Ning Wen said, "This Taoist priest He travels around the world and his whereabouts are uncertain. It was by chance that I ran into him. He knew that I was worried that Nian Nian had not gotten pregnant after being married into the Huang Mansion for half a year, so he came to see when Nian Nian would have children."
Qi Yuning asked: "Did Taoist He say anything?"
Chen Nian said, "Master He just told me not to worry, saying that I was destined to have two sons and two daughters, which means I will have many children and grandchildren. I think Master He would not allow that."
Shen Nian lowered his eyes and said, "Having Han'er in my life is enough."
Qi Yuning said, "That's not necessarily true. Huang Rui was so unkind to you when he was alive. After you got pregnant, he found a prostitute to marry. You don't have to be a widow for three years for such an unfaithful man. You can marry a good man and have both sons and daughters, and a large family with many children and grandchildren."
Ning Wen glanced at Qi Yuning and sighed softly.
Chen Nian pursed her lips and said, "I won't marry another man. I just want to stay with my Han'er and let him grow up well. There are few men in this world who are faithful to their lovers. I am unlucky and have already met a heartless man. I dare not look for another one..."
Qi Yuning said: "What you said does make sense."
When Qi Yuning returned to Lu Ze's room, Lu Yun had just returned.
He coughed several times as he entered the room, and said to Lu Ze in a sickly manner, "Brother, I'm sick. I want to go back to North City."
Lu Ze looked at the spoiled Lu Yun with extreme disdain and said, "How old are you and still pretending to be sick and acting like a spoiled child? What news did you get yesterday?"
Lu Yun sniffed and said, "Manniang's family used to be an official, and she was sold to a brothel because her family got into trouble. Manniang is a rare beauty in Longzhou City, so the madam trained her carefully and only let her out to receive customers when she was seventeen years old.
The first day she came out to receive customers caused a sensation, but Huang Rui bought her first night with him for 1,000 taels of silver. After a night of love, she was taken into Huang's mansion to be his concubine, and she became a phoenix on the throne.
Qi Yuning asked: "Is there an official in your family? What official?"
Lu Yun said, "He is a high-ranking official from the Bai family, the governor of Longzhou."
Qi Yuning asked: "Bai Ting?"
Lu Ze said: "If it is the Bai family of Longzhou, then it would be Bai Ting."
Qi Yuning said: "He was born as a top scholar. He got into trouble because he offended the Qin family, right?"
Lu Ze nodded lightly and said, "Well, I didn't expect Man Niang to be the daughter of the Bai family."
Qi Yuning said: "No wonder she plays the piano so well. I thought that such piano skills cannot be taught in a brothel."
Lu Yun said, "This is all I have found out about Man Niang. I asked eight girls last night, but they didn't know much.
There was a maid named A Ni who said a lot of bad things about Man Niang, saying that Man Niang was no longer a virgin when she followed Huang Rui, and that the night Huang Rui and Man Niang had sex in the brothel, Man Niang did not even have virgin blood..."
Qi Yuning frowned slightly after hearing this.
Lu Ze stood up and said, "Let's go check on Man Niang."
Lu Ze and Qi Yuning went to Man Niang's place.
Man Niang saw Lu Ze and Qi Yuning coming and greeted them at the door, "Master."
Seeing Man Niang blocking the way outside the room, Lu Ze said, "I am passing by here and would like to ask for a cup of tea."
Man Niang ordered the maid to serve tea to Lu Ze.
Lu Ze said, "It looks like it's going to rain heavily. Can I go sit in Master Bai's room?"
Manniang frowned and said, "Master, wait a moment."
Manniang gave the maidservant around her a few words and said, "Master, please come in."
After Lu Ze and Qi Yuning entered, Man Niang took the tea served by the maid and said, "Master, please have some tea."
Lu Ze took a seat and took the teacup. He smelled the rich sweet fragrance in Manniang's room, looked at the wooden box with incense blocks next to the incense burner, and walked to the window to look at the medicine burner and medicine residue outside the window and said, "Are you sick, benefactor?"
Manniang said: "After my husband left, I lost my appetite and felt a little sick."
Qi Yuning looked at the medicine outside and said, "Astragalus, Atractylodes macrocephala, Ramie root, Scutellaria baicalensis, Lycium barbarum, Perilla frutescens, Cuscuta australis..."
Man Niang covered her lower abdomen, she didn't expect that the maid beside the monk could recognize the medicine residue.
Lu Ze knew from what Qi Yuning said that the medicine was a common pregnancy-preserving medicine. He looked at Man Niang and said, "Since you have a child, why don't you tell us?"
Manniang said, "I dare not. My husband is gone. I am afraid that if I tell others that I have a child, the Huang family will not tolerate me."
Lu Ze said: "It's a good thing that you have a child. How could the Huang family not tolerate you?"
Man Niang said: "I...I..."
Qi Yuning stared at Man Niang and said, "Do you know what kind of fragrance you used? It's the fragrance of opium. Once you get addicted, your child won't live long. The baby in your belly will also be addicted to drugs after it is born. How dare you use opium when you are pregnant?!"
Lu Ze poured the tea in his hand onto the incense burner and said with certainty: "Huang Rui died in your room."
Man Niang shook her head and said, "My husband died at the hands of the eldest young lady's wife. It has nothing to do with me!"
Qi Yuning looked at Man Niang and said, "You still want to quibble? As long as your room is closer to Shen Nian's room, it will also be closer to move Huang Rui's body there."
Man Niang asked: "Where is the evidence? What evidence do you have?"
Lu Ze took out the opium incense block next to the incense burner and said, "The nail print on this opium incense block matches the opium incense hidden in the nails of Huang Rui's corpse!"
Qi Yuning ordered the maidservant beside Manniang, "Go and find your governor Huang!"
The maidservant beside Man Niang walked forward tremblingly. Man Niang frowned, went to the bed, took out a dagger, and stabbed at Lu Ze.
When Lu Ze saw the dagger, he wrapped the Buddhist beads in his hand around it, then reached out and grabbed Man Niang's wrist. With some force, Man Niang's hand was dislocated and fell down.
Qi Yuning looked at Lu Ze and said, "I didn't expect that Master would have this trick."
Lu Ze raised his eyes to look at Qi Yuning and said, "When trying cases in the Dali Temple, it's not the first time that I've encountered such desperate murderers."
When the maidservant beside Man Niang walked to the door, she realized why she had listened to that maidservant and went to find the governor.
When she was about to go back, Qi Yuning came out and said, "Didn't I tell you to go find Jiedushi Huang? Why don't you go now?"
When the little maid heard Qi Yuning's order, she felt it was even more horrifying than Madam Qin's. She did not dare to disobey and went to find Jiedushi Huang.
Qi Yuning went to Shen Nian's room to find Shen Nian, Ning Wen and Shen Sanye went to Man Niang's room together.
In Manniang's room, after everyone arrived, Huang Tao asked Lu Ze: "Master, have you found the real murderer?"
Lu Ze clasped his hands together and said, "Amitabha, your son's death is closely related to Bai Manniang. There are small pieces of opium on Huang Rui's fingernails, and there are fingernail marks on the opium incense block in Bai Manniang's room.
I think Huang Rui held the opium block tightly before he died, so much so that there were fragments of it under his fingernails. Because opium blocks are expensive, Bai Manniang refused to throw away the blocks even if they were taken from the corpse, and continued to keep them for use..."
Shen Nian was supported by Ning Wen. She burst into tears and said to Man Niang in a harsh voice: "Man Niang, Huang Rui is so good to you! He even wanted to divorce me in order to marry you! Why did you kill him?!"
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