Chapter 591: What Fine Scheming

Because the Ministry of Justice was busy gnawing into the juicy fat of the gambling house, had to bicker with the Ministry of Revenue, and had the Zhu family case, one after another, gradually shifting everyone's attention.

The serial murder case that had caused such an uproar earlier, for which Zhao Zhao Lisi had even requested martial law, had recently attracted far fewer eyes.

Fewer people paying attention did not mean the Six Gates were not putting in effort.

Within the Six Gates there were those shrewd ones, who knew how to handle offenders and how to curry favor with their superiors. Naturally, there were also those born investigators who threw themselves wholeheartedly into cases, seeking neither promotion nor wealth, only to crack the case and uncover the truth.

The serial case that Zhao Zhao Lisi, top to bottom, had worked on for ages without finding a single lead — once the Ministry of Justice's born investigators took the field, they actually dug up a few traces.

Chen Chen Guanlou sent people to inquire, and learned that the victims in this case were connected to a robbery and family-annihilation case that had occurred out of town twenty years ago.

Acting on this lead, the Ministry of Justice had already dispatched people to the locality to track down the case from twenty years ago. Whether this case could see a breakthrough depended entirely on this trip.

Thanks to years of peace under heaven, the archives in the yamen were kept in good order — never mind cases from twenty years ago, even those from fifty years back could be traced to their original case files.

Following the lead the Ministry of Justice was investigating, the serial case was very likely a vendetta killing. Pursuing this thread, sooner or later the truth would come to light.

Learning that the case had made clear progress, Chen Chen Guanlou thought, no wonder the Six Gates had such a sterling reputation — they truly had crack investigators inside. They had actually wrung a connecting lead out of a serial case that had seemed utterly untraceable.

When Imperial Physician Mu had nothing to do, he would wander over to the office to mooch tea, and along the way shared a bit of gossip with Chen Chen Guanlou.

"My lord, do you still remember the Shen father and son locked up in the second-class prison back then?"

"Of course I remember. How is that child Shen Yi's condition?"

"My lord can rest easy. The Shen father and son are staying at our Mu family clinic, looked after daily by the clinic's apprentices. I drop by when I have the time to examine and prescribe. The child's condition has already eased. Give it half a year to a year, and he will surely recover."

"Old Mu, your merit is boundless — it will surely bless your descendants."

"I thank my lord for the kind words."

"Is the money enough? If not, I'll have someone send another sum over."

"It will do for now. My lord, do you remember how Shen Shen Buzhi once said he had come up to Jingcheng to seek a doctor? Do you know who it was that the father and son were asking for?"

Chen Chen Guanlou's interest was immediately piqued. He asked eagerly, "Could it be that you've found out, Old Mu? Which family? From the look of it, could it possibly be someone I know?"

"More than know them, my lord." Imperial Physician Mu played coy for a moment.

Chen Chen Guanlou raised an eyebrow slightly. "It can't possibly be Hou Fu! If the Shen family had gone to Hou Fu for help in seeking a doctor, given Hou Fu's ways, they wouldn't have turned the man away without even meeting him. At the very least they'd have given a couple of packets of silver and settled the man down."

"Not Hou Fu!" Imperial Physician Mu lifted the curtain decisively. "It's the Xu family!"

"Ah!" Chen Chen Guanlou was enlightened, and a little surprised. "The Xu family of Xu Lin?"

"Precisely!"

"What on earth happened? When Shen Shen Buzhi and his father called at the door, did the Xu family really throw them out?"

Imperial Physician Mu lowered his voice. "When Shen Shen Buzhi and his father called to see Xu Jinsong, they never even saw the man himself. The doorkeeper didn't even pass word in — he sent them packing on the spot."

Chen Chen Guanlou was quite astonished.

"Shen Shen Buzhi called to see him, so he must have brought a token of introduction. With a token and a letter, could the doorkeeper really have turned him away — not even willing to pass word in?"

"It was precisely because they saw the token that the doorkeeper refused to pass word in. I imagine my lord has already guessed — the Shen ancestors committed an offense, and the whole clan was exiled to Xizhou. Recently, after I became acquainted with Shen Shen Buzhi, I finally learned the background of the father and son. Does my lord know that, twenty or thirty years ago, there was a Lord Shen in Jingcheng who rose to Minister of War? Later, because he was implicated in a case, this Lord Shen was beheaded and his entire family exiled to Xizhou. Shen Shen Buzhi is precisely this Lord Shen's eldest grandson."

Chen Chen Guanlou was enlightened. No wonder Shen Shen Buzhi's bearing didn't look like that of a border-region native — every word and gesture suggested someone raised in a great clan.

"The Shen family and the Xu family?" he asked curiously.

"In earlier years, the Xu family went through a rather difficult stretch. The Shen and Xu families were old family friends. When Lord Shen was in office, he often took Xu Jinsong under his wing. One could say that whatever Xu Jinsong has today, he owes to Lord Shen's support. Later, when the Shen family met with disaster, the Xu family was still obscure at the time and escaped unscathed. After the Shen family fell and was exiled, the connections Lord Shen had left behind were, by all accounts, taken over by Xu Jinsong. Riding on the Shen family's residual favor, he gradually rose, and today sits as an auxiliary minister in the Zhengshitang!"

So there was that layer of connection.

"By all reason, with such a connection, when Shen Shen Buzhi came to Jingcheng to seek a doctor, the Xu family ought to have helped. How could they have pushed him away? If word of this got out, it would damage the Xu family's reputation."

The Xu family had once received the Shen family's patronage, and Xu Jinsong had reaped the benefit of the connections the Shen family left behind. Decades later, when the Shen family's descendants came knocking only to seek a doctor, they couldn't even be bothered to grant an audience. A textbook case of ingratitude.

Xu Jinsong, noble as an auxiliary minister of the Zhengshitang, acting this way was far too rash.

Could it be that the Xu family's doorkeeper had acted on his own authority?

But Shen Shen Buzhi had come bearing a token of introduction and a letter. By all reason, whether or not they intended to help, the Xu family ought to have met him at least once and given an answer. For the doorkeeper to send him packing outright — was he treating the Shen father and son like plague-bearing freeloaders who had come to cadge?

Chen Chen Guanlou began to turn it over in his mind. "Old Mu, do you suppose Xu Jinsong knows that the Shen father and son came to Jingcheng to seek a doctor?"

"My lord is thinking…?"

Chen Chen Guanlou said slowly, "When Shen Shen Buzhi called at the door, it was still broad daylight. The Xu gentlemen with official duties were all at the yamen, and those without duties, like Xu Lin, were certainly out carousing. The ones calling the shots at home would have been the Liu Liu Guanshi and the ladies. Even if the doorkeeper didn't pass word in at first, he ought to have reported it afterward. I do know a thing or two about the rules of great households.

I have a cousin who serves as a doorkeeper at Hou Fu. He says that every day many people come calling, and not every one of them gets word passed in. But every caller must be recorded, so that afterward one can look into it. If the person is important, or looks suspicious, it gets reported up the same day. How to handle it is entirely up to the orders from above."

"My lord means to say that the Xu family's Liu Liu Guanshi and the ladies acted on their own and turned the Shen father and son away?" Imperial Physician Mu found it hard to believe.

Chen Chen Guanlou smiled knowingly. "The Xu family is rich and noble — every day, heaven knows how many people come begging for help. If they had to see every one of them, they'd be run off their feet. Besides, Shen Shen Buzhi showed up at the door unannounced rather than sending a visiting card in advance, so being turned away by the doorkeeper is perfectly ordinary. He came from Xizhou, so afterward being forgotten, or being deliberately hushed up, is entirely possible.

Twenty or thirty years ago isn't all that long ago. The old-timers in the Xu household ought to remember those events. Mention Xizhou, and it's not hard to think of the Shen family. But the Shen family has already fallen. Even if they were pardoned, to rise again without the effort of two or three generations would be a fantasy.

Two or three generations — that's decades from now, and that's assuming everything goes smoothly. Tell me, does the Xu family still have any need to stay entangled with the Shen family? Any need to acknowledge this old acquaintance? Better to seize the chance and cut the tie, so that from then on each goes their own way.

These scholars — clever as can be, and roundabout in everything they do. The Xu family put on this show, so how could Shen Shen Buzhi fail to read their meaning? He has his pride; from then on, he certainly wouldn't darken the Xu family's door again. The Xu family got their wish and severed this old Shen connection, without even needing to trouble Xu Jinsong — done in perfect silence. Tsk, tsk… the women of the Xu family are truly fine schemers."