Chapter 32: The Loyal Dog Fears Virtue
The tenth day of the second month, the hour of Mao.
After daybreak, Shen Kuo used the daylight to go to the firewood room of the Prince Consort's Mansion to study the remains of the palace lantern . Unfortunately, most of the parts were made of wood and had been burned, and the remaining parts were not sufficient to determine its purpose.
The only metal part he found was a very small copper bowl, just the right size to fit on a finger. He thought it was used to hold candles, but the broken end did not match the bottom broken end of the lamp holder in the middle of the palace lantern.
I don't know where to install it? The structure of this "horse-shaped candlelight" is very compact, and there is not much space left for this thing to be installed. After thinking about it, maybe it should be installed above the lamp holder? There is still some space there. But if that's the case, the candle can only be inserted upside down, and when it is lit, the fire is at the bottom and the candle is at the top, which will burn the candle instead, and the flame will quickly flow down.
Moreover, this bowl-shaped object does not match the remaining half of the candle. It can be seen that there is a hole at the bottom of this imperially bestowed "Golden Lotus Candle". Apparently, a real candlestick has a thick needle under it to fix the candle, but this part does not have one.
Moreover, this strange thing had a complicated double-layer structure. He almost missed this suspicious point. When he rubbed it with his hands, he found that the outer layer seemed to be able to rotate, as if it was part of some sophisticated mechanical structure.
There were some burnt things stuck to the inner layer of the copper bowl , like silk. It seemed that Yu Hao's "Wood Saint" was hidden in these difficult-to-understand things.
While he was searching the wreckage, the Prince Consort screamed twice again, probably because he had seen the female ghost in his dream. In addition, the housekeeper of the Prince Consort's Mansion finally gathered the names of all the people in the mansion that day and handed them over to Yang Wei De. He checked carefully several times. Except for Xiao Ping and her sisters, the rest were literati in Bianliang City, but only the girls from Fanlou stayed overnight, a total of fourteen people. Of course, these people might not be the only ones who went in and out of the Prince Consort's Mansion at night, because the gate of the Prince Consort's Mansion was still under repair and could not be closed. Someone might also sneak in when the gatekeeper dozed off or went to the kitchen to drink wine. At least when Shen Kuo came in, there was no one guarding the gate.
He walked around the study a few times. The doors and windows were closed. If someone had sneaked in, they would have to break the windows, but there was no sign of that. There were no footprints on the ground either, so it was possible that someone had walked in from a high place.
Just when we were at a loss, Xu Chong arrived in a hurry, bringing a dog with him. I don’t know why he was so foresighted.
He also went to Yang's house first and then rushed here. Shen Kuo hurried forward and introduced to him the cause and effect of the chaos here.
Xu Chong was also a smart man. He had already heard a few words from Lao Yang, and he saw that the people in the Prince Consort's Mansion were on high alert, so he roughly knew the situation. After meeting Shen Kuo, Shen Kuo only said a few words, and in his mind, he roughly filled in some gaps in the story.
In any case, he still has to talk about his own affairs.
"Brother Shen, we have to put things aside for now. We have found Yu Silang's hiding place. He has a manor outside the city. Someone is watching there, but they haven't tried to arrest him yet. Mr. Bao asked me to go look for you first."
Shen Kuo was quite pleased with the information brought by Xu Chong. It seemed that Lao Bao also valued him very much.
“It’s just that everything just came together.”
"It's a mess here, and I don't know what to do. For now, let's not worry about it. When we catch Yu Lao Si, we can interrogate him. Maybe he has something to do with what's going on here. Didn't you say that this strange palace lantern was made by his ancestors?"
"Yes, there is indeed a connection. In addition, the prince consort saw the flower demon very close to him, but unfortunately he was frightened and lost his mind. He could not remember the flower demon's appearance and could not draw a picture of it."
"Yang Shaoqing just told me that if we find a powerful sorcerer to perform a prayer, the lost soul will be able to return. Don't worry about it, just come with me to capture Yu Jing. We have already decided to start at noon."
"That's the only way, but there's still time until noon. Before I go, I want to inspect the scene again. If someone really was playing tricks, they should have sneaked into the study, so why can't I find any traces?"
"Leave it to me. I'll bring help."
As he spoke, he led the dog over. The dog looked familiar. It seemed to be one of the wild dogs , but it was much fatter.
"Come on, Wei De! Meet Master Shen."
"Its name is Wei De?" Shen Kuo was stunned.
"Oh, that's the name Mr. Bao gave him. He said that vicious dogs fear power, and loyal dogs fear virtue, so he gave him this name."
"I always feel that the name is a bit strange, as if it borrowed Yang Shaoqing's name?"
"Hey, you heard it too? It's the name of Shaoqing Yang Wei De."
"Forget it, it's just a joke between the two adults. Just remember, don't call the dog's name in front of Shao Qing."
Shen Kuo felt relieved for Yang Wei De. Yesterday, Yang Wei De compared Lao Bao to a stubborn donkey and named the donkey Heizi. Finally, the game was tied.
"Hey, how could I not know about this? Is there anything that the female ghost left behind?"
"Yes, there is a jade axe."
Shen Kuo did not check the Prince Consort's bedroom first. He wanted to find the route of the person coming, so he went to the middle of the mansion first and took out the jade axe. Xu Chong took it and gave it to the dog to sniff. Recently, in the Military Headquarters, he trained those fat wild dogs in his spare time. He found that this one was the smartest and had a good nose. It was considered a promising material. Bao Zheng originally planned to use it to track the smell of the hat monster. He tried it in the Pan Street Puppet Shed, but it didn't work. Maybe there were many onlookers after dawn, and the smell was mixed. It may also be because the hat monster was flying in the air, so the smell was not on the ground. Today, I asked Xu Chong to take it with me to search Yu Laosi's hiding place together, but I didn't expect it to be used here first.
The dog sniffed the jade axe and then began to wander around. The two followed the dog and saw it follow a zigzag route around the rockery to the peach blossom forest, then to the pavilion in the center of the lake, where it circled twice, then returned to the vicinity of the prince consort's bedroom and walked along a row of houses. After entering the prince consort's bedroom, it went straight to the place where the screen was originally placed. It seemed that there was a door. The female ghost did leave a smell.
The dog continued to explore, this time with a more direct route, and arrived under a window. This location is very interesting. If someone sneaked in from here, the prince consort's sight would be blocked by the screen. But it clearly came in from the main door just now. The prince consort said that the door was not opened at night, and the first person to come in from the main door should be Shen Kuo who came after hearing the noise.
After the dog jumped out of the window, he became dazed, as if he had lost the scent clue. Shen Kuo didn't know why, and in confusion he saw Xu Chong looking up at the eaves.
"Do you think she escaped from up there?"
"If you want to walk on tiles, you must be as light as a swallow."
There is no conclusion to this matter. The two of them studied the window frame together. It seemed that both sides were dead, but in fact it could be opened from the inside. Just now, as soon as Xu Chong opened it, the dog jumped out from here.
Xu Chong tried to open the window a few more times and found oil stains on his hands.
“Is there any oil here?”
"I think there's something fishy going on." Xu Chong said, "I've learned a lot about on-site investigation from Mr. Bao at the Military Headquarters these days. Mr. Bao said that when a thief breaks into a house , he's most afraid of doors and windows that are out of repair and make creaking noises, so they'll carry oil with them."
The window could not be opened from the outside, and a buckle had to be opened from the inside first. So the two of them, one inside and one outside, pushed the window together, and there was indeed no sound. Shen Kuo was grateful to Xu Chong and the yellow dog for their appearance. He had checked it several times just now, but could not see anything.
"Look , what else is here?"
Xu Chong was sharp-eyed and found a long hair through the crack in the window.
"Left by a female ghost?" Xu Chong said.
"I see. Someone used this hair to wrap around the buckle from the inside and then left the hair outside. This way, if someone comes in at night, they can use this hair to pull open the buckle inside."
"That is to say, the person who left this small mechanism came in early yesterday afternoon?" Xu Chong followed Shen Kuo's train of thought.
"So, the dog also smelled the scent at the gate? Xu Jieji, who do you think it was?"
"Most likely a woman." Xu Chong said.
"Why? Two-foot-long hair is common among men like you and me," Shen Kuo asked anxiously.
"Smell it." He handed the hair to Shen Kuo. Shen Kuo took it and sniffed it. There was a faint floral scent, but they couldn't tell what flower it was.
It seems that Xu Chong's reasoning is quite reasonable.
"When I came here yesterday, I saw a few old maids in the Prince Consort's house. Some of them had white hair, while others had very short hair."
"Maybe she is a woman from outside?" Xu Chong's words unintentionally touched Shen Kuo.
"What are you daydreaming about?"
"Oh, when are we going to catch Yu Silang?"
"It's already noon, we have to hurry, otherwise the runners from Jingdong Road might not be able to wait."
As soon as she turned around, she saw the Prince Consort Li Wei, wearing only a piece of clothing, standing blankly behind her.
"Greetings, General Yun Hui." Shen Kuo quickly saluted, and Xu Chong also quickly clasped his fists.
"Is it Mr. Shen?" It seemed that his memory had declined a lot after the shock. "I don't dare to enter this room. Can you go in and find something for me? See if it has been burned."
"Looking for something? What kind of thing?"
"It's nothing special. The government knows that I love painting, so they gave me this pen. It's on the second layer of the pen box on the desk. The pen holder is vermilion."
"Okay, I'll go find it right away."
The prince consort was so frightened that he didn't even rush into the house. After Shen Kuo and Xu rushed in, they carefully jumped over the various messy things on the ground and finally arrived at the desk. The pen case was still there. Shen Kuo opened the second layer and saw a vermilion pen with a bald pen, which was clearly used. I didn't expect that the emperor would reward his nephew and son-in-law with such a shabby thing.
The two men came out and handed the pen to the prince consort. The prince consort nodded repeatedly and held it tightly to his chest, which seemed to indicate that he had made no mistake.
"This is the brush used by Zhang Zengyao in the previous dynasty. I am afraid that the flower demon set it on fire yesterday and burned it, which would be a betrayal of the emperor's grace."
"I see."
"It is the brush that Zhang Sengyao used to add the finishing touch to his painting. I think it is also a magical object and cannot be hidden in a box. Mother said that perhaps hiding this magic brush under the pillow can dispel evil spirits. Yes, what mother said makes sense... yes... it makes sense."
Li Wei turned and left mumbling something, but it was hard to hear what he was mumbling.
The two returned to Yang's house and told Old Yang that they were going to catch Yu Jing. Xu didn't tell him where exactly, but Old Yang knew better and didn't ask. However, the dog brought by Xu Chong and the guard dog of Yang's family didn't like each other and started barking at each other. Old Yang didn't tolerate it and took a broom to drive "Weide" out.
