Create a fake prosperous Tang Dynasty.

  The Wei family's contribution to the Tang Dynasty is indeed not to be underestimated, and Pei Tan can feel their difficulties everywhere.

  Empress Wei first blocked access to the emperor within the palace, and later had Wei Xuanzhen take direct control of the Dali Temple.

  There is no benefit, and it will not attract families like Wei's.

  Jing Wantong suddenly had a strange idea, walked around to the front of that table, stared at it for a moment, and then reached out to knock on it. The table emitted a dull sound.

  "Older brother!"

  Her sudden voice made Pei Tan turn around and look at her. Today's girl seemed particularly vivid.

  Jing Wan'er pointed to the table and said, "Sir, this table is made of pine wood."

  What's so special about this wine house having all wooden tables and chairs?

  The girl pointed at the table, a hint of smile in her eyes: "Wan'er has a guess and wants to try it out."

  She rushed towards the stairs barefooted, "I remember there's a well in the yard, I'll go fetch some water."

  Pei Tan couldn't keep up with her, watching as she went downstairs, picked up a dirty sock and put it on, then immediately rushed to the courtyard to fetch water.

  The wooden bucket was just at the edge of the well, and Jing Yuanyu quickly shook the rope to lower the water bucket, and after a moment, she shook it up again.

  Only half a bucket was filled, but the water inside was already enough.

  Jing Wan'er was satisfied, and hurriedly picked up the pail and re-entered the wine building. When she reached the first floor to go upstairs, Pei Tan had already come down and replaced her in carrying the pail.

  The two returned to the third floor, Jing Yuanyu stared at the pine wood table: "Pine wood is prone to moisture, coupled with the dimness of this third floor, if the deceased deliberately wetted it and wrote on this table, water would have seeped into the table, and it would be difficult to dry for a while."

  The explanation is easy to understand, but if you want to verify it, you still need to operate.

  Just as Jing Yu'er lifted the water bucket and was about to pour it out, she stopped her movement and looked at Pei Tan.

  Pei Tan also looked at her.

  Even wearing dirty socks and walking into a wine house is considered destroying the scene. What is Jing Wanyan doing now?

  "If the deceased had simply written something on the table at random," said Pei Tan slowly, "then it would have been a waste of effort."

  Jing Wantong thought for a moment: "That also depends on what I see."

  If water is poured on it and nothing happens, then they have just destroyed a table.

  But... if the deceased left behind an important message, they would be able to see it, but only this one time.

  Even if Songmu can absorb water, this bucket of water will almost destroy it.

  Pei Tan lowered his eyes: "Let's get down to business."

  Jing Wan'er smiled and her hand slipped, causing the water bucket to tip over onto the table.

  The table was flooded with water, and Jing Yuanyu quickly put down the bucket, staring intently at the changes on the table.

  Water flowed from the table to the ground, and the originally light-colored pine wood tabletop turned dark after being soaked in water.

  This is normal discoloration of wood

  A moment later, as the water penetrated further and deeper colors appeared.

  Those deeper colors are a bit like recessed carvings, and when they become clear, you can see that they are words.

  Jing Wan'er couldn't help but look at Pei Tan, who was staring intently at the words exposed on the table.

  It turned out to be an article.

  What is written on this desk is neither a will nor an angry statement, but just an article.

  Jing Wan'er also stared at the article and read two sentences, "The power of kings is wealth and nobility, but the people are the foundation."

  She looked at Pei Tan and asked: "Sir, what do you mean?"

  Most of what these candidates wrote had an indelible mark of shallowness, no wonder girls like Jing Wanyu looked so unimpressed.

  Although there are some missing words and sentences in the article, it does not hinder Lord Pei from understanding it.

  This is a qualified exam essay.

  It's another exam article, this is already the second article in this case.

  The authors of these two articles are both dead.

  Is this year's college entrance exam really so unlucky?

  Jing Wan'er seemed to have lost some air, why a dying person wrote on the table, not angry and resentful words, but a continuous text?

  "This person was still not thinking of death when he sat here writing this article." Pei Tan looked at the words, a person who is about to die, even if they wanted to seek death, could not have written such bold and unrestrained characters.

  Sitting here drinking wine, will I think of death as I drink?

  Even ants will struggle to survive, let alone humans; human beings' desire to live won't die so easily.

  "What's with the first character looking like it's been smeared?" Jing Wanyu pointed and asked.

  "Isn't it painted on, but rather water was splashed onto it."

  How can something so calm and peaceful suddenly erupt?

  Pei Tan walked around to the other side of the table, so that he was now facing the deceased, who had been writing on the opposite side. However, the splashing direction was towards where Pei Tan was standing - directly in front of the deceased.

  There was also a chair in front of it, and at the bottom, there was a faint drag mark.

  Jing Wan'er also noticed and her eyes widened with a blink. This means that, opposite the deceased, there was once someone sitting here too.

  Why is there no such person in all the testimonies?

  Pei Tan stretched out his hand and wiped the splashed ink on the first character. The only one that was splashed was this first character, unless someone had deliberately poured a cup of water on it, or else...

  "Give me a mouthful of water." Pei Tan said.

  There was still some water left in the bucket. Jing Yu'er scooped up a handful with both hands and slowly handed it to Pei Tan.

  There is no ladle in the bucket of water, if you want to drink, you can only use your hands instead.

  Pei Tan glanced at Jing Yuanyuan and slowly lowered his head, taking a sip from the girl's hand.

  He motioned to Jing Wanyu to stand back a bit, then suddenly spat on the table. Ah... for Lord Pei, this action was somewhat uncouth, but he looked at the water stain on the table and saw that its splashing shape was just like human saliva.

  "Somebody had sat opposite the dead man for a long time."

  Jing Wan'er felt a chill in her heart.

  Pei Tan lifted his sleeve and wiped the corner of his mouth: "The deceased did not want to die at first. But the person in front said something that stimulated the deceased."

  "Finally spat out saliva, ridiculing the deceased's article."

  The candidate's name fell on Sun Shan, and the article he wrote was ridiculed and satirized. Moreover, the person in front of him kept saying provocative words, and the deceased finally couldn't bear it and jumped to his death.

  "Is this really the process?"

  "Why can't it be that the deceased wrote it themselves and then spat on their own article?"

  Although it's a bit absurd, it's still better than suddenly appearing out of thin air.

  "Unless the deceased had gone to the other side, if he was dissatisfied with what he wrote, he could have just splashed a cup of water on it."

  The deceased wrote with his fingers dipped in water, not on paper. He wanted to erase the article, just like Jing Yuanyuan, a basin of water poured down, and nothing was left.

  "How could this person not be discovered?" Jing Wanyu still couldn't understand. Zi Cui'er would absolutely never lie, and even more so wouldn't lie for some inexplicable person.

  Silently provoking someone to jump off a building and commit suicide, this person will never be a ghost.

  Pei Tan looked out of the window again.

  Jing Wan'er's heart also skipped a beat. Could it be that the person had jumped out of the window and left the wine tower without anyone noticing?

  But the deceased jumped from the third floor and died on the spot.

  Unless

  That man knows martial arts.

  Jing Wantong couldn't help but think, had their unsolved case become a mystery or an unresolved case?

  Those who have martial arts skills are all raised by wealthy families. A poor and humble scholar like him, why would his death require the use of people with martial arts skills?

  And since you have martial arts skills, why didn't you just kill him directly, but instead went to great lengths to fake the scene and erase the evidence?

  "The dead man's writing is far from being on the level of a nobody."

  Jing Wan'er was taken aback for a moment, and suddenly recalled the two sentences she had just read. She didn't quite understand them, but the opening phrases were already enough to be spoken fluently, with perfect antithesis.

  A candidate who didn't even get the last spot, is saying that his article was actually quite good?

  But... everyone knows that exams are inherently unfair. Every year, so many talented scholars fail the exam, and there must be quite a few who write well too.

  Mr. Pei said with a sigh: "But he's dead now. That means his writing was really good."

  Huh?

  Jing Wan'er was speechless.

  Someone died, but the article is still fragrant for centuries. Just like Fan Wenjun who passed away, his articles are so good.

  He even forced Lin Jingjing, who didn't know a single character, to memorize it.

  Jing Wan'er suddenly felt a chill on her back, and she slowly looked at the words that were gradually disappearing from the table.