Chapter 30: The Monster in the Painting
February 8th, You hour.
After dinner, Taoist Li Cheng'an said goodbye and left. Yang Weide was also quite cultured and never asked what Xu Chong had said in the afternoon. He naturally guessed that Bao Zheng didn't like him, and vice versa. He didn't ask, just to save Shen Kuo from being embarrassed.
Shen Kuo tossed and turned in bed at night and couldn't sleep. At the hour of Xu, he could hear the sound of music and singing from the opposite side. It was obvious that the banquet of the prince consort had just begun, but he didn't come to the mansion to invite him. He probably forgot. At this time, the city gate was closed, and Xiao Ping obviously couldn't go back to the city. I don't know if there will be frivolous people at the banquet? I think since it was the prince consort who invited them, most of them should be talented and know etiquette, right?
After about an hour, he still couldn't fall asleep, so he put on his clothes and walked out to the yard. The noise from the Prince Consort's house across the street had stopped.
He stood alone for a while in the cold night. He really couldn't hear any movement from the other side. They were probably asleep. But he heard his old donkey braying for no reason in the barn. He went over to check and found nothing wrong.
This country donkey was not used to the bustling city of Tokyo. Although Qionglin Garden was outside the city, it was still too noisy for it. Whenever it heard strangers walking outside at night, it would howl twice, even smarter than the Yang family's guard dogs. However, this donkey also had a magical feature. If a member of the Yang family or even Xu Chong walked outside the wall, it would not howl, which showed that it could distinguish them.
"You, you, I can't bear to return you to Xiao Ping. I'm afraid she will sell you to a barbecue shop." He patted the donkey's head. "But in a few days, I really want to find a reason to see her. What do you think I should do? If you don't tell me, does that mean you agree?"
Seeing that the donkey didn't bray, it was obvious that it agreed to fulfill her wish. Just as she was about to return to the bedroom, she heard the sound of a zither. The wind was blowing at this time, and the sound of the zither was faint, but it sounded very much like the zither played by Xiaoping. The donkey next to her also pricked up its ears to listen, but it didn't bray or cry randomly, as if it could tell that it was Xiaoping.
"Why is she still playing the piano so late at night?"
The sound of the zither was like flowing water under a small bridge or floating clouds on an empty mountain. Although it was intermittent with the wind, it was full of artistic conception. Shen Kuo gradually became intoxicated by it. Yang Wei De had said not long ago that prostitutes in brothels were all vain people, but how could people with vain hearts play such a simple and ethereal song?
Shen Kuo walked to the wall and listened carefully.
In the Prince Consort's residence, Xiao Ping was sitting in the pavilion by the pond and playing the piano. There was a red mark on her wrist, which was left from the struggle with the Prince Consort just now.
The lantern-watching poetry party at the Prince Consort's residence ended half an hour ago, and as everyone left, Xiao Ping's singing and dancing work was almost finished. However, the Prince Consort, under the influence of alcohol, forced her to stay in the study to play one more song, while the other girls went to the guest rooms to rest.
Before the song was over, the drunken prince consort went forward to hug Xiao Ping and ask for sex, but Xiao Ping broke away, leaving some bruises on his hands. The prince consort said with a playful smile: I can't sleep tonight, I just want to have a few more drinks with you and talk about love.
He originally thought that Xiao Ping was a prostitute, and that he would eventually succeed even if he was half-hearted. However, Xiao Ping was quite quick-witted and immediately said that if a man and a woman were in the same room, it would inevitably spread. This remark woke up the half-drunk and crazy prince consort. If the news of sleeping with prostitutes spread to the palace, he was afraid that it would be spread and instigated by villains, and it would be another big scandal. His desire was immediately reduced. However, the prince consort was dumb and was speechless for a while, unable to find a way out.
Xiao Ping was quite adaptable and quickly thought of a solution that would satisfy both parties. She said that she would only play the piano for the prince consort in the pavilion in the garden for a while to help him get rid of his irritability.
The sound of a piano suddenly rang out. The prince consort sat on the couch in the study and drank a few sips of tea. His drunkenness gradually subsided and he couldn't help but feel lucky that he had not done anything stupid just now.
Of course, he also gradually came to his senses and realized two things. First, Xiaoping looked delicate, but she was very strong; second, Xiaoping had saved him. Just after the poetry gathering, he took advantage of his drunkenness and forced Xiaoping to stay in front of everyone, which was a big mistake. Even if nothing happened, it would definitely leave room for excuses. It was almost a big mistake, but Xiaoping easily solved the problem. Now she is playing the piano in the pavilion on the lake. Only she has this skill, so those who are interested know that nothing happened.
But why is Xiao Ping, a prostitute in the red-light district, so resistant, almost like a chaste woman, even though she is said to sell her art but not her body?
The more he thought about it, the more puzzled he became. The candlelight in the palace lantern beside him flickered, and words kept appearing on the screen in front of him.
The prince consort could not help but admire that the Yu family's mechanical skills were truly amazing. The four poems hidden inside were slowly rotating on the four-fold screen, each time appearing in the blank space of the painting, giving off a profound artistic conception.
The piano music outside was indeed ethereal and soothing. Li Wei felt that the music seemed to be close to his ears yet far away in the universe. He gradually became sleepy, but every time Li Bai's poem appeared, he could not help but lift his heavy eyelids to take a few more glances, probably because there were too many words, or it could be because it was written in cursive script with too much murderous aura, which always aroused some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
What was strange was that the violent poem gradually changed, as if there were fewer lines? He forced himself to open his eyes, but saw that there were only four lines left. In his sleepy eyes, he could clearly see the last two lines:...140,000 people took off their armor, and not a single one of them was a man?
His slow mind had not yet fully awakened, and he wondered if he was still dreaming. But he saw that not only the poem had changed, but also the painting on the screen. The dark clouds above were getting thicker and thicker, but the hibiscus that seemed to be blooming suddenly became much brighter and seemed to have grown bigger.
There were also faint rumbles of thunder, as if they were only ringing in my mind.
Prince Consort Li Wei forced himself to sit up from the couch, thinking, "It's not even the Waking of Insects yet, how can there be thunder? Did I hear it wrong?"
He squinted his eyes and looked carefully. He saw that the lotus on the screen was actually moving, the blood color was slowly spreading, the buds were slowly blooming, dark clouds were spreading, and the rumbling thunder was clearly coming from the painting.
Things were getting weird, and in a hurry, the prince consort swung his fist and slapped himself in the face, trying to wake himself up from his dream. He finally woke up completely, but the lotus on the screen was still blooming. Either the nightmare was still going on, or what was in front of him was real. The blood-red lotus emerging from the water was still in full bloom.
The stamens of the hibiscus flower opened, and it seemed that a graceful figure was dancing deep in the bud.
The four lines of poetry on the screen began to burn.
In the firelight, the prince consort suddenly remembered that the son of the former prime minister Yan Shu had mentioned after drinking a few more cups that Madam Huarui's death was unclear and her relics might not be auspicious.
For a moment, I couldn't help but feel the fear in my heart, and I felt a cold wind blowing across my face, as if there were phantom figures flying around.
"The king has raised the flag of surrender on the city wall. I learned about it from the deep palace. One hundred and fourteen thousand people have laid down their armor..."
It was clearly a soft female voice whispering in my ear: "No one is a man...hahahaha..."
With a charming laugh, the prince consort opened his right hand and slapped himself twice, one on the left and one on the right, trying to wake himself up completely from this endless nightmare.
The two slaps made his ears ring. The woman's laughter disappeared for a while, but the beautiful hibiscus flower in front of him did not recover. It was still in full bloom, and the little man in the stamen was still dancing.
"Is your Highness a real man?" The woman's sweet laughter resounded into the Highness's ears and could not be driven away from his mind.
The lotus on the burning screen suddenly cracked, and a graceful figure with disheveled hair and body covered by a gauze emerged from the middle of the screen.
The prince consort found that his legs were no longer under his control, but fortunately he could still shout.
When the black-haired ghost girl came close to him, the prince consort screamed. When the heart-wrenching sound came, Shen Kuo was listening to the sound of the zither in the courtyard of Yang's mansion, and the sound of the zither suddenly stopped with the scream.
The scream was not from a woman, but from the voice of General Yunhui, the son-in-law of the emperor. He couldn't think of anyone who would scream like that under any circumstances. Could it be that they had seen a ghost?
Shen Kuo rushed out of Yang's house and headed straight for the Prince Consort's house. The gate of the Prince Consort's house was under renovation and was open. When he crossed the steps, a second scream rang out, and he ran towards the direction of the scream. He remembered that it was the Prince Consort's study, and it was just around the corner.
Just as he reached the corner, he saw a white shadow rushing out from there and bumping into him. He looked up and saw that it was Xiao Ping who was holding the zither. Xiao Ping was stunned and broke free and ran away.
He didn't care about Xiao Ping and went straight to the fire in front. The study was already on fire. The palace lantern fell to the ground and was burning, but nothing else was burned.
Several servants on night duty rushed into the study room along with Shen Kuo. The prince consort was still sitting on the couch, looking at the screen in front of him with a look of horror, completely ignoring the blood oozing from the wound on his chest.
A servant wanted to help the prince consort, but as soon as his hand touched him, he screamed again: "Don't come over. It was the Emperor Zhao who caused your family to be destroyed. I am just his son-in-law. I am just their son-in-law..."
After shouting this, he could see who was coming. Several people carried him outside. It seemed that he was safe for the time being. Shen Kuo quickly took off his coat and put out the fire on the palace lantern. Unfortunately, it was almost burned out.
At this moment, everyone in the mansion woke up, and the mother of the prince consort rushed over with the help of her maid. But she saw a mess, and the prince consort was sitting on a stone bench in the garden, trembling all over.
"How is my son? How is my son?" the old lady shouted, "Is there a thief who broke into the house and wanted to rob money and kill people? I told you not to invite those cheap prostitutes from the music school, because there will inevitably be thieves, bandits and thieves mixed in. But you just didn't listen..."
Shen Kuo squatted down and continued to examine the wreckage. He roughly determined that this revolving lantern was much more complicated than other revolving lanterns. Unfortunately, many of the internal mechanisms were damaged, but from the broken parts, it was clear that the interior of the lantern was still quite complicated. There was no time to carefully sort and study it now, so he could only pick it up and move it outside, and then carefully investigate it after dawn.
After moving the palace lantern, he came back to look for other useful things on the ground, but saw a white object , which he intuitively thought was not a part of the palace lantern. He squatted down and picked it up from under the couch, and it turned out to be a jade axe.
If Taoist Li Cheng'an had not just told this story, Shen Kuo would definitely not have thought of what this was at the first moment.
The jade axe was still slightly hot to the touch. It was so small that anyone who heard the story of the axe sound and candlelight for the first time would never have thought that it was only the size of a palm.
He then turned around and looked at the screen. The screen was broken, and the cold wind from outside blew the silk strips fluttering, making it look particularly strange.
In fact, the only thing that was damaged was the lotus painting. From the cracks, it looked like some sharp weapon had cut the silk from top to bottom, and then torn it left and right to tear it apart completely. He couldn't help but look at the jade axe in his hand. There was still blood on it, which should be the blood of the prince consort. In other words, the three things of the axe sound and candle shadow back then were gathered here again. How strange was this?
Shen Kuo put the jade axe back where it was and left the room. He knew that the scene should not be disturbed. At the same time, he wanted to know if Xiao Ping was safe, but it was dark and there was chaos everywhere, so he had no way to find Xiao Ping.
The prince consort's mother was still crying and wiping her tears over there, and Yang Wei De who lived next door had also hurried over.
