The rural doctor bought a husband who was very treacherous

Chapter 231 Searching the Song Family

Qi Lingheng poured a glass of wine for Su Tang, "This is fruit wine, you can drink less."

Su Tang looked at the table full of food and turned around to call Qi Yan to sit down with her, otherwise she and Qi Lingheng would not be able to finish the whole table.

I just turned around and looked around, and I didn't know when Qi Yan left.

"What are you looking for?"

"Where's Qi Yan?"

"He's quite sensible."

Qi Yan, who was hiding in the dark, thought, it was a rare occasion that his master praised him. If Qi Feng were here, he would definitely be surprised.

"We can't stop him from eating something." Su Tang stood up and looked around.

"Hey." Qi Lingheng sighed, "Qi Yan, come out and eat with us."

Qi Yan...Should I go out or pretend I didn't hear it?

"Qi Yan." Qi Lingheng called out again. Su Tang would probably not be able to eat in peace if Qi Yan didn't come out today.

The next day.

Su Tang slept until almost noon before getting up.

"Hey, why haven't you gotten up yet?" Su Tang didn't expect that as soon as she turned over, she fell into a warm embrace.

At this time, Qi Lingheng was leaning on the bed reading a book. Seeing Su Tang wake up, he put down the book in his hand, turned sideways, half-picked Su Tang up, and let her lean in his arms.

"I got up a long time ago and practiced sword for a while in the morning, and then I came back to wait for you to wake up."

"Oh, have you had breakfast?" Su Tang pretended to sit up. She drank some wine yesterday and slept very soundly at night.

"I haven't had breakfast yet. I'm waiting for you."

But we should have lunch together.

Lunch consisted of some Yangzhou specialties prepared by the chef of the Qi Mansion. Ever since Qi Lingheng brought Su Tang to live here, the chef originally employed by the mansion has been finding ways to cook Yangzhou delicacies for the two masters.

"This is the kind of soup that people here like to make. It is said that it takes several hours to stew such a small bowl." Qi Lingheng picked up the spoon and stirred it. When the soup cooled down a little, he served a small bowl to Su Tang.

"Well, otherwise the girls here are all so delicate." Su Tang finished the bowl of soup in one breath. During her time in Jiangnan, she also wanted to drink more soup.

"If you like to drink, I'll ask the cook to go back to Kyoto when you leave." Qi Lingheng looked at Su Tang's empty bowl and filled her half a bowl.

"No need for that. He was born and raised in Yangzhou and his whole family is in Yangzhou. I can't send him to Kyoto just for a sip of soup." Su Tang waved her hands quickly.

"Besides, these soups are too bland and won't work if you drink them for too long."

Su Tang actually likes spicy food. If she were asked to drink Jiangnan soup every day, she would definitely not be used to it.

"By the way, what was that thing you took yesterday?"

I came back too late yesterday, and Qi Lingheng was not able to ask outside, so he has been waiting until now.

"Oh, this is what you are talking about." A recorder immediately appeared on the desk next to Su Tang.

"This is a recorder. I'll play it for you."

At this time, only Su Tang and Qi Lingheng were in the room. Qi Yan and Chunmei had all retreated to the outer room.

Su Tang played the sound she had recorded yesterday. She could vaguely hear voices, but there were mostly sounds of stringed instruments and pianos.

"The voices from yesterday?" Qi Lingheng also realized the purpose of this pen, but the voices of those people yesterday could not be heard clearly in the voices recorded by Su Tang.

"I'll show you how to do it when we get back."

Su Tang took back the recorder. She still needed to use software to analyze and process the sound in order to hear clearly what those people said yesterday.

"By the way, where is the South Mountain they mentioned yesterday?"

Qi Lingheng nodded and told Su Tang roughly the information Qi Yan had found out early this morning.

Nanshan is just to the north of Yangzhou City. It is a continuous and vast mountain range that stretches for dozens of miles.

The natural scenery of Nanshan is absolutely beautiful and fascinating.

There are also several Taoist temples and solemn Buddhist temples in Nanshan.

"Then let's go to Nanshan tomorrow."

"it is good."

After lunch, Chunmei and the others had just cleared the dishes in the house when they heard Qi Yan’s report from the door.

"Master, Magistrate Hong is outside the palace asking for an audience."

"Let him wait in the front hall." Qi Lingheng said in a deep voice.

......

Here, Magistrate Hong was taken to the front hall of Qi Mansion.

This was his second time entering the Qi Mansion. When he was brought to the front hall, he was the only one in the front hall except for an old servant who served him a cup of tea at the beginning.

There were two guards guarding the door outside the front hall, so Prefect Hong did not dare to walk around in the front hall.

After waiting for more than half an hour, Qi Lingheng still did not show up.

Prefect Hong sat for a while and finally couldn't help it. He stood up and walked to the front hall door and asked the guard at the door, "I wonder if the King of Qi is in the mansion."

The two guards didn't even look at Magistrate Hong, let alone answer his question.

Magistrate Hong had no choice but to go back to the hall and sit down.

After another cup of tea, Qi Lingheng finally arrived with Qi Yanshan.

"Your humble servant greets His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi." Prefect Hong saluted to Qi Lingheng.

"Well, what is the purpose that Magistrate Hong came to the Qi Mansion to see me about today?" Qi Lingheng walked to the seat at the head and sat down. Immediately, a servant brought him new tea.

"I am here regarding the Song family case." After Qi Lingheng sat down, Prefect Hong only then took up half of the seat.

"Wasn't the case concluded clearly in court yesterday? What's going on? Does the Song family want to overturn the verdict?" Qi Lingheng picked up the teacup and used the tea lid to float the rim of the bowl.

The crisp sound of tea lids colliding rang out in the silent hall, shocking Prefect Hong's heart.

Prefect Hong immediately stood up and bowed, saying, "It's not that the Song family wants to overturn the verdict. The case was indeed cleared that day."

"Then what else do you want to say?" Qi Lingheng put down the teacup and turned his head to look at Prefect Hong.

"This is the father and son of the Song family who committed suicide in prison." Magistrate Hong wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and replied.

Qi Lingheng looked at Prefect Hong and asked no more questions, waiting for him to explain first.

Prefect Hong had no choice but to wipe the sweat off his face and said in a trembling voice, "After the head of the Song family was taken to the prison yesterday, he began to shout about his injustice in prison."

Prefect Hong looked at Qi Lingheng's expression and saw nothing unusual, so he continued, "Among the people who gathered outside the hall yesterday, several of them went to the government office to testify to what happened yesterday. This matter is already set in stone.

Haha, I have been an official for many years and have never had a single case of injustice or miscarriage of justice during my tenure. I will definitely not make a mistake in this case."

“You may not know this, but I am related to the Song family by marriage, and my wife is the sister of the head of the Song family.

However, my wife has always been honest and obedient, and I did not expect that her brother would raise such a son who dared to commit rebellion.

So, when I saw the Song family being disrespectful to the King of Qi and the Princess in the hall yesterday, I was really shocked.

Yesterday, after the Song family was thrown into jail, they shouted that they were innocent and kept asking me to go to the jail. They wanted to talk to me face to face and tell me what happened on the street yesterday.

I thought that the matter had already been decided, so I did not go to the prison to meet the Song family.

Perhaps he felt that it was hopeless to appeal for justice, the head of the Song family went mad in prison. He first strangled his son to death, and then strangled himself with a belt on the prison door.

Today, the news of the Song family father and son committing suicide reached my wife’s ears for some reason. I didn’t expect that my wife would also follow her brother.”

Qi Yan, who was standing behind Qi Lingheng, listened to Prefect Hong tearfully recounting family matters below.

Looking at the expression on Prefect Hong's face, if an ordinary person saw it, they would definitely think that Prefect Hong was a man who valued friendship and loyalty.

First, he sacrificed his own relatives for the sake of justice, and then he was deeply in love with his own wife.

It is obvious that Qi Yan, who has experienced so many such things, would know that the death of the Song family was probably just a play directed and acted by Governor Hong himself.

He first killed the head of the Song family and his son in prison. In this way, it would be difficult to investigate the matter between the Song family and him.

After all, the two are related by marriage, and Magistrate Hong must have asked the Song family to help him with many things.

This is how the Song family members were able to ride their horses and run rampant in Yangzhou City.

Even the servants dared to wield knives and hack people in the street without restraint.

The death of Magistrate Hong's wife cleared the relationship between Magistrate Hong and the Song family.

Early this morning, in addition to inquiring about the news he heard on the pleasure boat yesterday, Qi Yan also specifically inquired about the matter between Prefect Hong and the Song family.

It is said that although Magistrate Hong married the daughter of the Song family as his principal wife, this principal wife did not give birth to any children for him.

Prefect Hong was so thirsty from talking that he didn't hear Qi Lingheng asking any more questions. He finished speaking until he had nothing more to say, and then he looked up at Qi Lingheng again.

"Are you done?" Qi Lingheng asked.

Seeing that Prefect Hong nodded, he spoke again, "The Song family committed suicide out of fear of crime, they must want to cover up something. How about this, let Qi Yan go with you to the Song family to see if the Song family has done anything shameful."

"Yes, I will conduct a thorough search." Before Magistrate Hong responded, Qi Yan clasped his fists first.

Qi Yan then walked to the side of Prefect Hong and frowned at the fat and big-eared Prefect Hong, "Why aren't you leaving yet?"

"But, this, this Song family just attempted to commit a crime in the street, what else could he have done wrong?" At this time, Qin on Magistrate Hong's back was sweating.

Last night, he sent away the Song father and son, as well as his wife. In addition to severing his relationship with the Song family, he also wanted to silence the head of the Song family. After all, the head of the Song family did help him do a lot of things.

But this has nothing to do with what happened on the street yesterday.

Why did the King of Qi want to search the Song family?

He only had time to kill the three people from the Song family last night, but had not yet gone to the Song family. The Song family must have left something behind. If it fell into the hands of King Qi, then everything he had done would be exposed.

At this time, Magistrate Hong's fat legs could not help but tremble, and he could not move at all.

Qi Yan looked at Prefect Hong who had not moved, then grabbed Prefect Hong's arm and carried the more than 200-pound Prefect Hong out of the front hall as if he were carrying a chicken.

Upon seeing this, the guards at the door stepped forward with good eyesight, and carried the stunned Prefect Hong to the gate, one on each side.

"Check it carefully." Qi Lingheng added from behind.

In the end, Qi Yan brought the Qi Mansion's soldiers and carried Prefect Hong to the Song family.

That night.

Inside the Qi Mansion, the courtyard where Su Tang and Qi Lingheng lived was hung with lanterns, illuminating the dark courtyard extremely brightly.

At this time, Su Tang had already extracted all the words recorded in the recorder.

She played the processed sound for Qi Lingheng to listen to.

"The things you have are always so special." Qi Lingheng looked at Su Tang with a gentle smile on his lips.

God blessed him and allowed him to meet and fall in love with Su Tang.

In his eyes, Su Tang was like a fairy from heaven who had come to save him and the world.

According to the news brought back by Qi Feng and his men, Northern Xinjiang sent another 2,000 livestock to Dayong, and Nalan Yuelan, who was promised to be sent to Dayong for marriage, also came.

However, Nalan Yuelan had an unusual status, so after arriving in Kyoto, she did not marry any of Dayong's officials.

It is said that a group of people from southern Xinjiang also came to Kyoto to submit documents for alliance, but these people were a little slow in coming and have not yet arrived in Kyoto.

Some neighboring small countries also came to Dayong to submit their letters of credence. It is estimated that Kyoto will be bustling soon.

"But the air over there is not as good as here." Su Tang took back the recorder. The advancement of technology also comes at a certain price.

"Master." Qi Yan's voice sounded outside the house.

Su Tang and the others did not rest as they were waiting for news from Qi Yan.

Today, Qi Yan and Magistrate Hong went to the Song family and have not returned until now.

"Come in." Qi Yan pushed the door and walked into the room.

"Master, these were searched out from the Song family. There are many other things placed in the yard." Qi Yan handed a small wooden box in his hand to Qi Lingheng.

Qi Lingheng opened the wooden box, inside which was a stack of account books neatly arranged.

He opened one at random and took a look, and immediately saw clear records of the accounts of the Song family's properties in Yangzhou City.

However, these account books actually contain records of salt trading.

Salt has always been controlled by the government, but the Song family actually handled the salt business, which is smuggling salt.

It is a capital crime.

I flipped through another book and found that it actually recorded the silver, money and property that were handed over to Prefect Hong every year.

Every record was very detailed. Qi Lingheng took a quick look and found that there was a record of 80,000 taels of silver on one page of paper.

Su Tang also walked to Qi Lingheng's side at this time. She also glanced at the book in Qi Lingheng's hand, "Wow, everyone here is so rich. There are 80,000 taels of silver here."

"You calculate quickly." Qi Lingheng raised his eyes and looked at Su Tang.

He just took a while to calculate the amount on this page.

Su Tang just glanced at it just now.

"This, here, and here, just add them together and it will come out." Su Tang forgot that there is no such thing as mental arithmetic here. Qi Lingheng's calculation was already fast, but at that time, he was also secretly calculating with his fingers.

"Well, my lady, please teach this to your husband later." Qi Lingheng closed the book and was not in a hurry to calculate these things at this moment.

With these, we can investigate and prosecute Prefect Hong as well.

"What's outside?" Su Tang walked to the door and glanced at the yard.

There were more than a dozen large boxes in the yard at this time.

"It's the property confiscated from the Song family."

As soon as Qi Yan finished his reply, Qi Lingheng saw the gleam in Su Tang's eyes.

He shook his head helplessly. Su Tang loved money and didn't know how to hide it at all.