Chapter 29 Dark Clouds Overhead
February 8th, 3:00 p.m.
They finally drank to their heart's content and the prince consort saw the three men out of the house in a drunken state.
Just as the prince consort staggered to the door, his family members unexpectedly came in excitedly.
"My Lord, the ladies from the Fanlou are here."
"Didn't... you come only at night?" the prince consort said with drunken eyes.
"Yes, the dance in the hall must be practiced first according to the distance and size of the banquet seats, so we arrived early."
"It's too early. I can't look like this. You lead them to the guest room at the back to rest. I'll change my clothes, drink some hangover soup, and then go see the ladies." The prince consort smiled and quickly apologized to Yang Wei De and his party, and went to the back. Yang Wei De didn't care. Anyway, he was just one street away from home. But Shen Kuo was startled when he heard the word "Fanlou".
As I was walking out of the door, a group of women came in. They were all carrying musical instruments and wearing veils covered by gauze, so their faces could not be seen clearly. All I could see was that they were walking slowly and gracefully.
Shen Kuo didn't look at her for long, but when he passed the last woman, he realized that the figure was familiar, and it seemed to be Xiao Ping.
When he turned around, the woman had already passed by. She seemed to be looking at him inadvertently through the veil, but it seemed as if she hadn't.
The figure slowly left. Unlike the other women, she wore a purple skirt, a white skirt, and a light-colored ribbon fluttering in the wind, looking cold and lonely. In her hand, she held a guqin, just like what she saw on the boat that day.
The figure seemed to sense the infatuated gazes behind him, so he stopped, turned his face slightly, and then went back into the mansion.
"She didn't see me?"
Shen Kuo turned back with regret, but saw a flash of fire in front of him. Jin'er, wearing a red dress, was smiling in front of him, holding a pipa in her hand.
"Jin'er?"
"You are such a forgetful person. You didn't even remember me?" Jin'er frowned slightly, looking cute and adorable.
"I'm not a noble person, but my elder sister... seems to have forgotten me. She just passed by me but ignored me." Shen Kuo said.
"How could that be? Probably you haven't seen me, young master? You were talking about me a few days ago. You said you owed a donkey a big favor and forgot about it, and didn't go to see her. You also said that scholars in the world are so heartless. It's true: you are a fool, you are a fool, you are a fool, you deserve to be killed, you deserve to be struck by lightning, you deserve to be exiled, and no one will take your body away."
"Is my elder sister angry with me? Why did she say so many vicious words?"
Shen Kuo was shocked. He realized that Xiao Ping ignored him because she might hate him.
"Hey, young master, since you don't go to the brothel, you don't know that these words are mostly because she cares about you. I don't know what she thinks. Come over someday and see how she treats you, then you will know."
"That's good..."
"By the way, why are you here today?" Jin'er asked.
"Oh, after coming to Beijing, I went to live with my relatives across the street. Today I came to help out and help my husband... to look at the shape of the house, predict the house's feng shui." Shen Kuo casually found an excuse.
"So you can do this?" Jin'er covered her mouth and laughed.
"Well, I know a thing or two."
"Don't blame me for not teaching your elder sister. Today is a big customer, I dare not delay, I have to go in. Remember to come in a few days. The elder sister loves those flowers and makeup powder the most, don't blame me for not telling you."
Shen Kuo quickly bowed and Jin'er also went in.
Shen Kuo returned to Yang's house in great distress, but Xu Chong had not arrived yet.
Yang Wei De first asked someone to prepare tea to sober him up. After all, he had some experience and could see that something was wrong with Li Cheng'an. It was obvious that he had not said something directly in the Prince Consort's Mansion just now.
After finishing a cup of tea, Yang Wei De stood up and closed the outer door before asking the question.
"Master, when you saw the four-fold screen in the Prince Consort's study just now, you seemed to have figured out something but you couldn't tell me."
"This matter... is a long story. Hey, Senior Brother, you are also a smart person. Do you know the origins of the Four Seasons Screen and the Shadow Lamp?"
"The prince consort has already said that the lotus on the screen was painted by Madam Huarui herself, and the palace lantern was a collection of the inner court during the reign of Emperor Taizu, and was the work of Mu Sheng Yuhao. Are they all gifts from the princess in return?" Yang Wei De asked tentatively.
"These... are just one of them."
"And the second one?"
"The second is that those are all things sealed in the inner treasury."
"Things from the inner treasury?" Yang Wei De really didn't react.
"Master Taoist, could it be that the ominous thing you mentioned just now that was suppressed by magic arrays and talismans in Fengchen Palace was given by the princess to her husband?" Shen Kuo was smart and figured this out first.
"That's right. I just took a special look at the wooden frame of the palace lantern. There are indeed marks of strangulation, which are left by the flying copper coin seven-star formation that our sect uses to suppress evil spirits. This screen and palace lantern are not auspicious objects. When they were first placed in Fengchen Palace, my master performed a ritual to exorcise the evil spirits."
"Why would the princess give her husband such an unlucky thing in return?" Yang Wei De looked at Li Cheng'an blankly, not being able to figure out the connection for a moment.
After a long stalemate, it seemed that Yang Wei De really couldn't understand the situation.
"I probably drank too much, please let me know, Taoist priest."
"I think it's the princess... no, it's someone around the princess who wants to use these ominous things to harm the prince consort."
As soon as Taoist Priest Li finished speaking, the scene fell into dead silence.
Yang Weide slowly closed his mouth, and suddenly he got the idea. The prince consort said that the princess gave him a pair of palace lanterns in return, and one of them was secretly sold by her eunuch Liang Huaiji. It can be seen that the eunuch did not care what these things were used for. If someone really wanted to use these things to harm the prince consort, it would probably be someone else or the princess herself. Although Li Cheng'an had become a monk, he was still clear about the pros and cons, so he was unwilling to reveal it too much.
"Is there such a vicious person around the princess?" Yang Wei De echoed, "However, these forbidden objects are only tainted with a little evil energy, so they may not be able to do anything, right?"
"A little bit of evil? Sir, you don't know how dangerous it is."
"How dangerous it is."
"Remember the four words 'axe sound, candle shadow' I mentioned just now?"
"The Taoist priest did mention it just now, but before he could finish, someone from the Prince Consort's Mansion came to invite him."
"The axe is the jade axe that was taken away by the hat monster; the candle is the moving shadow lamp we saw just now; the shadow is the four-fold screen."
"Is it so magical? They actually came together."
"I have already said it before. The axe sounds and candlelights I know are far more bizarre and horrifying than the rumors in the market."
Li Cheng'an stopped and had no intention of continuing.
"I have no ears here, and Cun Zhong knows the importance of things. It's okay for you to talk about it, Taoist priest."
Shen Kuo quickly nodded to show that he indeed knew the importance of the matter.
"I also know this from my master. I originally promised my master that I would never tell anyone else. Alas... I will ignore it today." Like the formulaic beginning of all gossips, Li Cheng'an also started by lamenting that he should not have told anyone else.
"Back then, Meng Chang, the last emperor of Shu, was placed under house arrest in what is now the Prince Consort's Mansion and died suddenly and mysteriously. Afterwards, Taizu summoned Huarui to the palace in the name of seeking a painting, intending to force her into the harem. Unexpectedly, after the woman finished painting the 'Summer Colors of the Lotus Pond' on this screen, she suddenly took the jade axe from the table and cut her own neck. At that time, blood splattered all over the lotus, and she died under the screen..."
Shen Kuo suddenly remembered that there was indeed an unnatural deep pink on the flower bud, which seemed to be blood-colored, and he felt a chill in his heart.
"Taizu was filled with regret, so he threw the jade axe into the lotus pond in the imperial garden, but left the screen in the bedroom. Until one day, Taizu suddenly felt ill and urgently summoned Taizong to see him. Taizong went to the bedroom and knelt down to wait, but Taizu did not call him. Just as he was suspicious, he looked up and saw the flickering candlelight in the bedroom. It seemed that he heard thunder, but also like the sound of an axe. In a hurry, he ignored the etiquette between the monarch and his subjects and hurried inside, only to see Taizu lying on the ground. The jade axe that should have been at the bottom of the lotus pond was thrown aside, and the lotus on the screen was dripping with blood. The dark clouds pressing on the pond were as thick as before, but were quietly fading away; the sound that sounded like wind, thunder, and an axe came from the painting, and at this moment, it was faintly disappearing as the dark clouds gradually dispersed. Before Taizu died, he pointed at the screen and could not speak, probably referring to the wronged soul of Madam Huarui asking for his life. He died a moment later. The painting changed back to the way it was just now."
"Is this the true source of the axe sound and candlelight?" Yang Wei De said in astonishment.
"That's true. However, the ghost story is not recorded in history books, and it damages Taizu's reputation, so Taizong did not distinguish and allowed the axe sound and candle shadow to turn into a rumor of brotherly enmity and hatred, which was arbitrarily made up by the outside world. Because it was stained with dragon blood, Taizong did not know what to do with the screen and the jade axe for a while, so he invited my Zhengyi master to seal them in Fengchen Palace with magic array talismans and flying line arrays. Later, fewer and fewer people in the palace knew about this matter, so the rumors about the axe sound and candle shadow spread more and more."
"So there is such a thing?" Yang Wei De's expression flickered, indicating that he didn't quite believe this story.
Shen Kuo had been listening and found it inexplicably absurd. However, since the founding of the dynasty, all kinds of court disputes have been accompanied by supernatural stories.
He didn't want to interrupt in this matter, not because he lost his curiosity, but when he thought about Xiao Ping entering the Prince Consort's house and entertaining the Prince Consort's guests at the banquet in the evening, he felt upset for no reason. Just now, he clearly heard the Prince Consort say that all the women should go to the guest room to rest first. Does it mean that they have to stay here at night?
He already knew that Xiao Ping was a prostitute in a brothel, but he didn't want to know whether she was selling her art and not her body. It was originally something he had no business doing, and he would never get jealous of her in his entire lifetime, but now he felt very uncomfortable.
"Sir, when I left the Prince Consort's residence just now, I saw some charming women coming in. Are they here to sing and dance for the Prince Consort's night banquet?"
Shen Kuo suddenly broke the deadlock and asked an irrelevant question, completely breaking the mysterious and strange atmosphere.
"Why are you asking this?" Yang Wei De asked back in confusion.
"I was thinking, if the prince consort's banquet is late and the city gates are closed, won't the ladies in Baifan Tower be unable to return home?"
"Cunzhong, do you still care whether these women in the brothels can go home at night?" Yang Wei De smiled bitterly and shook his head. "They probably don't want to go back. The prince consort's evening banquet is naturally for the famous and romantic people in the capital. If these women can serve for a night and ask for some obscene poems and songs with their names, they will be the capital to surpass all the women in the brothels. Their value in the brothels will increase by at least a hundred times. You don't know that these prostitutes are all greedy and vain, chasing after vanity."
Shen Kuo was speechless for a moment, but he heard the sound of hurried horse hooves outside. The servant outside also recognized that it was Xu Chong's horse and hurried to open the door. After Xu Chong got off the horse, he rushed into the yard and saw the three people in the study room at a glance, and hurried in to greet them.
After Xu Chong finished greeting, he did not talk about business, but just pulled Shen Kuo out. This was indeed a bit awkward. After all, Xu Chong understood the ways of the world. Perhaps Mr. Bao had some prejudice against Yang Weide and did not want to share information with him. But then again, Yang Weide and Li Cheng'an were also a little narrow-minded and refused to tell them directly the time and place they calculated for the next appearance of the hat monster. It seemed that they were also on guard against Bao Zheng.
The two men entered Shen Kuo's bedroom. Xu Chong saw the herbal tea on the table and took a few sips, then turned around and closed the door.
"Yu Silang has been found?"
"We haven't found him yet, but we will soon. We have found out that he has been working for the East and West Eight Works Department. He has many friends and knows many people. We have already gone to his house in Waju Lane, but no one is there. The house is very dusty, but we found the Maitreya book among the ashes from burning paper."
"Does he have other places to stay?"
"Yes, someone he knows said that he had bought a large manor in the north of the city when he was drunk. If it is true, it should not be difficult to find. Mr. Bao is sending someone to verify it. We will go there to catch him tomorrow at the earliest."
"Why wait until tomorrow?"
"It's a big manor, and if we want to round up the suspects, it will take at least a hundred people. Lord Bao is not confident about Kaifeng Prefecture and the Imperial City Bureau, and is afraid that the news will leak out. Jingdong Road is currently investigating the remnants of the Maitreya Sect, and it is close to the capital, so he wants to ask the Criminal Justice Department to send some unfamiliar detectives to the capital, but he hopes that no one will leak the news. If we find a place tomorrow, I will come to find you to go together. There is no need to tell Lord Yang about this, you can just go out alone."
"Mr. Bao is overthinking. If Mr. Yang were asked to go on such a mission, he would definitely not go. By the way, what does Mr. Bao say about Master Huailiang?"
"Mr. Bao praised Master Huailiang highly and said that he would definitely invite the master to the Military Headquarters for a good chat someday."
"That's good." Shen Kuo couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Tonight, you should have a good rest. Tomorrow, you and I will do something big together."
After Xu Chong finished speaking, he hurried out again, mounted his horse and galloped away. Shen Kuo did not know how to arrest criminals, but he vaguely felt that such matters should not be delayed, and it would be a bit late to delay until tomorrow. It should be noted that the people behind the hat monster case were extremely cautious, but it was not wrong that the adults had their own ideas.
