Chapter 353 Business Diary
Qin Hanzhang then took another look at the booklet. It looked very old and had a faint musty smell. It must have been hidden for a long time.
"This is Hu Qiao's work diary... It is a record of the city gate clerk's daily work. It records the whereabouts of all the documents he used his seal on, as well as the names and official positions of the people who held the documents..."
Su Qianqian carefully flipped through the pages according to the date. Based on the document provided by Zhou Tang's ex-wife, she could know the approximate date. Hu Qiao died only three days later, so it should be recorded on the last two pages...
But on the page where it should have appeared, there were signs of it being torn off, and then there was nothing.
Su Qianqian flipped through a few more pages, but still found nothing. She put the book down in disappointment: "It was torn off. I don't know who tore that page off. With that page, even if we bring it to His Majesty, it will be irrefutable evidence."
"It doesn't matter. Isn't this matter getting closer and closer to the truth? Even if many years have passed, if there is a Hu Qiao, there will be a second one. One day, the truth will come out."
Qin Hanzhang didn't care about it and instead comforted Su Qianqian.
Although she was disappointed, she had to let it go for the time being. Xue Ke opened the food box at this time, and immediately a burst of fragrance hit her face, which was the taste of Huqiao fish soup.
"Sir, you'd better eat it while it's hot. It won't taste good if it's cold." Xue Ke skillfully propped up the support board beside the car seat, brought out the fish soup and placed it on the support board. He then took a wooden spoon to rinse it and handed it to Su Qianqian. He looked at Qin Hanzhang hesitantly, not knowing whether he should serve it to him.
It's cold outside, but it's nice to eat a bowl of hot fish soup. It tastes really good. Su Qianqian motioned Qin Hanzhang to eat some too, but he shook his head and picked up the official diary left by Hu Qiao to read it.
Su Qianqian was eating fish soup. Xue Ke took down the food box, revealing the fish cakes underneath. He also put the plate of fish cakes on the support board. Suddenly, he stared at the food box and asked in confusion, "What is this?"
Su Qianqian and Qin Hanzhang both looked up and saw Xue Ke taking out an oil paper bag from the bottom of the food box. It was called a bag because the oil paper was folded into the shape of a package, but in fact it was just a flat piece.
When Su Qianqian opened the oil paper, her eyebrows jumped when she saw what was inside. There was a yellowed page of paper lying quietly, with words written all over it, and one side of the page was uneven.
Su Qianqian and Qin Hanzhang looked at each other, hurriedly put down the bowl, reached out to take the page of paper, read what was written on it at a glance, raised their heads and handed it to Qin Hanzhang silently.
Qin Hanzhang read calmly, and he looked at a page of paper for a long time before he slowly put it down, opened Hu Qiao's official diary, put the page of paper on the missing page, and put the papers together tightly.
[Miss Yiqiao was a smart girl. Her father died suddenly and her mother had nowhere to turn to for help. Yiqiao saw this box by chance and asked her mother to hide it.
Before that, she tore off the last page, sewed it into one of her bellybands, and kept it at the bottom of her suitcase to prevent it from being found by someone with ulterior motives.
Until her mother was about to give this wooden box to you, she was afraid that you would not open the booklet, so she hid this page of paper in the food box, waiting for it to appear when you took out the fish cakes. 】
The system then explained the origin of this page of paper.
[These girls are all very smart, but Yi Qiao is the least obvious. It is truly admirable that she can have such thoughts at such a young age. 】Su Qianqian couldn’t help but praise in her heart.
"It is indeed Zhou Tang, but I don't know who is in the carriage. Who can follow Zhou Tang to the Northern Frontier in person? He is a person of prominent status and has a cough..."
Su Qianqian pondered these clues.
"When we return to the capital and check the medical records of the Imperial Medical Bureau, we will definitely find some clues." Qin Hanzhang took out the page of paper, put the others in the wooden box, and handed the page of paper to Su Qianqian.
"Please keep this page of paper and give it to His Majesty at the right time. There must be something hidden behind what happened back then. Whoever set up this situation must give an explanation to the Qin family."
Qin Hanzhang's voice was low, and there was no warmth in the last sentence.
They traveled day and night to Yunhe Mountain and arrived there in just two days, but on the way back, they had to stop and go a lot, and along the way they went to the counties they passed by to gather information, and even busted the black shop that stole horses. Ten days later, they finally returned to Xijing, half a month after Su Qianqian left Beijing.
After entering the city, Su Qianqian and Qin Hanzhang went to the yamen respectively, and Jiang Baipin also took his brothers back to report to Jiang Fan.
Su Qianqian handed over the ancient county magistrate and the money found in his house to Lord Zhuang. This was one of the officials involved in Lu Jing's case of selling official positions.
"Lord Su, you have worked hard and traveled a long way. Go back and rest first. I will write a memorial now and go to court to re-examine Lu Jing in three days."
When Lord Zhuang saw the file handed over by Su Qianqian, he could not suppress his anger. How could a small magistrate, who was in the fiefdom of Duke Xuan, be so domineering and disregard human lives?
"Master Zhuang, there is one more thing. I have also captured a man. Nine years ago, he was the magistrate of Jinning County. He innocently killed Hu Qiao, the gatekeeper of Jinning. However, he is quite powerful in Jinning, so I can only secretly kidnap him..."
Su Qianqian said with some embarrassment.
Lord Zhuang blinked and said, "You mean you kidnapped the powerful former Jinning County Magistrate without any evidence?"
"Of course there is evidence, but it has not been found yet. It is a fact that this man has killed someone. If he is not caught, he will definitely not surrender easily. Don't worry, sir. I will naturally make him tell the truth."
Su Qianqian said with confidence.
Master Zhuang held his forehead, pinched his eyebrows and waved his hands: "You go back and rest first. These things... let me consider them. That criminal... just put him in jail first... find a secluded and empty cell, and don't let him talk nonsense."
"Your Excellency is absolutely right. I will go back home now and wait for your good news." Su Qianqian bowed and left.
Before the people arrived at the mansion, the news had already been passed back to the mansion. As soon as the carriage entered the gate, a group of people gathered around.
As soon as Su Qianqian got out of the car, she was grabbed by the Third Old Lady and said with gritted teeth:
"Qianqian, how could you lie to Auntie San like this? If we knew you were going to look for Hanzhang, and it was so dangerous, how could we sisters let you go alone?"
"Third sister-in-law, why don't you tell me such an important thing? At least I can fight the enemy together with you!" Qin Yuzhuo's face was also full of disappointment.
"Miss..." Several maids cried.
"Okay, okay, don't talk to my third sister-in-law here for now. Let her go in and change her clothes and wash up, so that she can see grandma as soon as possible."
At this time, the fourth lady Wang Yuke pulled away the people who were surrounding her and rescued Su Qianqian:
"It's cold, go back to the yard and change your clothes to warm up. Don't let grandma worry when you see her again. She keeps asking nanny where she is every day, but doesn't dare to ask us."
Wang Yuke's eyes turned red when she said this, and she took Su Qianqian's hand and looked her up and down.
Su Qianqian smiled and comforted her, then got into the warm sedan chair and went back to Tinglan Courtyard with Su Mu and the others.
"Madam, I have received letters these days. I don't know who sent them."
While Su Qianqian was changing her clothes, Su Mu sat there and let Su Ye tie her hair, and handed Su Qianqian a few letters.
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