Wei Luo went to Suzhou to investigate the case, stayed for about half a month, and came back at the end of April. When he entered the capital in the morning, he first went to see Emperor Yongping to report the case and then went to work in the Ministry of Punishment. He was so busy until dusk that he went to work with other officials and rode back to the Shu Mansion.
In the mansion, Yin Hui remembered that Wei Luo came back almost recently, but she couldn’t remember the exact date, so she didn’t wait for him specially and sat with the children, preparing to eat.
An Shun’er sent a young eunuch to pass the message. Just as Yin Hui smiled, the three children had already run out.
Originally Xun rushed the fastest, but because Ning was in a hurry, Xun deliberately slowed down and let his younger sister run ahead.
“Father!” Ning was the first to run to her father as she wished and opened her little hands to hug him.
Wei Luo noticed the change in his daughter’s address. She used to call him dad, but in the past two years, the children’s address had been changing between “Father Prince” and “Father”, and he was used to it.
The daughter was wearing a white skirt, but Wei Luo was wearing a robe that was stained with dust and sweat from morning till night.
“I am sweating all over my body. I will hug Ning Ning later,” Wei Luo explained with his head bowed while avoiding his daughter’s little hand. But Xiao Ning didn’t care; she still raised her hand. Therefore, Wei Luo had no choice but to hug his daughter.
Xiao Heng knew that his father had left for so long to investigate the case, and his mother had told them what kind of case it was, so he was very curious at the moment, saying, “Has father caught the real murderer?” Wei Luo nodded.
There was reverence in Xiao Heng’s eyes, and Xiao Xun also wanted to hear the story.
At that time, Yin Hui finally walked around the corner of the corridor, and seeing the three children surrounding Wei Luo, she smiled and said, “Let Father take a bath first, and we can chat later while eating. ”
Xiao Heng and Xiao Xun were very sensible, but Xiao Ning wanted to act like a baby. So Yin Hui looked at Wei Luo, and said to Xiao Ning, “You smell the hair of your father, does it stink?”
With that said, Wei Luo just glanced at her.
Xiao Ning leaned over very seriously, her little nose almost got under her father’s hair; she really smelled a little sweat.
Xiao Ning didn’t like her stinky father, so she hurriedly let her mother hug her.
Only then did Wei Luo pull away.
It was a hot day, and he took a shower with cold water. His Royal Highness, who had been to the battlefield many times, took a shower in a hurry, and it was out of experience. The washing was clean and fast, and the hair was wiped without dripping and tied up easily.
When he stepped out again, carrying the faint and refreshing scent of the cedar-scented shower gel that Yin Hui had prepared for him, Xiao Ning threw herself into her father’s arms again, sniffing with her little nose carefully several times. It seemed that her father had washed it clean.
“Okay, let’s go eat first,” Yin Hui urged them with a smile.
Back in the backyard, the family of five sat around the dining table, and seeing the expectant eyes cast by Xiao Heng and Xiao Xun frequently, Wei Luo said, “Let’s talk about the case after dinner.”
The two little brothers could finally concentrate on eating.
After the meal, Wei Luo briefly talked about the case.
The case happened last spring. There was a wealthy businessman surnamed Deng in the city of Suzhou. He had elderly parents, three wives and concubines, and four sons and two daughters with grandchildren. In the middle of March, Deng Fushang celebrated his father’s 70th birthday. He entertained relatives and friends during the day and took a boat on his own lake to enjoy the moon at night. Suddenly, the whole boat caught fire. But he was unwell and left the meeting early; the rest of the Deng family, including the two married daughters and their husband’s children, as well as the serving maids, all perished in the flames.
The government searched the Deng Mansion and found two jars of tung oil in the warehouse of the fourth wine storehouse of Deng’s family. If the lids of each jar of wine were not opened, they would not have been found at all.
The government continued to investigate and found that Deng Laosi was the most unpromising son of the Deng family. He ate, drank, prostituted, and gambled, and owed huge gambling debts while away. His parents, brothers and sisters refused to lend him any more money.
So the government decided that the fire was set off by Mr. Deng, and the motive was that he wanted to occupy all the property of the Deng family.
The people in the neighborhood also believed that it was the truth, only Deng Laosi refused to confess his guilt.
Deng Laosi was indeed not the murderer. After Wei Luo arrived in Suzhou, he brought all the servants used by the Deng family back for interrogation. After interrogation back and forth, including the family neighbors of these servants, he found out the person in charge of purchasing suspicious things.
After several rigorous trials, Housekeeper Sun finally confessed. He was the one who placed the wine jar filled with tung oil in Deng Laosi’s place in advance. Before the fire started, they were unconscious or unable to cry, watching Housekeeper Sun light the fire. But Housekeeper Sun was familiar with water, so he swam away under the cover of night.
“Father, why did Housekeeper Sun do this?” Xiao Heng didn’t understand the point of what he did.
Yin Hui also stared at Wei Luo intently. Killing so many people, including several children, the housekeeper was too vicious.
There were too many people who died unjustly. Wei Luo recalled it with a heavy expression and said, “Housekeeper Sun’s family was murdered, and only he survived. After several inquiries, Housekeeper Sun found that the old man of the Deng family was responsible for his family’s murder. He hid his name and concealed himself in the Deng family, waiting for an opportunity. After the tragic death of the Deng family, Housekeeper Sun did not covet the property of the Deng family, and Deng Laosi had even greater motives, so Housekeeper Sun did not arouse the suspicion of the government.”
After explaining the case, Wei Luo asked his sons, “What do you think about this case?”