Southern Qi Fenghua Record

At night, after Xia Houshu finished his disguise, he sneaked into the prime minister's mansion while there was no one around.

The prime minister's mansion is located on the banks of the Qishui River in the west of the city. It is large in scale and covers an extremely wide area. It is known as "the first mansion in the capital" and has attracted countless talents and heroes.The courtyard is surrounded by whitewashed walls, green willows hang around, and a black gold-threaded nanmu plaque hangs on the top of the red vermilion lacquered gate, on which the three characters "Prime Minister's Mansion" are inscribed in flying and flying shapes.The high gate compound with three entrances and three exits, the front is the hall, and the back is the official residence. If you look down from the top, the whole Xiangfu Manor is like two "Hui" characters nestled together, dozens of courtyards are tightly packed. Surrounding the master in the center of the house symbolizes the pivotal core position of the master.The layout of the scenery in the mansion is also quite elegant, with vertical and horizontal corridors, winding paths leading to seclusion, pavilions and terraces in the garden, connected pavilions, rockery like a screen, ponds and swamps, surrounded by green trees, and the scenery is interlaced and misplaced, just like a miracle.

Senior officials in Beijing all raise government soldiers, and use them to watch their homes and protect their homes in their free time, and they can go to battle to kill the enemy in case of riots.The dignified residence of the prime minister of a country is even more heavily guarded.According to the map that Xia Houyi spent one night drawing, Xia Houshu went through many twists and turns in the prime minister's mansion, avoiding the patrolling guards many times, and finally found Yi Wu's residence after about half an hour.

Yi Wu's residence is called Cuiyuxuan, which is located on the west side of the backyard of the Prime Minister's Mansion. There are some exotic flowers and plants in the yard. The rainy season has just passed, and the flowers are competing to bloom. The strong smell blends together to create an indescribable weirdness. .Xia Houshu rubbed his nose lightly, and quietly lurked among the flowers beside him. By the candlelight shining through the window, he could clearly recognize the dozen or so well-equipped guards guarding outside.

The beauty was dead, and it was obviously unusual for her to have so many people guarding the yard where she lived.

Before coming, Xia Houshu had already found out that Prime Minister Wang's concubine, Yi Wu, was a native of Lingdu. She was nineteen years old. As her name suggests, she was good at dancing and had a beautiful and enchanting appearance. She won the favor of a man, otherwise Prime Minister Wang, who is nearly fifty years old, would not have willingly slept on her bed and protected her everywhere.However, a month ago, Yi Wu, who had always been the favorite of the special room, suddenly died in her residence, and was cremated soon after.

When he got this news, a cloud of suspicion was secretly planted in Xia Houshu's heart.According to the customs of Nanqi, people are usually buried in the ground after death.Even if a treacherous person is sentenced to beheading, his family members will be notified afterwards to collect the head and body for burial together. Cremation is rare.However, most of those who choose to be cremated have unspeakable secrets, or have some incurable disease that is contagious, and they have to do it for fear of spreading the disease; or they have been poisoned by others in order to destroy the corpse.If Yi Wu really contracted some terminal illness, there is no need for Changqingmen to investigate the cause of his death.Then there is only one possibility left - Yi Wu died at the hands of others.

And in this noble courtyard, the most likely cause of the death of a favored concubine is the competition for favor in the backyard.According to Xia Houshu’s understanding, Prime Minister Wang Chonghou was born in the Wang family of Lichuan, which has been a big family for generations. Many affairs were left behind.Wang Chonghou's official wife is the daughter of the old King Wei, the Princess of Mingjia Dugu, a veritable daughter of the clan, with a son and a daughter under her knees.But before marrying Princess Mingjia, Wang Chonghou already had one son and three daughters. The mothers of the children were the outer room he arranged outside, the oiran of the hook-up boat, and the servant girl in the mansion. One of the daughters was even Wang Chonghou and his younger brother. born of his concubine.

It stands to reason that a son of a family like Wang Chonghou with such a bad record and a very bad reputation had no official title at the time. Even if he asked to marry a woman of comparable status and status based on his family background, a decent family would not be willing to marry his daughter to him.However, Wang Chonghou captured the heart of Princess Mingjia by virtue of his full-fledged economics and a three-inch tongue, and transformed himself into a county horse master, and won the full support of the old King Wei.Then he was appreciated by Emperor Jingtai because of his outstanding talent and insight into government affairs, and he started his political career, and he was promoted all the way to the top.

Among the many scandalous rumors about Wang Chonghou, they all show Wang Chonghou's legendary life and the tolerance of Princess Mingjia.However, this is not the case.Xia Houshu's mother is also a princess, although her identity is a head lower than the Mingjia princess who was born in the clan, but she has also met this legendary Mingjia princess at the palace banquet and has dealt with it.Xia Houshu once heard his mother mention when chatting with his aunt, Princess Gong, that Princess Mingjia was born in the clan, her husband is under one person, and the prime minister above ten thousand people has always had his eyes above the top, even if Even seeing a princess of the same generation who was born in the orthodox royal family, she never showed respect, let alone someone who was younger or not as good as her.How could such a person tolerate so many Wang Chonghou's new and old lovers and concubines and concubines in the mansion that he is the master of the house?

Among the four children Wang Chonghou had before he officially got married, three daughters were accused of being married to the person he wanted to win over before they were married. The eldest son of a concubine is still running errands for the family, and he has no serious errands. It's easy to ask Princess Mingjia to talk about the matchmaker's marriage. The bride died within a year after marrying in the mansion... Yi Wu is a lowly girl who was born as a maiko. Princess Mingjia must have felt dirty even at a glance. If she hurt her own eyes, she would not tolerate her monopolizing Wang Chonghou's favor.

No matter how many aristocratic families there are in the capital, there are ten times and a hundred times more dirty things than this, so Xia Houshu's suspicion is also reasonable.In order to find out the truth, she decided to continue lurking in the grass and wait and see what happened.

There are many mosquitoes in summer, even though Xia Houshu was wearing night clothes, his exposed skin was still bitten by a few bumps, which was extremely itchy.And those guards seemed to have taken root in place one by one, motionless, and did not leave for a long time.In desperation, she had no choice but to change to a hidden place, and then carefully climbed up to the roof to find out.

Xia Houshu picked an inconspicuous place, gently lifted a few tiles, and through the gap, one can see the flowers in Yiwu's room, the silver candles reflecting the carved screen, the scent lingering, and the graceful pink veil With the night wind gently fluttering, elegant and ambiguous.This kind of scene, this kind of grandeur, Xia Houshu had seen it before when he and his mother entered the palace to meet the concubine, but it was the treatment only a very favored concubine would have, which shows that Wang Cheng loved Yi Wu very much during his lifetime.

Scanning carefully, one can see a person sitting on the edge of the bed, who is none other than the prime minister Wang Chonghou.At this moment, he was staring at a mutton jade tablet with piercing eyes, with a sad expression, as if he was remembering an old friend.Then look at the jade tablet in his hand, the texture is as white as amber, the shape is a very rare peony flower, and the workmanship is extremely delicate.Xia Houshu sighed, never expected that Wang Chengxiang, an old man who was nearly fifty years old, would be so affectionate to a woman who was less than two decades old, and he couldn't help but feel sad.Sure enough, identity is not a distance, age is not a problem, passion is not limited to youth.

Of course, these are not important, what is important is that the jade plaque looks like it is not something worn by men.

Yi Wu was Prime Minister Wang's favorite woman before he was alive, and he certainly possessed more treasures than this, but Prime Minister Wang only kept this jade tablet and refused to let go, presumably it was Yi Wu's personal possession.Even so, this jade tablet may be helpful in tracing the cause of Yi Wu's death.

Thinking of this, Xia Houshu squatted on the roof and secretly analyzed the current situation. There are many guards around Prime Minister Wang, and forceful robbery will definitely not work. Slick and cunning, how many people in this world can beat him?

At the moment when he was in a dilemma, there was a sudden sound of very fine footsteps behind him, as light as the wind blowing, getting closer and closer, which sent chills down the spine.Xia Houshu looked behind vigilantly, only to realize that there was another dark shadow on the roof at some point.In the huge silver-white moonlight, the other party's figure was like a ghost, full of rebelliousness and coldness, as if he could swallow her alive in the next second.

Xia Houshu squinted his eyes and looked carefully. He saw that the person was tall and slender, and he was wearing a black suit that was tightly attached to his vigorous body, making him look even more heroic. On his face, he wore a very unique silver mask, like A cunning fox with a pair of eyes that can't see through, even in the night, there is coldness and light.

Even being a thief at night can meet like-minded people?Or is it that I haven't discovered it long ago, it's just that the praying mantis catches the cicada and the oriole is behind?

Xia Houshu quickly stood up, staring at the man in black with all his guard.The black shadow also seemed to be very surprised by Xia Houshu's existence, and the two faced each other in the moonlight, sizing each other up.

Under the cold moonlight, a murderous aura gradually rose in the air.Just when Xia Houshu thought that a fight was inevitable, the black figure suddenly disappeared from sight and disappeared.

Xia Houshu was stunned for a moment, wondering whether the disappearing shadow was an enemy or a friend.Just looking at this person's figure, there is no doubt that he must be a man.But who is this person?Why is it here?Could it be related to Yi Wu's case?

With his mind full of doubts, Xia Houshu chased after the place where the shadow disappeared.

The prime minister's mansion is densely covered with courtyards, Xia Houshu tried his best to avoid the guards watching the night and went around the prime minister's mansion for a few times, but the black figure disappeared without a trace like a ghost.Xia Houshu realized that if he continued to search, he would only get lost in this deep house compound, so he stopped in a deserted courtyard, took out a map and checked it under the moonlight.

According to the scenery here and the instructions on the map drawn by Xia Houyi, this courtyard is already the periphery of the prime minister's mansion, and there is only a wall separated from here by a secluded alley leading directly to West Street.Although there is a curfew, there are many houses and shops on the West Street, which is very suitable for avoiding pursuit.It's safe to jump out of here if she wants to.But thinking about how hard it was for him to sneak into the prime minister's mansion, and the task had not yet made a breakthrough, Xia Houyi might make Xia Houyi laugh if he went back empty-handed like this.Xia Houshu still didn't give up because of the face that couldn't be taken lightly, and decided to gamble again.

Just as Xia Houshu was about to put away the map, his neck suddenly became cold, and the map in his hand fell to the ground because of this moment of absent-mindedness.

"Who are you?"

A cold and unfamiliar voice came from behind, as if a basin of snow water fell from the sky drenched Xia Houshu's body thoroughly, instantly cooling him from head to toe.

Xia Houshu couldn't see the person behind her, and didn't dare to make any big moves. After all, at this moment, the opponent's sword was tightly pressed against her neck. If she resisted at all, she would become the soul under the sword.

In a panic, Xia Houshu suddenly remembered Xia Houyi's previous sarcasm, and couldn't help but suspect that the person behind him was deliberately sent by Xia Houyi to scare her.Unexpectedly, as soon as she tried to move her neck, the blade on her neck got closer.Now she could almost determine that the other party was not joking with him, only to be belatedly aware of the man in black she had just been following.

The night wind blew coolly on her body, and Xia Houshu's self-confidence just now was blown away bit by bit, and a chill and fear spread from the bottom of her heart, like a cold lake gradually enveloping her...