When Zhang Tuiguan finally waited for the performance to begin, he almost felt sick after watching this family perform for so long. When he heard Lord Gao's order, he immediately waved his hand at the people, and saw the yamen runners coming up with a few plates. Gao Ping seemed to be a different person from when he interrogated Grandma Xu just now. He smiled gently and asked Xu Shun: "Second Assistant, I... "
Xu Shun stared at him gloomily for a moment, then immediately regained his kind appearance: "We must find out exactly what happened. We can't wrongly accuse anyone, but we can't let the murderer go unpunished. It's normal for you to have such doubts. Just conduct the trial according to your own wishes."
Gao Ping was just wondering what was going on. His patience had already been exhausted. He stared at Grandma Xu without any hesitation and said sarcastically, "Grandma Xu, besides the so-called jewelry you put in the grave, did you put anything else?"
Qi clenched her fists tightly, her nails digging into her palms until they were bloody and her lips trembled. She didn't know what to say. After a long while, she closed her eyes and shook her head in fear after hearing Gao Ping's shout: "No more! Apart from these, there is nothing else!"
"How dare you talk nonsense in court!" Gao Ping snorted coldly, with an undisguised sarcasm on his lips: "You said so much, but you can't even tell the real cause of death of the corpse, and you can't answer about the things around the corpse. It shows that everything you said before is not true, and you are lying! You are clearly contemptuous of the court!"
Xu Chong was so nervous that the veins on his neck couldn't stop bulging. He was anxious and frightened and begged to go see Xu Shun.
Xu Shun didn't look at him, but just kept a sullen face and pretended not to see it.
Grandma Xu turned pale with fear. Unlike Qi Yunxi, she was a timid person to begin with. After being frightened by Gao Ping, her hands shook so badly that she could hardly hold anything. She looked up at Gao Ping with dry lips and shook her head fearlessly: "Sir, I told the truth, but it was too long ago. There are some things that I don't remember. I was too scared at the time..."
Gao Ping sneered, walked down and threw the peach wood sword on the plate in Zhang Tuiguan's hand at Grandma Xu's feet, and asked her, "What is this?"
Grandma Xu picked it up with trembling hands and found that it was a peach wood sword.
She couldn't help feeling a little confused.
Gao Ping snorted coldly: "This was found next to the body. Since you said you buried the body yourself, how could you not know that this is the murder weapon?!"
Grandma Xu was so frightened that her hands and feet were cold. She kept looking for help at Xu Shun who was sitting at the top.
Xu Shun, however, had no expression on his face.
In his opinion, this daughter-in-law was indeed a little too stupid.
Seeing that Grandma Xu couldn't answer, Gao Ping smiled and said calmly: "Speaking of which..."
Grandma Xu suddenly opened her eyes wide and trembled as she held the peach wood sword. Then she closed her eyes, looked at her son first, then at her daughter, and finally fell to her knees with a thud.
"Master Gao! I confess!" Qi sobbed and cried, "I didn't kill him. It was... Taoist Xuanyuan from Baihe Temple who helped me kill him..."
There was an eerie silence in the court for a moment. The prefect of Shuntian Prefecture and Magistrate Qiu looked at each other, both feeling that their brains were no longer enough.
Judge Zhang seemed to be thinking about something. He had already figured it out. Now the key evidence was not on the jewelry, but on the peach wood sword.
He had already inquired about this peach wood sword privately before, and he only knew that there was a Taoist priest named Xuanyuan in Baihe Temple.
Now it seems...
Gao Ping stopped, looked at Grandma Xu deeply, raised his eyebrows and asked, "Did Taoist Xuanyuan kill someone for you?"
The name Xuanyuan is well known to everyone in the capital who has some background. Now that Xuanyuan's name is mentioned, Gao Ping is already satisfied.
After all, their goal is to use all means to bring down the Xu family.
But Xu Shun was too cunning, and relying on his connections in the court, he was almost turning the case upside down. So Gao Ping didn't care from the beginning whether he could really convict Xu of murder, or whether Xu's family background was really Li.
Because these are all too vague speculations.
Even if all the existing evidence is added together, it is not enough to make a final conclusion.
However, there are other ways to bring misfortune to the Xu family.
He stared at Grandma Xu in front of him, and said with a drawn-out groan: "Really? Grandma Xu keeps saying different things. I am really confused by you. I don't know which of your words are true and which are false."
Grandma Xu felt like she had a stone in her throat, and it hurt her to speak. She trembled her lips, lowered her head, and nodded in a choked voice: "Master Gao, please understand, I really am telling the truth. I didn't say it before because I was afraid, I was afraid..."
"What are you afraid of?!" Gao Ping kept pursuing: "Since the murderer is someone else, you shouldn't hide it, unless there is some unspeakable secret!"
Gao Ping was full of energy and ordered Zhang Tuiguan: "Bring the official document and summon Xuanyuan!"
The Zhou Dynasty was tolerant of Buddhism and Taoism, especially Taoism. Because several generations of emperors took the lead in believing in it, the people under them naturally followed suit and were more or less wary of it.
To summon them to the yamen, a formal official letter is generally required, otherwise most people will not agree.
Xu Chong had already realized that the situation was taking a sharp turn for the worse.
The countermeasures that my father and Qi Yunxi came up with were originally reasonable. If the people investigating the case were not so determined, the case could have been closed after what Qi said before. But it was obvious that the Yang family was determined to keep a close eye on this matter this time.
The previous statement cannot be accepted.
In other words, the power of the two sides is now in a game.
It is basically impossible for the Xu family to get away with it unscathed.
So what can we do in such a bad situation
If the situation remains deadlocked, then seeing Gao Ping's unwillingness to give up, after involving Xuan Yuan, more people and more things will be involved...
That is something the Xu family and Qi Yunxi cannot bear.
Grandma Xu's face lost all color. She was a little overwhelmed. She sobbed for a while, closed her eyes in despair, and then mustered up the courage: "It's true, I... When I was young, I had a... friendship with him. He helped me because he was afraid that Li would go out and report me and expose my identity..."
Xu Shun lowered his eyebrows and his expression could not be seen clearly.
Xu Chong was so excited that he was shaking his head.