The punishment of the female imperial court

The night is dark and the dew is cool, and swallows are flying on the beams.

The tinkling sound of broken tiles rubbing against each other was carried by the wind, but the people surrounded by the fire in the empty courtyard did not notice it.

People greedily reach out to the warm light in front of them, wanting to embrace it, but are afraid of getting hurt.

A small stone in the fire suddenly exploded, sparks flew everywhere, and everyone got a false alarm and then burst into laughter.

The sparks scattered to the ground and then fell into silence, and Yu Qiansi also landed gently in the house.

From time to time, she could still hear the sporadic laughter and chatter of the night watchmen outside. She held her breath and stood against the wall, waiting for her to get used to the darkness and see the general outlines of various places in the house.

The wooden shelves were placed at the same height as the beams, and each shelf was filled with objects of varying sizes. From here, only the outlines could be seen.

Yu Qiansi walked over quietly and touched them one by one.

These are common medicines.

Think carefully about the pharmacopoeia you have memorized.

That thing easily absorbs moisture and becomes moldy, and it also attracts insects. Longyuan is humid and there are many insects. Naturally, it will not be placed here casually.

Her eyes were drawn to the rows of boxes in the middle of the viaduct.

There was a lot of light-colored powder scattered outside a row of boxes. She used the firelight from the window to distinguish them for a while.

It feels dry to the touch, but becomes slippery and slightly hot when wet.

It's quicklime.

She found the copper wire hidden in her hair, knocked the lock open, and touched a long cylindrical object with an uneven surface and obvious scale-like protrusions. She touched it in circles and found that the scales seemed to be arranged in a spiral shape.

Yu Qiansi's heart was pounding, and she let out a sigh of relief. In the past, when she investigated a case, she always put evidence first and never dared to make any assumptions.

Appearances are most likely to dazzle the eyes and confuse the mind.

But this time, there were too few clues.

What the Lan family did in the imperial mausoleum always made it hard for her to ignore it. Time was limited, so she could only make a bold assumption. If she could confirm this, then everything would be fine.

But if I guessed wrong, then the ten-day period
Thinking of Bo Yi's back, Yu Qiansi shook his head and returned his gaze to the box in front of him.

“What good luck.”

She was right.

She touched her heart and felt the prescription hidden in her arms.

It recorded the medicinal materials that Zhang Yu had found were in short supply in Longyuan recently.

With this, you can be sure of success.

Although she still didn't know why the Lan family did this, as long as she put the evidence in front of them one by one, they would always explain it clearly.

Without further ado, Yu Qiansi took out the cotton bag he had prepared in advance, picked up a small box and wrapped it in the cotton cloth.

Suddenly, everything around me went dark, and even the various outlines in the room could not be distinguished.

Yu Qiansi turned her head and looked over. The fire outside the window was extinguished and the darkness swallowed up the laughter of the night watchmen.

She turned around and leaned against the shelf, frowned and tried her best to look in the direction of the door. Her right hand reached to her waist and grasped the handle of the dagger.

Give your full attention.

Feeling a slight breeze behind her neck, she turned around abruptly, and without thinking, drew out her dagger to block.

She had no idea that someone had been hiding here!
The crisp sound of weapons clashing was particularly clear in the cold night.

The opponent came with great force, and kept slashing at Yu Qiansi's face across a row of shelves.

Yu Qiansi turned around and pushed the herbs on the shelf towards the man with his left hand. While the other party was dodging, he switched the dagger to his left hand and drew out the sword with his right hand.

When the opponent stabs again, the sword and dagger intersect, block the opponent's weapon, and send force downward to jam the opponent's weapon on the rack.

Then he drew out the dagger with his left hand, and when the man tried to take the knife back, he struck the blade hard and then withdrew.

The man was trying his best to draw out the knife, but in his attempt to hold the knife, the huge force hit him so hard that his palm became numb.

But in an instant, Yu Qiansi was one step ahead of him, left the wooden frame, turned around to block his way, and trapped him between two rows of narrow wooden frames.

The situation suddenly reversed.

Yu Qiansi attacked left and right, firmly guarding the open space at the end of the wooden frame, preventing him from using his long sword to its full potential.

The two of them were in a stalemate for a while.

The moon is dim at night, and it is too lazy to give away even a ray of light.

Yu Qiansi couldn't see anything, so she could only hold her breath and wait for him to counterattack. Suddenly, she heard a series of loud crashes from the wooden frame on the left.

She quickly took a step back, heavy dust and wind blew in her face. She covered her mouth and nose, and the sound of breaking wood continued to ring in her ears.

The man somehow managed to bump into a row of wooden frames on one side. After that row of wooden frames fell down, a series of wooden frames were knocked down one after another.

The whole room was filled with dust, adding a layer of thick, stagnant ink to the room where it was difficult to see the five fingers.

The sound of the wooden frame collapsing was followed by the sound of something falling with a patter.

The evidence just now has now been hidden under the wooden frame.

There was such a big commotion just now, but there was no reaction from outside.

It seems that this is indeed a trap.

Yesterday during the day, she heard that all the herbal medicine merchants in the city were discussing that a Taoist priest was buying alum at a high price for use in alchemy.

Buddhism is flourishing nowadays and Taoist temples have long been unable to make ends meet. How could any Taoist have the spare money to buy so much alum to make elixirs and make it known to everyone?

She felt something was wrong at the time.

Therefore, she deliberately asked Zhang Yu to inquire about the dentist and get various medicines from all the pharmacies in Longyuan. Those prescriptions all contained some alum.

On the one hand, it was to confirm his own guess, and on the other hand, it was to alert the enemy.

Those people couldn't find any trace of me, so naturally they could only come up with this method of throwing down bait and waiting for the rabbit.

She put the dagger back on her waist, reached out to take out the tinder, and blew it gently.

In the instant a few sparks flashed, the person opposite seemed to have noticed her thoughts.

In the light and darkness of a few fire stars, the knife moved with the shadow and went towards her left hand.

Yu Qiansi dodged backwards and raised the sword in his right hand to block the attack.

When the other party saw the fire go out, they distanced themselves again.

Yu Qiansi suddenly had an idea and she quickly shook the fire lighter in her left hand again.

Sure enough, the other party attacked her again.

This time, she took advantage of the situation and pretended that her tinderbox was knocked away.

Sure enough, after the fire starter fell to the ground, the man followed with his knife and split the fire starter into several pieces. It was obvious that it was unusable.

Afraid of fire?
Or was he afraid that she might see him?
In the moment when the light suddenly came on, the man was clearly masked, and he was definitely not afraid that I would recognize him.

Yu Qiansi tilted her head in the darkness and smiled so that no one could see.

It's an insider.

It is because he knows that she can intercept the opponent's traitor by observing their moves.

"Sir, it seems you are an acquaintance." Yu Qiansi faced the darkness and asked with a cold smile.

The person on the other side neither answered nor made any move.

He would only take action when Yu Qiansi wanted to leave or tried to see the environment inside the house clearly.

It seems that he wants to trap her here and delay time.

"If you are unwilling to tell the truth, I will take action."

She raised her left hand again, holding something in her hand and wanted to throw it out of the window.

The man seemed to be very afraid of Yu Qiansi's action. He immediately made a move, trying to intercept what Yu Qiansi threw out.

Yu Qiansi took the opportunity to dodge, pulled out a dagger from his waist with his left hand, and slashed with it, injuring his arm.

The man groaned and distanced himself again.

She shook the dagger in her hand, and drops of blood fell to the ground and dissolved into the silent darkness.

"Do you think that I can't do anything just because I can't see your moves?"

As long as he was a traitor, he would naturally be afraid that she would throw out the letter and attract more people. If he tried to stop her, that would be the end of him.

"Master Yu, it's really amazing," the man in black deliberately lowered his voice and laughed in a low voice: "It's just a pity."

There was a flickering light outside the window, high up in the air, as if a large group of people were approaching.

"Don't worry, Master Yu. I will ask them to spare your life."

Yu Qiansi stared out the window, frowning and silent. (End of this chapter)