Chapter 432: Accidents
I was careless after all!
After scaring away the group of rioters, Sun Shaozong immediately gathered all the people in the house of detention for inventory and found that Liu, the kitchen helper, was indeed missing.
Moreover, before Liu disappeared, she had delivered tea to Monk Jiechen.
In addition, Sun Shaozong also keenly noticed that the string of red sandalwood prayer beads that Monk Jiechen originally wore on his wrist had disappeared.
Needless to say, it must have been Monk Jiechen who took the opportunity to seduce Liu, so she sneaked out of the house of confinement and spread the news - it was also Sun Shaozong's fault that he had not made up his mind before and had not thought it through, which gave Monk Jiechen the opportunity to take advantage of.
Presumably, the monks from Fayuan Temple will arrive soon after hearing the news. These monks are different from ordinary people. They have organizations, backgrounds, and ideological weapons, so it will be much more difficult to deal with them.
but……
If handled properly, the monks would also be the best audience, and could serve as perfect witnesses for their own subterfuge plans.
Of course, this also depends on how Miaoyu progresses - if things don't go as planned, we can only blame the child for her miserable life.
Thinking of this, Sun Shaozong's face was filled with murderous intent. He stared at Monk Jiechen for a long time before grinning, "Master, do you know how serious a crime it is to incite the people to attack the government office?"
Monk Jiechen had just witnessed Sun Shaozong's unparalleled power, and at this moment he could not help but feel a little bit of fear. However, after hearing Sun Shaozong's question, he still stiffened his neck and said, "I am thinking of the people of the world and doing things to eliminate demons and defend the way. What crime have I committed?!"
Tsk~
This monk is quite confident.
Sun Shaozong's expression became even more ferocious, staring at Monk Jiechen until his legs weakened. He then raised his voice and ordered, "Lock these monks together first - Zhou Da, you personally watch outside the door, and no one is allowed to approach at will!"
"Also, gather all the female prisoners in the prison together and let them supervise each other. If anyone dares to go out without permission again, I will punish them severely!"
Ever since he found out that someone in the house of detention had leaked the information, Zhou Da had been feeling very nervous, fearing that he would be implicated. Now, hearing Sun Shaozong's instructions to personally guard a few monks and redeem himself for their crimes, he quickly agreed with a look of joy.
He first took people to lock up a few monks in the lounge, and then ordered the jailers to find a cell at random, and even if they needed to urinate or defecate, they had to do it in there first.
At this time, Sun Shaozong called Lin Delu again, first asking for the confession from the interrogation just now, and then asked him to go to the street and find Qiu Yunfei and Zhao Wuwei, and ordered them to lead the yamen runners to block the two ends of the street to prevent more people from coming to cause trouble.
When everything was ready, Sun Shaozong looked up at the sky and saw that the sun had half revealed its face again. Apparently, the solar eclipse was coming to an end.
However, the subsequent impact of this solar eclipse may not be so easy to get over - especially now that there are 'two suns in the sky', with Emperor Guangde and the retired emperor coexisting, and who knows what kind of trouble will arise in the court because of this.
After sighing for a while, Sun Shaozong moved out tables and chairs on his own and started reading the confession in the middle of the yard - no matter what the outcome of the child was, the murder case had to be solved.
First of all, according to Monk Jiechen, this task was not originally his, but the head monk Jie Nian of the Reception Hall was not in the temple, so he took over this task temporarily.
The four monks who were traveling with him were temporarily assigned to him by the Reception Hall and were not appointed by Jie Chen himself.
It seems so.
Jie Chen's suspicion was greatly reduced. After all, he was just a temporary replacement, and the accompanying personnel were not designated by him. The solar eclipse could not be predicted in advance. Of course, the possibility that he carried a dagger with him and happened to have murderous intentions towards Jie Xian was not completely ruled out.
But logically speaking, so many coincidences piled together are somewhat far-fetched.
The next focus, of course, is the actions of everyone in the darkness.
Also according to Jie Chen, he shouted loudly and pounced towards the nun and her son on the bed. However, after taking a few steps, he was pushed back forcefully.
As I staggered backwards in the dark, I was tripped by someone and when I got up again, I was confused and had no idea which direction I was going, so I didn't dare to move again.
These words were also corroborated by the testimonies of others.
First, it was Wei Ruolan. He said that in the darkness, someone had indeed rushed towards him shouting, but was pushed back by him.
The next one was a monk named Jie Chi. As he was about to pounce on the head of the bed in the dark, he suddenly stepped on someone's calf. The man fell backward and he himself fell forward.
However, after the monk Jie Chi fell to the ground, he happened to touch a copper basin used for delivering babies. He subconsciously grabbed it and smashed it towards the head of the bed.
Monk Jiechi's words corresponded with Wei Ruolan's confession.
According to Wei Ruolan, after he pushed Monk Jiexian back, he was on high alert when a hidden weapon suddenly came flying at him. Because the sound was very clear, he ducked and dodged it, cursing, "You thief baldie, you actually used a weapon!"
However, after dodging the hidden weapon, Wei Ruolan regretted it, because he was protecting Miaoyu at the time. What would happen if the hidden weapon hit Miss Miaoyu?
So he turned around immediately, and according to the position he remembered, he grabbed Miaoyu and asked her with concern - but he made a mistake in his haste and accidentally grabbed the midwife's arm.
The midwife, having listened to the masters' words, also wanted to exorcise evil and defend the way of righteousness. She happened to be closest to the bedside, so she stretched out her hands to grab the baby's swaddling clothes and was struggling with the nun, when suddenly a copper basin flew over and hit her on the back of the head, making her scream in pain.
In severe pain, the midwife staggered back a few steps, holding her head, but was suddenly grabbed by someone's arm. Just as she was about to shout, she heard the man asking her in a concerned voice if she was injured.
The midwife vaguely recognized that the voice came from the young and handsome Lord Wei. She was panicked and followed the force of Wei Ruolan's pulling and half-pushed and half-pushed herself into Wei Ruolan's arms.
During the entire process, Wei Ruolan and the midwife performed the crime in almost one go, leaving no blank time between the crime and the crime, so she can basically be ruled out as a suspect.
As for Jie Chen and Jie Chi, after they got up from the ground, there was a period of time when they acted alone and had no contact with outsiders, so the possibility of them committing the crime still exists.
However, the two of them were obviously going for the child in the dark, so their suspicion level decreased instead of increased.
As for the other two monks, they claimed that because everyone was shouting so loudly and it was pitch dark, they just stood there and did not make any move.
The only one who stated in her confession that she had had contact with Monk Jiexian in the dark was Miaoyu.
According to her, after hearing several monks shouting that they wanted to exorcise demons and defend the Way, she was worried that Wei Ruolan would not be able to do it alone in the dark, so she walked a few steps sideways to Wei Ruolan's side, ready to fight alongside him.
Just as Miaoyu had gained her footing, someone came towards her in the darkness. The fat man on his body must have been Monk Jiexian.
At first, the monk Jiexian wanted to push Miaoyu aside and squeeze to the front of the bed, but later, probably recognizing Miaoyu's identity, he was determined to take advantage of her.
Miaoyu was struggling to resist his dirty hands in the dark when she suddenly heard the monk Jiexian groan, and then he pounced on her and pressed her under him.
Miaoyu was almost suffocated by the pressure of this two-hundred-pound ball of flesh. She struggled desperately but failed to escape. It was not until the lanterns were lit in the room and Wei Ruolan helped her that she avoided the tragedy of suffocation.
Although it is possible that the murderer attacked Jiexian and was pinned down by him during his dying counterattack - but considering that Miaoyu is a weak woman, her "defense-breaking ability" is seriously insufficient, not to mention breaking through the protection of that thick fat and cutting her throat and carotid artery at the same time.
In particular, Miaoyu had nothing to do with Jiexian. They just bumped into each other by chance, so she had no motive to assassinate him.
Therefore, this confession should be true and reliable.
In this case, the people who are most suspicious at the moment are the two monks who claim to be standing still.
But the problem is that although they cannot prove their innocence, they also have no evidence to prove that one of them is the murderer of Jiexian.
Tsk~
It seems that we still need to dig deeper to see whether there are any conflicts of interest and motives for murder among the monks before we can make further judgments.
Just as I was thinking about this, I heard the noise of people neighing and horses neighing outside the yard.
Sun Shaozong felt relieved at first, but then he frowned again. He originally thought that Qiu Yunfei and Zhao Wuwei had arrived, but when he listened carefully, the sound of horse hooves was indeed more frequent.
Among the constables and yamen runners, only Qiu Yunfei and Zhao Wuwei were qualified to patrol the streets on horseback. And judging from the rumbling sound of horses' hooves, there must be at least twenty of them!
Could it be that the monks from Fayuan Temple have arrived?
These guys are really ostentatious. Dozens of them are riding horses together in the inner layer. They are probably even more ostentatious than those monks in later generations who drive luxury cars to show off their wealth.
Sun Shaozong secretly complained in his heart, but was too lazy to disturb others, so he stood up and went out to greet them alone.
Although these monks came with great force and were well-organized, well-backed and supported by a righteous cause, he held the banner of "king's law" in his hands, so it was not a problem for him to challenge them morally in a short period of time.
As for using force...
hehe!
With Sun Shaozong's current bug-like martial arts level, as long as the opponent does not use long-range weapons, a hundred people may not be enough for him to stretch his muscles!
The only thing he had to worry about was that if the stalemate with those monks lasted too long, it might alarm the imperial court. If any big shot in the court issued a statement supporting these monks in fighting demons and defending the way of Taoism, Sun Shaozong would have no legitimate reason to stop them.
but……
As for Miaoyu, it shouldn't take so long, right?
With a lot of thoughts in his mind, Sun Shaozong walked out of the house of detention with his head held high, ready to have a verbal battle with the bald men!
However, as soon as he went out, he couldn't help but be stunned.
Because the ones who jumped down from the horses shouting were not monks from Fayuan Temple at all, but a group of Dragon Guards wearing black dragon-swallowing cloud robes!
What are the Dragon Guards doing here?
Could it be that the pacification envoy Lu Hui wants to take advantage of this opportunity to make some big move?
Just as he was thinking this, he saw the leader of the group of dragon guards, holding the whip upside down, came forward and casually saluted, then stared at Sun Shaozong and asked, "May I ask if this is Captain Sun in person?"
This attitude...
But it's not really respectful.
Sun Shaozong glanced over his shoulder and saw that he was just a deputy centurion with three gold lines and one silver line, which was three levels lower than himself, a captain with five bars.
Logically speaking, as an inspector of a thousand households, even colleagues of the same rank should be afraid of him. However, this fellow is only a deputy captain, but his attitude is eccentric and domineering.
Could it be...
"Are you from the Southern Pacification Division?"
