Ch. 52 - Jia Zheng Commented on Ge Qingfeng and Xue Pan made a Big Fuss at the Vice President's Mansion
The Famous Detective of the Red MansionThis chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
This chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
It was reasonable to say that the investigation of the Central Judicial Office couldn’t be supervised by the Ministry of Public Works in any case.
But a minister opened his mouth, and the person appointed was the Old Second Master of Rongguo Mansion. How dare Jia Yucun and Sun Shaozong refuse?
So after sending Wang Yan away, the two people couldn't help but ”cluster around the one whom they respect.” They welcomed Jia Zheng to the temporarily requisitioned Dongxiang courtyard and presented the documentary evidence with their hands, posing as if they were following his lead.
Fortunately, although Jia Zheng was not good at both businesses, he was a self-conscious man. Seeing this, he hurriedly declined and said, "Two wise nephews don't have to be like this. The reason why Minister Wang sent me here was just to put on an appearance and respond to the situation. How dare I get involved in your business?"
Jia Yucun and Sun Shaozong secretly breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the speech. What they were afraid of was that Jia Zheng pretended to understand nothing and meddled indiscriminately.
But then again, asking Jia Zheng for this supervision might not be a bad thing. At least Sun Shaozong wanted to know what Vice President Ge's reputation in the Ministry of Public Works was.
However, Jia Zheng's position in the Ministry of Public Works was just like that of the clay Bodhisattva in the temple. Everyone respected him, it seemed to be extremely noble, but in fact, he had no real power at all. He could only do some virtual tasks, such as greeting and seeing off.
Although Jia Zheng was unwilling and wanted to make some contributions to show his ability, in the end, his title was just a Ministry Councilor of the fifth grade. How was he qualified to complain?
At this time, seeing Sun Shaozong sincerely asking for advice without perfunctory flattery, let him find some sense of being valued. Being happy in his heart, there was no door guard in his mouth, just like a bamboo tube pouring beans, spilling Vice President Ge's performance in the Yamen.
According to him, Vice President Ge could be regarded as a representative of being broad-minded and fat. He didn’t like to fight for power and profit normally, so he was just muddling along wholeheartedly. The officials below also nicknamed him the “Maitreya.”
"I have been in the Ministry of Public Works for more than ten years, and I rarely see him get into conflict with others." Jia Zheng shook his head and sighed on his face. "If it weren't for the facts, I can't believe that someone would hate him to the extent of eating Vice President Ge’s heart!"
Speaking of this, he couldn't help but gossip curiously, "Nephew Sun, are you sure this case has nothing to do with the Heavenly Hound?"
Sun Shaozong resisted the urge to roll his eyes and said with a helpless smile, "Uncle, don't tease me. Where does this “Heavenly Hound” come from this world? It's just an erroneous rumor, which was borrowed by the murderer to deceive people's ears and eyes."
With that, he hurriedly put the topic back on track, "By the way, Uncle, you just said it's rare for Vice President Ge to get into conflict with others. In this way, there should still be several conflicts and disputes. Do you know what caused them?"
"This..."
Jia Zheng gently tapped his temple with his fingers and thought for a long time before saying, "It's not much but a few times as a period when Vice President Ge often clashed with people. As for the reason, it's actually because his favorite concubine, Chen, has unfortunately contracted the epidemic disease and died."
"Speaking of Vice President Ge, he is an affectionate person!" He added, "During that time, many people have seen him holding a portrait of his concubine in the back silently crying. He was then restored to his original appearance of the Maitreya after several months."
Concubine Chen again!
It seemed that the eldest son, Ge Xiaorui's position, was unstable, and the third son, Ge Xiaoyi's biological mother's tragic death, was also caused by this Concubine Chen. A concubine who died more than two years ago could still be so haunted in the house. It was just that he didn’t know how beautiful she was before her death.
"Yes!"
Sun Shaozong attempted to make up for Chen's attitude here, but Jia Zheng hurriedly interrupted and said, "When Vice President Ge was in a good mood not long after he restored to his original appearance of the Maitreya, his toes were gnawed by the dog. At that time, many people were concerned that he would have to be tossed around for some days, but he was not affected at all after he came to the Yamen."
Did the dog that bit his toes happen just when he was in a better mood?
Sun Shaozong couldn't judge for a moment whether this information had anything to do with the case or not, but he still carefully recorded it in his small book.
Seeing that the information in Jia Zheng's stomach was almost revealed, Jia Yucun interrupted, "Uncle, you came in a hurry this morning, I'm afraid you haven't had time to eat, right? Why don't you go to my house next door first for some food?"
Jia Zheng actually had breakfast, but when he heard this, he knew that Jia Yucun and Sun Shaozong had been busy and hadn’t eaten breakfast until now. If he remained there, they wouldn't be able to leave him alone here with the younger generations.
So he hurriedly agreed and casually congratulated Jia Yucun on “moving to a new house.”
When the three men came out of the East Wing room and left Ge's Mansion through the front yard, they saw Vice President Ge's four sons crying in the mourning hall.
Sun Shaozong thought it was funny to see them all in pain. They should know that three of these four people were suspected of killing their father!
"Eh?!"
At this time, hearing Jia Zheng make a sound beside him, he stretched out his hand, pointed to Ge Xiaoxian, and asked, "Is that handsome young man in the middle the son of Concubine Chen?"
"Why?" Jia Yucun said. "Has Uncle seen him before?"
Jia Zheng shook his head and said, "That’s not it, but his eyebrows and facial features are vaguely similar to Concubine Chen, so I guess it's casual."
Speaking of this, Jia Zheng knew that he had made a mistake and hurriedly explained, "I once saw the portrait of Concubine Chen in the Yamen."
Originally, Sun Shaozong thought that Ge Xiaoxian was a little feminine. After Jia Zheng mentioned it, he felt that this guy was girlish. If he changed into women's clothes, it was estimated that few people could tell the gender.
Because none of the three loved the pleasure of "intention and action to fight injustice,” they were naturally not interested in staying and commenting on Ge Xiaoxian, so they just stopped for a moment and set off to Jia Yucun’s Mansion next door.
After being busy since the middle of the night, Sun Shaozong was already hungry. He also had an obvious military background, so he didn't have to pretend to be refined. He just waited for the meal to be served, threw away his cheeks, lifted his back teeth, and ate like a whirlwind.
As he chewed on the case, he saw that Zhou Da had hurried over and said that the Young Master of Jia's family relative had somehow gotten into a conflict with Vice President Ge's son and nearly fought in the mourning hall.
"Young Master of the Jia’s family relative?"
Jia Yucun frowned and said, "My nephew and relatives are all in my hometown in the south, where did I get a Young Master? Did you not meet a deceptive madman?"
Zhou Da secretly glanced at Jia Zheng and then said, "Returned to the Prefectural Magistrate, this Young Master is not someone else but the eldest son of the Xue family of the Imperial Merchant..."
PA!
Before Zhou Da finished speaking, Jia Zheng had already stood up, hitting the table, and scolded angrily, "What a vile spawn! It's okay to mess around at home normally, but how can he disgrace himself here now!"
After he finished his speech, he rushed out in a hurry, no matter how others reacted!
Oh well~
He was afraid that this stupid thing was going to lead to bad luck.
While observing the silence for Xue Pan, Sun Shaozong grabbed the soup dumpling from the table and rushed up to Jia Yucun while eating.