Placid Chang'an

The first person to investigate is the old eunuch who got involved.

The eunuch's surname is Chen Mingying, and his ancestral home is from Nankang County, Qianzhou, Jiangnan West Road. In the 13th year of Wude, the local Yao people rebelled. After Emperor Taizu sent troops to suppress the rebellion, he captured some prisoners and served in the palace. Chen Ying was one of them.

When Chen Ying entered the palace, she was still a young man. At first, she was assigned to the Internal Servant Bureau to feed horses. Later, because of her hard work, she was transferred to the Yeting Bureau to teach maids, and finally she was assigned to the Ministry of Internal Servants.Tianshou was dismissed from the palace in five years because of his age, and bought a house in the suburbs of the city.

I didn't expect such a mess to happen again in the past few years.

With Zheng Yang's help, it didn't take much effort for them to find Chen Ying's house on the outskirts of the city.Because it was involved in that big case, the person had been dead for a few days and hadn't been buried yet. Just placed it in the hall like that, there was already a faint smell of corruption.

There is another person in Chen Ying's family to help, named Chen A Niu, who is Chen Ying's foster son adopted outside the palace in the early years, and he is planning to take care of his funeral when he gets old.

Seeing the corpse of Ning Santong, he immediately attacked without hesitation, and Su Cen took the opportunity to look at the decorations in Chen Ying's house.Some eunuchs in the palace bought real estate and property outside the palace early in order to prevent themselves from getting old and having nowhere to live. What's more, they smuggled out the things in the palace and sold them for silver, and went out in the palace as other people's slaves. After entering the palace, everyone is an uncle.

Su Cen suspected that Chen Ying had to come out to bite because someone caught him stealing things from the palace and selling them off.It's just that Chen Ying's house looks frugal and simple, one enters and one exits a small courtyard, and nothing valuable is placed in the hall. After entering the back room, he finally finds a statue of Guanyin, which Su Cen holds in his hand Weighed it up, but had no choice but to let it go, Nanyao's defective products were not worth a few taels of silver on the market.

Zheng Yang went to find Chen Aniu to make friends with him. This Chen Aniu looked honest and honest, and he didn't seem to be scheming, and he answered Zheng Yang's questions without hesitation.

Zheng Yang asked: "Did Chen Ying act abnormally before the accident? For example... Did anyone come to the house? Was Chen Ying restless? Didn't I tell you anything?"

Su Cen glanced at Zheng Yang and knew that they wanted to go somewhere.

After leaving the palace, Chen Ying lived a stable life, with people around him serving him. Although he was not rich, he was not worried about food and clothing. At this time, to make him stand up and bite the current Prince Regent, the method was nothing more than coercion and temptation.But this matter is a death, and any benefit is worth less than his own life, so in Su Cen's view, the possibility of coercion is greater than temptation, but he still hasn't figured out what the old eunuch's reason for being kidnapped is. people caught.

I saw Chen Aniu scratching his head, "No, my adoptive father was fine before the accident. Even on the day of the accident, he packed up as usual before going out. He didn't see any abnormal behavior."

Zheng Yang wondered, "Then why did he come out for no reason and wrong my little uncle?"

"Whoever said it was wronged," Chen Aniu muttered in a low voice, "Maybe it's true."

"What did you say?" Zheng Yang was immediately annoyed, and he was about to do it in arrogance, "Say it again if you have the guts!"

Su Cen hurried forward to pull him back, Chen Aniu hid far away with his head in his arms, and stared at Zheng Yang with lingering fear.

Ning Santong followed suit when he heard the movement, and shook his head at Su Cen, "The person did commit suicide. There was no other trauma on his body, and there was no sign of resistance. The hyoid bone was broken, the tip of his tongue was exposed, and his eyes protruded. These are all in line with suicide by hanging." Characteristics."

Zheng Yang gritted his teeth angrily, "It's cheap for him."

"Otherwise, I would commit suicide too," Su Cen said, "Living is also suffering, it is better to die happily."

A stone stirs up thousands of waves, and that stone is destined to sink to the bottom.

After finishing speaking, he turned around and continued to look for evidence in the back room.

Zheng Yang and Ning Santong looked at each other, and they knew it would be useless to talk here, so they split up and went their separate ways.

Su Cen found Chen Ying's bedroom. It was as simple and clear as the outside room, and it was clean. There was still a rope hanging from the beam, which was the one Chen Ying used to hang himself that day.

Su Cenzai carefully checked every corner and corner, but still found nothing, just as he turned around to go out, he suddenly fixed his eyes on the kang where Chen Ying usually slept.

To be precise, it is in the stove under the Kang.

Now in the twelfth lunar month of winter, there is no fire in the stove, not only that, the stove is clean, there is no soot at all, and the bottom can be seen at a glance.

Chen Aniu didn't dare to provoke Zheng Yang anymore, and was looking behind Su Cen at this moment, when Su Cen turned around and asked, "You cleaned this", he was stunned for a moment before realizing what Su Cen was asking, He hurriedly replied: "No, no, I was never allowed in the foster father's room, which was cleaned by the foster father himself."

Su Cen nodded, turned around and knelt down in front of the stove, and leaned over to dig inside.

Unexpectedly, the stove was so deep, Su Cen tried a few times but couldn't do it, so he rushed out and shouted: "Zheng Yang, come and help me."

Zheng Yang and Ning Santong rushed over when they heard the movement, and hurried forward when they saw such a scene: "What's going on?"

Su Cen turned around and said, "Bring the candle over here."

Ning Santong hastily found a candlestick and handed it over. Su Cen could see the inside of the stove by the light of the candle, and after groping, he took out a wooden box from inside.

A red sandalwood box, with two mandarin ducks crossing their necks carved on the lid, Su Cen glanced at it and handed the wooden box to Zheng Yang, then stood up and brushed the dust off his body.

"Finally asked us to look for it. It's hidden so deep, it must be something valuable." Zheng Yang couldn't wait to open the wooden box, only to see a dark green jade object lying on the silk cloth inside. , a few inches long, thick at the front and thin at the back, with prominent fine lines engraved on the wall.

Su Cen and Ning Santong looked at each other, and as expected, they found the answer in each other's eyes.Before he could stop it, Zheng Yang had already taken out the thing, held it in his hand and thought about it for a while, but he couldn't see what it was for a while, but it looked like a valuable object, so he raised his head and asked: "What is this?" what is it?"

Su Cen was embarrassed to speak, but Ning Santong hesitated for a while before saying, "Jade... stem."

Zheng Yang, who was about to put something up his nose to smell it: "..."

The thing that I had just been pondering over became a hot potato for a while, and it was not good to throw it away, or not to throw it away. He snatched the thing from Zheng Yang's hand and held it in his arms without letting go.

On the contrary, Zheng Yang breathed a sigh of relief, picked up his robe and wiped his hands carefully, and said angrily: "Sure enough, he is a picky eunuch. I didn't expect to be so good. The little uncle must have been planted by him!"

"The adoptive father is not a picky person!" Chen A Niu suddenly said, "The adoptive father neither raises children, nor does he have a young girl who harms others. He is incapable of human affairs all his life. When he is lonely, he just closes the door and chats to masturbate. , Why do you say he is picky?!"

Su Cen frowned, "Have you seen it?"

"I... I accidentally bumped into it when I got up at night."

This Chen Aniu knew about Chen Ying's special hobby, but he still accompanied him wholeheartedly, he could be regarded as a loyal and filial person.

"My adoptive father is a good man," Chen Aniu wiped his tears with the back of his hand and continued, "When I was a child, I lived on the street, and anyone who saw me bullied me. It was my adoptive father who saved me, gave me good food and drink, and taught me Literate and be a man. He is not a bad person, if he said that the prince did it, then he must have done it!"

Zheng Yang stepped forward, "Come here!"

Su Cen stopped Zheng Yang, then looked at Chen Aniu and said, "You said your adoptive father is a good man because he saved you. In the early years, the prince overcame obstacles on the battlefield and resisted foreign aggression from powerful enemies. The regent of the court has saved the lives of all the people, do you think he is a bad person?"

Chen A Niu pursed his lips and remained silent.

"Just like you believe in your adoptive father, we also firmly believe that the prince will never kill the late emperor, so someone must have done something wrong in this matter. Your adoptive father is now dead for no apparent reason, and the body has been left for so long and cannot be buried. Don't you want to catch the real culprit and give your adoptive father justice?"

Chen Aniu pursed her lips and remained silent for a while, before finally saying: "Before the accident, someone came to find the adoptive father."

Everyone's eyes lit up, and they all looked over.

"Who is it?" Su Cen asked.

"I don't know who it is," Chen Aniu shook his head, "I only know what he talked to his adoptive father for a long time. He sent me out to buy vegetables as soon as he came here. He hasn't left since I came back. But He didn't stay to eat, and his adoptive father refused to keep him, and when he finally left, his adoptive father sent him outside the door, and he stood there for a long time before returning."

"What does that person look like?" Zheng Yang asked.

"I didn't see what he looked like," Chen Aniu pursed his lips, "but I remember that he had a pure black finger wrench on his hand."