Chapter 557: Reality and Illusion
Although Liu Yihu and the other two also felt that the scene just now was strange and inexplicable, they did not know the details after all, so they were not as shocked as Sun Shaozong.
In addition, they guard flammable and explosive materials like Prince Yizhong all day long, so they naturally understand the principle of "the less you know, the safer it is."
Therefore, the three of them had no intention of investigating further.
Just as I was thinking about sending Sun Shaozong out of the house with courtesy, who would have thought that he would rashly barge into Prince Yi Zhong's study.
Although the study was searched every day, the three of them were still horrified when they suddenly saw this scene, and they all shouted and chased in:
"Lord Sun!"
"Master Qianhu!"
"what are you up to?!"
But just as the three of them were about to step out of the door, they heard Sun Shaozong shouting, "If you want to live, stand at the door and don't follow me in!"
Liu Yihu stopped immediately. Although he was stationed in the Prince Yi Zhong's Palace, he was affiliated with the Northern Pacification Office after all, and he had heard about Sun Shaozong's deeds very well.
So he subconsciously obeyed Sun Shaozong's orders.
As for the eunuch in brocade robe, he was able to be in charge of the internal affairs here because of his cautious nature. Although he felt a little puzzled at this moment, he still chose to stop at the door.
Only the captain of the Nanzhen Prefecture had some resistance to Sun Shaozong, but he also felt that since they were on their own territory, there was no need to submit to Sun Shaozong.
So he walked in proudly and sneered at Sun Shaozong, "Captain Sun, this prince's mansion is probably not a place for you to show off your power, right?"
"Showing off your power?"
Sun Shaozong pushed open the door of the inner bedroom, poked his head in and took a few glances. Seeing that it was empty except for a soft couch, he turned back and sneered, "The jade was found by my officials yesterday when they were investigating a case - and the decision to give it to Prince Yi Zhong as a birthday gift was made by His Majesty more than half an hour ago!"
The three people outside the door who were sent to monitor Prince Yizhong were naturally not fools. Therefore, after a little thought, they understood the key points and were all scared to death with cold sweats.
“My Lord!”
Liu Yihu said tremblingly outside: "This... This is unlikely, right? We are surrounded , how could someone get ahead of you and leak the news from the palace to your Highness?"
"It is precisely because it is unbelievable that I want to investigate it thoroughly! If anyone barges in and destroys the clues in this room, don't blame me for reporting the truth to His Majesty!"
Before he could finish his words, the captain of the Nanzhen Prefecture had already fled in panic. He wanted to say a few soft words with a shameless face, but Sun Shaozong had already begun to patrol the house.
The first thing to check was, of course, the coffee table with two cups of tea on it.
He covered his palms with his sleeves, looked at the two teacups back and forth, and asked with a frown, "Didn't those secret guards just now say that the prince stayed alone in the study for a whole hour and never went out?"
As he spoke , he leaned down again and examined the two chairs beside the coffee table inch by inch.
“That’s…that’s exactly it.”
The eunuch in brocade robes responded from outside the door, and then quickly added: "There are always two people watching outside the window, and the house is checked every day, so there is no way there is a secret passage."
Tsk~
This is really...
Sun Shaozong frowned even more tightly. When he entered the room and saw the two teacups, his first thought was that Prince Yi Zhong was deliberately creating confusion, but after careful inspection, he found that this speculation seemed to be wrong.
Because there was a mark of grease on one of the cups - it was not ordinary grease, but the kind of grease that comes from touching meat without washing hands.
Sun Shaozong sniffed carefully and smelled the faint smell of roast chicken.
But when I looked at Prince Yizhong just now, his hands were clearly very clean.
Could it be that it has been wiped clean?
Huh?!
Just as he was thinking about looking through the wastebasket beside the desk, Sun Shaozong suddenly made a new discovery - a white hair was stuck in the gap on the outside of the armrest of one of the armchairs!
This was certainly not Prince Yoshitada's hair, but rather a long hair from a horse's tail.
Sun Shaozong wrapped the hair around his fingers and tested its softness. It felt like it was not suitable for making a brush.
As for musical instruments...
Looking around, there was only a Yaoqin in the study.
However, Sun Shaozong went forward to check and found that the strings were made of the finest silk.
etc!
After checking the material of the strings, Sun Shaozong was about to turn his attention back to the long hair of the horsetail, but suddenly he discovered that the color of the middle string seemed to be a little darker, and had a faint black hue.
Looking more closely, the shiny black area seems to be slightly coarser than other areas.
And it's not evenly thick, just the inside and the upward side are a little bulging, while the outside and the bottom are still fine.
Sun Shaozong hurriedly turned around and took a piece of white paper from the desk, carefully placed it under the strings, and then carefully scratched the shiny black part of the strings with his fingernails.
Some tiny things seeped into the cracks between his nails and some fell onto the paper as he scratched them.
When the fine particles on the paper reached a certain level, Sun Shaozong carefully pulled out the paper, compared it with the particles in the cracks of his fingernails under the sun, and finally determined that it should be some greasy sludge.
Judging from the way the mud was stuck to the strings, it was probably someone with grease on his hands who plucked the strings.
It seems to have the same effect as the oily fingerprints on the teacup.
This is even more strange!
If your hands are only stained with grease, you can wipe it off with paper or towel, but this dirty mud can probably only be washed with water.
But the only basin of water in the room was crystal clear, with no signs of having been used.
There was no sign of dampness in the room - probably to prevent Prince Yizhong from playing any tricks, there were only a few furnishings in the room, and every corner was visible.
Changing the water in the middle of the process, or pouring out the water for cleaning, would either leave traces or fail to conceal it from outside observers...
"Go ask someone if the prince has ever dumped sewage outside."
Sun Shaozong gave an order casually, without caring about who of the three people at the door took the order, and then turned his attention to the desk.
The first thing that comes to mind is naturally the inkstone on the table.
Seeing that there was some ink in it, Sun Shaozong took the brush and stirred it evenly, then casually drew a few strokes on the paper, but did not notice anything wrong.
This is the best quality ink. If it is mixed with mud and grease, it will definitely affect the effect of use. It is impossible not to feel it at all.
From this point of view, there should be nothing fishy in the ink...
"grown ups."
At this time, Liu Yihu was heard reporting from outside: "The sentries on duty said that after the prince entered the house, he never came out again, and he never dumped any sewage."
Tsk~
This is really strange!
Seeing that there was no trace of anything to be found, Sun Shaozong temporarily put the issue of the hand-washing water aside and focused his attention on the only piece of rice paper with writing in the pile of papers.
When will the spring flowers and autumn moons end?
How much do we know about the past?
The east wind blew again last night in the small building.
The homeland is unbearable to look back on...
"Yu Meiren" by Emperor Li Houzhu of the Southern Tang Dynasty is an eternal masterpiece expressing the pain of losing his country. Considering Prince Yi Zhong's life experience and his identity as a time traveler [homeland], it is quite appropriate.
Judging from the wild brushstrokes and the dripping ink, it is obvious that Prince Yizhong also brought in his own emotions.
but……
This emotion was completely different from his slightly complacent and carefree attitude just now.
In addition, this poem was not completed. It stopped abruptly halfway through, and judging from the exaggerated length of the last stroke, it seemed that it was suddenly interrupted by something unusual.
"grown ups."
At this time, Liu Yihu carefully reminded: "No matter what the prince wrote, there will be illiterate deaf-mute children who are responsible for burning it, so the things on the paper must be what the prince just wrote."
Just wrote...
Sun Shaozong's brows have never been furrowed since he entered the room, and now they are even more tightly furrowed.
Just as the eunuch in brocade robe was about to knock on the door, Prince Yi Zhong took the initiative to open the door.
Logically speaking, even if the crowd outside had alarmed him when they were asking the secret guard, they were still a little far away and would not have frightened him too much - at least not enough to cause the last stroke to be half a foot long.
Combining this with some of the previous traces, it seems that we can infer that a visitor with greasy hands suddenly appeared in the room, disturbing Prince Yizhong.
Then, that person revealed to Prince Yi Zhong that someone would soon deliver the Spiritual Jade, and in some way, he quickly calmed the resentment and despair in Prince Yi Zhong's heart...
There must be a secret passage in this room!
Otherwise none of this makes sense!
Sun Shaozong searched the walls, floors, and even the roof carefully twice, almost as if he were digging three feet into the ground.
However……
Nothing found!
How is this possible? !
Could it be that this secret passage was carefully built by some skilled craftsman, and cannot be triggered by ordinary means?
"Your Majesty!"
At this moment, the voices of Liu Yihu and other two suddenly came from outside the door, in unison.
Sun Shaozong stood up and looked outside, and saw that Prince Yi Zhong had returned at some point and was standing at the door looking at the messy scene inside. After a while, he suddenly burst into laughter.
He laughed so hard that he could hardly breathe. He pounded his chest a few times and then said in a hoarse voice, "Don't look for it. Even if you tear down the entire study and hollow it out, you won't be able to find any secret passage."
Then he shook his head and said, "But I can't blame you for this. I have clearly read Dream of the Red Chamber, but when I saw the monk and the Taoist priest just now, I actually suspected that they came in from the secret passage."
As he spoke, he suddenly showed a look of anticipation, and murmured, "I wonder how mysterious the illusory world of Lihentian is."
What is a monk and a Taoist?
What is the Lihentian Taixu Illusionary Realm?
Is this guy talking nonsense?
Sun Shaozong was puzzled when he suddenly thought of something and asked, "Did that monk or Taoist priest hold a white whisk in his hand?"
Now it was Prince Yizhong's turn to be surprised. He asked curiously, "How do you know? Could it be that you have also seen those two people..."
Sun Shaozong naturally deduced this from the long hair on the horse's tail.
Seeing that what he said was right, Sun Shaozong was about to press on to gain more information from the enemy.
Who knew that when the words came to his lips, Prince Yizhong shook his head and said, "No, if you knew their origins, you wouldn't be looking for them here again and again - well, do whatever you want, but don't forget to pass the message to my brother."
Having said that, he flicked his sleeves and went away on his own.
Sun Shaozong subconsciously chased him for a few steps, but heard him muttering something like 'A Dream of Red Mansions is indeed a Dream of Red Mansions', 'The Land of Illusion', 'Fairy Jinghuan', 'Sixty Years of Emperor', 'But I didn't expect that what I was expecting was actually a fairyland'.
The voices gradually became inaudible, but those words lingered in Sun Shaozong's mind, vague and confusing, making him feel as if he was lost in a fog.
Damn~
What exactly is written in "Dream of Red Mansions"?
Isn't this a story of a love triangle and sadomasochism?
