Rong'an Pawnshop is just an inconspicuous small pawnshop, which is far away from Wang Gui's house, one south and one north, and it is built in a small alley with many twists and turns.
When the shopkeeper heard the solemn story, and saw Feng Huan, who had an extraordinary bearing, he was very respectful and dared not neglect.
"I don't dare to lie to the two elders, but I really don't have anyone named Wang Gui to pawn things here." The shopkeeper was afraid that the two would not believe him, so he took out all the stubs from his pawn shop.
Zhuang Zhong turned over, but Wang Gui's name was not seen.
Er Dan trembled in fright when he heard this, "You two masters, I really didn't lie, I did see Wang Gui enter this pawn shop that day!"
Zhuang solemnly frowned, "It should be a fake name. You told the shopkeeper when and when you saw it and what Wang Gui was wearing that day."
Because it happened five days ago, Er Dan still remembered it clearly, so he came here one by one. The shopkeeper also has a good memory, so he remembered it after such a description.
"I remember this person. He came here several times on and off in the past six months. Every time, he pawned his daughter's jewelry. All the things were destroyed and couldn't be seen. It's just that I saw too much, so I knew it was all the same. Picked out of women's jewelry."
Zhuang Zhong was very dissatisfied, "You dare to accept such things!"
This kind of concealment method, one can tell at a glance that there is something tricky in it, and most of them are stolen goods.
The shopkeeper's forehead was full of cold sweat, "The small shop only accepts things, and the shop is not good at asking about the private matters of customers. Some rich and noble families are living in poverty, and they are afraid that outsiders will find out that they are making such a fuss on purpose."
"Is what he pawned still there?"
"Because it's all dead, all the previous things have been resold, and there is only a bracelet that was just pawned five days ago. Because it is a jade bracelet, it has not been damaged." The shopkeeper quickly took out a bracelet from the back .
Er Dan's eyes lit up when he saw the bracelet, and he concluded: "This is really a good thing. I have known Wang Gui for so many years, and it is impossible for him to have this thing."
Zhuang Zhong put the bracelet away, and the shopkeeper grimaced, "I took this bracelet for five taels of silver, my lord, you just took it like this, I can't explain it."
Feng Huan said quietly: "Wang Gui was murdered, this is notarized in the court, if you want to find it, go to the Yamen. Just let someone come over and see how many shameful things you have here!"
Dayou's formal pawn shop is very polite, not all wild things will be accepted. If they encounter suspicious items, most of them would rather not do business than accept them, for fear of causing trouble. The shopkeeper didn't dare to say anything when he heard this, he could only admit that he was unlucky.
After finding what Wang Gui wanted, Zhuang Zhong and Feng Huan went back to Zhao's house without stopping. The door of Zhao's courtyard was closed tightly, and it took a long time to knock on the inside before someone answered and opened the door slowly.
It was an old man who opened the door. Seeing the two of them puzzled, "What do you two young masters do?"
Zhuang Zhong declared his family name, and the old man let them in with a sigh.
The Zhao family was packing up, and the house was in chaos.
Zhuang Zhong asked the old man who opened the door, "Is your master going away?"
The old man sighed, "After something like this happened at home, the master's family has no face to stay in the capital. If it wasn't for business matters and the master's family wanted to see the fate of the villain, otherwise they would have left this place long ago." gone."
The Zhao family not only has a daughter, Zhao Shuyi, but also a daughter and a son. If something like this happens in the family, the reputation of the children will be bad in the future, which will hinder their future. Therefore, the Zhao family decided to stop their business in the capital and start again in a place that no one knew.
Father Zhao heard that a distinguished guest was visiting, so he came to greet him even if he didn't want to.
"May I ask the two young masters why you are looking for Zhao?" Father Zhao has aged a lot in the past six months, and his temples have seen gray hair. Zhao Shuyi's death has dealt a great blow to him. Zhao Shuyi is Father Zhao's first daughter, and she loves her later children even more. Now that she died unexpectedly, she doesn't feel sorry for her.
Zhuang Zhong said hello to him, and took out the jade bracelet, "Boss Zhao, have you seen this bracelet?"
Father Zhao's muddy eyes suddenly shone with a strange light, and he snatched the bracelet over regardless of etiquette, examined it carefully against the light, and said in a trembling voice: "This, this is the little girl's bracelet!"
Zhuang Zhong asked, "But are you sure?"
Zhao's father recalled his daughter's tragic death, and burst into tears, "I gave this bracelet to my little girl when she was Jiji. You can see that her nickname, Yuan, is engraved on this bracelet."
Zhuang Zhong took it over and looked at it, and it was indeed so.
Father Zhao cupped his hands, "Can this young master tell me where I found this bracelet? I don't know if it can be returned to the original owner. Oh, I would like to buy it back at double the price."
Zhuang Zhong sighed in his heart, Zhao Shuyi has a father who loves her very much, even though he did such a scandal, it can be said that in Dayou, father Zhao did not dislike him at all, and now he still wants to find his daughter's things. Perhaps it is also because of being too affected that he is ignorant of world affairs, and willfully do things that do not comply with the rules.
"This bracelet can't be given to you for the time being, it will be returned to the original owner when the case is solved."
Father Zhao was surprised, "Isn't the case solved? That villain will be executed in a few days."
Zhuang Zhong didn't want to go into details, but said: "There are still doubts about the case."
Father Zhao became excited, "Young master, do you mean someone else killed the little girl?"
"The evidence is insufficient, so I'm not sure yet. I will talk to you in detail when the truth is found out."
Father Zhao's heart was agitated, and he didn't know what to say for a while, before he opened his mouth for a long time, "Please, young master, please give my daughter justice! Although my daughter has behaved badly, she can't die without knowing why."
"On the night Mrs. Zhao was killed, did you hear the sound of a frog?"
Father Zhao was startled, and quickly called the housekeeper, "Who was on duty the night the eldest lady was killed?"
Because something happened on the second day, the housekeeper remembered it clearly, called the porter who was on duty that night, and solemnly asked him the same question.
The concierge shook his head, "The gate is far away from the eldest lady's boudoir, even if there is a small movement over there, you can't hear it."
Although the Zhao family is quite wealthy, it is only a small family. All the servants add up to no more than five people. They are all doing odd jobs. fellow. The residence is a courtyard house, and Zhao Shuyi lives in the row room behind the main house, which is not close to the concierge.
Father Zhao summoned other servants, and they all said that they slept soundly that night and heard nothing.
The front hall was lively, Mother Zhao also heard the commotion, she couldn't help being curious and asked the cook what happened in front of her. The cook didn't dare to hide anything and said one by one, "I'm afraid it's related to the big lady's case."
Zhao's mother was surprised and rushed to the front hall, Zhao Erlang and Zhao Sanniang also followed curiously.
"Isn't the case already closed? Why do you want to ask about that day again?" Zhao's mother is kind-hearted. Although this daughter has brought shame to the whole family, how can a mother not feel sorry for such an innocent and tragic death. As soon as I heard something related to this young girl who died young, no matter how painful my heart was, I couldn't help but want to come over to find out.
Zhao's father told about the fact that the case was still suspicious, and Zhao's mother couldn't help crying when she saw the bracelet again, my son—"
Zhao Sanniang was only a little girl of seven or eight years old, she blinked her eyes after listening to the solemn question, and said in a sweet voice: "The frog also called when it was ugly that night."
Everyone present opened their eyes wide and asked solemnly, "Why are you so sure?"
Zhao Sanniang was seldom able to go out in the first place, and after Zhao Shuyi died, the control was even stricter. Seeing such a handsome man talking to her, her face turned red, and she stammered: "I, I drank too much water that day. I heard it when I got up to look for the chamber pot. Because a watchman passed by at that time, I knew it was ugly time."
Zhao's mother was completely unaware of this incident, and Zhao Shuyi's accident was disgraceful, so she didn't tell the two brothers and sisters what happened in detail, only that their sister died. It was because Zhao Erlang and Zhao Sanniang knew about the rumors outside that Zhao's father and Zhao's mother felt that they could not stay in the capital and had to leave.
Mother Zhao's whole body was trembling, "Ugly?!"
Except for Zhao Erlang and Zhao Sanniang who didn't know the details, everyone had different expressions.
If the sound of the frog is a code, it means that "Xu Sheng" entered Zhao Shuyi's boudoir at Maoshi, but according to Wu Desheng, Xu Sheng's friend who drank with Xu Sheng, Xu Sheng only left at Yinshi. Wu Desheng's home was at least two quarters of an hour away from Zhao Shuyi's home, and there was an hour or two in between. Xu Sheng didn't have time to rush over and kill Zhao Shuyi.
The murderer is someone else!
The guess in his heart was confirmed, and Zhuang Zhong didn't breathe a sigh of relief. The real murderer has not been caught yet, but what is certain is that the murderer must be related to the watchman.
Combining various clues, Zhuang Zhong can probably speculate about the situation that day, but there are two situations. The first one is that Wang Gui is the murderer, but the probability is low. After all, how did he know that Xu Sheng would not come that night? He even beat him to expose himself, and finally died unexpectedly. These are too coincidental.
The second one is that Wang Gui deliberately passed by when Xu Shengchang appeared that day, that is, when he was ugly, just like a prank as usual, and happened to see the murderer who was about to climb up Zhao Shuyi's boudoir. Later, when she heard that Zhao Shuyi was killed, she used this to blackmail the murderer, so she suddenly became rich in the past six months. And the murderer stole a lot of things from Zhao Shuyi to Wang Gui, and in the end the murderer couldn't bear Wang Gui's loud mouth, and finally killed the watchman yesterday.
And it is certain that the watchman knew the murderer.
Zhuang Zhong asked: "Can you take me to Mrs. Zhao's boudoir?"
How could the Zhao family not respond? They thought the case had already been settled, but now they are acting like a moth again. Although they are uncovering their own scars, they don't want Zhao Shuyi's death to be unknown and let the murderer go unpunished.
Zhao's mother looked at the seal on the door and sighed: "Since Yuan'er left, the house has been sealed and never moved."
As soon as the door was opened, a smell of dust rushed towards her face. Mother Zhao turned around and left without even daring to take a look for fear of hurting others.
Half a year has already made the house full of dust, so I stepped in solemnly and carefully, and began to survey gradually from the corners. With the help of a magnifying glass, although the movement is slow, it is not easy to miss the details.
what is this
Zhuang Zhong lay on the ground and saw a small thin rope protruding from the foot of the cabinet, so he picked it up and pulled it out, it turned out to be a jade pendant!
The texture of jade is not good, and the workmanship is quite rough.
"Is this Mrs. Zhao's property?" Zhuang Zhong walked out of the house and showed the jade pendant to Father Zhao who was waiting outside.
Father Zhao glanced at it and shook his head, "No, my family is fairly well-to-do, and the things for the children are quite expensive, and there will never be such clumsy things."
Feng Huan looked it over and said, "This is a man's thing."
Father Zhao's face was not good-looking. Although Zhao Shuyi had been confirmed to have behaved badly, he still couldn't accept it.
Zhuang Zhong put away the jade pendant and continued to investigate the house, but found no other clues. Without further delay, she went to Wang Gui's house and took out the jade pendant. Granny Zhao shook her head when she saw the jade pendant, "My son doesn't have such an object."
Aunt Wang said: "A poor family like us doesn't have the elegance of those scholars. Men usually wear bunts and jade pendants."
This sentence reminds Zhuang Zhong that although the jade pendant is rough and not worth much, it can be inferred that this person's family background is not good and he is easy to pretend. He also asked Wang Gui, Mrs. Zhao, if she had any friends who were more refined, or someone she knew.
Both Mrs. Zhao and Aunt Wang shook their heads, Mrs. Zhao said: "My sons come and go at night and sleep during the day. They are different from ordinary people. I don't know many people. Most of them are neighbors. There is no such person."
Most of the residents in this alley are from poor backgrounds, and most of the men are coolies.
The truth was not found here, and the two went to the death cell without delay, "My lord, you can wait here."
Feng Huan frowned with displeasure, "Why?"
Solemnly said frankly: "This Xu Sheng was afraid of being beaten, but now he is very timid. The prince's aura is awe-inspiring, I'm afraid it will scare him."
Feng Huan was silent, and took a deep look at Zhuangzhuang, "Is this king so scary?"
Zhuang Zhong smiled and said, "Then it depends on who you are facing."
"And you?"
Zhuang Zhong was stunned, and before he could react, Feng Huan said again: "If you don't know that there is no one who is afraid in this world, my king accompanies you to investigate the case, but I leave this king alone."
Zhuang Zhong laughed, the more he interacted with Feng Huan, the more he found that Feng Huan was very capricious.
"After investigating this case, let's go drink together, how about we don't get drunk?"
Only then did Feng Huan's expression soften, and Zhuang Zhong coaxed Feng Huan to come to Xu Sheng's cell.
Xu Sheng was now more dull than before, and said solemnly: "Xu Sheng, I know you were wronged."
Xu Sheng's eyes flickered, but it was only mediocre, and he remained motionless.
"Did you really like Zhao Shuyi, or was it just for fun? As outsiders guessed, you were only doing it for Mrs. Zhao's money. In fact, you wanted to break up a long time ago. I went there that day to discuss this matter. Mrs. Zhao didn't I'm glad you accidentally smothered her to death..."
Xu Sheng closed his eyes in pain, trembling all over, biting his lower lip and still not saying a word.
"No matter what, the two of you had a good relationship before. Even if you didn't do it for yourself, you should let Mrs. Zhao rest in peace in heaven. If the real murderer is not found, how can Mrs. Zhao, who died, be reincarnated with peace of mind?"
"Me, what can I do?" Xu Sheng said in a hoarse voice with a blank expression on his face.
The corners of Zhuang Zhuang's mouth curled up slightly, as long as he was willing to communicate with him. He took out the jade pendant from his pocket, "You have seen this jade pendant before."
Xu Sheng looked around, his eyes full of astonishment and puzzlement, "Why is this jade pendant with you?"
Zhuang Zhong was somewhat disappointed, "Is this your jade pendant?"
Xu Sheng shook his head, "It belongs to my friend. I accompanied him to buy this jade pendant. He likes it very much and often hangs it around his waist."
Solemnly suppressed the excitement in his heart, "Which friend is that, what's his name?"
"Wu Desheng, I just drank with him that day."