Chapter 27: Sad

"Knock knock knock..." The sound of the wooden fish in Qingshou Temple was neither fast nor slow, but there was no sign of stopping.

Yao Guangxiao closed his eyes and held the Buddhist beads in his hands, pinching them one by one. After a while, he suddenly opened his eyes and said, "The child who died in Prince Yan's mansion had the same symptoms as the Crown Prince when he was seriously ill in Beijing?"

Yuan Gong, a fortune teller with a square face and gray hair, who was sitting on the futon next to him, said, "The symptoms are exactly the same... The child in the palace accidentally ate the Junying grass and was poisoned. No medicine can cure it. The people in the palace pulled out all the Junying grass a few days ago to prevent anyone from accidentally eating it again."

Yuan Gong pondered for a moment and asked, "Should we report this to the King of Yan?"

"Slow!" Yao Guangxiao still had his eyes closed. He said one word and then kept silent. He held the Buddhist beads and counted for a long time. His lips moved slightly, but he did not recite a single word.

At this time, Yao Guangxiao finally spoke again, "Daxu, come in."

A younger monk lifted the straw curtain, walked in and bowed his head in a one-handed salute.

Yao Guangxiao gave a look, and the monk named Daxu said to Yuan Gong, "I was ordered to go to the capital to meet a certain noble. I heard about the murder of Prince Gaoyang, and by the way, I found some small strange contradictions in the matter..."

The monk paused for a moment, took two steps forward, and whispered something in Yuan Gong's ear.

Yuan Gong listened for a while, and then seemed to be thinking about something, and then he suddenly realized something.

Yao Guangxiao glanced at him and said, "Mr. Yuan, find a time to meet Miss Du. It will be very useful to you."

Yuan Gong nodded in agreement.

Seeing that he seemed to still have some doubts, Yao Guangxiao said, "If you don't think about the future, you will have immediate worries. We have talked about what kind of person Prince Gaoyang is before, and there may be some deviations. Besides, I accidentally made some grudges with Prince Yan at Prince Yan's mansion that day... It doesn't matter, I didn't get along with him in the first place. Now the opportunity is very good, why not seize the opportunity and take precautions first?"

Yuan Gong said, "Master, what you said makes sense."

...Du Qianrui can cook but cannot sew clothes. The little needlework skills she learned as a child are not up to standard and she cannot make good clothes.

Zhu Gaoxu gave her some silk, and she picked out two pieces, then called Wang Gui's godson Cao Fu to help her drive out to find a tailor. Cao Fu had been hanging around in the front hall recently, and was stopped by Du Qianrui.

They drove to Xie Street, where there were the best tailor shops in Beijing. Du Qianrui picked one, asked Cao Fu to wait outside, and went in with the silk.

Unexpectedly, just after entering the gatehouse, an old Taoist priest came out, stood in front of Du Qianrui, clasped his fists and said, "Miss Du, can you please spare me a moment to talk?"

Du Qianrui was surprised and looked at him and asked, "Who are you?"

The Taoist priest asked, "Miss Du is a criminal under imperial rule. How dare you come out so soon?"

Du Qianrui was even more surprised and wanted to turn around and leave.

Unexpectedly, the alchemist said again, "An imperial prisoner is an imperial prisoner, so don't be afraid. If your life experience is known to the nobles, will they still protect you?"

After a few words, Du Qianrui could no longer move forward, her hands were trembling uncontrollably, and cold sweat dripped from her forehead.

"Please come this way," said the alchemist.

Du Qianrui was at a loss for a moment, everything he saw seemed to have lost its color, and he followed the alchemist in unexpectedly. Entering the hall of this shop, there is also a courtyard, where some women are busy working. The alchemist walked to the corner and stood still.

"What do you want to say?" Du Qianrui asked tremblingly.

"Pathetic!" The alchemist stared at her, shook his head, and uttered two words.

When Du Qianrui heard these two words, she felt sour and almost lost her composure and cried on the spot.

The Taoist observed her with his small eyes and continued, "The life story you made up is not your own, but someone else's, right? You envy others for being able to meet a good person to save them from their pathetic and lowly profession. Unfortunately, your situation is just as pathetic, but your life story is not just as worthy of pity.

When you meet that noble man who chooses you three times, you think you have a chance, so you copy others' life stories and apply them to yourself. What's more, you deliberately anger Ambassador Xu so that he will fall into the trap and torture you pitifully. Did you use all your tricks and finally get what you wanted? "

Du Qianrui kept shaking her head and said, "I didn't want to kill Ambassador Xu! He had done bad things before, and I thought it would be okay to let him suffer a little. I never thought things would turn out like this..."

The Taoist sneered, "Let's think about it. If that noble knew that you had been plotting against him and had caused him to commit a murder and be imprisoned, and that he almost escaped, what would he do?

Even if he suddenly stopped being violent and spared your life, if a random person took a list and sent you to the government, what would happen next? "

Du Qianrui stretched out her hand to hold her heart, her face turned cold, "What do you want?"

The alchemist said, "You have to tell me what you saw in the capital and what that noble man did? Then, you have to stay with that noble man and tell us any news in the future. As long as you do these two things, I will protect you. No matter what happens, I will try to arrange everything for you.”

Du Qianrui said coldly, "I didn't see anything!"

The alchemist's face showed a fierce look, "It's best to think clearly! Did the noble man poison his eldest brother with Junyingcao? When and what medicine was used to cure the poison?"

Du Qianrui trembled and opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

A scene emerged in her mind. In the firelight in the dark night, a familiar low voice said: Just pretend you don't know, okay?

All the words that the voice said came to her mind all at once and lingered in her body.

...If I just sit back and let Miss Du hurt her fingers, how can I listen to you playing the pipa in the future...I don't have the final say on whether you can be forgiven, you have to ask this girl...Just from this meticulous and attentive approach, the time and patience spent, I can feel the overflowing love...

"I don't know!" Du Qianrui said in a crying voice, almost shouting.

She ran away after saying that. The Taoist priest chased after her for a few steps and said, "Miss Du, don't worry. Think it through and tell me later."

"I don't know! I won't know even if I die!" Du Qianrui said as she walked quickly, holding up her skirt.

She ran out of the shop and saw Cao Fu standing next to the carriage, so she said, "I looked at a few ready-made clothes. The craftsmanship in this shop is not good. Let's go."

Cao Fu sat in the front, cracked his whip, turned around and said, "Miss Du, where are we going now?"

Du Qianrui said, "Let's go back home. I won't do it anymore."

After returning to the Prince's Mansion, Zhu Gaoxu and Wang Gui seemed to have not returned yet after going out. Du Qianrui suddenly became very afraid to see him. The smile on her face had completely disappeared, and she met Aunt Wang in the front hall with a pale face.

Aunt Wang tilted her head, looked at her without hesitation, and asked, "Miss Du, are you sick?"

Du Qianrui had always been kind to everyone in the mansion, carefully trying to please everyone, but now she lost her patience and said coldly, "I feel a little uncomfortable."

She walked into the room where she lived, slammed the door shut, threw herself on the bed, buried her face in the quilt, and burst into tears in a suppressed voice.

Sad! This word was like a knife, stabbing her heart accurately. It's not like she had never been scolded before, but it had never really hurt her, so she wouldn't have felt the way she did today.

The more Du Qianrui thought about it, the more pathetic she felt. She shamelessly fabricated a life story, but in reality, there was nothing to be regretted . She was just the most inconspicuous girl among a large group of girls from the Jiaofang Department. She even felt that she had no reason to live in this world.

I remember when she was in Fuleyuan, Du Qianrui felt sorry for a maid and often gave her some old clothes that she no longer wore. Unexpectedly, the maid said behind her back: I look prettier in Du Qianrui's clothes than she does... At that time, Du Qianrui called her "pathetic". As a result, now, Du Qianrui herself has "put on" someone else's life experience, which is even more pathetic than that maid!

Du Qianrui's entire soul seemed to be sucked away at once, and she felt as if the sky was falling.

He blamed himself for being too clever. He didn't expect to meet a prince, and he didn't expect to be involved in a murder case and such a complicated conspiracy.

This time it's all over. I can't even go back to the Jiaofangsi to continue my lowly job. I've become a criminal!

After crying for a long time, Du Qianrui climbed up from the bed and looked at her red and swollen eyes in the bronze mirror. She stopped crying. Anyway, she had never had a good life since she was a child. She was either sold or insulted. Today was not the first time she felt that life was so miserable, so she quickly recovered from her emotional breakdown.

Du Qianrui thought about it and decided that it would be wise to leave Peking and hide somewhere before anything happened. She had nowhere to go, so it seemed that she had no choice but to return to her hometown, a poor and remote village where she couldn't even get on the list of the imperial court... She had to think of a way to get back to Jiangxi.

Otherwise, where can you go?

At this time, Aunt Wang knocked on the door several times and said, "Miss Du, the prince and Wang Gui are back! Go tell Wang Gui so he can get you some medicine."

"Okay!" Du Qianrui responded as if nothing had happened.

She opened the door, lowered her head so that no one would see her swollen eyes, and went straight to the kitchen to boil some water so that she could apply a hot towel to the swelling to help it heal faster.

At this moment, she looked at the various ingredients in the kitchen and suddenly thought: I still have a skill, making snacks. I have never let the prince taste the snacks I made... This time, he may never be able to taste them again.

So Du Qianrui took an apron and put it on, rolled up her sleeves, took a bowl to scoop up the glutinous rice, and started busying herself in the kitchen skillfully.

She worked with a heavy heart, and after a while, she began to hope for the best: What if the Taoist priest didn't complain? Or the prince would forgive her and let bygones be bygones?

Du Qianrui imagined it reluctantly while shaking her head. She was very hesitant.

After being busy for a while, she leaned sideways and stretched her head to the window to look at the sun, thinking: It's not time for dinner yet, and the prince has gone out again. He might be a little hungry, so it's a good time to send him some snacks.