My historian is dying every day

Chapter 10 [People in the Criminal Prison]

The cool night breeze blows slowly into the room through the cracks in the carved windows covered with plain white gauze.

Wen Yanzhi turned over on the bed, looking up at the embroidered crane curtain above his head.

Qi Yu's words were like the thousand-character prose he learned when he was young, each word and sentence, all kinds of clues seemed to have taken root in his mind.For a while, Lin Taifu, Dali Temple, and Yushitai flashed through his mind one by one, and finally, all the disturbing sentences disappeared in his mind, leaving only that one sentence.

"Stay safe, so that you can plan for future affairs."

The memories of the past few years seemed to cover him slowly, and he fell asleep unsteadily in a haze.I don't know how long I slept, but I vaguely heard someone crying and slapping on the courtyard gate outside.

When I opened my eyes, the thin light of the morning sun shone through the window sills on the ground, still carrying the dark yellow of dawn. It could be seen that the sky was very early, and it was not yet time to go to work.

The person outside the door was still crying, carefully distinguishing the voice, it was like Aunt Xue in the courtyard next door.

He hurriedly put on his clothes and went to answer the door. As soon as he opened the small window on the courtyard door, he saw the woman standing outside crying tearfully: "Mr. Wen! Something has happened——Miss Yun, Miss Yunzhu is gone! "

"Yunzhu?" Wen Yanzhi was startled, quickly tied up his coat and opened the door, and supported the woman: "Aunt Xue, what's going on?"

The traffickers walking around and the neighbors who got up early all stretched their necks and looked at this side.Aunt Xue, who was being supported, covered her face and cried, her face was full of remorse: "In the night, I helped Miss Yunzhu make the bed and took a shower, then went back to sleep in the side room, and then got up this morning to clean the lady, and went into the main room Go, miss, she... but disappeared..."

Wen Yanzhi frowned, hurriedly walked to the courtyard next door, raised his feet and stepped in, and saw that the courtyard was still as usual, clean and tidy, with the fragrance that boudoir women love to use.He entered the main house, but he saw that there was no one in the house, and the small almond-colored flower bed was empty.

Aunt Xue followed staggeringly behind, wiping her tears as she said: "At this time of day, Miss is still fast asleep, and I have looked around in the garden, but I can't find Miss Yunzhu... Mr. Wen, what do you mean Miss Yunzhu?" She—wouldn't be, wouldn't be... can't think about it..."

"Don't talk nonsense." Wen Yanzhi immediately interrupted Aunt Xue, but his heart was not so real.

However, before he could think too much, there was a sudden shout from outside: "The Ministry of Criminal Justice handles the case! Idle people wait to avoid it!"

Ministry of punishment?

Wen Yanzhi didn't have time to walk into the courtyard, only to hear the rustling of boots, a criminal official in a sixth-rank official uniform led six officials into the courtyard, looked up and saw Wen Yanzhi and Aunt Xue were here, and ordered the left and right: "Bring the two of them back to the Department for interrogation."

Wen Yanzhi asked Aunt Xue: "Have you reported the crime?"

Aunt Xue was already frightened and stupid at this time, she shook her head blankly, "Mr. Wen...I didn't...I..."

Two officials had already come up to arrest Aunt Xue, and the other two were about to arrest Wen Yanzhi, when Wen Yanzhi suddenly said: "Your Excellency, Wen took office in the Shifu, and he lived in front of the imperial court and started working at the right time. My lords want to take Wen away, please report to the palace gate."

The official was stunned, and looked at Ling Shi.

Ling Shi sneered and said: "This Ling Shi sees that you are a suspect, and dares to say that he is serving the imperial court. He really has the guts of a leopard, thinking that he has a few heads to chop off!" So he ordered Wen Yanzhi to be taken away, and two more The person took the evidence and took the lead to leave.

Qi Yu felt his neck ache slightly in a daze, his eyes opened a crack, and suddenly he found that he fell asleep on the table in the imperial study room at some point.

The half-read memorial was scattered on the desk, and he slowly straightened up, pulling the black shirt he had not changed on, feeling a little stuffy.

It was another night of reading, sleepy.However, there are still a few copies of the memorial that have not been approved.

Seeing that the hour glass on the side of the hall had passed the scale of "Yin Shi", Qi Yu raised his eyebrows, and then glanced at the empty hall.

"Zhou Fu."

Zhou Fu rubbed his eyes and cheered up: "Your Majesty."

Then, Zhou Fu saw his emperor's eyes fell behind the Qiuju screen on the right side of the main hall, smiling brightly.

"Where are the Wenshe people?"

Stone chamber, iron lock, prison door.

There was a smell of wet and rotten grass all around, Wen Yanzhi sat on the stone platform in the prison, trying to stay away from the straw mat that countless people slept on but never changed for a long time.

The cell was dim, with the light and shadow cut off by the iron bars through the window above the head.This is not the first time this kind of imprisonment has occurred.

Wen Yanzhi looked at the halo with fascination, and in the flickering, he seemed to see a person's face, with a lingering smile, his brows seemed to be able to outline spring water, and the corners of his lips raised, like flowers flying all over the sky.

At that time, they had just been imprisoned in the stone prison of Yushitai. For some reason, it was not their turn to interrogate them. The two of them stayed in the prison for five full days.During the five days, the man had been sitting on the dilapidated stone platform of the prison cell as he is now, but it was as if he was sitting in the grand master's chair in the academy, and he was always solitary.

Wen Yanzhi remembered that he was sitting cross-legged across from him at that time, he was so worried that he couldn't eat or drink, and he only consulted him every day: "Zhitong, what happened to Lao Qin? Why were we arrested?"

"You always ask me, who should I ask?" The man looked sideways, with a pair of warm eyes, as clear as the reflection of a tree with fallen flowers in a mountain stream.

When everything started to happen, Fang Zhitong, as a servant, was first interrogated by the officials who had been summoned because his position was second only to the minister, and when he left the prison, he turned around and told him that although the prison food was bad, he still needed to eat more. Otherwise, the body will not be able to bear it.

Then he was taken away. In this interrogation, Wen Yanzhi waited with his legs crossed on the stone platform in the prison, barely swallowing two mouthfuls of water from the earthen pot.

When Fang Zhitong was brought back by the officials, his face was full of tiredness, and it was also through the light and shadow cast by the small window above the cell. Wen Yanzhi saw despair from his always smiling face for the first time.

Before they had time to ask, the officials immediately pushed Wen Yanzhi out, and finally it was his turn to be interrogated.

The inquiries were like a wheel, and they repeated several times, exchanging syntax, but they were all asking who Qin Wenshu was in contact with in normal times, where he usually hid the calligraphy and paintings he got, whether there was any unexpected windfall, and his whereabouts could not be found. Where will Lu Shiqiu, a protégé of her, go...

Back in that cell again, nothing was the same.

"They suspect that Lao Qin sold the offensive and defensive blueprints to the vassals, saying that Lao Qin is not only greedy for ink and governance, but also treasonous for glory!" Wen Yanzhi felt fear spreading all over his body. He stood in front of the man and asked repeatedly: Tong, do you even know?"

The interrogation and the heavy pressure of darkness seemed to push the two of them to the cliff, and one step further, there was the cliff and abyss.

Fang Zhitong's figure sitting on the stone platform added to the desolation, against the light and shadow, he couldn't see his expression clearly, "I don't know."

"Then let me ask you, who is the rich businessman I saw at your house last month? Why did I bring you a box of things?" Wen Yanzhi lowered his trembling voice, and raised his hand to grab his sleeve, "Would you like that?" What exactly is his scroll painting?"

These words were like pouring a pot of cold water on Fang Zhitong's body. He suddenly looked up at Wen Yanzhi, with shock and pain in his tired expression: "What do you think that is? What do you think it should be?"

Wen Yanzhi's hand gripping the sleeve became tighter, but he couldn't say anything.

"Let me tell you," Fang Zhitong sneered in the dark, and Fang Zhitong pushed his hand away, "You think that I, Fang Zhitong, should be the one who is greedy for money and treacherous for glory! You think the painting in my hand is the blueprint for attack and defense! "

Pushed by him, Wen Yanzhi staggered and fell to sit on the opposite stone platform. He looked up at Fang Zhitong again, only to see him standing up, his eyes were slightly red on his pale face due to lack of food: "So, I, Fang Zhitong, In your eyes, it is this kind of person..."

"It turns out that people from bitter cold backgrounds like me, no matter how much we give, no matter how much we give... In the eyes of your aristocratic son, you can only be this kind of person..."

Water conservancy blueprints were laid out on the wooden table in the royal study, and Zhang Shangshu was leading people to explain to Jinshang what the flood in Huainan was like at this moment, and what the diversion should be.

Qi Yu listened with his head propped up, his eyes closed wearily, and his long eyebrows furrowed slightly.

Zhou Fu ran quickly from the side hall and whispered something in his ear.

Qi Yu suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Zhou Fu in disbelief: "Then where is he now?"

Zhou Fu carefully glanced at Zhang Shangshu on the side of the wooden table, and said: "Return to the emperor, he is in the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice."

Ministry of punishment?Lin Wenhai, Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice, is the son of Taifu Lin, and Zhou Yunchuan, the servant, is the nephew of Taifu Zhou.If today's incident was due to the old case of the Ministry of Industry, then one of Wen Yan's entry into the Ministry of Criminal Justice would be like a sheep falling into the mouth of a tiger.

Qi Yu stood up with his hands behind his back, pondering and weighing.

Years of checks and balances between the court and the central government have been linked by several threads, openly and secretly, and should not be broken suddenly at present.He appreciates Wen Yanzhi's talent and learning, and also appreciates his innocent heart. If he wants to save Wen Yanzhi's life and find a way to control the water, he has to dig him out of the mouth of the Ministry of Punishment.

But in the current situation, this person cannot be dug by himself.

Qi Yuxuan came to Huangmen's servant, with an angry look on his face: "Go to Honglu Temple and ask Wen Jiuling, if his son dared to absent from work as a servant in the imperial court, is it because he is thinking about not wanting it anymore."