Chapter 283 Damp Wooden Plaque
There were many wooden thorns on the broken part of the plaque, which really looked like it was broken. Qiao Youyou picked up the red silk and checked it. If it was clean inside, it meant that someone had broken the plaque beforehand and then wrapped it with red silk.
Unfortunately, when the red silk fell off, a lot of sawdust fell off, which did not prove anything.
Qiao Youyou scratched his ear in distress, but still unwilling to give in.
"Mr. Qiao, it's not easy for us to work for others and support our families. You can't take the blame if you accidentally drop something!"
"Yes, yes, so many people around saw it. If the government blames us later, we still need the elders and villagers to help us testify!"
The clerk continued to repeat the same words he had said before, which aroused the sympathy of many people and they all felt sympathy for him.
Wen Ren Yue pursed her thin lips, a hint of anger in her eyes, and her mind was quickly thinking about how to help Qiao Youyou prove her innocence.
The key to proving that the plaque was broken in advance is time.
Wenren Yuebai looked up at the blazing sun and estimated the distance from the Ministry of Revenue to here. It would take at least half an hour to walk. If someone had tampered with the plaque, it must have been done half an hour ago.
Wenren Yuebai's gaze fell on the bluestone tiles on the ground. The gaps between the tiles were very dark in color. It was the color of the soil on the ground that had not yet completely dried after it rained last night.
Wenren Yuebai suddenly raised his eyes——
"Yu, yes, it rained heavily last night!" Qiao Youyou's clear voice came from the shop, with a bit of excitement.
Qiao Youyou held up a broken plaque and showed the broken part to everyone.
"Please look, the wood at the break is slightly white, and it is completely dry. If you don't believe me, you can touch it. This is enough to prove that this plaque was not just broken in my hands!"
Zhang Sigu reached out and touched it, and sure enough, the splinter was completely dry but still a little prickly.
"Mr. Qiao, what does this prove? You can't just say nonsense just to slander us!" the clerk shouted dissatisfiedly.
Qiao Youyou smiled confidently, "I just said that it rained heavily last night, everyone should remember it, right?"
Everyone nodded. There was a sudden thunder and lightning in the middle of the night yesterday, and a heavy rain came and went quickly, so they naturally remembered it.
Qiao Youyou looked at the two clerks. "The plaque is made of wood, so it will normally be damp. If the plaque was just broken, how could the broken end be so dry?"
The two clerks were stunned for a moment, then they laughed, "This... Mr. Qiao, the plaque is well stored in the warehouse. Even if it rains outside, it will only make the surface of the plaque a little damp. Look, the sun is so strong outside. We have been out for so long, it must have dried out long ago."
The people around couldn't help but nod their heads after hearing this, thinking that Qiao Youyou had no common sense.
"That's not right." Qiao Youyou walked up to the two clerks and smiled even more brilliantly than them.
"The Ministry of Revenue's warehouse has been renovated recently, and even the roof is being rebuilt. When I passed by yesterday morning, the roof was only half removed and covered with straw. With the heavy rain last night, do you think the warehouse will leak?"
The two clerks' faces changed and they looked at each other. They were too low-ranking and usually did errands outside. They really didn't know about the renovation of the warehouse in the government office.
Moreover, they cannot enter and leave the warehouse at will. When they went to move the plaque this morning, they handed it over to the person in charge of guarding the warehouse, who then entered the warehouse and moved the plaque out. Therefore, they had no chance to see the situation inside the warehouse.
After they got the plaques, they first went to a deserted place and broke one of the plaques, and then went to the gate of the yamen to wait for Qiao Youyou.
"What do you want to say..." The clerk was obviously losing confidence, but still held on to a glimmer of hope.
Qiao Youyou whispered a few words to Zhang Sigu, who nodded slightly. Qiao Youyou then smiled brightly at the two clerks and blinked mysteriously.
"Come, let me show you something good."
Then, in front of everyone, he took the knife handed to him by Zhang Sigu and scraped off a piece of wood from the broken part of the plaque, revealing the dark brown color inside.
"Please look, everyone. This plaque has been soaked in rain all night in the warehouse. It is already damp from the inside out. If I really broke the plaque by mistake, it should be damp at the break. But Fourth Aunt also checked it just now. The wood at the break has already dried out."
"Indeed." Aunt Zhang nodded, looking at Qiao Youyou with a smile and admiration in her eyes, "If this plaque was already soaked, then it would take at least half an hour for the broken edge to dry to this point even under the scorching sun. It is obvious that someone has damaged it in advance."
"Well, do you have anything else to say?" Qiao Youyou looked at the two clerks and raised his eyebrows proudly.
"This..." The two clerks looked at each other, and finally could not find any words to refute.
Outside the door, Lao Yan leaned down and asked, "Sir, are we still going in?"
"No need." Wenren Yuebai leaned back in his chair, his expression returned to calm, his hands folded, looking at the scene in the store from afar.
Auntie Zhang came up to the two clerks and said with a gloomy face, "This plaque was obtained by our Xianglaier with great effort and careful management. We originally planned to hang it in the most conspicuous place. Now that you two have damaged it, how do you think this matter should be resolved?"
Without waiting for the two to answer, Aunt Zhang raised her voice a little. After all, she was Xiang Lai'er's current shopkeeper, and her words were also a bit intimidating: "If you can't give me an explanation now, let's go to the Ministry of Revenue. I want to ask the head of your department how he disciplines his subordinates."
The clerk's face suddenly turned pale, his legs went limp and he fell to the ground.
The shop was owned by the Eastern Palace. The two of them were just the lowest-ranking clerks in the Ministry of Revenue. How could they afford to offend him? Not to mention His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, even if it was any one of the Eastern Palace who had some power, crushing them would be like crushing an ant.
Qiao Youyou came over with a gloomy look on her face, narrowed her eyes and asked, "It was Min Yuan who asked you to do this, right?"
"No, no, it was us... We accidentally broke the plaque when we were moving it early in the morning, and we were afraid that the master in charge would blame us, so..."
Qiao Youyou frowned. No matter how much she asked, the two insisted that they did it and it had nothing to do with Min Yuan.
If the Eastern Palace can't afford to offend him, can the head of the Ministry of Revenue afford to offend him? Now that he has taken all the blame on himself, maybe Min Yuan can protect him after he returns to the government office.
The two men refused to admit it, and Qiao Youyou was in a dilemma for a moment.
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