Chapter 023: Frost in the Courtyard (Part 4)
"Is Miss Ni in there?"
Zhou Ting vaguely heard some voices and was about to knock on the door again, but he saw the door suddenly open. The girl inside was wearing a narrow shirt and long skirt, with a shawl half hanging on her arm. She had her hair in a low bun and a white jade comb in her hair.
But for some reason, she had a silk handkerchief wrapped around her neck.
"Miss Ni, what's wrong with you?" Zhou Ting asked puzzledly.
"It was a little damp from the rain, and I got a rash."
Ni Su opened the door completely, and Xu Hexue, who was originally standing beside her, instantly turned into mist and disappeared.
Zhou Ting did not suspect anything. He entered the back corridor, took the tea bowl handed to him by Ni Su, and immediately said, "Miss Ni, this morning, the Chief Censor Jiang has reported your brother's case to the emperor. The Night Office now has the authority to thoroughly investigate the matter. Envoy Han has interrogated many people today, but he did not expect that an unexpected person would be involved."
"who?"
Ni Su asked immediately.
"General Miao's second son," Zhou Ting studied her face, "is the court attendant Miao Yiyang who took you out of the Night Palace."
Zhou Ting had always dispatched his close followers from the Night Police to monitor and protect Ni Su, so he naturally knew that she had been living in the mansion of General Miao before she settled in Nanhuai Street.
"How could it be him?"
Ni Su couldn't believe it.
While in the Taiwei Mansion, Ni Su was bedridden recovering from her injuries, so she didn't actually see Miao Yi Yang many times. But in her impression, Miao Yi Yang was weak and docile, and needed his wife Cai Chunxu to help him make decisions on many things.
"In fact, I'm still not sure. Your brother and the Yanzhou scholar He Zhongping didn't know any noble family, and your brother wasn't someone who acted in a high-profile manner. Why did the murderer target him when he came to Yunjing, a strange place? But I don't know if Miss Ni still remembers what I told you before, that He Zhongping borrowed a policy paper from your brother."
Ni Su nodded: "Of course I remember."
"Your brother rarely socializes with others, but this He Zhongping is not like that. He loves to brag after three rounds of drinking. He has nothing to brag about, so he brags about his friends. He has mentioned your brother's poems and articles to the people at the table."
"Among the people he interacted with, there was one named Ye Shanlin, whose family ran a bookstore. He Zhongping said that this person knew a young master from the yamen who loved to collect old books on strange things. He was none other than Miao Yiyang, the second son of the Miao Grand Commandant's mansion."
"And he also happened to have participated in the winter test, but did not make the list."
"It can't be him."
After hearing this, Ni Su shook his head, "If it was really him, he bribed the jailer in the Guangning Prefecture to kill me but failed, and then I fell into the trap, and went out of the night office and arrived at the Taiwei Mansion. Since I was under his nose, wouldn't it be easier for him to take action? If so, why didn't he do it?"
If it was really Miao Yi Yang, then he would have had many opportunities to take action. However, during the days when she was recuperating in the Taiwei Mansion, everything was calm.
"Perhaps it is precisely because he is under his nose that he dares not act rashly," Zhou Ting continued, holding the tea bowl, "But this is just Han Shizun's guess. There is another possibility that this court attendant is just one of the means used by the murderer to confuse people."
"You took Miao Yi Yang to the Night Watch?" Ni Su had been in the Night Watch before, but she was afraid that this time the Night Watchman would never treat her the same way he had treated her before, just threatening her without taking any action. He had received an official decree and had the authority to torture any official involved in the case.
"The envoy did not torture the court attendant."
After Zhou Ting left, Ni Su returned to Xu Hexue's room to eat, but when she picked up the bowl, she thought of Cai Chunxu again, and her heart began to feel uneasy and she no longer had any appetite.
"Miao Yiyang doesn't have that kind of means."
The mist formed the image of Xu Hexue in the room. He had just survived the period of release and did not have enough strength to speak: "General Miao would never take risks for him."
"You also know General Miao?" Ni Su looked up at him.
Xu Hexue looked at him, and his eyes inevitably fell on the brocade handkerchief around her neck. His eyelashes drooped: "Yes, I know him well."
At the age of fourteen, he gave up his bright future in Yunjing and went to the frontier to join the army. He was in the Huning Army of the mighty General Miao Tianzhao. At that time, Miao Tianzhao was not yet the current General Miao.
Fifteen years ago, in the battle in the Tangi Desert, Miao Tianzhao also fought against foreign enemies with him.
Although the Grand Marshal is the highest military official, he does not have enough power compared to the civil officials in the court. Moreover, Grand Marshal Miao is not leading troops for the time being due to injury. Even if he really wants to secure a future for his son, I am afraid he cannot use so many means in the court.
"In fact, I have also heard from Sister Cai that her husband is a mild-mannered and somewhat aloof person. He doesn't socialize with outsiders. It is only after he became the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple that he has to pretend to be refined. Apart from that, he usually only wants to stay at home. How could he be willing to drink at Ye Shanlin's banquet?"
The more Ni Su thought about it, the more impossible it seemed.
She was somewhat concerned about Cai Chunxu, but seeing that Xu Hexue's soul was still weak, how could it be convenient for him to go out with her?
"Xu Ziling, will you feel better if I light some more incense and candles for you?" Ni Su stood up and took out some more incense and candles from the cabinet.
"Thanks."
Xu Hexue sat beside the couch, his wide sleeves covering his clasped hands.
It was getting dark outside, so Ni Su lit a few more lamps and put incense in the incense burner by the window so that there wouldn't be too much smoke in the house.
She turned around and found that Xu Hexue had taken off the cloak that was inappropriate for the season and was only wearing a snow-white robe. Even though he looked so weak, he still sat there with a straight posture.
But his clothes were not as luxurious as the cloak she had made for him in the cypress forest of Dazhong Temple. Instead, they were made of very ordinary material, even a little rough.
This was something Ni Su had discovered a long time ago, but she had never asked about it.
However, at this moment she suddenly wanted to ask, because she always felt that Xu Ziling today seemed to be able to tolerate all her offenses.
"Is this dress also burned for you by your old friend?"
She actually asked .
Xu Hexue raised her eyes when she heard this. He moved his lips slightly, looked at her, and answered obediently: "It was given by the living soul of Youdu."
It was difficult for him to tell her that when he first entered the Netherworld, he was just a ball of blood-red mist, with no clothes to cover him, no people from the Yang world to offer sacrifices to him, and it was floating miserably to the east of the River of Hate.
There are often living souls among the reeds to collect offerings from their relatives in the world of the living. The coarse cloth robe he was wearing was given to him by the living soul of an old man.
Ni Su didn't expect that he would answer like this.
She wanted to ask, where are your relatives? Is there no one who burns winter clothes for you, writes a petition for you, or cries for you on the anniversary of your death?
She remembered again that there was one.
But why did his old friend prepare winter clothes, write a petition, but then not hold a memorial service?
Ni Su looked at him but couldn't ask.
"The moon is out."
Ni Su turned around and looked outside the door and suddenly said.
Xu Hexue followed her gaze and saw a faint silver frost on the ground outside the eaves. He heard her voice again: "Do you want to take a bath?"
Just like that night in the inn in Qiao Town, Xu Hexue was standing in the courtyard, and when he turned around, the girl was looking at him on the corridor.
I don’t know why, but Xu Hexue always felt particularly restrained when she was looking at him like this tonight.
The moonlight and the dust intertwined, silently dispelling the dirt and dust of the world of the living that stained the soul. The dust that had solidified into bloodstains on his cuffs also disappeared.
His cleanliness does not belong to this world.
Ni Su looked at his back and thought of the men's clothes she had bought from the clothing store. He was actually very tall, but his figure was much thinner. Those clothes were obviously more suitable for a more sturdy man.
Xu Hexue heard footsteps in the corridor. He turned around and saw Ni Su running into her room. After a while, she took something and walked towards him again.
When she came closer, Xu Hexue could see clearly that she was holding a thin rope in her hand.
"Raise your hands."
Ni Su unfolded the string and said to him.
Xu Hexue didn't understand, but today he obviously listened to her. He didn't say a word and raised his arms obediently. But the next moment, she suddenly moved very close to him.
The thin rope in Ni Su's hand was wrapped around his waist. Xu Hexue could almost smell the faint fragrance of osmanthus oil in her hair. His eyelashes trembled and his Adam's apple rolled: "Ni Su..."
"I didn't think enough. The sizes of the clothes in those closets are not suitable for you. I didn't ask you what color or style you like. I was too busy at that time. The owner of the clothing store was a little too old-fashioned. Those clothes seem to be something that people in their 40s or 50s would like." Ni Su was still concentrating on the thin rope in her hand.
"I don't care. You know, if I were still alive, actually..."
Xu Hexue didn't finish his words.
Ni Su knew what he wanted to say. He was nineteen years old when he died fifteen years ago. If he were still alive, he should be over thirty years old now.
She raised her head and smiled at him. "How can that be true? You are always nineteen years old, always at the youngest and most beautiful time of your life."
Young and beautiful, Xu Hexue actually felt that such words could never be used to describe himself again, but the girl in front of him said it to him so seriously.
His clear eyes reflected the candlelight under the eaves. When he heard her say "don't move", he stiffened his body and didn't move, allowing her to manipulate his face like she did when she washed his face during the day.
"I'll take your measurements and make the clothes for you myself. Don't worry, I made clothes for my mother at home. Although my father passed away early, I also made winter clothes for him. I'm sure I can make them look good."
Ni Su went around behind him and used a thin rope to measure the length of his arm.
"Actually, you don't have to make clothes for me. I..." At this moment, she was behind him. Xu Hexue couldn't see her, but he could feel her touch from time to time. "I offended you last night, and I don't know how to make up for it."
"Now that you are willing to stand here and let me measure your size, that is your repayment."
"I'll take down the measurements and give them to the tailor shop so they can make a few more for you, but I must make a dress for you myself."
Ni Su didn't understand why a man like him died at the age of nineteen but no one held a memorial for him. Even the clothes he was wearing were given to him by other living souls in the underworld.
When he was alive in this world, he must have been a young man who grew up in a world of luxury, right?
Putting away the string, Ni Su said seriously in the floating dust:
"That's my gift to you."
