Tui Guan Zhang stayed in Shenjia Village for seven or eight days. During these days, he heard more stories and more bizarre stories than he had heard in all the cases he had handled in the past few years.
For example, there was once a very young and wealthy girl who came to the village. She was about sixteen or seventeen years old and was accompanied by servants.
In such an ordinary village, the girl's wealth was impressive.
Almost twenty years have passed, but Aunt Shen still remembers it clearly: "That little girl was really... She was wearing clothes whose names I couldn't tell, and it was so dazzling that I couldn't open my eyes..."
Zhang Tuiguan had already thought of many things at this time, but he asked calmly and gently: "Then what? What happened next?"
"That little girl settled down in the village, as if she was waiting for someone..." Aunt Shen sighed, thinking of the little girl back then, she was still a little shocked by the memory: "She was very particular, renting a house from a wealthy family in our village, not letting anyone in, and not going out every day. But the group of people she brought with her were also very particular when they went out. They bought the freshest vegetables and fish, and didn't drink the water here, but asked someone to fetch it from Yuquan Mountain, and she gave them silver. The little girl was a little picky, but she had a good heart. It was winter, and there was a severe drought that year, and many people in the village couldn't eat. She took out a lot of silver, and somehow, she bought a lot of food..."
That's why the villagers left such a deep impression on her.
Zhang Tuiguan hummed: "So she left later?"
"Leave?" Aunt Shen slowly tilted her head, subconsciously put down the work in her hands, stared at the basin full of corn kernels for a while, then remembered, shook her head and said: "I don't know if she left, anyway, the girl suddenly disappeared one day, and the house was empty, nothing was left..."
Tuiguan Zhang was a little disappointed, as these were not what he wanted to ask.
After frowning and looking at Aunt Shen for a while, Zhang Tuiguan coughed and cleared his throat before speaking again: "Auntie, these are not important. Don't you know more about this girl?"
Aunt Shen looked at him in confusion, and after a while of babble, she finally understood what Zhang Tuiguan meant. She pursed her lips in bewilderment and said, "This, no matter how much more..."
"For example, according to what you said, this girl has lived here for several months. During these months, has she really not revealed any of her background? Has no relatives or friends ever come to visit her?" Magistrate Zhang stared at Aunt Shen and reminded her anxiously, "Please think about it again. This is very important."
Aunt Shen thought carefully for a while, then said in confusion: "How can you not know the girl's last name? I heard Taoist Xuanyuan call her Miss Qi."
Xuanyuan
It’s Xuanyuan again!
Zhang Tuiguan's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately asked, "How come this Taoist Priest Xuanyuan is related to this girl?"
"Of course there is." Aunt Shen continued to pick up the tools and began to collect corn. At the same time, she answered Zhang Tuiguan's words: "The little girl lived in the village for a long time. When Taoist Xuanyuan came, the little girl left soon after."
Tuiguan Zhang gripped the peach wood sword in his hand and sneered in his heart.
How can there be so many coincidences in this world
No matter whether it was this peach wood sword or this corpse, Taoist Xuanyuan could not escape the connection with this matter.
He sorted out his thoughts and finally got a clue. He bowed to Aunt Shen to express his gratitude, stood up, brushed the dust off his robe, and took his people back to the county government office.
Aunt Shen watched him leave, then called out to him again, hesitantly asking, "Master Zhang, why are you asking so many questions?"
"Of course it's because of the corpse." Zhang Tuiguan didn't want to say more, but thinking that maybe Aunt Shen knew something, he said, "Maybe the corpse is that of the rich girl you mentioned."
"Ah!" Aunt Shen dropped everything in her hands. She opened her eyes wide in shock and looked at him, shaking her head violently: "No, no, no!"
Zhang Tuiguan originally thought that the body in the pit was most likely that of Miss Qi mentioned by Aunt Shen, but seeing how nervous and excited Aunt Shen was, he couldn't help but become suspicious again. He stopped and asked Aunt Shen: "How do you know it's impossible? Why can't it be possible?"
"Master Xuanyuan said that the little girl has found her relatives and is living a good life!" Aunt Shen was a little excited. She still had a lot of feelings for the little girl. She couldn't help but stiffen her neck to explain: "Later, some people in our village said that seeing how rich the little girl looked, she might be a daughter of a noble family. Not long after Miss Qi disappeared from us, we heard that a girl named Qi saved the queen and was taken back to the palace by the queen to be raised. Maybe it was our Miss Qi? Otherwise, how could there be so many Miss Qi in this world?!"
This sentence made Zhang Tuiguan stunned, and then he stood up suddenly - he remembered that when he went to the pawnshop before, the boss had said that Xu Ci Fu's daughter-in-law had specially bought the same batch of jewelry as the one he had in his hands now.
So, just as the villagers including Aunt Shen would think, Tui Guan Zhang now has the same doubt: Is Qi, the daughter-in-law of Lord Xu, related to this Qi
In terms of age, I was about 16 or 17 years old at that time, which is reasonable...
When Tui Guan Zhang came to this point, he quickly took the things back to the county government office and discussed the matter with County Magistrate Wu.
County Magistrate Wu did not expect him to be so bold. He was stunned and scolded: "Nonsense! They are just both surnamed Qi, but you are linking the two together without any other evidence. Aren't you asking others to ridicule you?"
Zhang Tuiguan was a little unconvinced. He gave Wu County Magistrate a rational analysis and reminded him, "More than 20 years ago, think about it, wasn't that the time when the deposed emperor was at his craziest? During that time, the deposed emperor saw that he was about to die, so he became even more cruel and persecuted loyal officials. People were in panic everywhere. The Zhennan Palace was in trouble. If the women had fled to a small mountain village for refuge, it would not be unreasonable. The most important thing now is to investigate that Taoist priest Xuanyuan. In addition, I have to visit Madam Tong and Grandma Xu. We have to confirm the identity of the body before we can continue the investigation, right?"
County Magistrate Wu was in a dilemma. This matter was easy to say, but in fact it involved many things.
It sounds like Xuan Yuan is closely related to Miss Qi back then. If there really is something going on and it is implicated in this matter, then no matter whether it is Madam Tong or Grandma Xu, their reputation will probably be in jeopardy.