"How could a person who fell into the water not want to go ashore?" Zuo Xiang smiled coldly, as if he had heard some extremely ridiculous remarks.

"What if there is something more important than life at the bottom of the lake?" Shen Xiaojia was calm and composed, and his tone of voice never changed at all.

"Ridiculous! What can be more important than a person's life!" Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice once again stood up on his own initiative, with a face full of sarcasm.

Shen Xiaojia didn't care about the other party's arrogant demeanor and said calmly, "There are many things in this world that are more important than a person's life. For a woman who values ​​her reputation, innocence is more important than life. For a high-spirited scholar, reputation is more important.

Integrity is more important than life, and for the adults in the palace, official career is more important than life!"

A servant of the Ministry of Personnel suddenly stood up, looked directly into Shen Xiaojia's eyes and said, "It is impossible for these things to be at the bottom of Daming Lake, and it is impossible for Dong San to care about these things!"

Shen Xiaojia smiled and nodded, "Yes, of course these things are not at the bottom of the lake, and they are not what Dong San wants...Dong San is a sailing merchant, so naturally what he cares about is real money."

The half-closed eyes of Guo Chengzhi, Minister of Industry and Industry, suddenly opened and two rays of light shot out, "Is there gold at the bottom of the lake?"

Shen Xiaojia chuckled and said slowly, "Yes... and there are a lot of them."

Chen Shangshu of the Ministry of Finance, who was dozing off, exhaled a breath of turbid air and coughed heavily, "How many are there approximately? Since the Marquis has gone down to investigate, he must have gained something, right?"

"I just took a cursory glance at that time. Under the water plants and in the black mud, there was gold and silver covered with gold and silver, and there were many rare and precious treasures. However, I never seriously estimated the exact number..." Shen Xiaojia's face was filled with regret.

He said, "My water quality is too poor. It would be too difficult to salvage anything and bring it back, so I didn't take anything."

The Minister of the Ministry of War, who had always believed that silence is golden, suddenly stood up, rubbed his hands, and said excitedly, "Oh my dear, dear mother! How much does a lake of gold, silver and jewelry cost? Your water is not good.

It doesn’t matter, all those boys are just freeloaders! It’s true that when you get sleepy, someone will give you a pillow. It just so happens that the Ministry of War’s salary is a bit tight recently..."

Guo Chengzhi, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, snorted, "In recent years, various states have spent a lot of money to reclaim wasteland, build canals, and build various workshops. Each of these is a policy that benefits the country and the people. We dare not neglect any of them, but this money

Even without spending money, many craftsmen have not received their wages for a year. It is better for me to show off my old face and assure others that the difficulties are only temporary. For the sake of the great cause of Qing Dynasty, I will endure it for a while longer..."

"Artisans can't get paid for court projects, so they can still earn some money through other ways to make ends meet," the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel sighed. "The gate of my government office has been broken for several months. It creaks when it opens and closes every day.

Noisy, very disturbing to the people!"

"You are telling lies with your eyes wide open. The six government offices are all in Zhengyangmen. Where are the people from bothering you!" Chen Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue sneered, "How much money does your government spend every month and on what items?

I have account books here. Do you want me to take them out and give them to you? As for the difficulty, it is only the life of me, the official of the Ministry of Accounts, who is the most tormented. In order to ensure the monthly expenses of each government office, I, the officer of the Ministry of Accounts, not only

I added in my own salary and borrowed some from my relatives and friends, so I could barely support myself!"

"How touching!" The old minister of the Ministry of Rites sneered, "It makes people sad and sheds tears! In Daqing, there are actually officials who defy the government. I guess you are the only one who can bear it.

With fat heads, big ears, and lots of flesh all over their bodies, even without the money issued by the court, they would not die of hunger... Unlike the poor babies like us in the Ministry of Rites, who were left with nothing but skin and bones, and sometimes I watched them gnaw on the hard cornbread,

Chewing cabbage without a drop of oil makes me feel worse than being stabbed with a knife!"

After finishing speaking, the old minister of the Ministry of Rites pressed the corners of his eyes with the frayed sleeves of his official uniform. His shoulders were shaking slightly. He didn't know whether he was wiping his tears or hiding his face and laughing.

Under the instruction of the newly appointed Minister Zhang, a minister of the Ministry of Justice stepped forward and took off his official boots in public, showing everyone his pair of torn socks that had been mended for three years.

Another minister from the Ministry of Industry stood out of the queue, with dissatisfaction written all over his face. He took out a stone shaped like bacon from his arms and stretched it out.

He licked his tongue, then burped heavily, and said loudly, "Today's lunch is over, I'm satisfied! Our Ministry of Industry will continue to work hard for Daqing and build a beautiful new home. As long as the project goes smoothly, everyone will have a house.

To live, we can... not eat!"

Everyone in the palace looked at the minister with dumbfounded eyes. They have seen shameless people, but they have never seen such a shameless person. It is not a skill to deceive others. If you believe it yourself, you can make your belly cooperate. This

The ability to lie has reached an unattainable level!

Xie Zhong, the right minister in charge of supervising the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Rites, also looked unnatural. He coughed lightly and said, "Everyone, what we are discussing now is the Daming Lake case, not the ownership of the gold and silver jewelry at the bottom of the lake.

Business is important... Those gold and silver pieces are right there, and they don’t have any legs. Let’s wait until we finish the business and discuss it slowly behind closed doors!”

Wei Chang, the left minister, also rarely agreed with Xie Zhong's opinion and nodded, "I also mean the same thing. Jewels and jade are not expensive. Dispelling the sorrow of the Holy One is the top priority..." He turned to look at Shen Xiaojia and blinked a few times.

He lowered his eyes and said, "What the Bloody Marquis means is that Dong San got greedy when he saw money, so he didn't swim to the shore immediately, but jumped to the bottom of the lake?"

Shen Xiaojia did not answer Zuo Xiang's knowing question, but walked slowly to the burly Minister of the Ministry of War, "Sir, if you saw so many gold, silver and jewels, would you swim to the shore, or dive to the bottom of the lake to bring some aquatic products?"

Woolen cloth?"

"Of course it's a dive to the bottom! Only a fool would leave gold, silver and jewels alone!" Minister of the Ministry of War replied very simply in a rough voice, not caring at all whether he would offend the left prime minister.

Normally, he had always disliked the Left Prime Minister Wei Changgen. He was the Minister in charge of the Ministry of War, but his prestige in the army was not as good as that of the Left Prime Minister who was born as a scholar from a poor family. He had always had a ball of fire in his stomach, and every time he

I was depressed day and night and felt extremely uncomfortable.

In addition, Shen Xiaojia's words of "military master" were just right and spoke to his heart. No matter when or where he was, he never forgot that he was once a soldier galloping on the battlefield. However, since he came to Kyoto,

His identity suddenly changed. There was no war here, but there were enemies everywhere. Many people no longer called him Military Lord, but respectfully called him Shangshu.

Minister? Send a letter to your mother-in-law’s grave!

Although he was very disgusted in his heart, he could do nothing about it. After all, the official position was personally conferred by the Holy Emperor, and the appointment was personally written by His Majesty. If you disobey the decree, you will die!

Now someone finally calls him the military master again, and he can be said to be his confidant! Not to mention taking advantage of the opportunity to help and ridicule the left prime minister, even asking him to chop off the left prime minister's head is not impossible! Of course, the premise is that this is not possible It will make his own head move. Chinese website

Shen Xiaojia and the Secretary of the Ministry of War looked at each other sympathetically and smiled, "Dong San is certainly not a fool. He is a sailing businessman. Money is very important to him. What's more, he has excellent water skills and will not think that he will die underwater." , but the fact is just the opposite. People who are good at swimming tend to drown in the water... You may not know that there are four processes in death from hypothermia: the excitement period, the excitement weakening period, the inhibition period, and the complete paralysis period."

"So people who die of hypothermia don't feel cold, and some even feel very hot... Just like a little girl in a Western fairy tale, she strikes matches one after another, and finally her face is filled with happiness The ground froze to death on the street. This is a self-protection function of the human body. When the body cannot resist the drop in temperature, it will return blood to the heart to protect the internal organs. The brain will begin to blur, and then lose consciousness. to death.”

Shen Xiaojia paused for a moment and continued, "That's what happened to Dong San. The more he dived, the more excited he became. Especially when he saw the gold and silver jewelry shining in front of his eyes, he became even more excited and inexplicable. He completely forgot about where he was. Circumstances, by the time his consciousness began to blur, he repented, and wanted to withdraw, it was already too late."

The Minister of Punishment frowned and said, "Dong San is tall and strong. If he really wakes up in time, he should be able to save himself in time, right?"

Shen Xiaojia sighed softly, "Of course the murderer couldn't have thought of this, so he made preparations underwater."

Prime Minister Zuo pondered for a moment, looked sideways at Shen Xiaojia, and asked, "Those water plants?"

"It's not all waterweed," Shen Xiaojia stuffed the dough into the hand of the Minister of Punishment, and took out the small notebook of the female detective Hu Ruonan and a porcelain bottle filled with some kind of green slime. "It's still... There is a creature that should not live in Daming Lake, and the two worked together to cause Dong San to die in Daming Lake..."

Prime Minister Zuo walked up to Shen Xiaojia, carefully read the details of Dong San's body described in the book, then opened the lid of the porcelain bottle, sniffed it gently, then covered the mouth of the bottle with his hands, and squinted his eyes to take a look. Looking at the green mucus under his fingers, he sighed and said, "It really shouldn't appear in Daming Lake. I was lucky enough to see this kind of strange thing in the East China Sea. The limbs are very soft, but once it gets entangled, it will also give you an extremely headache."

Right Minister Xie Zhong also came over, rolled his eyes and said, "What on earth are you two talking about?"

Emperor Qing, who was sitting high in the main hall, had already become a little impatient. First he had to endure the ministers pretending to be poor, and now he had to admire the dignified right minister of Da Qing acting stupidly. He was really tired of it, so he clapped his hands on his thighs. , stood up slowly, and said coldly, "Okay, we have all seen the big world, why are we acting so ignorant? Isn't it just a jellyfish, why is it making such a fuss! That jellyfish was brought from the ocean by me. Those brought back from the other side have been kept at the bottom of Daming Lake since the seventh year of Yongding, just as Yuan Bai's playmates..."

"Besides, the gold, silver and jewels at the bottom of the lake are also the burial things I gave to Yuan Bai. You should put an end to those inappropriate plans as soon as possible! Let me know who has done something wrong and reached out to chop off the hands and feet.

!You have no joke!"
Chapter completed!