the elders talk. , but in order to know about my father's work in the household department, I can only try it.

This man was about the same height as his father, with a simple and honest appearance, thick eyebrows and sunken eyes, and a little chubby. He was an honest middle-aged man.

The man didn't seem to recognize Lu Xizhi at first, but when he took a closer look, he immediately said in surprise, "Xizhi? Come here, come in quickly."

Seeing that there was a woman next to Lu Xizhi who was about to follow in, he looked at his colleague's daughter hesitantly: "This is..."

Lu Xizhi hurriedly said, "She's in Dongchang, and she's with me."

Zhang Mingchen nodded, and led the two of them into the house.

"Uncle Zhang, do you know about my father?" Lu Xizhi asked impatiently before sitting down.

"Xizhi, don't worry, your father's matter, to be honest, I really don't know what the situation is, but Brother Lu is definitely not that corrupt person. You, don't worry too much, say Maybe the higher-ups will investigate clearly and let him out."

"Uncle Zhang, I want to ask, has my father offended anyone recently?"

"This..." Zhang Mingchen hissed, and thought for a while: "Brother Lu is a humble man, and he is a down-to-earth man. Except for being a bit stingy, he never argues with others. As far as I know, he hasn't offended anyone."

Lu Xizhi then asked who Lu Zhonglian was close to in the household department, what was his relationship with Shangfeng, and so on.

After leaving Zhang Mingchen's house, her heart rose again.

Although his father was upright and kind to others, this promotion still made many people envious. During the dinner, some people said some inappropriate things. Lu Xizhi wrote down a few names and left in a hurry.

"Beixue, I want to go home and have a look. I have a few questions that I must ask my mother. I suspect that there is an internal thief in the house. He put those stolen goods in."

"Miss Lu, the factory superintendent told you not to go home, there must be a reason for him, please go back with me."

"I understand, but there is a golden time to solve the case. The confession now is very important. The longer the time is delayed, the memory will become weaker and weaker. I will tell Yuan Factory Superintendent and I won't drag you down."

Bei Xue understood her character to some extent, remembering the factory superintendent's advice to her, she didn't say anything more, and drove to Lu's residence in a carriage.

When they got home, the family comforted each other first, and then Lu Xizhi said, "Mother, aunt, sister, you wait for me in the living room first, I have to go to the warehouse to check now."

Not long after, she returned to the living room and shook her head at everyone, saying, "There is nothing useful. There is no trace of prying or destruction in the warehouse. It should be opened directly with a key."

Lu Xizhi's voice was not loud, but the house became completely silent, and Lu Ziyi just came back from the academy, and after hearing this, he also stopped at the place where he hadn't moved for a long time.

Based on the current situation, there are 15 servants in the Lu family, and only three of them can get the key to the warehouse, namely Lu Zhonglian, Li Wenjun and the housekeeper Chen Bo.

"Uncle Chen will be here soon. Mama Chen stayed up all night in fear yesterday and suffered some cold. Uncle Chen is feeding her medicine and will be here later." After listening to Lu Xizhi's analysis, Li Wenjun broke the awkward silence in the room , Zheng Yujing walked quickly and sat beside Lu Xizhi, reaching out to caress her daughter's back.

Lu Xizhi's complexion has returned to calm, but her eyes, which were sparkling just now, are full of anxiety and confusion at the moment. Her lips are tightly closed, as if she is trying to suppress her emotions.

"Mother, you also know that the painting 'Drunk in Chang'an' alone can bring disaster to the Lu family, and even the nine clans may not be able to escape, so you must remember carefully. Is there anything suspicious?" Lu Xizhi was very excited.

"Especially mother, when was the last time you entered the warehouse?" Lu Xizhi asked.

"That is, ten days ago, your father's former colleague married his daughter in Yuanzhou. We wanted to follow the ceremony, so we took some silver taels from the warehouse." Li Wenjun said affirmatively.

Lu Xizhi was stunned for a moment, "Mother remembers correctly."

Li Wenjun smiled bitterly, and said: "That day, I quarreled with your father because the gift I gave was too heavy. In the evening, I personally selected a new piece of jewelry from the warehouse, wrapped it together with the happy money, and took it out. , and it has not been opened again for two days.”

"Where's the key?" Lu Xizhi asked.

"If I go out, I keep the key with me all the time. If I'm at home, the key is placed under the cabinet in the house. There is a hidden compartment there." Li Wenjun didn't hide anything, and directly revealed the place where the key was hidden.

"Mother, aunt, have you seen the paintings found that night?"

The two aunts shook their heads, but Li Wenjun thought about it for a while, and said firmly: "It is indeed 'Drunk Chang'an'."

"Why is mother so sure?"

"Your father likes calligraphy and painting. I have listened to him all the year round, and followed him to read it. I have been more or less fascinated by it, so I also understand calligraphy and painting."

"Mother, do you think that painting is real?" This is very important.

Li Wenjun glanced around everyone: "The two corners of that painting have obvious burnt marks, so it is indeed very likely that it is the authentic work of Yizui Chang'an that everyone has been looking for..." After she finished speaking, she couldn't hold on any longer. , let out a long sigh, and buried his face in his palm.

"Mother..." Lu Ziyi called his mother softly, and put his arms around her weak shoulders.

"Xizhi, what's wrong with this painting?" Second Aunt walked over with her brows frowning.

Lu Xizhi didn't speak, but Wang Rongyin could tell from her expression that the painting seemed to be the main culprit for making the Lu family miserable.

Lu Xiruo stood up: "Uncle Chen, you are here, Xizhi wants to ask you to know about the warehouse."

Uncle Chen stopped in his tracks with a sad face, and greeted the masters with a worried expression.

"Just one question, Uncle Chen, have you ever lost the key to the warehouse?" Lu Xizhi didn't care whether the words hurt someone, nor did he have time to care about the other party's emotions.

Uncle Chen didn't answer right away, he looked back and forth between the mistress of the Lu family and the young masters.

After a while, he replied: "Back to Miss San, the servant has never left the Lu family's gate when he got the key, and he has never lost it."

The expected answer, Lu Xizhi was not emotional, and said to Chen Bo: "Okay, Chen Bo, you go back to the room first."

And Uncle Chen's son, Erpang Chen, was standing by the tree, looking this way, as if he wanted to come over, but he didn't move, and finally followed his father back to the back room.

With a bang, Lu Ziyi punched the tea table, and the room fell into a brief silence.

Facing the eyes of his mother and younger sister, Lu Ziyi smiled wryly and said, "Now, I am the only man in the family, but I can't help you with anything."

Lu Xizhi understood the pressure on him as the eldest brother and son: "Brother, just because you are the only man in the family now, you can't mess up, you have to hold on tight, and father will be fine."

Li Wenjun's expression was gloomy, he leaned his head back on the chair, closed his eyes, and seemed to have aged a lot all of a sudden, Zheng Yujing quickly comforted her in a low voice, asked Lily to come over, and gave her a medicine, Wang Rongyin who was on the side saw Seeing the situation, they immediately got up and poured a glass of water. The two of them watched the mistress take the medicine and sighed in unison.

"Mother, you have to think about it again. Did those people go in and search for things yesterday, did they do anything strange?"

Li Wenjun supported his body and stroked his chest, recalling the situation at that time.

"Mr. Cao was very polite when he first entered the house. Later, the master was furious and they asked me to open the warehouse. Of course, we were not afraid of them looking for it, so we followed in to see how they searched for the so-called stolen goods." Thinking of this, Li Wenjun Suddenly his expression froze.

"It's strange to say that it's really unusual. The adult who rummaged through things didn't seem to be interested in other things in the warehouse. He quickly found a stack of land deeds, as well as the painting, and the hundred taels of gold was even more important. It’s so weird, it’s just wrapped in a piece of cloth and placed in the most conspicuous place, the master and I thought it was something bought by the other party, but when the adult opened it, we realized it was gold.”

Now Lu Xizhi can be completely sure that his father was wronged and framed: "That is to say, all the things they found happened to not belong to the Lu family, but what belonged to the Lu family. None of them were taken away."

Li Wenjun finally came to his senses: "It's almost like this. Unfortunately, the master was framed."

From last night until now, the family members have been worried and ignored all these doubts. After Lu Xizhi reminded them, everyone came to their senses.

"Mother, have you checked the warehouse? What's missing in our house?" Lu Xizhi continued to ask.

"Only my dowry is missing, and there is also a house deed in Yuanzhou, which is nothing compared to those 'stolen goods'." Li Wenjun sat up straight and replied.

Lu Xizhi felt relieved: "Since it is confirmed that it was framed, we just need to find the culprit. Father is innocent."

She approached Li Wenjun and asked in a low voice: "Mother, I hope you can tell me frankly that the warehouse is very close to your house. In the past ten days, who has been close to this place frequently, and who do you think is the most suspicious?"

The room was very quiet, and everyone's eyes were focused on the face of the mistress. She stared straight ahead without looking at anyone. After a long time, she said softly: "I really don't know..."

At this time, there was a rush of footsteps outside the courtyard, as well as the voice of Uncle Chen and Mama Chen shouting: "Master, Sir, what are you doing?"

Officer?

(End of this chapter)