The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 28: The Writing on the Wall

The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty. 《成化十四年》Chengnian Shisi Nian
The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 28: The Writing on the Wall

Sui Zhou really doesn't know how to face Tang Da-ren.


You said that a man with the talent of a scholar, although he did not become a scholar, but he was the fourth top scholar examinee in the country and had been praised by the Emperor himself, if he wrote some kind of Analects, or new explanations of Zhu Zi, he could be considered to have learned and put them to use, but now he is going to write those kinds of words.

Tang Da-ren smiled, not ashamed, but proud: "I'm not paid much, but I've earned some money, Guangchuan, don't be so surprised, no one knows I wrote it except you, but this book has been printed in a thousand copies by the bookseller, it's sold very well."

Sui Zhou was so thoroughly intrigued that he pulled out the book alone: "I'll read it."

Tang Fan: “That's great, taking my book, there's something I need to trouble you about."

Sui Zhou raised his eyebrows in doubt.

Tang Fan felt that if the other party accepted his book, he could also trouble the other party to do one small thing: "How about you help me to pick off those acacia leaves outside?"

Sui Zhou: "..."

He thinks it's an exchange of favors?

After all this time, he's still eating cold noodles?

He's the best eater in the world!

Tang Da-ren didn't think so, he thought that a man like himself was born to save Sui Zhou's tastes. See, with the addition of himself, the life of the other person was immediately full of sunshine.

But in the end, he couldn't get his heart's desire to eat it either.

Because Sui Zhou took the two of them directly to the outside restaurant for a meal.

The shrimp were freshly caught from the river, not as sweet as the sea shrimp, but not bad. The soy sauce, sesame oil, chopped garlic, peeled shrimp and dipped in a bite, it was a treat.

Tang Da-ren, who can eat a book of satisfaction and happiness:" Guangchuan, look at the hustle and bustle, you can steal half a day, while eating and watching the world, it's a kind of leisure, it's also a kind of enjoyment, you can sit down and enjoy it."

He was not as upright and hard to get along with as those puritanical officials, nor did he want a golden house or a house of gold as many people in the world wanted to wake up and reign over the world and lie at the knee of a beautiful woman.

Sui Zhou's cold, cold eyes showed a hint of laughter. He shook his head and said, "Even when I was in the Northern Administrative Court, I usually stayed there to check the files and rarely came out, otherwise, at my age, if I didn't work harder, people would think that I was promoted because of nepotism.”

Tang Fan said: "Other people think what they like, that's other people's business, we can't stop people from talking with one hand, as long as we have a clear conscience, we should still enjoy what we enjoy in our daily life."

That makes perfect sense. Sui Zhou was about to say something, but then Tang Da-ren said, "Well, let's ask the shopkeeper to pack two cold dishes for us to go back to, so we can eat at night.”

Sui Zhou looked at him with an expressionless face.

Tang Da-ren blinked, “That's always good?"

A-Dong could not help but laugh with her mouth shut.




With the addition of Sui Zhou and A-Dong, Tang Da-ren thought that he would be happy with his life, but he never thought that he would have two old mothers and children, who are always in charge of everything, especially food, and Tang Da-ren could only look at those snacks and sigh.

But on the whole, this life is still quite good, after all, there are one or two people waiting for you at home every day, you can have a hot meal, you can see smiling faces, you can hear warm greetings, his sister is married far away, but now it's like having two more family members, it's a completely different feeling.

For A-Dong, she used to be in the Li Family, although Zhang-shi was nice to her and A-Chun was willing to take care of her, but she was still a servant, not a servant who gets to enjoy the blessings, and she could not be too lively even if she was different. That's why she likes to run over to Tang Fan all the time. Now she recognizes Tang Fan as her brother. This feeling of having family is equally indescribable. Just moved to the Sui Family at the time. The little girl was so excited she couldn't sleep for days on end.

But not only Tang Fan and A-Dong, but also Sui Zhou, although he did not say so, from the fact that he was coming home more and more often, and he did not spend his rest days in the Northern Administrative Court, he probably had the same thoughts as Tang Fan.

But Chen-shi's whereabouts are not going well, if Chen-shi is alone now, she can't get very far, because strict investigation requires an ultimatum, but if, as Tang Fan guesses, Chen-shi is in collusion with the White Lotus Society, then it won't be difficult for her to get out of the city under the protection of the organization.

Once out of the city, it's like a fish in the sea, the sea is really wide.

With the power of the Jinyiwei, they searched for several days and found no trace of Chen-shi in the city, and the woman seemed to have completely disappeared into the sea.

On the day of the crime, Tang Fan could have taken Chen-shi into custody as well, but at that time, he already noticed something strange about the woman, so he tried to catch her with a long line to see if she had any other accomplices or tricks. Who knew this woman could be so cunning. While everyone thinks she's not too important. Just a chance to send the bailiff to keep an eye on her from afar. In a flash, she ran away without a trace.

On the other hand, on the eve of Li Man's release from the Wanping County jail and his transfer to the Ministry of Justice, something even more bizarre happened.

Li Man was found dead.

He committed suicide.

Li Man had broken the bowl of food for the prisoners in the prison, deliberately hid the sharp pieces, and then, in the dead of night, plunged them directly into his chest, and died from the fatal wound and the loss of blood, when he was found dead.

And on the wall beside his body, written with the blood of his heart, two words were written.

- Tang Fan -

These two words were so shocking that the guards, who were used to seeing such scenes, screamed in horror at the sight of Li Man's dead body with his eyes open.

Many inmates have committed suicide because they could not stand the torture in prison, but many of them, even after being sentenced to death, would rather have their heads chopped off by a knife until the last moment, instead of having the courage to end their lives themselves.

Besides, for a prisoner like Li Man, the Ministry of Justice has not finalized the case yet, so there may be a chance for the case to be overturned, or the prisoner may have him military conscripted and exiled instead of being executed.

When Tang Fan heard about the case, Li Man's body was no longer there. The cell where he had been held was dark and damp, and it was difficult to see what was inside even by candlelight in the daytime. The two words written in blood had solidified and discolored. But you can still see what's being written.

Li Man deserved the punishment, Tang Fan directly revealed his motive and heart, it is not surprising that he hated Tang Fan, but could this hatred be so great that he still remembered Tang Fan's name on the wall even before he died? Even without Tang Fan, the wife murder case could have been uncovered by someone else, so there is no suspense at all.

When Li Man was dying, he was not thinking about his only son, his family's money, his desire for survival, but his hatred for Tang Fan.

Looking at these two words, Tang Fan feels that there are still many mysteries lingering in his heart, and many doubts waiting to be solved.

He rushed to the Li Family again.

After Li Man's body was found dead by the Coroner, it was brought back by the Li Family, ready to be buried.



The Li Family didn't welcome Tang Fan, especially Li Lin, who was so embarrassed when he saw Tang Fan, that he just kicked him out.

Tang Fan said, "I am just here to take a look, I will leave right after."

Li Lin laughed, "What's the point? My father is dead and you won't even let go of his body? I've heard that he wrote your name on the wall before he died. I haven't asked Tang Da-ren, what did you have to do with my father's death?"

Tang Fan asked, "I have no grudge against you, the Li Family, why do I have to do anything with his death?"

Li Lin: “That's hard to say, who doesn't know that A-Xia was in love with you before, but after that, it's not impossible that you want to avenge her, because my father is already in prison, so you can do whatever you want."

Tang Fan didn't bother to defend himself: "Li Man's crimes are punishable by the law of the land, and as an official of the court, now that he's dead, it's only natural that I should come and find out the situation.”

Li Lin won't let go: "My father is in the coffin and he's going to be buried soon, so no one can disturb him! There's no law punishment against the dead!"

Tang Fan waved his hand directly, and the bailiff went up behind him, and pulled Li Lin and the others apart.

A pale, bloodless face was revealed, and a new set of clothes was changed on him.

But it was Li Man, no doubt.




While Tang Fan was silent, Li Lin rushed up and pushed Lao Wang away from the coffin and looked at Tang Fan with anger: "Have you seen enough, my father doesn't want to see you, get lost!

He was a commoner, but he dared to be so rude to the court officials. Lao Wang and others were so angry that they tried to beat him, but Tang Fan stopped them.

The Li Family had planned to move their family south, but now that Li Man was dead, they simply decorated the hall as a funeral hall to offer incense to the family members, but since Li Man had committed the murder of his wife, it was impossible for the Zhang Family who were the in-laws to come.

If anyone was here and saw the confrontation between the two parties, they would have thought that Tang Fan was bullying Li Lin because of his identity.

Tang Fan didn't say anything, just walked around the coffin, handed Li Man an incense and said to Li Lin, "I'll leave the dead man alone, but I hope you don't make the same mistake your father did, in the presence of your deceased mother, become a good student and a decent man.

Li Lin stared at him coldly: “That's none of your concern."

Ever since the death of his mother, his voice had become muffled, and he probably cried so much in private that he almost lost his voice.

Tang Fan frowned, only feeling that the boy had changed since the death of his parents. Although he had not seen Li Lin many times before, he had never seen him as unreasonable and unkind as he was today. Not a close look.

Perhaps the deaths of Zhang-shi and Li Man were a great shock to him?

Seeing that Li Lin was so unwelcome, Tang Fan didn't linger much and left the Li Family soon after.

However, the matter was not yet finished.

On the night Tang Fan came to the Li Family, the Li Family House had caught a fire, Li Lin and the other servants of the Li Family escaped, but Lao Li, the steward, missed the chance to escape because he had to protect Li Man's body, and was burned to death inside.

The two blood letters written by Li Man in prison before his death cast a veil of mystery over the whole matter.

A few days later, Tang Fan was impeached.

The person who impeached Tang Fan was the Right Assistant Official of the Criminal Division, called Mau Xing.

The Criminal Division was not under the Ministry of Justice. In the Great Ming Dynasty. In addition to the six ministries. There is also a department called Division Six. The officials there were either the Regular Seventh Rank or the Lower Seventh Rank, which was a very low ranking, not comparable to the Sixth Ministry, but they also had a collective name, called the Section of the Censorate.

The Sixth Branch was set up by the Emperor Taizu, so that these people could monitor the officials and impeach them if they saw anything corrupt or illegal and this gave them great authority. Even the cabinet can't hold their capitulation. But to prevent their lawlessness. So they were given the lowest ranks. It's sort of mutual jurisdiction.

Li Man had threatened Tang Fan that his ancestor was a Third Rank and that there were old elders in his family, but this was not a false threat, for Mau Xing's father and Li Man's grandfather were old friends, but that was then and now the friendship was passed over to Li Man. It's a shallow affair. Otherwise it wouldn't be so bad that no one would speak for him after he went to prison.

But there was still some kind of friendship. Before Li Man's guilt was proven, the Ministry of Justice had not approved the case, so Mau Xing could not help him. Now Li Man was dead, and before he died, he wrote Tang Fan's name, so Mau Xing sent a letter to impeach Tang Fan, thinking that Li Man died suddenly before the case was finalized, so he could get rid of Tang Fan.

In the Ming Dynasty, anyone who did not have a few impeachment papers on his back would be ashamed to say that he was an official, and there was something fishy about Li Man.

He thinks it’s okay, but Pan Bin was furious.

Although Pan Da-ren didn't talk much about this little brother in his life, but he was his own personal, and now he was being bullied, Pan Bin had to give in to Wang Zhi the Marquis of Wu'an and others because of their different fields and powers.

Everyone has a few old friends, you do, but I don't too?

Pan Da-ren, in his anger, also started a relationship, and then some officials impeached Mau Xing, knowing that Li Man's evidence was strong and irrefutable, and tried to overturn the case for him, not knowing how many bribes the people had received from the Li Family for being a merchant who slandered the court's officials.

The two sides were in a heated argument.

Tang Fan, who was the client, sat at home alone and thought.

Why did Li Man commit suicide in prison?

Why did he write his name before he died?

Why did the Li Family suddenly start a fire, and burn the body?

Wasn't the death of Lao Li, the steward, equally fishy?

On the table, Tang Fan wrote several names on the ink and paper.

Li Man, Li Lin, Zhang-shi, Chen-shi, A-Xia.

It was late, and Sui Zhou had not returned, probably because he was delayed by the Northern Administrative Court.

A-Dong had already prepared all the meals and put them in a pot to warm them.

She and Tang Fan were sitting in the courtyard, waiting for Sui Zhou to come back for dinner.

A-Dong held her chin and looked curiously at the words Tang Fan had written, as she was still small and couldn't reach her legs on the floor, she was waving around in the air.

"Brother, how do you pronounce these words?"

One by one, Tang Fan pointed to her, told her the meaning of the words, gave her a piece of paper and a pen, and left the girl to scribble the connection while he began to gather his thoughts.

Zhang-shi was dead, and in this case, she was the original victim.

Li Man's reason for killing her is also simple: He has been out of love with her for a long time, and he thinks that Zhang-shi is an eyesore, and that she won't divorce him.

A-Xia is still in prison, and Tang Fan has already asked her about it. She doesn't know anything, and from the beginning to the end, she is just a poor person who has been used.

There were three others left, no, four.

Tang Fan found himself missing a steward, Lao Li.

Li Man committed suicide in prison, wrote his name before he died, the Li Family caught fire, Li Man's body was inside, and Lao Li couldn't escape.

After burying Lao Li and Li Man, the Li Family hastily left the capital and moved south as they had said before.

Li Man died and the Li Family House caught fire, which is a coincidence.




Or let's assume that Li Man didn't die at all, but someone else died in his place, so as not to be found suspicious later, the body was destroyed?

This is actually a possibility, because Li Man was being held in the Wanping County Prison, and although the case is serious, there are still plenty of opportunities for him to do his dirty work, so there is no guarantee that any guards will be willing to help him change his life for the better.

But Tang Fan couldn't figure it out. When he went to the Li Family that day, he saw Li Man's corpse, so he couldn't have been lying there pretending to be dead. It is also necessary to know that the corpse will be examined by the Coroner before it is released from prison. Did he buy off the Coroner too?

No, wait, wait.

He thinks he's missing something important.

He asked A-Dong: “What was the Li Family like on a regular basis?"

A-Dong tilted his head: “The young master is not very talkative and shy, but he is good to us, but I didn't see him very often, because the young master spends his days in his room studying, and he has his own maid.

Tang Fan said, "And how did he treat your mistress?"

A-Dong: "Very filial, the young master was brought up by the mistress since he was a child, but the master came back for a few times a year, and the young master respected and feared him."

Tang Fan got up and walks around the courtyard with his hands.

He was filial, shy, and not very talkative.

Yes, I used to have the same impression of Li Lin.

Tang Fan still remembers that after Li Man was taken away, he went to talk to Li Lin about ransoming A-Dong's life, the boy had a guarded and hateful attitude, and the radical words he used.

At that time, he thought it was Li Lin who had changed his mind after being stimulated, but now it seemed different.

He suddenly turned back and asked A-Dong: "Do you think, Li Lin and Li Man are alike?"

A-Dong nodded: "It's very similar, the Madam always says that the Young Master and the Master are like a match perfect."

Even though she was out of the Li Family, she still had a habit of addressing herself in the language.

Tang Fan didn't ask her again, but picked up the pace at his feet.

That's right, that's right!

In fact, from the beginning, they should have thought of it from a different angle.

Suppose that from the time Li Man was taken away to the time Tang Fan met Li Lin in the Li Family, Li Man and son Li Lin had switched identities. When Li Lin went to visit him, he could have persuaded his son to take his place in prison, and coaxed him to go out and find a way to suppress the case, but as Li Lin was so cowardly and shy, he could not have objected to his father's opinion. In the meantime if some silver money is slipped to the jailer. Another excuse to get the jailer to open the cell door and reunite the father and son for a moment. I'm sure the jailer would have agreed. So when waiting for Li Lin to come out of prison after his visit. In fact, that Li Lin is already Li Man.

Since Li Man and Li Lin are of the same size and look alike, if Li Man had only changed his disguise a bit and deliberately imitated his son's tone of voice, even if people had doubts, they probably would not have dared to say anything. The only one with standing to challenge it in front of Li Man. It's probably the Li Family's loyal steward, Lao Li.

Lao Li probably found out that Li Man's father and son had switched positions, and with his loyal character, he would definitely advise Li Man not to do so.

As for the cause of Li Lin's death, there are still some doubts, but now that I think about it, I think the suicide is mostly involved. Li Man was afraid that he would blow the whistle on the matter. Just kill two birds with one stone the bodies of Lao Li and Li Lin burn together. Just the started fire was just the thing to destroy the body.

As for the cause of Li Lin's death. There are still some doubts. But think about it now. The suicide component is estimated to be predominant.

With filial piety at the top of his head, the cowardly Li Lin is forced to comply with his father's request for an exchange of identities, but with the death of his first mother and his father's cold-bloodedness, Li Lin must be struggling with pain again - something that is completely contrary to the sages he has read before.

These conflicting feelings made the teenager torn, and he chose suicide to escape from everything.

But when he was dying, he still had a longing for his mother's death and his father's cruelty, so he wrote Tang Fan's name on the wall, not to resent Tang Fan, but to hint at Tang Fan, hoping that he could solve the mystery of everything!

In this way, everything will make sense!

Thinking about it, Tang Fan's breath came up.

He wasn't excited because he had figured it all out, but he felt that Li Man was just too scary.

What had been an uncomplicated case of wife murder, turned out to be such an outcome!




From the moment Li Man killed his wife, he must have been prepared for two things, if he could bribe the officials and make the case small, then it would be best, if not, then he would go ahead with the plan and replace himself with his son and get away with it.

The Li Family moved south two days ago, Tang Fan is sure that even if he sends his own men to chase the Li Family, he will only be able to track down the scattered Li Family subordinates, as for Li Man, who is pretending to be his son, he must have carried the Li Family's money with him and escaped.

Combined with the disappearance of Chen-shi before, there might be a shadow of the White Lotus Society in these things.

"Big brother! Big brother!"

His sleeve was shaken a few times, and Tang Fan snapped back to see A-Dong looking at him inexplicably.

"What's wrong?"

"Big brother what are you thinking, I kept shouting and didn't react, and it scared me to death!" The little girl patted her heart and pointed to Sui Zhou who had just come in from outside." Brother Sui is back, ready for dinner!"

Tang Fan frowned: “Guangchuan, about the Li Family's case, I thought of something, I was about to tell you, I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you the Northern Administrative Court again."

Sui Zhou nodded, "Let’s eat first."

A-Dong jumped out of the kitchen with the vegetables and said, "Yeah, yeah, let's eat first, I'm starving to death!"

Sui Zhou patted Tang Fan on the arm: "Eat up."

The words were simple, and the words were bland, but there was a sense of trust in the blandness.

Tang Fan didn't notice that his complexion was relaxed at once.

He nodded and smiled at Sui Zhou, “Thanks to A-Dong, I've finally eaten the acacia leaf today, I've been craving it for ages!"

A-Dong shouted: "How dare you say that! You ran up to climb and I almost broke my bone trying to catch you!"

Sui Zhou: "..."

He thought he had given up the idea after taking him out to eat that day, but Tang Da-ren took the opportunity of his impeachment to climb a tree and pick leaves.

Sui Zhou has finally seen what it means to be a foodie.

The author has something to say: many people didn't guess the plot, did they?

It seems that only the "late return from sunset" children's shoes guessed it very close to the truth, so, dang, praise!

In fact, there is a story in front of us, except that Li Lin is mentioned more than once as having a big change of heart, and there is another sentence in chapter 25: He looks very similar to Li Man, even his body size is similar, but Li Lin looks a bit younger.

When you see people condemning Li Lin as an ungrateful child the author was torn between wanting to tell the truth and not being able to tell the truth, and the translator is very conflicted and happy.















- The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty -



Prev: Chapter 27《Chapters Home 》Next: Chapter 29