Chapter 6 6. Caged Bird
Two horses, riding one and leading the other, passed through Anxingfang and Shengyefang, the streets and alleys were already deserted.
She ran to the tomb of Dong Zhongshu in Chongrenfang, got off her horse and hurried to knock on the door.The concierge opened the door to look at her, looked at her eunuch's attire, and asked with a smile on his face, "Who is the little eunuch looking for?"
"Your young master Zhou Ziqin." She said, showing him the little goldfish in her hand.When he saw the words Kui Wang's Mansion on it, he hurriedly said, "Oh, wait a moment."
She stood in front of the Zhou mansion, watching the bright rabbit rise to the east.The closed-door drum in Chang'an City has already sounded, faintly coming from afar.She was a little anxious.
Fortunately, there was movement inside soon, a young man hurried out, he was about twenty years old, with clear eyes, handsome and elegant, wearing a richly embroidered brocade coat.The color of the dress is gorgeous sky blue with smoky purple pattern embroidery, a white jade belt with engraved chi patterns is tied around the waist, and it is full of jingling purses, incense pendants, and white jade pendants. At first glance, it is clearly a common dandy on the street. Younger brother, it's just that he looks extra good-looking.
As soon as the boy saw her, he asked, "Little eunuch, is it King Kui looking for me?"
"Zhou Ziqin?" She asked back.
"That's right, it's me." He said, looked around, and quickly asked, "Is the prince useful to me? I heard that he spoke for me before the emperor and asked me to go to Sichuan with my father." , I'm finally going to be a headhunter! Hahaha! A new stage of my life is about to begin..."
"Keep your voice down." She was so anxious that she couldn't bear this man's noise, and said in a low voice, "the prince has assigned a job, which is very suitable for you."
"Really? Better than a catcher?"
"Well, dig up the corpse."
"It really is King Kui who knows me well." He raised his hand and snapped his fingers without asking for details, "Wait a minute! I'll come right after I get the tools!"
Chang'an custom, at the end of the day, beat the "closed door drum" 600 times, wait until the last drumstick falls, and the city gate is closed. open. The sky was getting darker and darker, and there was a sound of six hundred drums behind closed doors.Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin galloped on the street, heading straight for the Golden Light Gate. Almost at the moment when the last drum fell and the city gate officer yelled "Shut the door——", their horses rushed through the city gate and ran along the trough to the wild west of the city. The mountains and forests in the west of the city were flourishing, and Zhou Ziqin took her to Yizhuang with his familiarity with the road. When he looked inside, only a single light was on, and the old man in Shouyizhuang had already fallen asleep. Zhou Ziqin had already taken off his brocade clothes, and was only wearing a brown bunt shirt all over his body.He took out a piece of copper, gently pushed the latch from the crack of the door, then quickly pushed the door and stretched out his hand, caught the latch the moment it hit the ground, and put it beside the door without a sound. Huang Zixia began to admire this person, this skill, nowhere does he look like a dandy all over his body, he is clearly a fox who has been trained to become a master! He ticked his fingers at her, then tiptoed in, opened the wooden cabinet, took out the booklet inside, and turned to the most recent page—— He traced the line of words with his fingers, and then silently pointed to a small hillside outside. He opened his lips and made a "go" mouth shape. The two of them walked out the door lightly, and he moved the latch back inch by inch with a copper sheet, stuck it again with difficulty, and waved his hand to signal her to go. Huang Zixia finally understood why Li Shubai asked her to find Zhou Ziqin, this guy is simply a habitual offender, his hands and feet are too flexible. After walking a long distance, Huang Zixia finally asked: "You...have often done this kind of thing before? You seem to be very familiar with the road." He was proud: "Yes, I'm just a hobby. Let me tell you, my martial arts are all secretly practiced on this kind of dead body." "The ability to open the door latch is probably the best in Chang'an, right?" "It's so-so, I've practiced for more than half a year." "Actually, I want to ask, the bolt on the window sill next to it seems to be able to be opened with a flick. Why do you have to go in through the gate?" "Window...window sill?" Zhou Ziqin was silent, Huang Zixia walked a long way, and finally heard a wail behind him, "I have wasted more than half a year to develop the skills! Who can pay back the sweat I practiced day and night!"
When they reached the foot of the hill, the horses they were tied there were pacing. Zhou Ziqin led the horse to the pine forest in the north of the small hill, saw a piece of new land that had just been turned over, and knew it was here, so he took down the box that was hung on the horse's back before departure, opened it, and took out the folded hoe and shovel , threw a handful to her. Holding the shovel, she couldn't believe it, and asked, "You even have this thing? Isn't this too skilled?" "Shh, don't mention it, King Kui made it for me in the Weapons Department. After my father found out, I was almost beaten to death!" He burst into tears, and then took out a head of garlic, a piece of ginger, A bottle of vinegar. When Huang Zixia thought he was going to take out another steamed bun, he had already taken out two pieces of cloth, mashed the ginger and garlic, mixed it with vinegar, rubbed it on the cloth, and then handed her one: "Cover up, the body smells very bad awesome." Huang Zixia remembered something and quickly reminded him: "It is said that these people died of the epidemic." "Then you have to cover it up even more tightly," he said proudly, "Although it doesn't smell good, this is a secret recipe passed down from generation to generation." Huang Zixia was almost stunned by the smell: "Isn't your father an official? Do you still pass on such things from your ancestors?" "Of course it's not my family's ancestral recipe. It's the secret recipe passed down to me by the most famous samurai in Chang'an, Uncle Zhu." She was silent, picked up the shovel and dug the soil on the ground with him.The corpse that was just buried today is not too strenuous to dig up, and Zhou Ziqin wields a hoe in a decent manner, and the speed is relatively fast. Under the moonlight, Zhou Ziqin was digging, seemingly a little bored, and asked her casually, "Are you the... that new love beside King Kui?" "..." Huang Zixia felt that if it wasn't for the cloth covering his face, the twitching on his face would have made him understand his thoughts. It's a pity that Zhou Ziqin didn't see it, and he was still talking to himself: "What is it called... Yang Chonggu, right?" She let out a dejected "hmm", thought about it, and finally asked, "What is that new love, what does it mean?" "Ah? I don't know either. I just heard the rumors in the capital that King Kui has a pretty little eunuch next to King Kui. King Zhao won't give anything to King Kui. When I look at you, I guess it's you." Huang Zixia listened to his heartless and confusing words, and really didn't want to talk to this person, so she buried her head in the mud in grief and indignation. He persisted and asked: "I heard that you can solve the case? And you also solved the 'Four Plans'?" "It's just a coincidence." "But you can break through the 'Four Plans', I think you can already keep pace with the person I admire the most!" "so so." The moonlight was misty, the pine wind was howling, and in the empty wilderness, the two were chatting and digging the soil one after another in the mountains.When something different in color from the soil appeared under the moonlight, Zhou Ziqin hurriedly said: "Wait a minute, wait a moment, let me see." He jumped down the shallow pit, put on a pair of thin leather gloves, then picked up the bone and looked at it, and said, "Yes, it is a burnt corpse. But look, the bone in this hand is so thick, it is obviously a man's bone. If it's a woman we're looking for, we'll have to look for it." Huang Zixia squatted by the pit and said, "Yes, what I'm looking for is a woman, about forty years old, five feet three inches tall, of medium build, good at playing the piano." "Okay." He rummaged through the soil with a small shovel.It took a lot of effort to find the bones of fourteen people, but the women's bones were naturally separated. He dug around, carefully identified them, and finally brought out a large pile of charred things. As soon as she saw the half-dried bones and muscles, she knew that Li Shubai was right. Those guards really burned them hastily and then dug a pit and buried them. They didn't implement the requirement of "long-term burning and deep burial". She went to find the gloves in the box, put them on, and fiddled with the female corpse's hands first.After all, it was night, and things looked blurry, but it didn't have that much impact.But the smell was a bit unbearable, even through the vinegar and ginger and garlic, the smell still rushed into her nostrils. She held her breath and told herself in her heart, Huang Zixia, you are someone who has seen the corpses of your own family members, so what are these things. The feeling of nausea gradually receded, and she tried to calm herself down, reaching out to look at the corpse in front of her. I heard Zhou Ziqin say: "Judging from the bones, the two female corpses below are about five feet or more in length, but the other woman's bones are fragile, her body is slightly hunchbacked, and she is about fifty years old. A corpse should be the person you are looking for." She carefully identified the scorched black skull of the female corpse, and asked, "Is there any way to find out whether there is a mole on the left eyebrow?" "No, the moles and scars are all on the epidermis, and the skin has already been burnt. How can these still exist?" "Then is there any trace of identity for such a corpse?" "Wait a minute, I'll look for it." He took out a leather duffel bag from the box, and when he opened it, the moonlight shone on the things inside, leaving him completely naked.Inside are all kinds of small knives, small hammers, and small awls made of refined iron... "If a worker wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his tools. My equipment is not bad, right?" He showed off, skillfully turning the bones over and over for a long time, and then quickly cut open the remaining skin of the dead body, "Don't move the throat... The fingers are completely burnt and cannot be recognized; the eyes are dry and cannot be recognized; the ears are gone and cannot be recognized..." Huang Zixia squatted by the pit, listened to his voice, and looked up at the moon. Zhou Ziqin tossed and concluded: "It is completely impossible to see the trauma." She rested her chin on her knees and asked, "Didn't the people in the household department test before the corpse was cremated? Is there a record in the booklet of Yizhuang?" "This one died of an epidemic. Naturally, no one will inspect it anymore. I just want to deal with it as soon as possible." Zhou Ziqin said, pointing to the box next to him, "The second box on the fourth row, take that small bag to me. .” Huang Zixia took out the cloth bag inside and threw it to him. He took out a thin silver medal the size of a little finger and a small bottle from the bag, dipped the liquid in the bottle with a cloth, and wiped the silver medal vigorously. Pinch the dead man's jaw so that the corpse's mouth opens.He stuck the silver medal in, then closed his mouth again, sealed it with a piece of paper, and said, "Wait a while." Huang Zixia hung around with the police at home for a long time, so he naturally knew that this was for drug testing, and the silver medal was washed with saponin water. After half an hour, if the silver medal was taken out and it turned black, it could be concluded that the deceased died of poisoning. "In addition, the body of the woman and the body of the male disaster victim, can you also examine it in the same way?" Huang Zixia said. "Okay." He said, and sealed each of them. She couldn't help reminding her aloud, saying: "Remember to have a stomach test later, last time there was a woman in Sichuan who was poisoned after her death, and the result was only tested in her mouth, and she almost made a mistake in the end. " "Huh, is there such a thing?" Zhou Ziqin's eyes lit up immediately, and he climbed up and walked with her to the pine tree not far away, took off the cloth covering his mouth and nose, and asked, "Why don't you tell me about that case in detail?" "It's nothing, it's very simple," Huang Zixia thought about it for a while, and said, "A young girl in Longzhou, Sichuan Province died suddenly at home. I used this method to test that she committed suicide by drinking poison. But I... But because the head catcher found that the woman's wrist The bruises on her face were not the embossed grape patterns on her bracelet, but another kind of pomegranate pattern. It was concluded that other women must have pressed her hands before she died. So they searched carefully in her mouth and nose, and found the Dried blood. After interrogation of her family, it was discovered that her sister-in-law was having an affair with her neighbor. She caught her. In desperation, the two drugged her with poison in an attempt to create the illusion that she committed suicide. Therefore, the poison can be detected in the throat, but not in the abdomen, thereby breaking the case." Zhou Ziqin asked excitedly: "Really? I wonder who is the person who is as careful as a hair and noticed the truth of the case from a bracelet pattern?" "...It's Guo Ming, the arresting head of the Chengdu government." "Impossible! I've seen Guo Ming before. He has a big beard and a carefree face. How could he notice the pattern of bruises on the woman's hand!" Huang Zixia was helpless, rolled his eyes at the moon that had risen above his head, and said, "I don't know about that." "I have a guess. Could it be Huang Zixia, the daughter of the governor of Chengdu, Huang Shijun?" Zhou Ziqin said suddenly, "I heard that she is very good at judging cases based on clues." "I don't know." Huang Zixia leaned her head on her knees, looked at the moon for a long time, and then said, "I seem to have heard of this person." Zhou Ziqin didn't seem to feel her indifference at all, and said happily: "I can tell you were not in Chang'an before! You must have never been in Shu, right? She is very famous in Chang'an and Shu! Yes, do you know why I am determined to be a police officer and a fast catcher? It is because of Huang Zixia!" "Oh." She remained indifferent. "Wait." He said, then turned his head and took out a bag of things from the box, and handed it to her, "Come on, give you half!" She smelled a scent, looked down, but couldn't help but feel disgusted: "We are here to dig up the corpse tonight, and what we dig up is still a charred corpse! You actually brought a roast chicken?" "Oh, I haven't eaten dinner yet! When I went to get vinegar, ginger and garlic, I saw that this was the only one in the kitchen that was easy to carry, so I wrapped it in a lotus leaf and brought it here. My cook is very good!" The corner of Huang Zixia's mouth twitched slightly, she really didn't want to say anything to this person. "Where did I just say that? Oh... Huang Shijun's daughter Huang Zixia, she is my sweetheart! The person I like! The person in my dream!" She said coldly: "You don't know her when she is standing in front of you, do you?" "How is it possible? Every time I pass by her wanted list at the gate of the city, I have to stop and take a look at her. She is so beautiful! She is so beautiful even on the wanted list, so this is a real beauty, right?" Huang Zixia was speechless, feeling that she was no longer able to deal with the man in front of her, so she could only silently turn her head to the other side, and asked, "How can she make you admire her so much?" "This started five years ago! At that time, I was fifteen and she was twelve. When I was fifteen, I hadn't figured out what I would do in the future. Sometimes I wondered desperately whether my life would be like Like the brothers, they are either working hard to settle accounts in the Ministry of Industry, or drafting official documents every day in the Ministry of Finance. Everyone says that my brothers are very promising, but I don’t think so. Life is so beautiful, and the good times are all used to fetch water in the officialdom Piao Piao, what are you doing alive, don’t you think so? In the end, when I was most hesitant and confused about life, Huang Zixia appeared!" Huang Zixia looked at his shining eyes looking at the moon. At this moment, she really had the urge to tear off a chicken wing and eat it, so as to relieve her mood. Zhou Ziqin's voice suddenly rose, clearly conveying his excitement to her: "Then, I suddenly found my future goal in life! Huang Zixia was only twelve years old at that time, and she was still a girl. She began to help the Ministry of Criminal Justice solve mysterious cases and shine everywhere. And what about me? What was I doing when I was twelve years old? What have I been doing for so many years? The moment I heard about her deeds, I suddenly found the meaning of my future life! I saw clearly the magnanimous road ahead of me! I suddenly saw my life leading to glory!" Huang Zixia finally couldn't help interrupting his strong parallelism: "Didn't you hear the rumor that Huang Zixia fled after killing his family?" "Impossible!" He shook the chicken leg in his hand with a determined expression on his face. After the accident, it was the first time for her to meet someone who firmly believed in herself. At this moment, although she felt that he was a little careless, Huang Zixia's heart moved slightly, and her eyes fell on his face: " why?" "what?" "Why... would you trust her?" "Oh, because, I think a person like Huang Zixia who has repeatedly solved strange cases, if he really wanted to kill someone, would devise a method that is completely imperceptible, how could he kill his family members so simply and rudely? This is really detrimental to her reputation!" Huang Zixia silently continued to look up at the night sky, feeling that the touch of emotion he had just had was completely wasted.
By the time Zhou Ziqin finished eating that roast chicken, half an hour had passed.He took out another bag of melon seeds and shared half with her.This time she didn't refuse, and took a small handful silently. The moonlight was slanting to the west, and it seemed that it was almost the fourth watch. Zhou Ziqin took out the sealed silver plates from the mouths of the three corpses, and found that only the silver plate taken out from the corpse suspected to be Feng Yiniang had turned black.He wiped it carefully with soap locust, then looked at the thick blue-gray surface that could not be wiped off, and said, "It was poisoned to death, that's right." Huang Zixia let out a "hmm". Feng Yiniang, the luthier of Yunshaoyuan in Yangzhou, and the teaching aunt next to the queen-to-be, died among the refugees in Youzhou. The cause of death was poisoning.And the prospective princess who is about to marry into King Kui's mansion said that the aunt has gone back to Yangzhou. She was still thinking, but Zhou Ziqin had already started to examine the internal organs: "For the sake of prudence, let's test the stomach again." The intestines and stomach were cut open, and although they were basically burnt dry, they were also very disgusting.Zhou Ziqin, whose nerves were as thick as chopsticks, finally couldn't take it anymore, and only watched from the corner of his eyes with his face crooked.When sealing the silver medal, he suddenly let out a "huh" and felt that his fingers touched something cold and hard, so he took it out, glanced at it, and said with a hint of excitement in his voice, "Hey, Chonggu, look at this!" In his palm, there was a small thing that shone coldly under the moonlight.Huang Zixia put on the gloves, took them over and looked at them carefully in front of her eyes. This is a small suet jade, the jade is clear, only the size of a small fingernail.Under the moonlight, she wiped off the blood stasis and dirt on it, and looked at the moonlight, and saw a small word engraved on it, "Nian". The white of suet jade is half thick and half light under the moonlight, flowing over her eyes like water waves.She stared at the word "Nian" floating around, and paused for a long time.
The white suet jade was placed in front of Li Shubai. Li Shubai looked at the lettering on it, but didn't reach out to take it. He only asked, "What is this?" Huang Zixia said: "If you pick it up and take a look, you'll know?" Li Shubai didn't touch the little piece of jade, but reached out to take the glass bottle on the desk, looked at the little red fish swimming leisurely inside, and said, "Touch this kind of thing? What if it's from a dead person?" What did you take out of it?" Huang Zixia said seriously: "No, it really wasn't taken out of dead people." Then he stretched out his beautiful hand, pinched the piece of jade with his thumb and forefinger, looked at it in front of his eyes, and recognized the word "Nian" on it. "Chen Nianniang's reading," she said. He put the jade down, thought for a while, and asked, "Are you going to give this jade to Chen Nianniang?" "Then we must tell her that Feng Yiniang is dead. At that time, Chen Nianniang will definitely cause more troubles and startle the snake." "Well, you should put it away first." He handed her the piece of jade.Huang Zixia took the cloth that had wrapped the jade on the table, wrapped it up, and put it in her sleeve pocket. Li Shubai frowned slightly, and said: "I'm surprised, why the murderer is so careless and let such an important identification thing stay by Feng Yiniang's side." "Because Feng Yiniang swallowed it in her stomach before she died from the poison." As Huang Zixia spoke, she saw Li Shubai's eyelashes twitch.She felt an indescribable joy, so she added: "Feng Yiniang's body is half-scorched, but the internal organs are still basically there. We dug them out from her stomach." Li Shubai looked at his two fingers, and then looked up at Huang Zixia who was standing in front of him. Finally, a wave of emotion appeared on his calm face. Huang Zixia looked at him with the usual expression: "Fortunately, I lived up to the prince's expectations. Zhou Ziqin and I finished everything before dawn, and then restored the burial site. I guarantee that all traces will disappear." Li Shubai looked at her face as if nothing had happened, then looked at his hands, finally couldn't bear it anymore, grabbed the Longquan porcelain brush on the table, and began to wash his hands vigorously and hard: "Huang Zixia, give me too Disappear immediately!" Although he studied the corpse overnight, Huang Zixia felt that everything was worth it the moment he saw Li Shubai lose his composure.She happily ran back to catch up on sleep: "Yes! Please obey the prince's order!"
Kui Wang Li Shubai's wedding date is scheduled for May 16th. On the sixth day of May, ten days before the wedding day, Wang Ruo planned to go to Xianyou Temple in the suburbs of the city to pray for blessings according to the custom. The scenery of Xianyou Temple is very beautiful, and several concubines and wives have been very efficacious after offering incense at Xianyou Temple since this dynasty. Therefore, although there are many Buddhist temples in the city, going to Xianyou Temple to offer incense is very popular among courtiers and female relatives. Wang Yun greeted Li Shubai in advance, so after showing up at King Kui's mansion, Xianyou Temple was cleared early that day, and even the little novice was not allowed to leave his meditation room if he had nothing to do.Around Shen time, there were no other people in the temple. Huang Zixia, Suqi and a dozen girls from Wang Yun's mansion accompanied her to offer incense. Xianyou Temple is very vast and built on the hillside.The front hall at the foot of the mountain is Maitreya Buddha with a smiling face, and the Venerable Wei Tuo is enshrined in the back. The main hall is on the mountainside, dedicated to Tathagata, Manjusri and Samantabhadra.There are also Western Amitabha Buddha, Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva, and Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.In the east, there are Medicine Buddha, Sunlight Bodhisattva, Moonlight Bodhisattva, and eighteen Arhats. At the same time, there is a Hall of Five Hundred Arhats. They went to the temple to see the Buddha burning incense, and they knelt down one by one. After worshiping the main hall on the mountainside, Suqi and the maids were already tired. Su Qi said: "I really can't do it anymore, anyway, there is no one in the temple today, Yang Chonggu, you can go up with the princess." Huang Zixia agreed, and she and Wang Ruo walked up the steps, holding incense in their hands, and climbed up the mountain all the way. A little bit of moss grew on the bluestone steps, and the two of them looked at their feet carefully.The temple was very lonely, only the occasional chirping of a bird was heard, and a snow-white bird flew past in the sky. The white bird flew across the sky and plunged into the mountains and forests in front of it.Following the trajectory of the bird's flight, their eyes turned to the apse in front of them, and then, suddenly, they saw the man standing in front of the door of the apse. He appeared so abruptly, as if the white bird had transformed into one, appearing without a sound. Wang Ruo hesitated for a moment.Huang Zixia gently tugged at her sleeve, and said, "Young Master Wang and all the guards in the house are here, don't worry." Wang Ruo said "Yes", and the two walked up the last ten or so steps to the door of the apse, and bowed inside with incense.The apse is dedicated to the ancient Buddha with lamps, and there are fragrant flowers and precious candles in front of the Buddha, and even the treasured building seems to be in a trance among the green smoke. Wang Ruo knelt in front of the Buddha, muttering prayers, Huang Zixia looked back at the man, and saw him standing outside the door, outside was the pale green distant mountains, the blue sky, and he was wearing a blue shirt, as if melting into the background In general, it seems erratic and far away. He seemed to feel that she was looking at him, and looking back at her surrounded by cigarettes, the corners of his lips suddenly raised, revealing a smile.His facial features were plain, he was just an ordinary and handsome man, but his smile was gentle and peaceful, with a gentle aura from the distant sky, which made Huang Zixia feel a little familiar at this moment. Huang Zixia lowered her head slightly, as a compliment in return, but when she lowered her eyes, she found that he was holding a birdcage in his hand.The bird they had just seen was white and standing in the middle of the cage.The bird seemed quite human, and when it saw her gaze, it chirped and jumped a few times in the cage, appearing extremely lively. Wang Ruo also finished praying, stood up and turned her head to follow her gaze, looking at the little bird. Inside and outside the empty hall, there were only the three of them.The man lifted the birdcage, and the slightly westward slanting sunlight cast his back into the hall, covering them.It's like a huge bat in the dark night, spreading its wings. He smiled gently and asked them, "How is this little bird?" "Did you raise it? It looks very cute." Wang Ruo looked at it curiously. The little bird seemed to understand her praise, and danced even more happily in the cage, as if unwilling to stop for a moment. "Yeah, very well-behaved. Even if I open the cage and it goes out to the mountains and forests, it will fly back as soon as it hears my whistle." He said, stretching out two fingers to gently stroke the little bird. Bird's head, the little bird fondled his little head with his fingers. Huang Zixia took Wang Ruo outside, not wanting to cause trouble.But when I walked past that person, I heard him say: "After all, no matter what is going on now, everything you have done and experienced before will be deeply imprinted on your heart, even if you hide it from everyone. , and I can’t hide it from myself.” Huang Zixia felt Wang Ruo's body stiffen slightly, and her footsteps stopped. "It's like there is an invisible rope around your neck. The farther you want to escape, the tighter it will be." The man clearly saw Wang Ruo's reaction, but he only smiled, "What I said, is This little bird." Huang Zixia turned around to look at him, and asked, "Do you know who the person standing in front of you is? How dare you chat so casually!" "Of course I know," the man said calmly with a smile, "if nothing happens, she will become Princess Kui within ten days." "In this case, please don't disturb the nobleman, so as not to cause more trouble." "It's not to disturb the nobleman, I just want to show the princess something interesting." He approached slowly, leaned over and bowed to them, brushed his sleeve over the birdcage, and lifted the birdcage Put it in front of them, then raised his head and smiled at them: "It's a small skill, only Princess Bo smiles." In just such an instant, the little bird that was jumping happily just now in the birdcage was gone.In front of them were forty-eight birdcages cut from fine purple bamboo, standing there empty. Wang Ruo looked surprised and looked at Huang Zixia at a loss.Huang Zixia looked directly at the man and remained silent. "Princess, please be careful these few days, otherwise, you will inevitably be like a bird in a cage. No matter how tightly the cage is woven, it will disappear in an instant." The man smiled at them, turned and walked into the hall. Until he uttered a long chant: In the setting sun, the Zen bell rang from afar, and the monks were having their evening classes. The sound of singing the Sanskrit Gita and the twilight of the setting sun shrouded them together.The birdcage on the ground and their figures were stretched by the setting sun, falling into the deep hall. Huang Zixia turned around and walked quickly to the hall to see that there was no one there.She turned her head and saw Wang Ruo's face, pale as a withered flower.
"Sister, why are you standing here with Yang Chonggu?" Someone behind them is calling them.It was Wang Yun who was waiting for them at the foot of the mountain. Seeing that they hadn't come back for a long time, he went up to look for them himself. He went up the steps, and the silk satin white clothes fluttered slightly in the wind, making his whole figure more and more pure and clean, like a cloud in the clear sky. Seeing an empty birdcage on the ground, he asked, "Why did someone put such a thing here?" Huang Zixia looked at Wang Ruo, and Wang Yun felt something was wrong when he saw Wang Ruo's expression, and quickly asked, "What's wrong with my sister?" "Brother...Brother." Wang Ruo's voice trembled, and she looked up at him with tears of terror in her eyes. Wang Yun frowned slightly and asked, "What happened?" "Just now... there was a strange man, he, he said..." Wang Ruo's voice was trembling and messy, out of tune. Huang Zixia took up the topic and said: "Just before the young master came up, a man appeared here with a bird cage in his hand. He didn't know what he did to make the bird in the cage disappear, and said that the princess might also disappear out of thin air like the bird in the cage. .” "A man?" Wang Yun looked around in astonishment, "I have cleared out the people in the temple before, and since you entered, the soldiers I and the palace mobilized have been guarding below. It should be impossible for anyone else to appear in the temple. How could there be a man?" Mix in?" "That person must not have escaped yet. He is in Xianyou Temple. My brother can send someone to search and find it." Wang Ruo said tremblingly. Wang Yun nodded, and when she saw that she was so frightened, she comforted her and said, "It's just a few random words from a person with unknown background, how can you take it seriously? Don't worry, how could the daughter of our Langya royal family, the princess of the Kui Palace, What happened? Don't believe this kind of nonsense." "Well," she nodded with tears in her eyes, and then said timidly, "Maybe, maybe I'm thinking too much. As the wedding is approaching, I always feel that I can't sleep, I..." Wang Yun nodded knowingly, and said with a smile: "I know, I heard that women often have such thoughts before they get married. Although I don't understand it well, maybe it's because I feel anxious about the changes in my life's fate in the future." Wang Ruo nodded slightly, and bit her lower lip lightly. "Silly sister, for such a good person as King Kui, are you still afraid that you will be unhappy in the future?" Wang Yun said, motioning her to go back to the house, and said, "Let's go, don't believe that kind of nonsense." Wang Ruo bowed his head and followed Wang Yun down the steps, towards the Daxiong Hall on the mountainside.Huang Zixia was one step behind her, and heard her low voice: "Chonggu." "Yes." She replied. "Do you also feel...I'm really, really anxious and nervous recently?" She asked uneasily. Huang Zixia thought for a while, and said, "The concubine cares too much about the prince, so she becomes more and more nervous. If you didn't care, how could this happen?" Wang Ruobian pursed his lips, looked at her with tearful eyes, and said in a low voice, "Maybe." The evening class of the monks is still going on, and the evening bell and Sanskrit singing are lingering around them.Huang Zixia listened to those Buddhist verses, and suddenly remembered the sentence that his grandmother once recited—— She was thinking silently in her heart, turning her head to look at Wang Ruo's drooping face, thinking, is it because she really loves Li Shubai, that's why she did this?
Wang Yun is a very meticulous person. He discussed with Xu Zhiwei, the captain of the palace guard, and immediately divided the soldiers into two parts: one part went to search in various halls, meditation rooms and corners of the temple; the other part went to investigate the monks in the temple.However, when the incident happened, everyone was doing evening classes, and there was no shortage of monks in the temple. They all gathered in the main hall, and no one could appear in the ancient lamp-burning Buddha hall behind. When the sky was dark, the small teams who searched everywhere also responded one by one. They divided the temple into fifty areas, and a team of ten people searched carefully. Even if there is a louse hiding in the temple, it will definitely be repeated like this was found in the combs of the dead--but no, no sign of anyone was found.Apart from Huang Zixia and Suqi who followed Wang Ruo, who were the girls and servants of the Wang family, there was no one else in the temple. The only thing that can be considered a discovery is that in the Lantern Ancient Buddha Hall, someone found a rusty arrowhead placed in front of the Buddha. On the arrowhead, engraved with four words:
Chang'an custom, at the end of the day, beat the "closed door drum" 600 times, wait until the last drumstick falls, and the city gate is closed. open. The sky was getting darker and darker, and there was a sound of six hundred drums behind closed doors.Huang Zixia and Zhou Ziqin galloped on the street, heading straight for the Golden Light Gate. Almost at the moment when the last drum fell and the city gate officer yelled "Shut the door——", their horses rushed through the city gate and ran along the trough to the wild west of the city. The mountains and forests in the west of the city were flourishing, and Zhou Ziqin took her to Yizhuang with his familiarity with the road. When he looked inside, only a single light was on, and the old man in Shouyizhuang had already fallen asleep. Zhou Ziqin had already taken off his brocade clothes, and was only wearing a brown bunt shirt all over his body.He took out a piece of copper, gently pushed the latch from the crack of the door, then quickly pushed the door and stretched out his hand, caught the latch the moment it hit the ground, and put it beside the door without a sound. Huang Zixia began to admire this person, this skill, nowhere does he look like a dandy all over his body, he is clearly a fox who has been trained to become a master! He ticked his fingers at her, then tiptoed in, opened the wooden cabinet, took out the booklet inside, and turned to the most recent page—— He traced the line of words with his fingers, and then silently pointed to a small hillside outside. He opened his lips and made a "go" mouth shape. The two of them walked out the door lightly, and he moved the latch back inch by inch with a copper sheet, stuck it again with difficulty, and waved his hand to signal her to go. Huang Zixia finally understood why Li Shubai asked her to find Zhou Ziqin, this guy is simply a habitual offender, his hands and feet are too flexible. After walking a long distance, Huang Zixia finally asked: "You...have often done this kind of thing before? You seem to be very familiar with the road." He was proud: "Yes, I'm just a hobby. Let me tell you, my martial arts are all secretly practiced on this kind of dead body." "The ability to open the door latch is probably the best in Chang'an, right?" "It's so-so, I've practiced for more than half a year." "Actually, I want to ask, the bolt on the window sill next to it seems to be able to be opened with a flick. Why do you have to go in through the gate?" "Window...window sill?" Zhou Ziqin was silent, Huang Zixia walked a long way, and finally heard a wail behind him, "I have wasted more than half a year to develop the skills! Who can pay back the sweat I practiced day and night!"
When they reached the foot of the hill, the horses they were tied there were pacing. Zhou Ziqin led the horse to the pine forest in the north of the small hill, saw a piece of new land that had just been turned over, and knew it was here, so he took down the box that was hung on the horse's back before departure, opened it, and took out the folded hoe and shovel , threw a handful to her. Holding the shovel, she couldn't believe it, and asked, "You even have this thing? Isn't this too skilled?" "Shh, don't mention it, King Kui made it for me in the Weapons Department. After my father found out, I was almost beaten to death!" He burst into tears, and then took out a head of garlic, a piece of ginger, A bottle of vinegar. When Huang Zixia thought he was going to take out another steamed bun, he had already taken out two pieces of cloth, mashed the ginger and garlic, mixed it with vinegar, rubbed it on the cloth, and then handed her one: "Cover up, the body smells very bad awesome." Huang Zixia remembered something and quickly reminded him: "It is said that these people died of the epidemic." "Then you have to cover it up even more tightly," he said proudly, "Although it doesn't smell good, this is a secret recipe passed down from generation to generation." Huang Zixia was almost stunned by the smell: "Isn't your father an official? Do you still pass on such things from your ancestors?" "Of course it's not my family's ancestral recipe. It's the secret recipe passed down to me by the most famous samurai in Chang'an, Uncle Zhu." She was silent, picked up the shovel and dug the soil on the ground with him.The corpse that was just buried today is not too strenuous to dig up, and Zhou Ziqin wields a hoe in a decent manner, and the speed is relatively fast. Under the moonlight, Zhou Ziqin was digging, seemingly a little bored, and asked her casually, "Are you the... that new love beside King Kui?" "..." Huang Zixia felt that if it wasn't for the cloth covering his face, the twitching on his face would have made him understand his thoughts. It's a pity that Zhou Ziqin didn't see it, and he was still talking to himself: "What is it called... Yang Chonggu, right?" She let out a dejected "hmm", thought about it, and finally asked, "What is that new love, what does it mean?" "Ah? I don't know either. I just heard the rumors in the capital that King Kui has a pretty little eunuch next to King Kui. King Zhao won't give anything to King Kui. When I look at you, I guess it's you." Huang Zixia listened to his heartless and confusing words, and really didn't want to talk to this person, so she buried her head in the mud in grief and indignation. He persisted and asked: "I heard that you can solve the case? And you also solved the 'Four Plans'?" "It's just a coincidence." "But you can break through the 'Four Plans', I think you can already keep pace with the person I admire the most!" "so so." The moonlight was misty, the pine wind was howling, and in the empty wilderness, the two were chatting and digging the soil one after another in the mountains.When something different in color from the soil appeared under the moonlight, Zhou Ziqin hurriedly said: "Wait a minute, wait a moment, let me see." He jumped down the shallow pit, put on a pair of thin leather gloves, then picked up the bone and looked at it, and said, "Yes, it is a burnt corpse. But look, the bone in this hand is so thick, it is obviously a man's bone. If it's a woman we're looking for, we'll have to look for it." Huang Zixia squatted by the pit and said, "Yes, what I'm looking for is a woman, about forty years old, five feet three inches tall, of medium build, good at playing the piano." "Okay." He rummaged through the soil with a small shovel.It took a lot of effort to find the bones of fourteen people, but the women's bones were naturally separated. He dug around, carefully identified them, and finally brought out a large pile of charred things. As soon as she saw the half-dried bones and muscles, she knew that Li Shubai was right. Those guards really burned them hastily and then dug a pit and buried them. They didn't implement the requirement of "long-term burning and deep burial". She went to find the gloves in the box, put them on, and fiddled with the female corpse's hands first.After all, it was night, and things looked blurry, but it didn't have that much impact.But the smell was a bit unbearable, even through the vinegar and ginger and garlic, the smell still rushed into her nostrils. She held her breath and told herself in her heart, Huang Zixia, you are someone who has seen the corpses of your own family members, so what are these things. The feeling of nausea gradually receded, and she tried to calm herself down, reaching out to look at the corpse in front of her. I heard Zhou Ziqin say: "Judging from the bones, the two female corpses below are about five feet or more in length, but the other woman's bones are fragile, her body is slightly hunchbacked, and she is about fifty years old. A corpse should be the person you are looking for." She carefully identified the scorched black skull of the female corpse, and asked, "Is there any way to find out whether there is a mole on the left eyebrow?" "No, the moles and scars are all on the epidermis, and the skin has already been burnt. How can these still exist?" "Then is there any trace of identity for such a corpse?" "Wait a minute, I'll look for it." He took out a leather duffel bag from the box, and when he opened it, the moonlight shone on the things inside, leaving him completely naked.Inside are all kinds of small knives, small hammers, and small awls made of refined iron... "If a worker wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his tools. My equipment is not bad, right?" He showed off, skillfully turning the bones over and over for a long time, and then quickly cut open the remaining skin of the dead body, "Don't move the throat... The fingers are completely burnt and cannot be recognized; the eyes are dry and cannot be recognized; the ears are gone and cannot be recognized..." Huang Zixia squatted by the pit, listened to his voice, and looked up at the moon. Zhou Ziqin tossed and concluded: "It is completely impossible to see the trauma." She rested her chin on her knees and asked, "Didn't the people in the household department test before the corpse was cremated? Is there a record in the booklet of Yizhuang?" "This one died of an epidemic. Naturally, no one will inspect it anymore. I just want to deal with it as soon as possible." Zhou Ziqin said, pointing to the box next to him, "The second box on the fourth row, take that small bag to me. .” Huang Zixia took out the cloth bag inside and threw it to him. He took out a thin silver medal the size of a little finger and a small bottle from the bag, dipped the liquid in the bottle with a cloth, and wiped the silver medal vigorously. Pinch the dead man's jaw so that the corpse's mouth opens.He stuck the silver medal in, then closed his mouth again, sealed it with a piece of paper, and said, "Wait a while." Huang Zixia hung around with the police at home for a long time, so he naturally knew that this was for drug testing, and the silver medal was washed with saponin water. After half an hour, if the silver medal was taken out and it turned black, it could be concluded that the deceased died of poisoning. "In addition, the body of the woman and the body of the male disaster victim, can you also examine it in the same way?" Huang Zixia said. "Okay." He said, and sealed each of them. She couldn't help reminding her aloud, saying: "Remember to have a stomach test later, last time there was a woman in Sichuan who was poisoned after her death, and the result was only tested in her mouth, and she almost made a mistake in the end. " "Huh, is there such a thing?" Zhou Ziqin's eyes lit up immediately, and he climbed up and walked with her to the pine tree not far away, took off the cloth covering his mouth and nose, and asked, "Why don't you tell me about that case in detail?" "It's nothing, it's very simple," Huang Zixia thought about it for a while, and said, "A young girl in Longzhou, Sichuan Province died suddenly at home. I used this method to test that she committed suicide by drinking poison. But I... But because the head catcher found that the woman's wrist The bruises on her face were not the embossed grape patterns on her bracelet, but another kind of pomegranate pattern. It was concluded that other women must have pressed her hands before she died. So they searched carefully in her mouth and nose, and found the Dried blood. After interrogation of her family, it was discovered that her sister-in-law was having an affair with her neighbor. She caught her. In desperation, the two drugged her with poison in an attempt to create the illusion that she committed suicide. Therefore, the poison can be detected in the throat, but not in the abdomen, thereby breaking the case." Zhou Ziqin asked excitedly: "Really? I wonder who is the person who is as careful as a hair and noticed the truth of the case from a bracelet pattern?" "...It's Guo Ming, the arresting head of the Chengdu government." "Impossible! I've seen Guo Ming before. He has a big beard and a carefree face. How could he notice the pattern of bruises on the woman's hand!" Huang Zixia was helpless, rolled his eyes at the moon that had risen above his head, and said, "I don't know about that." "I have a guess. Could it be Huang Zixia, the daughter of the governor of Chengdu, Huang Shijun?" Zhou Ziqin said suddenly, "I heard that she is very good at judging cases based on clues." "I don't know." Huang Zixia leaned her head on her knees, looked at the moon for a long time, and then said, "I seem to have heard of this person." Zhou Ziqin didn't seem to feel her indifference at all, and said happily: "I can tell you were not in Chang'an before! You must have never been in Shu, right? She is very famous in Chang'an and Shu! Yes, do you know why I am determined to be a police officer and a fast catcher? It is because of Huang Zixia!" "Oh." She remained indifferent. "Wait." He said, then turned his head and took out a bag of things from the box, and handed it to her, "Come on, give you half!" She smelled a scent, looked down, but couldn't help but feel disgusted: "We are here to dig up the corpse tonight, and what we dig up is still a charred corpse! You actually brought a roast chicken?" "Oh, I haven't eaten dinner yet! When I went to get vinegar, ginger and garlic, I saw that this was the only one in the kitchen that was easy to carry, so I wrapped it in a lotus leaf and brought it here. My cook is very good!" The corner of Huang Zixia's mouth twitched slightly, she really didn't want to say anything to this person. "Where did I just say that? Oh... Huang Shijun's daughter Huang Zixia, she is my sweetheart! The person I like! The person in my dream!" She said coldly: "You don't know her when she is standing in front of you, do you?" "How is it possible? Every time I pass by her wanted list at the gate of the city, I have to stop and take a look at her. She is so beautiful! She is so beautiful even on the wanted list, so this is a real beauty, right?" Huang Zixia was speechless, feeling that she was no longer able to deal with the man in front of her, so she could only silently turn her head to the other side, and asked, "How can she make you admire her so much?" "This started five years ago! At that time, I was fifteen and she was twelve. When I was fifteen, I hadn't figured out what I would do in the future. Sometimes I wondered desperately whether my life would be like Like the brothers, they are either working hard to settle accounts in the Ministry of Industry, or drafting official documents every day in the Ministry of Finance. Everyone says that my brothers are very promising, but I don’t think so. Life is so beautiful, and the good times are all used to fetch water in the officialdom Piao Piao, what are you doing alive, don’t you think so? In the end, when I was most hesitant and confused about life, Huang Zixia appeared!" Huang Zixia looked at his shining eyes looking at the moon. At this moment, she really had the urge to tear off a chicken wing and eat it, so as to relieve her mood. Zhou Ziqin's voice suddenly rose, clearly conveying his excitement to her: "Then, I suddenly found my future goal in life! Huang Zixia was only twelve years old at that time, and she was still a girl. She began to help the Ministry of Criminal Justice solve mysterious cases and shine everywhere. And what about me? What was I doing when I was twelve years old? What have I been doing for so many years? The moment I heard about her deeds, I suddenly found the meaning of my future life! I saw clearly the magnanimous road ahead of me! I suddenly saw my life leading to glory!" Huang Zixia finally couldn't help interrupting his strong parallelism: "Didn't you hear the rumor that Huang Zixia fled after killing his family?" "Impossible!" He shook the chicken leg in his hand with a determined expression on his face. After the accident, it was the first time for her to meet someone who firmly believed in herself. At this moment, although she felt that he was a little careless, Huang Zixia's heart moved slightly, and her eyes fell on his face: " why?" "what?" "Why... would you trust her?" "Oh, because, I think a person like Huang Zixia who has repeatedly solved strange cases, if he really wanted to kill someone, would devise a method that is completely imperceptible, how could he kill his family members so simply and rudely? This is really detrimental to her reputation!" Huang Zixia silently continued to look up at the night sky, feeling that the touch of emotion he had just had was completely wasted.
By the time Zhou Ziqin finished eating that roast chicken, half an hour had passed.He took out another bag of melon seeds and shared half with her.This time she didn't refuse, and took a small handful silently. The moonlight was slanting to the west, and it seemed that it was almost the fourth watch. Zhou Ziqin took out the sealed silver plates from the mouths of the three corpses, and found that only the silver plate taken out from the corpse suspected to be Feng Yiniang had turned black.He wiped it carefully with soap locust, then looked at the thick blue-gray surface that could not be wiped off, and said, "It was poisoned to death, that's right." Huang Zixia let out a "hmm". Feng Yiniang, the luthier of Yunshaoyuan in Yangzhou, and the teaching aunt next to the queen-to-be, died among the refugees in Youzhou. The cause of death was poisoning.And the prospective princess who is about to marry into King Kui's mansion said that the aunt has gone back to Yangzhou. She was still thinking, but Zhou Ziqin had already started to examine the internal organs: "For the sake of prudence, let's test the stomach again." The intestines and stomach were cut open, and although they were basically burnt dry, they were also very disgusting.Zhou Ziqin, whose nerves were as thick as chopsticks, finally couldn't take it anymore, and only watched from the corner of his eyes with his face crooked.When sealing the silver medal, he suddenly let out a "huh" and felt that his fingers touched something cold and hard, so he took it out, glanced at it, and said with a hint of excitement in his voice, "Hey, Chonggu, look at this!" In his palm, there was a small thing that shone coldly under the moonlight.Huang Zixia put on the gloves, took them over and looked at them carefully in front of her eyes. This is a small suet jade, the jade is clear, only the size of a small fingernail.Under the moonlight, she wiped off the blood stasis and dirt on it, and looked at the moonlight, and saw a small word engraved on it, "Nian". The white of suet jade is half thick and half light under the moonlight, flowing over her eyes like water waves.She stared at the word "Nian" floating around, and paused for a long time.
The white suet jade was placed in front of Li Shubai. Li Shubai looked at the lettering on it, but didn't reach out to take it. He only asked, "What is this?" Huang Zixia said: "If you pick it up and take a look, you'll know?" Li Shubai didn't touch the little piece of jade, but reached out to take the glass bottle on the desk, looked at the little red fish swimming leisurely inside, and said, "Touch this kind of thing? What if it's from a dead person?" What did you take out of it?" Huang Zixia said seriously: "No, it really wasn't taken out of dead people." Then he stretched out his beautiful hand, pinched the piece of jade with his thumb and forefinger, looked at it in front of his eyes, and recognized the word "Nian" on it. "Chen Nianniang's reading," she said. He put the jade down, thought for a while, and asked, "Are you going to give this jade to Chen Nianniang?" "Then we must tell her that Feng Yiniang is dead. At that time, Chen Nianniang will definitely cause more troubles and startle the snake." "Well, you should put it away first." He handed her the piece of jade.Huang Zixia took the cloth that had wrapped the jade on the table, wrapped it up, and put it in her sleeve pocket. Li Shubai frowned slightly, and said: "I'm surprised, why the murderer is so careless and let such an important identification thing stay by Feng Yiniang's side." "Because Feng Yiniang swallowed it in her stomach before she died from the poison." As Huang Zixia spoke, she saw Li Shubai's eyelashes twitch.She felt an indescribable joy, so she added: "Feng Yiniang's body is half-scorched, but the internal organs are still basically there. We dug them out from her stomach." Li Shubai looked at his two fingers, and then looked up at Huang Zixia who was standing in front of him. Finally, a wave of emotion appeared on his calm face. Huang Zixia looked at him with the usual expression: "Fortunately, I lived up to the prince's expectations. Zhou Ziqin and I finished everything before dawn, and then restored the burial site. I guarantee that all traces will disappear." Li Shubai looked at her face as if nothing had happened, then looked at his hands, finally couldn't bear it anymore, grabbed the Longquan porcelain brush on the table, and began to wash his hands vigorously and hard: "Huang Zixia, give me too Disappear immediately!" Although he studied the corpse overnight, Huang Zixia felt that everything was worth it the moment he saw Li Shubai lose his composure.She happily ran back to catch up on sleep: "Yes! Please obey the prince's order!"
Kui Wang Li Shubai's wedding date is scheduled for May 16th. On the sixth day of May, ten days before the wedding day, Wang Ruo planned to go to Xianyou Temple in the suburbs of the city to pray for blessings according to the custom. The scenery of Xianyou Temple is very beautiful, and several concubines and wives have been very efficacious after offering incense at Xianyou Temple since this dynasty. Therefore, although there are many Buddhist temples in the city, going to Xianyou Temple to offer incense is very popular among courtiers and female relatives. Wang Yun greeted Li Shubai in advance, so after showing up at King Kui's mansion, Xianyou Temple was cleared early that day, and even the little novice was not allowed to leave his meditation room if he had nothing to do.Around Shen time, there were no other people in the temple. Huang Zixia, Suqi and a dozen girls from Wang Yun's mansion accompanied her to offer incense. Xianyou Temple is very vast and built on the hillside.The front hall at the foot of the mountain is Maitreya Buddha with a smiling face, and the Venerable Wei Tuo is enshrined in the back. The main hall is on the mountainside, dedicated to Tathagata, Manjusri and Samantabhadra.There are also Western Amitabha Buddha, Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva, and Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.In the east, there are Medicine Buddha, Sunlight Bodhisattva, Moonlight Bodhisattva, and eighteen Arhats. At the same time, there is a Hall of Five Hundred Arhats. They went to the temple to see the Buddha burning incense, and they knelt down one by one. After worshiping the main hall on the mountainside, Suqi and the maids were already tired. Su Qi said: "I really can't do it anymore, anyway, there is no one in the temple today, Yang Chonggu, you can go up with the princess." Huang Zixia agreed, and she and Wang Ruo walked up the steps, holding incense in their hands, and climbed up the mountain all the way. A little bit of moss grew on the bluestone steps, and the two of them looked at their feet carefully.The temple was very lonely, only the occasional chirping of a bird was heard, and a snow-white bird flew past in the sky. The white bird flew across the sky and plunged into the mountains and forests in front of it.Following the trajectory of the bird's flight, their eyes turned to the apse in front of them, and then, suddenly, they saw the man standing in front of the door of the apse. He appeared so abruptly, as if the white bird had transformed into one, appearing without a sound. Wang Ruo hesitated for a moment.Huang Zixia gently tugged at her sleeve, and said, "Young Master Wang and all the guards in the house are here, don't worry." Wang Ruo said "Yes", and the two walked up the last ten or so steps to the door of the apse, and bowed inside with incense.The apse is dedicated to the ancient Buddha with lamps, and there are fragrant flowers and precious candles in front of the Buddha, and even the treasured building seems to be in a trance among the green smoke. Wang Ruo knelt in front of the Buddha, muttering prayers, Huang Zixia looked back at the man, and saw him standing outside the door, outside was the pale green distant mountains, the blue sky, and he was wearing a blue shirt, as if melting into the background In general, it seems erratic and far away. He seemed to feel that she was looking at him, and looking back at her surrounded by cigarettes, the corners of his lips suddenly raised, revealing a smile.His facial features were plain, he was just an ordinary and handsome man, but his smile was gentle and peaceful, with a gentle aura from the distant sky, which made Huang Zixia feel a little familiar at this moment. Huang Zixia lowered her head slightly, as a compliment in return, but when she lowered her eyes, she found that he was holding a birdcage in his hand.The bird they had just seen was white and standing in the middle of the cage.The bird seemed quite human, and when it saw her gaze, it chirped and jumped a few times in the cage, appearing extremely lively. Wang Ruo also finished praying, stood up and turned her head to follow her gaze, looking at the little bird. Inside and outside the empty hall, there were only the three of them.The man lifted the birdcage, and the slightly westward slanting sunlight cast his back into the hall, covering them.It's like a huge bat in the dark night, spreading its wings. He smiled gently and asked them, "How is this little bird?" "Did you raise it? It looks very cute." Wang Ruo looked at it curiously. The little bird seemed to understand her praise, and danced even more happily in the cage, as if unwilling to stop for a moment. "Yeah, very well-behaved. Even if I open the cage and it goes out to the mountains and forests, it will fly back as soon as it hears my whistle." He said, stretching out two fingers to gently stroke the little bird. Bird's head, the little bird fondled his little head with his fingers. Huang Zixia took Wang Ruo outside, not wanting to cause trouble.But when I walked past that person, I heard him say: "After all, no matter what is going on now, everything you have done and experienced before will be deeply imprinted on your heart, even if you hide it from everyone. , and I can’t hide it from myself.” Huang Zixia felt Wang Ruo's body stiffen slightly, and her footsteps stopped. "It's like there is an invisible rope around your neck. The farther you want to escape, the tighter it will be." The man clearly saw Wang Ruo's reaction, but he only smiled, "What I said, is This little bird." Huang Zixia turned around to look at him, and asked, "Do you know who the person standing in front of you is? How dare you chat so casually!" "Of course I know," the man said calmly with a smile, "if nothing happens, she will become Princess Kui within ten days." "In this case, please don't disturb the nobleman, so as not to cause more trouble." "It's not to disturb the nobleman, I just want to show the princess something interesting." He approached slowly, leaned over and bowed to them, brushed his sleeve over the birdcage, and lifted the birdcage Put it in front of them, then raised his head and smiled at them: "It's a small skill, only Princess Bo smiles." In just such an instant, the little bird that was jumping happily just now in the birdcage was gone.In front of them were forty-eight birdcages cut from fine purple bamboo, standing there empty. Wang Ruo looked surprised and looked at Huang Zixia at a loss.Huang Zixia looked directly at the man and remained silent. "Princess, please be careful these few days, otherwise, you will inevitably be like a bird in a cage. No matter how tightly the cage is woven, it will disappear in an instant." The man smiled at them, turned and walked into the hall. Until he uttered a long chant: In the setting sun, the Zen bell rang from afar, and the monks were having their evening classes. The sound of singing the Sanskrit Gita and the twilight of the setting sun shrouded them together.The birdcage on the ground and their figures were stretched by the setting sun, falling into the deep hall. Huang Zixia turned around and walked quickly to the hall to see that there was no one there.She turned her head and saw Wang Ruo's face, pale as a withered flower.
"Sister, why are you standing here with Yang Chonggu?" Someone behind them is calling them.It was Wang Yun who was waiting for them at the foot of the mountain. Seeing that they hadn't come back for a long time, he went up to look for them himself. He went up the steps, and the silk satin white clothes fluttered slightly in the wind, making his whole figure more and more pure and clean, like a cloud in the clear sky. Seeing an empty birdcage on the ground, he asked, "Why did someone put such a thing here?" Huang Zixia looked at Wang Ruo, and Wang Yun felt something was wrong when he saw Wang Ruo's expression, and quickly asked, "What's wrong with my sister?" "Brother...Brother." Wang Ruo's voice trembled, and she looked up at him with tears of terror in her eyes. Wang Yun frowned slightly and asked, "What happened?" "Just now... there was a strange man, he, he said..." Wang Ruo's voice was trembling and messy, out of tune. Huang Zixia took up the topic and said: "Just before the young master came up, a man appeared here with a bird cage in his hand. He didn't know what he did to make the bird in the cage disappear, and said that the princess might also disappear out of thin air like the bird in the cage. .” "A man?" Wang Yun looked around in astonishment, "I have cleared out the people in the temple before, and since you entered, the soldiers I and the palace mobilized have been guarding below. It should be impossible for anyone else to appear in the temple. How could there be a man?" Mix in?" "That person must not have escaped yet. He is in Xianyou Temple. My brother can send someone to search and find it." Wang Ruo said tremblingly. Wang Yun nodded, and when she saw that she was so frightened, she comforted her and said, "It's just a few random words from a person with unknown background, how can you take it seriously? Don't worry, how could the daughter of our Langya royal family, the princess of the Kui Palace, What happened? Don't believe this kind of nonsense." "Well," she nodded with tears in her eyes, and then said timidly, "Maybe, maybe I'm thinking too much. As the wedding is approaching, I always feel that I can't sleep, I..." Wang Yun nodded knowingly, and said with a smile: "I know, I heard that women often have such thoughts before they get married. Although I don't understand it well, maybe it's because I feel anxious about the changes in my life's fate in the future." Wang Ruo nodded slightly, and bit her lower lip lightly. "Silly sister, for such a good person as King Kui, are you still afraid that you will be unhappy in the future?" Wang Yun said, motioning her to go back to the house, and said, "Let's go, don't believe that kind of nonsense." Wang Ruo bowed his head and followed Wang Yun down the steps, towards the Daxiong Hall on the mountainside.Huang Zixia was one step behind her, and heard her low voice: "Chonggu." "Yes." She replied. "Do you also feel...I'm really, really anxious and nervous recently?" She asked uneasily. Huang Zixia thought for a while, and said, "The concubine cares too much about the prince, so she becomes more and more nervous. If you didn't care, how could this happen?" Wang Ruobian pursed his lips, looked at her with tearful eyes, and said in a low voice, "Maybe." The evening class of the monks is still going on, and the evening bell and Sanskrit singing are lingering around them.Huang Zixia listened to those Buddhist verses, and suddenly remembered the sentence that his grandmother once recited—— She was thinking silently in her heart, turning her head to look at Wang Ruo's drooping face, thinking, is it because she really loves Li Shubai, that's why she did this?
Wang Yun is a very meticulous person. He discussed with Xu Zhiwei, the captain of the palace guard, and immediately divided the soldiers into two parts: one part went to search in various halls, meditation rooms and corners of the temple; the other part went to investigate the monks in the temple.However, when the incident happened, everyone was doing evening classes, and there was no shortage of monks in the temple. They all gathered in the main hall, and no one could appear in the ancient lamp-burning Buddha hall behind. When the sky was dark, the small teams who searched everywhere also responded one by one. They divided the temple into fifty areas, and a team of ten people searched carefully. Even if there is a louse hiding in the temple, it will definitely be repeated like this was found in the combs of the dead--but no, no sign of anyone was found.Apart from Huang Zixia and Suqi who followed Wang Ruo, who were the girls and servants of the Wang family, there was no one else in the temple. The only thing that can be considered a discovery is that in the Lantern Ancient Buddha Hall, someone found a rusty arrowhead placed in front of the Buddha. On the arrowhead, engraved with four words: