Tang riddles

For these servants and palace maids, no matter whether it is leaving their duties without authorization or doing their duties overnight, it is not an answer that can get out of the body.Leaving one's post without authorization is a capital offense, but if one were present at the scene, one would be suspected of murdering Concubine Hui.Either way, they were all dead, and the faces of the ten servants and maids were all pale.

Shen Sui threw out a question, but no one dared to answer for a long while, and they seemed even more frightened, especially the servant at the end of the line, whose whole body trembled so much that he could hardly kneel down, lying on the ground and twitching.Shen Sui glanced at that person, sighed in his heart, and said:

"You don't have to be burdened, just answer my question truthfully. Innocent people, I will remove the suspicion for you and keep you safe." She paused, and then asked for the second time:

"Has anyone gone AWOL tonight?"

Now, the maids in the court also understand that the only way out is to trust the young official in front of them.So as the foreman, the servant and maid at the front of the queue replied together:

"Returning officials, none of us have left their posts without permission tonight, and they are all at their posts."

"How are your positions distributed?" Shen Sui asked.

This time, it was the foreman who answered, it was the fifth-rank female official next to Concubine Wu Hui. She seemed the most calm, and answered in an orderly manner:

"Returning officials, there are [-] servants and maids in the Pearl Mirror Hall who are on duty at night. They are divided into two shifts. The ten of us are the first shift tonight. Since the servants are not allowed to enter the sleeping hall, they are all guarding outside the sleeping hall. There are two people at the door of the bedroom, two people at the door of the main hall, one in the back kitchen to answer the summons, and the other five are waiting in the shift room. The maids are in charge of the affairs of the bedroom, and there are two maids at the empress's couch who are in charge of fanning In addition, there are two miscellaneous maids in the sleeping hall, who are responsible for refilling oil lamps, replacing candles, and sending messages to the outside world. There is another maid waiting in the bath hall, responsible for fetching water and scrubbing for the empress at any time. The remaining five maids They are all waiting in the shift room, waiting for shift change."

Shen Sui nodded, and then asked:

"I don't know how to call this sister?"

The maid in charge bowed her head and replied, "Slave Dongling."

"Dare to ask Elder Sister Dong Ling, when the empress passed away, you were in the hall."

"The maidservant is next to the empress' bed."

"Oh? Is there anything unusual?"

Dong Ling paused for a moment, seemed to be recalling, and finally shook her head and replied: "The servant did not notice the abnormality. It's just that Niang Niang didn't sleep well tonight, she had trouble breathing, and she was in pain all the time. We have been hesitating whether to summon the imperial physician, but ...Your Majesty will soon..."

"Why hesitate?" Shen Sui frowned and asked, "Your Majesty's expression is unusual, shouldn't you tell the imperial physician immediately?"

"The empress told me before she went to bed that she was sleepy tonight and hoped to have a good night's sleep. She didn't want anyone to disturb her. Therefore, the servants did not dare to disturb her. We thought that the empress had a nightmare, but..." Dongling showed a trace of remorse, With cold sweat dripping from his forehead, he tried to explain.

Shen Sui was speechless for a moment, then asked again: "I think you all have noticed the fragrance in the bedroom, where does this fragrance come from, do you have any idea?"

The servants and the maids looked at each other, and finally looked at Dong Ling, who bit her lip, and then answered:

"Returning officials, servants and others don't know. The fragrance didn't diffuse suddenly, it seemed to seep in bit by bit, so the servants were in the bedroom, and they didn't notice it at first, until they opened the door and left. After going out, the people outside told the servants that there was a strange fragrance in the hall. But at that time, the scene was also very chaotic, and the servants and others didn’t really pay much attention to the fragrance.”

Shen Sui frowned and thought about it, then asked again:

"When do you switch shifts?"

"At the beginning of Yin." Dongling replied.It seems that Concubine Hui died before the shift change.

"The people who are waiting for shift change in the classroom, have they ever walked out of the classroom?"

Dong Ling looked strange, and said: "Returning officer, everyone in the class is sleeping soundly tonight, and the front of the class is the back kitchen. Wang Yuan is the servant on duty tonight, he is sitting at the door of the back kitchen, and I have never seen anyone come out of the classroom."

"Where is that class, take me to have a look." Shen Sui said.

"Here."

Dongling got up, greeted the servant named Wang Yuan, and the two of them led Shen Sui out of the side hall.The rest of the people still waited in place under the guard of the senior servant.

Shen Sui followed the two of them quickly to the backyard of the Pearl Mirror Hall, and saw the classroom that Dong Ling was talking about.These are two big houses, side by side.The one on the east side is the class of maids, and the one on the west is the class of servants.There is a long long bunk in it, if you squeeze it, it can accommodate about ten people at a time, usually more than enough for five people.At this moment, the servants and maids of the second shift had already woken up, and they all gathered in the west shift room, their expressions panicked and tense.

After Shen Sui stepped into the classroom, he first determined the entrance and exit of the classroom, and found that the classroom can only enter and exit through the door facing the courtyard.In fact, there was actually a small door in the east classroom to enter the Pearl Mirror Hall.But a huge cabinet was placed there, so the door had already been blocked.There is also a door between the east and west classes, but this door has been locked long ago, and the key is kept by the department in charge of the locks in the palace.

Shen Sui checked the cabinet and the lock carefully, and there was no sign of moving or opening them.

She walked out of the classroom and came to the yard, her eyes fell on the back kitchen opposite the classroom.She turned to look at Wang Yuan, and asked:

"Are you sitting at this door tonight?"

"Returning to the official, the servant is indeed sitting here."

"Have you ever dozed off?"

"No. The servants are used to working the night shift. Sometimes they don't sleep all night, and they don't feel sleepy." Wang Yuan replied.This person is quite confident, and the answer is very firm.

"So, you didn't see any suspicious person appear, or did someone from the classroom come out?"

"Yes, at least before the empress passed away, the servants can be sure that no suspicious person has been seen, and no one in the classroom has come out."

Shen Sui scratched her chin, she began to feel a headache.

"Sister Dongling, are you sure you haven't burned any fragrance that emits fragrance in the bedroom?" Shen Sui confirmed again.

"Slave is sure." She replied without thinking.

"Did no stranger enter the bedroom this night?"

"Yes."

"Where do you think that fragrance comes from, is there a source?" she asked.

Dongling shook her head: "This servant girl doesn't even know that there is more fragrance in the house, so naturally she can't know the source of the fragrance."

Shen Sui sighed.The matter was troublesome, either these maids collectively told lies, or... the fragrance was indeed not what she thought, it was not that someone carried the fragrance source to infect the bedroom, but came from other sources.

"Who prepared the dinner for Concubine Hui?" She finally asked.

After a long while, three servants and a court lady came out of the classroom tremblingly.They are the people who are in charge of the meals in the Pearl Mirror Hall, they are all transferred from the Shangshi Bureau, they just entered the Pearl Mirror Hall not too long ago, and they were all after Concubine Hui became seriously ill.

Shen Sui looked at them, and said: "The shrimp you used last night is still left, I want to see."

One of the servants knelt down on the spot when he heard the words, kowtowed to Shen Sui, and wailed, "Master! We absolutely have no intention of harming your empress. The shrimps are fresh sea shrimps just brought in by Shangshi Bureau. We saw that it was good, so we asked the Shangshi Bureau how many tails we ordered, and made shrimp sticks and orange juice spoons, which were all the favorites of the empress before."

Seeing him like this, the other three hurriedly knelt down and cried for grievances.Shen Sui was dizzy from being yelled at by them, and finally had no choice but to say loudly:

"I know I know, I just want to see that shrimp, is there?"

"No...not left..." The waiter replied mutteringly, "There are only some shrimp heads left, which were fried in the oil pan and served as dinner for the servants."

Shen Sui was speechless again.What is this, in disguise, to prove that the shrimp is non-toxic?

She lingered in the same place full of depression, now it's all right, the source of the poison is completely unclear.There is only one way to go, which is to examine Concubine Hui's body.But how could she speak to the saint for such disrespect?Although the imperial physician checked it, it was not a coercion after all, and he would not pay attention to some details.Shen Sui had to check Concubine Hui's body, otherwise she would not be able to investigate this case.

She was wandering about distractedly, when she heard the sound of splashing water unexpectedly, her instep felt cold, and she looked down, it turned out that she had accidentally stepped into the pond in the yard, and her boots were wet.

Ah, there was a shower during the day yesterday, I am afraid that the water left by that time has not yet dried up.She thought about it.In recent days, the weather in Chang'an has been hot and humid, with a lot of rain, making people feel very uncomfortable.

Rainwater... Her gaze suddenly drifted to the roof of the Pearl Mirror Hall not far away. She was about to open her mouth to ask something, when she heard a call. It turned out that Gao Lishi came to look for her in person. At the door, four mighty Imperial Guard soldiers followed behind them.He raised his hand and greeted her:

"Shen Sizhi! Come here!"

"Hey!" Shen Sui's heart trembled, he hurriedly responded, and rushed up, as soon as he got close to Gao Lishi, he heard him say in a low voice with a straight face:

"Xiao Song and Prime Minister Xiao just identified the source of the fragrance. The sage has already sent someone to the Princess of Jin's mansion to fetch someone. Now the sage wants to ask you a question, so do it yourself." Shen Sui was so wordy, he strode ahead to lead the way.

Shen Sui followed behind, blood flowed backwards all over his body, his brain was buzzing, and he thought: This is completely bad!

……

Xu Jie lingered at the door of Yang Yuhuan's room, sighing like an old man with his hands behind his back.Beside her was a maidservant in the princess mansion, holding a tray with food in her hand, looking at Xu Jie helplessly.The food on the tray was not touched at all.

"Go back, don't just stand there." Xu Jie noticed her and waved his hand.

The maid blessed her body and walked out with the tray. But as soon as she reached the gate of the courtyard, a figure rushed in and collided with her. The tray in her hand immediately overturned, and the dishes crackled and shattered on the floor. All the food was spilled out.The maidservant was so frightened that she screamed out of her wits.After a closer look, he realized that the person who broke in was a barbarian from the Western Regions. He was panting heavily, and ignored her when he knocked her over, and shouted directly at Xu Jie:

"Mr. Xu! Where's the princess?"

"Hutuo? What's the matter?" Xu Jie hurriedly approached and asked, "The princess has gone to the barracks."

"The big thing is not good! The forbidden army is coming to arrest people!"

"Catch who?" Xu Jie asked with a serious face.

"I don't know, but a lot of people have been dispatched to the princess mansion. I'm afraid they are here for the princess."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard noises outside the yard, the whooping and clanging of armor and weapons.Not long after, a tall general of the Forbidden Army broke into the courtyard and shouted:

"Jin Wuwei guards, who is Yang Yuhuan?"

Yang Yuhuan?Xu Jie was completely stunned, she never thought that Yang Yuhuan was the person the imperial army wanted to arrest.

At this time, the long-closed door slowly opened, and a girl in a purple skirt walked out.As she walked into the hospital, a strange fragrance wafted into everyone's nostrils.The girl stood in front of the general and replied softly:

"The little girl is Yang Yuhuan." After speaking, she leaned forward and saluted.

The general and all the soldiers behind him were stunned on the spot, staring at the girl intently. They had never seen such a beautiful woman in this life, maybe even the previous life and the next life.That kind of beauty already has a sense of unreality, so beautiful that it makes people hold their breath, for fear that it will dissipate as soon as they take a breath.For a moment, they forgot their purpose of coming here, and the courtyard fell into a strange silence.

The Yang family has a girl who has just grown up and was raised in a deep boudoir.Natural beauty is hard to give up, once stepped into the deep palace tomb.

The author has something to say: Yuhuan is about to enter the palace...

It will not be updated tomorrow, and it will be updated every day for three days during the Qingming holiday.