Judge of the Lamp

Chapter 59 The woman in the dark room

At dusk, a mouse sneaked into the bedroom, checked its eyes with Xu Zhiqiong, left the few grains of rice it picked up by Xu Zhiqiong's hand, and then got into the mouse hole.

Xu Zhiqiong came back to his soul, he opened it and found that Yan Fengru was sleeping beside him.

It seems that nothing happened last night. Xu Zhiqiong stretched his waist, stretched his long-fettered soul, and prepared to catch up on another sleep. He had just slept for more than half an hour, but he heard someone knock on the door: "Yan Musician, Mr. Xu should go."

Yan Fengru opened her eyes, put on her clothes, put on her shoes, opened the door, and said with a blank expression: "Master, go slowly."

Xu Zhiqiong could understand Yan Fengru's mood, so he didn't dare to say more, so he hurried out of the room.

Wu Xu was waiting at the stairs, Xin Chu held Wu Xu's arm, reluctantly.

Seeing Xu Zhiqiong came out, knowing that Wu Xu was leaving, Xin Chu held Wu Xu's hands and said affectionately, "Mr. Lang, when will you come again?"

Wu Xu smiled slightly and said, "Soon, just wait for me."

The two went downstairs, and when they reached the door, Wu Xu took out a piece of silver and gave it to the doorman.

One ingot of silver was fifty taels, which was what Wu Xu and Xu Zhiqiong spent last night.

how?

Not much.

In a place like Yinggeyuan, one hundred taels is not too much for a pavilion master and a musician.

But the buddy didn't accept Wu Xu's money: "Guest officer, our pavilion master has ordered that we can't accept pollen from you two."

Wu Xu frowned and said, "What's the point?"

The man shook his head and said: "Don't talk to me about reasoning, I only listen to the instructions of the pavilion master."

On the attic, Xin Chu stared at Wu Xu's back in a daze, while Yan Fengru asked beside him, "Is that man so nice?"

Xin Chu sighed, "In the entire Xuan Kingdom, there must be no other man like him."

"What's his name?"

Xin Chu shook her head and said, "He won't say, but I can guess."

Yan Fengru blinked her big eyes and said, "Can you guess all of this? Let's hear it."

Xin Chu smiled: "Why should I tell you? How was that handsome boy with you last night?"

Yan Fengru smiled wryly and said: "He fell asleep, and once he entered my room, he didn't do anything, and went to bed early."

Xin Chu was surprised and said: "I see that young man looks simple and straightforward, did you act too hastily and frightened him?"

"I'm so anxious, I'm so anxious, people don't pay attention to me at all, I'm so fast asleep!" Yan Fengru shook her head again and again, as if feeling unspeakable bitterness.

The two were chatting, when the big butler in the courtyard came to Xin Chu: "Pavilion Master Xin, I have a guest to see you."

Xin Chu frowned and said, "How can this be the time to meet guests?"

The housekeeper stepped forward and whispered: "The guest's surname is Liang, he must see you."

Xin Chu sighed softly, nodded and said, "Let me wash up a bit, and I'll go right away."

……

Wu Xu and Xu Zhiqiong rode horses back to the yamen in a daze.

Xu Zhiqiong didn't sleep all day and all night, and it's reasonable to lose energy. Why is Wu Xu so tired?

Didn't he sing with the pavilion master all night?It should be radiant!

In fact, Wu Xu didn't sleep either. He accompanied Xin Chu to sing songs in the first half of the night, and made Xin Chu fall asleep without resorting to force or drugs.

In the middle of the night, Wu Xu searched all twelve attics of the Music Academy.

He has been eyeing Yinggeyuan for a long time, and brought people to check it several times. This place is really difficult to start with, and there are many omissions in the process of investigation.

The four attics that Xu Zhiqiong checked were all places that had been missed before.

As for the Music Academy, because Wu Xu has no one who is absolutely reliable and understands the rhythm, the entire courtyard has not been checked.

Finally got a chance last night, Wu Xu searched the entire music theater by himself, but there was no clue.

Back at Ming Deng Xuan, Wu Xu yawned and said, "Did you find anything?"

He didn't have any hope for Xu Zhiqiong. It was lucky that Xu Zhiqiong was not found last night, but Xu Zhiqiong nodded and said, "Yes."

Wu Xu was taken aback, seeing Xu Zhiqiong in a daze along the way, but he didn't expect to be rewarded.

"Qianhu, I found a darkroom on the fourth floor of Huaihan Pavilion, just to the east of the owner's house."

Wu Xu looked happy: "How did you find the dark room?"

Xu Zhiqiong had already thought of an excuse: "I estimated the size of the house outside the attic, and after sneaking into the main room of the pavilion, I found that her room is smaller than it looks from the outside."

While speaking, Xu Zhiqiong took a pen and ink and drew the approximate location of the darkroom.

"Judging from the size of the inside and outside, the dark room is here. I looked in the room of the pavilion master. There is a mouse hole in the wall, and the inside is dark, but judging from the sound of the wind, there is a room behind the wall. A house, a big house."

Wu Xu couldn't hide his joy: "My good boy, I believed you once in vain. You entered the room of the pavilion master. Didn't the doorkeeper and the pavilion master notice it?"

This is a weakness. The reason why they didn't notice it was because Xu Zhiqiong was a mouse at the time. Of course, this cannot be told the truth. It was time to enter the attic, and there was no movement in the owner's room."

"I really saw you right!" Wu Xu boiled a pot of hot wine and drank a few glasses with Xu Zhiqiong.

"It's good to rest during the day, and I will watch the night with me tonight."

Xu Zhiqiong said, "Should we still go to Yinggeyuan?"

Wu Xu shook his head and said, "Tonight we have to change to another one. In Daxuan Capital, there are not many places called courtyards. Guess where we are going?"

"A place called the courtyard..." This really caught Xu Zhiqiong's question. A place of this level is not within the level he is familiar with.

While thinking about it, Green Lantern Lang Xiao Songting walked in: "Qianhu, Zeng Shibin, a Hanlin scholar, came to visit."

The Imperial Academy has accepted the decree, the chief official of the Imperial Academy, also known as "Han Chang" and "Bachelor Dean", what is he doing here?

Needless to say, he definitely wanted to find out about the conflict between Wu Xu and Zhou Kairong.

Wu Xu took a sip of mulled wine irritably, he handled the matter so carefully, but there was still a lot of chaos that couldn't be shaken off.

Xu Zhiqiong was still thinking about the question just now. Apart from Yingge Academy, what other places are qualified to be called Academy?

"Does the Imperial Academy count?" Xu Zhiqiong asked sincerely.

Just as Wu Xu spit it out of his mouth, Xiao Songting looked puzzled: "Zhiqiong, what did you just say about the Imperial Academy?"

Xu Zhiqiong said: "Qianhu asked me just now..."

"Zhiqiong," Wu Xu interrupted Xu Zhiqiong, "Go back to the hut to rest first, remember, you are absolutely not allowed to leave the yamen today."

He was not allowed to leave the yamen.

If you don't let you leave the Yamen, you can't punish the evil department, and you can't exchange for meritorious service today.

Xu Zhiqiong lay on the bed in the small house, thinking about what he saw and heard last night.

Thirteen people are imprisoned in secret rooms in Yingge Yuan. Who are they?

What is the purpose of Wu Xu's investigation of Yinggeyuan?
Xu Zhiqiong really wanted to tell Wu Xu about the yin-yang circle in the dark room, but he couldn't because it was unclear.

Xu Zhiqiong wanted to know the truth of the matter very much. He vaguely felt that Wu Xu was fighting against a group of very powerful forces, but he didn't know what Wu Xu's purpose was.

Party struggle?Wu Xu didn't seem to care too much about political affairs.

Personal grievances?Xu Zhiqiong knew nothing about Wu Xu's private life.

Royal order?It is possible for the emperor to issue orders directly to the Lantern Yamen, but Zhong Shen should not be ignorant.

Wu Xu is a trustworthy person, he has helped me, and I should do things for him.

But you have to understand when you do things.

It was early in the morning, many lantern bearers had just returned to the yamen, and Xu Zhiqiong had a good night's sleep in the hut.

In the afternoon, the yamen was completely quiet, Xu Zhiqiong also woke up, and decided to go to the small black room.

He held two things in his hand, one was a rag from Fan Baocai's clothes, and there was still a little white powder on it.This bit of powder was dropped by Liang Yuming on Fan Baocai, Xu Zhiqiong didn't dare to touch it, he suspected that this was the reason why Fan Baocai became a Gu.

The other is the rice grains picked up in the mouse hole last night.

Xu Zhiqiong picked up the rice grains first, and the clues of these few grains of rice are easier to trace.

First of all, there must be a reasonable inference, and then use a sufficiently precise imagination.

These grains of rice were spilled when delivering food. Someone delivered food to people in the dark room. There were a dozen people in total. Food boxes must not be used, and large wooden barrels should be used.

Thinking about the appearance of the rice in the rice bucket, some outlines appeared in front of Xu Zhiqiong's eyes, and Xu Zhiqiong's reasoning was in the right direction.

The screen shook a little at first, but after a tremor, it calmed down completely.

It is also easy to speculate that a person came to the door of the darkroom with a wooden barrel, first put down the wooden barrel, then opened the darkroom, and then lifted the wooden barrel.

You guessed it right, the wooden barrel stabilized for a while, then began to shake again, and after the tremor, it stabilized again.

This person has already entered the dark room and put down the bucket. Is he ready to serve food?

No, the guessed direction is wrong, and the vision is a bit blurred.

After he entered the darkroom, he had to disarm the magic circle before sending the rice in.

What does it look like to lift the magic circle?
Xu Zhiqiong had seen Tong Qingqiu do it, using talisman paper, spells, or medicinal powder. Xu Zhiqiong was imagining when he suddenly heard some voices.

"Squeak ~ squeak ~"

The sound of mice!
Are there mice in the dark room?
of course not.

This was the sound from the screen, and Xu Zhiqiong guessed right again, the man was indeed disarming the magic circle, and the correct direction of reasoning brought him more information.

"Squeak squeak ~"

The sound of the mouse suddenly became urgent, what happened?
Xu Zhiqiong heard crying, and then heard footsteps, a muffled sound, the picture in front of him shook violently, Xu Zhiqiong finally saw the light.

The man dispelled the magic circle, someone ran away, knocked over the rice bucket, and some rice fell on the ground.

The reasoning was completely correct, and the picture in front of him became clearer.

There was actually a lamp in this dark room, and around a dozen women with numb expressions sat around them. They had been imprisoned for an unknown amount of time, and they seemed to have given up the idea of ​​escaping.

One woman didn't give up and ran away, and rushed out when the magic circle was opened, but was caught by the food delivery person.

The man who delivered the meal threw the fleeing woman into the magic circle, rushed up and punched and kicked him very well.

It's not him, it's her.

Although she couldn't see her face from Mi Li's perspective, Xu Zhiqiong was sure that the delivery person was also a woman.

Who is she?
The owner of the Huihan Pavilion?

The woman who escaped was beaten to death. The woman who delivered the food picked up the scattered rice into the rice bucket and threw it among the crowd. Some rice was left on the ground, including the one Xu Zhiqiong held in his hand.

The woman delivering food took out a piece of talisman paper and burned it.

The magic circle was restored, and a dozen women disappeared together with the lamp.

After watching the last scene, Xu Zhiqiong also reached his limit. Exhausted, he fell out of the small black room and returned to the small house.

Lying on the bed, Xu Zhiqiong struggled to breathe, and there were many questions he still couldn't figure out.

Yinggeyuan is an official courtyard opened by the Ministry of Rites. Why are more than a dozen women imprisoned in the official courtyard?
Are these women punished for violating the rules, or are they related to the women who have disappeared in the capital recently?

Is Wu Xu investigating Yinggeyuan to save these women?
Should these things be told to Wu Xu?
What reasonable way should I tell him?

(End of this chapter)