Southern Qi Fenghua Record

Xia Houshu went back to Qingfeng Pavilion resentfully, and on the way, he saw a few nurses in charge leading a group of maids and servants carrying brooms and basins, rushing to Xiafei Courtyard in a hurry.

Seeing this battle, it seems that something happened to Xiafei Academy.Xia Houshu was worried that it was Xia Houling, so he followed them all the way to have a look, but saw that they had a face-to-face meeting with Madam Feng, the steward of Xiafei Court, and said that they were cleaning according to the rules, and then went in.

Xia Houshu suddenly felt bored, and continued to walk to his residence.

As soon as he entered the yard, he saw Yunxi directing several maids, big and small, to do the general cleaning. By the way, he also took out all the bedding in the house and hung them in the sun. A dozen or so people were busy working inside and outside the house. , did not take into account that the Lord had returned, and would not notice the surprised look on her face.

Xia Houshu looked up at the clear blue sky, the sun was shining brightly, and the sky was cloudless. It was indeed a good weather.But the rainy season has just passed, didn't the whole house just do a big cleaning?It's only been less than a month, why so often?

She was puzzled, so she asked Yunxi to come over and ask.

When Yunxi heard Xiahou Shu calling her, she hurriedly explained a few words to her servants, then ran over quickly, and replied with a smile: "Girl, you went out early today, and you haven't had time to eat breakfast, you should be hungry." Right? I saw the smog in Qingfeng Pavilion, so I asked the small kitchen to warm breakfast on the stove, including your favorite rice porridge, stewed chicken soup with fresh bamboo shoots, scallion pancakes, golden custard, red date cake, sour Beans. Do you want to eat some now? I'll let someone arrange it for use in the yard."

Xia Houshu shook his head.She had a bad nose with Xia Houyi, how could she be in the mood to eat?Then he pointed to the little maid who was busy nearby and asked her: "What day is it today? Why are you cleaning the house as if you made an appointment?"

"It's not a special day." Yunxi waved her hand and said, turning her head to signal the little maid next to her to tell the small kitchen to bring breakfast.Only then did he continue to explain to Xia Houshu: "Just now, the princess sent sister Qingfang to spread the word in each yard, asking everyone to clean the yard thoroughly. Although our yard is cleaned every day, we still follow the rules of the princess. It means getting busy."

"Didn't you just sweep it a few days ago? It hasn't rained recently, so it won't be damp and moldy, right?" Xia Houshu was very puzzled.

"It's not that I'm afraid of getting damp." Yunxi smiled, "I heard that the young master of the Huo family of Taichang Temple was accidentally bitten by poisonous insects while playing in the mansion a few days ago, and has been comatose and feverish for several days. The imperial doctor has been invited several times, but still no improvement. The princess thought that there are many mosquitoes in summer, and worried that similar things will happen in the house, so he asked us to clean it again."

"I see." Xia Houshu nodded.Suddenly, she remembered that she had been bitten by mosquitoes when she was lurking in the prime minister's mansion last night, so she quickly opened her sleeves to have a look, and found that the redness and swelling left by the mosquito bites on her hands had disappeared, so she breathed a sigh of relief .

"It is indeed necessary to clean it thoroughly, so you can continue to clean it." Xia Houshu didn't continue to walk into the house, turned around and sat down on the stone bench under the wisteria trellis, thinking about Yi Wu's matter carefully.

Yunxi quickly brought people to distribute the dishes, and Xia Houshu took a few bites of the food before he lost interest and was dismissed.

Xia Houshu has always regarded herself as smart, smart, and good at martial arts, so she firmly believes that even without Xia Houyi's advice and help, she can still find out about Yi Wu.

I heard that there is an antique shop called Canglanzhai in the south of the city, the owner of which has a lot of knowledge and knowledge, and the clues she knows so far is the mutton jade plaque, maybe she can get some clues from Canglanzhai.

After making up his mind, Xia Houshu drew the general appearance of the white jade plaque from memory, then found a piece of sheep fat jade from the warehouse, ordered Yunxi to disguise himself, and then searched for a small jade in the city The store made a copy of it.

Within a few days, Yunxi went to fetch the jade plaque again.

Xia Houshu held the mutton fat jade tablet and looked at it again and again, compared it with the white jade tablet in his memory, then changed into plain clothes and walked out from the main entrance of the Duke of Yue's mansion.

It happened to be the fifteenth day, and my father went to the barracks to train soldiers early in the morning, and as usual he would not be able to return until after sunset.And my mother has to eat fast every first and fifteenth day of the new year, and then go to the Buddhist hall to meditate, and she will not ask the siblings to have lunch together.

The right time, location, and harmony of people are just the perfect time for her to go out.

Canglanzhai is located in a deep and quiet alley in the south of the city. The paint on the plaque with the characters has also faded due to the wind and sun all year round, revealing a sense of antiquatedness and disrepair everywhere.There are not many people who come and go to Cang Lan Zhai, but most of them are people with insight and knowledge, so Cang Lan Zhai can have a certain reputation in the city.

Xia Houshu entered Cang Lan Zhai with a piece of jade in his pocket, but found that it was surprisingly quiet inside, no one even came up to say hello, and it didn't look like the door was open for business at all.

She took a quick look, and found that there were only three or four antique shelves in the small shop, and there were not many antiques that could be called top-quality, but each item seemed to have its own history and story. .After walking a few steps inside, she realized that there was a thin old man with gray hair sitting behind the rosewood screen with a sense of age.

The sunlight comes in through the carved windows, and is extra gentle after being filtered by the window paper.At this moment, the old man was drinking tea leisurely, flipping through the yellowed book in his hand from time to time, not knowing whether he was doing business or just passing the time.They couldn't even tell whether he was the owner of Cang Lan Zhai or a guest.

Such a knowledgeable and uncontested person usually has a weird temper, for example, he is unwilling to talk to people who look down on him, and he doesn't like others to suddenly disturb his rhythm of life.Seeing that the old man was fascinated by the scroll, Xia Houshu didn't dare to interrupt abruptly, so he casually took a book with obvious repair marks from the antique shelf, flipped through it, and waited patiently.

The old man lives a leisurely life and reads slowly.While reading and thinking, he probably read four or five pages. When he lowered his head to drink tea, he realized that the tea in the cup was empty, so he picked up the teapot that was warming on the small stove and added another cup.When I looked up, I happened to see Xia Houshu standing at the door. I was stunned for a while, then put down the tea set, got up slowly, and asked, "Young lady came to the shop, what are you talking about?"

Most of the people who went in and out of Cang Lan Zhai were elderly literati, and there were very few young and jerky women like Xia Houshu.

Hearing the sound, Xia Houshu quickly shifted his eyes from the book to the old man, bowed slightly, and said respectfully: "I heard that the master of Canglan Zhai is well-known and has a unique eye. My little girl has something. I want to ask the master of Canglan Zhai. I don't know Can the old man introduce you?"

The old man saw that she was a little girl, and she was very polite, so he was very satisfied, so he smiled heartily and said, "That's old, girl, come in and talk."

The owner of Cang Lan Zhai is surnamed Chang, but his name is unknown. People respectfully call him "Chang Weng".Chang Weng was indeed as gentle and refined as the rumors said, indifferent and quiet, quite old-fashioned.

Xia Houshu didn't expect to be able to catch Chang Weng's eyes, he was overjoyed, quickly closed the ancient book in his hand and put it back to its original place, and then sat down opposite him at the old man's invitation.

Chang Weng poured tea for Xia Houshu himself before asking her why she came.

Xia Houshu didn't take it too seriously, so he showed Chang Weng the imitation white jade plaque, and made up a pretext that he picked it up a few days ago, but he didn't know its origin, so he wanted to ask him if he knew a thing or two about it, so that he could use it in the future. So that the jade tablet can be returned to its owner.

Chang Weng looked at the jade plaque carefully for a long time, his brow furrowed, he didn't know whether the imitation was not realistic enough, or the origin of the jade plaque was unusual.

After a while, he raised his head and asked, "Did you really pick up this jade token?"

Xia Houshu was afraid that he would see his flaws, so he had to smile, and said lightly: "I think this jade card is exquisite and transparent, and its color is like agar, it doesn't look like an ordinary thing. People who want to lose the jade card must be worried and anxious. If Chang Weng If you know his origin, please let me know, so that this jade tablet can be returned to its original owner as soon as possible."

Chang Weng stroked his beard, handed the mutton fat jade tablet back to Xia Houshu, and said slowly: "It's indeed unusual, but yours is a fake."

"Fake?" Even though he knew it was fake, Xia Houshu still acted surprised, even somewhat disappointed, "No wonder no one is looking for it, it turned out to be so."

Chang Weng stroked his beard and said with a smile as if comforting her: "Although it is a fake, this piece of jade is indeed a good piece of jade."

"What do you mean by that, Mister?" Xia Houshu looked up at Chang Weng, and continued to pretend to be stupid.

At the beginning, in order to make the jade plaque more authentic, she really chose a good jade, but unexpectedly, the well-informed Chang Weng saw it.

"As far as the fineness of this piece of jade is concerned, it can be regarded as top-grade among mutton fat jade, but compared to the patterns engraved on the jade, it is not worth mentioning." Chang Wen explained slowly.

Sure enough, there is a mystery!

Xia Houshu was secretly delighted, and continued to study hard and asked: "It's just a peony flower, but it looks like something from my daughter's house. What special significance can it have?"

Chang Weng seemed to have seen through Xia Houshu's mind, and said, "If you want to find out its origin, it might have something to do with the Mausoleum Palace."

"Prince Mausoleum's Mansion?" Xia Houshu expressed surprise at this result, but seemed to be expecting it.

Of the ten vassal kings with different surnames granted by Emperor Taizong back then, except for the Changsun family of King Xiang, the Yuwen family of Ling Wang, and the Zhong family of Gong Wang, who were hereditary replacements, the other seven vassal kings were all in various battles and internal frictions. Exhausted, the glory and scenery of the past have long been lost.Among the only three remaining vassal kings with different surnames, the most prestigious one is Ling Wang Yu Wensheng.

In the early years, in order to win over King Ling, the court even married a princess as his wife.However, that Princess Zhaoyun, Fu Bo, married to the Ling Palace for more than ten years, gave birth to only one daughter, and unfortunately died in the end.The physically and mentally frustrated Princess Zhaoyun watched Yuwensheng's other concubines give birth to heirs one after another, and felt deeply ashamed of the ancestors of Yuwen's family, so she asked the imperial court to voluntarily give up the position of Princess Ling, and then cut off her family up.

In a time of great peace and prosperity, without national mourning, a dignified princess of a country is ordained to become a monk. This is an unprecedented event in Nanqi. Not only does it embarrass the face of the royal family, but even the mausoleum's palace is not good-looking, and it may even offend Longan and be implicated.But I don't know what happened later, the first emperor actually agreed to Princess Zhaoyun's request to become a monk, but kept her titles of princess and concubine Ling.He even ordered to build a nunnery for her on the outskirts of Mausoleum, named Shuiyue Nunnery, in order to allow her to concentrate on her practice.

After Princess Zhaoyun became a monk, King Ling's temperament suddenly changed drastically.In the past, he was brave and good at fighting, and he was in high spirits. He was addicted to wine and sex all day long. He has been staying in the fief for many years, and he hardly cares about the government.

Everyone in the world said that King Ling had a deep affection for Princess Heyun, but he couldn't let go of the people in the fief, and felt depressed, which is why he acted so recklessly.However, according to the information obtained by Xia Houyi, not only does the King of Ling have no plans to provide for his life, but he has also acted frequently in recent years. Everyone knows.

Prime Minister Wang is an official of the capital and the head of civil servants. He is deeply favored by the emperor, so he should protect himself wisely and keep a distance from all the feudal lords. How could he have anything to do with the King of Mausoleum?

Maybe that's why today's emperor cares about the death of a concubine in the prime minister's mansion.

The intention of coming to King Mausoleum is already very obvious, otherwise it would not attract the attention of Ouchi.This is a big clue, and Xia Houshu thought about exchanging information with Xia Houyi later.

Chang Weng didn't seem to notice that Xia Houshu's mind was distracted, and he said: "It's commendable that the girl is not ignorant about collecting money, but the old man advises the girl not to get too involved with this jade token, so as not to cause trouble to the upper body."

Although Chang Weng's tone was normal, it carried kind advice and warning.

Of course Xia Houshu understands the pros and cons, but her current identity is just an ordinary female who has picked up a special jade token, so it is not convenient to get to the bottom of it.She thought that since she could find out the source of the jade plaque, it would be a good thing, and the investigation would have a direction.