Tang Dynasty detective

Chapter 685 Shadow Play

"Ningxiang, it's time to go behind the scenes and get ready for the show!" The old man glared at her.

"Hey, okay!" Ning Xiang cheerfully responded, and then went behind the scenes to get ready.

"Dangdangdang~"

The sound of a few gongs immediately attracted some onlookers.

The old man coughed a few times, then cupped his hands and said to everyone, "Fathers and folks in Chang'an City, the youngest old man's surname is Chen, and he is the leader of this Chen's troupe. My Chen's troupe makes a living performing shadow puppetry. I just arrived in the capital. , to present a shadow puppet show for everyone. Folks, if you have money, you can buy a money show, but if you don’t have money, you can buy a personal show. The Chinese New Year is coming, so it’s time to make it lively!"

"Master, which part shall we play this time?" asked the young man following the old man.

The old man Chen said with a smile: "You folks in Chang'an City are well-informed, and you must have seen all kinds of shadow puppets. But our Chen family class must be different. We don't perform what others have performed. If we want to perform I have never seen it before! Today, let’s play a new story for you folks!”

"Do you have any new stories? Hurry up and start! I like listening to stories the most!"

"Yes! Yes! I haven't seen a shadow puppet show in a long time, and I didn't expect to be bumped into it today!"

Someone in the crowd shouted impatiently.

Old man Chen stroked his beard and said with a chuckle, "Okay, let's start the performance now!"

With the sound of a gong, the shadow puppetry officially began.

On the curtain, first a silhouette of a house appeared, and then a man with a big belly appeared, who seemed to be the owner of the house.

"The master's surname is Zhang Dan, and his family name is far away. He lives in Fugui Garden. There are tens of thousands of fertile fields in his family, and his wives and concubines live happily together."

Accompanied by the sound, the shadow puppet on the curtain made an exaggerated eastward march, which was very lifelike.

"Oh, sir, my family is rich, but recently I encountered a troublesome thing. It's a long story to say why it's bothering you."

Accompanied by the sound of gongs and drums, the shadow puppet continued: "My lord, I have newly married a concubine, and I want to build a new attic for the concubine next to the manor, but that land of geomantic omen is owned by a poor and humble tenant. My lord, I If you buy it with money, you can get it, but if this is the case, wouldn’t I lose my status, master? Well, master, I have to think carefully and see how I can get this geomantic treasure without spending a single coin. Hehehe."

With a burst of sinister laughter, the scene began to change.

A silhouette of a farm field, two small children.

"Sister, I'm hungry..." The boy bit his finger.

The girl patted the boy and said, "My brother is good, there will be something to eat when parents come back."

"Hungry... woo woo!" The boy seemed to be so hungry that he burst into tears.

The girl hurriedly comforted the boy, but the boy was still crying.

After a while, the girl seemed to think of something, hurriedly pointed to the field, and said excitedly: "Brother, let's go to the field to find snails to eat!"

Hearing that there was food, the boy stopped crying immediately, and ran into the field hand in hand with the girl, grabbed the snails and ate them.

……

The scenes changed one after another, and there were more and more people watching.

The scene returns to the Zhang Family Courtyard again.

Zhang Yuan was sitting on a chair, while the boys and girls were kneeling on the ground.

"Let me ask you, did you steal the big white goose from the master's house?" Zhang Yuan asked.

"No...we didn't eat geese..." The girl's voice trembled.

"Hmph, I didn't eat the goose from the master's house, why did the goose from the master's house disappear? Boy, tell me, what did you eat for lunch?" Zhang Yuan shook his sleeves and asked the boy sharply.

The boy seemed to have been greatly frightened, and he almost cried, "I...I...."

However, Zhang Yuan didn't give the boy a chance to continue talking. He jumped up from the chair and said with a smirk: "Goose? Goose? That's true. Master, I knew you were the one who ate the goose! Come on!" , Send this thief boy to the government, master, I want him to pay for his life! Ahahaha!"

Seeing this, a burst of cursing suddenly broke out among the crowd.

"This Zhang Yuan is clearly trying to find fault. The child just said 'I', but he was twisted into a goose?"

"Damn it, this guy surnamed Zhang is so worthless! In order to get the land, he actually wronged a child?"

"In my opinion, this story is not over yet, let's read on!"

……

The scene changed again, and the background turned into a shrine.

There are a few onlookers in front of the ancestral hall, and besides the boy and girl, there is also a woman in the silhouette.

The woman first bowed to the crowd, then knelt down to the ancestral hall, and cried: "Fellow folks, the master of the Zhang family wronged my son for stealing the goose. The gods are the masters! If I really stole the big goose from the Zhang family, I will die! If I am wronged, I beg the gods to avenge the women!"

After the woman finished speaking, she lifted the knife and cut open the boy's belly!

The onlookers suddenly screamed.

"God is sorry! There is only snail meat in the child's belly, but no goose meat. The little lady is wronged!"

With a sound of injustice, the woman killed herself with a knife.

Blood seemed to be sprayed out through the curtain.

The shrill cry echoed in everyone's ears.

Lin Xiaomei was staring straight at the curtain, her big black eyes actually shed two lines of blood and tears at this moment!
She is most familiar with this shadow puppet show, which is obviously based on what happened to her.

The scenes she had experienced once again appeared in front of her eyes, and Xiaomei Lin felt like a knife was twisting her heart.

She climbed on the table, in order not to let herself cry, she bit her arm so hard that there was a deep bite on her arm, and blood slid down her white and tender arm, but she didn't respond.

"Damn it! I can't stand it anymore! This one is not as good as a beast! If I meet him, I will kill him!"

"Wuuu... Poor little sister, mother and brother died in front of her, I really don't know how she should live?"

"Why is there always so much injustice in this world? The Lin family suffered such injustice, so there is nowhere to redress the injustice?"

……

The story continues. Finally, a senior official came to the town again. After hearing what happened to the Lin family, he tried to avenge him and successfully arrested Zhang Yuan.

However, what everyone did not expect was that the high official did not execute Zhang Yuan, or even put him in jail.

"Team leader, what kind of nonsense story are you talking about? Tell me why Zhang Yuan was not punished?" Among the crowd watching, someone shouted dissatisfied.

"This judge doesn't know something. It is said that Zhang Yuan made meritorious deeds and turned them into crimes. That's why he wasn't imprisoned." The class leader put down the erhu and sighed.

"Hmph, Zhang Yuan is so vile, what kind of merits can he do to offset his sins? I think it's the official who took the silver taels surnamed Zhang!"

(End of this chapter)