Chapter 5 Five, thick ink and light shadow
Under the big locust tree in Puning Square, there are still a bunch of idlers sitting around, spreading gossip: "Hey, the second son of the old Zhang family was driven back by Duan Ruitang yesterday, do you know?"
"Hurry up, I just picked up a beautiful daughter-in-law for nothing now, it's worth working in Duan Ruitang for a lifetime!"
"Hey, don't tell me, I think there's something wrong with that little girl. In the middle of last night, I heard the faint sound of a young woman sobbing from his yard! It's so creepy... Did Zhang Xingying beat her up? what?"
"No way? I can't see that he is such a person..."
Listening to other people's gossip, Zhang Xingying looked at them helplessly and awkwardly, and stammered, explaining: "Ah...they are actually talking about Adi, she is not my distant relative. By the side of the mountain road, it was very pitiful, so I took her home. We...we are very good, and we are going to, just..."
Everyone looked at his blushing face, and immediately understood that Zhou Ziqin had played a game with him, and he seemed to be brothers, and immediately booed: "Okay, when will we get married, let's have a wedding!"
"It's not decided yet... The main thing is that the family doesn't have any money right now. Oh, everyone, please go this way." He was so cautious that he almost found a hole in the ground and hurriedly led them home.
Although the Zhang family is not big, the yard is not small, and it is really clean and tidy.
Outside the courtyard is a row of hibiscus hedges, a pomegranate tree on the left, and a grape arbor on the right, with stone tables and benches under the arbor.Next to the house, the water channel from the outside was brought in, and a small pond was set up, in which three or four red carp were raised. There was a bush of calamus and several irises beside the pond, which were fresh and lovely.
At this time, there was a young girl squatting by the small pond to clean the freshly picked white hibiscus flowers. When she heard the sound of someone coming in, she stood up and looked back at the group of people in front of her in panic. She was relieved only when she saw Zhang Xingying. Nene called him: "Second Brother Zhang."
"Adi, that... when you left the house in the morning, you said you were going to help me make Gulouzi, and then they were, they were..."
"It's a friend, brother Zhang's friend, and I come here to eat the Gu Louzi you made." Zhao Wang laughed and interrupted Zhang Xingying.
The girl named Adi looks very beautiful, like the juicy hibiscus flower in her hand. Although it is not a gorgeous famous flower, the fresh and tender girlish breath is particularly moving.She seemed very shy of strangers, she only nodded slightly to them, then lowered her head and picked up the washed white hibiscus, turned around and entered the house.
Zhang Xingying hurriedly called everyone to come in and sit down, but King Zhao waved his hand and ordered someone to put the wine under the grape arbor. He sat down on the stone bench casually, and said to King E: "This small yard is really nice, more interesting than your tea room, Seventh Brother." too much."
E Wang Li Run smiled helplessly and motioned for Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin to sit down as well.
Zhang Xingying took out an ancient building with a diameter of one foot from the inside, and put it on the table.This cake is baked crispy and yellow, with a tangy aroma that makes your index finger move.Everyone couldn't wait to break off a piece and taste it. The aroma of the mutton was mixed with the crispy crust.
Several people were hungry after playing the game, and felt that the taste of this ancient building was excellent.King Zhao almost snatched half of it and ate it in his hand, and asked, "Zhang Xingying, did that girl just make this?"
Zhang Xingying nodded, and said: "She said to make hibiscus egg drop soup, please eat slowly, I will help."
After he finished speaking, he ran inside like a fly.Holding a piece of cake in her hand, Huang Zixia walked to the door and saw that girl Adi was beating eggs by the stove, and Zhang Xingying was sitting there lighting the fire.
The flames spat in the chamber, and a piece of ashes flew out, sticking to Zhang Xingying's face.A Di called him softly, pointed to his cheek, Zhang Xingying looked up at her, and wiped his face carelessly a few times, but the firewood ash was smeared all over his face.
A Di shook his head helplessly, so he could only walk to Zhang Xingying's side, bent down, and raised his cuff to help him gently wipe off the dust.
Zhang Xingying raised her head and smiled at her, the smile was a bit silly, and under the reflection of the occasional flames from the stove, it was slightly flushed.
Huang Zixia couldn't help showing a smile on his face.She remembered that in the spring of a certain year, when a certain person climbed to the mountain wall to pick the most blooming flower for her, a piece of dust was rubbed on his cheek.
At that time, she also wiped it off gently with her cuff like this, and smiled at him.
Probably all women in the world are like this.
The smile on her cheek hadn't faded yet, but she already felt a severe pain in her heart.The kind of pain that was almost like a blunt knife cut her flesh, so she could only support the wall, squat down slowly, hug her knees tightly, panting desperately to keep herself calm.
That person has already broken up with her.
But for him, she became the murderer who was hunted down all over the world to kill her relatives.
If she hadn't fallen in love with him, perhaps her parents, her brother, her grandmother and uncle would still be living happily in Sichuan, and all the nightmares would not have happened.
"... Chonggu, Chonggu?"
She heard Zhou Ziqin's voice echoing in her ears.
Looking up, he saw Zhou Ziqin's face, concerned and nervous: "Chonggu, what's the matter with you?"
"I..." She slowly came back to her senses, looked at him in front of her, and finally said a word, "Probably because I was too tired from playing just now."
"Hey, you are too brave. Fortunately, Prince Kui helped you on the stage, otherwise, you would have fainted on the stage." Zhou Ziqin said while pulling her to the stone table to sit down, "Come on, drink first!" Mouth soup, the fresh hibiscus is really smooth and sweet, you must like it!"
Huang Zixia took the soup in his hand, took a sip, nodded and said, "It's really delicious."
King E also praised: "It's still fresh and delicious, much better than those in the palace that have been waiting for us to pass the meals on the stove all day long."
King Zhao asked Zhang Xingying: "Is her name Adi? Would you like to come to my house as a servant? Every time I play, she will be a Gulouzi and wait for me to go home!"
Huang Zixia held the bowl and remained silent.
It turned out that this King Zhao simply liked to poach people everywhere, and if there was something he liked, he wanted to get it home.Including her time, I have seen him try to poach someone three times.
But I heard Zhang Xingying say: "My lord, forgive me, I really picked up Adi on the side of the road when I went to the mountains to collect herbs last month. Her family background is unknown, and she doesn't even go out every day, so I don't think she can serve the lord. "
Zhou Ziqin was surprised: "What? Did you find it on the side of the road?"
"Yes, yes, she passed out on the side of the mountain road at that time, and I just went to collect medicine, so I carried her home..."
Zhou Ziqin couldn't help being envious and jealous: "Just picking up someone on the side of the road, you can find such a beautiful and lovely girl, and she can cook so well, it's just a stroke of luck!"
Huang Zixia pondered and asked: "What is Miss Adi's background, where is her family, and why did she pass out on the mountain road?"
Zhang Xingying froze for a moment, then said, "She...she didn't mention it, so I won't ask."
Seeing his dodging eyes, Huang Zixia saw from his expression that he seemed to be hiding something.But she thought about it again, she was just an outsider, they were so good together now, why bother to ask those things, there was no need to add to their worries and trouble them.
Zhou Ziqin thought of something, and hurriedly said: "By the way, Second Brother Zhang, next month my father will have a banquet and entertain the emperor at home. Then we must let her help us make an ancient building!"
"That's no problem. After it's done, send it over quickly. In this kind of weather, it's guaranteed to burn your mouth when you go to the table."
Several people admired Adi's cooking skills, but found that E Wang Li Run was looking at the hall all the time, with a dazed expression.
Huang Zixia followed his gaze, but found that he was looking at a painting on the desk.
In the main room, there was originally a picture of Fu Lu Shou Xi, but another one-foot-wide and three-foot-long painting was hung in front of the picture of Fu Lu Shou Xi.The picture quality of this picture is very good. On the snow-white silk, there is a piece of Sichuan jute paper mounted on it. The painting on it is a mess of black ink, with no lines or clear shapes. It doesn't look like a painting, but it looks like an inkstone has been knocked over. Stains left behind.
E Wang Li Run looked at the painting, his face gradually turned pale.
"Brother Seven, what's the matter with you?" King Zhao asked him.
And he didn't even care about King Zhao's question, he just pointed at the painting with his trembling fingers, and his voice was a little stagnant: "That painting... what is that painting?"
Zhang Xingying looked back and quickly said: "It was a painting given by the late emperor when my father was ordered to go to the palace to diagnose the pulse of the late emperor."
King Zhao smiled and said: "The calligraphy and painting of the first emperor are outstanding, how could it be possible to draw such a picture."
"Yes, and this painting still has traces of rubbing. I also secretly thought that it might be the paper used to absorb the ink on the pen. My father picked it up like a treasure. Otherwise, what are these messy patterns? " Zhang Xingying said hastily, "And my father regards this painting as his life, no, knowing that I will be tested by the Zuo Jinwu guard today, so he gave me the painting and asked me to burn incense and worship, so that the late emperor will be safe in heaven. Spirit, bless me to pass the test of Zuo Jinwu Guard."
As he said, he turned around and went into the house to take down the painting, ready to put it in the box.Li Run, king of E, stood up, followed him into the house, and asked, "May I have a look?"
"Of course!" Zhang Xingying hurriedly handed the painting to him respectfully.
Seeing that E King Li Run was so interested, several people gathered around and carefully looked at the three balls of ink on it.
It's just three pieces of graffiti of different sizes and without any structure, drawn in a mess on the paper.Huang Zixia looked around and couldn't see what it meant.But when E Wang Li Run turned the screen, she saw a bright red point hidden under the thick ink, and she couldn't help but look at that point carefully.But after looking at it for a long time, there is only that little pinpoint red, and the rest are all deep and shallow black.
King Zhao suddenly clapped his hands and said, "This king has seen it!"
Zhou Ziqin hurriedly asked, "What did Prince Zhao see?"
"These are three people!" King Zhao said, pointing to the three balls of ink blots, "Look, from right to left, the first picture shows a person struggling on the ground with his body twisted. The ink blob is a burning fire! In short, this is a picture of a person being burned to death!"
After what he said, everyone seemed to be able to tell the difference when they looked at the ball of ink.Only Zhou Ziqin pointed to a twisted vertical line above the ink ball and asked, "Then what is this long line?"
"It's smoke..." King Zhao said something uncertain, then immediately thought of something, and slapped Zhou Ziqin on the shoulder heavily, "It's lightning, thunderbolt! This person was struck by lightning and died unexpectedly!"
In front of Huang Zixia's eyes, suddenly appeared Wei Ximin who was burned to death in Jianfu Temple a few days ago when his whole body was caught in a thunderbolt.
Zhou Ziqin was also thoughtful: "Hey, I suddenly remembered that Wei Ximin, the eunuch of the Princess Mansion, was burned to death after being struck by lightning that day? It really coincides with this painting!"
"That's really a coincidence." King Zhao said.
Zhang Xingying said: "But this painting has been in my house for ten years, and this year is also the tenth year of Xiandi Bintian. I don't think there should be any relationship between the two."
"That's right, what is the relationship between an eunuch who died recently and a painting ten years ago? It's a coincidence." King Zhao said casually.
Everyone thought it was true, so Wei Ximin was quickly left out of the topic.
Zhou Ziqin's imagination is also really good. After receiving the reminder from King Zhao, he quickly pointed to the blob of ink in the middle of the painting, and said bluffingly: "I seem to see it too! This second picture, The painting is also a person, you see, these vertical lines seem to be a cage, and he is imprisoned in it, probably a prisoner. The surrounding ink blobs look like blood, which should mean that this person died in the cage. "
Everyone nodded in agreement, and their eyes fell on the third ink ball.The ink balls were two balls, one up and one down, and the top ball didn't look like a person at all.Everyone was still watching, Zhang Xingying opened his mouth wide and let out an "ah".
"Did you see it?" E Wang Li Run asked him.
He nodded again and again, and said nervously: "I think... I think this looks... like a big bird flying down to peck people, and the person below is desperately fleeing... There seems to be a little bit more under the black ink." Red, like a small wound."
"Well, I think so too!" King Zhao nodded.
"So that's how it is... so this painting, does it contain these contents?" E King Li Run thought to himself.
Huang Zixia frowned slightly, and asked, "But I have a question, why did the late emperor draw such paintings? What are the meanings of these three paintings?"
This question obviously has no answer.Li Run, king of E, rolled up the scroll and returned it to Zhang Xingying, saying: "Whether it is written by the first emperor or not, it is after all your father's concern, so you should keep it properly."
"Yes." Zhang Xingying held the scroll and put it back into the box, ready to go upstairs and put it back where it was.Just as he turned around, he froze for a moment, and saw Adi standing on the stairs on the second floor, dazed in a daze.
And he could clearly see that her face was not only sad and blank, but also had a twist mixed with pleasure, which made her look a little scary.
He was stunned, startled by her expression, and afraid that she would lose her balance and fall, so he hesitated for a while, and finally walked up quickly, blocking the first step of the stairs, before asking: "Adi, what are you doing?" gone?"
Adi's blank eyes fell on his face, as if he was still stuck in another situation.However, when she saw his face clearly, her expression slowly relaxed, she lowered her head, and said in a slightly hoarse voice: "I heard you say... about the near-death scene in the painting, and I remembered that scene again." The burnt-to-death man we saw at Jianfu Temple that day was too terrifying, as if... a little frightened."
"Hey, it's okay, we just described this painting in that way. In fact, everyone just said it casually." He hurriedly comforted her.
Ah Di nodded, then slowly hugged her body and squatted down, whispering to herself: "When will they leave...I have to go down and make medicine for my uncle."
"Oh, I'll bring my father's medicine. Since you are afraid of seeing people, stay upstairs for a while." Zhang Xingying said, and locked the cabinet where the paintings were placed.
Coming out of Zhang Xingying's house, Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin bid farewell to King Zhao and King E. She saw the expression on the face of E Wang Li Run, this little prince with a fairy air, now in a trance, although he forced himself to say goodbye to them with a smile, his eyes had changed, his eyes fell on the other side of nothingness, and there was nothing else in his eyes something exists. What's so strange about that painting that it deserves King E's trance? Huang Zixia thought about it, and slowly rode on the Fusha, and walked back along the shade of the locust tree beside Chang'an Street together with Zhou Ziqin. In Chang'an in midsummer, the shade of locust trees is cool.Occasionally, the nameless bird sang softly in the tree. Zhou Ziqin, who was walking side by side with her, raised his hand and patted the head of the sand she was riding on, and said, "Chong Gu, this is not bad, don't worry." "Huh?" Huang Zixia looked up at him. "Although we won't be able to go to Shuzhong for a while, isn't Prince Kui still waiting for you? Maybe we can go to Shuzhong together once the matter with Princess Tongchang is over." Huang Zixia sighed, and said: "You have also seen that the death of the eunuch Wei Ximin in the Princess Mansion is as clueless as the injury of the son-in-law today. There are still traces in the case of the son-in-law, but it can be recommended to Fu Temple In that case, for a while, it was hard to say whether the crime was committed by human beings." "That's right, but the emperor loves Princess Tongchang, she said she wants to investigate, so we have to investigate... Or just investigate casually, and just explain it in a few days." Huang Zixia reined in the horse, thought for a while, and said, "It's better to go and have a look as soon as possible." "Look at what?" Zhou Ziqin asked quickly. "Go to Jianfu Temple and see if there is anything that needs attention." As she spoke, she turned the horse's head and headed towards Jianfu Temple.Zhou Ziqin quickly chased after him: "Wait for me, I'll go too!" Different from the noisy scene that day, today's Jianfu Temple is deserted.Although the mess had been cleaned up, the flattened grass and broken flowers and trees all showed the existence of that chaotic situation. Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin walked into the gate and saw two monks carrying several empty sacks towards the release pond, shaking their heads and sighing. Zhou Ziqin hurriedly asked: "Grandmasters, may I ask what happened at the release pond?" "Oh, it's too miserable, don't mention it." The monks sighed. When the two followed, they couldn't help being stunned and shocked beyond words. In the release pond 200 paces around, there are densely packed dead fish. The weather is so hot, and the dead fish are too dense. After the swollen dead fish below have rotted, each of them has a swollen belly, and it wants to overflow the stinky fish above. Let the pool go. The strong fishy smell made Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin cover their noses, turned their backs, and almost vomited. The two monks shook their heads and sighed: "Grit, merit, people all over the city want to make merit, but unexpectedly, all these merits have become knives to kill life!" Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin hid under the eaves, watching the two venerable monks cover their mouths and noses with a cloth, scoop up baskets of fish with a dustpan, and pour them into sacks. Zhou Ziqin shouted from a distance: "Master, what are you going to do with these dead fish?" "Transport it outside the city, dig a pit and bury it deep." The monk said loudly. "What a big hole you have to dig, what a hassle!" Two monks carried a sack of dead fish out and said, "Amitabha, these fish are poisonous. A cat slipped into the temple this morning, caught a dead fish and ate it, and then died immediately. If you don't bury it deeply, it will eventually die. Scourge." "Toxic?" Zhou Ziqin and Huang Zixia glanced at each other, both of them couldn't care less about the soaring stench, they covered their noses with their sleeves, walked to the release pond and looked at the fish inside. A strip of half-rotten fish with white belly turned upside down, really doesn't seem to have any tricks.Zhou Ziqin broke off a branch, stuck a dead fish's mouth wide open, fished it up, and said, "I'll take it back and examine it." Huang Zixia glanced into the release pond where the dead fish were crowded, and said, "Based on common sense, even if the release pond is too crowded, it is impossible for all the fish to die overnight." "So maybe someone really poisoned him," Zhou Ziqin said with a look of resentment, "Who is so cruel to poison all the fish in the release pond?" Huang Zixia fell silent.Zhou Ziqin came to a conclusion: "He must be a wicked person with a distorted mind and who doesn't see good things in others!" Huang Zixia really couldn't stand the stench, turned around and ran a few steps towards the main hall in front: "You put away the fish first, let's go and see where the accident happened the day before yesterday."
In front of the Daxiong Palace.In the square where the real master gave lectures, the lectern had already been dismantled, and in front of the empty hall, there was only a huge candle standing beside the tall incense burner. On the other side of the incense burner, beside the remaining candle wick, there was a man in his fifties squatting there, scraping the candle oil on the ground with a shovel. He was sweating and shaving vigorously, the sweat slid down his wrinkled and thin face, dripping on the blue brick floor scorched by the scorching sun in the afternoon, and was dried and evaporated by the sun in an instant. Huang Zixia walked over, squatted beside him, and asked, "Old man, why are you scraping candle oil here alone?" The old man looked up at her, then lowered his head to scrape the wax on the floor, his voice hoarse: "Who are you?" "I was ordered by Dali Temple to check on the chaos the day before yesterday." Huang Zixia said. Then the old man replied in a muffled voice: "This is the candle I made!" Huang Zixia immediately understood that he was the skillful craftsman who made the candles, Lu Zhiyuan. "This pair of candles is the most proud work of my old man in this life! Besides me, look, who else in Chang'an City can make such a perfect candle?" The giant candle I kept, "I was born in Chang'an, and I learned how to make candles with my father when I was six years old. The Lu family's incense candle shop has been passed down for four generations, and it died when I came here! Old man, I am fifty-seven years old, and I am in poor health. I can't do what I want, I thought, this pair of candles will be the last glory of our Lu family, but who knows, even God won't allow me to destroy the best thing in my life!" Huang Zixia comforted: "A thunderbolt from the sky cannot be resisted by humans, and this is also a helpless thing." "Hmph..." He expressed his disdain, stood up with difficulty, and went to scrape another piece of wax on the floor. Zhou Ziqin helped him carry the basket beside him, and asked, "Is this wax oil still useful?" While scraping the wax oil and putting it in the basket, he said, "I have made a vow before the Buddha to remake a candle. Beeswax is expensive now, so it would be good to collect more. I will subsidize the rest myself." "It's a pity that such a big candle exploded and burned, leaving no residue at all," Zhou Ziqin sighed, "Did you see the scene the day before yesterday?" "I'm not here," he focused on scraping the candle oil on the ground without raising his head, "For these pair of candles, I worked hard for seven days and seven nights to finish them. As soon as the candles were delivered here, I fainted and was carried back .” "Well, I've heard about it too." Huang Zixia nodded. "This is life! Who told the sky to punish the wicked, so that the sky struck by lightning, and the candle I made with all my painstaking efforts was just like that!" Old man Lu snorted, with a look of disgust on his face. Zhou Ziqin was thoughtful: "I've heard that too. Everyone says it's God's punishment." "The kind of eunuch who doesn't even want the dignity of a man, can't do anything for the sake of glory and wealth? The most disgusting thing in the world is the eunuch who is neither male nor female!" Old man Lu sneered. Huang Zixia looked at the eunuch's clothes on her body, wondering if old man Lu really didn't know the eunuch's clothes, or pointed at the monk and scolded the bald man, so he smiled wryly. Zhou Ziqin argued: "Uncle Lu, that's not what you said. There are good eunuchs too." "A good man? A good man doesn't even want to say that? Don't be a good man, and make yourself not yin or yang?" Lu Zhiyuan snorted coldly, "In this world, a man is the sky! Don't be a sky, and be willing to degrade yourself! " Huang Zixia could only say nothing to this old man. Zhou Ziqin said blankly: "Old man, you just said that your incense and candle shop has lost successors...you don't have any children?" "My wife is useless, she can't have a son, and she died early, so what can I expect if I leave behind a girl? Bah!" He spat. Huang Zixia stood up, patted the clothes on her body: "Okay, I'll go see if the fish in the release pond are ready." Compared with this old man who despises women, she might as well stay by that stinking release pool.
After sending away sack after sack of dead fish, the stench that was about to explode in the release pond finally weakened a bit. Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin finally breathed a sigh of relief, covered their mouths and noses and walked to the bottomless release pool, and asked the two monks, "Is it almost there?" "It's almost enough to transport two more bags." The water in the release pool has been emptied, and the two monks walked down the steps by the pool, collecting dead fish with dustpans and shovels, and sighed, "The two of us are the monks in the temple. I was assigned to take care of this release pool. I knew that there would be a large number of believers coming here to release lives. The two of us drained the water in the pool and washed for a whole day. We were so tired that we almost collapsed. What a sin, what a sin!" Zhou Ziqin said to them sympathetically: "After this accident is over, the release pool will be easy to take care of, and then you can also take a rest." Huang Zixia's gaze was attracted by a dim light in a corner of the pool.She endured the stench and walked to the release pool, walked to the side of the light, and squatted down to examine it carefully. It was an iron wire thinner than chopsticks, about two feet long, with a straight upper end and a semicircular bend at the lower end.There is still rust on one end of the iron wire, and the other end seems to have been tempered, with a faint green light. Huang Zixia picked up the wire and weighed it in his hand. "An ordinary wire." Zhou Ziqin knelt down beside her and came to a conclusion. The two monks picking up the dead fish nearby said: "We cleaned the fish pond the day before yesterday, and there is absolutely no such thing." "It must have been some pilgrim who fell during the chaos that day." Another monk said. Zhou Ziqin nodded, thinking it made sense. Huang Zixia stood up holding the wire, and said, "It's strange, what is this wire used for? Why did you bring it to the Buddhist meeting?" "A lot, such as binding something very heavy, so that the hemp rope won't be too heavy." "So, where did the things it bundled go?" Huang Zixia asked. Zhou Ziqin had the most wonderful thoughts, and immediately said: "Maybe it is bound with a load of salt, and when it falls into the water, the salt will melt and the wire will come loose. gone." "Who would come to the Fahui with a load of salt?" Huang Zixia was helpless, so she took the wire up the steps and handed it to Zhou Ziqin, "Bring me to Dali Temple, and say it's physical evidence." Zhou Ziqin showed a frightened expression: "Are you really going to solve this case?" "How to solve it? At present, it seems that everything is just a coincidence of natural disasters." Huang Zixia turned and walked out, "At least get something, which shows that we are not perfunctory." "It makes sense." Zhou Ziqin said, giving a thumbs up.
After parting from Zhou Ziqin, Huang Zixia led Na Fusha back to Kui's mansion, exhausted all over. "Is the prince back?" she asked the porter uncle. Knowing that Li Shubai hadn't come back, Huang Zixia felt that the weather was even hotter.Fortunately, it was midsummer and the weather was hot, so she took two buckets of water and took a shower. The ice-cold water calmed her down quickly, and the aroma of saponins made her feel tired. In the eunuch's small courtyard of King Kui's mansion in the future, it was quiet and deserted.She took a shower, sat in the room and dried her hair while thinking about Wang Yun's invitation tonight. Youshi is only three or four hours away from now.Originally, she wanted to discuss it with Li Shubai, but now he is not here, which made her inexplicably nervous. But what should come still has to come, and she can only take a step to see. She secretly warned herself, Huang Zixia, you used to rely on yourself for everything, but it's only been a few days, why do you want to rely on others? When her hair was dry, she changed into the eunuch's clothes, combed her hair carefully, and inserted the hairpin.Looking at the mirror, a young eunuch with delicate skin was reflected in the bronze mirror, and his eyes were as clear as lacquer. Even among the eunuchs, who are both male and female, they still seem to stand out a bit.Huang Zixia took out the yellow powder, and planned to apply some more on her face, but after thinking about it, she put down her hands. Now, what's the use of covering up. Opening the cabinet, in the empty drawer, the fan that Wang Yun gave her was lying quietly inside. She picked up her fan and went out, just in time to meet Lu Yunzhong running over and shouting excitedly to her: "Chonggu, hurry up, there is sea bass for dinner, don't you like sea bass the most? Chef Lu said to leave one for you." big!" Huang Zixia shook her head and smiled at him, "No need, I'll give it to you, I'm going out." Lu Yunzhong asked in surprise, "Where are you going? Go out with the prince?" She smiled, walked a few steps, turned her head again, and said seriously: "Go to Wang's house, Langya Wang's house. Captain Wang asked me to go there tonight."
Coming out of Zhang Xingying's house, Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin bid farewell to King Zhao and King E. She saw the expression on the face of E Wang Li Run, this little prince with a fairy air, now in a trance, although he forced himself to say goodbye to them with a smile, his eyes had changed, his eyes fell on the other side of nothingness, and there was nothing else in his eyes something exists. What's so strange about that painting that it deserves King E's trance? Huang Zixia thought about it, and slowly rode on the Fusha, and walked back along the shade of the locust tree beside Chang'an Street together with Zhou Ziqin. In Chang'an in midsummer, the shade of locust trees is cool.Occasionally, the nameless bird sang softly in the tree. Zhou Ziqin, who was walking side by side with her, raised his hand and patted the head of the sand she was riding on, and said, "Chong Gu, this is not bad, don't worry." "Huh?" Huang Zixia looked up at him. "Although we won't be able to go to Shuzhong for a while, isn't Prince Kui still waiting for you? Maybe we can go to Shuzhong together once the matter with Princess Tongchang is over." Huang Zixia sighed, and said: "You have also seen that the death of the eunuch Wei Ximin in the Princess Mansion is as clueless as the injury of the son-in-law today. There are still traces in the case of the son-in-law, but it can be recommended to Fu Temple In that case, for a while, it was hard to say whether the crime was committed by human beings." "That's right, but the emperor loves Princess Tongchang, she said she wants to investigate, so we have to investigate... Or just investigate casually, and just explain it in a few days." Huang Zixia reined in the horse, thought for a while, and said, "It's better to go and have a look as soon as possible." "Look at what?" Zhou Ziqin asked quickly. "Go to Jianfu Temple and see if there is anything that needs attention." As she spoke, she turned the horse's head and headed towards Jianfu Temple.Zhou Ziqin quickly chased after him: "Wait for me, I'll go too!" Different from the noisy scene that day, today's Jianfu Temple is deserted.Although the mess had been cleaned up, the flattened grass and broken flowers and trees all showed the existence of that chaotic situation. Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin walked into the gate and saw two monks carrying several empty sacks towards the release pond, shaking their heads and sighing. Zhou Ziqin hurriedly asked: "Grandmasters, may I ask what happened at the release pond?" "Oh, it's too miserable, don't mention it." The monks sighed. When the two followed, they couldn't help being stunned and shocked beyond words. In the release pond 200 paces around, there are densely packed dead fish. The weather is so hot, and the dead fish are too dense. After the swollen dead fish below have rotted, each of them has a swollen belly, and it wants to overflow the stinky fish above. Let the pool go. The strong fishy smell made Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin cover their noses, turned their backs, and almost vomited. The two monks shook their heads and sighed: "Grit, merit, people all over the city want to make merit, but unexpectedly, all these merits have become knives to kill life!" Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin hid under the eaves, watching the two venerable monks cover their mouths and noses with a cloth, scoop up baskets of fish with a dustpan, and pour them into sacks. Zhou Ziqin shouted from a distance: "Master, what are you going to do with these dead fish?" "Transport it outside the city, dig a pit and bury it deep." The monk said loudly. "What a big hole you have to dig, what a hassle!" Two monks carried a sack of dead fish out and said, "Amitabha, these fish are poisonous. A cat slipped into the temple this morning, caught a dead fish and ate it, and then died immediately. If you don't bury it deeply, it will eventually die. Scourge." "Toxic?" Zhou Ziqin and Huang Zixia glanced at each other, both of them couldn't care less about the soaring stench, they covered their noses with their sleeves, walked to the release pond and looked at the fish inside. A strip of half-rotten fish with white belly turned upside down, really doesn't seem to have any tricks.Zhou Ziqin broke off a branch, stuck a dead fish's mouth wide open, fished it up, and said, "I'll take it back and examine it." Huang Zixia glanced into the release pond where the dead fish were crowded, and said, "Based on common sense, even if the release pond is too crowded, it is impossible for all the fish to die overnight." "So maybe someone really poisoned him," Zhou Ziqin said with a look of resentment, "Who is so cruel to poison all the fish in the release pond?" Huang Zixia fell silent.Zhou Ziqin came to a conclusion: "He must be a wicked person with a distorted mind and who doesn't see good things in others!" Huang Zixia really couldn't stand the stench, turned around and ran a few steps towards the main hall in front: "You put away the fish first, let's go and see where the accident happened the day before yesterday."
In front of the Daxiong Palace.In the square where the real master gave lectures, the lectern had already been dismantled, and in front of the empty hall, there was only a huge candle standing beside the tall incense burner. On the other side of the incense burner, beside the remaining candle wick, there was a man in his fifties squatting there, scraping the candle oil on the ground with a shovel. He was sweating and shaving vigorously, the sweat slid down his wrinkled and thin face, dripping on the blue brick floor scorched by the scorching sun in the afternoon, and was dried and evaporated by the sun in an instant. Huang Zixia walked over, squatted beside him, and asked, "Old man, why are you scraping candle oil here alone?" The old man looked up at her, then lowered his head to scrape the wax on the floor, his voice hoarse: "Who are you?" "I was ordered by Dali Temple to check on the chaos the day before yesterday." Huang Zixia said. Then the old man replied in a muffled voice: "This is the candle I made!" Huang Zixia immediately understood that he was the skillful craftsman who made the candles, Lu Zhiyuan. "This pair of candles is the most proud work of my old man in this life! Besides me, look, who else in Chang'an City can make such a perfect candle?" The giant candle I kept, "I was born in Chang'an, and I learned how to make candles with my father when I was six years old. The Lu family's incense candle shop has been passed down for four generations, and it died when I came here! Old man, I am fifty-seven years old, and I am in poor health. I can't do what I want, I thought, this pair of candles will be the last glory of our Lu family, but who knows, even God won't allow me to destroy the best thing in my life!" Huang Zixia comforted: "A thunderbolt from the sky cannot be resisted by humans, and this is also a helpless thing." "Hmph..." He expressed his disdain, stood up with difficulty, and went to scrape another piece of wax on the floor. Zhou Ziqin helped him carry the basket beside him, and asked, "Is this wax oil still useful?" While scraping the wax oil and putting it in the basket, he said, "I have made a vow before the Buddha to remake a candle. Beeswax is expensive now, so it would be good to collect more. I will subsidize the rest myself." "It's a pity that such a big candle exploded and burned, leaving no residue at all," Zhou Ziqin sighed, "Did you see the scene the day before yesterday?" "I'm not here," he focused on scraping the candle oil on the ground without raising his head, "For these pair of candles, I worked hard for seven days and seven nights to finish them. As soon as the candles were delivered here, I fainted and was carried back .” "Well, I've heard about it too." Huang Zixia nodded. "This is life! Who told the sky to punish the wicked, so that the sky struck by lightning, and the candle I made with all my painstaking efforts was just like that!" Old man Lu snorted, with a look of disgust on his face. Zhou Ziqin was thoughtful: "I've heard that too. Everyone says it's God's punishment." "The kind of eunuch who doesn't even want the dignity of a man, can't do anything for the sake of glory and wealth? The most disgusting thing in the world is the eunuch who is neither male nor female!" Old man Lu sneered. Huang Zixia looked at the eunuch's clothes on her body, wondering if old man Lu really didn't know the eunuch's clothes, or pointed at the monk and scolded the bald man, so he smiled wryly. Zhou Ziqin argued: "Uncle Lu, that's not what you said. There are good eunuchs too." "A good man? A good man doesn't even want to say that? Don't be a good man, and make yourself not yin or yang?" Lu Zhiyuan snorted coldly, "In this world, a man is the sky! Don't be a sky, and be willing to degrade yourself! " Huang Zixia could only say nothing to this old man. Zhou Ziqin said blankly: "Old man, you just said that your incense and candle shop has lost successors...you don't have any children?" "My wife is useless, she can't have a son, and she died early, so what can I expect if I leave behind a girl? Bah!" He spat. Huang Zixia stood up, patted the clothes on her body: "Okay, I'll go see if the fish in the release pond are ready." Compared with this old man who despises women, she might as well stay by that stinking release pool.
After sending away sack after sack of dead fish, the stench that was about to explode in the release pond finally weakened a bit. Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin finally breathed a sigh of relief, covered their mouths and noses and walked to the bottomless release pool, and asked the two monks, "Is it almost there?" "It's almost enough to transport two more bags." The water in the release pool has been emptied, and the two monks walked down the steps by the pool, collecting dead fish with dustpans and shovels, and sighed, "The two of us are the monks in the temple. I was assigned to take care of this release pool. I knew that there would be a large number of believers coming here to release lives. The two of us drained the water in the pool and washed for a whole day. We were so tired that we almost collapsed. What a sin, what a sin!" Zhou Ziqin said to them sympathetically: "After this accident is over, the release pool will be easy to take care of, and then you can also take a rest." Huang Zixia's gaze was attracted by a dim light in a corner of the pool.She endured the stench and walked to the release pool, walked to the side of the light, and squatted down to examine it carefully. It was an iron wire thinner than chopsticks, about two feet long, with a straight upper end and a semicircular bend at the lower end.There is still rust on one end of the iron wire, and the other end seems to have been tempered, with a faint green light. Huang Zixia picked up the wire and weighed it in his hand. "An ordinary wire." Zhou Ziqin knelt down beside her and came to a conclusion. The two monks picking up the dead fish nearby said: "We cleaned the fish pond the day before yesterday, and there is absolutely no such thing." "It must have been some pilgrim who fell during the chaos that day." Another monk said. Zhou Ziqin nodded, thinking it made sense. Huang Zixia stood up holding the wire, and said, "It's strange, what is this wire used for? Why did you bring it to the Buddhist meeting?" "A lot, such as binding something very heavy, so that the hemp rope won't be too heavy." "So, where did the things it bundled go?" Huang Zixia asked. Zhou Ziqin had the most wonderful thoughts, and immediately said: "Maybe it is bound with a load of salt, and when it falls into the water, the salt will melt and the wire will come loose. gone." "Who would come to the Fahui with a load of salt?" Huang Zixia was helpless, so she took the wire up the steps and handed it to Zhou Ziqin, "Bring me to Dali Temple, and say it's physical evidence." Zhou Ziqin showed a frightened expression: "Are you really going to solve this case?" "How to solve it? At present, it seems that everything is just a coincidence of natural disasters." Huang Zixia turned and walked out, "At least get something, which shows that we are not perfunctory." "It makes sense." Zhou Ziqin said, giving a thumbs up.
After parting from Zhou Ziqin, Huang Zixia led Na Fusha back to Kui's mansion, exhausted all over. "Is the prince back?" she asked the porter uncle. Knowing that Li Shubai hadn't come back, Huang Zixia felt that the weather was even hotter.Fortunately, it was midsummer and the weather was hot, so she took two buckets of water and took a shower. The ice-cold water calmed her down quickly, and the aroma of saponins made her feel tired. In the eunuch's small courtyard of King Kui's mansion in the future, it was quiet and deserted.She took a shower, sat in the room and dried her hair while thinking about Wang Yun's invitation tonight. Youshi is only three or four hours away from now.Originally, she wanted to discuss it with Li Shubai, but now he is not here, which made her inexplicably nervous. But what should come still has to come, and she can only take a step to see. She secretly warned herself, Huang Zixia, you used to rely on yourself for everything, but it's only been a few days, why do you want to rely on others? When her hair was dry, she changed into the eunuch's clothes, combed her hair carefully, and inserted the hairpin.Looking at the mirror, a young eunuch with delicate skin was reflected in the bronze mirror, and his eyes were as clear as lacquer. Even among the eunuchs, who are both male and female, they still seem to stand out a bit.Huang Zixia took out the yellow powder, and planned to apply some more on her face, but after thinking about it, she put down her hands. Now, what's the use of covering up. Opening the cabinet, in the empty drawer, the fan that Wang Yun gave her was lying quietly inside. She picked up her fan and went out, just in time to meet Lu Yunzhong running over and shouting excitedly to her: "Chonggu, hurry up, there is sea bass for dinner, don't you like sea bass the most? Chef Lu said to leave one for you." big!" Huang Zixia shook her head and smiled at him, "No need, I'll give it to you, I'm going out." Lu Yunzhong asked in surprise, "Where are you going? Go out with the prince?" She smiled, walked a few steps, turned her head again, and said seriously: "Go to Wang's house, Langya Wang's house. Captain Wang asked me to go there tonight."