Chapter 63: Case Closed: I don't need to explain to you what I did to her...
"It's you!"
Wei Jinyun shouted this sentence almost at the same time as Gu Xiang.
This man looks honest, with plain features, and even a bit dull in his gestures.
"Do you know him?"
Lu Lan turned around, with a hint of doubt, and stood next to Wei Jinyun.
"Of course I know him!"
Gu Xiang was so angry that he wanted to go up to the person in front of him, grab the collar of the shirt, and beat him with a stick.
"In the autumn, when Shopkeeper Wei was returning to the shop from Changmen Wharf, this man was sneaking up on her and I gave him a good beating! He only looked honest, but he had evil intentions in his heart."
"Um?"
Lu Lan asked, "He followed you?"
Wei Jinyun nodded. "I remember it was the day I brought you Dingsheng Cake. He followed me on the way back. Luckily, Xiao Gu was there."
Lu Lan waved his hand, and Jing Liulang brought the man to him.
"Kneel down, Zhen Yong."
Jing Liulang pushed forward, and Zhen Yong's knees softened, and he fell to his knees, almost burying his head in the ground.
"Zhen Yong?"
Gu Xiang was shocked. He stepped forward and asked, "Are you Zhen Yong? Aren't you dead?"
Zhen Yong was trembling and didn't dare to raise his head.
Wei Jinyun finally understood why she had thought this man looked familiar. If he was a customer of Yunlaixiang, she would have remembered him. Perhaps she had caught a glimpse of him when Zhen Yong delivered chickens to Zhaoji Delicatessen.
They all said that Zhen Yong was a man who looked honest but was actually a mean-spirited man.
Zhen Yong is not dead?
The body in the river...
Yunlaixiang is bustling today, and Lu Lan simply treats it as an inspection office.
The coroner walked in quickly, carrying his bamboo box.
He first bowed to Lu Lan, then turned his gaze to Zhen Yong who was huddled in the corner, and then glanced at Zhen Meiyou who was already kneeling on the ground.
"Master Lu, I'm late!"
He patted the bamboo box and turned to the crowd, "You criminal, you thought that if you scratched the face of the corpse in the river, I wouldn't be able to recognize it. You are treating my decades of earning a living as a mere decoration."
He stroked his beard, his tone tinged with pride, "Our Pingjiang Prefecture is peaceful, but my skills in autopsies are impeccable. Let alone a face scratched, even if it's burnt black, I can still identify the true body from the bones and old injuries. The body in the river definitely can't be yours, Zhen Yong!"
He grinned at Zhen Yong, "Look at you, look at you, you look really good, you don't look like you're dead at all."
Zhen Yong was struck by Zhuang's words. He trembled like a sieve and stammered, "How did you know..."
The coroner snorted and took two steps forward to look him over. "Do you think I'm blind? Wang San is a porter, carrying hundreds of pounds of cargo every day. The flesh on his shoulders is hardened from years of pressure, and feels like iron. The calluses on his palms are from being rubbed against heavy objects like hemp rope..."
He pointed at Zhen Yong's shoulders and hands, "What about you? Even though you have a chicken farm at home, you're never willing to do any extra work. You're just idling around all day, your shoulders slumped and you have no strength at all. The calluses on your palms must be from playing dice. I can tell the difference between skin, flesh, and bones with my eyes closed!"
Zhen Yong turned pale and buried his head on the ground, unable to utter even a word of rebuttal.
Coroner Zhuang looked at Zhen Yong, his beard trembling with anger. "You have a very cruel heart, young man! Killing him wasn't enough, you even tied his hands and feet and scratched his face. You just wanted to make him unrecognizable so you could get away with it!"
"No!"
Zhen Meiyou suddenly looked up and rushed over crying, "My brother didn't kill anyone. He has been timid since he was a child. How could he dare to kill someone!"
"At this point, you still want to protect him?"
Lu Lan glanced at her coldly. "That day, you insisted that the body was Zhen Yong's, and even fabricated the red birthmark on his arm that didn't exist. Could it be that you just slipped your tongue out of despair?"
Zhen Meiyou was choked by the question and his shoulders couldn't stop shaking.
Wei Jinyun looked at Lu Lan and asked softly, "How did Lord Lu find out?"
"She recognized it so quickly."
Lu Lan said slowly, "For someone who loves her brother so much, seeing a body like that, even if she had some suspicions, she would have panicked at first, unwilling to believe it, and would have had to confirm it again and again before daring to recognize it. But when she rushed over, she was stunned for a moment, then she was certain it was Zhen Yong. She only mentioned the so-called red birthmark at the end, as if she was afraid people wouldn't believe it."
After Lu Lan finished speaking, Zhen Meiyou's crying subsided and she no longer made the arguments she had just made.
Shen Qiniang fell in holding the door frame, her hair disheveled and tears in her eyes. As soon as she stood firm, she rushed towards Zhen Yong.
"That belongs to my husband!"
She cried bitterly, "They said the birthmark was Zhen Yong's, no way, it was our Wang San's! The red birthmark on his elbow was there since birth. We grew up together. When I was little, I always laughed at him and said he looked like a rouge mark..."
Even though her husband hadn't been found, she refused to believe anything had happened to him. She burned incense and prayed to the Buddha every day, hoping for his safety. But then the patrol officers found her and asked her to identify the body.
Identify the body?
On the way there, she prayed thousands of times, begging the Buddha to believe that the body wasn't Wang San's. Even though he was swollen beyond recognition, even though his face was scratched, even though he didn't have that red birthmark, the bond they'd shared from childhood to adulthood, then to their close relationship, was there, so how could she not recognize him?
She cried so hard that she could hardly breathe, "Wang San! How could you just abandon us, an orphan and a widow, like this! Murderer, you murderer..."
Before she could finish her words, her body went limp and she fell to the ground.
"sister in law!"
Adu and the fat porter rushed over, one held her arm and the other squatted down to support her back.
Ah Du was so anxious that he kept shouting, "Sister-in-law, wake up! You can't get into trouble again! There are kids waiting for you at home!"
The fat porter gritted his teeth and glared at Zhen Yong, the anger in his eyes almost bursting out.
Lu Lan stood beside Wei Jinyun and asked his men to send Shen Qiniang to the clinic first.
"A while ago, two strange things happened at Changmen Wharf. First, two porters suddenly got angry while moving cargo, got into a fight over a trivial matter, and even smashed the merchant's boxes. Then, a few days later, a usually honest boatman started talking nonsense on his boat in the middle of the night, claiming he had seen a god and wanted to row his boat out to sea to reach the edge of the sky and ascend to heaven."
He continued, "When I went to the dock to investigate, I discovered that these people had something in common. They said they had bought this fatigue-relieving medicine from someone, and after taking it, they could work without getting tired. Zhan Wenxing found the remaining medicine foam, which was whitish in color and smelled of stone, very similar to Wushisan. Knowing that the medicine was problematic, I had my men stake out a crowded area. Within half a day, someone recognized it as Zhen Yong."
At this point, he looked up at the imprisoned Zhen Yong. "The Song Dynasty hasn't imposed severe penalties for the use of Wushisan, but the fact that Wushisan was able to spread quietly around the Changmen Wharf doesn't necessarily mean it's just targeting the porters. Many of the wealthy merchants and gentry in Pingjiang Prefecture also seek excitement, or believe it can improve their health."
"wrong."
Wei Jinyun frowned and said, "Wu Shi San is expensive, how can you bear to sell it to porters? They only get less than a hundred coins a day for carrying goods, so they can't buy it."
Her grandfather was an old Chinese medicine practitioner, and she was acquainted with these things. It was said that during the Wei and Jin dynasties, one ounce of five-stone powder could fetch over a thousand coins, equivalent to the annual living expenses of ten ordinary households. With low production and high production costs, how could the porters at the docks rush to buy it?
"Manager Wei is smart."
Lu Lan smiled at her. "So it's very similar to Wu Shi San... Doctor Sun sells the real thing, while Zhen Yong sells the fake."
"Rich businessmen have plenty of money, but they often feel that ordinary life lacks some flavor, or they want to use unconventional methods to replenish their bodies. The fatigue-relieving medicine that Zhen Yong sells is a bait to lure porters to make the work easier, and it is not the Five-Stone Powder at all."
Lu Lan looked at Doctor Sun, who was being held aside, and glared at him coldly. "You're quite a shrewd doctor. Selling one ounce of Wushisan is worth the profit of dozens or even hundreds of kilograms of ordinary medicinal herbs in your shop. But selling the medicine directly is too conspicuous, so you used Zhen Yong as an excuse to have him push a chicken coop around to deliver chickens every day. Others would just think it was a job at Meiyou Chicken Farm, but who would have noticed that hidden under the straw on the bottom of the chicken coop were packets of stone-smelling medicinal foam? I don't know how you two, who have nothing in common, could have hit it off so easily."
Doctor Sun hung his head, sweat dripping down his cheeks as he stared at Zhen Yong in disbelief. He had truly believed Zhen Yong was dead. After all, he had been targeted by the Inspection Office. If they truly unraveled the mystery, they would uncover a large group of nobles secretly taking Wu Shi San.
He thought it was some noble person who did it.
"Zhen Yong, how dare you sell fakes? Aren't you destroying my reputation?"
Doctor Sun was furious. He pounced on Zhen Yong and grabbed his collar. "Good boy, you sold it secretly. You are really unreliable!"
A doctor with decades of experience, when he gets anxious, the first thing he thinks of is his own trademark.
Because Zhen Yong had molested Zhao Xiangping, Zhen Meiyou had cut off his work for a while, forcing him to spend less than an hour a day in the brothel, leaving him penniless and bored. Seeing that this small packet of Wu Shi San could fetch a lot of money, he also wanted to secretly sell some himself.
But he really didn't know how to make the Five Stones Powder, so he took some from the stuff that Doctor Sun asked him to transport every time, mixed it with some lime, stove ash, realgar powder... and mixed it all together, claiming it was a "fatigue-relieving medicine" that could enhance physical strength, and sold it to porters and boatmen who didn't know the value of it.
After all, there was some genuine stuff in it, so it must be effective. It really did make people feel refreshed and strong enough to last for days, so naturally, many people bought it. Even if he sold it cheaply, he still made a lot of money.
"I only took some, why are you so stingy?"
Zhen Yong retorted, "You've earned enough to buy a mansion near the prefectural school!"
"I shouldn't have treated you that day when Attorney Zhan beat you up. You saw it and threatened me!"
Doctor Sun was so regretful. He wished he could have delivered the medicine to the patient's home in person. Even though the Inspection Office would investigate the private sale of medicines from time to time, he had just been more careful in dealing with it, and he wouldn't have been involved in this murder case.
"What do you think this place is? Everyone, get down on your knees!"
Jing Liulang kicked Zhen Yong in the butt on the spot and made Doctor Sun kneel down.
Lu Lan's gaze fell on Zhen Yong. There was no longer the scrutiny in her eyes, only a deep chill.
He spoke slowly, "I have long since sent people to monitor this medicine. I wanted to follow the clues and find out how many places this harmful substance has spread to."
"But I never thought that you, Zhen Yong, would be so cowardly and cruel."
He looked down at the trembling Zhen Yong, "You were just afraid that your selling of medicine would be exposed and that you would be held responsible, so you dared to do this to Wang San. He was just one of your customers who was selling fatigue-relieving medicine. You were afraid of being tracked down by the Inspection Office, so you took his life, and even tried to get away with it by painting his face and pretending to be you. Do you know that Wang San's wife and children are still crying for him right now? He bought this fatigue-relieving medicine because he wanted to work more and earn more money to treat his child's illness."
Lu Lan spoke the last words loudly and urgently, and Zhen Yong was almost crushed to the ground by his words, repeating over and over again, "I didn't kill anyone... I didn't kill anyone..."
"Didn't kill him?"
Lu Lan pointed at the package Jing Liulang handed over and said, "This was found on the beams of the Meiyou Chicken Farm."
He gestured to Jing Liulang to open it. Inside was a brown cloth shorts stained with mud. There was a dark red bloodstain on the belly, and a large area of blood was soaked around it.
"Wang San had been in a fight before he was thrown into the river, and there were some scraps of flesh between his fingernails. And aren't there a few fresh scratches on your arm? And the knife you used to kill him was used to slaughter chickens at Meiyou Chicken Farm. He died there."
Zhen Yong immediately lowered his head to look at his arm, and in panic tried to pull his sleeve down, but was held down by the people from the Inspection Office.
Lu Lan continued, "Do you think that if you hide the blood-stained clothes on the beam, no one will find them? Or do you think that if Wang San sinks to the bottom of the river and paints his face, no one will know that it wasn't you, Zhen Yong, who died, but him?"
Every single thing hit home for him. Zhen Yong's face instantly lost color, his lips trembled, and he could no longer utter the three words "I didn't kill him". His body went limp and he collapsed completely to the ground.
Zhen Meiyou stumbled over and hugged Zhen Yong's arm, tears streaming down his face. "Master Lu, you must have made a mistake. How could it be my brother? He has been timid since he was a child. He didn't even dare to kill the chickens at Meiyou Chicken Farm. How could he kill someone?"
She turned around and grabbed Zhen Yong's sleeve, shaking him. "Brother, say something! Did someone put the clothes on the beam of our house? Tell the adults, it wasn't you, okay?"
All she knew was that Zhen Yong had suddenly disappeared. She searched for him for a long time, practically turning the entire Pingjiang Prefecture upside down. Then, one night, it was raining, and he came home trembling. Naturally, she was delighted that her brother had finally returned. She took good care of him, waiting for the winter solstice before she would go to the Inspection Office to close the case.
Unexpectedly, before she even went to the Inspection Office, they arrived looking for her and asked her to identify the body. A-di nervously told her about the Five Stones Powder business, saying that he was being hunted by an enemy and that if he could identify the body in the river as his, he wouldn't leave the house and no one would find him.
Zhen Meiyou had no idea how to convince others that the body was her brother's, so she went there terrified. She discovered that the body's face was scratched and swollen from being soaked, making it difficult to discern its original appearance.
How could this be?
You can admit it, admit it.
My brother is the only child in the Zhen family!
Zhen Yong hung his head, almost wet his pants, and couldn't say a word.
Seeing this, Zhen Meiyou turned to Lu Lan and practically crawled to his feet. "Lord Lu, my brother is honest and must have been tricked. Please investigate again. Maybe that piece of clothing was stained with blood when he was killing chickens? We kill a lot of chickens every day at Meiyou Chicken Farm. He and Wang San have never had any grudges against each other. Why would we kill him?"
Her eyes were red as she pleaded with every word, "Sir, please check carefully again. My brother is definitely not the murderer!"
"Zhen Yong hasn't even seen the body, so why is he so sure you should identify it?"
"Friend Zhen Mei."
Lu Lan looked at the tears in her eyes that soaked her entire face, "Do you really not believe it, or do you not want to believe it."
Zhen Meiyou suddenly knelt on the ground, her head bleeding but she seemed unconscious. She tightly grasped the corner of Lu Lan's robe with both hands, "Master Lu! It was me! I killed him!"
She tilted her face upwards, tears and snot streaming down her face. "Wang San came to me because of the medicine, and I got so anxious that I stabbed him... My brother came to me later, and when he saw that I was terrified, he hid my clothes for me and asked me to identify the body!"
She tugged at Lu Lan's robe, "Please don't arrest him! You have to punish me! My brother hasn't married yet. It's my fault for being so confused. I've ruined him. Please arrest me!"
Killing someone means paying with one’s life. If someone dies, what will the Zhen family do?
This is the only child in her Zhen family.
"sister......"
Zhen Yong, who was lying paralyzed on the side, raised his head and struggled to crawl over, but was held down by the people from the Ya Xunjian Division. He could only watch Zhen Meiyu take the blame on himself.
When Zhen Meiyu heard Zhen Yong's voice, she turned around and glared at him, her face covered with tears, "Don't say anything! This has nothing to do with you!" She was afraid that her brother would speak again, so she tightly grasped the corner of Lu Lan's robe and repeated, "I killed that person."
Lu Lan lowered his eyes and looked at her, the inquiry in his eyes was gone, only indifference remained.
"Take everyone back to the Inspection Office."
He gently untied the corner of his robe, glanced at the still struggling Zhen Yong and the weeping Zhen Meiyou, and added, "They will be taken to the government office later and handed over to Lord He for the final decision."
The men stepped forward in response, one of them lifted up Zhen Meiyu, while the other two pulled Zhen Yong up.
Lu Lan had just finished giving orders to escort the Zhen siblings when he turned to his other two men and said, "Sun Mao and Zhang Renbai, take them back to the Inspection Office."
"grown ups!"
Xu had already come to Yunlaixiang. After hearing this, she ran to Lu Lan and said, "Sir, my son is the victim. How dare he get involved in these things? It's all because of that Sun Mao! He forced my son to take the medicine. My son is soft-hearted and he coaxed and threatened him. I really had no choice but to..."
"I have already warned Zhang Renbai that the food he ate might be inappropriate and advised him not to touch it again."
Lu Lan said in a deep voice, "He knew about it but didn't report it. Although he wasn't involved in the Zhen siblings' case, he was involved in the sale of the Five Stone Powder. Even though the Song Dynasty doesn't have explicit regulations regarding the Five Stone Powder, this case has indeed caused a huge impact and requires prompt investigation and punishment."
Zhang Renbai sat still in his original place, then suddenly stood up and walked to Lu Lan.
"Could you please let me have a few words in private, Lord Lu? I will admit my guilt when we go to court."
Lu Lan raised an eyebrow, "Yeah."
Lu Lan followed Zhang Renbai to the outside of Yunlaixiang. The north wind blew on the two of them, making Zhang Renbai shiver uncontrollably.
Zhang Renbai was silent for a long moment before he looked up. "Master Lu, I accept the sentence you've spoken of. But are you...sincere in your feelings for Miss Wei?"
He glanced at Yun Laixiang's carved wooden window, then quickly looked away as if afraid of disturbing Wei Jinyun inside.
"When she first arrived in Pingjiang Prefecture, she was very thin, and there was nothing in her shop. I also tasted the first dessert she made..."
Lu Lan didn't respond, just looked at him.
"But my mother said that she, a woman, was not a good match for me because she was out in public. I...I couldn't persuade my mother at that time."
Zhang Renbai suddenly looked up, and said sincerely, "But I really care about her! Sir, if you don't really care about her, and you are just interested in her for the time being, then please..."
"Do you care about her?"
Lu Lan finally spoke, "When your parents were lecturing her, you stood right in front of her and didn't even dare to say a word for her."
His eyes swept over Zhang Renbai's pale face. "What you call caring is that when she needed support, you only cared about filial piety and decency. If you had dared to stand up once, the result might not be like this."
Zhang Renbai's lips trembled, "How does Lord Lu know? Did she tell you? You..."
"You've known her much longer than I did. Yet you stood there, doing nothing, watching your own path being blocked. Now you ask me if I'm sincere."
"Her business is so prosperous, doesn't she rely on you, Lord Lu?"
Zhang Renbai clenched his palms and said with difficulty.
"Who do you think is behind her successful business? She gets up before dawn every day to knead the dough, trying new flavors and getting so soured that she passes out. Even after a murder, she still walks the night to deliver goods... How can she rely on me, on me to walk with her at night?"
Lu Lan glanced at him coldly, "Her business is doing well now, but you think it's because she relies on me? You like her, but you can't bear to see her go from a small stall in your eyes to one that even you have to look up at. What's more frightening to you is that she was so close to you before, but she never chose someone like you who likes her but can't let go of her pride. So, when she changed for the better, you don't believe it was on her own."
Lu Lan scoffed, leaving Zhang Renbai with only his back. "I don't need to explain to you how I treated her. But remember, you can no longer bother her. You can't keep up with the path she's taking, nor are you worthy enough to follow... Now that you've asked, let's go to the Inspection Office."
Lu Lan turned around and went back to Yunlaixiang, leaving Zhang Renbai standing stiffly there. The north wind blew on his face, but his eyes slowly became warm.
How could this happen...Why didn't he protect her then?
If he waits until he comes out, he is willing to change.
Xu from Yunlaixiang grabbed Zhang's arm and said, "What should we do? Renbai is going to jail! The way Lord Lu acted just now, he wasn't really asking questions."
Father Zhang frowned and forced himself to remain calm as he slapped her hand away. "Why are you panicking? Maybe she's involved in the case. Let's go get the details. Nothing serious will happen."
"Ask for details?"
Xu's eyes were red. "Lord Lu has clearly said that he will be caned ten times. He is in such poor health that he coughs at the slightest breeze. If he is beaten, he will be skinned alive. Go to the government office quickly and give him some silver. See if you can offer some leniency..."
She choked with sobs, "How could my son become like this? He was fine, how could he have been exposed to that damn drug?"
Father Zhang's face was gloomy. He glanced at Wei Jinyun from time to time, but when he saw Lu Lan's eyes, he quickly lowered his head.
"It's because nothing good has happened since Wei Jinyun came. Ever since she opened a shop in front of Tianqing Temple, Renbai's heart has become wild and he can't concentrate on his studies. Now he has even caused such a disaster. She is a jinx, bringing unrest to our family!"
"What's the point of saying this now?"
Xu wiped her tears and said, "Everyone in the neighborhood knows that Renbai is taking that medicine. He still has to take the imperial examination next year. By then, the teachers in the prefectural school will definitely be very hostile to him. I'm afraid it will be difficult for him to even get the examination certificate..."
Father Zhang was silent for a long moment before he slowly spoke, "What else can we do? Do we really want him to waste his life in Pingjiang Prefecture, unable to hold his head up?"
"Why can't you go back home to take the exam?"
Xu looked up and argued, "I think Pingjiang Prefecture is a place of trouble. If we stay here any longer, the neighbors' spit will drown us. Let's go back to our ancestral home, far away. Who will know about these dirty things? At least Renbai can study quietly for a few years and start over!"
Zhang's father was stunned. "What about the shop? Are we really going to just throw it away? We spent a lot of money to buy it."
"Who should we keep it for? Ever since Renbai failed the exam, we've had to divert our attention away from this. The shop's accounts have been a mess, and we've been losing money since last month. We still have some spare money, so we can go back home and find a shop on the street and open a smaller one. It's better than having to deal with people here."
Xu sighed deeply, "As long as Renbai can be well and start over, it's better than anything else."
Father Zhang stood there in a daze for a while before he spoke.
"Never mind. I'll do as you say. Pack up and wait until Renbai's matter is settled, then we'll leave."
Lu Lan was leaning against the counter of Yunlaixiang.
"Is the case closed?"
Wei Jinyun was busy pouring tea for herself.
It was an extremely exciting case, but Lu Lan kept it to himself and didn't say a word.
Lu Lan reached out and stroked the raccoon figurine in front of him. "Well, the prisoner has been taken to the government office, and the subsequent review will be made by Lord He. Shopkeeper Wei's business should return to its former prosperity. The Sun Tart will finally be noticed by more people."
"Then... is Lord Lu going back to Changmen?"
Wei Jinyun looked at the roof.
"Of course we have to go back. The Inspection Office is there."
Lu Lan said, "The gentry we arrested are involved in a wide range of cases. We need to go back and sort out the files."
"Are you still coming to Tianqing Temple?"
Wei Jinyun looked at the palm of his hand.
"Well, I also received my salary as a guard."
He lowered his eyes to look at her, "But I'm afraid I won't be here often because I'll be busy with official duties in the future."
"oh."
Wei Jinyun responded, his eyes falling on his waist.
The belt cinched his slender waist, making his shoulders and back look more upright. The Meow Meow Family Portrait sachet was swaying gently with his movements.
"Then Lu Lan should know how to tie the sachet. If it's loose, it will easily fall off."
Lu Lan glanced down at her waist and saw that something was wrong with her gaze.
He raised his eyes to look at her again, "What you were looking at just now, was that a sachet?"
"What's wrong with looking at it? It's a limited edition from my shop, and you're not allowing me to look at it?"
"May."
Lu Lan laughed, "Look, just look."
He suddenly changed the subject, "Did Manager Wei eat our rabbit heart-run buns on Xiangxiang's birthday?"
Wei Fuling poked her little head out from between the two of them.
"I've tried it! It's got a golden, runny core, and it's fragrant and sweet."
Lu Lan nodded with satisfaction and looked at her again.
"Like you."
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Author's Comment: Jinyun: What's that little rabbit with pericardium? [Chin in hand]
Mr. Lu: If you like to watch, then watch more [sunglasses]
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