The Golden Hairpin

Wei Baoheng looked at the closed gate of Zhijin Garden, with a complex expression of surprise and sorrow on his face, and then shook his head: "This courtyard, the princess has been closed for people. It is said that it is the wandering spirit inside. It will be ten years later. clear……"

"But now the princess has passed away, isn't she?" Huang Zixia asked, looking at Princess Tongchang's seal on the door seal.

"However... it's just a garden that has been abandoned for many days, and there are rumors. I think..." Wei Baoheng looked at Li Shubai, but Li Shubai said: "The bananas are coming out of the wall, and the sound of water is gurgling. Take a look."

Wei Baoheng didn't say anything anymore, and let the people behind him look for the key. After a while, the garden gate was opened.

Sure enough, it is a garden suitable for summer, and when the door is opened, you can feel the shade. There are plantains planted all over the place, and the water flows windingly around the small pavilions in the garden, and the shallow water is full of water lilies and calamus. At this time, it was claustrophobic for too long, the grass was blooming on the shore, and the water was full of duckweed, a quiet solid green.

"Such a good garden, it's a pity to be empty." Li Shubai said, walking in first. Wei Baoheng hesitated, and finally followed him in.

Li Shubai walked to the pool and turned to ask Wei Baoheng: "Why does Tongchang want to close this garden?"

"Because... the previous month someone fell into the water and died in the garden."

"The maid in the garden?"

"Yes..." He stared at the water blankly and said.

"In the palace?" Li Shubai asked again.

Seeing that he was always asking about this topic, Wei Baoheng knew that he couldn't get around, so he could only say: "No, it's the maid I brought from home. She has been by my side since childhood. Her name is...Cardamom."

"I heard other people say that the cardamom of the consort is very well drawn."

"Yes, Cardamom grew up with me since I was a child. She is to me... like a mother as a sister."

Li Shubai watched the wind blow away the duckweed on the surface of the pool, revealing the shallow water below. He groaned and asked: "She has always served by your side, so why did she suddenly fall into the water and die here?"

Wei Baoheng bit his lower lip for a long time before he said: "The man in the Fuzhong said that she came here because she was fascinated by the ghosts in the garden..."

"You know, it's not like that." Li Shubai shook his head, "The princess has passed away. You want to avoid taboos for the deceased. I can understand. But now that the matter is over, the emperor asked Yang Chonggu to investigate the matter thoroughly. There is a problem. , We have to ask, don’t mind if you still want to be the boss."

Wei Baoheng suddenly changed his face and said, "But...but I still don't know why Cardamom died."

"But you know who the murderer is, don't you?" Huang Zixia asked.

Wei Baoheng was suddenly pierced by the secret in her heart, and suddenly took a step back, staring at her in a daze, unable to speak.

"Wei Yuma, in order to avenge the cardamom, you wrote and acted in this scene, and brought everyone's attention to the princess's mansion. At present, it seems that you have succeeded." Huang Zixia looked at the shocked expression on his face and sighed. With a sigh of relief, he said: "Originally, I didn't expect this to be the case, but by coincidence, three people have died now, and these three cases seem to be'scourge', based on a painting by the first emperor, three graffiti , The three dead, seem to be a doomed situation ten years ago."

"Heaven's Scourge..." Wei Baoheng murmured.

"Yes, in the three cases, people can't find a way to kill people at the moment. The best explanation is to use the first emperor's pen to say that it was a condemnation or a curse. And in that painting, there is no conspiracy. The existence of the horse falling. Therefore, although your case made Princess Tongchang guilty and afraid, and the emperor ordered us to pay attention to the princess mansion and investigate the case related to the princess mansion, but after searching and comparing, I feel that you are The case should be separated from other cases and not connected in any way."

Wei Baoheng looked at her silently, without excuse or confession.

"First, your case did not appear on the painting, which means that the murderer did not take you into consideration at the beginning; Slightly injured, it is completely different from the murderer's extremely stable and ruthless method, obviously not the same person's hand. As for the third..."

Huang Zixia stared at him, sighed softly, and said: "You are not directly related to Lu Dicui's tragedy. From this point of view, you are innocent and should not be affected."

Wei Baoheng pursed his lips and looked at her, before asking for a long time: "Why do you think that I made up and acted the accident of kicking the ball by myself?"

"On the surface, it is difficult for human factors to cause an accident in that kick. After all, your horse was led casually by yourself. Even if an accident occurs, it should be just a coincidence, or someone indiscriminately destroys it. You met only because of bad luck-but there is one person who can make you no matter which horse you choose, you can have no big or small accidents, and you can control it at any time and be prepared for it early, right?" Huang Zixia stared at him and said, "And that person is you."

Wei Baoheng lowered his eyes to avoid her gaze, turned to look at the sporadic water lilies on the water, and asked, "Where is the evidence?"

"The evidence is the horseshoe. The steel nails on it have just been pried off. If the nails were moved before the game, the place where the nails passed must have been rusty or dusty. When the horses are running, others can’t start, and the only rest period when there is a chance, because of King Kui’s evil spirits, all the horses are huddled aside, even the people adding water and fodder can’t get close, so that you can’t get close. Fishing in troubled waters, on the contrary, cleared all the suspicions of other people."

Wei Baoheng twitched the corners of his mouth very ugly, smiled reluctantly, and asked, "You said that, did you see what I did to my horseshoe?"

"You don’t need to deliberately do it. Because at the time, the consort was still holding a polo stick. The consort was able to manipulate the cue freely and control the horse very well. At the moment of enthusiastic shouting, while everyone’s eyes were on the ball, the sound of cheering suppressed everything. While your horseman was hissing, you slashed the raised right front with a polo stick. With the hoof, the front of the horseshoe will naturally be hit and lifted. The nails on it will loosen, and the horseshoe will be lifted immediately. When it runs, it will trip over and break its legs, creating the illusion that someone else will hit you."

Wei Baoheng still stared at the listless water lilies on the water, his voice was vain and trance: "Daddy Yang, you said, I intentionally injured myself on the court for what?"

"It's because of cardamom, isn't it?" Huang Zixia stood behind him, her voice as calm as before: "I was at Chef Changpu's place. After hearing about cardamom, I noticed one thing-you live in a horse. The maid of Suwei Garden died in Zhijin Garden, which is quite far away from Suwei Garden. After her death, no one else in the mansion responded, but she was the princess who had been living in the Qiyun Pavilion at the other end, saying that there was someone in the middle of the night. Weeping, ordered people to seal the Zhijin Garden——"

She cast her gaze into the shallow water together with Wei Baoheng, and whispered: "Moreover, the pond in this garden is so shallow that it can't even plant lotus flowers. You can only plant water lilies, and you will drown here alone. , I am afraid it will be difficult too."

"So, everyone said that they were fascinated by ghosts and dragged on." Wei Baoheng finally spoke, the tiredness and sorrow that could not be concealed in his tone, "I know it's not like this. But I can't help it, I... A waste that even the one you like can't protect..."

Huang Zixia lowered his eyes, silent, and said nothing.

"I had no ambitions since I was a child. I didn’t have any talent until I grew up. I didn’t have any strengths other than playing polo. Cardamom was ten years older than me. I often persuaded me that the writing is fine, anyway. It’s okay to practice. So I was angry for three months, and only wrote her name. Those two words really did well..." He said, with a vague smile on his face, his eyes fixed on There is nothing in the sky, as if looking at the young and ignorant self at that time, cherish and regret, "When I was eight years old, my father once said that he would grant cardamom to others. I succumbed. I have occupied Cardamom for more than 20 years. Now I want to come. If Cardamom is married then, she must be... much better than by my side..."

Li Shubai frowned and interrupted him, and said, "But you married Princess Tongchang and missed another person."

"What can I do? I just played a game of polo. Seeing a woman on the sidelines looking at me all the time, she waved her stick and smiled at her. Who knew that after a few days there was an order from the palace and said The emperor wants to marry Princess Tongchang to me-at that time I couldn't even enter the Hanlin Academy, but it has only been a short year, and I am now the Minister of War, a matter of the same kind!" Wei Baoheng asked eagerly. , As if to defend himself, "Prince Kui, maybe you have these since you were born, and you don’t care at all. But for an ordinary man, marrying a wife and having a splendid future, he can even pay homage to the prime minister in one or two years, you can imagine Would anyone refuse such a thing?"

"But you want too much, Wei Shubai." Li Shubai slowly shook his head and said, "You brought cardamom to the princess's mansion, where do you put the princess? And you know that there is little chance that the princess will share her husband with others, but Let the cardamom be in danger, and where do you put the cardamom?"

"Yes...my parents said the same. But I...I really can't let her go. When the princess found cardamom, I knelt on the ground and pleaded with her, and asked her to tolerate cardamom. She agreed to me, but turned her head. Cardamom died here... In such a shallow pool, how could she die even if she stumbled and fell into the water? The only possibility is that she was suffocated to death by being pressed her head in the mud in the pool..."

When he said this, he stared at the green grass beside the pool in a daze, his throat choked, his breathing was heavy, and he couldn't speak anymore.

Huang Zixia only feels that her heart is complicated, and she doesn't know whether to sympathize with his affection for cardamom, or to abandon his cowardice towards Princess Tongchang.

I heard Li Shubai’s voice, and the always calm voice also carried an icy meaning: "Wei Luma, you know that the princess has a congenital illness. It happened when Wei Ximin died tragically and she dreamed that Concubine Pan Shubai asked for Jiluanchai, but It will make the situation worse, creating a false illusion of crisis again by her side. This king suspects that when the so-called cardamom is uneasy, and when the devil may cry in the middle of the night, you are pretending to be a ghost, trying to defeat the princess and avenge the cardamom, right?"

"I just wanted to scare her, I didn't want to kill her... I really just wanted to scare her..." Wei Baoheng shook his head blankly, "As long as I am Princess Tongchang, I have a very promising future, and the princess dies. What good is it for me? You say, what good is it for me?"

"What the Ma Ma did is not just to scare the princess." Huang Zixia couldn't help but said, "You have some tricks on the polo field, so that the princess, who is sleeping and eating, asks the emperor to send someone into the house to investigate. When we were investigating this matter, you deliberately pointed all the spears and clues to the death of cardamom. Do you want to make use of it?"

Hearing her merciless words, Wei Baoheng looked at the deep and shallow green in the Zhijin Garden for a long time, finally took a deep breath and said: "The princess...she is the jewel in the hands of the emperor, the proud girl of heaven, and her personality is naturally fierce. When she first discovered my relationship with Cardamom, she was very angry, but I pleaded bitterly. When she saw that Cardamom was old and knew that she had been taking care of me when she grew up, she let it go. Later, after Cardamom died, I once looked at the accounts of the Fuzhong and found that she was sending someone to find a small house outside for Cardamom, and only when the arrangement was done there, she would send Cardamom there." Wei Baoheng said at this moment, finally shedding tears in a dazed voice, and whispered, "The princess... is not really a bad person. Although she has a bad temper, she is already preparing to send the cardamom out of the house, so why kill her here?"

Li Shubai and Huang Zixia looked at each other silently, and Li Shubai asked, "So, the one who killed Cardamom was not the princess?"

"I don't think she is... but she is the one who can let the princess take over this matter."

He didn't say anything, but Li Shubai and Huang Zixia both knew who he was referring to in an instant.