Chapter 349: Bloodstains on Huaiyin Mountain, Shocking Secret
The pale morning light penetrated the crimson gauze of the East Courtyard's warm room, illuminating the tear marks on Xiaoyanzi's pale cheeks. Her infant son had just been taken away by her nurse to nurse; the lingering fragrance of milk, mixed with the bitterness of the soothing broth, lingered in the dead air. The chill wind from Yongqi's departure seemed to still linger at the threshold. Xiaoyanzi wrapped herself tightly around her apricot-yellow brocade cape, her fingertips unconsciously scratching at the intricate lotus pattern on her pillow, her gaze fixed on the window—the charred ruins of the West Courtyard, beneath the glaring sunlight, resembled a hideous wound in the earth, its collapsed beams twisted and pointed toward the gray sky. The ghostly shadow atop the wall, the cold, dim light reflected by the crescent jade pendant at her waist, flashed repeatedly in her mind.
"Princess..." Caixia said, her voice soft as if she didn't want to shatter the glass as she carried the warm ginseng soup. Seeing Xiaoyanzi's distraught expression, her heart ached. She gently placed the jade bowl on the kang table, "Please take some. Your health is very important..."
Xiaoyanzi ignored him and repeated in a hoarse voice, "Box... Caixia, at the bottom of the makeup box, the rosewood box... Quick!"
Caixia didn't dare to persuade her any further and hurriedly turned and ran to the dressing table. The heavy rosewood box was brought in, its cold outer shell rubbing against Xiaoyanzi's trembling hands. She took a deep breath, her nails scraping across the delicate brass buckle. With a soft "click," the lid popped open. There were no jewels or gems, only a simple, heavy bronze key, pressing down on a neatly folded piece of rice paper with yellowed edges.
With a touch of icy determination on her fingertips, she unfolded the paper. A meticulously detailed pavilion came alive on the page—wing-like eaves, winding corridors, delicate rockery, and a serene pool of water. Above the image, three tiny characters, etched through the paper, read: **Qingfeng Pavilion**. By the shores of Taiping Lake, a place where past generations of talent, love, and blood and tears intertwined!
Her eyes darted like a hawk, suddenly fixed on a mark on a rock in the lower right corner of the blueprint. There, several strange symbols, drawn in tiny calligraphy, lay dormant: an "S" twisted like a venomous snake, a dark circle with a dot in the center, a "⊙," and a diagonal, undulating wave, like an undercurrent.
Buzz——!
Deep in his mind, a bronze bell seemed to be ringing! Fragments of memories from his past life, accompanied by Xiao Jian's deep and serious voice, instantly exploded: "Swallow, remember this! 'S' is a snake, representing hidden murderous intent! '⊙' is an eye, representing the core and vital point! '≈' is water, representing the undercurrent of information! The world is treacherous, and this secret code is your life-saving talisman!"
"Snake...eye...water..." Xiaoyanzi muttered, each word piercing her heart like an icicle. Was E Min's seclusion, claiming illness, a sign of the "snake" dormant? Was the Xilin Jueluo Mansion's fast horses heading straight for Taiping Lake, their target directly for Qingfeng Pavilion, the "eye"? And was that fast horse the "water" that carried the conspiracy?
She clenched the blueprints fiercely, her knuckles turning white from the strain, and the cold bronze key stung her palm. From outside the window, a gust of cold wind, carrying the smell of burning, blew in, causing the candlelight to flicker violently and casting a flickering shadow in her suddenly dark and cold eyes.
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**Huaiyin Courtyard.**
Yongqi's boots made a teeth-grinding "puffing" sound as he stepped on the slippery moss. The scent of decaying leaves mixed with the chill of earth weighed heavily on everyone's heart. The courtyard was deadly silent, with only the whimpering of the wind through the twisted branches of the withered locust tree, like the sobbing of a resentful ghost.
"Your Highness!" the guard inspecting the courtyard gate suddenly growled, his voice like thunder in the dead silence. He half-knelt on the ground, the tip of his dagger carefully scraping a small, dark brown scab, almost blending with the dirt, from the gap between the threshold and the earth. He put his nose close to the tip and sniffed intently. His face suddenly changed, and he looked up sharply: "It's blood! Dried recently, mixed with the smell of mud, but it's definitely blood!"
Almost immediately, a guard on the wall issued a warning: "Your Highness! Look here!" He pointed to an inconspicuous edge of the eaves, where a palm-sized patch of aged moss had been roughly scraped away, revealing the damp black tiles beneath. Even more startling was the blurry, half-blurred boot print—narrow and sharp, definitely not the standard official boots of the palace guards, but more like the boots of a night walker, deeply imprinted in the soft moss, with the edges bearing the subtle marks of dragging, as if hastily departed!
Yongqi's heart sank into an icy cave. He strode towards the thickest old locust tree in the courtyard, its branches gnarled like ghost claws. The rough, cracked bark exuded a chilling chill. He reached out, his calloused fingertips like the most precise probes, tracing the cold, uneven texture inch by inch. Suddenly, his fingertips stopped at the edge of a knotty, sunken tree.
There, several extremely fresh scratches, deeply cut into the wood grain! They were definitely not formed naturally, but rather as if they were scratched by a sharp metal weapon (the tip of a scabbard? An iron hook?) in a rapid movement!
His pupils constricted, and he leaned down almost to the bark. In the deepest crack of the scratch, in the faint light of the sky, a tiny bit of indigo was stubbornly embedded there! He held his breath and used the tip of the dagger to pick it out with almost embroidery precision, extremely slowly - a small strand of indigo silk fiber! The color, the texture, and the rags soaked in pine oil and the smell of burnt death found in the ruins last night, **exactly the same! **
"Good...very good!" Yongqi's voice, forced through his teeth, was icy cold, each word laced with murderous intent, echoing through the deadly silent courtyard, startling a few crows from the dead branches into flight with eerie caws. He clutched the tiny indigo strand of evidence tightly, as if grasping the cold tongue of a venomous snake behind the scenes. E Min! This old fox had transformed this abandoned corner of the palace, where even ghosts refused to tread, into a snake's bloody mouth that carried the message of death! He suddenly raised his head, his gaze like a sharp, tempered blade, piercing through the layers of buildings and piercing the east courtyard. There lay his wife, frail and terrified after giving birth, his frail infant son, and Mian Rui and Mian Xin, whom he cherished as his life! Anyone who coveted them would pay with blood! This secret war had torn through the mask of tenderness, revealing its poisonous fangs.
At that moment, in the warm room of the East Courtyard, Xiaoyanzi stared at the cold, hidden symbols on the blueprint. A thunderous thought exploded in her exhausted yet remarkably clear mind—perhaps Emin's goal had always been more than just disrupting the palace! The box of unburned "tea" (account books), the fast horse pointing to Taiping Lake, the hidden symbol of Qingfeng Pavilion...they all connected together, it was likely a massive storm that could shake the foundations of the imperial court! She had to see Yongqi immediately!
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