In the evening, the two returned to the Duke Zhong's Mansion. Pei Che sat in the room for a while, then got up and went to the study. Jiang Miao chatted with the two children for a while, then returned to the room, but found no one there, so he went to the study to look for Pei Che.
"Why did you take out all these things? What are you looking for?" Jiang Miao looked at the papers scattered all over the table and felt very strange. These were all the confessions and clues they had obtained after such a long investigation. They had read the contents of each piece of paper again and again, and almost nothing was missed.
Pei Che stared at the contents on the paper without moving his gaze away, saying, "I always find it strange. I want to see what they said at the time."
Jiang Miao looked at him for a while, hesitated for a moment and asked: "Are you still thinking about what happened during the day? You don't really suspect that the Fourth Prince ordered someone to do it, do you?"
Pei Che's eyes moved downwards, not knowing where they stopped. After a long moment, he said, "I don't know either." The content of today's question was simply unbelievable. He didn't know how to react. If he said he didn't believe it, he would have some grudges in his heart. If he said he believed it, it didn't make sense. After all, no matter from the motive or other aspects, the Fourth Prince had no reason to do this.
"That's right," Jiang Miao sighed, "I didn't expect that after all the investigation I would find such a result. But it's true, everyone says that your father is good friends with the Fourth Prince. Logically, he should have close contacts with the Duke's Mansion, but I haven't seen him once until now... Uh, is he still alive?" Jiang Miao realized belatedly that the Fourth Prince was the one who lost the battle for the throne, and suddenly felt embarrassed.
Pei Che looked at his embarrassed look and couldn't help laughing: "Of course he is still there. The Liang Dynasty's royal family is small. Unless there is a palace coup during the succession, or committing evil deeds such as killing his father and brother, otherwise, he will be canonized as an idle prince, not allowed to attend court and discuss politics, and not allowed to leave Liangjing in this life. Other than that, all treatment will be restored to the same as usual to show the benevolence of the emperor. For example, the fourth prince was named Prince An, which means he should abide by the rules and regulations."
Tsk tsk, Prince An, shrimp and pig heart!
Jiang Miao thought that for some losers, it might be better to kill them than to keep them in captivity with good food and drink.
"When my parents first met with the accident, he often came to our house. Later, after his power was gradually disintegrated by the current emperor, he rarely interacted with our house. But he once wrote a letter to my grandfather, saying that he knew he had no hope of ascending to the throne, and in order to avoid the new emperor's suspicion, he did not want to implicate my family, so he had to stay away."
Pei Che was somewhat touched at the time, and felt that his father was worthy of his friendship with him. But he thought that one should be upright and aboveboard, so after he finished his mourning, he personally visited the king, but the king always left in a hurry every time he met him. After so many times, Pei Che knew that he had made up his mind, and he stopped visiting him.
Pei Che laughed at himself. He was now in the situation of "suspecting the neighbor of stealing the axe". Because he already had a prejudice in his heart, when he recalled the previous events, he felt that they had other meanings.
He thought to himself, but he did not stop collecting them. He flipped through the papers until he saw the confession of Zhu Tonghai, the former Master Wuming. He then stopped, took out the paper, and examined it carefully.
Jiang Miao didn't understand what was going on, so he moved closer but found nothing - there wasn't even a single extra word on the paper, the content was exactly the same as before.
"A Miao, look at what he said here." Pei Che pointed at the content on the paper and asked Jiang Miao to read it.
"The man in black accused me of being stupid, saying that I didn't poison them, but just put some diarrhea powder in their food. What's wrong? Is there anything strange here?" Jiang Miao read it once, but he didn't know why Pei Che asked him to read it.
"Look here again." Pei Che pointed to another place and said.
Jiang Miao continued, "I took the powder down the mountain and asked the doctors there. They all said it was croton powder. Uh, is there a problem?"
Pei Che pointed to the last spot and said, "I asked the man in black if it would kill anyone, and he said it was just a false alarm. What conclusion can you draw from these three sentences?"
Jiang Miao's anus tightened, and he suddenly felt like he was being interrogated by a Chinese teacher. He thought for a moment and said tentatively, "What he meant was that the man in black didn't actually want to kill anyone, he just wanted to... scare them?"
Seeing Pei Che's approving look, Jiang Miao breathed a sigh of relief. However, "Didn't Wu Ming say later that he didn't expect the man in black to lie to him?"
"Yes, after knowing that my father and the others had passed away, Wu Ming came to the conclusion that the man in black was deceiving him. But why did the man in black lie to him?"
Jiang Miao said: "He was afraid that if he told the truth, Wu Ming would not cooperate with him, so he lied."
Pei Che shook his head and said, "The first time he drugged her, it could be said that he was afraid that Wuming would not cooperate, but the second time, his plan no longer required Wuming, so why did he do that?"
Jiang Miao said: "This... is because they are afraid that Wuming will suddenly come to their senses and tell on me, right?"
"No, Wuming is now tied to the same rope as him. He asked this question just to take the opportunity to escape the guilt in his heart. Did the man in black say this to comfort him?"
"How could the man in black be so kind?" Jiang Miao shook his head. "Then the man in black didn't lie. But why did your parents still get killed?"
Pei Che's eyes were filled with sadness, and he said slowly: "I guess it was an accident."
Jiang Miao was confused by his guess. He opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but didn't know how to say it. After a while, he found his voice.
Pei Che stared at Jiang Miao, his eyes full of certainty: "Yes, it was an accident. However, it was not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster."
"Stop, stop, stop!" Jiang Miao held his forehead. "I don't understand. One moment it's a natural disaster, the next it's a man-made disaster, and then it's an accident. What's going on?"
Pei Che pulled him over to sit down, poured him a cup of warm tea, and said, "Drink some tea first and listen to me slowly."
"There were two parties involved in what happened back then. One party was sent by the virtuous concubine in the palace, who were prepared to kill and silence the witnesses if the mediation failed, and cut off one of the Fourth Prince's arms. The other party was sent by the Fourth Prince, whose purpose was not to kill, but to frame him!"
Jiang Miao's eyes widened, and something suddenly flashed through his mind, but he didn't have time to think about it carefully, so he just urged: "Go on."
"From Wuming's confession, we know that the purpose of the man in black was not to kill and silence him, but to cause some trouble for my father and his friends and create some misunderstandings between him and someone. I think that if my father and his friends were poisoned by the laxative the first time, the results of the investigation would point to the people sent by Concubine Xian. My father would think that the Third Prince was going to attack them, and in order to protect himself, he would join the Fourth Prince's camp."
"They want to create misunderstandings and reap the benefits by creating them?" Jiang Miao suddenly realized, "Because the Fourth Prince knows that your father wants to stay out of it and stay away from the disputes in the court, so he wants to use this method to tie them together. Your father is well-known and favored by the late emperor. He has the support of the Duke of Zhongguo and the Feng family. If he can support the Fourth Prince, it will be of great help to the Fourth Prince's plan to seize the throne."
"Yes, that was their plan. However, it rained too hard that day, and the tree they cut down happened to knock the carriage down the mountain, which led to this tragedy. I think they wanted to push the tree to intercept them, and then pretend to be the Third Prince's men to attack them, and then pretend to be defeated and flee forward. In this way, my father will be more vigilant when heading towards Shuibo County. If he encounters the assassins sent by Concubine Xian, he will try every means to capture them alive and ask who is behind it."
"What a great plan that kills two birds with one stone. However, what you said are all guesses. Although they sound reasonable, they may not be true, right?" Jiang Miao believed it a little in his heart, but without any evidence, who dared to say that this was definitely the case
Pei Che said: "You are right, but before this, there has always been a question that I have been puzzled about."
"what is the problem?"
"The tree that fell down that year."
"Tree?"
"Yes, that tree." Pei Che said, "If an ordinary person really wanted to shoot down the carriage, why would he specifically cut down a tree? He could just collect some rolling stones or set traps on the way. There are many ways, so why bother to cut down a tree. And it's not just that tree. There are knife marks on other trees not far away. These marks are too deliberate, as if they were afraid that people would miss it, so they deliberately left some evidence."
"But didn't they find out about it back then?"
"It happened suddenly. When the guards found the carriage fell off the cliff, their first reaction was to find the fallen carriage. No one thought of going up to check. And after the carriage fell, no one ambushed them. They only thought it was an accident, not someone else's doing. As for the Duke's Mansion, my grandfather fell ill when he first heard the news. My grandmother was just sad. I was young and didn't think of this. By the time my grandfather sent people over, a long time had passed. Even if someone occasionally saw the marks on the tree, they would only think that it was cut by the nearby woodcutter, and would not think that it was left by someone on purpose."
Jiang Miao sighed deeply: "Now that you put it that way, it makes sense."
"As you just said, all this is just my guess. We will have to wait until tomorrow to find out."
"Do you want to go directly to Prince An to find out?" Jiang Miao knew what Pei Che meant as soon as he heard it.
Pei Che did not deny: "No matter what the result is, I have to go this time. Cheng Kaihua is his man, there is no doubt about that."
"I'll go with you tomorrow. Let's bring more people with us to prevent someone from doing something desperate." He has two children at home. If they get into trouble, won't the two children be too pitiful
"A Miao, just wait for my news at home." Pei Che didn't want him to go. What if that man really took action? Swords and knives have no eyes, and it would be bad if he got hurt.
"Do you treat me as an outsider? If I don't go, you can forget about going." Jiang Miao was very angry.
Pei Che had no choice but to agree to go with him tomorrow.
(End of this chapter)