Chapter 421 Fried Glutinous Rice Balls (3)

Wen Mingtang knew that today's tea and snacks were very hot. On the way here, she also imagined several situations that she would encounter when she came to Qianyuan Hall: She entered the palace with tea and snacks, and faced Duke Jingguo, perhaps Duke Jingguo. He would snap up the case and immediately get into trouble; or he would make sarcastic remarks without saying a word; or even, he would sarcastically tell her to "stay away" from Lin Fei. She had thought about it, but... she had never thought about the situation in front of her.

Beside the case was Duke Jingguo, who was resting his mind or dozing off with his chin propped up on one hand and his eyes closed. Behind him, just a step away, was the man who pretended to turn over Zhao Mengzhuo's body the day he fell from the building. The official of the imperial court, who was called to the court, had a bruised face and his tongue hanging out. He was sitting there with a dark-colored belt wrapped around his neck. As for the source of the belt... Wen Mingtang looked at Duke Jingguo's loose official robe and closed his eyes.

The patrolling guards in the palace also heard the noise and rushed over at this time. The leading guard obviously did not expect to see such a situation: the source of the sound came from the Qianyuan Palace, and when His Majesty summoned the ministers to enter the palace, they would be at Generally speaking, even if you want to do something, you would not choose to do evil here, and do evil under His Majesty's nose.

Therefore, when they heard the exclamation, they thought it was an accident involving a fall or injury. They even ordered a guard to go to the Imperial Medical Office in advance to invite the imperial doctor who was best at treating bruises in case of emergency. , but I didn’t want to wait until I arrived at the Qianyuan Hall to find out that there was no need to invite the imperial doctor from the Imperial Medical Office. The one who should be invited was the doctor.

An important official of the imperial court died. Only Duke Jing was present. The same woman stood outside the palace. There was tea and snacks that had been turned over on the ground at the woman's feet. It seemed that she had come to deliver tea. The exclamation just now was caused by her. from.

But...seeing that the woman was not dressed like a palace maid, the guard commander did not dare to make any arbitrary decisions. He only ordered people to stay in front of the Qianyuan Palace while he rushed to see His Majesty.

If this matter happened in the palace, Your Majesty must be invited to make the decision.

…

…

Wen Mingtang was taken aside by the guards. In less than a cup of tea, the new emperor appeared in front of the Qianyuan Hall.

This was the first time Wen Mingtang saw the rumored new emperor. He was handsome and matched well with the beautiful and dignified queen. Looking closely at his facial features, there are actually some shadows of the late emperor, but looking up, his eyes are bright and resolute, which is completely different from the feeling of malaise that the late emperor gave people.

After kowtowing and kneeling together with all the guards, the new emperor only looked at the situation in the palace for a moment, then turned to Wen Mingtang and asked, "Have you been in yet?"

Wen Mingtang shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, no!"

The new emperor nodded and asked the guard: "Have you ever been in?"

The guard shook his head: "Reporting to your majesty, because human lives are at stake, I dare not step into it casually, lest I destroy the evidence and clues."

"Well done!" When the new emperor heard this, he praised him, then looked towards the palace and said, "Let the people from Dali Temple and Zhang Rang from the Ministry of Punishment come over and take a look!"

Although the incident happened suddenly, His Majesty summoned him, and such a big thing happened again. Therefore, in less than an hour, the people from Dali Temple and the official named Zhang Rang from the Ministry of Punishment appeared in the Qianyuan Hall. outside.

Because no one else had entered, the hall remained as it was when the incident occurred. Looking in from outside the hall, the empty hall looked clean and messy.

The reason is that no one lives in this hall, but His Majesty occasionally chooses to stay in this hall when he summons his ministers. In the entire hall, there is only a square table with four futons on each side. There is nothing next to it. At a glance, it looks very clean.

It was said that it was messy because Duke Jingguo was sitting next to the table and the bruised Chang Cheng was not far away from him. The dead Chang Cheng was lying there, his robe was wrinkled, and two official boots that were difficult to put on and take off were thrown away. Not far away from the feet, there was some unspeakable chaos.

There is no bloody smell in the hall that can be seen in ordinary murder scenes, and it is much cleaner than ordinary murder scenes. Even the way of death and the murderer seem to be "clearly visible."

Hearing the noise outside, Duke Jing raised his head and looked at the crowd who appeared outside the palace: Zhang Rang, who was wearing the official robe of an official, stood out among the crowd. He had worked in Dali Temple with the deceased Zhao Mengzhuo. His colleagues were transferred to the Punishment Department because they were more talented in punishment matters.

His investigative methods are naturally not weak, but they are inferior to Lin Feilai from Dali Temple nearby.

The reason why His Majesty transferred Zhang Rang... Duke Jingguo laughed bitterly at himself: Now he is a suspect in the murder of Chang Shi. As his second grandson, Lin Fei must avoid suspicion.

Lin Fei, who was standing outside the palace, looked at Duke Jing from a distance and bowed, then said to Liu Yuandong, Bai Zhu and Wu Bucai who were coming behind him: "I need to avoid suspicion in this case. You just have to listen to Mr. Zhang's arrangements!"

Zhang Rang, who was standing beside him, cupped his hands and walked in.

Lin Fei stood outside the hall, following their movements and taking in the situation inside the hall, and then went to the side to meet Wen Mingtang.

Before Lin Fei could speak, Wen Mingtang began to speak: "As soon as I came, I saw Mr. Jingguo closing his eyes and not knowing whether he was resting his mind or dozing off. The dead man fell down next to the pillar of the palace just one step away from him. My face was bruised, my tongue was sticking out, and there was a belt around my neck. I was frightened at that time, and the tea in my hand fell to the floor. Duke Jingguo opened his eyes and saw that it was me. I was about to have an attack. I was completely confused at that time. , pointing behind him and screaming, he turned around, as if he had just seen the adult, and called the adult's name, and the adult's body slipped down, and then... the guards came over, Jingguo I haven't made any move, I'm just waiting... just waiting for you to come."

Wen Mingtang described the situation at that time in great detail. After he finished speaking, he looked around again. Seeing that the guard was far away, he approached him and lowered his voice and said, "I came here today to deliver tea. In fact, the Queen is with Concubine Jing." There are arrangements there.”

When Lin Fei heard this, his eyes narrowed slightly, he paused, looked up at her and said, "I wonder why there is no one guarding outside the Qianyuan Hall today. This is the reason."

Wen Mingtang said "Yes" and then said: "The Queen asked me to... The Queen said that she asked me to deliver tea to test Duke Jing, and Concubine Jing... threatened Zhao Sishan with leaving the palace. , ordered me to deliver tea."

Although he did not have a bad impression of the Queen, but it was related to a murder case, Wen Mingtang had to make it clear that it was the Queen Empress's word to test Duke Jingguo, and the truth or falsehood involved in the case could not be determined by her belief or not. The evidence also needs to speak.

When Lin Fei heard this, his eyes flashed, and he was about to speak, but Liu Yuan walked out of Qianyuan Hall at this moment, walked to Lin Fei, and said: "Lin Shaoqing, that Master Chang was indeed strangled to death by his belt. Yes, the embroidery on the belt has been repaired, and according to Duke Jingguo’s confirmation, it belongs to him.”

Lin Fei said "hmm" and looked at Liu Yuan, waiting for him to continue.

Liu Yuan looked at Lin Fei with a somewhat complicated look. He paused and continued: "Looking at the scars on his hands, he must have struggled violently before he died. There should be a lot of movement."

As soon as these words came out, not only Lin Fei, but even Wen Mingtang secretly said "Oops"!

The position of supporting his chin is destined to indicate that Duke Jingguo is not just relaxing with his eyes closed, but is dozing off or in a light sleep. The slightest sound of movement will wake him up. Just like the sound of Wen Mingtang's teacup falling to the ground would wake him up. In this case, Chang Shi was strangled to death beside him, and the Yingguo Guild one step away couldn't hear it?