incense burner

In a room in the north courtyard, Wanqi Si was preparing to change clothes.

He had just taken off his outer robe, and his light blue inner garment was clinging to his body, his tight and smooth abdominal muscles faintly visible under the fabric.

"Yu Heyi."

He gritted his teeth and looked at the uninvited guest who jumped out of the window.

"Brother, you have broad shoulders and a narrow waist, and you have a good figure."

"You are a woman, but you have no sense of shame."

She draped the robe over him, her movements unhurried, as if it were just a matter of convenience. She then picked up the teapot and took a sip of his freshly heated tea. "Brother, do you think Chen Xu's madness has anything to do with the Xu family?"

"This is the tea I heated up for myself."

"It's all the same."

She waved her hand nonchalantly.

"Although we cannot be sure that she is the murderer, she may be related to it."

"I thought so too. Mrs. Shen had a son and a daughter, and she was always so high and mighty. She must have suppressed the Xu family." She said solemnly, "Look, what is this?"

Wanqi Si looked up and saw a few medicinal herbs in the girl's hands.

Without waiting for his answer, she continued, "These are musk, saffron, and chinaberry bark. They are the ingredients for a kind of decoction in the human world, called contraceptive soup. When I came to see you just now, I passed by Madam Shen's house and saw that the room was empty, so I looked through the window."

She secretly thought that she was able to recognize so many medicinal herbs thanks to her childhood experiences.

At that time, she was young and weak. The demons would not tolerate her, and the immortals wanted to kill her. She hid in the human world alone with her scarred body.

I heard that there is a profession called doctor in the world who can cure people.

But no one could heal her wounds.

She did not give up and always sneaked into the clinic when the doctor was out seeing patients to read medical books and learned about many medicinal herbs.

Unfortunately, the wounds on my body could not be healed.

Later, as time went by, the wounds healed on their own.

Yu Heyi paused and continued, "Let's assume that Madam Shen was worried that Xu would give birth to a son and gain Lord Shen's attention, so she secretly prepared a contraceptive soup and secretly let her drink it. When Xu found out she couldn't get pregnant, she thought Madam Shen was the most suspicious, so she secretly murdered Shen Xu."

“This is the most common thing in the world.”

"But Xu is pregnant."

"Maybe she used some folk remedy?"

"If you go by what you said, then Shen Xu's crazy words don't make sense."

"Chen Xu's crazy talk..."

She scratched her head, remembering how Chen Xu suddenly straightened up and screamed in broad daylight.

He said, "It's over! I'm over! I didn't see anything, but I'm still over!"

Yu Heyi frowned, looking puzzled.

“Mrs. Shen is not in the room so late. If you ask me, both she and Xu are suspects.”

"It's late at night. You should go back first. We can go to Xu's house tomorrow to see if there are any clues."

"I didn't even get a sip of my hot tea."

Looking at the empty teapot, Wanqi Si ordered the guest to leave.

"Brother, there is one more thing." She tapped the incense burner on the table with her fingertips.

He leaned over and listened to her.

The night is getting deeper.

Moonlight streamed in through the window, and everything was silent.

A wisp of white smoke curled up from the incense burner, sweet, soft and sticky, so sticky that it made one's limbs go weak.

The door was gently pushed open, making a slight "creaking" sound.

There was a blurry figure lying on the bed.

The woman who opened the door held up a lamp and was secretly delighted.

She turned off the light, put it on the table, tiptoed to the edge of the bed, took off her outer robe, and then lay down beside the bed.

She lifted a strand of her long black hair, raised the corners of her mouth slightly, put her wrist on the waist of the person on the couch, and spoke softly.

"Sir, Yun'er fell in love with you the first time she saw you."

"You are the most handsome man I have ever seen. No one in the whole of Yandong can compare to you."

"There's no one else here, you can do whatever you want to me."

“…”

"Sir, who do you think is prettier, me or the woman standing next to you today?"

She spoke many words in one breath, and her clasped hands became increasingly restless.

The person on the couch suddenly turned around, propped up his head and looked at her with interest: "Then I think that woman is more beautiful."

"Why is it you!" Shen Yun said in panic with wide eyes.

"He was worried that I would be scared living alone in the South Courtyard, so he switched rooms with me." The latter smiled and shrugged, his tone innocent.

An hour ago, when Yu Heyi was about to leave, he suddenly saw the incense burner on the table, so he raised his head and leaned close to Wanqi Si's ear.

"Brother, the only person living in the entire South Courtyard is that crazy Chen Xu. I'm a weak woman living next door to him. I'm very scared."

"Why don't we switch? Brother, you are brave and fearless, you will definitely not refuse me."

Her voice was soft, and there was a faint scent of tea in her mouth.

Wanqi Si looked at her with disdain: "Coward, don't tell me you're my junior sister when you get out. You'll embarrass me."

But he, who was so averse to trouble, agreed to it by accident.

Chen Yun looked at the smiling girl in front of her, jumped up from the bed, quickly put on her clothes, and angrily pointed at her nose and said, "You have no shame!"

Yu Heyi half-closed his eyes, but his smile remained unchanged: "Miss Shen, you are the shameless one, I can't do something like climbing into a man's bed."

Although she was smiling, there was a hint of coldness in her eyes.

Shen Yun shuddered and ran away in anger.

Perhaps this incident irritated her, but for several days in a row, the three of them hadn't seen her in the mansion.

A few days later, they split up. Wanqi Si and Yu Heyi went to Xu and Madam Shen's house to investigate, while Mi Xiu stayed by Shen Xu's side to observe.

"Brother, how are you going to thank me for helping you get rid of a bad love?"

"Bad love?" He was puzzled.

They went to the north courtyard first. The pungent smell of ambergris came from Madam Shen's room. The walls were covered with brocade, making it difficult to open one's eyes.

A large chair with gilded carvings was placed in the center.

The medicinal ingredients for the contraceptive soup were placed casually in the drawer.

Apart from being a bit tacky, the North Courtyard has nothing else to do with Shen Xu's madness.

The two moved to the east courtyard. Yu Heyi pushed open the door and strode into the house, followed closely by Wanqi Si.

This is Xu's house.

In order not to alert the enemy, they waited until Xu was out before coming.

Unlike Mrs. Shen, the furnishings in Xu's house are simple and elegant, without too many complicated decorations, only some dried flowers hanging on the wall.

The two walked around the room and found nothing except a clay doll tied with a red rope at the head of the bed.

"Here's a clay doll."

Yu Heyi reached out and touched it curiously, then looked up at Wanqi Si.

The latter noticed his gaze and said unhappily, "Why are you looking at me? How should I know?"

"Could this be the evil thing that caused Shen Xu's madness?"

"Show it to him and he'll know."

He tore the red string off and took the clay doll to the South Courtyard.

When Shen Xu saw the clay doll, he didn't react at all, his eyes still dull.

On the way back to Xu's house, the two men ran into Xu head-on.

Xu's hand holding the dried flowers paused slightly, her eyes fell on the clay doll in Yu Heyi's hand, and she stood there in a daze.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Xu, I entered your room without your permission." Yu Heyi felt a little insecure.

Xu forced a smile and said, "It's okay. I guessed a few days ago that you might suspect me, but I never thought of framing Chen Xu. I have nothing to fear from my own shadow. You can investigate as you please."

"Then what is this clay doll..."

"This is a clay doll I saw at a temple fair. The Taoist priest said that if you tie it with red string and place it by your bed, you'll get pregnant. I've been having trouble getting pregnant for a while now, so I bought one to try."

"No, it's still very useful." She stroked her bulging belly with a loving look on her face.

"I misunderstood you, Aunt Xu. We won't bother you for now."

Yu Heyi returned the clay doll to her, grabbed Wanqi Si's sleeve and ran away like the wind.

"Why are you running so fast?"

Wanqi Si's voice suddenly rang behind his ears.

She said confidently, "We are guilty as thieves, so of course we have to run."

When he returned to the South Courtyard, Shen Xu sat on the couch, staring blankly ahead.

"So, did you two find any clues?"

Mi Xiu sat at the table, facing a pile of medicinal herbs, looking bored.

"Second Brother, I have a task for you."

Mi Xiu looked up immediately after hearing that.

As long as he doesn't stay in the room and stare at this pile of medicinal herbs, he will do anything!

"There's no sign of Madam Shen in the North and South Courtyards. Go and observe her movements, and the clay doll that Senior Brother just brought over—"

"Xu said it was used to pray for pregnancy. Go to the nearby temple fair and see if she is lying."

Mi Xiu recalled the appearance of the clay doll, nodded, and left.

Looking at Chen Xu's dazed look, Yu Heyi sighed softly, looking helpless.

He hasn't said anything since his last strange cry.

They had a hard time finding clues from him.

Wanqi Si looked at him thoughtfully, and his hand that was holding the herbs suddenly stopped, frowning slightly.

"What on earth is he looking at?"

Her mind went blank for a moment, and she looked towards Shen Xu.

His eyes were fixed on the window.

"What's so good about windows?" she asked, looking puzzled.

Wanqi Si raised his chin slightly, slowly walked to the window, and reached out to push it.

The window didn't move.

"Maybe he wasn't looking at the window, but at what was behind it."

He stroked the window sill with his fingertips and spoke in a low voice.

In Shen Xu's room, the entire window was sealed with molten iron.

"Yu Heyi, do you feel it?"

“It’s windy.”

Her expression suddenly changed and her brows furrowed.

The door was closed when Mi Xiu left, and the windows inside the house were also sealed. Where did the wind come from?

She raised her hand to take off the hairpin in her hair and held it in her palm.

In order to confirm her guess, she clenched the hairpin tightly in her palm and walked slowly to the window.

The white hairpin pierced the window paper, revealing a hole the size of a copper coin.

The wind in the house comes from here.

"There's something behind this."

The two of them no longer paid attention to Chen Xu, whose eyes were lifeless. Wanqi Si grabbed the corner of her sleeve and strode out of the room.

The yard is full of lavender, but if you look closely, you can see something different.

Among the lavender fields, most of the plants are lush and have dense flowers.

The lavender in a certain place huddled timidly, and compared with the blooming lavender around it, it looked like a hastily replanted defective product.

"Go this way!"

If you don't look carefully, you can hardly notice this path half-covered by lavender.

This path seems to lead to the back garden of the Shen Mansion, which is very close to the South Courtyard, just behind Shen Xu's house.

There are large areas of flowers planted in the back garden, more than the lavender in Chen Xu's courtyard.

The floral scent is so strong and pungent.

"What kind of flower is this?"

Yu Heyi took a deep breath, and suddenly felt dizzy and fell backwards uncontrollably.

Wanqi Si caught her so that she didn't fall to the ground.

Wanqi Si said in a deep voice: "Don't smell it, it's a poppy."

He grabbed her wrist and lifted it to the tip of her nose.

"The large number of poppy flowers and the high concentration of their fragrance can cause confusion and even hallucinations. Please protect yourself."

After hearing his explanation, Yu Heyi took two steps back and said in shock, "I understand!"

——There is a hint of evil hidden in the poppies gathered in the back garden.