The young man was holding a flying eagle, but suddenly he lost his mind.
"Hey! Fu Mingrui, can you concentrate on hunting?" A clear male voice sounded like the sound of a piano lingering in the air. Fu Mingrui raised his eyes and saw another heroic young man slowly approaching with a bow in his hand. This flying eagle was shot by him.
The young man was wearing brocade clothes and jade belt, with long and slender black eyebrows and cunning peach blossom eyes. His face was like a peach blossom, and the corners of his lips were curled with a smile. He was obviously a man, but he was more beautiful than a peach blossom. Standing next to Fu Mingrui, he was like a pearl or jade, shining brightly.
Fu Mingrui bowed hastily: "Prince."
The prince curled his lips and gave him a sidelong look. His charming peach blossom eyes were as charming as a girl's. He blamed her but also said coquettishly, "You are so boring. I have told you so many times that there is no monarch or subject in normal times. Don't always call me the prince. It's stressful, you know? Call me by my name: Duanmu, or Qingchen."
"I dare not." Fu Mingrui did his duty.
"Tsk." Duanmu Qingchen rolled his eyes at him again in boredom. After looking at him for a while, he saw Fu Mingrui was absent-minded again. "Hey, hey, hey, Fu Mingrui, you are not lost in your mind on one of your cases again, are you?"
Fu Mingrui's face immediately turned serious, and a gleam of light flashed across his deep black eyes: "So that's how it is!" He lowered his eyes to look at the flying eagle in his hand again, "So this is how he made Wu Bo hang himself indoors..."
"That case of hanging in a secret room?" Duanmu Qingchen raised his eyebrows and put his hand on Fu Mingrui's neck. "In a house in the east of the city, an old man hanged himself. There were no tables or chairs underneath, and the doors and windows were locked. So it was said that it was a ghost coming for revenge. Now, have you figured it out?"
"Yes." Fu Mingrui's eyes sparkled, "I have figured out the mechanism."
"What does that have to do with the flying eagle in your hand? Well... I see you've been looking at it." Duanmu Qingchen also curiously looked at the arrow and eagle in Fu Mingrui's hand.
Fu Mingrui looked at Duanmu Qingchen: "It's okay."
Duanmu Qingchen was stunned, feeling that his IQ was instantly insulted!
"Fu Mingrui!" Duanmu Qingchen shouted, "You teased me!"
Fu Mingrui immediately said in a serious tone: "I dare not. Please do not make jokes, Your Highness. People's words are scary. Three people can make a tiger. Your Highness, please be careful with your words."
Duanmu Qingchen smiled when he saw Fu Mingrui's serious look: "Hey, Fu Mingrui, you are nothing like your father. You are much more rigid than him. Now..." Duanmu Qingchen raised his arm with a wicked smile, and put it on Fu Mingrui's shoulder, with a charming light in his peach blossom eyes, "There is no one else here. Tell me, how do three people make a tiger?" Duanmu Qingchen got close to Fu Mingrui's serious face, raised his hand and gently poked Fu Mingrui's cheek, laughing and joking, with ambiguity.
Fu Mingrui neither resisted nor refused, he just looked ahead, his face still serious: "The prince is here."
Duanmu Qingchen raised his eyebrows and looked where Fu Mingrui was looking. Sure enough, a man came on horseback. It was one of the imperial guards: Duan Yi.
The horse was approaching, Duan Yi hurriedly dismounted and knelt on one knee in front of Duanmu Qingchen.
Duanmu Qingchen was already disappointed and rolled his eyes when he saw that it was Duan Yi. He still put his arm on Fu Mingrui's shoulder and looked away: "Seeing you, it must be bad news~~ Could it be that my father asked me to go back to school?"
"Greetings, Prince." Duan Yi was serious and solemn, not daring to neglect, "Pass on the emperor's oral order, asking the prince to make a fair judgment on the butterfly case."
Duanmu Qingchen was stunned, turned back, and showed some interest: "What is the Butterfly Transformation Case? Stand up and talk."
The Butterfly Transformation Case? Fu Mingrui immediately paid attention. Why didn't he take on this case
"Yes." Duan Yi stood up and looked at Fu Mingrui, "This morning, the only son of Minister Ma suddenly turned into a butterfly and disappeared at home."
"Oh?! Is there such a strange thing?" Fu Mingrui's blood immediately boiled in his heart. Hunting with the prince could not make him passionate, but when there was a strange case, his blood would definitely boil.
"Hey, hey, hey, shouldn't you report to me?" Duanmu Qingchen was very dissatisfied with Duan Yi for only talking to Fu Mingrui. Why aren't you afraid of the royal family now? !
Fu Mingrui immediately grabbed Duan Yi's arm and said, "Go on."
Duan Yi still only looked at Fu Mingrui: "The emperor ordered you and the Ninth Gate to investigate the strange case of the butterfly transformation. You have three days to solve the case. If the master of the gate can solve the case, the Ninth Gate will be closed from now on."
Fu Mingrui was slightly surprised: "Why is it suddenly related to the Nine Gates? The various strange cases in the capital should be handled by my Eight Gates."
Duan Yi's eyes flickered for a moment, and he lowered his eyes: "It should be that the left prime minister felt that this case was too bizarre, so he wanted to push it to Lord Yao, but Lord Yao pushed it back to him, and so on and so forth...it became that Lord and the Nine Gates investigated this case."
Duanmu Qingchen glanced back and forth between Fu Mingrui and Duan Yi, licked his lips and smiled slyly, with a hint of amusement in his eyes.
"The emperor also said that if you lose..." Duan Yi paused.
Fu Mingrui raised his head and asked, "You want me to hand over the Eight Gates?"
Duan Yi looked at him cautiously, lowered his head and muttered: "No, it's to let... Zuo Xiang go home to retire..."
“Pfft! Hahahaha—” Duanmu Qingchen laughed immediately and patted Fu Mingrui on the back, “You are a father who really knows how to trick your son, hahaha—”
After hearing this, Fu Mingrui remained calm and composed, not worried about his father losing his official position. He immediately asked Duan Yi, "How long has Lord Yao been back to the Ninth Gate?"
Duan Yi calculated carefully and said, "They should have gone to the Nine Gates to select people to solve the case."
Fu Mingrui nodded: "There is no time to lose, Prince, I am going down the mountain to investigate the case."
"Transforming into a butterfly is so interesting, I want to go too!" Duanmu Qingchen was very interested in going.
Fu Mingrui bowed and saluted: "The place where the crime occurred is not open to outsiders. The prince will be the judge. During this period, you should see me less often to avoid suspicion." After Fu Mingrui finished speaking, he turned around and rode on the horse that Duan Yi had brought, and hurried away to seize the initiative.
Duanmu Qingchen crossed his arms, curled his lips and snorted: "Hmph, how boring, if you don't let me go, then I can't go? My feet are on my body, I don't know who can stop me. Hmph!"
Everyone in the world envied him as a prince, who was born rich, lived in the palace, and ate delicacies from land and sea.
But he was just a caged bird in a luxurious cage, locked in the cage every day to learn literature and martial arts, and even had to be caged when hunting. It was really boring.
Now, it was a rare opportunity for his father, the Emperor, to give him an interesting job, so why not take the opportunity to have some fun? He had heard about the Ninth Gate of the Imperial Palace a long time ago. But the Ninth Gate was directly under his father, and even he didn't know what the people under Yao Guang did. He had heard most of the legends about the Ninth Gate from the eunuchs and palace maids.
If there really are demons and monsters in this world, he also wants to see what they look like. He doesn't know if the fox spirit is really as beautiful as the legend says, but he is a beauty-obsessed prince.
In the clear sky, only eagles fly freely, and the prosperous and magnificent capital city is in full view.
The roads lead to all directions, and a jade-like green lake is embedded in the city. There are endless pavilions and towers around it. Looking down, the eight trigrams are arranged in a magnificent manner.
The entire capital city is like a huge Bagua mirror facing the sky. (To be continued)