mtlumby2d Chapter 331: Things Under the Bushes
Chapter 331: Things Under the Bushes
After a brief moment of surprise, Shen Yanxi nodded and said, "Yes, it seems you have found it out too."
"I learned about this from the Marquis of Changning's Mansion. It was a matter of chance and luck. But I don't know why the Third Prince contacted Qin Feishang."
"Because of an official."
"Who?"
"The former Minister of Works, Chu Yisheng."
"Your last name is Chu?" Jiang Suining's expression changed slightly.
"Yes, is there any problem?" Shen Yanxi asked.
Jiang Suining shook his head and motioned for Shen Yanxi to continue.
According to Shen Yanxi, Chu Yishen has been in charge of the construction of palaces in the imperial palace since last year. However, the newly built palace suddenly collapsed some time ago. The emperor was furious. After investigation, he found that there were serious problems of cutting corners during the construction of the palace. So Chu Yishen, who was responsible for this matter, was imprisoned in the sky prison.
"Could it be that the Third Prince is also involved in this matter?" Jiang Suining asked.
"There is no evidence to prove that this incident is related to the Third Prince, but the Minister of Works is very close to the Third Prince and is probably the first person among the six ministries to defect to the Third Prince. After Chu Yisheng was thrown into the Heavenly Prison, the Minister of Works has not yet been questioned, but it is still uncertain what will happen next."
Jiang Suining frowned and thought, "So what you mean is that the Third Prince contacted Qin Feishang because of Chu Yishen. Could it be that the collapse of the palace this time is also related to the Minister of Works, and Chu Yishen knows the inside story, so the Third Prince doesn't want him to say it, if that's the case..."
Four big words quickly emerged in Jiang Suining's mind: Kill to silence the witness!
Although this idea was a bit absurd, after all, it happened in the Tianlao Prison, and Chu Yishen was an official involved in the incident. It would be too bold to kill him to silence him.
But since Qin Feishang was the prison warden of Tianlao, if he was really bribed by the Third Prince and did something, it was possible that he disguised it as an accident or committed suicide out of fear of punishment.
However, these were all Jiang Suining's guesses at the moment. Without any evidence, no one could be sure what the Third Prince wanted to do, so she did not speak out these guesses.
"Ningning, I know what you are thinking. This matter is very serious. Don't get involved in it without thinking too much. Pei Zhaoyi and I went to the suburban murder case at first, and we never thought we would find this."
Shen Yanxi looked at Jiang Suining seriously and gave an admonishing tone.
"But now that things have come to this, we will continue to investigate this matter, but you must not investigate further, lest you be discovered and get into trouble."
"Don't worry, I understand." Jiang Suining nodded.
With her current status, she cannot be involved in too many matters in the court, especially the Third Prince. However...
"That Chu Yisheng, have you found out any connection between him and the Chengjiao incident?"
"Not yet." Shen Yanxi shook his head, looked at Jiang Suining's expression, frowned and said, "Ningning, do you know something?"
Jiang Suining was silent for a while and did not speak immediately. Instead, he told the driver to turn around and go back to Jiang's house.
After arriving at the Jiang family, Jiang Suining looked the same as usual, but he told Jiang Zhitong and the others that he had invited Shen Yanxi to his house for dinner.
Jiang Zhitong and Zheng were naturally very welcoming. Shen Yanxi did not ask Jiang Suining anything and cooperated with her as usual.
After dinner, as it was still early, Jiang Suining invited Shen Yanxi to have tea in the back garden.
Jiang Zhitong and Zheng did not go over, and told Jiang Mushi not to disturb them.
"By the way, Xier, I want to take a look at the cash flow of Zhanxing Tower in the past few days, but I forgot to take the account book. You go there." In the back garden, Jiang Suining instructed Xier.
"Yes, ma'am."
"It's getting late after all. Don't go alone. Ask Lin Jie to accompany you to avoid any accidents."
Xier looked at the sky which was getting dark, and wanted to say that it was still early, but then she changed her mind and realized that her young lady had instructed her to do so. So she did not say anything, but responded, found Lin Jie, and went to Zhanxing Tower together.
After Xier left, Jiang Suining went back to his room. When he returned to the garden, he handed Shen Yanxi a purse. When he opened it, he found a jade pendant and a piece of cloth inside.
The words on the cloth had been stained red with blood, and most of them could not be seen clearly. Only vaguely could one see the words "murder for money" and "officials protecting each other".
"This was dug out from the place where we saw the bodies." Jiang Suining frowned slightly and spoke in a low voice.
When she passed by the grass again, the broken weeds had turned yellow and withered. But she accidentally discovered that there was a clump of weeds still growing well, with intact branches and leaves, but the leaves were also yellow.
Although there are many reasons why weeds turn yellow, and it is not surprising that the leaves turn yellow, her intuition told her that something was wrong.
She didn't show anything at that time and just told the driver to leave.
After all, if there really was something else behind that incident, or even if someone was secretly watching him, there might be people who would continue to pay attention to that area.
It was not until some time had passed and the matter seemed to be completely settled that she quietly went to dig. Unexpectedly, she actually found a purse under the weeds.
"I guess it's possible that the man was not completely dead when he fell behind the bushes, because I passed by and attracted the killer's attention. When the killer left to chase me, the man took the opportunity to bury the purse under the weeds. But because the roots of the weeds were damaged when digging, even though the soil was buried again and it looked normal, the weeds still withered."
"The Dali Temple officials have searched that place before, and even Pei Zhaozhi has been there, but they didn't find the purse. You are really smart to be able to guess all this just by looking at the withered weeds," Shen Yanxi said with admiration in his tone.
Jiang Suining shook his head. "I was just lucky. I happened to notice that something was wrong with the withered weed. But... although I found the purse at that time, the Dali Temple had already closed the case, Pei Zhaozhi was injured, and the cloth was covered with blood. I had no idea who I was suing, so I didn't hand it over to the government office."
"You are doing the right thing. The situation is unclear. Even if you hand it over, the Dali Temple may not be able to investigate it clearly. It may also alert the enemy and cause the person behind the scenes to attack you or even the Jiang family."
"Yes, I do have this concern, so I have never mentioned this matter to anyone. But now..."
Jiang Suining pointed to one of the words on the cloth.
“Although this character is stained with blood and only half of it can be seen, do you think it is the character Chu?”