The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

Originally, Sun Shaozong planned to find a suitable opportunity to give Jia Lian the construction price list.

Based on Wang Xifeng's greed, knowing that there was such a directory, he would definitely compare it with the cost of his own garden. At that time, Lai Da's act of filling his pockets would inevitably be exposed.

However, there was an obvious loophole in this plan.

If Wang Xifeng used to embezzle extensively when she was supervising the construction of the other courtyards, she and Lai Da would become afraid. In the end, they might only compromise with each other.

For this reason, Sun Shaozong once considered sending the price list directly to Jia Zheng.

Unfortunately, the Old Second Master of the Rongguo Mansion, who worked in the Ministry of Public Work, learned from those scholars and spent all day writing, ignoring the people's livelihood and economy.

If the price list was sent to him, it would be handed over to Lai Da for verification. At that time, not only would Lai Da not be defeated, but Sun Shaozong's real intention would also be exposed.

It was precisely because of this kind of concern that Sun Shaozong struggled for a long time and failed to send the price list.

But…

Today, he found a more suitable candidate, Jia Baoyu!

Although Jia Baoyu was still young and has not participated in the management work of the Rongguo Mansion, he has strong support!

The most important thing about the Lai family was that they were favored by the Old Lady. However, compared with Jia Baoyu, the favor of the Master and a Servant was obviously not of the same magnitude.

In this case, Jia Baoyu belonged to the victim completely, and there was no possibility of associating with Lai Da and others. In addition, Baoyu has always been capricious. As long as he could arouse his interest, he didn’t have to worry that he wouldn’t investigate to the end.

Therefore, after figuring out the gains and losses in his mind, Sun Shaozong followed the trend and said with a wry smile, "Isn't the garden at home too small to grow many flowers and plants? Every year, to enjoy chrysanthemums in the Double Ninth Festival, each household has to fight hard to replace all the flowers and plants in spring and summer."

After a pause, he sighed again. "This year, just after the old ones were shoveled, I happened to be locked in the Northern Detective Department. The people at home were so worried that they naturally didn't want to change the flowers to chrysanthemums."

If ordinary people listened to this, they would probably smack their tongues at the extravagance of the Sun Mansion.

But how could such rich and noble idlers as Xue Pan and Jia Baoyu care about silver?

Xue Pan immediately patted his chest and said, "Second brother, I happen to be tired of watching the chrysanthemums these days. I'll have the chrysanthemums shoveled and sent to your mansion the next morning!"

"Now that the Double Ninth Festival has passed, why did you shovel it?" Jia Baoyu shook his head and said regretfully, "Although it is a good thing to appreciate chrysanthemums, if it hurts many flowers and plants, it will spoil the scenery."

The way of thinking of the local tyrant and this literary youth was different from that of normal people!

Sun Shaozong said on the surface, "Brother Bao is right, and I've been thinking about expanding the backyard and setting up a separate flower bed to save trouble in the future."

With that, he said painfully, "I just asked someone about it, and now the cost of repairing the garden is really exaggerated..."

Crackle~

Before Sun Shaozong finished speaking, Xue Pan beat his chest again and said, "What are you afraid of? If you are tight on money, just tell me, and I'll give you the money!"

This was really…

Sun Shaozong did not know whether to be annoyed by his talkativeness or moved by his generosity.

Finally, he had no choice and said, "If I really lack silver, I will not hide it from you. But what I am worried about most now is that those unscrupulous businessmen are shoddy. Oh right!"

He suddenly thought of something and said excitedly, "Brother Bao, isn't your other courtyard going to finish its construction soon? The craftsman and the merchant are ready! Why don't you ask about it? If it's good and cheap, I won't have to find someone else."

"Well..."

Jia Baoyu was like his father. He’s been the most intolerant of such mundane affairs all his life. He even excelled more than his father.

So when he heard that he needed to inquire about these common things, he was reluctant to do so.

It's just because of Sun Shaozong's face that it's not easy to refuse his request.

In a dilemma, Sun Shaozong laughed and said, "Brother Bao has always wanted to learn the basic skills in investigating cases. Collecting all kinds of information is one of the basic skills of investigating cases. How can we find out the truth behind the scenes if we can't even collect superficial information?"

This was exactly Jia Baoyu’s bottom line!

In front of Lin Daiyu that day, he boasted that he wanted to, “break the cause and effect for others,” and talked about, “when things are over, he will go away and hide himself and his name.”

When his big talk was blown out, he gained Daiyu's admiration. But for several months, he had made no progress except reading some miscellaneous investigation scripts. Instead, he unlocked several new gestures through that script.

In addition, Daiyu and Tanchun asked from time to time, and Jia Baoyu was inevitably anxious.

So he took the initiative to come here today. In fact, he wanted to ask Sun Shaozong for an idea to see how he could achieve his goal.

At this time, Sun Shaozong talked about the basic skills of investigating cases. He immediately became energetic, leaned forward, and asked, "Second Brother, tell me what basic skills are necessary for solving cases?"

Although it was a bit off-topic, when Xue Pan was also heckling, Sun Shaozong bent his fingers and said, "Let's not ignore the details. I think the most important thing in investigating cases is to keep the curiosity."

"Stay curious?"

"Yes, if you are not interested in the case, or even curious about the truth behind the scenes, how can you persevere in pursuing it?"

Jia Baoyu thought about it carefully and agreed that this was reasonable. After another “self-review," he said excitedly, "I don't lack curiosity! Go on, Second Brother, what else?"

"Second, having a keen eye is an observation ability. If you can find more information than others at the crime scene, you will be closer to the truth."

"What's more, it is necessary to accumulate enough knowledge, so that you won't miss any important clues because of ignorance when facing complicated secret cases."

"Finally, it is the ability to sort out information. If you can sort out a relatively clear context from the seemingly unorganized clues, you will get twice the result with half the effort in solving the case!"

"Of course, there are many other abilities that need to be used, such as good memory, but I think they are less important than these four."

Speaking of this, Sun Shaozong said, "In addition to the first one, the most basic of the remaining three is keen observation. If you can't even collect information well, no matter how rich your knowledge is or how you can sort out clues, these skills will be useless."

"I see!"

When Jia Baoyu heard this, his eyes were shining, and he did not hesitate to do everything. "In this case, it will be on me. Don't worry, my Second Brother. I will find out for you clearly!"

Weird kids were sure easy to fool.

Sun Shaozong was secretly complacent, but he smiled genially and said, "For the first time you investigate alone, don't hurry to set too high a goal. I had just collected some materials and prices, I will send them to you tomorrow for reference."