Wen Jufeng (Part 6)
The sound seemed to be right beside them, yet also seemed to drift back to them across many mountains.
Chen Zhuangmu couldn't sit still any longer and stood up, saying, "You stay here for a while, I'll go out and take a look."
"Where are you going? You can't see anything." Zhao Yi was about to get up, but she quickly waved her hand and said, "I think the sound might not be far away."
After saying that, she turned and walked back.
The path was only wide enough for one person to pass by bending over, and Chen Zhuangmu's vision was gradually blurring until she was plunged into darkness.
This inevitably reminded her of the night she was assassinated three years ago, only this time it was even more despairing.
Without a second thought, she turned and went back. Whatever the sound, let it be.
She had only taken a few steps when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around abruptly and touched the cold bandage on her wrist.
"Princess!"
As soon as the voice entered her ears, Chen Zhuangmu launched a hidden weapon. By the time she recognized Li Chu's voice, it was too late. She subconsciously changed her angle, and the hidden weapon "whooshed" into the wall above.
Li Chu was already in front of her, holding a tinderbox, when she was startled by the hidden weapon.
"Princess?" Li Chu saw the heavy makeup curtain and sighed with relief. Her hair was stuck to her face. She smiled and said, "Princess, I've finally found you."
Chen Zhuangmu grabbed Li Chu's wrist, looked at the large group of guards behind her, and said, "Please help the deputy envoy out. He is inside and injured."
Upon hearing this, the people behind rushed inside. A short while later, Zhao Yi was helped out by people on his left and right. Chen Zhuangmu could tell that he was not very willing, but he was holding back for some reason.
The scene shocked Li Chu so much that she opened her mouth wide. After they had walked away, she turned to Shen Zhuangmu and said, "Princess, I think I might be able to beat the deputy envoy."
Li Chu's serious expression amused Chen Zhuangmu, who patted her head, and the two followed them.
Although the people have dispersed, the traces left behind are not so easily erased.
Shen Zhuangmu never expected that she would run into her uncle after going up there.
She was thinking of stopping her trips to the palace every ten days, otherwise her uncle would nag her for a month or two. But just as she was clinging to the edge of the pit, about to climb up, the emperor slapped her back down.
Although it didn't hurt, with so many people around, Chen Zhuangmu felt her face burning. Even with her neck tilted back, her embarrassment was still evident in her flushed face.
The emperor ignored her and stood in the corner with Zhao Yi, talking to him. The two of them looked very serious. After a quarter of an hour, they finished their discussion, and the emperor instructed Zhao Yi to take good care of his health.
Suddenly, Chen Zhuangmu noticed a young man supporting Zhao Yi. He looked to be no more than fourteen or fifteen years old and his attire was different from the people around him.
He wore a red, white, and blue outfit with intricate patterns, and his hair was braided into small braids with many small bells hanging from them, so he walked without making a sound.
She unconsciously followed him to the door. The emperor, thinking she was trying to sneak away, looked at her with disdain and said, "What? Is our Princess Rongshu going to be a thief today?"
"Where did I steal anything?" Chen Zhuangmu retorted angrily, then walked over and said, "Uncle, what brings you here?"
"What do you think?" The emperor glanced at her.
Ever since Chen Zhuangmu's incident, they've been watching her more closely than her own eyes. If they weren't afraid she'd go out looking for more clues, they wouldn't have let her go to the Dali Temple.
I was thinking of giving her a hard time and assigning her some difficult tasks so the child would come back, but I didn't expect this whole mess to happen on the very first day.
Even the birds couldn't stand it anymore, so they brought people to find them.
Shen Zhuangmu naturally knew that the emperor was worried about her, and her heart felt warm, but when it came to speaking, she was like a mute.
"Go back to the palace tonight, your aunt misses you very much," the emperor said.
“Okay, I’ll listen to my uncle.” Chen Zhuangmu nodded.
Chen Zhuangmu still held the case record in her hand. The case had not yet been assigned to anyone. Due to its special nature, the body was kept in the mortuary. She had to get there as soon as possible. After saying goodbye to the emperor, she and Li Chu hurriedly got into the carriage and finally entered before the mortuary closed.
After exchanging a few words with the caretaker, he opened the door for Li Chu, who waited outside.
The temperature in the courtyard was normal, but the house was usually much colder inside to preserve the body. Chen Zhuangmu felt a chill in the air, and she feared that if she stayed any longer, her teeth would chatter from the cold.
On the bed before them lay seemingly identical corpses, but one of them, even though it was also wrapped in a white cloth, showed something strange. The white cloth bulged high, making it more than half the size of the surrounding corpses.
The soldier in front of him pinched the tip of the white cloth with two fingers and gently lifted it up, revealing it to the corpse's abdomen.
Li Siwu stared at the corpse before him, his mouth agape in shock, and it took him a while to react. Chen Zhuangmu was so stunned that she forgot to blink. The corpse in front of her was twisted in an extremely bizarre posture, with its legs clearly of different lengths and its shoulders almost fused together, though its facial features were relatively normal.
Her heart skipped a beat. She tiptoed to look at the autopsy report in Li Siwu's hand. Li Siwu seemed engrossed in reading it and began to stroll slowly around the morgue. Chen Zhuangmu was too embarrassed to call out to him.
A sliver of light peeked into the room as Zhang Jiao opened the door. He closed the door, leaving only the dim light of candles in the room.
He walked step by step to the extremely small corpse, squatted down, and his eyes lingered on the body for a long time before finally settling on the little finger of the corpse's right hand, which was missing half of its length, and examined it carefully.
After the case was reported, no one came to inquire about it; it was as if this lonely corpse had suddenly appeared.
"Young Master." Li, the steward, walked over.
Zhang Jiao didn't even look up, and upon hearing this, said, "Make a record of it."
Li Sicheng hurriedly handed him the autopsy report, and Chen Zhuangmu also shoved the investigation record into him.
His gaze fell on a gruesome wound on the corpse's neck, and he frowned. After a quarter of an hour, he said to Li Siwu, "This..." He paused, then looked at Chen Zhuangmu.
Chen Zhuangmu was wondering why he wasn't speaking, so she looked at him and then saw the hesitation on his face, and she understood.
The original intention was to ask her to leave so that the two of them could have a private conversation.
She was of no use here, so she left the mortuary. She wasn't in a hurry to return to the Dali Temple because there was something more important to do.
Xiyu Street, at the entrance of the alley, the newsroom.
The cool autumn breeze didn't seem to reach here; the air was still thick with stench, and the oppressive heat made the people here seem even more tired and listless than in summer.
When Chen Zhuangmu returned yesterday, she sent someone to order a special awning to shelter them from the wind and rain. Now, she asked the shopkeeper to deliver it to the door, and she also called people from the mansion to transport it over.
She inquired and learned that most of the people here were those whose land had been occupied during the war between the two dynasties and who had nowhere to go; there were even toddlers learning to walk.
Before the Qun Dynasty was even established, they were imprisoned here, falsely accused of crimes, and many of them never got out for the rest of their lives.
No one has ever thought of securing a place for them; it seems this group of people has been forgotten.
When Chen Zhuangmu first heard this news, she thought it was just a hoax, but after investigating several times, she had no choice but to believe it.
Now, she can't shake that group of ministers, so she can only do her little bit to let them feel the coolness of the autumn wind and that winter won't come so soon.
Chen Zhuangmu looked at the low gate not far away and asked them to open it. The people who had been cheering just now suddenly looked down, as if they were a little embarrassed.
No one answered her.
She still has to go to work, and even if she has time, she can't just idly waste it here.
She stood on tiptoe, craning her neck to try and see something, but ultimately had to give up.
Suddenly, there was a slight ripple in the crowd, and in an instant, a familiar little figure appeared before them.
“Sister!” the boy said.
Chen Zhuangmu took two steps forward and said, "I forgot to ask you what your name is."
"Just call me Bell," the boy replied with a smile, but he didn't look as radiant as he had yesterday.
Suppressing her doubts, Chen Zhuangmu revealed her purpose: "Lingdang, I've had some blankets made. Open the door and bring these inside."
Lingdang lowered her head and said, "Sister, someone changed the lock there yesterday, and we don't have the key."
After saying that, he looked at the low door there, his eyes still as bright as before, still unable to understand what being locked meant.
Upon hearing this, Chen Zhuangmu's heart skipped a beat. Her face paled for a moment, and after standing there for a while, she suddenly clapped her hands, looked at the iron gate in front of her, and said, "Lingdang, you wait here. I'll send someone to climb up the gate and deliver it to you."
Upon hearing this, Li Chu turned around and said, "Aqi, Aba, try to climb higher, and be careful not to get pierced through the blanket by the sharp thorns above."
They climbed up the iron gate effortlessly. Li Chu handed them a thick blanket from below, which they rolled into a ball, placed down after determining the location of the bell.
The bell was smaller than the blanket, and it was now falling backward uncontrollably. Chen Zhuangmu looked at the motionless adult in front of her, and for some reason, a surge of anger rose in her heart.
Before Shen Zhuangmu could finish speaking, a withered hand touched Lingdang's shoulder.
"Child, this old woman has come to get it," the emaciated old woman gasped.
It was the old woman who spoke to Chen Zhuangmu last time.
Bell shook her head, put down the blanket, and returned to her previous position, opening her arms upwards as if to catch the next blanket.
The blanket didn't fall for a long time. Just then, a woman stood up, reached out a large hand and pressed on Lingdang's shoulder, "You go, I'll do it."
Just then, the blanket fell, and the woman caught it steadily, turning around to put it down.
Suddenly someone said, "Throw it over here, I'll catch it. I'll catch it."
"Me too!"
"Me too!"
As if in response, the people who had been sitting in the corner stood up and opened their arms.
The blankets were thrown down, and the people inside spread them out one by one, forming a sturdy quilt.
Taking advantage of this moment, Chen Zhuangmu came to the low door next to her and immediately saw that the door was locked with a rusty, old lock.
She held the lock, looking at it from left to right, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper, before finally putting it down.
"Thank you, young lady."
Chen Zhuangmu turned her head and saw them kneeling on the ground, repeatedly hitting their heads against the ground with a "thump, thump" sound.
They believed that this was the most important thing to do and the most presentable thing to do.
Chen Zhuangmu hurriedly moved aside and said, "You don't need to kneel before me, really you don't need to."
Just then, a commotion broke out in the crowd, accompanied by several insults. A man was tearing at the patched-up blanket, and several people surrounded him, forcing him to stop.
The man craned his neck, seemingly implying something, and said, "Why should I?! Aren't you miserable?! You're about to starve and you're not even robbing her!" He then pointed at a burly man with a flushed face: "You still have the nerve to stop me?! You dare say you won't rob her after she leaves?!"
He glanced around at the people and angrily put down the blanket. The burly man he had pointed at secretly hid in a corner.
At this moment, a cold wind suddenly rushed into the end of Xiyu Street. Chen Zhuangmu, without wearing a cloak, ordered Aqi and Aba to stay there, covered her ears and nose, and followed Li Chu back to the carriage.
Inside the carriage, Chen Zhuangmu remained motionless, her thoughts already drifting far away.
There are some things she can't tell anyone.
Scenes from her childhood flashed through her mind: in a desolate town, the most turbulent thing was the flames of war from the enemy.
When she was young, she accompanied her mother to comfort the people after the war. The people also knelt down to thank her mother for her protection.
Her mother pulled her behind her to block them, so the group of people couldn't kneel down on her.
Later, she asked why, and her mother smiled and said, "This is their most devout thing. If I don't make them kneel, they will feel guilty." Her mother turned to look at her: "But you haven't done anything special. How can you bear their worship?"
Intense unease tore at her usually calm mind, and she could only try to calm herself down by adjusting her breathing.
Li Chu only dared to turn her head to look at her after seeing her close her eyes, her eyes filled with an emotion that was hard to detect.
Upon arriving at the Dali Temple, Chen Zhuangmu hurriedly began tidying up, not even having time to drink water. Even so, when she finished her shift, there were still two stacks of paper that she hadn't finished tidying up. Because she had delayed herself, she stayed behind to continue tidying them up.
During this time, she remained silent, as if she had forgotten that Li Chu was beside her. Li Chu also did not speak, but simply ate the pastries one bite at a time.
The autumn wind danced with the golden leaves, and the sky gradually darkened. Today's sky was not as beautiful as yesterday's; there was no stunning sunset, only a small silver disc trying to illuminate all the dark places.
Closing the last page of the book, Chen Zhuangmu rubbed her temples and took a sip of the cooled tea.
Nighttime, the royal palace.
Inside the main hall, four figures sat down at a mahogany table with only some pastries on it. In the brightly lit hall, the Empress stood at the door, craning her neck in anticipation.
The palace had countless concubines, but only two princes and princesses, both born to the empress.
Crown Prince Yu Hongqi was given high hopes from the moment he was born, but now almost everyone in Huijing is talking about how he is not a role model for the youth of Huijing.
Princess Yu Hongning was also given a title at birth. Everyone in the palace loved this little girl. When she was a child, if she wanted the stars, they would wish to pluck the moon down for her as well.
"Oh dear, she can't possibly run away, can she?" the emperor asked the empress.
Upon hearing this, the Empress glared at him angrily and said, "Didn't you run away last time? You can't even keep an eye on a child."
Yu Hongning looked at them with amusement, then, as if remembering something, turned to look at Yu Hongqi, who nodded slightly.
"We're here! We're here!" The maidservant exclaimed repeatedly, instantly captivating the Empress. She rushed to the door, where the girl she had been longing for day and night was standing.
Chen Zhuangmu changed her clothes; a thin white robe and gauze skirt faintly revealed a pale yellow brocade underneath. As the night breeze blew, the gauze skirt fluttered.
The Empress looked at her figure, and her eyes instantly reddened. She grasped her hand and asked repeatedly, "Are you hungry? Are you cold? Look, your hands are all red from the cold."
"Aunt, I'm not cold."
As soon as the four of them sat down, the Empress kept putting food on Chen Zhuangmu's plate, asking if she was eating well, sleeping well, and taking her medicine on time.
Chen Zhuangmu answered each question in turn, but Yu Hongning couldn't stand it any longer and complained, "Mother is biased!"
"Go away!" The Empress glanced at Mingshu. "What's there to ask you all day long in the palace? Aren't you living a perfectly good life?"
"Alright, alright, let's eat." Yu Hongqi picked up some food for her. "Mother, please eat first. If you keep asking questions, Zhuangmu will starve."
Upon hearing this, the Empress exclaimed in surprise and instructed Chen Zhuangmu to eat well.
The steaming food gradually cooled down, and they finished eating.
The Empress and Shen Zhuangmu walked in front, hand in hand, while the Emperor strolled in the middle, and Princess Mingshu and her brother brought up the rear.
Ming Shu patted the Crown Prince.
"What's wrong?" The crown prince glanced at her.
"Brother, why aren't you saying anything?" she asked, looking very anxious.
The prince placed his hand on her head, and the two walked side by side.
"Ah Ning, why do you want to know if Zhuang Mu has really lost her memory?" the Crown Prince asked.
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