"Concubine Shizi, you are dead in clothes!"
As soon as Zhu Xing returned to Bixiaotang, the first thing he did was to report the matter to Nangong Yue.
At this moment, the two are in Xiao Yi's outer study room, Nangong Yue is sitting on Xiao Yi's grand master's chair, for her, the slightly wide grand master's chair makes her figure even smaller, Baihui and Haitang are accompanying her .
The result reported by Zhu Xing was also beyond Nangong Yue's expectation. Nangong Yue couldn't help but open her eyes slightly, showing surprise.
Nangong Yue lowered her eyes halfway, and the light flickered. After pondering for a moment, she asked slowly, "Zhu Xing, tell me, how did Bai Yi die? Did you leave any clues?"
The death of Bai Yi was a bit bloody and appalling. Zhu Xing originally wanted to mention it in one word, but since Nangong Yue asked, he also reported in detail: "Concubine Hui Shi, when Bai Yi's body was found, It was fixed on the wall with three daggers, one in each palm of each hand, and the third was inserted in her throat, but the fatal injury was that the blood on the side of her neck was cut, and the blood flowed out little by little. In the end, he died of excessive blood loss, and the daggers used were all ordinary daggers, without leaving any special clues.”
Before finding Bai Yi's body, Zhu Xing felt that the person who rescued Bai Yi was most likely from Baiyue, but with Bai Yi's death, he couldn't be sure of this.
Nangong Yue listened while drinking tea, seemingly relaxing, but her mind was spinning fast. After putting down the teacup, he asked again: "Can you see that she was killed first, and then the body was nailed to the wall, or was it upside down?"
No one else can answer this question, but Zhu Xing, a veteran who has been on the battlefield and seen a lot of blood on his hands, thought about it, and immediately replied: "It's the latter."
That is to say, when he was alive, someone pierced his palm with a dagger and nailed him to the wall, and then cut his throat and let the blood out
"Murder." Nangong Yue murmured thoughtfully.
Zhu Xing squinted his eyes, and also lowered his eyes in thought.
From the first time he saw the corpse lying in clothes, he intuitively felt that it was a massacre.
Luoyue City is the site of the Zhennan Prince's Mansion, and the person who rescued Bai Yi did not hesitate to take such a big risk to act, which shows the importance of Bai Yi to him, but Bai Yi was actually killed, and it was not by a knife, but by People were brutally tortured and killed.
Obviously, the assailant should have some purpose, either to torture something, or to vent his anger for punishment
What Zhu Xing thought of, Nangong Yue naturally thought of it too. After pondering for a while, she ordered: "Zhu Xing, keep investigating!"
The identity of the person who robbed the clothes is still unknown, and his whereabouts are unknown. Of course, we must continue to investigate this matter!
Zhu Xing's eyes shone brightly, he immediately clasped his fists to accept the order, and then proposed: "Concubine Shizi, this subordinate wants to double the guards of the Palace and Bixiao Hall, what does Concubine Shizi think?"
Nangong Yue nodded, "Let me talk to the lord at the palace." Nangong Yue can take full charge of all matters in Bixiaotang, but at the palace, the prophet needs to know Zhennan Wang.
Seeing Nangong Yue's understatement, Zhu Xing couldn't help feeling a little bit embarrassed. With the concubine, the prince's affairs are much more convenient. No wonder the saying goes, a good wife and a good husband seldom suffer!
It's less than Chen's hour now, and the day has just begun. For Zhu Xing, there are still many things to be busy with today.
After Zhu Xing stepped back, Nangong Yue rubbed the center of her brows, showing a little tired look. She went to bed late last night and got up early this morning, so she didn't rest for a few hours all night.
She took another sip of the refreshing tea in the teacup, and then told Baihui: "Baihui, go and ask the prince if you can increase the guards in the palace. She said that it is almost Chinese New Year, and there are so many people coming and going. Some people have the idea of attacking grandchildren, after all, our palace has resisted the decree twice."
Baihui took the order with a smile and left. The two servant girls are well aware that in King Zhennan's mind, the most important person is the little grandson. As long as it is about the care of the little grandson, not to mention doubling the guards, it is to transfer the strength of the army Come here, the king of Zhennan may not say anything.
As for Nangong Yue, after drinking the refreshing tea slowly, she got up and left the outer study with Haitang, intending to return to her yard.
Unexpectedly, just as she stepped out of the study door, the air around her suddenly became cold.
"Boom! Boom!"
Two gleaming sleeve arrows cut through the air and shot towards Nangong Yue quickly. These two arrows are much smaller than ordinary feather arrows, but their speed and sharpness are not diminished. They come like flying fire meteors, tearing the air , with a strong and fierce murderous intent.
However, Haitang was still behind Nangong Yue, and the door of the study was only big enough for one person to enter and exit at a time.
The speed of the two sleeve arrows was extremely fast, but in the blink of an eye, they had already shot several feet away. One arrow aimed at Nangong Yue's eyebrows, and the other pierced straight to her left chest.
Among the lightning and flint, Haitang stepped up on the door frame behind, and then jumped out with all her strength. Her petite body leaped over Nangong Yue's head nimbly. At the same time, her left hand Shaking out a flying knife, it hit a sleeve arrow with a "clank", knocking it away, and the whip in his right hand was thrown out like a spirit snake, wrapping around the second sleeve arrow.
In this quiet early morning, the sound of weapons being handed over was particularly cold and piercing.
"rustle"
There was a strange sound of swaying branches and leaves from the crown of the tree that shot the sleeve arrow. Obviously, the assailant had gone away.
Haitang instinctively took two steps forward, but she stopped decisively and did not catch up.
For her, her most important task is to protect the princess's safety, and other things are extra trivial matters.
If you are thrown away because of a moment of enthusiasm, it is a small loss, and you will only regret it!
Haitang held the whip unwillingly, and looked coldly at the two sleeve arrows that she had knocked down to the ground. The sharp tips of the arrows shone coldly in the rising sun, giving off a chilly air.
Soon, there was a sound of footsteps not far away. The movement here attracted the guards outside the courtyard, and they walked into the courtyard chaotically.
Naturally, they saw the sleeve arrow that fell on the ground at a glance, and guessed what happened just now, their expressions changed drastically, and they were afraid for a while.
"Someone assassinated the Crown Princess!"
"Quick! Go after the assassin!"
"Hurry up and report to Steward Zhu!"
""
The commotion in the outer study spread rapidly like a plague. After a while, the entire Bixiao Hall knew about the attempted assassination of the First Concubine. Early in the morning, there was a sudden storm in Bixiao Hall.
Even fiercer, more turbulent, and more powerful than last night!
Bixiao Hall is in chaos!
After a while, Zhu Xing returned to the courtyard of the outer study with a team of guards. Taking this place as the center, a group of guards searched every corner of Bixiao Hall, but after a long time of work, they still found nothing .
This made Zhu Xing more vigilant while being disappointed. He resolutely changed his original plan, and directly used Xiao Yi's son's token to transfer a hundred elite soldiers from the Luoyue City Camp to serve as the guards of the Palace and Bixiao Hall temporarily.
For a moment, both the Wangfu and Bixiaotang were on emergency alert. Anyone in the mansion who thought that there might still be that hideous and terrifying assassin hidden in a certain corner of the mansion would feel nervous. a feeling of.
At this time, Nangong Yue had already returned to her room under Haitang's guard, and the first thing she did was to go to the inner room to see Xiao Yu.
Seeing the little guy spitting bubbles in his sleep, Nangong Yue only felt lucky. Fortunately, because of being rescued last night, she ordered Xiao Ying and Xiao An to protect little Xiao Yu, otherwise if the assassin Aiming at the little guy, she can hardly think about it
Nangong Yue looked at the little guy's sleeping face tenderly for a while, her impetuous heart slowly calmed down, as if she had found a refuge in her heart.
After calming down, she began to think about what happened just now.
Obviously, the assassin should have come prepared, and had been lurking in that position for a long time, so he was able to decisively assassinate the assassin the moment he walked out of the study!
He failed with one blow, and left without hesitation, without leaving any clues, not even seeing his figure.
This crisp and elusive style made Nangong Yue naturally think of taking away and killing the person who put the clothes.
There is definitely a connection between the two, and they should be the same group.
But who would it be
Nangong Yue tilted her head, recalling the death of the clothes in her mind, and muttered to herself: "Murder!"
But why pose like that, why use three daggers
Nangong Yue always felt that the way of putting on clothes was too deliberate, too characteristic and even had a sense of ritual.
Maybe it's not just brutality
Seeing Nangong Yue drooping her eyes and thinking, Haitang at the side said casually: "Prince Princess, this servant thinks that the murderer should hate Bai Yi so much, that's why she bleeds to death bit by bit. This process must be extremely difficult for Bai Yi." Painful, but relatively speaking, the murderer has to take a greater risk and wait for his clothes to die slowly."
Nangong Yue raised her eyebrows and looked at Haitang. With Haitang saying this, it can be ruled out that the murderer was trying to torture him, that is to say, the reason why this person took so much trouble to save first and then kill was to—
punish!
He also deliberately chose a very ceremonial punishment method.
Baiyue is the saint of Baiyue. As far as she knows, more than half of the people in Baiyue believe in the Holy Heaven Sect, and the saint represents the messenger sent by God to the world, and is the most supreme existence in the Holy Heaven Sect. The status is second only to the Baiyue royal family
Nangong Yue didn't know much about Baiyue, that's about it.
"Humei, Que'er." Nangong Yue called out, "You two find a way to go to the bookstore in the city to find some books about Baiyue."
"Yes, Crown Princess."
The two servant girls responded bluntly, knowing that this matter was related to the assassin who killed Baiyi and murdered the concubine, they didn't dare to delay, so they went out with a few little servant girls. Few bookstores need to be searched.
This search lasted for two or three days, during which time books were sent in piles from various bookstores in the city to Bixiaotang.
At the same time, Zhu Xing led the guards and the people of the Southern Border Army to search and question around the city, intending to find suspicious persons, but there was still no clue.
This assassin, or this group of assassins, seemed to appear out of thin air, and then disappeared out of thin air, leaving no trace like a ghost.
During this period of time, Nangong Yue was not idle. She had to prepare for the New Year and take care of Xiao Yu, and it took time. Although Baihui and Ying'er could help her with all these, it still took a lot of time.
Boxes of those books were moved into Nangong Yue's small study room, and box after box were moved out.
On the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month, a cry of surprise suddenly came from the small study room. Que'er suddenly stood up holding a book with a yellowed cover, which immediately attracted the attention of others, including Nangong Yue.
"Elder Concubine, look here"
Que'er couldn't wait to present the book to Nangong Yue, pointing delicately at the picture on a certain page.
Nangong Yue raised her right eyebrow slightly, her gaze was immediately attracted by the picture on the book.
This picture shows a woman nailed to a wall with her arms wide open. Countless people are scrambling to throw stones at her. The woman died tragically, but at the same time, she has a somewhat familiar feeling, which reminds Nangong Yue It's the dead state of putting on clothes.
Nangong Yue collected herself, turned a page forward, and started from the beginning.
This book introduces the Holy Heaven Sect, and the history of the Sacred Heaven Sect is also a history of Baiyue.
It has been more than 300 years since the founding of Baiyue. According to records, more than 300 years ago, Shengtian Sect had only a few thousand believers. At that time, an elder Dazhen actively expanded the influence of Shengtian Sect. In the middle of the year, Shengtianjiao grew to tens of thousands of people, which aroused the fear of those in power in Baiyue at that time. They tried to eradicate Shengtianjiao in the name of a cult, but they did not expect that Shengtianjiao revolted under the leadership of Dazhen, and quickly occupied it. In the next few years, he attracted many believers with his teachings, and his momentum became more and more powerful. He overthrew the old dynasty in just ten years and established the current Baiyue.
After Dazhen ascended the throne as the king of Baiyue, the Holy Heaven Sect became the holy religion of Baiyue. He claimed to be the holy son chosen by God, and he chose a female elder in the church at that time as the saint to take charge of the Holy Heaven Sect. This is also the beginning of Yue's saintess system.
The saint is sacred and has a high status. She must believe in the Holy Heaven and pay for it all her life.
But huge power also represents ambition. In the history of Baiyue, there have been saintesses who formed cliques for personal gain, and saintesses who encouraged believers to rebel. All of these saintesses were sentenced to death.
The picture that Que'er found in the book is the saint who was executed, and this punishment is specifically for the saint.
In other words, he was sentenced to death for putting on clothes!
The picture that Que'er found in the book is the saint who was executed, and this punishment is specifically for the saint.
In other words, he was sentenced to death for putting on clothes!
A gleam flashed in Nangong Yue's eyes, and her mind was spinning.
The so-called "punishment" has a condescending connotation, and it is often the punishment of the superior to the inferior in public or private.
It seems that the person behind the scenes is indeed from Baiyue, and his identity may not be simple.
"Baihui, Haitang, let's go to the outer study!" Nangong Yue stood up and ordered, "Humei, you can go to Zhu Xing to see me."
The servant girls all hurriedly responded, followed the master and servants and left the house, heading for the outer courtyard.
As soon as Zhu Xing heard that the imperial concubine wanted to see him, he rushed to the outer study as quickly as possible.
Nangong Yue didn't go into details, and asked Baihui to hand him the book, and showed him the execution picture and a few paragraphs of text before and after.
Zhu Xing read ten lines at a glance. He is a smart person and he understood it all at once.
Apparently, Baiyue, who has long been subjugated, has a distinguished person. This person is not only respectful of rules, but also bold and careful, and he does not hesitate to punish the saint for arranging her clothes.
Meeting Zhu Xing's bewildered eyes, Nangong Yue, who had already calmed down, said in a deep voice: "Zhu Xing, you must take care of the sixth prince Carrero of Baiyue in the back mountain. Since this person has punished Bai Yi according to the rules of Baiyue , must not only have a noble status in Baiyue, but also believe in rules and orthodoxy Now that Kui Lang is dead, then this person is likely to come to rescue the sixth prince of Baiyue."
Hearing this, Zhu Xing's expression froze, and there was a look of prudence in his expression. What the princess said was true. Since this person knows that the clothes have fallen into their hands, he probably also knows that Carrero has also become their prisoner. Now that I know the enemy is in the dark, I can't guarantee when the other party will make another move
"Thank you, Shi Zifei, for your suggestion." Zhu Xing hurriedly clasped his fists together, and then stepped back to do business.
While the guards of the dungeon in the back mountain were strengthened, the search in the city and the palace did not stop. For two consecutive days, soldiers from the Southern Border Army could be seen patrolling the streets and alleys of the city, exuding a cold aura.
But after such a busy work, there was still nothing.
Zhu Xing had no choice but to ask Nangong Yue for instructions again, suggesting whether he deliberately exposed his feet, and used Carrero in the mountain dungeon as bait to lure the other party to take the bait.
Not a bad idea!
After obtaining the concubine's consent, Zhu Xing immediately mobilized his troops and strengthened the guards on the back mountain again, but another two days passed in a blink of an eye, and the opponent still showed no sign of taking the bait.
The mastermind behind this scene seemed to have left Luoyue City, and did not make any further moves.
But Nangong Yue and Zhu Xing still didn't dare to take it lightly. They both vaguely felt that judging from this person's behavior, he should be a person who failed to achieve his goal and was unwilling to give up. I'm afraid he would not retreat so easily.
As the saying goes: "There is only one who can be a thief for a thousand days, but there is no one who can guard against thieves for a thousand days." It is not a good strategy to "wait" like this. Nangong Yue simply proposed to use herself as a bait, but was unanimously and strongly opposed by Zhu Xing, Haitang and others. This time, it was no different from dealing with the Nine Kings of Nanliang back then. They knew too little about this mysterious person behind the scenes. Represents danger.
According to Haitang, "The imperial concubine is porcelain, so she can't collide with those rotten tiles!"
In the next few days, Bixiaoli, Wangfuli and Luoyue City were all peaceful, everything was as usual, as if nothing had happened.
But even so, none of Zhu Xing and the others dared to take it lightly. They always felt that this was the calm before the storm. The enemies were like poisonous snakes and beasts hiding in the shadows.
Zhu Xing worriedly dispatched a few more hidden guards to secretly protect Tingyu Pavilion and Nangong Yue's courtyard. For the son, the concubine, the grandson, and Mrs. Fang are the most important people, and nothing can go wrong. . ..
In this seemingly calm atmosphere, the New Year is approaching day by day, and the taste of the New Year is getting stronger and stronger. However, under the bustle and bustle, there is a vaguely tense atmosphere hidden, and the dark tide is surging. From the south to the In the north, the same is true in the distant capital
In the imperial study room of the imperial palace, the atmosphere was solemn, as if shrouded in a thick layer of haze.
"My subject, Lu Huaining, sees the emperor." The commander of Jinyiwei, Lu Huaining, respectfully knelt down on one knee to salute the emperor.
The emperor sitting behind the imperial case looked at Lu Huaining with a stern face, raised his hand a little irritably, and said, "Get up."
The emperor was in a very unhappy mood. In the past few days, he had received reports from Nanjiang and Xijiang, which were not good news. First, the Zhennan Palace resisted the decree and refused to marry, and then the Marquis of Weiyuan came to report to Xiye. Everything went against his expectations, and nothing made him go his way!
The more the emperor thought about it, the more gloomy his face became, especially three days ago, the incident of "Cheng Ren's acquaintance" seemed to be intensified in the capital like a sudden storm, and even the ordinary people were talking about it vividly, even more The emperor was so angry that his seven orifices smoked.
In this way, the emperor believed more and more that what Xiaosan said was right. Someone must be deliberately framing him and fueling the flames behind the scenes. Otherwise, ordinary people would dare to speak freely about the royal family's right and wrong. Therefore, the emperor ordered Lu Huaining to investigate the matter secretly two days ago.
"Tell me, how is the investigation going?" The emperor's majestic voice echoed in the imperial study.
Lu Huaining's expression became more respectful, and he replied in a deep voice: "Return to the emperor, according to my investigation, this matter was done secretly by the empress."