The Golden Hairpin

Wang Ruo, who had just walked into the Zuo Pavilion under the gaze of so many people, disappeared into the Pavilion silently and silently in a short moment, as if a wisp of smoke was floating in the air.

When the people behind him were stunned, Huang Zixia had already strode forward, opened the closet and took a look inside, then leaned over to look at the bottom of the bed, and finally turned to the couch, opened the closed window, looked outside, and was seeing Two guards standing upright outside the window.

She looked up and saw Li Shubai in the front hall, talking to the people around her. It seemed that the corner of her eye noticed the movement of her, his gaze turned and took a look at her.

She waved to him to signal that something happened to him.

Li Shubai walked across the courtyard quickly, glanced at the empty pavilion, and immediately instructed everyone to look for it in the main hall and the left and right pavilions. However, the Yongchun Palace was such a big place, and after a while, all the corners were searched, and Wang Ruo had no trace.

Only heard the rapid footsteps outside, the female officer Yanling next to the queen hurried in with Su Qi and asked, "What's the matter?"

When she saw Li Shubai in the hall, she hurriedly saluted again, and looked at Su Qi, Su Qi hurriedly said in a low voice: "The princess...I don't know where to go."

Trillium was shocked and said: "I am taking the order of the queen to count the flowers and clothes for the princess together with Su Qi, and send them, why...this is just a few hours, so many people, why..."

Li Shubai said: "Go and report to the queen first, and I will look for the inside of the hall again. If I find someone, I will report to the queen as soon as possible."

"You leave a few to help find people, I'll go back to Penglai Temple first." Yanling said, and motioned to the court ladies holding clothes behind to put down the things quickly, and only took two or three people and hurried back first.

Li Shubai ordered to go down, and so many people in the Yongchun Temple had almost checked every inch of turf, every piece of green brick, and every piece of wood more than ten times, but there was no clue.

Really the same as in the prophecy, Wang Ruo disappeared before the wedding, and he was under such heavy defense, inside the Daming Palace.

Soon, one of the big eunuchs beside the Queen, Yongji, also came over. Li Shubai was so troubled that he raised his hand to let everyone go out. Only Wang Yun took more than ten people and carefully searched for all traces in the inner hall.

Li Shubai and Huang Zixia walked to the gate of the hall and carefully looked at the surrounding environment.

The quiet Yongchun Hall has been restored, and it is no different from ordinary palaces in the dark. Because of its solemn shape, the slightly rigid seven-room outer halls are connected with the seven inner halls by the left and right verandas, forming a standard mouth shape. In order to break this flat state, the craftsman laid a blue brick road in the atrium and arranged rockery on the left and right. But the rockery is not high, only one or two rocks are higher than the human head, and the rest are just small and medium-sized stones that are randomly placed, so standing in the front hall, you can clearly look at each other with the apse.

"We were standing under the eaves of the outer hall, near the veranda, and watched Wang Ruo walk along the blue brick road to the inner hall. Because she lived in the Zuo Pavilion, she bypassed the rockery when she reached a quarter, but we could still Standing in the outer hall and seeing her. Ours did indeed watch her walk into the left pavilion and never come out."

Li Shubai nodded, confirming.

"Then, after entering the hall door, Xian Yun immediately took the food box and went to the dining room. After that, Su Qi and Ran Yun carried the lantern and came out to look for the leaf vein condensed hairpin."

"There is a question that needs to be asked. In such turmoil, why did Aunt Suqi and Ran Yun come out together? Why didn't they think of leaving a person by Wang Ruo's side?"

Huang Zixia said, walked to the table and sat down, habitually raising her hand to remove the hairpin on her head to draw the mark, but when she reached out her hand, she touched the eunuch's gauze crown on her head, and her hand stopped unconsciously. Then grabbed the leaf vein condensation hairpin on the table and painted the front hall and layout of Yongchun Hall on the table.

Li Shubai frowned slightly as she watched her scribble freely. Huang Zixia ignored him, still calmly repeating everything at the time: "Then I asked out aloud, they said about looking for leaf-veined hairpins. After I walked to the rockery and found the hairpins, I took them in front of them, and Xianyun just came back and got them. Walnut crisp."

She drew another line from the inner hall to the corner door kitchen in the shallow traces on the table: "The small dining room of the Yongchun Hall is in the southwest corner, near the wall. The kitchen lady waited for safety so it was already long. Deported. Xianyun was in the palace for the first time, but he was able to quickly find snacks in an unmanned dining room in such a fast time. I wonder if it was luck or a special feeling for food?"

Li Shubai glanced at the hairpin that was unconsciously scratched on the table in her hand, and asked calmly, "I think there should be other things in your speculation?"

"Also, the inner hall is composed of three parts, from left to right are the left pavilion, the main hall, and the right pavilion. In fact, there are seven main halls. The two on the left and the two on the right are turned into attics, and the middle three are used as the main hall. The left pavilion is in the shape of a warm pavilion, surrounded by thick walls, and there is only one window on the same side as the main hall gate, facing the atrium and outer hall. Therefore, if you want to enter and exit the left pavilion, the only way is the main hall. And in me When the four of them, Suqi, Xian Yun, and Ran Yun were all standing at the entrance of the main hall, the only way for her to leave besides walking through the wall was to climb out of the window."

"But there are not only two people staring outside the window, but there are also people staring at the veranda of the outer hall, and I'm standing under the veranda of the outer hall. If this window is opened, I and others will see it for the first time. ."

"There is another possibility, that is, there is a secret path in the hall." Huang Zixia threw away the hairpin, and returned to the Zuo Pavilion with Li Shubai, looking at this small pavilion with only one door and one window, there was no place for Tibetans at all.

"It's authentic, it's possible." Li Shubai sat down in front of Xiaoji, poured a cup of tea and drank himself. Seeing that it was impossible for this uncle to help her, Huang Zixia had to resign his fate to knock on the wall inch by inch, and even removed the closet, knocking on the wall behind for a long time.

Li Shubai is in his spare time, drinking tea and watching her as if watching a scene that has nothing to do with him. Huang Zixia felt that her fingers were swollen, and when she was about to rub her, Li Shubai threw something to her.

She took it and saw that it turned out to be half an ingot of silver, square and thick, about twelve in weight, as if a silver ingot had been cut in half.

She lay on the ground, hitting the floor tiles with this piece of silver smoothly, listening intently to the sound below, and found nothing. Even the blue bricks under the carpet, she opened the carpet and knocked them one by one.

Li Shubai was still indifferent, she turned to his feet, he took the teacup and sat down on the opposite brocade, turning a blind eye.

Tired enough, Huang Zixia still got nothing, she had to stand up, sit down in front of Li Shubai, put the half of the silver ingot back on the table, and asked: "Why do you have to carry the silver ingot with you when the prince goes out? It's still half of it."

"Of course I won't bring it." Li Shubai said casually, pointing to the three tea cups still clasped on the table. Found."

"Strange, who would put such a half silver ingot on the table?" She turned the silver ingot over and over. Behind the silver ingot, the words are cast in accordance with the usual practice, such as "Vice envoy Liang Weidong... Neiku envoy Zhang Junyi, cast silver two" and so on.

Li Shubai took the silver ingot and faced her with the name of the caster: "In order to avoid cutting corners and making the two silvers insufficient, according to the rule, one envoy and three deputy envoys must engrave their names on the silver ingots when casting. It can be checked."

"I know, so the lower half that was cut off should be cast with the names of the other two deputy envoys and the word'Twelve Liang'. It seems that this should be a twenty-two silver ingot cast by Neiku." Huang Zixia Weighing the weight of the silver bullion, said.

Li Shubai pointed his finger on the names of the two people and said, "However, the names of these two people are not the one who Ouchi is responsible for forging gold and silver ingots."

"There are so many people in charge of Neiku casting in this dynasty, don't you know that?"

"It just so happened that there was a bribery case in Neiku before. I was ordered to bring dozens of accountants from the Ministry of Households into the palace to check the accounts of Da Nei over the years. At the same time, I also looked at all the gold and silver ingots and ingots that have been minted since the founding of the kingdom. I remember the information about the copper coins, the names of all the casters, and even the director of the local treasury."

This person is terrible and never forgets his skills, she has a deep understanding, so she held the half of the silver ingot in her hand and looked at it, and said to herself: "Is this still a privately cast silver ingot?"

But then she shook her head and overturned the speculation: "If it is privately cast, it will definitely cast the owner's name, and will not fake the envoy of the inner library-unless this is the kind of fake silver ingot filled with lead in the market."

"No, this silver ingot is split from it, and the fracture is all pure silver. From the weight point of view, there is no deviation." Li Shubai looked at her contemplative expression and raised four fingers. "It seems that this is also a need. What to pay attention to—half a silver ingot of unknown origin."

"Why is it half?" Huang Zixian muttered to herself, feeling that the possibility of a breakthrough in this area is still relatively slim, so she first placed the silver ingot next to the leaf vein gold hairpin, and then looked up at him, "Next , What are you going to do?"

"Speaking of this, I do have something to prepare. Tomorrow a group of envoys from Tubo will enter Beijing, and the Ministry of Rites asks me to help them come forward to receive them." He stood up and brushed the hem of his clothes lightly. "I said it at the beginning. It's all over to you, and now I have come to the worst step that I had anticipated. You need to be responsible for the proper resolution of this matter-at least, you must also know how people are missing."

Huang Zixia stood up with him: "Am I alone?"

"The Inner Court and Dali Temple will definitely intervene. I will talk to them at that time and let you participate at all times-by the way, if you find a corpse or something, go to Zhou Ziqin."

The corners of Huang Zixian's mouth twitched slightly—the prospective princess who was about to marry him in seven days, disappeared in front of him in an instant. He actually cared about the appearance of the corpse first, who was this!

What's lying in front of me seems to be a clueless mess, with thread everywhere, and an iron plate everywhere, there is no way to start.

Huang Zixian returned to the Yongchun Temple, rummaged through all the corners, and imagined countless ways to get out of the window or the hall door.

The queen’s clan sister, Princess Zhunkui mysteriously disappeared in the palace, and the inner court was helpless. Under the instruction of the Queen, the Hou Court not only conducted a thorough search in the Yongchun Palace but also in the Daming Palace, but the result of nothing seemed to be doomed. It is naturally impossible to demolish the Yongchun Hall, but after all the furniture and decorations in it have been removed, they were checked closely by combing the grate, and there was still nothing. Soon, Cui Chunzhan, Shaoqing of Dali Temple, also brought a group of senior officials and governors into the Daming Palace and began a thorough review.

Huang Zixian went to see Cui Chunzhan, Shaoqing of Dali Temple, as ordered by Li Shubai.

She also met Cui Chunzhan before in the Fourth Plan. She was only in her thirties. The Boring Cui family, the descendants of the aristocratic family, and the youngsters, had a kind of spirited demeanor. When Huang Zixia saw him, Wang Yun's shadow appeared in front of him unconsciously, and he felt that the two of them seemed a bit alike.

Because she is a member of the Kui Palace, and having solved unsettled cases before, Cui Chunzhan was very polite to her, and asked her to sit down in front of her and laughed: "Although the father-in-law is young, his ability to reason about cases is really convincing. This time, King Kui asked his father-in-law to participate in this case, and I hope his father-in-law can help."

Huang Zixian said quickly: "If there is something useful for me, I will do my best."