The Golden Hairpin

The purple flowers in Suwei Garden are still in full bloom, and the blooming crape myrtle flowers show a strong sense of summer under the scorching sunlight that has just risen.

Madam Wei Baoheng was complaining to Li Shubai: "Master, you know, it's not that I don't serve the princess. It's because my husband is sluggish. If the princess doesn't call me, how can I go? I'm willing to serve tea and pour water. , But the princess would rather listen to Yu Xuezheng, the Supervisor of the Imperial College, telling Zhou rituals!"

When he said this, seeing the **** leading Huang Zixia in, with an awkward smile on his face, he raised his hand at her: "Duke Yang."

"I have seen Wei Fu Ma." After she saluted, she stood behind Li Shubai.

Li Shubai gently put the topic aside, and only said: "Recently, a lot of strange things seem to have happened in the princess's mansion."

"Yeah...Wei Ximin is dead. I had an accident playing polo. Now... the princess's most cherished Jiuluan hairpin has disappeared strangely." Something is making waves..."

Li Shubai asked: "What is it?"

"It's... the thing about Zhijinyuan." He looked at Huang Zixian and asked, "Has Grandpa Yang also heard the rumors in the mansion?"

Huang Zixian nodded and asked, "Does it mean that the cardamom beside the horse drowned in Zhijin Garden inexplicably?"

"Yeah..." He nodded silently, a touch of almost imperceptible sadness flashed in his eyes, but he immediately turned his head out of the window, looking at the crape myrtle flowers blooming in the sun, his voice was still calm, "self. After that, Zhijinyuan was closed because of Devil May Cry in the night, but it seems that from then on, strange things have always happened in the mansion... Just like the princess dreamed that her nine-luan hairpin was missing, and as a result, her nine-luan hairpin was missing. It really disappeared. You said, isn't it a weird thing that such a thing can disappear under such a tight guard?"

Huang Zixia nodded and said, "It is true, it should be impossible to look at it."

"So... I'm also thinking, is it because the cardamom's injustice is making waves?" Wei Baoheng said thoughtfully, "maybe only ghosts can make Jiuluanchai disappear suddenly in that situation."

"Wei Luma thinks that the cardamom, who has served you for more than ten years since childhood, knows that you will be called a ghost after death, will it be sad?" Huang Zixia asked.

Wei Baoheng was stunned, and then said softly: "Perhaps... if she died wrongly and painfully."

Huang Zixia was silent. Li Shubai said: "We will put aside the matter of strange power and chaos for the time being. I want to ask the consort one thing first. Where were you at noon yesterday?"

Wei Baoheng was startled slightly, and then replied: "I am in Daningfang at noon."

"I don't know what's the matter for the consort to go to Daningfang?"

"The Xingtang Temple in Daningfang presides over Wuyin. He is a great monk. I asked him to recite the sutras because of something happened in the mansion recently." He recalled and said clearly, "Make an appointment with Wuyin. After days, I went around the temple a few times and I realized it was too late. When I came out, I heard that there was a homicide case in the Fangzhong. I went to see it and saw that Dali Temple had been investigated, so I went back home by myself."

Huang Zixian asked: "I don't know who he met when he was walking around in the temple?"

Wei Baoheng shook his head and said, "It's not the first fifteenth day of the new year. There are few pilgrims. I went around in the backyard for a while and didn't meet anyone."

"What about after?" Li Shubai asked slowly, "Before you leave Daningfang and return to your home."

Wei Baoheng looked at him in amazement and asked: "The prince meant..."

"I saw you in Daningfang when I returned from the Yamen yesterday." Li Shubai didn't hide it, and lightly said, "You and that Lu Dicui are talking."

Wei Baoheng's expression finally changed. He did not expect that what he said in Daningfang and Di Cui would actually fall into their ears.

His face was flushed and white, but finally he nodded and admitted: "Yes...before, I met her when I went to settle the matter."

"But you don't seem to behave like you've only met her once." Li Shubai was still cold, but merciless.

Wei Baoheng let out a sigh of relief and said, "Yes... After all, the Princess Mansion owes her. I want to treat her better."

Li Shubai looked at him coldly and did not speak.

"Is it because I appeared in Daningfang and said a few words to Lv Dicui, the prince thought that I was related to the death of that Sun Leizi?" He finally couldn't help but eagerly opened his mouth to defend himself, "Master, you I think I will go to Daningfang alone to kill a sick ghost covered in sores? As long as I give a command, that Sun Laizi has a hundred ways to die, don't you think?"

Li Shubai leaned back on the chair and looked at Wei Baoheng, who jumped up and rushed to argue. He didn't even blink his eyelashes: "Wei Ma, you are so worried. The women’s meeting seems to be ill-considered."

Wei Baoheng was stunned, then sat down again without strength, and whispered: "Yes...remember the prince's teachings."

Haunted for a long time in the princess's mansion, and the sky was full of Caixia again.

The prince personally escorted them to the outside of Suwei Garden, and then said a little nervously: "The lord, go slowly, I will first go and see if the princess needs me."

Li Shubai nodded and said: "Go, there have been so many things in the Fuzhong area recently. You must take good care of the princess. It is best not to go out or meet with outsiders."

"Yes." Wei Baoheng was respectful and responded one by one.

Huang Zixia followed Li Shubai and walked along the path to the corner door.

Yongjiafang, where King Kui’s mansion is located, is not far from the princess mansion, passing through Xingningfang to arrive. The princess mansion is in the sixteenth king's residence in the northeast corner of Chang'an. Exiting from the southwest corner gate, it leads to the various squares of Chang'an City.

Seeing the bright sunset in the sky, the two couldn't help slowing down, and regardless of the carriages of the Kui Palace waiting for them, they walked slowly in the princess's mansion.

The most well-known wealthy mansion in Chang'an City, in the afterglow of the setting sun, the colors of golden, green, vermilion and purple complement each other. The small pavilions on high platforms and the curving corridors are like the blurred and imaginary Penglai fairy mountains and Yingzhou islands where immortals live.

However, the people who live there seem to be suffering and melancholy. So, is such a gorgeous pavilion a waste?

Huang Zixian was thinking, listening to Li Shubai whispering: "Yesterday Daningfang, as the husband said, it was very lively."

Huang Zixia heard him suddenly mention the matter of yesterday, she couldn't help turning her head to look at him, and nodded.

"When Sun Leizi died, all the relevant people gathered in Daningfang-Zhang Xingying, Lu Dicui, Lu Zhiyuan, Qian Guansuo, and...Wei Luma."

"What's more rare is that everyone has a reason to kill." Huang Zixia said.

"Well, but I think you must have noticed it too. From the very beginning, the consort has directed our eyes to the cardamom, what do you think his intention is?"

Huang Zixia nodded and said: "When I first went to the princess's mansion, the horse was in front of me and Cui Shaoqing, and deliberately looked at the cardamom paintings and poems on the wall, which attracted my attention and logically led to the death of cardamom in Fuzhong. ."

"But I have already heard that there is indeed a maid beside him, who is ten years older than him, named Cardamom." Li Shubai stopped, stopped on the deserted bluestone path, and whispered, "Take care of him since childhood. Growing up, moreover, Ma Ma insisted on not letting her marry, even if she went to the princess's mansion, she must be taken with her-last month, she drowned in a small pond in the Zhijin Garden."

Huang Zixia thoughtfully nodded and said, "Changpu said the same to me."

"There is one more thing, maybe you don't know." Li Shubai looked at the lush grass in front of him. The little summer flowers on it were blooming brilliantly, but they were withered in the scorching sunlight, unattended, "There are sisters in the cardamom family. More than a dozen people, because their elder brother could not afford to marry a wife, so they signed a **** to the Wei mansion at the age of twelve. She was smart and well-behaved, and went to Wei Luma the next year to take care of Wei Luma, who was only three years old. Twenty years later, She went from a low-level girl to the most important person around her, but she didn't have any savings, because she has seven blood-sucking elder brothers, and every family needs her to support."

Huang Zixia nodded silently and heard Li Shubai say again: "Her eldest sister is more than twenty years older than her. After she entered the Wei Mansion as a girl, the eldest sister died of dystocia, leaving only one daughter named Lu Dicui."

Huang Zixian looked up at him in amazement, and asked, "So are they in touch?"

"No. Cardamom has raised her brothers for so many years, because she has always believed that the brothers are her own family members, and the sister who married is already a foreigner-not to mention, the eldest sister is so much older than her, she was the eldest sister before she was born. Married to Lu Zhiyuan, the two didn’t even have many chances to meet each other. After Lu Dicui’s mother died of dystocia, those uncles themselves were all lazy masters. How could they care about the orphaned girl left by the older sister. I guess, Cardamom probably never saw this niece."

Huang Zixian nodded, thoughtfully: "Dicui's mother and Cardamom are sisters. Perhaps this niece looks a bit like her aunt. This is why the princess suddenly felt uncomfortable when she saw her, and she was beaten out. s reason."

"So the death of Cardamom must have something to do with the princess."

Huang Zixian frowned and said, "A lot of people have seen this, but when talking about cardamom for the first time, why did Ma Ma deliberately tell me a lie like Phi?"

"It seems that you have a good way to solve the case, but you are not familiar with the court." Li Shubai said lightly, "At that time, Cui Shaoqing went with you. Judging from the princess's unusual attitude towards Di Cui, there must be something unusual between the princess and the cardamom. Relationship, maybe he wants to remind you, but Shaoqing of Dali Temple, who walked through the scene under the guise, why should he know these scandals?"

Huang Zixia asked again: "Does Lu Zhiyuan know about cardamom?"

"The candle that Lu Zhiyuan took to the Princess' Mansion has nothing to do with Cardamom. If you know someone like him, do you think he would not come to Cardamom to benefit?" Li Shubai stared at her, and the corners of his lips also floated up. Youruuowu smiled and said: "The relationship between people is very interesting, isn't it?"

Huang Zixia was silent, the two stopped talking, and slowly walked out of the princess mansion. Looking at the front is the corner gate, outside is the residence of the kings and senior officials, and the deep-walled compound is quiet.

As they walked to the corner near the corner gate, they saw a person passing by the side gate.

Yu Xuan.

She thought he had left long ago, but she didn't know that he hadn't left until now, and he was right in front of her impartially.

Unconsciously, her footsteps stopped for a while, and she fell behind Li Shubai.

Yu Xuan didn't notice them. He seemed to be in a trance, like Yushu's posture, which also seemed to have a slightly vacant footsteps.

Li Shubai slowly looked back at her. Seeing her staring at Yu Xuan blankly, she didn't know whether the expression on her face was shock or sorrow.

"Aren't you curious?" Li Shubai paused, and then said, "Let's go and see what is in his hand."

Huang Zixian responded, and then she came back to her senses, and looked up at him in amazement.

Li Shubai had already walked towards the carriage waiting at the door and said, "I'll talk about it when I return to the house."

Huang Zixian stood there for a while, and finally raised his foot to follow in the direction where Yu Xuan had left.

When she was in Shu, she had followed the prisoner before, and although the pace was slightly chaotic at this time, Yu Xuan in front of her seemed to have a more complicated mood, and she did not pay attention to the people around her at all.

On the corner of this evening, when there was no one, he was walking on the street between Daningfang and Xingningfang. She followed him far behind, and saw what he was holding in his hand, which was a letter. .