Chapter 901: All appearances?
Dabao and Erbao have lived in Wangjia Village longer than Jiang Lianzhu.
Jiang Lianzhu smiled and said, "No, the village head uncle brings people to repair it every year. The house has been preserved and given to the needy families in the village to live in. There are also many people who want to live in your ancestral house and are fighting for it. They say that living in the old house of a scholar will have a cultural atmosphere, and maybe one of their descendants will become a scholar in the future, bringing honor to the family!"
"I am so ashamed of myself! I became famous as a scholar when I was young, but I never got the chance to become a juren afterwards. I had no choice but to make a living by teaching. I have been a private tutor for most of my life. Now I am just an old scholar who is old and weak, without the ambition and lofty spirit of the past. I spend the rest of my life teaching children to improve their knowledge!"
Old Scholar Wang looked embarrassed. If they were not in the torture chamber, one would have thought they were just fellow villagers meeting each other, with that kind of cordiality.
"Wang Xiucai, where are you teaching now?"
Scholar Wang hesitated for a moment and said, "It's on Dongque Street..."
When they mentioned a family, Jiang Lianzhu understood that it was the family of their neighbors next door to the Princess's Mansion.
It was really a coincidence. It was no wonder that Xiang Zuo brought his people back.
"Wang Xiucai, we are half-fellow villagers. We once shared the same old house. I am not speaking to you as a princess, but as a half-fellow villager. This is because human life is at stake. You have studied the sages' books for so many years, and now you are a teacher. You should be familiar with the laws of our Da'an Kingdom. I ask you something, and I hope you can tell the truth. Is that okay?"
Jiang Lianzhu put away her smile and spoke seriously.
Wang Laoxiucai suddenly became nervous again. "I'll tell you the truth, I'll tell you everything. I'm really not from Baihualou, and I don't know why there's a tunnel under my kang. I go out to teach during the day and come home at night. I read and study until late at night, then go to bed. There's no one else in my room..."
Jiang Lianzhu hummed, "Okay, as long as you're telling the truth, we're willing to believe you. You just need to cooperate with us to find the real culprit. Then let me ask you, how old are you this year? Why are you alone at your age? Without parents, wife, or children?"
Pain flashed across Mr. Wang's face. "I'm a lonely star born of bad luck. I've brought death to my father, mother, wife, and children. In Chubei Prefecture, my father died of a serious illness and couldn't be cured. My mother also died of grief. My wife and my son were once at a lantern festival and were both killed in a stampede. A Taoist priest came to read my fortune and said I had a difficult fate and was born of a lonely star. Heartbroken, I left Chubei Prefecture and came to the capital, hoping to spend a few days of peace and quiet at the feet of the emperor."
"What disease did your father have? How long did he last? Where did you live in Chubei Mansion before? Which lantern festival did you attend? What caused the stampede? Where were you at the time?"
Jiang Lianzhu asked.
Mr. Wang covered his head with his hands, frowning, and said in great pain, "It was tuberculosis. He died of coughing up blood. He lived at No. 88, Sanyuan Alley, Chubei Prefecture. It was the Mid-Autumn Festival. I don't want to recall such painful things. What does this have to do with the current case? You must ask! You are so inhumane, always rubbing salt into people's wounds. What kind of regent are you? How can there be such a cruel woman like you in the world..."
There are signs of collapse.
Spit was flying everywhere.
Liao Jiu stood in front of Jiang Lianzhu and said, "Wife, have you noticed that he's a little bit mentally unstable? Polite treatment won't work on him! Let's give him Veritaserum."
Jiang Lianzhu also noticed that he was talking fine at first, but when he mentioned his family later, his eyes started to wander.
Veritaserum is very harmful to ordinary people, so it is best not to use it if possible.
She wanted to give him a chance to confess and show leniency because of the relationship they had shared in her house before.
Now it seems that it won't work.
I can only give him one shot.
A needle as thin as wool quietly pierced into Mr. Wang's neck.
Liao Jiulai asked in the next conversation.
"Wang Xiucai, are you from Baihualou? Are your family still around? Are you hiding, or are you really dead? How did you die?"
Scholar Wang's eyes lit up with excitement. "They're all dead! My parents are old, and my father has tuberculosis and needs medicine every day. I'm just a teacher, how can I afford so much money for treatment? I just hope they die sooner rather than later. I didn't want them to come to the city with me in the beginning, but they insisted on coming with me, saying that I'm their only son and they're counting on me to take care of them in their old age. They insisted on coming to the city with me to enjoy a good life and make others envious. I'm a poor scholar, and I can only barely make sure the whole family has enough to eat. What kind of life can I enjoy? In the early years, my Yue family helped us, but later on, my Yue family fell into poverty and had no money to help them. My father still has to take medicine all the time! Hahahaha, so I gave him a Paradise Pill to let him ascend to paradise sooner rather than later..."
When he said this, his expression had become distorted. Where was the gentlemanly scholar he looked like before?
"Where did you get the Bliss Pill?" Liao Jiu continued to interrogate.
"It was given to me by the gods! The gods said that they knew I had talent, but I just couldn't pass the imperial examination. Someone with talent like mine that moved heaven and earth shouldn't suffer such hardships in the mortal world. I couldn't pass the imperial examination because of my family's burden. As long as I had no family to burden me, and I focused on studying alone, I would definitely pass. So I sent my parents away."
Mr. Wang's eyes were red and he looked like a madman.
This must be due to reading too much!
He failed the exam and blamed his family for dragging him down?
Was that gentle side just an appearance?
Jiang Lianzhu said coldly, "Did you kill your wife and children too?"
Mr. Wang cried and laughed, "My wife used to be a beautiful girl from a simple family. She was good in every way, but she was too nagging. She urged me to study all day long, asked me how my reading was going, and dreamed in my ear that one day he would become a juren and she would be his wife. When her family's business ran into trouble, she asked me to seek help from the officials. How could I, a scholar, meet an official? She scolded me at home for being useless, ungrateful, and not a human being! As the old saying goes, a virtuous wife brings less trouble to her husband. I regret marrying such a woman. If she hadn't nagged me every day, I would have passed the imperial examination long ago! It's all because of her stumbling block!"
"Also, my son is ten years old and can't even recite the Three Character Classic. I was a Tongsheng at twelve and a scholar at eighteen! What's the point of giving birth to such a loser? I taught him to read day and night and enlightened him since he was three years old, but he just doesn't like to read. He would rather be beaten and tortured than open a book. He's a loser. What's the point of raising him!"
"It just so happened that God helped me. That day, the mother and son went to see the lantern festival, and there was a stampede. I could have helped them out in the crowd, but I didn't. I left, and I was left alone. I was free. I could study every day without anyone to control me. No one would hold me back anymore, and I had no worries!"
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