The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 17: The Plotter behind the scene

The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty. 《成化十四年》Chengnian Shisi Nian
The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 17: The Plotter behind the scene

The old woman was well into her sixties, her head was white and full of hair, and her age and strength were evidently insufficient to support her in walking fast, but she still did her best, darting on her feet, through the heavy courtyard, and soon she was panting and sweating on her forehead.


"Oops, Madam Cui, how come you are here, just wipe the sweat off!" Shan Cha lifted the curtain from inside and walked out, and saw Madam Cui's mess appearance at a glance, so she hastily took out a hanky from her lapel and handed it over.

This is the first time she had ever seen a woman like Cui, who was married with her, so even she can't afford to offend her.

But Madam Cui, as if she hadn't seen Shan Cha's gesture of favor, asked directly, "Has First Young Master Mistress gotten up yet?"

The mountain tea face a bit hung, but still smiled, "Up, just got up, if you have something, and let me go in and report it!"

Madam Cui's expression revealed a bit of anxiety: “There's no need, since First Young Master Mistress is already awake, then I'll go straight in!"

She didn't wait for Shan Cha to say anything, but lifted the curtain and went inside.

Shan Cha stomped her feet in the back and followed suit.

When Madam Cui entered the inner room, she saw a young woman sitting in front of the dressing table, looking at herself in the mirror, and a little maid behind her, slowly combing her hair.

"First Young Master Mistress!" Madam Cui hurriedly walked over, her breath not even out.

Zheng Sun looked back and was a bit surprised to see Madam Cui's appearance, then said, "Shan Cha, Shao Yao, you all go down first."

The two maidservants both said yes and retreated.

The two of them left and deliberately walked over to close the door, which completely stopped itself from hiding its anxious look.

"First Young Master Mistress, Feng Qingzi was taken by them!"

Zheng Sun's hand holding the comb shook and it fell swoop, "Who are they?"

Madam Cui: “The Northern Administrative Court Division's people!"

Zheng Sun fell silent.

Madam Cui hurriedly said, "As you know, the Jinyiwei has the most powerful means to find out the truth, and I don't know if they will manage to pry something out of her mouth, if they do it'll be bad by then!"

Zheng Sun, however, was much calmer than she was: "When was she that she was taken?"

Madam Cui: "Just yesterday."




Zheng Sun thought for a while and said, "It doesn't matter, Feng Qingzi doesn't know where her brother is hidden, it's useless to interrogate her, even if Feng Qingzi admits her connection with us, there's no proof, we're the Marquis of Wu’an Mansion's ladies, they can't just come in for questioning."

Madam Cui's face was snow white and she didn't speak.

Zheng Sun realized from her expression that something was wrong, "Madam Cui, what's wrong?"

Madam Cui opened her mouth slowly, "First Young Master Mistress, I, after learning this news, I was worried that there was a change on Feng Qingwen’s side, so I deliberately took a long detour and went to have a look around that mansion, but don't worry, I didn't come close, let alone go inside......"

Zheng Sun pursed her lips and her face became difficult to look at, "With the Jinyiwei’s ability, it wouldn't be difficult to find that place if they followed you."

Madam Cui fell to her knees with a thud: "First Young Master Mistress, it's all my fault, I shouldn't have acted on my own, it's me who caused you harm!"

Zheng Sun sighed and helped her up: "Get up, you were also single-mindedly looking out for me, what's wrong with that? It should have been a perfect plan, but who knew it had come to such an end? And want to come is my retribution!"

Madam Cui rose in anger: ''What retribution! Zheng Cheng is the one who really got what he deserved! How dare he treat you like this! He should have well died, even without you, that Madam Hui and Zheng Zhi would still want him dead!"

The two were talking inside, when they heard a sharp knock on the door.

"First Young Master Mistress! First Young Master Mistress!" Shan Cha's voice came from outside.

Madam Cui hastily wiped away her tears and stood up, turning around and shouting, "What is it??!"

”The Marquis has sent someone over, he is asking the First Young Master Mistress to come over saying that there is something to ask!" Shan Cha said exasperated.

Madam Cui's face changed completely, "First Young Master Mistress, did the Marquis find out...?"

In contrast, Zheng Sun had the calmness of a broken jar, so she turned around and stroked her hair sideburns in the mirror, now that she had to serve Zheng Cheng in mourning filial piety, so everyone in the house was dressed in filial piety clothes, and all of them were dressed very plainly, but Zheng Sun took a jeweled hairpin from the dressing table and pinned it to her head, and asked Madam Cui again, "Is my hair still neat?"

Madam Cui stared at her in amazement.

With a faint smile, Zheng Sun didn't seem to care about the other party’s answer either, she stood up and said to Madam Cui, "Strike the door open."

Madam Cui looked back and swooped up to hug her thighs: ''No, you can't, don't go! Listen to me, let me take the matter on my own; I'll tell them I did it, and you don't have to say anything!"

Zheng Sun helped her up: "Stop talking, just stay in the room and don't go anywhere, I'll just deal with this."

Several people were seated in the lobby.

Mrs. Marquis of Wu’an was so sick from the death of her son that she has not been able to get up, and she has not been able to appear here.

This time, not only the death of one Zheng Cheng, even the Marquis of Wu’an's most favored son is also exiled, the Marquis of Wu’an house's reputation followed by this scandal had a fall, Zheng Ying although he has not yet fallen, but he looked like a dozen years older than before, a face of vicissitudes and much tiredness.

As for the arrival of Tang Fan and Sui Zhou, the Marquis of Wu’an's face was extremely ugly, two sons had been lost in a row, he only hoped that things would come to an end and nothing further would happen, but against his wishes, Tang Fan and Sui Zhou still came to the door and asked to see Zheng Sun by name, but even if the Marquis of Wu’an was a fool and he could easily associate what this meant.

The Marquis of Wu’an said: "I just want to ask you two to tell the truth, is Zheng Cheng's death related to my daughter-in-law?"




Even now, Tang Fan makes no secret of it: "We do have suspicions."

But the Marquis of Wu’an's eyes suddenly lit up: "What about Zhi'er? In that case, isn't he wronged?"

Tang Fan shook his head, "The Second Young Master Zheng is guilty of attempting to kill his brother, how can he be wronged, only that there is more than one murderer."

He smiled miserably when he heard, "It seems that the two of you have come here today with the iron will to make the Zheng Family fall apart!

Tang Fan arched his hand, “The Marquis is very serious, where there is cause there is an effect, we are only doing our duty, I think the marquis does not want to make his son die in vain."

When it came to Zheng Cheng, the Marquis of Wu’an finally stopped speaking, only his gaze wandered and his expression was miserable, as if he had lost sight of Tang Fan and Sui Zhou in his eyes, and didn't know what he was thinking.

The fact that Tang Fan has been in Marquis of Wu’an’s residence since they entered, the atmosphere here has been depressing, but this is also normal, the Marquis of Wu’an has a dead son, and another one has been exiled to the army, and does not know when and how long it will be possible to get a pardon.

But then again, if he hadn't kept his mouth shut and told Pan Bin to close the case hastily, he wouldn't have drawn Wang Zhi in the mess, and after all the forces intervened, and the game brought the truth to the surface instead.

So many things in the world, in the end, they all seem to be tied by an invisible thread, going round and round, and finally coming back to the original point.

When Zheng Sun walked in and saw them, her expression was very calm and his demeanor was not flustered, and he still bowed to the Marquis of Wu’an in the usual manner, with a low brow, as the people on the sidelines said, "I am a good woman.”

The Marquis of Wu’an sighed, "Ask whatever you have to say."

”Thank you for your kindness." Tang Fan first arched his hand to him, then said to Zheng Sun, "Zheng Cheng was killed by you?"

Zheng Sun: "Master Tang why do you say this, is Shuntian Prefecture is the job of pushing dirty water on people's heads?" [1] Dirty water = Unsubstantial rumors meant to blacken someone’s name

Her tone was ethereal, crisp and clear of sarcasm, and she seemed to be asking only a very ordinary question.

Tang Fan: "When Madam Hui and Zheng Zhi wanted to kill Zheng Cheng, you found out about it, and secretly helped them by dispensing the medicine through that fellow apothecary clerk to provide them with convenience, but this medicine was too slow to show the effects, and in the end, Zheng Cheng may not necessarily die, maybe the drug just won't act. You would have waited for a long time in a row without waiting for the desired effect, so you couldn't resist and contacted Feng Qingzi to get her to do the deed herself, and afterwards, by holding Feng Qingzi's only brother hostage, so that she would not betray you."

"You wanted to kill Zheng Cheng and didn't want anyone to know about it, so you let someone take advantage of Zheng Cheng's sleep and hit him with a hammer on his Baihui acupuncture points, this is indeed a good method, there are not many people who can do this without being noticed, Feng Qingzi is one of them."

”The Baihui acupuncture is located at the top of the head and is covered with hair, the average person would not easily notice there, but at that time when I saw Zheng Cheng's body in the Marquis of Wu’an Mansion, his hair was draped over, and when I waited for the Northern Administrative Court Division, his hair was suddenly combed up, you originally wanted to cover up the marks better, but you didn't expect to get it wrong."

"When we tracked down the Huanyin Mansion, the head poker Qingzi girl there also confessed to killing Zheng Cheng, and we followed the trail to the mansion she had previously bought and inadvertently found several funeral tablets. It was there that we learned that the Qingzi girl's original surname was Feng, and that her family had been implicated in the Jingxiang clan's Feng Zilong rebellion thirteen years earlier, and that all their relatives had died, with only two surviving, one being her and the other, her third brother Feng Qingwen. She was a prostitute, her brother, Feng Qingwen, was a male, and was supposed to be a soldier, when the Yellow River was flooded and Henan Province was repairing the embankment, it was just that group of people were asked to go there by Count of Yingcheng, Feng Qingwen was one of them."

Tang Fan looked at Zheng Sun Clan, “The Madam Cui on your side, after learning that Feng Qingzi had been captured, was so afraid that we would get any information from Feng Qingzi that she couldn't wait to snoop around in a place she would never normally go to, and in turn, it led us to Feng Qingwen, which proves that all our previous speculations were correct."

Zheng Sun shook her head: "Master Tang, in vain, you still received the praise from the Holy Master himself! As you said, it's all pure speculation on your part. It's true, I have heard of Fu, because her brother, worked for my uncle, which is not surprising, but she is a young woman from a brothel, but I am the daughter of a respected family. As for what you said, it's even more ridiculous that I would be holding Feng Qingzi's brother hostage, I guess you guys didn't ask anything out of Feng Qingwen's mouth because he doesn't know anything at all."

Tang Fan: "Speculation is speculation, but all the clues end up being all about you, how are you going to explain it?"

"After the Secretary of the Northern Administrative Court Division took Zheng Cheng's body, the Eastern Depot immediately went to rob it from him, but coincidentally, the place where Zheng Cheng's body was placed caught fire that night, and the man on duty was also one of your uncle's former men. Also, the fact that Feng Qingzi was suddenly able to put up five thousand taels to redeem herself, the source of this money, doesn't it make one wonder?"

"As far as I know, these few years, the silver taels that you accompanied and married went to the Marquis of Wu’an Mansion, First Young Master Zheng in addition to the Brother House, he also often went to the gambling house, the Marquis of Wu’an Mansion is a respected family, but the Marquis of Wu’an Mansion is not the only son of Zheng Cheng, naturally he cannot afford to spend like this, then where did Zheng Cheng get all the money to go to the gambling house, not from you, it can only come from his mother the Marquis of Wu’an lady. Therefore, you were unable to raise 5,000 taels and did not want to borrow from your mother's family because of this, so you pawned your jewellery and got a total of 4,500.718 taels in silver. Where is that money now?"

Zheng Sun was silent.




Tang Fan: "You gave the silver note to Feng Qingzi, and Feng Qingzi took it to the pawnbroker to ask for a bank note to redeem herself, along with the gold and silver jewelry that you sent to the pawnbroker to pawn, and now we have found them all, would you like to have a look?"

The Marquis of Wu’an was originally sitting on the chair without a word, and when he heard this, he couldn't help but reach out and point his hand at Zheng Sun, gritting his teeth and saying, ''Is it you? Is he telling the truth?"

The matter had come to this, what was the point of Zheng Sun not admitting it again, she was pale and raised her head, looking at everyone without fear: "Even without me, Zheng Cheng will die, and I am not the only one who wants him dead!"

With an unprecedented sensitivity, the Marquis of Wu’an jumped up and viciously slapped Zheng Sun.

Zheng Sun's slender and weak nature, how could she bear it, immediately stirred and took several steps backwards, crashing into a nearby pillar.

The Marquis of Wu’an burst into a rage: “The family is unlucky! Unfortunately for marrying you! Why did my son marry such a snake and poisonous woman like you! And to think I felt I had humiliated you!"

Zheng Sun laughed coldly, “That's not true, even if I'm vicious, it's because there's not a good person in this family! When I first got married, why didn't I want to serve my husband, pay respect to my in-laws and live a good life? But who did I marry? A loser who has nothing to do but play with women at the youth club! Not only did he play with women, but he brought them home one by one! I'm also a daughter of a respected family. Where do you want my face to go? People in the capital city say that I am virtuous, but secretly, they are laughing at my incompetence to keep my husband from other women!"

The Marquis of Wu’an was distressed: "Why didn't you tell me, why not to tell your mother-in-law, that we could all do justice for you, why did you come so far!"

Zheng Sun said coldly, ''Mother in law? You heard what Master Tang said just now. She took all my dowry money and gave it to her gambling son. Somebody give me peace! The first year, the second year, the third year... I put up with it year after year, and then who took my patience seriously again? Do I have to endure all my life in this fire pit?"

She also did not rush to rise, tilting her head to look at the Marquis of Wu’an, so that she could not hide her disdain in her eyes: “How bold Marquis of Wu’an, the one who lost his father's and grandfather's position, not to mention that, and also condoned the spoiled concubines to run amok of his house, and also turned a blind eye to the behavior of the miserable wife who taught her son ugly ways to live a life, one or two, either by you to become the second ancestor, or become a fool in the eyes, only regicide brother, who are you to say and scold other others!"

"You! You!" the Marquis of Wu’an was so angry that he could not speak, covered his chest, took two steps backwards, and sat down in his chair.

The author has something to say: Some readers questioned it, ancient a few concubines is normal but a woman like Zheng Sun jealous for Zheng Cheng enough to kill him is not reasonable.

It just so happens that last time I said I was going to talk about the gossip of the times, so I'll talk about that today in passing.

My dear, this is not a made up text, and yes, in ancient times men were superior to women, but women's status was definitely not as low as one might think.

First of all, small families do not have any money left over for concubines, and usually they only have one wife.

Secondly, in the upper class, it was not uncommon for many Ming Dynasty officials to have only one wife in their lives, such as Yu Qian, such as Yan Song, such as Gao Gong.

Then, Zheng Sun's status is comparable to Zheng Cheng's, the family is the same, she is also a daughter of a noble family, after the marriage, her husband is spending a lot of money, they have no son, and her mother-in-law is still very fussy, why can't she break out and get pissed off?

In the end, she had already gone down to kill, then her psyche could not be guessed according to a normal view who haven’t experienced her life.

So, please don't look at the case investigation novels with the same eye as you look at the drama novels.

Many people talk about the low status of women in the Ming Dynasty, and certainly say that there were many women in this period, for example, and then the atmosphere was not as open as in the Tang and Song dynasties.

For example, when a woman lost her husband, her husband's elders would force her to remarry because they were greedy for money, so that they could get back her husband's property and get an extra bride price.














- The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty -



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