Chapter 24 third quarter

Chen Hongzhi led Pei Xuanjing around the mica screen, and the emperor stood with his back facing outwards. The miniature and exquisite model of Lingyan Pavilion was on the long table in front of him.Next to the model, there is an additional thing that was not there before - the Golden Chamber. Pei Xuanjing's heart moved slightly, so after she inspected the golden cabinet in Lingyan Pavilion, the emperor ordered someone to fetch it.Why?Didn't Song Ruozhao say that "Tui Bei Tu" cannot leave Lingyan Pavilion? "Everyone, Master Pei Lian is here." Pei Xuanjing knelt down and kowtowed.She lowered her head, and her eyes fell on the turquoise carpet with the pattern of rivers, mountains and sea teeth. She saw the emperor turning around slowly, with the toes of his shoes facing her.

"You have entered the Lingyan Pavilion." He said. "Yes, according to His Majesty's will, I went to the cabinet to check." The emperor snorted. Pei Xuanjing waited for him to blame her for entering Lingyan Pavilion without permission the first two times, but the emperor asked, "How do you feel?" "...Your Majesty is asking me how I feel about Lingyan Pavilion?" "Ok?" Pei Xuanjing hesitated for a while, and replied, "It's different from what I imagined." "What's the difference?" "The Lingyan Pavilion in my mind is the place of the most yang, the most rigid, and the most bright. But I didn't expect... to find darkness in it."

After a while, the emperor said, "The interplay of yin and yang, and the symbiosis of black and white are the essence of Taoism. As a Taoist, don't you even understand this truth?" "It's my concubine who is stupid." "No, you are not dull, but too persistent." The emperor said, "Then tell me, what is the darkness you found?" Pei Xuanjing remained silent, she was still not sure of the emperor's true intentions, and she was unwilling to speak easily. "Song Ruozhao is missing." Pei Xuanjing trembled in horror, raised her head involuntarily, and met the emperor's eyes unexpectedly.

Since she was imprisoned in the Daming Palace, this was the first time she really looked into the eyes of the emperor.In an instant, Pei Xuanjing felt a chill all over her body, as if she had fallen into a glacier. "Do you have anything to say to me?" Pei Xuanjing was so shaken that she couldn't even utter a word. The emperor glanced at Chen Hongzhi, and he immediately signaled to the servants standing beside him with understanding. Several people came forward silently, and lifted the Khotan white jade platter full of ice cubes from the side of the screen, carrying a wisp of cold The fog receded.

After a while, Pei Xuanjing felt her body temperature gradually rise, and the blood in her whole body could flow again. "Is it really that cold? Your lips are turning purple." "Isn't Your Majesty cold?" The emperor did not answer, although his lips were also bruised. Pei Xuanjing remembered what Princess Yong'an had said about the emperor Fudan, and an indescribable complex emotion suddenly surged in her heart. After a while, she heard the emperor say, "I'm asking you something." "Yes." Pei Xuanjing said, "Your Majesty, when did Bachelor Song disappear?"

"Three days ago." That was the day after the thirty-third image of "Tui Bei Tu" was displayed in the window of Lingyan Pavilion.That night, when Pei Xuanjing and Song Ruozhao parted in front of the Persimmon Forest Courtyard, Song Ruozhao had said that he would meet the emperor the next morning and report to him the analysis of the vision in Lingyan Pavilion. After Song Ruozhao met the emperor and handed back the key to the Golden Chamber, the guards outside Qingsi Hall witnessed her walking along the south bank of Taiye Pond towards the Persimmon Garden.The reflection of the huge crystal ice was dazzling, and Song Ruozhao's figure disappeared in it, never to appear again.

Ruo Lun, the younger sister of the Song family, waited for a day and a night in the persimmon garden before notifying the emperor.Because Song Ruozhao had succeeded Song Ruohua's position as female minister and ranked first among the female officials in the palace, her disappearance could definitely be regarded as a major event in the palace.So the emperor ordered the Shence Army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to search for Song Ruozhao in the palace, but after searching for three full days, they still found nothing.Song Ruozhao disappeared without a trace like a wisp of smoke. After searching for three days without any results, the emperor ordered Pei Xuanjing to enter Lingyan Pavilion to do some investigation, and then took the golden cabinet where "Tui Bei Tu" was stored to Qingsi Hall for collection.Because he was worried that another accident would happen to "Tui Bei Tu", it would be an unbearable loss.

"Didn't you find any trace?" Pei Xuanjing asked in disbelief. "No. You can't see people when you're alive, and you can't see corpses when you're dead." The emperor's tone made Pei Xuanjing feel chills again.She raised her head and asked, "Your Majesty, has anything similar happened in the palace?" "As far as I know, never." "Your Majesty, let me try." Pei Xuanjing said, "I am willing to come and look for Miss Song's whereabouts." "Oh? You actually volunteered for Yingying too?" the emperor said sarcastically.

"Yes, Your Majesty! Fourth Lady was with me the night before she disappeared, and had a long conversation with me. Maybe I can help a little." After pondering for a moment, the emperor said: "No, you don't need this matter, I leave it to the Shence Army to handle it." "Shence Army? They searched for three days but failed." "Then find another three days, thirty days." "But Your Majesty..." The emperor scolded: "How many times have I taught you a lesson, don't interrupt me when I'm talking!" Pei Xuanjing shuddered suddenly, her mind seemed to be clearer.After the Buddha bone case, the emperor leniented Li Mi and gave him a special favor, which earned him the heartfelt gratitude of Pei Xuanjing.In terms of nature, Pei Xuanjing is a kind-hearted and grateful person after all.For a person like her, it is not easy to love someone, but it is even more difficult to hate someone.Recently, Pei Xuanjing even began to wonder if her hatred for the emperor was too stubborn and narrow.Whether it was Cui Miao's death, or He Niang and Li Mi's misfortune, Pei Xuanjing blamed them on the emperor, but she knew that she didn't have much real evidence.

Pei Xuanjing knew in her heart that what she hated was not so much the emperor, but the absolute power he represented.It is this kind of supreme power, which is the destiny of destiny, that treats human life as nothing, tramples on the dignity of the weak at will, deprives them of freedom, hope and everything, but does not even give them a chance to appeal. The most frightening thing is that this kind of power acts in the name of the family, the country, and the world, so no one can argue with it.No one is always right, only when combined with this kind of power, you can do whatever you want, kill and seize without any condemnation of conscience.

In the process of dealing with the emperor, Pei Xuanjing always felt the terrible oppression brought by this kind of power, but at the same time, she could also feel that the emperor was also coerced by this kind of power, and the pressure he endured might exceed the world anyone. She knew how powerful he was, he was the Son of Heaven who ruled over all living beings, but Pei Xuanjing still tried to understand him from a human point of view.Whenever she did this, her hatred for him would loosen, and her life would seem less dark. But now, Song Ruozhao's disappearance brought everything back to the original state. Pei Xuanjing thought that this time Song Ruozhao must have had more trouble than luck. First of all, it is impossible for Song Ruozhao to escape from Daming Palace, besides, she will never leave her younger sister Ruolun alone.In such a huge Daming Palace, if Song Ruozhao wanted to deliberately hide somewhere, Song Ruozhao should be able to do it, but why did she do this?Song Ruolun was only sixteen years old, with a pure and cowardly personality, and was used to relying on her sisters, without even a single opinion.Judging from what the emperor said, Song Ruolun must know nothing about Song Ruozhao's whereabouts, otherwise, with her little courage, she would never be able to hide it from the emperor's eyes.Now Song Ruolun's sky has collapsed, and his future fate is even more worrying.As long as there is a way, Song Ruozhao will not let the only sister fall into this situation, unless - she has encountered misfortune herself. Therefore, Song Ruozhao's disappearance is by no means a good thing.It is very likely that she is already dead, or she is struggling on the verge of life and death, but Pei Xuanjing, as her most trusted friend, doesn't know how to help her at all. In order to protect himself, Song Ruozhao chose to be an unintentional person.Even so, the unintentional Song Ruozhao was not spared. Pei Xuanjing's heart was once again soaked in powerless hatred. How many times, starting from the puzzles of "Lanting Preface", she persistently searched for the truth, and solved one mystery after another, followed by one bad luck after another.Wu Yuanheng, Wang Yi, He Niang, Song Ruohua, Song Ruoyin, Jia Guiniang, Wang Zhifu, Li Mi, Cui Miao, Song Ruozhao...she watched these people whom she respected or pityed or sympathized with or loved leave her. The truth of the truth not only failed to help them, but became a life-threatening rope loop and a sharp arrow piercing the heart! No, she will never be a fool again. While Pei Xuanjing was thinking, the emperor remained silent.If Pei Xuanjing looked carefully, he would definitely find that the emperor's face had been clouded for a long time, as if trying to restrain his emotions.After the ice cubes were removed, the emperor could only use his willpower to suppress the burning heat in his belly, which was not easy for him—it should be getting more and more difficult. Finally, the emperor reluctantly said in a calm tone: "There is no need to mention the matter of Song Ruozhao. You can only explain the vision of Lingyan Pavilion." Pei Xuanjing thought nervously, what should be the right word? The development of the thirty-third image "one dry and one prosperous", Pei Xuanjing can definitely be created by Song Ruozhao.In fact, during the long conversation that night, Song Ruozhao had almost admitted this to Pei Xuanjing, and hinted that the purpose of doing so was to protect himself and his sister.Pei Xuanjing also expressed her support without hesitation.Therefore, even if Pei Xuanjing deduced the entire process of Song Ruozhao's forged vision and found relevant evidence today, he still had to use "theories of ghosts and gods" to evade the emperor. Take it easy, take it easy.Pei Xuanjing ordered herself to calm down and think about it, why did Song Ruozhao insist on protecting the Persimmon Garden by creating visions? The vision happened three times in total.The first and second developments are "a monkey playing fireball" in the ninth image of "Tui Bei Tu". Pei Xuanjing didn't witness it with her own eyes, but listened to Song Ruozhao's narration.The third time was the "one withered and one prosperous" of the 33rd elephant, which Pei Xuanjing, Song Ruozhao, Liu Mi and others witnessed with their own eyes.It was also because people were present that Pei Xuanjing was able to discover the paper-cuts and other clues in time. etc!Pei Xuanjing's heart brightened: Even if Song Ruozhao created the third vision, can it be inferred that she also created the first and second visions? Pei Xuanjing's heart was beating wildly, and she realized that she had overlooked a major problem: paper-cutting will not move! It is impossible for Song Ruozhao to use the same method to create the two visions of "one dry and one prosperous" and "a monkey playing fireball".Because even if she could get a cutout of "Ape Playing Fireball", there was no way to make it move! The biggest difference between the development of the thirty-third image and the ninth image lies in the "movement" and "stillness". Song Ruozhao used her own method to solve the problem of light source and image development, but her method could not create the moving effect of apes playing and pearls getting angry. The light source used for the first and second development must be candles.Moreover, there were people in Lingyan Pavilion during these two developments! Pei Xuanjing thought of the shadow puppet show she had seen before. If the shadow on the window was to move, the shadow puppet show method could be used, but someone had to be behind it.So she deduced that when the first and second developments were made, someone should light a candle in the pavilion, and then manipulate the shadow puppets of the ape and the fireball. From a distance, it would definitely create the vision of "ape playing with a fireball".Moreover, the planner is well aware of the rules in the palace, and knows that everyone will never dare to rush into the pavilion immediately after seeing the vision, so the people in the pavilion have enough time to extinguish the candles, pack up the shadow puppets, and be safe before everyone arrives. Leave Lingyan Pavilion. This person is definitely not Song Ruozhao.It was not easy for Song Ruozhao to go from Daming Palace to Taiji Palace, let alone at night.When producing the third development, Song Ruozhao had to carefully arrange the mechanisms under the noses of everyone. She did not have the conditions to produce the first and second developments at all. But why did Song Ruozhao insist on creating a third development?He also repeatedly emphasized to Pei Xuanjing that these three developments were all done by ghosts and gods?Could it be to cover up the people who made the first and second developments?Or is it to divert everyone's attention from the ninth elephant's "ape playing fireball" to the thirty-third elephant's "one dry and one prosperous"? Pei Xuanjing felt a splitting headache, and finally figured out the principle of three-time imaging, but instead walked into a dead end.Not only is she getting farther and farther away from the truth, but she also seems to be getting farther and farther away from the person she really wants to help. But she couldn't keep silent anymore, the emperor was waiting for her answer.