Chapter 68: Confidence Collapses
February 17th
Xiao Ping played the third piece. A lonely and ethereal "Guangling San". In such a quiet night, Shen Kuo temporarily put aside his confusion and melancholy, and followed the music as if falling into the high mountains and valleys. Gradually, the sound of the piano echoed in the empty mountains. Shen Kuo was immersed in the sound of the piano for a long time before he realized that something was wrong. How could there be an echo no matter how good his piano skills were?
He distinguished carefully, it was not an echo, but the same piano sound. He immediately stood up and looked around in confusion to find the piano sound. He soon determined that it was outside the south window, and he walked to the window. Just a few feet away, on the third floor of Huixian Tower south of Caihe, a light was on. There was a small river across the place, only about four or five feet away. He could vaguely see a figure in the light, and it was Xiaoping's silhouette, who was playing the piano at the moment.
"What trick?" Shen Kuo was horrified, and an idea popped into his mind - it was another Maitreya sect trying to be mysterious. However, he wanted to go downstairs to tell Bao Zheng, but he was afraid that something might happen to Xiao Ping who was playing the piano here. If he shouted, he was afraid of alerting the accomplices who were pretending to be ghosts in Huixianju on the other side of the river. He didn't know what to do for a moment.
"That's the paper doll's avatar over there." Xiao Ping said as she played the piano, "I've already given half of my soul to her. After I finish playing this piece, all of them will go over there. At that time, she will be alive, and I will become a paper doll. Hahahaha, this is called the shadow of the doll, playing the paper doll."
Xiao Ping mentioned the four words "flicking paper clone" twice just now. Shen Kuo only thought that the first two words were flicking fingers, which was just to describe the speed, but he didn't expect that it was actually the homonym of flicking paper. There must be many mysteries and tricks hidden in it, and he couldn't figure it out for a while. He quickly leaned over to the south window and looked carefully at the human figure.
He saw a figure playing behind the window paper opposite him. At first, the movements were a little awkward and stiff, like a shadow play, but as the music progressed, it became more and more real. The figure's movements were small at the beginning, but as the instrument became louder, his movements became more and more passionate, sometimes lowering his head, sometimes raising his head, and his movements became more natural. Looking more closely, it was indeed Xiaoping's silhouette, even the hairpins and rings on her head were still there. In astonishment, he could only look back repeatedly to compare the movements on both sides, but he saw that the posture and hands of the figure on the other side of the river were gradually becoming the same as Xiaoping's. In the end, the sounds of the piano merged, and there was no sense of order in the sounds of the piano, and there was no longer a feeling of echoes in the valley, and the movements of the two people on both sides were completely consistent.
Shen Kuo knew that he could not hesitate any longer, and that even a casual decision was better than no decision, so he rushed downstairs. Bao Zheng was also dozing off downstairs, but he was not sleeping soundly. He woke up suddenly when he heard someone coming downstairs.
"What happened? What happened? Did she commit suicide?" The first thing Lao Bao thought of when he woke up was that Xiaoping had committed suicide.
"No, no, is it that the Maitreya Cult is making trouble again?"
"Where's the movement?"
"Listen, there's the piano music..."
"What what..." Wen Yanbo also woke up with drooling, "Where can I find spring rolls stuffed with minced meat?"
He was still in a dream and not fully awake, so he misheard the Maitreya sect's movements as making spring pancakes with minced meat filling.
Lao Bao carefully distinguished and finally heard the same piano sound outside the house. The two went straight to the backyard to see, not caring whether Wen Yanbo was awake or not. The movement in the house alarmed Xu Chong who was on duty in the front yard, and he also led a few imperial guards through the house to the backyard.
When Lao Bao arrived at the backyard, he was already more or less awake. He also discovered that Xiao Ping's piano music upstairs was almost the same as the piano music coming from Huixian Tower across the river. The shadows of the two people behind their respective windows were also exactly the same.
The backyard of Xiaoping's courtyard is very small, and the back wall is almost close to Cai River. Cai River is just a small canal connecting to the moat and entering from The river itself is less than three meters wide. At that time, Xiaoping's silhouette on Huixian Tower was clearly in front of everyone.
"Another attempt to confuse the devil. We are just about to capture them all and bring them to justice. Xu Chong, lead your men across the river immediately and capture this demon who is playing tricks on us. Bring him back and give him thirty strokes of the cane."
"yes!"
Xu Chong agreed and led his men out of the back door. However, the figure was so close that he could see it, but he could not cross the river directly. Looking around, he found a small bridge not far away in the east, about a hundred steps away. So Xu Chong led a group of soldiers holding spears and halberds and rushed to the bridge.
Shen Kuo didn't dare to be careless. He realized something was wrong earlier than anyone else. He shouted "Oh no!" and turned around to go upstairs.
He heard a clanking sound upstairs, like the sound of shackles falling to the ground. He looked up again, and the candlelight in Xiaoping's attic suddenly went out, and the sound of the piano stopped. Xiaoping's figure disappeared. He rushed into the house and ran upstairs. Lao Bao quickly called a few black-robed messengers borrowed from Kaifeng Prefecture to follow him upstairs.
The group ran up the stairs on the wooden ladder and rushed into Xiaoping's bedroom.
Xiao Ping was nowhere to be found in the room. In the moonlight outside the window, I could see a pair of handcuffs and a pair of leg shackles lying on the ground. On the piano stood a five- or six-inch-long paper figurine, along with seven other three-inch-long paper figurines, dancing in the wind.
Shen Kuo screamed "Oh no!" and sat down on the ground.
"The witch has run away, the witch has run away." Several imperial guards followed him upstairs and ran downstairs in the dark to inform Bao Zheng.
Although Shen Kuo was so shocked that he sat on the ground, he immediately sobered up a little, so he stood up and didn't rush downstairs. He stood by the table and thought about the past quickly, and then suddenly realized that maybe she hadn't run away, but was hiding somewhere? He looked around vigilantly, it was pitch black all around, and it seemed that there was no place for someone to hide in this room?
Thinking that he had failed again, he could not help but feel angry and his mind turned to a mess. But he reminded himself again that Xiao Ping was most likely still hiding nearby. How could a living person just disappear?
Just as he was making up his mind to search the house, he saw the window of Huixianju opposite him open. Xiaoping was already standing there, looking at him.
The two of them were only about 50 to 60 meters apart, but they could see it clearly. Who else could it be but Xiao Ping?
She just stood at the window and looked at this side coldly, as if she was looking at a heartless stranger.
"My dear, I said I'm leaving." Xiao Ping said. That voice was clearly hers. Could she really use the magic of paper flicking to escape? Even if there was a tunnel, how could she cross the river?
Bao Zheng, Wen Yanbo and the others downstairs also looked up and saw clearly and heard it clearly. Bao Zheng was so astonished that he couldn't close his mouth.
"Xiao Ping! Don't jump into the river, listen to me." Shen Kuo shouted.
"Don't expect me to jump into the river, my enemy. I won't seek death. We will meet again by chance." Xiao Ping said coldly.
Time seemed to stand still. Dozens of people in the yard, including Bao Zheng and Wen Yanbo, all raised their heads and opened their mouths, watching Xiao Ping talking.
Over there, Xu Chong led more than twenty soldiers across the bridge and rushed towards Huixianju. When they rushed to the door, they found it was locked, so they all kicked the door together.
During this time, Shen Kuo and Xiao Ping opposite him just looked at each other, without moving their eyes.
Shen Kuo once suspected that she was indeed made of paper, so compared with the charming Xiaoping just now, her eyes were a little dull and resentful. However, when he thought about it again, she clearly hated him for arresting her, and the flirtatious look just now was just an act.
The frozen time flowed again. The moment Xu Chong kicked open the door, he saw a cloud of smoke in the shape of a bamboo hat rising from the side of the house. It was clearly the hat monster, and it flew towards Xiao Ping in full view of everyone.
Shen Kuo almost forgot to breathe as he watched everything in front of him - it always appeared at the critical moment.
Looking at the fog again, something fell down. It was a soft ladder.
Xiao Ping stepped out of the window holding the piano and stood on the roof tiles. As she watched the fog fly by, she reached out and grabbed the ladder, but was hidden by the smoke. Then the cloud of fog flew away without stopping. In a blink of an eye, Xu Chong rushed into the room, jumped out of the window and stood on the roof tiles. He also watched the fog get farther and farther away, and lighter and lighter, until he could no longer see it.
Bao Zheng finally witnessed all of this with his own eyes. He took a few steps back and almost fell down, but fortunately a policeman next to him held him up.
Before today, he had never seen the hat demon in action. Although he saw a cloud of smoke in the imperial garden and dug out a skeleton from the ground when the hat demon first appeared, this was the first time he saw a flying hat demon. Today was really . Not only was there a hat demon, but he also saw a living person in shackles disappearing right before his eyes. All this made him feel lost. Once upon a time, he was as confident as Shen Kuo that his eyes could see through all the tricks, but the hammer that shattered his confidence finally came.
He couldn't figure out what was going on, so he had to go upstairs. Shen Kuo was still sitting there dejectedly on a chair, with the oil lamp on the table already lit. He searched under the bed, under the table, and outside the cabinets in the corridor. Maybe the search was not thorough, but he had definitely checked all the places where a person could hide, and Xiao Ping was not there.
Lao Bao was standing at the door and saw six two-inch tall paper figures and a larger six-inch paper figure standing on the piano.
"Cunzhong, Cunzhong, what the hell is she doing?"
"She said it was a magical technique called Paper-Flicking Escape. She just disappeared into thin air like that?"
"She also told you this ?"
"She told me that she would definitely be able to escape. She also told me the name of the spell. I just didn't believe it, but to my surprise, it actually came true."
Lao Bao looked down at the chain that had fallen on the ground. An experienced guard beside him picked it up. There was no sign of damage. It was not even opened. It was locked. How did she open it without a key? Of course, after a living person could move to the other side of the river in an instant, such a small detail as how to open the lock became unimportant. Maybe she just blew a breath and the chain fell off.
"This is a strange thing. Does this woman really know witchcraft?"
Bao Zheng was at a loss. The yamen runners and imperial guards around him were nodding vigorously. Only Shen Kuo did not agree. He had a complex expression on his face, with reluctance, shame, anger, and some relief. To some extent, he was more willing to believe that Xiao Ping escaped with magic or tricks, without having to suffer the pain of a knife.
"Cunzhong, don't you see through any tricks?"
"Husband, I think there must be something to this...ah...I just can't figure it out..." He shook his head.
Maitreyaism is still as cunning as ever. Every time you think you have touched the truth and feel that its tricks are nothing special, it will throw a bunch of difficult problems at you to shatter your self-confidence. Moreover, each difficult problem it throws out is more bizarre than the last, forcing you to think: those tricks that were deliberately made for you to see through were actually just to tease you, because they may really be magic, specifically designed to shatter your obsession with the truth and make you completely collapse.
February 18th, 3:30 pm
The sleepy monk Huailiang was "invited" by Xu Chong to this place which was Xiaoping's residence yesterday. Today it has become the heavily guarded first crime scene.
In the morning, Bao Zheng issued a strict order that the monk must be invited today. He asked Xu Chong to bring a sedan chair to bring the monk. No matter if he invited the monk or used some other method.
However, Xu Chong arrived at the entrance of the Daxiangguo Temple store at 7:00 p.m., but the monk did not show up. Xiao Yi was the only one there with nothing to do. Xiao Yi did not know when the monk would come, or where he was at the moment.
It was not until the beginning of the evening that a drunk monk came to open the shop, carrying a wine gourd and humming a little tune. The monk seemed to be in a good mood. So Xu Chong didn't say anything, and a group of people grabbed the monk in the street, stuffed him into a sedan chair, and sent him all the way here.
By this time, the monk had sobered up a little. However, before Bao Zheng and Wen Yanbo could see him, Shi Wenbin had sent someone to urge him to go to the palace. Probably, he was going to comfort the frightened emperor. In short, only Shen Kuo was left here.
The monk burped as he listened to Shen Kuo's story of what happened yesterday. At first, he looked indifferent, but gradually his expression became serious. He felt that if what Shen Kuo said was completely true, then his theory that everything must have a reason to follow might be bankrupt.
"No...it's impossible. Why would people...people disappear out of thin air?" As he spoke, a smell of alcohol sprayed across the table onto Shen Kuo's face.
"However, this incident happened right in front of me. Not only was I present at the time, but also Prime Minister Bao, Prime Minister Wen, and Xu Jieji were there. They all saw it with their own eyes." Shen Kuo said calmly.
"She just moved to the second floor of the hotel across the street?"
The monk stood up slowly and walked to the window to look across. Huixianju on the other side of the river had been sealed off. A Taoist was dancing with a sword, swaying across the river.
"That person who is so good at swordsmanship is the Taoist priest of the Zhengyi sect?"
"Yes, it is indeed Taoist Master Li Cheng'an. How about I introduce you to him?"
"No need to. If we have different ideals, there is no need to work together." The monk said calmly, having sobered up a lot.
"That is to say, this room is still in the same state as it was yesterday when that evil woman slipped away with a trick?"
"Yes, it's almost the same, except that the chain on the ground was picked up and placed on the table. I know it's probably some kind of trick, but how can it be made so real?"
The monk did not answer, but just walked around the room. He did not seem to have any methodical search, he just wandered around and looked through some things.
"Master, what kind of magic do you think she is using..."
"It's not magic, it's just a trick." said the monk.
"But...but..."
“Cun Zhong, as long as you can see through the door, it’s just a trick.”
“What if you can’t see through it?”
"Did you see the figure opposite you clearly? Could it be another woman pretending to be her? If there is a 10-point difference between the real and the fake, how real is she?"
"I'm sure I'm not mistaken. I saw it clearly. Not only her appearance, but also her figure and clothes are exactly the same. Moreover, she spoke to me. It was her voice. It's not just very real, it's absolutely real."
