Wishful Things

After telling what she knew, Ziyue mustered up the courage to look at Mr. Ji.

Facing those cautious but sincere eyes, Ji Dong became more and more confused——

He has been an official and adjudicated cases for many years, and he thinks he is good at reading people's eyes, but what is the reason for the strong desire in the eyes of the other party, "I want to go to jail" and "My lord, can you see me?"

This servant girl has such a clear and clear plan for her next life path - does the Xia family know?

In other words, the Xia family sent such a person to the yamen, could it be that they are not going to want that careless fourth girl again?

As for why the girl is not worrying, it doesn’t matter—it’s because the book that was very popular in various teahouses was too much discussed. Based on the principle of understanding people’s hearts, he also went to listen to it twice, and ate two pots of tea and a plate of melon seeds at public expense.

If it weren't for public expenses not allowing, he would still like to have two plates of pastries, after all, it sounds like a good meal.

Ji Dong withdrew his gaze from Ziyue, and looked down at the book in his hand again.

On top of this, it is Zhan Yunjiao's latest confession recorded by the master.

Just now he carefully distinguished, what Ziyue said, and Zhan Yunjiao's confession, there is almost no discrepancy, it can be said to be very consistent.

Mr. Ji could tell the difference, and many common people who watched the commotion from beginning to end also understood it.

The low voices of discussion in the crowd overlapped and noisy.

At this time, Zhan Yunjiao seemed to have suddenly remembered something, and said with some hesitation: "My lord, in order to keep the minnv's secret, Xia Xi used both soft and hard methods... and gave the minnv some property... I wonder if it can be used as physical evidence?"

Ji Dong immediately asked, "What are they all about?"

"Some scraps of silver and banknotes, and some jewelry..."

Ji Dong's eyes moved slightly.

Most of the broken silver and banknotes cannot be used as physical evidence, but jewelry can't be said—for example, many of the jewelry stolen by the flower picker earlier indirectly exposed the identity of the victim.

"Where are these things now?"

"My lord, it's still in my house, never touched..." Zhan Yunjiao explained in detail the location of the hidden things: "It's in the innermost porcelain jar under my mother's bed."

"Come on."

Ji Dong immediately ordered: "Go to Zhan's house in the south of the city quickly and get this thing."

Afraid that things would change if it was too late, the officials rushed all the way on horseback, and soon took back what Zhan Yunjiao said, together with the porcelain jar, back to the yamen.

"May I ask if this servant can see my mother? Is she okay now?" Zhan Yunjiao asked the servant holding the porcelain jar.

The official took a look at Ji Dong.

Ji Dong nodded slightly.

Although it is not appropriate to talk about matters that have nothing to do with the case in court, there are still human feelings outside the law.

The official replied: "Lingtang seems to be in good health, and there is another woman who is taking care of him."

While Zhan Yunjiao was relieved, she couldn't help being a little surprised.

Is there a mother-in-law taking care of her mother?

Could it be... Xu Mingyi's arrangement?

——She remembered that in the forest outside the city that night, Xu Mingyi said that before finding out that her mother was involved in this matter, she would order someone to take care of her basic daily life.

She didn't believe it at the time.

Of course, she doesn't believe it now either!

It was just a subconscious guess just now, but after thinking about it for a while, I realized that Xu Mingyi couldn't be so kind - how could someone who was able to treat their mother and daughter to death without any grievances or enmity, really send someone to take care of her mother after she was almost killed by her?

It must be my brother's arrangement...

Thinking of her brother who has "resurrected from the dead", and feeling that everything is in his plan, Zhan Yunjiao's confidence is a little stronger.

The elder brother said, now that he is working under a lord, if she is sentenced to exile, the elder brother will try to replace her on the way...

At this time, the contents of the jar had been taken out, and after Ji Dong looked at the jewelry, he finally fixed his eyes on a hairpin.

He doesn't know anything about women's jewelry, but this hairpin looks very different, and the specific method is different-it looks expensive, and he wants to keep it for himself.

"Since you are Miss Xia's personal maid, you should be able to identify whether these things belong to her, right?" Ji Dong looked at Ziyue and asked.

Ordinarily, this kind of question should not be answered by servants of the Xia family, but this little girl's sincerity in wanting to go to jail is really strong, and she has already gained his trust in a certain sense.

Ziyue nodded slightly: "Maidservant can try to recognize..."

Ji Dong ordered someone to bring the jewelry on the tray to her.

"These...are indeed my girl's belongings." Ziyue said firmly.

Zhou Yu at the side was at a loss.

How come... it's all there?

It's clearly just a hairpin that belongs to Xia Xi.

Could it be that Ziyue was also secretly bought by Miss Ji?

Impossible, such an important detail, it is supposed that Miss Ji would have informed her in advance, why would someone be added temporarily?

So, what is going on with Ziyue?

"And this hairpin... I remember...it seems to be a reward from the palace!" Ziyue picked up the ruby ​​double butterfly hairpin and said.

Although she didn't know when her girl gave Zhan Yunjiao these things, and some of them didn't belong to her girl at all, but she would never admit that this hairpin was wrong.

Even if she really didn't understand why her girl would give such a special thing to Zhan Yunjiao, it would not be an exaggeration to say that she was so stupid that she ascended to heaven in place - but after thinking about it, the girl is so stupid and proud of her past, maybe she doesn't even remember that it was a reward from the palace.

Hearing the words "reward from the palace", Ji Dong's expression changed slightly.

He thought of someone.

In Huaihua Hutong, the back street of the Yamen, there lived an old eunuch who had worked as a decoration supervisor in the palace for many years.

It is said that it is sickness and old age, but in fact it is leaving the palace to wait for death, but the old eunuch has become healthy since he left the palace, but he is not dead, and he can never go back to the palace, so he has lived for so long.

But people are not idle.

Because he came from the jewelry supervisor, he stood at the cutting edge of jewelry aesthetics. Not only that, jewelry masters often came to ask for advice, but also attracted a large number of female relatives of officials and officials.

Because of this, it is inevitable that he has become one of the objects of Mr. Ji's envy.

Jealousy is jealousy. Now that I have something to ask for advice, I still have to put on a good attitude.

Therefore, Ji Dong ordered the official to invite someone to come, and he did not forget to tell him to speak nicely.

As for the appearance fee...

They are all doing things for the common people. Wouldn't it be insulting to the elderly to mention this?

The old eunuch was also very generous and came over without delay.

And in the hall, he concluded: "This thing is indeed made by the Department of Decoration Supervisor... But everything that comes from the Department of Decoration Supervisor has a special mark, and the craftsmanship is here, so it cannot be faked."

As he spoke, he pondered for a moment, then took a closer look, and then said: "This hairpin looks like the set of ruby ​​jewelry I handled before leaving the palace... I remember it was sent to the empress's palace at that time."

"That's right..." Ziyue hastily answered, "My maidservant remembered, there used to be a pair of these hairpins, which were given to my fourth daughter by the Empress last year!"

Ji Dong nodded solemnly.

That being the case—

"Come on, let's go to the Xia mansion again, and ask Miss Xia to come and clear up the confusion as soon as possible."

With such overwhelming evidence, if he continues to pretend to be cowardly, it will be unjustifiable.

Today's case, if there is no result in the trial, it is doomed not to withdraw from the court.

When the official messenger went to Xia's house to invite people again, the atmosphere in the crowd outside the hall became completely agitated.

"This is all the witnesses and material evidence... I'm afraid I won't be able to do it if I don't admit it!"

"It's really the fourth daughter of the Xia family..."

"Thinking about it, it's not surprising... Miss Xia and Miss Xu are at odds, and it's not just a matter of a day or two."

"Can that be called a disagreement? Anyone with a discerning eye can see that it's clearly Miss Xia who has repeatedly taken the initiative to pick things up first..."

"Now it's exciting to watch..."

"I just said, why did you only call a maid over here? I'm guilty of co-authoring and dare not show my face."

"The Zhen Guo government is not easy to bully... Even if Xia Shoufu wanted to protect his daughter, it would be difficult!"

Let's take ten thousand steps back, can this be protected?

If the government doesn't give an end to this matter, Old General Xu will most likely go directly to Xia's family with a sword in hand to ask for Dharma teachings to be a man!

"... Is Xia Shoufu the kind of person who waits for reason? Have you forgotten what happened last year?"

When mentioning the big case that caused a sensation in the capital last year, many people changed their expressions.

In that case, the second son of the Xia family was sentenced to Ling Chi in the end, and Xia Shoufu did not cover up at all from the beginning to the end. Therefore, even if something like this happened, Xia Shoufu's reputation was not affected, on the contrary, he became a model of righteousness and family killing in the hearts of the common people.

It's a pity that such a loyal and strict chief minister has such a pair of debt-seeking children...

Some people couldn't help but think - it was a coincidence that the birth of a second son, and now a fourth girl, could it be a coincidence?

But these conjectures must never be made indiscriminately in front of others.

"grown ups……"

In the hall, Zhou Wei, who was standing on the side, said with a pale face at this time: "I have explained everything I know, and now I feel a little unwell... May I go back first?"

She dared not see Xia Xi.

Because of his own testimony, and even more because of that hairpin...

That's right, she hated and even despised Xia Xi to the extreme, but in the end it was the one who plotted against him behind his back, and because the other party was arrogant since childhood, and his status was far higher than hers, that kind of long-term fear was carved into her bones.

Especially since she really doesn't have enough confidence now, she is really afraid that Xia Xi will say something that will embarrass her regardless of it.

The little girl with round cheeks was pale, her forehead hair was wet with cold sweat, she looked weak and pitiful.

Ji Dong thought for a while, and said: "This case is not closed yet, and Miss Zhou is an extremely important witness. It's somewhat against the rules to leave at this time. But if you are really sick, it's not easy to delay—how about this, I'll pass it on for Miss Zhou to take a look."

Zhou Wei couldn't help trembling.

It's too...won't you just ask him to do it?

Mr. Ji realized something was wrong after saying that, so he coughed lightly, and changed his words: "...Come here, please take Miss Zhou to the cubicle to rest for a while, and ask the doctor to come and show Miss Zhou."

The officer responded and took Zhou Wei to the compartment on the left side of the courtroom.

Zhou Wei sat there, tightly holding a cup of hot tea, the tension in his heart did not abate.

She has never felt such a hard time, and now she just wants to end it all and go home.

At the same moment, in the Zhuangyuan Building, in the private room on the second floor, Xiao Qi was telling his young master and Miss Xu about the progress in the yamen.

Half an hour ago, seeing that the case would not be settled for a while, Xu Mingyi dragged Wu Chao to Zhuangyuan Building for dinner.

"Based on this, it went very smoothly." Xu Mingyi said thoughtfully, "Both the witnesses and the physical evidence are at the critical point. This time, Xia Xi is destined to be unable to escape cleanly."

Wu Chao looked at her.

There was no joy on the girl's face that her enemy was about to be punished.

Obviously, from the beginning to the end, what she valued was not the surface of the matter and Xia Xi's fate—in other words, she never paid attention to Xia Xi from the beginning. If the government did not give justice, she would come to seek justice herself.

What she valued was always what was hidden behind this matter.

Wu Chao speculated and asked, "Do you think someone is manipulating this matter?"

Xu Mingyi nodded without hesitation.

At first, seeing Zhan Yunjiao suddenly changed his mind, she had doubts.

Then Zhou Wei came forward to testify——

Immediately afterwards, the empress's reward became physical evidence, which can be said to have blocked Xia Xi's last retreat.

Before that, Zhan Yunjiao's performance that day did not look like someone with any evidence.

Xia Xi must also be very sure that she has not left any excuses, otherwise, I am afraid that she would not do nothing, and she can still be free to go to incense today——

Therefore, what happened today was extremely sudden, leaving no room for Xia Xi to react at all.

The opponent's purpose is very clear, and the attack is very accurate.

But she didn't think it was someone "helping" her out.

Xia Xi's identity made this case special. Before the real big picture, the difference between the girl's family is not worth mentioning. The family background behind both parties is the most important thing.

Therefore, she can almost conclude that someone is taking the opportunity to deal with the Xia family.

No, or rather, not taking advantage of—

It is very likely that it was premeditated from the beginning!

Xu Ming realized that when Xia Xi was injured by Tianmu that day, he had seen the figure of Cao Zhuangyuan outside the opposite teahouse.

At that time, she had guessed whether someone had deliberately led Xia Xi over to make her lose her composure in front of Cao Zhuangyuan.

And the most suspicious person is of course the girl from the Zhou family who was with Xia Xi that day and testified today——

But looking at it now, this girl from the Zhou family is obviously just a pawn to do things for others.

Otherwise, it won't come to the point of having to testify in person.

Thinking of this, Xu Mingyi couldn't help being stunned, his eyes flickered, and he said in a low voice: "So, I was used as a bait to lure Xia Xi into the bait..."

But, who is this person?

At this time, Wu Chao, who had been thinking about this all the time, raised his eyes to look at her, and said seriously: "The Minister of Military Affairs——"

Maybe it's because he sees it more simply and directly, without her known complicated process, at this time his thinking is obviously one step faster than hers.

Xu Mingyi subconsciously looked at the young man with determined eyes with a look of surprise.

After he reminded her like this, she also realized that it was indeed the Ministry of War Shangshu's House that was the most suspected...

only--

"Why so sure?"

Thank you Qinghan for your reward, and thank you for your monthly tickets and comments.

Good night.