The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 2: The Hedonistic son

The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty. 《成化十四年》Chengnian Shisi Nian
The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Chapter 2: The Hedonistic son

The servant girl was tied up and when she was brought up she was covered with many wounds on her body and slap marks on both cheeks. I think she had been taught a lesson by the Marquis after the incident, and now her clothes and hair were all in disarray and she was pushed to her knees.

Tang Fan: "What's your last name?"

The servant girl: "The name of this servant girl is A-Lin."

Tang Fan: "Let's get into the details of this night."

The maiden sobbed as she told the truth.

What she said was actually very little different from what Zheng Fu said, the only difference being that A-Lin claimed that she had done nothing with Zheng Cheng in the house.

Zheng Ying laughed coldly, ''You have spared no effort to exonerate yourself. Let me ask you, how could you, a servant in the front yard, go to the back yard for no reason, and even pass by the old man’s yard? It's a clear idea that you want to fly up and become a phoenix, but now that the person is dead, you can't wait to get rid of the relation! When I broke in, you two were still unclothed. Even Zheng Fu said he'd been standing outside for at least a burn of incense for a while, how dare you say his thing didn't work? Isn't it going to take me to get someone to examine you out before you decide to tell the truth?" 

[1] To fly up and become a phoenix = to go from a low servant to a higher position by using charms and wiles applies especially for female servants who wants to better themselves.

A-Lin sobbed, "Lord Marquis, I am sure that I am innocent with the young master. After entering the room, the young master first said that he was very hot and started to undress, and then said that he was dizzy. So I helped him to sit down and he mumbled some word and the he suddenly fainted on me and later on... Later on... Zheng Fu broke into the room.”

Zheng Ying didn't bother to argue with a little maid, so he looked at Pan Bin: "Master Pan, you see, this servant still won't confess her guilt, and it looks like she's going to have to be punished so she can confess!"

Pan Bin said, "Lord Marquis, don't worry, if your son's death is really related to her, I will enforce the law impartially."

Zheng Ying was clearly a little dissatisfied with this casual answer.

Pan Bin made a wink at Tang Fan.

Tang Fan then asked Zheng Fu, "Is there any inconsistency between what A-Lin said earlier?"

Zheng Fu: "I don't know what happened after Young Master entered the room with A-Lin, but other things appear to be matched."

Tang Fan: "How long was the interval between when you went out and shouted for people and when you came back again?"

Zheng Fu: "About a quarter of an hour or so."

Tang Fan asked A-Lin again, "Had anyone arrived in the meantime?"

A-Lin: "No."

Tang Fan: "Lord Marquis, I wonder where Young master Zheng's body is?"

Zheng Ying: "It's in the room."

Tang Fan: "I want to see inside."

Zheng Ying: "Master Tang please."

By this time, the coroner had also arrived, and Tang Fan went in with him.

The two of them pushed the door in, and the inside was still a mess.

Zheng Cheng was lying on the bed, his clothes were dishevelled and his body was still warm, but his face was green and pale, and he had long since lost his breath.

The coroner crouched down beside the corpse, pried open Zheng Cheng's eyelid, mouth, and reached out again to fumble around on the surrounding limbs for a while.

Tang Fan looked around and searched, saw that the coroner was still there, and asked, "What did you find?"

The coroner hesitated for a moment and then he said "No obvious trauma marks were found, but it seems, unlike the sudden death from an acute disease as well...."

Tang Fan nodded, frowning slightly, and also followed suit to examine the body.

The coroner: "What did Master find out?"

Tang Fan: "Let's get out of here first."

The two got up and went out, while Zheng Ying and Wei Yuzheng were waiting outside, and when they saw them come out, they asked, "How was it?"

The coroner man spoke lightly, how could he dare to speak first, so he looked at Tang Fan.

At this time, Tang Fan handed A-Lin a white porcelain vase that he had just picked up from the bed and bedside: "You own this?"

The maidservant shook her head and denied it.

He then asked the little manservant Zheng Fu, who stammered for half a day and finally admitted: "The pills in the bottle are called 'Fuyangchun' and have the power to enhance            aphrodisiac moments and nourish the kidneys. The prescriptions are from the young master's own collection, and the medicine is dispensed by an outside pharmacy.” 

[1] Fuyangchun literally translate into Enrich-Male-Lust or Youthfulness nourishing the kidney it is well thought by Chinese traditionalist medicine that enhancing kidney function enhances the xxx drive

Zheng Ying was angry and hateful, his son was not only looking for fun without end, but also used such drugs to cheer himself up at a young age, if not for the fact that the person was already dead, he would have had the heart to hang the ungrateful son and beat him till he was unrecognizable.

At this point, he was more and more certain that his son was in a desperate state to die for a romp in the bed because of the Fuyangchun medicine coursing through and when he was about to make love to the maid, and he was so desperate that he died suddenly, and he was so desperate that he wanted to chop off the head of the cheap sluxt who had seduced his master with his sword.

Tang Fan poured out the pills from the porcelain vase and sniffed them, and after a moment of silence, asked again, ''Lord Marquis, where is your son's family? Who did he came in contact with before and after this night, please also bring those people here and the rest of you can go back."

Zheng Ying didn't know what the man wanted to do, but he was still quite cooperative, and not long after, he summoned everyone needed over.

Zheng Cheng has one wife and three concubines, which doesn't seem to be many by the current standards, but that is because he likes to look for wildflowers of easy to get to satisfy his needs outside, and no matter how beautiful a woman is he will tired of these beautiful women in his home within three days. So, since he was 15 years old he has been fooling around and there are only 4 women in his house.

His wife, Zheng Sun, is the niece of the Count of Yingcheng from the father's brother side. She is also from a noble family, whose status is comparable to the Marquis of Wu'an, and she was also a good match for a family back then. Now Zheng sun's wife has become a faithful good looking young girl who is a widow. With Zheng Cheng's love heart, even when he was alive, her husband and wife's feelings would not be better. But Zheng sun's family is a well-known literati, even in the Tang Dynasty they have heard of their stellar reputation.

At the moment, the four concubines were standing there, all three of them dropping their heads to wipe their tears, but only Zheng Sun was pale and speechless, her face still covered in tears. I think he was too grieved to cry. Even Zheng Ying said gently, "Daughter in law, you have been married to the Marquis for five years, serving your father-in-law like your own parents. You are indeed filial. Instead, my Zheng Family has done a lot to you. Now my son who is not filial has left early. But he hasn't left any blood descendants. I will discuss with my family on a certain day and take you back to your maiden's family, so as not to let you down for years you will have in this world!"

Zheng Sun said in a hushed voice, "Your Excellency, don't say much, I should do your duty as a wife, now I just hope that my husband will be buried as soon as possible.”

Zheng Ying let out a sigh of relief and said no more.

In addition to the Zheng Sun family, the other three concubines' harem names were Madam Wan, Madam Hui, and Madam Yu.

Madam Wan is the oldest, already into her semi-elderly, and was the first to follow Zheng Cheng, he was pulled into concubine-hood for Zheng Cheng even earlier than Zheng Sun's entry, she looked like a woman with a more honest and low-key disposition in the Marquis family.

Madam Hui was the best-looking, and had been pampered for a while before. Before Zheng Cheng died, she was the most favoured of his wife and concubines.

At the moment, the three of them are also different. Madam Yu was so young and delicate that before she died, Zheng Cheng was the most favoured of her wives and concubines.

The three were also acting differently at the moment. Madam Wan hid behind the Zheng Sun and sheds tears in silence, while Madam Hui howled loudly. Madam Yu's cry is louder than that of Madam Wei. However, there is a special charm of Madam Wan's still heart. It can be seen that there was no reason for her to be favoured.

People who are good at observation, such as Tang Fan, can see that the two favourite concubines, Madam Hui and Madam Yu must not be so peaceful even if others don't say it. It must be common for them to be jealous and rivals of each other.

Tang Fan took out the white porcelain vase and asked if they had seen it, which the women’s servants all denied.

They were also asked where they were at the time of the incident, and all four of them gave clear accounts, which were testified to by family servants and did not appear to be false.

Zheng Ying looked at Tang Fan tossing and turning for a long time and couldn't help but ask, "What else does Master Tang have to ask?"

He thought that the evidence of guilt was strong and there was no need to ask questions again and again, and took the hard-spoken servant girl directly back to be tortured and confessed in three strokes. Why did he call in another unrelated person to ask about it? He wanted to make the maid innocent?

Tang Fan said, "I've asked all the questions, and I'd like to ask the Lord Marquis to speak to the Governor for a moment."

Zheng Ying then told the others to go back to their rooms and he invited them to his study.

Zheng Ying: "If there's anything you want to say, Master Tang can say it as straight as he wants."

Tang Fan: "May I ask Lord Marquis, has your son’s health been weak since childhood?"

Why are you asking irrelevant questions?

Zheng Ying pressed down and replied, "Not bad, but yes."

Tang Fan: "Have you ever sent him to be checked by a doctor? What did the doctor say?"

Zheng Ying: "The doctor said it was a problem brought by the mother, some congenital deficiencies, but not a big problem."

Tang Fan: "Your son is unusually thin and has a difficult heir, so this must also be the reason?"

Zheng Ying: "Not bad, what exactly is Master Tang trying to say?"

Tang Fan: "If I am not mistaken, there may be something in that which led to your son's death."

Zheng Ying froze: "Why do you say that?"

Tang Fan: "If you are suffering from the acute condition of sexual energy, which is also known as immediate wind, you will die suddenly if you are unable to be saved. The doctors think it is caused by the deficiency of Qi and Yang energies. If there is this disease, there will be red circles on the palms. There will be red tendons on the circles. It will accumulate over time. It cannot be there without these symptoms. But when I just looked at the palms of your son, I did not find this symptom."

Zheng Ying was not slow to react, in a jolt he asked: "Are you saying that my son's death had another cause?"

Tang Fan didn't answer this question and continued, "If he died in a heightened sexual emergency, if we opens his eyelids, he can still see that his eyes will be covered with blood, a phenomenon that cannot be found on your son's body. I think your son was a bit short of kidney energy, but it was not to the point he could not function in bed and needed the medicine to help him out. It's just that he overindulges in women, and that's what makes people misunderstand him."

There were more than one or two people who misunderstood this sentence, and even Zheng Ying himself didn't think his son died of overindulgence of sex energy?

Zheng Ying was terrified and burst out in anger: "Who is so audacious that he would do my Marquis of Wu'an eldest son any harm without fearing the consequences?"

Tang Fan: "When the coroner and I went in to check it out, we found that your son was very clean and without any stains, which means that what A-Lin, the servant girl, said was not true. A-Lin said that your son felt dizzy after taking 'Fuyangchun', so maybe the problem lies in this bottle of medicine in my hand, but these are only my speculations, we have to wait to find out before concluding the matter."

After saying this, he asked again, "What enemies does your son usually have?"

The anger gradually subsided and Zheng Ying fell silent.

Zheng Cheng, a hedonistic eunuch, where would there be any unending enemies?

But to say he does not have any not at all, is not possible.

Besides, Zheng Cheng himself is not Zheng Ying’s only child, because he had three wives and four concubines. There are more sons and daughters, they bore him many children. Many of the inner houses information are not private enough for the outer world. The Great Ming legal code does not stipulate that an eldest son can be the only one who has a chance to inherit the nobility title from his father, but if there is no established son for the title, other sons can also vie for the title if they have been ordained by the court. If it is said that the son is a man who strives for excellence, then he still spends his days in the flowery alley chasing after easy to get girls, how can the other brothers be convinced of him succeeding the family nobility title?

Moreover, someone like Zheng Cheng, it was not impossible for him to try to molest Tang Fan even though he was walking on the road, not to mention those who are powerless and he feel he can take the with a little force and are weak in his eyes, in case any of them want to take revenge the possibilities are endless.

There is also a lot of jealousy among the rich kids who spend their days chasing skirts, and a lot of anger for when gains one upon the other so it's commonplace to have a feud and fights for a girl.

Thinking about it that way, the possibilities are too many to guess at.

When Pan Bin saw that he was dishevelled, he said, "Lord Marquis, this matter is bound to alarm His Majesty, and the Shuntian Prefecture will do its best to investigate and arrest the real culprit before His Majesty gives the order."

Zheng Ying nodded, "Then Master Pan I thank you for your troubles."

The Marquis of Wu'an himself grew up in tall gates schools and grew up from there and he always knew that the internal house was not half as soft as the masters in the imperial court in order to compete for the title, and that many of the ruthless methods were even sensational to the ears. If the murderer was found out to be from the Zheng's family, it would be the end of the title lineage.

Thinking about this, Zheng Ying's heart was half cold, and he had long since lost the anger he felt when he heard that there was another murderer.

The author has something to say.　

1, solemn reminder: this novel is not the same as what happens or happened in this reality. Many of the characters and cases in the article are fictional, like Master Tang, strictly speaking, his duties may be different from those described in this article, and even because the author is not from the criminal investigation field, some of the crime solving techniques are open to question, just look at it, don't bother to think too much about it. (This chapter is written by looking up information on the death by a blow up of sexual energy(death during intercourse), I've never encountered it before, but if you do, you can share your experience.

2, The Imperial Noble Consort Wan and Wang Zhi need not be said, the Marquis of Wu'an Zheng Ying is also a real person, but Zheng Ying does not have a son named Zheng Cheng, so everyone should be relatively clear about this, this is actually a bit like the TV series Di Renjie, a fictional story in a real historical context. But since history exists after all, if you are interested, I will tell you some interesting trivia about this time period.

3, This article is not a transmigration or rebirth, but as the main line develops, it will change the historical trajectory from case to case, and our Master Tang will step by step ascend to a high position, oh, of course, Master Tang's family will also come into play.

T/N: I actually have watched three of Di Renjie movies...  the first one was about his case of people exploding in the sun, the second one was about a creature that abducted women and the last one I believe was about a Indian sect which could conjure up illusions and wanted to take down the royal family... Absolutely fantastic kungfu... 

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