The Golden Hairpin

After Li Shubai and everyone walked into the West Garden, they looked back at the people who followed.

Fan Yingxi looked around the small garden; Zhou Xu had a puzzled face; Master Mu Shan was sluggish, but still forced a smile; Wang Yunzheng pulled a newborn pumila and looked at it casually; Yu Xuan revisited his place, silent and calm.

Huang Zixia followed everyone behind, slowly entering the garden, watching the thin light of the lotus leaf in the darkness. The maids burned red candles and lit up the thousand-branch candle holder in the corner to illuminate the hall. Li Shubai sat down and looked up at Zhou Ziqin. He nodded. Although a little puzzled, he still said, "It's ready."

In the veranda above the lotus pond, the two high-hanging lamps were removed, and the thousand-branch candle holder was moved to the veranda, and a screen was placed in front of it.

Everyone gestured to King Kui and sat down on the chairs moved by the servants, looking at the screen. I was puzzled, but I saw an old artist sitting next to the screen and tapping a snare drum in his hand. With the bright light of a thousand sticks of candles, he opened a small book in his hand and began to sing: "Chang'an has a lot of old things, and today is gossip about you. There is a town in the west of the city, Guangde, and a case is justified."

While singing, he showed images of Chang'an's various workshops on the white screen, and in a blink of an eye he turned out the red, willow and green, the door of the small bridge, and then a team of horses and horses rode across the bridge to the door of a house.

Everyone suddenly realized that this was a shadow puppet artist who wanted to perform a play for them.

Fan Yingxi and Zhou Xu didn't expect King Kui to like this. They even invited them to see it in the middle of the night. They couldn't help but laugh dumbly, thinking that they might have other intentions, so they watched carefully.

The door was wide open, and the officers on horseback dismounted to get started. The door turned over to look like an inner hall, and it was a figure of a woman, falling on the beam.

"There was a homicide case in Guangdefang, and the young wife lost her life. The **** has been tested and the evidence is conclusive and the case is to be closed. Just because there is a mismatch, it is full of sullenness and nowhere to put it. sigh."

A red-clothed official walked up slowly and sat down in the hall. Behind her was an eleven or twelve-year-old girl with an embroidered coat and a pair of maid, very cute.

The old man used an old voice to imitate the voice of a child, which actually meant a bit of innocence: "Daddy, Daddy, wait for me."

The official in red looked back at her and flicked his sleeves: "Little girl, what are you doing here? Daddy, as the minister of criminal justice, is about to listen to the conclusion of the case!"

Seeing this, Yu Xuan suddenly let out a low voice.

Wang Yun glanced at him, and then if he realized something, he lightly tapped on his head and said, "It turns out...that's the case."

The old man in the shadow play turned the pages of the book, reading the words on the book. And the little girl under her turned around on the gauze screen and said: "Daddy, I don't like to be bored at home and read books, nor do I like to learn embroidery from my mother. "

"Hehehe, the little girl film, what a big tone!" The father clasped his drums, and waved his sleeves three times. Case, I'll take you home again."

The old man's kung fu is really good. In a blink of an eye, his subordinates turned out several people to watch the excitement, and everyone's voice was different, and they were watching.

A businessman holding a piece of cloth in his hand said: "I will teach you that this lady didn't buy the wedding clothes at my house when she got married, and the color of the wedding gown she wore at the time of marriage was not correct, which caused this misfortune!"

A businessman with a string of jewellery in his hand asked the suffering master: "Da Lang, yesterday afternoon, your lady ordered a pair of silver hairpins in her store. Now that she is dead, do you want more?"

There was a fortune teller holding a prayer flag, stroking his goatee and said: "The secret of the secret cannot be revealed! I have already calculated that your family should have a happy event this year, but it is a pity that you did not come to me early, and you really can't escape this tragedy... "

This time even Zhou Xu and others have already seen that the original act was the first case that Huang Zixian broke when he was twelve years old.

Sure enough, after the chaotic crowd receded, the official in red said with a pen: "It seems that this case is over. It must be suicide--"

Before he finished his words, a little girl in a flower jacket appeared next to him again and shouted, "Daddy wait a minute!"

Her father was taken aback, turned to look at her, and asked, "Is my good girl hungry?"

"no."

"But thirsty?"

"Neither."

"But are you going home?"

"Not even more."

"It's annoying, go play quickly, don't disturb Daddy's official duties here!"

"Daddy, this lady never committed suicide, but was pretended to be suicide after death-she was actually killed by someone!"

The red-clothed official trembled suddenly: "Daughter! Why do you utter false claims at a young age? The twists and turns between the verdict and the trial are bizarre. Is it possible that you can find out if you are a boy?"

"But daddy, did you never hear what this person said?" The little girl pointed her finger to the side, and the jeweller just now appeared there. "Daddy, when you were chatting with your colleagues at home, you talked about death. , The heart is as gray as death, then, have you ever seen a person with a ashen heart who would go to a jewelry store to order silver hairpins before committing suicide? Besides, he just chose the style and didn't get it!'"

"Oh-yeah!" The red-clothed official trembled exaggeratedly in front of the curtain, and the old man began to sing: "One word can awaken the dreamer, one word can solve the hatred. The Huang family has a female name, Zi Xian, Great reputation in the south and the north!"

With the old man's hand turning, the little girl has grown into a demure girl, walked through thousands of mountains and rivers, and came to Chengdu Mansion with hibiscus and hollyhock.

Surrounded by flowers, the story ends. The old man put down the shadow puppet in his hand, stood up and bowed to everyone: "Everyone, the old man played this shadow puppet show for everyone, which was spread in Chang'an a few years ago, and it is mostly not performed now due to various reasons. Please, temporarily read the script and perform it again, and please understand if you are unfamiliar!"

"Very good, very good." Zhou Xu smiled.

The thousand-branch candle holder was moved back into the room again. In the bright room, Li Shubai turned his head and the audience looked coldly. Who doesn’t say a good word for the entertainment show ordered by King Kui, only Yu Xuan is sitting on a chair, motionless, his eyes fixed on the corridor, where the white screen has long been torn off, there is only an empty dark corridor. , Deep and trance, it is trembling.

His face was extremely pale, and even faintly showed a terrible green color, making his handsome face look like a stone sculpture, without the slightest anger.

People around him felt that something was wrong with him. The nearest Mage Mu Shan stood up, patted him on the shoulder, and whispered: "Donor Yu, the movie is over, why not wake up?"

Yu Xuanmang was in a daze. He slowly raised his head and was about to see him, but was interrupted by Huang Zixia: "Master, the play is not over yet, why don't you sit aside and watch the play? Why bother to hinder this aftertaste show that the prince wants to watch?"

Master Mu Shan was shocked, knowing that she had seen her intentions thoroughly, so he lightly announced the Buddha's name and had to give in.

Li Shubai motioned to Huang Zixia and nodded slightly at her.

Huang Zixian looked at Yu Xuan under the bright light of a thousand candles. The warm golden candlelight was like a layer of unsolidified gold, slowly flowing on his pale and handsome face, showing a strange and twisted beauty.

Her heart, like that flowing color, gushed out an indescribable pain, almost suffocating her. This was a mixture of fear, confusion, resentment and melancholy pain, burning her chest, and she almost didn't even have the strength to speak.

But after all, she opened her mouth and opened her lips with all her strength.

It’s strange that after opening her mouth, there seemed to be a galaxy, flowing from her heart, gurgling, and coldly flowing through her throat, so the pain that burned her heart disappeared and replaced it. It was an inexplicable excitement, a new sprout that was buried deep in the ground after a whole winter, making her desperate, just like looking directly at the noon sun, looking directly at everything that was **** and present in front of her. , Even if his own eyes would be blinded, he would not hesitate to do so.

"Everyone, that was the first case Huang Zixia solved. One case ended and a criminal was punished. However, another story began." Her voice was slightly dumb, but very stable, almost calm. With a hint of coldness, "If it hadn’t been for Prince Kui who had read the dossier and told me about the follow-up, I wouldn’t know-the newlywed husband who strangled his wife in a moment of anger had lost his father since childhood. There is a younger brother. The mother is lonely and helpless, carrying her eldest son and weaving day and night. She was thin and withered in her thirties and gave birth to gray hair early. A widow dragged her two children, and she had to endure hardships during the period. By the time the eldest son was 18 years old, he turned around. The eldest son was very smart. He made some money by selling needles, needles and needles. He also borrowed some money to buy a wine shop. He was well-run, and the wine shop business was booming, and then some people became matchmakers and married. A beautiful wife. Seeing the whole family's hardships, but who knows that because of a bickering, flying misfortune, the son strangled his daughter-in-law and pretended to commit suicide. After the incident was revealed, the law of the country could not escape and was beheaded on the street. The wine shop was naturally chased by the creditor, sold to repay the debt, and even the things in the house were looted. The widow mother worked hard for more than ten years. After seeing a good day for a few days, suddenly her son died overnight. The daughter-in-law is dead. She couldn't bear the blow, and fell into madness on the day the eldest son was questioned and killed..."

When she said this, even though she tried her best to restrain her, she finally couldn't help but looked towards Yu Xuan.

She saw his body trembling, and the blue veins on his temple throbbed, and almost even she could feel the feeling of blood flowing through the body in despair.

But she gritted her teeth, turned her eyes away fiercely, and continued almost cruelly: "The mother after going crazy, one night, hanged in the house where her daughter-in-law used to hang. Her The youngest son was fourteen years old. After getting up in the morning, he saw his mother's body hanging from the beam in an empty room. I don't know if he was frightened or something, he took his mother's body and guarded it for three days and three days. At night, he didn't say a word or move. If the neighbors didn't break the door after they noticed something was wrong, he would also die by his mother's side, silently."

Master Mu Shan chanted "Amitabha Buddha" softly and stood up silently, as if he couldn't bear to listen any more and wanted to leave.

Standing in front, Zhou Ziqin raised his hand to stop him, and said, "Master, if you come, you will be at ease, and you will stay in the meditation step. How about going after listening?"

Helpless, Master Mu Shan sat down on the chair again with his eyes down.

Huang Zixia did not pay attention to the movement below. She still slowly and almost cruelly told the story: "The neighbors sent the unconscious young son to the hospital to help bury his mother in the chaotic grave, the eldest son. By his side. The youngest son’s life was saved after all, but because he was dying to be saved, he was in a trance and stupid in the medical hall. One day, he left the medical hall and went missing—about , Became one of thousands of street beggars."

When she said this, she stopped and paused for a long time before she said: "This is what Prince Kui saw, all the records on the case. And-after I recently arrived in Chengdu, I encountered several other cases. Suddenly, it seemed to piece together the latter part of the story."

Every room is quiet. Although Fan Yingxi and Zhou Xu didn’t know exactly why she was telling the case many years ago at this time, they saw Li Shubai sitting in the chair and listening attentively, so they didn’t dare to move. They just sat beside Li Shubai and listened carefully. .

"What I'm talking about next is speculation, there is no real evidence, so please listen to it." Huang Zixia said words such as "guess" and "aunt", but the expression on her face let everyone know, she That said, it's a matter of great importance, and it's an extremely important thing. So everyone held their breath, and no one came out of the atmosphere.

"The youngest son, perhaps in a famine a few years ago, followed the hungry people to the south. At that time, many people settled in Chengdu Mansion. As time passed, he gradually became sober, but he lived in a foreign land and was alone. One of his children was unable to return to Chang'an after all, so he could only stay on the streets of Chengdu to beg for a living. However, he was extremely intelligent and dedicated to learning. Eavesdropping from the corner of the wall to listen to the lectures of Mr., not long before they surpassed those serious students, so that the gentlemen were amazed and won the name of a child prodigy, so that..." At this point, her voice finally trembled involuntarily. After a while, "Even the newly appointed Chuanshu Huangjun governor heard his reputation. After meeting and talking, he was shocked as a genius, so he accepted him as a son and took him back to the mansion."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xu and Fan Yingxi couldn't help but breathe in air-conditioning. And Zhang Xingying, who had been standing behind Li Shubai like a javelin, couldn't help but let out an exclamation.

Li Shubai listened quietly, staring at the heavy lotus shadow outside.

The fan in Wang Yun's hand had already been put down, he looked at Huang Zixia intently, almost forgot to blink.

Only Yu Xuan, he still maintained that action, sitting in the chair. The beating candlelight cast a twisted light on his face, making him bleak and terrifying in the light and dark.