Chapter 287: Spring Outing Kidnapping Incident [(1)]
Although the kidnappers didnt follow the rules first, Ma Chunfeng didnt dare to break the kidnappers' rules.
Therefore, Sun Shaozong, who was not good at summoning a large team of people, only secretly sought out Qiu Yunfei and Zhao Wuwei to join Ma Chunfeng and Fu Shi and quietly left the back door of the government office.
Along the way, Sun Shaozong naturally didnt waste his time. He took the same carriage as Ma Chunfeng and carefully questioned the incident.
Two days ago, on March 25, the Eldest Young Master of the Ma family, Ma Yingjue, took his wife and concubine out of the city for a spring outing early in the morning.
They didn't go to any scenic spots, only frolicking on a small hillside.
For their lunch, Ma Yingjue roasted a lamb leg, which was somewhat undercooked. He then started to have a stomachache in the afternoon and went to the grass for convenience four or five times, but the situation still couldn't be alleviated.
When he got into the bushes again for convenience, everyone didn't care. But after a long time, they realized that they had lost his trace.
At 9:00 pm last night, someone wrapped a stone in a paper strip and threw it into the Ma Mansion across the wall. The night patrol servants quickly picked it up and gave it to Ma Chunfeng.
After reading the content of the note, Ma Chunfeng finally confirmed that his son had been tied up by a group of strong men.
Because it was only a request for five hundred taels of silver, which was not much for the Ma family, he didnt report the case but quietly delivered the silver to the designated location, outside the city gate, on an empty donkey cart.
After putting the silver on, the butler in charge of delivering the money whipped the donkey's buttocks a few times and allowed it to run around with all its hooves.
Speaking of this, Ma Chunfeng smiled bitterly and said, "I originally intended to send someone to secretly follow the donkey cart, so that I could follow the path and find the strong man who kidnapped Jueer. However, the person who was sent followed far away and found that the donkey had found a vegetable field and refused to move.
Those useless servants thought there was something wrong. After carefully checking before they arrived at the carriage, they found that the silver placed on the shaft had already disappeared.
Since the plan to track the donkey cart failed, Ma Chunfeng naturally hoped that the kidnappers would take the money and release his son according to the agreement.
However, until the latter half of the night, there was still no movement!
Ma Chunfeng was so panicked that he asked Fu Shi to try building the connection and ask the famous Sun Shaozong to come forward and investigate.
Sun Shaozong had listened to Ma Chunfeng's general explanation and before he could carefully figure it out, the carriage had already stopped near Ma Mansion.
Ma Chunfeng led the crowd around the backyard and specially selected an unusual side door to enter to avoid the eyes and ears of the servants at home.
After entering the door, they naturally followed the remote path.
Ma Chunfeng led the way ahead, but they suddenly ran into a woman with a thin spring shirt behind the rockery.
Seeing that the woman was in her early twenties, tall and slender, with a slight touch of makeup, her appearance was still quite charming. However, her mouth was slightly larger. She was surprised, and her mouth was wide open in an O-shape. She immediately lost her face color.
She was taken aback but Ma Chunfeng's face became even more complex, with a look of wanting to get angry and being somewhat hesitant. Finally, he only squeezed a question out of his teeth, "What are you doing here?
Hmm... Im
As soon as the woman hesitated, Sun Shaozong understood why Ma Chunfeng was struggling. It turned out that this woman was Ma Chunfeng's daughter-in-law, Fu Shi's younger sister.
Fu Shi's face was also a bit unnatural, after all, his Brother-in-law's life and death were uncertain at the moment, but his younger sister was dressed up beautifully and came to this treacherous place alone.
No matter how he thought about it, it didn't seem like a serious plan!
Therefore, Fu Shi immediately stepped forward and scolded, "Whats the situation now? Why are you still causing trouble here? Go back to your own room now! I'll settle with you regarding today's affairs some other time.
As if granted amnesty, she greeted her Father-in-law and Brother, turned around, and went off with two thin legs.
Wait a minute.
Sun Shaozong hurriedly stopped her.
He then explained to Ma Chunfeng on the side, "Your Young Madam should be the most familiar with your situation. Since she happened to have collided with us, why don't you ask your Young Madam to go and see if there are any omissions?
Although Ma Chunfeng felt that his Daughter-in-law's recent behavior was indeed suspicious, he listened to Sun Shaozong's reasoning and thought about his son's life. Therefore, he ordered his Daughter-in-law to go to his small study with everyone.
When they arrived in the study, Ma Chunfeng took a few quick steps and took out a small box made of rosewood from the interlayer of the bookshelf. He also pinched out a four-finger wide note from inside and carefully handed it to Sun Shaozong.
Lord Sun, this is the note thrown in by that group of strong people around 9 pm the night before yesterday.
Sun Shaozong took it in his hand and took a closer look, only to see many small and crooked scripts written on it. At first glance, he knew that it was someone with a strong foundation in calligraphy, intentionally using non-habitual handwriting.
As for the above content, as Ma Chunfeng said before, it first indicated the kidnapper's identity, then deterred the Ma family from reporting the case, and finally proposed the amount of ransom and the delivery method.
Judging by the choice of words and sentences, they seemed to have some literary background.
Sun Shaozong carefully observed the note in front of the sun and sniffed the smell of the ink. Although it took a little longer, it was undoubtedly the cheapest, smelliest ink.
As for the writing paper...
Sun Shaozong carefully tore a small strip at the edge and handed it to Fu Shi, saying, "Judge Fu, please try writing a few words on it for us to see.
Although Fu Shi was not sure why, he had been in the Central Judicial Office for a long time, and even if he didnt deal with Sun Shaozong, he knew that his ability to solve cases was amazing.
So without much thought, he took his own pen, ink, and inkstone, researched and polished the ink, and filled it with ink. He held his breath and focused on his posture, hanging his wrist on the paper, as if he were a professional.
It was just that
As soon as the nib of the pen fell on the paper, the ink blackened half of the thin strip of paper!
Fu Shi was a bit dumbfounded at the time, and with this stunned effort, the remaining notes turned black.
Puff~
Others were concerned about his face and forced to suppress their laughter, but Qiu Yunfei didnt care about any of these.
With a chuckle, he leaned back and patted the table, saying, "Judge Fu, your posture is really impressive.
Fu Shi's face turned red, but he didnt dare to argue with Qiu Yunfei. He had to explain awkwardly, "This paper is really... It's really of bad quality.
Qiu Yunfei sneered and said, "How come the kidnappers can write these many petty characters? Are you not as strong as the kidnappers?
Fu Shi was immediately speechless.
But Sun Shaozong shook his head and said, "It's not that Judge Fu's skill is not enough, but rather that this kidnapper is used to writing on such bad paper.
Upon hearing that he had spoken for himself, Fu Shi felt a sense of relief and felt that this martial artist was not completely incompetent, at least he was a righteous and upright person.
Qiu Yunfei has been skilled lately. Upon hearing Sun Shaozong's special information, his eyes turned a few times and he suddenly said, "So, there must be a poor scholar among the kidnappers.
Thats right.
Sun Shaozong shook the note and said, "Since the words are neat and smooth, he must be writing with his left hand, it shouldn't be difficult to achieve the title of a scholar.
But he is also accustomed to using inferior pen, ink, and paper and obviously failed to achieve great fame in the Imperial Examination.
As the saying goes, Poor scholars are successful candidates in the Imperial Examination at the county level, rich scholars are successful candidates in the Imperial Examinations at the provincial level. This was not only because the scholar could directly become an official, but also because the scholar had a quota of 100 acres of fertile land under his name and didnt need to pay taxes to the Court.
Therefore, as long as one fell victim to the Imperial Examination, there would immediately be people who would voluntarily become slaves with their families, hoping to avoid the pain of taxation.
Speaking of this, Sun Shaozong suddenly changed his tone and said, "However, these are not the most important things at the moment. What I want to know most at the moment is why Ma Yingjue went out for a spring outing.
Why did he want to go for a spring outing outside the city?
This question made everyone present felt a bit inexplicable. This outing was just an outing, why was there a why?
Ma Chunfeng was puzzled and said, "I don't know what Lord Sun means by this.
For a spring outing, one naturally needs to find a day when the flowers bloom," Sun Shaozong sneered. "But on the 25th, it was a cloudy day, and the temperature outside was very low, so it was not suitable for a spring outing.
He had a firsthand experience with the temperature that day.
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