The following story is from the Qing Dynasty Wu Woyao detective novel collection "Chinese Detective Case", which was slightly changed when translated.
In Deqing, Huzhou, Zhejiang, there was a woman named Wang who was married to Crazy. Crazy and this person, the family conditions are good, quite rich, but arrogant, and do their own thing, there are big problems in character. The biggest problem is that his relationship with his mother-in-law is very unusual.
In his later years, his father married a beautiful concubine. After his father's death, the concubine was still very young, so he was crazy and got along with this concubine.
If you marry your brother or your father's concubine, there is a word in ancient times called "烝". In the period of slave society, it was a legal inheritance, and the wife of the concubine was also the right wife, and the children born were also concubines or the eldest sons. However, in feudal society, it was not illegal, and even violated moral laws.
Moreover, after getting along with his mother-in-law, he naturally did not dare to speak up, but after a long time, the Wang clan knew. What is even more heinous is that while messing with the mother-in-law, he also let the Wang family filial piety to the mother-in-law, as if it were a mother-in-law, in order to hide people's eyes and ears. Wang was deeply ashamed of this.
One day, the concubine asked the Wang family to make shoes, and after the Wang family made it, they gave it to the concubine.
The concubine looked at the shoes and said, "This shoe is not very right, how should I wear it and walk?" Wang Shi said a pun, saying: The shoes are not right, you have to walk straight! Wang Shi was kind enough to persuade the concubines to behave well. But when the concubine heard this, she immediately blushed with shame, angry and anxious, thinking that the Wang clan was humiliating herself.
The concubine did not speak, went to find more and more, and then complained. Moreover, after listening to it, they were furious, and the two discussed it and thought of a way. In the evening, the two deliberately invited the Wang clan to drink, praised the Wang clan in various ways, said that she was virtuous and capable, said that she was working hard to run the family business, and constantly advised the Wang clan to drink, and soon the Wang clan was drunk.
After Wang shi was drunk, he and the concubine killed her in a special way to avoid being found out the cause of death (this method will be explained later). Then, moreover, he deliberately pretended to be sad and sad, and went to The Wang family's mother's house to say that the Wang family fell ill and died violently.
In ancient times, there were some diseases that did kill people, and the cause of death could not be found, so this reason was often used by some bad people. When you encounter irresponsible officials, you will also prevaricate.
Wang's family was very poor, and they were honest and cowardly, although they felt abnormal and suspected that they had been murdered, but they did not dare to say it. In this way, the Wang clan was buried.
The neighbors on the left and right also know that Wang Is a person, they all know that she is kind, virtuous, and not sick, and she is fine during the day, how can she suddenly fall ill and die? In addition, they are loyal to the outside and evil inside, and the young and beautiful concubines are impatient and lonely, which makes people even more suspicious. Therefore, people in the vicinity began to talk about it, and everyone felt that there was a grievance in Wang's death.
For a whole year, the locals were still discussing the matter, and the more they talked, the more indignant they became, and they suspected that they had murdered the Wang clan with the concubines. At this time, Wang's family could not sit still, and went to the county court to complain to The Concubine.
It has been a year, and the county order has only to let people open the coffin for autopsy, and the body is decomposed, so the bones are examined. After seeing it, he told the county order that there was no problem with the bones of the corpse, no injuries or poisoning, and it looked like a normal death. Wang's family didn't believe it, but there was no way but to give up.
Later, the local government changed a county order, and the Wang family went to beat the drum to sound the injustice. The new county order opened the coffin again, and the conclusion was the same as the last time. The Wang family did not believe it and continued to complain to the state capital, which sent someone to verify it, and also came to the conclusion of normal death. After a few times, the Wang family also felt that there was no problem.
However, there is one person in the Wang family who is still insisting, that is, the younger brother of the Wang family. This person was Han Lin, who told the punishment department directly about his sister's situation, and the punishment department reported it to the emperor. At that time, there happened to be a Zhejiang xuezheng who was an upright official, who went to Deqing to take office, and before leaving, the emperor deliberately told him about Wang's case and told him to find out carefully.
As soon as the new county commander took office, he went through the process, first interrogating and interrogating the concubines, and the two only said that wang shi was sick every day, and then he died of a violent illness, and the others did not say anything. Then I went to examine Wang's bones and found that there was nothing, and the bones were normal. This is already the fourth time, changing ordinary people, it is estimated that they are impatient.
However, before the new county commander took office, he had already made an overt and covert visit, investigated the personalities of the Wang clan and concubines, and also checked the evaluation of the people around them. As a result, unexpectedly unanimously, everyone around them thought that the Wang family could not be violently ill, and the Wang family also said so, and everyone despised the concubines.
Therefore, the new county commander felt that this case was still strange, it should be that the concubine murdered the Wang family, but could not find evidence. He repeatedly asked Shu Zuo, who still said that the bones were not injured and that Wang Shi died normally.
However, without finding out the truth, how can we be worthy of the Wang clan, how can we be worthy of official uniforms, and how can we be worthy of the emperor? The new county order wants to come and go, and thinks there is a problem in this link, what is the problem? That's trick. Since it is basically determined that the Wang clan was wrongfully killed, and the work cannot be detected, it shows that the work is the biggest problem.
There was an experienced old servant in the provincial city next door, and after inquiring clearly, the new county ordered that the illness would no longer rise to the church, and went to invite the old servant to come overnight. During the day, The New County Order ate with him, and at night, the New County Order slept in the same bed with him, not telling anyone, just for fear that someone would bribe him.
After making full preparations, the new county order gathered the people, including Wang's mother's family, and then followed the old servant to examine the bones of The Wang.
After the old servant examined the bones, he said: Looking at the bones, there is indeed no injury, but there is a bone under the neck of the corpse, which has been replaced. The deceased was only twenty years old, and it was reasonable to say that the bone should be slightly heavier, but the bone that had been replaced was lighter, and it was speculated that it was the bone of a forty-year-old man. If you don't believe me, you can weigh it on the spot.
After weighing it, it was found that the weight of the bone was consistent with what the old servant said. In order to be rigorous, the new county ordered to look for information in the book, and found that the bone under the young woman's neck was slightly heavier.
When the case was cleared up, the new county order was furious, and sent the previous work to him, tortured him severely, and confessed that during the first autopsy, he accepted the silver and secretly changed a bone. He had been worried that something was going to happen, and the bone was still hidden.
After the original bones were brought, Xinxian Ling found that there were obvious traces of bamboo on them. Moreover, when he was arrested and interrogated, everyone learned that he had taken advantage of Wang's drunkenness to put a heavy object in a bucket (a wicker-woven vessel with a hemispherical bottom, about fifty or sixty centimeters high) and pressed it on Wang's neck, and Wang's suffocation died.