When they came out of the palace, the sky was already painted with a trace of twilight, Cheng Muyou and Yan Niang got into the carriage that had been waiting outside the door for a long time, sat face to face, silent to each other, and did not say a word.
The carriage walked along the long street for about half an hour, and the night was thick, and the sunset finally could not withstand the tempering of time, and fell outside the city gate of Bianliang City.
When the last trace of afterglow was swallowed up by the distant mountain top, Yan Niang finally broke the deathly silence in the carriage first, she looked at Cheng Muyou's slightly solemn side face, and asked softly, "Official, when you leave the palace, you will have a lot of worries, it is better to say it and let me share your worries." ” Cheng Muyou looked at Yan Niang's face, in the dark, her deep eyes were shining, like twinkling stars in the night sky.
He stared into her eyes and said word by word, "Madam, today we went to the Zhu family and the Wang Mansion, the Zhu family was the first family to buy barnacles, and later, she was transferred to the Wang family by Zhu Gongzi.
Madame, do you remember, how did Zhu Gongzi and Lord Wang describe barnacles to us?
” Yan Niang raised her eyebrows and said softly, "Zhu Gongzi took her into the mansion because of her beauty, and he said that when he went to Yangzhou, he fell in love with barnacles at a glance, because she was the most outstanding of those moth girls. ” But such a peerless beauty was transferred to Wang Gongzi by him for a few hundred taels of silver.
The Zhu family is in business, and there is no shortage of silver in the family, but why is he willing to sell his concubine to others. ” "Then Zhu Gongzi's statement to the Wang family is that because he owes Wang Gongzi money, he doesn't dare to ask the family's dominatrix for money, so he sold the barnacles to Wang Gongzi to pay off the debt.
But when we left the Zhu family, we found the descendants of the Zhu family to inquire, and their statements were different from those of Zhu Gongzi. ” Cheng Muyou nodded slightly, "That's right, Zhu Gongzi didn't dare to tell the truth for fear of being implicated in this matter."
And the real reason why he sold barnacles to Wang Gongzi was the word 'fear'.
The people in Zhu's house said that when Barnacle first came to Zhu's house, Zhu Gongzi loved her in every way, but later, he began to be estranged.
Because every time he had fun with the barnacles, her eyes were cold, cold.
Zhu Gongzi even once told others after drinking that every time he went to the barnacle's room, he had to carefully check it, and only after taking away the scissors and hairpins in it did he dare to do things with her.
For though he was infatuated with her body, he was afraid that she would kill herself.
Later, this feeling became stronger and stronger, and he reluctantly sold the barnacles to the Wang family. ” Yan Niang continued, "The next person also said that after the barnacles left, Zhu Gongzi said a sentence: Some people's hearts are cold, and they can't warm them up. ” "That's right, later, the barnacles arrived at the king's house, and according to the king, because he and the prince did not live together, they met with the barnacles a few times.
However, he was impressed by her in just a few faces. ” "Lord Wang's statement is the same as that of the Zhu family, he said that the girl is not close to anyone, even if she is obedient on the surface, he can see the resentment and coldness in her heart.
Lord Wang also said that he had persuaded Wang Gongzi several times not to leave barnacles in the mansion, but Wang Gongzi was dazzled by beauty and did not listen to his persuasion at all.
So later, that kind of tragedy happened. ” Cheng Mu nomadic head, "Lord Wang also said a detail, a few days before the incident, the horse raised in the prince's mansion was killed, the mare was still pregnant with a belly, and was stabbed many times, and the pony in the belly was also cut out, and it was also killed by several knives.
At that time, he suspected that the barnacles had done this, but the prince whipped her and asked nothing, and finally the matter was closed. ” Yan Niang stared at Cheng Muyou for a long time, and then said slowly, "What do you mean by your lordship, this barnacle is ruthless, and it is definitely not an ordinary woman?"
” Cheng Muyou also looked at her, and there was a hint of chill in his voice, "I was thinking, since Barnacle has already killed the two of them, with her personality, I'm afraid she won't easily let go of the Ya Po who sold her to the Zhu Mansion." ” Yan Niang blinked a few times, "On the surface, the old lady Dong was killed by Dong Zongyuan, but Dong Zongyuan has already self-immolated to death, and there are a lot of combustibles piled up around him, so the suspicions in this matter are indeed difficult to eliminate." ” As soon as he said this, he suddenly heard a rapid sound of horses' hooves in front of him, and then Shi Fei's panicked voice came into the carriage, "My lord, my lord, Miss Jiang is missing." ” Cheng Muyou was shocked, and hurriedly stopped the carriage, opened the curtain and walked down with Yan Niang.
He looked at Shi Fei, who was panting and getting off the horse, and asked urgently, "What's the matter?"
Didn't find a pity?
” Shi Fei didn't even bother to wipe it, so he said to him, "My lord, my subordinates went to Yushan Village to look for Miss Jiang according to your instructions, but a few of us searched the village and didn't find her figure.
Cheng Muyou clenched his fists, "Have you gone to Dong's house and asked?"
” Shi Fei nodded heavily, "Not only did I ask, but I also looked for it myself at Dong's house, and Mrs.
Dong said that she hadn't seen Miss Jiang, let alone where she went." ” As soon as they returned to Xin'an, Cheng Muyou and his entourage went to Yushan Village non-stop, and when they arrived at the entrance of the village, Yan Niang did not go in with them, but walked alone along the path outside the village towards the deep mountains.
Cheng Muyou knew that she had other plans, so he didn't ask too much, and walked into the village with Shi Fei.
After a night of traveling, it was now close to dawn, and the heavy canopy of the sky was slowly retreating behind it, and the gray-blue morning light stained the distant mountains in the east.
However, Yushan Village has not yet woken up from its slumber, except for the occasional dog barking and rooster crowing, every grass, tree, brick and tile here is still immersed in profound silence.
The Dong family's house is located in the southwest corner of Yushan Village, and in order to save time, Cheng Muyou and Shi Fei decided to cross through the forest in the middle of the village.
The woods were very dense, and even though it was winter, the branches overhead still blocked out the morning sun, and there was no way to penetrate at all.
Shi Fei simply took out the fire fold, and after blowing, he opened the way in front of him, and walked in the direction of Dong's house with Cheng Muyo.
The morning breeze swept the dead leaves past them, sending the desolation and cold of winter to the two of them.
Cheng Muyou accidentally stepped into a piece of mud, and his official boots were stuck in the wet mud, and he didn't pull them out after pulling them out several times.
He held on to a tall cedar tree and tugged at the edge of his boot to pull it out, but it was cold, and a cold wind hit his back, sending a low whimper into his ears.