Chapter 23 chapter Five

Even though it was late at night, the south gate of Puyang City was still ajar, and groups of people were still entering the city.Everyone handed over to the guarding soldiers a small rectangular bamboo tablet with a number scrawled on it.Tonight, if the people in the city will return to the city after the closing time of the city gate, they must report their names, identities, and house addresses in advance to receive such a bamboo plaque.Those who do not have this bamboo card are allowed to enter the city only after the gatekeepers verify their name, identity and house address and pay five copper coins.

The captain at the south gate saw a galloping horse coming from a distance, and hurriedly ordered the soldiers to open the city gate wide.Di Gong reined in his horse and asked, "Did you see a wounded man enter the city just now?" The captain pushed the helmet back on his head, and replied: "Sir, it's hard to say for sure, we don't have time to carefully observe everyone who comes in and out, how can we take care of such a large group of people? Almost all the people in Puyang City have left the south gate tonight." "Well. From now on, you must carefully check everyone who returns to the city. If you see a man who has just been wounded by a knife, arrest him and take him to the Yamen immediately. You immediately send a soldier to ride to the other three cities. The door conveys the same order."

The three streets and six markets in the city are still crowded with joyous crowds, the lights are bright and the voices are noisy.Restaurants and shops are busy.Duke Di rode his horse and galloped slowly towards the east city, he remembered that Ke Yuanliang's mansion was in the east city. Arriving at a secluded mansion not far from the east gate, Duke Di got off his horse, tied the reins on the white jade pillar outside the gatehouse, walked up the high steps and knocked lightly on the red lacquered gate twice. The steward opened the door in response, and Mr. Di handed over the famous thorn. Seeing that it was Mr. Di, the governor of Honzhou, the steward hurried into the inner hall to report to Ke Yuanliang.Ke Yuanliang heard that Mr. Di was visiting late at night, so he rushed to the front hall.He was terrified and terrified, he forgot the etiquette, and when he saw Di Gong, he asked excitedly: "Master Di, is something wrong?"

"Well, Mr. Ke came into the room to talk." "Of course. Master Di. Ah, Xiaomin missed the greeting and neglected etiquette. Please forgive me. I'm worried..." Ke Yuanliang shook his head anxiously, with a look of regret on his face. He led Mr. Di out of the front hall and walked through several winding corridors to a hall. Upstairs was an elegant and secluded large study room.There are antique cabinets and bookcases against the walls on both sides of the study room. Antiques, treasures, books, calligraphy and paintings are scattered and orderly. They sat down at a round tea table in the corner, and Ke Yuanliang was holding a jug to pour wine. Di Gong asked, "Is Mr. Ke's wife named Hu Po?"

"Yes! What's the matter, sir? She went out on an errand after supper, and hasn't returned home yet." "Mr. Ke, Mrs. Amber was killed!" Ke Yuanliang's face turned pale immediately, and he stared at Di Gong with wide-eyed panicked eyes, without saying a word.After a while, a series of surprised questions came out: "Killed by someone? How did this happen? Who did it? Where is it? Does Mr. Di know where she was killed?" Mr. Di stroked his beard, and said coldly: "As for the last question, you should know the answer, because, Mr. Ke, it was you who appointed her to go to that remote house."

"The lonely house? Which lonely house? Where is it? God, why didn't she take my advice, I begged her to at least tell me where to go, but she..." Mr. Dee interrupted him: "Mr. Ke had better start from the beginning. You have a cup of tea first, of course this is terrible news for you. If I hadn't got all the details of the place at that time, this The murderer will probably never be caught." Ke Yuanliang took a sip of tea, calmed down a little, and asked again, "Who killed it?" "A man whose name is not yet known." "How did you kill it?"

"I was stabbed in the chest by a sword, and died immediately, without much pain." Ke Yuanliang nodded numbly, then sighed deeply, and said, "Humber is an unusual woman, sir. She often helps me identify antiques. She has extraordinary eyesight for identifying antiques. There are many incredible things about her. It is full of wonderful charm.” Ke Yuanliang looked dejectedly at the tall and exquisite antique cabinets carved in ebony along the wall, and continued: "All of these were carefully arranged by Amber, reflecting her insight and elegance. She also classified labels and compiled catalogs by herself. When I bought her four years ago, she was still an uninitiated maid. After I taught her for a year or two, she could write a good handwriting. Really, she is very smart..." He choked hard He stopped, and hung his head in pain.

"Where did Mr. Ke buy her?" Duke Di asked. "Hu Po was originally a maid in Mr. Dong Yiguan's house." "Dong Yiguan?!" Di Gong exclaimed, as if he had realized something.Then he asked: "Mr. Ke, could this Dong Yiguan be the father of the murdered scholar Dong Mei?" "What the master said is exactly. Amber has no parents since she was a child. Mr. Dong raised her and treated her very much. Four years ago, Dong Yiyi went bankrupt and was forced to sell all his property. He sold Amber Gave it to me. Because I have no children, I bought her with four gold bars. I wanted to treat her as a daughter, but she became more and more beautiful every day. Just like a jade sculpture... Alas! Just because my wife is... my wife is suffering from an incurable disease, so I married Hu Po two years ago and took her as a concubine. Of course I am a bit old, with two temples Gray, teeth shaken, but we have common interests, hobbies, visions for the future..."

"Well, I see. Mr. Ke, tell me, what kind of errand did you entrust her to do?" Ke Yuanliang drank the cup of tea slowly, and then replied: "Master Di, the thing is this: Amber recommended Dong Mei to me, collected antiques for me, and acted as an agent for business negotiations. She knows Dong Mei very well. , because they grew up together. Two days ago, she told me that Dong Mei came across a very rare antique, a... a vase, which is one of the oldest and most expensive vases in existence. A gold ingot. She said that its true value is far more than two or three times. Because of the famous vase, there are many people who seek it. Dong Mei does not want others to have it. He wants to sell it to me. Amber said that Dong Mei promised to hand over the things to her in a safe place that they both knew after the dragon boat race tonight. I asked Amber to tell me where it was, but she would not. A young single woman with With so much money, I was really worried, but Amber insisted on going there alone. She swore that there would be no accidents. When I saw Dong Mei died tonight, I immediately thought that Amber would be waiting there for nothing. When I came back, she had already returned to the mansion. However, she... I didn't see her when I returned to the mansion, so I felt uneasy, and the more the night became quieter, the more worried I was. But I couldn't do anything, because I really didn't know where they met .”

Di Gongdao: "I can tell you, Mr. Ke, they met in Dong Yiguan's mansion, that desolate emerald villa. It was an empty house, in the dense forest beside Baiyuqiao Town. Amber didn't know Dong Mei is dead, and another insider went there under the guise of Dong Mei. That person killed Amber and took away the gold ingot and that...that vase—is it a vase? Mr. Ke." "Dong Mansion Emerald Villa - my God! Why would she... She is very familiar with every plant, tree, brick and tile there, but -" His eyes lowered. Duke Dee asked, "Why do people say it's haunted?"

Ke Yuanliang raised his head and looked at Di Gong in horror: "Haunted? No! Master Di, there is the mandala forest of the White Lady. In the past, I often heard about the appearance of the White Lady. Hundreds of years ago, that area was a dense forest. , you know that the river under the Baiyu Bridge was much wider than it is now. The people here most believed in the Goddess of the river, and fishermen and boats from far and near would come here to worship. The mandala forest was very big at that time, surrounded by several Ten miles away, there is a temple built in the middle of the forest. In the temple, a huge stone statue of the goddess of the river is enshrined. Every year, a young man is slaughtered in a grand ceremony as her sacrifice and offered to the altar. Later, the digging of the canal is in full swing. Through here, a large area of ​​woods was cut down, and only a grove around the temple was preserved in order to respect the beliefs of the local people. The government also explicitly prohibited the old custom of using the blood of living people. It happened here in the second year There was a catastrophic earthquake, which destroyed most of the temple. The elder and two young servants in the temple were suddenly killed. There was a lot of discussion, and it was said that the White Lady was angry. So people abandoned the forest in the forest. That temple, a new temple was rebuilt on the river bank of Baiyuqiao Town. The road to and from the temple was quickly submerged by wild grass and trees. Since then, no one dared to enter the mandala forest. Even picking herbs Nobody dares to take that risk, even though datura flowers and rhizomes have important medicinal value, the price of buying them at herbal medicine shops is also very high.” Ke Yuanliang frowned, realized that the words were going too far, coughed a few times, took another sip of tea, and continued: "Ten years ago, Mr. Dong started to build a villa near the Mandala Forest, and the local people warned He said that being next to the mandala grove, disturbing the Holy Land of the White Lady, the White Lady would be angry, and if she got angry, she would bring disasters. The local migrant workers refused to build it for him, but Old Dong—probably because he was from the north— But he was very stubborn. He didn't believe the rumors of the Goddess of the River, so he recruited workers from the four neighboring villages to build his villa. He named it Emerald Villa, which meant the empty emerald green outside the villa. He moved his family. Entered this emerald villa, and stored his collection of copper tripods, iron yi, and stone drum scriptures there. I have visited him several times. It turned out that the bronze tripod he had hidden was indeed extraordinary and rare in China.Master, do you know that it is very difficult to get a bronze tripod from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties now..." He stopped talking here, and shook his head in frustration, as if he thought he was going too far. "On a summer night four years ago, the weather was so sultry. Old Dong and his family were sitting in the garden in front of the pavilion enjoying the cool air, when the White Lady suddenly appeared. She bared her teeth and ran out of the mandala grove. ——The old director later told me the terrible scene at that time. The white lady was wearing a blood-stained white dress, her hair was disheveled and covered half of her face. She ran towards them with her bloody hands raised high, and uttered horrible cries The old Dong's family was frightened and fled in all directions. Suddenly there was a violent storm and thunder and lightning. It was drenched from top to bottom. Old Dong Nai decided to abandon the villa. What's more, the next day he heard that the firm in the capital had closed down. He had no choice but to sell the emerald villa and the mandala grove outside the villa to the capital. A rich medicine merchant, ashamed to go back to his hometown in the north. Everyone said it was the retribution of the white lady." Mr. Di listened intently to Ke Yuanliang's narration, while slowly stroking his long, black beard.He asked gently: "Then, Miss Amber, why did she take the risk to go to the Emerald Villa tonight? Of course she knows about the appearance of the White Lady, is she really not afraid?" "My lord, she doesn't believe that there are really ghosts or apparitions. She often said that those ghosts and ghosts are just tricks made by the local people to scare old Dong. Besides, as a woman, you don't have to be afraid of Bai Niang Niang, Bai Niang Niang is the guardian god of women, and she has always slaughtered men to worship her gods, and she has never heard of taking our women's lives as sacrifices." Mr. Di nodded his head, took another sip of tea, put down the cup, and said suddenly and sternly: "Mr. Ke, you asked Mrs. Amber to handle this dangerous errand for you. Now she has been brutally killed, you must Take full responsibility for your own cowardice! You still dare to lie in front of me, do you think I really believe that there are vases worth ten gold ingots in the world?--Tell me the truth! Amber will buy it for you? what?" Ke Yuanliang groaned in his heart, he stood up and paced back and forth restlessly.Finally, he stopped in front of Duke Di, turned his head and carefully looked at the door, bent down to get close to Duke Di's ear, and said in a low voice: "To be honest, what I want to buy is the famous imperial pearl." .”