Concubine

Chapter 141 Who Poisoned
When Yang Qiuchi asked them if there was an old scholar named Lu Xueru living in the inn, the female shopkeeper didn't even need to look through the registration book, she nodded immediately with contempt on her face: "There is an old scholar named Lu Xueru." The old scholar lives in my shop, but he has gone to take the imperial examination to test his talents."

Speaking of this, the female shopkeeper spit a mouthful of thick phlegm on the ground, and cursed: "Hey, take the exam? It's his mother's dream of spring and autumn, just like him, a bowl of porridge and a plate of pickles every meal, and he still wants to win the exam ? Don’t piss and take care of yourself, hum!”

It seems that this female shopkeeper has a lot of opinions on Lu Xueru, a poor scholar who refuses to spend money on consumption.Yang Qiuchi said: "Shopkeeper, please show us the place where Lu Xueru lives."

The female shopkeeper had never seen such a polite official, she was a little flattered, she hurriedly agreed, bowed her waist and led them to a row of low bungalows in the backyard, opened one of the rooms, and said: "He lives in Here," hesitating for a moment, asked cautiously, "Master, did this poor old man do something wrong?"

"He's dead!" Hu Jiang said.

"Ah~!" The female shopkeeper was taken aback, "He, how did he die? Where did he die?"

"Why are you asking so much? Do you know something? Huh?" Hu Jiang stared at the female shopkeeper and asked.

The female shopkeeper was startled, took a step back, and said repeatedly: "I don't dare, I don't dare, it's just that this poor old man still owes me the rent."

Hu Jiang said with a smile: "Then you should go to the underworld to find him. Would you like me to give you a ride?" He didn't dare to say anything.

Yang Qiuchi walked into the room first.The room was dark and damp, the melted snow flowed in through the crack of the door, and the ground was wet.

The room was very simple, with a bed next to the inner wall. The bedding felt very damp and gave off a musty smell. There was a small package next to the bed. Yang Qiuchi carefully unwrapped the package. There were only a few bags inside. A robe, and a string of dozens of copper coins tied with hemp rope.

There was a table and a bench by the window, and one leg of the bench was about to fall off.A dilapidated wooden basin was placed beside the table, and a towel that was already black and smelly was drooping.
There was a porcelain bowl on the table, with half a bowl of cold water in it, and half a steamed bun next to it, I don’t know how many days ago, it was frozen hard like a stone, and there was half a bowl of porridge on the table , There are still two or three pickles left in a broken porcelain plate.

Yang Qiuchi asked the yamen servant to call in the female shopkeeper outside the door.

After the female shopkeeper arrived, Yang Qiuchi pointed to the steamed buns, porridge and pickles on the table and asked, "Does Lu Xueru eat these every meal in your inn?"

The female shopkeeper nodded: "Yes, he is reluctant to spend a penny to buy other things. I don't think he has any money at all. He bought this steamed bun when he first came here, and he has been eating it until now. He only drinks it for every meal. Porridge, pickles, nothing else.”
Will it be food poisoning?Yang Qiuchi stared at the half of the steamed bun, the porridge and the two or three pieces of pickled vegetables, thinking about it. Unlikely, if the food is not fresh and spoiled, causing food-borne diseases, such diseases are usually just gastrointestinal diseases.However, will it be poisoned by people in the food?

Yang Qiuchi asked the female shopkeeper to find a duck, broke up the half of the steamed bun and poured it into the duck's stomach, and poured the leftover porridge and pickles into the poor duck's stomach, and the duck was full. Gotta rattle.When they fed the water in the porcelain bowl to the duck again, the duck was thirsty after eating half of the dry and hard steamed bun and pickles, and drank the bowl of water without filling it.

After waiting for a long time, the duck was still quacking and waddling around the house, nothing happened.It appears that there is no poison in the food.

Hu Jiang and Yang Qiuchi were a little disappointed. They shook their heads and were about to leave the room. Song Yuner, who had been staying at the door with distaste for the smell, suddenly gasped, pointed at the bed and shouted, "Look, what is that?"

It was already evening, the snow had already stopped, the sun had come out, and the sunlight slanted in, making the room much brighter.The sunlight happened to be shining under the bed, Yang Qiuchi and Hu Jiang looked back in the direction of Song Yuner's finger, and saw something shining under the bed.The sunlight did not shine into the room just now, the room was very dark, and this thing was placed close to the head of the bed and placed inside the leg of the bed, so the two of them didn't notice it just now.

Yang Qiuchi bent down and took a closer look, it seemed to be a small porcelain bottle.He reached in and took out the porcelain bottle, unscrewed the lid and took a look, there was a small half bottle of chocolate-colored semi-solid stuff inside.

Take it outside, use a twig to pick out a little bit from the inside, carefully identify it, the sticky one seems to be honey, but the color is too dark.Ask the female shopkeeper: "What is this?"

The female shopkeeper came over and took a look, and said: "I heard that old poor man said it was honey. I saw him eat it when he came to the inn, and asked him what it was. He said it was honey, so I don't understand why he has it. Money to buy honey but no money to eat better is pure sting."

Could it be that there is something wrong with the honey?Since there are no reagents and equipment to test the chemical composition of the poison, only biological tests can be done.Yang Qiuchi asked the female shopkeeper to find another duck, dug up a lump of honey and handed it to the female shopkeeper, and asked her to pour it down.

Moments later, the poor duck convulsed and fell dead.

Found the source of the poison!Everyone is very excited.Yang Qiuchi patted Song Yuner's shoulder like an elder: "Yes, little girl, work hard, you will have a bright future!"

Seeing Yang Qiuchi complimenting her, Song Yuner was a little embarrassed: "I'm just a blind cat and a dead mouse."

"That's fine, touch it a few more times, we blind cats will have something to eat, hahaha!"

Yang Qiuchi judged that there were two possibilities for when the honey was poisoned: one was that the honey that Lu Xueru brought had already been poisoned when he came from his hometown, and the other was that the honey was poisoned after he arrived at the small inn. Someone secretly poisoned the honey.

However, according to the certificate of the female shopkeeper, Lu Xueru brought this honey with her when she came to the small inn. She also saw Lu Xueru eat honey with her own eyes, but Lu Xueru was not poisoned at that time. From this point of view, the biggest It is possible that the honey was poisoned after Lu Xueru ate the honey.

Who poisoned it?Everyone who lives in this small inn is suspected.Yang Qiuchi asked Hu Jiang to send the servants to take all the people in the small inn to the backyard for interrogation.There were only a dozen or so people, all of whom were traffickers and pawns, whose legs would go weak when they saw tolerance, so how dare they say no.

Yang Qiuchi and Hu Jiang found a cleaner house, called these people into the room one by one and questioned them, including the proprietress, cook, waiter, handyman, etc., and asked them all, but found no clues.

After interrogation, it was found that in the eyes of everyone, Lu Xueru was purely pedantic. He lived in a small inn for the past few days. .Lock the door as soon as you go out, and even lock the door when you go to the latrine.

Yang Qiuchi checked the room carefully again, but found no sign of outsiders sneaking in, and this Lu Xueru hardly left the room.From this point of view, the possibility of being poisoned in the small inn is very small.

Could it be that before Lu Xueru moved into this small inn, his honey had already been poisoned?The female shopkeeper saw Lu Xueru eating honey when he entered the inn. How come she hasn't been poisoned for several days?Why was he poisoned when he arrived at the Gongyuan?Is it a chronic poison?Or is it poisonous after taking it many times?

If this is the case, it is very likely that the honey was poisoned before it was given to Lu Xueru. Therefore, it is necessary to find out who gave the honey to the old scholar Lu Xueru.Common sense guesses that this person is likely to be a family member or close person of Lu Xueru.To find out this problem, the only way is to go to Lu Xueru's hometown.

Fortunately, Lu Xueru's hometown is in a small mountain village in Chuzhou not far from Yingtian Mansion.However, it was evening now, even if they hurried there, it would probably take two or three hours, and it was already evening.

After Yang Qiuchi told Hu Jiang of this idea, Hu Jiang looked at the sky and suggested to go the next day, but Yang Qiuchi objected, because every second counts in the arrest of criminals. But there is no regret medicine.

Hu Jiang was moved by Yang Qiuchi's professionalism. He was so enthusiastic to help, but it was too unreasonable for him, the principal, to push back and obstruct, so he agreed to go to Lu Xueru's hometown overnight to investigate the case.

After the consensus was reached, Yang Qiuchi went back to Ma Du and briefly explained the situation, then took Song Yun'er and fifteen guards, and Hu Jiang and several yamen arrests, and the group rode straight to Chuzhou, Lu Xueru's hometown. Beishao Village.

Chuzhou is in the northwest of Yingtianfu, and it is the north gate of Yingtianfu, and this village is also called Beishao, which should be the checkpoint to the north of Chuzhou.This village is located on the main traffic road to the north of Chuzhou, in a valley, surrounded by dangerous terrain, which matches the name of the checkpoint.

When Yang Qiuchi and others arrived at Beishao Village, it was already the second watch.Seeing strangers enter the village, the barking of dogs in the village became one.

Hu Jiang lived in a small village before, so they found Lizheng of this village very smoothly. The surname here is Mi, an old man in his 60s. To introduce the courtyard, he had to make way for the house, but his two adobe houses couldn't accommodate so many people.Had to talk in the yard.

Hu Jiang briefly explained the case to Mi Lizheng, and asked Lizheng to take them to Lu Xueru's family for investigation.When Mi Li heard that Lu Xueru had died, he muttered to himself in surprise, "It's really alive!"

Yang Qiuchi didn't hear his words clearly, and asked, "What did you say? What spirit?"

"It's nothing." Mi Li said with a smile, and then took them to Luxue Confucianism.

On the way, here is the introduction: "Lu Xueru is in our village. Everyone calls him Old Master Lu. He is kind. When he was young, he still had some money in his family. He can be regarded as the rich man in the village. He not only married his wife, Mr. Fan, but also He took in a concubine, Shen Shi. But then his wife fell ill and was about to die. This old master was kind-hearted, and sold almost all of his property to his wife for treatment. At last, he was cured, and the family was almost ruined. gone."

While speaking, he came to Lu Xueru's home.His home is on the edge of the village, with a few simple wooden houses and a small yard.

The windows of the house were dark and dark, and it seemed that the people inside had fallen asleep.There is nothing to do at night in the countryside, so everyone goes to bed early.Yang Qiuchi's guards automatically searched around the house without ordering them, and then they guarded one side. They were well-trained.Yang Qiuchi was very satisfied.With these people following, I feel much safer.

Mili was knocking on the door, and after a while, an old woman's voice asked inside, "Who is it?"

"Mr. Fan, I'm Mi Lizheng. Several officials and lords from the capital are here. They have something to ask you. Get up and open the door." They are all from the village, and Mi Lizheng speaks very politely.

"Oh, wait a minute, the old man will come to open the door soon."

After a while, the lights came on in the room, and then the door creaked open.An old lady with white hair poked her head out, looked at them, then opened the door, said with a hunched back, "Milizheng, you gentlemen, come in, it's freezing outside. It's on."

Yang Qiuchi, Song Yuner and Hu Jiang entered the room.The leader of the guards, Nan Gongxiong, also entered the house, protecting Yang Qiuchi with him.The room is too small, others can only stay in the yard and wait.

After sitting down, Miri asked, "Where's your aunt?"

Fan glanced into the room: "Still asleep."

"Call her up, the official will ask you to ask questions."

Fan agreed, stood up tremblingly and walked into the back room, whispered to the people inside, and heard a woman muttering and complaining.Fan walked out and smiled apologetically: "She'll be coming out soon."

After a while, a young woman in her early thirties came out from the back room, she was pretty, but her expression was tired, she yawned and leaned against the door rail, and asked lazily, "What's the matter?"

Mi Lizheng said: "Chen Shi, sit down quickly, the official from Yingtian Mansion has something to ask you."

Shen shi muttered a few words impatiently, sat down on her side, and looked at Yang Qiuchi and the others.

Yang Qiuchi said: "Are you both the wives of Lu Xueru?"

The two nodded.Mi Li was pointing at the white-haired old lady who opened the door, and added: "This is my original wife, Mrs. Fan." Then he pointed to the young woman in her 30s: "This is my concubine, Mrs. Shen."

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(End of this chapter)