Chapter 199

Tender grass fears frost, frost fears the sun; evil people have their own evil people to grind them.

The child born to Chen's concubine is a tender sprout just out of the soil, and Chen's wife is like the cold frost that hits the head. But no matter how poisonous or cruel she is, in front of a real thug who licks blood on the tip of a knife, she can't show half of her usual ferocity.

When Xu Qing was under Ziyun Mountain, why was he unwilling to return the child to the original owner, but instead let the farm woman take it away? It was nothing more than that he was pinching the Ziwei Dou Shu at the time, and the result calculated twice in a row was "fierce."

Now that he had finished reading the female corpse's memory, Xu Qing finally understood the reason.

If he had really held the child and searched upstream at the time, he would inevitably have encountered Chen's wife, who was coming downstream to inspect.

Human hearts are separated by skin. Not to mention whether Chen's wife would harm the child in other ways halfway, even if she brought the child back home, the child would be hard to survive.

After all, in the child's home, there was still a desperate and completely crazy Yuan Hu waiting.

Xu Qing didn't have the ability to predict the future and could only rely on the hexagram to judge good and bad luck. Compared with the fierce hexagram of returning the baby, letting the farm woman from the neighboring village take the baby away was actually a supreme lucky hexagram where the predicament dissipated and it was beneficial to see the great person.

When he first calculated the baby's future destiny, Xu Qing also felt it was mysterious. It was clearly just a small choice, but the change in the baby's destiny was so great that it could be described as changing the world.

The Ziwei Dou Shu Eight Trigrams Twelve Palaces contain everything, and there are many good and bad numbers that can be extended. After Xu Qing secretly helped the farm woman take the baby who fell into the water, he obtained a supreme good hexagram with Tianliang sitting in town and Tianyi arching.

Tianliang sitting in town means one can get clear and noble relief in life, which is a sign of turning bad luck into good luck. Tianyi arching means nobility follows, which is a sign of being uniquely favored by heaven.

In addition, there is Tiankui as a guiding star in the hexagram, symbolizing the help of gods, and it will definitely get divine help at critical moments.

Xu Qing had nothing to say. If it really came down to it, he could be considered to be in the game, responding to the hexagram.

In addition, there is the manifestation of the parents' palace, with Ziwei and Tianfu stars guarding together. This is a noble sign of a strong family background and the care of parents. Simply put, it is a second-generation life like that of the noble second-generation Shang Shaoyang.

When Xu Qing calculated this, he didn't care in his heart. After all, no matter how rich the life in the secular world is, it is still a mortal life. If you don't enter the Dao or practice Xuan, no matter how good the life is, it's no different in his eyes.

But the problem is, the baby's father is just a shopkeeper of a cloth shop, and the eldest wife wants to drown him. How could Xu Qing get a hexagram with Zi and Fu stars guarding together?

After reading Chen's wife's "lantern of running horses" and knowing the family environment in which the baby grew up, Xu Qing once thought that his Ziwei Dou Shu had gone wrong.

However, standing at the entrance of the morgue, when Xu Qing used Ziwei Dou Shu to divine again very carefully, he found that the hexagram was still the same, and even better than the original one.

Official and salary palace, Wenchang chemical science, wisdom and relief.

Migration palace, double Bi assisting, noble people gathering.

Blessing and virtue palace, Tian Tong chemical wealth, deep blessings.

Xu Qing was stunned. Could this baby be the Wenqu star descending to earth to experience life?

Asking no more than three times, after Xu Qing asked twice and got similar hexagrams, he stopped pinching and calculating.

In his eyes, no matter how good the baby's life is, doesn't he still have to let Bao Sheng Niangniang take action to save him...

The two apprentices in the morgue hadn't passed their excitement yet. It seemed they really liked examining corpses.

Xu Qing watched happily, feeling that he was not alone in this path.

I don't know where Wang Lingyuan found these two apprentices.

Outside the morgue, seeing Xu Qing about to leave, Wang Lingyuan hurriedly said: "Senior Brother, wait!"

While speaking, Wang Lingyuan took off his fish-skin gloves and handed over a bag of tea leaves.

"This is?"

"This is Zhoushan Qingding tea, brought by the County Magistrate from Zhoushan when he took office. Senior Brother, take it and taste it."

Xu Qing accepted Wang Lingyuan's kindness and said: "I'm just short of tea leaves here, so thank you very much, Senior Brother."

Hearing Xu Qing's words, Wang Lingyuan seemed quite satisfied.

"Senior Brother's arm?"

Wang Lingyuan was meticulous. Xu Qing only used his right hand when examining the corpse, which was fine, but when receiving the tea leaves, he should have extended both hands, but Xu Qing only extended his right hand.

In his eyes, his junior brother, who was like a shrewd person, would never make such a rude move, so it could only be that there was a problem with his arm.

Wang Lingyuan's concern was overflowing. Seeing this, Xu Qing deliberately raised his left arm, revealing the silk glove he was wearing on his left hand.

"It's nothing serious, just scabies. It's not a big problem. I've already applied the scabies medicine, and I think it will heal in ten days or half a month."

Hearing this, Wang Lingyuan's expression tightened, and he urged: "Don't be careless. I heard that some corpses have corpse poison. You often come into contact with corpses, so you must be careful."

Corpse poison? Xu Qing hid his left hand, which was full of corpse poison, in his sleeve, bared his corpse teeth that could infect people into zombies with one bite, and smiled: "Senior Brother, don't worry, I will definitely take good protective measures and will never let corpse poison get close to me."

The two were chatting when Zhao Zhonghe, who had left earlier, returned. Seeing the other party's sweaty appearance, he knew that this constable had something urgent.

"Old Wang, bring me the murder weapon that killed Liu's wife. This is the flying ticket and fire ticket issued by the County Magistrate..."

A "flying ticket" is a voucher for the government office to send government office runners to arrest criminals and interrogate them, and a "fire ticket" is a proof needed when delivering urgent official documents and extracting and transferring physical evidence.

Wang Lingyuan looked at the handwriting and stamp on it and hurriedly took out the laundry pestle and delivered it.

Seeing this, Xu Qing's heart moved, and he asked: "What is Constable Zhao doing?"

Zhao Zhonghe wiped his sweat with his sleeve and replied: "The County Magistrate is interrogating the prisoner and wants to take the murder weapon to confirm the murderer who killed Liu's wife. Now the Liu family is making a big fuss, so I have to hurry over."

"I just examined the corpse with Senior Brother Wang. I will go with the constable. Maybe I can help with something."

Others might not know, but Xu Qing knew the origin of this laundry pestle. If this matter implicated the farm woman who took the child two days ago, he definitely wouldn't feel good in his heart.

"Then let's go together." Zhao Zhonghe didn't know the inside story and thought Xu Qing had a warm heart, not only caring about the dead but also caring about the brothers in the government office.

The two arrived at the court. At this time, the court was noisy and quite lively. The new County Magistrate Chen Guangrui seemed not to care at all, sitting on the hall by himself, letting several people argue.

There were many commoners watching outside the hall. Xu Qing had a bit of a problem; he didn't dare to see many people. Once he arrived at a place with many people, he always thought about how to shout for his own business.

Fortunately, he could suppress this small problem. Xu Qing entered the court, and some commoners who knew him whispered outside the hall:

"Isn't that the master from Jingxia Street?"

"Jingxia Street? Never heard of it."

"It's that funeral street..."

"So that's where it is! If you had said so earlier, I would have known."

"Speaking of which, what is the person who opens the white business shop doing in the government office?"

"Who knows? Anyway, it's definitely not good! Maybe he's here to collect a corpse for someone again. You just watch, people who do white business, no matter where they go, there will definitely be dead people."

"."

Xu Qing stood beside Zhao Zhonghe and glanced at the crowd outside the hall who were speaking without restraint.

There are no fresh things in these years. It costs money to listen to plays in the theater, and it costs a bowl of tea to listen to books in the teahouse. How can it be as cost-effective as watching a big drama at the government office entrance?

Therefore, every time the government office publicly tries a case, there will always be people who have nothing to do and come to watch the excitement.

Isn't this, there is new excitement today!

Xu Qing watched silently as several people knelt in the hall for trial.

There was Shopkeeper Chen from the cloth shop in Qushui Township, Shopkeeper Chen's concubine, and a farm woman with a pale face, shivering all over.

Besides that, the person with the loudest voice in the court, the one who didn't take the court seriously at all, was the baby held in the arms of Chen's concubine, who was crying non-stop.

If it were usual, with such noise under the hall, Chen Guangrui would have slammed the gavel, but now with a baby in the hall, and he being a father for the first time, he really didn't want to scare the child.

"Quiet!"

Seeing Zhao Zhonghe return with the evidence, Chen Guangrui looked at the trembling farm woman and asked: "Jin, the Chen family accuses you of instigating criminals to kill the wife and steal the child. Now that the murder weapon and evidence are here, what do you have to say?"

Jin trembled and said: "My lord, the commoner has always been law-abiding. How could I dare to buy a murderer to kill someone? Just thinking about this kind of thing makes me feel scared. That day, I went to the river to wash clothes early in the morning and happened to see a baby drifting from the river. The child was crying pitifully. I couldn't bear it and didn't care about the work in my hands, chasing the child and running along the riverbank..."

"The commoner saw that the river water was very urgent, so I could only be anxious." Speaking of this, Jin's voice no longer trembled, and her eyes became bright: "Who would have thought that at this juncture, a red light flashed, and I saw a Ruyi, which only exists on the door god statue, fall into the water, supporting the child and sending him to the shore all the way."

"This is the god showing his spirit. I was scared and happy in my heart, so how could I care about the laundry pestle..."

Chen Feng, Shopkeeper Chen, interrupted immediately when he heard this: "Full of nonsense, how could my child drift in the water for no reason? You also said it was a god showing his spirit. Could it be that the Sending-Child Niangniang on Ziyun Mountain sent the child to your hands?"

"Quiet!"

Chen Guangrui looked at Jin and asked: "Jin, when did you pick up the baby?"

"At the time when the sky was just bright."

"The sky was just bright? Why did you get up so early to wash clothes?"

"The weather is hot, and there are many people at the river during the day. I was washing some intimate clothing, and to prevent idlers from seeing it, I had to wash it at the river early in the morning when there was no one around."

Chen Guangrui asked again: "Jin, I will ask you again, when you held the child back to the village, was there any witness?"

"Yes! After I held the child back to the village, I asked every household, but no one recognized the child. At that time, the child was crying fiercely. I had no choice but to boil porridge and borrow goat milk from Qiao Xing's mother sheep at the head of the village to mix with the porridge to feed him."

"Everyone in the village can testify."

Chen Guangrui nodded after listening and continued to ask: "Do you have children?"

"Only one daughter..."

Chen Feng immediately said: "You only have one daughter, no wonder you would take my child!"

"Chen Feng, I didn't ask you, don't answer!"

Chen Guangrui turned to look at Zhao Zhonghe: "Constable Zhao, when was Chen's wife murdered?"

Zhao Zhonghe stepped forward and said: "Back to my lord, the morgue examined it, and Chen's wife should have been murdered two days ago."

Chen Guangrui asked again: "Was the specific cause of death of the corpse examined?"

Zhao Zhonghe looked sideways at Xu Qing.

The latter had no choice but to step forward and bow: "Xu Qing, a scholar of the Xu-Ji section of the 73rd year of Qian-Yuan, has seen the County Magistrate."

Scholars have this benefit, they can see officials without bowing, standing in the hall as if standing in their own home.

Chen Guangrui didn't know that Xu Qing had a business relationship with the government office. At this time, he was surprised. When did his government office have such a person?

Zhao Zhonghe was rough but fine, hurriedly stepped forward and whispered a few words to Tang Private Secretary, who was sitting at the public case. The latter came to the County Magistrate again and whispered: "This Scholar Xu is the junior brother of Wang Lingyuan in the morgue. Today, the corpse of Chen Feng's wife was examined by him and Wang Lingyuan. My lord can rest assured."

Under the hall, Xu Qing said the examination results of Chen's wife in an orderly manner, and finally he added: "The female corpse only suffered one blow, and the skull was shattered. Besides that, there were no other injuries. This move is not something an ordinary farm woman can do. According to my examination, it should be done by a middle-aged man or a martial artist."

Finally, Xu Qing looked at Zhao Zhonghe: "Constable Zhao is also a martial artist, so he should know more than a weak scholar like me."

Zhao Zhonghe said: "Indeed."

Chen Guangrui nodded and said: "This case has many suspicious points, but the murderer must be someone else. Before there is new witness testimony or the real murderer is arrested, this case will not be dealt with for the time being."

"Also, everyone related to this case under the hall must stay in the city, be ready to be called at any time, and must not leave the city without permission."

The commoners watching the excitement outside the hall were obviously not very satisfied. In their eyes, if they didn't use heavy torture to interrogate a few people, or if they didn't break the case in the hall, it would be boring.

But the matter of litigation involves human life, how can it be judged rashly?

Xu Qing didn't think there was a problem. As the saying goes, judging a case is like treating silk, and being careful with punishment is like cooking fresh fish. This new County Magistrate at least knows the two words "cautious," which is commendable.

After the court retired, Xu Qing was thinking about things and intended to leave, but was called to the back hall by the master.

In the back hall, County Magistrate Chen Guangrui looked at Xu Qing with a smile and asked: "Do you still remember me?"

Xu Qing looked at the County Magistrate wearing the official uniform and showed a sudden realization: "Remember, of course I remember!"

"Isn't the lord the County Magistrate who tried and judged the case in the hall just now? I remember it too well!"

"."

Chen Guangrui was speechless.

"It's normal that you don't remember." Chen Guangrui looked at Xu Qing up and down, quite appreciatively: "When I first arrived in Linjiang County, I saw you. At that time, a girl who fled from Yaozhou was selling herself at the entrance of the tooth shop, just because her elders were suffering from an acute illness and needed money for diagnosis. I was just about to step forward when I saw you giving money to help the little girl..."

Xu Qing recalled carefully, it seemed that there was such a thing, but he had done too many good deeds, and he often did "pawned funerals" for those who sold themselves to bury their fathers or mothers.

Some of them earned enough money and came to repay the money, and some had no news at all. Xu Qing didn't care at all.

Chen Guangrui obviously appreciated Xu Qing very much, and his words were full of hope that he would come to the government office to work.

Xu Qing pretended not to hear. He was very busy now. Besides taking care of the funeral shop and the Cat Immortal Hall, he also had to find time to patrol the Bao Sheng Temple.

Thinking of that Niangniang Temple, the look in Xu Qing's eyes toward County Magistrate Chen changed.

"I heard that the Bao Sheng Temple on Ziyun Mountain was built under your host?"

County Magistrate Chen was stunned. He didn't understand why Xu Qing suddenly asked about this, but he still answered patiently: "It was built under my host."

"Building a temple must cost a lot of money, right?" Xu Qing asked casually.

"I'm not afraid of others laughing at me. The cost of building the temple was obtained by my wife selling her dowry and turning it around everywhere. I didn't have any extra money to build the temple."

"."

Xu Qing didn't expect that his temple was actually built with the County Magistrate's wife's dowry!

"The County Magistrate doesn't disturb the people and waste money, which is indeed admirable. But why did you build a Niangniang Temple and set up a female immortal statue? How can you assume the gender of the god?"

Xu Qing asked three questions in a row, which made the County Magistrate unable to answer.

County Magistrate Chen was puzzled: "I have always heard that midwives are women. Sending-Child Bodhisattva and Sending-Child Niangniang are all female images. I can't go against the principles of heaven and build a male-bodied Sending-Child Temple. That would be too shocking."

County Magistrate Chen paused and continued: "Besides, gods are not restricted by their bodies, they are formless and shapeless, coming and going freely. I think the skin is just a wisp of floating clouds in the eyes of the gods. Even if there is a distinction, there is only the distinction between good and evil."

"."

When Xu Qing left the government office, he was still thinking about what County Magistrate Chen said.

Gods are not restricted by their bodies. Since this is the case, he, a zombie, has to do some things that gods should do.

(End of chapter)