Chapter 44: Jade Hairpin
February 12th
When Shen Kuo arrived at the street, there were surprisingly quite a few people in the night market. It seemed that after a whole day, countless frightened people had fled the capital city in a hurry, and the people who stayed behind were less panicked and seemed calm.
He first went to Huailiang's shop, and there were actually a few customers there eating pig heads. Business was better than the last time he came.
Xiao Yi saw Shen Kuo and quickly asked him to sit down. The big monk Huailiang was busy in the kitchen and could not come out for the time being.
Shen Kuo found an empty table and Xiao Yi poured tea for him. An old couple sat beside him, drinking and sighing.
He had nothing to do anyway, so he just listened attentively.
But an old man was heard saying, "I am willing to go all out to have this feast today, regardless of my wife's curses. Nowadays, evildoers are rampant, and it is better to spend your spare money to your heart's content instead of leaving it for other purposes."
As he said this, he took a big bite of the pig's ear.
The other old man also frowned and drank a cup by himself: "What scares me most is not the puppet demon child flying in the sky, but the fact that Master Zhang of Longhu Mountain seems to be powerless. Master Zhang was in the palace years ago. If he could have been saved by his magic power, why did the strange things in the prophecy still happen one by one?"
"Who says it's not true? I'm afraid this is the doom of the Song Dynasty. The world will be in chaos."
"When I was young, the Liao army invaded and there was also such chaos. However, the previous Heavenly Master performed a ritual thousands of miles away, and only sent his disciple to come on horseback to paste a talisman for identifying the five ghosts on the crossbow on the top of the Chanzhou city wall. An arrow shot and killed the Liao army commander Xiao Taling, who was seven hundred steps away. The Liao army was frightened and fled, and then the Chanyuan Alliance was formed. Now, why is the Heavenly Master's lineage also gone? Or has the destiny really changed?"
"Don't talk too much, be careful of the trouble that comes from your mouth."
Xiao Yi brought a plate of pig intestines to the side and said, "If you two are frightened, why don't you flee the capital first and come back after a few days when things are calm?"
"You are kidding me, Xiao Yi. Those who can escape are all wealthy merchants. They have farms and properties in the countryside, and they can still live a good life in the countryside. If we leave the city, won't we just beg for food?"
"Yes, yes. I'm making colored paper in the south of the city, and he's grinding bronze mirrors by the river. We both work and eat every day. How can we live happily like those rich people who escape to their country estates? If we escape, we will probably starve to death on the road and become ghosts. It's better to stay and become ghosts than to become ghosts."
"Hahahaha, well said, we brothers will stay here to see the devil."
The two laughed, clinked their glasses, and continued chatting.
"So what if we escape from the capital? You know, if you are rich, you have relatives and friends in a foreign land, but if you are poor, you have nowhere to go. Haha, besides, if the world falls, you can't hide anywhere. At that time, rich and poor, don't we all have the same life?"
Huailiang came out of the kitchen, took off the apron around his waist and bowed to the customers in the store.
"Xiao Yi, I'm afraid there won't be many people here tonight. I'll leave the rest to you. Brother Shen and I will go out for a drink."
"Master, please go out and leave this place to me."
"Let's go. Since the demons are coming, the world is going to fall. I still have some money here, so why not have fun while we can." He pulled Shen Kuo up and said, as if he was talking to the guests over there. The two old men over there laughed and agreed. Shen Kuo was disappointed. He had come to Huai Liang hoping to seek comfort and regain his confidence, but he was saying the same thing.
The two of them walked out of the store and took a few steps. Shen Kuo was still a little upset: "Master, what you said just now, that the demons will come to the earth and the world will be overturned, was it just a joke?"
"Are you kidding? I've been thinking about it. How can a puppet that has become a spirit and is leaping in the air not be real?"
Shen Kuo almost felt his eyes go dark, and he felt that the last cornerstone of his faith was gone.
"Master, did you ever say that everything has its reasons?"
"But there is no logic to this matter. How can you not believe what you see? Others may not believe this, but you were watching from upstairs last night. If you can't see the mystery, then it must be true. Can it be that you are short-sighted? Come on, let's go play in the tile house."
Shen Kuo suddenly sensed something behind the words. When he told the monk what he had seen yesterday, he was still somewhat angry. Now he didn't seem to be giving up on himself. Maybe he had found the answer but was just joking? Since he said he was shortsighted, let's see how he would figure it out.
The two went to the hotel, ordered two glasses of wine, and some duck feet, goose liver and pigeon. During the meal, Shen Kuo wanted to find out the truth, but the monk just drank and didn't mention the case.
Shen Kuo was just anxious and didn't dare to ask, but he saw that the monk had his hands full of meat oil and smeared it on his chest. Except for his bald head, he didn't look like a monk at all.
After eating, the monk took Shen Kuo to the market again.
Shen Kuo asked why they were not going to play in the tile house, but he said it was still early and they might as well go for a walk first.
It was just 3:45 pm when this happened, and there were still many people on the street. However, everyone who was walking on the street kept looking up, fearing that an ominous monster would fly over their heads.
"Master Huailiang, it is really difficult for me to understand how the puppets can become spirits, but I seem to have some clues about the flower demon case in the Prince Consort's mansion."
He still insisted on bringing the topic back to the case.
"What clue?"
"I heard from Yang Chunguan that the prince consort had some dream insanity since he was a teenager. He once walked two miles at night and fell into a ditch before waking up."
"What is the connection between Meng Dian and the flower demon?"
"He was the only one who saw the flower demon walk down from the screen that day. Perhaps he had a seizure in his sleep and what he saw was just a dream. However, he knocked over the revolving lantern during his night tour and burned the screen."
"Didn't you say that you found traces of a woman's long hair on the side window, which was pulled open from the outside?"
"After thinking about it, maybe it was just the hair left by the prostitute who stayed at the Prince Consort's house. He was not in a position to talk about it, and we misunderstood."
"Haha, I see you look a little depressed and haggard, why don't you go buy a flower to wear ."
"I dare not wear flowers. Last night I was guessing riddles and wore flowers on my hair. As a result, I ran into the flying ghost boy."
"Yes, yes. If we run into those puppet ghost children again, wouldn't it be a good opportunity to catch one and investigate it carefully?"
Shen Kuo followed him without knowing what was going on. They passed many flower shops, some selling paper flowers and some selling real flowers. He kept going until he came to a shop near Longjin Bridge. They were selling gilded hairpins, which were clearly worn by women. The shop was empty except for a woman standing there. The woman was probably wondering why a bald monk would enter a shop selling pearl and jade hairpins.
"Master, are you making fun of me again? This is clearly a hairpin worn by girls with long hair. If I wear it, won't I become someone who has a fetish for dressing like a woman?"
The monk ignored Shen Kuo and only clasped his hands together towards the woman and said, "Sister, please show me the plum blossoms."
The woman took a golden hairpin from the counter with a puzzled look and handed it to the monk solemnly. The monk took it and brought it to Shen Kuo.
"This one is special. It's called Winter Plum Blossoms in Spring. Look carefully."
The monk was particularly serious when he spoke of the word "carefully".
Shen Kuo looked closely and saw that the monk was holding the back of the hairpin with his palms, and what was visible outside his palms was a bud about to bloom. Then he rubbed the hairpin with both hands, and saw that the bud in front actually slowly stretched out, and the layers of petals unfolded, turning into a blooming plum blossom.
"Ah!" Shen Kuo and his students screamed.
"So, can men wear it?"
That day in the Prince Consort's Mansion, when he heard that the hibiscus flowers on the screen had bloomed and the stamens had turned into flower demons, he had thought of some possibilities, but the sparks of thought that popped up were not connected. Now, when he saw this object, it actually touched his mind.
"Master, is this the trick that caused the hibiscus flower in the lamp to bloom?"
" Just look at this flower. Can you wear it or not?"
"Yes, yes."
"Sister, how much is it?" the monk asked the woman.
"This winter plum blossom hairpin is a jade-hair hairpin. That's why it's expensive. It costs two hundred coins," said the woman.
"Okay!" Shen Kuo quickly paid the money to the shopkeeper, but he wondered, "Sister-in-law, why is it called the Jade Hair Hairpin?"
"As a woman, I don't know much. At first, I only heard that it was named Yuhao because it was as smooth as jade and because it was carved so finely that every detail was visible."
"Hahaha," Huailiang laughed, "It's clearly a copper rod gilded with gold, how can it be mistaken for jade? Big sister just said that she only heard it from someone, is there any other explanation? My brother loves to delve into things, if you know anything, just tell him."
"But there is another story. My deceased master was once a top-notch craftsman in the Military Equipment Bureau. He once said that this hairpin was made by the skilled craftsman Yu Hao. At that time, it was called Yu Hao Flower Hairpin. Later, most of the vendors in the market were illiterate, so it was erroneously called Jade Hair Hairpin."
"It is indeed the case." Shen Kuo slapped his thigh, feeling that he was about to touch the truth.
"Sir, are you going to give it to the beautiful lady?"
"Well, maybe. But I won't know whether she likes it until I show it to her in person."
The two left together.
Shen Kuo still had many things that he didn't understand. He looked carefully at the hairpin that could bloom, and found that there was a part that was the same as the copper bowl-shaped object left at the Prince Consort's Mansion, so he hurried to ask questions.
"Master, I was wondering why the palace lanterns in the Prince Consort's Mansion reflected the blooming hibiscus, but the lanterns in the Baifan Building did not. There must be a difference, but the physical evidence is all destroyed, so there is no way to prove it."
"You still have mental problems."
"What kind of mental disorder?"
"Let me ask you, what do the two strange things that happened at the Prince Consort's Mansion and the Baifan Building have in common?"
"Do they all have the candlelight horse-drawn lanterns that Yu Hao made back then?"
"That's natural, what else?" the monk pressed.
"Also, both palace lanterns were burned. Could it be that the person behind this deliberately wanted to destroy the evidence?"
"You have only seen one part, but not the whole picture. I just ask you, what else is in common? If you can think of it, you will understand." said the monk.
"And...and Xiao Ping is also there?"
The monk finally stopped talking and just led the way, not knowing where he was going.
Shen Kuo was also in a state of confusion. Xu Chong had mentioned whether Xiao Ping might be involved, but he had always rejected this possibility. However, there was indeed a lot of evidence to prove that Xiao Ping could not be involved, not to mention the scene last night. Shen Kuo was also present, and he saw Xiao Ping's every move. He saw her sitting on the ground blindly, trembling constantly, and it was impossible for her to do anything secretly.
Of course, magicians on stage would not let the audience see what they were doing. This was the reason for his uneasiness. Huailiang seemed to be referring to something, but he usually did not jump to conclusions easily, but once he did, he was rarely wrong.
There is no doubt that tonight's itinerary was not some indulgence before the chaos in the world, but was all designed by the great monk.
