Chapter 216 Traces
Shen Anan returned to the carriage, and Qingfeng handed in a small painting, "Princess, this is the portrait of the scholar that the Dali Temple was looking for a model for, please take a look."
Mo Xiang took the small statue and opened it for Shen Anan to see.
The man in the painting has dark skin, but his scholarly air cannot be concealed. He cannot be said to be weak, but he is not strong either.
Shen Anan stared at the person in the painting for a long time without looking away.
"Princess, do you think this person looks weird?"
"What's strange about that?"
"I can't explain it, but I just feel like something is not right."
There was nothing wrong with the man's facial features taken individually, but when they were put together, there was an indescribable weirdness.
"Are his eyebrows a little too thick and long?"
Shen Anan stared at the man's eyebrows that were longer than his brow bones, her almond-shaped eyes slightly narrowed.
Mo Xiang leaned over to take a look and said, "Maybe he has a lot of hair."
"His eyes are slanted too far down at the corners."
If you just stare at it, it gives people a sinister feeling.
"Maybe... it's like this when I was born." Mo Xiang said uncertainly.
"Eyebrows, eyes, is there really someone who would be so unlucky to have such special facial features gathered on one face?" Shen Anan looked up at Mo Xiang and said.
"Now that the princess has mentioned this, this man is indeed very unlucky. How can someone be deaf, blind, and lame?"
Anyway, no matter how you look at it, it makes people feel uncomfortable, and it feels indescribably eerie and weird.
"But I remember Xiao Yuan said that the officer who reported the case that day was clearly an elegant scholar."
The person in front of me does have a bookish air, but he has nothing to do with being elegant.
Mo Xiang frowned, "What does the princess mean...?"
Shen Anan reached out and took the small painting. He rubbed his hand on the small painting for a while, and then retracted it after a moment.
She couldn't see what was wrong, but she just felt something was wrong.
"Put it away first and we'll talk about it when we get back."
Mo Xiang immediately put the painting away and placed it in a drawer on the side.
"Don't worry, Qingfeng has already sent people to search for this person. With your ability, we will definitely be able to find him as soon as possible and clear the name of the eldest master."
Shen Anan pursed her lips and said nothing.
The current development of events is far from as simple as Mo Xiang imagined.
The emperor suddenly learned about this, which can only mean two things. Either Lord Chen was pretending to obey the order, or it was the emperor's doing, with the purpose of exchanging his elder brother for Chen Tian.
But if it is the latter, it means that the emperor has always had a backup plan and has started planning it a long time ago.
"Princess, you haven't eaten anything so I asked the kitchen to prepare some peach blossom cakes and put them in the carriage. Please try them."
Mo Xiang placed a plate of watercolor pastries on the small table.
Shen Anan subconsciously picked up a piece and put it into his mouth slowly, still thinking about something in his mind.
Mo Xiang suddenly exclaimed "Huh".
Shen Anan’s wrist was grabbed as she put the cake into her mouth, “Princess, don’t eat it, this cake seems dirty.”
Shen Anan lowered her eyes and saw two black finger marks on the pastry, one on the left and one on the right.
"Strange, I didn't see it just now, where did the black stain come from?"
Mo Xiang took the pastry, threw it away, and was about to take another piece for Shen Anan.
But she did not take it. Instead, she lowered her eyes and stared at her fingers. There were faint black marks on the tips of her thumb and index finger, which had just been used to pinch the pastry.
"Princess, your hand...?"
"Don't talk." Shen Anan stared at her fingers, then suddenly frowned and ordered, "Bring me the painting just now."
Mo Xiang immediately took the painting and unfolded it. Shen Anan lowered her eyes to look at her fair and clean palm, then placed it on the small painting and rubbed it back and forth.
After a while, he stopped his hand and looked again. His palm, which had been clean just now, was now stained with tiny spots of ink.
"It's from the painting. The ink hasn't dried yet. I'll blow on it."
Shen Anan quickly grabbed her wrist.
"No, it's not a large area of discoloration, but a small part."
Because she had just stroked a painting, there was not a large area of ink on her palm, but only patches of ink.
What does this mean?
This means that the painting was not drawn in one go, but was divided into two phases. In simple terms, it was later modified.
She thought she was a good painter, but she didn't notice the clues at first.
She took the portrait and looked at it carefully.
Sure enough, traces of later additions can be seen on the facial features of the person in the painting.
"This painting has been tampered with."
She said it with absolute certainty.
Mo Xiang was stunned, "Princess Princess, do you mean this painting is fake?"
"No, the painting is real, but it has been altered, and the person in the painting is fake."
This person's facial features must have been tampered with. His eyes, eyebrows, and even jaw were added later.
In this way, those anomalies are explained.
"Should we go back and ask Master Chen for clarification?"
"No need." Shen Anan shook her head. "If Xiao Yuan is not here, he won't tell the truth. Besides, the painting was taken from him, which means he knows it."
He knew that the painting was wrong, and the only person who could offend Xiao Yuan was the emperor, so the painting was modified by the emperor's people.
There are indeed many talented people in the palace.
The carriage stopped at the gate of the Fourth Prince's Mansion. Shen Anan got off the carriage and said to Qingfeng, "Come to the study. I have something to ask you."
Qingfeng followed Shen Anan to Xiao Yuan's study.
This place has always been a forbidden area in the Fourth Prince's Mansion, but since Shen Anan married in, she has been able to come and go freely.
"Princess, what happened?"
"Have you ever heard of anyone with superb painting skills around the emperor?"
Qingfeng frowned, and after a while he said, "There are no officials or servants around him, but there seems to be one in the harem, named Wan Cairen, who was selected as a concubine because of her painting skills, but she has never been favored."
"Unfavored? How unfavored?" Shen Anan asked.
"I heard that he was favored by the emperor for one night because of his painting skills, and he never saw the emperor again after that."
The Fourth Prince's Mansion has been paying close attention to the situation in the palace, so it is very familiar with these things.
"Wan is a talented person." Shen Anan frowned, tapping her fingertips slowly on the armrest of the chair, looking very much like Xiao Yuan.
"Princess, what's the problem with Concubine Wan? We have someone in the palace who can..." A murderous look flashed across Qingfeng's eyes.
"No," she shook her head slightly and asked, "Do you know of any painter whose skills are better than that Wancai?"
Qingfeng's eyes turned strange, "Yes, you."
The painting was originally in the Yongning Marquis' Mansion, and is still treasured by the master.
“…”
If she could see it and restore it to its original appearance, why would she need to call him over?
"Is there no one else?"
"And the master." Qingfeng said.
But now the master is not in the capital, so he can't be relied on.
"Forget it." Shen Anan waved her hand, "I'll do it myself, but there's something wrong with the painting you brought back today. It should have been tampered with later. Send someone to the Dali Temple to check who handled it in the end."
"Yes." Qingfeng turned and left the study.
Shen Anan continued to stare at the painting, frowning, trying to restore it to its original appearance.
It is now almost certain that the matter of Miss Lin was planned in advance by the emperor to pave the way for Chen Tian just in case.
His sudden attack was also a warning to her. Now it depends on who can endure it.
The sky gradually darkened, and Shen Anan still stayed in the study room without coming out. Mo Xiang brought the food and said, "Princess, it's getting late. It's time to have a meal and rest."
"Hmm." Shen Anan rubbed his tired solar plexus, still unable to come up with any clues.
The food was her favorite in the past, but now it tasted like chewing wax.
"Has there been any letter from the Fourth Prince?"
Mo Xiang nodded, "It is said that there is a verbal message back, and it is said that there are some clues. We are currently starting to investigate in detail, so you can rest assured."
"Yeah." She nodded slightly.
At night, after she took a shower and changed her clothes, she went to bed, but she couldn't fall asleep. The image of Shen Changhe covered in blood and Lin Yurou's crying kept flashing in her half-asleep state.
It made her toss and turn, feeling restless.
Finally, dawn came and there were faint dark circles under her eyes.
During breakfast, Qingfeng suddenly came to report, "Princess, our people found traces of Shen Yunbai in the city."
"Where?" She immediately put down her chopsticks and stood up.
Qingfeng looked a little strange, "According to the report, it seems to be in front of Princess Huasheng's tomb."
He was also surprised for a while, unable to understand what the connection was between Shen Yunbai and Princess Hua Sheng. Did he want to dig up the corpse to vent his anger? Revenge on the princess?
Shen Anan was also stunned for a moment.
Then he asked, "Did you order anyone to arrest him?"
"I personally led people there, but the man was gone. However, according to what I saw with my own eyes, his facial features were definitely Shen Yunbai."
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