This is really strange. The clothes that were hung in the yard suddenly disappeared.
Even when Sun Shaozong said goodbye and left, Baoyu was still ready to fight, declaring that he would not give up until the thief was found.
In fact, if Sun Shaozong were to investigate personally, he would probably be able to solve the case in minutes - but what was lost were just a few pieces of clothing, and it was most likely done by thieves in the Rongguo Mansion, so Sun Shaozong naturally didn't bother to make a big fuss about it.
But when we left Rongguo Mansion, the sky was already covered with dark clouds and rumbling thunder. After we walked only two blocks, it started to rain heavily.
Originally, Sun Shaozong was thinking about visiting the house purchased by Sun Chengye and Yu Qian so as to prepare two suitable housewarming gifts in advance - but since the weather was not good, he had to give up the original plan and returned home.
After getting off the carriage at the gate, he walked along the corridor towards the back house. Halfway through, he saw a dozen servants from the mansion shouting and making a fuss in the mud in the rain.
Sun Shaozong was puzzled, so he stopped in the corridor. Just as he was about to take a closer look, he saw one of the servants in a straw raincoat coming up to him quickly. He lifted his straw hat in the corridor, revealing a clean and neat oval face. It was Yuanyang who had just been assigned to Yingchun.
"Second Master."
Then she reported in a crisp voice: "Because we didn't get to enjoy chrysanthemums in our mansion during the Double Ninth Festival last year, the master specifically instructed us to buy some in advance this year. Who knew that we had just planted a batch yesterday and it rained so hard today, so we have no choice but to dig them out and temporarily pile them in the pavilion in the corridor, and plant them again tomorrow."
This Yuanyang has a strong sense of being the protagonist, unlike Qingwen who basically treats herself as a temporary tenant at Sun Shaozong's place.
"In fact, a few flowers and plants are not worth much silver."
Sun Shaozong casually said: "These people have been busy in the rain for a long time, please don't catch a cold."
"Don't worry, Master."
Yuanyang said hurriedly, "I asked Siqi to bring two maids to boil a large pot of ginger soup to drive away the cold, and also prepared towels, hot water and clean clothes to ensure that nothing goes wrong."
After all, she is someone that Lady Jia can use. It's okay that she is thoughtful, but it's a pleasant surprise that she can keep Siqi under control.
Seeing that she had handled everything in order, Sun Shaozong did not ask any more questions and went straight to You Erjie's room, where he spent half a day in a wild and carefree manner. In the evening, he washed and had his meal at Ruan Rong's place, and they talked about their innermost feelings to each other until midnight.
Early the next morning.
A simple horse with its hooves wrapped in straw and coarse cloth tread through the mud as it carried Sun Shaozong and his nephew Sun Chengye out of the side door of the Sun Mansion.
Sun Shaozong first told him that Jia Baoyu would bring Jia Lan to Yu Qian's house tomorrow to invite him to be his teacher. But seeing that Sun Chengye looked a little depressed, he couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong with you? Did you encounter any difficulties in the past half month? But didn't I ask someone to tell you to put aside any undecided matters for the time being?"
Sun Chengye shook his head and said, "It's not that there is any problem with me. It's that the Wei Tongpan has encountered a difficult case and has been traveling with Lord Lin recently. Therefore, I have to take more responsibility for the big and small things in this mansion."
As he said this, he couldn't help but yawning again.
Wei Ruolan encountered a difficult unsolved case?
Upon hearing this, Sun Shaozong became really interested. Although Wei Ruolan himself was not an expert in investigating cases, the lawyer Qi beside him was a veteran who had worked in the Ministry of Justice for many years. A case that could stump him must be extraordinary.
I wanted to ask Sun Chengye a few questions, but he looked overworked, so I didn't want to disturb his rare leisure time.
Speaking of which...
The staff of one legal advisor is indeed a little insufficient. It seems necessary to urge Liu Xianglian to marry Yu Sanjie as soon as possible so that he can report to the Criminal Law Department.
Just as I was thinking about these random things, I heard Sun Chengye take the initiative to say: "In fact, this case was originally handled by you, sir. But in the blink of an eye, the 'Crown Prince Assassination' case occurred, so it was transferred to Lord Lin..."
"Lin Delu is in charge?"
Sun Shaozong couldn't help but be surprised when he heard this, because Lin Delu had always been in charge of logistics in the Criminal Law Division. Even when he went to the scene, he was just helping out and had never investigated a case alone.
How come he was suddenly given the responsibility and overshadowed Wei Ruolan?
etc!
At first, I was in charge of the investigation...
"Could it be the case of the death of monk Jiexian from Fayuan Temple on the day of the solar eclipse?"
If it was this case, it would make sense to hand it over directly to Lin Delu for investigation, bypassing Wei Ruolan. After all, in this case, Wei Ruolan was also one of the suspects.
"That's the case."
Sun Chengye nodded first, then shook his head and said, "But it's not just Jiexian who was killed now - since then, the two suspects Jiezhi and Jieming have also died one after another!"
It turned out that after Sun Shaozong went to the Prince's Mansion, the case of Jiexian was temporarily handed over to Lin Delu.
However, how could Lin Delu possibly find out the truth when Sun Shaozong couldn't solve the case in a short time?
As a result, the matter was delayed for several days without any progress at all. Coupled with the constant pressure from Fayuan Temple, Lin Delu and Wei Ruolan discussed it and decided to release the monks back to the temple first, and then summon them to the yamen for questioning after finding some clues.
Who would have thought that not long after these monks returned, they hit the midwife's Jie Chi with a wooden basin and were inexplicably strangled to death in their own meditation room.
Because the death happened in Fayuan Temple this time, Wei Ruolan was basically ruled out as a suspect, so after receiving the report, Wei Ruolan took the lead in the investigation.
The investigation lasted another five or six days, but before the cause of Jie Chi's death could be found, another suspect, Monk Jie Ming, was nailed to death with an iron spike outside the mountain gate of Fayuan Temple.
Now even the abbot, Master Chi, could not sit still. He went to the government office in person to have a sincere talk with Jia Yucun, urging the Shuntian Prefecture to solve the case as soon as possible to avoid panic in the temple.
This Zen Master Lechi often goes in and out of the emperor's bedroom all year round. It is said that even the empress is respectful to him. Jia Yucun is now at a critical moment when he "wants to have sex with him every day", so how dare he offend this Zen Master Lechi?
However, he couldn't afford to offend Prince Beijing behind Wei Ruolan.
Therefore, on the one hand he promised to solve the case as soon as possible, but on the other hand he didn't want to push him too much. He had been so worried these past two days that he even lost a lot of hair. If this continued, he might become a "monk" before he even became the prefect.
"In my opinion, after Uncle arrives at the government office today, the Minister Jia will definitely hand over the case to Uncle for investigation. Whether he wants to refuse or accept it, please make preparations early."
Tsk~
After all, Sun Chengye has little experience, so news like this should have been told to him earlier.
If he had known the current situation of the government office, Sun Shaozong would definitely have only asked for a day or two of leave, and then continued to hide in the Prince's Mansion. After seeing enough of Jia Yucun and Wei Ruolan's embarrassment, he would come out to clean up the mess.
But right now...
I've already been to Rongguo Mansion, so wouldn't it seem too deliberate if I didn't go to the government office?
Whatever~
Anyway, in the Prince's Mansion, there is nothing to do except bragging and talking nonsense... uh, maybe the word "bullshit" is more appropriate here.
Anyway, I was bored in the Prince's Mansion, so now it's a good opportunity to solve this unsolved case and change my mood.