Tang Dynasty Prison Administration

027: The Nightmare Chases the Murderer

Su Wen remained calm and composed, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and said, "Tell me something I don't know!"

The thug poured himself a glass of wine, took a sip, and said, "Alright, then I'll tell you something you don't know. The reason the Ming family came to snatch the corpse and the body of the stillborn child is because the woman who gave birth to the child is the one who was not related to the Liu family by marriage. The woman who gave birth to the child is the youngest daughter of the Ming family's patriarch. She is in love with the Liu family's son, Liu Mingxu. The two have pledged their lives to each other and have had a child out of wedlock."

"This caused an uproar throughout Ningshui County. The county magistrate was furious, but out of consideration for the Ming family's reputation, he didn't say anything. However, the key issue was that the Ming family's youngest daughter was engaged. This act of disobeying her betrothal and committing adultery was a serious crime!"

"The county magistrate at the time knew Old Master Ming of the Ming family, so he ordered the Ming family to seize the corpse and their stillborn son, or else he would use severe torture!"

"And that's how it happened. The Ming family sent people to take away their newborn child who had died, and also took away the body of their youngest daughter!"

"Afterwards, the Liu family was severely punished by the county magistrate for adultery. At that time, cruel officials were rampant, and they were directly sentenced to beheading, and their family was exiled!"

"Because of this incident, the Ming family's patriarch fell ill and passed away, and the Ming family quickly declined and disappeared!"

At this point, the thug paused, took a sip of wine, and continued, "Actually, the youngest son didn't die at all. That night, the Ming family sent both bodies to the morgue and handed them over to the coroner for examination. After the examination, they were to be buried that night. The coroner found that the youngest son was not dead, so he handed him over to the eldest daughter of the Ming family, Minglan."

"Minglan was kind-hearted, so she gave her youngest son to her friend Yuan Yue. Yuan Yue was unable to have children, so she and her husband adopted the child and named him Yuan Tianfang!"

Upon hearing this, Su Wen immediately got goosebumps and frowned, asking, "What's the name of the eldest son of the Liu family?"

After pondering for a moment, the thug said, "I don't know, because all the surviving members of the Liu family were sentenced to prison and exiled to Lingnan. I remember their name was Liu Yongqiang, yes, Liu Yongqiang!"

Upon hearing this, Su Wen took out another hundred coins from his pocket and threw them to the thug, saying, "Here's a reward for you!"

After saying that, Su Wen walked towards the door. This was a very important clue. All he needed to do next was to go to the county office to retrieve the log from forty-six years ago when the Liu family was sentenced to imprisonment, and then go to the place of imprisonment to track down Liu Yongqiang and he would understand!

As soon as Su Wen walked out of the tavern, he sighed again. With his status, he had no way to investigate official documents at the county government, let alone the logs of places of imprisonment.

Su Wen had no choice but to bite the bullet and find someone to write a letter, which was then sent to the Judicial Advisor's Office in Youzhou, so that Xue Song could issue an order allowing him to retrieve the documents!

Su Wen already owed Xue Song a favor, and now he would owe someone another one. The thought gave him a headache.

Xue Song and his group were genuine members of the Hebei Group. They originally didn't want to get involved with the Hebei Group, but as a result, they ended up owing favors and were directly associated with them.

Fortunately, there are still several decades before the An Lushan Rebellion. I just need to make some good moves. If there is really no way to deal with it by then, I will find a corner and commit suicide!

Thinking of this, Su Wen decided to go and see Amu again. In his mind's eye, Su Wen had a feeling that Amu must be related to Yuan Tianfang's case.

Before long, Su Wen arrived at Amu's house and saw a woman cleaning and washing clothes.

Su Wen, carrying some food, stepped into the house and called out, "Amu!"

Upon seeing this, the woman spoke up, "Who are you? What do you want with my brother?"

Su Wen sized up the woman and said, "You're Amu's sister?"

The woman responded, and Su Wen replied, "Oh, I just felt sorry for Amu, so I brought him some food. Where did he go?"

The woman bowed, then continued washing clothes, casually mentioning, "My brother went to Qingfeng Temple on Qingfeng Mountain to visit the Taoist priest!"

Upon hearing this, Su Wen frowned and said, "Aren't you afraid he'll go out alone?"

The woman, busy with her work, didn't even turn her head before replying, "What's there to be afraid of? My brother goes to Qingfeng Temple to visit the Taoist priest almost every few days. What's there to be afraid of!"

Su Wen didn't say anything, but after putting down the food, he turned and left, heading straight for Qingfeng Temple on Qingfeng Mountain.

Before long, Su Wen arrived at Qingfeng Temple, panting. He searched around but couldn't find Amu. Curious, he bowed to a young Taoist priest and asked, "Young Taoist priest, may I ask if you have seen a somewhat mentally challenged person come to Qingfeng Temple?"

Upon hearing this, the young Taoist priest immediately pointed to the back mountain and said, "The benefactor is referring to Amu? Amu went to the back mountain to chat with Taoist Qingyun!"

Upon hearing this, Su Wen immediately became wary, but still strode straight towards the back mountain.

When Su Wen arrived at the back mountain, he immediately saw a square pavilion. In an instant, Su Wen's mind flashed back to Amu's scribbles. He had indeed drawn a square pavilion with three stick figures inside!

Although Su Wen was not proficient in painting, he remembered his art teacher saying that painting should start with the simplest techniques.

When I first started learning to draw people, I began by drawing stick figures.

In that instant, Su Wen suddenly realized that from Amu's perspective, there were three people in the pavilion at the time. One was Yuan Tianfang, another was most likely Yuan Tianfang's twin brother, Liu Yongqiang, who looked extremely similar to him, and the third person should be Amu himself. And who was the stick figure standing not far away?

Su Wen searched around and then found Amu. Amu was sitting in front of a grave, eating offerings in one hand while muttering something to himself.

However, what Amu said was completely nonsensical, even incomprehensible. In short, it was just babbling and didn't even count as speaking.

Su Wen looked at the grave and saw that the tombstone read: "Tomb of Qingyun Daoist." In the smaller characters next to it, Su Wen saw a row of smaller characters.

Empress Wu Zetian lived to be 693 years old before her death!

Upon careful calculation, it turned out to be exactly twenty years ago. Thinking of this, Su Wen had a preliminary guess in his mind.

If we follow the pattern shown in Amu's drawing, there were four people in total at the time: three in the pavilion, one Yuan Tianfang, one Liu Yongqiang, and one Amu. Then the other person was very likely the one in the tomb, Qingyun Daoren.

Of the four people, Amu is mentally challenged, Qingyun Daoist is dead, Yuan Tianfang is dead, and Liu Yongqiang, who is impersonating Yuan Tianfang, is still alive.

And it all happened on that day more than twenty years ago!

Thinking of this, Su Wen immediately turned around and went straight to the front hall, where he found an elderly Taoist priest and asked, "Taoist priest, I would like to ask who the Qingyun Taoist priest in your back mountain is?"

The older Taoist priest bowed and said, "That was the first abbot of my Qingfeng Temple!"

Su Wen immediately changed the subject, saying, "So how did he die? Judging from the age on his tombstone, he was only in his forties!"

After pondering for a moment, the Taoist priest sighed and said, "He died of illness!"

"Did you get sick?"

"Yes, Master Qingyun died very quickly. From the day he fell ill to his ascension, it was less than two days!"

Upon hearing this, Su Wen immediately became suspicious and asked, "What kind of illness could progress so rapidly?"

The Taoist priest shook his head and said, "Oh, right, hearing you mention it today reminded me of something. When the abbot passed away, he gave me a drawing!"

Su Wen asked urgently, "What map?"

The Taoist priest said, "I don't know either, but I remember the client mentioning that this painting was done by the foremost landscape master of the time, and that if anyone inquired about his death in the future, this painting should be given to the person asking the question!"

After saying that, the Taoist priest went to the inner room and searched for a while. After a while, he took out a picture and handed it to Su Wen.