Murong Ci grew up in a heap of brocade brocades since he was a child.
Seeing this filthy, filthy, and dark hell on earth at this moment, she was overwhelmed with emotion.
Between people, different backgrounds, different statuses, and different encounters have created all kinds of people. Therefore, poverty and wealth coexist, dirt and cleanness coexist, and humbleness and honor go hand in hand. Therefore, some people are not willing to be reconciled to the arrangement of fate, and climb up for fame and fortune, by all means and desperately.
Qin Ruo suggested: "Your Highness, why don't you ask the palace servant who is in charge."
Murong Ci nodded in agreement, and not long after, Qin Ruo found Li Nai, the palace official in charge.
Chunwu Courtyard is a dark corner forgotten by the world. Occasionally, palace people come here, and the highest status are the palace people around the concubines to ask questions. Today, however, the crown prince came in person. Mother Li was surprised, happy, and apprehensive. She lowered her head and did not dare to lift her eyes. She said respectfully, "This place is terribly dirty. Your highness, the crown prince, is not worthy of being involved in this filthy place. Your Highness, please move to the room where the servants are resting, and the servants will try their best to serve you."
"No need." Qin Ruodai replied His Royal Highness, holding the airs of a popular person next to the prince, and asked aloofly, "I heard that someone died in Chunwu Courtyard a few days ago, is there such a thing?"
"Chunwu Courtyard is no different than outside. People here are plagued by serious illnesses, and death is a common occurrence." Nanny Li replied respectfully, without leaking anything.
"Last night, a servant dragged two corpses out, those two corpses" Qin Ruo glanced at His Highness and continued.
"What Your Highness wants to ask is Bai Cairen and Mo Guiren, who were demoted to common people twenty years ago." Li Nanny bowed her body, her eyebrows were lowered, and she was very docile.
"Bai Cairen and Mo Guiren are the concubines that my father favored in the past." Murong Ci's cold gaze slowly swept over those people who looked like walking corpses.
Those who were imprisoned found a man in brocade clothes coming, his empty and dull eyes lit up a little, with a sense of inquiry and a little unrealistic hope.
Nanny Li replied: "Reporting to Your Highness, Shuren Bai and Shuren Mo have indeed served His Majesty, and they have been locked up here for twenty years. Yesterday, two palace servants found them dead in the backyard of Chunwu Courtyard. Day. When the servants learned about this, they immediately reported to the Internal Service Bureau, and at dusk yesterday, several internal servants came to drag the corpse away."
Qin Ruo asked: "It's been a few days since I died, why did I find out so late?"
Nanny Li was speechless, with a look of panic on her face.
No need to explain, Murong Ci also understands, who cares whether the people in Chunwu Courtyard are alive or dead
People here don't care if they don't see someone for a few days. Most of them can guess that they are either dead or terminally ill and unable to get out of bed. Life is like a walking corpse; death is a lonely and desperate death.
Only when the body is found, the palace will report to the Internal Service Bureau to drag the body away.
Although this kind of thing is the usual practice of Chunwu Courtyard, and the Internal Service Bureau will not question it at all, but how dare Madam Li, who is in charge, tell the truth in front of the prince at this time
"Is there any different people or things here recently?" Murong Ci asked, seeing a person sitting on a simple mottled wheelchair being pushed out.
"Recently, except for the death of Shuren Bai and Shuren Mo, there is nothing else, as usual." Nanny Li replied.
The middle-aged woman in the wheelchair was wearing a gray-black robe that had been washed white, and a long cloth scarf of the same color covered her head and face, revealing only her smooth forehead and a pair of black and white eyes. She looked quite neat and dilapidated. The winter jasmine blooming in the garden is the white hibiscus swaying in the dirty mud.
Pushing the wheelchair was a woman about her age, with a neat ponytail, jet-black hair, and a gray-black coarse cloth robe.
They seemed to sense that someone was watching them, and turned their heads to look over.
Murong Ci felt that they were different from Chunwuyuan.
Isn't it strange that the middle-aged woman wrapped her head and face with a long cloth scarf on such a hot day
Their eyes are no different from other people's eyes, there is nothing to love in life.
Seeing His Royal Highness looking at the two of them, Nanny Li quickly introduced: "Your Highness, the person in the wheelchair is An Guiren who came in fifteen years ago, no, it's An Shuren."
Qin Ruo asked, "Where is the person pushing the wheelchair?"
Nanny Li said: "The person pushing the wheelchair should be a close servant brought in by Mrs. An Shu."
Murong Ci has a little impression of An Guiren, but she was still young at that time, and she was mentioned by the palace people a few years after the incident happened.
After she was born, her mother died of a bloody collapse. The emperor wanted to entrust her to a certain concubine to be raised, but after choosing and choosing, he felt that the dozen or so concubines in the harem were unreliable, so he raised her himself. During that time, Mrs. An often visited her when she was still in her infancy. His father saw that Mr. An took care of her well and was quite close, so he doted on Mrs. An many times.
When Murong Ci was three years old, he occasionally caught a cold and suffered from diarrhea. His father made a thorough investigation and finally found An Guiren. After the truth came out, his father demoted An Guiren to a commoner and sent him to the Chunwu Courtyard, where he would never leave the Chunwu Courtyard.
She vaguely remembered that Mrs. An's maidservant was named Liu Mei.
Back then, Mrs. An intended to murder the young girl and blame other concubines.
Today, seeing each other on such a scorching summer day, is An Gui full of hatred
Murong Ci looked at An Guiren from a distance, and saw in those dark and clear eyes that there was no wave, no dispute with the world.
In a dirty place, it is rare to live so neatly and decently.
"Take me to the rooms of Shuren Bai and Shuren Mo." Murong Ci said coldly.
"Your Highness, you also know that Chunwu Courtyard is no more expensive than the palace outside, His Royal Highness, there is really no need to go to that kind of dirty place." Mother Li persuaded embarrassingly, did His Highness lose his mind today
Visiting the Chunwu Courtyard was already an epoch-making experience, yet His Highness even went into the Inner Courtyard to see the residence.
In the inner garden of Chunwu Courtyard, there are three Datong shops, one of which can accommodate 20 to 30 people. It is messy, dirty, dirty, and the air filled with a strong musty smell is terribly dirty.
Whenever someone died, Nanny Li would order the palace staff to clean it up, but the palace staff was afraid of contracting a strange disease, and they were too lazy, so they just cleaned up briefly.
His Highness saw such a horrific scene, and she, the palace official in charge, might be punished.
"Your Highness, servant, go down and take a look." Qin Ruo winked at His Highness, the environment in the inner garden is even more terrifying, and someone who is not His Highness should go in.
"I will go in personally. You all follow." Murong Ci led the way.
Nanny Li, one head and two big, secretly prayed to God: Your Highness, please don’t condemn me.
Shuren Bai and Shuren Mo lived in the second bunk room, and Murong Ci stood at the door, fainted by the strong and pungent smell.
The strange smell mixed with the musty smell, the smell of human waste and the rotten smell of food hovers here and lasts for a long time. The three walls of the bunk room are made of stone kang, a straw mat is a bunk, lice, cockroaches and mice can be seen everywhere, a beam of sunlight leaks from the cracks in the roof tiles, and dust particles fly freely.
Messy, dirty, filthy, full of filth.
The kennel is also several times stronger than here.
Murong Ci frowned deeply, Qin Ruo couldn't help covering her mouth and nose with a handkerchief, and gave Nanny Li a look.
Nanny Li was frightened, and her limbs trembled with guilt, "The servant girl will instruct the palace servants to clean the servant girl well, and I will never dare to be lazy and beg Your Highness for mercy."
She begged for mercy endlessly, and Murong couldn't stop talking, "Where are the berths of Shuren Bai and Shuren Mo?"
Finally it came in handy, Nanny Li went all out, walked in quickly, and pointed to two empty bunks.
Qin Ruo reminded: "Your Highness, be careful."
Murong Ci walked in, covered his nose and mouth with a silk handkerchief, and looked at the two bunks.
Thin gray and black quilts were piled up on the straw mat, covered with dust, and there was an old dowry with red lacquer mottled against the wall. . Other than that, nothing else.
She inspected it carefully, but didn't see any dark red blood or anything like that.
Qin Ruo took a wooden stick and picked up the old thin quilt, but there was still nothing.
Murong Ci stood in front of the stone kang, raised his hand to signal Qin Ruo.
Qin Ruo pinches a long hair from under the thin quilt, which is the same as the gray hair she got yesterday.
But Shuren Bai and Shuren Mo both had black hair.
Finally, Nanny Li respectfully sent the prince away, and the tense string was finally relaxed.
A pair of eyes hidden in a dark corner, watching the two princes disappear from the palace.
Those eyes narrowed viciously.
Back in the East Palace, Qin Ruo saw that His Highness was in a daze for half an hour in the study, and couldn't help asking: "Your Highness, what did you find?"
"Bai Shuren and Mo Shuren should have been picked up from the bed by the murderer in the middle of the night, and then drained of their blood." Murong Ci stared at the two similar gray hairs on Si Pa, his bright eyes condensed.
"The murderer is someone from Chunwu Courtyard"
"should be."
"Is the death of Shuren Bai and Shuren Mo related to what happened in the past few days?" Qin Ruo became more and more confused.
Murong Ci didn't answer her question, his eyes staring at the two gray hairs were as clear as a cold spring in a mountain stream.
The imperial palace under the night is like a huge beast dormant and dozing, everything is quiet, like death.
boom boom boom boom
Shocking thunder rolled from the sky, and thunderbolts fell from the sky, opening their teeth and claws like branches, flickering eeriely.
In the dark world, there was a strong wind, and the thunder continued to bombard, as if to wake up the dead world, and the furious thunderbolt seemed to tear the sky apart.
Not long after, the raindrops poured down like fried beans, and the torrential rain hit, crackling.
There was some movement in the huge palace. Some people got up and closed the windows, some turned over and continued to sleep, and some hid in a corner and shivered.
This thunderstorm lasted for more than an hour, the sky was bright, and the palace servants got up to wait on the master.
A servant walked quickly in the drizzle with a palace umbrella, rushing to deliver the rose dew that Concubine Xiao ordered by name to Qingluan Hall.
Suddenly, the servant stopped and stared blankly at the magnolia tree on the left side of the palace road.
"ah"
The servant screamed in horror, and his shrill cry pierced through the rushing silk rain.