Chapter 123 Meeting Gu Zongci on the Road
Shen Qingtan handed a visiting card to the wife of the Earl of Yongyi, and after being rejected, he knew that the wife of the Earl of Yongyi was avoiding suspicion.
In order to confirm her guess, she sent Liu Yue to knock on the door.
But the doorman refused to open the door no matter what.
She instructed the driver to return to the Duke of Zhao's mansion, write a letter to Tingxue, and deliver it to Boss Qin. She then arranged for the cloth shop owner to select a few bolts of cloth and take the letter to the Yongyi Marquis's mansion. Under the pretext of delivering cloth, she would deliver the letter to the Yongyi Marquis's wife.
She had done what she was supposed to do, and now she could only leave it to fate.
Shen Qingtan had prepared a set of undergarments for Zhao Yi, which had already been washed and fumigated. She folded it and placed it in the cabinet. She sat on the cushion, embroidering scriptures while waiting for Tingxue to come back.
But today I can't calm down and feel a little uneasy.
Shen Qingtan was a little restless, so she stood up from the embroidery frame and prepared to call Liu Yue into the room.
At this time, footsteps were heard outside the house.
"Second Madam!" Tingxue rushed in from outside, panting heavily, "Mrs. Yongyi...she's dead."
Shen Qingtan was stunned. His premonition came true and he couldn't describe the feeling in his heart.
Marquis Cheng'en is really cruel. He killed his own brother and now wants to kill his wife's brother's family.
The wife of Earl Yongyi is dead, so the next one will be Earl Yongyi, right?
Once Yong Yi Bo died, the things she found would be of little use.
Shen Qingtan took a few steps toward the desk and suddenly stopped.
Marquis Cheng'en wanted Earl Yongyi dead, and he must have already arranged his men to do it when he found the right opportunity. Even if she wrote to Guanzhou now, it would be too late.
"Mrs. Bo could have survived. You went to the Bo residence to look for her. If she had seen you then, she wouldn't have died." Liu Yue said with a sigh, "Everyone has their own destiny."
Shen Qingtan murmured, "Does everyone have their own destiny?"
"Everyone has their own destiny." Zhao Yi came in from outside and saw Shen Qingtan looking worried. He asked, "Are you thinking about the Guanzhou incident?"
"No." Shen Qingtan took the neatly packed bundle from his hand and replied softly, "The uncle's wife is dead, and the uncle...will be dead soon, right?"
"When they worked for the Marquis' Mansion, their fate was already determined." Zhao Yi washed his hands and took out a handkerchief to dry them. Seeing that her brow was still furrowed, he pointed his index finger at the bundle in her hand. "When I left the palace, someone on horseback brushed past my carriage and threw a bundle in through the window. I opened the bundle and found a letter with your name on it. The other party acted so secretly, probably because they didn't want anyone other than you and me to know."
Upon hearing this, Shen Qingtan carried the bundle to the inner room, sat on the short couch and opened it. He saw a booklet and a letter inside.
She opened the letter first, glanced at the lower left corner, and saw that it was written by Lady Yongyi, so she quickly finished reading the letter.
The wife of the Earl of Yongyi was prepared to fight to the death, and first used this evidence to threaten the Marquis of Cheng'en to let the Earl of Yongyi go.
If Marquis Cheng'en wanted to assassinate them, once the news of their death spread, someone would hand the evidence to her.
Shen Qingtan has always known that Earl Yongyi was working for Marquis Cheng'en, and what he did must be shameful.
She had previously speculated that the wife of the Earl of Yongyi went to the Marquis of Cheng'en's mansion in a rage, and the evidence in her hand should be more serious than the disaster in Guanzhou. Only in this way could she force the Marquis of Cheng'en to be cautious.
Unfortunately, Lady Yongyi miscalculated Marquis Cheng'en's determination to go all out.
If it is more serious than Guanzhou, then between two evils, choose the lesser one, and Marquis Cheng'en will not let the wife of the Earl of Yongyi go.
The news of the death of Lady Yongyi confirmed this.
Shen Qingtan sighed lightly. Lady Yongyi had explained in the letter that she was not Marquis Cheng'en's biological daughter.
It was just this one sentence spoken orally, and no other strong evidence was left.
Without solid evidence, she could not rashly reveal her background, otherwise she would be outmaneuvered by Marquis Cheng'en.
Shen Qingtan picked up a booklet. The booklet was blank, but there was a transaction list in the middle of each page.
The list is written very clearly, showing what was done, when and where, on which year, month and day.
The more she looked down, the tighter her brows furrowed, until she saw the last thing clearly. She was shocked and instantly understood why Marquis Cheng'en was not threatened by the wife of the Earl of Yongyi and was still determined to kill her.
Each of the above items is a capital crime, especially the last one, which is the crime of privately manufacturing weapons, which is a serious crime that can lead to the extermination of nine generations of the family!
This is much more serious than the disaster in Guanzhou.
Many thoughts flashed through Shen Qingtan's mind. Prince Yu was in charge of the Ministry of War among the six ministries, and Marquis Cheng'en was Prince Yu's man. It went without saying that the private manufacture of weapons was working for Prince Yu.
Although Lady Yongyi mentioned the private manufacture of weapons in the list, she did not specify where the privately built weapons workshop was.
Just relying on this list, without any definite evidence, we cannot crush the Marquis' Mansion all at once, and it will only alert the enemy.
Shen Qingtan handed the letter and booklet to Zhao Yi: "I want to sever ties with the Cheng'en Marquisate as soon as possible."
Throughout history, many married women's families have committed crimes. Even if the married women themselves are not implicated, their husbands' families will divorce them after hearing the news.
What’s more, Marquis Cheng’en committed a serious crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of his clan.
After reading it, Zhao Yi frowned and said, "If you want to sever ties with the Marquis' Mansion, you can't let the people there know that Madam Yongyi gave you the things, otherwise they will hold on to you and won't let go."
Shen Qingtan nodded: "Also, we must let them know that if they are involved with me, it will only bring trouble to them. Let them take the initiative to sever ties with me."
When Zhao Yi heard Shen Qingtan say this, he knew that she had an idea in mind.
He put the booklet and letter into his bag and said softly, "I will arrange for someone to investigate the illegal manufacture of weapons. Once we have solid evidence, you should be free from your relationship with the Marquis' Mansion, and then you can take action against it."
——
In a small teahouse in Yongning Town, Guanzhou, Shen Shaoheng sat in the corner of the lobby and listened to people's discussions.
"I heard today that Earl Yongyi hanged himself in prison, out of fear of punishment."
"This black-hearted corrupt official has killed so many ordinary people. He deserves to die!"
"That's not right. Did he hang himself, or was he silenced?"
"Hush!" Someone made a gesture to silence the others. "I heard that the Imperial Envoy was furious and went to Lord Cao's house, only to find that Lord Cao had also hanged himself in his study."
When Shen Shaoheng heard this, his brows knitted tightly together, and he guessed in his heart that it was Lord Cao who killed Earl Yongyi and then hanged himself.
Lord Cao is a local tyrant, and no matter how strict the imperial envoy's defenses are, there will always be omissions.
But he couldn't figure out what the person behind the scenes had on Lord Cao that made him willingly hang himself.
Shen Shaoheng took out a piece of silver from his sleeve and threw it on the table. He walked out of the tea stall with a swagger, thinking about how to bring the silver back to the capital.
Suddenly, five or six carriages drove up with signs of Gu's Trading Company on them.
Shen Shaoheng remembered that Shen Qingtan had instructed him in the letter to go to Qin and Gu's rice shops to buy food.
The owner of Qin's Trading Company is friends with her, and Gu's Trading Company cooperates with Qin's Trading Company.
He recognized the man sitting on the shaft of the cart as the one he had dealt with when buying grain.
Shen Shaoheng's eyes lit up, and he stepped forward to stop the carriage: "Manager Gu, what a coincidence, meeting you here, can you take me to Guanzhou City?"
When Shopkeeper Gu saw that it was Shen Shaoheng, he smiled and said, "Mr. Shen, our boss is here. I would like to ask for instructions first."
After saying that, he lifted the curtain and entered the carriage, saying to Gu Zongci, "Master, that is the prince of the Cheng'en Marquisate."
Gu Zongci thought of Shen Qingtan and whispered, "Give him a ride." After a pause, he added, "Please ask him to get in my carriage."
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