Song Wan Yue was brief and concise, “I’ve thought carefully over the past two days, if those four people were killed back then, the least likely place for the bodies to be found would be inside the old Wen family home.”
Xu Yan looked at her haughtily, and her mind flashed back to yesterday when she asked herself when Huo would marry into the Xu residence.
Shen Yan narrowed his eyes, what Song Wan Yue said was not impossible, back then the people of the Duke of Zhen and the Xu family had searched the capital to the bottom, in that case no matter how the Wen family disposed of the body there would be the possibility of it being found, the only place that would not be discovered was buried in the mansion.
“Shen An.”
An attendant entered.
“You take the men to …….”
The words of command came out before he remembered that it was daytime and waved his hand for the man to retreat.
“You all go home and wait for news, I will go over there myself in the evening.”
……
On the carriage back, Xu Yan looked at Song Wan Yue and was shocked for the first time by the intelligence of his niece.
“Why is uncle looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?”
Song Wan Yue asked in an innocent manner, as if she was not the one who had just given them the analysis that the Wen family had buried the corpse in the house.
“Yue’er, how did you come up with the idea that they buried the corpse in the mansion? Did you get suspicious when you asked me yesterday?”
“That day when I returned from my trip to the city with Uncle Shen, I was thinking that Huo was a cautious and scheming woman, yet she quickly married Grandfather after my mother disappeared, was there something else going on here besides having Grandfather shelter her? If so, what could it be?”
“So it occurred to you that they might bury the body in the mansion?”
Song Wangyue nodded her head.
Xu Yan had never praised a person before, but now he couldn’t help but praise, “Yue’er, you are simply too clever, uncle has been thinking about this for days, and not once did he think that they would bury the corpse in his own mansion.”
“That is because uncle is a gentleman and could not have imagined that they would have such a heart, but everything is my deduction, whether or not we still have to wait for uncle Shen to see it before we know. ”
Xu Yan looked outside the carriage, it was only half morning, there were still several hours until evening, but he couldn’t wait, “I’ll follow along at night.”
“Uncle, it’s better not to go, if they were really buried there, they would have become white bones long ago after all these years, you will be scared.”
Xu Yan did not get angry at Song Wangyue’s words, instead his heart warmed up, this niece had not been taken care of by him for so many years, yet she was so thoughtful of him.
Raising his hand, he stroked her head, “Don’t worry, uncle has seen everything as he has walked around over the years, even white bones won’t scare me.”
It was hard to wait until it was dark, Xu Yan went to Zhen Guo Gong’s residence, saying he wanted to follow, but was flatly refused by Shen Yan, “No!”
Xu Yan was anxious, “Why not?”
“We have to go after curfew, and you don’t know martial arts, so it’s a burden to bring you along.”
Xu Yan, ……
The aura weakened, he really did not know martial arts, but he was undeterred, “You, you can take me there.”
He had heard that even if a person with high martial arts skills was carrying a person, flying over the wall was like walking on level ground, with Shen Yan’s martial arts skills, carrying him should not be a problem.
“No.”
Shen Yan still disagreed, he had someone go and poke around in advance today, the door of the Wen family’s mansion was locked, no one should be living there, he would take someone there tonight, if the person was really buried there, he would order someone to dig it up, Xu Yan, a literary man, seeing those white bones, he would be scared for many days and could not sleep?
“In this way, you go back to your house first and wait, if you really dig it up, I will send someone to send you a message.”
Xu Yan did not want to go back, he wanted to see the white bones dug up with his own eyes, when the time came he would go straight to ring the drum in front of the capital’s gate, so that Wen Zhong would never have a chance to turn back.
“You are highly skilled in martial arts, why not?”
“If I say no, I can’t.” It was the first time in all these years that Shen Yan had spoken to Xu Yan in such a manner, “This matter is dangerous, the slightest mistake will be discovered. It doesn’t matter to me, at most I am eager to avenge Wan’er; if it was you, it would be bitten back by Wen Zhong and we would then be passive.”
Xu Yan had nothing more to say, “Then if you do find out, you must have someone go and tell me as soon as possible.”
Shen Yan responded, and after sending him away, he went back to his study and sat in his chair with his eyes closed to take a nap.
A quarter of an hour after the drums of curfew had sounded, he opened his eyes, got up and changed into a night watchman, left the study, took some guards with him and swept towards the old Wen family residence.
The streets were empty of pedestrians, with occasional patrols of soldiers passing by.
The group avoided the soldiers and arrived at the front of the Wen family home two quarters of an hour later, crossing the wall in unison and landing in the courtyard.
The faint moonlight poured down, illuminating everything in the courtyard. Shen Yan waved his hand and several guards spread out, looking around carefully.
One of them turned around and went back to report, while the other went up and looked around the dug-out area.
Shen Yan came over and his deep gaze fell on the dug place, then the corners of his mouth curled imperceptibly: that little girl, she had already found out that the corpse was buried here, yet she did not move to lure him over and let him take the lead, I don’t know how Wan’er gave birth to such an intelligent girl.
Thinking of Xu Qingwan, the corners of his mouth dropped, and his deep gaze was all stern and murderous, “Dig!”
The guards moved very openly, but in a few strokes they dug up the white bones and took them out and laid them on the ground.
“Stop!”
The guards stopped.
Shen Yan untied his waistband and threw it to Shen An, “Go and invite the capital’s governor over, remember, don’t alert anyone.”
……
The capital magistrate’s office was a headache these few days. He had presented the Xu family’s case against Wen Zhong to the emperor at the time, and the emperor ordered him to investigate it clearly at an early date, but the case had passed for so many years that it was difficult to find even a single piece of evidence, so how could he investigate?
“Master ……”
The butler hurriedly knocked on the door and came in, “Shen Shizi’s guards came over with a waist tag, saying that they had found a new clue and asked Master to go over.”
Jing Zhaofu smiled as he stood up and walked quickly outside, Shen Yan must have found an important clue by sending someone over at this time.
When he arrived outside the mansion, he saw Shen An and was about to ask, when Shen An saluted respectfully and then said, “My lord, His Highness said for you not to alert anyone yet.”
This was big evidence that had been found, so the capital’s governor ordered only the sheriff’s head to come over, and led him and the housekeeper to the back door of the Wen family’s old residence after Shen An.
Shen An smashed the lock and led them in.
In front of them was the excavated ground, with a few white bones standing out in the moonlight.
—— off-topic — —
Finally got some time to add more tomorrow.