Concubine

Chapter 170 The Secret of Handprints

Song Tongzhi asked Steward Pang: "Now that the evidence is convincing, if you haven't accused me of it, do you want me to punish you?"

Steward Pang's face was ashen, and he nodded: "Yes, Shan'er was born by me and my third aunt."

"Take it from the truth!" Song Tongzhi shouted.

"Yes, the third aunt has been bullied and beaten by the grandmother and the others. I often seek medical treatment for her injuries. She said that life is too hard and she wants to die. I saw that she was pitiful, so I persuaded her. She was grateful to me, so... You took the initiative to get along with me, and you got pregnant with this child." Butler Pang said with his head down.

Butler Pang admitted to committing adultery with his third aunt. Regarding adultery, the "Law of the Ming Dynasty" stipulates that the "Da Ming Law" only stipulates that the adulterer must pay the adulterer to adopt him. .

Yang Qiuchi said: "You said that the third aunt took the initiative to commit adultery with you?"

Butler Pang nodded.

"Aren't you not interested in women? How could you commit adultery with others? Besides, even if Third Aunt appreciates your concern for her, just because you look like a shriveled monkey, even a sow would not commit adultery with you, let alone like a flower." Yu's third aunt is too much."

"Maybe then!" Grandma interjected, "This coquettish fox is born to be a slut, she likes men whenever she sees them, and a man named Pang who is neither human nor ghost is exactly what she likes."

"My mother-in-law is right!" Zhou interjected, "If this coquettish fox hadn't been a bitch, would she have gone crazy!"

Yang Qiuchi accepted the words and asked Butler Pang: "Do you know why the third aunt is crazy?"

"I don't know," Butler Pang trembled.

"It doesn't matter if you don't tell me, because I already know that Third Aunt was drugged by you to make her go crazy."

"No, it's not me, why would I do this?" Butler Pang said in a panic.

"Because you want to kill her, you gave the medicine to scare her to death at the sight of a ghost, but you didn't expect to trigger her potential disease, which caused her to go crazy, and after she went crazy, she became dizzy and lethargic. , Somehow, I didn’t hallucinate and see ghosts, and I wasn’t frightened to death. So, you decided to sneak into the small attic and strangle her to death.”

Butler Pang said, "No, I don't have a key, how can I enter the small attic yard?"

"Turn over." Yang Qiuchi said, "When the servants competed with you for the mountain just now, we all saw that although you have a shriveled figure and a pine bark face, the experience of running a boat in the early years gave you a pair of strength. You have a great physique and strength, and the wall of the small attic is only as high as a person, so with your body and bones, it will not take much effort to turn over."

"You hid the paste and window paper under the small attic in advance, and prepared to do it late at night. What you didn't expect was that the grandma asked you to go to the second aunt's room to talk about the third aunt. You couldn't leave, so you didn't have a chance to do it. "

Yang Qiuchi knew in his heart that Steward Pang had tipped the news and exposed the atrocities committed by the grandma and the others against the third concubine. Therefore, the grandma asked Steward Pang not to talk to him for speculation, but because Steward Pang was raped by the naked third concubine in the afternoon. He was too hugged, fell down in fright, and made a fool of himself. The grandma told him to go, because she wanted to ridicule him and relieve her anger. However, this can't be said in person now, otherwise the grandma won't be able to step down.

"That's right," Housekeeper Pang felt relieved, "I've been with Grandma and the others all the time, and I've never gone out except to go to the latrine. How can I have time to kill Third Aunt?"

"That's right, you deliberately scolded Aunt San in front of them, and you scolded the point again. Your intention was to prevent you from being suspected if something happened to Aunt San in the future. I didn't expect that your words would be so popular. The love of grandma and the others is why you have been serving them and not letting you leave."

"In order to let the grandma and the others let you go so that you could commit crimes and kill people, you played a trick. You ran out to find the watchman, Old Niutou, while you were in the bathroom, and gave him a tael of silver to shorten the time. , the fifth shift was called ahead of time, but in fact, it was only the fourth shift at that time!"

"How do you know?" Butler Pang was terrified, he knew exactly how much money he had given to the watchman, but this sentence was equivalent to admitting the matter.

Yang Qiuchi didn't answer, pointed out the window, and asked: "It's been dark for a long time now, and it should be almost the second watch at this time. However, it seems that I haven't heard the sound of the watch, don't you think it's strange?" ?”

Butler Pang listened with his ears upright, and he also noticed this problem. When he thought of this problem, he suddenly remembered the problem just now, and his face turned pale.

Yang Qiuchi smiled slightly and said: "Very well, you guessed it, that's right, the old Niutou who was doing the watch was invited by me, so he can't make the watch tonight. Because he has something to testify for!" Turning to Nangongxiong, he said, "Bring him up!"

"Obey!" Nan Gongxiong bowed his hands and saluted, turned and went out, and after a while, together with another guard, brought an old man in.The old man was in his fifties, and he walked with a limp, a lame man.

Steward Pang saw the cripple, and there was no trace of blood on his pale face. He trembled and called out in a low voice: "Old bull head!"

"Yes!" Yang Qiuchi said, "He is the old bull head of our Yang Family Village."

Yang Qiuchi said to the old Niutou: "Did Housekeeper Pang come to see you on the day Mrs. Yang's third concubine died? You have to answer truthfully, otherwise, hum!"

One side of the old Niutou's face was obviously beaten, his cheeks were bruised, and his lips were cut and swollen.

It turned out that Nan Gongxiong went out just now to find the old watchman, Niutou, and after a little torture and interrogation, he found out that Steward Pang bribed him to let him call the watch early.

The old Niutou knelt down and kowtowed: "The villain dare not, the villain will tell the truth. The night the third aunt died, butler Pang came to see me. He gave the little one a tael of silver and asked the little one to call the fourth and fifth shifts in advance. Even."

"How early were you?"

"A total of one change earlier"

Yang Qiuchi reminded everyone to pay attention: "According to Lao Niutou's testimony, that is to say, when the fifth watch was called that night, it was actually just the fourth watch."

The time of death estimated by Yang Qiuchi based on the autopsy was around two o'clock in the evening, that is, the fourth watch under normal circumstances. At two o'clock, Lao Niutou was supposed to call the fourth watch, but instead called the fifth watch.

Therefore, when Grandma and the others disbanded, it was actually two o'clock in the evening, which was the estimated time of committing the crime.Calculated in this way, Steward Pang has time to commit crimes. Of course, the other four women also have time to commit crimes for the same reason.

Steward Pang asked the watchman to call the watch earlier, not deliberately to let himself obtain evidence that he had no crime time.Because in the Ming Dynasty, the level of autopsy had not reached the level of accurate death time to a few watches, not to mention that it was only one watch (two hours) earlier. If it wasn't for Yang Qiuchi, it was impossible to be sure that the third aunt was the fourth watch Dead left and right.Therefore, Steward Pang never thought of finding evidence to prove that he was still with the grandma and the others at five o'clock, so as to prove that he had no time to commit crimes.

A reasonable explanation should be that Butler Pang was caught by the grandma and the others. He was a servant, and he didn't dare to sneak away without permission, so he bribed the watchman to call the watch early so that they could disband. It's five o'clock, it's almost dawn, and it's not easy to kill people at that time.

Although Steward Pang didn't intentionally create an alibi, but this early update did lead Yang Qiuchi astray, and Steward Pang has never entered the scope of Yang Qiuchi's investigation of the key suspects.

Butler Pang didn't give up easily, and said, "I didn't kill the third concubine, you said I killed her, what evidence do you have?"

Song Tongzhi, Luo Xiancheng and others heard that Yang Qiuchi's analysis was clear and logical, and they all felt suddenly enlightened. Suddenly, they were stunned when Steward Pang asked what was the proof. Yes, after talking for a long time, it seemed that it was just Yang Qiuchi's analysis , what about the evidence?
Yang Qiuchi said: "Let me ask you, before Third Aunt died, who put the paper on the window in his little attic?"

"The servant girl posted it during the Chinese New Year."

"Did you post it?"

"No," said Steward Pang, "this kind of thing is always done by servants."

"Yes, I forgot, you are not a servant, you are a housekeeper." Yang Qiuchi smiled sarcastically, "Since you are not a servant, and you didn't paste the window paper on the third aunt, why did you leave your name on the window paper?" Where are the fingerprints?"

"Fingerprint? What kind of fingerprint?" Butler Pang was at a loss.This time, Song Tongzhi and others couldn't understand.

"In order to avoid the nympho Third Aunt that afternoon, you smashed the flowerpot and scratched your palm and fingers, right?"

"Yes, the doctor even bandaged my fingers."

"Which finger was bandaged for you?"

"Middle finger. What's wrong?"

Yang Qiuchi didn't answer, but looked around and said: "Please raise your hand and see what's on your thumb? Everyone has something on their palms and fingers, what is it?"

Steward Pang didn't understand what Yang Qiuchi meant, so he subconsciously raised his palm and looked at it.

Song Yun'er and the others couldn't help but also turned up their palms to check, and said doubtfully, "It's nothing."

Yang Qiuchi grabbed Song Yuner's slender palm, pointed to the lines on it and said, "Don't you see all kinds of lines on your palm and fingers?"

There are lines on the palms and fingers, which has long been recognized in ancient China, and has also developed into a method of fortune-telling by palm reading. There is such a saying in the monograph "Physical Hands" written by the God of the Han Dynasty: "The hand lines are chaotic. , together with blessings, there will be no disasters. If there are horizontal stripes on the hands, it is not necessary to kill. If there are vertical and horizontal stripes on the hands, the title is up to the Sangong.” The ancients also used fingerprints on the document as a proof.

It can be seen that the ancients had a certain degree of understanding of the lines of human palms and fingers. However, there is no record in ancient books to identify criminals through fingerprint comparison, which shows that the ancients did not realize that human fingerprints are unique. Fingerprint identification is used as criminal evidence.

It was Dr. Henry Fultz of Japan in the [-]th century and William Herschel of the British Indian Colony who discovered the uniqueness of fingerprints. They both revealed this epoch-making discovery in criminal investigation at different places almost at the same time.

But their discovery was not taken seriously at the time, and it wasn't until the early [-]th century that judicial authorities around the world began to formally recognize fingerprints as evidence for the same determination.It was also at that time that our country introduced the fingerprint identification technology in the modern sense.

Song Yuner looked at her palm, and said, "Yes, there are many lines." Speaking of this, Song Yuner giggled, "Brother, did you find out that Butler Pang is the murderer through palm reading?"

Yang Qiuchi shook his head: "No, when Butler Pang got out to re-paste the windows after killing people, his sticky palms and fingers were covered with dust again, and when he pressed the paper to level the windows, he left these light gray But among these fingerprints, there are several fingerprints without lines. If you don't believe me, we can go to the small attic to check right away!"

Steward Pang had already guessed the meaning of Yang Qiuchi's words, and his eyes showed terror.

Song Yuner also guessed it, and said in surprise: "Brother, you mean, the butler Pang injured his middle finger that day and wrapped the wound with cloth, so there is no line on the middle finger of the handprint on the window paper, which proves that the handprint on the window paper It belongs to him, so he is the murderer!"

"Smart!" Yang Qiuchi praised.

Song Yuner smiled complacently: "No wonder you used my hair to sweep the dust on the window paper this afternoon, and you lay there looking left and right, so you were observing this."

Yang Qiuchi's use of the presence or absence of a specific fingerprint to prove a criminal does not involve the identity of the fingerprints, so it can be understood and accepted by people in Song Yuner's time.Song Tongzhi and others listened to Yang Qiuchi's analysis and nodded in agreement.
Yang Qiuchi nodded, then turned around and said to Butler Pang, "You stunned the little girl Zhichun and the nanny Lu Shi with the mist, then tore off the window paper outside the third aunt's room, sawed off the crossbars of the window lattice, got in, and used your portable The rope you brought strangled the sleepy third aunt on the bed, pretended that she committed suicide, got out of the window lattice, re-installed the crossbar, pasted the window paper, and then sneaked back into your own room. Am I right?"

Butler Pang didn't seem to notice Yang Qiuchi's words, but was listening to something with a terrifying expression on his face.

Seeing that Butler Pang didn't answer, the young master Yang Qingshui stepped forward and kicked Butler Pang on the chin. Butler Pang was looking around with his mouth open, when he was kicked suddenly, his upper and lower teeth closed violently, and there was a bang. Biting the tip of his tongue hard, he screamed in pain, blood flowed out immediately, and his mind regained consciousness.

Yang Qiuchi was not surprised by Butler Pang's strange expression, as if he had expected it.He asked, "Butler Pang, don't you admit it?"

"Admit what?" Butler Pang held his chin.

"Admit that you killed the third aunt!"

"I didn't." Steward Pang was about to make the last desperate struggle, "She is my son's mother, why should I kill her?"

yes!Song Tongzhi and the others felt reasonable and looked at Yang Qiuchi together.

"You raped the third concubine and gave birth to Shan'er. From then on, you planned to let your son inherit the entire family property of Mrs. Yang. The third concubine somehow knew about your idea and firmly opposed it, because it was realized. The method for this goal is to kill the young master! You were afraid that the news would leak out, so you killed the third concubine."

The young master Yang Qingshui was taken aback, he didn't expect that Pang butler had such vicious intentions.

Yang Qiuchi continued: "If you want to kill the young master, of course you can't kill him directly, it will cause suspicion. The best way is to poison the young master to hallucinate him, let him see ghosts, and scare him to death, just like you gave the old man and I will poison you, let us see ghosts!"

What?Old Mrs. Yang and Yang Qingshui were both stunned. They glanced at each other, and Yang Qingshui asked, "Did he poison it? Is there any poison in this world that can make people see evil spirits?"

"I don't know what the poison is. However, I know that some plants or medicines in this world can cause strange hallucinations. By the way, some poisonous mushrooms can also produce such hallucinations."

Plants that can make people hallucinate are called hallucinogenic plants. For example, some of the cacti produced in the deserts of northern Mexico are hallucinogenic plants called "magic balls" by the locals. If people eat them, they are called "black feather jade". ", and various hallucinations will appear: you will see all kinds of strange-shaped fish; or colorful flowers; or colorful butterflies.Hallucinogenic plants are a favorite of wizards.

Poisonous mushrooms are relatively common. Yang Qiuchi mentioned that some poisonous mushrooms can also produce such hallucinations. Mr. Yang and others have heard of this, so they understand what kind of medicine Yang Qiuchi is talking about.

"I didn't!" Steward Pang shouted hoarsely, "If what you said is true, why didn't the young master die?"

"Because the young master left home the day after he saw the ghost and went out to study."

"Then why isn't the old man dead? He's been at home all the time!" Butler Pang's voice was shrill.

Yang Qiuchi sneered: "Before the young master dies, if the old master dies, the Yang family property will belong to the young master, how could it be your son's turn! So, before you kill the young master, you will not kill the old master of."

"Then why did the old man see a ghost that night?" After saying this, Butler Pang suddenly agreed and looked back, as if someone behind him called his name again.

Yang Qiuchi smiled: "I've thought about this question for a long time. I guess it's most likely that the old man took the medicine you gave the young master by mistake. Since the medicine was shared by two people, both the young master and the old man saw a ghost, but None were scared to death."

Butler Pang didn't reply, and looked back in horror, then looked around, as if there was something scary around.

Seeing Butler Pang like this, everyone was a little surprised, only Yang Qiuchi smiled knowingly and said, "Butler Pang, what are you looking at?"

Butler Pang's eyes were wide open, full of horror, but he still didn't answer.

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