There is a god in the sky

Chapter 35 Poisoning Case in a Dilapidated Temple in the Wilderness (Part 3)

Its daybreak.

Shen Lan felt light shining on her eyelids, but she did not open her eyes.

She heard the footsteps again, this time slightly hurried, passing right past them and out of the temple gate.

Shen Lan leaned against Xiao Ji and grabbed his wrist tightly.

Xiao Ji woke up with a start and saw the girl on his shoulder, thinking she had fallen asleep.

Then I heard the girl's calm voice: "That woman is suspicious."

Xiao Ji's thoughts were still somewhat adrift.

It was early in the morning, and the man's instincts hadn't yet subsided. The warm, fragrant body in his arms and the sweet, coquettish voice in his ear made him somewhat restless.

He wanted to push Shen Lan away, but Shen Lan's words indicated that she didn't want to make too much noise.

"What she's probably looking for, adults can investigate in that direction."

After Shen Lan finished speaking, she moved away and wrapped herself in a small blanket to go to sleep.

Xiao Ji stared at her for a long time, making sure she was really asleep, unable to tell whether she was truly awake or talking in her sleep.

However, Shen Lan's words were still ringing in his ears, and he got up and walked outside.

In the grove, Zhang searched the body again, but still found nothing.

"How could this be? Why can't I find it? Where is it?"

Her anxious expression and rough movements prompted Xiao Ji to ask, "Are you looking for what they're escorting?"

Zhang was startled and took a step back, leaning against a tree, watching Xiao Ji warily.

"No," she denied immediately. "I... I was just looking for their wallets. I'm out of money."

That was a good excuse, but Xiao Ji didn't touch the money on those bodyguards.

He pulled a box out of his sleeve; it was just the size of his palm and wrapped in a cloth.

He tossed the box up and down, saying, "I took this from them last night."

Zhang's gaze was fixed on it, but she knew she couldn't reveal her identity.

She tried to lower her gaze, "I don't know what that is, I just want money."

"In that case, you can take their money, but I'll take this back to the yamen."

Xiao Ji turned and left.

After hesitating for a moment, Zhang called out to him.

“My lord, I do not know your identity, but that thing… that thing belongs to my family.”

Xiao Ji finally took the case seriously. Perhaps Shen Lan was right; the poison that killed the bodyguard might not have been a poisonous mushroom.

Do you know what's inside?

"Yes, I know."

"What evidence do you have to prove that this item belongs to your family? And who entrusted this item to the escort agency?"

Zhang opened her mouth, but for a moment she didn't know how to start speaking.

She slid down the tree trunk and sat on the ground, hugging her knees and letting out suppressed sobs.

Everyone in the dilapidated temple came out, including Shen Lan, who was still dazed and couldn't open her eyes.

"Mother!" Luo Yuemei ran to her mother and questioned Xiao Ji, "Did you bully my mother?"

Zhang pulled her aside, raised her head, and said, "It has nothing to do with him."

“Mother…” The little girl glared at Xiao Ji even after hearing this.

Sui Feng blocked Xiao Ji's path, his face stern, and said, "My master is the Chief Justice of Jianzhou Prefecture, in charge of criminal cases. If you two are unwilling to speak, you can go to the prefectural prison to do so."

Zhang stroked her daughter's face, pulled her to kneel before Xiao Ji, and recounted the whole story.

Her husband's family name was Luo, and they were considered prominent merchants in Jianzhou City. The couple were loving and had two children, making them an enviable family.

But starting last year, the Luo family's business plummeted.

Through a friend's introduction, her husband Luo Chunsheng landed a deal with a foreign merchant, which was said to be successful and would earn him more than before.

Luo Chunsheng never returned home after leaving.

Not long after, a gambling den came to the house to collect a debt, saying that the eldest son owed the gambling den tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Zhang naturally didn't believe it. How could her eldest son, who was studying at school, have accumulated huge gambling debts?

To everyone's surprise, after questioning, it was discovered that a classmate from the school had taken his son to a gambling den, where he was tricked into losing a large sum of money and wrote an IOU for ten thousand taels of silver.

When Luo Chunsheng left, he took all the family's money with him. How could Zhang, a woman, raise so much money to pay off the debt?

Creditors came to their door every day, throwing excrement and dog blood at them, breaking the eldest son's leg, and threatening to kidnap Zhang and her daughter and sell them to brothels to pay off their debts.

Zhang was unable to sleep day and night.

Just then, Luo Chunsheng's good friend Wu Zhongjin came to visit.

He said that the Luo family has a priceless heirloom that has been passed down through generations, and if it were put up for auction, it would definitely solve their immediate problem.

The Luo family ancestors were tomb raiders, and their family has many items unearthed from ancient tombs.

But most of them are worthless; they're just for show.

There was only one thing that Luo Chunsheng hid in a secret compartment, and he would take it out to look at it every year.

Zhang was not stupid; she realized at this point that the calamities that befell her family might have been caused by the treasure.

But the deed is done, the IOU is genuine, and even if we take it to the authorities, it will be useless.

She has young children at home; she can't let them suffer because of a dead object.

Therefore, Zhang entrusted the family heirloom to Wu Zhongjin.

Half a month later, she indeed received a large sum of money, but the gambling den's debts were compounded by interest. After this large sum of money was poured in, she even lost several shops before she was finally able to pay it off.

She thought that was the end of it, and that all she had to do was wait for her husband to come back, and that the family could continue living together.

But a cold made Zhang realize that she simply couldn't survive without money.

The eldest son needed medicine for a leg injury, and the younger son needed medicine for a cold. Even with scraping together what we could, we were still struggling to make ends meet.

Knowing he had implicated his family, the eldest son dragged his crippled leg and jumped into a well one night.

The bad news kept coming. The youngest son, who was already in poor health, had a high fever that wouldn't go down, and died a few days later.

The Zhang family's world has collapsed.

If it weren't for her daughter, she might have gone with her.

She hates it.

The origin of everything is that treasure.

After making inquiries, she learned that the treasure was in Wu Zhongjin's possession. He had asked a security escort agency to deliver the treasure to Citong, saying that he wanted to give it to a very important person.

Zhang knew then that all the disasters that befell the Luo family were caused by Wu Zhongjin.

She had considered fighting Wu Zhongjin to the death, but he was always accompanied by guards, and she, a weak woman, was no match for him.

So she secretly followed the镖局 (bodyguard agency) out of the city with her daughter, tailing them all the way, hoping to find an opportunity to take the treasure back.

"The box contained a luminous pearl, which was said to have been placed in the mouth of the owner of an ancient tomb and could preserve the body from decay for a thousand years."

Zhang wiped away her tears and said, "I can do without this, but I only ask that it not be returned to Wu Zhongjin."

Xiao Ji asked her in a deep voice, "Do you have any evidence to prove that Wu Zhongjin framed the Luo family?"

Xiao Ji stayed in Jianzhou City for three years and also got to know Wu Zhongjin, a wealthy merchant in the city.

Wu Zhongjin's younger sister was Liu Engui's favorite concubine, so when he went out to do business, he always referred to himself as the prefect's brother-in-law.

Zhang smiled bitterly: "So what if I have evidence? Wu Zhongjin's brother-in-law is the prefect of Jianzhou."

Sui Feng told her, "Lord Liu has been promoted to the Ministry of Revenue, and the new prefect is surnamed Jiang. He is a fair and just person."

Zhang shook her head: "Officials protect each other. Liu Engui has been promoted, so how dare the lower-level officials offend him?"

Xiao Ji promised, "If you have evidence, I can open a case for you, arrest Wu Zhongjin, and interrogate him. He is just a merchant and not a big shot."

In the eyes of ordinary people, people with connections like Wu Zhongjin are difficult to deal with.

But in Xiao Ji's eyes, he was nothing more than a scheming merchant, and besides, his sister was just Liu Engui's concubine, not a proper relative.