Chapter 112 The Truth Approaches
June 19th, 3:30 pm
Shen Kuo stared at the monk blankly, imagining the huge cylinder-shaped woodblock printing machine in his mind, thinking about how to print the picture on the wall in a moment by rolling the wooden barrel with the picture already engraved on the surface. And it only takes three steps from here to there to paint a nearly colorful mural. In terms of time, the time to use the hat monster to distract everyone is just enough to do this, of course it is a bit hasty.
Of course, there are flaws. He clearly remembered that when he rushed into the palace that day, he saw blood dripping and burning on the wall. Obviously, the last color in this hell transformation picture was red. These pigments were not completely dry and began to seep down. It was like blood oozing out of the wall and dripping down. However, there must be some kind of fuel mixed in them, so igniting these fuels can make the blood-colored part of the whole painting burn. The measure is just right, watching the blood dripping and the fire burning wildly, a vivid picture of hell, but in fact it is just to make the red pigment dry quickly, it is really killing two birds with one stone.
How did all these clever ideas come about? This question is too strange. In Shen Kuo's mind, apart from Yu Hao who wrote the Wood Classic and the monk in front of him, it seems that no one else in the world can come up with such brilliant and insidious ideas.
"Master, how did you think of it so quickly? They would use this method?"
Shen Kuo's question was not very obscure, he went straight to the point.
"Because I designed this device." The monk admitted it readily.
"You designed it?"
"Hey... it's not designed for Maitreya, but for Boss Pei."
"To make a fake painting?" He immediately thought of the cause and effect.
"Yes, at that time he always hired experts to make fake paintings, but the experts naturally charged very high fees."
"So he remembered your convenient seal and carrot stamp? He used this method to make fake paintings in bulk?"
"Yes, I conceived this thing for him. I drew a blueprint. The printing roller at that time was only a few inches wide, because even a long scroll was only that wide. At first, I couldn't print the painting, so I could only print the inscription on the front. Later, I thought of printing the color in several times, but it didn't look real, so it was a failure. But it doesn't work on silk and paper, but I think it can be done on the wall." The monk walked in front of the magnificent scroll and felt a little proud.
"Fortunately, it's for Boss Pei, not for Maitreya Sect." Shen Kuo seemed relieved.
"I don't think there is any difference." The monk laughed, "When I was still in the capital, I saw this old Pei trying to curry favor with the prince consort, and he wanted the magic brush. His behavior is very strange."
"yes."
"Now that I think about it, this Boss Pei is definitely not a simple person." The monk said word by word.
"It is indeed strange that Boss Pei would take the prince consort and show off the magic pen everywhere. But at that time I just thought that he was after money and the prince consort was after fame, and both of them were in cahoots to get what they wanted." Shen Kuo said.
"You know, what Maitreya has always been about is the human heart. Not many people know about Zhang Sengyou's pen and the idiom that adds the finishing touch to a painting. It's not like Buddhist stories like the Hell Transformation Picture, which are known to everyone in the market. Although what he did may have been for fame and fortune, he made the story of the pen spread throughout Tokyo."
"That's right." Shen Kuo nodded repeatedly. He had also thought about this, but he felt that Boss Pei's motive for making money was reasonable.
"There must be something fishy going on. Since both the magic brush and the Hell Transformation Map can be linked to him, let's go to his shop now and solve this mystery to see if he is after profit or something else."
The two of them left Gyeongbokgung Palace together, then left the palace from Donghua Gate and headed straight for the Jicui Painting Pavilion in Tianshui Lane.
When the two arrived, they found that the painting pavilion was closed. Shen Kuo had passed by a few days ago and saw that there were crowds of people here, and the neighbors were watching the prince consort painting here. Moreover, this painting pavilion was originally open at night. Now was the time when there were many people on the street, so why was it closed?
Shen Kuo went to the door and looked inside through the window paper, but could not see anything. There was a copper lock on the door.
Monk Huailiang asked several neighbors and they all said that the store was open in the morning, but closed hastily at noon, and no one knew why.
The two walked around to the back of the store, where there was a yard. There were clothes drying inside, but it was late and no one was taking them in.
There was a door in the backyard, and it was locked, which showed that no one was in the house.
"If Xu Jieji was here, it would be easier. He could just climb over the wall and get in."
Shen Kuo sighed.
“Why climb over the wall?”
The monk took out two copper needles from his pocket and poked the keyhole. It opened after a few tries. No one knew where he learned this skill. Shen Kuo had heard him say that he could open locks when he was in the courtyard of Lao Ya Lane, but at that time Taoist Li sealed the keyhole with beeswax, so he couldn't use this skill. Now it seems that his skill is quite good, faster than many people using keys to open the door.
"Isn't this just entering without notice?"
"I'm telling you, it's very likely that Boss Pei has something to do with Maitreya. We shouldn't be too lenient with this."
The monk was open-minded and just pushed the door open and went in.
But I saw many paintings drying on bamboo racks in the yard.
“Are these all fake paintings?”
"Of course, there are no real paintings here. The ones posted in the sun are just fake ones that look real and ancient."
"So what if it gets exposed to the sun?"
"Of course it's not just drying it in the sun, you have to mix some urine in it to make the paper yellow, just like the works of famous artists in the past dynasties."
Shen Kuo felt nauseous. The monk went to the back door and pushed it open.
The hall on the first floor was in a mess, with paintings hanging on the walls, some of which were of the prince consort Li Wei.
"That's not right. I saw him sell all these paintings that day, didn't he?"
In his recollection, he saw the prince consort painting in front of a huge crowd of people. There were almost countless people wanting to buy his works, and the paintings were so popular that they were in great demand.
"You don't know these people. Those buyers were probably found here. They paid for it themselves."
"If he bought the painting himself, it's possible, but he bought the painting of the prince consort?"
"So, the mystery we were talking about just now has been solved. He bought the painting from the prince consort not for money but for something else. Common sense says that it is a dishonest businessman to inflate the price of the painting he has. However, it is really suspicious that he bought the painting from the prince consort for a large sum of money and then split the profit with the prince consort, because it does not benefit him in any way. I have known this old Pei for many years. He has always been cunning and not so foolish. Unless his purpose is to spread the story of the magic brush."
The two walked around the store on the first floor but found nothing. However, the account books were still on the counter, which made them look very anxious when the store was closed.
"I wonder how Jin'er, who was bought as a concubine by Boss Pei, is doing?" Shen Kuo said.
"Which Jin'er?"
"You've seen her too. She's Xiao Ping's maid."
"When did you buy her as a concubine?" the monk asked with some vigilance.
"It was during those months when you went to Hebei and were not in the capital."
"Jin'er was sold by the government, Xiaoping must have been involved, how could she have been bought by him?"
"Boss Pei bought her to do the accounting because he saw that she was good at writing and calculating."
"No, something is very wrong. Let's go up and take a look."
The two walked up the stairs quickly. The monk pushed open a door and saw a pair of feet swaying in front of them. Looking up, they saw Boss Pei hanging there, having been dead for a long time.
Shen Kuo was so shocked that he almost cried out.
"Why did he... die here?"
"Most likely to silence them." The monk said coldly.
"Silencing?"
"The front and back doors were locked, so it couldn't be suicide. The two locks must have been put there by the murderer."
"Was it the Maitreya Cult that did this?"
"Not likely. The Maitreya sect has its own devious methods of killing people, and they rarely silence people."
"That's right. Maitreya only uses the method of judgment to force people to death."
The monk fetched a stool, climbed up, and untied Boss Pei in a few moves. There was no need to check his pulse, he must be dead.
Shen Kuo looked at the corpse carefully and saw some white foam at the corners of his mouth.
"The death was similar to that of the Queen's maid Lian Xiu a few days ago. The coroner said she was poisoned."
"It seems that he took poison first and then was strangled to death?" said the monk.
"Then why did you make it look like suicide? With locks on the front and back, anyone would be suspicious."
"Could it be possible that the person who killed him will come back?"
Shen Kuo had some experience, so he quickly tore open his clothes on his chest, and saw that there was indeed a wolf head tattoo.
"It seems that he is also a spy from Liao State?"
"Is this wolf head a spy from the Liao State?" This time it was the monk's turn to be confused.
"Yes, the guards who died in the palace a few days ago all had tattoos like this, but none of them had the Maitreya swastika mark."
"It seems that after Yu Jing's death, the Liao spy appeared directly. I hate myself so much for not seeing through this at the time. I thought Yu Jing had endless gold and silver, and that he could save the Maitreya Sect no matter how many times it declined. Now that I think about it, even if his ancestors were virtuous, they were just craftsmen. Where did all this gold and silver come from?"
"I think the master behind the scenes will soon show up," said the monk.
"I also saw the new leader of the Maitreya sect. She seemed to be a woman with some disability in her legs."
"He is nothing more than a puppet. There must be someone else hiding the deepest, most likely this boss Pei's superior."
"But he is the biggest boss in this shop. If there is another leader, is he hiding among those guys?"
"I know something. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, a group of Liao spies were captured in Tokyo Bianliang. The leader was actually a woman?"
"woman?"
"You also know that the Liao State is always ruled by a female ruler, so spies also like to use women."
"The only woman in this store is Jin'er."
"Let's go to Mr. Bao's place."
The two of them went downstairs together. Except for putting down the body of Boss Pei, everything else was kept as it was. They came out from the back door and locked it again. Then they went to the Military Headquarters. As soon as they arrived at the door of the Military Headquarters, they saw Xu Chong rushing out. He was happy to see Shen Kuo, but then he was surprised again when he saw the monk.
"Master? Why are you here?" he asked in a lost voice.
"Amitabha. Of course I'm here to help Mr. Bao solve the case." The monk spoke in a very arrogant tone. He didn't say that he regretted his actions or changed his ways. He just said that he was here to help.
"Master, please follow me in, but sir, my husband has something else for you. He wants you to leave the city."
"Leave the city?"
"Well, my husband wants you to..." Xu Chong looked at the monk, not knowing whether he should say it or not.
"Xu Jieji, you can say whatever you want."
"My husband told you to go and invite that woman over so we can confront her in the evening."
"Confrontation?"
"It is said that Mr. Wen has urgent business to come."
"Okay, I'll go right away. But Xu Jieji, there's one more thing I need to trouble you with."
"What is it?"
"Boss Pei of the Jicui Painting Pavilion in Tianshui Lane is dead. I think it was done by a spy from the Liao State. It is urgent now, and the spy from the Liao State may go back. You must lead an ambush. No matter who comes in, arrest them first."
"Boss Pei is dead? How is Jin'er?"
"I haven't seen Jin'er, but if Jin'er comes back, I must catch her first."
"this……"
"Xu Jieji, please. We need to arrest the person first. If she is fine, she will be able to explain herself."
"Okay, I'll go right away."
"There is one more thing. I just saw that Boss Pei died in the same way as Lianxiu. Xu Jieji, can you ask Mr. Bao to immediately cut open Lianxiu's body and see if there is anything in her stomach."
"What kind of thing?"
Shen Kuo took out a piece of bamboo from his pocket and handed it to Xu Chong. It looked like a whistle.
"That's it. I found it under the poplar tree at the Prince Consort's house. I blew it, but there was no sound. It's a silent whistle."
"Silent Whistle?"
"Xiao Ping once told me that his family also uses a silent whistle to summon the dog, called a dog whistle."
"Then why did you cut Lianxiu open? What does it have to do with this silent whistle? She was clearly poisoned to death. The coroner also confirmed the poisoning."
Xu Chong was confused and couldn't understand Shen Kuo's series of irrelevant words, including the whistle, the dissecting of the body, and the dog. There were too many elements and they were too confusing to grasp the main point.
"It's true that she was poisoned, but why did a hat monster appear before she died? Apart from the mask of Di Gong, nothing was found nearby . It's really weird. Maybe she swallowed some evidence."
"I am getting more and more confused. " Xu Chong said in confusion, but the monk next to him seemed to understand a little.
"Leave this to me. When I was with Yu Jing, I often saw him sneaking around on top of the tower, as if he was practicing something. And there was always something flying there."
"Okay, I'll leave it to you two. Time is running out now. I'll tell you everything when I get back. Also, Xu Jieji, you stay at the Ji Cui Painting Pavilion tonight. If you see the hat monster, blow this silent whistle. It might be useful."
"If it's silent, what use can it be?"
"Let's give it a try."
Shen Kuo did not explain and went to get the horse. Xu Chong was full of suspicion and led the monk to the head office. Shen Kuo did not dare to neglect it and rode Xu Chong's horse out of the city. It was almost the evening hour and the city gate was about to be closed. He had to find Hu Yong'er quickly.
