Chapter 38 Golden Silk

The next morning, Liang Yue checked in at the station and immediately ran to the Ministry of Justice.

Once again, I traveled from the south to the north of the city, witnessing the transformation of the two sides of Longyuan City's Tianjie from simple to prosperous, and then from prosperous to solemn. I had a deep feeling every time I walked this road.

South City is indeed poor.

If the construction of the Tower of Babel could make South City prosperous, it would be a good thing.

However, people like the Longya Gang and Zhen Changzhi are using their power to try to pocket these dividends.

The only word that can describe it is greedy.

Zhen Changzhi’s death may really be an opportunity.

Thinking about it this way, he lived frugally for most of his life, and didn't spend a penny of the money he embezzled, and all of it went back to the national treasury. If he died, the network of interests behind him could be uprooted.

Then he is truly a person who has contributed greatly to the country in his life.

But in a rather passive way.

"Captain Ling, I found something wrong with the Zhen family's account books!" When he arrived at the Ministry of Justice, he found Ling Yuanbao first.

"Ah?" Ling Yuanbao's eyes suddenly lit up, "Have you thought of that?"

Yesterday, I thought Liang Yue had failed. The Imperial Guards that impressed her so much were no longer magical. Ling Yuanbao was about to despair. Unexpectedly, he said he would go back and think about it, and he could really come up with a result.

"Let me show you." Liang Yue asked her to take out the Zhen family account book.

"Zhen Changzhi is known for his incorruptible character, and the Zhen family's food, clothing and daily expenses are also extremely simple. There is only one thing that is a little strange." He turned a page in the account book.

It records the Zhen family's expenditure on buying cloth: five hundred coins were used to buy a piece of flowered cloth, and two taels of silver were used to buy ten feet of gold silk to make clothes.

"Oh... here!" Ling Yuanbao looked as if he had suddenly realized something.

But after a while, she tilted her head and looked at Liang Yue again, "Why is this weird?"

Liang Yue explained: "You may not understand the life of the poor. Considering the living expenses of the Zhen family, spending a few taels of silver to buy such expensive silk is very inconsistent with other expenses."

When he saw the cloth that he accidentally chopped into pieces last night, he felt distressed. Then he suddenly remembered that the Zhen family was also poor, so why could they afford such expensive silk?

This is completely contrary to the personality that Zhen Changzhi has created.

When something is out of the ordinary, there must be a reason.

"But..." Ling Yuanbao thought for a moment and said, "As a court official, if there is an occasion where he needs to dress decently... or make a set of nice clothes for his children during festivals, isn't that normal? And even if it doesn't match, it's only a matter of two taels of silver."

"More than that." Liang Yue turned a few more pages and turned to the next place in the second year.

There is also a record about cloth: six taels of silver were used to purchase thirty feet of gold and silk to make clothes.

Looking further ahead, whenever there was an account related to the purchase of cloth and the making of clothes, there would be an expense for the purchase of gold silk.

"When you searched the Zhen family, did you find these expensive clothes made of so-called golden silk?" Liang Yue asked.

"Indeed, there isn't one." Ling Yuanbao thought carefully, shook his head, and suddenly said, "Ah! When Zhen Changzhi's body was found, the rope used to hang him was a piece of silk with gold threads embedded in it. It was a bit strange to see it in the Zhen family. At that time, I thought it was brought by the murderer."

"And the most important thing is..." Liang Yue opened the file again.

"This?" Ling Yuanbao gradually revealed a surprised expression: "Every time the Zhen Mansion purchased gold silk, it was in the last month of a project he handled!"

After noticing something wrong with the golden silk, Liang Yue compared the timeline on the file with the timeline of purchasing the golden silk in his mind, and indeed found this clue that did not seem like a coincidence.

"If my guess is correct, the gold silk is most likely a reference in the account, something that replaces money." When Ling Yuanbao opened his mouth wide, Liang Yue continued to output: "Or this is the bribe that Zhen Changzhi accepted!"

……

Ling Yuanbao rummaged through the evidence and found the silk ribbon that was hanging Zhen Changzhi.

It was a red silk ribbon with gold threads inside, several feet long, and felt densely made and of high quality, and it was obviously made of very expensive fabric. It was so thin, but it could support such a big person, which meant that the quality was definitely very good.

Liang Yue said: "I have never seen this kind of fabric before. It looks like the craftsmanship is very unique."

"Me too." Ling Yuanbao nodded immediately.

"Our only breakthrough now may be to find the origin of this golden silk." Liang Yue said again.

Among all the seemingly perfect things run by Zhen Changzhi, this is the only thing that seems a little wrong, and they must continue to dig deeper.

"But where can we find it?" Ling Yuanbao asked, "Zhen Changzhi is already dead, and it's not written in his account book."

"Maybe someone knows..." Liang Yue smiled. After Zhen Changzhi's death, because the source of the stolen silver in the family was never investigated, and the investigation of the Ministry of Industry was not completed, the Zhen family was also detained in the Ministry of Justice, and continued to put pressure on them, hoping that they would say something valuable one day - in fact, there were only Zhen Xiaohao and the old doorman.

Ling Yuanbao took Liang Yue down to the dark prison. The damp and smelly environment around him made him frown. From time to time, screams could be heard from the depths, and the torture instruments everywhere were stained with blood.

In such an environment, after being threatened and frightened for many days, it is difficult for a person to have a normal mental state even without being tortured.

When Liang Yue saw Zhen Xiaohao, this arrogant and domineering second-generation official who bullied his classmates was playing with the dirt on the ground.

Seeing Liang Yue coming over, Zhen Xiaohao suddenly jumped up, pointed at him and yelled wildly: "He killed my father! They must have killed my father! Let me go, let me go! Ahhhh!"

The two of them didn't bother to pay attention to him and just walked past.

In order to prevent collusion, the old gatekeeper was detained far away from Zhen Xiaohao's cell.

The old man seemed much more stable. He sat there staring blankly at the cell door. I don't know if it was a professional habit.

He is the person Liang Yue is looking for.

"Master!" Liang Yue waved the piece of golden silk at him outside the cell door, "Do you know where you bought this piece of golden silk?"

"Ah?" The old man was stunned. "What kind of gold silk?"

"This piece of golden silk!" Liang Yue shouted.

"Golden monkey?" the old man answered loudly.

"Come on..." Ling Yuanbao covered his forehead, "It was the same when we interrogated this old man. He was deaf and confused, and there was no way we could communicate."

"Is that so..." Liang Yue turned his back and said to her in a low voice, "It doesn't matter if he doesn't know anything else, but if he can't tell the origin of this golden silk, there's no point in keeping him. In my opinion, you might as well accuse him of murdering the master and just settle the case..."

"Yeah, that's all we can do." Ling Yuanbao whispered, "I originally wanted to let him go once he told me about it, but it seems like we can just put the blame on him. He's old and confused anyway, and I guess he wouldn't even know what he was doing in court."

“Longsheng Cloth Shop!” Although the two spoke in voices as quiet as mosquitoes, the old concierge stretched his neck to probe twice and immediately screamed, “This golden silk was sent by Longsheng Cloth Shop!”

"Heh." Ling Yuanbao sneered: "He really is pretending."

"Yeah, I said this old man's memory might not be worse than mine." Liang Yue also said.

It turned out that before coming here, he had guessed that the old man might pretend to be stupid, and he had discussed a small strategy with Ling Yuanbao in advance.

The old concierge touched his head and said, "Oh, my ears are ringing all the time."

"Now that it's come to this, let's stop pretending to be so great." Liang Yue said with a smile: "Tell me what happened in detail."

"Hehe." The old doorman laughed twice and said, "I don't know the details, but I remember that on September 12th eight years ago, April 3rd six years ago, July 6th five years ago, April 2nd three years ago, and August 3rd last year...someone came to the mansion and gave the master a piece of cloth, which is this golden silk. The master doesn't like any jewelry or antiques, but he can't let go of this piece of cloth and often plays with it in his hands. The piece in the study is what he always keeps at hand."

Liang Yue asked again: "Do you know where Longsheng Cloth Shop is?"

"I really don't know. I've never been there." The old concierge shook his head and said, "I'm old and confused. This is all I can remember."

Liang Yue said sincerely: "Uncle, you are too modest."

Some young people he knew, such as Pang and Chen, might not even have the memory to match that of a good old man, let alone the one in front of him.

I can only say that this is what they do.

After leaving the prison, Ling Yuanbao was full of energy. The ponytail tied behind his head jumped up and down. It seemed that he felt the joy of investigating a case for the first time.

“Longsheng Cloth Shop!” She waved her fist. “I’ll go find out where it is!”

……

When the two men walked out of the Ministry of Justice prison, they suddenly heard the sound of a gong, and just in time they saw a rider clearing the street ahead.

Two teams of armored cavalry in the rear were guarding a carriage in the center with four tall horses pulled side by side. The team was very powerful and slowly moved towards the Ministry of Justice.

A horseman arrived at the gate of the yamen, dismounted, and shouted, "Lord Zuo Xiang is here—"

Is this the carriage of the Left Prime Minister Liang Fuguo?

No wonder...

Liang Yue chuckled and said, "What a grand ceremony."

"Eh?" Ling Yuanbao asked doubtfully, "Lord Zuo Xiang is back?"

　Good morning.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)