Chapter 852
852
Shen Yuntang went out to look after the shop today. When he came back, he saw several children trembling with fear because of Cheng Yeran. He thought he was teasing them like he usually teased Xingxing, "Why did you scare them?"
"I didn't scare them." Cheng Yeran said aggrievedly, pointing at the old woman, "She was the one who teased these children and said I was going to chop off their heads. That's why they cried. It has nothing to do with me."
The old woman was frightened by his words. She always said such words to scare the children. Today, she said it out of her mind and said it directly in front of Lord Cheng, which made Lord Cheng unhappy. Will Lord Cheng drive her out?
Seeing that he was acting like a spoiled child in front of so many people, Shen Yuntang felt embarrassed first because he was not embarrassed at all, and quickly pulled Cheng Yeran back to the house.
They hadn't seen each other for several days. Cheng Yeran missed his child, and missed Shen Yuntang even more. He went back to the room, closed the door, and couldn't wait to hug him.
Shen Yuntang pushed him and said, "I just came back from outside. I'm sweating all over. I'm going to take a shower first."
Cheng Yeran held on to her and refused to let go. "I want to wash too. I just came back from outside."
"I'll rub your back!" Cheng Yeran was afraid that he would not agree, so he used this excuse.
Shen Yuntang glanced at him and asked, "Do you want to rub my back or somewhere else?"
"Rub them all." Cheng Yeran was afraid that the person would run away, so he just picked him up.
The two of them quarreled for a while, and it was already evening when they finished taking a bath. Cheng Yeran briefly explained what had just happened and also told him about the problem with the old woman.
Cheng Yeran rarely disliked the servants in his family, and this old woman was the first one. He took the opportunity to act coquettishly to Shen Yuntang: "She actually slandered me like that, wuwuwu, I feel wronged."
"It will be her turn later." Shen Yuntang had never seen her scare the children before. "The children have been very well behaved these past few days. It turns out that they were scared by her in private. Scaring them can indeed make them behave well at first, but over time, it will have an impact on their personalities."
"I'm afraid they all have psychological trauma," Cheng Yeran pointed at himself, "and I'm the psychological trauma of those kids."
Shen Yuntang couldn't help but burst out laughing when he heard this. Cheng Yeran felt wronged, "I'm feeling wronged, and you're still laughing. I'm sad, and you have to compensate me."
"I won't laugh anymore," Shen Yuntang closed his mouth, but Cheng Yeran still kissed him. Then he couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Cheng Yeran was stunned for a moment, "You are smiling so happily, do you like me to kiss you? I will kiss you more in the future."
Shen Yuntang: "..."
Shen Yuntang asked him what he saw when he went out this time.
Cheng Yeran mentioned that he was going to open a sugar factory, but he didn't see anything else. It must be hidden too deeply. They had been hiding it before he came, so it would take some time to find out. We have to take it slowly.
"I want to do some anti-theft work in the city first and get rid of all the thieves." Cheng Yeran wanted to see the constables here first, and replace them if they were not good enough.
When Shen Yuntang heard him say that he was doing anti-theft work, he remembered, "I went out today to open a noodle shop, but my wallet was lost just as I left the house. There was a silver note of 100 taels in it."
"I thought that buying such a big house would only cost five thousand taels, and renting a small shop would only cost one hundred taels. But I lost it when I went out. Fortunately, the noodle shop only cost thirty taels, which is cheaper than I thought. I feel much better." After Shen Yuntang finished speaking, he realized that when did he not feel sorry for losing one hundred taels?
Moreover, he actually felt that the noodle shop rental of thirty taels was cheap. In the past, he had been troubled by the noodle shop rental of fifty taels a year and couldn't sleep for a long time, but now he actually felt it was cheap.
Maybe our lives are too good now and we are unaware of the sufferings in the world.
"He even dares to steal your money, how mean!" Cheng Yeran had never been so angry when he lost money himself, but when Shen Yuntang's money was stolen, it touched his bottom line!
He still remembered the first time they sold tofu in the village. Shen Yuntang counted the money one penny at a time. The money-loving little boy looked so adorable. He must have felt very aggrieved and upset because his money was stolen.
"No, this man must be caught. It's time to use the privileges I have." Cheng Yeran remembered that although their silver bills were used throughout the country, the silver bills in each region would indicate which bank issued them. If he looked for them now, he should still be able to find them.
"What are you going to do?" Shen Yuntang felt a little worried when he saw that he looked very excited.
"First, send people to investigate the entire city. Everyone entering and leaving the city must be checked." Cheng Yeran thought, this way he could also catch the theft gang.
Cheng Yeran thought that if he spread the word that the prefect's wife had lost something, many people would definitely help find the thing in order to curry favor with him.
When Shen Yuntang heard him say this, he remembered something, "I always write a mark on my checks with a pencil, so it should be easier to find them."
Each time he draws a very shallow circle, which most people will not notice and does not affect its use.
"That will make it easier to find him." Cheng Yeran immediately went to the prefectural yamen the next day and summoned all the detectives. However, there was no one in the yamen. He waited for an hour before these people came in casually. And judging from their mental state, they looked as if they had a hangover, or had spent a night in a brothel and were listless.
Not only is their mental state wrong, their physical shapes are also wrong. Some are fat, some are short, and one even looks like he has some intellectual problems. How can such a person be a detective?
They didn't expect the prefect to come. The previous prefect also often
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He didn't come to the yamen, and even took them out to eat, drink, gamble and have sex every day.
Originally, when they heard that the new prefect had arrived, they wanted to put on some pretense. However, after two or three days, they found that the new prefect had not come. They thought that another lazy person like Prefect Lin had arrived, and they started to slack off again.
Originally they didn't want to come today, but the legal advisor in the yamen tipped them off, so they hurried over.
But he still arrived an hour late. He was a little scared when he saw Cheng Yeran arrived, but then he saw that Cheng Yeran was young, and there was an old fox trying to fool him, saying that he was going to investigate a case.
Cheng Yeran asked: "What case are you investigating?"
The old man deliberately made it sound more serious: "A murder case."
"Who is the deceased? Who found him? Who reported the case? Where are the case files?" Cheng Yeran asked a series of questions that confused him, so he quickly made up some information.
Cheng Yeran asked him to find these people for a face-to-face confrontation, but he couldn't find anyone.
Another constable hurriedly said that it was not a murder case, and he told the story of a trivial matter. In the past, Prefect Lin hated such trivial matters the most. When he heard someone come to report a trivial matter, he would just beat them up. If he was in a bad mood that day, he would beat the reporter or lock him up. Now there was a person who came to report a case because something was lost at home, and Prefect Lin had locked him up in jail and had not released him.
But Cheng Yeran asked them to call the parties involved, saying that these were all fabricated, so where could they find them?
Seeing that the two of them were hesitant, Cheng Yeran asked them if they knew the consequences of deceiving the imperial officials.
Cheng Yeran asked the guards around him to arrest the two of them and put them in jail to reflect on their actions. The two of them quickly said, "They paid money, you can't just arrest us casually."
When Cheng Yeran heard this, he didn't expect to have an unexpected gain.
"What about you? Did you also spend money to get in?" Cheng Yeran asked.
"Them too. All the people in the government office." They both thought that since they had already let the cat out of the bag, they had to drag others into the water.
"Okay, then arrest them all together." Cheng Yeran asked the guards around him to temporarily take over the positions of the yamen runners and detain them all for interrogation, making sure to find out the whole story.
The others were stunned and were about to be arrested without saying anything, and they all cried out that they were innocent.
Cheng Yeran showed no mercy and asked the guards to interrogate them.
The families of these people came to cause trouble, saying that they had spent money. Cheng Yeran asked their families to make a statement, recorded it, and drove them away. If they caused trouble again, they would be arrested together.
He posted a notice in the city to recruit new constables.
He also ordered the officers and soldiers to search the entire city to find the marked banknote, taking a two-pronged approach.
The officers and soldiers quickly found the thief who stole the money. To Cheng Yeran's disappointment, there was no criminal gang behind him. He was alone. He had loved doing petty thefts since he was a child. He didn't know that he had stolen the purse of the prefect's wife. When he saw the silver note inside, he didn't even recognize the words on the note. He took the silver note directly to the money shop to exchange it, but was caught by the officers and soldiers who were waiting in ambush.
Only after he was caught did he realize who he had stolen from. He was terribly scared and thought he was going to die. He kowtowed in fear and begged Cheng Yeran not to chop off his head.
Cheng Yeran was a little confused. Not only him, but also the old woman and those children were afraid of being beheaded by him?
He deliberately frightened the little thief by asking him why he was so afraid of being beheaded, and if they didn't tell him, he would chop off their heads.
Under Cheng Yeran's threat, he told the truth directly.
It turned out that there was a rumor in the city that those who had committed serious crimes and were to be beheaded would pay money and the prefect would find someone to replace them, and the people who replaced them were the poor people who could not pay their taxes.
Cheng Yeran never expected that Magistrate Lin had done so many evil things. In addition to collecting more taxes, there was also a murder case.
Then why was Magistrate Lin demoted before? If all these things were discovered, the punishment should not be so small.
But this was easy to find out. He found out by asking the local officials. It was said that Magistrate Lin was demoted because he offended his superiors.
This made Cheng Yeran wonder if Prefect Lin had not shared the spoils equally with his superiors in the past, which led to his fate?
But he currently has only a few clues, which cannot be considered as evidence. However, he believes that if he investigates layer by layer, he will eventually find the truth.
He first recorded the current evidence and continued to interrogate the previous yamen runners, always able to get something out of their mouths.
It just so happened that the affairs of the yamen runners could be written in the local daily newspaper. He wrote down how the previous yamen runners had spent money to buy this position, how much money they had spent, and why they had to recruit new yamen runners.
This incident alone is enough to convict Lord Lin. Lord Lin only knew that Cheng Yeran had found out about these things when he saw it in the newspaper. Those he kept in the government office were not his confidants, but outsiders who had not participated in the incident. They simply did not have much ability, but buying positions with money was a very common thing, which happened all over the country, even in the capital, and no one usually spoke out. He did not expect that Cheng Yeran had found out about these things as soon as he took office.
But Cheng Yeran found out why they didn't arrest him and didn't report to the emperor. Was he hinting at something to him?
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