Tang Dynasty Prison Administration

087: The Murder Case of the Buddha of Shazhou

The former governor left behind quite a lot of things, but most of them were useless.

After searching for a long time, Su Wen was unable to find any clues. He went to the former governor's desk, sat down, and saw a bookshelf in front of him with many books on it.

Most of them are the Four Books and Five Classics, classical literary collections, Buddhist scriptures, and Taoist scriptures.

If these things were shown to liberal arts students, they would probably jump for joy and wish they could leap onto the roof, but Su Wen is not a liberal arts student.

After sitting in the chair for a while without being able to see anything wrong, Su Wen could only get up and leave the room, intending to investigate other places first.

Otherwise, staying in the room without any clue will just be a waste of time and effort!

After leaving the room, Su Wen found two constables and they went to the places where the nine people died one by one. Of the nine people, only the former governor went to the temple that was under renovation. Almost all the others died in restaurants and inns.

Of the seven officials who died, three were newly appointed market managers, two were household register clerks, one was a patrol captain, and one was in charge of managing shops.

Su Wen arrived at the temple that was under renovation to take a look. The temple was surrounded by bamboo scaffolding several meters high, which was wrapped in burlap, making it impossible to see inside from the outside. The burlap was also extremely smooth, making it impossible to climb into the temple.

If there were signs of climbing, then there would be marks on the cloth. However, there were no marks at the scene, so it can be concluded that it was impossible to enter from the outside.

After all, the kind of light-footed kung fu depicted in TV dramas doesn't exist in this world; that's too far-fetched and completely ignores Earth's gravity!

Su Wen arrived at the temple, which had been completely cleaned up due to renovations. There was only one Buddha statue and four Vajra statues, one of which was holding a sword. It was the sword that killed the former governor!

In fact, there were many puzzling things about this case in Su Wen’s eyes. The most important one was why the former governor would come to this temple that was under renovation in the middle of the night.

Qixi Festival!

Su Wen looked at the constables standing not far behind him and asked, "Did the former governor have a wife and daughters?"

Upon hearing this, one of the constables replied, "Yes, they live in Xing'er Lane behind the government office!"

Su Wendao said, "Tell me about the family of the former governor, and take me to his house!"

A constable responded, "The former governor had a principal wife, a daughter of the Chen family of Yingchuan, who had been married to him for over twenty years but had no children. Before coming to Shazhou, the former governor had a concubine, a cousin of the Chen family, who bore him an eight-year-old daughter. In the few years since arriving in Shazhou, he has taken two more concubines, both of lowly status, who have not borne him any children!"

At this moment, another constable standing nearby gossiped, "I heard that the former governor wants to take a concubine again. It's said that he and that Shen Qiushui have some kind of entanglement. If he hadn't died, who knows, Shen Qiushui might have become his concubine too!"

Upon hearing this, Su Wen frowned, stopped in his tracks, and turned to look at the constable who had spoken, asking, "Are you saying that the former governor had a connection with Shen Qiushui?"

The constable was startled by Su Wen's question, his expression stiffening. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "Rumor has it that the patrolling brothers often see the former governor buying cloth from Shen Qiushui's shop, and some have even seen him touch Shen Qiushui's hand!"

Su Wen seemed to be deep in thought, then stopped and said, "I'm not going. Let's go back to the government office first!"

After saying this, Su Wen and the others left the temple. As soon as they stepped outside, they saw the arts and crafts hall across the street beating drums and gongs, shouting: "Arts and crafts hall, today is our last performance in Shazhou. We're leaving Shazhou for Chang'an. Anyone who hasn't seen it yet, come and take a look!"

Su Wen looked at the two constables behind him and asked, "What is this 'Arts Hall'?"

One of the constables said, "Oh, they're a group of acrobats!"

Su Wen responded, thinking it was a brothel. Just as he was about to leave, Su Wen subconsciously looked at the group of people shouting energetically. Then his eyes caught sight of the moon tattoos on the wrists of several burly men. A thought flashed through his mind: Lu Yao, who sold garlic, also had this tattoo on his wrist.

Su Wen immediately became curious and stepped forward to ask, "Excuse me, everyone, how much do you charge for your arts and crafts center?"

A burly man bowed and said, "Reporting to your superior, we cost fifteen coins per person. We have fire-breathing, sword-swallowing, chest-breaking boulder-breaking, magic tricks, and all sorts of other performances. Would you like to take a look, sir?"

Upon hearing this, Su Wen found it intriguing and nodded, saying, "Okay, then I'll buy two tickets and come see it tonight!"

As he spoke, Su Wen took out thirty coins from his pocket and handed them to the burly man. Su Wen then asked with a hint of doubt, "What are those tattoos on your wrists? Are they a mark of slavery? I've never seen anything like them before!"

The burly man rolled up his sleeves and said, "This, Shangguan, isn't some kind of slave tattoo. It's the mark of our Ningyue artists. Anyone with this moon tattoo represents someone who used to be a Ningyue artist!"

"Ningyue Artists?" Su Wen asked疑惑地, "What kind of organization is this? Why does it have a name like those murderous organizations?"

The burly man chuckled and said, "Shangguan, you jest. Actually, it's because almost everyone in Ningyue Pavilion is an orphan. Our adoptive father bought us from slave traders and taught us various arts so we could earn a living by performing and not starve!"

"After our adoptive father died, we began to travel throughout the Tang Dynasty, performing for a living to earn some money. If we encountered any orphaned children on the road, we would take them with us, integrate them into our Ningyue Pavilion, and teach them various skills so that they wouldn't starve to death on the streets!"

"Shangguan, although we are hooligans performing acrobatics, we do not commit crimes or serve as slaves. If any of us are gifted in our studies, we will do our utmost to support them in passing the imperial examinations!"

"This moon mark is just to prove that he was once a Ningyue artist at our Ningyue Pavilion. Actually, we didn't have this tattoo before, but more than ten years ago, when my godfather was still alive, he took us to perform in the Western Regions. We encountered a war, and many people got separated from us."

"Later, my adoptive father spent a lot of money and searched for a long time, but he still couldn't find them. Even when they were finally found, many people had died in the war, and many more had been sold into slavery!"

"My adoptive father was afraid, so he tattooed all of us who entered Ningyue Pavilion. This was to prove that we were Ningyue performers. The slave traders wouldn't dare to arrest us if they saw the tattoos on our wrists. Moreover, we could use the tattoos on our wrists to report to the authorities, so that the authorities could send us back to Ningyue Pavilion!"

After hearing what the burly man said, Su Wen was deeply moved. He never expected that there would be someone like his adoptive father in the Tang Dynasty.

Su Wendao said, "I don't know your godfather's name. Such a compassionate person should not be so unknown. I will petition the court to erect a monument and write history for your master, so that future generations can remember his good deeds and make him a role model for others to learn from!"

The burly man chuckled and said, "My godfather has long since become a monk. He doesn't like to leave his name, but I've heard my brothers mention that he was originally from a collateral branch of the Lu family of Fanyang, born in the Yanshan area of ​​Hebei. However, after becoming a monk, he took the name Huineng!"