Chapter 5: The Two Scholars in Chang'an 1
The secret in Wangxing Pavilion that Cheng Jue mentioned was a secret passage that led directly from Princess Jintai's residence to Chunsheng Hall in the imperial palace.
The way this secret passage was dug was very peculiar, and the method and mechanism to open it was extremely secretive, so no one had discovered it for so long.
Huo Chi, as the young master of Xuanji Pavilion, is well versed in the art of the secret chamber. He can hide the secret passage of Wangxing Pavilion from others but not from him. In that bookshelf, there is a mechanism to open the secret passage.
The sunlight at noon gathered in and gathered on the third column from top to bottom and the second row from left to right on the bookshelf. Take out the book and knock on the shelf four times. A . Turn the key and find a sunken space three steps outside the wall of Wangxing Pavilion, which is the entrance to the secret passage.
Song Sanyue and Song Siyue have a good relationship, but it is not easy to leave the palace, so Song Siyue often comes to Wangxing Pavilion through this secret passage to meet with Song Sanyue. The mechanism is set up next to the chessboard where she often stays.
After Song Sanyue's death, whenever Song Siyue thought of the key to cracking the Linglong chess game, he would come to Wangxing Pavilion through the secret passage. He did this twice, and he never felt any panic as if he had killed Song Sanyue here with his own hands.
Her intelligence and cold-bloodedness are beyond people's imagination.
It was only at this time that Zhou Zhenzhen fully understood why Emperor Xuanhe had summoned her into the palace.
Emperor Xuanhe must have realized that the three princesses were closely related to this matter. Once he knew that there might be another culprit, he was eager to make a judgment in order to silence the world's gossips and put his mind at ease.
No matter what, the three princesses are the apple of his eye after all.
The truth behind Princess Jintai's death was revealed, involving the other three princesses. However, Princess Changping's death was unintentional, Princess Lin'an was devastated and mentally ill, and Princess Ankang was already dead. Emperor Xuanhe did not say much, but left everything to Chengjue to decide.
The emperor, who was so vigorous, had his temples covered with white frost overnight. He turned around and stood on the top of the ninth floor, his back hunched, with no one to accompany him.
Before closing the case, Cheng Jue went to Wangxing Pavilion again.
There was no need to pretend that Princess Jintai was safe and sound here anymore. Most of the servants had left, and the place had become completely dead and silent.
"Master Cheng, do you think there are still doubts in this case?"
"Why do you ask that?"
Zhou Zhenzhen looked at the eaves of the building and said softly, "I'm just guessing. I always feel that something is wrong with this case, but I really can't find any clues. Master Cheng is very careful and thoughtful. I think Master Cheng will definitely be able to notice something wrong. So Master Cheng came to Wangxing Pavilion. I guess he might also come to solve his doubts."
During the time she had been with him, her mind had become calmer, her eloquence had improved, and she could praise him without showing any emotion.
"Everyone in Princess Jintai's mansion was sent by His Majesty himself. Princess Lin'an and Princess Changping left one after the other, covered in blood, but they didn't run into anyone along the way. One person could be considered a coincidence, but two people could only be strange. It's just as you said, and I'm here to clear up your confusion."
Cheng Jue smiled and walked in.
There was actually someone else in the Wangxing Pavilion. That person was standing in front of the window, staring at the sun outside in a daze. Hearing footsteps, he turned around, holding a delicate and small bamboo dragonfly in his hand.
"Huo Chi? How did you get in?"
"There is a fork in the secret passage. I hid inside and waited for no one to come out." Huo Chi walked over and saluted Cheng Jue, "I just wanted to take another look..."
"Nothing." Cheng Jue looked at the bamboo dragonfly in his hand and asked, "Is this something from Xuanji Pavilion?"
"Yes. Xuanji Pavilion sent this to Chang'an, and the princess got it by accident, but she didn't know how to use it, so she asked me... I found it on the bookshelf." Huo Chi looked sad. If Zhou Zhenzhen looked at it for a while, she would be reminded of her past sorrows. Last time, she cried so much that Cheng Jue's clothes were soaked, and it took a lot of effort to get over it. This time, she comforted him with a few words and found an excuse to leave.
Cheng Jue followed her silently, and only turned around when her figure disappeared, looking around the pavilion. There were all kinds of musical instruments, chess, calligraphy and paintings, rare treasures, and a sense of elegance under the magnificence.
His eyes narrowed and he walked a few steps to the bookshelf.
All of the books on it are rare copies from past dynasties. It is no exaggeration to say that this shelf of books is priceless.
"Huo Chi, does Princess Jintai like books?"
Huo Chi thought about it carefully and said hesitantly: "She has never mentioned that she likes me. But although she is in the capital, she knows a lot of strange stories, some of which even a Jianghu person like me doesn't know."
Song Sanyue was trained as a crown prince since she was young. As an emperor, she had to keep her hobbies to herself to avoid being taken advantage of by those with ulterior motives. The other three princesses were good at playing the zither, chess, and painting, but Cheng Jue had never heard of Princess Jintai having any special hobbies over the years.
The switch of the secret passage is on the bookshelf, and the bamboo dragonfly that she and Huo Chi had a bond over is also placed on the bookshelf. Seeing this unique and neatly preserved book without a speck of dust, Song Sanyue must be a person who loves books as her life.
"She is playing chess with me, and it's a game that hurts my heart. Now that she has made her move, how can I not take over?"
"Master Cheng, I am waiting to see how you will handle this game."
The two words that Song Siyue said before she died suddenly rang in his ears. Cheng Jue clenched his right hand, having already figured out the meaning behind her words. Just as he was about to verify his thoughts, Zhou Zhenzhen rushed in from outside the door: "Something happened."
Zhou Zhenzhen was walking around the Princess's mansion and accidentally came to the Yongshi. This was where the dead servants in the mansion were kept. Because the people in Princess Jintai's mansion were transferred from the palace, after death, they had to be claimed by their families and taken back to their hometowns for burial.
Now there was a body lying there, it was Hui'er, the personal maid of Princess Jintai. It rained last night, and Hui'er went to the pond to pick lotus leaves in the morning but she accidentally slipped and fell into the pond and drowned.
The princess died in the rain, and Hui'er also lost her life in the water. The old nanny in the mansion said that it was destined, and Hui'er had to serve the princess in the afterlife.
Zhou Zhenzhen went to see Hui'er's body when no one was paying attention. Because she fell on a rock, her arms and face were scratched, especially her right arm, where a piece of flesh was rubbed off.
"The case has just been solved and Hui'er is dead. The timing is too coincidental."
Cheng Jue gave her an approving look. He called Ying'er and took them to Hui'er's room. It was just a small servant's room with simple furnishings, so it was easy to search. But after a while, Cheng Jue found something under the pillow. It was a small brocade box. In addition to a few jewelry, there were also two bamboo pens with rouge on the tips, which were used to smear on the face.
Cheng Jue stared at the pen for a moment, then pulled out the tip with force, revealing nothing inside.
"Huo Chi, take a look at this."
Huo Chi looked carefully up and down for a moment, then put his nose close to it and sniffed it. "There is a miasma forest on the southwestern border. If you collect the miasma and purify it, you will get miasma smoke, which has a faint almond flavor. It is difficult to refine, and if you don't preserve it well, the miasma will escape, so this thing is rare. I only heard my father mention it once."
"Hui'er is the princess's personal maid, how could she have such a thing?" Zhou Zhenzhen's eyelashes drooped, and after a moment, they suddenly raised them again, "I can't smell the scent of almonds. This poisonous smoke must have been used for some time..."
Cheng Jue nodded: "Go on."
"Yes...it's Princess Jintai!"
Huo Chi's eyes widened: "What?"
The tip of the iceberg was within reach, and Zhou Zhenzhen finally had a clue to the place where she always felt something was wrong. "That day, the three princesses attacked the princess in Wangxing Pavilion, which was more or less related to Princess Jintai's own behavior. She knew that Song Yiyue liked Wang Weian, but she insisted on destroying his paintings; she knew that Song Eryue hated others talking about her appearance the most, but she insisted on making sarcastic remarks; and Song Siyue... Song Siyue was very cunning and had a perverse personality. Others didn't know, but Princess Jintai, who had the most secret dealings with her, must have known it. Song Siyue said that Princess Jintai was playing a chess game with her, so her killing Princess Jintai with a dagger must have been a move in the chess game. Thinking about it carefully, each of these seemed to have been carefully calculated in advance, but Princess Jintai herself was the deceased, so no one would have thought that it was her who set the game. And she was the only one who could quietly transfer the servants in the mansion away so that they might encounter Princesses Changping and Lin'an."
At the end of summer, the last scorching sun of late summer hangs in the sky.
The sunlight is scorching, just like the human heart. If you step into it, you may be burned to pieces, or you may just feel warm for a moment.
In the Wangxing Pavilion, the four princesses each possess one of the four arts of calligraphy, chess, and painting.
Cheng Jue took out a book from the third column from top to bottom and the second row from left to right on the bookshelf, and there was a copy of "The Book of Filial Piety" in it.
Zhou Zhenzhen flipped through the pages one by one. When she came to the page that said "In the nature of heaven and earth, human beings are the most precious. Among human conduct, there is nothing greater than filial piety", she felt that something was not right, as if the page was a little thick.
She glanced at Cheng Jue, and tore the edge of the page, and a piece of paper fell out along the interlayer. This was a handwritten letter from Song Sanyue, written in beautiful small calligraphy, but it made people's spines cold as if every word was stained with blood.
The real cause of Song Sanyue's death was suicide.
Song Eryue said that she had been neglected and suppressed for many years because of Song Sanyue's excellence. Wasn't Song Sanyue the same?
No one asked Song Sanyue whether she wanted to be the heir to the throne, whether she wanted to study and learn state policy day after day, whether she wanted to be a living target and endure the open and covert exclusion and harm of her biological sisters. Princess Jintai, who had been placed with high hopes since childhood, was gentle and capable on the surface, but had already become crazy inside.
She cannot have her own preferences or emotions. She has become the fake person that everyone wants her to be, a puppet. Others make her laugh when they want her to laugh and cry when they want her to cry.
Until that day, she met Huo Chi.
Walking in the martial arts world, Huo Chi, who was full of heroic spirit, seemed like a young hero from those strange stories she had secretly read. He was sometimes a little silly and didn't know how to get close to her. He was completely different from those villains who had ill intentions and wanted to take advantage of her status as the crown princess to get a higher position.
She held the little bamboo dragonfly in her hand and looked at herself in the bronze mirror. Her smile was real, not a fake one that was pulled up by someone. She smashed the puppet's body and retrieved the pieces of herself that were scattered all over the floor.
However, the marriage granted by Emperor Xuanhe shattered the whole self she had just pieced together.
Huo Chi was not hers, and she no longer had any expectations in her life.
So she asked Hui'er to buy poisonous smoke and inhale it into the lungs, so that it would not be easily discovered. When the body was exposed to the wind, nothing would be left. Song Sanyue concocted the whole scheme, dragging all the people who had hurt her in the long river of time into the scheme one by one.
If her soul is still there, is it laughing or crying?
She smiled as she watched these people fighting each other for her, and cried because she had no relatives left.
Zhou Zhenzhen was feeling depressed, her hands hanging down. A piece of paper fell from the interlayer of the page of "The Book of Filial Piety". Cheng Jue bent down to pick it up. He saw that it was black all around, and it was burned by fire, leaving only this piece. He could vaguely see a red plum blossom painted on it.
The red of the flower became more and more dazzling in the flames. Cheng Jue glanced away and saw Zhou Zhenzhen staring at the piece of paper in his hand with red eyes.
"You recognize this?"
Zhou Zhenzhen's lips trembled, and she wanted to say something, but she swallowed it back. She shook her head and forced a smile: "I don't know him."
She obviously didn't tell the truth. As if she was afraid that he would continue to ask, she pulled Huo Chi aside and said, "The princess asked you to come to Chang'an probably because she wanted to see you one last time. She was very careful and left this letter probably for you. She knew that if you really came to Chang'an and got involved in this case, then this letter would be found out and you could be cleared of the injustice."
Princess Jintai probably hesitated before deciding to act. If Huo Chi came as promised, if he also had feelings for her, he could take her away from all these troubles.
But that heavy rain blocked Huo Chi's way to Chang'an City. She thought he would never come again, so she lost the desire to live and sought relief in death.
The knuckles of Huo Chi's hand holding the letter had turned white. He was silent for a long while. His throat rolled and he walked out.
Although this princess's mansion was not a palace, it was also her prison. She didn't want to endure this four-cornered sky and the night where she couldn't see the way forward any longer.
Huo Chi held the bamboo dragonfly in his hand and pulled the trigger at the tail. The dragonfly's wings, as thin as a cicada's wing, trembled, and it flew up from his palm, flew out of the four-cornered sky, and flew out of the long night that was about to come.
Wandering in Luyuanjianghu, sipping tea in the bamboo forest, and drinking wine in Mobei.
Nothing could be freer, nothing could be more open, you can laugh when you want to laugh, you can cry when you want to cry.
Just as she wished.
"My princess, may you be free."
